7 Quick Takes (Vol 14)

Oh how time flies, especially when you have a house full of Spring Break enjoying college students. I almost forgot that it was Friday and that I needed to do a Quick Takes. Just click on the picture above to go on over to Conversion Diary to see what is happening with everyone else. And now, without further ado, here are my Quick Takes for the week.

-1-

Did you realize that this past Monday was the 50th anniversary of the introduction of......Barbie!!! I still have all of my old Barbies, along with the whole wardrobe that my grandmother made for them, stored in a small trunk which sits in my dining room. I don't open the trunk very often but when I do I am just overwhelmed with nostalgia. I used to spend hours setting up my "Barbie House" which resided in the bottom of my closet. Changing Barbie's outfits and doing all sorts of stuff. Now let's be honest here, Ken was a whimp you know that he was. See, in my house Ken had to compete with G.I.Joe and there really was no comparison. I mean Joe had all those plastic muscles and movable joints. So what if Ken had the Corvette, Joe could put his arm around Barbie. Hmmmmmmmm, enough said on that one.

Just as an aside, my daughters also played with Barbies but for some reason they always seemed to be naked (sorry) and Ken always seemed to be missing a leg. Many a Ken was repaired with duck tape.

-2-

Do you have trouble accepting help from others? I certainly do. I am having surgery at the end of the month and that will mean I am off my feet, out of commission for several weeks and I am going to need help. My mom and dad is going to come out (thanks Mimi and Papa!) and friends are already lining up to make us meals but I have such a hard time accepting any of it. I don't like to ask for help. I am already praying harder for this aspect of the surgery than for the surgery itself. Funny. This will probably flesh out to a longer post when I have thought/prayed/studied a bit further.

-3-

You know, another irritating aspect of having surgery is that I have to take probably six weeks off from working out. Even writing that sentence out makes me laugh and shake my head. Two years ago it would have been like speaking a forgein language to say that I work out 5 days a week and that to have to be prevented from vigorous workouts for 6 weeks would really make me crazy. Ah how times have changed. I am hoping that the doctor will give me permission to walk gently on the treadmill once I am felling better. Hope, Hope, Hope.

-4-

It is hard to believe that Wednesday was my middle daughter's 21st birthday. How can it been that I now have 2 children 21 years old or older. It is amazing how the time flies. My hubby has been spending time on his video project which is taking all the many hours of video that he took when the girls were growing up and putting editing clips into a series of "Best of...." videos. These have been such a blast to watch as he has produced them. We all have our favorite moments and can quote them by heart.

-5-

You know what one of the best things is about having older children coupled with a family tradition of always eating dinner together....the dinner/after dinner table conversations. They are excellent!! I have to say that some years when the girls were in high school, that these might have included grunts and yelling and other "unpleasantness". Not always great I can tell you. But now, they get along fairly well (most of the time) and they are all adults with their own thoughts and feelings about things and we have great conversations and loads of laughter. I try to just soak in these times because they are few and far between and getting more scarce. The oldest graduates come May and the middle one will be in Africa for 4 months come fall so.......

-6-

It would seem that we have a large orange cat residing, at times at least, under our small barn in the back. I am not sure where he/she has come from but we started see it within the last week or so. Our neighborhood is not one that is particularly safe for outside cats unless they are very resilient. There are many things that will "get" them - hawks, coyotes, racoons, owls. I am hoping that it stays around and takes care of my chipmunk/mouse issues. We live in the woods, there are mice, I hate mice. The cat can hang around as long as he isn't hunting the birds that come to the feeders. Of course he is on his own as far as food is concerned because I am not putting food out for him. If you feed an outdoor wild cat they become your cat. No more cats for me for a time, even if they live outdoors.

-7-

I told my oldest, the cartoonist, that I would make a mention of her blog. So Ash here it is. Everyone go over HERE and see what my oldest progeny is doing. She is very talented and we aren't sure where she got it.

See you next week.