The Family Barbecue

Good morning.

Previously, I could post here every day, sometimes more than once a day, even when absolutely nothing was happening, when I really had absolutely nothing to say or talk about. But now, after deleting it all, I don't know, I can't seem to do that. I feel like I need a topic.




Hmmmm....




Ok, so this weekend we had a little family barbecue. I slaved my ass off. I forced Hubby and Little R to slave their asses off as well. I was the usual freaking maniac with them. As always, I leave everything to the very last minute. I sit here all week telling myself there isn't that much to do really, its no big deal. No sweat right. Then I think I have a big jump on things when I stay up half the night baking birthday cakes and cooking the potatoes and eggs for salads. HA!! Then come the day, the dog always wakes me up too early. I'm all casual for 2 hours having coffee and "waking up". Next thing I know its 11 a.m and NOTHING is done! Ok still under control, not that much to do, no biggie right. I'll go to clean the washroom, thinking all I have to do is clean the toilet, sweep the floor, a general wipe of the counter. Then I notice the walls! I end up spending a whole hour just in the washroom and it still isn't really good enough for me. Every room I go in I notice more and more cleaning I've neglected. Every little thing I ask the Hubby and Little R to do, they don't do good enough and I'm doing it over right behind them, freaking out on them all the way. It always starts with wiping a spot on a wall and then its so noticable I have to wipe down the whole damn wall. Meanwhile, none of the food is being prepared etc. By the time guests start to arrive, we're all traumatized, near nervous breakdown mode, exhausted and pissed off at each other. The same thing happens every time! You would think I would learn. But then once we start visiting and talking with our guests, we all cheer up and forget the trauma, until next time. Thats one reason I always tell Big R to arrive a little early, hehe, I put her to work and she helps out. Thats what family is all about. Speaking of Big R...man, she seemed so mature, all grown up, not my kid any more, but a true young lady. She has her own life. She is taking care of herself. She doesn't NEED me! That hurts. But thats what I wanted all along. She's happy and self sufficient, my job is done. I've really had to face facts the last year or so, that I am OLD, that I'm NOT perfect, that some day my kids really won't need me. Cripes, as with the rest of my family, I only see them a couple of times a year. I more or less refuse to go down to the city any more. My oldest sister got away with that when she moved up to Gravenhurst, but she doesn't drive and thats a lot further away than I am. At any rate, it was great to see everyone. I think we'll make the effort to get up to my sisters place before the summer is over. If I start now, maybe the house will be presentable for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we can have company without all the trauma. Yeah right.




The rose I transplanted has bloomed. I don't remember what the flowers looked like in previous years, and am not sure if this is how they're supposed to look or if moving it did this to it. Something is eating my Clematis grrrrrrr. I did spray it, but then realized I was using a fungicide not an insecticide. One of the Dahlias given to me is starting to bloom and its purple! Yippee! No pictures of that yet, I'm waiting for it to fully open. But here's the rose...





And my yellow rose...

I did notice yesterday that all my gardens looked a little neglected, need weeding. With all the rain lately, I just haven't been out there. Thats on my list of things to do this week.

Before deleting everything, I had mentioned Big R telling me about a blog she had been reading for several years, she provided a link to it on her blog, so I got to check it out. This guy has quite the following! There was 166 comments on the last post! There were a lot of folks who said they had been reading it for years. Amazing. The gist of the post was, he wasn't sure he was going to carry on with it, it was affecting his personal life (go figure), some people who know him in real life can't distinguish the difference of crap written in a blog and the person they know in real life. I think people without blogs don't really understand. It is mostly random babbling of random thoughts etc. Its not to be taken too seriously, but some people, those without blogs I believe, do take it all too seriously. Its venting. Like I also said previously, its almost kind of therapeutic. So yeah, it was nice to finally get into read Big R's blog too, I have been unable to get into it under my own sign up name for months. I got a lot of catching up done last night reading it. She doesn't tell me any of this stuff! I think, she thinks, I've been reading it all along and so expects me to know about all this stuff going on in her life, which actually I am totally unaware of.

Speaking of reading, I finished the first Laura Ingalls Wilder book "The Farmer Boy", which is a story about her husbands childhood, growing up on a pioneer farm. I absolutely loved it! Now its back to the psycho killer book, "The Shoemaker". I used to love this kind of book, they've always been disturbing to me, but at the same time facinating. Now I'm just finding it disturbing. Not enjoying it much. But as I've said, once I start a book, I HAVE to finish it, even if it takes me weeks, even if I read other books at the same time. My own little obsession....

I'm off to start my day. Have a lovely day!