Edna-isms, Part Twenty-four

1.  "To 'whang' something out."  This is to hurriedly make something or do something but it implies production of some sort.

2.  "Bless that which as gone before."  When we'd start eating and realize we forgot to say the prayer on the food, Mom would say, "And remember to bless that which has gone before!"

3.  "My Willy can do anything!"  This was usually said about or to my dad [not named Willy] when he fixed something.  I wonder whether it was an expression used by by my great-great grandmother to refer to her husband William and then by her daughter, my great-grandmother Melissa Snow, to refer to her husband Willard, and then my grandmother used it for my grandfather but his name was Peter.  The funny part was that the "Willy" stayed the same regardless of the person's actual name.

Edna-isms, Part Twenty-three

1. "Good morning, Mary Sunshine!"  Something that Mom might say to me when she woke me up in the morning or when she saw me coming in the kitchen for breakfast.

2.  "The row I have to hoe."  This referred to the lot we have in life.  To use it in a sentence to give context:  "I wish I had money to fix the water problem in the basement, but this is my row I have to hoe."

3.  "Catch as catch can."  The definition is "by any means possible."  Mom used this specifically about food and meals, either meaning to find what you can to eat or the meal was thrown together.

Wassup Sunday--also on Thursday!

One feeling that periodically besets me is the desire to privatize my blog or the thought that maybe I should privatize it.  I have my blog hidden from web crawling searches and I do not enter search words (links? keyword searches? what's the terminology?) for every post. I try to be really careful what I post but when it come down to it everything is just out there in cyberspace and sometimes it bugs me.  This feeling of being overexposed comes over me randomly and, this weekend and into this week, I have had that feeling.  Sunday, I had planned to blog about a few things we have been doing but I just couldn't blog about anything in that particular mood and that feeling persisted so that Wednesday's post feel prey to that same mood.  Maybe next week I'll be back to myself.  Of course, the Edna-isms are already done for several months into the future so they go on posting without any help from me or without falling subject to any of my phobias.  The design days had been posted for some weeks into the future but those are finally all finished and my "can't wanna" attitude is still pretty strong.  So ta ta for now.

Design Wednesday--Vintage Embroidery

Hello for Wednesday on Thursday!  There is a cute website (http://www.patternbee.com/MENU1.html) with a lot of vintage embroidery patterns.  I haven't embroidered for a while because my hands fall asleep but I love the memories these vintage patterns evoke.

Edna-isms, Part Twenty-two

1.  "I've been going great guns."  This would mean she had been really busy or was really on a roll.

2.  "Clear to heck 'n' gone."   This had the common usage and Mom usually used to when describing where something was geographically from us.

3.  "I've walked my hind legs off!"  She had walked a long way.

Design Wednesday--Beautiful Cake

This cake has such a spring-time look to it!  Such talent.  See source: http://www.facebook.com/pages/White-pearle/183094038491645?group_id=0

Off-my-rocker tired

Back when I was off-my-rocker tired, when I was doing the swim mom thing with all those early mornings and seemingly inescapable late nights, I had an experience that shook me up a bit and gave me pause. B and I were running errands and made an "unscheduled" stop at Home Depot.

I followed B in to the store, unsure of our purpose there. I asked him what we needed there. He began talking in response. He seemed to go on and on about whatever it was. He ended with some kind of question in his voice, while looking at me expectantly as he waited for my response.

The scary part of it all was that I understood every single word he said--as he said each word--but, for the life of me, I could not string those words together in meaningful sentences. It was like he might have been reading a spelling word list off to me.  As one word was said, it would slip away into the air. I had no idea what he was talking about. I knew that if I asked him to repeat himself, I would still not be able to make sense of all those words, even on the second go-round.

I thought of my mother and how often she would look blankly back at me after I had said even simple and short sentences to her, even after several repeats. I thought, "This is how Mom must have felt a lot of the time!"  I'd never realized that our memory is working AS SOMEONE SPEAKS to allow us to string words together in understandable sentences and paragraphs.  In the early days of Mom's dementia, she could bluff her way out of all kinds of memory lapses by using her humor and quick thinking. Those bluffing skills eventually went away and the blank looks took their place.

As I tried to decided what I should do, my mind did work enough for me to assume the bottom line must be that B wanted to spend money on something that was not absolutely necessary but wanted my OK (as I do clutch the purse somewhat tightly at times--usually at the end of the month when other pressing expenses have already drawn down our account--AND since I would be right there seeing him purchase it!). Not wanting to admit to my being so totally out of it and not wanting him to know he'd expended his conversational efforts to no good end, I said to him with a smile on my face and using by best--no doubt inherited--bluffing skills, "Hey! Today is your lucky day! Whatever it is that you want to do, go do it!"

L, again

L received her Sterling Scholar award last night. It was a Proud Parent Moment.  

(I remembered my camera but forgot the battery so this shot is with my iPhone. I can tell I need more practice--sorry for the blurry photo.)

Recently, she also has received scholarships to several schools.  She is leaning toward one school, but has not firmly made up her mind, yet.

Edna-isms, Part Twenty-one

1. Instead of saying "anyway" at the beginning of a sentence, she liked to say "any who."

2. "None the worse for wear and tear."  I think the usual statement is "none the worse for wear" but Mom always added "tear" to the end of it.

3.  "First cat out of the bag."  Instead of saying "first thing in the morning," she might use this phrase about the cat but it meant either as soon as possible or first thing on a particular day.

Design Wednesday, Easter idea

Such a a cute little Easter idea--from this unlikely site: http://bit.ly/ONZd0r.

Another birthday . . .

Yet another child celebrates a birthday!

Edna-isms, Part Twenty

1.  "[Something or someone] of the first order."  The dictionary says this means "the one coming, occuring or ranking above all others."  So this could be: "He was a speaker of the first order" or "She is a cook of the first order."  It could have also been used as a joke or a criticism:  "He is a whiner of the first order."

2.  "I'm going to send that coach a black widow spider!"  She said this one time when she was frustrated that my brother had been on the bench more than she thought he should have been during a high school basketball game.  This was said with much humor and not a shred of true intent to the threat.

3. "At Death's door."  This was usually said as a joke when she wasn't feeling well.  I guess it could have been used in seriousness, too.