Ten Days of Little Celebrations - June 2013

Back in August 2012, I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations’ so I have one for each day up to today rather than the usual 10 for the month! 

1. Enjoying a book by a new author. I read a lot of books; the thrilled of finding an author that is new - or new to me - never seems to wane. It’s a lot like finding an unexpected treasure…and gets even better if the author has written other similar books.
2. Reading in a comfy chair by a window as it rains. The combination of natural light, the sound of rain, a good book, and a comfortable chair - it’s the convergence of things that make the moment special.
3. A calm day before the flurry of travel. Before the packing day…celebrating the calm before the bustle begins. It’s a little too soon to be worried about anything. The day can be savored as the contrast of what is to come.
4. Brookside Gardens. It is a place to celebrate at least monthly. Like all gardens, it changes with every visit. My post from that visit is here.
5. Ready to travel. Through all the trepidation of packing - wondering if everything would fit in the allotted luggage, making sure each back would meet the needs of the travel stages - and then it is done. It all fits. The boarding pass is printed. There is a small list to remember to pack right before heading to the airport. Everything is organized.
6. Arrival - forgetting only one (non-critical) item. Everything went exactly according to plan and the only item I forgot was a snack for the plane. It was left carefully packaged in the refrigerator. I noticed it almost immediately when I got to the gate and was able to purchase some almonds before boarding the plane so was not starving when I got off….and everything else was perfect. Arriving at a destination is always worth a celebration!
7. Sisters dinner. There are four of us - together for over 50 years and still enjoying each other. Our perspectives of growing up in the same household and divergences as adults are sources for almost endless conversation - and it is almost always over food. We ignored calorie counting for the evening.
8. Frontier Texas! in Abilene TX. This museum was a pleasant surprise. I’ll be posting about it eventually. It is new enough to present different perspectives of time period rather than just the traditional ‘Cowboy and Indian’ (masculine) stories.
9. White Sands National Monument. I have a post about this in the next few days. We didn’t rent saucers to slide down the dunes (I’ll wait for a time when I travel with a child for that) but did walk out on the sand barefoot. The whiteness of the sand reflects the heat enough that it is not hot like the tan colored sands.
10. Tucson Sunset. Experiencing the sunset on the first day in a new location is a celebration of a beginning - at the end of the first day with the brilliant colors of day fading to the blues and purples of evening. I’ll do a post about the Tucson sunset next week.
11. Madera Canyon. I posted about Madera Canyon already (here). The trek set the tone for the rest of time in Tucson: do as much as possible in the morning when it is coolest, enjoy the birds, take the easier hikes so everyone in the group can easily keep up, take plenty of pictures.
12. Sunrise and the Saguaro National Park (east). I’ve already posted about the sunrise here - and since we were already up - we took in the National Park as well. I’ll be posted about it in the next few weeks. It is going to take quite a while to work through the blog worthy items from June 2013.
13. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. There is a post coming up for the June visit. I’ve posted about the March 2013 visit (Plants and Birds and Seahorses) previously.
14. Tucson Botanical Garden. A garden in the city that includes large seedless grapefruit trees! There were also artichokes in bloom when we were there. There  is a blog post in development about it.
15. A daughter. What a joy it is to have a daughter than has grown into herself so gracefully! I always think that the current year is the very best of our shared lives….it’s been that way for more than 20 years!
16. Storm in the Davis Mountains. I was not celebrating while we were driving through it - curvy road, towering black thunderheads, pounding rain of very large drops or slushy hail. But we drove on - unscathed - and, in retrospect, the interplay of weather and terrain was quite awesome. Some of the clouds are shown in the Road Trip post from yesterday.
17. Clark Gardens Botanical Park. After a convoluted drive on country roads to find it - we quickly decided it was a place to enjoy and plan a return visit in another season. There will be an upcoming post on our June visit.
18. Back to the Dallas area. It was good to get off the road. We all celebrated not having to go anywhere at all for a day.
19. Home Again. The plane flight was as expected and I savored the quiet of home…for an evening.
20. Day at home. All through the day I celebrated that I had at least 24 hours before guests would arrive. It didn’t matter that I needed to do cleaning or make sure the sheets in the guess bedroom were fresh. It was very good to be home again.
21. Catching up. All the email and news feeds and laundry and mail….the little things that stack up when one is away from home and/or too busy. I celebrated that I got everything caught up except the news feeds before guests arrived.
22. Butterflies. The butterfly display is in full swing at Brookside Gardens conservatory. Even single butterflies are often worth celebrating; this display is almost overwhelming in that regard! I experimented with some video. One turned out particularly well and I may include it in my upcoming post.
23. Mount Vernon. In recent years, I’ve only gone when guests have requested…and enjoy it every time. There have been a lot of changes. The most recent is the addition of a theater with special effects (vibrating seats and snow falling) to dramatize events of the Revolutionary War. The place is definitely worth celebrating. I’ll eventually take a look at the pictures from the day a post about the visit.
24. Time to take naps. I don’t normally nap but June finally wore me out. Fortunately - it happened on a day I could take a nap in the morning….and another in the afternoon!
25. Anticipating getting back to normal. I am finally looking at some weeks without travel or external plans. The mundane activities of grocery shopping and mopping the kitchen floor are quite appealing.
26. Catching up - again. I am working off the items in inboxes and news feeds…even finishing up some Coursera work. It is thrilling to mark off items and realize that I can probably stay caught up….until the next time I have a series of days like ‘June 2013.’

Sandwiched Matriarch

Are you a sandwiched matriarch - one with an elderly mother and a daughter in the stress of early or mid-career? I am. And I am celebrating that I can play the role of the luscious center to the sandwich. It’s exhilarating to realize that I can be the glue that mends whatever needs develop in the generation before and after my own.

Many women live into their 80s or 90s…and that means that their daughters are often in their 50s and 60s. Even a healthy elder requires more support from their children than they did when they were in their 60s and 70s. For example, my mother opted not to drive after her 80th birthday; it was a proactive decision on her part. My sisters and I supported the idea and its ramifications. We have also become much more knowledgeable about maneuvering through the health care system and support mechanisms for older people. The goal is to keep our mothers active and engage in our lives for as long as possible. I particularly enjoy the challenge to make the most of my mother’s current interest and physical ability to see things like the annual cherry blossoms around the Washington Monument and large museums. We need to learn to accept the sometimes rapid changes in older people as easily as we accept the growth of young children; we cannot let the relative stability of mid-life set the standard expectation as a person passes into their 80s and 90s. There has already been one instance when I was away from home for more than a month to help my mother through a difficult health issue.

I also have a career oriented daughter. She lives far away; phone calls and emails are not the same as seeing her in person. At least one vacation a year is planned around a time that I can spend some time with her. And the interaction will come much greater if she and her husband decide to have children. I’ve already committed to being close enough to be the child care provider so that my daughter can continue in her career. It’s an advantage I can give that benefits her and the next generation. I had my own career as she was growing up; the child care we employed for her was excellent - but I can do even better for her children and it is something I want to do.

The sandwiched matriarch gets pulled or squashed (a stressful time either way) if both mother and daughter have concurrent needs. That has not happened so far in my life….and I’ll just deal with it if and when it does.