I love my family

Thanks, Travelin'Oma for the opportunity to share what is important to me.

July 2009

This is a picture of the most important people in my life - my husband, children (including in-laws), and grandchildren. They are followed closely by my parents, siblings, and their families, as well as my husband’s parents and siblings and their families. I hope they all know how important they are to me, but I don’t know if I am good at expressing that importance. I think grand thoughts in my mind about all of them – but I’m afraid too many of the thoughts remain in my brain. Smart as they all are, I don’t know how many of them are mind-readers.

Better than grand thoughts would be wonderful actions that show how important I think these loved ones are to me. I don’t think my actions are enough – my love is so all encompassing. So, that’s my goal – let my actions speak louder than my words, and let my words shout to each of them what they truly mean to me.

Legacy from my mom

Today’s Travelin’Oma assignment is about mothers and women, and the legacy they build. It’s my mom’s birthday – I’ve posted a blog about her already. Let me just add the legacy my mom has given me: we as women are capable of anything we desire to do. My mom has shown me that in all she has done throughout her life. It’s the best inheritance I could ever ask for.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Margaret Ann Fischer Orris

early 1950's

This picture of my mom sat in a frame on top of my grandmother's china cabinet. I always loved this picture, and would gaze at it for long periods of time. I wondered how I could finagle having that picture for myself. Thanks to the digital age, I have it, and so does everyone else in my family.

Today is my mother's 80th birthday. She is in New York, visiting my cousins, extended family, and some long-time friends. It might be the last time she gets out there for a visit. I hope she's having a wonderful time.

Here are some fun things about my mom:

• She loves to laugh. She has a very distinctive laugh. I must admit that when I was younger I was a little embarassed by that laugh. Now I think what a great laugh, and great outlook on life.
• My mom is a seamstress extraordinaire. She has sewn nearly every day of her life since she was a teenager. She loves it. She made most of my clothes when I was growing up, and made my wedding dress, and my two sisters' wedding dresses. When she moved to Washington and was living near me, I told her she should learn to quilt. She did. She out-quilts me by a mile. Here's a funny story about my mom making my clothes: I remember my 6th birthday wearing a new outfit I got for my birthday. I was so pleased with it (imagine the great posing and posturing of a six-year-old). A friend of my mom's was at the house and asked if my mom made the outfit. I looked at her as if she were crazy. "No, my mom didn't make this!" My mom said, "I most certainly did!" Because I hadn't actually seen her making it, I didn't think she'd made it.
• Mom was raised in Western New York. She considered herself an eastern girl, and when she was transplanted first to California for 30 years, then to even more casual Washington for the last 12 or so years, she lamented the lack of opportunities for dressing up. I think that is why she loves cruises, and the formal dining night. I almost never see my mother in jeans unless she is painting, doing very deep cleaning, or yardwork.
• My mom is very generous. She always invited people over for the holidays who didn't have family around. We always had guests, and I always liked it.
• My mom is lucky - if there is a door prize, she wins it. If there is a drawing, she wins it. She always finds a parking space right next to where she is shopping. My sisters and I joke that we will carry a tiny capsule of Mom's ashes with us after she dies so we will have good parking karma. In the meantime when we are looking for a parking space, we say "start thinking about Mom".
• My mom is so friendly. Much friendlier than I. I think this story will illustrate that fact. I took one of my children to the doctor one day. When the receptionist saw my child's middle name (which is my maiden name), she asked, "Any relation to Ann Orris?" Now, I had been going to that doctor for a good five years before my parents started going there. The receptionist went on and on about how wonderful my mom is, and shared the fact that they exchange Christmas cards. I told my mom about it. She said, "Oh, that was Alice. Isn't she wonderful?" Well, sorry to say about myself, but I didn't know if Alice was wonderful. I didn't even know her name was Alice.

Mom, I hope you are having a wonderful day. I love you!

Greener Eating

Travelin'Oma is looking for good sources of good eating. Here's a website my nieces have that has delicious, healthy foods. Greener Eating. Check it out.

Kid-friendly travel

Travelin’Oma has a great post about travelling with children.

Here’s a tip I’d like to pass along that I read somewhere years ago:

As you pack for your children, put a complete outfit in a Ziploc bag for every day– underwear, pants, shirt, socks. Then when it’s time to get dressed you can hand each child a bag and they have everything they need right there. No need to go digging through a duffel or suitcase to find what they are going to put on for the day. Things stay more organized, and less things get lost. It worked like a charm for our family.

One bite at a time

My make-up work for Travelin'Oma.

Melinda Mae by Shel Silverstein

Have you heard of tiny Melinda Mae,

Who ate a monstrous whale?

She thought she could,

She said she would,

So she started in right at the tail.

And everyone said, "You're much too small,"

But that didn't bother Melinda at all.

She took little bites and she chewed very slow,

Just like a good girl should...

...And in eighty-nine years she ate that whale

Because she said she would!

Personal history. Two words that overwhelm me. When I look at them I see a monstrous whale. So I’ve taken Melinda Mae to heart, and evaluated what I’ve accomplished toward my personal history so far:

1. A very haphazard journal. It was well kept from about 1977 to 1979, then non-existent for about 10 years. For the last ten or so years I’ve written letters to my family on a semi-regular basis. Those letters are my journal for that period of time.

2. Now I keep my blog – it serves somewhat as a current history of my life, as well as some remembrances. I should publish it and have the book version available as part of my personal history.

3. I have photo albums that document the things we have done as a family.

Yikes! That’s not much. I’m amazed at how much I’ve forgotten of my life. I need to sit down and outline the different “eras” of my life. That will help. One bite at a time. Even if it takes me eighty-nine years - as long as I'm working on it consistently.

We're off!

We head out bright and early tomorrow morning. We're flying to Boston, then boarding a cruise ship headed up the New England coast - we'll end up in Montreal a week later.

This is the ms Maasdam -the ship we'll be on

Right now I'm heading into full panic mode. How will I ever be ready? Which begs the question: Why am I on the computer right now instead of packing!?! Well, supposedly I'm paying a few bills then getting back to packing.

Luckily I made an extensive list of what to pack, and what to do to be ready to go, and backed it out so I've been doing a little every day. Otherwise I would have hit full panic mode about four hours ago. Now I look at my pile of things and wonder how in the world it will all fit in one suitcase. Ray wants to keep us to one bag apiece - he's furious that we have to pay for our bags (you can see we're not flying Southwest this time). He told me I could use the bigger suitcase, but I told him his shoes were too big to use my suitcase. He looked at me like I was crazy. Perhaps I am!

I'll keep you posted about the trip (pun intended).

Miss Julia Stands Her Ground by Ann B. Ross

These books make me giggle. Start with Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind.