Staying connected

This is the week I spend in the company of women a couple of times, and enjoy it very much. I will go when I don't feel all that well or have something that is only marginally less fun to do. I pick my women's groups over most everything.

The knitting group meets once a week and they have been together for about seven years. It is not the easiest thing to get to know them, but in some ways it is. The ones I'm with are genuinely nice and not only talk about their interests but ask me about mine. Once we get started knitting we chatter like magpies.

They are quick to help with needlework problems and accept my help on such things as how to make black bean soup the really easy way. My knitting group meets on Monday night at a cafe bakery called Panera's. We either have a light supper or coffee and a pastry to "pay" for using their big table with the great lights, if we can get it. We eat and then sit and knit for about an hour and a half. Women and girls stop by the table to see what we are doing and chat for a few minutes. We have encouraged them to bring their yarn and join us, but so far nobody has. One girl is a TCU student and said she would love to join us when her classes are over for the semester. She is just too overwhelmed with studies right now. I hope she does come join us.

Our knitting group talks about whatever comes into our heads and then the chatter is on. There is usually a lot of laughter as we share our lives. One woman has a son who was born profoundly deaf. He is grown with children of his own now and his children are not deaf. From what his mother tells he is getting pay back for some of the things he put her through while he was growing up. She told me it is rare that deaf parents have deaf children, something I didn't know. I have taken sign language classes in the past, but since I don't have anyone with whom to sign, the classes were not particularly helpful, except I gained a lot of knowledge of the deaf community. I thought I might want to be an interpreter and wanted to see if it was something I could learn easily. I didn't have trouble learning the signs that much, but to be a certified interpreter the classes were very intense and time consuming. That was during the time my father was in a nursing home after his stroke left him paralyzed completely on one side. He needed a lot of my time and our two youngest children were still living at home. So, I didn't pursue a career in sign interpreting for the deaf. It still bothers me that the tv subtitles are so poor for the deaf, but the typists are typing in real time if it is the news. It is difficult to type that quickly, but dang! So much is garble it is a wonder deaf folks have any idea whatever is going on in the world. I'm amazed about what is going on most of the time and I can hear.

The other group of women I meet with once a month is a group that belong to a woman's club and they have known each other for decades...they started in their club while I was figuring out what I wanted to do when I "grew up". One of my friends wanted to join that club when she "grew up" and she is working on me to join, but for now the lunch dates are enough for me. Our lunch get togethers are much like the knitting group, but not as open. I think knitters are just more down to earth women. The lunch group shares knowledge of where is the best place to find certain foods and the best places to eat and the best places to buy clothes. At least one other lady shares an interest in gardening and was very interested in my little greenhouse. She was wishing she had planted some Lady Banksia roses to grow over an arbor when she moved in to her home six years ago, because now they would be full and lush. I urged her to plant them this year. I think they grow fairly quickly and the sooner started the sooner she will have her dream of them fulfilled. We talked today of going over to the Chandor gardens in Weatherford in the next month or so. After that it will be way too hot to do much outside. It is a very beautiful garden designed by a gentleman from England and is one of the finer gardens laid out in English style with Chinese elements. I'm looking forward to going over there one afternoon or morning if not with them then with my husband.

My garden is needing attention at the moment. There is great excitement about the seeds I planted at the first of February coming up. The peas have finally started growing enough I've put the stakes in for them to climb on....again. We had to take them out last weekend when it was very cold here so we could cover the new plants with sheets to keep them from getting bitten by the frost. Tomatoes have germinated in the greenhouse and I'm pretty sure we are going to have enough dill for the city. Lettuce is coming up....and it will get bitter when it starts getting hot. I may not have planted it soon enough, but heck the seeds were only 19 cents.

All in all the two groups of women I meet with are great fun and my husband and I went to an AARP meeting *gasp* the other day and knew people there, too. We are going to the TCU opera series with them this weekend. They provide a little bus and it costs $5 each, so I didn't figure we could lose on that deal. My husband's high school bunch meets once a month and they are quickly becoming part of our lives again, too. Life is pretty good, you know. It takes little to keep us happy and entertained.

My lunch bunch was talking about a website a young man made of videos of his grandmother making foods she cooked in the depression and telling what it was like then. I thought what a great idea to preserve the recipes and how to make the dishes, and also to be able to share her knowledge with so many others. I found it just now!! http://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking

I didn't grow up in the depression, but was a child of children of the depression I learned a lot about saving money. During the next few months I think maybe posts about how to make food stretch and a dollar, as well, might be interesting to some people. With three children we made do with a lot less and we were happy. If you have any good stories to share send them to me.