Welcome to December

We have made it to December. Did that year go
by really fast or what? Remember when you were
little and it seemed like it took ages and ages for Christmas
to get here.

Just one tiny story, I have always loved to sing. But,
well, me and singing, well we just don't mix. I told my husband
the other day, that when I am living in heaven, and I have
a new body. I am going to ask God I can sing gospel like say
Aretha Franklin. Or my really favorite Koko Taylor. I would
love to sing like her.
Anyway, before there was a house here, the tree was here and
there was this rack that slid into a pickup truck so you could haul
stuff and it had bars on it and I loved it and used it like my jungle gym.
When December would come, I would sit on the top of it and sing
Christmas Carols. I would stare at the stars and imagine that it might
be the star that stood over the stable for the baby Jesus.

So one night I was sitting there singing my heart out. My grandparents
lived next door and I heard my grandpa come out on the back porch and
open the screen door, and he yelled, " Kim!! " " You Hurt??" I said, "
No, Papa," He said, " Okay, and turned around and went back in the house.
I climbed down very quietly, and went in the house. I gave up the idea of being
a famous singer. :) But you know in heaven someday...

I have found the best stories this week as I am going through my Christmas books
I don't think there are enough days in December to share all of the ones
that I have found. But I found one I just had to share today. It is from the book
"Stories from the Heart, compiled by Alice Grey"

This selection is written by Tim Kimmel. I have thought about it for two days.
so I thought I would share it with you.

Changed Lives

In 1921 Lewis Lawes became the warden at Sing Sing Prison.
No prison was tougher than Sing Sing during that time. But when
warden Lawes retired some 20 years later, that prison had become a
humanitarian institution. Those who studied the system said the
credit for the change belonged to Lawes. But when he was asked
about the transformation, here's what he said: " I owe it all to my wonderful
wife, Catherine, who is buried outside the prison walls."

Catherine Lawes was a young mother with three small children when
her husband became the warden. Everybody warned her from the beginning
that she should never set foot inside the prison walls, but that didn't stop
Catherine! When the first prison basketball game was held, she went...walking
into the gym with her three beautiful kids and she sat in the stands with the
inmates.

Her attitude was: "My husband and I are going to take care of these men and I
believe they will take care of me! I don't have to worry!"

She insisted on getting acquainted with them and their records.
She discovered one convicted murderer was blind so she paid him a
visit. Holding his hand in hers she said, " Do you read Braille?
"What's Braille?" he asked. Then she taught him how to read.
Years later he would weep in love for her.

Later, Catherine found a deaf-mute in prison. She went to school
to learn how to use sign language. Many said that Catherine Lawes
was the body of Jesus that came alive again in Sing Sing from 1921 to 1937.

Then, she was killed in a car accident. The next morning Lewis Lawes
didn't come to work, so the acting warden took his place. It
seemed almost instantly that the prison knew something was wrong.

The following day, her body was resting in a casket in her home,
three-quarters a mile from the prison. As the acting warden took
his early morning walk he was shocked to see a large crowd of the
toughest, hardest-looking criminals gathered like a herd of animals
at the main gate. He came closer and noted tears of grief and sadness
He knew how much they loved Catherine. He turned and faced the men,
"All right, men, you can go. Just be sure and check in tonight!" Then
he opened the gate and a parade of criminals walked, without a guard,
three-quarters of a mile to stand in line to pay their final respects to
Catherine Lawes. And every one of them checked back in. Every one!

" When I was in prison, you visited me."

I have thought about Catherine Lawes for two days now.
I hope this blesses you like it did me.

Welcome to December!

~Kim~

Today on Tuesday

I am finishing up my last two weeks of school before
we take our break. I have enjoyed teaching about
the Renaissance and the Reformation. When studying
about the Reformation I never knew who was contemporary with whom.

While studying about the Renaissance I love learning about
the artists and painters and I loved learning about the
men that were behind the easel if you could say that.

This week we have finished up Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary)
Elisabeth the first and today Mary Queen of Scots. I loved
reading about that firebrand John Knox and the ins and outs
of history during that time.

Mary Tudor

Elisabeth the First


Mary, Queen of Scots

What I wanted to share though about 100 years after that time lived
a painter named Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez. This week I
have been reading out-loud to my boys the book called I, Juan De Pareja
by Elizabeth Barton deTrevino.

I have loved this book and I look forward to reading it out loud and
since I won't be passing this way again teaching school it might be the last.
My fifteen year old wants to graduate early and my 17 year old will be graduating
in June so we will see.
I wanted to share this part as My new friend Billy Atwell did a post on humility
and it made me think of his post when I read this. His blog is at For The Greater Glory.

" This dwarf, the Nino de Vallecas, had been found in the country and brought to
the court, for the King(King Philip IV of Spain) was constantly searching for such little beings. He
was greatly deformed in body, very twisted, and suffered intermittent pain.
I often gave him massages to try to soften and slacken the tense muscles of
his crooked legs and of his humped back. He was not overly intelligent---
I think suffering drove learning from his mind--- but we became friends and he lived
seven or eight years in the palace before he died."

"We are brothers," he used to say to me in his strange, deep voice like a man's,
"you and I, because we are enslaved by reason of the way were born. You
were born strong, a fine normal being, but black, I was born as I am, a man in the body
of a little creeping child."
" Why did God put this burden on us, Juanico?"
"To make us humble, maybe. Our Lord was despised and rejected, you remember.
He Himself told us so. And he said, "He who exalts himself shall be brought low,
and he who humbles himself shall be lifted up."

Later on in the story, we are told that Velazquez painted these little people with
such care. Juanico reasons this, "For some time I resented the meticulous way
Master painted these deformed and pathetic beings. He was making obeisance to the
truth as he saw it. He had explained that to me often enough. And yet it seemed
to me cold-blooded, even cruel. But later, when I looked at those portraits
years after, I saw what he had done, and what glossing over their deformities
could not have achieved. He had painted, in every case, a soul imprisoned."

I also read today from "The Shaping of The Christian Family," When from every
side the message is "if it feels good do it," it takes constant reiteration of
the practical and joy-giving principles of self-denial and purity and
obedience to counteract it. (p. 182)

Juan dePareja

I love this book, I, Juan de Pareja because as the main character is a slave, he was born a slave
and was inherited as one would inherit a table or a chair. He lives his life
with the family in slavery, and yet the attitude is, his job is to make the life
of everyone around him better. It reminds me that love is willing to be
inconvenienced. In a sense, a model of how to live, my life for yours.

I keep thinking about this I guess because I have been thinking of the
young girl who said to to the angel Gabriel, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
let it be to me according to your word."

I wish so much I could be that kind of servant when the Lord asks. So just
things I have been reading about today.
I hope you have a lovely Tuesday, This last Tuesday in November.

Blessings,
~Kim~

Monday Musings

I am using a old summer time picture of the girls.
They are still molting and have pin feathers. I feel so
bad because it is so cold right now and these are beach
baby chickens. They aren't used to weather in the 40s.

When I got them as chicks in February. I kept them
in my garage bathroom. I notice that now when I let
them out in the yard for a little me time, they all go
up to the door where my garage bathroom is and try
to figure out a way to go inside.


I have to tell them that they aren't little anymore
so they have to stay out in the coop. Yes, I know you
have feathers missing but you are still chickens. I have
thought about maybe just before sundown fixing some
warm oatmeal with warm milk and cranberries for them to
snack on but well, I am afraid my family might yell a bit, so I have not done
that as of yet.

This morning I was awake really early. I could hear
the foxes making that sound they make, not really a bark
but that sound that sounds like a woman being murdered.
When we first moved here and I heard it, it scared me to death.
As I listened to them, I thought I was going to have to walk
around and make sure all of the fences are secure. I have to make
sure there is nothing leaning against the outside fence because they
can climb like a cat if they have something to climb up.
They have kits in Jan/ Feb. So they get aggressive and hungry.
I think that is one thing that unnerves is the lack of fear they show.

One night I was woke up by the rooster next door. My neighbors were
out of town and I was supposed to be taking care of the chickens. I jumped
out of bed and went out the bedroom door and through my side gate.
With a flash light I can shine it on the chicken pen and see pretty good.
I really didn't want to go traipsing out in the pasture, barefoot in my pajamas
with skunks around. So I stood at my fence and I shined the flash light out to
the back of the pasture. My beam caught the reflection of green eyes looking
at me. I sort of jumped but kept my light on it to see what was going to happen.

As it sat there and watched me, it blinked and got up and started running from
the back of the pasture toward me. I kept following it with the beam, and it
would stop and sit down and blink and the eyes were so green.
As it got closer to the chicken pen I was starting to get really frightened.

It was running and I was pretty sure it was a fox, but you know, it was dark
and it was running really fast so I thought, what if it isn't a fox, but some sort
of alien. Then it ran to a place in the fence where it could get through and all of a sudden
it was running full blast towards me.
My hair stood up on my head and my arms and about the time I yelled, my husband
came out the gate. He asked me " What are you yelling at out here at 2:00 AM?" I turned
around and started for the gate where he was standing and said, " WE have to get in the fence
some thing is coming really fast."

I ran in the house and jumped in my bed and pulled the covers up, after locking the
doors. I know it was a fox, and I know I let my mind get away from me, but right
then and there I didn't care if the fox ate the whole coop. I wasn't going out to check
again.

I know I have told you over and over but I am a coward. I don't go out in the dark
around here if I can at all help it. Remember the picture of the house with our Christmas
lights? I didn't take it. My daughter did. Yep, I sent her out in the front yard to take the picture.
So anyway,
I hadn't given you a life around the farm story in awhile.

Have a lovely Monday, I thought a chicken/fox story would be more fun
than a mopping/ laundry/ clean house post/
Have a great week.

~Kim~

Simply Sunday

I was thinking today as I was walking about how
seemingly insignificant things happen on a day to
day basis and then later when we stop to think about
it, it becomes part of the fabric of our lives.

I was thinking I would be sharing with you a few of
my favorite Christmas stories each week starting today
until Christmas Day. I do love Christmas stories.
But my first story is a true one that I still think about
every year. It is part of me and I think changed me and how
God used it to open my eyes.

One of the things about working in a grocery store is you see
people when they are happy, or sad and just indifferent. Also,
being a checker in a grocery store is a bit like being a confessor
of sorts. When you ask people how they are, they tell you. Now
I happen to love hearing stories so I did love my job.

This was Christmas Eve. The store I worked in was sort of at
a cross roads. It sat at the bottom of a hill. If you went farther up the
hill you came to the richest part of our town. The mansions and the
very wealthy and the famous. Buck Owens had a house up there at one
time.
On the down side of the hill, you entered into the very poorest part of town.
This was a very old, old section and lots of gang activity and hard things
went on in that part of town and the grocery store sat in the middle.
So my customers were from both sides.

Our grocery store had a meat counter so you could come in and order your meat.
So at Christmas time we sold lots of prime rib roasts and lots of turkeys for businesses
and of course, lots of pork roasts to make tamales.
We also sold masa which is the corn meal stuff that is used in making tamales.
We sold it in ten pound bags and when it would come in from the tortilla companies
it would still be warm and really nothing smells as good as warm masa.

During the Christmas season I bet I lifted tons and I mean tons of that stuff.
But it didn't matter because the families would be there and excited to go home
and start making tamales with aunts, and uncles, and cousins and grandmas and
they would be having fun and it always made me so happy too. I can still walk
by the deli in the grocery store today and pick up a bag and smell it and I am back
to that time.

The store had been so busy all day, we sold all of the masa, the pork roasts, the hojas
(corn husks) and the chili powder to make them. We also sold gourmet food as well.
I always worked Christmas Eve as well as my brothers and my sister. My Dad did too
because our life was all about customers.
But when the store was finally closed and we all went home, we knew that there
would be a giant prime rib, cooked to perfection and after a dinner with all of the china
we would then open presents. Of course, on Christmas Day we always had tamales.

On this night I had been working hard all day. We were getting ready to close the store.
It had finally quieted down the rest of the crew was filling the milk boxes and sweeping
and getting every thing ready for December 26th because we would be closed Christmas
Day. I was cleaning the counters when up to my counter comes a tiny little fairy of
a little girl. She was smiling and laughing and held loosely in the crook of her arm
was a tiny rag doll. It was cold and she wasn't wearing a very heavy coat, just a
light pink wind breaker. She had dark eyes and dark brown hair with a little
head band on to keep it out of her eyes. As she stood there dancing from foot to
foot, I noticed on the counter two Banquet turkey dinners. In this time it cost
39 cents for T.V. dinners. She looked up and me and said, " Daddy, is buying
our Christmas dinners."
Every thing in me just cringed and I have always thought he looked what I thought
a gypsy might look like, dark hair a bit long on his collar, his hands rough and dry
and red from the cold. His eyes were black and looked deep into mine the way
a bird looks at you when it is frightened.
I was trying not to draw any attention to myself and her Dad stood there and was
counting out 78 cents. I had change in my pocket but I knew to offer a man like
that would have shamed him in front of his little girl so I just stood there and waited.
I think it took every penny he had to buy those dinners.

I asked her in my fumbling way, " Was she excited about Christmas?" She smiled
as she reached her hand into his work worn ones, and as she smiled up at him, "She said,
Oh, yes, I have everything I wanted, I have my Daddy." He smiled a shy smile and
as they turned to leave, I wished them a Merry Christmas. The both smiled
and went out in the cold, walking down the hill to the poorer side of town. Only,
you know what I think, there is a verse that says, Some of you as it were, have
entertained angels unaware.

I think that day, that maybe as I stood there and it was just me and them, maybe
just maybe that is what they were. Because it changed me and how I saw Christmas.
It has became the fabric of my life and always at this time of year, I look for that
man and his dancing little girl with a doll under her arm.

I hope that you will have a lovely Sunday. I look forward to sharing
some of my favorite stories with you in these next few weeks.
Have a lovely day.
~Kim~

Stuff I was Thinking About

I was walking around with my camera trying to get
pictures of the last of the leaves, before the wind
comes and the next storm. I found this bunch with
all colors and I thought it was so nice a fallish.
I have the house mostly decorated now. All except
the Christmas tree. My daughter had to work today,
and her favorite thing of the year is watching Dad fight
with the Christmas tree so we have to wait. It isn't
nearly as much fun since we got a fake tree.

The kids enjoyed it when we would get 15 foot trees,
with a 10 foot ceiling. Then to watch the boys wrestle it
in the house, and what was even more fun was trying
to get the tree in the Christmas tree stand.

The house with it's Christmas tree lights up tonight.
It always makes me so happy at night to drive around
town and see Christmas lights on houses.

I also wanted to tell you that I soaked the turkey in brine for the first
time. I think it was the best turkey ever. It was moist and had
really good flavor. I think that will be the way I will do turkeys
from now on. I might try experimenting with different flavors.
But that was a good thing to try. It had amazing results.

We were outside putting up the Christmas lights and
next door is a old garage. It is the only original building left
from when the place was homesteaded. These wild
kitties have decided that it is their house. The were really
interested in what we were doing so they sat in the window
and watched. My son got the camera and they let
him get real close. My sister-in-law feeds them.
I know that is why she hasn't fixed the window, so they
have some place to get in out of the cold.

I already have a cat from this extended family.
They are nice cats with nice personalities, my son
and his family took one of the family to be their cat.


In this picture, you can see the third cat. I didn't
know that there was three cats until I looked at the
picture close up.

I hope that you have a lovely Saturday.

~Kim~

Friday Ramblings

I love the Friday after Thanksgiving. There is food
in the house so I know I won't have to cook. I can
decorate to my hearts content and I might even
get the men in this house to put the outside Christmas
lights up after it warms up today.

It was a nice day filled with lots of food, and family and
laughter. Here is a picture of the babies, when they
got to start eating.
It was I am sad to say the only picture Grama took.

When my children and their cousins were small,
this was the table they would eat off of when we would go to my sister-in-law
house.
She doesn't have grandchildren yet so she loaned me this
one for my grand children. We did that when we were
having babies, we shared baby clothes and the bassinet
and when I was pregnant she might have had a baby so it
all worked out so nice. Only thing was I always had
two babies to her one. Her babies were 4 years
apart while mine were two years apart.

I hope you have wonderful nice day. I am not
going shopping. :)

~Kim~

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you and yours, a very blessed day.

Happy Thanksgiving

My Thankful Wednesday

Until writing the blog, I didn't realize so many big
things happened in November of my life.
Good and bad, magic and just plain hard.

I wanted to share with you, my best Thanksgiving story.

In the dark ages when I was a girl, when I had a job and
when my life was made up mainly of dreams. My Dad was
lots of things but one of the things he did was he owned 6 grocery
stores and we all worked in them. I started working for him
when I was 17 and I am thankful for that job and what it taught
me. I was painfully shy and working with the public you can't be.
Dealing with the good and the bad in a grocery store is something
I think all people should have experience of being treated less than
dirt. Of being invisible. But for the most part, it was good. All very good.

My boyfriend at this time was away at school. He had told me he wouldn't
be home until late Wednesday night. I was so excited that he was going
to be with me at our families Thanksgiving and he would be meeting
all of my very interesting, very different extended family.

He had asked me to marry him and I had said yes, we hadn't planned
anything yet and I knew he had been working three jobs, plus going to school.
He worked in the school cafeteria, he did yard work for people and at
night as a musician. He played music in a restaurant.

Wednesday before Thanksgiving is really busy and I was working when my
brother called me to the back room. My brother was our produce man. Sometimes
when he would get behind he would call me and I would go help him.
But I was so busy it was really hard to get away, when my manager said,
"Go on back, I will take over." I thought it was odd but well okay. So I went
in the back room and my brother said, " he handed me a knife and said, can you
do some lettuce for me? I remember thinking " Is he nuts?" This is the day before
Thanksgiving, I need to be in front. About then the phone started ringing.

I put the knife down and walked over to the phone and answered it. It was my
boyfriend, and he said " Hi and that he was on break at school. He chatted a bit,
and He said, " Could you hold a minute someone wants me." So I looked around and my
brother is gone and the back room is empty of people and as I am standing there
getting really antsy because I need to be in the check-stand, I see this guy who
looks so much like my boyfriend and I have the phone to my ear and who is this
guy, who is smiling and laughing.

I hang up the phone standing there like a dope, and he grabs me and kisses me and
then drops to one knee and takes a ring out of his pocket and says, " Kim, will you
marry me and be my wife forever and ever?" He puts the ring on my finger and
I raised him up and I said yes. Of course I am crying and laughing and so is he
and then somehow I worked the rest of the day. With this ring on my finger which
changed me from a girl to a bride to be.

So lots of things have happened in my life in November, the best being I got engaged
and I am so thankful that 31 years today, my life did become the best kind of fairy tale,
because well, you see, I got the prince.

Have a lovely Wednesday.

~Kim~

Confession Day

I was standing in the kitchen, thinking, I really need
to confess. Yes, to tell you the secrets I harbor in my
secret life. We are told that confession is good for the soul.
Well, here is my confession.

I use Stove Top stuffing mix. Yep, I don't make real
stuffing. I have tried and tried to come up with the perfect
stuffing for years. One year, I just made a couple of boxes
of Stove Top and everyone was very happy. So now,
Stove Top all the way, and since
I am confessing here, I also use packaged gravy mix.
I know I can hear the shock and dis belief out there
hitting me like waves in the ocean. Yep, packaged
mix of turkey gravy. It is never lumpy and perfect every time.

While I am at it, I might as well tell you I also buy the store brand
pie crusts. Gosh, I can't believe I am confessing all of this today.
But it is true, I have to cook so much food that I just started taking
these short cuts.

I still use real ingredients like real butter, real potatoes, sweet potatoes
and of course real turkey. I do make all of my pie filling from scratch.
I make my cranberry sauce out of real cranberries too.

Since I am confessing, I thought I would tell you what I had for lunch.
I had a Strawberry pop tart. I don't know what came over me but
I was looking in the pantry, and there on the shelf there was these
Pop Tarts. I took out a package in it's pretty silvery package and ate
them both. I put them into the toaster to knock off the chill and ate them
I even shared a bit with the dog. She liked Pop tarts too.

Then I got out two pieces of Swiss cheese, you know the kind that I think
is called Alpine lace, really pretty, got out some old tortilla chips and ate them
with ranch dressing.
I did drink water to wash them all down.

Nothing has looked good or tasted good and so now I will maybe get well,
with a bit of junk food in my system.

Well, now that I have confessed, and my son has finished vacuuming the
house for me. Wow, when I fall hard, I really fall. ( He wanted money for
Christmas, I was happy to oblige.)

Now you know my secret life. :) I wanted to let you know the real me.
Have a great day.

~Kim~

Thoughts Today

Right now the weather is finally cold, crisp and clear.
It feels like winter. See how blue the sky is and how
pretty the sunlight looks bouncing off the leaves.
It is the kind of weather that I love being outside.
Only I am still sick so I have been watching it from
my window. Wednesday night it might even get
down to 26 which I am pretty excited about. Fires
in the wood stove make it so cozy.

I am going to share a prayer for the Middle-Aged today
because, well, it might be easy to whine and carry on
and I think it is better to think about other things,
like other people and how I am looking forward to
seeing all of my grandchildren.

Prayer for the Middle-Aged
By a 17th-Century Nun

Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself
that I am growing old.
Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking
I must say something on every subject
and on every occasion.

Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs.
Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy.
With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity
not to use it all, but Thou knowest, Lord,
that I want a few friends at the end.

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details;
give me wings to get to the point.
Seal my lips on my aches and pains. (:))
They are increasing, and love of rehearsing them is
becoming sweeter as the years go by.
I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the talks of others pains,
but help me to endure them with patience.
I dare not ask for improved memory,
but for growing humility and a lessening cock-sureness when
my memory seems to clash with the memories of others.
Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.
Keep me reasonably sweet.
I do not want to be a saint---
some of them are so hard to live with---
but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil.
Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places
and talents in unexpected people.
Give me the grace to tell them so.
Amen.

I love this prayer because I see myself in every line. So with all
of my kids being here my prayer will be that they will have a lovely
time and I won't have to pontificate on every subject.

I hope that I can bake some goodies tomorrow and get my
cranberries made so they can be chilling and my salad marinating
and get some of the things out of the ways so I can just make my pies
on Wednesday morning. I really do love making pies.

I hope your day is beautiful, and I wish you the best.

~Kim~

Monday Musings

I was noticing the calendar that Monday is the 22nd of November. It marks
the death of C.S.Lewis. His death was overshadowed
by the death of J.F.K. The whole world watched in
horror at what happened that day in Dallas. Also
on that day was the death of Aldous Huxley, The writer of Brave New World.
His grandfather was once known as Charles Darwin's bulldog.

My husband and I were chatting about it and all that we
remembered was our cartoons were preempted. Then
it seemed like years before my parents watched anything
else but that on T.V. We were living in that very old
farmhouse and I remember sitting in one of the very cold
back bedrooms cutting paper out of magazines. The teacher
told my Mom that I didn't know how to use scissors so I sat
and cut paper and tried to stay on the lines. I must not have
learned much because it is still hard for me to cut a straight line.

C.S. Lewis on the other hand, has been a hero. I have wished
many, many times I could think the way he could think and I
could reason the way he was able to reason.
I think he must have been a very good chess player as he was able
to see the moves so far ahead of time.

I thought I would give you some of his quotes that I just think are
yummy to the brain. All quotes are from C.S. Lewis born Nov. 29, 1898
died Nov. 22, 1963

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.

I gave in, and admitted that God was God.


You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.


You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream

~ God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world ~

I have read his books and lots of books about C.S. Lewis but I have to say my favorite
book is written by his step-son Douglas Grisham, Jack's Life: The story of C.S. Lewis.
I thought is was excellent and has a very good description of the first World War.
I like books that challenge my intellect and I can say that C.S. Lewis is one
of those writers.
Just one of those interesting tidbits I ran across, did you know that Chuck Colson
has in in his study the last pipe that C.S. Lewis smoked. The C.S. Lewis foundation
gave it to Charles Colson after Mr. Lewis's death.
It was Mere Christianity that brought the Nixon Hatchet man to Christ. I always love
how those things happen.
That is why books are so amazing to me. Especially because one of my favorite books
starts off with " In the Beginning was the Word... Did you ever think how the old Testament
starts off with "In the Beginning was God... Just some really heavy thoughts there
God spoke it with one word. Just gets my mind thinking.

Kim

Pumpkin Pie

I am going to make this pumpkin pie.
I always do all of my baking on Wednesday.
I am going to brine my turkey using my daughter-in-love
recipe .
We were thinking about smoking the turkey but
I think I will just cook it the normal way in the oven.
It is supposed to be cold that day so I didn't want everyone
having to be outside.

Here is the recipe for the above pie.

Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.
3. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Cover with whipped topping before serving.

I always fix Chocolate cream pies and pumpkin and I am trying to kill two birds with
one stone by fixing a double layer pumpkin cheese cake.


I love this old image of the Pilgrims. One of the things
I think has been a disservice to our children is that
they have been taught in school about the Pilgrims
and the Puritans, I thought they
were the same. They weren't the Pilgrims were willing
to take a chance for the freedom to worship the way they
saw fit.
The Puritans wanted to stay in the Church of England and purify
it from within. In school we kind of lump the Pilgrims and Puritans
with the Salem Witch trials. Which is all taken out of context.
So it always makes me sad because really the story of the Pilgrims
is quite a interesting story. The Puritans were a bit legalistic.
The first time I read about what really happened and why those
people took such a chance to come here to worship God, I just cried
because God did such miracles to get them here.

My favorite books on the subject are The Light and The Glory by
Peter J. Marshall and David Manuel

I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow.
Kim

Stormy Days

Today is a lovely stormy day, we have a fire
burning and it is raining off and on. The air
as the temperature drops becomes more and more
crisp. It is a nice day to be in the house.

My daughter asked that on my blog I share a week
before Thanksgiving that was the "No good, very bad,
terrible week. I can tell it and laugh because no one
should ever have a week before Thanksgiving week like that.

When we lived in our other house, we had fixed it up room by room.
The last room though that we redid was the kitchen. I said, I am not
going to redo anymore kitchens because it seems like I get one
the way I like and we move.
We started redoing our kitchen in the summer that year and by
November it was finally finished. I love white cabinets and ours had
white cabinets and we had granite counter tops. My favorite kitchen.

On this November day, the kids kept telling me that something was wrong
with the fridge because water kept leaking out of it. I thought that maybe ice
had fallen out or something and it was just melting. Finally when I stopped
what I was doing I walked into the kitchen and water was running down the side
of the fridge. I thought" wow, that's odd," so I grabbed a chair and looked up on top
of the fridge and the whole top was covered in about a inch of water. I grabbed
a towel and started wiping, then as my eyes traveled upwards, I saw that water
was leaking out of the ceiling. Then as I looked more the whole ceiling was sagging.

I thought" Oh NO! We have a leak in the attic." I called my husband at work and
he said "he would be right home". When he got home, he did the weirdest thing,
he walked in grabbed the ceiling stuff and started ripping it down. Now I was a bit
shocked because he doesn't do things like that and he kept ripping until the
whole of the kitchen ceiling was gone all the way to the place where the kitchen table
sat. He just kept ripping and dropping it on the floor, I just stood there open mouthed until
it was all gone, he said," I needed to see how much damage was done."

Now with the ceiling gone the cold air was pouring in from that attic and it was
going to be cold that night. The kids were all small so he said, " I have to go
get something to put up there to keep the cold out. So he left, and as I looked around
the kitchen was a total mess with wet wall board, insulation and junk all over everything.
I just grabbed trash bags and started cleaning so by the time he got back at least
it didn't look like such a mess. I am telling this all nice and calm but I can almost bet
you I wasn't nice and calm, I bet there was some yelling involved, but lets go on.

He worked on it until he stopped the cold, what had happened was the weekend before,
he went to drain the cooler and get it ready for winter and the drain got stopped up and
drained into the kitchen.

It was late when we got to bed that night. When about 2:30 in the morning we hear this
groaning and crying on the front porch. It sounded so scary, so we both got up and went to the
door and there is this really old dog on the porch. I give her some food and water, thinking
she will be okay. I got back in bed and she starts this horrible howling. So I got up
and put her in my laundry room. About the time I get in bed she starts howling again.
I get up and go in the laundry room and I see that she is blind and deaf and scared
and very old. I stay there with her so I think she is okay and get back into bed
and she starts again.

My husband decides that he will get one of our animal carriers and put her in it and put
her inside his truck in the garage. So we can't hear her. So we sleep rather fitfully.
The next morning he decides that he will just take her to the dog pound on his way to
work. The dog howls all the way to his work. The dog pound is closed. The dog howls
in his truck at work until he finally gets someone at the dog pound and takes the dog
in.
He goes back to work, works all day. That night on his way home as he is going up a slight
incline he notices a cat on the freeway behind him and he thinks to himself, " Now where
did that cat come from." He doesn't say anything when he gets home.

That night I go all around the neighborhood looking for our cat. I can't find her. I search
and search but no cat.

We have Thanksgiving and come home and still no cat. Then the next morning I have crying kids
crying about the cat, so I take them and we go to the SPCA and look for our cat. She was always
a very nosy cat and she climbed up inside the truck somehow and he drove with her all the way
to work, she stayed in the truck the whole time he was at work and didn't get out until he started
up the incline.
My husband keeps having this nagging feeling about the cat on the freeway.
He took our oldest son and went to the freeway and the cat he saw was our cat.
He picks up the now dead cat and comes home. I have 6 very sad kids, so we
come out here to bury the cat and have a funeral.

Everyone said a few words over the grave. We go home and I have been
doing laundry that day, as I come in I realize there is water coming out
of my bathroom. I walk in my bathroom and the sewer is coming out of my shower
all across the bathroom floor. I go in and stop my washer and wait for the water
to trickle down and clean up the terrible mess that is now in my bathroom and bedroom
carpet.
We call the pumping company to come and pump our sewer. Which thankfully the
guy comes out and pumps part of it just so we don't over flow and he is going to come
back the next day and do a better job. I think one of the things that
got to me was the guy who showed up to pump the sewer, didn't wear gloves.
It still creeps me out.

So that is the story of the terrible, horrible, no good Thanksgiving. When we
built this house10 years ago, we were hooked up to the sewer and no septic tank. I am so glad.
I always feel so sorry for the people who have our old house because when Thanksgiving
rolls around, you always have to have that done.

I hope you enjoy my story, I found no matter how bad something might be
at the time right now, time makes it not seem so bad.
Have a great Saturday.
Kim

Thoughts of Being Sick

One of the things, I never think to be thankful for
is health. Today, I am reminded that health is indeed
a gift from God. All the things that I am reminded of today.
Simple things like cleaning the kitchen, feeding my chickens
and taking the dog for a walk. I knew I was getting sick last
night so I fed my chickens really good.

I cleaned the kitchen this morning and the kids do a
good job of keeping it clean when I am sick. The older ones
really to pitch in to help me.

I don't know when I have felt like this and I feel
bad that I made my kids do school anyway. I would
tell them they could go to bed after school was finished.
So today I am really thankful for health because today,
I realized, I really do take it for granted.

Oh early this morning when I couldn't sleep and I was writing
blog posts in my head. I have been thinking of what would be
my perfect day if I was going to write one down.

It came to me. My perfect day would be this:

I would wake up some morning and when I got out
of bed I would be skinny. :)
The end.

So I thought I would share that, It took a bunch of thinking to whittle it
down to that.

I am going to stop now as I think I have sat up long enough.
I also realize I am addicted to blogging.
Have a great evening.

Kim

Friday Ramblings

This morning I was walking out to the mailbox. I guess I have been to busy to notice the lemon
trees, and the orange trees. This is my favorite lemon tree and it is a Meyer Lemon. It has the
best lemons I have ever tasted or used. The skin is thin and they are mainly juice.
My youngest son and my niece peel them and eat them like a orange.
You can't tell yet because these haven't got the deep orange yet, but these are Blood Oranges.

They get so dark red inside and they really are very pretty when cut in circles on a plate. Not to mention they taste sweet
different from a navel orange. Which are what the other orange trees are. I was noticing though that my one of my oranges and my Meyer lemon must have cross pollinated this year and now we have a tree of Lemon/oranges. Which is okay because they have their own distinctive flavor.

I was walking around and I wanted to see if I could get a close up of a dandelion in the morning sunshine.
One of the favorite things I did when the babies were all so tiny was teach them to blow on them and when they were a bit older I taught them to blow and make a wish. One of the things I love watching is when they
are out in the back yard and the little ones are walking along dreaming in their own little world, they will
stoop down and pick one and hold it with their little chubby hand and blow. Then they stand and watch as all of the little floaty seeds sparkle in the sunlight as they go every which way the wind blows.

This is the last of the leaves on the Sugar Maple. We are supposed to have rain, wind, and cold this weekend.
I think the last of the leaves that are on this tree will be gone before Thanksgiving. This year we have had such
a warm fall that her leaves are not as showy as in the past. The one thing about a tree is I can always look forward to next year.

I am going to end with a poem I stumbled across, because I have trouble between wanting to be a real grandmother who has cookies in the cookie jar all of the time to the kind of grandmother who doesn't really look like one. I thought this poem fit me.

I got it from the book by Donna Otto called Between Women of God, p 27

The Grandmother's Poem:

In the dim and distant past
When life's tempo wasn't fast
Gramma used to rock and knit,
Crochet and tat, and babysit.

Gramma now is at the gym
Exercising to keep slim.
Now she's golfing with the bunch,
Taking clients out to lunch,

Going north to ski and acurl,
And all her days are in a whirl.
Nothing seems to stop or block her
Now that Gramma's off her rocker.

Have a lovely Friday and I hope a good weekend too.
Many blessings from me to you.
I finally got sick, after fighting it for weeks. My brain doesn't
want to think right so I may be taking a break.
I enjoy all of your blogs so much, it is really hard to stay away.

When Things Break

This has been a week of things breaking. Well not
out and out breaking where you have to call the repair
man, but just a week where it feels like there is a small
burr under the saddle and everything is rubbing.

Saturday my husband needed to re-caulk the upstairs
shower, what I thought was just grab a tube of the stuff and
run a line around the shower and you are done. Well, it wasn't.
My husband ended up taking all of the glass and metal and everything
off and drying it and caulking it and then putting it all back together.
It took him hours, it was a mess and it was yukky. I couldn't
really help but after his last trip up the stairs I was starting
to get really worried about him.

The next day we went to do our grocery shopping.
Why is it when all you want is a nice basket that goes
straight, all of them have a broken kind of wheel and the
basket goes one direction and you go another? As we
filled the basket, the basket got more and more contrary,
so I kept pushing it with my hip to get it to go in the right
direction. Now I know where I got that bruise.


We got up to the checkout and the normally nice,
friendly checker wasn't. She threw groceries and was
just really grumpy, most of the time I can talk and
get them to laugh, but well I was grumpy too and didn't
feel like making her laugh. The box boy bagged the groceries
and balanced them way higher than the basket.
My husband started out to the parking lot trying to juggle
the groceries and man handle the cart. We get out to the
parking lot where there is a slight incline and the basket starts
to go down a different way from our car and my husband grabs
it to make it go the right way, which makes the case of bottled
water go flying out on the ground. I picked up the case of water
thinking I will just carry it to the car.

About that time a man whom we are blocking in the middle of
the road starts honking madly at my husband, and we both
look up and he is pointing at our bag of potatoes laying
in the middle of the street. My husband lets go
of the basket which starts tearing down the incline, while
the paper towels on the bottom goes flying too.
I have the water I am juggling trying to catch the runaway
basket and grab the paper towels and my husband is motioning
thank you to the people who have just leaned on the horn at us.
The lady in the passenger seat is sadly shaking her head at us like
which asylum have you escaped from today.

We walked to the car and began putting the groceries in the car,
I looked at my husband, and said, " You didn't see anyone filming us
did you?" He said no but all this week I was afraid of winding up on some
website called " Stupid shoppers or something.

Then today I needed to clean my coffee pot, I poured the water and turned
on the button. I left. I came back little bit later and it looked like all of
the water poured out the bottom. I grabbed some towels and cleaned it up.
I thought, maybe I broke it so I put more water in it and ran it like I was making
coffee. The cleaning part must have been full of water because water started
pouring out from the bottom and the side. I grabbed more towels put the coffee
pot over the sink and let it drain. I was soaking wet so I changed clothes. I put
them in the washing machine. Then thinking I did something wrong, I repeated
the process. I don't know if I had dumb pills this morning for breakfast but,
I tried the cleaning thing again with the same results, water poured out the bottom,
I grabbed towels, I got soaking wet, I changed clothes and put them in the washing machine.
Then poured water in again to see if I had broke it and had to put it over the sink to see
if it worked as water poured out. I ended up with two loads of wet towels.

So this has been my week. I have had sick kids and upstairs sounds like I am
running a tuberculosis ward. We are in round two of what ever it is that
they have had. No wonder I couldn't think of anything to write about.

On the bright side, it is Thursday. We have a nice lovely storm coming
in this weekend. With snow. I can't wait.
Not to mention the whole blog deal for two days,
I can't blame blogger, it was me.
I hope you have a lovely day.

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children of men!

The Tree In My Front Yard

This is the tree in my front yard, I was looking
at it and I saw that it was completely with out leaves.
It is the first tree I have to loose all of it's leaves and the last
to get them in the spring. I just let it be because of it's age.
It is a old Chinese Paradise Tree. I am 52 and it is older than me
because I fell out of it when I was 4 after being told not
to climb it because the branches were too brittle.

This post though isn't about trees other than my husband's
hobby is growing trees. He loves trees and collects acorns and
baby trees and he grows them and plants them here.

I wanted to talk about today is my husband. When
we were sitting at the play, and he was so tired because he works
so long and so hard all of the time and I thought, he always chooses
to sacrifice for me. Even in my hair-brained ideas and he never complains.
Last night, I was thinking as we were sitting there and I was so happy
that I can be so content in his presence. This week is hard for me as
this is the first year since I went back to see my Mom for the last time
and I keep trying to not think about all the things that happened.
I keep trying to remember all of the things and the good things all come
back to my husband.

When things would get hard and I would go out to the motor home, he would
have coffee made and we would talk and have coffee and when I cried he held
me and stroked my hair. He prayed for me so I would have strength.
He would go while I was in the hospital and go grocery shopping. He would wait for
me to do all that I had to do.
He went to the bosses at the place he was working and said, " I am sorry, I know
this is a huge project, but my wife needs me." He was my bulwark between, the
hard things that were going on and he kept me sane.

One of the things that best shows how he is that we were in such a hurry to get
back to the hospital because time was so short. We didn't stop much except for gas
we would leave before the sun came up and drive until it was to late to see.
On the first morning we left, much to my horror, I forgot to pack a toothbrush.
We would go into gas stations and no toothbrushes. That first morning when
I was in a panic about no toothbrush, I walked in the bathroom and there lying
on a towel was his tooth brush and he said, " It's okay, we can share." Just that
simple little thing, I sat on the bed and cried. He had done so much and yet, in
that tiny little thing it said more than dozens and dozens of roses or buckets of diamonds.

Every time I used it I was reminded how much he loved me. Finally we made it
to Lake Texoma. When I came in that night from the hospital room he had found
a toothbrush. I danced and laughed and I was so happy.

I ran across this story and I am taking it from Victoria Magazine, it is taken from
a story from the Writer in Residence, Susan J. Gordon
It I believe is from her book "Wedding Days; How Great Marriages Began."

"In 1644, the English statesman and writer, Sir Richard Fanshawe
married Anne Harrison in Oxford, England. After King Charles was beheaded
in 1649, the Fanshawes sided with the Royalists until Sir Richard was captured by
Oliver Cromwell's troops and imprisoned at Whitehall in 1651. Rain or shine, Anne
stood beneath her husband's prison window every morning at 4 o'clock, which was
the only time they could see each other for months, until she won his release.
It rained a lot that year, and Anne later recalled how the rain went in at the neck
and came out by her heels. Eventually, she wrote her memoirs about their
life together. This is what she said about Richard, more than 350 years ago:
"Glory be to God, we never had but one mind throughout our lives.
Our souls were wrapped up in each others , and our resentments one.
We so studied one the other that we knew each others mind by our looks.
What was real happiness, God gave it me in him." ---Anne Fanshawe---

That is one of my favorite lines." What was real happiness, God gave it me in
him." My other favorite is from the book of Ruth. From Ruth to her mother-in-law,
Naomi, "And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; (Ruth 1:16) I used the King James as it is my favorite version.

Still I am so thankful that when I begged that we not get married but just live
together because I was so afraid of ruining his life. He looked at me and said, "
Nope, we are getting married, so lets go to the church." So we did. You know
it has never felt like 30 years, it has just been a moment.
Have a lovely Wednesday.

Thoughts Today

Well, after messing up blogger real good lets see
if I can get a post for today. Then spend the rest
of the morning trying to get back to something normal.

I was thinking this morning you know why fairy tales
like Beauty and the Beast and Snow White all take place
when the girl is young and not married? Because if she
was married there would be to much work to get finished
before she could ride off on the white horse with the prince.

I know now why Monday's are not date night. Yesterday,
my dryer decided it was going to be fussy and take two hours
to dry a load. I had so many loads of clothes to do so that
when my husband came home expecting to see a woman
ready to go on a date, he was met by a woman still folding
laundry, still wearing sweat pants and hair in a pony tail.

I fixed dinner, cleaned up the kitchen, folded one more load
of clothes. Then went to get ready. Make up is really such a nice
invention. But as I was getting ready, I had the thought that in
one of my favorite book series by Jan Karon, the first called
"At Home in Mitford." There is a lady named Miss Rose Watson,
and she will dress in old army coats and clothes she finds.
I thought last night getting ready, I am thinking of going with the Miss
Rose look. I got dressed and we left.

It has been a while since we have went to anything like this, I mean a long
while, like 1978, summer Boz Scaggs tour. The only time we really go
down town is the library and jury duty. So the place where we park is
now for city officials only. We found another parking garage, and parked.
I had brought my camera because I was going to take pictures but when
we got to the doors, that weren't opened yet, there were great big signs
that said "NO Cameras." So we turned around walked back to the car
and left the camera, walked back and they were letting people in by that time.

One thing I noticed was how nice everyone was and how helpful. We went up to
a very nice young man and showed him our tickets and he showed us where
to go in and then we began the climb.

UP and up and up. We kept climbing to the very tip-top of the place. To the
very back wall at the very last row. I was laughing the whole way up because
that is the first and only time I think I will ever buy tickets to anything.
The seats are really close together and really little. Like maybe 5 year old's would
fit really nice. Our seats were in the very middle. The was a older gentleman with
a long white beard at the aisle seat. His clothes were a bit worn and he had his belongings
in a grocery bag. He was all by himself. I hated climbing over him but he was
sweet.
One of the ushers I talked to said it was all sold out so we knew that we were going
to be sitting really close to people. Everyone around us was polite and nice
and excited to be there.

The sets were wonderful and if you have seen the cartoon it was just like it. The
guy who plays Gaston's side kick in the cartoon well the guy who played him in the
play did all of these amazing falling and rolling and it was amazing how he
could do all of the jumping for 3 hours.
On the cover of Beauty and the Beast DVD, Belle is wearing a yellow
Gown. She wore the exact one on stage. It was just beautiful and these
pretty gold shoes. So glad I had binoculars.

I still don't know how they make the Beast turn into the prince. I watched
the whole time with the binoculars and he changes so fast and it was so
magic I have to say when all of a sudden there he is as a man.
The kid they got to be Chip was awesome and so perfect and tiny. His
little voice was so sweet.

I am so glad I got to go and I enjoyed it so much and when I got home,
I finished putting away the laundry I finished and I thought you know
it is fun to be doing things like this but really I am so glad I have my home
and my family and people to care for and come home too and I
think really this kind of fairy tale is the best kind to live.

I hope you have a great Tuesday, I will be trying to get my blogger
back to normal, and hopefully not break it again.
I can only post one picture right now.

Monday Musings

It is one of those Monday mornings when my laundry
baskets overflow. The house seems dirtier than usual.
I have planned more school today than any one person could
get through. (trying to give myself room to take off next week.)
I went outside to take out the trash and from my porch, I hear
the sound of fire trucks with sirens on, the sound of train
whistles off in the distance. The pounding of those machines
that pound pilings into the river bottom to build a new bridge.
The cars going by filled with people 0n the way to work.

As I stand and listen I hear one of my hens complaining about
having to lay a egg this morning. The cold kitty is meowing at
me to go inside. The sunlight is hazy and it is about42 degrees.

In my reading this morning I am reminded by this.
"Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Ephesians 5:19-20

I am not in a very merry music in my heart kind of mood.
I will do what I do in a situation like this, I will focus as
I have learned from Elisabeth Elliot, "We accept and thank
God for what is given, not allowing the not-given to spoil it."
(Let Me Be A Woman, p. 42)

I will focus on that I have a washing machine and a dryer, the
sun is shining, the cats have a warm house to come into,
I have electricity. Which means I can vacuum to my hearts
content, and dust and mop and still get school finished and
dinner cooked. I can go outside with the dog and stare
at my chickens a bit and have a chat, yes, I do talk to my
chickens. They even talk back. They let me know that they
need some time out of the coop to eat some grass. I won't listen
today though. I have to get all of my work finished early because
I am going out tonight. On a Monday night. With my husband.
to do something I always said I would do, and I get to do it.

Tonight I am going to a play. Tonight I am going to see.

When my kids were young, my sister took them to L.A. to see the production. It must have been 15 years ago. I always wanted to see it and I saw that it was going to be in town for one night, for me I did something I have never done before, I ordered tickets. As my husband said, " we will be sitting in the nose bleed section seats. But I will take binoculars and I know it will be so much fun because I have always wanted to see this on stage. I have even went to our local productions when they have done Beauty and The Beast and I loved it too. I love the story so much and so now I have to get my work done today, so I can dress up and forget I am a mom and a grandmother and just be that girl who has always loved Beauty and The Beast. Have a great Monday! Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children of men! (Psalm. 107:6)

Thoughts Today

Today is a beautiful fall Sunday. Last night was a wake-
up-at 2:30 A.M. migraine morning for me. I should
have known it was coming but didn't pay attention to it.
You know why I am thankful now? Well, now that it is gone,
I use it as a trigger to pray for the people God will bring to
my mind. I find that in order to get through the pain, by lifting
others up I forget about me. When they first started years
ago, I knew that I wanted to redeem the time so that was
when I started using it as my prayer time. I have always
read stories about people who had great faith, and I found
the one common thread they had was to be able to see
God in the midst of the pain.
As the saying goes, I can see God clearer when my room is most
darkened.

I also wanted to share today one of the things that shook my world
as a young woman and I wanted so badly to be a godly woman
but didn't have a clue just exactly what a godly woman
looked like, or what a godly wife did that made her godly.
I am not nor ever will be a shrinking violet kind of person.
I could never be a door mat. You step on me and I will bite
your leg off. So as a young wife and mother I read about
a gentle and quiet spirit and I was not one. (I am still working
on that too.)

One of the things God taught me was, "Do nothing out of selfish
ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others
better than yourselves."
(Philippians 2:3)

This was really hard for me as I grew up in a house hold that
had a housekeeper 5 days a week, we even had a live in cook.
I just assumed everyone lived like I did. So when I got married
it was sort of a culture shock. I remember the morning I had
to call my mom and ask " Just how do you clean a toilet." I was
not in the habit of thinking of others better than myself. I really
believed in Snow White, and all of the fairy tales, I would get carried
away and live in a castle and everything would be happily ever after.



It doesn't work that way and all of a sudden I was at the
end of the wrong side of a curve. At the rate I was going
I would have destroyed my life, my kids lives and my
husband's.
One of the first things I learned from my hero Elisabeth
Elliot was, " How do you lay down your life for your spouse?
Not usually in anything heroic but in the willingness to say
no to yourself, in the willingness to give up the right to be right."
(From Making your Marriage work.)

Three little sentences brought me to the total edge in my thinking.
It didn't jell with the world's teaching and it certainly didn't
with my thinking. I wanted though to be a woman after God's own
heart. So like a baby, I would try, fall down and get up again. It has
always helped to me married to a man who pretty much never
complained.

These were just thoughts I was thinking about today.
Another thing I have been thinking about too is my what
I have written in every Bible I own and at the top of
every note book and I am starting to think maybe
I need to put it at the top of my blog.
"Lord, deliver me from the urge to open my mouth when I
should shut it. Give me the wisdom to keep silence where
silence is wise. Remind me that not everything needs to be
said and that there are very few things that need to be said
by me." (Even typing.)
(A Lamp for My Feet, p.42)
" A man of understanding holds his peace."
(Proverbs 11:12)

Just a few things I was thinking about today. Have
a wonderful day today.

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children of men!

(Psalm. 107:6)