Saturday ramblings

One daughter is at work and one is at play. Lordy how I wish she would start getting a bit more mature. She is STILL in the tree climbing stage. I suppose I should be thankful that she isn't out chasing boys and getting into compromising situations like a lot of 14 year old girls I hear about. She would still believe in Santa if I hadn't told her about it years ago.

I've got to read about 6 chapters today for my class tomorrow and I have to pick up and vacuum around the house. You would think with two teenage daughters I might have a little help around the house. NOOOO! I used to keep a spotless house. That was before children and husband and working all the time. Boy do I wish I could be the mom on 'Leave It To Beaver'. Wouldn't that be a riot. Always wearing that dress with the belt and those pearls and happily cooking in the spotless kitchen and all of the family sitting at the table to eat at the same time. uh huh. Pipe Dreams...... I spent most of yesterday helping a friend organize her home. We did manage to find the living room. Just 4 more rooms to go for her. I threatened her bodily harm if she lets it go again.

Scott is on his way home from work. He is going to have to round up the playing child and get her to bag the leaves in the back yard. She is waiting for 'tomorrow'. After all Miss Scarlett tomorrow is another day!!!

Tonight I get to be a judge for the Christmas parade. Its going to be colder than a well diggers butt in Alaska! At least its a short parade. Then I'll come back home and sit in front of the heater and warm up drinking some coffee and finish my lessons for tomorrow. Theology is an interesting study. The study of God.

Prayer needs

My friend Olivia is back in the hospital. She has been battling breast cancer for nearly four years. It started out with the lumpectomy and all the treatments that go along with that. At the first of this year the cancer returned in the same breast and she underwent a radical mastectomy and all the treatments for that. Then she started having pain. Unexplained, bang your head into the wall pain. She has been to pain specialists and all of her other doctors and there has been no explanation for the pain. So now she has 'over medicated' herself to the point of she can't get easy. But the other thing is, she has fluid in her chest cavity and the fluid has cancer cells in it. So its time for more chemo because there is cancer somewhere in her body and its hiding but its causing her pain. Pray that she will be able to overcome this. She can't continue to live on pain meds and other things and she is going to have a tough time going thru all the treatments again too.

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My second pray request is my long time friend Deb. She has had a bum leg all of her life and a bad spine and a host of other ailments. Her leg is infected and she is in danger of losing it. I am going to her little cottage and help her get her stuff sorted and put away so that she can get a hospital bed into there and she can rest with her leg elevated. She really needs a recliner that leans waaaay back but she is living on disability and can't afford the chair. If I had the money I would get one for her but I can barely keep my own head above water at the moment. So I'll do the next best thing which is go and move her stuff around and make some sense out of her living space. She is a tough and gruff bird on the outside and a crying puddle of goo on the inside. Most people can't get past the tough guy persona.

Friday morning musings/or the world according to Vonda

I stumbled into the downstairs 'kitchen' in my studio area and started heating water for my cherished cup of morning coffee. I don't use tap water. Too many chemicals to murder the taste of the coffee. As the water was heating to the optimum temp of 190 degrees I rinsed out my French Press. The French Press coffee maker is a wonderful tool. I can make 2 cups of coffee any time I want and extremely quickly. It is a tall glass cylinder with a plunger in the top. Attached to the plunger is a fine mesh wire filter. The water is hot and it is time! I put one scoop of coffee into the cylinder and then here is the big goof!! I noticed that I had also put in my required sugar and coffeemate! Into the cyclinder! ACK!! Then I thought 'Oh what the heck!' So I poured the hot water on top of the mixture and placed the top on it and PRESSED the filtered plunger down and it actually made a decent cup of coffee. I won't do it that way again but it's drinkable.

The advantage of using the French Press is I only make coffee when I want it and only make it a cup at a time so I don't waste coffee and I don't feel guilty about having it sitting there on the warmer and then I am compelled to drink all ten cups and spend the rest of the day in a caffine induced whirlwind! The other advantage is it seems to create coffee at its finest. No bitterness, I can actually taste the essence of the coffee bean, and its just an elegant way to make a fine cup of coffee.

Now onto my next morning musing......I ask you who gives a flying rip about Brittany Spears and her PAR***TAY ways? Is she acting like a Mom of 2 very small children? Nope. Is the dad, that fabulously leechy moocher KFED or FED-EX as the loser should be called, any better. Oh nooo! After all remember he was running with the Britster while his girl friend was pregnant with his second child by her. So he is really in the running for Father of Year in my book. Brittany is acting like some of these young and stooooopid moms I have seen. What the heck is wrong with the younger generation! (Did I just say that!?) It's still the 'IF IT FEELS GOOD DO IT' mentality of the free sex ideas of the late 60's and 70's. We are losing our morals people. Wake up and don't just smell the coffee. Drink the bitter dregs of our permissiveness. The very moral fiber of our country is at stake. Pictures are taken of the so called self-important cele-'brats' out partying their little naked skinny butts off and splashed across the national papers and magazines. Used to in the not so far ago past, those kinds of pictures were called PORN! Now its just an Oops she did again. If I want to see a naked picture I'll peep at myself in the mirror when I get out of the shower. That is sobering enough!
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I am disturbed to read that a newly elected politician from some other state is requesting to be sworn into office using the Koran instead of the Bible. This country was founded on the principles in the Bible and not in the Koran. He is a Muslim and he has the freedom to practice his religion in the USA just like all the other religions. I don't care if someone is Jewish (that is a race of people as well as a religious belief; they are after all God's original chosen ones), Muslim (anyone can be a Muslim, not just the Arabic people), Baptist, Anabaptist, Methodist, Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran, Pentacostal, Latter Day Saints, etc. They all have the right to practice their religious beliefs. But displacing the Bible as the book to be sworn in on is not part of the deal. That is part of the weft and wuff of the fabric of founding of this country. I have already fired off the letters to Senators Lott and Cochran and Representative Wicker. Both email and land mail. Wake up folks before our country as we know it changes! WE can no longer be an ostrich. Things are happening out there, up there, around us that will not be so easy to change back. There are people and nations that are very very jealous of the freedoms that we have. They are intent on destroying us. Some are already sitting back and waiting for the world to change as we know it. The wheels are turning but that doesn't mean that the destruction of our land can't be stopped.
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I'll rant more on that at a later date. My coffee is calling to me and I have to go and help out a friend that is in dire need at the moment. So enjoy your morning cup of coffee and be sure to read between the lines all the news that you see on the tv and in the papers and magazines. Pull your head up out of the security of your insulated life and see what is happening in the world before it is too late. Write to our elected officials on a regular basis and let them KNOW what you really think!

thoughts on teaching

Each year I say that I am not going to teach any more children than the ones that I have. And then something happens that makes me change my mind. Like a child that calls and tells me why they want to be homeschooled or a mom calls with a child that has a special need. Then I have to sit and think and pray about it and see if I can add more veggies to the soup. I have had as many as 17 kids here before and that was some serious stress! By and large it has always been a good experience for everyone but I have had some very difficult times also. I have always known that I was not cut out to teach in the 'traditional' sense of the word. I was never one of those kids that fit into the round hole. I was the square peg. That is the kind of kids that I teach. Square pegs. That is not an insult to them. They just have different learning styles that don't fit in the 'traditional' schoolings methods.

I do use a curriculum that I use along with the Charlotte Mason method of teaching. I believe in reading, lots and lots of reading about anything and everything. Learning is a life long experience. And it should be enjoyable. Although I can think of a few times I learned some things that weren't too enjoyable. But life is like that you know!!

A season or a lifetime?

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person. When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. The y may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Christmas lights

Scott has worked hard all year on this little light project of his. I want to make a video later on and post it. This doesn't do justice to the display withtout the music. The songs that the music is synced to is Charlie Browns Christmas, Snoopy's Christmas, Elvis' Blue Christmas, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, Canon in D, and Trans Siberian Orchestras, Wizard in Winter. It is pretty awesome that we even were able to pull this off. So far its 15,000 lights and we could have put up more but we don't have enough channels yet. Maybe next year will be bigger and better.

Traffic out front hasn't been too bad. People are kind enough to pull over to the side, stop, watch and then move on. Some are a bit curious about the radio frequency. They just don't understand what is going on. Then some of the folks that I didn't think would understand did. Go figure! Anyway, tune to 100.3 FM. to hear the music that goes with the lights.

I hope that next year we have Handel's Halleluia Chorus and some Manhiem Steamroller synced in. I see light and color when I hear music and I think other people should too.

family reunited after 60 years

My mom finally met her two half-sisters this week. It has been an amazing time for our family. Back in 1932 when my Mom was born, my grandfather left to find work. He left my grandmother behind because she was pregnant. For whatever his reasons were and for whatever the circumstances were, he never sent for my grandmother and mom. Maybe he was not ready for a family. Maybe he thought once he left that he could not come back. No one really knows. My grandmother Sally never said a bad word about him and I never heard my Greatgrannie Russell say anything bad either. After 5 years he divorced my grandmother and remarried and started another family. Thing like that happened in those times. It happened on my Dads side also. I've just never been able to find where my great grandfather Tedford went.

Mom met her father for the first time when she was about 15. They didn't hit it off at all and Mom never tried to see him again. She knew she had two younger sisters but they didn't meet until now. Their father, my grandfather died in April of 2005. There is no longer a barrier to them having a relationship. It is really neat to see how 3 women, all raised in different circumstances have so many similarities. They sound alike, they all have the tenacity of a pitbull! And they are all opinionated. They arrived on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. It has taken months and weeks of planning to get them together under one roof. I have seen laughter and tears and squealing and jumping up and down. My mom was in a hard jerk she was so nervous. But she has finally met her two paternal sisters and the meeting was good. Now she can add them to the family. When her other half-sister that she shares her mother with, comes home from overseas, it should make for an interesting homecoming.

I like my two new aunts. Talking with them about the branch of the family tree that I didn't know has explained a lot. I now know where the art talent comes from and the extreme love of learning. The features and the temperament; We all resemble very much.

There is a copy of an old photo in the display at the museum that our town is working to create. It is a photo of the log workers in 1929. They are standing and sitting on a huge log that is loaded on the old Lindsey wagon with the team of mules. My grandfather, their father, Marshall Gray, is perched up on that log. I can finally say that without upsetting my mother.

The water has gone on under that bridge and my mother and her sisters can now be a family even if it has been over 60 years in the making.

Gobble Gobble!!

I love good food and for that reason, Thanksgiving to Christmas is my favorite eating time of the year for the comfort foods. Mom's Chicken and dressing is to die for. then add the sliced turkey and honeybaked ham with all the wonderful relishes to add to them. Oh joy! We always do our specialties. I do the green bean casserole or asparagus or broccoli casseroles. IT depends on the whim at the cooking moment. I also do the pumpkin pies and other types of pies. I do a mean seven layer dip. Dipping foods are my favorites. anything that I can dip italian flat bread into is good. I made a yummy spinach artichoke dip this time. My sister does a sweet potato praline casserole and a hot corn salad. Add all the regular veggies like sweet peas and black-eyed peas and tall glasses of sweet iced tea and hot yeast rolls and you have a feast that will make you want to fast all week before you eat it! We always wear sweat pants on Thanksgiving. Gotta have that elastic waistband in order to be comfortable.