Category: Family health

Cricket…

by lovesdoves, posted in Emotional Health, Family health, Spiritual Health

Running as fast as she could back and forth and back and forth in our living room, jumping up in my lap to settle in after a Thanksgiving feast, catching Oliver’s wing and gently tugging him toward her while he hopped along beside her, getting every squeaky toy out of her toy basket when she would come to visit me, remembering me with affectionate kisses when we would come to visit her, sitting politely while I fed her Kraft singles, prancing around all dressed up and fancy for Caitlin’s wedding day, playing ball by herself… not wanting me to stop petting her, and me not wanting to… looking into her little face with her special teeth and her adoring eyes and knowing how much she loved Caitlin, knowing that taking care of her, listening to her and always understanding her were Cricket’s primary tasks in this life. They were best friends. They meant the world to each other. And I loved knowing that.

Little Cricket died tonight. She was hit by a car, and she died. I know a part of Caitlin died with her.

Cricket offered us unconditional love and acceptance. She cherished us. As we cherished her. And we will miss her. Immensely.

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Believing very much that we will see her again someday.

I love you, Cricket. You’re a good girl.

 

 

Home…

by lovesdoves, posted in Emotional Health, Family health

My mother’s father used to sing us a song called, “Show Me The Way To Go Home”. He had come over to America from England as a young man in the 1920’s. He worked on the railroad earning and saving money until he could eventually send for my grandmother to join him in Boston. He told us that he and the other engineers would harmonize this melody at the end of their long days on the train. We were amused by the lyrics, but there was something about the tune that was melancholy as I pictured the men with their toughened hands, and their caps, and their lunch pails, tired and worn, physically depleted just looking for a place to rest their weary bodies… lonely for their families and their homes on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

That song, that time settled on my mind today as we made the drive from Georgia to Ohio, returning from a joyful Thanksgiving weekend. As we got closer and closer to our address, I realized that we were merely arriving at a structure, a house, a place to rest our heads. Home would be created as we stepped through the door, when the house would become filled once again with the love and laughter of family, and God’s Holy Spirit.

As we travel about and begin new traditions, as our family grows and our roots extend in different directions, it’s comforting to know that wherever we are, as long as we are together, we are home.

So thankful for these smiles. So thankful for “home”.

Thriving…

by lovesdoves, posted in Emotional Health, Family health, Spiritual Health

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A long, long time ago, when I was 12 or 13, I read a book called, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. It was a book that evoked an extremely emotional response in my young life. It opened my eyes to how blessed I was to have a family, immediate and extended, and a Heavenly Father that loved me, unconditionally. I hadn’t known there was any other way and it created compassion and thankfulness and appreciation in my heart. A part of the story refers to a young sapling tree that had pushed it’s way through the cracks in the sidewalk in Francie’s neighborhood, a symbol of how, even in the most adverse circumstances, we are created to survive. Nasturtiums, this flower, are experts at that, and they always remind me of that “revelationary” time in my life when I learned that we were created to persevere, survive, and even more than that, to thrive in a beautiful, compassionate, and thankful way as voices for God and servants of His Kingdom. I spotted this flower on my way to lunch with my own precious flowers, my daughters, and felt overwhelmed by God’s loving promises to me as I revisited that time in my life.

Thankful&Grateful. Live Well.

 

 

 

Zeppole Day…

by lovesdoves, posted in Emotional Health, Family health

While everyone else in what seems to be the entire world gets all jazzed about St. Patrick’s Day, with it’s green clothes, and green beer, and drunken shenanigans, I see March 17th as any other lucky day that happens to be two days before an even better saint’s day!

St. Joseph’s Day!

St. Joseph’s Day commemorates Joseph of the Bible, Jesus’ foster daddy, Mary’s faithful husband, and is celebrated by the Italian community by giving food to the needy, wearing red….

AND EATING ZEPPOLE!

Zeppole pronounced zep-po-lee are celestial italian doughnuts. Fried dough! How impressive and amazing is that?! My Italian ancestors are some brilliant folks!

When I was younger, my Nonna would have all of the family over on March 19th. I don’t remember wearing red, but I do remember walking into her home in Boston that typically wore a delightful aroma of garlic and basil to the smell of yeast dough frying on her stove… I remember her standing over that huge pot of hot oil, pulling off little pieces of airy dough that she had prepared in mass quantities earlier in the day by squishing the yeasty water with the flour and salt. And then slapping the dough until the gluten developed. And then allowing that delicate mixture to rise to perfection.

As the creamy-colored, hot, fried dough became golden, she would lift it out with her giant spoon, letting the oil drain and then would drop it on an enormous pile of white granulated sugar. She would roll it around and cover it liberally and then she would bestow that beautiful morsel upon anyone in the vicinity. Which would include all of us. My sister and brother, cousins, aunts, uncles, mothers and fathers. She preferred to serve them straight out of the fryer, while they were crisp, and heavenly. We all gathered, hopeful for the next delicious bite!

Nonna and I had a very special relationship and I knew beyond any doubt that she loved me deeply and without measure, but one year in particular, I remember feeling especially loved by her. Just as we arrived and were walking through my Grandpa’s garage to her kitchen, she motioned for me to come right away. I shimmied over to her through the crowd that was already surrounding her, and she handed me a sugar-coated napkin with a little zeppole sitting right in the middle of it. It was shaped liked a duck. And she had saved it just for me.

I will be making a small batch of zeppole today, not in honor of a man-appointed saint, but in honor of my Nonna, of my heritage, and of the traditions that are kept alive by remembering and repeating them.

To continue a legacy.

To live well.

Love… Dad

by lovesdoves, posted in Emotional Health, Family health, Spiritual Health

I walked back inside our home with tear-stained cheeks, and wondered if the crew foreman from Siebenthaler’s had ever had to deal with a weeping woman as he did his job… as he and his team simply, yet meticulously, planted a white oak tree.

They were done and ready to move their equipment to a new delivery site… he had watched me walk around the tree several times, taking photos as I moved slowly around it’s trunk, then he got back out and walked over to me… he said… “I’ve never seen one so perfect from all sides… from ever angle it’s beautiful”. I looked up at this burly man, after watching him remove the remains of a bradford pear that had grown there for 20 years and move the dirt with grace and precision to establish a home for this new tree that would grow to be 75 feet someday, and his soft words registered with me… and I explained to him why my husband had gone out to their nursery to chose this specimen, a straight tree with an exemplary shape… why it was so special to me that they had taken the time to make it so perfectly right for us… why it wasn’t just a tree, but a symbol of the love that a father has for his son… a symbol… that he had written about ten years before for his eldest son’s surprise 40th birthday party.

A couple of months ago, after Jim had died, I found this note that he had scribed to Terry. This treasured poem was healing, filled with sentiments of adoration, and it provided a plan of action. To replace a tree that we had lost with a white oak tree in remembrance of Jim’s life and his love for nature, trees, and conservation… something relevant to his life… something that was of importance to him… something that we will see each time we leave our home and as we return… and we will think of him… and I know that he is pleased…

“Happy birthday, son – they tell me you’ll be forty,

I guess I knew that anyway – or at least, I “orty”.

I’ve been your dad for all those years and you have made me proud,

A statement I’ve made many times out loud.

Proud not just of your profession or your fatherhood,

which would be enough for some,

But proud to have retained your love – and of the man that you’ve become.

Forty years is nothing, if you’re a white oak tree –

It means that you’ve grown straight and tall – and reached maturity.

In the forest of life with other trees, your rightful place you take,

The secret to remaining strong is to bend, and never break.

This lesson you have seemed to learn, and the pleasure that it brings,

I hope that you will stand so long, they’ll have to count your rings.

This secret celebration has us all about to burst – I must admit it

But your birthday’s not ’til the twenty-first

And that’s when you’re “gonna” get it!

Love… Dad”

This year’s feast…

by lovesdoves, posted in Family health, Physical health, Social health, Spiritual Health

I get to prepare the Thanksgiving feast! It’s a huge, gigantic blessing to me… to combine foods and herbs and spices together and cook or bake or roast them for just the right amount of time perfuming the air with anticipation of something delicious… it’s a part of who I am! I love it when guests enter our home and say, “OOOOoooooo, something smells gooooood!”, knowing that it will be just a matter of hours until we are seated altogether, serving and giving thanks to God for every provision.

I have found over the years that the traditional meal is the one that my guests enjoy most. I used to scour cookbooks for a month beforehand searching for unique and unusual recipes for preparing the turkey and all those luscious side dishes. I remember one thanksgiving at our little house on Wright Avenue, everyone was coming over including my grandparents from Boston and I was honored to be hosting the grand event! I found all kinds of new and innovative things to serve, and I busied myself getting everything just right because I wanted it to be so special for them.

I don’t remember the menu, but I do remember my grandfather telling me I was a fussy cook. It wasn’t an insult, because he savored what I was serving, and he loved me with his whole heart.

It was a reminder.

Of what’s important.

It’s ALL about the people we love and the time that we get to be together. Over the years I have come to realize that the traditional menu and those flavors were enjoyed most because they were familiar, they were Thanksgivings gone-by and the memories that came with the meal were as important as the meal itself. So I have embraced those Thanksgiving traditions. Now I only change the appetizers that are served as warm-ups to the real meal! So this year’s menu at the McCoskey home will include:

APPETIZERS

Brown-sugared Bacon-wrapped Smokies

David’s Skyline Chili Dip with tortilla chips

Cheese Wafers with Jalapeño Pepper Jelly

Old-fashioned Shrimp Dip with crackers

Sausage Cheddar Nibbles

Mushroom Pate Purses

Gingered Almonds

DINNER

30 lb. Roast Turkey & Gravy

Traditional Bread Stuffing

Sweet Potato Casserole

Spinach Souffle

Whipped Golden Potatoes

Laureen’s Green Bean Casserole

Janet’s Pomegranate Salad

Fresh-from-the-cob Creamed Corn

Assorted Cranberry Jellies

Home-made Dinner Rolls

Butter

DESSERTS

Mom’s Assorted Pies

Lily’s Gingerbread Pumpkin Trifle

Acorn Cookies

It will be a feast, for sure. And there will be laughter and joyfulness as we reunite with our families. This year marks the first year that we will be including our very own grand baby and I know that over the coming years the events of our lives and our children’s lives may be cause for changes in the traditions. So I will stay flexible in the future and welcome this moment now… this year’s feast… this year’s togetherness… this year of thanksgiving in 2011…

Live Well.

Longer pants

by lovesdoves, posted in Emotional Health, Family health, Physical health, Social health, Spiritual Health, Uncategorized

I am not a scale person, and I am not particularly fond of tape measures.

But this is what I know, my pants are getting longer!

Which means they are looser!

Which means that fat is melting away!

I just slipped into my size 2 jeans. They are the only pair that I allowed myself to keep during a closet purge awhile back. Because I was hopeful.

And today I am having a little celebratory dancing-with-myself party!! In this sassy little pair of jeans!

Here is the best part of all… because of the Yoli Better Body system and a tiny bit of willpower, it only took me 7 days to lose 14 pounds! In just one week, jeans that didn’t fit last Sunday… fit me perfectly today!

The only reason I am sharing this is because I know there are people that are struggling with their weight right now, which leads to struggling with their health and well-being in every aspect of their lives… physically, mentally, socially, spiritually, sexually.

Let me be transparent… when I am carrying extra weight, physically, my body is sicker than it should be, working harder than it could be… mentally, I feel depressed because I am not taking control over something that I can be in control over… I find it more difficult to be social, because I feel self-conscious… spiritually, I know that if I’m abusing food, or being gluttonous, then I am against God’s will for my life… sexually, well, when I am not feeling particularly sexy, I just want to hide in the dark, or perhaps get a mysterious “headache”. “Not tonight” isn’t fair to my husband or to me… sex is an important element of our marriage, and a good sex life helps deal with the every day stressors of life and it keeps me connected to my husband… it’s one of God’s gifts to every one of us in a marital relationship!

So if you could be better, would you choose to be better?

When you are ready to begin living well, we are here. And we can help.

Living Well Spine Center… 937-878-1071

Sands of Time

by lovesdoves, posted in Emotional Health, Family health, Spiritual Health

This past weekend I brought home a little bag of sand from our oldest daughter’s home in Savannah, Georgia. I do that. I collect earth from the places that we visit.

I am very nostalgic, and aside from photos and videos, I look for special ways to archive memories, so they can be revisited whenever I want to peak back in time. When we traveled, Terry would find a hat, or a wicked awesome t-shirt to take home, and the girls would find little things that intrigued them that would make their way back with us, too, but I loathed the process of searching through the tourist trap gift shops with all their trinkets and novelties. To me, those objects didn’t represent the time that we had spent together and would hold little long-term meaning as I looked back over my life and the memories that we had created as a family in fabulous places around the world.

 

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So I started collecting the earth… sand, soil, rock. I would find the perfect spot to scoop up a handful of this God-hewned memorabilia and sift it down into a vessel for transport home to Ohio where I store each in a magnetic container in my living room. This display is an organic, meaningful, changing piece of art. I am mesmerized by the differences in the samples that I’ve acquired. Each is so diverse in color and texture, completely unique to the area that it came from, whether it was the beaches of Italy where my grandfather used to play, or the beaches of Cape Cod where my brother and sister and I played, or the beaches of Virgin Gorda where our daughters played, each is so special to me because of the time that we had spent there with the people that we love.

As I was preparing this sand for its new home here with us, I had a revelation. That just as sand shifts and changes constantly, so do our lives. Sometimes we are prepared for those changes and sometimes they happen regardless of our thoughts or expectations. And though the landscape of our lives is ever-evolving… developing and growing and uncertain at times… I still find magnificent beauty in it. I actively choose to appreciate each day with thankfulness and joyfulness, and for the new opportunity that it represents to serve God and the people that He loves.

Another thing that I have come to understand and embrace… when I resist it the least, when I let God do the sculpting of my life, that is when it’s the most effortlessly beautiful, just like the sand dunes of the Cape. That’s when my heart is at peace, that’s when I can be in the present moment, or enjoying the memories of the past with my collection of earth. Resisting resistance is part of my living well life.

 

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Silky, Savory Soup

by lovesdoves, posted in Family health, Physical health

As the weather cools, my cooking brain shifts into soup, stew, and casserole mode.

And last evening, after a rainy and gloomy day, I had my heart set on some Savory Mushroom Soup. I love it’s earthiness and the delicious flavor and the way the sherry, added at the end, reminds me of working at the Marriott’s Panache in Columbus where God prepared for me to meet my future husband, who, it turned out, does not share my love of mushrooms!

But last evening worked out perfectly, as he had a dinner meeting to attend, and I had everything that I needed to prepare this simple, silky soup. Here’s the recipe:

Savory Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons organic olive oil

8 ounces of mushrooms, coarsely chopped

1 cup red onion, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 cup organic all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups organic no-chicken broth

1/2 cup organic half&half, optional (if not using, increase broth by 1/2 cup)

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon sherry

Directions:

Add the olive oil to a medium saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and saute until soft, then add the chopped mushrooms and saute until browned approximately 15-20  minutes. Add the flour and stir while cooking for 1 minute. Add broth and whisk until thickened. Boil for 1 minute, lower heat and add the half and half. Heat through and remove from heat. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve with croutons and sherry on the side… to add just before dining.

Prepare your own yummy and delicious soup and Live Well.

Lisa

Ribbit…

by lovesdoves, posted in Emotional Health, Family health, Social health

 

 

 

 

I am particular. There I’ve said it. Some may call it “fussy”, “bossy”, “controlling”, or “tyrannical”.

I prefer, “meticulous”, “specific”, “thorough”, “accurate”, “exceptional”, “distinct”. Period.

When it comes to planning things, events, parties, building projects, other projects, home-school curriculum, weddings, and trips, I like everything to be efficient and well-organized, and most probably, including an itinerary. In my mind, the best way to have the best time is to prepare a masterful agenda, and that way nothing is left to wonder about. Or worry about. Or forget about. To me… it’s the logical way to do things. My family refers to this as “doing it the FROG’S way”… a term of endearment that goes back to my childhood… something that I’ve shared with my daughters as a little girl story from the time they were born.

Not everyone appreciates my stringent guides. Some believe that having a schedule doesn’t allow freedom for fun. Some believe that having a schedule actually takes away the fun. I witnessed this with my own eyes as I happily and joyfully presented Caitlin with the itinerary for her wedding weekend. I was delighted and exhilarated knowing that everything was prepared, had a place, had a time… was organized… and systematized. As she started reading page one (of three), her smile slowly and steadily turned upside down. Her eyes became narrow slits. Her shoulders drooped. Her question, “When is the fun suppose to happen, Mom?”

I didn’t understand her dismay. Our brains function from completely different directions. Of course, I have taken multiple personality assessments, because they provide the order and understanding that I desire. And we are, for sure, opposites in that regard. But the love that I have for her surpasses my need to understand. And I told her she didn’t have to look at the agenda ever again. That she could go about having the time of her life, the entertainment that she seeks, the adventure that she needs, and behind the scenes, I would tend to my list, follow the schedule, and keep everything punctual.

Based on her reaction, I can guarantee that she was not at all impressed with my planning skills and I felt like I had let her down, stolen her joy and squashed her free-spirited nature, but Friday night before the wedding, she came home with a surprise for me… unplanned naturally… and delightfully spontaneous.

It was a beautifully hand-crafted, green glass frog… a loving reminder that I AM the frog… and despite our differences… my little tadpole loves me back…

Embrace the differences and live well.

Lisa