Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mistakes in Parenting 1: Teenage Fashionista

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Teenage Fashionista

She layers on her makeup, gussies up her hair,
then faces indecision over what she is to wear.
It is an epic battle, trying to decide
inside which current fashion her body will reside.

She asks no one’s opinion. She’d rather try and pile
garment after garment, not quite today’s best style,
on bed and chair and carpet, in crumpled little heaps
until she finds the outfit that she will wear for keeps.

There is no dearth of choices of every hue and kind,
which makes it even harder—this making up her mind.
Crop tops, skirts or Levis ripped in the right places
are surveyed in the mirror as she strides off her paces.

Lip poochings and selfies help to make the choice.
When she finally picks her costume, all of us rejoice.
Into the car and speeding to get to school by nine,
both of the  kids delivered, back home I guzzle wine.

Raising a fashionista is something short of fun.
I swear I won’t go shopping with the younger one.
I’ll build her fascination with reptiles or bugs,
go hunting in swamp waters for snakes or frogs or slugs.

I won’t encourage fashion sense or darling little dresses.
I’ve had enough of posturing and daily costume messes.
Making mistakes in parenting is not part of the fun,
and for sure the next time, I’ll make a different one.

 

Prompt words today are help, dearth, epic and indecision.

What We Must Do

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What We Must Do

I take an inventory of my heart.
There is nurture there,
and some peace,
but when I think about
the jealous nature of our world, 
a bit of it nestled, I must admit,
in me as well,
I worry about the heart of all of us,
for surely the hate and greed that jealousy seeds
is somehow fostered by us all,
no matter how much we protest it.

Where has putting up with this greed brought us?
Children are taken from their parents
and kept in cages in our country.

What can we do save protesting on Facebook?
Are we willing to face the guns
of those whose salaries we pay
to risk saving the children ourselves?
Weak children of our century,
we have to brandish our voting pens like swords.
They are our weapons.
Our agents for nourishing our souls.

The prompts for today are peace, inventory, nurture and jealous.

Dwarf Jatropha, Flower of the Day, June 22, 2019

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It took an incredible amount of research for Bob to find the name of this flower, but by Jove, I think he did it. Plaudits to LWBUT’s Flower Identification Service!!!!

For Cee’s FOTD Challenge.

Here is a better shot of more of the plant… for Bob!

Gaaaaahrlic

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Gaaaahrlic

I hate dealing with garlic! So, I’ve devoted a bit of research and a few dollars to resolving the problem and would like to show you my process for dealing with those little cloves more efficiently.

Click on first photo to set up slide series with explanatory notes.  Continue hitting on the arrows to proceed through the series:

These two little devices have helped incredibly.
The other device is readily available in your kitchen no doubt. Put an entire bulb of garlic into a mixing bowl.
Put another bowl over the top and shake vigorously.
With larger juicier cloves, this process will separate the cloves and remove all the skin the skin, but with smaller cloves, the outer skin will detach
and leave you with cloves with the inner skin still attached
Put the cloves individually into the roller
and press down with the heel of your hand. Roll on hard surface, back and forth.
Cloves will be slipped out of their inner coats.
Roll the garlic mincer (available on the internet) over the clove.
Voila! minced garlic.

 

 

Gerbera Daisies: FOTD June 21, 2019

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I am crazy about these new Gerbera Daisies I just bought today. More to follow! These aren’t even planted yet.

For Cee’s FOTD

Mass Lynching of 237 Black Sharecroppers

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http://www.blackwestchester.com/never-forget-americas-forgotten-mass-lynching-when-237-black-sharecroppers-were-murdered-in-arkansas/?fbclid=IwAR1SLOveBDgU737AR_fyeI4liKlZwcFbMxHOfDEHZv3Cif4Wej5gc9GVQtQ

Why did we never hear of events like this in our history classes? I have never before heard of this massacre that makes me ashamed of a country that I thought was supposed to represent all races and economic levels equally. Our present government is not a joke.  It is a travesty.  And reports like this make me realize this is not the first time that monumental injustice was the status quo.  If we let the concentration camps at our borders and further expulsion of those long-time residents contributing to our society and their separation from their children, then we deserve what is going to happen. There are now more Americans deserting the U.S. and moving to Mexico than Mexicans moving to the states. When Bush was elected, I said I was never coming back to the states until he was out of office. Looking at the Republican Party today, I have to say he was a saint by comparison.  Shame on you on every front, Trump administration. If Karma is real, I can’t imagine your afterlife!!!

Door in the Making

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Click on Photo to enlarge.

I had to stop the car and back up to get this one. Loved everything that was going on.

 

For Norm’s Sunday Doors

Sinning

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Sinning

Out here at my grandpa’s farm, there isn’t any sinning.
We’re as innocent as Eve way back at the beginning
before original sin was born, decreed by the Almighty
and Eve was forced to don a fig leaf in lieu of a nightie.
As we kneel to milk the cows, we also kneel in prayer,
peeling all our sins away, layer after layer.
But I prefer to say Eve’s sin was merely hers alone.
I should get to do the sin for which I must atone!

 

Prompt words today are farm, kneel, almighty and original.

Sisterly Spats

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Sisters

Squabbles between siblings seem to be a common thread
in every family I know, no matter how well bred.
Pillow fights might escalate into something more—
slapping and hair-pulling and rolling on the floor.

Age nourishes the problem with petty jealousy.
Nothing like a boy to end a sister’s loyalty!
Squabbles over borrowed clothes—a stain or a ripped hem,
hormones, insecurities and problems strictly femme.

Cruel labels given: “sloppy, slutty, fat,”
exacerbate the problem by giving tit for tat.
All the sisters of our friends seem to be so swell.
Why is it that we had to draw the sister straight from Hell?

At what point does the shift occur? When do the battles end?
What turns a sparring sister into a girl’s best friend?
Nieces and nephews help by turning sisters into aunties.
Bonding over choosing pretty dresses, frilly panties.

What is it in a baby that tends to heal old wrongs?
Memories of past adventures? Those re-remembered songs?
Old squabbles once forgotten make way for fonder thought—
giving thanks at last for the sisters that we’ve got.

Prompts for today are sibling, label, nourish and exacerbate.

Hibiscus: FOTD June 19, 2019

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This is a new variety of hibiscus for me.  Viewed in the Lake Chapala Society garden.

For Cee’s FOTD