i Ascribe

During one week this summer i had a great time volunteering at my church's day camp - similar to vacation bible school. Every day, the camp staff would nominate a helpful and well-behaved camper boy and girl to be the 'Campers of the Day.' Then at the end of the day, those campers would be honored with a gift and the privilege of carrying the 'camper-of-the-day flag' the next day, which came with certain privileges. One beautiful little girl who has autism wanted desperately to be the camper of the day. And every day, she fully expected to be named as the camper of the day. And when she wasn't, she would get out of her seat, walk up to the camp director at the podium and plead, often with tears, "Come on! Gimme chance!" This beautiful little girl has come back to my mind over and over. 'Cause some days i feel just like that. I've done all i can do, man. Just gimme a chance! And then i think of her, and i am blessed, and she makes me smi...

If you are following the chicken saga. From Chicken to Dumplings - My First Time may or may not be an enjoyable read.

Yesterday, i re-watched a decade-old movie with my husband. The movie's name is Armageddon . For those of you who have not seen or don't remember this movie, i will sum up the parts that relate to this post. In the movie, it comes to the attention of NASA that a literally earth-shattering-sized asteroid is headed directly for Earth. The scheme is derived to send men to the asteroid to drill a hole in it, in which a nuclear bomb will be inserted and detonated. According to the plan this precisely placed nuclear bomb will split the asteroid in two pieces, and the earth will be saved. A man named Harry Stamper, who is considered by others in his field to be the world's best oil driller, is recruited to help NASA figure out how to drill an 800 foot hole in an asteroid and is eventually recruited, along with his team of unlikely suspects, to go to space with NASA and drill the necessary hole. In the end *spoiler alert* the trigger for the bomb malfunctions because of a rock...

Cocoa Oatmeal Cookies 1 cup butter flavored crisco (or shortening, whatever) 1 cup white sugar 1 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 3 cups oats Use large bowl. Mix everything except flour, cocoa, and oats. Add cocoa and flour and mix well with wooden spoon. Add oats and continue to mix with wooden spoon until well mixed. Spoon teaspoon size amounts of dough onto cookie sheets and bake @350 degrees for 8-9 minutes. They won't look done, but they will stiffen as they cool. Oh yum! Super yum! I would post pictures, but they're all gone!

I've been trying to stock up on canning jars for the day when our efforts start to prove a little bit more profitable, and we have stuff to can. God has blessed me in that. I was given tons, which are on my shelf - the shelf that i really needed so that i would have some place to put my jars. Then today, i was in the Senior Center thrift store in Coldspring (which is one of my favorite places to shop), and i had given up on getting anything today and was on my way out of the store, when i saw this: Three dozen jars for $4.00! Rockin'! Oh here's a little tip i just recently learned: Classico spaghetti sauce comes in canning jars! They're not quite as big, but there totally usable and made by the same company that makes the canning jars that are actually sold for that purpose. Awesome, huh?

Recently, i've started looking into getting a job. You know, the kind you have to leave home to do - and then someone gives you a paycheck for doing it? Yeah, a job. James makes plenty of money for us to live happily at our little home. But we have a few lofty goals that we would like to put on fast forward. So, it seems appropriate that i find a way to bring in a little extra cash. James was talking to someone he knows about some possible insider job information, and he told this person about me, "she's steady as the mail." He has said this kind of thing about me before, so i asked him, "do you think i'm steady as the mail, honey?" "At work," he said simply. I laughed out loud, and i don't think he understood why. The information omitted speaks volumes. I guess i need to work on my home steadiness. Haha!

Believe it or not, i do have interests outside of the world of raising chickens. I know. Shocker! One of those interests is genealogy. For whatever reason, something inside of me is absolutely fascinated by the study of family lines and histories and whatnot. One item of interest that i have discovered is that in a particular one of my family lines (and incidentally a particular one of my husband's family lines - but that's a different point of interest and not yet fully explored), every one of the immigrants to the U.S. seems to have originated from a place called Canton of Berne, Switzerland. I have also discovered three (so far) near-the-turn-of-the-last-century publications, outlining lineages within my family tree. These books are old enough that they are out of copyright and now available FOR FREE on Google Books. Google Books has become an awesome resource for genealogical research for me. Sometimes, in these books, a footnote or an introduction will reveal interes...