Another Story about my Mom!

Ahhhh, it's finally raining, after weeks of teasing with a sprinkle here and there.  Everything was starting to turn brown around here, but now after only a few hours of this slow, steady rain, everything is looking lush and green again!

I love the rain! Actually I can go even further and say, I love a storm!  And the louder the thunder booms and the lightning cracks, the better - especially if I'm tucked away at home.

I credit my mom for this.  (Ah, yes! Another story about my mom! Ha!)

Anyway, when I was little...

Mom didn't take any chances when a thunder storm came up, She'd unplug everything, which meant no television and no lights, and we'd have to be very quiet.  We'd all stretch out together across the bed - me, my little sister Dolly and Mom, and while the thunder boomed and the lightning cracked, mom would soothe us with wonderful stories. 

I loved it!  All of us there together, snug and safe, with the raging storm just outside.  I was always sorry to see the storm end.  And to this day, I've always been comforted by the rain.  Of course a good storm makes me want to turn out the lights and crawl in the bed!  Not because of fear, but simply that I want to be caught up in the moment - sort of like listening to a good piece of music that moves you.

...Well, the rain seems to have stopped as I still sit here at my computer, and the view outside my window is breathtaking.  I just snapped this picture.  Of course it doesn't come close to the real beauty of the earth just after a good rain...

Thanks, Daphne, for the Memory!

A lovely co-worker and FB friend just posted this great picture on facebook and it brought back a sweet memory of my mom.  I just couldn't resist blogging about it.

I've blogged about my mom before and if you've read the blog (July 2010), then you know what a special person she was.  Few days go by that something doesn't remind me of her, and rarely ever is it something that doesn't make me smile.

Mom spent the last year of her life in an assisted living facility pretty much next door to the hospital where I worked.  She was no longer able to stay home alone, and so it was a choice that had to be made.  While all the staff were wonderful to her and she grew to love them, she desperately missed being at home, and so I tried to be in and out throughout the day doing little things for her.

She didn't get around very well and so she spent most of her day sitting in a little rocking chair by her bed.  The chair had a little foot stool which she used religiously, so of course, her feet were always in her direct line of vision.  I begged for months "Mom, let me paint your toenails! They'd be a much prettier site to stare at all day!"

"No", she'd say, "no need to go to all that trouble!"

I kept on though, and finally one day she relented.  I polished her toenails a fire-engine red and she absolutely loved it!!  I never had to ask again.  It became part of our routine and one that we both looked forward to. I loved it ~ laughing and talking with my mom, and painting her toenails red!

It's a sweet memory!

Thanks Daphne!!  Love the toes!

One more shot!

Two summers have just about come and gone and still no flowers!  While I was hoping gardening might turn out be one of my hidden talents, I was wrong!!  I can't tell you how much money I've spent on plants these last two seasons, but I know it's a gracious plenty.  Mostly perennials, too - the ones that are supposed to come back year after year.

I'm telling you this because my friend Jean just gave me a bunch of daylilly bulbs. Tells me to "just put 'em in the ground and they'll grow".

Well, if you say so!

I've tried my hand at bulbs before.  One year I decided to line our front walkway with tulips.  I took great care in planting the bulbs and waited with great expectation. The following spring only the front half of the walkway had tulips. So, I bought more bulbs and replanted the second half.  The next spring, the second half came up, but not the first...

Then a couple of years later, I tried tulip bulbs again - not along the walkway, but randomly throughout our natural area.  As I remember, very few came up.  So I went to the local garden center and cried about my experience with tulip bulbs to some nice young man behind the counter.

"Are you sure you planted the bulbs right-side up?"  I must have looked pretty startled because he then gently smiled.

I know he was joking with me, but I'll never forget it.  To this day, mention any kind of bulb to me and I get this mental picture...

I'll give Jean's bulbs a try, but I'm not really expecting anything.