Our family has many reasons to celebrate lately.
Our fifth grandchild, Mila Hope, was born on March 19. A sweet, healthy baby girl.
I celebrated my 71st birthday on March 20th.
Gary and I are celebrating our 46th wedding anniversary today, March 25.
Our two grandsons celebrated their birthdays this month.
And, we celebrate Easter early this year…March 31.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow….
In yesterday’s blog I referred to a birthday card my friend and I have been sending back-and-forth to each other since 1979. I am including a link to a blog post I wrote in October 2016 about this card.
However, there is “more to the story” now.
This past year my friend, Diane, and her husband spent the winter in Florida, and enjoyed it very much. She did however, text me on my birthday to let me know the birthday card was back in Minnesota so it would be late in getting to me. She would send it when they returned from Florida. She continued to say her packing list for Florida next year will include, her swimsuit, sun tan lotion, and the recycled birthday card!
It is a very special card, from a very special friend.
Thank you for all the wonderful happy birthday messages. I was delighted to read each one.
We had a very relaxing and refreshing birthday/wedding anniversary trip to the north shore of Lake Superior. Our cozy cabin had a wood-burning fireplace next to patio doors to the deck overlooking the lake.
We had fires In the morning and fires in the evening…and enjoyed watching the lake with its many moods. On Tuesday the lake was churning with huge waves crashing against the rocky shore. The other days it was much calmer.
Mesmerizing Lake. All our attention goes there, It’s restorative.
However, we did bring along our cross-county skis, snowshoes, and Yaktrax to get out for fresh air and exercise.
Our hikes kept us close to the lake, but cross- county skiing took us inland.
We usually ask locals for recommendations. Our resort owner told us about Korkki Nordic.
In the morning, the sun was shining and it was a decent temperature so off we went to ski this trail. Next to the warming house (a nice touch to this trailhead) was a guy standing near a snowmobile with trail grooming apparatus hitched on the back. We started a conversation and found out he is the regular trail groomer. Mark lives on the property and grooms four ski trails.
The ski season is, of course, winding down – it was the first day of spring after all- so he was not planning to groom many more times this year. During our conversation, we mentioned it was my birthday. He was a jovial sort and said, as a gift to me for my birthday, he would go ahead of us and groom the trail. It would make skiing much easier for us.
And so he did, and we followed about three minutes behind him, and the skiing was great.
That is one of the more unusual gifts I’ve received for my birthday. It was a random act of kindness and we were grateful.
The first day of spring…(We are up near Two Harbors on the shores of Lake Superior, and there is a snowstorm predicted for tomorrow!)
and it’s my birthday…70 years young…
God’s gifted me with a beautiful sunrise over Lake Superior.
The question always is will March come in like a lamb or a lion? Of course, the questions refers to the weather…
For me, either way, March comes in with mixed emotions. There are several significant anniversaries for me in the month of March:
March 7, my father died in 1974 March 9, my mother died in 2009 March 16, our first grandson was born 2016 March 19, our second grandson was born in 2020 March 20, I was born in 1953 March 25, Gary and I were married in 1978
My mother died on this date in 2009. I created an album with items from her funeral and her last days.
Then, during the next 10+ years, I kept stuffing bits and pieces into the album as a safe place to put something significant related to her. It needed to be re-organized, so I took the album off the shelf to work on it during a recent snowstorm. I enjoyed going through the journal entries, the funeral program, and looking at the pictures. The hymns sung at her funeral were printed out, and included On Eagle’s Wings, an uplifting song (no pun intended!).
Chorus: And He will raise you up on eagles' wings Bear you on the breath of dawn Make you to shine like the sun And hold you in the palm of His hand
We recently took a day trip to the National Eagle Center, in Wabasha.
Columbia and Angel are resident eagles there, because of injuries. Both are female, and both in their “20’s”. Such majesty, beauty, power.
We tallied 14 eagle sightings en route to Wabahsa, on that pleasant March day. They are a magnificent sight. But I digress…
Back to momentous March dates…
My father passed away on March 7, 1974. He was only 55 years old. I have accumulated pictures and written history information from our recent trip to Norway with intentions to compile them in an album. I plan to do so during the upcoming predicted snowstorm this week. Another 2-3 inches…downgraded from 7-8 inches.
Then, on to warmer spring days, and happier celebrations of births and marriage.
Ah, the circle of life…
What season is it anyway? Our yard, raked clean last fall, is once again full of leaves. The snow has finally melted but it has exposed more leaves and the winds of March have blown them into our yard…as is the case in the fall. For some reason our corner lot is a collection site for the neighborhood leaves.
Spring in Minnesota is always welcome because our winters are long. No traces of snow or ice, longer days with sunshine and warmer temperatures are delicious, but it is not a pretty time of year in Minnesota. I wouldn’t want to show off Minnesota in the spring.
True, there are the spring flowers which I love. Multi-colored tulips, white, yellow or purple crocuses, perky yellow or white daffodils and purple hyacinths, all popping up out of the ground. They add fuel for us to get past the mud and sand and brown grass and leafless trees, to summer.
But the wind…the wind is not a friend. It’s hard to walk. It’s hard to bike. It’s brings in cold air. It changes the temperatures back to wind chills. It blows dirt and grime and garbage and leaves all over. It is not a pretty site.
So I need to focus on the positives of springtime. My birthday is in the spring. I always like saying my birthday is the first day of spring (because it is.) Easter, one of my favorite holidays, is always in the spring. Spring does not have the bugs of summer and in the spring, we can start to discard our jackets. It doesn’t “hurt” to go outside (as a friend likes to say) and you don’t have to put on all kinds of outdoor gear. The air is fresh and we can open the windows of our houses and let the stale air and winter sneezes out. Tress start budding. Spring is a hopeful time, and a time to dream of summer days and nights. I guess that is the best part of spring: Hope.
About that special birthday trip…
I mentioned the special trip my son gave me as a birthday gift one year, before either of my sons were married. It was a significant birthday and my oldest son said he’d like to take me to London. I had been there once before, when we visited him after his semester studying at Oxford University. I enjoyed London a lot and was excited to be going back. This was a wonderful, thoughtful gift. What I didn’t know is I was in for another amazing gift, and a great big surprise while in London.
Michael and I had spent a lovely, long day in Oxford the day before so we were having a leisurely breakfast the next morning. It was a traditional English breakfast, buffet style, at our hotel. After our first trip to the breakfast bar my son said he wanted another bowl of muesli and I got another cup of coffee. A while later he said he wanted a third bowl of muesli so I had another cup of coffee.
Little did I know he was stalling….and during that third bowl of muesli in comes my younger son. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Tim was living in Mozambique, Africa at the time and in he walks, up to our breakfast table in the London hotel, to surprise me… and I was 100% totally surprised!!! What a moment. I started to cry and then laugh and then excitedly I settled down to visit (my husband had known all about this rendezvous and managed to keep their secret).
My two sons and I spent a few more days together in London and some very special memories were made for this mom, that I will never forget and always treasure. My heart was full.
Another significant loss in 2020.
Florence would have been 100 years old Saturday, December 26, 2020.
She almost made it…She was still living by herself in her home of 52 years, where she died last Saturday…two weeks before her birthday.
Her house was one I always liked to go to, and she was a woman I always liked to visit.
She was like family to me…she was my aunt’s forever friend and they lived together since high school.
She was there before I was born. She was there at our extended family Christmas’. She was there for the holidays, the confirmations, the graduations and the weddings. She was just always there, a part of the family.
Auntie Ag and Florence were dear friends. After my aunt died in 2004 we continued to keep in touch with Florence. Florence was an independent woman, and stubborn too, and insisted on staying in her own home by herself. Her mind was sharp and she took care of her finances until the end…but she was losing her hearing and that made communication difficult. But there are many fond memories.
God bless you Florence. May you Rest in Peace. You will be missed.
We went to visit a special friend of the family…she is like a dear aunt…and she celebrated her 99thbirthday on December 26th. We went to offer her congratulations and wish her many happy birthday blessings for the year ahead.
Florence has a caretaker that comes to help her in the mornings but otherwise she lives on her own in a beautiful house she and my aunt (best friends for 70 years) bought together in 1968. I’ve written about their house before…it’s like stepping back in time…the house has the original gold, wool carpet…gold, heavy draperies…most of the olive green appliances(!)… and a worn linoleum floor in the kitchen. They bought the house by assuming the mortgage…it was only 2 years old when they moved in fifty years ago.
Florence talks about her various jobs she had, with wages that ranged from 33 cents an hour to her favorite job as a bookkeeper for 20 years, starting at $1.00 an hour. We wanted to ask her how she could survive financially after all these years and no pension but we didn’t. We just listened to her wonderful stories. We always enjoy our visits with her, and we always wonder how much longer she will be with us. She told us that her grandmother lived to be over 100 years old. We hope Florence will too.
Another family member in his 90’s is my Uncle Bob. Last month, during the Christmas season we spent time with my uncle, my dad’s brother. He is 92 years old and in good health and is still driving. We also enjoy visiting with him. I asked him his favorite Christmas memory and he told us this story:
As a child his parents (my grandparents) had very little money, and no money for Christmas presents. One Christmas, Bob’s brothers, Herb (my father) and Earl, who were several years older than Bob, found a beat-up old tricycle in the trash with a missing wheel. They repaired the trike, painted it and gave it to Bob. It was a very special gift – one that Bob has always remembered.
I love hearing stories of my father since he died so young (age 55 in 1974).
I relish and appreciate visiting with these two special people, Florence and Uncle Bob. Along with Bob’s wife, Auntie Joyce, they are the only people in the world who have known me all my life – since I was born. That is significant.
Children’s excitement is fun to experience. Our oldest granddaughter turned five in October. Since we missed her birthday party in Colorado, we decided to have a party when she and her brother came to stay with us for a few days in November. Her Minnesota cousin, aunt and uncle would help celebrate too. She was so excited.
I planned a butterfly theme since Zoey and I went to a butterfly garden last summer. I found butterfly plates, napkins and hanging decorations. I found pink butterfly wings, with a bit of glitter, for Zoey to wear. I borrowed a vintage cookbook with cake patterns from a friend, and found directions to bake and shape a butterfly cake.
Although the butterfly cake ended up with a broken, but mended, wing you couldn’t tell after it was frosted.
The grandkids had fun helping me enhance the cake with sugar, sprinkles and candy. I think a good time was had by all.
