Birthday Gifts...

Thanks to everyone who sent me cards, gifts, offlines, and well wishes for my birthday yesterday. All in all it was a pretty good day except for the getting older stuff. Thankfully I made it to that (cough) 29th year milestone ....again.

Birthdays... I just  can't get excited about them. It's a reminder of time passing and getting older, and grayer and more cynical about everything. But this year wasn't so bad, it wasn't an extraordinary birthday, it was just another day...with cake. But cake is a good thing, and so are birthday presents. I doubt if many of you remember a blog I wrote last year on my three wishes. It was a blog about three different things asked for my birthday and ended up buying or making myself. I'm an adult, I should know by now, or expect that what you ask for you don't always get, it's just a fact of life. But this year...this year I am happy to report that I got my wish..I even got it several days early...

When having lunch out with my mom one day, she casually asked what I wanted for my birthday, I looked her straight in the eye and said... "I want several bags of topsoil/humus manure mix"... Yes folks, I asked for a pile of poo for my birthday...

I thought my mom was going to bust a gut laughing. It's not every day someone asks for a pile of poo for a birthday gift, but the practical and gardening side of me was in the need for some to amend a new planting bed. It took some convincing but I finally had her believing I was serious, and a couple of days later she drove up and proudly announced she had my poo. As I unloaded the bags into a wheelbarrow, my mom chattered on about the fact that not only had she got the stuff I had wanted but it was on sale...it was on clearance and was super cheap. My ears perked up...cheap poo? My mind already wandering about picking up even more bags of poo, darn why hadn't I asked for a bigger pile of poo?

By now most of you who are reading this blog entry are beginning to think I have totally lost it. Who in their right mind would be excited over bags of that brown muck? It's something I have noticed about me changing thru the years....I have become practical...very practical. Oh I love sparkly crystal, pretty linens, perfumed lotions, etc. But I find so much of those things tucked in drawers or cabinets, hardly ever seeing the light of day. They just take up space or need to be cleaned and dusted.

When I was asked for what I wanted, I was working on a newly spaded up garden bed. It needed the soil amended. It was what I needed for that moment. Next year when asked, I most likely will ask for something else other than bags of poo. But whatever I ask for, I know it will be something practical and be put to good use......And every time I work out in that new little flower garden I will have a giggle or two remembering the look on my mom's face when I asked for a birthday gift of a  pile of poo...

Happy birthday to me.....happy birthday to me....

Safe Haven

 This morning I read with interest a story in the news about Nebraska's Safe Haven Law. This law, also found in many other states, was put into effect to help prevent the abandoning of new born infants. The mother after giving birth and unable to care for, or not wanting the child, could walk into a hospital and drop their infant off with no questions asked. I am sure this law has saved many babies lives across the country. It lifts a burden from a mother that might be unwed, unemployed,or  unable to cope with the demands of a baby.

Most states limit the amount of time a mother can drop off the newborn infant, some only give the mother 72 hours. Some states give the mother a month, and some states have set the limit to one year of age. Nebraska's Safe Haven law doesn't specifically have any age limitations set. The past week and a half, area hospitals have found themselves with a bit of a quandary. Two young teenagers and one pre-teen were dropped off at local hospitals by their parents, and last night a father walked into an Omaha hospital and left all NINE of his children, raging in age from 1 year to 17 years old.

I have to admit that one of the first things that ran thru my mind, is that they should have insisted on the stipulation that the father get a vasectomy upon leaving all of his kids. Nine kids....wow...I had to wonder on how a parent could just one day decide to give up nine kids. There was no details given in the case, and I tried to think of every scenario.... An illegal immigrant? A homeless or soon to be homeless man? Has the economy gotten just that bad that raising nine kids is impossible on your own? Was the father baby-sitting and they got on his last nerve?....and where is the mom?

A sad story, and out of those nine kids my thoughts seemed to dwell the most on the 17 year old. Seventeen is almost an adult, but not quite. I couldn't think of why give up the 17 year old kid? At seventeen, they are self sufficient, or on their way to being self sufficient. Was the teenager  rebellious? Into drugs? Running with the wrong crowd? At 17 you aren't going to be the first kid to be adopted. One more year and then the teen will most likely be out on their own. Not the greatest start in their adult life. No one has to worry about babies though, everyone wants to adopt babies. But at 17 you should be in your senior year in high school, thinking about graduation and college, senior prom, class rings, and your biggest worry should be about having a pop quiz in history class. The economy is tough right now, for a 17 year old with nothing and no family to fall back on for support, emotional and otherwise, is daunting... I felt bad for the kid...

I know Nebraska's Safe Haven law will be getting an overhaul after this last case. Limits will most likely be set, and older children won't probably be included. I have mixed feelings over it. If it keeps a kid off the streets, or prevents the abuse of a child, who cares about limits? At the same time, I know that given the option, most parents will be tempted to drop off their kids at local hospitals the moment they turn into those sullen, backtalking, disrespectful, hormonal imbalanced teen-age semi-adults. Here take my kid, he/she is driving me nuts.

A safe haven... everyone should have one. A place to go when there is no where else to turn. The economy gets any worse and I may turn myself in... afterall, I haven't really grown up that much....

M & M...Birthdays Times Two

A special magazine double issue of the Enquirer for the blogging world's troublesome twosome each celebrating their special day....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORGAN!!     HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISTY!!

 

Labor...

I've been thinking on what to blog about today for Labor Day. Most Americans will be off enjoying the day, at flea markets, football games, picnics, the beach, or some other means in which to celebrate the day dedicated to work... At least I assume that is what the day is about, I had planned on googling on the history of Labor Day and just what exactly it means and stands for, but that seemed like too much effort. So instead I have opted to take the lazy approach and just blog on my day of bone idleness. So far I am maintaining my stride of not breaking a sweat... thank goodness for air conditioning.

I have thought alot about labor and what it truly means. I thought about blogging on my grandfather, a farmer, he never seemed to ever really have a day off from work. I remember him so brown from the sun, anyone who didn't know him would wonder on his ethnicity. He had always been a farmer since I could ever remembered, and I loved to listen to the stories grandma would tell of when they were first married and trying to make a living. Grandpa would toil all day and then come home and have to cut wood at night by the headlights of an old truck. When times were particularly lean during the depression he hopped a freight train for the west coast to work out in the fields. His was a lifetime of labor, hard back breaking labor that spoke a lot about the man he was. I will admit, I have never had to know that kind of labor, that kind of body weary work. Maybe some days, but not every day that it took to make a living and survive for him and his family.

Work...it makes me tired just thinking about it. Today I thought I would do as little of it as possible. There was some things I had to do like laundry and dishes, but as far as anything too tasking I decided to spoil myself. No mowing, string trimming, weeding, or tilling. For the past month I have been digging, thinning and resetting an old iris bed. The plants were taking over, spreading into other clumps and crowding out less vigorous varieties. It's hard work and I am glad it isn't something I have to do every day. Still I found myself invigorated upon seeing the newly set out rows of iris and without too much convincing I stuck in an order for a couple of more iris rhizomes. It's getting towards the end of the planting season for them and I am a bit worried that I will receive notice that my order can't be shipped and I will have to reorder next year. Part of me will be disappointed if that happens, and part of me will be relieved that I won't have to do any more work. It's something I have to keep reminding myself when I see new plants, bulbs, rhizomes, trees, and shrubs that come on sale in the fall for planting. It's a lot of work that I place on myself, not because it is necessary but because I like seeing the results. I think of the investment of time in my labors and know that some would think me crazy, but it wouldn't be the first time and I know it won't be the last either.

 

I am opting for ease today, total ease, in whatever I do. Even with blogging I have taken the easy approach. No thought provoking blog of substance, and just a hop and a skip and jump across a few contact's blog that are showing any movement. I was tempted though, tempted to make graphics, tease some, nudge others, and cause mischief. But it sounded like too much thinking, too much work. Even when the thought of cookies crossed my mind, I balked at the thought of it being too much effort. There is a reason that rice krispy bars were invented. They were invented for people like me. I thought about it, but didn't end up making them...it's because of that work thing or lack of work thing that I am sticking too. I did however come across my recipe for butterscotch no bake cookies and wondered if I ever posted the recipe for Vero. So Vero (and whoever else wants it) here is the recipe. I will go to the work of typing it for ya, making them will be up to you (grin)..

Butterscotch No Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter or margarine

2/3 cup evaporated milk

*Bring to a boil and boil 3 minutes, then add:

1 small package INSTANT butterscotch pudding mix

3 and 1/2 cups quick cooking oatmeal

1 cup coconut

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Mix and drop on wax paper and cool.

*Every recipe I come across for no bake cookies has different times for how long to boil the cookie mixture. Some say just bring to a boil, some say boil a minute, some say to boil 5 minutes. It is up to you and your favorite recipe and how soft or hard of a cookie you want. I would use the same amount of time you usually use for the chocolate version of this recipe. Good luck!

For all my intentions today, I think my blog entry of "fluff" can be excused...anything else would have been too much work...