just thinking out loud ...

Most mornings I wake up, walk to the kitchen, start coffee, start breakfast and empty the dish washer. The glasses in this picture are usually first to be placed one up, one down, next up ... tucked in to their spot in the cabinet.  The kitchen likes to be orderly.  It's relatively small,  especially by today's standards.  I like my kitchen. Talking with my brother the other day, I realized that my kitchen is organized to our mom's standards. Boy, those moms from the fifties took a lot of pride in their homes.  I can't remember one single messy home from my childhood back when every one's mom was a housewife ... homemaker.

My mom ran a tight ship.  That was likely all she knew, the oldest child of eight from a single parent home, her momma ran a little business and took in sewing for evening work to keep her family fed ... momma was well versed in domestic responsibilities.  She liked to cook, and bake.  Our big black gas stove  seemed like the center of the universe to me.  She sewed extremely well and taught me how to sew.  Well, she sorta taught me how to sew.  I learned how to cut out barbie doll clothing patterns and "run" them up on the machine.  Momma invariably pulled them apart and instructed me to do it over, this time carefully.  I wasn't a very good student.  To tell the truth, I felt very bad for her because I was her only daughter ... her only shot at immortalizing everything she seemed to value.  When you're a kid sewing Barbie clothes, you don't know how much harder it is to sew sleeves in to tiny armholes ... and every time the little garment is disassembled and the edges fray, it becomes even more difficult. ( It surprises both of us that I have turned out to be pretty good at doing things with my hands.)  What I did become outstanding at as a child was staying out of my momma's way.  I became an excellent  observer of her. To note that she was moody, high strung ... would be a gross understatement.  Truth is, learning early to be watchful is something I am thankful for ... I enjoy people ... people watching is interesting to me.  And ... I have enjoyed watching my mother's life quite a bit.  She is very unpredictable, mercurial.  You just never know about Momma.
Back in the day she spent most of her time tending our home. And our things ... everything was always in top shape ... I took it very much for granted.  My brothers and I weren't asked to contribute very much around the house (probably because of how much of a load she carried in her own childhood), she expected us to look out for one another and stay out of trouble ... and stay outside as much as possible.  I truly am amazed at the freedom we enjoyed.   To relax she played bridge one day a week and Pinochle or Canasta another day with the same group of ladies.  Sometimes that was in our home and I would watch them from down the hall. I crudely wrote the first letters I learned to shape on the bottom of her card table with a rainbow of crayons and lied to her about it when confronted.  It earned me a spanking for the defacement and a mouth washing out for the lie (yeah, with soap).  I thought she must have super powers to "know" it was me when I was certain she hadn't seen me.  I also had to "show my father" what naughty thing I had done.  I still remember him raising his eyebrows and saying, "Hmmm, all capital letters huh?  Did you know each one of them has a baby letter to match?  Better practice your letters on paper from now on."  She watched "As the World Turns" and did her exercises everyday with Jack Lalanne (which until right now when I looked up the proper spelling of his name I thought was Jack Duhlane ... lol ... I know my dad called him Jack Duhlane)  Here's his picture ... I saw him practically everyday in black and white on the TV ... I remember him in a black leotard type thing.

In the little write up I just read it said he took about 40 vitamins a day and was a fan of oatmeal for breakfast ... and advocated juicers.  Sounds familiar. Momma loves her vitamin regime.  She always has been all about healthy choices.  Lol ... .  Momma totally rocked everything about a well managed home ... she is the gold standard ... and I appreciate knowing how to do house things well ... even if I was a slow learner.

What I started out to write about today was about the conversation I had with my little brother late last week.  We were talking about how the way you are raised has a strong influence on what seems "best" later.  We were talking about how cat food "should be stored" vs. how it "might be stored" ... and how one might be wise to choose their battles.  He laughed when I mused that a towel folded any way other then how our momma folded them just doesn't seem quite right.  He laughingly said he couldn't talk about the linen closet ... the pantry is almost too much to bear.   That little conversation sorta ruined my weekend.  My husband asked me where some particular fasteners were, the ones last seen in his hands, and getting the twin beds back together became about something else ...  .  And late last night I decided to copy these words (The pastor referenced them in the Sunday evening sermon and I had to smile as I read along ... I get it ... God, who does see all the naughty little marks tattooed about must have been happy I was paying attention to words which might have been intended specifically for me ... ) ... I thought these words would be good words to sleep on.

Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessing, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. ~James 3:16-18 (MSG)

Getting along with others.  I don't want to air my linens here ... I just want to encourage myself to ... get along.  My dad used to say people need to either "get along" or just get along (the way).  Someone once said maybe your dad is still somehow around helping you.  I don't know about stuff like that, it seems sort of like wishful thinking, but ... I do remember his words fairly often ... I know him well enough to know what he would most likely say.  My dad was pretty awesome at getting along with others.  He valued that. 

And this mercy thing ... the pastor pointed out that mercy/forgiveness becomes very easy once one accepts how often they themselves come up short and find themselves in need of forgiveness.

And ... while I'm thinking about it ... a reminder to be mindful they watch me ... I was right in the middle of being aggravated when this photo was snapped, and my default talk isn't always nice talk.

I was going to fly today ... a couple of  shots taken on Friday:

 OVC 50 ... the kid I was flying with was laughing about "sucker-holes"

And here ... intro to pylon eights ... he flew them pretty well.

And ... what I am doing today:

a favorite thing.