The Best Shirts Ever!

My dad loved flannel shirts with two front pockets and I don't think he threw any out. When I went through his closets after he died, he had three closets full of flannel shirts and some flannel lined shirts from L.L. Bean. He would wear these all yaar round, even on hot summer days! If he got paint on some, he'd still save those to wear the next time he painted.

My dad had so many shirts because he'd usually get flannel shirts for his birthday and Christmas. I found one still in the original plastic so used it to lay him out in for his funeral. He was never big on suits and I just thought he'd look more like himself in a flannel shirt. Here we found a picture of when he got that shirt which was about 20 years earlier! Who knows, maybe he meant to save that one for his funeral one day--sounds like something he'd do!

I gave most of them away but kept a few for my husband and me. It's really nice to have these because it makes me feel close to dad still when I wear one of his shirts. My husband discovered how nice they are too. He never used to wear flannel shirts but likes them a lot now, especially in the winter to wear to work. They are so comfortable!

The L.L. Bean shirts are very nice too. They are more like a light weight jacket with flannel lining. They are great for yard work or for wearing on cooler days without having a bulky jacket. I kept five of these for us and am very glad I did!

To find out more about my book and why I wrote it, read the Foreword here.
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Infarrantly Creative Would Have Been One of Harry's Favorite Blogs

When discovering Infarrantly Creatative through SITS last week, it made me think of my dad. This blogger has a lot of imagination and talent for recycling things by making them into something else more useful, just like my dad used to do.

When reading Ballard Designs: Acanthus Cut-Out Plaque it said how she looks in the catalog and then makes the item for much less. This reminded me of my dad because he used to the the same thing. One thing I remember he made was a wood stand with handles that fit around the toilet to make it easier for my mom to get on and off. She was able to push down on the handles to help herself up. He found a picture of it in a catalog and just copied it.

I thought it funny that Infarrantly Creative is active in "Roadkill Rescue." You say you never heard of that? It' when you go out on garbage day or to a yard sale and get a piece of junk very cheap, sometimes for free, and then fix it up to make it usable. My dad had a basement full of junk that someday he was going to fix but just never had the time to get to it all. Check out the makeover Infarrantly Creative did on Lamp Refabulous.

When I read how Infarrantly Creative turned a hutch into a puppet theater, it brought back good memories of the cardboard puppet theater we got for Christmas on year. Funny how different things will set off memories of my dad. I never know what's going to come up next, but it seems something always does.

Infarrantly Creative also gives instructions so you can do the projects too if you wish. It's a great crafty blog that you should be sure to visit if you like doing projects that save you money.

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How Do You Read The Newspaper?

One of Harry's pet peeves was the newspaper's layout and bulkiness. He didn't like how you always have to go to another page to read the rest of an article. Kind of like how I don't like clicking on "read more" to read an entire blog post. The pages are very big and it is very cumbersome to read, especially when you need to use a magnifying glass like Harry did.

His solution was to simply tear the paper apart first. This made it easier to manipulate and hold. No awkward folding was necessary then and he could easily hold the page he was reading with one hand while using the magnifying glass with the other. I always thought it funny that he tore his paper apart, but it did make sense when you think about it.

Does anyone else do this? If you need a magnifying glass to read the paper, you may want to give this a try.

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Where Does The Time Go:

After my mom dad and dad was on his own, he still had his day filled with things he wanted to do. I always thought it would be nice to have the whole day to just do whatever you wanted. I envied him in that way and was always amazed when I'd go visit him the next day on my way to work when he was in his upper 80s to find out he didn't get much done the day before. He would tell me that after breakfast, he fell asleep reading the paper and woke up and it was already lunch time. He would get so frustrated with himself because he'd tell me there just isn't time to do the things he likes after he gets everything else done that as to be done like testing his blood sugar, eating, taking his pills, taking care of his cats and then it seemed that took up his whole day.

I felt sad for him when he'd tell me that and think, wow, what a life. He had several pills to take and at different times in the day which was sort of a hassle for him to keep track of. Then to make things more complicated for him yet, if his blood sugar was over a certain number, then he'd have to give himself some shot. I was impressed at how good he did this all by himself. He didn't need the shots until his last year or so. Up until then, he controlled the diabetes with just a pill.

Now that I am home, recovering from surgery, I experience a similar situation. I have all day and think how much I'm going to accomplish today: comment on blogs, walk the dog, post to my blogs, do a little reading, play with my cats, review my Sunday School lesson and read the paper, maybe even play a little on pogo.com. Then the time flies by, I get a little tired so lay down for a bit with my cats and boom--the day is gone, Gerard is home again and I maybe got half the things done that I wanted to do.

Fortunately, I will get better and become stronger again. The first day I tried going back to work two weeks after my surgery, I was dead tired by the time I got home. The only other time in my life I was that tired was the day we moved. I walked like a 90-yr.-old woman on the way home from the bus stop. I just was out of pep and my shoulders and neck were all tense. It was awful. (I wrote about this on my other blog if you want more detail: Exhausted After My First Day Back To Work. I thought I was ready but found out differently.

My dad, however, never did recover. Getting old involves a big adjustment. You just have to slow down and not expect as much from your body as you once did. This was the hardest thing for him to do because he liked puttering around the house and fixing things. Things that used to take a little time, now take longer to do and although your mind tells you, "I can do this" your body says "No, I can't."

I have decided to take the time that the doctor says I should and enjoy the extra free time God has given me to get caught up on things and schedule some posts ahead again. I hope to start posting on this blog once a week again and so the first thing I did after reading the paper this morning was t write this post. It's been way too long since I posted on here.

Do you get everything done you want to do each day? Probably not. That's why we have to prioritize and do the most important things early to make sure those at least get done. I feel good I finally got my post done for this blog today. Do you make the most of the time you have?

Here's A Chance To Help Support Our Troops

Over at Red Pine Mountain, Sara is again promoting a care package for the troops. I was honored she requested some autographed copies of my book, "My Funny Dad, Harry" to include in it. You can leave a comment to support our troops on her "It's That Time Again--Let's Support Our Troops" post. Please go and check out this post, leaving a comment encouraging our troops. For every comment received, she'll add an item to the box which will go to Jess, a blogger who is being deployed to Djibouti.

My dad didn't get accepted into the service because of flat feet and Diabetes but always put his flag up on the holidays and was proud to be an American and grateful to those who did serve.