Rambling on.....

I guess I haven't posted in a long time because I just don't have anything to post about. Nothing that seems very interesting anyway. But I have been reading your posts with much interest and reading them fairly regularly. I've also been reading a lot of books. I discovered the "Miss Julia" series and I've read all of them. Such delightful stories I'm sure you would enjoy as well. And the "Thrush Green Series" which I learned about on Jan Karon's website. You know she wrote the "Mitford Series" which I loved. She says that if you liked visiting Mitford you would relish a visit to Thrush Green. And she was sooooo right!!! Reading one of those books is like going on vacation for me. This series is set in the Cotswold region of England which I had never heard of until I starting reading these books. I "googled" it one day and oh my word!!! It looks like heaven to me. Gentle rolling hills and lush green pastures everywhere. Now I want to visit the area but... don't think that's going to happen since we can't get the motorhome there!

I'm also working hard to learn to knit socks. I know, I know! I've got all that fabric in my sewing room and those three sewing machines to do everything I want but I just want to knit some socks. Let me tell you, that is not easy! Takes 4 or 5 needles at the same time. One day as I was fretting and fussing with all those needles Pop said, "You are going crazy with that!" He could be right.

Read a post tonight on one of the blogs I follow and it seems the blogger is selling off all the lovely things she has collected over a life time. Her husband is ill and it's time to make those type of decisions. Just couldn't help but have my heart break a little for her. We are all traveling that same road. I was thinking the other day that this is really the "season of good-byes" in life. While she is saying good-bye to dolls, hat boxes, linens and such, I'm saying good-bye to friends and family I've depended on all my life; good-bye to those precious little children I loved and cared for so faithfully. They are all grown up now with their own lives. Sure leaves a big hole in mine. Good-bye to careers, hopes, dreams, potential, and all the sureness that youth holds. Good-bye to my sense of smell, taste, hearing and sight. Thank you, God, that I can still smell, taste, hear and see but not nearly as well as in my youth! My mind is no where as sharp as it once was either though I think my tongue has not lost its edge. Good-bye to strength, stamnia and energy. Good-bye to day without pain and nights that I sleep all the way thorough the night without waking from aching shoulders, hands, knees or back. Good-bye to being able to walk the mall all day or chase small children from sun up to sun down. We worked a lifetime sure that we would be able to enjoy our retirement but didn't have a clue that by the time we had it made we would have had it!!! No wonder I'm spending so much time reading; that's about all I can do any more.

We did finally get the den painted and I did a good bit of cleaning out stored "stuff" in the process. I was struck by just how little we actually have. No collections, no really valuable "stuff" of any kind. So, I guess there will be no auction or garage sale to clear out all our stuff but man I sure do miss those things I've already said good-bye to.