Wild-Heart.net

My apologies for the lack of posting. It’s been quite hectic here. Keeping a sharp on Boy #1 while waiting for this coming Saturday to arrive when we deliver him to Ft. Gordon for his first day of classes at National Guard Youth Challenge whilst attempting to school Boy #2 and Baby Boy has been a challenge.

There are so many songs that pull at my Celtic heartstrings that I could share with you today. Songs that make my heart and soul long for home, that small Irish-Catholic farming community of one Church and one pub full of extended family where everyone is related to everyone in one way or another. Where they say our Great-great-grandfathers decided to settle because the land of gently rolling hills, valleys and streams reminded them of their homes they left behind in Ireland. But I couldn’t pick just one.

Since this week is so focused on Boy #1 taking a huge step to change his life for the better and will be ending with his departing from us for 22 weeks, the song that seems most fitting is Danny Boy. When Boy #1 was an infant and toddler and we happened to be at my parent’s house, if it was time him to have a nap or if he was simply fussy, my father loved to snatch him away from me, sit down with him in the rocking-recliner and very quietyly sing Danny Boy to him. It always quickly calmed him and now and then I would catch a tear falling down my fathers face as he watched his first-born grandchild slumber in his arms. They share a bond that at times has infuriated me beyond belief, one that I have tried desperately to comprehend over the last 16 years. Regardless, on this St. Patrick’s Day, my father’s second favorite holiday of the year, and this being the week that Boy #1 starts a new journey into manhood, I’m going to share Danny Boy.

Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.
The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling.
‘Tis you, ’tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow,
‘Tis I’ll be there in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so.

They started in at 04:00. We were able to ward them off until 07:00. I hope you’re all having a fabulous holiday. The following was the only good picture I was able to get of the four of the boys together.

As you can see, I wasn’t able to get them to sit down. If they would have you’d have been able to see my Cindy-Lou Who tree in all of it’s pathetic glory.

I’m taking a bit of a hiatus for the rest of the month and possibly most of January. I don’t know how much time I’ll available to blog as it will be incredibly busy once the two public school boys are back in school from their winter break. I’ll have a couple of local doctor appointments and then my local cardiologist has referred me to The Emory Adult Congenital Cardiac Clinic. That appointment falls during the second week of January and from what my local cardiologist, neurologist and internist have told me from the results of the latest echocardiogram, we can expect it to be the first of many visits to the clinic which is two hours from here.

I want to thank Kate and Slobo for all of their help in getting me started on the various paths to making money off blogging. I hope the two of you don’t feel it was all in vain. Life has been hectic to say the least and blogging has become one of those things that currently feels like a chore. Gods know I have enough chores to do away from the keyboard to worry about appeasing potential advertisers at the moment. I still read everyone linked in my blogroll and comment when I have time.

Next I want to thank my dear friend Lisa who’s book has finally hit the shelves. Not only did she send me a personally signed copy of the book but I was surprised to find myself not only listed in the Acknowledgments but also mentioned in the first paragraph of the first chapter. I’m such a sap. Those pages are tear stained. Thank you, Lisa. And of course I highly recommend the book to those just starting out with WordPress or even those just looking to brush up their WordPress skills.

And now I’ll leave you with the only Holiday song I seem to be able to stand this year. Even though I’ve taken the role of Grinch this year, I wish you all a blessed and happy holiday season and New Year.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Why not? That’s what we’ll be doing later today. We planned this with friends almost a year in advance. While getting together with family and extended family to celebrate the official holiday is great, we got to talking about how nice it would be to have a Thanksgiving Dinner with just friends with no worries about dressing up the children or worrying about who you or your spouse might offend because we all know as much as we love our families and enjoy spending time with them, they are more easily offended than our close friends are. And gods love him, but I think when we get together with Joseph’s family he lives to say offensive things that he knows will make his mother cringe and twitch so I spend our family get togethers holding my breath hoping my children don’t act like they were raised by wolves and that Joseph doesn’t alienate his mother any further than he already has.

I’m bringing the Bob Andy pie and Pumpkin pie and the stuffing. My back and hips are currently protesting a great deal. I think it was the prep work for the stuffing that did it. I’ve yet to find in any grocery store down here, unseasoned stuffing. You know, the dried bread cubes? Everything is always pre-seasoned. That means I end up having to toast the bread and cut the cubes myself along with the other goodies that go into recipe. Too much time on my feet.

Any who… I hope y’all are enjoying your Sunday.

So, how does one celebrate Halloween when taking into consideration the needs of a child with early onset schizoaffective disorder? The difficulty arises because any sort of play involving imagination has the potential to break the barrier in his mind between reality and fantasy and the two become one. So this year, while Boy #1 is helping out at his church’s haunted house, the rest of us will be having our own little at home celebration. Ordering in pizza, having obligatory cupcakes and watching the only Don Knotts movie that I can stand to sit through. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.