May Welcome Message

May Welcome Message

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It’s May 13, 2013, and I am just now writing my May Welcome Message.

April was spent cleaning out my upstairs. I sorted through preschool toys for clearance from our home—holding onto a few for sentimentality and to have something in the even we have young guests, sorting out games, cleaning out closets and drawers. I still have

WP Daily Prompt: Helping Hand: A Handwritten Letter

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
WP DAILY PROMPT:

HELPING HAND: A HANDWRITTEN LETTER

The WordPress daily prompt for today, May 8, 2013 is Tell us about the most surprising helping hand you’ve ever received.

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Perhaps it isn’t the most surprising helping hand I’ve ever received. However, it is the first thought that comes to my mind.

The helping hand was one holding a pen, writing a letter, putting it in an envelope, stamping it and mailing it.

The letter dropped on the floor through our old-fashioned mail-slot. My husband Monte picked up the mail that day and handed me several pieces of mail. I sat down on the stairs to open it.

Davis was the name on the return address of one envelope.

Darn, I thought. “I just submitted my article on the Davis’s 50th wedding anniversary. The information in this letter had better be good if I am to recall the article and amend it.”

I slit open the flap and two pieces of paper fell out. This letter didn’t concern the newspaper article. It was from my father’s cousin in Florida and most likely contained something about my family genealogy.

I opened up one sheet. It was a genealogy, but I noticed the more recent section had more names on it than what I already had. What I read changed my perception of who I was and where I lived.

“Monte,” I said. “Bob is playing a trick on me.”

“Oh?” he questioned.

“Yes. Somehow he

Raspberries Lead to Enterpreneurship

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
RASPBERRIES LEAD TO ENTERPRENEURSHIP

bramble: a collection of a group of plants — such as blackberries and raspberries — that have thorns.*
They contain dietary fiber and high levels of antioxidants— substances that health experts believe protect cells in the body from damage that they say can lead to diseases such as cancer.
Production and consumption of blackberries, in particular, have been increasing in recent years,…*

Ahh—that last part, that production and consumption of blackberries…have been increasing…would have been good news for a young child who lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at the time when the 20th century was changing decades from the 1940s to the 1950s.

That child was me.

At the upper end of Spring Street, my home, there was a thick rambling thorny fruit patch. At some point I discovered its succulent blackberries and raspberries, and also discovered there was a market for them. I started picking blackberries and raspberries and selling them.

That was the second step in my entrepreneurship.

I had already discovered, at the age of 7-years-old, that I had another marketable item: a scar received from a severe appendectomy.

I don’t remember this marketing ploy but my older sister Nancy does. She tells me that after I recovered I offered to show the scar to people for a couple of pennies.

Inflation has raised the price in today’s world. Today I’m willing to show you my unique scar for 

WP Daily Prompt: Hi, Mom!

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
WP DAILY PROMPT 5/12/2013: HI, MOM!

The WordPress daily prompt for May 12, 2012, is Today is Mother’s Day in the United States. Wherever in the world you are, write your mother a letter.
Photographers, share a photo that says mothering.

I cannot think of a better letter to write to my late Mother other than the post I wrote on her 90th birthday, February 12, 2012: My Mother’s Special 90th Birthday Gift

However, I can add the following:

In August 2012 I had the opportunity to meet the first child you released for adoption. We had a delightful couple of hours on my patio. She is a kind, compassionate woman I think you could be proud of.

Thank you for the gift of two sisters whose existence was only confirmed since 2011.

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For the photography request I pulled

Mother’s Day 2013 Reflections

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
MOTHER’S DAY 2013
REFLECTIONS

Yesterday, my daughter Sandy, who lives just around the corner from my husband Monte and I, stopped by.

“You’ll have to get to bed early tonight,” she said.

“Oh,” I said.

“Yes, we have an 8:00 morning reservation for breakfast. It’s the only time I could get.”

As the day passed I thought about mothers and Mother’s Day.

With sadness I recalled my activities the first week of May. We were in the Buffalo, New York, area trying to be supportive of our surrogate daughter, Kathleen, who had just lost her 19-year-old niece. While Laken was driving home her car was T-boned by a tri-axle truck. The accident appeared to be no fault of Laken’s—the roadways and an allegedly speeding truck were the cause of the loss of what was to be—no, was—a positive person who had much to contribute to society. Laken’s last act was to donate her organs so others might benefit. That was the type person she was.

Today, so soon after the accident, must be unbearable to Laken’s mother. I cannot imagine how she will make it through the day, even with the tremendous support system she has, which includes her husband and son.

And I think of my sister who lost her son and many years later feels pain, especially on Mother’s Day.

I think back to my 1969 and 1970s Mother’s Days, days which were personally so painful that I stayed home from church, unable to rejoice in motherhood due to infertility problems.

In 1970 I worked doing adoption home studies in a neighboring county. During April I assisted in delivering a 5 pound baby girl to a couple. My supervisor and I went to the hospital to pick the baby up, and I left the maternity ward in a wheel chair with the infant in my arms.

“Congratulations. What a beautiful baby,” someone said to me as I was wheeled to the hospital exit.

“She’s not mine,” I snapped, at which my supervisor admonished me.

We drove to the adoptive family’s home, me with infant on my lap (it was prior to seat belt times). When we arrived at the baby’s new home my supervisor and I were invited into the house, where the new mother was anxiously awaiting. Instead of handing the baby over gently I almost threw her into the arms of the mother. However, I don’t think anyone noticed that action.

Little did I know then that, a month later, seven days after that year’s May 10th Mother’s Day, a 4 pound 11 ounce baby girl would be born. This baby was to be ours, to be our daughter Sandy.

 

Sandy and Carolyn, June 1970

Sandy’s arrival made my May 9, 1971, Mother’s Day joyful. Shortly after that Mother’s Day, we discovered that the stomach flu I had was morning sickness. Our son, Nolan, was born January 18, 1972.

Nolan and Carolyn, January 1972

Our family was complete. Years later surrogate children would come into the fold, but Mother’s Days became a celebration from 1971 on.

There were other special Mother’s Days. I had a friend in one community we lived in who was experiencing infertility issues. She created a Mother’s Day escape for herself and other infertile women and couples by designing a

WP Daily Prompt: Success! My April Fool’s Prank

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
WP DAILY PROMPT: SUCCESS! MY APRIL FOOL’S PRANK

The WordPress daily prompt for May 8, 2013 was Success! Tell us about a time where everything you’d hoped would happen actually did.

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I haven’t pulled a decent April Fool’s Day joke in forever. Until one recent year.

To me a decent prank must be believable and harmless. One year I told my sister that my daughter was pregnant. My sister reminded me of that when she heard of the joke I pulled this year. She’d remembered. I’d forgotten.

Several women in my community meet weekly for a simple dinner and lots of socialization. No responsibility. Taking turns preparing something. It’s fun and offers an opportunity to know each other better. We’ve compared ourselves to the Golden Girls and jokingly call ourselves the W(h)iners 

In 2011 we happened to gather on April 1. I spent most of that Saturday trying to figure out a decent prank. I could think of nothing.

Then the proverbial light-bulb lit the room. I went to an upstairs dresser drawer and pulled out a removable

Mother’s Day—Children’s Stories & Poems

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

MOTHER’S DAY

CHILDREN’S STORIES & POEMS

For children (of all ages) I surfed the Internet and found the following sites with stories, poems, and finger plays that provide Mother’s Day entertainment, especially when waiting to see what sweetheart messages await the reader.

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JOKES

For weeks, a six-year old lad kept telling his first-grade teacher about the baby brother or sister that was expected at his house. One day, the mother allowed the boy to feel the movements of the unborn child. The six-year old was obviously impressed, but made no comment. Furthermore, he stopped telling his teacher about the impending event. The teacher finally sat the boy on her lap and said, “Tommy, whatever has become of that baby brother or sister you were expecting at home?” Tommy burst into tears and confessed, “I think Mommy ate it!”

More   http://festivals.iloveindia.com/mothers-day/mothers-day-humor.html

CHILD SENT TO BED
A small boy is sent to bed by his mother…
[Five minutes later]
“Mom…”
“What?”
“I’m thirsty. Can you bring me a glass of water?”
“No. You had your chance. Lights out.”
[Five minutes later]
“Mom…”
“WHAT?”
“I’m THIRSTY…Can I have a glass of water??”
“I told you NO! If you ask again I’ll have to spank you!!”
[Five minutes later]
“Mommm…”
“WHAT??!!”
“When you come in to spank me, can you bring me a glass of water?”

More   http://www.mothersdaycelebration.com/mothers-day-humor.html#mothers-day-thoughts-and-quotes

My mom had been getting on my little sisters about not picking up their clothes. I was sitting in my room, and heard my mom say, “Who left all this underwear all over the floor?”
As innocently as an angel, my sister Anne replied,

How to Write About a Mountain Top Experience

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

HOW TO WRITE ABOUT

A MOUNTAIN TOP EXPERIENCE

Including Schoodic Mountain, Laurel Mountain,

and Stone Mountain

I recently spent a week researching mountaineering and writing about a mountain summit experience.

Not that I plan on becoming a mountaineer. However, a Madame Rosalie de Leval, a character in my novel, climbed Schoodic Mountain in Hancock County, Maine, as a means to view the expanse of land—200,000 acres—she had a tentative contract to purchase from top land speculators in 1791.

The writing will be a chapter in my novel-in-progress, and I wanted to use it at a book reading in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.

The ocean at Wallis Sands Beach, Rye, N. H.

I’ve always been an ocean person who never gave a thought to mountains. Since my husband’s retirement I’ve driven over and through the mountains of the Laurel and Chestnut ridges in  the northern Appalachian mountain chain in Southwestern Pennsylvania.  I even live in a foothill of Laurel Mountain (on the Laurel Ridge). Yet I never considered climbing Laurel Mountain, although Monte did one year with a peace group.

The Laurel Ridge from Kentuck Knob, PA

We drive through the mountains in New Hampshire, and have driven up Mt. Washington and Cadillac mountains, and by the accident of making a wrong I arrived at the ski slopes at Killington Mountain in Vermont. Our family lived five minutes away from Stone Mountain outside Atlanta, a gigantic rock outcropping that was identified as a mountain. Even having all these experiences I never had an attraction for mountains, and  I never considered becoming a mountaineer.

I finally climbed a mountain—Schoodic Mountain. I did it to

My Swimming Student’s Grade

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

MY SWIMMING STUDENT’S GRADE

In high school I was a swimming teacher. I only had one student.

I was a student volunteer in the swimming class that semester. The swimming teacher assigned me to work one-on-one with a student who was deathly afraid of the water.

Week by week the student, whom I’ll call Joyce, refused to  approach the water, Meanwhile, all the other students were working on advancing their swimming skills one more notch, from beginner to intermediate, intermediate to advanced, etc.

It took much coaching and patience to entice her to step to the edge of the pool, then to sit on the pool edge. After more enticing and she

Life is Unfair: Two College Grades

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

LIFE IS UNFAIR: TWO COLLEGE GRADES

It’s that time of year—raindrops fall on the ground as spring flowers wave in the breeze, showing off colors that no spring fashion show can equal. Restless youth, imprisoned in secure school buildings as the sun warms the air.

It’s the time that final school grades are revealed to students.

I’ve heard many students complain that their grades are unfair. Actually, I was one of them while I was in college—not once but twice.

The first experience occurred during the first year of my marriage. I’d done the penultimate—my first four-year college degree was an Mrs. I’d returned to college with an Associate in Applied Science degree from Erie County Technical Institute and several years of working experience. I returned to college because I realized another major—occupational therapy—was a more fitting career for me than being a medical laboratory technician.

We met officially In December, became engaged in June, and married in September.

That fall I enrolled in a woodworking II course. My project was a toy box—chosen in anticipation of my future children. I felt fortunate that my neighbor made his basement workshop available to me, allowing me to take my time on the project and to make a cutout of a squirrel that I added to the toy box.

The finished project was impressive—at least, to me. It must have been just as impressive to my professor, because when I received my grade it was