Sunny Side Up

Yet another out of focus photo

Gettin' A Tan

Cotton Balls On A Branch

Shades O'Blue

Pretty In Pink

One Dandy Lion

Dolphin

This is actually an out of focus photo of rocks, believe it or not!

Life Is Like...Water

Prior to my gastric bypass, I walked everyday for a whole year.  Yep, everyday, kinda like a postal worker but without the paycheck.

I always had a bottle of water with me everywhere I went, it was glued to my hand.  And boy was it a bitch when I had to rip it off!

Any who, after said surgery I had an extremely serious complication that required emergency surgery.  Oh, joy.

After the surgery my arms were restrained because I was trying to rip out the numerous thingies I was hooked up to.  I won’t even get into the whole restrained thing, let’s just say it wasn’t my first time, wink wink.

I also had a tube down my throat and I couldn’t speak, lucky Joe.  As always, he was by my side thru the whole thing.  I truly put him thru hell, not like usual because this time I wasn’t even trying.

I remember laying in the bed being so thirsty that my mouth felt like the Sierra desert!  Unable to speak I thought I’d use my version of sign language, I made a W with my hands hoping he’d get the hint.  But I didn’t know my hands were restrained so it looked like I was pointing.  What was I pointing at?  My pee bag.  Told ya I was connected to every medical devise known to man (and woman).

All Joe would say is that it was ok to pee (as I had a catheter).  So I repeated and repeated and repeated the W and his response was always the same, it’s ok to pee.  In one sense he was damn lucky I was restrained or I would have strangled him.  Now it’s funny when we talk about it, not so much at the time believe me!

Okay, okay, enough about me.  Although it is my blog so maybe not, guess you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out what’s up.

Our water is, well, in one word, shitty.  That is unless you like hard water that smells like a rotten eggs, but I think not.

All of our drinking water is filtered, we aren’t great fans of the whole rotten egg thing.  Actually it only smells after a rain, who knows why but it does.  Someone can tell me the scientific explanation for it but I really don’t care why, ‘cuz knowing why won’t stop it.  That is unless I could stop the rain and that ain’t happening either. 

I’m trying to drink more water and iced tea.  The two water filters we have are basically going non-stop.  Can’t speak for Joe but I’m pretty sure that he realizes that we are blessed.  Blessed to have clean drinking water as so many people don’t.

Perhaps you’ve seen women with giant thingies on their head carrying water on top of their heads.  They may walk for miles, each way, just to get filthy water to drink.  Chances are it’s contaminated with numerous nasty-ass germs but it’s the only water they have access to.

Yes, we are supposed to reach out.  To help those all across the world get clean drinking water, but personally, I feel that we should take care of those in the good ol’ U.S. of A. first.

Don’t get me wrong, if you support other countries, great (and good for you!) after all they need clean water too, but that’s my view on the whole situation.

Sad to say that in this great country there are those without clean drinking water.  Although they may not carry the big ass containers on their heads they don’t have clean water.  Some don’t even have running water in their homes.  That is if they are blessed enough to have homes.

I usually research everything that I write about, I’m a stickler for getting the facts straight, just ask Joe.  But if you feel moved to help those without clean water just do a Google search.  Make sure they are actually using the money to help those people and not pad their own pockets. 

A good place to start would probably be the Red Cross (they provide water and other necessities after a disasters here at home and all across the world).  I’m not going to chastise you if you don’t do anything.  I know these are tough times, but there are free things you can do to help.  Next time yer in Marquette, stop at MGH Blood Center and give a pint of blood. 

Now back to me, during my emergency surgery I lost four or so pints of blood, I wouldn’t be here boring you if it wasn’t for the selfless, nameless, strangers that took time out of their busy schedule to give a pint.

And how did I celebrate my successful surgery?  Let’s just say it was with a pint.  And I’m not talking about blood, wink wink.

Life Is Like...An Etch A Sketch (or in our case, a DoodlePro)

A year ago or so we purchased a Fisher-Price DoodlePro thinking that we’d use it as a gift for one of our nieces or nephews (ok, great-nieces or nephews).  Needless to say, it hasn’t left our house, but at least we are using it.

It’s a new and improved child’s version of an etch a sketch.  Come on, we all know the old etch a sketch!  And don’t say you don’t ‘cuz ya do. 

This has a much smaller screen, an attached ‘pen’ and a magnet so we can put it on da fridge, anything to keep the youngin’s busy.  Or adults in our case.

Since Joe is on his way to work before I wake up I leave him a hand written note by his morning pills.  My notes are generally gushy, pouring out my heart, his, not so much.  Ok, they are but I always have to chuckle that he includes the fact that our dog pee’d and/or poo’d.  As a mother it’s important to know that kinda stuff about your children.  He also writes that the cat has been fed and by the by, never once has the cat not been fed, usually at least once, she’s kinda a cow when it comes to eating!

Back to the Doodle-Pro already

It always takes me several times to write my message.  Joe always does it on the first try, that kinda pisses me off because he even drew a school bus once, inside joke, on the first try.  As I said, I can’t even do a short message ie:  ‘love you’ without doing it at least two or three times!

Sometimes it takes him days, or even a week or so, to notice that I’ve written a new note, even though it is placed by the freezer door handle.  Thankfully I don’t write anything urgent!

I think that it is very important to write little lovey dovey  notes to your spouse or significant other.  It’s not to remind them that you love ‘em, they already know that, but to  let them know that your thinking about them.

Shake shake shake

One of the coolest things about an etch a sketch is shaking off whatever you had on the screen, it’s like magic when your young.

But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to shake your slate clean?  To be able to change things you’ve done in the past that you would do differently now.  Oh, if it only worked that way!  That would be sweet.  As we all know that technology isn’t here yet, damn. 

But we can do that.  Confession does that don’t it?  Although I can’t remember how long ago my last confession was, seems to me that I remember that from my 6 years in Catholic school.

Don’t wanna go to confession?  You can still get your slate clean.  Come on, you know where I’m going with this.  In fact, you could probably finish the rest of this blogage yourself.

To me you don’t need a church, priest and that all too tiny room.  Plus you save money on gas from not going to the church.

All’z you have to do is ask, not just anyone, but God.  And bonus, he doesn’t order you to say 10 Hail Mary’s and 2 Our Father’s!

If you honestly and truly are sorry for something you did and know that it was wrong, pray.  Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s optional.

But God does wipes our slate clean, He doesn’t shake us though, or does He?  Maybe sometimes He should!

FOR MOM

Oil

Life

Acrylic and Oil

Shades Of The Blues

Watercolor

My MSU Journey

Painted for Joe

Acrylic

Life Is Like...A Bicycle

There are many variations on the saying “When you fall off a horse, dust yourself off and get back in the saddle”.  No, I didn’t title it wrong, this is about a bike.  Mine, to be exact.

Someone’s Facebook post actually says “When you fall off your bike, it hurts”.  Does not hurt all the time, of course, but road rash hurts like a bitch.  But, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Several years ago we purchased an eighteen speed bike for me.  Little did my brother John, a.k.a. JB, (from Minnesota) know that when he came to visit us that I would trick him into tuning up the bike.

Before I get discuss my first bike ride, which I haven’t done in more years that I want to admit to, let me fill you in on a few things.  My knees are wonky, and I occasionally wear a brace for my left knee.  The brace is about 12” long and it’s only opening is for the kneecap itself.  Do ya get where I’m going with this?  Yep, you are right.  I took the bike for a quick spin and I made the foolish mistake of turning the bike around on the loose gravel that was on top of blacktop. 

Just my luck

When I wiped out I literally landed, in the gravel, on my left knee and the rest of the black brace had two tiny amounts of dust on it.  Oh, that felt good.  Not!

Since then, it’s been in storage, until a few weeks ago.

After looking at it for far too long, I decided that this is the summer it actually gets out of the house.  Oh, and I’ll actually ride it too.

Back on the proverbial “horse”

Joe tuned it up as best he could, and he did an awesome job but is not exceptionally handy with mechanical thingies.  But he was able to get it into working order, although the back breaks were a little wonky; hey I don’t need no stinking breaks.  Time to write that one on the calendar!

I actually did take it out, for what seemed like a trip across the country.  I only went up our driveway to the Poor Farm Road (not that far away) and rode almost to the neighbors house.  Then I got off my bike and walked it around.  I may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but hey, I learned my lesson the first time.

It was a terribly windy day and the wind was in my face, of course.  After turning around I looked at the distance (which again was not far away) and didn’t honestly know if I could make it back to the Herman Road.  After I made it to the road it was all downhill from there.  Thank God!!  I think that was the only saving grace in that moment.  That and the fact I knew that I couldn’t call Joe to pick me up.

When I arrived home and got off the bike my legs were like jelly.  Muscles ached!  To put it mildly muscles that I didn’t even know I had. 

And I haven’t been back on it since 

I’m using the whole ‘it’s too hot’ thing!  After all, heat and I are not BFF’s.  That’s my excuse for now.  But don’t get me wrong, I am getting back on the horse, and soon, so my leg’s won’t feel like jelly when I’m done.

Just a few days ago my brother JB, and his significant other, Julie, came up to visit and spend quality time with our Mom.  Usually he tells me when he’s coming up but he kept it quiet this time.  My Ma didn’t even know that he was coming until she opened her door.  Although Ma has a bunch of heart problems she’s a tough old bird.  I told JB he’s lucky she didn’t have a heart attack when she opened the door!

So when they came to visit I put him to work, once again, and I don’t have to tell you what he worked on.

He spent a lot more time on the bike than I thought he would need to, but it’s working great.  Damn, can’t use that as an excuse anymore.  Guess I’ll have to stick with the heat excuse.

If you’re familiar with my LIL blogage you maybe wondering how Jesus is working into me falling off my bike, but He does.

You, may be like me and haven’t seen the inside of a church for a very long time.  I do pray daily, even if it’s just so there aren’t any surprises in the mail, or better yet nothing in the mail.

If you’ve fallen off your bike, horse, or the whole religion thingy, it’s never too late.

Get back on!

And there’s a bonus – it doesn’t hurt like falling off your bike!

LIFE IS LIKE...PSALMS 40:2

Follow up to my earlier post of my watercolor of said verse.  Please see painting below.

My second stay as an inpatient Marquette General Hospital’s Stress and Depression Unit was from Friday October 10^th to Sunday October 12^th, 2008.

On Sunday they allow patients to go to the chapel to pray.  Most of the patients actually wanted to go but because they don’t allow crazy (hey, I can say that because I am one of them!) folks to leave the floor, I’m sure that there were a few that just wanted to get the hell out of there!  I actually wanted and needed to go, after all if that isn’t the time you need to pray I don’t know what is!

Please don’t get me wrong, both times I was there they helped me immensely!  Each time it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but when I left I was a million times better than when I was admitted, just ask Joe. 

There is NO shame to getting help how ever you need it!  Just don’t expect 5 star accommodations.

In the chapel we are allowed to read out loud a quote from the bible.  God guided me to Psalms, and after looking at Psalms 69 (I just had to do it) first, I was then guided to Psalms 40.

If you are a little rusty let me refresh you:

40:2 is as follows:

            He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

                        out of the mud and mire;

            he set my feet on a rock

                        and gave me a firm place to stand.

Wow, that was exactly what I needed to read!  Not only did it give me hope but everyone in the chapel also, at least so it seemed.

November 1983 my Father received a gift of a pocket size New International Version Bible of the New Testament and Psalms.  I’m glad I wear bifocals otherwise I wouldn’t be able to read it!  Both times I took the bible with me, never cracked it open but felt that my Father was still with me (he had passed away January of 1997).

Finally almost three years later I became inspired to paint my abstract version of Psalm 40:2.

He will lift you out of the mud and mire and even set your feet on a rock.  Ask and believe.  It may not happen overnight, but continue to pray and believe, and He will.  And ya know what?  He will!

Our Furry Children





Mavis



Pinky (Vogue)





 

Psalms 40:2

Watercolor

WHY!?!

Acrylic

Life Is Like...A Christmas Miracle

The original title for this blogage was LIL…Having A Kitty On Your Lap.  It was inspired by both Garfield’s Christmas Celebration and Pinky.  Pink likes to sit on my lap when I write, I always joke that she’s looking for that mouse, but never seems to find it.  She does give up rather easily and decides to nap.  Whoda thought a cat would nap hey?

Back to the miracles

Since Joe’s layoff (last year) and my layoff, we have had an abundance of, what we like to call, Christmas miracles.  Yes I know its June but they are still happening!

We’ve always been blessed with a generous family; they have been especially generous since the layoffs.  Whether it comes in the form of money or dropping off food for us.

It was last Christmas when we first termed the phrase Christmas miracles, and rightfully so.  The first one was when we received our Christmas present which was a cookie tin from one of our siblings and their spouse.

What made it a miracle?  Stay tuned, I’m getting there.  We brought the tin home and opened it and inside were 100 - $1.00 bills!!!  Between our tears I joked that I had my heart set on cookies.

Christmas miracles are still happening six months later.  When we get the mail and there aren’t any ‘nasty grams’ or bills.  Several times we were blessed when a sibling and their spouse sent two separate cards each with a check for $50.  One of the cards said ‘I hope this makes you smile’, smile yes, tears oh yea. Several times I’ve called the Doctor’s office to see if they have samples of my expensive medications.  They said they didn’t but when I called back, just before filling the prescription, the drug rep had come so they did have the samples.  Let me tell ya, some of my crazy pills are very expensive!

Garfield’s Grandma’s Christmas miracle

During the cartoon Garfy climbs on Grandma’s lap and she says “How did you know I needed a kitty in my lap?” as Christmas Eve is the night Grandma misses Grandpa the most.

Yesterday I watched his special so I could get exact quotes and saw a part that I had totally forgotten.  Grandma’s Christmas miracle.

Garfield was in the barn, spying on Odie, and finds long lost love letters from when Grandma and Grandpa were courting some 50 years earlier.  She tells Garfy that it is the “nicest presents I could have received”.  Whoda thought that a Christmas miracle would come from a cartoon cat?  Yes, I do know that Garfield is a cartoon and it didn’t actually happen but you get the picture.

The good Lord is there when we need him although He may not be as obvious as a kitty on your lap, but He’s still there for us when we need Him.  Especially when we are in most need of Him.

What Christmas miracles has God blessed you with?

Ribbons of Hope - Ribbons of Faith

Acrylic

G3 - Gwamma & Gumba's Giraffe

Watercolor

Fly Away

Acrylic

Life Is Like...Addictions & Obsessions

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary addiction is described as follows:

compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful

Their definition of obsession is (in part):

a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling; broadly : compelling motivation

My sister-in-law often jokes that she has to go through a 36 step process:  alcoholics, overeater’s and gamblers anonymous  programs!  That many steps are just plain overwhelming.  Of course she really doesn’t but it makes for a good laugh.

(So ya know I’ll be using the two interchangeably)

Perhaps everyone has additions/obsessions in their lives.  Some not as destructive (financially, physically and/or mentally) as heroin, nicotine or alcohol. 

One can be obsessed in various ways such as working 70 hours a week and “ignoring” their family, addicted to exercise (that is definitely not me!), the list goes on and on.

Take a few minutes to think about what you could be addicted to, actually take your time, I’ll wait.

To be completely honest with you, there have been several times in my life when I was addicted to alcohol (notice that I stated have been).  Now my two “best friends” as I like to call them, are caffeine (both pop and iced tea) and nicotine.  Not the healthiest, but that’s where I be right now.

I’ve been struggling with this for longer than I care to admit.  But a deep small voice inside of me (which is the good Lord of course) tells me I can stop both and will not even have withdrawals and reap numerous benefits.  Why am I still doing it?  I’ve tried to stop but always give in to my wants, not needs, wants.  I still continue to ignore His voice but just choose to think the ‘voice’ is coming from my head.

He has also showed me how things would be better for me, my meds would work more efficiently, I wouldn’t be as depressed (caffeine brings my mood down) and the financial aspect as well.

When one of my nephews was very young he was not fun to be around.  He was crabby and just plain bitchy, as bitchy as a 1 ½ year old can be.  Any who, he was drinking Kool-Aid instead of water, just as his three older siblings did.  As what was probably a last ditch effort, they stopped the sugar laden Kool-Aid and to say he did a 180 would be an understatement!  He wasn’t the bitchy kid he once was, he was actually great to have around.

When we give up our addiction we will probably go through withdrawals, physically and/or mentally.  But we have to remember there will be pain before pleasure.

Doctor Art (again)

His definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  True, but there are a few more definitions for the word insanity, believe me I know all too well.  That’s not what Merriam-Webster says but I hope we get the hint.

I’m realizing that my obsessions are controlling me instead of the other way around but yet I’m still doing them.  When I finally decide that enough is enough I know that He will hold me in the palm of His hand (He’ll have to hold me really tight, let me tell ya).

Because of this He has showed me that I have control issues.  So much so that I won’t even totally hand it to Him and give up my complete and total control to Him so He will let it happen. 

Will I finally get His hint and listen to His still small voice?  Yep, someday, and hopefully sooner than later.

I know what I’m doing is insane (Doctor Art’s description) but until complete and total control is released to Him I’ll be stuck here.  Ya, I know I know enough of the insanity already!

But I hold onto this:  I’m not where I wanna be but at least I’m not where I used to be!

My Beloved

Life Is Like...A Dog

In loving memory of Dozer

In Marquette there is a Christian bookstore.  I love to go there if for nothing else but to look.  My usual purchases are the business card size inspirational cards that I like to use as bookmarks.  I saw one that said something like – Dear God; Help me be the person my dog thinks I am.

You maybe thinking what the hell does that mean (or you may substitute hell for heck, but you get the hint).  Or maybe you know exactly what it means, my version maybe a little different than yours but here’s my slant on it, albeit the long way around.

Shortly after Joe and I got married we got a black lab puppy.  He was adorable and Joe named him Opus after one of his favorite comics Bloom County.  We were never blessed with children (except for the four legged kind) and Opus was like our child.  I believe that many people in our situation feel the same way but there are also those with children that feel like that also.

We were devastated when we had to put him to sleep 13 years later even though it was best for him it was still a very difficult decision to make.

Joe and I had him cremated and paid the extra for him to have a separate cremation, as opposed to having a mass cremation.  We still have his ashes some 8 years later in our computer room proudly displayed with his collar wrapped around the vase with our favorite picture of him with his Boda.  Joe’s Aunt Jane also painted a beautiful painting of that picture and that is still proudly displayed as well.  Don’t freak out, it took many years but we are as over his death, as well as we can be but, we still haven’t had the heart to put him anywhere else.

We now have another dog, Mavis, and she can’t wait until we move Opus’ ashes to a less prominent place.  Mav is like our child but when we adopted her she was already about 2 years old.  The bond is not as close as Opus’ but it is still a very strong one.

When watching tv or a movie I cry more if an animal dies as opposed to a person.  Yep, I’m a real animal lover.  The first time I noticed that was when I was watching a western (why I don’t know) with my Dad and they had to put a horse down because it was injured.  I cried like a baby!  Joe always reminds me that it is just a stunt animal and if we see something dead on the road he says that it’s just taking a nap on the blacktop because it’s warmer on the blacktop.  Somehow I think that might not be the case but I’ll take his word for it.

Stay with me I’m getting there

Dogs are much different that cats, if you have a cat I don’t need to tell you that.  Dogs are always happy to see you when you come home whether you are gone for 5 minutes or a week.

They may do something wrong and you scold them but it doesn’t take them long to forget it (by our experience anyway – although Opus and Mavis were not the brightest bulbs in the box).

God is like a dog (no disrespect intended).  It doesn’t matter how long since you have talked to him He is always glad to hear from you! 

I probably shouldn’t admit to this but I haven’t been to church, on a regular basis, since I got married – and don’t ask how long that’s been.  Let’s just say it’s been awhile.  Over the past few years I have become more ‘spiritual’ as I call it, ok I still haven’t been to church but I’m getting somewhat better (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).

God welcomed me back with open arms and all those years ignoring Him were, I believe, forgiven. 

FINALLY ALREADY!

Short story long, if it’s been a while since you had a personal relationship with the good Lord, see for yourself – the whole dog thing – that He will be as happy to hear from you just as your dog is.

God I hope the analogy will not wind me up in hell!

Angels Among Us

Oil

Life Is Like...Death

Friday, March 11^th, 2011

There are two things you can always count on, death and taxes.  So like it or not, death is a part of life.

As I’m writing this, my Mom is laying in an ICU bed due to her congestive heart failure-CHF- (she is doing much better than she was when she was admitted last night).  She gave my sister, Mary Dee, my husband Joe and I quite a scare.  Of course she waits until late at night to call the very expensive “taxi” to take her to the hospital.  God forbid she should do it at a reasonable time!  We were there for quite a while before a bunch of tests were run.  “Thankfully” I’m unemployed and was able to sleep in, but Mimi and Joe well, not so much.  She was having heart attack like symptoms, which scared the hell out of us, but alas it was a bad CHF attack.  The diagnoses was still wasn’t what one wants to hear but nothin’ you can do about it besides pray.

Friday, May 22^nd, 2011 

Don’t tell Dr. Art (my former therapist)

Doctor Art doesn’t believe people should believe in signs, especially crazy folks like me.

Shortly after my Father died, I went to the cemetery and as I was leaving I noticed a beautiful deer by the road.  He was just standing there not more than 15 feet away from me surrounded by headstones.  I stopped and we just watched at each other. It was at that moment I knew that my Dad was presenting himself to me as a deer.

Several years ago we were coming home from Houghton when a deer literally ran into our station wagon before he scampered off into the woods.  Thankfully it happened near my sister Vicky and brother-in-law Bill’s house in Keweenaw Bay.

I don’t know about you, but we always seem to have a good car and a crappy car (until we win the lotto that is).  As you have probably guessed by now, he hit the good car.  We realized that we needed two reliable vehicles, as we were both working, and the van (crappy car) couldn’t even make a trip up to Houghton.

To me this was my Dad’s way of saying stop putting good money after bad into the van and buy a newer vehicle already!  As it would happen, we found our Escape before they were the ‘in’ thing and the prices went up. 

I know nothing about vehicles (as does my loving husband Joe) and I would always bring them to my Dad to check them out.  He never steered me wrong – pardon the pun.  My brother Joe and nephew Jesse are now our official vehicle checkers.

Yet another sign

On September 3rd 1999 I was getting ready for work and I heard a huge thud.  I didn’t think it was Joe because he was in the other room so I yelled for him.  Joe looked out the bedroom window and noticed a baby hawk lying on the ground.  When he went

outside to check on it but it had already died.

Neither of us gave it a second thought that is until late that night.  We found out that Jim (Joe’s Dad) had had a heart attack and was in the hospital.  We rushed there but it was too late.

A few days later we were outside the church before the service and I saw a hawk flying over the church.  Needless to say, between tears I showed Joe and yes, more tears but there was also a feeling of peace knowing that it was his way of showing us that he will always be with us even after death.

Just a note

We’ve lived in our house for more than 14 years and have never had that happen before or since – apparently that hawk was the only bird that wanted to come inside and take a look.

This is ok to tell Dr. Art

I spend too much time worrying about my Mother and I have for years.  We’ve spent a lotta money and I’ve spent a lot of time lying on a couch discussing how to handle her declining health and her eventual passing. 

One day I asked Dr. Art what I should do, instead of worrying about her death.  He told me “to mourn her death the day she dies”.  And I did repeat that to myself a million times until about a year or so ago.  I’ve decided I’m not going to mourn her death, I will celebrate her life.  Being a wonderful Mother to 8 children, a grandmother as well as great-grandmother to the always growing Manning clan.  Celebrate the wonderful, creative, compassionate, sensitive woman she is.  I can honestly say that I only remember hearing her swear once in my life – and don’t swear around her or she’ll get the Fells-Naptha out - just ask my brothers, she knows how to use it too.

Perhaps it is easier to celebrate someone’s life if they actually had lived a long life.  Life is a precious gift to us.  Stop and smell those proverbial roses and thank God for every day He has blessed you with.

Here’s what prompted me to start writing this LIL after 2 months

Saturday is my day to go over and clean at Ma’s.  Yesterday I ended up ‘cleaning’ something you’d never dream of in a million years.  Yep, a bird hit her patio window and was lying on the patio dead.

I took pictures of it “to identify” (even though she loves birds and is never far away from her bird identification book) what type of bird it is.  When I showed Joe he, well,  reacted exactly as I did.  I bet I don’t have to tell ya it wasn’t a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Mom obviously didn’t die but I held my breath on Sunday when I called to check on her.

When Ma would rebounded earlier this year from CHF and a very serious infection, I would tell people that she is one tough old bird – not to her face – okay sometimes to her face (and I’d get that look from her).

We do not know when our name is written in His book.  We should enjoy everyday, every moment as if it was our last.  Take the time to tell your loved ones that you love them, even if you haven’t said that in a very long time.

After all, when someone dies they truly go to a better place, better than we could ever imagine.

That’s why they all it Heaven right?

Rock Star

Acrylic

Life is Like...Painting

Whether you are painting a room in your house or a picture, painting can be a huge pain in the ass.  The prep-work, finding the crappiest clothes you can, the actual painting, the smell, the clean up you know what I’m talkin’ bout.  And that doesn’t even include choosing a color scheme!

Thankfully we haven’t had to paint our house since we moved in, our doublewide sweet doublewide came with plaster board with a design already on it.

Since the weather was so nice today and we had all the windows open, I decided to paint an oil painting titled ‘For Ma’.  (She won’t get it for a year or so as it can take that long to completely dry).

If you’ve ever painted with oil you know what a pain it is.  Clean up is a bitch as you have to use turpentine and it’s hard to clean up without the whole house, and you, smelling to high heaven.  You also know that if you don’t clean up right after, you have something that goes beyond a mess.  “Funny” but the brushes won’t work when the bristles are ‘glued’ together.

While you are in the process of painting, ya get dirty.  It’s impossible to get around that one, at least for me it is.  

During the winter I’ve been painting with tempera, acrylics and watercolors, all are easy clean up and none leave the house smelling like a paint store.  Still, you have to prep your area and clean up afterwards. 

I’ve been doing abstracts for the last two years, I hadn’t painted anything for quite a long time and never anything abstract before.  I did this because I knew my painting skills were in dire need of practice and thought this would be the best way to go.  Turns out that I really enjoy doing them, two people look at the same painting and see the exact same thing.

I never have a ‘picture’ of what I want to paint, I just let the brush strokes take over.  Plus, if I don’t like it it’s easy enough to change it until it’s something that I like (or at least can deal with).

One day, when my paintings sell for millions, they will be known as ‘black, white and a thousand shades in between’.  As you may have guessed by that, I only use white and one other color (and no, not all of them are black and white).

Not because I don’t like colorful paintings, I do as a matter of fact, but for me I love the thousand shades in between.

Rarely I’ll have a theme of something, Angels Among Us was to be a painting about my depression.  Yep, the two colors are blue and white.  But I still didn’t have anything specific in mind just that I wanted to paint about how I felt.  Out of that painting, which happened to be my first one in an extremely long time, I see an angel in white surrounded by a ton of shades of blue, representing my mood.  Yet there is an angel there which gives me hope.

Now you may look at it and think, oh I don’t know, my five year old could do better than this.  And that’s cool, hell, sometimes I act like a five year old and maybe yours could do better, who knows.  But I like it no, I really like it.  And this is quite a miracle because I am my harshest critic, worse than you could ever imagine, just ask Joe.

When I’m painting does it always look good?  No!  Not by a long shot!  I step back, take a break and maybe grab a different brush and keep at it until I see something that just jumps out at me saying ‘here I am’. 

After I finished today’s painting, then came the dreaded clean up.  Oh joy!  Too bad turpentine isn’t an aphrodisiac.  It just plain stunk up the house, just like life stinks sometimes.

Yep, I know a completely different type of stink but still stinks none the less.  There are up times, there are down times and those somewhere in the middle.  Like it or not, sometimes they get worse before they get better.  The whole darkness before the dawn, faith type of thing.

I guess the ‘prep work’ in my life is praying.  The painting, just like letting the brush go where it wants to, is letting God handle things.  The dreaded clean up is sometimes what we have to do after we screwed up, the worse kinda clean up.

The nice thing about the “clean up”, and probably the only nice thing about it, is having our slate wiped clean.  Lets face it, sometimes it really sucks but if we ask for forgiveness - poof, we are forgiven.

This doesn’t mean we can do the same stupid thing over and over and over and over (get the picture) knowing that we’ll be forgiven.  Actually you could do it but it’s kinda defeating the purpose of your walk with God. 

We screw up, put just like a painting, we can take another brush and change the picture to look like something we’ll be happy with.

Mother and Child

Acrylic

Life Is Like Fingernails - Not a Box of Chocolates

The popular movie “Forrest Gump” is about a man, ironically named, Forrest Gump. Most of us would consider him slow, not having the mentality of a person his age, but in many ways that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Numerous times in the movie he would say “Mama always said, life is like a box of chocolates”.  To this day I’m still not sure exactly what that means, he certainly did.

When I was younger I slammed the car door on my thumb.  The whole nail turned black and took a long time to completely fall off.  After a while you could actually pop the blackened nail up to reveal the new nail growing underneath.  Honestly, I really enjoyed freaking my fellow classmates when I did that!  The nail grew back and when it did, it was, and still is, slightly “disfigured”, one part of the cuticle it is slightly higher than the rest.  Although currently it isn’t as noticeable as it used to be, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

More recently (I wrote this in November) I slammed the same thumb in a safe door, but this time only a portion of it turned black.  The entire nail didn’t fall off but I could clearly see the black grow out and there was even a hole between the old and new nail.

As I look at it today, the black is almost gone and the cuticle isn’t quite as white as the rest.  Just another battle scar to the cuticle than there used to be, but it’s only noticeable to me.

What I am finally getting to is that the nails grew out and new ones replaced them.

I realized this morning that life is like fingernails.  The black that we may feel in our lives, grows out over time and we have a clean brand new slate.

Similar to a bad hair cut, it takes a while, much longer than we want it to, but it does grow out.  If we don’t dwell on it and replay the “horror” of what we felt at the time we can put it in the past and begin anew.

Hopefully we learn from the past and get a new stylist or choose a cut that will be more suited to our hair type.  We may have been warned that it won’t work for us but maybe we insisted and learned the hard way.

The slate, whether it is nails or hair, is “clean” once again.

Now finally to the reason that I’m writing this, this is exactly what God does for us.

It doesn’t matter what we have done in the past, today is not the past, today is a new day.

More importantly, all we have to do is ask for forgiveness and it is ours.



Katy Manning Schutte

LIFE IS LIKE...THE OUR FATHER

Just in case it’s been a while since you said it…

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name: Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our DAILY bread: and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  And lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from evil.  Amen.

There, now we are up to speed.

I’m sure you noticed that I capitalized DAILY in the prayer.  This isn’t a typo, it’s the ‘issue’ I have with the Our Father.

Don’t ya just wish the word daily was replaced with monthly or yearly?  That way we wouldn’t have to say it day in and day out.  And if it has to be daily, why not update it?  How does give us this day our daily dough (and I don’t mean the bread making stuff either) sound to you?

I guess it’s the whole trust in God day by day and He’ll provide for us.  When I pray the Our Father I really emphasize daily, this usually happens just before getting the mail.  Praying there aren’t any bills “stuffed” in the mailbox and hoping for an unexpected check, which almost never happens.  I gotta try though! 

He does provide for us day by day by day.  Sometimes, ok, most of the time, not as much as we’d like Him to but so goes life.

Life is Like...Unanswered Prayers


It is hard for me to pick just one or two favorite songs, because I have too many.  But one of my favorites is “Unanswered Prayers” by Garth Brooks.

What that song so beautifully expresses is that even though we pray (because we want something so badly) it isn’t that He doesn’t hear our prayer it’s “just because He doesn’t answer, doesn’t mean He don’t care...because some of God’s greatest gifts, ARE unanswered prayers.

We may think we know what is best for us, but that is just it, we think we know.  And He and only He knows what is best for us and will not “answer” all of our prayers just because we pray for it.  We think in the short-term but that is not necessarily what is best for us in the long-term.

Some of God’s greatest gifts (TO US), are unanswered prayers.  And we have to remember that it isn’t because He doesn’t care, it is because He does.
Katy Manning Schutte

Now to give credit where credit is due:

I want to credit my beloved husband Joe. His creative writing style of being able to work humor in everything he writes. I hope that during the 10 years of reading and being the 1^st editor, of his Blah-Blah-Blah column, that some of his creativity has worn-off on me. If not, blame him, I will.

I also want to say that I honestly believe that I would not still be alive if not for his unwavering support and love. He has gone through more than you can ever image with my ongoing mental illnesses and numerous other major issues in my life. He has always stayed by my side and keeps me and my mental health as his #1 priority.

With everything I have, and unfortunately continue to, put him through he is still with me. It is my firm belief that no other man on the face of this planet would have stayed with me this long.

I pray for him (and would appreciate your prayers as well) both in thanks and also the heavy burden that he continues to carry.

Thank you for reading this article and I promise that they are not all gushy about Joe!

I like to consider my Life Is Like… blogages (spell check doesn’t like that word but I do) everyday things and how God works into them.

Katy Manning Schutte

(You may notice that I sign my blogages using my maiden name, as well as my married name, that’s because I’m proud to be a Manning as well as a Schutte.)

A quick note!

The first Life Is Like…  I wrote (late 2009) was Life Is Like…Unanswered Prayers (inspired by the Garth Brooks song).

Check out Joe’s blog (yooperblahblahblah.blogspot.com) for more of my Life I Like... (aka LIL) postings LIL…Dem Thar Closed Doors, A Scab, Responsibility (Sucks), A ‘Storm’ and September 11^th.

You will notice reading my LIL… posts that I write quite a bit about my mental health illness.  It isn’t something I’m proud of but it is definitely not something I’m ashamed of either.  I firmly believe that it is very important to discuss depression and anxiety issues to let others know they are not alone and that they shouldn’t feel ashamed either.