Poland memory

Courtney 18 months old/ Poznan, Poland

 

 

 

 

A memory/ story by me, Nancy Sherwood.

 

I just read an article in the New York Times titled "where do you bury a Nazi?" It recounts a family moving into an old house in Poland and being told by previous owners and then an archeologist that there were likely human bones in their garden.

 

When we lived in Poznan, Poland from 1979-81, we lived in an old house. Many of the houses and buildings in Poznan at that time had bullet holes that came from machine guns- left from WWII. There was a lot of history there and it felt like there were still the ghosts of many people who had perished.

 

We had a large garden with about 12 apple trees (that had not been cared for) pear trees and walnut trees. In the spring we decided to dig up an area that looked like a good place to plant tomatoes and radishes. We found many bone fragments. We always felt that they were probably human- small like fingers or hands. 

 

It's been so long ago that I am, sure that the whole town has changed and the bullet holes have been patched. As if you can just erase their history.

 

I wonder whose bones they were and what stories they could have told.

Feeling blah!

 Last week, Carol and I went to church for the first time in ages.  I was really looking forward to go this morning.  But I was just too wasted.

The past few nights we have not been sleeping well because Buddy has a stomach problem and needs to go out several times at night.  Last night, Buddy slept fine.  

Last night it was my turn to have sleep issues.   I sleep on my left side, and my left shoulder hurts. A lot.  I put a Slonpas patch on my shoulder and it really helped a lot.   I still had trouble sleeping.  My right leg and foot are hurting.  And my right ankle is swelling up.  Uncomfortable!

I had totally forgotten that I could attend church online.  Oh well.

 

These two pictures are of Perth, Western Australia.   We are looking across the Swan River from the campus of Wesley College (where the boys went to school) toward where our house is.   We lived on top of a cliff so it was never very easy to get a good picture of our house from that side.   If you see where the little red dot is in the upper picture, that's where our house is.

I'm still in pajamas  from last night and it is almost 6:00 pm.  I think I will go take a shower and make myself feel better.

 

 

Birds?

I love birds.  I am fascinated by them.  I recently started to use the app on my phone called "Merlin Bird ID".    It records the sounds and tells me (or anyone using the app) what bird is singing.  I have started to write down what birds I have heard every morning.    They are usually the same crew, with more variety some mornings.

I also have a bunch of bird feeder and a bird bath.  This morning I got these pictures of a cardinal having a grand time splashing around in the water.

After sitting and listening for a while, I asked myself "what is the point of birds?".   No that doesn't mean I don't think there should be birds.   Just what do they do?  Why are there so many varieties?   

I vaguely remember learning something about Darwin's finches.    A simple explanation is this:  Darwin observed some finches on one side of an island and some on the opposite side of the island.  The birds were identical in all their featured but one.  Their   beaks were different.  Darwin was able to conclude that the birds had adapted to the food available on the part of the island where they lived.   So they had to be able to eat and crack different seeds etc and needed different tools - their beaks.

I am sure I am oversimplifying it, and I am sure it took a long long time to evolve the distinctive changes.   It makes you wonder.

And our birds here in Northern Virginia are no doubt different than birds in different regions of Virginia and the world.

We have finches here.  They are called "American Gold Finch".   But they are not gold all year round.  In the spring and summer they start to develop yellowish feathers and then they become bright yellow through the summer.  In the fall and winter their yellow fades and turns back into a duller brown.   How does this happen?  I guess like Darwin's finches, these finches have evolved into a color changing bird for both attractiveness for breeding in the warmer months, and   camouflage in the winter when they leaves fall.

If I was better at formatting this blog I would not have had those pictures of the cardinal strewn all over the page.  Maybe one day I will figure if out.

A bird that I find very regal and beautiful in the mocking bird.   

My Mocking Bird friend, on the bird bath

 

 
 

What should I write about?

 Every day I think about what I want to write about.  Then I don't.   I want to write about birds.  I want to write about dreams.  I want to write about my now grown kids and how hard I worked at mothering them.   

So, since I need to take a shower and go out soon, I am just dumping some photos here.  I hope to work on this later- labeling the pictures and writing about them

 

schedules

 

Below is my class schedule my last semester at George Mason University (GMU)

 I caught myself almost writing a long thing about that last semester, but that's not what this is supposed to be about. 

What I have been thinking is, that, I need a schedule.  Not a tight schedule, just a loose idea of what I am going to do next.

Unless I have an appointment of some sort, every morning I wake up wondering what I am going to do all day.

I usually end up sitting in a recliner, watching TV and knitting. Or reading a book. In short, not getting any physical activity at all.   I take the dog out on the deck and occasionally go down the stairs to the patio and fill the bird feeder.

Okay, here;s the thing.  I am lazy.  I feel like for most of my life I was running.  Busy all the time.  Going to school, working, housework, etc.  Throw in a kid or 5 and there's really only rare time to sit and put your feet up.    That's one of the great things about breastfeeding.  You can sit and put your feet up and benefit from the wash of hormones that make you feel so good.

Back to me, here and now.   Do I really want to create a schedule for myself?  It's kind of nice to hang out in pajamas all day.  

Darn it, it's late now and I am going to head to bed in a few minutes.   I wonder what I will feel like doing in the morning!

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Mom’s Class Schedule Spring 2004

 

 Monday:

 

IT 103-201                   Intro to Computing                   M 9-10:15          IN 105  Shorling

 

IT 103-201                   Computer Lab                          M  10:30-11:45   IN 223

           

ENGL 398-001            Intro to Fiction Writing              MW 3:00-4:15     R-B105  Scott

 

Tuesday:

 

ENGL 338-001            Cultural Constructions              TR 10:30-11:45   R-A245  Amireh

                                    Of Sexuality

 

ANTH 315-001            Socialization Process                TR 12 -1:15        R-B122  Williams

 

ENGL 380-001            Recent American Fiction          TR 1:30-2:45      R-A247  Nadeau

 

MATH 106                  Quantitative Reasoning             TR 4:30-5:54      T 110     Shaw

 

 

Wednesday:

 

 

ENGL 398-001            Intro to Fiction Writing             MW 3:00-4:15   R-B105   Scott

 

 

Thursday:

 

ENGL 338-001            Cultural Constructions              TR 10:30-11:45   R-A 245  Amireh                                            Of Sexuality

 

ANTH 315-001            Socialization Process                TR 12:00-1:15    R-B122   Williams

 

ENGL 380-001            Recent American Fiction          TR 1:30-2:45      R-A247   Nadeau

 

MATH 106                  Quantitative Reasoning             TR 4:30-5:54      T 110     Shaw

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being a La Leche League Grandmother

 

As a grandmother and a LLL Leader, I have had to learn to allow the new parents to find their own way.

 

February 25, 2025

I am sitting at my desk looking at the digital picture frame with photos of my sweet grandson.   Galileo is my first grandchild and who knows, maybe my only grandchild.

I have been involved in La Leche League ever since my first child, my daughter Courtney, was a baby- today is her 47^th birthday!    I became a La Leche League Leader shortly after my daughter reached her first birthday and have continued to be an active Leader all these years.

I had four sons after I had Courtney.  All of them nicely spaced three years apart which I credit with luck and breastfeeding.

As you can imagine, my husband and I were delighted when our son told us that we were going to be grandparents!

This is not my daughter in law’s first baby. I asked her if she had breastfed before and she said she had not.  I told her that I would support her decision whatever it was.  She knows that I am an LLL Leader, so she is aware of my leaning toward breastfeeding.

As the baby’s birth got closer my son and daughter-in-law put together an online baby registry.  When I saw “baby bottles” on the list my heart dropped.  I was sad. 

La Leche League came to my rescue.  I told a long time LLL friend and grandmother to many babies about my feelings.  I love her answer.  She said, “I’ve been riding that train for a while”.   Her grandson was not nursing and never had.   She assure me that it would be alright and we just have to learn to keep our feelings to ourselves.   So many of my friends have taught me the expression that many of us have holes in our tongues because we have to bite our tongue so often.

As the birth got closer, I mentioned the bottle feeding to my son and he told me “She’s going to pump”.   Wow, that was something.  I am sure my son was responsible for making sure his son would get breastmilk.

When Galileo was a couple of weeks old, my husband and I babysat so my son and daughter in law could go for her postpartum checkup.  They left me a bottle of pumped breastmilk.  Oh, I was so tempted to put the baby to my breast.  I was curious to see if he had any idea what to do.  I restrained myself.  I gave him a bottle and we did fine.

We don’t live close to each other, so don’t see the baby as often as we would like. 

All five of our children and their partners and spouses came home for Christmas this year.  Meeting the baby was a big draw! 

My daughter in law told me that she pumped for about five and a half months.   Pumping was getting too arduous, and her milk was drying up.    I told her that she did a wonderful job, and I was pleased and impressed that she stuck to it as long as she did.

My grandson is 8 months old now.  He is a chubby, beautiful little boy and he is sprouting his first two teeth.

I truly believe that through all of the LLL work I have learned to be accepting and meet the parents where they are.   How great is that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Courtney Carol Sherwood was born February 25, 1978 in Bangkok, Thailand