Happy Pi Day from Mother Goose

We all know about the magnificent obsession Mother Goose has with pie…

How can Mother Goose even begin to describe the joy of knowing that today is Pi Day? Please do not think that Mother Goose is ignoring her spell check when she types “pi” instead of “pie” today. Many of my dear and loyal readers will know that the date today is March 14th or 3/14. Many of my most mathematically inclined readers will also recognize this sign and this number…

We will be enjoying Peach Pie this evening at the Perch Party Part Two. Does that make it a Perch and Peach Pie Party? Can it get anymore real than that? And is it even rational to consider that Mother Goose would rather eat pie and perch than anything else under the sun?

And by the way, Happy Birthday to my dear friend, Albert Einstein!

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”

“Why, Mother Goose? Why?”

So many of my dear readers have wondered (and two have even asked!) how and why I am Mother Goose. Like so many difficult situations in life, there are no easy answers. I can only attempt to explain who I am and why I am and how I am.

Once upon a time, I was a bookworm. Whilst other children ran and played happily through their growing up years, I was found to be “with book”. I read stories of other people’s adventures and mysteries and romances, never truly experiencing a life of my own. No matter what family outings we attended, I was lost in my book.

The family at the Effie Rodeo — me with my beak in a book.

The family canoeing down the Crow Wing River — me with my beak in a book.

The family exploring caves in southeastern Minnesota — me with my beak in a book.

When I was not reading, I was writing and recording my every thought and emotion. Essentially, I had no real childhood.

And then there were the troubling teen years when I continued to read, but added to the fun by acting out in real life the stories I was reading. Of course, I have very little memory of those days…

And then there were days of marriage and motherhood when there was no time for anything personal. No reading. No writing. I miraculously gave birth to six children, fed them, potty trained them, and taught them to read. Of course.

I had no time to read for my own benefit, but found much joy in telling stories to my babies. We read the classics and the not-so-classics. I told them the story of The Three Bears every single night before they fell asleep. When they were feeling under the weather, I would drag out some of our family favorites: The Wee Wee Woman, Barney’s Sandcastle, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Snuggle Piggy and the Magic Blanket, and Poe’s The Raven.

My precious mother would call me up on the phone and ask, “Hello? Is this Mother Goose?” And pretty soon, I began to think that perhaps I was Mother Goose. Of course, now I am completely convinced of it.

Now that my days of hard labor have ended, I find that I have the time to read and write again. The children can all feed themselves and seldom need me to help them in the bathroom.

Now that I am older, I have the wisdom to play.

I have such an exciting life! I see stories all around me — wherever I go, I meet interesting people!

One of the interesting people I know…Alpaca Jessica

With all of these wonderful people and places all around me, how can I NOT be Mother Goose? 🙂

A Grand Daughter of a Goose

Mother Goose is not a grandmother, but I do have a grand daughter. She’s just so grand — I have to tell you about her! Although I respect the privacy of my wonderful offspring and don’t often tell stories about them, I simply must stand up and announce today, with much honking and flapping, that my daughter Jessica is the most incredible and beautiful person on the planet.

She looks so realistic.

When she hatched nearly twenty-five years ago, we suspected that she was headed for greatness. Our hopes and dreams have been answered in Jessi (who is the most incredible and beautiful person on the planet). Did I mention that I love her dearly?

She is a blessing — to be sure. In the past few weeks Mother Goose has had some terribly ill days, but Jessi has risen to the occasion and sacrificially given of her time and energy to care for the rest of the family whilst I lay in my sick bed. Not only has she put on her nurse cap and compassionately cared for Mother Goose, but has also done these other things:

* Washed every dirty dish in the kitchen TWICE — and at the home of Mother Goose that is a huge undertaking as Mother Goose does not believe in automatic dishwashers.

* Prepared delicious and nutritious meals for her brothers and her sister. And the cupboards were BARE, I tell you! She cooked creatively and miraculously!

* Hiked five miles uphill in both directions in below zero weather just to buy some dog food for our best dog ever, Fran.

* Completed her “next to last” semester at Columbia College Chicago with High Dean’s List honors.

* Answered the call of duty to her employer, Munch, when they desperately needed additional help with serving and catering to the recent vegan convention in Oak Park.

* Filmed, edited and re-edited six promotional videos for a small airport in Griffith, Indiana.

* Successfully balanced a very busy and complicated social life, both online and in real life.

My dear friends, please give a warm round of applause — nay, please give a standing ovation to my precious and GRAND daughter, Jessica Leigh Stevenson!!!! She’s the most incredible and beautiful person on the planet!!!

And did I mention that she’s a blessing?

The Curious Garden of Mother Goose

Dear gentle reader, we suddenly find ourselves in November. Welcome to the garden of Mother Goose.

Whilst most people are raking their old worn out leaves to the street for magical overnight removal by the village dump trucks and loaders, Mother Goose is enjoying her lovely garden. Thanks as always to Joe, the fourth son of Mother Goose, for scattering marigold seeds here, there and everywhere earlier in the summer!

Our garden is still the most beautiful garden for blocks around. Stubbornly blooming marigolds in various shades of gold, orange, lemon yellow and even chestnut and deep cranberry red… They seem to be causing traffic jams on our street as the buses pull up to our curb, and tourists pour out of the buses with their cameras clicking away to capture the magic of our marigolds. I wonder if I should be charging admission…

And here’s the most curious and wonderful flower of all! An iris decided to give it just one more shot before the snow flies. Our irises typically bloom in June, but lo! and behold! This brave iris opened up this morning, and there are more buds on the stem. What next? Lilacs blooming on the rose bushes?

It makes Mother Goose so happy to stroll around admiring the flowers. I haven’t the heart to tell them that this is November….

Have you seen any Bees lately?

Jessi and I watched a documentary this evening, Vanishing of the Bees. It was very informative and interesting on many different levels as we are both environmentally conscious individuals — she more than me, but still… We learned about Collapsing Colony Disorder and possible causes of bee disappearances in recent years. And, you may ask, “Why is Mother Goose suddenly so interested in bees?” And I would answer that Mother Goose has ALWAYS been fascinated with bees!

When we were young tator tots, we didn’t have a lot of modern day entertainment like video games, Facebook and such. As kids, we actually went outside and played! We usually lived in the country, and visited our grandma and grampa’s homes as well — all out in the middle of the woods and fields of northern Minnesota. One of the most fun activities we had was to catch bees in jars. I see you shuddering for fear of being stung, and yes, sometimes we were stung. But most of the time, it was a harmless activity. We also picked armfuls of flowers for our Mom and brought them back to the house. She would be so grateful of our field flowers — mostly black-eye suzies and goldenrod — and would arrange them all artfully in vases immediately. But oh my gosh, Mother Goose gets so sidetracked! Back to the Bees, please!

Bee research is showing that systemic pesticide use to be the most logical cause of the vanishing bee colonies. Farmers use to spray their crops with pesticides, but now it is common practice to soak the seeds of the corn or soybeans in the pesticides before planting. The chemicals stay on the plant, its flowers, produce as well as in the soil for a long long time. The documentary actually showed footage of bees in France behaving normally on an organic sunflower, and then behaving erratically on a sunflower grown from systemic pesticide treated seeds. It was very very sad.

Friends, Mother Goose and others have directly experienced decreased produce in vegetable gardens this past year. My plants had plenty of flowers on them — the zucchinis, tomatoes, watermelons and green peppers all had blooms. But we had very little fruit or vegetables after the blossoms. Vegetable flowers cannot turn into vegetables or seeds unless they experience pollination which is the main work of bees. Yes, bees produce honey, and that’s a noble career for anyone. But honey production and pollination go hand in hand, or buzz by buzz.

I need to do tons more research on this topic. Obviously Mother Goose doesn’t have all the answers yet, but folks, this is a critical situation, and it affects all of us. We need to remember the bees, to think about the bees and then to act on behalf of the bees.

Bee blessed today! Love, Natalie

Linda Smiles

Mother Goose enjoyed a delightful dinner last evening with dear friend, Linda.

Unfortunately, the sticky topic of the grape jelly fiasco came up. Mother Goose declared, “We shall not speak of it!” And, of course, Linda smiled and suggested a very wonderful answer to the gooey mess. That’s what Linda does — she solves problems! She is an underpaid but professional problem solver. Knowing that she would have a grand solution up her sleeve, I listened carefully. Here is her advice:

“Call it Grape Juice Concentrate.”

Oh my goodness, the woman is brilliant! I could say that I have twelve and one half little jars of failed jelly in the back and bottom of my pantry. OR with Linda’s suggestion, I rename my broken product, rebrand it and remarket it to my family as an excellent juice that they will love so much. Of course, that’s what I will do.

A special thanks to Linda for that amazing idea! And a special thank you to the kind folks at Shannon’s Irish Pub in Glen Ellyn for allowing us to warm the seats of our corner table for nearly three and one half hours whilst we commiserated, cajoled and committed nearly indecent acts of breast exposure over our lovely dinner. Cheers to grape juice lovers everywhere.

And we shall not speak of it again…..