What I Learned From Norah Ruby Clapp

What did I learn from Norah Ruby Clapp? ( FYI: She's the cute little one. Anny's the cute big one.   I'm the one with the gray hair and the wrinkles.)

I learned from Norah:

*she is the cutest baby girl ever! (You should see Ayden and Townes, my extra grandsons!)

* it's OK to have gray hair and wrinkles! After all I am Grammie now.

* I haven't forgotten, "This Little Light of Mine," "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam," or other songs my Sunday School teacher taught me.

* I haven't forgotten silly camp songs from 4H.

* Dave and Jen are really good parents. The discipline of a daily schedule IS a good idea. (Although it's foreign to my natural hippie-ness)

* I can still change a diaper, carry a baby like a football, and give good baby back-pats.

* it really is nice when they come

*it is even kinda nice when they go. (Grammie is tired!)

* loving Norah is a given!

AND THE GREATEST THING I LEARNED FROM NORAH?

She doesn't pick who she loves. She just smiles at everybody and expects them to love her back. I know she is a baby and that is her God given reflex to smile at people and be lovable. We are hard wired to love her. Blah, blah, blah, about nature, but the fact is Norah is lovable and made everybody respond. She was quite a hit at the Jaquish family reunion!

She made me think, "What if  I just step out into the world remembering that I am loved by God and my all my family? Wouldn't I be a lot closer to 'do unto others what you want them to do unto you?' Doesn't everybody want to be recognized as a person with value? Doesn't everybody want to have recognized dignity?"

So, if I make eye contact with people in the grocery store or say good morning to a stranger, or offer hospitality to a neighbor or somebody in my church I barely know, I'm just being loving like Norah.

I wonder what she'll teach me when I skype with her next Monday?

What I Learned at the Mohonk Mountain House

I stepped away from writing off all kinds. Kind of like cleaning house.  Well, now the writing house is clean. So David helped me spruce up some things and I want to connect with all of you again. I missed you!

So, if you look on my facebook you will find a lovely picture of Skytop at the Mohonk Mt House in New Paltz New York.  New Paltz is where Margaret Clapp went to school and worked and met her beloved Jesse Littleton.  They have been married almost two years. Margaret liked the little town of New Paltz, because it reminded her of Tunkhannock.

Tunkhannock, where I met Roger F. Clapp.  And why did Roger take a job in Tunkhannock, you ask?
He liked it because it reminded him of New Paltz.

His mother grew up on a farm just outside of New Paltz.  When she came to town she saw the Skytop tower looking down on the town from the mountain top.  Roger grew up going from Lyndhurst New Jersey, to New Paltz to visit his grandparents just like I grew up driving from Clarion to Tunkhannock to visit my grandparents.

He always talked about the Mohonk Mountain House, a swanky old resort nestled in the Shawangunk Mts., part of the Catskills.  The Mountain House is all old wood and stone and was built for sanky folks to vacation.

Roger has talked about the Mountain House for years.  So guess where we went for our 35th anniversary, March 31, 2014?  We faked all the swanky folks out and stayed one night in the elegant Mt. House.  It was fun to play dress up, fun to pretend to be swanky, and fun to finally see, after years of trips to New Paltz, what the inside of the place looked like!

We also decided that we would still pick each other and we hope the next 35 years are just as cool as the first 35!

Here is the view of Skytop that graces my facebook.

Here is the Mt. House. A castle, right?

Here are Les and Rog pretending to be swanky.

Dessert with chocolate lettering!