HAPPY FRIDAY!

5 For Friday March 24 | owl strutting

Greetings on this 2nd to the last Friday of March.

So far – March is not “going out like a lamb” …  just yet.  Temperatures here are diving into the 30s at night.  I feel like it’s kinda unusual – but weather – will be weather.  Ha!

PICTURE LINE UP

#1

HELLO BEAUTIFUL WISTERIA BLOOMING on my arbor over the stairs going into the front yard …  reminds me of the Lilac bushes that bloom in Montana.  Love (!) Lilac bushes – doing their thing and popping like crazy – and smell like no other!  I miss them.  And, I miss cutting a few of the clusters of blooms on their little branches and placing them in ordinary little glass vases and positioning them around the house.  Ahhh !  Sweet purple memories.
No Lilac bushes around these parts.  However, Wisteria and its super brilliant – similar purple color – gifts me with peek-a-boo memoriesnext best thing!

#2

HELLO CUTE DONKEY who came up to the fence line on our walk.  Pretty sure lil’ Donkey was checking us out AND to see if we had any treats.  Big fat boo, no treats this time.  But sure will be next time.

#3

RUMOR HAS IT … egg prices are dropping.  Crossing my fingers!

#4

THIS TAKE-MY-BREATH-AWAY beautiful, vibrant red piece of stained glass art was a gift from a friend.  Totally makes a plain ol’ window in a room become the star attraction!

DEAR ANNIE’S column is a great read.  A little sad – but talk about strength!  And inspiring.   And at the end – there is a “rainbow.

SWEET POTATO BISCUITS – so easy to make and so worth the effort!

5 WONDERFUL SONGS all lined up for a listenHope you have a little space in your day to check them out.

As always – thank you for your time + comments + sharing with friends and family + Daymaker hearts!  I so appreciate you all.

Wisteria blooming on an arbor

A donkey at a fence line
Sweet potato biscuits
A piece of red stained glass art

QUICK QUESTION

WHAT WILL YOU NEVER GIVE UP ON?

DEAR ANNIE
BY ANNIE LANE

SURVIVOR OF TRAUMA IS STRONGER THAN EVER

Dear Annie:

I just read today’s “Second Chance Daughter” column about “putting away the bitterness, regret and anger of growing up with an abusive mom.”  Her dad wasn’t much better; he deliberately never stepped forward to intervene on his daughter’s behalf.

My sister, brother and I never went to our father and told him about what was going on when he was away on his long-distance job as a sea captain.  Before he was due to come home (only four times a year), my mother would admonish us to “make things nice for Daddy.”  Of course we did.  We loved our father, and we knew he loved us.  I remember one time when he said, “You’re good kids.”  Music to our souls.  He spent a great amount of his “in port” and vacation time with us.  He played with us and participated in activities with us, whereas our mother would sit in the car and read while we played at a park or ice-skated at a rink.

Looking back on my childhood and teen years, I realize that my mom was mentally ill.  However, that was after I was married with three children.  During my upbringing, we children believed that we were “rotten to the core, so rotten we smelled.”  And we believed and felt so guilty that we had “ruined” our mother’s life.  We listened over and over to the litany of, “I wish to God you’d never been born!”  I can still see in my mind’s eye my sister sniffing her forearm, hoping she, and others, couldn’t smell her “rottenness.”

The older I grew, the more I became determined to leave our crazy home.  I went to college as far away from home as possible while still paying in-state tuition.  It wasn’t until I had children of my own, and never once felt the feelings of hate and regret at having children, that I realized my mother was mentally ill.

How did I deal with my situation?  I emotionally separated myself from my mother at an early age.  I was very close to my father and emotionally supported myself with his love and devotion.  Although I didn’t know anything about mental illness, even as a young child I knew that I didn’t want a relationship with someone who despised me and my siblings.

As I grew into my teen years, I constantly researched avenues of escape via far-away colleges.  When I told my mother about my distant college of choice, she said, “If you leave this house, you’re never coming back again.”  Ever the respectful daughter, I did not say, “That’s the plan , Mom.”  I didn’t say a word, but I bought a one-way ticket and left.  The married older sister of a good friend took me in and let me stay a few weeks till I had two jobs and full-time student enrollment status at a university.  I never looked back.  No regrets.  ~  Happy Adult Daughter

Dear Happy Adult Daughter:

Wow.  Thank you for sharing your story with our readers.  It gives a very detailed account of the harm and trauma that can result when an untreated mentally ill mother is left alone with children.  You are a warrior.  So strong to know that you had to survive a house with so much emotional and physical abuse.  Your mother called you rotten because she felt rotten to the core.  But instead of internalizing that you were rotten to the core like many children sadly do, you were able to emotionally distance yourself from your mother and see that it was her and NOT you as a child.  That takes people years of therapy to see, and you saw it in your teens.  Congratulations for your incredible resilience and determination to thrive in life and be happy.

~  Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

SWEET POTATO BISCUITS

These sweet potato biscuits will blow you away – along with all who eat one – or – FIVE!  ha!  Terrific on their own with soup or salad + egg, bacon sandwich in the morning + ham (or turkey, or tuna salad, egg salad, or veggie) sandwich(es) with all the fixin’s or to satisfy a snack-attack noon or midnight.  Have fun with them – use your imagination!
Recipe makes a lot.  Enjoy with family and/or share with friends and neighbors.  Get ready for joyful exclamations of “OMGs” from all.

IN A LARGE BOWL THOROUGHLY COMBINE 3 INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 – 23 ounce can of sweet potatoes
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 5 1/2 cups of Bisquick

DRAIN SWEET POTATOES – SQUISH THEM SO THEY ARE LIKE MASHED POTATOES
MIX IN SUGAR
ADD BISQUICK

(( Pro-Tip — Use your clean hands to combine all ingredients into a ball of dough – think Play-Doh — also, one more big tip – don’t over work the dough – just work the 3 ingredients until they are one ))

  • Refrigerate – plastic covered –  dough in fridge for about an hour – more if you have the time – makes the rolling the dough out next step Simple Simon. 
  • Roll out dough onto a floured surface using a rolling pin to about 1/4″ – 1/2″ thick. 
  • Cut with a large round cutter.  (I use a clean 12 ounce size tuna can that has both ends cut out)

Preheat oven to 400*

Spray cookie/baking sheet with Pam or vegetable spray oil of choice

Place beautiful round disks of sweet potato biscuit dough on the prepared baking sheet

Bake @ 400*
for 20 minutes (sometimes it might take another couple minutes – but watch them like a hawk)
CAUTION – you do not want to over bake – like cookies – just won’t be the same.

Let cool.  Store in zipper plastic bags to keep them soft — and for gifting purposes.

ENJOY!

MUSIC FOR YOUR EARS

BE YOUR OWN VERSION

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

8 replies
  1. Laurie says:

    This Dear Annie really hit close to my own upbringing. My dad was around, but worked a 2nd shift job, 60 hours a week. So the only time we saw him was Saturday mornings and Sundays. He was a good dad but was more than willing to let her rule the roost. Over time I grew to resent him for not protecting us.
    Today we are all successful adults, but still carry our individual baggage from our childhood.
    My mom is in the final stages of hospice care ( The end will probably be sometime today). And although I should be feeling sadness and grief and losing my 2nd parent, the sad reality is that I feel as though I am about to be paroled from a prison sentence that I never deserved in the 1st place.
    All of her friends have expressed their sadness off losing such a dear sweet Angel. My siblings and I have no idea of the person they knew. Thanks for letting me vent.

    • Cheryl clarson says:

      Hi Laurie –

      Thank you so much for sharing. And … how Dear Annie’s column hit your feelings close.

      Your writing is beautiful and brave.

      So much HEART from back-in-your-memory.

      I think a healing thing is definitely happening. With you and your siblings.

      My heart is sad.

      Because it totally bums me out that your mother missed the years and moments of how cool you are, your laughter is infectious, and your come-along-side way of being a gift to planet earth is powerful.

      Grateful.

      I appreciate you so much!

      You’re a Daymaker!

  2. Laurie J says:

    The Wisteria is so beautiful! Spring in Texas is my favorite time of year. Doors and windows are open today!

  3. Marty says:

    So what do your neighbors do with their cute little donkey? He looks like a little stuffed toy. I wonder what cute little stuffed donkeys cost these days?

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