Here is a list of Family Blogs ordered by Most Commented, posted by members. A Blog is a journal you may enter about your life, thoughts, interesting experiences, or lessons you've learned. Post an opinion, impart words of wisdom, or talk about something interesting in your day. Update your blog on a regular basis, or just whenever you have something to say. Creating a blog is a good way to share something of yourself with others. Reading blogs is a good way to learn more about others. Click here to post a blog.
online today!
Women and men....parenting styles.....
Sure, there are differences. We all have them, and can recall those of our parents, Ouch! Often a major cause of family strife. Therapy helps, but men often refuse. Yet, are more workable, when they do come along, if one can relate, and be firm with the BS.
Kids taking there lives, sucide.
This wasnt common at all in my generation very rare myself as a example by Jr high it was a miserable era bullied sometimes everyday beat up or threatened,in wasnt so smart then depression was the root of my failing grades throughout and zero emotional support by family was zero yet I kept trying had alot of hobbies and outdoor sports I later dropped out of high school the dean wouldn't allow me half day classes for employment so I went to night school till I was legal age to quite and continued many years working at least till the early 1980s economy went bad then back for a ged and tec schooling ,as for the kids nowadays I think perhaps there pushed into more maturity of stress then they can handle and no emotional support when it's needed as in bullying
online today!
A loo with a view...
Condo shopping was put on hold for a number of reasons. Heavy workload and my accountant meeting was postponed because she's been out with the flu.
Most of our shopping is in a very large retirement community with hundreds of units and what may be available this week could be gone next week. Our preference is to find an end unit because they often have more windows than inside units. Also it's important to have the bedrooms facing the east to avoid the excessive heat building up in the evening. That's significant and could be the difference in $100 a month for air conditioning expense.
All the floor plans are similar with some left hand and some right hand depending on the orientation to the side of the building you are on. We did find an end unit with more windows than the inside units but it was being rented until next year... for sale but conditional.
The thing that interested my wife was the bathroom has a window and the others don't. So now I have to add to my list of wants is a unit where the master bathroom has a window.
Yes, a loo with a view!
Most of our shopping is in a very large retirement community with hundreds of units and what may be available this week could be gone next week. Our preference is to find an end unit because they often have more windows than inside units. Also it's important to have the bedrooms facing the east to avoid the excessive heat building up in the evening. That's significant and could be the difference in $100 a month for air conditioning expense.
All the floor plans are similar with some left hand and some right hand depending on the orientation to the side of the building you are on. We did find an end unit with more windows than the inside units but it was being rented until next year... for sale but conditional.
The thing that interested my wife was the bathroom has a window and the others don't. So now I have to add to my list of wants is a unit where the master bathroom has a window.
Yes, a loo with a view!
online today!
Memories
I normally don't say much about anyone in my rl here or anywhere online but this is a funny memory I got of my father that I think is fine to share.
Every Friday after supper, me and 3 other buddies would always end up at the house having a smoke figuring out our plans for the night. When we knew what we were doing, we leave my room and on the way out, one of them nudge me and say "ask him, ask him". We would find dad sitting at the table with his cup of tea and I would say "dad, armwrestle". I sit to the table, we lock our hands. One of the b'ys would then stand to my side and put both his hands behind mine, the 2nd and 3'd buddy would follow (we were fairly big boys for our age).
I would say "3, 2, 1, go", and on go, me and the b'ys would put 120% of whatever strength we had in our bodies and push like bastards against dad and dad would just sit there holding us at bay, no change in his face, no effort in his face what so ever. We would be huffing puffing, red in the face screaming working like slaves and it would start to go in our favor a bit, we thought "omg, maybe he is tired or something, we may win this evening". We would grunt and roar and get a little more on him. We were feeling pretty fking good and we slave and slave on him then next thing we know, dad would push back and the four of us was slung across the kitchen into the walls against the fridge and stove and we seeing stars.
Dad was a scary insanely strong man who I watched do things that humans should not be able to do strength wise. He never showed off, didn't believe in it, but he would always let us try to arm wrestle with him, it amused him and no matter how many times we did it, there was just no way to prepare for it when he pushed back on us and we go flying. It gave him some amusement for the evening and amazed the hell out of us. We go to the party then telling everyone about the umteen armwrestle we had with him and how it was the same result again lol.
Every Friday after supper, me and 3 other buddies would always end up at the house having a smoke figuring out our plans for the night. When we knew what we were doing, we leave my room and on the way out, one of them nudge me and say "ask him, ask him". We would find dad sitting at the table with his cup of tea and I would say "dad, armwrestle". I sit to the table, we lock our hands. One of the b'ys would then stand to my side and put both his hands behind mine, the 2nd and 3'd buddy would follow (we were fairly big boys for our age).
I would say "3, 2, 1, go", and on go, me and the b'ys would put 120% of whatever strength we had in our bodies and push like bastards against dad and dad would just sit there holding us at bay, no change in his face, no effort in his face what so ever. We would be huffing puffing, red in the face screaming working like slaves and it would start to go in our favor a bit, we thought "omg, maybe he is tired or something, we may win this evening". We would grunt and roar and get a little more on him. We were feeling pretty fking good and we slave and slave on him then next thing we know, dad would push back and the four of us was slung across the kitchen into the walls against the fridge and stove and we seeing stars.
Dad was a scary insanely strong man who I watched do things that humans should not be able to do strength wise. He never showed off, didn't believe in it, but he would always let us try to arm wrestle with him, it amused him and no matter how many times we did it, there was just no way to prepare for it when he pushed back on us and we go flying. It gave him some amusement for the evening and amazed the hell out of us. We go to the party then telling everyone about the umteen armwrestle we had with him and how it was the same result again lol.
Cute article in the NY Times this week on Walking your pet cat.
In response to:
Yes, You Should Walk Your Cat
Today’s indoor cat is a tiger robbed of his dominion, a Lamborghini left idling in the garage.
By David Grimm
Mr. Grimm is the author of “Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship With Cats and Dogs.”
Dec. 5, 2018
About 13 years ago, my fiancée and I started to go for walks in our neighborhood. When we’d step out of the house, cars often lingered at the intersection out front a bit longer than they should have. People would stop us to ask questions. And the patrons of a restaurant across the street framed by large, plate-glass windows would occasionally run outside and shout, “It’s you — we’ve heard about you!”
Perhaps this wasn’t so surprising. We were walking our cats, after all. On leashes.
We weren’t trying to start a movement. And we weren’t the only people in the country who had the crazy idea to buy a small dog harness, strap it onto a nonplused feline, and pray that the tens of millions of years of evolution that separate dogs and cats would suddenly evaporate. We just wanted our two kittens — Jasper and Jezebel — to experience more of the world than our cramped 800-square-foot apartment in the heart of Baltimore. We also wanted to keep them from running out into traffic.
In the past two decades, there has been a growing movement to confine our feline friends indoors. Veterinarians argue that this significantly extends their life spans, protecting them from disease, cars and predators. Wildlife advocates contend that outdoor cats are a blight on ecosystems, killing countless birds and small mammals every year. Increasingly, it seems, no one wants to cross paths with an outdoor cat.
Yet cats belong to a proud race of savanna kings and nomadic carnivores. Their ancestors slunk out of the deserts of the Near East 10,000 years ago to hunt mice in our early villages, and they have been free to roam our backyard jungles since. They have not evolved to slumber in our living rooms.
People began to keep dogs as indoor pets in large numbers in the late 1800s, thanks to the invention of flea and tick shampoos. And yet, cats remained outside. Even the advent of Kitty Litter in 1947 could not contain them completely; tomcats still prowled alleys at night, in search of a mate — or a fight. Today’s indoor cat is a tiger robbed of his dominion, a Lamborghini left idling in the garage.
So how do we honor cats, while protecting them from the world — and the world from them?
The solution lies in what we’ve already done with dogs for decades: We need to start walking our cats. I’m not saying that you should put your cat on a leash like we did. They don’t like you telling them where to go. But we should let our cats outside for 30 to 60 minutes a day to rove yards, stroll sidewalks and disappear into shrubbery.
And we should be there to watch them. We should pick them up when they head for the street. We should whistle or clap our hands when they begin stalking a bird. And we should have a bag of treats ready when it’s time to call them back indoors.
We don’t let our dogs wander unsupervised or destroy whatever they want. We should exercise the same responsibility with our cats.
Yes, You Should Walk Your Cat
Today’s indoor cat is a tiger robbed of his dominion, a Lamborghini left idling in the garage.
By David Grimm
Mr. Grimm is the author of “Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship With Cats and Dogs.”
Dec. 5, 2018
About 13 years ago, my fiancée and I started to go for walks in our neighborhood. When we’d step out of the house, cars often lingered at the intersection out front a bit longer than they should have. People would stop us to ask questions. And the patrons of a restaurant across the street framed by large, plate-glass windows would occasionally run outside and shout, “It’s you — we’ve heard about you!”
Perhaps this wasn’t so surprising. We were walking our cats, after all. On leashes.
We weren’t trying to start a movement. And we weren’t the only people in the country who had the crazy idea to buy a small dog harness, strap it onto a nonplused feline, and pray that the tens of millions of years of evolution that separate dogs and cats would suddenly evaporate. We just wanted our two kittens — Jasper and Jezebel — to experience more of the world than our cramped 800-square-foot apartment in the heart of Baltimore. We also wanted to keep them from running out into traffic.
In the past two decades, there has been a growing movement to confine our feline friends indoors. Veterinarians argue that this significantly extends their life spans, protecting them from disease, cars and predators. Wildlife advocates contend that outdoor cats are a blight on ecosystems, killing countless birds and small mammals every year. Increasingly, it seems, no one wants to cross paths with an outdoor cat.
Yet cats belong to a proud race of savanna kings and nomadic carnivores. Their ancestors slunk out of the deserts of the Near East 10,000 years ago to hunt mice in our early villages, and they have been free to roam our backyard jungles since. They have not evolved to slumber in our living rooms.
People began to keep dogs as indoor pets in large numbers in the late 1800s, thanks to the invention of flea and tick shampoos. And yet, cats remained outside. Even the advent of Kitty Litter in 1947 could not contain them completely; tomcats still prowled alleys at night, in search of a mate — or a fight. Today’s indoor cat is a tiger robbed of his dominion, a Lamborghini left idling in the garage.
So how do we honor cats, while protecting them from the world — and the world from them?
The solution lies in what we’ve already done with dogs for decades: We need to start walking our cats. I’m not saying that you should put your cat on a leash like we did. They don’t like you telling them where to go. But we should let our cats outside for 30 to 60 minutes a day to rove yards, stroll sidewalks and disappear into shrubbery.
And we should be there to watch them. We should pick them up when they head for the street. We should whistle or clap our hands when they begin stalking a bird. And we should have a bag of treats ready when it’s time to call them back indoors.
We don’t let our dogs wander unsupervised or destroy whatever they want. We should exercise the same responsibility with our cats.
(Continued in my first comment below)
The Pressure Cooker
Stove top pressure cookers have done nothing but terrify me so you couldn't give me one. However the digital counter top ones stole my heart after I saw a friend brag about it on Facebook. Mine is called the InstanntPot or IP for short. You would have to pry it out of my cold dead hands now before I would give it up.
On a side note this blog is directed at someone here as a lure to write. I think two members have bought a pressure cooker because of my blogging love for it. One has used it and one still hasn't (I'm guilty of this as well - buying something then not using it)
It doesn't just pressure cook, it steams, stews, has a crock pot setting, saute, rice cooker and more. I love this damn gadget. I've spent lots of time on you tube watching recipes in the IP or on Pinterest. Can't tell you how many things I've cooked, including eggs, lots and lots of eggs. The best feature is how easy to maintain as it cleans so easy PLUS I can't burn anything in it when I forget. It knows and keeps it warm all by itself. Having Dad call me in the evening to tell me dinner was delicious melts my heart as I'm glad he still remembers who I am. He is not a compliment giver either, he usually teases me on what I did wrong so feeding him something he loved feels damn good. I won't have much longer to do this.
Since Mom's accident the IP has been a God send to make one pot dinners. The IP has the inner pot which is what you cook in. I can take the inner pot out, go to my folks and put it in there IP on warm at anytime of the day, (bring their inner pot home as we have the same IP) then they can have their meal anytime they want and I got to deliver it at my convenience. If I forget to defrost something for dinner, no problem just throw the frozen hunk in the pot and it still comes out delicious.
Lots of people make cheesecake in thier pots, I haven't tried that yet. I bought the spring form pan for it but haven't had the desire to make it. I'm so used to flying solo that planning a meal to feed more is the biggest challenge I'm facing. However while writing this blog chicken and dumplings came to mind so that's what for dinner. Well I will call Mom and see if she wants what is on my menu, if so then that frozen bird is getting cooked today.
On a side note this blog is directed at someone here as a lure to write. I think two members have bought a pressure cooker because of my blogging love for it. One has used it and one still hasn't (I'm guilty of this as well - buying something then not using it)
It doesn't just pressure cook, it steams, stews, has a crock pot setting, saute, rice cooker and more. I love this damn gadget. I've spent lots of time on you tube watching recipes in the IP or on Pinterest. Can't tell you how many things I've cooked, including eggs, lots and lots of eggs. The best feature is how easy to maintain as it cleans so easy PLUS I can't burn anything in it when I forget. It knows and keeps it warm all by itself. Having Dad call me in the evening to tell me dinner was delicious melts my heart as I'm glad he still remembers who I am. He is not a compliment giver either, he usually teases me on what I did wrong so feeding him something he loved feels damn good. I won't have much longer to do this.
Since Mom's accident the IP has been a God send to make one pot dinners. The IP has the inner pot which is what you cook in. I can take the inner pot out, go to my folks and put it in there IP on warm at anytime of the day, (bring their inner pot home as we have the same IP) then they can have their meal anytime they want and I got to deliver it at my convenience. If I forget to defrost something for dinner, no problem just throw the frozen hunk in the pot and it still comes out delicious.
Lots of people make cheesecake in thier pots, I haven't tried that yet. I bought the spring form pan for it but haven't had the desire to make it. I'm so used to flying solo that planning a meal to feed more is the biggest challenge I'm facing. However while writing this blog chicken and dumplings came to mind so that's what for dinner. Well I will call Mom and see if she wants what is on my menu, if so then that frozen bird is getting cooked today.
online today!
The 9/11 baby...
I'm reading some news this morning and see in a Tennessee hospital, baby Christina was born on 9/11 at 9:11pm weighing 9 pounds 11 ounces.
The mother said, "I knew she was gonna be a big baby, I didn't know how big"
The parents are looking on the good side of things from a day of mourning "There was too much devastation, but she's bringing all this joy and life into the world because everybody's been waiting on her."
Story link here:
The mother said, "I knew she was gonna be a big baby, I didn't know how big"
The parents are looking on the good side of things from a day of mourning "There was too much devastation, but she's bringing all this joy and life into the world because everybody's been waiting on her."
Story link here:
Alzheimer Irony
I've heard many stories from people who dealt with their Parents Alzheimer, some even as caretakers. Now I'm living my story of Dad and Alzeimers. Of course he is a changed man in so many ways, one of them being ironic with a touch of humor.
All my life I've known Dad to be a big quality meat eater. Mom not so much, she only wanted to eat a tiny piece of meat (for Dad's sake) she loved potatoes, greens and beans. Dad did not like what she liked.
It hurts to see my Father but it helps to know in his mind he is very content. He loves to sleep and he does.
The irony is this story is the hospital feeds him more greens and beans and he is loving it and won't eat his meat. For sixty years Mom wanted to cook greens and beans but didn't. I always took her some when I made them though.
The disease changed my Dad's eating habits and he doesn't even know it.
All my life I've known Dad to be a big quality meat eater. Mom not so much, she only wanted to eat a tiny piece of meat (for Dad's sake) she loved potatoes, greens and beans. Dad did not like what she liked.
It hurts to see my Father but it helps to know in his mind he is very content. He loves to sleep and he does.
The irony is this story is the hospital feeds him more greens and beans and he is loving it and won't eat his meat. For sixty years Mom wanted to cook greens and beans but didn't. I always took her some when I made them though.
The disease changed my Dad's eating habits and he doesn't even know it.
The Goodbye is Coming
I am often reminding myself how lucky I have been to still have my parents as I approach my 70th year. Lord I don't feel 70. It's getting harder to focus on how lucky I am as I watch Dad's disease kill him oh so slowly. It's no fun either to watch my Mother fade away in grief. Hospice was called yesterday, this will be my first experience with "End of Life" care which I actually suck at.
I actually did not live with my parents for much of my childhood so I'm not affected as harshly as my baby sister & brother. The two babies grew all the way up with Mom and Dad, so the loss is killing them much harder. I'm more ready to let go because I would not want to be alive in his condition. I could call a Mercy Death if it were up to me but most of my family members wouldn't understand. They want to keep the body alive no matter what. I have no problem honoring their wishes and not saying how I feel.
I have a DNR on myself so I shouldn't ever get to the place of where Dad is and hopefully I can avoid my children seeing me in AS sad a condition as I see my Daddy in. All recognition is gone from his eyes.
Two sides to the same coin, one is the bright side and the other dark. Mostly the coin lands on the bright side but sometimes it doesn't.
I don't need condolences as I am not grieving but feel free to share your experience if you had one with Hospice?
I actually did not live with my parents for much of my childhood so I'm not affected as harshly as my baby sister & brother. The two babies grew all the way up with Mom and Dad, so the loss is killing them much harder. I'm more ready to let go because I would not want to be alive in his condition. I could call a Mercy Death if it were up to me but most of my family members wouldn't understand. They want to keep the body alive no matter what. I have no problem honoring their wishes and not saying how I feel.
I have a DNR on myself so I shouldn't ever get to the place of where Dad is and hopefully I can avoid my children seeing me in AS sad a condition as I see my Daddy in. All recognition is gone from his eyes.
Two sides to the same coin, one is the bright side and the other dark. Mostly the coin lands on the bright side but sometimes it doesn't.
I don't need condolences as I am not grieving but feel free to share your experience if you had one with Hospice?
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