Long Hollow

Surprise! and other Christmas sweet!s

Wednesday afternoon a friend and her husband braved our dirt road to deliver a huge bag of Christmas goodies to my family. They do this every year. Seriously, they're crazy!

They give each of us something and there are always lots of cookies and other treats. We've just learned to accept the gifts with gratitude. 

But this year, my friend went overboard. Besides a couple of cute Texas ornaments, she gave me a ticket to see Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in February! I'm pretty sure she has one for herself and that two other friends received them, as well, because last year she treated us to a Harry Connick Jr. concert! 

Crazy friends are the best, aren't they?

(I really have to figure out a way to repay her. Any ideas? She's nuts about Matthew McConaughey and Josh Groban.)

I was able to be on the other side of a Christmas surprise this year, too. A friend's kids wanted to surprise their parents with portraits of themselves, and approached me about taking the photos.

So last month we spent a few hours at a beautiful wedding venue near my house snapping photos. (Thank you, Lynn, at Villa Antonia!) This friend always coordinates our annual Port Aransas trips - no easy feat! So I was happy for the chance to do something for her.

Now that the surprise is over, I can reveal the photos. I'll post the rest on my photography blog, but here's one of them...

 

 

 

Aren't these kids gorgeous? They are so photogenic, it was an easy job!

Here are some other sweet!s from the past week...

 

Monday: nurses who are proactive about treating your mom's cough; seeing one of the 'kids' you've watched grow up and meeting her husband; one of your son's student loans being forgiven; a gorgeous sunset when you leave the grocery store

 

 

Tuesday: prayers for your mom when she's diagnosed with pneumonia; Christmas partying with your mom at her nursing home, including a visit from Santa and gifts from the staff to the residents

Wednesday: children performing the Christmas pageant; watching "It's a Wonderful Life" while baking cookies; Mucinex, so you can sleep without coughing when the cedar pollen count tops 3000

Thursday: sleeping in; breakfast, courtesy of your son; Shirley Temple movies; a phone visit with your mother-in-law, goddaughter, and other friends and relatives; celebrating Christmas with your mom, husband, and kids; a ticket from a friend to see Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in February; watching a movie with all of your kids for the first time in ages

 

 

Friday: introducing your mom and her roommate to the movie "Elf"; time to catch up with friends on Facebook; yellow wildflowers still blooming in December

 

 

Saturday: sleeping in three days in a row; finally straightening up your laundry room, like you've been wanting to do for months; physical therapists who are willing to give your mom a second chance

Sunday: a cousin who visits your mom, bearing Christmas gifts, and getting to see her when you visit your mom; making someone's day by finding their lost glasses; helping yourself and someone else by weeding out stuff to give to Goodwill; sunlight-woven gold on a late afternoon walk through the woods

 

 

Even when there are plenty of sweet! moments, the holidays aren't protected from sadness. A classmate's mother passed away earlier this week and a dear friend's sister lost her battle with cancer today. Please keep them and others who are suffering in your prayers, that they may still find something sweet in these days. 

 

Christmas — that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance — a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.

~Augusta E. Rundel

Merry Christmas, when the kids are grown...

  

The pitter-patter of tiny feet woke me early on Christmas morning, but it wasn't the sound of excited little children as on Christmas mornings long ago. It was Belle, letting me know she was ready to go outside. 

I granted her request, then crawled back into bed. That's one good thing about Christmas mornings when the kids are grown - you get to sleep in if you want to.

Another is that they are old enough to fix you bacon and eggs for breakfast, like Daniel did for us. 

But our celebration began on Christmas Eve with the Children's Mass. There's nothing like seeing little ones all dressed up in their fancy holiday outfits and a group of them acting out the Christmas pageant to fill you with Christmas spirit. So cute!

I spent the rest of that evening baking cookies while watching "It's a Wonderful Life". I think it's my favorite Christmas movie of all, because of its message of hope and faith and friendship, and the beauty of the simple things in life, period.  

Christmas day itself was slow and relaxing. Sleeping late ... a walk with Belle ... that huge breakfast, courtesy of Daniel ... phone calls and texts from loved ones and friends ... last minute gift wrapping ... catching bits and pieces of a Shirley Temple movie marathon.. 

Late in the afternoon my oldest and his wife met us at Mama's nursing home, where we all squeezed into her little room to share cookies, visit, and open a few gifts.

Back home a couple of hours later, we shared a not-so-traditional fajita dinner, opened more gifts, and then ended the day stretched out around the television watching "A Christmas Story" - the "you'll shoot your eye out" one. 

I wish so much that Mama could have joined us for dinner at our house. However, mid-week a chest X-ray confirmed she had pneumonia. They caught it early and started antibiotics, but she's still weak and has a bad cough. Please continue to pray for her - and thank you in advance.

Today I followed through on a promise by watching "Elf" with her. She and her roommate loved it.

I hope no matter what else is going on in your life, you've experienced some joy and laughter during the holidays, too. 

 

May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love.
~Ada V. Hendricks 

 

There is a Bridge: Love, Music, and Earthly Angels

 

A friend shared this on Facebook yesterday. 

It was so moving, so glorious, and such a beautiful illustration of Love, that I knew right away I wanted to share it with all of you, as well. 

Searching for it on You Tube just now, I discovered it's actually 5 years old, so perhaps you've already seen it. 

But if you haven't, please watch it through to the very end... which is only 5 minutes. 

You won't be sorry. 

 Naomi Feil, founder of Validation therapy, shares a breakthrough moment of communication with Gladys Wilson, a woman who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2000 and was virtually non-verbal.

 More info: www.memorybridge.org

 

 

Love is so powerful and each of us can do so much if we allow it to work through us.

Merry Christmas!

Perseverance, Christmas Parties, and other sweet!s

On my way to a friend's Christmas party last night, I stopped to buy a bottle of wine. It didn't take me long to find just the right one: Perseverance.

I had no idea if it was any good, but I loved the name and it was affordable. That's the kind of wine afficianado I am. I ended up buying three: one for the party, one for a client, and one for me. 

 

 

The party was at my friend Darla's house. She's the ultimate hostess, always going overboard. I've been lucky enough to have her throw a couple of surprise birthday parties for me in the past. She's the main reason I'm now typing on this gorgeous Mac!

So I wasn't surprised to find a tableful of irresistable culinary delights in the dining room (bacon with pecans and syrup!) and several stations set up outside on the deck: a hot chocolate station, a popcorn station, and a s'more station. She also had two firepits, a heater, and a basket of blankets out there, with plenty of cute signs and candles. 

She's nuts! But I love going to her parties. 

 

 

This afternoon I finally decorated my house for Christmas and, with Daniel's help, emptied my living room of boxes. I'll leave it all up until Epiphany, January 6, so it's really not too late.  

Most of my decorations are sentimental - a lot of them handmade by my kids years ago - so decorating is always a trip down Christmas-memory lane for me. I don't think I've bought anything new since the mid-90's.  It's pure kitsch, but I love it. 

One of my favorites - a collection of Christmas books. I finally gathered most of them together last year out of a dozen different boxes. 

Now, for the time to sit and read each one again... that would be pretty sweet!

 

 

Here are a few other sweet!s from the past week...

 

Monday: a day at home to try to get caught up; a friend taking the time to visit your mom; real estate closings; helping a friend buy a lakefront lot; decorating your Christmas tree and watching "Elf" with your kids

Tuesday: learning about commercial real estate and visiting with a past client; a fellow pastoral council member opening his home for your December meeting, providing a hearty stew, good wine, and great fellowship

 

 

Wednesday: morning walks with your puppy; finally ordering the bifocals you've been holding off on for years, thanks to some leftover health account money; paydays

Thursday: winning a Mary Kay Cosmetics door prize; a good report from your mom's physical and occupational therapist; watching "Guns of Navarone" with your mom

Friday: visiting with a friend and meeting her sweet puppy dog; patient aides who work with your mom; a sister who takes care of your mom's Medicaid paperwork; a pot of chili on a chilly night; a good movie with your son

Saturday: a visit with, and a blessing from, your Confirmation priest; your son dusting and vacuuming for you; getting together with friends at a Christmas party; neighborhood Christmas lights; fun gifts from friends who know you really well

 

 

Sunday: your son blocking your puppy in his room so she doesn't wake you up too early; swapping real estate horror stories with friends; watching Christmas Hallmark movies with your mom; finally decorating your house for Christmas and clearing the boxes from your living room

I hope you've had a week full of sweet!s, and the next overflows with blessings! 

 

May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!

~Author Unknown

Blessings in Disguise...

 

 

Mama and I were visiting in her room yesterday when the sound of Christmas carols reached our ears, even over the high volume of her roommate's television. I stepped into the hall. It was coming from the dining room. 

She wanted to go listen, so a couple of aides helped get her situated in the hoyer and into her chair. It's a lot more difficult than it sounds, requiring Mama to roll from side to side as they get the canvas sling beneath her. The large mechanical lift itself has to be retrieved from another hall. 

Consequently, just as we reached the dining room, the performance ended.

I wheeled her back to her room. It was time for me to go, so I gathered up her laundry basket, gave her a kiss, and headed down the hallway. But on a whim I made a detour into the dining room. Sure enough, a few carolers lingered. 

Five minutes later, the carolers crowded into Mama's small room and gave her a short, private performance. She beamed and sang along. 

It was much easier to tell her goodbye after that.

My tree still stands naked ... boxes of decorations are gathering dust in the middle of my livingroom ... I have yet to order my Christmas cards, much less address and mail them ... I've done no shopping, and have barely thought about what we'll have for Christmas dinner. 

But when holiday stress over these yet-to-do's starts building, I'm going to remind myself of those few moments with Mama and of those carolers who agreed on a private encore just to make her happy. Those are the memories that make Christmas special.

 

Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas. ~Peg Bracken

 

Mama has only been back in her room a couple of days. She made another trip to the emergency room on Tuesday. Not a fall, but just as scary: She choked on a tater tot. Her nurse said they couldn't get her breathing under control, and she even turned blue on them a couple of times. 

However, by the time I caught up to Mama in the ER, she was breathing without wheezing and her color was great, thanks to numerous nebulizer treatments and a steroid IV. In fact, she was her twinkly, flirty self. 

Even though her chest X-ray looked fine, they decided to keep her overnight for observation, in case she aspirated some of the tot. It would irritate and inflame the lungs, causing a type of pneumonia.

Thank goodness the follow-up X-ray the next day looked okay, and she passed a swallow test, but it was already so late in the day by the time they finished, they felt they should watch her another night just to make sure.

Everyone made a big fuss over her when she arrived back at the nursing home the next day. I didn't even nag her about eating lunch in bed. 

It was a huge relief that she suffered no ill-effects from the incident, of course, but the surprise blessing is she gets a brand-new session of physical and occupational therapy, thanks to the stint in the hospital. 

I'll keep trying to stop by there or call her early each day to nag... um, encourage her to get out of bed when physical therapy comes calling. It will be a Christmas miracle if she's strong enough to leave the home and celebrate at our house, but then, I believe in miracles. 

 

 

 

Despite the unexpected visit to the hospital,  there were plenty of sweet!s this past week....

Monday: being able to slow down enough to let a roadrunner cross the highway in front of you safely; your mom moving herself through the halls to see the Christmas tree in the foyer of her nursing home; being able to spend lots of time with her; an orange egg-shaped moon playing peek-a-boo on the hilly horizon with you

Tuesday: calls on your listings; finally having a closing date for one of your new home buyers; caregivers who act fast getting her to the emergency room when your mom chokes on her food

Wednesday: a glorious sunrise; meeting your new neighbor; the doctor determining your mother did NOT aspirate any tater tot; your mom released from the hospital; your daughter making the four dozen cookies you need for a cookie exchange because you're too busy with your mom; cookie exchanges

Thursday: morning sounds... your feet shuffling through dried leaves, the distant crow of a rooster, and the chirps of birds just waking up; a glimpse of the moon peeking through morning clouds

Friday: hitching a ride on a golf cart from the parking lot when you're wearing heels; dancing at Christmas parties with friends; photo booths; a shooting star flashing right in front of you; enjoying a meteor shower with your daughter

 No silly ones - I had a tough enough time trying to figure out where to look!

Saturday: meeting a new client while trying out a new coffee bistro; stopping by their home for a visit with your son, daughter-in-law, and grandpuppy; the sight of Santa riding down South Congress on a horse; catching up with old friends at a Christmas party

Sunday: enjoying Christmas music with your mom; carolers who will give your mom a private performance; the rain waiting until you're in the grocery store to start, and then stopping before you come back out; a son who will cook dinner; a call from a dear friend

 

I hope you have a blessed week full of love and miracles, no matter what holiday you're celebrating this season. Be sure to share your sweet! moments from the past week in the comments! I'm sure you can think of something!

 

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?

~G.K. Chesterton

Don't Stop Believing!

I didn't become Catholic because they consider it okay to dance and drink, but I have to admit, those are great fringe benefits!

Every year I look forward to our parish "adult" Christmas party, where there's always great food, great dance music, a huge dance floor, and a mostly older crowd who make me feel young and old at the same time. There are some 80+-year-olds who can out-dance me!

Tonight I expected to go, eat, and leave, because I had so much work to do. I didn't even bring my big-girl camera. But I met new people at my table, saw some old friends, and this great band was playing...

The next thing I knew, I was one of the last ones there, as always.

There were four of us women still on the dance floor when the band said good night. We convinced them to play an encore. They acquiesced, choosing "Don't Stop Believing", the perfect lead-in for the post I'd already written for today...

It's been almost a year since my mom made the move from Houston to Austin. Things haven't gone quite as well as I hoped ... she's had two trips to the emergency room and is much weaker now than when we made that 4 hour road trip last year. 

But she is still my mom. I can talk to her about everything that's going on in my life, just as I always could. I am blessed that way. She's still a great support and sounding board. And I think it helps her to know I still need her that way.

But in the same breath, she'll refer to my dad as if he's alive. We're on a totally different playing field, and it's taken some getting used to. She knows he's passed on, but there are times she just refuses to accept it. 

In her previous life, my mom was a CPS - a Certified Professional Secretary. It was a big deal. You had to pass a test. She worked all while I was growing up, and then beginning in 1975, she also took care of my quadriplegic brother in the evening when she got home from work. 

Her nature has always been that of a nightowl who loved staying up late and sleeping half the day, unless she had to get up for work or some other good reason.

It's unfortunate that nursing homes don't operate on that time schedule. Physical therapy comes by in the morning. She refuses them. By the time she's awake enough to participate, they're gone for the day. 

Consequently, she's gotten weaker and weaker. This week, they categorized her as a hoyer-lift patient because they say it took four people to weigh her. A hoyer-lift patient is pretty much a jellyfish, not having to use any muscles to get in and out of bed, or even to the bathroom.

However, when they said they had to move her to another hall because she was now a hoyer patient, I reminded them that she did fine with two people assisting her until one aide ignored the "Two Person" assistance notice and tried to move her on her own. Consequently, Mama landed on her knees. The very next day, it took four people to weigh her.

So, they gave me a week. If she shows improvement and cooperates, she won't have to move.

I am now officially her coach. 

Yesterday morning I arrived at 11:30 and she was still in bed. I pushed the button to call the aides to get her out of bed and when they asked her if she would eat lunch in the dining room, I answered for her: Yes. 

She eats really, really slow. We were the last ones in the dining room. Her nurse had her nebulizer treatment already set up, so I got her started on that, then went to find a portable oxygen tank. When she finished her treatment, I hooked her up to the portable tank so she could take a "stroll" down the hall, using her hands and feet to propel herself, rather than someone pushing her.

I want her to build her strength. I don't want her to be a jellyfish on the other hall, and she doesn't want to be, either. I told her she had to want that in an active way, not just a theoretical way.

That's true for all of us, isn't it? If we want something, we have to take the action that will get us there, not just wish for it to magically happen.

I was there four hours yesterday, and two today,  but most days I can only be with her an hour. So please, please, please keep my mom in your prayers, as well as her aides and nurses. They have a tough job. I'm depending on them to keep her moving and gaining strength.

Don't stop believing... (and please keep her in your prayers!)

Being there for my mom and dancing tonight are definitely both sweet!s of this week.

Here are a few more...

 

 

Tuesday: property tours that include lots of lake views; singing Christmas carols with your mom; investor clients; online classes you can attend at your convenience

Wednesday: your son's 29th birthday; remembering the day you became a mom; spending time with your own mom

 

Thursday: the silence of a foggy morning; showing properties; bathroom inspiration; discovering new restaurants with your daughter; remembering your sister's wedding 10 years ago; hanging out with twenty-somethings 

Friday: showing more properties; seeing results from nagging your mom; reaching the halfway mark in your new class; watching a full moon climb up through the tree branches

Saturday: the company of house-dogs; working out six days in a row; getting to spend four hours with your mom; sunsets in the hill country; quick catch-ups with friends; new clients

 

Sunday: walking through a carpet of autumn leaves; enjoying beautiful Christmas and gospel music with your mom; an evening spent visiting with friends, making new ones, and dancing

 

I hope you had a week full of sweet! moments, and the next is overflowing. Share them here!

And remember, don't stop believing!

 

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

~Author Unknown

 

My son, at not quite 30...

 

He doesn't take himself too seriously.

For instance, this is his latest post on Facebook...

"I jogged through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel... To Bangers for a beer."

 

It makes me so happy to know he's secure enough, and fun-loving enough, to dress as an elf and run through the streets of Austin on an Elf Pub Run. Also, that he can quote Will Ferrell in "Elf".

Of course I'm also proud that he's an awesome insurance agent who was smart enough to fall in love with that gorgeous redhead beside him.

 

He volunteers to host Thanksgiving for 20 people.

Including roasting the turkey. Yum.

 

 

He doesn't let things shake him up.

After an 8 hour drive, which included hitting a huge deer on a dark highway 30 minutes outside of Lubbock, and then only 4 hours of sleep, he ran 14 miles in freezing weather with his wife because it was important to her to keep up with her marathon training. 

Plus , it was her birthday weekend.

"Ninja training: 8 hour road trip, 4 hours sleep, 14 mile run. Now endurance tailgating with Tx Tech girls."

 

Can I brag some more? He's an Eagle Scout, he visits his grandmother regularly, runs marathons despite having struggled with asthma all through his childhood, has the before-mentioned successful insurance business...

 

All in all, he lives life to the fullest.

 

 

 

But it's still hard to believe it's been 29 years since this...

 

 

Who knew then that he would be my hero? 

Yes, I'm a proud, extremely grateful mom.

Happy 29th birthday to my Sunshine Boy. 

 

You don't raise heroes, you raise sons.  And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes.  ~Walter M. Schirra, Sr.

 

Thanksgiving, Advent, and other sweet!s of the week...

 

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did. I feel especially blessed that in my 55 years I've only been responsible for the whole dinner a handful of times, thanks to my mom and, more recently, my son and daughter-in-law.

 

 

For the second year in a row, my son did an amazing job on the turkey, a huge 21-pounder! There was a ton of other delicious stuff... gorgeous appetizers, casseroles, desserts. 

 

I brought the cornbread dressing, my mother's recipe. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving for me without it. 

(I also brought a green salad, but it was mostly for show. It takes up way too much room on a plate!) 

Even though my mom wasn't strong enough yet to join us at my son's, she was too stuffed with turkey and dressing to eat any of the goodies we brought her on our way home that evening. I'm grateful for that, and for the staff of her nursing home who made sure the residents celebrated. 

 

 

The next day we celebrated Thanksgiving again with friends. No skipping work-outs for me for the next few weeks, that's for sure!

 

 

Thanksgiving was just the first in this season of celebration. Yesterday was the first official day of Advent, a time when we (as in Christians) reflect on what we need to do to prepare for the second coming of Christ while commemorating his first coming - Christmas. A season for reflection of the past and the future. 

 

 

A few years ago I googled "Advent" for another post and found a description on Spirit Home that I thought was perfect. I've chopped out bits to save space, but here it is...

Advent is a season of preparation. So's Lent, but it is a different kind of preparation. Lent is very adult and serious, because it leads to a death; originally, Lent readied new Christian adults for baptism. In Advent, we thank God for Christ's first coming, prepare for his final coming at the end of time, and celebrate Christ's presence among us today through the Spirit. God loved us and wanted to share that love. But this existence isn't well-suited for a god; it's too broken, evil, painful, unjust. So, to rescue the created world from this evil, God chose to come here and walk the earth, to grow up, to live the truth, and to die. The only way to start such a thing is as a baby, and the only way to be a baby is to be born. Hence Christmas. Because Christmas is centered in the new hope brought by a baby, it's a very child-oriented holiday. Because Advent leads us up to that baby, Advent is also child-oriented.

There's a time to get ready by focusing on your own sinfulness and wrongdoing, a time for personal transformation and following Christ to the cross. That's Lent. There's a time to get ready by rejoicing that our God is not far away and unfamiliar with the struggles of human life, that Christ is here right now among His followers, that God has already begun to bring in the Kingdom, and that Christ will come again to make it clear who really runs the place. That's Advent. "Lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the age", says Jesus.

  

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as if everything is."

~ Albert Einstein 

 

I love that quote. And I do believe each day is full of miracles.

Keeping track of my sweet!s has helped me recognize them. Here are a few from the past week...

Monday: being able to start a new week and every new day with a morning walk; your mom agreeing to do her physical therapy

Tuesday: starting a new real estate class; a happy hour at sunset with friends

Wednesday: a blogger/writer friend's op-ed published in the LA Times; open parking spaces and short check-out lines when you procrastinate grocery shopping until the day before Thanksgiving; a pre-Thanksgiving phone call with your mother-in-law

 

 

Thursday: only being responsible for the cornbread dressing and green salad for Thanksgiving dinner; truly liking your daughter-in-law's family; creative appetizers; no traffic when you hit the road for Thanksgiving; another Wes Anderson movie with your son

Friday: the smell of fresh-baked brownies; sons who love to visit their grandmother; Thanksgiving Part 2 with friends

 

 

Saturday: three days in a row with no alarm clock; a "hello" from a raven on your morning walk; learning the difference between a crow and a raven; a silly movie with your son; finishing the edits on a special photography job

 

Sunday: referrals from friends; a spring-like day in winter; a glimpse of a Great Blue Heron disappearing over the treetops; two walks in one day with your puppy; your son calling to see if you need anything from the grocery store on his way home 

Monday: the sound of the wind dancing in the treetops; your puppy running and running and running with joy and exuberance; spending a morning with a client viewing properties; a shadow-puppy/guard dog who follows you from room to room; your son getting a fire going when winter returns to your hollow

 

 

Beginning this Advent, I'm also going to work on being more aware and more supportive of my friends and family who are currently facing huge challenges. Time to pay it forward. 

Whether you think about Advent or not, I hope your next few weeks are full of reflection, hope and joy.