restless

I love travel. I mean I LOVE traveling. if I could spend my life in airports and train stations, I think I could be pretty happy. Every now and then an intense longing to pack up my bags and just GO somewhere takes over. A longing that s hardly conducive to my current job situation, and my current bank account situation. However, if neither were an issue I would love to just go somewhere on a whim. The people you meet in foreign places, and the moments you experience are just unforgettable. I have made several very dear friends whilst on my trips, and can even talk with them all the time, thanks to skype:) however, its not the same as actually being there. Memories seem to be the crutch that helps me limp a long until my next trip somewhere. It doesn't help any that my closest friends all love to travel as much as me. So whenever we hang out our conversations always seem to meander towards Europe, or Africa, or Mexico, or anywhere other than where we are. My dream trip? tour of Europe with my best friends, Naomi, Ingrid, and Monica. Scotland and Ireland are a must. Ukraine, of course (Monica lives there, but I love the country, so the trip would be more for me) Definitely England (If you know me, you know I have passion for hats, and rumor has it that London has quite the hat shops) France (Ingrid speaks fluently, and she is studying French education, or something along those lines.) I've been to France 3 times. However I'd love to actually see France, not just the inside of Charles De Gaul airport.

A day or two spent in Hungary would be nice. I've spent a couple days in Budapest. Its a beautiful city, but SO EXPENSIVE! My strongest memory of Budapest is watching COPS dubbed into Hungarian at the Hostel we stayed at. That and the giant bronze statue of Ronald Reagan in the center of the city.

Denmark would be nice, now that I've had a taste of it, from what I saw at the Amsterdam airport. And Germany. I'm half German and have family there. Plus Monica has family there too, so between the two of us we should be able to find enough people we know to communicate somewhat sufficiently.

Well, for now I must satisfy my restless soul with pictures, and some wonderful memories, and the knowledge that I will be on another airplane, another train, or bus or taxi, and that God has plans for me beyond even what I could imagine, and has given me my love for traveling for a purpose:)

Classical is fit for all moods

I have been listening to classical music a lot lately. In fact I'm listening to a classical music station on Pandora as I type. I go through phases of what music I listen to. I like most genres (all though I really don't care for rap) but lately I've been in the mood for classical. Its just nice and soothing. I get tired of lyrics, and guitars and drums, and sometimes I just want some nice background noise.

And for the past couple weeks I've mainly been listening to classical music. Well, that and Christmas music. At least I waited until September this year before I started listening to Christmas music:)

I've also been listening to old radio shows. I listened to the Jack Benny show today. Comedy sure isn't what it used to be. I'm very grateful that I came across the Old Time Radio Streamer app for my iphone. I love the 1930's and '40's, so hearing the old radio programs they used to play is simply wonderful.

So thats what I listened to while I worked today. That is when I wasn't being vastly amused be the incessant chatter of a very cute 2 year old. "J" is the son of a client of the cleaning company I work for, so while I was cleaning their house, I had an ongoing conversation about everything from Carrot juice to the " queaky mouses dat was in da bament"

It has been deliciously chilly out today:-) I can smell fall in the air, AND I had a divine pumpkin pie latte from a little coffee shop I discovered last week. I'm not really a coffee drinker, but I do love lattes and mochas! I foresee a large portion of my paycheck being spent there in the near future. I'll just use the excuse that I'm helping small businesses.

I went thrifting yesterday! and I got a new coat that was brand spanking new (still had the tags and everything) for a fraction of what it would have been in a department store. Thrift stores are wonderful. I'm not a very good thrift shopper though. I do best when my sister Anna is along

as she is very good at finding deals. In fact I'm wearing an expensive Carolyn Taylor Loft sweater right now that I got for a couple bucks last year at the thrift store. I believe Anna found that one for me.

Well this has been an absurdly A.D.D. post, so I shall leave to go work on more productive things:)

Of algebra and aromas

I remember when I was finally finished with algebra. I was so happy to be rid of those confusing hours spent trying to determine why ab equaled xy and all those confusing symbols that meant nothing to me, no matter how many time I would we reread how to work a problem, it made no sense to me. I honestly don't know how I passed it. And now, 5 years later (has it really been that long? I feel old!) I have decided its time to restudy what made no sense to me before. And even though I'm only three lessons into it, it is making more sense than it ever did before.

That was intro I was thinking of this morning while I was cleaning out the refrigerator, which is a science lesson in and of its self. Or it could be considered algebra too I suppose. Like what exactly was xy, before it turned from ab into xy. Anyways, I'm happy to have that chore over and done with.

And now as I sit on my bed eating a pb&j sandwich on this dreary day, typing on my computer while listening to Bach I will get to the real reason I wanted to write this blog entry.

Have you ever just smelled something and it immediately brought you back 10 years to a certain instance where you immediately remembered that smell before? Like when I smell Johnsons baby shampoo, I am immediately transported to being 4 years old and my parents calling me inside on a saturday evening to come take a bath. Or when I smell a wood-burning stove, I remember playing in a back room at my parents friends house while my parents were in a Bible study, and my brothers friend got the wheels of a toy car stuck in my hair (I don't remember how that happened though) Or how the scent of hymnals and pews remind me of VBS at my neighbors church (because my church has no distinct smell of course:-) )

Occasionally a random smell will hit me , and I feel like I'm back in Europe, walking the streets of Budapest, or sitting in the apartment in Ukraine, or trying to catch a catnap in Charles De Gaul airport in Paris, waiting to board the next plane.

Its amazing how our noses can affect our emotions and our minds. I wonder if thats something God was thinking about when he created noses. It must have been something he thought of when he created roses, grass and rain and anything else with a distinct smell.

I almost think noses were created for our pleasure. Sure, you can breath through them, but thats not all together necessary when one has a mouth to breath through as well. In any case, though, I'm grateful to have a nose to smell things.

What made me a happy girl!

I have long been a lover of L.M. Montgomery, so you can imagine my joy and excitement when this lovely bit of music came in the mail yesterday, a late birthday present from my parents!

Anne's Theme, by Hagwood and Hardy!

I was so excited! unfortunately I was unable to work on it right away, as we were heading out the door to my nephews birthday party, but I started on it this morning!

It will take some time to work on this piece,as I have a job and can't sit down and play for hours

but I am glad to have something to work on in my spare time.

Just the sound of the music makes me want to re-read all my Anne books

I have read and re-read these books countless times. As you can see by the creases in the spines, they have been thoroughly enjoyed!

So, while it will be some time before I can play the song like this:

I look forward to the time when it will be finished!

Labor Day...(litteraly)

My oldest sister once got a birthday card for my mom that showed a 1950's family sitting around the table, the mother standing above proudly displaying a beautifully roasted chicken. In the voice bubble, the mother was saying: "Trixie wasn't much of a pet, but as a main dish she should be terrific!!!"

And that, my friends is precisely what we will be having for dinner tonight. This morning Dad, Anna, Joel and I butchered and cleaned 3 of our 4 roosters. So Clem, Trixie (ironically... and by the way, he was named before we knew he was a rooster) and Merl are no more. We talked dad into letting us keep General (formally known as Magnolia) for future uses. such as making it possible to have more chickens to be raised for meat and eating purposes:-P

So on this Labor day, I only had to work this morning (yay!) but have been rather busy, what with the chickens and preparing greenbeans for freezing, and canning stewed tomatoes and hot peppers and Tomato soup. Actually, Anna did the soup. And it is soooo tasty! yummy... I wonder if it would be possible to can my mom's delicious pumpkin soup. I would be in 7th heaven if it were. To have it year-round would be a delight.

And also speaking of labor, My sister had her baby on Friday! he weighed 9.7 lbs and was 20.9 inches long. And he has a FULL HEAD OF HAIR!!! my goodness, he is a little doll. Little Jeremiah Benjamin looks quite like all of his siblings, except (for now anyway) he has dark hair, and all the others are blonde.

Well, I hope everyone is having a wonderful day of rest, as I plan to start resting soon too, on this dreary and cool September day! I must hunt down some Road to Avonlea movies to watch.
Farewell!

awaiting fall

On Saturday its supposed to be 63 degrees out. I have to say I'm looking forward to a nice chill in the air. Especially as it has been in the upper 80's to mid 90's the past 5 days. I love fall. Its my favorite of all seasons. Partially because of all the smells and things associated with autumn, burning leaves, cinnamon apple and pumpkin spice candles, changing colors of leaves, apple picking, apple cider, pumpkin pies, fresh apple pies, canning apple sauce and tomato sauce and grape jam. The only thing about Fall that I'm not fond of is Halloween and raking leaves. I don't mind raking leaves too much, just when its FREEZING out and the leaves are damp and stiff and don't want to be raked.

I have discovered I like to can. I've been canning with my sister this year ( Salsa, Hot Peppers, pickles...) and decided I really enjoy it. Last year I wasn't able to really help with anything cause of my job, but this year I have had enough time to help out, and have been enjoying it... Well, except for the pickle incident. Which really wasn't an incident, it was just about 90 degrees out (and we have no a/c) and humid and steamy (in the kitchen anyway) and I had poison ivy all over my hands, and my sister and friend Naomi ( who was helping) had burned themselves by not wearing gloves while slicing up hot peppers (we canned hot peppers that day too), so we'd fill up when jar and then plunge our hands in ice water. It was misery.
However, our discomfort was worth it, as the pickles won a blue ribbon at our county fair last week, along with the salsa Anna and I canned the Saturday before the fair.
Speaking of the fair, I entered peanut butter cookies in the baked goods catagory, and won a blue ribbon and a best of show ribbon. That was exciting. the Judges ate all but one of the cookies too. AND, I have decided that I will post the recipe for everyone on here, but probably not today. If we are friends on Facebook, I'll post a status to let everyone know when its up.

Lately I have been doing quite a bit of working. Working two jobs can be tiring, but at least when I go to bed, I can usually fall right to sleep. Tomorrow and Friday I'll be working all day, possibly quite late.

Yesterday I got a new journal. I used to ( ok, this was about 7 years ago) write in one regularly, and I hope to get back in the habit. I like to go back and reread things and such.
AND, I am using a fountain pen with it. There is something slightly old fashioned and nice about fountain pens. I don't use one often, but I think for my journal I'll try to make a point of it. I also liked using one to write letters, but I haven't really written a letter in a while.
Well, I have a mirade of things to do, more important to writing random things on here, so I'll be getting to them:-)

Doings

So I'm sitting at the library now, and thought to write a blog, since our computer at home is so terribly slow. So sorry for all fellow computer people at the library who may be annoyed at constant typing.

I thought to write a blog on what I've been doing lately, as I have been so fearfully neglectful of any information this past month.

I have been working everyday (but Sunday) either at the farm or babysitting, and next week I start a second part-time (for now) job. Its nice, cause I will be able to have a month off for my trip.
Ohh, GREAT NEWS! our tickets are booked, and I am FOR CERTAIN going to Africa! I can't even relate to you the immenseness of my exitement (as I'm certain the all capital letters must have showed you) so On October 14, we will drive to a neighboring state and leave from that airport (in doing so, it was cheaper by nearly $800 for the three of us going to Africa as well as Ukraine) and fly into PARIS (Granted, I will only be seeing the inside of the airport, but I'll take great joy and being able to tell people that I have been to Paris before. 3 different times in fact, by the time these excursions are over and I return home) then from there to Budhapest, Hungry, and then we will take a train from Budhapest to the Ukraine, stay there for two weeks, in which time we will be doing Childrens' programs, and visiting churches and then the last 3 days we will be involved in a youth outreach/open air conference thing ( I don't recall what they called it) Then we will all take the train back to Budhapest, and four members of our team will head home, and the rest of us are going on to Mozambique, Africa. I don't know what all we will be doing there yet, but am so excited!

The trouble will be in the packing. I get one 40 lb. suitcase to pack for an entire month of living out of. Now this wouldn't be so hard, except that the Ukraine will be cold, and Mozambique will be beastly hot (it will be their summer, and its not uncommon for temperatures to reach 120 degrees) so I'm sure it will be an...experience:-)

well, that is all for now, I shall relate to you other events at some other time, so in the mean time, farewell!

CHEO

Some pictures of my sisters graduation at CHEO.

My niece Rachel and I. I was taking care of her during the ceremony

.

About 1/3 of the way through the commencement, Rachel conked out and slept through the entire thing!

My oldest brother, Greg, and his wife Bethany ( Bethany took these pictures... I swiped them off of facebook;p)

Audrey and Brady, my niece and nephew.

The CHEO graduating class of 2010

my parents giving Christina her diploma.

Bethany's sister Eliza graduated this year as well.

The new graduate

And Eliza and Christina after the ceremony, Congrats girls!

After the graduation, my whole family (except for two of my brothers) and their children went out to eat at Cracker Barrel, wherein I discovered I love fried okra. And so does Brady. He ate half of my serving:)

Usually we have to drive a couple hours to the building where CHEO is held every year, but not this year. It is our tradition that after CHEO, whoever is the newly graduated one in the family, gets to choose where we eat. I believe the last to trips both choices were Cracker Barrel ( mine was in 2008, and I had chosen Cracker Barrel as well:-) )

Be blessed!

Summer.

Just some pictures taken over the summer.

My niece gets her first taste of watermelon. She LOVED it!

Sisters: Anna, Julie, Andrea, Cara (Me), and Christina. Missing are Bethany and Bonnie



Me and my newest nephew, Danny ( My brother Dan and his wife Julie's little boy.

Chickens relaxing in the heat.

Growing grapes.

Part of our garden

Bare feet in the garden

What I see every time I look out our kitchen window.

Wellies. I love these boots. I was working in the bean field this morning, so mine are the really dusty looking ones!!

And this is what I've been reading (for the third time) as I waited for these pictures to load.

Summer Is Here

And it is hot and muggy out. I walked out of church this afternoon, and it felt like I was walking into an oven. It was even worse when we all piled into the van. The air conditioning doesn't work, so you can imagine how lovely that felt:)

So today after church and lunch, I was walking around our garden and I stopped off at the grape vines and blackberry bushes, and I found our first ripe black berry, which I promptly ate, and it was delicious. Thanks to the help of some birds, our black berries have sprung up EVERYWHERE. We have them in the pine trees, in the far back corner by our house, in the tree in the front yard... and waaayyy more than what we had down by the grapes. Hopefully some black berry jam will be in order this year:-) we don't usually have that many grow, but I think we are in for a bumper crop this year!

My sister who is right below me graduated last night:-) I will have some pictures up of that once my sister in law puts them on facebook and I can hijack them from there.
It was a lovely ceremony, and afterwards we all ( my family that is) when out to dinner at Cracker Barrel, and I discovered I like fried okra. So does my nephew "Biscuit" who was sitting next to me, and ate about half of my serving.

Today at church I helped in the sound booth running sound. It is interesting to see what makes people sound good and makes them sound horrible with all the EQs and such. It sounded good though.

After church there was a missions meeting at my church ( my dad is the missions director) and we mainly discussed the upcoming Ukraine trip, which I will be going on, in October. I can't wait! Next week we are having a skype meeting with some members of the church in the Ukraine. I've never attended any of these meetings, so I'm excited about it.

There is also a slight chance that I'll accompany my sister Anna to Mozambique Africa. Anna is going to the Ukraine as well, and will be traveling from there to Africa, as it will be cheaper then flying from the states. I went to Africa in 2008, and would love to go again. I miss the kids there. But I am also in great anticipation of the upcoming Ukraine trip, as this will be my first excursion to Europe, and I'm so excited to see what God has in store for us there!!!

Well, this has just become a lot of ramblings, so I shall sign off now:)
Cheerio!!!

Chickens

So last month we got some chickens. We hadn't had chickens in AGES. Years ago we got rid of all of them because we were going to get goats. We never did get goats though.
However, my sister Anna and I had been wanting to get chickens again, and someone we know had a bucn they were getting rid of, so we got some .

So my brothers and I spent days cleaning out the old chicken coop. I almost wish I had before and after pictures to show off of the coop. It hadn't been used since last year when we had ducks in there. So the grass had grown up waist high, weeds were everywhere, and it was not a pretty sight. We pulled out the old grass and weeds, dug up the old dirt, discovered food dishes that had some how or other gotten buried, pulled out the old falling apart shelter and brought in two new ones, leveled it out, and now it looks as if it never saw a blade of grass inside. I was rather proud of all our work :-)
So now we have ten chickens. And yes, we named all of them. They are Phee, Tillie, Millie, Flossie, Clementine, Trixie, Merl, Martha, Addy, and Magnolia (however we think Magnolia is a rooster, so if that turns out to be the case, his name will be General, or dinner, as that is what he will inevitable end up being)

Here are some pictures that my brother took and put on the computer (yay! I didn't have too!!!)

Flossy

Millie

Millie (I think)

Merl

Tillie (notice the Tiller behind the pen:-) lol, we were planting the garden

Martha and Phee

Addy

Thats all the ones we have pictures of. I must say I like having chickens again. We got them as Chicks, so none of them are fully grown yet, and by October we should be having fresh eggs:-)

Next on the agenda will be figuring out where to put a dozen ducks that my siblings are getting in a week to raise for 4H.

The Little Things...

I had a list of "little things'' running through my head. A pointless list of things I love and hate. So I came to the decision while I was eating dinner, that I would write a blog post about it. A pointless one, so you needn't feel obligated to read it, though I will probably announce on facebook that I have a new post up.

Things I Absolutely Cannot Stand:

• That people seem to feel the absurd urge to punctuate each sentence with "Just Sayin' ". This in my opinion displays a rather diminutive vocabulary. If the best you can do is the afore mentioned verbiage, I would recommend a Thesaurus to add to your reading list, post-haste.
• The word "Incling" I don't know what it is about this word, all I know is that it makes my skin crawl. Uhgg..
  
• The perfect alignment of little weeds growing where we planted the lettuce in the garden. I'm thinking that Burpees may have possibly mistaken what seeds went in which package. All though I don't know who in their right mind would purchase weed plants (and no, I'm not referring to the Marijuana type. California this is not)
• When I lose my keys, and then realize that they weren't lost, I just couldn't see them right in front of my nose.
  
• Library fines. Particularely large ones that I had paid, but they never updated it in their systems, so it always tells me I have one.
  
• When people try to prove me wrong when I know I'm right. (and no, I'm not referring to the age of the earth)
• The fact that my beloved camera has bit the dust, with no explanation as to how or why.
• The 25 cents I know is in the bottom of my pocket, but all I can seem to pull out is nickels.
• The fact that society has chosen to cheapen women by marketing clothing that shows more skin than actual material.
• When my sheets eat my socks and I always have a mismatched pairs.
• When people speed down the road at 1:3o in the morning with their radios turned ALL THE WAY UP!!!

• Mosquitoes.

I could go into more, but that is all for now.

Little Things That I Love:

• Gardens
• Rubber boots. Seriously, I love them. And I don't care if I look like a dork marching around in them with a too big t-shirt and an old pair of over sized shorts at 7 in the morning. I'll change out of what I slept in when I'm good and ready.
  
• My neices and nephews.
• My car, Max.
• Throw blankets on a cold day, with a good book.
• The Fair!!!!!!!!!
• A good book.
• Spearmint gum
• my guitars, Eulalie, Benny, Tuck, Marty, and Jolene.
• The fact that I named all of the guitars that I play ( even though only Benny, Marty and Eulalie are truly mine)
• My Bible.
• The New Testament (especially Paul's letters)
• Celtic music
• Rolled down windows, as opposed to Air Conditioning.
• The 1940's
• going barefoot

Ahhh. There are way more, but I'm sure I've lost you by now if you actually read this hole thing.

But, as you can see, the good far out-weighs the bad.
Good evening all :D

Pruning

I have been thinking, that as we walk as Christians, its like taking care of a plant. A flowering, or fruit-bearing plant. These two types of plants need plenty of water, sunlight, weeding, and pruning. So many of us fail to grow spiritually because we aren't willing to do what I call a "Spiritual Pruning". A spiritual pruning is a rather simple concept. If you don't prune yourself (i.e. get rid of the stuff thats keeping you from your full potential in God) you can't expect growth, or to see fruit produced from your labor, or lack thereof. We can read our Bibles and go to church all we want, but if we are allowing things that don't belong into our lives, and don't get rid of them, all of our Bible-reading and church-going is in vain.

I think of it like a show I recently saw on TLC called "Hoarding: Buried Alive" which was a documentary of people who were compulsive hoarders. They would collect things, and wouldn't be able to stop collecting or to get rid of things. It got to the point where they couldn't even walk through their own homes because it was so full of junk. Their hoarding drove a wedge between them and their families, to the point where their own children couldn't stand to come to their parents homes because it was unsafe, unsanitary, and smelly.
These people who were compulsive hoarders generally had good intentions. They saw something that they knew could be useful, so they picked it up and brought it home, that way when someone needed something, they could give it to them. The problem was, this habit overcame their desire to give, it became a desire to stock. They saw something that they might decide they need one day, and that if they didn't get it right then, then it would be a waste because they had an opportunity to get that item and they passed it up.

There were other people where their hoarding got to the point where they wouldn't throw actual garbage away. For years, they would not throw away carryout containers, rotting food, paper plates kitty litter (used kitty litter). and their houses would be condemned by the city.

A lot of times we become so attached to our junk, that we panic at the thought of losing it. We become complacent and set up housekeeping in our issues, because we know it well, and we feel safe there. we loose sight of the fact that the God who created us has more for us then our stuff can offer. All we have to do is get rid of the bad in order to receive the good. And we can't do this on our own. We need to recognize that we have problems, and allow God to take them away. We have to make room for God to move into our lives.

These Hoarders on the tv show realized they had a problem. So they contacted psycologists to get help. And in the end, they were able to get their homes cleaned up, and there children and spouses were able to move back into the space where the junk had taken over the parents/spouses life.

Compulsive hoarding is a mental illness. So once they got help it didn't mean they were miraculously healed. They have to learn ways to deal with their problem. They have to learn how to get rid of the bad, and have to constantly be on the lookout for their behavior, and to learn to recognize what makes them want to start collecting things, so they can squelch it.

Its the same with pruning. A good gardener takes care of their flowers and plants, by pulling away the dead leaves, flower, and buds, which in turn allows new whole and alive and better things to take their place. But if you don't do this, the plant will eventually whither away and die.

If we let our issues take over our lives, we will loose sight of God and will whither away.

Long Overdue

I realize my last post written nearly a month ago. I didn't mean for that to happen, it just did.
I did have plenty of opportunity to write, I just didn't. I had been enjoying beautiful weather, planning music set lists for the HUB (our churches weekly dinner and service where my sister and I have lead worship for the past 4 weeks. Filling in for people) baby sitting, taking nieces and nephew fishing, anxiously awaiting the arrival of another nephew (to be born tomorrow around 7:30 a.m. my SIL has to get a c-section) cooking, painting the youth room, running events at church, flea market shopping, cleaning, reading, playing my guitar, discovered that they have ALL of the Little House on the Prairie episodes on Youtube (which has consumed way too much of my time), hiking, bowling, job searching, discovering I like country music (well, some of it anyway) practicing the song Boondocks (by Little Big Town), Dr's appointments, having food poisoning and or the flu, baking bread, ... However, I DID have plenty of time to write. I just haven't.

And now that I have that long spiel over with, I will tell you I meant to write on Monday. I had it all planned out, the title and everything. It was to be called "As My Bread is Rising" and I was going to write it as my bread was rising cause I did a lot of baking that day. However I didn't get my baking started until later then I had planned, as I was washing and cleaning the kitchen, and doing the dishes, and waiting for my turn to use the mixer. The kitchen was busy. So in reality I didn't get started baking until about 1 o'clock, as opposed to when I wanted to start around 10:30. And then I first made crackers to go with dinner (creamed chicken over pot pie crackers-- yummy!!!) which took a long time cause the cracker dough is stiff and crumbly. and hard to roll out thing. then I made 6 loaves of bread. And during this time a friend stopped by with the movie "Star Wars" insisting we watch it. (Sorry John, but I wasn't a fan of it...) and in return we made him watch Cranford (one of my favorite movies ever, its much like Pride and Prejudice in the way its written and such, set in 1842)
So you see why I never got around to posting. Yesterday my friend Naomi came over so I didn't post then either.

Well, it is getting late and I'm still in my pj's, so I best be going now. And on this note, I will tell you I'm "planning" to post pictures sometime soon. I'm hoping to go to my brothers house to put some pictures on his computer and post from there, because ours takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to load pictures on.
Farewell :-)

Ponderings

I have had many things on my mind of late. Some good. Some disappointing, some hopeful, some joyful. In all of these pondering moments, its interesting to see how God works things out, both in the way I see things, and they way I deal with things.
For instance, I recently became aware of a past Christian recording artist who wrote beautiful songs for God and about God, who has chosen to lead a shall we say, ulterior lifestyle. Not one that is how God designed for us to live at all. My immediate thought once I heard this was to completely boycott everything that this person had done while they were serving God. But then as I was thinking that, I wondered what made me think that. God doesn't love this person any less. And if we are to live in the image of God, then shouldn't our actions, no matter how big or small, should represent Him in some way. Should we turn away from someone just because of a mistake? did God turn away from me when I have sinned? While I in no way shape or form condone the way this person is now living, rather than try to forget that they ever existed, I should be praying that they see God now more than ever. Cause once they see God, then they will see the error of their ways. Not with everyone judging them. Cause when everyone tells you that you are wrong, its so easy to just ignore them. Cause so often we speak not out of love, but out of our own so-called self righteousness, whether we realize it or not. So often we speak of the speck in someone else's eye, rather than the log in our own. No one likes to admit that they made a mistake, yet when someone else fails, fingers start pointing and tongues start wagging. Its no wonder why Christians can be the worst models for Christ. We can be just as judgmental and hypocritical as anyone else. And the sad thing is, we often are. Instead of choosing a higher standard of living, we often settle into what is easy. We go along with the crowd.

I'm not saying that I have over come all of these tendency's, because I know that I haven't. Its always a struggle to stay away from certain conversations, or to blurt out what I'm thinking, or to start problems, and more often then not, I find myself doing these very things. I think every Christian daily find themselves in situations that would be so easy to go with the flow, rather than standing for what is right... Its like trying to walk up stream in a river. So many times you are so tired of doing the opposite that you just want to relax and be swept away. But the difference is made when we choose to keep trudging forward without falling. And trust me, people will start noticing you as you keep yourself from situations that could tear others down. They will notice that you aren't laughing at so and so like everyone else, or that you aren't gossiping are talking behind peoples backs. And I believe that thats the kind of person most people want to be friends with... People who they know will stand by them. They know they won't be judged. The rewards of living a life walking upstream can be so rewarding.
Tiring, exhausting maybe, but so fulfilling and worth it.
Be blessed~

Musicals.

I love musicals. Old ones. I don't like the High school musical (which I sat thru and had to endure whilst baby sitting, uhg...) But I LOVE the old ones. They are so much cleaner than any movie, even children's movies that are now playing in theatres, plus, there is actual GOOD singing. Here are some of my favorites:

Every year in August we pull St. Fair out, because our county fair is in August,
And this movie gets us "In the mood". Well, we are usually
completely excited months in advance before the fair, I should say that this movie
just hightens our excitement ;)

Another favorite, all though my family members don't share my same zeal
for Fiddler on the Roof. I actually saw a high school put on this production
about a year ago, and it was awesome! Yente made the show, in my opinion.

Tootie is my favorite. Plus "Meet Me in St. Louis" is a fun song to belt out
at the top of your longs :D

All though My Fair Lady is EXTREMELY long, it is great.
''Jist you waoit 'enry ' iggins...''

I love the songs in this one... 'nuff said.

Actually, Brigadoon kinda gives me the creeps now that I think about it.

This is one of my all time favorites, all though I decided I don't really care for Gene Kelly.
I guess its the way he comes across on screen...seems sorta...Stuck up.
Lina Lamont more than makes up for my dislike of Gene Kelly though:-)

I haven't seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in ages... its at my sisters house... Still a favorite though:-)
My sister Anna and I are going to be house sitting tonight, and are most likely going to
take this over to watch... We'll actually be able to watch what we want
without little brothers complaining about it. Its either this one or the long Pride and Prejudice.

There you have it :-) I highly recommend each and every one of these, so if you are bored and decide to pick up a movie or something, I would check and see if they have any of these!

Good intentions

So last week, I intended to take pictures and do a recipe tutorial of the shrimp alfredo I made for dinner ( all though now that I think on it, the only thing I use a recipe for is the alfredo sauce)
I intended to take pictures and do a tutorial of my loaded egg potato cakes (my invention, but again, no written down recipe. and I forgot to add salt half way through).
Then half way through both times I remembered a camera but figured I'd just do it next time. That is if our computer doesn't decide to croak before then. Its pretty old and REALLY slow, especially when it comes to trying to upload pictures onto it from a camera... So I do admit that half the reason of my reluctance to do it this time was because I just wasn't up to dealing with a bipolar computer and resisting the temptation to kick in the screen and toss it out the window. Cause when you spend 3 hours (true story) trying to upload pictures, only to have them all disappear into thin air, you aren't the most happy person at the end. So I figured my siblings wouldn't much appreciate me being in a bad mood. So sometime hopefully in the near future pictures will be added to this site. Just not today. Perhaps Thursday or Friday though. Cause my brothers and sisters and I have been dreaming up April Fools ideas, and there will be a camera present then:)

Yesterday we had a lovely church service. We did a ham give away. We have lots of low income housing around our church, and occasionally go give out bags of groceries and the like. In honor o Easter, it was ham, so at 9:45 in the morning, 66 hams were taken across the street and offered to the people living there. Its a great outreach, cause often times we are able to pray with the people and have heard awesome stories about both the givers and recipients.
I unfortunately was unable to help, as we were having trouble with our power point projection, as well as a new program I had to learn to run the power point for Sunday morning. So I now have running all of the slides for the pastor's sermon under my belt, cause his clicker wasn't working, and I had to do it all manually. There were a few mistakes, but I hadn't heard the sermon or anything previous to this, so I was mostly guessing when to change the slides.

Then yesterday afternoon me and my brother and sister went to our friend's birthday party. Played Apples to Apples, chatted, ate pizza, had cake, watched a movie... That type of thing.
And I'm really rambling right now, so I shall post again some other time!

Norman Rockwell

I'm a big fan of Norman Rockwell. My grandma has a huge book of his prints at her house, and every time we go over there its always is someones hands, with several people gathered around and leaning over whoever is holding it, just looking at the pictures. He was one of those amazing artists who painted realistic but humorous pictures depicted from life. I'm sure as I wrote more entries on here, you shall see many of his pictures pop up here and there. I was doing another google search today (I google everything. Even my own name. Sad, I know) and found some of my favorites from my grandma's book.
Such as:

These two football ones remind me of my youngest brother and his friends.
Faithfully, every time they're together they play football. And their skinny little
legs stick out of there baggy pants, just like these pictures:)

The run away. I love his little hobo sack. I'm betting it had
some PB&J, and a couple of apples in it.

You can just imagine the sour notes coming from those guys.
And the expressions on their faces our priceless.

This one, is probably my all time favorite. She looks so proud of her black eye.
No doubt she was fighting with some boy and came out on the winning end.
Reminds me of the major Tomboy that I was. I'd have rather been playing football
and baseball, and riding bikes and climbing trees
(and I did get into my own share of scuffles with the neighbor hood kids)
Than play with dolls and the like.

Look into the Past

I was at a hardware store yesterday, that sold many vintage looking metal posters. I love the 1940's , and rather than pay $22.50 for 12 by 8 replica, I figured that online was as good a source as any to find old posters. To print up and stuff. WWII was (and is) my very favorite era. So I thought maybe some old war bonds, victory garden, and recruiting signs would be great. I love how each of the signs are hand painted, and generally not photographs. unfortunately it seems that the times signs that were hand crafted, rather than computer processed and mass produced are over. Also, when grocery stores and butcher shops would display hand painted signs of sale items, and that sort of thing. Instead we now have photo shopped pictures of fake looking food, and even faker looking people (seriously, are anybodies teeth that white?) Now I wasn't even born until some 50 years after the '40's, but still, I would have loved to be alive at the time.
So, for the sake of satisfying my longings of the past, I shall post some of my favorite war time posters that I found today while on my google search :)

Victory Gardens. Now that was a cool idea. I love gardens :-)

you know it! lol

And of course the two classic war posters.
I love these too, all though Uncle Sam doesn't seem to be very happy!

Ahh. to have been alive then.

whoa.

I actually forgot completely about this blog. Until I was scrolling through the bookmarks and saw this on there. And then I was like "what in the world?" and then I checked it, and I remembered it:) and I actually remembered my password too, which is a surprise in and of itself.

So its been like.... 8 months since I wrote anything in here. And basically anyone who reads this who knows me ( If any one reads this in the first place) already knows what is happening in my life, and I lack any witty stories to share. Unfortunately, I have nothing of great inspiration to write here either. So I shall probably just ramble until I run out of things to ramble about. So if reading inane mumbo jumbo is pleasing to you, than by all means, pull out a cup of coffee and be bored to tears. And if reading nonsensical dribble is not to your liking, then perhaps you should go before you slam your head against the computer screen in shear boredom.
With that much being said, you may now either leave or stay :)

Thank you, to those who stayed ( assuming you have stayed) and I shall try to keep your attention in some way. Haven't figured out how to as of yet, but I'll try just the same.

So the other day I was watching this thing on T.V. called, "Hoarders, buried alive" and it immediately made me want to go clean my room. My room was already cleaned at this time, but It actually made me want to get rid of everything I own. Almost. My new number one fear is that I will someday start hoarding things and not be able to walk through my own home. And the people who do this show will show up on my door step. And want to interview me. And walk (er, try to anyway) through my gobs of junk. So that people who aren't (or at least probably aren't) hoarders can see what its like for people who are hoarders to live. Its actually a rather uncomfortable thought. And I don't know why I brought it up in the first place. If you are a hoarder and you are reading this, I apologize if it has offended you.

Then right after that show there was something about Giant Syndrom or something. Basically its when someone has tumer in their brain that pushes on a gland or something that releases growth hormones non-stop, and they never stop growing. And these people were huge. I know that I don't have that problem, cause I'm almost twenty and barely 5'3. So that was a relief.

Ok, now I must go get out of my pajamas, eat breakfast, brush my teeth, and all that fun stuff :-)
farewell!