Happy Thanksgiving

November 23, 2016

at the Manor

Recently I was telling Dad about something that I wasn't looking forward to doing. I believe I said "We will just suffer through on Monday," and he replied "Maybe you should look at it as a challenge."

Wowza. The power of words. 

"Suffer through" has the connotation of negativity, that something horrible is happening, that I DON"T WANT TO DO IT.

"A challenge" can bring about feelings of positive energy, something I can accomplish and celebrate when complete, perhaps even create a feeling of hope.

The power of words.

I learned recently that our brains are wired to think negatively. Back in the day, if you were lollygagging around, picking flowers and singing a catchy tune, you could have been possibly eaten by a wildebeast if you weren't on guard. Our brains had to be hardwired to think about all the things that could go wrong in order to keep us safe. Therefore, today, we have to train our brains to think of the positive in order to get away from all that negative thinking.

Gratitude is one way to train our brains to be positive. A simple list, perhaps three things a day in which we are grateful, can help our brains think more positive thoughts. Goodness, think of how happy our brains could be if we thought of gratitude throughout the day?

That Dad. He has taught me a lot about the power of words...

In other news, Mike just asked me what I was doing. 

"Blogging."

"Is it about me?"

I didn't look up as I replied a short "No." and I kept right on typing as he walked out of the room.

You know what? Sometimes we need to stop what we are doing, right then and there, and say for what we are grateful...

This guy.

I appreciate you, Peter.

And I appreciate all of YOU. Happy Thanksgiving, People. We have a lot in which to be grateful, no matter what.

Mom and Mr. Tupper

I wanna say this is Mom's college picture

circa late 1950's

Back in the day before marriage and kids, Mom worked for the United States Patent Office. It's no surprise that Mom excelled at what she did. Mom's job was to review the paperwork/artwork of people who were applying for a patent in the category of containers and closures. Mom would research similar patents to see if a person's idea was truly original or not. Through Mom's drive for efficiency, she was able to review two times the amount of patent paperwork than her coworkers. Mom didn't play, even back in the day.

At this time, Mom was renting at an apartment house in a not-so-great neighborhood in Sliver Spring. Mom found a place near Hyattsville, but the landlord wouldn't rent to her because she was not married. She looked at a couple other places around that area but was turned down with the same excuse. Dad saw a new apartment complex that was being built next to the Department of Agriculture's farmland in Beltsville and encouraged Mom to look into it. Mom spoke to the manger, letting him know her difficulties in finding a place to rent due to her marriage status. The manager told Mom he didn't care if she was married or not and for her to pick whichever unit she wanted to rent once the building was complete. Mom chose an end unit on street level that had a patio off the back. Dad recalled the time just after they were married when two of Mom's sisters, he believes it was Katherine and Beatty,  came to visit. The apartment was small, so Katherine and Beatty ended up sleeping in lawn chairs in the living room. Days were simpler, and much more uncomfortable, back then.

One of the patents in which Mom reviewed was for Tupperware. Click HERE to find out more about the Tupperware of today. Actually, this morning CBS Sunday Morning aired a segment on the history of Tupperware and spoke of Mr. Tupper himself, the inventor of the famous food storage containers.

Well. Mom knew Mr. Tupper very well since she was the reviewer of his patents. At that time, the invention/prototype had to be hand delivered to the patent office in order to be properly reviewed. As Dad tells it, Mr. Tupper would personally come to the patent office to deliver samples and check on the progress of his various patents. He was sweet on Mom and would always bring a bag of samples of his products for her to take home. I can remember having Tupperware around the kitchen growing up but never thought anything of it. Dad's final comment in telling the tale of the Mr. Tupper episode of Mom's life was, chuckling lightly, "Ha! We had a hell of a lot of Tupperware." As reported this evening, there are still pieces of the original sample Tupperware at Dad's today...perhaps they are museum worthy.

Hey hey. I just googled Mr. Tupper. You can read for yourself HERE what Wikipedia has to say about the inventor of Tupperware. Looks like Mr. Tupper sold his Tupperware company and bought an island off the coast of Costa Rica. Now THAT is a hell of a lot of Tupperware, my friends.

A Trip to Dads

We are on our way to Dad's to celebrate Paul and Joseph's upcoming September birthdays.

This is the actual face I was making when trying to upload pictures to the blog from my phone. Yikes.

 The song "Car Wash" was playing on the classic rock radio station and it got me thinking about Mom. That woman LOVED the movie "Car Wash". I'm not sure how she got it repeatedly on the T.V. ; this was a time before VHS and satellite (although around this time Dad built our 1st satellite dish out of chicken wire and 2x4s...we binge-watched the channel that played "Popeye" with Robin Williams on a continuous loop for months because the only other channel that came in looped "Blue Lagoon" , deemed inappropriate for the likes of my 10 year old eyes to see.).

Always travel with unicorns. Always.

I regret not sitting with Mom to watch "Car Wash", all I remember is walking through the family room or kitchen (Mom had a portable TV, AM/FM radio combo that sat on the kitchen counter before that sort of thing was popular. She would also listen to WBAL or WTOP, some talkshow programming) and catching glimpses of happy, dancing, singing people washing cars. I was never interested so I never paused long enough to understand why those joyous people where dancing and so happy about washing cars.

When we were in the quickie mart and I said "what will make me feel better?" Joe wrapped his arms around me and said "a hug". I will love this boy forever. 

This family trip is my last breath of summer before returning to school on Monday to spend the week prepping our new classroom, experiencing professional development, and planning what fun and engaging activites we will do with those 4 year old cuties that will be peeking their faces in our door the day after Labor Day. 

It will all get done, People. But before all that, I need to Google "Car Wash" and educate myself on all it's goodness.

OH MY WORD. As I finish writing this, a deeply embedded memory has just surfaced. I vaguely remember the walking through and the "Car Wash" song playing and hearing the word "whore" or something equivalent and stopping and saying "Mom! What is this about?" I don't remember Mom's exact response, but the feeling it left me with was that Mom felt pure joy while watching her beloved "Car Wash". So, People, if you choose to watch and wonder about this musical, magical movie from the 70's, you may want to use discretion around children. Although it didn't seem to phase Mom that I was witnessing it.  Yet I wasn't allowed to view "Blue Lagoon". Mothering, its a complicated thing.

Happy Mother's Day

Please click HERE to view my Mother's Day message to you...thank you Mari Andrew for your wisdom.

As Debbie and I sat next to each other at the ice cream social after school on Friday, she told me she missed my blog. I immediately thought of Sue missing Mom and made a commitment to myself to write this weekend. Here it is Mother's Day, a perfect time to write about Mom...

Dad's neighbor Toni (click HERE to find out more about Toni) continues to treat Dad to delicious meals almost every evening during the week.  Not only does she provide him with nutritious meals, Toni and Dad exchanges stories, problems and laughter...I'll tell you about Dad's daily chicken report another time.

Here's some background info so you get the power behind this episode.

*Mom was an avid quilter.

*Tony is an avid quilter.

*Between the cooking and sewing, Toni and Mom would have gotten along famously.

*Mom's name was Peggy Loyd.

Okay, here we go.

Dad is always looking for ways to show his gratitude towards Toni. We found a company that does a quilt block of the month club and we signed Toni up.

The day Toni received her first quilt block, she took the instructions and fabric from the packaging, read the invoice, and discovered it was sent by Dad. She was so excited because she has always wanted to sign up for a quilt block of the month but never has.

She quickly took it all over to Dad's to thank him for his generous gift...and to share an amazing message.

Yes. Look at the name of the first quilt block sent to Toni, it is written under the sample quilt block on the left of the picture...

Mrs. Lloyd's Favorite

Nancy said "Some might say is it odd or is it God?"

I think it's Mom sending HER message of gratitude.

Thank you Toni, thank you.