FRENCH I  AM......

Some years ago when moving to Hannibal and than getting engaged to a farmer from Ralls County, I was told, LaBon, what kind of name is that.  You aren't from here, are you!!!!   It was not a question as you may note by the exclaimation mark I used.  So LaBon, no, it is a FRENCH name, my great grandfather's name in fact, and my dear materal grandmother's maiden name.  

When I got divorced after 23 years, I asked my children if it was okay with them to change my name.  I believe they thought I would change it back to my maiden name.  However, my parents had long since disowned me when I became a Christian.  I did not fit into their life either, name or not.  They were atheist.  So I did change it, to LaBon, after speaking with my aunts about it.  They thought it was wonderful.  You see, Franc LaBon only had three daughters and they all married.  No more lineage of LaBon from them by name anyway.  I thought this a way to carry on my FRENCH heritage and also  the name.

My paternal grandparents also came from FRANCE, in fact, in the same area of the country, Alsace/Lorraine area which is North Eastern FRANCE, up against the German border.  It was an area of much trouble for years so it seems generations left the area and the country.  But I have carried on many traditions from grandparents and also from learning about and visiting this wonderful country.

LaBon, yes, and do I care if I fit into the area I now live.  Absolutely not.  I care about my heritage and my little world here, and it does not matter to me which county I come from, as if Ralls is such a great county.  Most places say the city they are near, but in this rural area, it is the county.  

When I visit other places, they like me for who I am, not where I came from.  It is good to be proud of your heritage, including the place you came from or family came from, but don't exclude others.  Our country is known for welcoming all.  I still want it to be that way.  I also would like to be welcomed, but know, even after 24 years, I am not and will not be as I don't have their high school stories, etc.  I have my own and find it sad they don't want to listen to them.  They would be so overwhelmed to have gone to the large high school I did, and traveled as I have, and lived so many different and wonderful places also.  

But that is all my story, and FRENCH I AM.  

WRITINGS AND RAMBLINGS:

This plan to do more on my blog went well for a very brief time and then I slipped again.  Yes, I do like to write and have been doing some other things in my space at home, but challenge myself to do more.  A good friend encouraged me to write more as she always says I have much to say as a deep thinker and encourager.

Nice things to say, but also some hard times with family as of recent, which causes me to think about toxic people.  This is the first year that I did not invite family or friends for an Easter Sunday meal at our home.  Instead my husband and I headed to a friend's church to be what some churches call the C and E Christians, Christmas and Easter.  However, I do not fit this mold they would like to place me in just because I no longer attend weekly anywhere and don't even care to.  I no longer fit the mold of the "organized church", but I do fit with GOD, maybe even more that I don't.  So my friend's church would not label me, and I was comfortable.  Than we headed to a local restaurant for a nice meal.  The fun part was that there were lots of people we knew, our age, that could be having meals at home or with family, but were not.  I felt better with that also.  With all those activities, we headed home for a good afternoon nap time.  

All in all, my Easter was a great day, a transition of age, time and also attitude.  I no longer care to try to please everyone at my expense.  I no longer want to try to have people come to my home and watch that they treat each other with respect.  I do expect it from them but they do not always do so to each other which I believe is not showing me as the host respect either.  After sharing this with my grown children and some friends, I concluded that the next holiday which they always expected to come to at my  home, I would not entertain and did not.  

I say, yes, yes, yes, to my new move as I realized that just because people are related does not mean that they are not some of the toxic people of my world.  This will no longer be tolerated by this woman who has recently turned 69.  Just saying,  "It is time!"    

Hoping you all had a happy spring holiday also, whatever you call it, Spring Time, Easter, Passover, etc.

And, I really will try to do better on my blog.

PLANTING.......THOSE WHO GARDEN, GROW.

Large gardens are "grand", but we just don't need the work or the produce.  I still like planting and growing and eating the home grown things also.  

Each time I think I am cutting back on my plots, I decide to plant something else.  My garden now is a six foot square around the flag pole.  I can plant tomatoes, peppers, a cucumber plant and some herbs which is plenty for our enjoyment and my keeping up with the hoeing and weeding and watering.  This year I plan to put all of that in and than on the edge plant some lettuce and also a row of pretty sunflowers.  It will all fit.

My potato patch has been able to hold "too" many rows of potatoes, even if they are delicious.  I also used to plant a fall potato patch, but cut back on that last year.  This year I am doing 45 hills not 60 and on the edge of the patch I am putting in a row of yellow/orange raspberry bushes.  I know they take work, hoeing, weeding, but so do the potatoes.  The wild black raspberry patch in our woods behind the house do well all on their own, but I am thinking to maintain in a garden plot, I will have to work at it.  My other thought is that I could just plant them in the middle of the plot and let them take it over.  Those thoughts pass as I think of my delicious fresh red potatoes. 

With all this said, I like to garden, flowers, trees, plants.  I enjoy the work at a limited amount I can maintain in the neat fashion I like them to be in.  I have several flower beds that I also have to maintain but they are looking so much better since I cut back and have retired.  Each day I can get out and putty in the gardens and enjoy my "hobby" of gardening.  It is no longer a job to produce all I can for our family, to eat, to can, to freeze.  It is a fun exercise of "loving" these plants and enjoying my country life.

Even if you can only have some patio plants, go for it.  Enjoy the green, watching them bloom and maybe even produce something to eat.  You learn to appreciate sunshine and rain also when you grow.

Country Katie and Daisy Mae.....plus many  more.

Because I loved my Daisy Mae Foxhound so much, she seems to still be very much a part of my life, but today I was thinking as I was old walking, without this grand walking companion, that it has been since August of 2015 that I have not had her.  If you have every been attached to an animal friend, I am certain you can understand when I say that there are reminders of her all around.  I have pictures and some little ceramic statues, a scrap book, and than, the wonderful memories as I look at things in my life.

Hemingway, a little yorkie mix, came to live with us some five months later.  It was hard to think of getting another dog, or getting attached to another dog.  My Hemingway is very much loved and admired for sure.  He has stole my heart.  I look at him and tell him that it is because of Daisy Mae Foxhound and other dogs before her that I brought him home.  The Humane Society told me that he would steal my heart.  They knew me well because I did volunteer work down there and also found my Daisy Dog there.  I should say that they both found me, both Daisy Dog and Hemingway.  

Then we needed to have a more playful dog as a companion for Hemingway as he is such a busy dog.  We again went to the Humane Society and told them what we needed or what Hemingway needed and we were introduced to Mr. Molesley, a two year old Italian Greyhound.  So I was back to another hound, but he acts and looks nothing like a hound.  Hemingway did a good job in picking him out.

A few months after that Vincent came to live with us.  A friend had purchased him at a puppy mill in Indiana and he was a mess, but she was also a mess, never having a puppy, only grown dogs.  She had him five days and was crying for help.  She had him in the car and was putting posters up to get rid of him.  I took one look at her and knew that I really did not care if I helped her out of her mess.  As a psychologist, she just should have known better is my thought.  I did feel so sorry for him.  She called him Cody, but I already knew that could not be his name.  I purchased him from her so she would not want to claim him after we welcomed him home and he was all trained and grown.  I admit it seems I have lost her friendship, but not his.  He is a mighty little Maltese and fun little boy who plays well with both of the other guys.

For this woman who has mostly had hounds, we are all paired up well, and these three little guys came to me and rescued me.  They are the joy of my days and snuggled friends during my nights.  They make me laugh and cry and enjoy my every days.  This country life is made better with my little boys who I call my three (four-legged) sons.  

It just seems that I know that my Daisy Mae Foxhound would be so pleased that these three little guys have rescued me and also come to enjoy the good home that she so enjoyed.  

Mr.  Molesley

 Hemingway and Vincent

Good Country Living Day...........

As I still await any winter weather here in NE Missouri, I also enjoy being able to go out for walks and not wear boots.  There is a trade off for things, and I do not mind boots, but it is much easier walking in shoes.  The sun is shining and it is about 50 degrees today.  I just told my husband that this winter season has been somewhat disappointing as I like snow and some cold.   

But today is February 1, and I am feeling better from my long running cold/chest congestion.  Today I made two peach pies, yes with fruit from our orchard, and than from the freezer.  I also made three loaves of wonderful baguettes.  Roy and I had baguette slices hot out of the oven with nice rich butter.  It just does not get any better than that.

My outdoors may look gloomy without some snow, but life in rural Missouri still is grand.  As I plan to take a three day trip to the big city, my favorite, Chicago, by train, I still look at it as a treat to see and experience the big city.  But live there, no way.  Someone has to but I am glad it is not me.

I will take the huge flocks of snow geese flying overhead all day today.  I will take the woodpeckers rapping on the trees, and the finches eating merrily in our many feeders.  I will even take the howl of a coyote at night or even early morning.  Now and than I hear the screech of a bobcat over at our farm, and I will take that also even if it is an erry sound.  

Country life......almost as good as my hot baguette bread slices with rich butter.....well, at least a good match.

TOO FAST THE TIME DOTH GO....

Winter does not seem to have even come to my part of the country and it soon will be February.  I miss a good snow storm like I grew up with in Wisconsin.  Another thing about longer winters is that you get more projects done of cleaning and redoing things in the house, of sewing, quilting, knitting, and painting.  I find that I have not accomplished as much as I have planned for this season.  Maybe I planned more than I should have but as I get older, I almost feel like I have to speed up to get my projects finished.  My friend, Helga , always says that she and I always have so much creativity that we have to live to be 150 to finish it all.  

With thoughts of another quilt this winter, of wool work to applique, and of knitting and learning more about my painting, and  on and on, I also cannot help thinking about spring on this sunny cool day in January in Missouri.  I trimmed some of my houseplants and cut some of my indoor herbs.  My kitchen smelled so lovely, and I am grateful for the growth, which makes me think of growing which makes me think of garden, which makes me think of spring.  

It does not have to be spring for some time as I have lots to do indoors, but one cannot just think a little about it on such a pretty sunny day late in January.  

Challenge Myself.....

Do you believe that if you stay stagnant, you just grow older?   I tend to believe that and as of late, I have felt a bit older.  I have been sick for over a week now and it just brings me down.  But, as I feel some better each day now, I have been challenging myself.  It may be a challenge to just "undust" the furniture, or walk outside a little bit or throw out a pile of magazines.  It may be a challenge to finally fix a better meal instead of soup and sandwiches.  Actually one night we had mac and cheese and fried spam.   Wow, for this person who prides herself on being a wonderful cook, I sure can slip fast.

Challenging comes in more forms than what I mentioned above.  I need to challenge myself to set boundaries with people who I do not want to set boundaries with because they are my family, husband, and children and grandchildren.  Challenge myself to say no more and yes to myself more often.  Challenge myself to expect more respect from them. 

Challenging goes to what I do also.  Do I just keep doing the same things, or learn new things.  I am a learner and you might saw I have "learned" that about myself.  So I have to challenge myself with the difficult things I have wanted to learn, more of my FRENCH, more of my wool applique work, more writing.  

Some people who are city dwellers probably think that I challenge myself enough by living in the country.  Some actually have never come for a visit because they think I live "too" far out in the country.  My comment to that is maybe they are not as good a friend as I thought.  But living in the country brings challenge and joy.  I challenged myself late last year to be home more and for weeks at a time so I can focus on my things in a better way.  I am enjoying that challenge.  That challenge makes people I know think I am becoming a hermit or recluse.  To each their own thoughts, but my thoughts are of days with the dogs, the freedom to do what I want and to listen to birds and the breeze in the trees.

So life is a challenge and even if I am 68, I will challenge myself to do all I can as I get to feeling better.  I challenge myself to be me, a country person who enjoys her own company.  Okay, I talk to myself a lot, but if someone sees me, I could say I am talking to the dogs.  In actuality, I even talk to the birds and the trees and the bees........

Challenge yourself right were you are at, and if you feel really courageous, I challenge you to spend more time in the woods.