Coffee, Chaos and Cuss Words

Mom at 19 years old...glamour girl on the farm... My mom passed away tonight....she was 79. This is the initial shock...numbness...mental processing. We all knew it was coming....she was a diabetic with heart disease and was battling lung cancer. Two weeks ago she was in the hospital and they put her on a respirator, something that had never happened before. But, she improved...and we had hope for just a little more time. She just got out of the hospital a few days ago and was resting at home. I was there with her when they removed the respirator tube....she grasped my hand so tight...she was terrified...'I thought I was dead, Lina. I thought I died.' That was just a few days ago. She just didn't make it much longer...her body simply could not fight any more. Mom and Dad on their Wedding Day...that little bump on her belly is me! My dad is devastated...after more than 47 years of marriage, he has just lost his wife.  He sounded so painfully sad on the phone. He doesn't ...

Granny chic? Silver foxes? The Marie Antoinette? Snow on the Roof? The new black? There are tons of trendy phrases being flung about to describe what is a natural process as old as time: going gray and/or having gray hair. I've toyed with the idea of letting the gray come in for several years now. I have a distinct 'Lily Munster' patch right at the top of my forehead (my brother has it too...thanks Mom!) that resisted colors even back in my 20's when I was changing hair color just for fun. I even tried to let it come in about 3 years ago, then panicked and dyed it again to my natural dark brownish black. Earlier this year, around April, I decided to stop dying my hair for good and I'm finally comfortable with it. I'm even excited and slightly impatient when I see more gray streaks. 'Hurry up and fully grow in already!' Ha! Every day I notice a few silver hairs around my face and the hidden ones around the base of my hairline. I've even tell my husban...

Welcome to all my new and old friends! I started this blog a while ago...and just lost my way somewhere along the line. Maybe there were more life changes occurring than I had planned on? Well, as John Lennon said, " Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."  I think when I first started this blog, I had a vision of it being a place to voice my thoughts and experiences of my life...but in reality, I wasn't sure yet where I actually was in my life! I was still coming to grips with some things...and since they weren't clear in my head, I sure as hell couldn't put a clear voice to them in my blog! So...now I am celebrating a Do-Over! Life gives you those sometimes, if you bother to stop and take advantage of them. What started out as 'Latter Day Doozie'...the name of the blog which described the whirlwind of mental, physical, emotional and spiritual changes I was going through last year...now has a new name...Mid-Stride Moxie!! The reason ...