Looking at three of my 5 posts, there is the recurring theme of feet. Why is that? I guess it is partly because I often gain the most grounding from my feet. Those flat, wide, block shaped duck feet that carry me through and over! :) When things get too hectic it feels good to put my bare feet on the earth of Vermont. It gives me fresh perspective and balance. Or it might be my way of starting from the Ground ..UP! So feet it is! This work in progress! Have a fabulous and joyful day.
Started reading "the Happiness Project" LOVE it!!!! I really admire the way some people can organize and articulate a fabulous desire into a process resulting in self improvement!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Monday, September 2, 2013
Labor Day weekend 2013
Labor Day weekend. WOW... so much..fun...feelings...happiness...
As scheduled I went to the orchard for our family farm meeting. There are three times every year that all of us girls get together so that we can catch up on everything. These three occur in a fifteen week period, Labor Day Saturday, Columbus Day weekend, and a Saturday in December for Christmas. To keep connected we have to typically do this telepathically and via facebook, email and phone calls (which I am really not very good at ) but when we are together "LIVE" it is all about love, fun and lots of laughter and sometimes a little pain! :) I'll get to this!*
I (and my HunnyD) live about 55 minutes away. We get out of work, load up and head north for the first family farm meeting of the season. We are about 15 minutes behind schedule because an interesting turn of events. The night before DaughterE needed me to pick up some 'give away' stuff from her car at work on her 2nd shift lunch break. After completing this mission I drop donations at appropriate locations, my HunnyD unloads remainder to our domicile to make room for loading obligatory contents and tenting stuff after which I am too tired to do anything else that night. This leaves a few tasks for immediately after work. We arrive about 5:45, I'm surprised and happy to see that Mom, DaughterE are here as well. Delight ensues as we all hug each other and SisterL says, "Okay okay we are all together, all four sisters lets celebrate and start the night out with a shot! C'mon everybody lets all have a shot!" I am still engaged in a hug with someone when a cookie sheet of obviously previously poured shots of tequila and sambuca are thrust in front of me and I hear a familiar voice ask, "Hey lady do you want a shot?" my mind is doing a turntable dj scratch... pre poured shots... voice... familiar face, brain freeze .. heart overload!!! MELTING....DaughterM!!! My first born is here holding a tray of shots and I am squealing with delight and happiness as I hug on to her and kiss her sweet face! Over and over, disbelief.. I just can't believe it! What a fabulous wonderful surprise! SisterL and Dad have purchased airplane tickets as a wedding gift to fly her and her groom to VT for the festivities! Then I hug and kiss and proclaim my happiness to the groom. So wonderful! So HAPPY!!! My family all knew about this and kept it secret to surprise me!!!
I now know exactly how my grandmother felt that year we all drove down unannounced and just walked into her basement in-law apartment, me in the lead when she looked at me and said "Hi!" with that fully upright posture and 'you look familiar but who the hell are you?' look on her face, I quickly announced, "Gram it's me! GdaughterA!" This knowledge moved quickly through all her cells as she softened her entire being and met me half way across the floor for a happy loving embrace and "Oh my goodness!", and "What are you doing here?" then and the realization that her son, my father must be right behind and the look on her face when her eyes beheld him! What joy! yes, that is what I experienced, pure joy!!! Now I know this was a wedding gift for the bride and groom but truly I felt it was the most precious gift anyone could give ME!!!! I'm still reeling!
I love my family....
*The pain...After the whole day of being on our feet at one of these events I started a tradition of giving my two sisters that sleep over (SisterL and SisterP, ...SisterS is checking on a chicken in the oven) a foot soak and massage before they go to sleep. It is in an effort to show them how much I appreciate them and recognize all the hard labor they do. They go to bed with clean refreshed feet after a long, full day running on the dirt and hopefully the next day can navigate without hobbling. At the end of the day there are usually several coolers half full of icy slush water (just so you don't get the wrong idea that I am a saint *wink*) as all the cooler contents have been consolidated into two coolers with the sun having set some hours ago. This being the most convenient water soaking contraption available began a tradition! They soak their whole feet for as long as they can stand it in the ice water, I do a brisk towel friction rub and lotion massage. All they have to do is lie back and go to sleep! I missed the massage last year so this year I shook it up. Mostly because there were goose and gander comments being tossed about.. with the lid of the cooler propped open we sat on three sides of the cooler with a blanket at our feet for cushion. We all submerged our feet deep into the icy hell that was in that cooler. Holding our feet in as long as we could while laughing, howling and screaming bloody murder at the top of our liberated lungs, (nice to be in the boondocks) then removing them until our feet slightly revived for dip number two! The whole time SisterP's son-in-law is watching and laughing.... Dip two is hellacious icy burn and PAIN worse than dip one... not the time it is IN the ice water, but when we withdraw the feet to room temperature! Screaming more howling and laughing our guts out. In the midst of the screams of pain we throw in a few "Oh it feels so good!" still hoping to dupe Son in lawA to be fool enough to dip in too. Anyone with half a brain knows you can't do just two. It's a law of physics or maybe psychos (?) that three must happen, so here we go for dip three... Yelling, howling, cursing each other and laughing all the while Son in lawA is snacking on leftovers while holding a stuffed, fuzzy ladybug pillow under his arm, (a retrieval mission assigned by his beloved daughter) chuckling and laughing out loud while we anguish in our self induced trauma! As we finish the banter and bitchin' and why the hell do I let you do this to me we invite Son in LawA to have a go? Believe it or not??? He comes over carefully setting aside earlier mentioned lady bug pillow rolls up the pant legs, removes footwear and goes in for the plunge! All I can say is I have whole new respect for Son in lawA! He started his (what we have now named) "Screaming foot treatment" as we rallied around with laughter and OMG's and "No you can't take them out yet's", Okay dip number two and in comes SisterL's HubbyS! inquiring about all the racket, followed closely by my HunnyD. ... The night ends with everyone having exercised their lungs fully, feet fully three dip chilled and Son-in-lawA waving goodnights and walking off to the homestead for sleep. Not before politely refusing our offers to walk him home by stating,"No thanks, I'm good, I've got the labybug!"
I love my family!
As scheduled I went to the orchard for our family farm meeting. There are three times every year that all of us girls get together so that we can catch up on everything. These three occur in a fifteen week period, Labor Day Saturday, Columbus Day weekend, and a Saturday in December for Christmas. To keep connected we have to typically do this telepathically and via facebook, email and phone calls (which I am really not very good at ) but when we are together "LIVE" it is all about love, fun and lots of laughter and sometimes a little pain! :) I'll get to this!*
I (and my HunnyD) live about 55 minutes away. We get out of work, load up and head north for the first family farm meeting of the season. We are about 15 minutes behind schedule because an interesting turn of events. The night before DaughterE needed me to pick up some 'give away' stuff from her car at work on her 2nd shift lunch break. After completing this mission I drop donations at appropriate locations, my HunnyD unloads remainder to our domicile to make room for loading obligatory contents and tenting stuff after which I am too tired to do anything else that night. This leaves a few tasks for immediately after work. We arrive about 5:45, I'm surprised and happy to see that Mom, DaughterE are here as well. Delight ensues as we all hug each other and SisterL says, "Okay okay we are all together, all four sisters lets celebrate and start the night out with a shot! C'mon everybody lets all have a shot!" I am still engaged in a hug with someone when a cookie sheet of obviously previously poured shots of tequila and sambuca are thrust in front of me and I hear a familiar voice ask, "Hey lady do you want a shot?" my mind is doing a turntable dj scratch... pre poured shots... voice... familiar face, brain freeze .. heart overload!!! MELTING....DaughterM!!! My first born is here holding a tray of shots and I am squealing with delight and happiness as I hug on to her and kiss her sweet face! Over and over, disbelief.. I just can't believe it! What a fabulous wonderful surprise! SisterL and Dad have purchased airplane tickets as a wedding gift to fly her and her groom to VT for the festivities! Then I hug and kiss and proclaim my happiness to the groom. So wonderful! So HAPPY!!! My family all knew about this and kept it secret to surprise me!!!
I now know exactly how my grandmother felt that year we all drove down unannounced and just walked into her basement in-law apartment, me in the lead when she looked at me and said "Hi!" with that fully upright posture and 'you look familiar but who the hell are you?' look on her face, I quickly announced, "Gram it's me! GdaughterA!" This knowledge moved quickly through all her cells as she softened her entire being and met me half way across the floor for a happy loving embrace and "Oh my goodness!", and "What are you doing here?" then and the realization that her son, my father must be right behind and the look on her face when her eyes beheld him! What joy! yes, that is what I experienced, pure joy!!! Now I know this was a wedding gift for the bride and groom but truly I felt it was the most precious gift anyone could give ME!!!! I'm still reeling!
I love my family....
*The pain...After the whole day of being on our feet at one of these events I started a tradition of giving my two sisters that sleep over (SisterL and SisterP, ...SisterS is checking on a chicken in the oven) a foot soak and massage before they go to sleep. It is in an effort to show them how much I appreciate them and recognize all the hard labor they do. They go to bed with clean refreshed feet after a long, full day running on the dirt and hopefully the next day can navigate without hobbling. At the end of the day there are usually several coolers half full of icy slush water (just so you don't get the wrong idea that I am a saint *wink*) as all the cooler contents have been consolidated into two coolers with the sun having set some hours ago. This being the most convenient water soaking contraption available began a tradition! They soak their whole feet for as long as they can stand it in the ice water, I do a brisk towel friction rub and lotion massage. All they have to do is lie back and go to sleep! I missed the massage last year so this year I shook it up. Mostly because there were goose and gander comments being tossed about.. with the lid of the cooler propped open we sat on three sides of the cooler with a blanket at our feet for cushion. We all submerged our feet deep into the icy hell that was in that cooler. Holding our feet in as long as we could while laughing, howling and screaming bloody murder at the top of our liberated lungs, (nice to be in the boondocks) then removing them until our feet slightly revived for dip number two! The whole time SisterP's son-in-law is watching and laughing.... Dip two is hellacious icy burn and PAIN worse than dip one... not the time it is IN the ice water, but when we withdraw the feet to room temperature! Screaming more howling and laughing our guts out. In the midst of the screams of pain we throw in a few "Oh it feels so good!" still hoping to dupe Son in lawA to be fool enough to dip in too. Anyone with half a brain knows you can't do just two. It's a law of physics or maybe psychos (?) that three must happen, so here we go for dip three... Yelling, howling, cursing each other and laughing all the while Son in lawA is snacking on leftovers while holding a stuffed, fuzzy ladybug pillow under his arm, (a retrieval mission assigned by his beloved daughter) chuckling and laughing out loud while we anguish in our self induced trauma! As we finish the banter and bitchin' and why the hell do I let you do this to me we invite Son in LawA to have a go? Believe it or not??? He comes over carefully setting aside earlier mentioned lady bug pillow rolls up the pant legs, removes footwear and goes in for the plunge! All I can say is I have whole new respect for Son in lawA! He started his (what we have now named) "Screaming foot treatment" as we rallied around with laughter and OMG's and "No you can't take them out yet's", Okay dip number two and in comes SisterL's HubbyS! inquiring about all the racket, followed closely by my HunnyD. ... The night ends with everyone having exercised their lungs fully, feet fully three dip chilled and Son-in-lawA waving goodnights and walking off to the homestead for sleep. Not before politely refusing our offers to walk him home by stating,"No thanks, I'm good, I've got the labybug!"
I love my family!
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