I'm back! Sort of . . .

Twenty-one days of wallowing in my yearly winter depression that has me walking around in a fog, barely going through the motions.  I go to work, I do some things around the house (not many).  Somehow, enough laundry gets done to get by . . .  And yet, as I reflect on the last twenty-one days, a lot of stuff has happened . . . I know I was there . . . sort of . . . Here are some of them:

1. I ran out of Vitamin D . . .
2. I caught a cold, my first one in five years . . .
3. I was Confirmation sponsor for my niece Joyce . . .
4. My son, John, celebrated his 22nd birthday . . .
5. I finally ordered Vitamin D online . . .
6. I booked our family vacation to Cabo San Lucas . . .
7. I had a new diagnostic mammogram, and it shows that a lump I've had under my breast for the last two years, is gone . . .
8. Lee started a new remodeling project:  He's scraping the popcorn plaster off our bedroom ceiling and smoothing it out with joint compound, a necessary precursor to painting the room . . .
9. My Vitamin D arrived . . .
10. John is home on Spring Break . . .

Here are a couple of photos of Joyce's Confirmation.  She chose "Lillian," her grandmother's name, as her confirmation name - a touching gesture and a beautiful name . . . 

It upsets me so much, this wallowing.  So many good things are happening to me, and, all I want to do is sleep!  Today, I had a good day.  The temperature was in the 40s, and the sun came out . . . The cardinals are back and we've heard them in the morning by our bedroom window . . .  John is home, with his usual boundless enthusiasm, drawing us into his projects . . . I had the energy to cook and bake this weekend . . . I'm over the hump, I think, but I just ran out of Omega 3 capsules . . .

A very special "Bokeh"

When my son, John, made his Confirmation in 2003, he presented his sponsor, his Aunt Mary Ann, with a tussie-mussie to honor her, and thank her for her support during this important religious rite.

A tussie-mussie is a small bouquet composed of flowers and other plants selected for their special meaning. Victorian ladies - and gentlemen! - would entertain themselves composing interesting messages using the language of flowers. Even today, we know that the rose symbolizes love, and that rosemary means remembrance.

So, armed with a "Flowers" Dictionary, we created this bouquet, with the help of our very enthusiastic florist. He had no idea what flowers, from the list we gave him, would be available on Confirmation Day. So we waited until the bouquet was delivered to create a little card which would explain the meaning of each flower it held.
We tucked the card in the tussie-mussie. Finally, the tussie-mussie was trimmed with red satin ribbon; red is the color traditionally associated with Confirmation.
It was a very special day, and John is a lucky guy to have had such a sweet and loving sponsor!