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Maybe this'll be a boring post, but it's my blog, and i can bore if i want to. On Sunday morning, when i started feeling a little sniffly, i thought it must be allergies, and i made sure there was kleenex in my purse and just went on. At church, felt like i should go up for prayer, but i didn't want to, and i did not, and then after church, i just got worse and worse. I didn't give in though. I cooked a nice Sunday lunch, burned trash, blogged, had adventures with the dixie cups, and was finally able to go to sleep around i think 2-ish in the morning. Monday morning, i got up long enough to establish with my husband that i probably wasn't going to be able to make lunch today and went back to sleep. I woke up at 10-something, drank some hot tea, and fell back asleep a little before noon. Woke up sometime in the afternoon, i think. At some point i talked on the phone and also looked at my emails. I have no idea, at this point, what my husband ate for din...

I should've written this on Sunday, but alas, i came home from church feeling bad and just got sicker and sicker from there. But before i knew i was getting sick Saturday night, my loving man was engrossed in something at the computer, and i found myself staring into the bathroom mirror, contemplating my lack of hair style. If you know Lindsey Tharpe, formerly Crouse, well, she's the last person who cut my hair - way back when she was still Lindsey Crouse. And she did a great job, as Lindsey always does. And it was o.k. because i was trying to let my hair grow long, blah blah blah. And i did. But i've been contemplating the use of a little bit of bang. I remember when i decided to not have bangs anymore. It was in college, when it occurred to me, after long sessions of mirror contemplation, that i would look older if i didn't have bangs. And thus, i discontinued the bangs. Fifteen years later, it turns out i'm not so sensitive to comments indicating that i ...

Warning, this is a little bit gross, i guess. It seems i have a cold. It came on really quickly. It makes me sneeze and sniffle and have a cheek ache and a forehead ache. I came to my senses far too late in the evening that i might need medicine. We don't have 24 hour Wal-Mart here in Coldspring. And after 2 1/2 rolls of toilet paper, which is what i use for facial tissue, and finally resorting to a clean soft t-shirt - in order to save my nose, i took the one and only sinus pill in the house and tried to go to bed. But it didn't work. I mean i was in bed, but the sleeping part didn't actually take place - only the miserable but now lying down part. So i got back up and starting reading about "nasal irrigation." Previously this has been an off-limits option for me, but misery is the mother of desperate options. I don't have a neti pot or anything crazy like that. So i prepared the solution and found some paper dixie cups that i could bend to make a spo...

Working at home - being a homemaker - is so different from working at a desk job. When i worked at the courthouse, especially when i was in the District Clerk's office, it was very easy to know what needed to be done. It was all right there on your desk in your 4x6 cubicle, staring you in the face. And at the end of the day, you could point to a stack of files and say, "look at all these files i worked today." The judge's office wasn't as easy because the work didn't necessarily come to you. You had to go find it, but you could still point at the end of the day and say, "here is what i produced." Homemaking is much different. There are lots of things that should be done that don't have to be done and that will never actually cause a catastrophe if you leave them alone. The boxes that need to be sorted through, the dusting the living room, the reorganizing the disastrously messy tupperware cabinet....that stuff. But if i don't make a l...

When James got his job at Yokogawa, people kept asking me what he does, and i couldn't really give a decent answer. I still can't give a very good answer, but now i have pictures. My best understanding is that they manufacture little rooms that end up being the brains, so to speak, of places like natural gas plants (are they plants?) and oil rigs. The steel tubing you see is what he was been doing most recently. I takes some really expensive tools and training to learn to properly bend the tubing so that it's so pretty inside these rooms. Lots of hours of work in these pictures. I think that the rooms you see here are just part way through the process. They still have to have different fancy machines like gas chromatographs (sp?) and other complicated scientific things installed. It's very interesting, but i can't explain it.

I just made and partook in some really really yummy meatloaf and roasted potatoes. I googled some recipes here and here and then made my own modifications. For the meatloaf, i started with about 1/3 - 1/2 cup of finely minced onions and a half a stick of real butter (salted). Truly, you should start any great recipe this way because it makes the house smell FANTASTIC! I sauteed the onions in the butter on low and then on medium until the the onions were very soft and getting a good caramel color. I'm extra thorough about onions because my husband loves the flavor but hates to bite into them, so if i sautee the heck out of them, that usually works. Next i added about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of water to the onions. The recipe called for salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning but didn't say how much. Now i know what you're thinking. I thought it too, but we were both wrong. Poultry seasoning is for more than just poultry. I liberally salted and peppered my mixture and then sort ...

If you haven't heard, the North Koreans have moved their long range missile to the launch pad. They say it could possibly reach Alaska. Please pray for the protection of our nation and that the plots of the North Koreans against our country would be unsuccessful.

whew! did you see that big storm that came through here? kind of thought it might want to blow us away, but it turned out just to be a big crier. there is water everywhere! we finally got to see the little creek bed behind the house holding water - and plenty of it! there is a rumor that james and i are going to a church tomorrow evening. one of his friends at work, who goes to the first church i told you about, recruited james to help with the tear down after a john jacobs show tomorrow night. i know it's a ploy to get him to go to church, and so does he, and if he's going to bite, then i guess i'm going to go with him and see what happens. (wrote this last night but forgot to publish)

The point of a free market system is this: businesses that have customers will thrive because they produce products that other people are willing and able to pay for; businesses that don't have customers will fail because they produce products that other people are not willing or able to pay for. O.k. o.k. that's the nutshell version, but the free market system works because of these reasons. And because the free market system works, the government does not need to get its micromanaging hands into it. Please bear with me for a couple of paragraphs; i'm going to make an attempt at an illustration of this principle. During the nineties, i had the pleasure and privilege of spending 3 summers in the nation of Germany as part of a missionary group from my college. We would travel from town to town visiting different churches as pre-arranged by our guide. In each town, the church would arrange for our lunches to be catered. In one of these towns, it just so happened that ou...

See here's the thing. I seem to have misplaced my muse, so to speak, on the political blogging route. You know, that other blog. There's no point linking to it; i haven't written in it since - i don't know, sometime last week. I guess that even though my stated goal was just to reveal untruth - or to reveal truth actually, in what we're told by the media, etc., i guess my other, unacknowledged, goal was to be a part of preventing the total downturn of my country. But then when i read, and subsequently wrote, about the fed's decision to "buy our own debt," whatever kind of asinine double talking that is, by printing a trillion bucks, like that'll make everything better.......well, i guess i kind of inwardly gave up. I resigned myself to the inevitability of the coming American depression, possible revolution, and/or whatever other heinous and disappointing developments might come upon us, due to our own failure to act sooner, to stay true to wh...

Yesterday, following a full day wherein President Obama made his picks for the Final Four and then visited some manufacturers of "greener" cars, the president made an appearance on The Tonight Show, with Jay Leno. President Obama didn't say anything particularly new or different, and he was actually quite funny a couple of times. Too bad he's the president and not a public entertainer. Let me just say - this is the first thing - that public appearances are fine, and it's nice to let the nation see that you're a nice guy, but if you're the president of the United States of America, and your country is facing a potential depression, i would personally like to know that you are in meetings in deep dark corners of the white house at least 20 hours of the day, discussing and searching to find a real solution for the problems that have been caused BY THE GOVERNMENT. That was the first thing. The second thing is that i think that all the president's big pu...

It's really late, and i would like to be in bed, but i'm staying up because i want to see what has possessed the president to be on Leno tonight. Sanford was returned to the wild outdoors from whence he came today. I finally figured out or decided that i think he was trying desperately to get out of my house but couldn't figure out how. I can't blame him. What a death trap! - for lizards anyway. Tomorrow, a couple of james' coworkers are supposed to come over and have spaghetti. so i made the best yummy spaghetti and meatballs tonight, and i'll get up and make sure the house is tip top spic and span in the morning. Not to much news on the personal level today. And i'm sleepy. Good night.

Not too many posts the last few days. The reason is that sometimes i'm just overwhelmed with the grand number of things --happening, or being reported by the media, or being advertised on television -- that i should be objecting to. And when i get overwhelmed, as described, it is so much easier to bury my head in the sand. But then i have to remember that when good people bury their heads in the sand in order to comfort themselves, they tend to allow really horrific things to happen. For example, the holocaust, slavery, and the legalization of abortion and removal of prayer from American schools. The "sand" can be many things. It can be intentional ignorance, "i don't watch the news; it's always bad news." The sand can be self-comforting platitudes to help us believe that "everything's going to be o.k." And in a country where we have faced so little true adversity, it's easy to believe that "what's happening over there d...

But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. -James 1:9-10 Have you ever wondered about that scripture? I have. So today i did a very short little word study. I'll share. The Greek word translated "glory," means to boast, exult, take pride in. Well, that's weird. You don't usually catch anyone in the Bible telling you to boast or take pride. And i didn't really understand fully the word "exult." So i looked that up in my regular old American dictionary and found the coolest definition. exult: to show or feel a lively triumphant joy hmm Now i can't decide for sure if i should be glorying in my high position or my humiliation. On the one hand, i am very aware that in comparison to most of the world, i am a truly rich person. I eat three meals a day, i have electricity and running water; the list goes on and one. B...

Great Monday! got up early, straitened up, talked to insurance guy on the phone, fed dogs, fixed lunch, cleaned up, planted garden, punished very bad garden-invading dogs, made peace with dogs, burned trash, had bonding time with dogs, improved lizard habitat, identified poison ivy, burned poison ivy, rejoiced over better lizard color, greeted homecoming husband, kicked out odorous cat to tune of "smelly cat" song, gathered laundry, took laundry to laundromat, finished laundry, cooked fried chicken for dinner, watched wonderful movie, encouraged lizard, thought about recleaning kitchen after husband's spontaneous creativity, wrote blogs. i love industrious days! Update on Sanford I was unable to catch any bugs for him. Apparently that's not my talent, but i have my eyes open for adventurous spiders. I put water on a giant cabbage leaf and put that in the window - he seems to get really scared and run away whenever i spritz water on the window sill. Then i read that...

I would like to share with you an article written by a friend of mine, concerning genetically modified organisms and crops. I have heard very little on this subject but found it very interesting. I would love to hear your thoughts and if you have other resources on this subject. If i had heard of some of this stuff, i would've thought it was a joke. Say No To GMOs!!! by Laura Hoyt Monday, November 10, 2008 Playing God with the Environment Christians must realize that protecting the environment from genetically modified crops or GMOs is essential for today and future generations. First, genetically modified crops increase genetic pollution. Next, it is unknown how GMO crops will affect our health and our environment. Last, whoever is in control of the food will control the world. Christians must take a stand against this evil tactic. Many Christians are unaware of genetically modified organisms. "A genetically modified organism is a plant, animal or microorganism whose genet...

Today, i went to church #2 that i told you about. I think i've decided that that's where i'm going to stay. The church is called City of God Worship Center. Next Sunday, they celebrate their 3rd year in existence. It's a smallish congregation, but they're close to my home, and they're obviously desiring the move of God in their church and in this community. And they're working hard to make it happen and going out on limbs in faith to allow God to use them. It's easy for me to go in to a place like that and start critiquing, so i asked God to help me find what area He wants me to be used in....and to keep my critiques to myself. That's all today.

In today's economy, more and more Americans are or should be turning to organization such as Freecycle(TM) or Craigslist to find free or cheap used items from others in their communities. I've been a member of Freecycle(TM) for about a year now. I've acquired perfectly good used appliances, kitchen items, and a very unusual cat, who i have come to love dearly - all for free. I've also gotten to give away gardening items, siding, scrap appliances, and household items to very grateful receivers. The point of Freecycle(TM), in particular, is to keep usable items out of the landfill by giving them to others who might benefit from them. Sometimes when the person offering is describing the item being offered, the advertisement is kind of funny, and it's a good thing they're not asking money for this stuff. I've collected a few funny or entertaining ads that i've read, for your entertainment. Here's a fun one: the free haircut Im a licenced cosmetolo...

Yesterday was the We Surround Them event i told you about. I watched it, and i was pleased with how it turned out. The pictures that were sent in to the show were thousands. They didn't say how many came in. What they did say is that onslaught of pictures being submitted shut down the FoxNews server FIVE TIMES and that the mosaic you can see here is made up of about ONE TENTH of the pictures that came in. The show was simple, not dramatic. But it was touching and impactful to me. First, i have great respect Glenn Beck. It seems to me that it takes great courage to be someone who works for a news network (Fox or not) to stand up on national television and do something honest and forthwright and transparent. To say, "i love this country, and i fear for it," and to make the appeal to the nation to pull together and talk about what's happening and what can be done. Basically, that's what he did. He said that when it comes down to it, faith in God is the most ...

On Wednesday, the last time i wrote, i told you about Sanford, the friendly neighborhood anole lizard. And i told you that i might try to get pictures of the herd for my next post. Well, on Thursday, as it was pouring down more and more icy cold drenching rain, and my hyper dogs were losing their minds on my porch, i decided to get some pictures. Here's Barney. Isn't he sweet! Such a darling... Here's Charlie. You can't tell it so much from the pictures, but they're very very different. Charlie is more friendly than Barney, but Barney has depth. =) Here's Charlie trying to bite the camera. Here's the two of them trying to look sweet. They're very photogenic. Here's where they forget about the camera and start fighting with each other. And here's where they decide to attack the cat. Poor Stanley! Anyway, after i took all those pictures, i came back inside and thought, "hey, i could add another picture of Sanford!" It was 1 - some...

If only, to have been in the room when some very out of his/her mind courageous advertising person said to a very well-paid business executive, "let's get a llama!" What?!

O.k. i didn't get pictures of the herd today. There was this crazy cold front slash icy cold rain phenomenon that did not encourage my outdoor pet photo shoot creativity. However, i did get a picture of Sanford. Sanford has taken residence in my bathroom window. He earns his keep by entertaining my curiosity during bathroom visits, and i try to do my best to ensure that his stay in my home does not result in his death. Actually, i guess i don't know if Sanford is a girl or a guy. I just assume that all tiny animals are boys. Anyway, i've been watching Sanford, being careful not to open or close the window too quickly for fear of smashing his tiny little lizard body, making sure that the blinds are turned just right so that he can safely lie on them on sunny days to get a little sun. He has been in the window for several weeks, and i started to get worried. His color was getting duller and duller (is that a word?), and the other day i actually saw his ribs. So i sta...

This evening, at 9 - something i think, a shuttle lift off scheduled. Ever since i heard about it, i have had a serious feeling of warning about the lift-off. Please pray with me for the protection of the shuttle and the astronauts and our nation. Thanks

Here he is: my three dollar potato pantyhose . In other news, i re-acquired my digital camera today, and that is a delight i cannot easily put into words. Maybe tomorrow you will get to see pictures of my herd of hungry pets. I tried to take pictures in the dark, but one of the pets was missing, perhaps asleep somewhere, and solid black dogs don't take particularly good pictures in the daylight, much less the dead of night. Example: That large black smudge is Charlie. He made a good effort, but i woke him up mid-night-ish, and he couldn't quite get his eyes open for the picture. Stanley, on the other hand, was ready for anything.

One of the reasons i started publishing this blog is that it has become obvious to me that people like me, Christians, conservatives, people who value virtue and a free society, really need to start doing something besides grumbling about how our government is run. I am convinced, and no i can't back this up with any data, that if all American citizens got involved in standing up for what they really believe, people like me are in the majority. Therefore, true to my realization and determination to act on my values, i would like to present to you several tools, actions that you can be involved in, to help make your voice and the collective voice of people who believe the way you do - heard. I know that many of you have received forwarded emails on several of these things, but sometimes emails are circulated without the background information, so they seem like some dreamy scheme that someone concocted late at night and wrote an email about. So i've done a little bit of resear...

Overall, today was a successful day, i succeeded in completing or finding a substitute for all of my to-do's. I saw an inchworm that looked exactly like a miniature of the ones on sesame street. He was actually more like a centimeter worm, and he was really fast! I mean this little guy could really move! I watched him for a while and helped him get over a crack once. It was fun. Later i read that he's larva from something, but i stopped reading before it could make me like him less. I thought i'd share a goodness with you tonight. It's kind of personal, and it's a story to thank God with. I've been a member at CTK since '01 or '02. That was the beginning of a renewal of my relationship with God - in a really big way. Between that time and now, my husband has been far away and close and far away and close and not quite as far away in regard to the church and usually his relationship with God. Through all that time, i have been very thankful for ...