Grateful Gifts

You have seen the posts on facebook about making a jar and putting in notes all during the year of things you are thankful/grateful for.  Well…. we did that this last year:

We read the notes on our way to our New Year’s Eve Celebration.  Here is what was in the jar:

(in no particular order)

– Esther sorted 6 totes of shoes

-Liz got a 1 at Solo and Ensemble

-Liz took 2nd in the 400 free (Jan. 8, 2013)

-Thankful for Esther’s kind and generous heart!

-mom lost weight, dad is trying

-One Direction

-Lydia got a 1 at Solo and Ensemble for her flute trio, and her choral ensemble also got a 1 (the only 1 in the school)

– Liz had a personal best on her 500/400 as sectionals

-House of Anubis is now on 4 days a week

– we got another cat (hopefully) – NO WE DID NOT!!!

-Tricia set up Wayne’s smartphone, a BIG help

-One Direction (yes, again…. I think someone is really thankful for them!  LOL!)

– Thankful for Lydia’s hard work at swimming

-Christmas

-friends

-Kevin gave Abi a car

– Esther won a penguin poster (sadly the cat ate that poster a few weeks later)

-a car from Kevin and Cousin Jim to repair it

– Wattpad

– Mom got a GS award in spring 2013

– Liz worked hard pulling weeds

-Jim fixed Abi’s minivan

– orthodontics, so our teeth will look good!

– Abi goes back to school

– we can almost get a car in the garage (and then brother Pete filled up the space when he moved, but now it is almost empty again and we DID fit a car in – but just grandma’s little Kia Soul)

– Thankful for the wise choices Liz is making during High School

-Lydia’s band and choir got a 1 at contest

-Thankful for Abi’s stick-to-it-iveness in college

-toys and games

– Esther spent almost 24 hours with Mia

– youtube

– Wayne got a full time job

-new phones

– Panic! at the Disco (I’m told it is music?)

– a nice hike at Wanake

-$3 fuse fixes the microwave

-I had one of the best years at camp. ❤   – Lydia

– Danisnotonfire and Amazing Phil (I’m told they are people on Youtube)

-Patricia for thinking of this great idea  (but really it was on facebook first,  😉    )

– spending 2 days at Auntie Lois’

-Abi home on break to run “mom” errands

-presents

-food, shelter, etc.

– House of Anubis started again.   🙂    (Well maybe not “good” for the family though?)

-Abi did a lot to help drive her sisters around during her Xmas break

– a working microwave and food to cook in it

-Liz hasn’t crashed the car yet!

– Liz band 3-peat at OMEA state finals – and they got a 1 this year!!!

– good weather for the spring campouts

-thankful for Tricia’s care of her mother during this time of need (her broken shoulder)

-Liz got her driver’s license

– I love my slippers and was very surprised!

-Fair winners (everyone won ribbons at the fair!!)

Yes, we will continue this for 2014!  Hopefully there will be at least the same amount of things to be thankful for next year!!

End of August Garden

Here is an update on our garden.

As you know, some of our produce won in the fair.   Our marigolds won twice in the Junior fair.   🙂

My tomatoes did not place.  Though I do have enough thrown in the freezer that we are going to try making ketchup.

The cucumbers got 2nd   and are still going strong. There are quite a few more still in the garden.

Esther’s pumpkin got 1st.

 We have several little pumpkins in the garden.  None got really huge, but we had fun watching them grow.

I also entered a sunflower.  It was supposed to be multiple heads, which I didn’t have.  I should have entered one into the tallest category because look how tall that one is, taller than a single story building! 

All-in-all it has been a successful garden season.  Our peppers didn’t do as well as we would have liked.  There are still a few on the plant so maybe we’ll get a couple more this fall yet.

What will we experiment with next year?  Love the sunflowers, so will most likely grow those again.  Tomatoes, of course.  But what else?  Maybe beans or peas?

Nicknames

Nicknames….

Dictionary.com says this:

nick·name

1. a name added to or substituted for the proper name of a person, place, etc., as in affection, ridicule,or familiarity

2. a familiar form of a proper name, as Jim  for James  and Peg  for Margaret.

How do you feel about them?  Do you have one?  Did you have one as a child?

In our family, some do and some don’t.

Let’s start at the top:

Wayne – not much you an do to shorten that one for a “familiar form.”  While I didn’t know him in High School, I do know that he had a nickname then of “Duke.”  I’m not sure I ever got the real reason, but I assume it had to do with the name Wayne… John Wayne… John Wayne was call Duke…  Now he is most often called “Dad.”

 

Patricia – if you go by the second definition, I have a nickname of Tricia.  I have not been a Pat (except for that first grade teacher, but we won’t go there) and some people who think they are being friendly by randomly shortening my name when they don’t even know me… but that was a whole other post.  I don’t recall having a nickname as a child.  If I did, I’m sure my mother will post it in the comments.   🙂    When I was first on staff at Camp Wanake, I was nicknamed Fozzie (as in Fozzie Bear) for that summer because I had a really fuzzy perm and one other lifeguard was called Kermit.  This was 1982 so Muppets were big.   What I am called most often now is “Mom” or Mrs. Scott.  or Mommy Scott – depending on if you are birth child, Girl Scout, or band/swim child.  I’ve often wished to be called Sweetheart, but that doesn’t seem to be something that will ever happen.

Abigail – in utero she as referred to as Wilhelmina (a middle name of Grandma Harding).  Her “familiar form” is Abi.  Being a name purist of sorts (OK, yes I am), we did not want to go with Abby, Abbey, or Abbie.  We went with Abi – just drop the gail.  As an infant she was sometimes referred to as Sweet-pea or was it Pumpkin Cookie?  I can’t remember which went with which daughter.  As she entered the preteen/teen years more often she was referred to as Crabigail or Crabby Abi…. hormones!  She had some friends that called her Abbeh or Abo and even Abi (long i sound).

Elizabeth – now there is a name that you can have your pick of nicknames for.  When she was young she was a Lizzie.  (and probably a sweet-pea or pumpkin cookie, whichever one Abi was not)  As a toddler if you asked her her name she would tell you:  “My name is Izzie!”  She is  a great Lizzie!  When her little sisters came along, she was often called Sissy.  I know several other Elizabeths that have the nickname of sissy, interesting.  Now she is pretty much just Liz.  Nothing that refers to being crabby rhymes with Liz, so she avoided that.

Lydia – again the purist came out.  She is a Lydi – just drop the “a.”  Not a Lyddie, Liddie, or Liddy.  When she was a baby she had a plethora of nicknames.  We called her Bitty.  Mainly because, at the time, she was the baby and she looked so much like an American Girl bald bitty baby.  She was not small, so it had nothing to do with size.  She was, in fact, our largest birth weight baby.  Bitty sometimes got mangled to Bittley or Biddly.  We have a friend that still calls her that sometimes.  When her little sister came along and was learning to talk, Lydia became La-la.  Sometimes, I still catch myself calling her La-la or at least thinking it.   🙂

Esther – we went with Essi.  While not totally able to go purist on that, there is no “e” on the end, more like Abi.  She is still an Essi to many.  Though on most of her school papers she writes Esther.  She was called “Jo” by her father for many years – maybe still is occasionally.  I have called her “bug.”  She is also just “E.”  Grandma calls her “Lester” sometimes, because Grandma gets on a roll and it is easier to just say Liz, Lydia, Lester.   I have heard her called “Pester,” but not as much as you might think.

Pets…. oh the pets… they have some great nicknames.

Going waaaaaayyyy back…

Hannah (cat) was called Hannie

Savannah (cat) was called Sally

Emphie (dog – beloved dog) was called Bubba.  She truly was a Bubba though.  When Abi came along and was learning to talk, “puppy” sounded like Bubbie, so that is what we all called her for the next 15 years.

 

Current Pets:

Jupiter (large black cat) – Jupie, Stupie, Blackie, Jupiter Stupider – and various other names – he really isn’t that bright, please don’t take offense at us using that word for a cat.  When he pees inappropriately sometimes, one just gets frustrated.

Peter (cat) – yeah, he’s just called Peter.  He is aloof and “regal” so he doesn’t warrant a nickname

Genevieve (cat) – Geni (Jenny?) – yeah, it had to do with Harry Potter

Pumpkin Lumpkin (dog) – Punkie, baddog, dumdog – again, don’t judge.  Often those are said in an endearing tone because again, the minuscule bladder she has is an issue.

 

 

Do you have a nickname?  Snook-ums, buttercup… or something equally cutesie?

 

Answer to the question of the other day’s post:  What Dr. Seuss Book did my first line sound like?  Cat in the Hat

Random Rainy Thoughts

Rain, Rain, go away….

Come again another day…

Mommy and Esther want to play…

Rain, Rain, go away.

The garden is loving this rain.  The weeds are loving this rain.  Some of my thistle weeds are at least 3 foot tall.  I just can’t get them pulled faster than they can grow. Also, it means the grass will grow and that is generally an issue around here… getting it all mowed at the same time.  It will need to be all mowed before next Wednesday… good luck with that!

The gutters need cleaned because the rain is overflowing them inappropriately and thus making it wet in the basement.  However, cleaning the gutters in the rain does not sound like fun.  Hopefully that will get done this weekend.

3 of my kids are at camp this week.  Sleeping listening to the rain in a canvas tent or adirondack in the woods is great!  However, sloshing around camp trying to cook out or hike or do other activities gets old after a while in the rain.  Today is Thursday, they should be cooking out supper tonight… the rain could clear up a bit and the sun come out to allow the wood to dry.  Though, I’m proud to say that my 2 counselor daughters are masters of camping and pretty much RULE the woods.  They have learned, from all their years of camping, to carry sassafras in their backpacks so they can start a fire anywhere, anytime, and usually with just one match!  Someday one of them will be on Survivor.  Though, I fear, that Abi is too much of a “leader” for Survivor and would get voted off early.  Still it would be fun to watch her on the show.  She has watched almost every episode over the years.   🙂

Since it is raining, the pool I was supposed to vacuum today will have to wait till tomorrow.  It isn’t so urgent that standing in the rain next to an electric cord is something I want to do.

Somehow the rain caused power loss at about 5:30am.  Our lines are buried to the house, so any power loss happens down stream from us.  Not sure what happened, but turning off computers and all those beeping battery backups at 5:30am was just barrels of fun!  NOT!  Power was restored about 2 hours later.

I guess the rain will allow Esther and I to wash dirty clothes and clean up inside today.  Maybe today would be a great day to cook something new from our Little House cookbook.  I’ll have to see what sounds good.

It is too early to start preparing for the 4th of July festivities.  If I made the Chex Mix today, it would just be consumed before then and I’d have to make more.  As it is, I will have to make at least 4 batches so that there is enough for the whole week.

Rain isn’t a bad thing.  Sometimes it is inconvenient, but we need the water.   Maybe if it does clear up today Esther and I can go out to play.  There is a mini golf place we have wanted to try.   😉