How did Grandma Moses get so smart? Born in 1860 and living to be 100 years old. She didn't take up painting until she was in her 70's. If I think of that now, i'd have to wait 30 years to take up a new hobby/craft, but when she began in her 70's she had almost 30 years of painting left in her body. Isn't that amazing? We know her as Grandma Moses but her full name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses. Here's a link
here more info on her work and her life. I think she's fascinating. I have a little calendar and the title of today's posting is a quote from her. It was just what i needed today. It made me think about my Grandma. She's been gone a good long while, and i don't think of her all that often, but thinking of her now, gosh i miss her. We were really pretty close but a lot of that had to do with the fact that we lived with her. She bought a house in CA brand new as a newly remarried lady after my grandfather whom i never knew passed away some years earlier. She was very proud of her house in the hills which use to be a bird-of-paradise grove. Then when my parents married, they moved in with her and bought the house from her when i was a baby, so i always had Grandma in my life. We slept in the same room and sometimes i would get so frustrated at her. She'd make me eat oatmeal every morning, and i said i hated it, but she didn't care, it was good for me, so eat it. She was very good to me but Grandma could be brash and judgmental toward others. She relished giving my mother a bad time about stupid little petty things but my mother still talks about it. Such as she told my mom that the only reason she was breast-feeding me, i was the first child, was to make her boobs bigger. No basis, not the truth, but after listening to it for i don't know how long, she gave up and put me on formula. And then Mom says I broke out into a scabby rash all over my body because i was allergic to it and she was really angry with Grandma. Mom had to try all these different formulas and finally found that soy was good for me. My Grandma Rick, that's what we called her, she baptized one of my cousins!! She was of the belief that if you weren't baptized almost immediately after birth, that if something happened to the child, she'd be a lost soul. Well regardless of what you believe, can you imagine my Aunt's horror when she heard about how her baby daughter was dunked under the running water, screaming like bloody murder, while our dear Grandma dunked her in the bathroom sink and blessed her?! It was like, well, here you go, now she's baptized... Poor Sally! A few of the things i miss about her are doing the rosary at night while going to bed, she'd do the first part of the Hail Mary, I'd do the last. I miss how she'd pick the crust off the garlic bread and give me the soft gooey inside and she'd eat the crust. I miss how she'd drink beer with her sisters, playing cards, and they'd start cussing at eachother. Oh, they were fun! My Grandma's nickname was Pet, her one sisters name was Skeeze, another nicknamed Noogie and then they had a sister named Claire. We asked, why didn't Claire have a nickname? They said, "Oh, nobody liked her." Heehee Gosh, it's good to think of Grandma Rick...
I'm majorly stressed right now, I have so much to get done before my childhood girlfriend and her husband and 3 kids come for a visit. They are from California and are on a month long vacation, traveling in their van across the country. They went to Arizona and spent a week in South Dakota and that's all i know so far. I should be home tonight cleaning and organizing, i was going to not go to my weekly support group but the other co-facilitator can't make it because of car trouble so i told them i'd go. I'm also trying to get rid of a bad headache. Not quite a migraine, but pretty darn close.
Going to my counselor/energy healer tomorrow and i can't wait. Last week i was in paradise. She did body work on me which included laying on her massage table, fully clothed, without shoes, with a warm blanket over me. I felt like i was in a cocoon. Then she did massage on my neck and shoulders and also used warm stones and massaged me with them on my arms, she worked all over, down to my feet. And then i turned over and she worked primarily on my back and shoulders. She said i had a lot of anxiety in my throat. I tell you i wonder if i drooled while on my tummy and my head in that donut thing. It was so relaxing. And when i got up i felt like a jelly fish and all the stress was gone. So tomorrow i go again, yeah!!
I started another project...I'm working on a vest...oh dang, i can't find a link to the issue to show you. (I'm learning how to link things) I'll keep trying. But i'm making it in the turquoise color Lions Brand Cotton Ease. The color is actually called Popsical Blue and it had vertical ribs and on the left front is a kind of leaf pattern going up. It's fun to knit and gosh i just love that yarn. My Joann's doesn't have any left so i need to find some more.
I think the RAOKrs are just really special, sweet ladies. I assume they are all ladies, haven't run into any men yet. I've received really nice, cute e-cards, and a gift certificate for Adagio Teas which i already used and had a gift set sent to my dear sweet Momma. And today i entered a contest on a blog to guess what a crocheted item is going to be and even though i didn't guess correctly, she's sending me a set of stitch markers anyway!!! How cool is that! Tori is the coolest and let me go see if i can find her blog. Oh my gosh, look at this, i found it!! Click
here! I love this group. I've sent a few e-cards and i've continued to leave post-it notes on peoples cars which gives me a special warm fuzzy hoping that it'll brighten someone's day. But i need to think of something creative to do, or find something i can do as a RAOK for someone in our group.
