Another week of being a little bit behind.  I hope someone missed me since the last post, but I did get to see many of you last weekend for the showers.  Thank you to Bobbie for putting together two wonderful events for us to share within 48 hours of each other!  It was great that Kathleen could be part of several family events in her visit north.  Pat took wonderful pictures, as always so that we could all enjoy the event long into the future. 

This is one she missed (I think):  James teaching Miles that the Mets are Number One.

Your dad would have celebrated his 83rd birthday yesterday so I've been thinking a lot about him this weekend, especially after seeing Aunt Rose and Diana last weekend.  It's also graduation time so it seems I'm thinking a great deal about advice to give and lessons learned.  Here are a few of my own:

You don't know what you don't know.  (this came to me more recently than many of the others but at the moment, is my favorite one)

Sleep when you need to.  Sometimes this feels silly--like we adults shouldn't "have to" take a nap just a little while after our morning coffee, but your body knows what it needs.  Listen to it.

People are doing the best they can with the tools they have.  Despite behavior indicating otherwise, people aren't usually actively trying to make your day miserable.  Most of the time.

 Say "no" when you need to without explanation.  But include a thank you for the thought.

Use the good stuff.

Find ways to remove the irritants from your daily life.  They aren't going to remove themselves and no one else is going to do it for you.

OK, there's no future in graduation speeches for me so you are my audience.  Thank you very much.