Both yesterday and today the sky has been a wonderful color of blue and there are streaks of white clouds. Blue skies with no clouds no matter how beautiful make me nervous. Definitely goes back to September 11, 2001. But I digress. There is a crispness to the air that is refreshing. A light coat or jacket is needed but probably won’t be later in the day. The leaves are changing colors. Many different shades of orange, yellow and red add splendor to the usually green mountain side. The water of the lake acts as a mirror reflecting the changing landscape. Yes, it is a beautiful day in my neighborhood.

“A beautiful day in the neighborhood” always makes me think of Mr Rogers. My firstborn loved Mr Rogers. To be honest he made me crazy. The walking in and changing his shoes, putting the sweater on, the puppets just made me nuts.  But E. loved it.  Once when we were out and deciding which fast food restaurant to go to, E. said “can we go to Mr Rogers?”. She thought Roy Rogers was Mr Rogers.  Whenever I think of Roy Rogers, I am reminded of a childhood memory of seeing the real Roy Rogers at the rodeo in Utah. I remember seating in the stands. I was in kindergarten. And Dale Evans and her children rode past in a convertible. They were waving to everyone. And Roy Rogers rode in on Trigger.  It was the first time I had ever seen someone in real life who had been on television. That is all I remember but it was a very exciting moment.

I have grown to appreciate Fred Roger’s dedication to quality children’s programming and his words of wisdom. I think when my daughter was young he annoyed me so much because he was so calm and I on the other hand was a crazed want to be super mom. I have included some of his words of wisdom to ponder.  Enjoy!

• Parents are like shuttles on a loom. They join the threads of the past with threads of the future and leave their own bright patterns as they go. Fred Rogers (20th century), U.S. television personality and parenting specialist. Mister Rogers Talks With Parents, ch. 1 (1983).
• Very early in our children’s lives we will be forced to realize that the “perfect” untroubled life we’d like for them is just a fantasy. In daily living, tears and fights and doing things we don’t want to do are all part of our human ways of developing into adults. Fred Rogers (20th century), U.S. television personality and parenting specialist. Mister Rogers Talks With Parents, ch. 11 (1983).
• I like to compare the holiday season with the way a child listens to a favorite story. The pleasure is in the familiar way the story begins, the anticipation of familiar turns it takes, the familiar moments of suspense, and the familiar climax and ending. Fred Rogers (20th century), U.S. children’s TV personality and author. Mister Rogers Talks with Parents, ch. 11 (1983).
• The presence of a  grandparent confirms that parents were, indeed, little once, too, and that  people who are little can grow to be big, can become parents, and one day even  have grandchildren of their own. So often we think of grandparents as belonging  to the past; but in this important way, grandparents, for young children, belong  to the future.
• We’ve forgotten  what it’s like not to be able to reach the light switch. We’ve forgotten a lot  of the monsters that seemed to live in our room at night. Nevertheless, those  memories are still there, somewhere inside us, and can sometimes be brought to  the surface by events, sights, sounds, or smells. Children, though, can never  have grown-up feelings until they’ve been allowed to do the growing
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