Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Haven’t you ever awakened and had a ‘funny’ feeling that something was brewing, something was ‘in the air’ …something was about to happen that would be quite different…but you didn’t know exactly what it was?

In my case, however, I do happen to know and also when it will happen…piqued anyone’s curiosity? It wasn’t until I was watching Mary Poppins with the grandchildren (Julie Andrews original) that certain scenes reminded me of a great adventure I have been on for quite awhile….and Mary is right when she tells the children….

Anticipation is… “When I think something nice is going to happen I seem to fly right up on the wings of anticipation; and then the first thing I realize I drop down to earth with a thud. But really, Marilla, the flying part is so glorious as long as it lasts…it’s like soaring through a sunset. I think it almost pays for the thud.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea 

During these rather challenging, yet still monotonous days we face…anticipation is the great ice-breaker…the blip in a  series of long straight lines. Even if a blip is somewhat ambiguous…it still can provide a welcome change in our daily routines.

So for today and until tomorrow…that is all I will say.

But I did talk with Winnie the Pooh… since he’s been on my adventure with me… he added his perspective on anticipation …part of the reason he always concludes each post with….

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

So many musical artists, from Nat King Cole to Dean Martin, used to sing this nostalgic song…a remembrance of summer…the kind we reminisce about from childhood or youth.

Don’t we all have some days when we wish we could travel back in time to those more carefree days of summer when families used to gather at lake cabins, ocean beach shabby shacks, and mountain cabins to make lasting memories of a ‘time that used to be?’

These days the different seasons at home seem to blend all together…like concoctions made in a blender or food processor. It is hard to separate or even identify one ingredient from another… or, in our case, one day from the next.

On GMA yesterday Robin Roberts was interviewing Liam Neeson and his son, Michael, who have just finished filming their first movie together, titled Made in Italy.  

It was produced in honor of Michael’s mother and Liam’s wife, actress Natasha Richardson, who died suddenly from a freak skiing accident several years ago. (The script is all about a father-son relationship after the loss of a mother.)

Robin started the interview with “Happy Blur Day”..and do either of you know what day it is?” It was a great icebreaker…because it seems, like everyone, including myself, complain about the loss of significance in any individual day of the week. How hard it is to even remember what day of the week it is…or month? Covid19 has created blended days, months, and memories for most of us.

Not only do I feel like the summer days are blurry.…but they are also squirrely. I still have some days when I wake up, stick to my own personal imposed daily agenda, water the garden, work in the garden, eat breakfast, think about ideas for the daily upcoming post, get caught up with friends and family through calls, texts, or occasional emails.

Cook or pick up some foods I like. Then read and sometimes get in a nap…occasionally joining family members for an outing of some kind…but these are usually only bi-monthly these days. This is my life in a nutshell...and speaking of…(squirrels)

When I came across this poster I had to laugh. (Most of  the “nuts” in my life come from the news… which I try to watch as sparingly as possible. 🙂

…Actually I was thinking more about the word ‘squirrely’ in connection with the days when I wake up and don’t feel like doing much of anything…a case of the ‘blurry blahs.‘

These times are never good for making decisions. It really is like watching a squirrel try to cross the street and dart in and out while making up its mind what to do to get across the street safely.

Finding ourselves in the middle of the road trying to decide which direction is safer…is quite a precarious place. (I have almost had a wreck myself trying  not to hit a squirrel who can’t make up its mind which direction to go)…I end up grimacing and squinting in the rear view mirror to see if it made it or if I hit it…mostly the squirrel makes it safely across somehow, some way…but it causes a lot of uncertainty to the squirrel and drivers in the process…the ‘middle of the road squirrel’ dilemma.

So until tomorrow…As compensation for these ‘blurry blues’ …we hear ourselves falling back on the familiar phrase ‘This too shall pass’ and the truth is…it will.

What is more important, however, is the fact that we should be using this abundance of time to create a better future…so many of the problems we witness today should be a lesson learned tomorrow.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Pretties might fade away…but they always stay in my memories.

Due to the recent weather…Jake’s final game was postponed a couple of times but finally he played last night. Mandy said he went out on a bang or a bat...and was so happy at the ending celebration/recognition ceremony. Go “Astro” Jake!

Dear Reader:

As I am typing the blog today…it is early Monday afternoon (around 1) and the brunt of the tropical storm has yet to hit. We are experiencing a nice, soft, steady rain now…which would satisfy me just fine…if it stayed just like this for the whole duration.

Around 6 this morning I was awakened…by loud thunder booming all around…and rain coming down. But it didn’t last very long and by the time I got up around 8…it was just cloudy and we didn’t get any more rain until after lunch…the soft steady rain I hear while typing.

The storm was supposed to come in earlier but apparently Isaias decided to ‘vacation’ in Florida longer….especially around Jacksonville…still it seemed to be gaining some strength…so I decided to write the blog early in case it came on shore in Charleston as initially predicted and there were power outages.

I found this article on the buffalo and the metaphor of facing life’s storms straight in the eye ahead….In life we all must choose whether we are going to be a buffalo or a cow. 🙂

Facing Life’s Storm Head-on

There is a great lesson about success and leadership from studying the way that buffalo and cows respond to storms.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Eloise got in a half-day of preschool at Primrose Pre-School and Daycare of Mt. Pleasant yesterday. She was so excited…she missed her little friends since March when she left. The school, however, stayed open and have had no cases of the coronavirus through it all.

The parents had to drop their children off by the playground and are not allowed inside…Mollie said they have stayed open trying to allow parents to work and the daycare obviously did their preventive homework… studying the best possible procedures to avoid the virus… since the school is still squeaky healthy after all these months…no Covid cases.

The teachers took a picture of Eloise getting to be the flag-bearer for her first day back. She is still two years old but she has gotten so tall this summer I couldn’t find her in the photo…*I thought she was the little girl in pink…instead there she was front and center with the flag. Slow down Eloise…you are growing so tall.

***Update: (9:00 PM last night)

The storm never came on shore in Charleston but skirted us touching land around Georgetown just north of us. So we continued with the steady rain until about supper time and then the most beautiful shafts of light opened up in the skies around 7:30.

*( So we could have been a cow or buffalo…didn’t matter at all!) 🙂

I went out and the temps were in the low seventies…cool breezes, fresh smell of rain…I felt like I had died and gone to heaven…haven’t been that comfortable outside in months. The green in the grass and bushes were the most beautiful shade…it made you want to be a child again and just roll in it.

Remember when Jeff cut back my front yard bushes…mostly azaleas (about a month ago) leaving that “ugly” bare stage with brown branches? …look now!

Mother Nature water for the porch plants

Good night everyone….God did send us the ‘perfect storm.” Thank you. 

Dear Reader:

Jeff stopped by yesterday to complete the job of getting my “leaning” “Fence of Dingle... standing upright and straight… like it once was…a long, long, time ago. He wanted to permanently secure it before the tropical storm arrives today.

Any time I hear the word “leaning” I am always reminded of one of Archibald Rutledge’s (Hampton Plantation) stories from the days he lived and spent his time restoring Hampton.

A favorite prayer at Hampton Plantation uttered by the workers there (that Archibald Rutledge would recall with great pleasure) was: “O Lord, prop me up in all my leaning places!”

Yesterday I was re-reading chapters from Archibald Rutledge’s book: Home by the River. It is still my favorite of all his writings and it really was like going home again to a time that brought more honest, plain insights into life… in its beautiful simplicity.

The older I get…the more “leaning places” seem to pop up on me… which, then,  require some more propping up! Some days I can still jump out of bed…others…I cautiously check to make sure “nothing else fell asleep” during the night but my brain. (Isn’t it a terrible feeling to put one’s weight down and realize your foot is still asleep?)

One day Archibald was talking to one of his sharecroppers and the sharecropper interrupted him to tell him he needed to leave right then because it was time to go to church…only he didn’t say he was going to church…instead he  eloquently said: “Now I must go light my candle at His fire.” 

The beauty of words…

*That is what I do each Sunday morning now…literally “light a candle at His fire” and take a moment to thank God for the prior week and let Him know how thankful I am for each day I awake and rise. It is my special time to talk with God….my “service” until COVID19 says “Good-bye.”

So until tomorrow: Everyone take care if you live in the path of the tropical storm Isaias/Be safe….praying hard it will do minor damage or none at all ….just provide some much needed rain for drought areas…now that would be a type of “salvation” (living up to its name derivative)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Something New to Learn Today:

‘Dreamt‘ is the only English word that ends with ‘mt‘ according to Oxford Dictionaries- It is a variant spelling to the past tense of dream-dreamed. 🙂

Drink up my pretties!

Dear Reader:

If you take time to think about it….more days than not…most people hear themselves say, something along the lines of, “Really? I didn’t know that?”

I found myself thinking it yesterday while watching a garden show on PBS. The guest host was telling the audience if you want fresh flowers from an open flower market to last longer…stick with pastels…lighter colors live longer than dark, primary ones in vases of water. “I didn’t know that?” (* I, personally, prefer primary oranges, yellows, etc. but now I know to mix them with more pastels to keep the bouquet, as a whole, blooming longer.)

For just a second…it took me back to my grandparents’ cotton fields where lots of quips and daily ‘truths’ were learned doing this backbreaking farming for a living. Since Granddaddy Charlie died, within months of my own father, when I was five…I have more impressions of him than actual memories.

It was only through grandmother’s memories that I felt like I got to know him somewhat. Apparently the title quote today was one of his favorites ” If you don’t learn something new every day or share a good laugh…then get back up…your day’s not over.”

This is so true. I love learning new and “novel” little tidbits about any subject that I didn’t know before…I think we teachers became teachers because were curious children always asking “why?” We were always ‘life-time learners‘ before it became a popular ‘catch-phrase.’

I find myself, still today, jotting down quotes I hear that I like about life, new words I don’t know, trivia truths, and new perspectives on old topics. There’s always something new under the sun to learn.

As far as sharing a laugh…I still love Jake’s little T-ball buddy asking me if  “Jake was my grandmother.”  Later, after the game, I was sitting on the sofa between Eva Cate and Jake watching “Scooby-Doo” (their favorite cartoon show.)

Suddenly Jake looked at me and then at the characters again and announced loudly “Boo Boo…your hair looks just like Shaggy’s!” I broke out giggling… but not before I could hear John practically falling off the computer chair where he was working in the next room. 🙂

***As far as learning a new story, Lynn Gamache sent me a story with a similar metaphor as the blog post earlier this week on God being the co-pilot in a plane helping us steer through life.

*Instead of a plane…Lynn shared a story about a tandem bike... with Jesus helping us pedal.

A Tandem Ride With God 

I used to think of God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there, sort of like a president. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I didn’t really know Him.

But later on, when I met Jesus, it seemed as though life was rather like a bike, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Jesus was in the back helping me pedal. I didn’t know just when it was He suggested we change, but life has not been the same since I took the back-seat to Jesus, my Lord. He makes life exciting. When I had control, I thought I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable. It was the shortest distance between two points.

But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places and at break-through speeds; it was all I could do to hang on! Even though it often looked like madness, He said, “Pedal!” I was worried and anxious and asked, “Where are you taking me?” He laughed and didn’t answer and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into adventure. And when I’d say, “I’m scared”, He’d lean back and touch my hand.

He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance and joy. They gave me their gifts to take on my journey, our journey, my Lord’s and mine. And we were off again. He said, “Give the gifts away; they’re extra baggage, too much weight.” So I did, to the people we met, and I found in giving I received, and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him, at first, in control of my life. I thought He’d wreck it, but He knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners, jump to clear high rocks, fly to shorten scary passages. And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I’m beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus.

And when I’m sure I just can’t do any more, He just smiles and says… “Pedal.”

(Author unknown)

So until tomorrow…When times get tough…just pedal! 🙂

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Actually yesterday was a pretty great day! Anyone with a garden or lawn in the area wants rain…lots of it. And we finally got some…but even more importantly we got a cloudy, dark day with some spots of showers…perfect reading day…exactly what I had been wishing for…and wanting. “Thank you God”!

Hopefully…this will continue with Isaias, pronounced ees-ah-EE-ahs. *If, like me, you have been wondering where in the heck that name came from…I will tell you since I got curious and looked it up.

It is the Spanish-Latin derivative of the Hebrew name Isaiah, a prophet in the Old Testament tied to both Jewish and Christian religions. Ironically (with a little twist of humor) it also means      (according to popular name origin websites) “God is my salvation.”

Only time will tell ….but in the lowcountry we are just hoping a nice long rainmaker arrives.…though no doubt we will ‘pay the price’ picking up pine cones, needles, and sprays…they are already falling down. Hopefully, along with a few branches, that will be it…no larger falling debris like trees or buildings. Everyone take care!

We have to always look at something pretty each day too.

Dear Reader:

Like so many writers before me…there comes a time in one’s life when thoughts turn to writing that great American novel. Realistically…those are far and few between….but I once had a writer tell me that storytelling was just as important….just remember to let oral stories be your legacy…your gift that you hand down.

After I retired (before I was diagnosed with breast cancer) I was still doing a lot of storytelling around the state and loving it. I never thought twice about giving out copies of the stories to teachers so they could share them with their students. The best teachers are the best storytellers.

So hopefully, perhaps, some of these stories are still being shared and passed down to generations of students…I will never know…but that is okay…as long as they still bring pleasure to future decades of learners.

I think if I were a teacher now, in these anxious times…I would tell story after story after story…to my students…imaginative stories to help them forget the challenges of daily life and the changes that affect so many families. And I would tell them true stories of heroes and heroines, young and old, who made a difference in their lifetimes…during their own personal “troubled” times.

It wasn’t until I discovered the blog and the daily opportunities it gave me to share stories from my own teaching days, creative stories, children’s stories, faith stories, true stories of my life with all its up’s and down’s…that I knew I had found my venue.

The blog suits my writing style best…because it keeps me on my toes listening for comments on programs to spark an idea for a post or lyrics in a song, or a faded memory from my past, a piece of conversation, or sharing a hope for my future.

Sometimes I feel like my blog posts are humorously  similar to Jerry Seinfield’s comedy show about “nothing.” A little retired school teacher writing about “nothing”…just sharing her daily observations and thoughts on life.

Yet, as we talked about earlier this week…out of “nothing’ comes sometimes, the greatest “somethings.” It is so reassuring to me when I throw a crazy thought out there in cyberspace…one of you will respond by telling me you once shared a similar experience or thought the same thing. (I’m not so crazy after all????)

But perhaps the greatest book I ever “assembled” was my mother’s “Memory” book after dementia starting robbing mother’s memory (at an alarming rate) while at the Presbyterian Village. The occupational therapist suggested I compile a book of pictures and descriptions/of family and their connection to mother. So I made a pictorial time-line with photos of all of us growing up…plus mother’s parents and siblings…cousins, etc.

I started it off with the anecdote on “The Bumblebee Can Not Fly.”

Underneath I wrote an inscription for mother that read:

“Thanks mom, for beating the odds and raising three small children as a single parent with a single hand…who never thought she couldn’t and flew anyway.” Pioneer Stock! 🙂

From the time I gave the Memory Book to her… it never left her sight…the nurses told me it was the only time she got visibly upset …if it wasn’t by her bedside at night or in her wheelchair each day. She looked at it continuously. When I came in after school…even after she had started grappling with my name…she held it up and pointed to a picture of me and smiled.

It was the greatest gift I ever gave her…besides loving her completely and wholly.

I caught a five minute excerpt from the old television program- The Waltons…Friday afternoon. John Boy was in New York City for the first time in his life…presenting his first novel to a publishing company…the editor was asking him to reflect on what brought him to this moment…this prompted his re-telling (from flashbacks) of all the writing struggles that had preceded… until that very moment in time.

The greatest obstacle had been when he had finished his first novel a couple of years earlier and then tragedy struck…the farm house caught fire and his manuscript went up in flames. He felt completely defeated and ready to give up. As hard as he tried he couldn’t remember how to re-write his “masterpiece.”

It was his father who sat him down….and said, “Son…you know how hard it has been for me trying to rebuild the old homestead…harder than I ever thought possible. Why? I was trying to precisely duplicate the original home and I kept failing. When I finally conceded that it was time to make changes and go forward with a different look…everything fell into place.”

“You can’t go back and re-write the same novel you did before the fire because, son, you aren’t the same person you were before the fire. Life experiences change us…you must start over with a new novel written by the man you are becoming at the age you are now.” 

When I look back at earlier posts I wrote ten years ago…I realize the same thing…I am not completely that person anymore…like a puzzle… more layers and pieces have been added to my life and my writings reflect these experiences. We should never grow stagnant…but change with life itself.

So until tomorrow…

Little glimpses into our daily lives present a person’s character more visibly than any novel of a lifetime can. We are our moments.

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

AUGUST 1

Yep…it’s time for our “Rabbit, Rabbit‘ good luck monthly refrain on the first day of the month…the ‘dog days’ of August are upon us…but to be perfectly honest…July has been so “doggie” I don’t think August can give us any more or less than we have already experienced this hot, hot, humid summer.

Dear Reader:

When I came across this title banner…I had to laugh to myself. I might be in the cockpit as time is flying but there is definitely another pilot beside me watching me drive the plane while He looks out for obstacles ahead…obstacles that I can’t even see with my mortal eyes.

I really would hate to think that I would have to fly “solo” through this world without any help from my Creator who made me. Jesus’ first words following his baptism from his cousin, John, pretty much sums it up….”The time is now”…spread the good news…the Gospel. 

Jesus tried to explain to us that we aren’t put on earth to just circle the globe, “killing” time until we can get to Heaven…we are responsible for righting wrongs we see in everyday life, speaking out for justice when we witness injustice, and remembering we are here to help our fellowman during our temporary stay. Jesus reaffirms this with the Lord’s Prayer….

...”Our kingdom come, Your will be done, on EARTH, as it is in heaven.”  Life on earth is not a waiting line….it is a doing line. We have a chance daily to do something to help this world so when we leave it…it will be just a little better than before we entered it.

So every time we have an opportunity to  perform an act of kindness, whether random or planned, we are spreading the good news. The good news that mankind, at its best, is a remarkable creature…capable of as much good in this world as destruction. Each of us has to make that decision…using our inner-built moral compasses….do right or choose chaos and power over right or wrong.

“Time can be on our side” if we use time the way God instructs  and mentors for us.

So until tomorrow…..

If we have ever felt deserted by God in our worst crisis…we know faith is being tested…and if we pass then the God of mercy, faith, hope and love appears. “The One none can really imagine in our wildest dreams, and the One none of us have a corner on. The One who stays, no matter what we do, hurts when we hurt, and loves us beyond belief. The One that is for us all.”  ( Excerpt: ” The Courage to Be” by Paul Tillich)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Ben was  able to get to Summerville for a belated birthday…we ordered out from Oscars, our favorite restaurant, and had Bekah and Ady join us for dinner and dessert here at the house…and a Happy Birthday celebration.

Oh…how I love my red English petunias…always so delightful….they are in their fourth season and just as pretty as ever…like “Big Red” on his white bench… they never leave their home on the green chair on the porch. I think the front porch must has “magical” flower power! 🙂

Dear Reader:

In a story I was reading earlier in the week the main character had recently lost her mother in a tragic accident. She kept waiting for time to heal….but, unexpectedly, a memory of her mother would reappear out of nowhere and she would achingly realize…’I will never get over my mother not being here.’ 

“It’s so hard (she would pray to her mother silently) but then, I guess, that means you mattered so much to me. It shouldn’t be easy.”

Truer words were never spoken…if the passing of a loved one, particularly someone who had a large influence over our lives through many growing stages, is lost to us…it shouldn’t be easy to forget them.

Particularly parents and grandparents…I realized a long time ago, after my own mother’s passing, that I would still momentarily forget that I couldn’t call her up any more for advice, or sharing laughter or even sorrow.

At first I thought that I would miss sharing a “bad day” with her more than a happy occasion. I, however, acclimated to handling troubles on my own faster ….surprisingly to me…it was the joyous occasions when I missed calling mother the most. I wanted her to be happy, proud, or excited with me over some good fortune that had come my way.

I felt the same way when my beloved mother-in-law, Dee-Dee passed too…she was such a huge influence in the grandchildren’s lives that I knew she would want to be part of all the ‘happy occasions‘ that befell  her grandchildren too.

I wonder, sometimes, as I now have reached ‘grandmother’ status’, exactly when does an individual’s thoughts turn to making memories out of moments?

Do we just wake up one day and realize how precious time is and how important it is to share it with family? To make memories, not for just us, but more importantly for the adult children, and grandchildren to take with them into their future lives!

Jake has participated (the past few weeks) in a coronavirus modified t-ball schedule. Everything else he had planned to play this summer was cancelled….so this first-time athletic game has become his greatest joy!

He got right with the program…wearing his shark tooth good luck charm, putting his sunglasses on over his baseball cap (thought that looked cool) hitting the bat on the ground three times before hitting the ball off the T and later (as I got to witness Tuesday evening) hitting his first pitches from the coaches…helping the little ones start making the transition into baseball…just a little.

I had promised Jake (when the season began) I would make a game and the season was down to the wire…Suddenly the rains came right before the game Tuesday at 6…and we were  afraid the game would be cancelled. At the last possible moment, however,…the thunderstorm cloud departed, a nice breeze picked up and the game was back on. I could keep my promise to Jake.

Of course I was the grandmother yelling and running around taking photos…Jake would come over from the dugout where John, Mandy, Eva Cate with her umbrella and I were spread out on our folding chairs and come talk to me. After one such occasion…the cutest little fella sitting beside Jake walked over (after Jake went to hit) stared at me and said, “Hey lady…is Jake your grandmother?”

I was trying so hard not to laugh and hurt the little fella’s feelings…that I think I was snorting! I just nodded and smiled and he waved good-bye. When Jake was on third …closest to where we were sitting…he stopped and waved to me each time. Nothing…but nothing can top these moments. It was well worth the trip!

Eva Cate is into Tick Tock and was surprised that (being old) I even knew what it was….I have to admit watching her perform in the Tick Tock music videos was a lot of fun. Eva Cate is really into drama more than ever…hope she can get in an art or performing school, even camp, at some point growing up. She loves dressing up and entertaining.

I was so glad I got to help out…Mandy went to get her hair done for the first time since the virus…and returned feeling like a new woman…so pretty…Eva Cate and Jake thought so too.

Tigger’s surgery is healing and soon he will have fur again covering his “boo boo owie” on his head….he’s come a long way. We “oldsters” have to hang strong Tigger…proud of you!

We watched baby turtles swimming across the pond near the Turners and admiring the scenery. When I got home…it rained “cats and dogs” just long enough to grab some buckets to collect rainwater…it was over in about ten minutes…not too much rain in the buckets…another ‘fast hit’ and move out summer shower. Still..I will take whatever we get.

So until tomorrow…Let’s all strive to make it “hard” not to be remembered by our actions and love here on earth.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I love reading about different ideas in “Spotlight on Kindness” that pops up on my iPhone every week. They have such wonderful stories and ideas…it restores my faith in humanity. I loved this true story of one family coping with a summer without camps due to the COVID19 virus. So what did they do…create their own camp.

Common Sense Camp: The best kind of camp! 🙂

Editor’s Note: In the next 20-30 years, kids in elementary school today will likely be running significant parts of the world. While they will no doubt learn skills required to survive through education, how do they learn to have basic ethical values that serve them and others? This week’s stories highlight creative paths that parents and kids are experimenting with to create a kinder world. –Guri

Camp Common Sense: Due to the cancellation of summer camps and activities, parents Oona Hanson and Paul decided to create a ‘Common Sense Camp’ to teach their two kids much needed life lessons and abilities to take with them into adulthood. The camp is eight weeks long and features a variety of different weekly themes, such as “Kitchen Confidence” and “Anti-Racism”.

Oona and Paul hope that the things they learn this summer will help their kids in the future when faced with different encounters, such as responding to an insensitive comment or making breakfast for their roommates.

With sleep-away and day camps canceled, Los Angeles-based parenting coach and educator Oona Hanson and her husband Paul found themselves facing a long summer sheltering in place with their daughter, Gwendolyn, 17, and son, Harris, 12.

The Hansons had joked for years that their kids could use a good old “Common Sense Camp“to learn some of life’s more basic but necessary skills. So they decided to make it a DIY reality.

The family planned eight themed weeks… each one focusing on a different set of life skills. Themes include “Kitchen Confidence,” “Safety and Emergency Preparedness,” “Laundry and Cleaning,” and less physical lessons like “Anti-Racism” and “Social Skills.”

“How to Be a Person” became the guiding manual because it uses short, step-by-step, illustrated instructions to teach everything from how to sort laundry to how to plunge a toilet or how to make an apology.

“I chose to use this book as a guideline because it’s written and illustrated with charm and joy and infused with humor and empathy,” said Hanson. “It’s not an adult talking down to kids; it’s an adult inviting kids into the world and explaining how you function in daily life.”

At first, her children were a little wary of the concept, said Hanson. “I think they were afraid it would be just more school.” The family structured Common Sense Camp so there was time for an activity in the morning, then another in the afternoon or evening.

For the week focused on “Kitchen Confidence,” for example, Hanson asked her son to find the chapter in the book that covered cooking and to read through it first before they discussed what he wanted to learn. “He’s excited to learn how to boil the perfect egg now,” she said.

Her husband, a “terrific cook,” has taken over most of the week’s lessons, Hanson said. “Today they were discussing knife skills and learning the difference between a mince, a dice, and a chop.”

“It always seems like we’re going to get around to teaching them these things ‘someday,‘” she said. “There’s that fantasy that before they go to college, they’re going to learn these thousand skills that actually take time to learn and practice. Right now, we have the time it never seems we have to do it.”

When they’re not learning how to boil an egg or read a map, the Hansons kids had a chance to engage in typical camp fun like making s’mores and friendship bracelets.

They even made camp T-shirts.

But though she is excited for her kids to confidently make their own meals and do their own laundry, Hanson said the benefits of Common Sense Camp go far beyond domestic skills.

And though they are physically distanced from their friends and family right now, Hanson said the meaning and future joy of what her children are learning this summer will last a lifetime.

“‘We are telling them, ‘You might be the person in your shared apartment who knows how to make everyone breakfast. You might be the person who, when you hear a questionable joke, speaks up and says to another colleague, ‘I am not comfortable with that. Why did you say that?'” she said.

“I’m OK if the kids are rolling their eyes at us now …if later they can look back and say, ‘I’m so glad I know how to make pancakes for 12 people.’ That will bring them so much joy and connection.”

So until tomorrow….Don’t you know parents right now…are screaming…”Where can we sign up?”  

Think about it…basic life skills were always taught at home for generations…how to sew, cook, clean, act in “proper” society…(Shoot…by the time I was  in college our freshman year (late sixties)…we were still required to take an orientation class on what else…“Lady Manners!” (And we were tested on it too!) 🙂

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Jeff showed up with digging instruments and cement to save two sections of a falling fence between me and my neighbor…he will have to wait and come back in a couple days (after it has hardened) to finish the job…but so excited…knowing that section of the fence won’t fall now… taking the rest of it with it.

P.S. Jeff took the “reading fairy’ with him to see what he can do to restore the light! 🙂 Jeff is a very good man! He can do it all! I am very blessed to keep getting, not only great lawn maintenance experts,but Mr. “Fix-It’s” in the bargain!

Dear Reader:

Sometimes the ‘sacred’ among the ordinary is such a fixture in our lives we forget just how beautiful it really is…

Case in point: When I first laid eyes on the ‘The old rugged (wooden) cross’ I instantly fell in love with it….Every morning when I wake up it is the first thing I see on the wall directly across from my bed ….along with a beautiful little angel reading.

I think I bought the angel from the tea room “Time Well Spent” many years ago. Originally she had batteries in her and a solar light panel so her book would light up at night…to help her read I presume.

I used to laugh when it looked initially like she had her eyes closed…I certainly could relate…since I fall asleep more often than not in my recliner while reading late at night.

But then I looked up at her from a different angle and her eyes are just little slits…almost closed but not…again…I could relate…I try to keep my pried eyes open as long as I can too.

The only thing missing on my beautiful angel now is her light. I remember leaving her in the garden during the day so her solar panel, along with the batteries, could soak in the suns’s rays. Then it would light up her book at night.

It was so pretty until one time when I forgot to bring her in at night and it poured…the batteries apparently got drenched and she has never ‘lit’ up again…to my sadness.

I called my neighbor elf, Vickie, to see if she could help me unscrew the two screws holding the (I imagine) rusty batteries in place. We managed to get one tiny screw out but the other one looks rusted in place. So close but yet so far away from victory.

You see there is a mystery going on…some scattered alphabet letters and some kind of faded image….in order to see it the light needs to come on underneath like it originally did.

* I just remembered Jeff comes this morning to do the yard…maybe- just maybe he can get the last screw undone and we can replace the batteries…and have light from the sun revealing the book’s contents. We will just have to wait and see.

And while we are searching for fairies and their “magical” parts…guess who showed up again…after about a year’s disappearance act…”Little Tink,” the Tinker Bell figurine that Anne’s sister, Lucy sent me years ago. Tinker Bell wanted to move south where it was warmer…Lucy wrote me… and have new adventures. *Her adventures are getting lost on a continuum basis.

She pulls this disappearing act every few months…she’s there and then shes’ not. She has been found under cement fixtures when they were moved, buried under pine straw…she once even showed up in a large serving spoon at Thanksgiving one year. You just never know.

I thought I outwitted “Little Tink” apparently (this last time) by keeping her in a little box-safe and sound…but then it was me who forgot where I put the box?????!!!! DUH!

While looking for double and triple batteries (can’t remember which ones will be needed…) yesterday for the reading fairy statue…”Little Tink” showed up…so I have decided to let her read whatever the story is… along with the reading fairy!

…I think she needs an older, wiser guardian angel to keep track of her. Maybe that has been the problem.

We can only hope Lucy! One thing I will say she makes adventures out of any place she finds herself in. (There’s a lot we can learn from little Tinker Bell!)

* I will keep you updated about what’s inside the two pages… if Jeff can get the batteries fixed and we have plenty of sunshine …which, most likely, we will have! 🙂

So until tomorrow…

Mystical and magical just seem to go together, don’t they? All we have to do in both cases is say “I BELIEVE!”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

My lucky charm continues…I went for my monthly oncology visit yesterday…taking my “happy face” annual blood report with me since they like to make copies of my yearly physicals and there are a few items that differ from each medical center’s blood test analysis.

My amazing PA was not to be outdone….she went and found a gold star to put on my shirt for having another ‘extra’ good blood work report!

A “Star” is born! Where are you Bradley Cooper? I want a serenade! 🙂