Tag: family

Giving Thanks

~ JodiLea

Every Thanksgiving I take inventory of the things I am thankful for. The list is incomplete every year because I can’t think of everything at once. What matters is that I acknowledge and be grateful for what I have:

  • My kind, loving and handsome hubby & his terrific family
  • My 3 gorgeous granddaughters & 1 handsome grandson
  • My large-breed puppy who is finally calming down a bit
  • That the American people did not vote in a President that puts classified information on an unclassified/non-government network.
  • The Independence Hall Quilters Guild in Arnold, CA
  • The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Benefits Package
  • My BFF, 2,000 miles away, and the technology to telephone, email, Skype and fly Southwest.
  • That my daughter is not embarrassed to invite me to rock concerts
  • All the blessings from Jehovah God – of which there are way too many to count.

Let me know what YOU are thankful for!

 

♥  TTFN  ♥

It’s Going to be OK

~ JodiLea

SWDaughters  In a family of strong-willed girls, I am the weenie.

I do not know how this happened.  My daughter certainly did not get a strong will from my side of the family. In fact she even got breasts from her father’s side, since they did not run in my family either.

What you get on my side of the family are bad teeth, mental health issues and Type 1 Diabetes. I could not escape it, being on my side of the family and all.

Anyway… It took every molecule of my energy to parent a strong-willed child. She was tough on me. To stand my ground was like being tested by a hurricane. Once she thought of something she wanted to do, there was no reasoning or explanation she would listen to. Somehow, she figured she could manipulate things to get her way.

Manipulation is subtle, I always thought. Not anymore. Strong willed kids are everything but subtle. As smart as she was, she came up with very creative reasons why she should get her way. It was exhausting.

I am glad, for her sake, that she is strong-willed. Because she has not one, but TWO strong-willed daughters to raise. I have every confidence she will be a better parent than I was. She is no weenie. She will do just fine.

Pay back really is a Bitch, isn’t it darling?

♥  TTFN  ♥

 

Finishing Christmas

~ JodiLea

Finally!! This weekend I was able to remove our youngest son’s gifts from under our bed. We last saw him at Thanksgiving. My daughter’s family also came for a visit & we exchanged gifts. It snowed a blizzard up here too. Sort of spooky having a white Christmas in March.

!LIGHTS_

If you think that March is too late to celebrate Christmas, then you would have hated last year’s Christmas – we finished it in August. Ridiculous, I know. This year, my plan is to mail gifts to the kids houses. If they can’t make the big celebration. It is my turn to host the event. I vow we will finish Christmas before the new year starts!

I can vow and declare this and that, but the truth is our kids are in their late thirty’s, and most have kids of their own. [They always had minds of their own …]  All I can do is invite them. They have to work it out with their significant others, in-laws, and whoever else is pressuring them to come to their celebration. Sigh…

Families – the reason most people drink on holidays.