Saturday Centus - Saying goodbye was harder than she thought::March 3

Click on the link below to go to Jenny's blog.


The prompt this week is: Saying goodbye was harder than she thought...

Number of words: 100 PLUS the seven words of the prompt for a maximum of 107 words.
Style of writing: Any
Pictures: As many extra pictures as you like

The old woman was bedridden and had to rely on nurses and aides to care for her.

Several times she had been sick enough to die, but she pulled through. It was because of her stubbornness, she said. Her family agreed.

Because of pain and sickness, she often complained and was crotchety.

I knew I loved her. I told her so, and I always felt it. Yet, in the back of my mind, sometimes I felt like a burden would be lifted when she passed away. After eight months of her being gone now, I realize that saying goodbye was harder than I thought.

(I cheated a tiny bit by adding "I" instead of "she" in the prompt. I hope it doesn't bother anyone too much.)

This Moment::March 2

I love the idea behind SouleMama's "this moment", but I rarely have a picture ready. I don't take pictures every day (shame on me!) and I share each picture as it comes in. I'm not much of a saver.

So today, maybe I'll do a verbal "this moment" instead of a picture "this moment".

If I could pick a moment to savor and remember, it would be:

The moment that I dropped off Jared for his first day working at the greenhouse. Lots of thoughts were going through my head all at once, and it struck me right then that my boy had turned into a man. He was off at a job that only grown-ups are hired for and getting a grown-up's wage. He nearly makes as much as Josh, whom I've thought of as a grown-up for a few years. Why, he could even move out, or get married (which he won't, because he is planning on going on a mission, but still...), or buy a car with the wages that he'll be making.

My eyes were moist, my heart was full, and at the same time I was having melancholy feelings, I was having such an optimism for his future. I was proud of the man he had grown up to be, and proud of myself for giving him opportunities to learn how to work hard, especially at gardening. He has been my helper in the garden every year, except last year, for the past 8 years. He has been my right hand man when it came to helping with the animals, too. And in the past 5 years, he has gone door to door every spring to ask people if he could mow their lawn for the summer, and for the last 2 summers he has extended that to any kind of yard work. In fact, at our church, one man in the men's group stood up and told everyone that if they were looking for anyone to help with yard work, Jared was their man because he was such a hard worker.

All of those things whizzed through my mind in about a minute or less and I was left with a little sadness at the loss of my boy and gratitude for the man he'd become.

Yep, a picture is worth a thousand words. :)

Have a great day!

Snow. blah. And some good news!::March 1

Snow. That's all.

Best wishes,
MM

Okay, not really, though it has felt that way all day. I detest the blahs. But alas, they still happen.

We didn't go to my brother's doctor's appointment this morning. You guessed it, because of the snow. I did drive the kids to school and Jared to work. Going 45 miles per hour on the interstate. The road really needed to be salted. I'm sure the snowplow guy did his best, but ice was left over and ruts formed.

So instead of going to the doc's, I fixed the blinds in the dining room. I don't think a happily perfect blind can hang up in a toddler's home for very long before one side of the blinds have been broken off from them grabbing it and pulling it over their heads to look out. But, it is fixed. And since I don't have a toddler until Saturday, it has exactly 48 hours to breathe easily.

On a brighter note, Jared got a full time job at a local greenhouse! He'll be working 57 hours a week at first, which will translate into lots of moolah that he can save for his mission.

From my facebook status yesterday:
My little boy is growing up. :') Jared just got a full time job. Kind of a melancholy moment.
He makes my job as a parent very easy. Graduating early. Full time job to save money for his mission. Other than his diabetes, he is a low maintenance kid. And I am very, very thankful that he chooses things that make my job as a parent so easy.

He is an amazing guy and I'm so excited for him. He has been working at Wendy's, but has only been scheduled about 10 hours a week; he had posted a note saying he'd take anyone's shift and got a few more hours a week that way, but this will be perfect for him.

Here's hoping tomorrow is sunny!

Wishing you all the best♥,