Graceful Parenting in Austin

I’m waiting a long time outside Helen’s front door. Helen is my very elderly neighbor who loves to see Baby Girl. I never like to wait a long time at the door when visiting a very elderly neighbor.

Finally she comes. Maybe she was on the phone or in the bathroom. She opens the door and I walk inside. Something is burning, no, something just stinks, no, that is cigarette smoke. Helen wasn’t on the phone or in the bathroom, dear sweet Helen was secretly smoking a cigarette.

Her daughter-in-law thought the hidden cigarette packs belonged to the son, but the granddaughter knew better. They were Helen’s. She would never admit it, but when no one is there, she lights up.

After our visit yesterday, I realized I hadn’t given an update on Helen in a while, so here is what happened after I called Adult Protective Services about my very elderly neighbor…

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Check out this new picture Noel made for my About Page. I’m so amazed by what she can do. She can draw and write and even get braces and go to overnight volleyball camp on the same day without being worried at all. And we really do look like that. (Except I’m not quite that skinny!)

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If I haven’t said it lately, I really appreciate you for reading! Thank you, thank you!

Love, Carol

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Blue Eyes and I are having a rough week, with a lot to do for the kids and our jobs needing our time and little left for ourselves. When I’m running on empty like that, I turn to TV sometimes, which helps a lot with not having enough time i know, but anyway, I’m watching some old Family Ties rerun and a commercial comes on with a woman with really BEAUTIFUL hair. Just amazing, sexy, full of body, super shiny hair. After hearing her talk, I look at her kind of sideways and decide we must be from different planets.

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(Read part 1 if you haven’t already.)

Oh, my, I must say that my greatest challenge in showing kindness to people I don’t know is when I’m on the phone with a customer representative from my insurance company. I just can’t say exactly why and maybe it is worth a series of sessions in therapy, but they make me cry and raise my voice and otherwise act like an idiot and it’s definitely not a time when I find it easy to show lovingkindness…

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I’ve talked before about my morning yoga tape of music, prayers and yoga poses that I made on my Mac with Garage Band and how one set of prayers is about loving kindness towards yourself, your family, neighbors, people you don’t know, people you don’t like, and all that. Some mornings I listen to these words and my logical mind says “of coarse, sure, I got it, I’m a nice person after all” and other mornings I feel the words more and I know I have a long way to go.

One of the more interesting parts of the prayer is showing kindness to people I don’t know. SURRRREEE, I say. I’m kind. I’m nice. Why wouldn’t I be nice to someone I don’t know? I’m not MEAN, after all, right?

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