Posts
1 week ago
Memorial Day
>> Monday, May 26, 2008
This Memorial Day I want to pay tribute to Uncle Frederick, 83, who passed away yesterday around 10 a.m.
He was a veteran of seven years in the United States Army, serving in Germany in World War II, where he was decorated with two battle stars.
(third from the left)
He then served in the United States Air Force, serving two tours of duty in Vietnam.
(center)
(first on left, middle row)
And Thank You to all the men and women who have served, and are serving our country and defending our freedoms.
Things You Might See in the "Country"
>> Saturday, May 24, 2008
My brother and I and the kids took a little day trip to see my aunt. We were delivering a belated Mother's Day gift.
She doesn't really live in the boonies, but it still has some of the old 'country' (rural) feeling about it that I remember from childhood. It certainly still has the sights:
She doesn't really live in the boonies, but it still has some of the old 'country' (rural) feeling about it that I remember from childhood. It certainly still has the sights:
It's abandoned, clearly, but the neighbors said they left two dogs.
Wonder how much they want for it?
Stop asking!!!
(not gonna ask why they have a big pink sign in the back, either)
The left-behind piano in the 'ancient', dilapidated, one-room church:
And the pulpit:
The farming:
The honeysuckle!
The landscaping:
And Yard Art:
Not one, but two!
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Reading and Watering
>> Thursday, May 22, 2008
I have so many books in my 'to be read' stack that I need two nightstands. . .
I just finished reading The Scarlet Letter because it was on one of my bookshelves, and for some reason I picked it up instead of something from the 'stack'.
I found it to be the oddest little book! I realize that it was written for and about a different era and generation, but I still had a hard time appreciating its classic designation.
None of the characters were endearing to me; they all creeped me out a little, not just old Roger.
Anyway, I've moved on to a book that my aunt loaned me in Chickasaw: Heart Shift by John Trent. I've only read about three chapters, but so far, so interesting.
The blurb is this: "For so many people, they view change as needing to make a one hundred and eighty degree change - a feat so impossible that they give up or never even begin. Yet two small degree changes in our spiritual life, our marriage or parenting, or even our health can lead us closer to God's heart and our loved ones. Making a '2 degree change' towards the Lord or your loved one that can begin moving you in a positive, freeing, fulfilling direction."
The book is easy to read with excellent analogies and historical, scriptural, and literary references.
Back to daily life, warm weather and a certain blonde, we now have a happiness-guaranteed activity at our disposal: water. (It's just not so fun when it's time to come inside. . . )
And,
By-The-Way,
HAPPY 9th ANNIVERSARY
to Charlotte's parents!!!
Menu Plan Monday
>> Monday, May 19, 2008
The menu this week includes some bravery on my part; I'm revisiting my past.
I'm going to make meatloaf tonight. The kids have never had it. I haven't made it in about 27 years, if you can even call that attempt actually making it.
I made it when Jessica was a baby and I was trying to be a fully-functioning mother and housewife. I knew that meant I had to cook meals, but didn't have a clue how to cook period, much less plan the whole dinner.
Back then, people assumed you had at least some basic knowledge of cooking. . . but if your mother had moved away and had been a reluctant cook herself, and your grandmother worked, and you asked a random woman in the store how to make meatloaf, you got an answer something like this like: "Well, honey, it's so easy. You just get you some meat and bread and ketchup and throw it in the oven and in no time your husband will be thinking he's the luckiest man on earth!!".
Well, honey, back then, I believed her, and all that she implied! That it was really THAT simple. I went home with my incomplete ingredients, and just made do and made guesses for everything I didn't know.
Well, honey, the meatloaf was soooo bad; so tasteless, so overcooked, and such a waste of precious grocery money, that I cried. The entire meal was a bust because I also had no clue how to plan for any side dishes to be ready at the same time, what to serve with what, etc.
This is just one reason, in one area of my life, that I am very thankful for the internet. There aren't just recipes to be found, there are the reviews, the remarks, the opinions, the details. There are real women that know how to do things - helping other real women that don't know how to do things. . .
Monday: Meatloaf!, corn on the cob, stir-fried green beans
Tuesday: Crunchy Onion Chicken
Wednesday: Crockpot Potatoes and Salmon
Thursday: Salad with chicken, strawberries, and mandarin oranges
Friday: Pot Roast (crockpot, with veggies), yeast rolls
We don't eat on the weekends.
Just kidding.
My life can only be so planned.
Visit organizing junkie for many more menu plans than you can handle!!
>> Wednesday, May 14, 2008
If there is no God
NOTHING MATTERS
if there is a God
NOTHING ELSE
MATTERS
The fool hath said
in his heart
there is no God.
Ps. 53
This is the message on one of my son's t-shirts. He only wears plain tees or ones with Christian messages, and has for a few years now. This has always gone "without notice".
But when we were vacationing last week, if we ventured into the nearby towns, people would notice and stop him to comment (positively). Piggly Wiggly, Walmart; Henderson, Jackson. . . we were surprised that people noticed.
Small towns are nice!!
Read more...
Happy Mother's Day!
>> Saturday, May 10, 2008
A Prayer For Children
Ina Hughes
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.
And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never "counted potatoes",
who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.
We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
And we pray for those
who never get desert
who have no safe blankets to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
whose monsters are real.
We pray for children
who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.
And we pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren't spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.
We pray for children
who want to be carried,
and for those who must,
for those we never give up on,
and for those who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother,
and for those who will grab the hand
of anybody kind enough to offer it.
We're Baaaaack!
>> Friday, May 9, 2008
Just ended our week with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mark and their dog, Clovis, at Chickasaw State Park.
The kids and I had a cabin (courtesy of Uncle Mark - woohoo!!!), and they stayed in their pop-up camper at the campgrounds. The park is beautiful, and there was plenty to see and do. It was also peaceful and restful and quiet. The 'off' season is a great time to visit!
The weather was perfect - even the one day that it lightly rained off and on wasn't bad. One day, Aunt Arlene, Aunt Patsy, and Uncle David showed up for a visit and picnic - style lunch.
We walked and walked and walked - great exercise that you can enjoy : ) . We worked puzzles (it runs in our family), and we played with fire. We took a couple of little side trips into neighboring towns: Henderson, Bolivar, Jackson.
We finished four jigsaw puzzles.
Boy, did we walk.
This guy and one of his friends would show up in the mornings and stand at the front door until we fed them something.
The kids were not amused that this was ever a possibility:
I was not amused by this reality:
(I promise you it was trying to follow us across the lake. . . )
Camp TV.
Exercise.
Exercise.
It's always good to be home, but there is that mountain of laundry to do. Hope to be 'all caught up' in the morning and be able to catch up with bloggy world!
Read more...Bags Are Packed
>> Monday, May 5, 2008
Ready to go. We're meeting Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mark at a state park for a few days. THEY are camping, the kids might, but I'm in a cabin. That's as close to the bears, spiders, mosquitos, raccoons, and snakes as I'm willing to get.
We aren't far from a real "city", so if we go into town for an afternoon, I'll blog or at least read. I'll have to be sneaky about it though; I don't want the old folks to think I'm addicted to the internet. BECAUSE I'M NOT. I could quit any time I wanted to . . . . . I just don't want to. . . . .
See Ya!!
Read more...
Blogging Makes Me Fat
>> Saturday, May 3, 2008
Because if I didn't blog, I'd never have come across Muddy's blog. But because I read Muddy's blog, I noticed something that I hadn't before. Or, Mary noticed it.
On the way to Wild Oats / Whole Foods, we pass a little strip mall that I generally ignore. We'd just passed it when Mary said "I saw a store called 'Muddy's Bake Shop' ". I said "no way", and drove back around to check it out.
There it was: Muddy's . Pre-blog, if I'd noticed this store, I'd have thought that that was a really weird name, and kept on going.
Now, however, I felt like I owed it to Muddy the Blogger to go in and visit.
I am torn between that having been the best thing I've done in a long time, or the very, very, very worst.
First glance, I loved it. So quaint!! Benches and tables and mismatched chairs, upholstered rocker, games, pink chalkboard. . . . the coffee was on a table, and above it was a pegboard covered in colorful mugs.
The employees were friendly - the young cashier mentioned in conversation that she was a homeschool graduate. The food was being made out in the open, behind the counter. The women were wearing the cutest homemade aprons, and they sold them in the back of the store.
The best things: the cookies were only fifty cents. We bought five of them - just to be courteous, you know. Chocolate chip, and peanut butter. Were they good? By the time we made it across the parking lot to Wild Oats, Mary and I had inhaled them. Gone. And we've talked about them ever since.
They are made with natural ingredients, organic milk, etc. They taste REAL, not like chemicals.
They were so good that you either didn't care if you had to wear tent-size clothes for the indulgence, or you'd be willing to go to an aerobics class every morning at 8 a.m. I'm not sure yet what catagory I fall into.
Here's how I'm working it: I've found my incentive to list the eBay 'stuff' that is taking over the house...... because Muddy's will be my reward. I'll go and sit and have coffee and treats and read a book or play a game. I'm so looking forward to it that I'm really ready to start my ebay listing.
Visit their website - great food photos and the identity of "Muddy" : )
Just don't do it if you're hungry!!
Read more...
My First Game of Tag
>> Friday, May 2, 2008
Thanks to Amy, I have a theme for this meme (a unit of thought that is spread from one host to another; quizzes, surveys, novelties, etc.). It will be about names.
1) My name. Amy felt bad that she only knew me as MommySweetMom, but I don't mind being called that! The shortened version, showing on my comments, is MSM of course, but my name is Jennifer / Jenny / Jen. Take your pick!
2) My OTHER name. Looks like it's gonna be GiGi. Charlotte really had not called me any one thing as her grandma, but she has likely heard me called JenJen enough to pick up on that, and pronounces it as G.G.
3) Charlotte's mom Jessica: her father wanted to name her Mindy. I wanted to name Christopher either George or Sam. Other possibilities for Mary were Grace or Elizabeth.
4) The first dog I owned was a mutt named Sebastian. He was so sweet; but he was hit and killed by a car instead of living to a ripe old age. Those were just the days when the dogs were loose with us, not always in the house or backyard. They went where we went, which was all over the neighborhood.
5) The first 'love-of-my-life' was a gorgeous blond named Wesley. This was in third grade at Coleman Elementary. As the story always goes, he didn't know I existed. (Being as shy as I was, this is really how it HAD to be). Turns out, I had some kind of set of standards or expectations: Wesley got a bead stuck in his nostril one day while showing off and /or acting silly. He turned into THE biggest screaming, rude, crying, inconsolable baby while the poor teacher tried to remove it with some tweezers. I never looked at him the same way again. And he never looked at me, period. : )
6) My first email address was Buzzbelle @ aol. com . This was around 1996 or '97, and it just so happened that our Gateway computer was delivered on Halloween afternoon. I was so excited, at first, about opening an email address, but (even back then) every name I tried was taken - even my own, of course. To prove to the rest of the family how hard I'd been trying and how impossible it was to come up with something available, I said, "watch this" and typed in Christopher and Mary's costume characters: Buzz (Lightyear) and Belle (Beauty and the Beast). The rest was history, for years, until I left AOL for Time Warner who changed to Comcast.
There!
Now I tag:
Muddy (I don't know HER real name either!) - From the Mud Puddle
Jan - Gramjantique (she's a brand new blogger)
mattbabb - driving into disco (a guy blog. . . so we'll see. . .)
Jessica - Jessica, Matt, and Charlotte
Mary - Mary Christophermas
To The Zoo!
>> Thursday, May 1, 2008
We took Charlotte to the zoo today, and Charlotte took her baby.
As much as she loved the bears and fish and birds and giraffes and penguins and sheep and cows, she was just as happy about rocking chairs, wooden cut-outs, flowers, and SIGNS.
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