SOAR to Success in SOCIAL WORK

Can Difficult be Positive?

 

Home again in New Orleans, our "Good Things" Jar was deposited in its original home in the middle of the lace-covered kitchen table. Eight months away is a long time. Today or tomorrow could be the day to start pulling papers to see our year in review, but today and tomorrow are days for me to go with the flow. We shall see. Just sitting here at my round table beside the window; I know there are a few more good things I want to add before 2014 escapes us. It's been quite a year. It's been a difficult year. But, I often find that as difficult as things are is as positive as they can be in the long run. Stay tuned for more good things and thensome.

 

 

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It's been a rough couple of holiday seasons for my family. We did our best to make them special. We tried building new traditions to be celebrated in a new place, but it was beginning to feel pretty hopeless. This year, Kat and I agreed that we would not make ourselves crazy trying to do too much. We agreed to make it as easy on ourselves as possible.

 

 

 

With THE day approaching, it suddenly hit me how much fun it would be to have Mike and John join us for the holidays. All it took was: a mention; a few check-ins on both sides; booking the flights; et, voila...I was picking them up at Lambert International on the morning of the 23rd. 

 

Of course, I know that changing the composition of any group impacts the whole of the original group. Our "whole" was majorly impacted. It made no difference if it was cousins on Christmas Eve, Mom and Dad at Hidden Lake on Christmas Day, or friends and siblings around the kitchen table over morning coffee that rolled right on in to pizza lunches; John and Mike spread cheer wherever they went.

 

 

 

 

It seemed that: 411 was a living, breathing place for the first time in way more than the 2 years that Mom and Dad have been at Hidden Lake; Mom was feeling special and didn't talk about everything being the "pits"; Kat was smiling; cousins were "cohesing" and planning a 2015 summer trip to see me in France; and, I'd had friends come for the holidays for the first time in all of my 60 years. Hmmm, guess I should have been doing this long before now!

 

 

Huge Merci to Mike and John for coming for Christmas AND becoming part of our family. I know you don't necessarily see what I see, but this was our nicest Christmas in a very long time. 

 

 

 

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...in Ferguson this year. All of my good intentions for Christmas and Holiday cards have gone by the wayside this season so far. Mike, John and I will be heading out to Hidden Lake later this afternoon to spend the afternoon with Mom and Dad, Kat and Tom, and a few friends may drop in. Tomorrow-rental car pick-up-Saturday head to Madison to stay with Glenn and Bill-and then on Sunday-head on into Covington New Orleans.

 

With a week between return and teaching; I'm going to find a quiet corner at the Napoleon House and write my very late holiday cards to Europe. Ah, to not be so busy.Ah, to be back in Cadrieu for my most peaceful Christmas past.

 

Love to All, and Happy Holidays-Laury and Sammie Cat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Baseball Bears in a Bag Caper

 

My folks love collectibles. You name it. We probably have a gang of them somewhere at 411. When Mom arrived for her sleep-over last week, finding the bag of baseball bears was at the top of her list. Dad wanted to give them out to the gang at  Assisted Living.

We found them. We thought about putting ribbons on them (there were over 30-way too much work). But then Mom realized just how heavy the bag was. Instead, Kat and I brought them on Saturday. We became the Baseball Bear deliverers. 

You might think this would an easy proposition. Dad had some he had already chosen for special people before bear arrival. ("Ruth" got the Babe Ruth Bear.) Then, how would they know that the bears were from Mom and Dad? It started with Kat and I knocking on doors, chatting a bit and then just putting them on the nearby ledge, door handle, stockings, etc.

As you can imagine, this was not exactly what we had in mind for our holiday celebration with Mom and Dad. But, it was important to them and we did what we could.

 

 

When we spoke on Sunday morning, Dad was proud that they'd completed their mission. All the bears were delivered, and I think they enjoyed getting to be Santa just a little bit this season. Happy Holidays!

 

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Potholder Secrets and Potholder Potholes

 

Back when I was working contracts that sent me to work with families and children on various military bases in Europe; I most enjoyed working with children during arts and crafts. At one of the bases in Germany, the middle school kids were making potholders. I worked closely with the base staff person on that project, but even so...it was impossible to get the kids to complete the technique above that saves your potholder weave from totally falling apart.

Look closely at the loom in the first shot and the three potholders above in the second. You'll notice the technique. It's a simple one that I'm very grateful for. In fact, you couldnt even begin to make the rug without it. All you do is:

Leave the end loom notch empty for each potholder you're making

Weave your every other loops over and under the remaining notches with the stationary loops

When you're finished with your over and under loops, go to the empty notches (8 that will hold 4 loops) and weave your loop THROUGH each loop, NOT over and under.

This allows you to remove the potholder from the loom WITHOUT losing all of your hard weaving work. It means you don't waste any time trying to recreate the weave you've lost as you try to finish the potholder and remove it from the loom. I can generally make one potholder every 30 minutes or so.

With the rug, you leave the potholder unfinished and then you are able to hold them and attach them together.

As excited as I was about attaching two together; is as bummed as I was about trying to get the four corners on the inside of the rug to come together in a neat and flowing manner. After many attempts, I resigned myself to the spaghetti of loops that came together in very bizarre ways in the center. I'm still not sure what the best approach would be. The outside border came together much more easily, and looked okay, but not as neat as I'd have liked. I guess it's time to "google" or "phone a friend" for help.

Even so, Mom was excited and so pleased when she saw it. One side definitely looks better than the other, but it wasn't bad for a first effort. I'm not surrendering. I'll keep you posted. 

 

 

 

Holiday Challenges

 

 

Broken biscotti. Attaching potholders. What's a girl to do, but take the plunge and do her best?

Making my biscotti for the first time, I learned: use the same sized cookie sheets; don't take calls from friends while baking; pay attention to how your babies look in the oven because the time is definitely too long if they're burning on the bottom; and don't let them cool too long because they're a little harder to cut. My second batch was excellent, but close to half of them broke before I could get them off the cooling rack. They all went to live in the bowl for broken biscotti!

 

 

While Mom was here we did try "potholdering" together. Still hoping to make a rug; we learned that we didn't need both looms to attach the potholders. But, by the time we both figured that out we were exhausted. Mom described to me what she thought I needed to do. I thought I understood. Et, voila...so far so good. Now, to finish 3 more and figure out what's next in the attachment department. Aren't those borders pretty?

Stay tuned for the finished product.

 

 

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Only Good Things, Or?

 

Coming up on the end of 2014 AND getting ready to head back to New Orleans in a little more than a week, means the Good Things Jar has been in and out of my hands and all over 411. I looked at the almost overflowing post-its, torn off sheets of paper, folded two sided photos, and trinkets. I laughed. One would think it was a very "good" year for me by the amount of the contents of my Good Things Jar. 2014 has been a struggle at every turn. That very full Good Things Jar is an indicator of just how hard I had to work to focus on the positive this year. 

And then, there it was...a baby picture of a man that I worked with when I volunteered in the Buddy Program at the NO/AIDS Task Force years ago. I also have a sweet one of him when he was a little older, and a copy of his last driver's license. He lives in my Good Things Jar every year. 

 

I've shared his story before, but this one bears repeating:

Bedbound at Project Lazarus, I'd go to see him on a regular basis. Christmas of '91, Mom, Dad, and Kat came down to celebrate with us. I took Mom with me to Project Lazarus and the two of them became big friends.I knew that Mom was writing to him. Then one day, when I came for a visit he said: "I talked to Mom today." Now, I knew his Mom was dead and that they say that when we're ready to pass on it isn't unusual for us to begin seeing/feeling those we love who have already passed on. I said, "Sweetie, your Mom is dead." He looked at me like I was crazy and said: " No, you know. Mom, Mom in St. Louis." He meant MY Mom. Mom had called him. We had a good laugh. When he did pass on in May of '92, I was in Ferguson for a visit and a wedding. Once I returned to handle final arrangements and later, go through his things; I found at least a dozen cards and letters from Mom. I guess you could say she was OUR Mom. 

Today, a slip of paper will go into my jar that will say MOM. And, that's enough!

 

 

 

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,,,when it's love!

 

Michel came over to visit the other day when his sometimes charge and lovey girl just jumped into his lap. That's Sammie Cat adoration, if I've ever seen it! 

 

Napoleon House Muffelattas Among Friends

 

Sharing passions with my friends is important to me. On Mike's New Orleans visit, we had to return to the Napoleon House to: visit with Mack; share a muffelatta with a sandwich side of jambalaya; try a ginger julep; and, play with my new broad brimmed red hat.

 

It doesn't matter who is visiting, we are never disappointed.

 

 

 

But what do you do when you can't bring your friends to the Napoleon House? You bring the Napoleon House to your friends...at least a valiant effort at a Napoleon House Muffelatta!

 

 

 

 

 

It is quite another world...but a good time was had by all!