Eileen and Larry Somers

I'm not sure what brought this to mind recently, but "Ishkabibble" is a word my mom used to use. My sisters and my brother and I heard this when something was yukky or gross. I'm not sure about the spelling because it's just one of those words our mom would say!   I'm posting a random pic of her because blog posts are more fun with images. She didn't like having her picture taken, but this is from a Christmas dinner at her house. She was getting out the "good silverware."    Louise definitely took up her habit of making her own words to fit different meanings. Whatever brought "ishkabibble" to mind recently made me smile. Thinking about my mom does that for me.

With the news of the earthquake that hit Morocco last Friday (Sept. 8, 2023), I was reminded of a conversation I had with my mom many years ago. We were talking about things that scared us. She said she was most frightened of earthquakes. That surprised me, but as we talked she shared about her time living in California in the 1950s.  She said it was a terrible feeling to be going about her day and have things suddenly start shaking and rattling. She told me she never wanted to live in an earthquake zone again. I asked her if it was more frightening than tornadoes and she said absolutely. We talked about how we'd never experienced hurricanes or volcanoes. It was an interesting conversation that I just recently remembered. Actually, I think she may have been on the gulf coast during a hurricane after that conversation . . . but I wasn't there. That's a Louise story to tell!

I've often said that I didn't grow up with much singing . . . but that's not entirely true. Recently, I started singing Alouette ( Canadian version ). It got me thinking about why that song was in my brain and what triggered me to start singing it out of the blue.   I remembered back to when we were singing it in French class (8th grade?) and I was very familiar with the tune. I had not known, however, that it was about plucking a bird's feathers! And further, the verses have us plucking feathers from the different body parts INCLUDING THE BEAK! If you're curious but don't speak French, here are the lyrics in English. It was fun to learn about this song my dad had sung to me.   Besides Alouette , we grew up singing Frère Jacques . I guess my dad was more into singing (and playing piano) than my mom was. I wish I had recorded him singing when I had the opportunity.  I could probably add more to this entry (and perhaps I will later), but I need to work on more pr...

For some reason, the song "Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me . . . " came into my head yesterday. My mom really liked that song and Joan of Arc often had it in their rotation.   The lyrics: Let there be peace on earth And let it begin with me Let There Be Peace on Earth The peace that was meant to be   With God as our Father Brothers all are we Let me walk with my brother In perfect harmony.   Let peace begin with me Let this be the moment now. With ev'ry step I take Let this be my solemn vow   To take each moment and live Each moment in peace eternally Let there be peace on earth And let it begin with me My mom was a pacifist and a person who cared deeply about humanity's need to be kinder to one another. I love when I have memories like this. Criticism and fault-finding were a huge part of my upbringing . . . but there was plenty of positivity and joy as well! Wikipedia has this info that I didn't know (highlight is mine): " Let There Be...

This is a sad story. I'm not 100% what year it was (2011-2013?) but I had to fill out the same old paperwork for work. Every year, the same stuff! Phone number, address, blah blah blah. (I was super tempted to write "Nothing's changed.")  But on the section where it asked for a secondary contact in case of emergency, I paused. And cried.   Louie is always my first contact. But my mom had always been that second one, just in case. And it must have been the fall of 2011, because I remember the struggle I felt knowing she wouldn't have the mental acuity to take an emergency call on my behalf. The realization that her role in my life had changed and I needed to be strong for her . . . rather than me being able to lean on her . . . that was hard.   I asked Morgan if I could put his name and number down in case of an emergency if they couldn't reach his dad. Of course, he said yes.    I am incredibly blessed that I had my mom around for 48 years of my life and that ...

I'm not sure why this became our "thing," but my mom wanted to have a cloth calendar to hang on the wall in her kitchen each year and buying it for her became my goal. I used to find them in stores like Pier I, but as the years went by it got harder and harder. Then online shopping made it a breeze, though I had to order it for her birthday so she wouldn't get worried about not having one for the next year. When dad died and Louise inherited the house and everything in it, she went through the cloth calendars and wrote down all the years' worth (see pic at left) and I made a list of the missing years (below). I'm not sure what happened to those . . . but I'm pretty sure Mom originally had them. My mom *always* had the annual cloth calendar up on the wall! I think I had originally planned to complete the set(?) or was just being compulsive about the list. It doesn't really matter, but I thought I'd make a record of it here for posterity. I'm ge...