IU Graduation Day

Eric is free at last. 😀 Today was graduation day at Indiana University in Bloomington. Mama was proud and very tired.

King of the Castle

King of the castle after a hard day.

My Big Brother

I lost another brother this week. This poem is for John.

My Big Brother

with a personality larger than life.

Your big booming laugh and wild stories.

Your love of practical jokes

all played in good humor, not spite.

So daring, so bold,

So generous and kind.

The big brother every girl dreams of,

A brother to cherish and hold.

So many lessons learned,

You taught me to laugh, you taught me to love.

You treated me like a princess,

Protected and adored.

So many things shared,

So many things said.

Memories galore,

but never enough

never enough

copyright

Elizabeth Melton Parsons

 

I Carry Your Heart With Me

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

e. e. Cummings

I Never Lost As Much-Emily Dickinson

I Never Lost As Much

I never lost as much but twice,
And that was in the sod.
Twice have I stood a beggar
Before the door of God!

Angels, twice descending,
Reimbursed my store.
Burglar, banker, father,
I am poor once more!

– Emily Dickinson

Moving

Thought I’d better let everyone know what’s been going on and why I’ve not been around much. As most of you already know, my husband was born and spent most of his life in Miami, Florida. And although I was born in Michigan, I spent a good deal of my childhood and early adult life in Homestead, Florida. My husband has been here in Indiana for about 12 years and for most of that time he’s been trying to convince me to move back to Florida. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but about a year and a half ago I finally said- “Okay, if that’s what you want, we’ll try to make it happen.”

I never realized what a long and drawn out adventure this would become. We hit the market at a great time. The economy hit Florida pretty hard, so homes were selling much more reasonably than I could ever remember them selling. First we had to decide on a location. I didn’t want to return to Homestead and my husband didn’t want to go back to Miami.  We decided Palm Bay was where we wanted to be. Unfortunately the homes we settled on looked lovely but had Chinese drywall installed. Since there weren’t a lot of older homes without the stuff, we made the decision to settle in Cocoa which is right across the intracoastal from Cocoa Beach and Merritt Island. A lovely little city. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get everything done around here soon enough and the few houses we were interested in sold. After that the real estate market in Cocoa and Merritt Island heated up and prices began to rise.

We didn’t want a total fixer so we moved our search up the coast to Titusville. The home we tried to buy there turned out to have serious foundation issues. A few others didn’t work out either. My husband had said he didn’t want to live in Daytona because the surfing wasn’t great there. (he’s a surfer) But I finally convinced him to do some research on the area and when he found out Daytona Beach is only 10 miles from Ponce Inlet, he was all for it. After many home inspections and appraisals we finally managed to purchase a cute little ranch style 3.5 miles from the beach. I’m in the process of sorting, packing and cleaning. I plan to leave in about a week. But I’m also having some dental work done. Depending on how that goes the trip may have to be postponed a little. I don’t know when I’ll be back to posting on a more regular basis, but I’ll try to take some pictures to post once I’m settled. Love and hugs to you all. ❤ Elizabeth

I’ll Be Seeing You

As you can see this is not a blog buddy Friday post. I just want everyone to know that there are some changes happening in my life at the moment and I won’t be around for a while. I don’t know how long this hiatus will be. I’ll miss you guys and if possible I may come on from time to time and repost something from the archives or some art. Now you kiddos be good. No fighting. Here’s another piece of art before I go. (sorry for the horrible photo) Bye for now. 🙂 ❤

Autumn Stream – Oil on canvas

 

Get Your Drawers ON!

I search for free book promotions for my Kindle on a pretty regular basis and the other day I found a historic, romantic suspense novel. This happens to be a genre I like quite a bit so I began reading it right away, even though I was already reading Flatland and Cider House Rules. But then, I always read more than one book at a time and I really enjoy these novels when I’m riding my stationary bike. I was about two thirds of the way into it, pedaling my little legs off and having a grand old time when I came to a scene that just happens to be my favorite pet peeve in both books and movies.

You know that scene, the one where they’ve been catching a few winks and the hero wakes the heroine and tells her they have to get moving because the killer is only minutes from catching up to them. So they’re rushing around in preparation for leaving and suddenly they have to have “the talk”. I’m sorry I did this or didn’t do that-where is our relationship going-blah-blah-blah? Yeah, okay, but ummm…the bad guys are coming. Get moving kiddos.

And if that weren’t bad enough, just when you think they’ve come to their senses and are going to start making tracks, no— lust takes control of them and they must have sex. Not quicky sex, but full blown hour and a half long love making. Come on, get your drawers on and get moving already! Nope, not going to happen. After all that expended energy, they fall into a coma and wake up when the killers are breaking the door down. 🙄

Okay so it usually ends well with them taking out the bad guys and living happily ever after, but in real life they’d be toast. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the book (minus that part) and I also enjoy a lot of movies with these kinds of scenes. But I have a real problem not getting annoyed about them. If I were in that kind of situation, I wouldn’t care how hot the guy is or how badly I might be lusting after him–he’d keep those drawers on until we were safe. Period!

What’s your movie or book pet peeves?

Photo credit Graphics Fairy

Old Man Winter Is Angry

A couple of days ago I was listening to Robins sing at the window and watching Bluebirds and Towhees beginning to nest. My tulips were up about four inches, sedum and hyacinth too. I thought spring was just around the corner. Then Monday night and all day Tuesday we were blasted by old man winter. Heavy snow, frigid temps and howling wind blowing it all around. I’m wracking my brain trying to remember what in the world I did to that old man to raise his ire to such a degree. I’m thinking about baking chocolate chip cookies as a piece offering.  I want spring and I think Robert Frost did too while writing his poem: To The Thawing Wind. Here’s the poem and a glimpse of our new snow.

snowy drive

my snowy drive

To The Thawing Wind

Come with rain, O loud Southwester!
Bring the singer, bring the nester;
Give the buried flower a dream;
Make the settled snowbank steam;
Find the brown beneath the white;
But whate’er you do tonight,
Bathe my window, make it flow,
Melt it as the ice will go;
Melt the glass and leave the sticks
Like a hermit’s crucifix;
Burst into my narrow stall;
Swing the picture on the wall;
Run the rattling pages o’er;
Scatter poems on the floor;
Turn the poet out of door.

…Robert Frost

Are Country Folk More Honest? Part 2

To Read Part 1: Are Country Folk More Honest? Part 1

T. C. Steele

We all have our moments of stupidity, but I seem to have more than my share. One year on vacation I decided to visit Brown County Forestry and Nashville, Indiana, nicknamed ‘Little Nashville’ after Nashville, Tennessee because of all the music shows they have. I was there in October because I wanted to visit the forestry when the leaves were their most colorful and I wanted to visit the home and studio of artist T. C. Steele. The little village of Nashville is quaint and charming, but when I was there must have been a peak time because the streets were jammed with people. I stood in line for over an hour just to buy an ice cream cone. Even though small, the crowds in this town made it like being on the streets of New York during the busiest hours. I’d never seen anything like it.

I needed to escape the hordes of people for awhile and walked down a little backstreet to a historical building. There wasn’t anyone there and I sat down on a bench to take a break. While there, a few people came by and I spoke to a couple of very nice ladies before deciding to walk back to the car. I’d parked a long ways from the town center because there simply wasn’t any parking space available anywhere. Once at the car I realized I didn’t have my keys because my handbag was gone. I panicked. I couldn’t remember where I could have lost it. It never entered my mind that someone could have swiped it. As I said, much too trusting.

I called the police and a very nice officer came to make a report. He told me this kind of thing happens all the time and I’d never get it back. He said they usually take all the money and credit cards, then toss the bag somewhere. I figured they weren’t going to do anything so I sat on the tarmac beside the car and took some deep, calming breaths. Once my panic eased I began thinking over everything I’d done since I’d last had my bag. I was sure I’d lost it somewhere and it had not been stolen. I remembered the bench where I’d rested and thought maybe the strap had slipped off my shoulder while sitting there. I ran back there and of course it wasn’t there. Seeing a fleck of bright orange I looked through some trees and realized it was prisoners in an enclosure next to, of all things, a jailhouse. Guess what? When checking with the officers inside, they had my handbag. Nothing was missing. Those nice ladies I’d spoken to had seen it after I left and turned it in. My trusting nature had been renewed. 🙂 I count this incident in the big city category because of the thousands of people around that day.

My next incident happened just a few days ago when I’d gone shopping. I’d just left the grocery store and stopped at another store on my way home to pick up some laundry detergent and other household items. The parking lot was full so I parked on the side in the only space available. I was in a hurry to get home and grabbed a twenty out of my purse and left the purse on the front seat. When I got out of the car I pushed what I thought was the lock button on my remote door control and hurried around the building to the front door. I was in the store for much longer than I’d expected to be and when I came out my car trunk was standing open with all my groceries in plain site. I’d accidentally hit the trunk button instead of the lock button. Not only were groceries in plain sight, but my purse with money and credit cards was in full view on the front seat in an unlocked car. I really need a keeper. 🙄 This a country community and no one had touched any of my stuff.

I have no clue as to whether country folk are more honest.  The one thing I am sure of is that I have far too many stupid moments in my life. I think there are thieves everywhere and I have had both good and bad experiences in both cites and small towns. But it does seem that in rural communities you’re a lot less likely to be the victim of theft. What do you think?