HAPPY 4th Of JULY

We hope you have a great day filled with fun and family. Just remember to be 

"SAFE and SANE!" HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

With a recent trip to San Diego within the last year, I had to take a minute and stop when passing a certain landmark.  I was on my way to see Cabrillo National Monument and before arriving there I was taken back by another nationally recognized place known as “Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.”

As I entered the gates of this serene place, I couldn’t help but to think about all the stories I would hear if I were able to speak to the war heroes themselves or the families of the soldiers who had fallen.

“What was their life like? Why did they choose to serve? When did they die and where?” I had to ask myself and then continued…"Whom did they leave behind? What did they witness and experience in order to provide the freedoms we have?”

With row after row, line after line and “V” after “V” witnessed of the perfectly aligned headstones, I found myself contemplating my own life and freedoms I have in this country and why I have them.  My thoughts then wandered to focus on some of my own family who have served in wars past and are currently serving...to friends and their families who have served...to friends of friends and so forth.

So with Memorial Day upon us, make sure to give “THANKS” to those that are serving or have served and remember all those people in your lives who are important and may no longer be here with us. I recently came across a quote that really sums up how we should remember this day..."In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." 
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

Moms Know Everything...by Jim Terry

There are times of the year that I feel that I am more inspired and motivated than other times during the year. Don’t you?

Summer, for me at least, always seems to bring out the energy in me due to the long summer days and the warmth of the summer’s night air.  Another time of year that motivates and inspires me is during the holidays.  I notice that it always seem to bring out the good in me and in others. I feel as though I am kinder, more charitable and want to help those in need. Spring is another time of the year that helps rejuvenate a lot of us because the life in Mother Earth returns and can once again be witnessed. This comes in the form of green grasses growing, flowers blooming and what once was twig-like silhouettes in the trees are now full of life and can now provide shade and shelter from the summer’s sun that is only a month or two away.

I also am always partial to and inspired in May and in the spring because it is the time of year where we celebrate Mothers.  Now that my Mom is not here with me and because she is the one that started this blog, I find inspiration and motivation in my memories of her, the good person she was and in the lessons I learned from her.

One of the best lessons I learned in my life was when I was five years old. The year was 1975.  My mother and I were running some errands and we had to make a quick stop into the local “five & dime” store known as Sprouse-Reitz so that I could buy a toy truck I had been saving for. This store chain ceased operations in the mid-1990s but this was one of my favorite stores to go into when I was young. This store would be the equivalent of what a dollar store is now. They had lots of toys, trinkets, and candy for kids and the best part; it didn’t cost a lot of money. This was really important especially for a kid on a limited income of an allowance that consisted of $.50 a week.  

As we approached the checkout at the front of the store and after picking up my Tonka Truck I wanted, I noticed at kid’s eye level, of course, there was the array of candy. Now let it be known that when I was younger there were two things I always loved. Bubble Yum Bubble Gum in grape flavor and Tic Tac that was orange in flavor.

As I handed my mother the money I had earned with my allowance to pay for my truck, I couldn’t resist the temptation of also taking an orange flavored tic tac. I knew I didn't have enough money to buy the tic tac too, so when I thought my mother and the lady behind the counter weren’t looking, I gently placed my favorite candy inside of my pocket for safe keeping until later. 

I laugh at myself at times and how my adult brain works or doesn’t work some days in my adulthood, but I still wonder why or how on this particular day, in my mind as a child, I thought I could get away with something I knew was wrong or do something that my mother would possibly notice. I mean, after all–MOMS KNOW EVERYTHING! 

That night after the incident and when I thought I had gotten away with it, my mother carefully tucked me into bed and began to tell me a bedtime story as she always did.  I will never forget the story that night and listened intently because of what the story was about. Ironically, the bedtime story entailed an example of a young boy that stole something in a store, didn’t tell him mom about it and how that made his mother feel. Which was, in her own words, “Very bad.”  As the story ended, my mother did as she always did and gave me a kiss goodnight, told me to sleep well and ended it with “I love you.”

As she left my room that night or any other night, she would always leave the door partially open in order to let the light in from the hallway so I wouldn’t be afraid of the dark. On this night, however; I think the crack was left in the door so she could listen to her small son contemplate the things that he had done that day and how he might fix it.

As I lay in my bed that night I stared, for what seemed like hours, at my glow-in-the-dark stars and constellations that were placed on the ceiling. Oh, how I wished that I could be anywhere else in the universe but in my bed after what I had done.  You know how you don’t sleep on Christmas Eve night when you are a young child because of the excitement? Well, this night was wrought with sleeplessness because of my own wrongdoing and what in my mind was a “bad thing to do.”

“How could I tell my mother what I had done?” I asked myself. “And what punishment might I receive?”

The next morning as I awoke and because of my mom’s intellect in knowing her son’s mind, I went into the kitchen, cried my little blue eyes out and told her what I had done. She told me she was proud of me for telling her what I had done but we had to make things “right.”

Later that morning, my mother drove me back over to Sprouse-Reitz and gave me the $.12 for the Tic Tac plus tax which I needed to pay for the stolen Tic Tac. She told me that I had to admit what I had done, I had to pay for what I had taken and I had to do this all by myself. I still to this day will never forget how afraid I was and that I would have to talk to a stranger and tell them what I had done.

As she watched me through the front glass doors of the store, she witnessed me hesitate two or three times while looking back at her and motioning for her to come with me because of my fear and tears that day. I’m sure it was as hard for her to watch her young son learn a life lesson at such a young age as much as it was hard for me to do, but she stood her ground and I completed what I had started...by myself.  I didn’t understand it at the time but I now realize that this situation helped me learn a life lesson, or two, that day. Moms are tricky that way in how they teach us so many lessons! 

Lesson #1-Crime doesn’t pay.  You will all be happy to know that was my one and only shoplifting incident in my life.  J I now pay for everything that I take from a store.

Lesson #2- On this special day make sure to treat your mothers well.  I am so lucky to have had the mother I had and am still so broken hearted that she is not here with me to thank her and tell her how much I love her on her special day. And for those of you who still have your mothers here, treat them with kindness, honor them, love them and make sure if you are ever thinking of doing something wrong, refer to Lesson #2... “MOMS KNOW EVERYTHING.”

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL THE MOMS OUT THERE!!!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well, here we are at the end of another year! Here is wishing that your last year was good but that your new year is even better. We hope you can bury the old hardships and challenges that 2018 may have brought you and your family and wish that 2019 brings you great joy, hope, successes and changes for the better.  As they say about change, "Change is a road less traveled, but a remarkable journey to take." ~Dr. Milan LaBrey. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

LIGHT...by Jim Terry

You know I have always wondered what it is about Christmastime that makes it so special…so magical? Is it the hustle and bustle of the shopping frenzy that emanates and now starts with displays being put up around Labor Day? Is it the change of the weather that accomplishes the goal of the traditional Christmas song’s theme, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas?” Is it the newfound kindness towards mankind and helping each other, which seems to be forgotten for most of the year, which helps make it more special? In Judaism, they may say it is because of their celebration of Hanukkah.  With Christianity, they would easily say that it is because of the obvious…their celebration of the birth of the Savior.  And yes, I think all of these things are important too and is why I wrote them, but there has been and always will be something about the LIGHT that is displayed this time of year that makes it so special.

©Jim Terry Rockefeller Center

I remember as a kid loving to help set up the tree. As most of you know from our previous blogs, Christmastime would start with our yearly trip to the mountains, the weekend of Thanksgiving, to cut down the “perfect” Christmas tree. Once home with our tree, I remember that my Dad would tell us we would first have to “put it in the stand overnight and let the tree warm up.”  I never asked why a tree would have to warm up before we decorated it but the next morning when our home was filled with that wonderful scent of mountain pine air, the concern I had with having to wait to decorate the tree always seemed to miraculously drift away into memories past.

As we started to decorate our tree, I know my favorite lights on our tree were always the old-fashioned bubble lights.   You remember the ones, don’t you? They were the lights that had the small glass tube on top of the light which were filled with different colors of water. Once the liquid warmed up, you would then be able to witness “bubbles” rising to the top of that small tube.

I remember sitting there for hours at times waiting for each individual bubble light to start working.  If they didn’t work, I would make sure to let my Mom or Dad know because I wanted them all to work perfectly because it was the Christmas season.  And once they all started working, I would then just sit there and stare into the tree until the lights became one and formed a blurry lit hue which allowed my mind to wander into wonderful memories of family, of friends, of the magic, that always exists this time of year.  And more often than not, my Mom would find me on the floor in front of the tree after I drifted off into a peaceful night's slumber because of the comfort and warmth I felt from simply staring at the light on our tree and the memories they evoked. When I think of it now, I am actually surprised that something as simple as a “light” would make a young boy like me, who always had to be doing something, calm down and sit there until visions of “sugar-plums danced in my head.”  

In going back to and to answer my own question I posted earlier, I will just say this, "Whether that be a physical display of light on a tree or on a home which evokes memories of harmony and warmth or the light of His goodness that makes people kinder... more charitable...more patient this time of year is really what makes Christmastime so special...so magical for me." 

So while I will only have to dream of a white Christmas this year since I will be spending it in California, I can promise you that there has been and is going to be, more moments for this older child who will be sitting on a couch in front of a tree. And as I once again stare into the light with my Christmas music quietly playing in the background, the scent of pine in the air and the lights slowly combining into that giant lit hue, I may just drift off into a peaceful slumber once again knowing I am blessed, loved and so lucky to have experienced the light! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

P.S. Here is another great example of what light can do. Not sure who wrote it but I thought this analogy was a great example for this time of year and follows with our theme of light.  

“Gracefully broken!! 
I was in Dollar Tree last night, and there was a lady and two kids behind me in a LONG line. One was a big kid, and the other one was a toddler. The bigger one had a pack of glow sticks, and the toddler was screaming for them. The Mom opened the pack and gave him one, which stopped his tears. He walked around with it smiling; but then the bigger boy took it, and the toddler started screaming again. Just as the Mom was about to fuss, the older child bent the glow stick and handed it back to the toddler. As we walked outside at the same time, the toddler noticed that the stick was now glowing; and his brother said, "I had to break it so that you could get the full effect from it."
I almost ran, because l could hear God saying to me, "I had to break you to show you why I created you. You had to go through it so you could fulfill your purpose."
That precious child was happy just swinging that "unbroken" glow stick around in the air, because he didn't understand what it was created to do - which was to "glow".
There are some people who will be content just "being," but some of us that God has chosen... we have to be "broken."
We have to get sick.
We have to lose a job.
We go through a divorce.
We have to bury our spouse, parents, best friend, or our child...
In those moments of desperation, God is breaking us. But... when the breaking is done, then we will be able to see the reason for which we were created and why we are here.
So when you see someone glowing, just know that they have been broken but healed by HIS Grace and Mercy!!!”

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”– Melody Beattie

May your holiday be filled with gratitude, love, happiness and THANKS! Stay tuned in December for a post regarding Christmas.
♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

"Watch Your Mouth"...by Jim Terry

Ok, what are you going to be for Halloween this year? Over the years, I have been a ghost, a vampire, the Grim Reaper, Cat in the Hat, Frankenstein, a zombie, and the list continues to go on and on. However, as I thought about the many costumes I had over the years, including the ones into my adult years, there is one in particular that stands out in my mind as being my favorite…Sylvester the cat.

I’m sure you all remember, at least those of us that are familiar with the Looney Tunes, that Sylvester was the black and white, tuxedo patterned, cat that was always trying to chase and catch the Tweety Bird. To his dismay, and over the years, he never seemed to catch that little yellow bird. Which, and just to point out, was a really good thing for us kids too! If he had caught the Tweety Bird the cartoon would have then ended…right? 😀  So because of my love for this adorable cartoon character, I asked my Mom that year for a costume that would be fashioned like Sylvester. 

For those of you who don’t know, my mother was not only an excellent writer/author/playwright but also an exceptional seamstress. She had been taught to sew by her mother and then passed that knowledge onto my sisters that wanted to learn how to sew.  I remember the day that my mother and I went to JoAnn Fabrics to get the fabric to create, what was in my mind anyhow, “the best costume ever.”

 

Because of my excitement, I recall asking my poor mother day after day, “When is my costume going to be finished?”  Well with what seemed like an eternity to a child being seven years old at the time and with a lot of patience on my mother’s part, the day of “the reveal” had come.   I remember my first glance at my costume. Never before had I seen a costume so wonderful…so grand…so PERFECT! 

Hallows’ Eve came and what was not part of my strategy for that evening, nor had I even thought of it, was for Mother Nature to throw a wrench into my carefully laid plan to be “the envy of the neighborhood children” by sporting the perfect costume. Have you ever heard the phrase, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute?” Well, that minute, that one that would have made my childhood dreams come true, never came that night. In fact, it was one of the coldest Halloweens ever to grace the southeast Idaho foothills, which also called for “a chance of snow.”

That evening entailed gusty winds that went right through you…sleet that felt as though it would lacerate you at it hit your skin’s surface… And finally snow, which later not only started to fall but also stuck to the ground. The setting that night was much more conducive to a holiday two months away that incorporates Santa and a sleigh not Hallows’ Eve.

For those of you who want to know, we did end up trick-or-treating that night but to my dismay, no one could really see my costume that I was so proud of and would make me the talk of the town. Instead of showing off my Sylvester the Cat costume as I had planned, it was concealed by one of the most pathetic costumes ever.  I was dressed in a head to toe wrap which included a coat, a scarf, a set of gloves and moon boots because of the wrath that Mother Nature created that night. I looked very similar to Randy on the movie Christmas Story, but a bonus for me, I could at least put my arms down! 😂 

A year had passed and in my young heart I apparently really never let go of the anger and disappointment I felt the previous Halloween by not being able to show off my costume. This was evident the following year if anyone was able to witness my reply to my mother when she asked me, “What do you want to be for Halloween this year?”

With a slight hesitation, a mean look on my face and crossing my arms as I began to speak, the following sentence came out of my mouth. “I guess I’ll just be another damn Eskimo!”

Now let’s stop right here for a moment to clarify. Being only seven years old at the time, you have to realize that when I said this there was absolutely no prejudice, bigotry or narrow-mindedness at all towards the Eskimo population with what I said that day. All I knew as a child is that Eskimos had to dress really warm in order to survive in Alaska and in those “cold north areas.” This was simply my perception of what I looked like on the previous Halloween because of the cold weather we had experienced and how I had to dress the year prior. What really should be pointed out is the second to last word that I said that day.  In reference, once again, to the movie Christmas Story, remember when Ralphie was helping his Dad change the tire on the car and the word he said? "D-A-M-N," in our household, might as well have been the “queen mother of dirty words.” 

Background © TopTrendz.net

As the story goes, you all will be happy to know that I didn’t have to place a bar of soap in my mouth or reveal where I had heard that word before–certainly I couldn’t say I had heard it watching Looney Tunes or drag my best friend down with me and the sinking ship I was in😀–but with the list of chores I was given and the two weeks that I was grounded from seeing my friends or playing the Atari 2600 still “haunts” me to this day.

So on this Halloween make sure to have fun with family and friends, get lots of candy, be safe, learn from my previous mistake (especially if you are young), and make sure that if you do not get your way or things don’t go quite as planned, Please...“WATCH YOUR MOUTH!”

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.