Helping others

Everyday, sometimes just once and sometimes multiple times, I help someone. I help small business owners get the money they need to purchase their inventory, to expand their businesses, to purchase a business or a building. I help someone looking for a loan that cannot qualify improve their business or their credit so they can qualify for a loan in the future. I help an individual or a small business find the right checking account, the right money market account, the right credit card processor, the right cash management product, or the right Internet banking suite to help with their particular need.

Sometimes I give something to someone as simple as a bag of Saffron Rice or a flower cut from my yard just to let that person know I appreciate them and am glad they are apart of my life. Sometimes I sit and listen to a friend, a colleague, a client, or a stranger discuss a problem, an issue, an achievement, or something they experienced. I share that moment with them, listening to them, offering advise if needed, or giving comfort.

Everyday I smile at perfect strangers and they smile back. Everyday I waive at someone I know and they waive back. Everyday, in little ways and big ways, I help someone and someone helps me back.

Helping others gives me purpose and fulfillment.

Food

I have always had the ability to cook, and wasn’t too bad at it. However, I never got pleasure from cooking until the past couple years. Isik has been my inspiration to explore the culinary world. His mother is a culinary goddess. The filo dough made from scratch, baklava, dohmas, lamb, rice, and everything else she touches is magical to the taste buds. In all my life I had never truly experienced culinary greatness until I sat at Anne’s (“mother” in Turkish) table the first time.

I no longer use the rice cooker to make rice, I cook it in a pot on the stove and now I add spices and expand the plain rice to something greater. This has been my most accomplished culinary achievement (to some it might seem simple). I follow recipes the first time and then expand on them. Sometimes they don’t turn out so great, but I’m learning and expanding my cuisine.

My ultimate reward is when Isik puts the fist bite in his mouth and his shoulders relax, his eyes close, and he says, “This is great.” To have him get pleasure from the food I cook, after being raised with the incredible meals made by his mother, is exceptionally gratifying for me.

Creating beauty

I enjoy the thick-green lushness of a freshly mowed lawn. The smell of freshly-mowed grass is definitely at the top of my "favorite smells" list. However, a large-freshly mowed lawn isn't enough. This type of beauty also includes trees, shrubs, flowers, vines, ground cover, water, rock, wood, and all the other various earth and landscaping elements.

Creating beauty is a large task but one that is incredibly rewarding. To start with a complete mess, such as weeds up to your knees, or a blank slate, such as bare dirt, (and I've done both) and to imagine plant groupings and choose the proper plants for height, width, sunlight needs, water needs, and flowering time, can seem overwhelming. Once the holes are dug, the plants in the ground, and a little time has passed, the reward is now beginning.

After the plants are there and the earth elements have been added, which I call "accessorizing the landscaping", all that is required is preventive measures. These include adding Preen in the spring to prevent weeds from germinating, adding compost and fertilizer periodically to help the plants flourish, loosening the dirt (with a spade or fork) so water can get down to the roots, and pulling the few weeds that grow. Then there is general maintenance, which includes pruning the shrubs to keep them maintained and dead-heading the spent flowers to allow new flowers to grow, and the energy to go back to the plant and not to producing seeds.

Once the skin has turned a little browner from the time spent in the sun, the muscles ache a little more from bending and standing repeatedly, and the fingernails have enough dirt under them to germinate seeds, it is time to sit, drink something cold, and enjoy the ultimate reward!

For me there truly is nothing more peaceful, rewarding and therapeutic than creating beauty around me and sharing it with my family, friends, and perfect strangers!

4-Year Olds

I wish my children could stay 4-years old forever. Of all the ages, of all the experiences, of all the learning and development, 4-years is my favorite of favorites. I thought maybe it was just Austin, because when he was 4 it was my favorite time, but NOPE, it's the same way with Sam.

4-year olds can dress themselves, although they might not actually pick clothes that match and I might have to intervene before we appear in public. I definitely have to intervene when a long sleeve shirt and long pants are the clothes of choice on a 90+ degree day. But how fantastic is it to say, "Sam, go get dressed" and most of the time he goes to his room and does just that.

4-year olds can brush their own teeth, and actually do a pretty good job. Austin wasn't as easy in this department, it took a lot more effort for me to get his teeth sparkly. Sam loves to brush his teeth and he gets them all and does a great job getting all the "teeth monsters."

4-year olds don't wear diapers. How great is this accomplishment!

4-year olds help with household chores because they think it is the greatest thing to actually use the vacuum. They love to be like us, and want to be doing what we are doing. I will walk in the kitchen and Sam will be standing on his foot-stool at the sink "washing dishes." He is so excited to pick up his books so we can vacuum his bedroom floor. The books never get put back on the shelf the way I would like them, but he makes a nice pile and that is a good place to start. Many occassions I have found wet-clean clothes from the washer in with the dry-clean clothes in the dryer. If I give him a rag and tell him to wipe something down, he never complains, he is happy to help! I have to watch him very closely when I am pruning the shrubs and dead-heading the flowers, because he will find something to use as a tool and the shrubs will have big holes cut out of them, where he attempted to help. Thankfully those grow back fairly quickly.

4-year olds have the BEST imagination. Sam tells me the greatest stories about his interpretations of the world around him. These stories all contain elements of truth but have fantastic imaginative twist and turns and each time he tells them they get better and more exciting. He loves driving his "motorcycle" in big-open spaces. Always, holding the "handle-bars," making the engine noise, and running around and around and around. One day he was at the bank with me and was "driving his motorcycle slowly" through the lobby. Holding the handle bars, making the engine noise, and walking around the lobby, my assistant asked him what he was doing. Of course, he was amazed she didn't know! He looked at her and said, "I'm driving my motorcycle, but very slowly." Of course, she thought that was incredibly funny and brilliant. He creates scenarios with his toys and can sit contently and play when he chooses to. Most of the time, he is outside, playing in his sandbox with his sandbox toys, climbing the willow tree and yelling from the top, or riding his tri-cycle.

4-year olds vocabularies are growing. Austin's vocabulary at two-years old was amazing! He could carry a conversation with anyone when he was two. He was definitely ahead of his years, even then. Sam says words like, "amazing," "absolutely," correctly in complete sentences and most of the time I can't pay attention to what he is trying to tell me because I am in awe at his use of words. One of my favorites is "feeterater" (theater). He referrs to people, in general, as "humans." He'll tell us something that someone did and then add, they are "good humans."

4-years olds never forget anything. Sam will remind us of something said, or something we read, or something we did months ago. He will remind us of simple things done together, like going down a water slide. These are every day reminders of the simpliest things to me and you, but they mean everything to him.