Ruby Tuesday Travels Back in Time

I was inspired by Ralph of Airhead 55 (out of Connecticut), who often posts photos from his childhood and of his own children. Thanks, Ralph!  Here are The Girls going for a walk up a country road.  The one in white is the older sister, but by only sixteen months! This was taken in Spring of '92. They were three and four. Now they are twenty-two and twenty-three.  Yikes.

" We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it. "

~George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, 1860

What's been going on with all of you? How did February decide to treat you?
Fondly, PS

To see other Ruby Tuesday participants, click here

What's Goin' On

Life is mostly peaceful and boring; just the way I like it. Our autumn has been spectacular with some seasonal rain but otherwise lots of sunny, warmish, blue-sky days. I've been taking a lot of pictures and otherwise enjoying my surroundings and the company I keep.

Last night we unearthed the flannel blanket, down comforter and fuzzy socks. When I awoke late this morning, warm and smugly under the blankets, I could feel the chilly morning air on my face. Something about fall that makes me happy, is this. We are determined not to use the heat until it's absolutely, truly cold. It's good that this early 1950's house is tight and well-insulated. And there is something to be said for conservation by dressing warmly instead of going straight to the thermostat.

SG1 decided some weeks ago that she would be taking a one year break before applying to graduate school; a move I whole-heatedly support. Her Beloved is currently applying to several graduate programs in California, with an almost sure shot at San Francisco State University. She's really hoping UCLA and if she is chosen, she will likely go there.

Oh, my.

My daughter going to Los Angeles? Yikes. She grew up in rural Western Massachusetts. She attends college in bucolic surroundings. Yet, I know she is well-suited to city life and will adapt. Access to public transportation will certainly free her, as she does not care to drive - at all. As in, never obtained a driver's license. Going everywhere on trains and buses will broaden he world. She will occasionally venture off to another campus for an event but otherwise is fairly well cloistered at Mount Holyoke. Well, cloistered physically but broadened intellectually to an extent that I never was in college. It's what she wants and adores. I'm happy she's realizing her dreams but also taking care of her mental health (bipolar disorder). She's ruled out law school completely and will apply to combined masters/ph.d programs in gender studies. She'll likely end up teaching at a college or university and living a faculty life.

SG2 is laboring on at Boston University and alternates between complaining she's sick of school when she's stressed or awaiting the results of an exam or paper, in which case she's always worried she's messed up somehow. But then when she's surprised that she did better than she thought (which almost always), she feels okay again about moving forward with college until graduation. She has a job which pays for sundry things, which really helps her dad and me out. Actually both girls have work-study jobs to help out.

It gets a little freaky thinking about likely more than doubling my current loans for the last three semesters of SG2's college education. Yikes.

Another installment in the Chronicles of the Empty Nest. :-)

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A few little notes to blog friends:

Ed at Enriched Geranium: I've decided to wait until Friday to post about his band The Motor Primitives. I'm going to combine the post with The Friday Evening Nudes. Hehehehe. ;-) You'll see.

Jood at Journeys With Jood: I haven't forgotten about the cool awards you've so generously given me and that I will post about that in the next day or two.

Beth at Cup of Coffey: Ditto an your meme.

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Here are a few photos I took today

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Corn Stalks at One End of The Green River Bridge


The Green River Timber Bin Dam


Corn Stalks Green River, Vermont


Corn Stalk Silhouette



A Sign Along The Way


You shall know the truth
And the truth shall
Make you odd.

Flannery O'Connor

Have a great week, everyone!
Peace
Wellness
Love

Family Photos From Earlier Today

(above, left to right)
Supergirl Two, Vova Maria & Supergirl One

(below)
Supergirl Two (turned brunette) & boyfriend Nick

W.P. & his daughter L.P. looking out over the river

Boats on the river

Supergirls One & Two

A Snow Day And An Empty Nest

Supergirl II, walking in the rain

Supergirl I (the dark-eyed one) and her Beloved at Mount Holyoke last Halloween.

Overnight and into this morning, we got about two inches of wet, slippery rain and snow, causing school closings all over the county. In recent days, I've tried to graciously accept many fine people's optimism that "it's feeling like spring today" but I knew it wasn't. No robins. I have not seen or heard of a single robin sighting. That, my friends, is the true harbinger of spring around these parts. At least for me. I'm with the robins; we always know for sure.

So here I am sitting at my desk, looking out over the river at a time when I am typically taking school lunch count. I'm taking count instead of how many squirrels miss the feeder from the nearby tree limbs because of the wet ice. Hey, it qualifies as a meal count. And regardless of how much I want spring, I love a good snow day!

Life is different, certainly, without girls in the house. It feels especially poignant on a snow day, when weather triumphs over the evils of school. They would have been home with me today; probably still sleeping. But here.

When I moved in with W.P. four years ago, one of his daughters was attending college in Boston, one was back and forth between the house and her dormroom and both of my daughters were in high school and lived partly with us and partly with their dad. Now my oldest, Supergirl I, is a junior at Mount Holyoke College and Supergirl II is a freshman at Boston University. W.P.'s oldest graduated with a masters and is living and working in San Francisco and the younger daughter is in graduate school and engaged to be married. Young adulthood is a period of such rapid growth.

The house is empty. Too empty. Oh, no. Not another empty nest post in the blogosphere! Yes and no. I'm thrilled for them. They are exceptional young women. I believe they're gonna do it and do it their way. They already are. And...I miss them. I chat daily with both my Supergirls. Intrestingly,they call me more often than I call them. There's a reluctance on my part to seem overbearing. They're young women after all, making a lot of their own decisions.

Now I've done some things in my life that may not exactly qualify me for Mother of The Year but they were in the realm of my personal relationships and my divorce from their father. I've tried to be a good role model, to set boundaries and to give to them the only things I feel I do well to a fault - I gave them lots of love. I communicated with them. For better or for worse, they know where I stand. I'm not the kind of mother whose kids are her pals. I'm a mom. Though I believe that as my relationship with my daughters evolves, the friendship piece does seem to come into focus more. The mother piece, I believe to be something they will always need. It's the constant. It's the Northern Star.