What I learned this week: Aha moments on ears, Tori Amos, and swingers

I like to learn new things all the time. Sometimes those things are big, sometimes not so big at all. This week what I learned leaned more to the latter — yet interesting to me just the same.

EARS
Did you know that your earlobes provide skin to be used to replace facial skin removed due to skin cancer? I did not know that, but now I do.

The story isn't mine to tell, so I can't share in full, but a loved one of mine had skin cancer spots removed from her face this week. Those spots were deep and wide and in need of skin to cover the (literal) holes left by removing the bad stuff. I'd been told the likely source for skin replacement was her earlobes. I imagined her having her face patched up but no longer being able to wear earrings as her ear lobe was cut off, split open like a chicken breast then the fillet stitched to her face.

Thankfully that's not how it works. Instead, small slivers of skin were sliced from her lobe — which remained fully attached — and carefully placed on the spots in need of coverage. Who'da thunk it?

TORI AMOS
I've never felt strongly about Ms. Amos one way or another. To be honest, I can't even think of a song title or even a snippet of a tune of songs that she's sung. That said, though, I've always thought of her — if I ever thought of her at all — as being much younger than me.

Well guess what? I learned (from AARP magazine) that Tori Amos will be 50 next Thursday. FIFTY! That's just too weird to me, for some reason. It's kind of like learning that Pee Wee Herman is, well, he's ... (Googling it real quick) ... Ohmigosh! Pee Wee Herman/Paul Rubens is 60! Sixty-one on the 27th, actually. Not that that's old, but so not what I expected for Pee Wee. Kind of makes Tori Amos seem such a baby.

SWINGERS
Jim has been trying his darnedest for years to attract hummingbirds to our yard. Considering how abundant they are in our area, you'd think we'd have at least a few stopping by our place. Nothing for years. Then last year we got one. ONE! All summer long we saw only one little guy sipping on one of the hummingbird feeders in our yard.

Because of Jim's determination to attract the hummers, Megan and her family gave Jim for Father's Day a pretty new hummingbird feeder, a book on attracting them, and a sweet little swing the birds would supposedly swing away on.

Well, the book helped, as we finally — finally — have several hummingbirds visiting not only the pretty new feeder but our old one, too. The swing? Meh... it's cute and all, but we never expected it to be much of a draw for the hummingbirds.

Oh my, were we wrong. Those little guys and gals love it. They're not only hummers, they're swingers, too. And one in particular swings long enough and often enough for me to get some pretty darn cute photos of her merrily swinging away.

 

As you can see, the lessons weren't huge or life-changing — well, the ear one was for one person I know — but they are indeed what I learned this week.

Enjoy your weekend! I look forward to connecting again come Monday!

Today's question:

What did you learn this week?

What I learned this week: I am blessed

As a long-distance grandma, there's this fact about me: I miss my grandsons. Daily. Sometimes hourly.

Thing is, despite missing my grandsons all.the.<cuss>.time, I have a pretty good life. I was reminded this week of just how good it is.

I have mornings that feature:

Hummingbirds on my deck...

 

Deer doing their daily doings while I walk my dogs...

 

And this heartwarming feeding I was thrilled to witness...

 

(Though I was chided for interrupting...)

All that while Pikes Peak keeps watch from the west...

 

And that's just my morning, just one small sliver of my day, my life. There's much more that's equally amazing, equally jaw-dropping awesome. How could I consider myself anything but blessed?

Though that's not really a lesson I learned this week, it's one I tend to forget. The sights above — all photographed yesterday morning — reminded me once more how blessed I am, despite missing my Megan and my grandsons. And reminders are nearly as good as a lesson, I think, especially when reminded again and again, just as I was yesterday.

So there you have it: I am blessed. And that is what I learned — or re-learned — this week.

(Now if I could only learn how to not miss my grandsons.)

I'm off for the weekend! Best wishes for a lovely one for you and yours. I look forward to seeing you here again Monday. Cheers!

Today's question:

What did you learn this week?

BlogHer, boys and more

Today I'm off to BlogHer 2013 in Chicago. Last time I went, in 2011, I went with a friend. This time I'm going completely alone. When I get there, though, I'll be meeting some dear friends whom I speak to nearly every single day yet have never met in person.

I'm excited.

And I'm nervous.

A praying mantis can only do so much, so today I'm simply posting some recent photos I love of the boys I love. Plus a few other photos I recently took that I love, too. I'm hoping they'll leave me with a peaceful, easy feeling.

I hope they leave you with a peaceful, easy feeling, too.

 

(Oh geez... I just posted all those, then realized I didn't watermark a single one. Oh well. Gonna stay peaceful and believe folks will do the right thing and not steal my pics.)

Today's question:

Do you typically take more photos of people or more of nature?

Picture this: Peace, courtesy a bug

I've been rather frazzled of late for a variety of reasons, the kind of frazzling that hurts the jaw when you realize come end of day that you've been gritting your teeth for hours. Yeah, that kind of frazzling.

Last Thursday, amidst the frazzle and dazzle, I went outside to bring the garbage can back from the road and nearly stepped on this as I headed back inside:

I grabbed my camera. I Googled. I was floored. Yes, that's a praying mantis. I've lived in Colorado more than 40 years and have never, ever seen one. So I did what anyone would do: I posted it on Facebook. I got several "Wow!" comments plus a couple from fellow Coloradans sharing how they once-upon-a-time saw a praying mantis in Colorado. And I got a comment from my friend Ruth directing me to read this:

The mantis comes to us when we need peace, quiet and calm in our lives. Usually the mantis makes an appearance when we've flooded our lives with so much business, activity, or chaos that we can no longer hear the still small voice within us because of the external din we've created.

<snip for length and copyright reasons>

An appearance from the mantis is a message to be still, go within, meditate, get quiet and reach a place of calm. It may also a sign for you to be more mindful of the choices you are making and confirm that these choices are congruent.

— from http://www.whats-your-sign.com/animal-symbolism-mantis.html

It brought tears to my eyes. And it brought me peace... courtesy a bug.

Today's question:

What brings you peace during frazzled times?

Fowl play, plus GRAND Social No. 59

I spent Sunday afternoon at Sloan's Lake in Denver, where Andrea, Brianna, Jim and I celebrated Andrea's birthday (which is next week) and mine (which was last week). While enjoying family time, we also enjoyed fowl time, the fowl being the many pelicans and geese merrily populating the place. 

Naturally, I couldn't help but take photos. Lots of photos. I ended up with 840 of them by the end of the day — more fowl than family, I must admit. Here are a few of my (fowl) favorites:

Thank you to Andrea — my baby, who will be twenty-eight next week — for introducing me to yet another place in Colorado that I had never been before, despite having lived here nearly 40 years.

And now I thank you for joining me for GRAND Social No. 59!

How it works:

• All grandparent bloggers are invited to add a link. You don't have to blog specifically about grandparenting, just be a grandparent who blogs.

• To link up a post, copy the direct URL to the specific post — new or old — that you want to share, not the link to your blog's home page. Then click the blue button marked with "Add your link" below and follow the directions.

• You can add up to three posts, but no duplicates, contests, giveaways, or Etsy sites, please.

• Adding a mention such as This post linked to the GRAND Social to your linked posts is appreciated. Or, you can post the GRAND Social button anywhere on your page using the following code:

<a href="/" target="_blank"><img src="http://grandmasbriefs.squarespace.com/storage/GRANDsocialbutton.jpg " alt="Grandma’sBriefs.com" width="125" height="125" /></a>

• The GRAND Social linky is open for new posts through Wednesday evening, so please come back to see those added after your first visit.

• If you're not a blogger, you have the pleasure of being a reader. Bloggers who link up would be honored to have one and all — other bloggers as well as readers — visit, read and, if so moved, comment, even if just a "Hey, stopping by from the GRAND Social."

• For another grandparent linky, visit Connie's Grandparent's Say It Saturday Link Party each Saturday.