Families are the compass that guides us. Brad Henry

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In Case anybody missed me the last week I’ve been tied up doing stuff for everybody but me.  WHICH is pretty much a description of my life since I was old enough to help out.   And it’s just been a lot crazier lately.

But enough BS and on to 2 items for

This month we’re gonna do the good, bad and ugly in various aspects of life–yours, mine and ours….(an pictures today are out and about in London–)

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and today of course the next item will be my advise for Outlander–I hope you all survived since you’ve been w/out my Droughtlander guidance for a whole week.

A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another.Buddha

OK back to battling Droughtlander one hot Scot at a time.

List all the people you’re gonna miss season 3

Count your favorite Outlander moments:  To get some ideas check out Cait’s:  http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/caitriona-balfes-best-moments-outlander-8818886

Read the 3rd book or just check out this synopsis:  http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/caitriona-balfes-best-moments-outlander-8818886

Doing both and comparing is your best bet for time consumption.

and follow Jamie’s example  drinking heavily can’t hurt

The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.                                         Gilbert K. Chesterton

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The good–what is there about your life, my life, that helps make all those actions, all the helping out, all the continuance of our efforts and keeps us going despite all the weariness, loneliness, stubbornness and all the other nesses lurking out there waiting to add to our burden.

The good things make it worth the effort to do more than just trying to get by.  They bring smiles to our faces and maybe–God forbid–even a spring to our steps.

Love your family. Spend time, be kind & serve one another. Make no room for regrets. Tomorrow is not promised & today is short.Unknown

And what better place to start than where most of us started (we’re counting Adam and Eve out of this) with the family.

Family is not an important thing, it’s everything.Michael J. Fox

Family, those persons who often resemble us (or us them)…who know all manner of secrets and facts about us.  They know more about our lives, habits and failings than we’d trust very many others with.  These are the people–as in parents (who cared for us on a regular basis), grandparents (the special occasion visitors and spoilers) and the older siblings (who are often forced to provide babysitting activities).

Family is important–there are those out there in the world that have spent a lot of their lives and time trying to convince the world that they don’t need them.  But let’s admit it, it to ourselves, where else can you find people who have seen us at our worst, cared for us in illness and so much more and still welcome us to visit, stay and call. Who confide in us and encourage us to do the same for them.

And while we love them all we generally have our favorites with grandparents being high on the lists–lets face it how many of us admit to being daddy’s girl or mommy’s little helper?

Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship. Margaret Mead

West Virginia where I sent a large part of my first 16 years of life provided me with a wide range of family.  From grandparents to cousins, uncles, aunts and even godparents.  My 3rd cousins and I were as close as sister and when I ask my mom when I first met them she showed baby pictures of us all together.  When we move to Michigan I stil spent my summers with my grandparents there  and saw my cousins for sleep overs and other visits as much as possible and during the winters we wrote volumes to each other exploring our favorite fantasies and ongoing issues of growing up.  My one major issue with leaving was leaving that family despite the fact that I would have two siblings and an aunt, uncle and cousin in Michigan.

And while families may not be perfect–I had a boss once who told me that they should put a picture of a family beside the definition of dysfunctional in the dictionary.  Don’t get me (or her for that matter) wrong….its just that being human makes things always a bit out of alignment.  Any time people, big and small, spend a lot of time confined together and functioning in all manner of health, mental attitudes and level of maturity and Immaturity- things happen, and depending on the personalities can happen very often.  The good families adjust–not always gracefully but still.

It is interesting how the modern ideals of family have gone from Donna Reed (the perfect mom who stays at home and solves everything) when I was growing up…to Family Ties (reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s) and most recently Modern Family (Modern Family revolves around three different types of families (nuclear, step- and same-sex) living in the Los Angeles area who are interrelated through Jay Pritchett and his children, )  As with everything on TV there are some grains of truth among the fantasy.

I’ve always put my family first and that’s just the way it is.             Jamie Lee Curtis

BRIDE And Groom Precious Moments the Lord Bless You and Keep You Figurine

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Stay tuned tomorrow for the bad family.

My life comes down to three moments: the death of my father, meeting my husband, and the birth of my daughter. Everything I did previous to that just doesn’t seem to add up to very much.     Gwyneth Paltrow

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$19.75

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I come from that society and there is a common thread, specifically family values – the idea that you do anything for your family, and the unconditional love for one’s children.                                                         Ednita Nazario

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