What Is Most Important To You?

This has been an interesting and a full week.  Conner Lane was born on Sunday.  My grandson Billy Lane called me asking me to come visit them while Meaghan was still in the hospital.  So I went.  I took my regular camera to get a few pictures.  What a handsome family!  And I know babies are just cute, but I think he was very cute!  There were a couple of problems.  Conner had a knot in his umbilical cord.  So far, they are not noting any problems.  And Meaghan had some serious bleeding for over an hour after delivery.  They both appear to be okay now.

Conner with daddy Billy

Conner with Great Grandmother Rachel

Mom Meaghan, Dad Billy and Conner 

Mom Meaghan and Conner

Conner sleeping through it all

Billy does not like the family picture feeling he looks "creepy".  I think they look great.  A friend of theirs stated it well.  "You both look like you are saying 'we done good'.    I felt that way.  Does anyone feel that it was a bad picture because of the look?  It was lovely and I need to make arrangements to get the other pictures to Billy.  My friend Lynn Repasky felt that with Great Grandmother and Great Grandson that it shows the circle of life.  That is true!

I tried out a new restaurant in town based on my friend Lisa Renich's recommendation.  It is called The Tofu House, Korean Barbecue.   What great food and it was reasonably priced.  They have many meat dishes, but they specialize in Tofu and they are very good at preparing it.  I suggested to the owner's son that maybe emphasizing the Tofu was losing a big part of the market.  Their food is healthy, lots of veggies with different sauces.  I just don't see many non-Asians in there.  (I've only been there twice).  I thought some people might be turned off by tofu in the name.  They won't change their name, but they will make sure to advertise the non-tofu dishes also.

The place I go for renewal and work on my art assignments has changed its name from Art for Healing to Art and Spirituality Center.  When I asked why,  I was told that they do more than art, which is true.  I spent time there working on my assignment for Carol Bradshaw's class at the Bakersfield Art Association.  The Art and Spirituality Center has the new schedule for sessions out.  I'm going to see what I want to do.

  We had taken a hiatus while Carol was healing from surgery.  It worked out well for me too with my surgery.  Wayne (my fellow student) and I have been pushing Carol for other types of work, but Carol wants us to be cautious and learn more basics so we will be more comfortable and have the basics to do other mediums as our skills improve. Wayne cautioned me to use a lighter hand in my art.  He is right.  He is very detailed in his artwork and his light hand allows him to do this. I worked on a dragonfly using a stippling technique from the last class we had before our break. In the mean time, I have been working on drawing my friend's (Barbara Long) dog Patti.  I still don't have her right, but I'm getting close. What we are working on in class are shapes within shapes.  That is tough.  Doing a nest with eggs this time.   Right now, my eggs look like potatoes.

My niece Shannon McDonnell has been working on paring down her belongings to 100 items.  What she has found in doing this is that she doesn't spend all day cleaning and putting this stuff away.  I kind of like the idea, but I'm not ready to do this.  I do believe I have too much "stuff"and that it becomes burdensome.  What my niece said is "I''m clearing my life of material things.  I do not want my children to stress over clearing out my stuff when I die so I'm limiting my life for me personally, not my family, to have only 100 things.  Makes life simple.  I really want nothing more."  What she has found is that cleaning takes minutes instead of hours.  That's appealing.  My mother had a thing about having only so much clothes.  She said for every item you buy, get rid of something.  I'm not as good as she was.  But, periodically, I do a sweep through the house to unload of things I'm not using.  I mentioned this to my friend Janet Seinturier that I had  storage unit.  I told her I hadn't been there since I put everything in there.  She told me to "toss it".  I'm not ready for that.   A lot of it is memories tied up in this.  

We went through the pictures of the Jerdin family and split them up for all the kids.  My daughter Shelley Schmitt helped in this.  Kayla Kline, one of my granddaughters and her friend Mariah came over to get the pictures, start a spaghetti meal and generally get the house in order.  They helped some with the pictures, but a person who recognizes more of what they are looking at is the next older generation.    I asked Shelley if she would also be willing to go through the pictures to determine which would work in my memorial service.  She was willing to do this.  I think it is easier to do when it isn't so stressful emotionally.  Anyway, it was fun reminiscing.So it turned out to be a pleasant time.  Didn't finish it, so will probably do some on Easter morning.  I got albums for all of them and gave them to Shelley to distribute when she is ready.  In the process of going through the pictures I found a collection of short stories my mother had written about us when we were kids.  I don't remember them now and look forward to reading them.  The first one had a catchy name, "You Be Jesus and I'll be God".  Wonder what game that was.  Shelley brought me beautiful flowers from her garden.  What a treat!

Because of what Shannon is doing, I was thinking about what is most important to me at this time.  Right now, I want to have "experiences" with my family and friends.  I figure if I need something, I can get it for myself.  I value their time with me more than anything else.  I think just getting older tends to get us to think more along this line.

When I was going through cancer the second time when Paul died, my focus was on getting control of my life.  I really felt out of control.  When things are going along with no trauma in your life, I think we think that we have more control of affairs around us.  When that trauma hits, it is a game changer.  I became aware of how much I don't control.  It is scary initially.  Finding a way to take some sort of control really does help.  Like I said initially, it was on diet.  I'm not sure if it is true or not, but I actually felt a heck of a lot better when I incorporated raw vegetables and fruit in my diet.  Later, I looked at avoiding meat.  I haven't completely succeeded here, but it is a dramatic change from how I used to eat.  Think of food as medicine.  If the fuel isn't good, you aren't going to get very far.  Anyway, I think it is worth looking at.  My friend Linda Harris Dial sent me a cookbook that I didn't have that was put together by the man who wrote The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell, PhD.  The book she sent me was The China Study Cookbook: Over 120 Whole Food, Plant-Based Recipes. We have talked about trying recipes out and sharing our experiences.  I do want to do that.    There was also this great suggestion in the blog Positively Positive on incorporating raw vegetables into your diet by Hayley Hobson.  I became aware that I was feeling soooo much better after three months of doing this.  Find out for yourself.

Incorporating More Raw Vegetables Into Your Diet

So where we are at in life will dictate to a major extent what you thing is most important.  There was a beautiful picture on the internet of an elderly woman's hand stroking a kitten.  She wanted to be known for being gentle.  You certainly get that sense from the picture.

So, where are you at?  What is most important to you at this time in your life?  We are all different and there is no right answer, but looking at this will tell you what you need to be working on.

I saw this cartoon Cyanide and Happiness that definitely looks at death differently than we usually do.  I like it because it shows that we are a part of something much bigger.  I'm okay with that.

That's what I have this week.  I hope you have a good week, and those who are celebrating Easter have a wonderful holiday!  See you next Sunday.  Thanks for reading and please share with others if you feel they would get something out of this.           Rachel