Day One Hundred Eighty Seven

My final guest blogger in this series is my daughter, who thinks I deserve one more day off.


As many of you may or may not know I, Jordan, Kim's daughter, have been in the hospital for the past 17 days.  This stay has been split between two cities.  My mother, as you can imagine, is exhausted from being my advocate, support, and right hand woman these past traumatic days.  She spent her Gypsy Wagon fund on a hotel room in SF so she could stay with me.  Trust me, she'll again amass the money and you'll all get to share in her joy when she builds it and hits the road.  Like she always says, she's just like a mountain goat; she just puts one hoof in front of the other and stays on the path and if you do that diligently, you eventually get somewhere grand.  Today is Thanksgiving, and I am thankful that I have the most amazing, benevolent, kind woman as my mother.  


Today on the drive home, my mom and I exchanged funny stories from years past to both pass the time and stay awake.  This is one of my favorite stories from long ago...


I have three aunts on my mother's side, all of whom I love dearly.  My Favorite Aunt, and no, I'm not picking favorites, that is what she INSISTS on being called, came to house sit whilst my parents vacationed and left the pesky children at home.  At this particular time in my childhood we had about ten chickens that we had in a portable chicken coop, called a chicken tractor.  We were directed to open the pen and then move it to give the chickens new places to scratch and fertilize.  Bear in mind, in the third grade I had to tell the class about my pets, and six chickens, six ducks, five birds, two cats, one fish, and a dog later the class was amazed that one person could have so many pets! 


Out of ten chickens we had one rooster and he was awful!  Once you opened the door the rooster would proceed to either peck your ankles or attack the hens.  My mother devised the ingenious plan to place a plastic light saber that my brother had outgrown by the back door with which you would proceed to bop the rooster on the head upon its exit as to stun it to save the hens and your ankles.  When Favorite Aunt came to babysit once, she was mortified that we would harm such an innocent creature in such a cruel manner!  My eldest brother then kindly suggested that she take on the task of pen moving without the light saber, which she eagerly agreed to do.  Five minutes later a hysterical Aunt rushed in the door with a bleeding ankle and a resolve to not question my mother's pet raising ways.


It's these kind of stories that keep me going when times get hard.  I have a thousand memories like this from my childhood and I pull them out to give me strength when I need it.  My mom and I are taking the day off and she'll be back to giving away things tomorrow.  I want to thank everyone for the well wishes and support during this difficult time for not only me, but my family as well.  It is my sincere hope that you have all had a relaxing and delicious Thanksgiving.  I'm thankful for my mother on this particular day, and I hope you all had a moment to take a moment to be thankful for something on this glorious day!  Happy Turkey Day!


Tomorrow I list 35 things.  Thanks to Jordan for the sweet blog entry and for being a wonderful, loving, amazing daughter.  I'm grateful for my family and my children and my amazing friends.  I am truly blessed.


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