Raige Creations

May has been a busy month for us at the Raige residence. We went from Mother's day, to youngest son's birthday, then daughter's birthday. Mix in out of town visitors for half the month, things are crazy. Mother's Day was wonderful though, as I mentioned here , we went to see The Great Gatsby , which I loved. My daughter loved it too, we shared the excitement of waiting for the movie to come out by both reading the book, and then we went together to see it. For her birthday, which was last week, I am dedicating this Music Monday to her. My beautiful daughter, who I hope understands that she will always be beautiful, even when she is not young.  As she turns 17 this year, and getting ready to apply for colleges, she is about to embark on her adult life.  And a s she continues on her life journey, I hope she remembers who she is is not what she looks like, but how she tends to herself, how she treats others, and what is inside . She can always be young and beaut

A statement I uttered while on the phone with my cousin last weekend, while I was trying to find out my maternal grandfather's parents name: "It is questions like this that we really should have asked when the people who knew the answers were still with us." My daughter was finishing up a Genealogy project she was doing for school.  I called 3 different family members, and no one knew my grandfather's parent's names. My great grandparents names were lost.  How quickly our lives are forgotten, how quickly our names are no longer important.  My maternal grandparents both passed away before I was born, and for some reason they were not talked about much. They both passed away by the time they were in their early 60's, and each one experienced a difficult health issue before their death. What we heard most about them is their suffering at the end of their lives.  There were some great accomplishments my grandfather achieved, we know a fe

There is so much to find during Spring. The world comes alive, and we notice things with such color and hope. I have spent the last few weeks completely enjoying the Spring, mostly in the gorgeous flowers that are suddenly everywhere! We also noticed our bushes had some unusual activity lately. And look what we found! We eagerly were anticipating baby birds, peeking occasionally at the nest when Momma wasn't there to view the beautiful blue eggs. The trademark of the Robin eggs. So the weeks went on and the flowers bloomed beautifully, and started the end of their run. We check and check the nest. And one day.... Gone. All 3 gone. No shells to be found anywhere. We were all so sad about this, even though we know such is the circle of life. It is just so special to see, and witness nature's blooming all around, and just as disheartening to see nature's circle that takes away potential life. Hopefully Momma Robin had a chance to build another nest,

Then we would cook corn meal porridge Of which I'll share with you....... On the radio today, it is Marley Monday, where they share Bob Marley songs throughout the day. On the way to school, dropping the kids off, we heard this song. My ears picked up the 'corn meal porridge' lyric and instantly I craved it. It was a common breakfast when we lived in the Caribbean, and I haven't had any since we moved from there. Suddenly I was homesick for my old home, and fond memories of our time there flooded my head. We had tough times then, we struggled plenty in our newly married lives, with a young family and stresses much the same as we are faced with now. We plowed on, we figured it out. We had fun still, we had each other. Everything turned out alright. And it will again. 'Nah Cry, we push h'on trew.' Meaning...'Don't cry we always make it through.' Sometimes we forget, we forget we are strong, and we need to be reminded 'Everything's g

I know I know, it is Friday. Actually this post was originally something totally different that it is now. It is a story of Mr. Doubt and Miss Stress trying to make themselves a home right in the middle of my life. Rather suddenly aggressive, and rather quickly all of a sudden. Why Thurs. Day. ? Well, Wednesday was spent in an allergy fog, and Thursday was just too hard to even say when that day came around. Why was it hard? Miss Stress and Mr. Doubt had actually been hanging around since Wednesday, but I was in too much of a fog to address them. They were there, but were ignored. Well by Thursday, they were most unhappy to be ignored, and reared their ugly heads so much that I could only tackle the day in parts. Thurs. Day. It is what I wrote on our fridge message board , unable to come up with anything witty or positive to say on it.  Miss Stress and Mr. Doubt greeted me rather early.  I wrote a long-winded, negative, complaining post. Then went in to work and there they were

Yes sir, It's Monday! This week we are celebrating two things - first, so far the highlight of the month for me, a perfect Mother's Day gift was going to see  The  Great Gatsby . I have always loved the Roaring 20's era, the fashions in particular. The dresses, the headpieces, the dances, the parties. It seemed like a crazy fun time. The Buildings Were Higher, The Parties Were Bigger, The Morals Were Looser and the Liquor Was Cheaper. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald The second thing to celebrate is my youngest son's birthday (today) and his interest in the same era. He has discovered music and films from this time period, and into the 1930's, and makes us all listen and watch movies from then. (Let me tell you the movies from the 1930's I find difficult to get through...if it wasn't for the colorful and amusing language I wouldn't make it through ANY of them) So to celebrate his birthday, and the great time I had at the movies with the whole family, here is &#

Technically, these finds are from yesterday, but since we got home so late, it is today's Friday Find. Usually interstate driving isn't very interesting. Just miles and miles of road, each interstate looking much like another you have most certainly been on for hours and hours. I find my eyes get tired of looking at the land, which starts to look like everywhere else you have been. So, I happened to notice the sky. The sky, so big, so vast.  I think I also noticed the sky more because everything around us was flat . When you live in the North Carolina mountains, and have to drive East to the other side of the state, you notice how flat the rest of the state is. I am so used to the mountains, when not in them, everything is so...well...flat. And I noticed that over this flat land there is a huge sky, full of beautiful colors and clouds. Especially when the sun is setting, and the whole word is this brilliant cool blue dusk. It could have been the 8 hours on the r

Just when we find it difficult to continue, just when we are about to give up, up steps a friend to encourage us to keep going. Just this morning, I was at the point I thought giving up was the best way to go forward. Stress, worry, and uncertainty got the best of me. It was a small gift I received recently that changed my whole day. About a week and a half ago, a dear friend , whom I 'met' online first and then have only had the pleasure once to see in person, sent me a little something in the mail. It is an arm band to house your MP3 player while you run.  She made it for me, she wanted to try a new pattern. I was happy to be the guinea pig really, because when I don't have on my new running pants with the pockets for such things, I have to hold my mp3 player in my hand. Along with my phone, and the leash, this is really annoying.  I got it in the mail, and sadly it sat for a few days untried. Then she sent me a note asking about it. She noted how she sent it for

After a long 5 days of work, I sometimes come up blank when it comes time for Music Monday. So I asked hubby what song he would like to hear for today's post, and he, without hesitation, said 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. I asked 'Why?' and he said 'What do you mean why?' .  'I need to write about it, say something about it, it has to fit in my blog, that's why.' To this he responded with the conclusive, 'I don't know' . And that was all he had to say about that. So here I am this morning, procrastinating washing the pots and pans from last night, before my run, before I have to open for the last day of my work week, before my much anticipated day off tomorrow, and my mind is not focusing on a song. My mind is not focusing on anything actually.  And I think, 'Why DO I have to write about it? Why does there have to be a commentary on each song?'  To that I say 'I don't know' . No, there doesn't always ne

Some days, the distractions are a welcome relief to the stresses that are going on in your life.  I am lucky that, if I go far enough, on my run I can have such a fantastical distraction. Let me explain..... It was a beautiful foggy morning the other day - I was actually glad it was grey and foggy, it seemed to match my mood. After my warm up hill, and run through downtown, my mood wasn't much improved. This led me to want to go just a little farther. I thought it would be the one thing that would get me through the day, that I pushed myself and succeeded.  'A little extra distance would be the only thing I could be happy about today' , I thought. The stresses were so bad I didn't know how I was going to make it through the day. But then I noticed the most unusual thing. Upon what had I come across? What the was this bursting from the ground? A snake! A very large snake. Then, what should I see, a wizard to greet me? With a wise owl no less.  And th