Sentimental

Most of my life I didn't consider myself to be very sentimental. My dad's mom used to give my mom a hard time for getting rid of things (my grandma was positively a pack rat), but honestly I have been even more prone to purging than my mom. My mom certainly was sentimental about certain things, which was proven when we went through her belongings last August. For example, we discovered boxes full of napkins and placemats on which her dad had written her notes over the years. Becoming a mom definitely lead me to become sentimentally attached to more things. Paul, who dubbed me the chucker years ago (he also leans toward the pack rat side of things), was amazed when I wanted to hold on to SO many of the kids baby clothes. I saved a few of their toys, but I really didn't feel sentimentally attached to any of their toys. In the past year I have now become very sentimental toward things from my mom. I think of her when I see them, and it's hard for me to part with them (example selling Nadia's bike from my parents that she had outgrown). When I wear her jewelry or clothes, I feel more connected with her. That probably is an illogical statement, but it's true for me emotionally. Yesterday on Mother's Day I purposefully wanted to wear several of her things. The top I wore yesterday as well as the onyx bracelet and onyx pendant (that I put on one of my own necklaces) had been hers. I didn't think of it when I was getting dressed, but the skirt I was wearing was one she had bought for me several years ago for Easter. We had shopped for it together in Bowie. I think it was probably the last outfit she bought me. Anyhow I am amazed I am becoming a more sentimental person. I don't predict though that I'm going to become a pack rat. I still find great delight in taking things to a thrift store or selling them on Facebook. I still have a very strong dislike of clutter.

I cried a few times yesterday, but in general it was a happy day. I cringed when they asked all the moms to stand up in church. I wish churches wouldn't do that. I cried a little when singing the choir anthem "It is well," but honestly that is one of my favorite hymns and I often getting a little weepy in that one it's just so emotional for me to think about the words. Someone made a joke during a rehearsal that our President made it into the hymn ("the trump shall resound"), and our director said if it was about Donald Trump it should say "The Trump shall retweet"). We were at Paul's parents house for about 5 1/2 hours, and his brother and sister-in-law were also there. The kids came to me at one point and said - you and Grandma are the only adults awake as Daddy, Uncle Al, Aunt Millie, and Pop Pop were all asleep. Pop Pop and Uncle Al took shorter naps than Paul and Millie. Paul had slept most of the afternoon on Saturday also. I had brought my laptop to their house and spent a lot of time trying to finish a big Shutterfly order I had been working on for a few days that I submitted last night. The total before coupons would have been $634.15, but I actually paid $2.89. I doubt I'll have one as big as that again in the future because a couple of the reward programs where I earned codes have gone away recently.

I gave Grandma a photobook for Mother's Day. The kids had each made her a Mother's Day/ 50th anniversary card. Ian and Nadia also gave her their cardinals (artwork), and each child also filled out a paper about Grandma. I was the scribe for Oliver. He said Grandma was 5 years old. The other two were closer (they said 70/71 but she's actually 72). Oliver said she weighs 60 pounds. Ian said her favorite game is chess (nope!), but they did get some things right. Nadia asked me to print out one so she could fill out one for me. She said I weigh 80 pounds. I hope SOME year the kids get the idea to make me cards or write me a note or pick me some dandelions or something for Mother's Day. I would really appreciate it. I haven't had my picture taken with the kids in a year so I was hoping that would happen also, but we didn't get around to that yesterday. Hopefully some time in the next several weeks we can do that. We haven't had a family photo taken in two years (of all five of us in the same photo), but our church is getting a photo directory next month so our picture will be taken then. Yay!

Paul stopped at the hardware store and bought some strawberry roots on Saturday. I planted most of them today and gave some of them to a neighbor. I haven't totally finished the project. I bought some fertilizer this evening, and I need to spread the dirt out some more and put some mulch on top. I do not profess to be a farmer or gardener; hopefully next year we will get some strawberries. On Wednesday I want to plant the blueberry plants. I started to paint Nadia's GPS box today, as it's her costume for the musical next weekend. They have dress rehearsals on Friday night and Saturday morning. I ran out of black paint, but I got some more tonight while Nadia was warming up with her softball team. My lack of "craft" skills are probably going to be very obvious when this is done. I will give it my best shot, but my best isn't very good when it comes to making things with cardboard and paint. It didn't help that I couldn't find Paul's box cutter.

The weather was beautiful today; on Saturday it was miserable while Nadia, Oliver, and I were at Ian's soccer game. It rained the whole time and the temperature was about 49 degrees. Oliver's game was rescheduled for tomorrow night. We had planned to go to Knoebels on Saturday. We had six free handstamps good for that day only, but given it was cool and raining, we decided to stay home. Hopefully we'll make it to Knoebels at least one more time, especially since Oliver didn't ride any rides the last time we went due to his poor behavior.

Paul came home early today so he could take his car to the dealer. The bill was over $600. Ouch. We have spent over $1,200 on his car thus far this year. Thankfully we haven't spent any money on repair bills for the van yet this year. Hopefully his car won't need anything else aside from oil changes the rest of the year. We're trying to save up enough money to trade his vehicle in before it hits 200,000 miles, which we figure will happen in about 24 months. We've had that Prius for seven years. It's only been in one accident (when Paul collided with the dead deer). It was my car for the first two years, and then in September 2012 when we bought the van and traded in Paul's Civic, it became Paul's car. I'm thankful it gets great gas mileage considering Paul drives 100 miles a day six days a week.