Life Lessons With Gramma C.

My oldest daughter and her family took a group of college kids to a small town in Mississippi in January to help with the rebuilding. Since I finally have a picture I am re-posting this.

It has been over a year since Katrina and even though we see pictures of New Orleans up and running, many other places still look like a war zone. They helped one family frame a house that had to be torn down and another family to patch the roof of the home that they still were not able to live in - they were in a trailer on the property. The people in the trailer were the only ones remaining in an entire subdivision.

My daughter said so many of the places looked like ghost towns. Various church groups seem to be the only ones helping to rebuild. I guess  American time and money are needed elsewhere.

” The shoemaker‘s children have no shoes“ might be an apt phrase in this case.

I conducted a workshop last week about blogging and hopefully some of the people there were bitten by the blogging bug (there’s a new tongue twister for you).

So why should we blog? Mainly because every one of us has such interesting life experiences and points of view that others deserve to hear about.

For instance, a close friend of mine found out she has m.s. I know nothing about it and wanted her to tell me as much as she could. Somone else may be bipolar, or was on drugs, or survived an abusive childhood.

So many things that we couldn’t possibly have experienced, yet we need to know. With knowledge comes compassion and care for one another.

Even things like being in a new country and learning to speak English. I may feel that it’s mean to encourage a newcomer to read aloud to a small group, but they may feel slighted if they aren’t asked.

So many things we have experienced. And sometimes it isn’t easy to tell people. At least for me, I start crying at the drop of a hat when I talk about personal things. But to write is much easier and also therapuetic. Writing about the death of my great-grandaughter and my ongoing bouts of sorrow have helped me a lot.

So go ahead and blog. Not only superficial things, but blog what’s on your heart. Your words may bother some people, but they just might be exactly what someone needs to hear. 

How often do you check your statement when the charge card bill comes in? Or do you file it away, to be matched up with receipts one sunny morning when you have nothing else to do?

My sister rented a limo as a family gift and realized later that the charge was on her bill two separate times. Now had that been me, by the time I noticed it would have taken a year to get things straightened out.

Did I ever tell you that I hate talking about money? I like to spend it and forget about it.

Here I was feeling so confident and decided to change some things on the template of my canadianwelcome.ca blog. I know you are supposed to save the original in case something happens, but of course I was smart enough to do the changes without that step.

So of course I mucked the whole thing up, was not able to change it back, lost an hour or two of time, and got totally frustrated.

Times like these are when you get a little humbled - pride comes before a fall.

I can’t believe it, here I was thinking that I should just forget this whole Internet thing and then I find a site that rates your blog and tells you how much it’s worth. Here is the info. It’s amazing how my motivation has come back after seeing this!

My husband has been doing some plumbing work to help install a friend’s shower. Since he isn’t a plumber by trade, things don’t always go as planned. The other day he was using a blowtorch and it backed up on him and started a fire. Not wanting to set our friend’s home blazing, he carried the blowtorch outside, badly burning his hand in the process.

We learn through our mistakes and my husband has learned to be extremely careful with fire. I don’t think he wants to be a plumber anymore either.

I’ve spent a lot of time at my youngest daughter’s these days, while she prepared for her driving test. Since she is in her early twenties, she is more nervous and cautious than an eager teenager would be. I haven’t been the greatest instructor either, since I can’t judge distance and my first reaction when I see a fast approaching car is to cover my eyes. I have been a good role model though, since my daughter thinks that if I could get my license, anyone can.

After a shaky beginning and some trouble parking, said daughter is now a proud licensed driver. The next step is finding a car of her own.

After spending the evening making a neat greeting card and adding my voice, using a program called DeadEasy found at mugsandmegs.com, I could not upload it to my sites or put it in a newsletter. I tried everything and the only thing I have to show for it is a sore neck.

Will this ever get easier??

I have to do a little brag about my youngest son. Mind you, all of my children are worth bragging about and I will give them each a turn, but today is Matthew’s turn.

He calls himself Matt and was one of those teenagers who was out of school as often as there. His teachers noted that he was not a self-directed learner and didn’t seem to have much motivation. So I hope they have all been reading the national papers and listening to CBC Radio when they interviewed my dear boy.

Matt has been busily taking orders over the Internet to repair people’s ipods. They are sent from all over North America and I think overseas. Business has been so brisk that he opened a storefront in downtown Toronto and hired a few employees. Now the press is flocking to interview him and take pictures of the handsome guy. His website, for those of you who are interested, is http://www.irepair.ca

As you can tell, I am one proud momma.

Thanks to Lynn Terry of Self Starters Weekly Tips, my blog is now back to normal. The vast white space above my posts was caused by my putting in a banner that was too big. That young lady knows a lot and she is always willing to help.

There have been a few times this past little while that I have been so pleased that I met you Lynn.