My First Tuesday

I miss writing.  I was thinking to myself yesterday, "I don't write anymore, and I used to love it."  I started to think of ideas that would not only get me writing again but would also motivate me.  I know someone who dedicated herself to taking a picture of her dog every day for a whole year.  She is a very talented photographer, and she took the cutest pictures of her dog.  I also thought about how dedicated she had to be and that she would have to hold herself accountable for doing that... every... day...  I decided to start out small.  Once a week.  Tuesday is my most available day of the week, so I thought, "Why not title my blog, 'Tuesday Mornings with Me"? 

Just a little note, I am not sure how many people (if any) will actually read my blog.  If you are someone who knows me, then great!  If you do not know me, then Welcome!  Feel free to read and follow my blog.  I hope you enjoy it.  At the moment, I plan on keeping my identity a secret (but if you know me, then it is no secret at all).  For the people who don't know me, then my identity shall be a mystery.

I have many thoughts in my mind, and from time to time I have the notion that I should write it down.  Do I ever?  Not once... I am thinking that if I have a blog, then I will feel more motivated to write these things down during the week and share them with you all on Tuesday Mornings.

I have been thinking a lot about family lately, and I had one memory come to me a few nights ago which I would like to share.  It was very late at night, and I awoke on the couch.  I climbed into bed, and I'm sure now that it was the middle of the night.  It was cold and dark, but as I started to warm up, I was thinking about my grandfather.  My grandfather passed away four years ago, and I think of him often.  I think of the visits we had, his laugh, his lessons, his dimpled grin.  I had the following memory come back to me so strong, as if he was in heaven and thinking about it at the same time and with as much fondness as me.  I remembered when my oldest sister got her license.  It was so great because in the summer months, we (my two older sisters and I) got to go see people in our family that we normally only got to see on weekends when my mom and dad were off of work.  We would have scheduled visits with my grandparents to go and play a game our family loved........ Poker.  You may be laughing to yourself, thinking, "Three girls who liked playing poker with their grandparents?"  The answer is... Yes.  We did this many times.  My grandma would pull out a pouch full of pennies.  We would each get our allotted share, and my grandpa would teach us the rules of the game.  He would always say, "Here's how the 'Big Boys' play."  For a long time, I didn't know who the "Big Boys" were, but I didn't care.  All I cared about was that my grandpa had a more serious tone when he said "Big Boys", which meant I listened and took him seriously.  He taught us everything there is to know about the game, and it was such fun.  We played, visited, laughed, won and lost.  My grandpa would never play until the very end with us because my grandma would always give us a few pennies if we were shy of them.  Or she would fib the game a little to help us out.  My grandpa didn't like this very much.  He would slip away from the game.  You may be thinking that he was a little tough?  No... he was just very fair.  He wanted us to learn the right way, even if that meant we lost.  I appreciated that then, but even more now.  I feel now that he was trying to teach us a lesson that even if are going through a tough time, we have to make the best of our situation.  It reminds me of the expression that you "play with the cards you're dealt".  It is more than just a card game... it is a life lesson.  I also appreciated how my grandma would be very flexible and help us when we needed it (if we were running out of pennies).  Looking back on this, it makes me think of how important it is to support the ones you love (and in my mind, I'm mostly thinking of  emotional support).  What a great opportunity to learn two such valuable lessons in one setting.  This memory makes me smile.  It makes me smile not because I learned how to play poker, but because of the time spent and the lessons learned.  My sisters and I genuinly enjoyed these visits.  They were such fun. 

I remember at the end of the game, we would put ALL the pennies in the middle of the table and play one final hand to see who won.  Then, at the end, we would put all the pennies back in the pouch, and look forward to our next adventure... and learn more about how the "Big Boys" played. 

Happy Tuesday to you and yours....