These 5 Hero Moms Will Give You Extra Reason to Celebrate Mother’s Day

To my special daughter – I love you very much. You are my inspiration.

Message to My Daughter

 

Never angry.  Only filled with love for you, my honey.

If it were in my power, I’d make changes in your life that would wipe away all the troubles.  Like a magician waving his magic wand.  And POOF!  All would be sunny and bright again.

🙂

A Day For Remembering

Yesterday, I was with my daughter in Kendall FL.  She had a medical appointment, so it was a combo of medical and mother-daughter experience.  Love being with her – she’s a special person.  Everyone who has her acquaintance is aware of how special she is.  In many ways, she takes after her father.

We had an early lunch in the Bahama Breeze restaurant.  It was a lovely, relaxing luncheon.  The menu was varied and eclectic, and we settled on a salmon platter.  Karen, our waitress, made the time a delight, as well as the good food.

We wanted to sit on the patio, but roof work was being done, so we had to opt for indoors.

Just before leaving to get to the medical appointment, we heard a song being played on their audio system that was very familiar to me (Yellow Bird).  It brought back memories of many years ago – to be exact, a couple of weeks in the summer of 1963, spent in Flemington NJ, when my daughter (almost 3 at the time) and son were very young.

The company that my husband, Danny, worked for, owned a horse farm where standardbred horses were raised for the races.  A free vacation was offered the employees at the ranch.  The accommodations were very comfortable, and we were given a lovely 2-bedroom space (was just like a high-class motel).  Included were meals, a lovely pool, and the ability to make our own entertainment.  There was a stage and all the necessary accoutrements for putting on a show.

There were quaint and popular shops in town, where everyone could meander and buy some glassware and dishes at the Flemington Glass Factory, also referred to as “10-R-10,”

 

or buy fur coats and fur jackets at Flemington Furs (this was much before we became aware of the killing of wild animals indiscriminately for their fur and carried on for the greed of poachers due to demand for fur clothing).

Flemington was an historic town, and we enjoyed many hours there, meandering amongst the many shops and little museums.

My son was 6 months old, and one day, at mealtime, he refused his bottle, and only wanted to drink from a cup or glass.  I can picture in my mind:  he was sitting in the stroller next to our lunch table.  I had fed him before we sat down at the table, and saved his milk bottle so he could be occupied with that while the rest of us ate.  He was way ahead of his time!  Must have been something in the country environment – clean air, farm smells and horse odors evidently agreed with him!

One of the husbands (employee) who was also vacationing with his family, sang and played the guitar.  My Danny played the harmonica (he was very talented).  The two of them got together several times, rehearsing a popular tune of the time: “Yellow Bird.”

So, when I heard that song coming over the audio system in the Bahama Breeze restaurant, all those memories came flooding back.

And, it is fitting that I write this post today.  I think of my Danny every day, even though it’s been many years since he died, and I married again and lost my Bob a year and a half ago.  Love never leaves your heart.

It is fitting that I write this post today, because July 17th was Danny’s birthday.  Happy Birthday, love.  Rest in peace.

 

[images from bingdotcom]

 

 

Kindness is Contagious

I follow the Kindness Blog and kindness really can be inspirational and contagious.

I went out late this afternoon to do some shopping in (where else?) Publix.

My favorite market.

My first stop was at the Deli counter.  Ordered my regular chicken and cheese, and then, since the rotisserie chickens had just come out, I thought, “It’s been a long time since I had one of those.”  So, on the spur of the moment, I decided to ask the person behind the counter to pick one out for me and cut it into 8 pieces.  I was told that it was too hot right now, and it needed to stand for a while so that it could be cut; otherwise, it would fall apart.  OK.  I said I would come back after doing my other shopping.

The best rotisserie chicken ever!

Went into the produce area and as I ventured over to the fresh mushrooms, I noticed the produce clerk taking great care in moving packages of carrots around on the shelves so that the shelves and carrots, and all the packaged veggies were calling out to shoppers to “take me.”  The young clerk seemed very intent on his task, and I told him that I thought he was doing such a good job; the shelves were looking great.  He beamed and thanked me.

Beautiful whole mushrooms.

There was a new “fish man” behind the (you guessed it!) fish counter.  He was very obliging and even came out around and helped me pick something out from the freezer where the packaged shrimp were stored and showed me that it was the best buy – better than what I had originally decided upon.  He packaged some fresh fish with specific instructions from me, and did a fine job.  I thanked him profusely – he really took great care!  And he had a big smile.

Perfect shrimp for salad or cocktail.

I was almost finished with my shopping list, when I ran into an employee who I thought would be able to answer my question about how I can find out the name of the Produce Manager.  She said, “I’m the Store Manager, so I could answer any questions you may have.”  I told her about that nice clerk in Produce, and what a great job he was doing, and I always like to give credit where credit is due.  I asked if there was a form that I could complete so that it would go into his personnel file.  She said it wasn’t necessary, and that she would make note of it.  I believed her – she was a lovely person and very sincere.  All the people working there are the friendliest and most helpful people I’ve ever encountered in a market.

I finished getting all the items on my list and went to check out.

Got home, put everything away, had a light supper and got a call from daughter.  General chatting away, and I happened to ask her, “What did you have for supper tonight?”  Her answer, “Chicken.”  Guess what?

 

Mother Learns From Daughter

I was reading many blogs today; commented on some; liked others.  Decided to take a look at daughter’s last blog post, and came across a little “tidbit” that struck me like a soft love-punch to the shoulder:

Find happiness every day. If you look, there is always something that brings a smile to your face, even if it is only for a fleeting moment. Take that moment and study it, amplify it, make it the center of your day. That fleeting moment suddenly grows bigger and brighter as you take the time to contemplate it. In no time at all, you recapture that feeling of happiness.

I could never have expressed what I’m trying to do here with my blog so succinctly as did my daughter!

Now, this wasn’t the first time I read this particular blog post of hers, but, you know, many times you can read something and kind of “quick read” it and the point gets missed somehow.  This time I didn’t miss it.

Brrrrr! Am I Living in Florida?

Maybe this pup is an exaggeration of my morning experience when I went out to get the newspaper from the driveway.  But, for South Florida, it was chilly – in the high 50’s.  I guess I’m trying to be sympathetic about the parts of the US that are reeling from the terrible cold and storms.

Watching the weather reports, and listening to all the flight delays, makes me happy about the fact of where I live.

Still didn’t get any email from WordPress re the disappearance of my colorful background for my theme; however, hopefully, this problem will be solved – one way or another.  I might have to completely change my theme, if there is no fix.  I found out the theme, Malata, is no longer supported.  It’s about 2 years old.  Well, things could be worse, right?

Happiness is found in many forms, of course – each to his/her own.  One of my happy moments is when I treat myself to SHRIMP.  Had some today for lunch.  Love those curvy, ridged, headless, tail-on pieces of white flesh.  Don’t know why.

It’s almost like an addiction – sort of like chocolate.

Happy moments pop up when least we expect them.  Today, I’ve enjoyed several.  Got an unexpected phone call from a long-time friend.  It was good to hear her voice and we did some needed catching up.  Left me with warm feelings.  Daughter’s phone call cheered me up.  One of my favorite sounds in this world is hearing her voice.

You know, happy doesn’t have to be exciting.  Sometimes it comes from little seemingly unimportant things.  Sometimes we don’t realize they happened until we think back and remember what happened in the day.  Today was a happy day for me.  I hope it was for you all.