by jphilo | Aug 14, 2012 | Current Events, Top Ten Tuesday
Hiram and I went to the Iowa State Fair Sunday. The weather was cool and the rain held off – a perfect day to celebrate our state’s agricultural history, people watch, and eat food we don’t touch the other 364 days of the year. If you haven’t been there yet, here are my top ten reasons the fair is worth visiting:
10. Eating something relatively healthy, like say a gyro and an apple slush, instead of totally decadent foods like deep fried mac and cheese or deep fried candy bars makes the average person feel like a health nut.
9. Visiting the livestock barns will conjure up good memories of parents or grandparents who lived on a farm. For me, it’s visiting the cattle barn and remembering Dad.
8. Fairgoers get to see Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin in the flesh.
7. For those of us who didn’t make it to the Olympics and see Queen Elizabeth, the fair’s another chance to glimpse royalty.
6. Those of us who have lived West River in South Dakota can pretend we’re back in cowboy and cowgirl country.
5. Non-mechanically inclined spouses can listen to their mechanically inclined spouses explain how contraptions like this one work…and come away still clueless.
4. You can watch a family member or friend’s face light up when totally engrossed in something he or she loves – say old-timey music or figuring out how some contraption works or watching a carpenter make furniture by hand – until you get bored.
3. Nothing says “happy” like watching kids dance to the music of a one man band. Get a load of his socks!
2. The State Fair’s the perfect place to analyze the latest in wool fashions.
1. Where else will you see the butter cow and the seven dwarves and Snow White and the Evil Stepmother and the Magic Mirror all in one dairy case?
Now it’s your turn. What are your top reasons for attending your State Fair?
by jphilo | Jul 17, 2012 | Family
We’re enjoying our visit with our sweet daughter and son-in-law. Though they were far, far away for a year our time together is proof that their year out east didn’t diminish the family traits that show she’s our girl. Here are the top ten ways I know she’s still the person we raised back in the day:
10. Her eyes sparkle whenever she learns we’re having BLTs and sweet corn for supper. (Minus the T, just like her mom used to eat ’em.)
9. She asked me to make the family birthday cake, German chocolate, for her birthday this coming Saturday. (A favorite of Dad and Mom’s.)
8. She and dairy products don’t get along. (Mom’s side of the fam.)
7. At her PT appointment last week, she was diagnosed with hip displaysia. (Just like her dad.)
6. She pitches right in (and so does her hubby) when it’s time to wash windows, dust, weed, strip the beds, do laundry, and wash dishes. (Early childhood training by both parents.)
5. Anne loves to sniff out a good bargain. (We prefer to call this trait, passed along by both parents, “thrifty” rather than “cheap.”)
4. Anne’s reading her way through the murder mysteries on her mom’s bedside table and is ready to go the library for more tomorrow.
3. Like her dad, she’s always making stuff.
2. Like her mom, she’s always writing something.
1. Our house feels more like home when she and her husband are here.
What family traits do you see in your children? Leave a comment about the ones you’re willing to claim!
by jphilo | Jul 10, 2012 | Top Ten Tuesday
Yesterday, Hiram and I celebrated our 35th anniversary with a second post-op visit to the surgeon’s office and then lunch out afterwards. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much by today’s mega-party standards, but we enjoyed our celebration thoroughly. Here are the top ten reasons why:
10. We could have gone dancing if we’d felt so inclined ’cause we can both still dance.
9. The doctor said Hiram can go back to work, so yesterday was his last day of being footloose and fancy free.
8. Sometimes, when we tell people we’ve been married 35 years, they say we don’t look old enough.
7. Middle-aged lovers aren’t as gorgeous as young lovers, but they’re less angst-ridden and require less energy to be around.
6. The outpouring of God’s grace that enabled us to stay married 35 years shouts, “PARTYTIME!”
5. We still like being together.
4. Baby Milo or Shiloh Philo*
3. Anne and Kailen*
2. Allen and Abbey*
1. Our marriage has lasted 35 loving, stressful, challenging, adventurous years.
*The order of items 2 – 4 is interchangeable.
What is being celebrated at your house in July? Why is your celebration worth having? Leave a comment!
by jphilo | Jul 9, 2012 | Family
Even though today’s our thirty-fifth anniversary, the man of steel’s feeling a little grim. He has been ever since he ruptured a disk and started losing man cards right and left.
- He lost the first card when he landed flat on his back in excruciating pain.
- He surrendered a second man card when he admitted he needed Tylenol for the pain.
- Loss #3 came when the woman of aluminum finally convinced him to rent a wheelchair.
- He lost the fourth man card by agreeing to anesthesia during back surgery.
- A flurry of cards fell when his post-op restrictions included a five pound weight limit, no driving, no twisting, and no excess bending.
- The final card hit the dirt when he had to accept the help of friends and neighbors who mowed our lawn, trimmed bushes, brought meals, and changed the dressing on his incision while I was gone for a few days.
But within a week of surgery he started to replenish his deck.
- He added a card immediately by refusing to fill any pain killer prescriptions and not taking one pill during his recovery.
- He gained another card by walking a mile on his second day post op and working up to four miles a day within a week of surgery.
- Another man card entered his deck when he spent five hours running sound at church less than two weeks after surgery.
- And at his two week post op appointment, he earned back three man cards when the driving restriction ended, the weight restriction went up to twenty pounds, and he started bending and twisting under the supervision of a physical therapist.
However, all those gains were nearly wiped out earlier today. Over the weekend, he hauled out the mower, and it wouldn’t start. He drained out the old gas and put in new. It still wouldn’t start. He cleaned the spark plug. Still no go. This morning, he bought a new spark plug. To no avail. Finally, he called the mower repair shop and asked them to pick it up.
With that, he lost almost every man card in his deck.
He’s hoping to win a few at his doctor’s appointment this morning. Maybe the you-can-start-exercising-a-lot card. Or the lift-anything-you-want card. Or best of all, the go-back-to-work-tomorrow trump card.
Things are gonna get ugly around here that doesn’t happen. But I’ve come up with the perfect solution for anybody who’s beating himself up for forgetting to send an anniversary card. You can send Hiram a man card instead!
Either that or a new mower. The perfect anniversary present for both of us!
by jphilo | Jun 29, 2012 | Daily Life
Discombobulated.
My adjective of choice after a discombobulated week that followed hard on the heels of a discombobulated month thanks to the man of steel’s back troubles. Sure, the surgeon used fancy-schmancy terms like “ruptured disk” and “disk extrusion.” But I knew he really meant Hiram’s back was…
Discombobulated.
This general term is more specific to our situation because though the doctor removed Hiram’s stitches on Monday, and said his recovery is going well, he also said the man of steel needs to be off work for at least two more weeks. So he can do physical therapy to strengthen his back. But when he’s not at physical therapy, he’s still puttering around. Which means his guitars are scattered throughout the house. Which makes me feel…
Discombobulated.
Don’t get me wrong. Having Hiram and his guitars around the house is pleasant. But his presence means I keep interrupting my work to ask him questions or tell him important stuff. Because writers take advantage of any distraction to avoid writing. Which means my daily writing routine is pretty…
Discombobulated.
My condition persists even though Hiram’s extra time off mean we were able to make a quick trip to Wisconsin to see Allen and Abbey earlier this week. Even though the extra time off means our upcoming trip Minneapolis for a baby shower won’t be rushed. Even though the extra recovery time means we can watch more episodes of Lost, which we became addicted to when Hiram couldn’t get around much. Even though I’m counting all those blessings, this creature of habit still feels…
Discombobulated.
Kinda like after we brought each of our babies home, and it took a few months to get used to the new normal. Except in this case, about the time I get used to the new normal, the doctor will say Hiram can go back to work. And I’ll sit around the house feeling…not lonely or aimless. No, I’ll once again feel…
Discombobulated.
