Mr. Coyote

Photo by ©Dennis Pepin bought through Fotolia

My mom told me something disturbing today. We both live out in the country, and there are wild animals that live out here too.

My mom was out early this morning and watched a coyote walk over to one of the neighboring farms. This neighbor had small dogs.

Not anymore.

The two little dogs ran over to the coyote and barked and barked. And Mr. Coyote gobbled them right down. Dumb dogs. When the half grown chickens started heading over into Mr. Coyotes direction, my mom went inside. She'd seen enough.

Animals are dumb.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

My mom and dad taken in 1982 at the Salton Sea CA, the year my father died.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

We didn't have a lot of money growing up. My mom made a lot of my clothes. She went to the salvation army, bought like new dresses and took them apart, then pin a pattern down on the material. After cutting the pattern pieces out, she pin the pieces together and sew a new dress for my sister and I.

She got creative with meals too. Left over mash potatoes became potato patties. Fried chicken went a long ways, and so did stew which she warmed over on top of the stove.

My dad fished all the time. She learned to fry fish the way my dad liked, and he was fussy and demanding. She cooked three big meals a day from scratch each day.

She found time to be with my sister and me, took care of her parents and ran errands (even the extra ones my dad gave her), and taught Sunday school at church or helped out in a class.

She took care of my dad when he was diagnosis with colon cancer. Cooked him special meals that she'd hoped he could eat to build his strength. And tried to hold it together when he took a turn for the worst.

When I get bogged down with what I have to do, I remind myself that my mom didn't have a microwave or dishwasher. She also didn't pay bills on the Internet. But she still managed to keep things running smoothly at home.

I'm Back!

I just got back last night from a trip with my mom to San Jose. We were gone three days and boy did my email fill up.

Anyway I went with my mom because my step-dad felt too bad to go. My mom had to have treatments for her Torticollis (wiry neck), she has a very bad case.

Had an awful exhausting trip. Food was awful, beds were hard and pillows lumpy which made my neck hurt.

Mom will have to have surgery to replace the batteries in her stimulators, so we came back a little early.

Missed our stop on the train and ended up in Fresno's train depot, which both my hubby and step-dad didn't know where it was located. Had to wait until they found us.

Finally got home at around seven. Hubby caught me on the couch with tear of exhaustion trailing down my cheeks and ordered me to bed.

I fell right to sleep and had a horrible dream about an evil train conductor who wouldn't let us off the train and cackled about it over the loud-speakers.

My Mom the Writer

My mom just called with some good news, a recipe that she sent in will be published in a newspaper. And here it is, she just a couple of minutes ago walked in to my house to show me.

It doesn't sound like much? Well . . .

Let me tell you a little bit about my mother:

she grew-up working in the fruit since she was three. Yes, white folk do that too, and we're not all from Oklahoma. My mom was born in Roswell NM. She grew-up during the depression and the recovery period afterwords, so work was hard to come by. Graduated from HS in 1958 and lost her mom that same year.

She meet and married my dad in 1960 when she was 20, and became a mom just before mother's day less than a year later with me *grin*.

Her jobs have been working in fruit, cannery (Oberti Olives of Madera), and sold Avon (a few among many jobs she had). She went back to school when I was in the seventh grade and got further education to work in an office, then she did filing and typed over a hundred words a minute without a mistake, and did that eventually working at a grade school until my father illness from cancer in 1981. He died in 1982. Then she worked in the mail room at our local newspaper, and then did house cleaning until she married my step-dad who was a retired/widowed/school teacher.

He told me he retired her, lol.

My mom traveled with my step-dad until she developed a problem with her neck, she soon found out she had a very ugly disease called Spasmodic torticollis that made her a semi invalid for years.

A few years ago she had brain surgery. The doctors put stimulators into her brain, and it helped control the head twisting/turning and some of the tremers assosiated with her illness. This worked really well for a long time, until her batteries ran out. For some reason the new batteries or maybe the programing on the stimulaters were not enough anymore, and she had to have shots again. But they do seem to be working.

Last May my mom turned 70 and recently bought her very first laptop computer and has been trying to learn to use it. I've worked with her a few times trying to teacher her.

But the best news is the newspaper wanting to publish something she wrote. I'm just so thrilled for her. It is a triumph of my mom spirit to keep trying, and here she is a published author!

Yay, mom! Woot!!!

I dreamed I was Super Mom

Super mom
By Janice Seagraves

Last night I dreamed I was super mom; able to out run a runaway car that someone forgot to set the brakes, able to leap a tall building to get to the kid on the other side that was heading into oncoming traffic. Faster than a speeding bullet as I recued; children that fell down wells, kittens from trees and puppies from drains, or was it the other way around? No matter. I’m super mom.

I could use my super minty fresh breath to cool down over heated kids or food. I could see through clothes to the unclean undies underneath. I could spot a dirty set of ears from a mile away. Just the smell of my homemade chicken soup could cure anyone of any illness. I’m super mom.

I stopped the bad guys by spraying oven cleaner in their eyes. But there was no lasting harm, because I used the new environmentally safe oven cleaner which I invented because I’m super mom! (The proceeds of which went to starving children in third world countries.)

I wore goggles and dish washing gloves to protect my identity. My clothes were environmentally friendly and my colors were red, white and blue, because super mom was kind to the environment and patriotic too.

I didn’t wear an apron because super mom wasn’t tied to the kitchen.

I kept my husband happy and took care of our children; all seven of them with red hair like me, (which is odd because I only have one child and I’m not a natural red head). I also had a career and saved people I didn’t know, because I can do it all, I’m super mom!

Then of course I woke up.