Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives – #Family – Thanksgiving 2017 by Miriam Hurdle.

Time for a new series of Posts from Your Archives and the theme this time is all about family. We have all written posts that are now languishing in our archives and this is an opportunity to share them again to a new audience…mine. At the end of the post you will find out more on how to submit your favourites. It is also an opportunity to promote your work.

My guest today is poet Miriam Hurdle who wrote a post in 2017 at Thanksgiving. It was an eventful time with Miriam in recovery from an operation for cancer and her daughter about to give birth.

Thanksgiving 2017 by Miriam Hurdle.

Thanksgiving 2017 had come and gone. This is a little recap of the detail. It has something to do with decorating the Christmas tree. I’ll get to it toward the end of the post.

I was hosting the Thanksgiving dinner this year. The previous time I hosted it was in 2009. That was the year I received the chemotherapy and radiation for my melanoma cancer from January to July. I know, I was so brave to host the dinner for 28 people four months after the cancer treatment. With the limited energy, I took two months to get the house ready, cleaning the house one room at a time. On the day of Thanksgiving, my daughter Mercy helped me do most of the cooking, I had written the schedule of the day from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. when the family would arrive. She followed the schedule to put the turkey in the over, cook other dishes and set up the hors d’oeuvre and dessert tables. She did such a good job that all I did was get myself ready for the family dinner.

Well, for this year, I couldn’t plan too far in advance. I went to Portland, Oregon on two different trips when Mercy gave birth to her first baby. I went on the first trip in mid-September by myself when Mercy was due. Her baby was overdue, and I had to come back to California to take care of my After-school Care business.

My husband went with me on the second trip scheduled on September 28. The night before the trip, my son-in-law, Will called, and said Mercy was in labored and admitted to the hospital. I prayed every minute from the time he called to the time we arrived Portland the next day afternoon. We took a taxi from the airport straight to the hospital. Mercy was in pain but was not ready to deliver. By 10:00 p.m., Will asked us to go back to the house and will call to give us the update.

We went back to Mercy’s house, but I wasn’t able to sleep. I set the phone to the lowest ringtone because my husband went to sleep. I looked at the phone every five minutes, making sure I didn’t miss a call. By 4:00 a.m., Will called and said Mercy had delivered the baby through C-section. It was too much to coordinate by the time the doctor decided to have C-section, so he didn’t call earlier. After the delivery the doctor said Mercy could have visitors and that was when Will called me. We rushed to the hospital and were so happy to see our first granddaughter.

My husband went back to California after a week and I stayed for six weeks. I helped to take care of the cooking, doing laundry and other chores. I took the first “shift” at night to watch Autumn so Mercy and Will could rest a little. Mercy had to feed Autumn every two hours and Will tried to help. Being new parents were quite a learning experience to Mercy and Will. Mercy tried holding Autumn in different positions for feeding but there was a latching problem. Will went back to work after two weeks of paternity leave. He continues to help when Autumn wakes up during the night for feeding.

When I came home a week before Thanksgiving, I rushed to the stores to get fall season decoration. I stopped by many stores, all I saw was Christmas items. So, I had to use Christmas decoration. Why not? Mercy, Will, and Autumn came to spend Thanksgiving with us this year. We had a houseful of family again this year and had a great gathering.

Our old, artificial Christmas tree was all worn out, and we bought a new one – white color. Throughout the years when I decorated the Christmas tree, I cramped the tree with several strings of lights, many strands of garlands, and years of collections of ornaments. This year, after I assembled the tree, Mercy helped to decorate it. She only used two strings of lights, one strand of the garland, and twenty ornaments. She liked the simple look. You know what? I like it. I like the peaceful and quiet look of a simple tree.

By the way, Autumn is two months and four days old. She had her first immunization. Mercy said Autumn handled the shots well. “Good girl, Autumn!”

©Miriam Hurdle 2017

About Miriam Hurdle

Miriam Hurdle is a multi-genre writer. She writes poetry, flash fiction, and short stories. Her poems are included in Letters to Gaia, Whispers and Echoes Issue 2, Whispers and Echoes Issue 3, and Outcast and More Words.

Music has rooted in her life. Being a soloist as a teenager led her to taking voice lessons and to have ongoing singing engagements. She continues to sing soprano in choral groups. Lyrics have a major influence in the natural flow of her melodic writing. She writes memoir in the form of poetry.

Along with her brother, she took photos when the films were black and white. Photography is still her enjoyable hobby. Drawing and painting were fun activities as a child. Her favorite was to draw a Japanese girl with big eyes, long hair, small lips and chin. She resumed drawing and watercolor painting several years ago. In her poetry collection, photos and paintings are included to illustrate the poems.

She earned a Doctorate of Education from the University of La Verne in California. After two years of rehabilitation counseling, fifteen years of public school teaching and ten years in school district administration, she retired and enjoys life with her husband in southern California.

About  Songs of Heartstrings

Human being has the willpower to travel through an exhausting journey, win a tough battle, and heal a deep wound. Strength from hope keeps us going until the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight and striving until the storm is over.

This poetic memoir comprises themes ranging from the suffering through an undesirable relationship, surviving an aggressive cancer, to the happiness in true love, the joy of parenthood, and gratefulness toward the Maker. Hurdle reveals the honest self-talk and reflects a heart filled with optimism, faith and trust. She illustrates the poems with her beautiful photos and paintings.

One of the recent reviews

Dorinda Duclos 5.0 out of 5 stars Heartfelt Passages of Life and Faith January 31, 2019

“Songs of Heartstrings – Poems of Gratitude and Beatitude” is a most enjoyable book of poetry. Told in the first person, Miriam Hurdle takes you along on her many journeys, in the ups and downs, of life. I particularly enjoyed the photos, placed before many of the poems. It brought me closer to what Miriam was relaying in her words.

My favorite poem is “Life’s Currents”. Here, the author reminds us we are never alone, no matter the hardships we might face in our time here on Earth. There is no doubt Miriam has a strong faith and relies on it for many of life’s obstacles.

The book is broken up into eight different sections, making it a very pleasant read. Miriam uses different styles of poetry, so you’re never just reading. She easily gets and keeps your attention throughout. If you are looking for a poetry book filled with inspiration, and thought provoking passages, this is the book for you. I highly recommend this to any and every one, as I thoroughly enjoyed reading “Songs of Heartstrings – Poems of Gratitude and Beatitude”.

Connect to Miriam

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Miriam-Hurdle/e/B07K2MCSVW
Website and blog: https://theshowersofblessings.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miriam.hurdle.1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mhurdle112

Posts from your Archives – All about the family.

1. Personal memories of childhood or teens that are still fresh in your mind.
2. Family history, stories of your parents, grandparents and further back if you can.
3. Fur family past and present.
4. Favourite recipes.
5. Memorable holidays.
6. Places you have lived.
7. Memorable homes you have lived in.
8. Grandchildren tales.
9. Any family related post – education, health, teen years, elderly care, lifestyle.
10. Please remember that there are some younger readers who visit.

I think you get the idea.

The aim of this series is to showcase your blog and any creative work that you do from books, art, photography and crafts. You pick between one and four links to posts that you have written for your own blog from the day you started up to December 2018, and you simply send the link to those blogs to sally.cronin@moyhill.com

You have to do nothing more as I will capture the post and images from your blog and I will then post with full copyright to you.. with your creative work and your links to buy and to connect. I might sometimes need a little more information but I am quite resourceful in finding out everything I need.

So far in the Posts from Your Archives from September 2017, there have been over 700 posts from 200 + bloggers that have reached a different audience and encouraged more readers for their own blogs and current posts.

The only issue is the number of photographs and if there are more than five photographs in the post I will do a reblog rather than a separate post. (Media space)

Previous participants are more than welcome

Thanks for dropping in today and I am sure Miriam would love your feedback. thanks Sally.