Friday's Favorite - My Son!

Yesterday was my son's 23rd birthday. It seems like just yesterday he was my little boy, excited about having pie and ice cream, and lots of birthday presents to unwrap. Now he's all grown up, and able to buy his own toys. (He recently purchased a jet ski! Seriously, what do you get a boy who buys his own super toy? A life jacket maybe?)

I'm very proud of the man he's become. Although I do wish he would call his mom once in a while!

Vero Beach

I'm fortunate to have a friend with a timeshare in Vero Beach. Every year she invites me to spend some time at the Driftwood Resort with her, and every year I have an incredible time. She's a gracious hostess and the Driftwood is a beautifully unique place. This year I was only able to stay one night, but we managed to get a lot of relaxation fit into the two days I was there.During the days we alternated between the beach and the pool. In the evening, we played Mah Jongg.

If I had the money, I would be very tempted to purchase a timeshare for myself there. My friend has owned her's since the Driftwood first offered the timeshares. Her children spent time at there at beach and pools growing up, and now their children (and even grandchildren!) are there with her this week. (I, of course, had nothing to do with spoiling my friend's great grandchildren -- even though I made every attempt to do so!)

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. (Jorge Luis Borges)

I've been hearing more and more about the Little Free Libraries that are popping up all over the country, and I was hoping to find one. A guy in Wisconsin started this movement back in 2009 when he built a small schoolhouse-shaped box in honor of his mother,filled it with books to share with his neighbors, and put it in his front yard. His neighbors loved it, and it didn't take long for the idea to spread. Community support, word of month, human-interest publicity, and eventually a website  (www.littlefreelibrary.org) has lead to over 15,000 Little Free Libraries across the world.

It turns out that there are 100 Little Free Libraries just in Florida, and 6 are in my area. I was thrilled when I discovered that there was one in Vero Beach, where I was spending my vacation day. So naturally I went to search it out.

I found it at the edge of an empty lot, in a quiet little neighborhood. The theory of the little libraries is that you take any book you like, and leave one in its place. I had wondered if there were problems with people taking the books and not leaving anything, so that the libraries ended up empty. But the typed note on this libraries door basically said to please leave ONLY one book for each book you take, so the problem seems to be that people are overly-generous in sharing their books.

I did, of course, end up picking out a book to take. And then I walked the two blocks down to the beach where I spent a very nice couple of hours reading.

 

Thank you, J. J. Wilson for sharing Little Free Library #5048!

If you want to find a Little Free Library in your area, check out the website's interactive map.

Seacrest Scrub Natural Area

 I've passed the signs for Seacrest Scrub Natural Area on my way to church, and I finally decided to stop and take a look around. This park is located on Seacrest Boulevard in Boynton Beach. I didn't expect to find a 54-acre wilderness preservation area in the middle of a neighborhood near a growing business district. It was a very nice surprise. Once you start out on the trail, you can forget that you're even near civilization.

Although I didn't spot any of the gopher tortoises that the natural area is home to, I was able to enjoy the wonderful variety of native Florida plants that grow here. According to the pamphlet at the vistor's welcome board, "Many of the plants recorded at Seacrest Scrub are endemic to the Florida scrub ecosystem – they are found nowhere else. Endangered or threatened plants include large-flowered rosemary, pinweed, and giant wild pine."

This is definitely a place worth visiting again - when I have on shoes better suited to walking.

Celebrating my son

 

We had a BBQ pool party to celebrate my son's 22nd birthday. I remembered to take both my "real" camera as well a my iphone so that I would be sure to get a bunch of photos. Then I got into the pool, which meant that I was wet and having fun. I'm going to blame the next sentence on the fact that I was dripping wet, but being too busy having fun was probably the real reason. I never managed to take either camera out of my bag, so there were no pictures taken of PJ's birthday party.

I feel like such a failure as a mom. (But it was a really nice dinner party!)

Driftwood Resort

 

I spent the weekend at a friend's timeshare at the Driftwood Resort in Vero Beach. She is such a generous soul, and naturally we all had a wonderful time. There were three of us invited, plus my friend and her granddaughter. We spent the afternoon hanging out at the pool. After dinner, we played several games of mahjong before calling it a night and crawling into bed/couch/chair. Despite the late night, we were up in the morning to see the sunrise on the beach. Beautiful!

The Driftwood is a wonderfully historic landmark in Vero Beach and if you ever get the chance to visit there, you should. While management continues to modernize it as the need arises, they've kept as much of the original structure and charm as possible. 

If you have time to sight see (we didn't, since we were too busy having fun together), there are lots of specialty shops, including a homemade ice cream shop, just across the street. Saturday mornings there is a Farmer's Market within walking distance. Vero Beach also boasts of the McKee Botanical Garden, which is on my "next visit" list. For those of us with a fiberish mind, be sure to stop in and visit The Knitty Gritty on Dixie Highway. (I've been told by those who would know that it is worth a day trip all by itself.) 

Everglades Holiday Park

My Aunt came down to Florida for a visit recently, and one of the things she had her heart set on doing was to go see the Gator Boys in the Everglades. She is a big fan of the show on Animal Planet. So my mom, my aunt, and I drove to Fort Lauderdale for a visit to Everglades Holiday Park. Naturally, the gator show was our first stop.

My Aunt was thrilled to meet Big Mike from the show. Mike admitted to to having a law degree, which is not a prerequisite to getting into the pit with the gators. I didn't ask what the prerequisites really are. As much as I would like to see my son  find an exciting career, I am very glad he has never expressed the desire to become a gator wrestler.

While at the park, we also took a ride on one of the air boats. I had expected one of the exciting, open-air, noisy boats that we've ridden before. This was a very comfortable cabin-type air boat. Our guide was terrific, and the scenery was amazing!

I have to admit that once again, Aunt Robin was right. The Gator Boy's Holiday Park in the Everglades was worth the trip.

Next time, it's a $3 buy-in

I think I've used this as my Friday Favorite before, but I really enjoy mahjong with the girls. Amazing Grace was tonight's hostess, despite having just gotten back from a trip to visit a sick friend. We tried to convince her that we could do without the dinner portion of the evening, but being Amazing Grace she had a meal ready for us anyway. We ended up playing 5 games (I won twice!), and it was wonderful to be able to play "for real" instead of as beginners needing to stop for help frequently. Of course, the best part (other than my having won two games!) was getting to spend the evening chatting and laughing and sharing with friends.

You're just a text away

I don't have a picture for today's post, unfortunately. Which is really silly, since my favorite thing for today - my new iphone - has a very convenient built-in camera. And with the data plan and new app that lets me blog from anywhere, you would think that I would have lots of pictures. Give me time to get used to the phone, and I'm sure I will.

I am having a lot of fun with the iphone. I love how easy it is to text now. (Until this phone, I was still using a numeric keypad and pressing 1 over and over to get to "C", then again to get back to "A" and then giving up and just calling my kids and leaving a voice mail  rather than texting them to call me when they got off work.) Now I can even include pictures with the text messages. It's fun!

Yesterday I went to dinner with my daughter. She had come over to the apartment to wait for a package, so I treated her to dinner when I got home. Nothing fancy, just Pollo Tropical around the corner from me. (I can have their vegetarian TropicChop, so it's one of the few "cheap" restaurants I can eat at.) I always have a great time with Becka. We call her the Drama Queen, but it's not in the negative connotation. She's one of the best story-tellers I've ever had the pleasure to talk with. She notices the most ordinary things, and can portray them so that you can see the beauty or humor that she saw in them. Her people skills are amazing as well, and she's always got story or two from the people she's met recently. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed dinner with her.

Toward the end of the evening, she pulled out her phone to check her messages before we headed home. Naturally, my new iphone came out as well. Just for fun, I sent her a text and soon we were texting back and forth and giggling at our silliness. (Oh, if only I had a picture of us sitting across from each other and interacting electronically!) Too soon we had to put an end to the evening, and the silliness, and actually go home.

As we were walking out, still laughing at how ridiculous we had been texting each other across the table, we noticed another family. All four - mom, dad, and both kids - had their phones out texting back and forth just as we had been!

Ten on Tuesday - Planned bike rides

The official Ten on Tuesday topic today is "Your Favorite Ice Cream Toppings." Considering that I can't have ice cream anymore, having given up dairy in favor of feeling healthy, I thought I would do a different Ten on Tuesday topic.

Although it's raining and I won't be able to go biking today -- and I wasn't able to go biking yesterday because of the rain -- here's my list of 10 Planned Bike Rides.

1.  Riverbend Park, Jupiter. I love this park!

2.  Coolsa Park, Boynton Beach.  This park has only a 1 mile trail, and isn't nearly as beautiful as Riverbend. However, it's much closer to home so I can take my bike there after work for a quick ride instead of having to wait to have a full day to spend at Riverbend.

3.  Okeeheelee Park, West Palm Beach. This park is a nice compromise between the first two parks, both in size and location. If I get good at biking, I might even give the mountain bike tracks a try.

4.  Starbucks on Gateway Blvd. This would be a nice, quick ride just down the street to meet the girls for knitting on Saturday morning.

5.  Barnes and Noble, Congress Ave. A little further than Starbucks, and without the added incentive of fiber friends, but it would be a nice ride.

6.  FroYo, Congress Ave. Taking a bike ride to get frozen yogurt probably means I can't count the ride as exercise. Plus I'm not eating dairy anymore. Of course, there is a Smoothie shop in the plaza so I could go there instead. Then it's still exercise PLUS a treat!

7.  Midway Road, Port St. Lucie. This is a wonderful landscaped road near my mom's house with wide sidewalks that just begs for leisurely bike rides.

8.  Singer Island. There are two parks on either end of the causeway between the ocean and the inlet. I will probably wait for the off-season (I'm not ready to share a road with all the tourists), but I would love to start at one park and make my way down to the other end of the island to explore the second park.

9.  Dyer Park, West Palm Beach. This is not my favorite park, but it has the advantage of having a (slight) hill. When I get a little bit better at riding, it would be nice to give this a go. Plus it would give me an excuse to use my 3 speeds.

10.  Myakka State Park, Arcadia. When the children were little, we used to camp in Myakka quite a bit. It was great hiking the trails, so I imagine it would be even better exploring with the bicycle.

Riverbend Park

  

Riverbend Park is located on Indiantown Road in Jupiter, Florida, just west of I-95 and the turnpike. It's easy to get to, has great parking, and miles of trails and waterways to explore. It's such a wonderful park, it's amazing that it is still uncrowded and peaceful. Mom and I found our way to the park almost by accident the first time. We had intended to meet up to knit and chat at another park but found that it was so crowded the police had literally closed the entrance to anyone else. I remembered having gone to Riverbend a few years ago, and we decided to check it out. On an impulse we rented bikes (only $10 for the day), and a new obsession was born.

Since that first trip, I've made it back to Riverbend Park almost every weekend where mom and I spend hours exploring the 15 miles of trails. We've seen deer, raccoon, owls, peacocks, woodpeckers, and many other birds and animals on our adventures. We've gotten better at avoiding trees, lakes, and other so-called-stationary obstacles. Both of us have our own bikes now, and we both continue to carry our knitting in the baskets although we have yet to actually stop and knit at the park. We haven't gone kayaking down the river yet, but you can bet that it's on our To Do list.

 

Saturday Snapshot

I thought it was Pedestrian Crossing...

...but it turned out to be Peacock Crossing!

Riverbend Park in Jupiter, Florida

My baby is 19!

My youngest child just turned 19. As a reminder that she will always be my baby, I gave her a stuffed animal. And not just any stuffed animal. It was a knitted elephant. I made the elephant because she collects elephants, even though I think she should still be collecting cows. (There's a story behind that statement; let me know if it needs to be told. Because I'm not above embarrassing my children for a good story.)

It turns out that elephants are knit flat in lots of tiny pieces, that then have to be sewn together at the end. And all of my knitting friends know how much I hate to sew things I've already finished knitting. There is still a pair of slippers in my UFO (UnFinished Objects) pile that took me less than 2 hours to knit and more than 2 years to seam. So the fact that I actually sat down and sewed this elephant together should prove that I love my daughter. And while I won't admit to having favorites, it is a fact that she's the only child I've seamed something for. (The other two have gotten socks, hats, mittens, and other seamless objects.)

I will admit that about an hour into the seaming, I started to question her place in my affections, motherhood in general, and even my sanity. Sigh. I really hate to seam.

But it was worth it. The elephant is adorable -- almost as cute as my daughter!

And the chorus, one more time!

All afternoon and evening I've had a song stuck in my head. It's really bad when that happens. It's even worse when the song is really bad.

This morning, after cleaning the cat litter box, I put the trash in the rear hatch of my car, intending to drop it off at the dumpster on my way out of the complex. Unfortunately, something must have distracted me because I didn't make the stop. I didn't realize it until after work, when I got into my car to run errands. I blame the toxic fumes for encouraging that stupid song to repeat over and over in my head. The song? "He's a Garbage Man," a (mercifully) short-lived favorite family ditty.

For some strange reason, my children had very odd career goals when they were little. My youngest wanted to grow up to be a cow. My son's dream was to be a garbage man. Since I was a very good mother who loved (and loves) her children dearly, I supported his ambition by allowing him to take out the trash everyday and by encouraging him to study personal hygiene methodology that would help him get along in the real world should his dream come true. Why, I even went the extra mile and made up a special theme song to show him how wonderful his life could be. His sisters took great delight in singing this song to him over and over again -- which I'm sure had nothing to do with his announcement that instead of a garbage man he wanted to be a policeman with a gun.

He's a Garbage Man
(sung to the tune of Frere Jacques*)

He's a garbage man, a very happy garbage man.
He's a garbage man, and he loves his job.
He can ride the great big truck,
And he makes a great big clang when he bangs the garbage cans.
He's a garbage man, a very happy garbage man.
He's a garbage man, and he loves his job.


*I know that the meter is somewhat forced. Okay, it's outright tortured. And the rhymes are horrible. But the intended audience loved it. At least for the first fifty times, anyway...

Grown don't mean nothing to a mother.

A child is a child.  They get bigger, older, but grown?  What's that suppose to mean?  In my heart it don't mean a thing.  (Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987)

Becka and PJ took me out to dinner for Mother's Day.  Keeping with family tradition (last year and this year, therefore making it a tradition), we went to a hibachi grill. We decided to try a local restaurant, Sawa Hibachi Steakhouse, based on recommendations on the Urban Spoon website. It was a great decision; we really enjoyed the food. 


Best of all, though, was the company. It's been difficult getting used to having adult children. I miss the fun of when they were younger and entirely mine, but I like seeing the adults they've become under my influence (good and bad.)

Butterfly World

 One of my favorite places to visit is the Butterfly World in Coconut Creek. I don't go very often, because  (1) it's a little expense and (2) it's a long ride to get there. But this weekend they were giving free admission to all mothers, so mom and I decided to go. I was surprised at how close it was to my new apartment. It was only about a half-hour drive, which really isn't bad at all. I'm thinking of investing in the annual membership, which would make it a very reasonable weekend, or even afternoon, activity.

 Needless to say, mom and I had a great time. I took over 100 pictures (I love digital cameras!), including a great one of my mom looking at the butterfly on her shoulder. A couple of the pictures are going to be framed for my wall. And most of the rest will become note cards.

Q I L T T E O

I've recently become obsessed with an online game, Words with Friends. This is, of course, my children's fault. My two oldest have smart phones, and while my daughter was down visiting they were constantly checking their phone for moves. The two kids play against each other, against friends and co-workers, and even against total strangers.

The only real complaint I have about my children is that they don't call me often enough. (In fact, I had a little discussion about that with my oldest, explaining to her the immense fear and guilt I carry around with me that something horrible will happen to her and it will be weeks before I find out because not getting a phone call is normal.) Since the kids really seemed to like the game enough to play even with me, and since scrabble is one of my favorite board games, I decided to add the app to my Nook.

So far I've won two of the three games with my son. (And yes, I'm bragging about that.) The first game was played fast and furious. I was actually a little concerned with how quickly he would respond, because I knew he was at work. We've calmed down to just making three or four moves a day. There's been some memorable moments, such as his response when I texted him "Why are you still up so late?" after he had sent me a move at 12:15 am: "Who are you, my mother? Oh wait, you are." Mostly, though, I just enjoy the quick interaction with my son throughout the day as we add a word to the game.

With my daughter, the game is much slower. We're still battling the first round. Moves are deliberate, which is a nice way of saying it takes her a week to respond to me. Sigh. I content myself with the knowledge that her life is full, and she's busy researching words to play against me.

By the way, my youngest does not have a smart phone and claims that even if she did have one with the Words with Friends app, she knows better than to challenge mom to scrabble. Or Trivia. But she would be willing to play Dodge Ball or Volley Ball or just about any other "real" game against me.

In the past few days, I've expanded beyond my family.I've found friends online, and have been found by friends online, to play the game with. I have several games in process, which makes me feel like one of the popular geeks. I accept all challenges, so look me up. I'm sandrilene, or just find me on facebook.

If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice. (Stan Getz)

Most teenagers dream of playing the electric guitar. Or at least the drums.

 My baby bought a sax.

She is so-very much the daughter of my heart!

(I just hope the neighbors understand.)

Random PicturesThe

I caught the girls reading poetry. Poetry! I knew I was raising geeks, but still.

My son and his girlfriend. I spent the entire weekend calling her by the wrong name. I didn't mean to. She's very sweet. I'm just really bad with names, and a horrible mother for not getting it right until AFTER they went home.

Yeah, we know who Gramma's favorite is.

Although Cari comes in a close second.

All I asked was that the kids have a family picture taken, since the last one I have of the three of them was taken almost ten years ago. This is all I got. It will serve them right when I use it on my Christmas cards this year.

I think this is one of my all-time favorite pictures of the kids. I'm not sure why.