The trip to smicksburg

Why don't I take my camera with me when I travel? I got a digital one for Christmas so I could carry it with me in my purse and always have a camera. Today is one of those days I needed it and did not take it with me. I really was so angry at myself for this......

My daughter wanted me to make some jellies for her wedding. I do not have the time or the berries to make what she wanted so we decided to go to a town about 50 miles from here called Smicksburg. I knew Amish lived there but I thought it was assuming it was like here where they were few and scattered. I never dreamed that there would be one beautiful farm after another with Amish children playing in the yards and their wives hanging clothes while they worked the fields. As I rode, I thought I was back in the 1800's as I watched the farmers with horses plow the fields and the buggy's filled the road.

These people fascinate me. Their lifestyle does. I could never live as they do but I think it is so wonderful they can live without all the conveniences we have and still have a happy life. My daughter was with me and she said 'Mom, did it ever occur to you that some of our modern consciences are what causes alot of the stresses in our lives'. I imagine that is so.

"I think we would be happier without all our modern convenieces," she said.

I thought of life without my computer. As romantic as the Amish lifestyle seems, I know I am happier with my life as it is.

That time of the year again....

Spring is here finally. I love each season for it's various reasons. I love spring because the woods behind our home is filled with budding new flowers and babies of all shapes and sizes. A few years ago I witnessed the birth of a fawn much like the one in this pic that my hubby took a few years ago in the woods by our house. I heard a noise out in the field and turned on the spotlight and saw a doe and a wobbly kneed little fawn trying to stand as she cleaned the afterbirth off him or her. It was wonderful.

My husband walked up on this one and took it while it crouched down and pretended to sleep. The mother was a short way off with the twin to this one, hiding. Fawns have a natural instinct to blend in with their background and that is what he was doing....

Having a blast....

I have the house to myself today so I got it thru my head to work on my daughters wedding cd. I am burning her songs off for her. Here is here list...

Baby I am amazed by lonestar
Unanswered Prayers Garth Brooks
Your Song Elton John
Two of a Kind Alan Jackson
The Dance Garth Brooks
I loved her first by heartland and this is the one she will dance with her dad with.
Piano Man billy joel
God Bless the Broken Road Rascal Flatts
Itty Bitty Alan jackson
Livin on love by alan jackson
Nothing else Matters Metallica
Get a haircut George Thorogood

Notice how many of them are country? This is the same girl who, until a few months ago would not think of listening to country cause she was so wrapped up in rap and hip hop. Well, I guess that is what falling in love with a little Irishman with dark hair and blue eyes does. Especially since he loves country music. Or, maybe she just grew out of the hip hop stage. *s*


In the meant time I am listening to the andrews sisters singing Don't Sit under the apple tree, by the Andrews Sister and that would make my mom happy since she would have preferred them over the Beatles any day...lol

Music soothes my soul.....

Music soothes my soul.....

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I started to make a list of my favorite music. I had to stop and think about. I really do not have a favorite I guess. It really all depends on what mood I am in.

There are days I put on the classic rock station and spend the day just rocking out to some of my favorite songs and groups such as poison, Warrant, Black Sabbath and a few other groups from the 80's and 90's. I love rock and roll. I love Bob Segar.

Old Time Rock & Roll
As performed by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet BandA classic song today, it only hit # 28 on the Top 40 charts, back in 1979
Just take those old records off the shelf,
I'll sit and listen to 'em by myself,
Today's music ain't got the same soul,
I like that old time rock and roll.
Don't try and take me to a disco,
You'll never even get me out on the floor,
In ten minutes I'll be late for the door,
I like that old time rock and roll.
Still like that old time rock and roll,
That kind of music just soothes my soul,I reminisce about the days of old,With that old time rock and roll.
Won't go and hear 'em play a tango,
I'd rather hear some blues or funky old soul,
There's only one sure way to get me to go,
Start playin' old time rock and roll.

Oh, yah. I can rock out to that one.

But there are days when I feel like listening to music from the fifties and forties. They bring back memories of my foster sisters dancing around as they got ready to go out. Songs like MOON RIVER. Or STARDUST. SINCERELY..

I do not force others to listen to my music. I put my earphones on and go out on our patio on a summer evening and sit there while I listen to some Bluegrass music or the Gaithers sing songs of praise.

Why am I here?

Tonight I walked into my bedroom and looked around then scratched my head before asking myself, "Why am I here?" I had been working on a needle point picture when got up to go to the bedroom to get whatever it is I was thinking of getting in there. Perhaps it was a needle or another skein of floss. I don't know. All I know is that I stood there wondering what I was looking for before coming out there to the computer to sit down and blog for a short time.

I thought that if I blogged for awhile, the reason I went into the room would come to me. Well, it has been an hour and it still has not come to me.

I have been doing that alot lately. Walking into rooms and wondering why I went there is becoming a habit. Getting out of bed and not being able to find my glasses is also getting old. Oh, and let's not forget those books I start to read and never find until I am cleaning out from under the bed or dresser, or some other odd place and find them long after I have forgotten about them.

The other morning I woke up and went to get my upper teeth out of my cup where I soak them and I could not find them. Luckily I found them in my drawer. Don't know how they got there but that is where they were.

Some days it does not pay me to get out of bed.
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Mother Nature is screwed up

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Remember the old commericial on television where it says, 'it's not nice to fool with mother nature'. Well, Mother Nature is fooling with us. This easter was one of the coldest ones we have had in years. About a foot of snow on the ground. What happened to all this snow at Christmas when we needed, or felt we needed some snow to remind us of the season? It was warm in December and one of the warmest Januaries on record and then Feb hit and it has been cold ever since then. I wish it would go away.

But we had a lovely easter. I was upset because we could not get out and get to church. First time I have missed church on easter in years but one does not have to be in a building to worship and I enjoyed my time with my family and friends that were here.

First real sign of spring for me.....

Spring is here. It has been here for a few days but today was the first time I felt like it was truely here and the colts foot I saw blooming along the road and at the edge of the woods confirmed it. It is such a tiny flower but it's brilliant yellow, shines brightly against the dark green grass in th swampy woodlands.

Here are a few things I would like to share with you about this little flower, which is actually a herb.

It can be used for medicinal purposes. Some people use it for a cough suppressant. Link
The leaves are the basis of the British Herb Tobacco, in which Coltsfoot predominates, the other ingredients being Buckbean, Eyebright, Betony, Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender, and Chamomile flowers. This relieves asthma and also the difficult breathing of old bronchitis. Those suffering from asthma, catarrh and other lung troubles derive much benefit from smoking this Herbal Tobacco, the use of which does not entail any of the injurious effects of ordinary tobacco.

A decoction is made of 1 OZ. of leaves, in 1 quart of water boiled down to a pint, sweetened with honey or liquorice, and taken in teacupful doses frequently. This is good for both colds and asthma.

'The fresh leaves, or juice, or syrup thereof, is good for a bad dry cough, or wheezing and shortness of breath. The dry leaves are best for those who have their rheums and distillations upon their lungs causing a cough: for which also the dried leaves taken as tobacco, or the root is very good. The distilled water hereof simply or with elder-flowers or nightshade is a singularly good remedy against all agues, to drink 2 OZ. at a time and apply cloths wet therein to the head and stomach, which also does much good being applied to any hot swellings or inflammations. It helpeth St. Anthony's fire (erysypelas) and burnings, and is singular good to take away wheals.'

In paris they had a picture of coltsfoot at the apothary shops at one time.

Something a friend shared with me.....

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It snuck up on me this year, dogs and cats have kept me busy as they are wont to do, until suddenly I looked up and here it is, four years ago today, and the news is full of replays. CNN showed the footage from Shock and Awe Night for the ten thousandth time, and for the ten thousandth time I marked each missile I knew for mine as it exploded in the midnight streets of Baghdad.

For those of you who are tuning in late, on this day four years ago I was onboard the USS Higgins (DDG 76) in the Northern Arabian Gulf, and launched more than a dozen Tomahawk missiles for the infamous Shock and Awe Night that failed to shock or awe anyone in particular. I launched a couple dozen more over the first six weeks of the war, until finally our ship left for Singapore and a crew swap. i

I came home on an airplane the day President Bush declared major combat operations over in Iraq, which was a big laugh even then. Since then, my personal year has revolved towards and away from the 19th of March. It is my own Ash Wednesday, a Yom Kippur that I mark with no one but myself. It is Not Done in military circles to speak of regretting your part in a war, and feels disloyal besides. I know, I'm brainwashed. It happens.

Looking back, this spring has been full of Iraq stories, it seems. Insurgents using first IEDs, then shaped charges supposedly imported from Iran, and the latest, chlorine bombs. We escalate, they escalate. We learn to counter the IEDs, they produce shaped charges and chemical weapons. Does anyone still believe this is winnable under the definition the neo-cons originally gave us, that of turning Iraq into a democratic paradise, a beacon on the hill for the Islamic countries around it? At this point, ''winnable'' means ''getting out of there without leaving more of a mess than we have right now.'' According to a story I heard on NPR before switching off the radio and turning on a CD, 51% of the Iraqi public now finds violence against Americans acceptable. I'm not surprised. Under Saddam Hussein, they had no political freedoms but they had electricity, clean water, their children could go to school and they could find medical care.

We've given them civil rights and political freedoms, but what does that mean in a country where the economy is in shambles and violence racks any neighborhood that isn't patrolled on a minute to minute basis by one militia or another? And our military, what can I say? The USMC has given up any pretense of normal rotations and put out a message stating that if you haven't been to Iraq yet, you're going.

The Army lies to itself and its soldiers and the public, but puts troops on a punishing rotation for deployment that doesn't allow time for rest and training between stints in the war zone. The Navy and Air Force have been forced to reduce their manpower in order to funnel more money to the burgeoning ground forces, resulting in deployments and operations schedules so unpredictable that retention is becoming an issue.

I am not overwhelmingly depressed this year, thanks be to God for small mercies that I probably don't deserve. I am mournful, I am contemplative. I wish for forgiveness from myself, I wish I could feel right with God again, but these things may take a while and for the most part, I am at peace. Less than a year from now I will finally take off my uniform for the last time, and be out of it all for good. Next year on the 19th of March, I can go to one of the protests marking the anniversary of the start of the war, and not feel like a damned hypocrite or a spy

. Next year when I renew my membership in Iraq Veterans Against the War, I will check the box that says ''I am willing to speak publicly'' and if they ask me to speak, I will go, and I will tell the audience about how all members of the military carry wounds and scars and scabs on the soul, not just the ground forces. I will speak of the choices you make, the things you do to stay out of prison and earn that honorable discharge and the benefits that come with it. I will speak of the nights I have woken up in a cold sweat, clutching a worried dog like a lifeline, with nightmares of the people I have killed arriving, one by one, at my front door in a line that stretches longer than I like to admit. I am angry, more than anything else.

If, for instance, Hilary Clinton does not cough up the words ''it was a mistake'' in reference to her vote in favor of giving Bush the power to invade Iraq, I will not vote for her if she is the last goddamned Democrat on earth. Senator Clinton, don't you dare try to campaign on an anti-war platform without those words. You voted in favor when it was expedient, and now that it's expedient to go the other way, you've gone. Fuck off. I hope like hell Mr. Obama gets that nomination.

I wonder, sometimes, why I ended up like this and other people on my Tomahawk team did not. Firing Tomahawks is a triumph of military engineering, designed to kill a maximum number of the enemy while causing the least amount of potential trauma to the firing team. It includes any number of factors that will make it easier for a person to kill, including the extremely long range of the weapon (more than a thousand nautical miles, or 1200 statute miles), the shared responsibility (an average Tomahawk team includes two officers, a plotter, two engagement planners, and two launch controllers), and lack of decision-making (targets are selected for you by the regional command).

All of these factors should have buffered all of us, kept us safe from accepting personal responsibility for our choices. Why did my brainwashing, so firm in other matters, fail me when I most needed it? I mean, I complusively check to make sure the buttons on my shirt, the buckle of my belt, and the overlap of the zipper on my pants are neatly lined up throughout the day. My military bearing is rather impeccable when I'm in uniform, if I do say so myself. Bark at me in an authoritative voice and I am liable to follow the order first and think about it later. All the basics are there, but somehow the higher functions didn't install. DOS works, but the Windows-level brainwashing just failed to take, and while on the one hand I'm proud of my ability to retain some level of independent thought, on the other hand entirely I wish like hell I could just buy into the party line and not ... not think, not wonder, not accept that I made the choice to kill rather than to go to prison, even though I thought in 2003 that our reasons for going to war were complete rampaging bullshit dressed up like truth and sent out to walk the halls of the UN.

And yet, the brainwashing was enough to get me to move up a set of orders so that I could participate. Why did it fail to protect me afterward?

It's a different 19th of March this year, at least, and for that I am grateful. This afternoon I played in the sunshine with my dogs, and came in and snuggled the kitties in a sunbeam in the library. I must pause, periodically, in my typing to massage the ears of a grey dog who keeps shoving her head in my lap. I have explained to her that I am a mass murderer in the service of the government. She doesn't much care and wants to know if more ear rubbing will be forthcoming.

She doesn't understand why her doomed attempt to be a lap dog made me cry a little today. But maybe this is where being ok starts: with the two creatures in this world who will forgive me any human failing at all. I'm not right with myself and I'm not right with God, yet, but I am right with Dog and that's a start, isn't it?

I thought it was very moving and wanted to share it with you.

Thoughts from my lofty place on the hill

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I am a night person. I will always be one. I have tried not to be but I think some of us are meant to be.

After I finished writing in my blog a few minutes ago, I began thinking.....

I get attached to people, even the ones I rarely read on line. Not that I want to meet them or have them over for sunday dinner but I do wonder about them if I have not heard from them in some time. I have one that came in every day when I first started blogging. 'Actually two of them. One of them got me involved in blogging on this site. I enjoyed their postings and one day, I came on and I did not see any from one of them. I thought she had just missed a day but I heard from other bloggers she had not been visiting them either. I think about her often and hope she and her husband are doing okay and her reasons to stop blogging were her choice and and something has not happened to her.

The same way with the second one. Just stopped. I went to her blog and it was not there. I had waited some time but I don't think she will be coming back for some reason.

The thing is, I try to figure out why I worry about these ships that passed in the night. The ones I will never meet.

I hope they are happy and I wish them well.

Corned beef day is almost here..what will I have?

">Link I have a weakness. It is cookbooks and recipes. I have about fifty recipe books here at home. Some are well used and some barely used. I try to do just one recipe out of all of them just to justify my buying them. I was standing in Sam's Club today looking at a casserole recipe book. I kept asking, should I? Yeah, I decided I should. My friend says I am nuts. I should not buy recipe books since I have a computer. But I still like the books. I have gotten recipes from the computer and lost them then could not find the site where I got them and have not found the exact one I used that was so good. With the books, or my local paper, I have them there in front of me.
Reuben sandwiches
12 ounces thinly sliced cooked corned beef or deli corned beef
2 tablespoons butter, softened
8 slices rye or pumpernickel bread
8 slices Swiss cheese
1½ cups sauerkraut, well drained
¼ cup Thousand Island dressing
Lightly spread butter on one side of each bread slice.Reuben sandwiches12 ounces thinly sliced cooked corned beef or deli corned beef2 tablespoons butter, softened8 slices rye or pumpernickel bread8 slices Swiss cheese1½ cups sauerkraut, well drained¼ cup Thousand Island dressingLightly spread butter on one side of each bread slice.

(I love those ruebens)

Secrets to great corned beef The secret is simple: cook it long and slow, tightly covered. n Corned beef brisket needs to gently simmer. High temperatures can toughen the meat. The steam created during simmering ensures fork-tender, moist and flavorful beef.• Do not boil. Boiling does not speed up the cooking process; it only toughens the beef. • No peeking! Be patient — it cooks unattended. Just check the meat at the end of the suggested cooking time.• It's not necessary to turn a brisket during cooking. Each time the cover is lifted, steam escapes and the tenderizing process is interrupted.• To determine doneness, insert a utility fork into the brisket; the beef is fork-tender when fork inserts without resistance and releases easily.• Carve brisket across the grain into thin slices for the most tender eating experience.
Dijon-glazed corned beef with savory cabbage and red potatoes
1 boneless corned beef brisket with seasoning packet (3½ to 4 pounds)
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
2 cups water6 tablespoons butter1 cup thinly sliced green onions, including white and green parts
½ cup prepared horseradish
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
1 head green cabbage, cored, cut into 6 wedges
(1 to 1½ pounds)1Z\x pounds small red-skinned potatoes, cut in half
Glaze
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard

Position oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place corned beef brisket in roasting pan; sprinkle garlic, contents of seasoning packet and peppercorns around and over brisket. Add water; cover tightly with aluminum foil. Braise in upper third of oven 3 to 3½ hours or until brisket is fork-tender.Meanwhile place butter, green onions, horseradish, ground pepper and salt in glass measuring cup. Microwave on high 1 to 2 minutes or until butter melts; mix well. Cover and refrigerate 2 tablespoons for Rustic Corned Beef & Potato Bake.Place cabbage wedges on half of baking sheet and potatoes on other half. Drizzle remaining horseradish-butter mixture over vegetables, turning cabbage and tossing potatoes to coat. Cover with aluminum foil.Roast in lower third of 350 degree oven with brisket 55 minutes. Uncover vegetables; continue roasting 15 to 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender and begin to brown.

Combine glaze ingredients in small bowl. Remove cooked brisket from roasting pan; place on rack in broiler pan so surface of brisket is 3 to 4 inches from heat. Brush glaze over brisket; broil 2 to 3 minutes or until glaze is bubbly and beginning to brown.Carve brisket diagonally across the grain into thin slices. Cover and refrigerate ½ of brisket (about 12 ounces) and 2 cups potatoes for Rustic Corned Beef and Potato Bake. Serve remaining brisket and potatoes with cabbage.Makes 4 servings.Cook's Tip: If seasoning packet is not included with corned beef brisket, substitute 1¼ teaspoons pickling spice.

Be irish for a day and enjoy!!!

The passing of a friend....

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Four years ago my daughter could not think of what she wanted to get me for a mothers day gift but since she likes cats, she thought I would like another one to add to my menagerie. I kept my mouth shut and graciously accepted the little gray and white tom cat into my home. Unfortunately, this lovable bundle of fur liked to make his presence known by spraying when he got a few months older. He was neutered so he did not think he would do that but Nicholas insisted on being difficult and he sprayed and sprayed. So we kept him outside on our back porch and in a shed out back . He would come and go as he pleased as we had cut a little door in the shed for him to go in and out.

Nicholas was up here playing a few days ago. We would let him in on the very cold nights and keep him in the basement where our other cats resided when it was cold. He played as he always did.

Two days went by and we did not see Nicholas come to where we fed him. My husband came in tonight and told me he found him dead in his bedding where he always slept.

We do not know what caused his death. We have no antifreeze where he can get it and what we have is pet friendly. We had him tested for luekemia when he was a kitten and he did not have it. Someone suggested distemper and perhaps that was it. Or, poision but we do not know who would poision him as our neighbors have cats and the other ones never bothered him or us about anything.

But he is gone and I spent most of the evening crying for him. I know I will miss him terribly at times but he really did have a good home and was a loving pet. He will be missed...........bye nick.

Long Saga.......

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My daughter is getting married this summer. I say this summer cause the dates keep changing. They change because she annonced last week she is pregant and she cannot fit into her wedding gown so we had to go out and get a new, larger gown for her. The original date was for Aug.18th. Well, the baby is due in sept and that is cutting it close. So they have now set the date for june ninth. I hope this is the last change.

But get this, the grooms parents know nothing yet except they are getting married. They do not know about the baby or anything and they are going to flip out or be very happy about it. I am happy she is going to have the baby and not an abortion. I know it will be rough for them but I know my daughter and she would never forgive herself if she had an abortion.

I love the idea of being a grandmother. But this whole wedding thing has us all in an uproar because so many of the plans had to be changed. I have to remember that babys do things like that. You have to be able to change things at the drop of a hat when babies come along.

I can't wait til june 10th and the wedding is behind us and we can get on to the baby shower and birth of the baby. *s*

Living with diabetes....

When I was a young girl I would watch our neighbor lady who had what was commonly called 'sugar' by many in our area, give herself her daily insulin shots and go about eating all the sugary stuff she wanted, no matter how many warnings given to her by her dr, family, and friends. I don't think any of them knew how hard it is to stay away from something you crave until you have to do it.

My mother had diabetes and refused to listen. She nearly lost all her eyesight before deciding to try and curb her intake of sugar and starches. Many do not realize it but starches are a huge enemy of those whose body does not supply enough insulin.

I was in denial for several years. I was one that was not going to get diabetes. I went on living my life as though nothing like that could happen to me. By the time I went to the dr to find out why my feet were going to sleep, I already had the nueropathy that is caused by diabetes. My sugar was not extremely high like my moms whose sugar was over 600 when she fell ill. Mine was 268 but had been that way for some time and I just ignored it. Very foolishly but I won't spend my life beating myself up for it.

It is a lifelong process but I am learning to curb my intake of sugar and most starches by cooking with Splenda, making wiser choices when I buy drinks, cutting way back on doughnuts and such. I don't really need them but I do crave them and I am trying to work with ways to get around those cravings.

Exercise is a problem but I am trying to force myself to use the stationary bike since I cannot walk outside much for fear of falling in the winter. I fell three years ago and due to having brittle bones in my feet from the nueropathy, I nearly lost my left foot when I shattered my ankle. If I break it again, I may lose the foot. I love to swim but I cannot do that in the winter since the nearest public indoor pool is over 30 miles from here.

I feel i am luckier than my mom and others in the past. I have so many ways to fix good food now without using the sugar and other fattening things they used.

I also have the internet and an amazing number of other diabetics I can talk to about living this journey through the food maze of jellied doughnuts, cookies and candies that look so good and tempt us so much. Yes, I have it much better than they did and I am looking forward to living a long life in spite of this disease.

Snow, popcorn and movie...

I don't know why but I am tired today. So tired, all I want to do is yawn and curl up under the covers. I think it is just one of those days.

Everyone is home this weekend.

Last week bil called to say he had some old super 8 movies that his dad had taken years ago of hubby, me and the others in the family. We decided to have an old fashioned family movie weekend. About twenty of us got together for home made ice cream, pop corn, sloppy joes, homemade veggie soup and movies that we all laughed at for about two hours. Of course the kids all laughed at the styles of the seventies and thought our wedding movies were hilarious. There was a tear or two when some of our loved ones who are no longer with us came on the screen but we spent most of the time laughing.

All in all, it made a very dreary weekend, a weekend of fun.

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I have taken a break from the quilt I am making to work on this and read some blogs. The quilt is for my friend who has been diagnosed with MAYCOBACTERIUM AVIUM COMPLEX....BETTER KNOWN AS MAC DISEASE. Mycobacterium avium complex, or MAC, is a serious bacterial infection that HIV+ people can get. MAC is related to tuberculosis. MAC is also sometimes called MAI, which stands for Mycobacterium avium intracellulare.
MAC infection is usually found only in people with under 50 T4 cells. The symptoms of MAC can include weight loss, fevers, chills, night sweats, swollen glands, abdominal pains, diarrhea and overall weakness. MAC usually affects the intestines and inner organs first, causing liver tests to be high. Swelling and inflammation also occur.

She freaked when they first told her cause she thought she had aids but that is not what it is. I know when I saw her last, she looked horrible. She lost about 90 lbs and they could not figure out why she was losing weight and having all these other problems but they finally did with blood tests. The cure is no easy one. She has to take several pills a day and shots for several months too.

But she loves flowers and butterflies so this is the quilt I am doing....

Anna Nicole...

Anna nicole Smith died today. I suppose I should not really care abou this but this woman seemed to me to be a very sad, lonely soul who was reaching out for something that was just out of her grasp.

At one time anna was a lovely young woman who had so much going for her. She could have been just about anything she wante to be.

You know the old story about the 'y' in the road and how you can take the wrong one. I think she may have wanted to take the right one but just did not really know how.

I often wonder if she may have been mentally ill and not quite capable of handling the things in here life. When it began to spiral out of control, she did not know what to do or how to cope so she turned to drugs and other things that just made matters worse rather than helped her.

It saddens me to see her life wasted and lost. I feel empathy for her because I have a daughter who is mentally ill and when I would see anna and how she was, I think of my daughter and I fear for my daughter

Yet all I can do is hope my daughter finds a way to get out of the dark tunnel she is in before it is too late. It is too late for anna but I hope it is not too late for my daughter.
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Winter blah

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I have not been around for awhile. Like many others, I am trapped indoors for the winter and the only thing to talk about is the snow. I know I wanted snow. Well, now that I got it, they can stop any time now. But I have been visiting blogs and reading. I promise I will wite more later...

Believe it or not..

Believe it or not I was a published writer at one time. I was young, had no children and alot of time on my hands at the old farm were we resided.

I decided to take a home course in writing. I would not say it was waste of time. No venture into the educational realm is wasted. But I don't think my style of writing changed much. I continued as I had for years and wrote when I felt the mood hit me. And I sold stories.

Granted it was nothing that would bring me the pulitizer prize but I am pleased to say my husband was proud of those short stories and kept some of the ones I had all but forgotten about writing.

I felt as though I have been paid twice for those stories. Why?

First, I was paid when the pay check that came in the mail, by no means big but still a payment for something I loved doing. The second time was when I realized that my husband was proud of what I had done and saved them all these years.

Guess which 'payment' means the most to me. *s*

Trip to emlenton

Hubby and I decided to go for a drive today. It is one of those things we often do when there is little else to occupy our time. We don't always know exactly where we are heading but today we went the quaint little town of Emlenton. Pa.

The first thing I noticed as we drove thru the town were some of the lovely old homes there. Not I did not have my camera with me but I did find some interesting sights and houses on line. It is not just one old victorian home but the town seems to be filled with homes of the former oil barrons who once lived in the town. The two images above were the homes of eban Crawford and his brother. They were two oil barrons from the bygone era. I love Victorian style homes and my dream was to buy one and fix it up but hubby would not go for it.

The lovely church is in Foxburg Pa which is near emlenton. It is a lovely structure. James Peacock Sims had attended secondary school and college with William Logan Fox (1851-80), whose early death was memorialized along with that of his father in this church in northwestern Pennsylvania. The drawing was entrusted to Eyre, Sims's twenty-two-year-old draftsman. The design was directly modeled on one of the rare churches to strongly reflect the Queen Anne revival, Richard Norman Shaw's Church of St. Michael and All Angels in Bedford Park, outside London. A plate of its design was published in an English journal, Building News, on 17 January 1879, and even the format on Eyre's sheet closely echoed that plate of elevations and sections.

I have not been in the inside but they say it is gorgeous.

We always say we are going to go in but we have never stopped. Maybe we will some day.

comfort foods

The dictionary says....

The term comfort food refers to any food or drink to which one habitually turns for temporary respite, security, or special reward. The reasons that something becomes a comfort food are diverse but include the food's familiarity, simplicity, and/or pleasant associations. Small children often seem to latch on to a specific food or drink (in a way similar to a security blanket) and will repeatedly request it in high stress situations. Adults, however, are certainly not exempt.

How many of us often find ourselves drifting back in time and thinking of the the comfort foods our parents or grandparents used to make us feel safe and loved when we were kids. My foster mom was a great one for cookies and milk. After a long day at school she would be waiting to hear how our day went with a glass of cold milk and home made cookies. Yes they were homemade. No store bought cookies for her kids. LOL

At night she would often let us settle back with a cup of weak tea and a slice of toast before going to bed.

That is what made me think of comfort foods. I was standing out in the kitchen, stirring this tea when I had a flashback of me sitting at her kitchen table waiting on her to bring me me tea and toast. And I find myself often able to fall asleep quicker on the nights I have this tea then I do on the nights I do not have it. There was very little soda in Mom;s house but lots of tea. One of my favorites is green tea with honey in it. Very good, indeed.

Another thing was her homemade chicken and dumplings. No matter how hard I try, I cannot make it as good as she does but it was one of those things I would settle back and enjoy on a cold winter's eve.

Then there was her apple pie. She used it when drunks would stop in and sobber up while she read the bible to them and served them pie and tea or coffee..Did she run a restaurant? No. She was just well known for giving men a dose of religion as she helped them sober up after a night out on the town. She liked to give comfort and talk to people about God. She had always wanted to be a missionary but things did not work out that way she she spent her time doing little things like this.

She was quite a lady. *s* And served wonderful comfort food with her words of wisdom.

Yes, I am a christian....

I don't get loud and boastful about but I will not shy away when someone ask me if I am a christian. Yes, I am. I am a Baptist also but that is not important to me. I feel that you can go to any church, or no church at all and still be a christian. You can worship God in the privacy of your home or in the fields. Buildings mean little to God. It is what is in your heart.

I attend chruch because I like the feeling of fellowship there but my mother in law is a solitary person and does not like crowds so she sits at her kitchen table each day and reads her bible and quietly goes about her life, living what I and many others feel is a christian life. She never utters a nasty word about anyone and refuses to exchange tasty bits of gossip about anyone. She does what she can for her family and friends.

Yet I have known many who claim to be christian then shout profanities and tell all those who disagree with them they are going to hell. I shake my head and wonder where they got the idea they could behave themselves in that manner and still make it thru the pearly gates.

They get angry at me because I don't pass judgement on anyone. Oh, I am not perfect so I may have a bad thought about certain people or mutter a word I shouldn't but I try not to do such things. My foster mom once told me, 'you may be the only bible some people read so watch yourself'.

I have friends who are athiest and I love them dearly. We understand and respect each to much to try and force our views on each other. I talk to them and say a pray for them but I still consider them my friends.

Computer illiterate here...

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I know more about computers today then I did ten years abo but there are still some basics I do not know. I have a windows xp home edition here. I have had no problems with it but my outlook express does not seem to want to work right as some ddl files are missing. I was hoping my registry mechanic could fix it as I have been searching the net for days trying to figure out how but could not come up with anything. I can't seem to reinstall it without buying windows ep home edition discs again since my daughter borrowed all seven and only returned about four. One of those has the outlook express on. Anyone got any ideas as to how I can fix this? I will go back to searching, hoping I can find the answer....

The simpler things....

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I have not been on for the last few days and one of the reasons is my daughter was home and she, my husband, and I, spent the evenings doing simple things like reading, talking and putting a large puzzle together. It is a puzzle with a blue jay on it and a blue backgound with some snow at the bottom. As I sat out there putting the pieces in and laughing I thought of how much I miss those times when our family did these things. The time before the computer and the television invaded our lives and seemed to take every moment over.

I thought of the hours on end we spent playing uno or Rummy with my in laws. My fil has been dead almost twenty years and I am so glad for all the wonderful evenings we spent with him and the rest of the family laughing and playing card games. The kids loved them too.

We would sit out on the porch and talk in the summer. Watch people walk by and wave to the neighbors while the kids played in the yard. The best times I had with my mom were when we sat on the porch and talked for hours about.....everything.

You see we did those things because we had no money to go out and do so many of the things people spend money to do. I thought we were poor. It was not until last night that I realized we were very rich. Very rich, indeed.

Happy New Year

The celebration of the New yearr is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring).
The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a New Year.ar. After all, it is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.

The use of an image of a baby with a New Years banner as a symbolic representation of the new year was brought to early America by the Germans. They had used the effigy since the fourteenth century.

What about traditions? I do not make resolutions but many do. One that I do keep is having sauerkraut and mashed potatoes on New Years day. My family has done that and I am not sure why. "A friend of mine follows the dutch tradition and gave me a dried up donut to keep in my cupboard all year so I would have good luck. Not sure how well that worked....Like some cultures the dutch believe that certain food that circular will bring good luck. So they use the donut.

Some believe they have to sing Auld Lang Syne which means, long ago, at the stroke of midnight.
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