Wow, it’s been a year since I’ve written something here. So let’s catch up.

My Life: Moving back to California to be near family, kids, grandkids, and now great grand children. Wonderful. I love it. We now have two, a girl and a boy, and another girl will be born in October. That’s the best life. I’m blessed and truly grateful. I had my 80th birthday last month, a truly terrific day.

My Writing: Mostly non existent. That too has to change. I’ve started my Memoir, Reflections of Me again. This time I began with, “My life ended at age 10″  At least I’ve started.

My Knitting: Getting better, learning a lot, making things that actually fit me, and having fun doing it. Right now, knitting for new great grand daughter, the baby shower is in two weeks, and I have to finish one more piece of knitting. A ball. I’ve already knitted a blanket, and a sweater and hats, and a baby bunting. Also knitting some short sleeve tops for me. Soon, starting on winter things.

I bought a Nook Color, and I love it. Buying too many books, and great apps both for me and the great grand kids…The last best book I read was, The Beautiful Girl. Took me a little while to get into the story, but then I couldn’t stop reading.  My two favorite games are Mah Jongg, and Word Twist.

Enough about me for now. Talk to you later. Have a wonderful day, make sure you take time out for you.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

Saturday afternoon is my husband’s party. He will be 80. That is a nice round number for anyone.

We are so pleased, proud, overjoyed, and blessed with our life. Our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are so special to us. Spending time with them is precious.

None of us realize how time quickly escapes us. I’ve noticed that I’ve become lazy, not writing at all. The yesterday I came across a letter written to my grand daughter in 1999, and I’m giving it to her again tomorrow. It is beautiful, in my opinion. But then, I was writing much of the time, and the words flowed easily. When I don’t write every day, it’s so much more difficult to express myself in terms of how I feel or what is important to me. I hope I will continue to write, as I’ve truly missed it.

The Genealogy is coming along. Slowly and painstakingly. It’s quite a job. Requires a lot of patience and checking and rechecking.  I have enlisted some help. We have uncovered a mystery that we are trying to solve, I suppose in time, it will check out.

In the meantime, be good to yourself and others. Always think about the caregivers in your community, they need friendship and help. Smiles help too.

Until next time, keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

I’ve been asked to include memoir notes for my family to read, along with the family tree information. So, what do you think?

Reflections Of Me

“My life story is my soul story. Minute memories, both wanted and unwanted, all revealed from my everyday ordinary existence.”

I thought that was a catchy beginning.

Going to the library to do research on my family tree tomorrow. I should be able to find out more about my family, which according to a cousin of mine, goes back eight or nine generations.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

I’m back after a long absence. What have I been doing? Well, after my new great granddaughter was born in November, we spent all our time over there, watching each minute new thing she did.

I also recalled that a cousin had sent us a genealogy chart of our family. I pulled it out and looked. My great granddaughter (supposedly) is the ninth generation in our family. Wow, that got me thinking.

I couldn’t knit anymore, since I had been in such a knitting frenzy for months, I developed Tendonitis in both hands. It served me right.

Could I start looking up the family tree? It’s a lot of work, looking on the computer at dozens of Census papers that are so small you can hardly read them. And then, are you sure you found the right person?

What the heck, I have the time, and obviously this is the right time in our family to do it. I knew all four of my grandparents, so that’s a help. I intend to write little stories to go with those memories.

How far back can I go? I wonder.

After all, we are all parts of our ancestors.

It’s always let go of the past, forgive and forget. Not this time, this time I want to remember all those good times with grandparents, parents, cousins, and I want to see how far back I can go and what made me the person I am.

I did a little short story about my father one day. This time was different, I put myself in his shoes, and saw why he did what he did.He wasn’t selfish, he was scared,

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

I have been working on several projects. Clearing out clutter from my office. Again. This time, however, I separated all my writing and put them into notebooks. The Memoirs are now separate from my short stories, which are separate from my ramblings.

I have this bad habit of writing something, putting it away, and not rereading or editing it and most times putting it into the wrong folders.

Now I am attempting to straighten all that out.

What will I do with them? I don’t know. But this year, I am dedicated to working on my writing. Who knows, maybe there is another book coming.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

When my husband was suddenly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease I was beside myself. How could I keep smiling when I was dying inside? How could I keep this insidious secret. We were strongly advised not to tell anyone about his condition, since he was still a viable 63 year old man and working both as a consultant and  serving on two Boards.

What to do? Immediately, I started a secret journal where I poured out my heart and everything I was feeling.

Seven long, hard years later the diagnosis was changed to AAMI, Age Associated Memory Impairment. How was this even possible? I don’t know, and truthfully, I don’t care.

I do know that I finally found the courage to show him my journal, and he said, “It’s beautiful, it’s you, and you should publish it.”

Wow, what a reaction. Some other people had opinions about the book also; go after the medical profession for misdiagnosis, fictionalize the book and make it more interesting, I guess.

I chose to publish my journal exactly as written, and Behind The Mask became a reality. After publishing it, I realized it was the perfect catalyst for Adopt A Caregiver.

More about that tomorrow night.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

Seeing my great granddaughter every day is the best medicine in the world. No matter how tired, no matter how much I’m hurting, she just worms her way into my heart . Every movement, every smile, every gas pain, is a joy to watch. She makes every day a wonderful day. A new experience.

Also getting caught up, for once, in my office, and my writing. It’s a huge job, since I have never worked on it before. I guess I am just ready now.

Going to relax now, sit and knit and be quiet. Maybe watch a movie on tv. with my husband.

He is going to be 80 this year, I will be 80 next year, and the following year, we will be celebrating our 60th Anniversary. Wow, isn’t that something to look forward to.

Happy, Healthy New year, stay safe.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

Clutter: the subject on my mind these days. My house is full of clutter, all kinds of clutter, pictures, family photos, books and papers. Since I’ve been in this house for over 6 months, I’ve been through my closet at least once, the books and papers also.

So,what’s my problem? I’m in love with my books, they are my friends, I just can’t get rid of them. I keep piling them up higher to make room for more and more and more. I wonder about myself sometimes. But, this is what makes me uniquely me.

Once more I’m going through everything. I forgot to mention the clutter

of my mind. All the things I want to do and talk about doing. I can’t cram them all in, but I’m making a dent because I’m doing exactly what I want to to exactly when I want and I’m cramming in more and more learning into the clutter.

I suppose without all this clutter, there would be no me.

I wrote this the last time I moved into a new house, that’s about 10 years ago.

This time, I have removed most of the things I talked about and I am proud that I now have room for myself and whatever it is I want.

I’m also ready to tackle new things and beginning now, I’m doing it.

Keep love and kisses in your life.

I have struggled with the answer to that question for years. For years I argued yes, keep them forever. And when I moved, I moved 15 years and many boxes of journals with me.

Why? For remembrance? For my kids and grandkids to spend hours, or years to read them all, or just take the time  to throw them  away.

At almost 79, I have decided I have the right to keep the writing or throw it all out. In my case, I decided it was time to get rid of them. I spent hours and hours tearing all those pages up. Was it worth it, I think so. They would only have to do that after I was gone anyway, so I saved them the trouble.

Instead I decided it was time to write my memoirs. I have started them two or three times already, but never got to get any of it done. Oh yes, there are half pages written, or notes on subjects I want to write about, little stories of my life that are worth sharing, so I have to start over and just write it. Now is the time.

I have led a life There are stories worth telling. Better than reading some old journals that might have pages that would hurt someone’s feelings, or that are just so boring with the everyday mundane events of my life on that day.

My life wasn’t boring and that is what I hope writing my memoirs will bring to life. I might even share one or two of my stories with all of you.

In the meantime, Happy and Healthy New Year.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene