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Archive for January, 2017

Jan 19 2017

Keeping My Hopes Up

Posted by Mugs @ 7:21 pm in Family,Nature Print This Post Print This Post

Today I was up on the housetop (click click click) performing the Christmas lights removal. I can use Gabe’s surprise appendectomy as an excuse for not having done it before January 19th, but it was more a result of, “It’s raining and cold and I’m lazy.”

However, today was warm and sunny and a good day for climbing around on a roof. As I was sitting up there, pondering the great mysteries of life – “Why do half of each strand of icicle lights stop working halfway through Holly Jolly time?” – I looked down in admiration at my mountain laurel. The mountain laurel always looks happy in the cool and sad in the hot.

“It feels like late winter,” I thought. Followed quickly by, “Maybe the snowdrops have come!” I climbed back through the window since jumping off the roof is probably not a good idea when you are 50, and searched the garden for my first bloom of 2017.

The tiny snowdrop was blooming there – its nodding head and green markings filling me with hope.

Jan 10 2017

The Backpacks of Life

Posted by Mugs @ 8:35 pm in Family,school,Sightseeing Print This Post Print This Post

Abby has dreamed of studying abroad in sunny Spain since high school. Today, she boarded a plane with a backpack full of dreams, school supplies and a box of mike and ikes. I watched her go – happy that her grand adventure had begun and sad that our precious daughter would now be far, far away.

It recalled to mind the day I boarded a plane to New Jersey to raise my hand for Uncle Sam’s offer to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States…” I had a suitcase in hand, but the Army helpfully issued me a backpack and all the gear I would need for my grand adventure.

Abby, on the other hand, spent several days trying to decipher which items were essential to cram inside her backpack for a semester in Europe. When the backpack, looking too fat, was brought down this morning, she finally let me see inside.

How do you explain to a future Elementary School Teacher that three coloring books and a box of crayons really are not essential items for traveling?

 

Jan 01 2017

Putting the Happy in New Year

Posted by Mugs @ 11:15 pm in Family Print This Post Print This Post

Once again, the Manry Clan New Year was filled with gingerbread, family, friends, chinese takeout, puzzles, games, poppers, and the banging of pots and pans.