My Ultraviolet Peri-Mental-Pause Mid-Life Catastrophe!

While visiting this past April my mother asked me what I thought about the fact that she and my Dad were aging....... I told her that this has been something on my mind for the whole year, and that I've been going through a mid-life crises.  I call it "My Ultraviolet Peri-Mental-Pause Mid-Life Catastrophe!" 
When I was young I loved a book called "The Ultraviolet Catastrophe". It was about a young girl and her adventure with her great uncle.  They got into a lot of trouble on a walk they took. And when I turned 41 and my body seemed to change over night I felt "Ultraviolet Catastrophe" was the perfect wording for it. 

Many women suffer from Perimenopause.... I like to call it Peri-Mental-Pause.... I guess because there have been times when my hormones have been so out of balance that I was thinking I'd gone insane.
Of course all these things happen about Mid-life....42 seems mid life to me, I don't know that I want to live much past 80 years old.  
And so the past two years have been an interesting time for me to reflect on life.... My daughter who has become a young women, my aging and slowing down body, and my parents and in-laws who as my mother put it are getting old....  I'm smack in the middle of all of them....  children growing faster and faster into an adults who will want to leave and have a life of their own, and parents who are preparing to leave this earth life and move on to the eternities.... And there are days when I say, I'm going to be left behind, on either side.....  I love watching my children grow, but miss all those tender young childhood moments.... I don't like watching my parents and in-laws age the fact that they will be unreachable someday scares me.....
Add into that mix a body that is changing and hormones that are no longer regular and you have an Ultraviolet catastrophe!  The problem I have found is that instead of sharing with others what is happening to them, women tend to just be quiet about it.  I think if we all shared these changes with each other we would be less likely to think we are going insane.
I remember as a young girl talking with friends about all the changes that were going on with our bodies, we were all excited for the next step in our lives.... yet when that process is in reverse, we tend to keep quiet.  So I'm going to try to share with other's through blog post some of the crazy perimenopause things that have happened to me.  Perhaps someone will feel the need to comment and say "Hey that happened to me, I feel the same way."  
I'm hoping it will help me through my mid-life castasrophe!
G.G.

# Throw back Thursday..... First wheels......

Here is a photo of my husband with his first set of wheels.  A cute red tricycle!  He looks so cute all dressed up for Sunday church.  The story is that he had so much fun going down the driveway and scuffing his feet while doing it that he ruined his new Sunday shoes. 

Here I am with my first tricycle. I look to be having fun.  I'm sure I'm pretending that this is a pony.  As everything when I was young was somehow going to become a horse, and I would ride off and have grand adventures.

Here is our son with his first tricycle.  I remember we were so excited to get him his first bike.  I think he really liked riding on it too.  We lived on a very busy street so when it came to moving up to a regular bike the kids actually learned to ride at their grandparents in Vermont.  That was the summer of bruises and band aids.   It is fun to see photo's from three generations riding on the little red tricycle. 
G.G.

Nana Bowlby's Spicy Spaghetti......Another food that I love and brings back comforting memories.......

Here is a photo of my Mother-in-Law affectionately known as "Nana Bowlby", when she was young and thinking she would have a career as a singer.  And she could have had that had she not decided to get married and have a family.  I'm very glad she choose to have a family as I have a wonderful husband because of this.

The first time I remember having this spaghetti was the day we moved into our house in Raritan.  My Mother -in-law brought over a big pot of spaghetti sauce and garlic bread.  It was heavenly.   The nice thing about this sauce is it cooks all day, filling your whole house with it's spicy smell.  And then you eat spaghetti for day's because it makes so much. Whenever I need to feel close to my in-laws now that we live miles and miles away, I make a big pot of this spaghetti.  It is such a nice comfort food.

I wonder if I bottled this spaghetti up and put one of these beautiful photo's of my mother-in-law on the front if I could have a good jarred spaghetti business.  Of course the sauce is a family secrete so I can't share the recipe..... Just writing about it though makes me want to make a pot full.
G.G.

A Morning In The Garden

I had the day off, so I spent my morning in the garden.

I knew that by noon it would be too hot.

I took my garden tools and camera.

I trimmed, weeded and dead headed plants.

I connected with God, and the Earth.

I marveled at the beauty that surrounded me.

And found peace to the depth of my soul.

I was almost lost amid the beauty, until my cat called me back to reality.

G.G.

Hope you enjoy some of the new flowers in my garden.  I certainly enjoyed them today.



# Throw Back Thursday.... Memories of the beach

Here I am at the beach as a toddler, I think the other person is my cousin Dale.  Don't I look so cute with my little sun hat on?  My family did not go to the beach that much when I was young.  I really don't remember this trip, and the one other trip I remember as a teen was not one that lasted too long.  We liked the pool at my grandparents much better than the sandy ocean.

My Husband though he spent his summers at the Jersey Shore.  My children had their childhood filled with trips to the beach.  My daughter was the one who loved the water and was in it till she turned blue.  My son was more the stay in the sand and dig holes type.

Here are the kids in one of those holes.  They loved to dig them and jump in them.  We always went to the beach in the afternoon, due to our fair skin.  We would have an early dinner and then play on the beach till the sun went down. 

Another favorite activity was feeding the Gull's and chasing them.  I liked to photograph the Gull's.  Some would get really close to you if you stayed real still.

We took a last trip to the beach before we moved.  And when we went back to visit of course we got to the beach.  With the hurricane it was so changed. 

We loved the beach, but I'm not sure we loved it enough to stay.  And I know that if we had stayed in New Jersey life would not have been the same, and our beach trips would have been fewer and fewer because being able to survive would have been the main focus.

I'm sure we will get back for a visit.  The beach is in my husbands blood and I know he misses it, but for me... I'll take the mountains and a good pool with out the itchy sand.

G.G.

PS.. I'll probably do another of these as I know I have a bunch of old Bowlby beach photos!

# Throw back Thursday.....For the Love of Horses....could my love of horses be part of my DNA?

I think the first word I spoke was horse.... my earliest memories are of wanting a horse or perhaps even wanting to be a horse.  In fact a few weeks ago someone at church asked people to say what they dreamed of being when they grew up.  I remember thinking...I wanted to grow up to be a horse... and then realizing at some point that could not happen I wanted to grow up and have a horse farm.

I have just finished reading a wonderful book for the second time called "The Winter Sea" it brings up the thought that perhaps we can remember things from our ancestors pasts, and perhaps our DNA contains memories from them that get passed down to us.  As I've been organizing my family history photo's I've come across many with horses.  Could my love of horses be handed down from previous generations?

Here I am with my mom and brother, perhaps this is one of my first horse back riding experiences.
My mom loved horses too.

 Her Grandfather Boyd loved his team of logging horses.

Her Great Grandparents on the Eastman side of the family also from this photo look to have loved having horses.  They were also big into farming.

My great grandmother Bessie Kimball Eastman also looks to have had a love of horses.

And these distant ancestors who were some of the first women to settle into sod huts in Nebraska also look to have a love of horses.   How fun it must have been to ride out in the open space of the west.
And so as I look back on my past...and my love of horses I see a connection with those who went before me.  Perhaps in Heaven we will all saddle up and go for a wild ride.... Because I doubt I'll be riding a horse again on this side.  Well perhaps just in my day dreams.....
G.G.

To a Bed of Tulips......Photo's to go with my Ancestor Robert Herricks poem

To A Bed of Tulips

Poem by Robert Herrick

Bright Tulips, we do know

 You had your coming hither,

And fading time does show

That ye must quickly wither.

Your sisterhoods may stay,

And smile here for your hour;

But die ye must away,

Even as the meanest flower.

 

There is a third verse to the poem but I didn't add it.  I thought is was neat to find a poem about tulips that was written by an ancestor.  Although I think Robert Herrick had some deeper meaning that my un-poetic mind can not seem to figure out.

Hope you enjoyed the poem and photo's.

G.G.



Throw Back Thursday.....Camping....

Here is a photo of me as a young child on a camping trip.  I don't remember much about this trip and as I child did not go camping that often but when my children got old enough we went camping almost every summer with my parents.

Here is a photo of my daughter camping in Maine, she was so happy to have her own tent.  My children loved to go camping with their grandparents.  They had fun hiking, biking, swimming and cooking hot dogs and s'mores over the fire.

They loved to hang out under this bridge and fish.

They enjoyed time with cousins.

This is from the year we had a cabin at Ricker pond because it rained so much.

My kids and Husband they loved camping, I survived it....I'm not a big outdoors, sleep on the ground person.

 The very best part of the camping trips......

was all the time spent with my parents and extended family!

I'm hoping to do different throw back Thursday blogs every week.

We will see.  G.G.