Cuckoo Buds 3 Column

Friday, May 27, 2011

Memorial Day 2011

Today begins the long Memorial Day Weekend ~ a remembrance of the men and women who died while in service to our country.   We owe a lot, no - actually we owe everything, to these proud service members who gave the ultimate, their lives, so we remain free.

When you think about it, how many are willing to do the same?  Are you?  Am I?  My answer is yes.  I had this very conversation with my eldest grandson, Ryan, a couple of years ago.  He was 17 or so, and he asked me what I thought of the war, and after quite a discussion, when I told him I would pick up a gun, march to the front lines and stand proudly, and yes, fight and kill if necessary, any foe that tried to take my country, my homeland, harm my family.  Yes, I would.  Do I want to?  No, I don't think any right thinking person wants to take another persons life, but in war and it's them or me, I would have to.  He said, "It's OK, Grandma.  You take care of cooking the food, I'll take care of protecting you."   I was very proud of him, very proud.

This was of course in generalities, but I would hope he would, that any one in my family would.  We have a rich heritage to goes all the way back to one of the first ships that originally landed on these shores and helped established the original colonies.   My roots go back to the original settlers of this country, of America.  I am a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).  I have descendents that fought during the American Revolution.  Several, actually.  And in every single war since - to protect our homeland or to help others earn the freedoms we sometimes take for granted.

Memorial Day is a day to remember all who have fought and died in service, or while in service, of our country.  All of my mother's brother's, my uncles, and my father and many of his family, fought during World War II.  All but one of my mother's cousins, has passed away.  Their graves are all marked with military headstones or are buried in Veteran's Cemeteries.  Flags will be placed on their graves, and the graves of all known military service members beginning today in remembrance of their sacrifice to our country.

When I meet a person anywhere who is in uniform, wearing a members cap, or retired cap, I asked if they were a member of the service and thank them for their service to our country.  My entire family has seen me do this, and I pray by this example, they too will walk up to a complete stranger, reach out their hand, shake,  and say, "Thank you for your service to our country.  I want you to know how much my family and I appreciate your service and dedication to all of us, keeping us free and safe."  How many grown men have I seen with such appreciation in their eyes?  Many, many.

Every Veteran's Day I send all of the living relatives or friends I know who served, or are serving, a card thanking them for their service.  My Uncles called me every year, and with tears flowing they would tell me, "no one has ever taken the time to thank me.  I can't tell you how much this means to me."  Every year when that call came, I cried too, because why was I the only one that ever remembered?  Don't we all do this?  I guess not.

When you see a veteran or a service member, stop and extend your hand and let them know how much you appreciate them.  How much it means to you to be free.  You'll be surprised at the response.  And, at the same time, remember the families, the wives and mothers, husbands and fathers.  They keep the home fires burning.  They do the job of both mom and dad, raising the family, taking care of everything.  Thank them - without them, our service members might not have the strength to keep going. 

To anyone who reads this, if you or a loved one is serving or has served, THANK YOU!  I appreciate what you have done for my family and I.  Please let the others you serve with know there are many of us who think of you, pray for you and truly appreciate your sacrifice for our country!

Many blessings,
Donna


Friday, May 20, 2011

First Step in My New Blog Facelift!

Oh my gosh!  Finally!  I have slaved over my computer trying to make changes to my blog!  Now, stop laughing!  I can actually hear you and heard a couple of you fall out of your chairs and you're rolling around on the floor laughing!  This is huge for me, HUGE!  When it comes to working on my computer, especially even thinking about working with any code, my spine melts and leaves my body.  Not kidding - so stop giggling!  I can usually do anything once I put my mind to it, so I don't know why computers scare me so much.

Anyway, here's my first step in my blog facelift!  I love it!  I am so proud of this - isn't it pretty!?  Now I need to learn how to install blinkies and buttons and all of the other thingies that we can put on them!

I have to thank a lot of people - first my sweet husband who sat patiently with me for a long time, much longer than I thought he would, before finally saying this morning, when I was going to change everything he helped me with last night, "you need to figure this out by yourself, this is your blog!"  Hmm, sounds familiar, he told me that when I first started this blog!  So, I followed the awesome directions from the ladies at  Makin' Cute Blogs (makincuteblogs.com) for the 30 Minute FREE Blog Makeover!  And, once I put my mind to it - it was as easy as the directions said!  So, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  Next is Rachael at The Cutest Blog On The Block (tcbotb) for the free blog code.  I love, love, love it!!!  These folks are wonderful for people like all of us who can't, for what ever reason, do this and they share their talents with us out of the goodness of their hearts, so thank all of you!

I am mentally exhausted after spending most of the day looking through all of the hundreds of blog layouts that are available, so tomorrow, or sometime over the weekend, I know I still have a lot of work to do on my blog.  But, I also know I'm on my way to having as beautiful a blog as you all do!  I'm really proud of myself!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!  Thank you for stopping by to take a look.

Many blessings,
Donna

Thursday, May 19, 2011

May is Going Fast!

Oh my gosh!  Time is going by so quickly!  This month we celebrated Mother's Day rather low key.  Which was OK for me this year.  I heard from all of my children and spent a lovely day with my husband.  Talked with Mom a bit, and just relaxed!

The relaxing was very nice as I had my little ones for a week!  I love them dearly, and bless you all who have children late in life, but I'm still tired, actually I'm still exhausted!  They have more energy than I remember having, and my little mini me, Leila, has only one speed - GO - from the time her little eyes open in the morning until it's bed time and we turn off the light and close the door, she is off and running.  And, no more naps!  She's not a baby any more!

We had a wonderful time with them.  They each painted a canvas picture for their rooms or Mom and Dad.  They love when they get to paint with all of my acrylics in my outside studio.  I have hundreds of bottles of different kinds and colors of paints and they so enjoy doing something special like going through all of the colors and painting with my big paint brushes!  Little artists, all three (as were the two older ones who are too old now to come paint with me!)  Next time, I would really like to break out the gesso and moulding compounds and teach them to use texture in their art work!  The girls also did some scrapping and sewing.  Isaac even took his little sis out and they tried to journal all of the lizards in the yard, according to size, colorings, markings, and names (of course).  They are all growing up way too fast! 

This week our youngest son will fly in from Colorado!  Unfortunately his wife will not be coming and the trip will only be for the weekend!  Would love for it to have been longer, but later this summer he'll be back out!

My afghan is almost finished!  Only two more rows and it will be complete.  I really love it.  I didn't think I would like it this much.  After all, it's made up of all of the bits and pieces, little balls of yarn not enough to do another project with, but I just couldn't bare throwing away!  And, it is lovely.  By the end of next week I should have pictures up.

I am really loving baking with the King Arthur Brand flour and all of the other goodies they sell.  My newest is sourdough pretzels!  Oh man are they delicious!  Hot from the oven, nice large soft pretzels.  They heat up well in the microwave or toaster oven, too.  Tomorrow I'm making another sourdough chocolate cake.  Yummy!!

I've been working on getting my blog updated and that should be done by the end of the month.  It's been a lot to look at.  There are several wonderful sites out there that have many designs free and for sale.  I just have to make decisions on what background goes with which buttons, and other functions I would like to use.

It's late and time to retire.  Thanks for stopping by, and blessings to all!