ABCs of me

Posted on by

I saw this at Dawn‘s and thought it looked like fun!

Accent: I don’t think I have one though I lived in Texas for 22 years and South Carolina for 28. In college people were surprised to find out I was from TX because they were expecting the over-drawn drawls you hear on TV.

Breakfast or no breakfast: Yes, breakfast is a must. I have low blood sugar and get a headache and then other unpleasantness if I don’t eat.

Chore I don’t care for: A toss between cleaning bathrooms (icky) and dusting (to do it right you have to pick up everything on the shelf, table, etc.). I like the results but not the process.

Dog or Cat: A dog, Suzie, half collie, half German Shepherd.

Essential Electronics: My cell phone and computer.

Favorite Cologne: I don’t wear any now — a lot of scents give me headaches — but I used to wear Emeraude or Wind Song.

Gold or Silver: Depends on what it is; I have some of each. But I probably prefer silver.

Handbag I carry most often: Just a basic black one with lots of pockets.

Insomnia: No.

Job Title: Homemaker.

Kids: Three boys, ages 23, 20, and 14.

Living Arrangements: I live in a medium-sized town with my DH of 28 years in house we’ve been in for 10 years — the longest we’ve lived in one house.

Most Admirable Trait: Dependability.

Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: Portraying heavily embellished stories as truth.

Overnight hospital stays: Seven. Three babies delivered, three surgeries (tonsils, gallbladder, thyroid), and onset of transverse myelitis.

Phobias: My family would day I probably have a phobia about unclean hands. 🙂

Quote: Oh, I love many, but one of my favorites is “God does not waste suffering, nor does He discipline out of caprice. If He plough, it is because He purposes a crop.” — J. Oswald Sanders

Reason to smile: God is in control!

Siblings: One brother, four sisters, all younger.

Time I wake up: 5 a.m. most days.

Unusual Talent or Skill: Hmmm…. I’m stuck on this one…

Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: Turnip greens (shudder!)

Worst Habit: Eating too much/wrong things.

X-rays: Yes.

Yummy Stuff: Chocolate, Mexican food, pizza.

Zoo Animal I Like Most: Monkeys

Let me know if you play along!

Book Review: The Listener

Posted on by

The Listener is an older book by Terri Blackstock, and I had picked it up somewhere along the way, but somehow hadn’t read it yet. Terri is one of my favorite authors, and I have read almost everything she’s written, so I was glad to add this one to the collection.

The premise is that a somewhat indifferent Christian man named Sam, who is more interested in getting out of church early to get to a restaurant, suddenly is gifted with the ability to hear the needs of souls around him. At first it is maddening and disturbing. He goes to his pastor, who at first thinks he needs to see a counselor, until Sam remarks on what the pastor’s heart cry is. His pastor tells him he needs to use this gift to point people to the Lord, but Sam is filled with fear and has all the standard excuses most of us do: I can just be a witness for the Lord by my life; I don’t know how to bring it up; what if someone asks me a question I can’t answer? Sam’s reaction and development of his gift and the reactions of those he talks with as well as his family and friends comprise most of the rest of the book.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot — it is a very short book, so if I disclose much more I’ll be giving the story away. But I will say I much appreciated the conclusion that we don’t need such a gift, nice as it would be, because we already know what people most need, and we have the Word of God and guidance of the Holy Spirit. But through the use of this gift as a plot device, Terri does an expert job at bringing out the problems and joys of our need to share our faith.

By the way, Semicolon hosts a weekly review of books on Saturdays: bloggers can link to book reviews on their site and/or read book reviews from others.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Candy

Posted on by

photohunters2mo1.gif

Theme: Candy | Become a Photo Hunter

My latest candy acquisition is one I showed recently since my middle son’s girlfriend gave it to me for Mother’s Day, but it fits and it’s cute, so I am showing it again. 🙂

CIMG1797

She found it at Wal-Mart.

This is a 5 lb. bag of M&Ms.

cimg0744.jpg

It doesn’t look like 5 lbs., does it?

We used them to put into favors at our Ladies’ Luncheon last year. We also had some printed in words from the Bible that matched our theme (”The Heart of the Matter”) and coordinated with our theme colors (pink and chocolate brown):

cimg0756.jpg

You can see more interpretations of this week’s theme at TN Chick’s.

Show and Tell: Handmade edition

Posted on by

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.

Last week Kelli suggested that this week we “show and tell” about things we have made. I was going to show this when I was done, but I thought I would go ahead and show you my latest work in progress.

Precious Moments cross stitch

This is the first cross stitch I have done in at least…15 years or more, I think. Many of you know that I have been having to keep my foot elevated off and on since January due to cellulitis, so I decided to do something productive with that time (though sometimes I sleep, watch TV, or read during that time). There are multitudes of mistakes in this, mainly due to miscounting, but I don’t think they’re noticeable unless you were comparing it with the pattern. The ol’ eyes aren’t what they used to be!! But I am enjoying it immensely and kicking myself for letting so much time pass without getting back into this.

The title of this pattern is “Take Tine To Be Holy” — a good reminder!

I think I’ve already shown most other things I have on hand that I have made, but here is a quick “rerun.”

Heart button wreath

Someone asked how I made this button wreath. I told more about it here, but basically I just cut the shape out of cardboard and glued the button on with a hot glue gun, using the flat, plain buttons as a base and then the decorative buttons on top.

This was made some 23 years ago when my first baby was expected or maybe after he was born. It’s put away now since all my babies are taller than I am. 😦 But it was one of my favorite pieces.

Needlework bears

image0-11.jpg

Country bear

Sampler

CIMG0175

I made the lampshade here, not the cross stitch — that was a gift from a niece. Someone asked in the comments how I made it. I wrote more about it here, but it was in a class. At the time there were patterns for how to cut out the shade plus a pattern for the decorative part available at craft stores, then an Exacto knife was used around the edges of the leaves and they were bent in a little so the light would shine through. Then the shade was glued to the top and bottom rings. I saw lampshade-making paraphernalia at Michaels’ a while back, but it was more designed for gluing fabric onto it. I googled “pierced lampshade” just now to see if patterns were still sold and got mainly places where you could buy already-made ones, but then I Googled “pattern for pierced lampshade” and found a few sources, so they’re still out there. This particular pattern was from an instruction booklet titled “Shades of Yesteryear” by Marion Pond, and I did find a copy of it just now on eBay.

Bookmarks

And lastly:

Christmas card picture

Well, God made them…I just carried them 😀

(This post was updated to answer questions from the comments section.)

Creepy things meme

Posted on by

I saw at Elle‘s this meme to name five things that creep you out. I’ve been pondering this for a few days, but since I normally try not to think of things that creep me out, it has taken me a while to come up with a list.

1. Silverfish. Yuck. Ugh! We used to find them in our attic occasionally, but thankfully I haven’t seen one in a long time.

2. Vomit. This was a fun one when my kids were little. It was all I could do not to add to the mess when they were sick. If my husband was home, he would take the child to the tub and I would take the bedding to the washer. If he wasn’t home, I’d have to clean things up in stages, taking frequent breaks to stick my head out the door and breathe. Really! If it happened on something other than bedding or a wood floor, I would feel like I could smell it for days. I would make myself miserable when I was pregnant trying to avoid vomiting, and I finally learned it was better just to get it over with.

3. Rodents of any kind.

4. When people I don’t know well invade my personal space.

5. People who don’t wash their hands after using the restrooms, especially in restaurants and grocery stores. I feel like the whole building and everything in it is contaminated.

Now I feel like I need to go do something extremely pleasant to get all this creepy stuff out of my mind again! If you’d like to share what creeps you out, let me know in the comments, and I’ll come look when my stomach’s feeling stronger. 🙂

Booking Through Thursday: Manual Labor Redux

Posted on by

btt button
The Booking Through Thursday question for today is:

Following up last week’s question about reading writing/grammar guides, this week, we’re expanding the question….

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?

Do you ever read manuals?

How-to books?

Self-help guides?

Anything at all?

I used to dutifully read every word of the manual that came with anything before doing anything else. But after awhile you get the first part of those things pretty well memorized (the safety issues, etc.), and finding just what you need to know often takes more time than just picking up the item and trying it. For most electrical appliances I’ll just skim over the manual for anything pertinent. For anything technological, I ask my sons. 🙂 If they or my husband weren’t here, I’d probably read the manual, or at least skim through it. I am just as likely these days to search the Internet: often you can find the exact answer to your exact question without having to search through pages of technical jargon.

When we were home schooling several years ago, I heard this kind of example used to discover what kind of learner you and your child are. Someone who would read the manual first would be a visual learner; someone who would want someone to show and tell him how to operate the device would be an auditory learner; someone who just started pushing buttons to figure them out would be a kinetic or tactile learner. My oldest academically oriented son was a visual learner, and he still teaches himself multitudes of things by reading. My middle son was a kinetic learner, and though to me it seemed easier to learn, say, measurements from the book, he “got it” much better (and enjoyed it more) by getting out measuring cups and pouring two 1/2 cups into 1 cup and 2 cups into a pint, etc. As for me — I think I am a combination with visual being primary. I learn different things better through different venues.

I do read self-help books, though, especially in the area of crafts and Christian living.

Quiz time!

Posted on by

I saw this one at Grams:


You Know Your States


You got 8/10 correct.

You’ve got a pretty good handle on US geography.

There’s a good chance you’ve visited at least a dozen of the fifty states.

Geography isn’t my best subject, so I was glad i did that well! Like Grams, I’d love to know which ones I missed. I just stopped to calculate a little: I have lived in three states: SC, TX, and GA. I’ve visited ID, CA, AL, TN, FL, NV, UT, SD, LA, MS, and NC. Besides those, I have traveled through the states between SC and ID, but I don’t remember what route we took. We drove there I think once in our married lives and flew every time since. I’m most familiar with the Southeast, a little less with the Northwest, and pretty unfamiliar with the Northeast and Midwest.

I saw this one at Alice’s:


You Are 57% Creative


You are a quite creative person. You’re always involved in at least on interesting project.

Keep it up and keep learning. Your creativity may bring you great things someday.

I would have thought I would have scored a little higher on that one. Probably questions about breaking the rules (in creative projects, sometimes; in life in general, not so much) and taking life seriously and being reserved seem less “creative” to some.

And I saw this one at Alice‘s as well:


You Are Classical Music


You are a somewhat serious person who enjoys studying subjects deeply.

Art of all kinds interests you, and a good piece of art can really effect you emotionally.

You are inspired by human achievement, and you appreciate work that takes years to accomplish.

For you, the finer things in life are not about snobbery – they’re about quality.

Alice, we scored the same here! I think this was pretty accurate for me.

A pleasant Mother’s Day

Posted on by

My family does a lot to make Mother’s Day special for me. I don’t remember when Jim started this, but for the last several years he has made a special Mother’s Day meal, assigning each of the boys a task. Yesterday he grilled Marinated Ham Steak (recipe at the end an overly long post there) and sausage, and set one boy to making Rice-a-Roni, one to making a salad, and one making corn on the cob. Jim shops for the ingredients on Saturday and they all work together to clean up after the meal on Sunday. It’s wonderful. Years ago I heard our then youth pastor say that in his family they took turns washing dishes for his mom on Mother’s Day, and I thought…I am glad I am in the family I am in! (For more reasons than that, of course!). Getting the dishes washed once a year is ok, but I enjoy having the whole day off. And though I enjoy a nice meal out probably more than anyone else in the family, the restaurants here are overly crowded on Sundays anyway — I can just imagine what they’re like on Mother’s Day (in fact, when we got done eating, Jim said, “I bet the folks at Outback are still in line.”) For years we have generally avoided going out to eat on Sundays anyway, but that’s a different post. I enjoy coming home to curl up with a book or putter around on the computer that one Sunday a year.

I do make breakfast as usual. Our Sunday mornings are pretty well scheduled — we just have one shower and have to get ready in shifts, so it seemed prudent to just keep that as it was.

After dinner I opened my family’s gifts. I received several books, a book of vintage-looking scrapbooking paper, a punch tool that makes a lacy edge on paper, a gift card to Michael’s, a plaque with John 13:35 on it, another plaque about Moms (which matches the plaque that son’s girlfriend gave me here about being a second Mom), and a Deluxe Scrabble game (this one happens to have black and silver features and lettering). What I like best about it is that the board is on a turntable so no player has to look at the board upside down. I love word games but can hardly ever get my family to play with me. But four of us played last night, and it was fun. And hopefully they’ll play with me again some time. 🙂

Church yesterday morning didn’t really focus much on Mother’s Day, which was unusual, but at the evening service opportunity was given for every mom who wanted to to request a verse or two of a favorite song. Though that was nice, it went on for a long time! They didn’t want to cut off anyone’s opportunity. Then there were a few testimonies having something to do with mothers, and it was interesting the variety that came up — there was one from a young mom whose baby has had complications since before birth praising God for the way He has manifested Himself through her baby’s life so far, a teen-ager thanking God for his mother’s help and support through a recent diabetes diagnosis, another thankful for his mom’s support through a family trial, a husband thankful for his wife and the good job she did with their daughters while he was often gone with his job, an older man who was thankful for the single lady who led him to the Lord and the opportunity he had in later years to lead his parents to Him. It was a blessing to hear all of those.

The last couple of Mother’s Days have had something of a pang with missing my mom. Usually in the evening after church I would call her and we’d chat – -seldom for less than an hour. There were a few moments of missing her intensely, but it wasn’t quite as hard as the last two years — maybe due to the passage of time, maybe because the time I usually talked to her was the time we were all playing my new game. We did talk to my husband’s mom later in the evening.

I have several tasks on the agenda for this week, so I had better get to them. But I want to thank my family for the lovely day and all the special and thoughtful things you did!

Mother’s Kisses

Posted on by

They’re good for bumps and good for lumps
They’re even good for dumps and grumps,
They’re good for stings of bumblebees
And barks from shinnying cherry trees.
For splinters, sunburns, “skeeter-bites,”
For injured feelings after fights,
And scratches, scratched while Tabby hisses —
Mother’s kisses.

There’s naught so pure, there’s naught so sure,
Indeed, they seem a heavenly cure,
For pounded fingers, and stubbed toes,
And all the long, long list of woes.
Yet did you ever think it queer
That while they’re fine for every fear
They’re just as fine with all the blisses —
Mother’s kisses.

~ Annie Badcomb Wheeler

A few other poems for Mother’s Day are here.

My tribute to my mom, written last year, is here. This is one of those days I most miss her.

Happy Mother’s Day!

(Graphic from Anne’s Place)

Mother’s Day Funnies

Posted on by

WHAT MOMS REALLY WANT FOR MOTHER’S DAY

* To be able to eat a whole candy bar (alone) and drink a soda without any “floaties” (ie, backwash).
* Five pounds of chocolate that won’t add twenty pounds to her figure.
* A shower without a child peeking through the curtain with a “Hi Ya Mom!” just as she puts a razor to her ankle.
* For her teenager to announce, “Hey, Mom! I got a full scholarship and a job all in the same day!”
* A grocery store that doesn’t have candy/gum/cheap toys displayed at the checkout line.
* To have a family meal without a discussion about bodily secretions.
*To occasionally get to sleep late on the weekend.
*To take a hot bath without her toddler suddenly screaming, “Mommy, I have to go potty!” as soon as she hits the water.

Laws of Parenting:

1. The later you stay up, the earlier your child will wake up the next morning.
2. For a child to become clean, something else must become dirty.
3. Toys multiply to fill any space available.
4. The longer it takes you to make a meal, the less your child will like it.
5. If the shoe fits… it’s expensive.
6. The surest way to get something done is to tell a child not to do it.
7. The gooier the food, the more likely it is to end up on the carpet.
8. Backing the car out of the driveway causes your child to have to go to the bathroom.

MURPHY’S LAWS FOR PARENTS

1. The tennis shoes you must replace today will go on sale next week.
2. Leakproof thermoses will.
3. The chances of a piece of bread falling with the grape jelly side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.
4. The garbage truck will be two doors past your house when the argument over whose day it is to take out the trash ends.
5. The shirt your child must wear today will be the only one that needs to be washed or mended.
6. Gym clothes left at school in lockers mildew at a faster rate than other clothing.
7. The item your child lost, and must have for school within the next ten seconds, will be found in the last place you look.
8. Sick children recover miraculously when the pediatrician enters the treatment room.
9. Refrigerated items, used daily, will gravitate toward the back of the refrigerator.
10. Your chances of being seen by someone you know dramatically increase if you drive your child to school in your robe and curlers.

(Authors Unknown)