Happy Birthday

 Tomorrow that is!

Liz!

I thought

 

It would get better...easier somehow. It hasn't.

The gnawing feeling of something missing has instead gone deeper and become so much more complex.

Today would have been my mother's 89th birthday. She left us just under two years ago.

I still miss her.

Alice the Wonder Woman.

I miss Dad too, but daughters, and sons too, seem to have a special connection with their mamas. As I get older and life becomes ever more challenging, I miss her amazing wisdom more and more. Things happen and my mind wants to run them by her, hear her thoughts, learn from her knowledge and understanding of life. We talked almost every day for the vast majority of my entire life. 68 years worth. The conversations in my head are not the same, nor is singing to her picture on the kitchen wall. (We shared the tragic inability to sing on key, along with the sheer joy of doing it anyhow.)

All I can do these days is my own personal best but I am not a lot like her. She was bold and strong and sassy, but joyful with it. She was always delighted with life and babies and fun, and so darned loving to us all, especially Dad, but all of us. I am quieter, more introverted, a worrier to the point of inertia. Not only did she get things done, she got me to get things done too.

Life is shallower without her, duller, less rounded and well-formed. I thought it would get better.

But it didn't. I miss you, Mama.

If You See

 This fine young lady today, wish her a very Happy Birthday, please.

If gift ideas are a problem, she wears any size from Junior Heifer Calf to Aged Cow Class and anything in between.

Her favorite colors are Holstein, Jersey, or Milking Shorthorn, but Swiss or Ayrshire will do if supplies are low.

Love you Liz, hope you have a great day!

Today we Honor

 

She who supplied me with a  gigantic stuffed flamingo that requires a human-sized chair all to himself to sit in my bedroom. Very fluffy, like a feather boa.

And very pink.

A not quite as large, but still substantial, blue, glittery, peacock with three poofy blue balls dangling from stems on his head...who also requires his own chair. Flamboyant much?

They hobnob happily there...

She who entertains with sharp, but hilarious wit, and keeps the music flowing. Finds little things to make others happy and supplies them quietly and without fanfare.

And all around very good person, Crazy Card Lady, really nice to everyone in over the top kindness and all the little things....

Happy Birthday, Becky, we love you very much!

I Dreamed

 

That I forgot her birthday and got myself in B-I-G trouble.....

But I didn't...

So Happy Birthday, Liz! Hope you have a wonderful day and a joyful and productive year to come. Hang in there....

To all the Mothers

 

And all those who stepped up in place of mothers, (you know who you are) or helped young mothers...to all the soon-to-be mothers...soccer moms, farm moms, moms all over the world...and to all of us who are missing their mothers today and every day....

A very Happy and Blessed Mother's Day.

With love from Northview Farm....

Happy Birthday

 

To the the Crazy Card Lady

Queen of her Crochet Kingdom

Fish Whisperer

Guppy Guru

And all around Good Daughter.....

We love you, Becky.

Metamorphosis

First born children...game changers they are. Magicians. In one fell swoop they take a bundle of selfish needs and wants and impossible goals and dreams and change it into a mother, who will never sleep the same again if she lives a thousand years. 

Sometimes they make us grandmothers too and teach us another side of life, as different from parenthood as parenthood is from that other state of being that comes before it. Nice to have time to play with the kiddos instead of having to be a general marshalling the troops like a mama does.

Our game changer has a birthday today. I hope you will join us in wishing her a very special one.

She was born a cow whisperer. Right from the beginning of the very first forming of personality she loved cows. When she was three Grandpa Delbert gave her the first one, a grade Holstein heifer. Most people look at a herd of cows and ask, "How can you tell them all apart?"

Liz knew Flower, as she called her, from the get go and could pick her out of sixty in the barnyard right off. She used to drag her chunks of particularly tasty hay that were almost as big as she was.

Soon enough she knew them all.

Now besides the cows, she is a dog whisperer too, and has a lot of four-legged friends at the kennel where she works. She's a mother herself and knows of that magical transformation from just a "me" to somebody's mom. 

 Happy Birthday, Liz. Hope you have a good one and many more of the same. We love you.

Short Ma, Tall Blankie

Becky crocheted me this amazing lap blanket in three days! Used almost three skeins of I wanna make a blankie yarn.

It is warm and amazing and I love it.

Thanks Beck!

It was Meant with Love

One of our offspring was sometimes called "bezoar" as a child, although I mentally spelled it "bezore".

I once used that moniker in the doctor's office, and our pediatrician asked, "Do you know what that word means?"

Naturally I answered in the affirmative.

"Of course you do," he replied, shaking his head, and making it obvious that he had come to know us well indeed.

Nobody likes it when their children are ill, but if we had to deal with such...and with three asthmatics, we sure did...Dr. Konieczny was the man to visit. Our children were safe in his capable hands.

And he got us. He understood that an awful nickname like hairball could be used with great affection and fun. I suppose though that it was rough to be a middle kid whose nickname, Beezey, got changed to Beezer, and then swiftly morphed to Bezoar in the minds...and mouths...of her siblings and her terrible mother.

Now her online moniker is Breezey375, no mention of hair, or balls, or cow stomachs, because cows are where we found them back in the day.

Today is her birthday, and despite the terrible abuse she endured as a child, or perhaps because of it, she has come to be a truly compassionate, sweet, loving, caring person.

Sarcastic too.

Happy Birthday, Becky, it was all meant with love. 

Happy Birthday

To this delightful young lady. She is truly the other half, the missing piece, the just-what-he-needed to our much loved son. It is wonderful to have her in the family. 

Happy Birthday, Amber Lynn Friers!

Kidnapped

I was snatched away in a pickup truck last Wednesday afternoon and taken far from home.

My captors tortured me all week. At night I was imprisoned in an air conditioned room...they bought an AC just for my stay....and slept on a bed as soft and fluffy as a summer cloud. They spent the daytime hours showing me around the Finger Lakes region and feeding me. 

This included the older pirate's amazing cooking while the younger pirate supplied triple berry crisp that was to die for. She makes a mean dessert I gotta tell you.

Somewhere along the way, the older pirate became an inventive, and clever cook. From sammiches piled with amazing deli meats to ribs he smoked personally and at great length, there were tempting treats every day. A good thing I was released without ransom or I would not be able to get out of this chair.

And the coffee was outstanding. I am not a fan of perked coffee, but they get it right. A big step down going back to instant this morning....

Sam

Cam

Thor

There were dogs. The kids' dogs are friendly and funny....not to mention gorgeous. I love them and miss them already.

Skulldoggery being planned here I'll bet.

The pirate crew took me to the Windmill on my birthday, the Fourth, and bought me a banana plant, along with a really nice lunch/breakfast.  Hope I can keep it alive for a while, as I have killed a couple of other bananas over the years. ***Montgomery County needs to pay attention and establish such an enterprise. We have plenty of Amish craftsmen and gardeners and lots of English farm product entrepreneurs as well. We could do that here for sure.

There were birds...birds everywhere. They took me out to Mossy Bank (and never once threatened to throw me off even though I had been driving them nuts for days) where we heard Blackburnian and Black-throated Green Warblers and saw Hermit Thrushes and a Red-breasted Nuthatch.

We ventured out on Canandaigua Lake on their boat, the Goblin, where we fished and looked at birds and houses on cliffs with elevators down to the water and staircases built right into the cliffs and found Purple Martins too. I found the stairs and trams fascinating. Talk about going to great lengths to get to the water! The trams are especially cool. Cabin 1 at Pecks could use one of these, although I don't see it happening any time soon.

They took me to Wegmans. Why is there no Wegmans closer than Syracuse? Why? 

Then there was a nice party, where I learned the delights of playing corn hole. Who knew? The kids have talked to me about it since the first time the older pirate met the younger pirate, but I just didn't get it. 

I get it now. I laughed a lot and had a go at tossing the bean bags a couple times. Didn't get any on the board, and nearly hit the Camaro once, but I am sure I will get better with practice.

They are planning on bringing their boards down so everyone here at Northview can play. I can't wait. The boss is going to love it and will prolly play like a pro. All that baseball he played when younger and that awful, deadly arm he always had ain't gonna hurt him any.

Anyhow, if you missed me over the past five days or so, I was busy having a great time with Alan and Amber and her family and their lovely and lovable doggos, Cam, Sam and Thor.

A small part of the view from Mossy Bank Park

The kids were so kind to me and entertained me with so much fun that I am still grinning.... and I have a heck of a lot of photos to edit yet.

There are two downsides though. Having spent so much time enjoying their company, I miss them more than ever. Usually I just accept that video chat and lots of texts and phone calls are a pretty good way to keep in touch. However, there is simply nothing that will replace real hugs and face-to-face talking and listening. With their schedule the way it is, especially Alan's work, I am afraid it is going to be a while before I get to enjoy the real deal again.

And while I was gone the House Wrens took over the sitting porch and the ornamental bird house there and I am no longer welcome. Maybe I will just go back to Amber and Alan's pleasant porch. They make S'mores there. 

Thanks kids, for a wonderful weekend...you can kidnap me any time you want to. I love you guys.

Thanks also to the girls and their dad who kept things going at home while I was otherwise occupied. Came home to a cleaner house than I left, laundry all done up, and a generally welcoming situation.....good deal....

Congratulations Alan and Amber

Yesterday two of my favorite people were married in a ceremony that was solemn, yet silly, poignant, and fun. I took too many photos to reasonably fit here, not to mention very many terrible videos with almost no sound....

Thus I made the kids their own blog of the wedding and rehearsal.

You can view ithere: Alan And Amber Together Forever. Hope the title is prophetic as they are a wonderful pair of people. 

If I missed you in the photos, I am really sorry...I was having too much fun to capture everyone and every moment. 

Congratulations to you both, and welcome to the family, Mrs. Amber Lynn Friers.

A Very Important

Wedding to attend this weekend, and not one iota of fashion sense in my entire make up. As far as that goes no makeup either. Nope...well maybe some sunblock lip gloss left over from two years ago, but that's it.

I have put off shopping.

And put it off.

And put it off.

I have a kind of a nice, green long sleeved shirt that fits my "style" pretty well and really doesn't wrinkle too badly. And it's clean. Kinda plain though, not unlike the person who wears it.

What to do, what to do. I will be dancing with the groom and all.

Not to mention gaining a red-headed daughter we have all come to love and enjoy. I hope they are okay with birder chic.