Family Blogs (544)

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.

After many long cold winter months, spring finally comes into the country and we can start preparing for the BBQ season. To get off to a good start, it is of course very important to refresh the necessary etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking, as only a real man can do.

When a man is a volunteer to take care of the BBQ, the following chain of activities is set in motion:

1) The woman buys the food.

2) The woman makes the salad, cooks the other vegetables and provides dessert.

3) The woman prepares the meat to bake it and puts it on a nice dish together with the necessary herbs and oils and brings it to the table next to the BBQ. Here the man waits with his 6th beer, next to a finally burning fire mass.

4) Now comes the important piece: THE MAN LAYS THE MEAT ON THE GRILL! 5) The woman goes back home and starts collecting plates and cutlery to cover outside the table.

6) The woman comes back outside and calls that the meat is burning. The man thanks the woman and asks if she brings another pint while he keeps the situation under control.

7) Again important: THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OF THE GRILL AND LAY IT ON A DISH AND GIVES IT TO THE WOMAN!8) The woman now fills the plates, distributes the vegetables, the lettuce, the bread, the napkins, the sauces and places the plates on the table.

9) After dinner the woman cleans the table and does the dishes.

10) Most important of all: EVERYONE DISRUPT THE MAN'S COOKING ARTS AND THANKS HIM FOR ALL THE WISHES HE HAS DONE.

11) When everyone is finally gone, the man asks the woman if she has enjoyed her "cooking-free night". To see her reaction he decides that some women are never satisfied .......

"Paint me a picture, Mommy" she demanded. And so I painted one. A huge mural that stretched forever - a mural of words. Words that spun tales like my foot on the pedal of the spinning wheel as it gobbled raw chunks and twirled them into long continuous strings of oily wool.

Words that exported us into the universe as we floated on the backs of unicorns, sailing through galaxies and sipping from the stars of the Milky Way. Words that bounced and soared, skipped and tickled.

Words that crept quietly, rustling in underbrush. Creeks of words that gurgled and slid, bubbled and sang along riverbanks of imagination. Words that flew and darted amongst tall cedars and scrambled lightly over soft, spongy, needle-laden ground.

Words that crouched in trepidation, hiding in long fingers of dusky shadows before bursting into the bloom of golden sunshine and sparkling with prisms of dew.

Words that danced, played, tumbled and somersaulted. A mural of love.

"Imagical Mom"

I will take
your small hand
and lead you softly
through lush forests
pause to lay
on spongy beds
of fallen needles
squint at blue sky
blonde sun peeks
through cedar boughs
dappling earth
woodsy fragrance
bites your nostrils
make animal
cloud shapes
touch gently
petals of wild flowers
play peek-a-boo
through fern fronds
hide and seek
in roots of
hollow trees
whisper secrets
to giggling streams
picnic behind drapes
of willow trees.

I will sprinkle stardust
tickling on your eyelids
and take you
on journeys
where unicorns fly
catch tails of
shooting stars
slide down
rainbow bannisters
bounce on trampolines
of clouds
tumble with trolls
dance with fairies
laugh with elves.

Some day you will
look behind
and know
that I have taught you
- magic.

© AJC

What good a friend are you for if in the direst of needs you aren't there?

Can you share what your beliefs are on friendship? Or better yet, who are your friends?

Here is my story. I have only three friends, I mean real good friends. One is going on for the last 45 years, met her in College. Still going on very strong. She lives in another State but we see each other at least twice a year. Call each other every now and then.

The other is 40 years, met her right after I landed my first job as a University professor. She lives in Switzerland and see each other once every two years. She comes here in the US while I go to Europe alternately. She is rich and just travels but very accommodating. (she introduced me here at CS, she writes poetry and almost forced me to be a member here, long story) Anyways, the third one is about 15 years now. All I can say is that these friends are ready to offer their lives if it is needed. At least that is how I feel and do the same on my part if I am needed.

I can't see nor feel the comepleteness of life without them friends.

Share your expectations and experiences with friends if you want to. Otherwise thanks for reading this blog.

I will be away for a while but will get back later.

Question: Are you there when your friends need you?

I often think, I wish to become a child again...

Kids are so innocent with very clear heart, how beautiful it is.. always want to make new friends also retain old ones.. they keeps a very big heart to forgive someone who hurt them by any means..

Their heart always fill with love.. can't see someone crying.. they don't want to hurt someone by any mean.

They always speak the truth, and don't understand how could people cheat others...

They want to share all their stuff without getting benefits from other site...

If someone really want to see angles on earth, spend time with kids, they will teach many forgotten lesson to us.

I socialize with a group of octo---nonagenarians here at Mickie D's, where I get the endless java for a buck, and the decent wifi. They have a grand time with themselves, and I have learned a good deal just listening. Topic number one is their medical care/conditions. But in this New England town, where many, exept perhaps for military service, have rarely ventured 100km away, a lot of talk is about their and others' families. Some, many, have been here since our revolution, or earlier. Do you know tall Mary Lou? Is she a Seeker, or a Reynold? No she is a Pendleton, but married a Lynch. Our parents are first generation here, and we have lost touch with folks in the old country, so my elder pals' experiences are so foreign to me, but quaintly of great interest. Aa-V.

Lets not forget anyone, who died with many other different issues & reasons
on Memorial Day. (It`s Memorial Day, every day of my life, to me)..
Almost everyone in my immediate family, passed away from some sort of cancer.
I have no siblings now & I`m alone. - (& why I`m on a dating site even though I am now 84. I am looking for a man to share my life with.)
My son, Johnny, had no chance to start a life with his girlfriend. He was only 23,
& a drunk cause an accident on Valentine`s Day, in 1978, 1/4 of a mile close to my home. I felt helpless. What could I have done? He lived only 6 days in a coma, & I was a single parent, who had to give him permission to die because knowing, in the coma he was in...he`d never know life or wake up
I had to pay for the funeral because the drunk had no insurance.
I miss my child every day...& Valentine`s Day , Mother`s Day, & all the holidays are not happy times at all for me. It "THE MEMORY" of him, is all I have.

We need everything right after our birth........

we bought a puppy for my son