Author: Wanda

I am a Catholic widow, mother, grandmother, friend and according to my kids just a little bit crazy. My faith is paramount in my life. Spending time with my family, especially my four grandchildren is one of my most treasured blessings. I love Redskins football, Phillies baseball, NASCAR, quilting, genealogy, and am a bibliophile and struggling blogger.

A 4th of July Memory

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Daily Prompt:  Sail

One of my favorite 4th of July memories is the year we spent the weekend on my grandfather’s sail boat.  I must have been 5 or 6.  He kept it docked at Duck Island in Trenton, New Jersey.  The name of the boat was Teal.  I never knew why it was named that.  I always meant to ask my grandfather that question.  The boat’s motor had a pipe that ran to the back of the boat that I stepped on and burned my foot.  

We sailed down the Delaware River to a cove and anchored.  We got to go swimming right off the boat.  It was such great fun.  Several of my grandparent’s friends joined us in the cove and we had a big floating picnic.  

When we were anchored one night a storm hit.  I can remember lying in the bunk with the boat shifting from side to side.  The thunder and lightning were unbelievable.  I thought the world was going to end.  I think that’s the first time my dad told me that the noise was from the angels bowling in heaven and the lightning was the blinking lights on the allies.  It worked, I woke up in the morning all thoughts of the storm forgotten.  

I was enthralled with the galley and was allowed to play with my dolls there.  It was my own little playhouse.  I also loved the little porthole windows.

That was the last time I the boat.  Shortly after that my grandparents went to Seattle to visit my uncle.  My grandfather became ill and he sold the boat.  I have a picture of that boat at home.  I wish I could share it with ya’ll.  Maybe when I get home, I will update this post with the picture.

Happy 4th of July to all those who have fought for my freedom over the years.  God bless you one and all.

Wanda

 

Share Your World- July 3, 2017

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Cee’s Share Your World – July 3, 2017

If you would like to play along, just click the link and join in.

Here are this week’s questions and my answers.

For your main meal do you prefer sweet and sour, hot and spicy, spicy and sweet, bitter, salty, bland or other?

I prefer to eat generously seasoned food, but not hot or spicy.  I have never understood the need to suffer while you are eating.  🙂

Where do you hide junk when people come over?

I don’t hide junk when people come over.  I usually don’t have a lot of junk sitting around, but even if I do, I figure if people are coming to my home they are coming to see me.  If however, they are coming to see what kind of house keeper I am, then they may as well stay away.

What daily habit would you like to introduce to your life?

I would like to introduce a schedule for me.  Since I am retired I have not been following one and I don’t always accomplish everything I would like to get done.  I think it would be beneficial to me because I do get frustrated when I get noting done.

If you were to perform in the circus, what would you do?  

I feel like I have been performing in a circus my whole adult life.  My husband collected people.  We had teenagers who moved in and out of the house.  We had old ladies stay with us.  We had all sorts of animals living with us.  Dogs, cats, lizards, turtles, tortoises, frogs, fish, mice, guinea pigs and hamsters.  I can’t even tell you how many rodents I killed while cleaning the kids rooms.

We actually had thirteen hamsters get loose one night while I was having a party for the employees on my floor at the nursing home.  I spent hours catching the little rodents while they ran up my drapes, under the furniture and ones that fell into empty vases.

My youngest did a science project one year.  She made the humane mouse trap.  Of course she needed real mice.  Well she got an A on her project.  Do you know how long those snake snacks lived?  They lasted over a year.  Then when they decided to check out and go to the little mouse house in the sky, she came running down the stairs in tears holding one of the mice and said it was dead.  I asked her how she knew it was dead, she was holding onto the mouse and flipped it backwards positioning herself like she was lying on her back with her legs up in the air.  Well, it was all I could do not to get hysterical laughing.  My husband, the chicken, ran out of the room so she would not see him laugh.  Then my husband  asked me if I could give the mouse CPR you can imagine what went through my mind.  Needles to say I did not give the mouse CPR.  I still hear about not resuscitating that rodent!

Then we had the disappearance of the pancake tortoises.  No lie.  My husband who became the turtle whisperer, put the flat I mean very flat tortoises in the old sand box in the back yard to give them some fresh air.  After a while I asked him if he had gotten the creatures back into the house.  Of course he said no.  I told him, well then I guess they went for a walk because the pen is empty.  So that lead to a through search of the neighborhood for hours.  You can imagine how happy our neighbors were when we moved.

I don’t think any self respecting circus would hire me with my track record with animals.

Optional Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am very grateful for the sun shine we have had this past week and I am looking forward to spending this week with my camera.

Wanda

Dash or Dash

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Daily Prompt:  Dash

Who would have thought that using the little dash would be so complicated.  I always check the definitions of the words for the daily prompt before I write my little piece.  I just checked the definition of dash.  Wow!  I thought I was pretty intelligent, and maybe at one point in my life I learned some of this, but I swear I don’t remember it.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the dash.

“The dash is a punctuation mark that is similar to a hyphen or minus sign, but differs from both of these symbols primarily in length and function. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash (–) and the longer em dash (—), whose names historically were loosely related with the length of a lower-case n and upper-case M, respectively, in commonly used typefaces.

Usage varies both within English and in other languages, but the usual convention in printed English text is as follows:

An em dash (or an en dash) denotes a break in a sentence or to set off parenthetical statements.
Glitter, felt, yarn, and buttons—his kitchen looked as if a clown had exploded.
A flock of sparrows—some of them juveniles—alighted and sang.

The en dash (but not the em dash) indicates spans or differentiation, where it may be considered to replace “and” or “to” (but not “to” in the phrase “from … to …”):[1]
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was fought in western Pennsylvania and along the present US–Canada border (Edwards, pp. 81–101).

The em dash (but not the en dash) is also used to set off the sources of quotes:
Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice. — Mahatma Gandhi”

I don’t know about you, but I am just a little confused by this.  However, if I am completely honest, it doesn’t take much to confuse me anymore.  I think it has something to do with getting older.  🙂

Wikipedia goes on to say, “There are several forms of dash, of which the most common are: (link to site added by me)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash.”

Then Merriam-Webster’s definition is this.

  1. transitive verb

  2. 1:  to break by striking or knocking angrily dashed the bouquet of flowers against the table

  3. 2:  to knock, hurl, or thrust violently dashed water onto his face a boat that had beendashed against the rocks

  4. 3:  splash, spatter his pants were dashed with mud

  5. 4a :  ruin, destroy the news dashed his hopesb :  depress, saddenc :  to make ashamed dashed by her scorn

  6. 5:  to affect by mixing in something different his delight was dashed with bitterness

  7. 6:  to complete, execute, or finish off hastily —used with down or off dashed down a drinkdash off a letter… he dashed off the book in eight weeks … — Paul Fussell

  8. 7[euphemism]:  1damn 4 Dash it all!

  9. intransitive verb

  10. 1:  to move with sudden speed dashed down the hallway

  11. 2:  smash waves dashing against the rocks

 

So the simple little dash has many meanings and uses – my work here is done.  I have dashed to the internet and dashed off my research with dashing results.  I hope I haven’t dashed your enthusiasm for using dash as that would have dashed your interest.

Wanda

Adventure

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Daily Prompt:  Scamper

Mama has her hands full
As she leads her babies through the door.
It’s their first big adventure
To the outside world.
She teaches them to be alert
While scampering about.
The kittens get so hungry
And tired from their play.
So mama calls them to her
Counting them one by one.
And leads them back into the house
Where lunch is served at once.
With bellies full they snuggle close
Keeping safe and warm.

Wanda

 

The World is Thy Ship

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Daily Prompt:  Passenger

“The world’s thy ship and not thy home.”  This quote is from St. Therese of Lisieux.  I think that this is a very profound statement about our lives.  We will be here on earth for a relatively short time.

As passengers on this ship, we proceed along our path to eternal life.  What happens here is just a stepping stone for us.  We are charged with taking care of this ship.  To treat it with respect and to share it’s resources because we are only temporary.

We are also charged with love. kindness, charity, and respect toward our fellow man.  To be good to each other and to work together keeping our ship sea worthy.

Wanda

The New Me

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Daily Prompt:  Snack,

I love snacks.  If I had the chance to have a big piece of chocolate cake or a steak dinner, I would choose the cake.  It’s awful to go through life liking junk food so much.  It leads to so many problems.  Obesity, diabetes, back pain, foot problems… The list goes on and on. I am drawn to snack food like a magnet to metal.

Well after going on like this for most of my life.  I have begun to change my eating habits. It’s been difficult, but I have made progress and I am doing much better.  I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.

I wasn’t very active as a kid either.  I was clumsy and was terrible in gym class.  I couldn’t hit a ball or catch one for that matter.  I wasn’t a fan of sweating.  About the only thing I did was ride a bike.

Now I walk every day and I am healthier than I have been in years.  I have energy to enjoy my grandchildren and for that I am grateful.

Wanda

The Unwelcomed Guest

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100 Word Challenge:  Snake

Several years ago when my friends moved to Orlando they began to have a visitor in the back of the house by the pool. It was a big black snake. Frank would catch the snake, walk it down to the woods behind their home and let it go.

The snake would reappear under the small palm tree by the pool. He would catch it again and release it in the woods. This continued all summer long. Once the snake followed Frank out of the woods. The following summer the snake did not come back. I think they really missed it.

Wanda