Random Musings

This is going to be a VERY busy week. I have too many ideas floating in my head. There are many things to think about it. And then there are the mundane chores of life ( sigh ). We kick off in high gear in the morning as we head for Bobby's six month check-up. Don't really expect to hear anything earth shattering or unusual, but it means I'll work from noon to 4:30pm or thereabouts tomorrow. And sometime between now and next week I need to get the supplies to build a chicken pen, finish the top of my brother's wedding quilt (just the top; he won't get the final product until Christmas, or later), and I want to tackle a few craft ideas before Friday night's fun time (pricing of Lydia's yardsale stuff), but that's all tangent on paragraph two. Meanwhile, my heart/head is loaded with many thoughts and possibilities. I'm trying so hard to let my steps be led by God and not Monica, but I find it's SO easy to rationalize what I think is best or run a...

When I was a little girl, every season Mom would load us up and drive to Jasper. I'm showing my age here, but near the courthouse was a Fred's Department store and J.C.Penney. I loved walking into the JCPenney shoe section and seeing all the beautiful shoes on display...until it became time to try them on. The nice smiling sales clerk would line us up in the chairs and measure our feet, one at a time. My sisters would get several choices. I would have one, maybe two from all those monstrous lines of shoes. It stunk. And they always looked something like this: I absolutely HATED these shoes. The rise in the T always rubbed a blister, and none of the big girls had T's on their shoes. I was SO happy when I was able to get a pair with just a strap and no T to hold it in the middle. And then came the year of THE CHOICE. Penneys actually had TWO pairs of girls dress shoes in WIDE WIDTH!!!!!! Oh my oh my! One pair looked something like this: and I absolutely shocked and aggrava...

House/apartment #11: My first apartment in China was, by Chinese standards, luxurious. Maybe one day I'll have time to scan and post pictures. The entire apartment would fit in my living room now. We had an entryway, a kitchen with a balcony, a living room with a balcony, a bathroom with a real western toilet, a bathtub (but only an electric shower for the water supply), and two bedrooms. My bedroom was the smaller of the two since I was the junior teacher. It was rectangular shaped, and we were on the fourth floor. Our male teachers were on the third floor directly below us, and the foreign affairs director was directly above us. They said that way we girls would be safe. The numbers across from us were a little scared of foreigners, and many of the children took accordian lessons, providing us with many whaling exercises every night. Right outside my roommate's window was a campus loudspeaker which gave the 6am wake up call for students, news, and exercise orders (that...

After many, many years of incubators, brooder boxes, dog pen, and free range, we have managed to keep 3 geese (out of who knows how many eggs...100 perhaps?). Two of these geese made the duck house their home a month and a half ago. I boarded up the surrounding walkways to keep the dogs, raccoons, and other pedators away. We knew they had lost a few eggs (turtle, perhaps?), but yesterday WE SAW THE FIRST GOSLING! And then today: Our first set of naturally hatched goslings!!!

House #6 is actually not a house at all but dorm rooms in Polston Hall at Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, TN. Years one and two were on second floor, 3rd year on first floor, and 4 th year back on second. The door swings open and the first thing that catches your eye is the HUGE chest of drawers backed against a long desk with bookcase that divides the room in two. There's just enough space to pull out a chair and sit down before you hit the beds that line the wall. The beds were like day beds, but with a big covered shelf (covered with either 70's green or red vinyl, no less). To sleep you pulled the mattress out from under the shelf (like you'd pull out a sofa bed) and you'd have a twin-sized mattress. Each side has a closet with sliding wooden veneers for doors. The far side of the room had the air condition/heating unit and only window; the side near the door had the bars for hanging towels. Between this area was the bathroom door, which also connect...

In my three and a half decades plus, I've lived in many (and I repeat MANY) different houses. The first one I remember was in Parrish, Alabama. It had a tree in the front yard that V'ed into two trunks. I vaguely remember Mom and Dad's bedroom was down the hall on the left, the front door opened into the living which opened into the kitchen. What I remember the most about that house was the "family portrait" Mom had hanging at the end of the hallway. Dad, Mom, and my older sister. It bothered me to no end when I discovered it was my older sister in that picture and not me. I wanted Mom to take it down after that, but she wouldn't. Looking back, it's sad that I was never bothered that my younger sister wasn't in the picture. House #2: Curry, Alabama. Age 4 and three-fourths to 3rd grade. It was a big house on Smith Lake. What I remember most about that house: pulling the upstairs banister off the wall; roller skating in the unfinished basemen...

Have you ever noticed how almost everything in life has its own vocabulary? Think about it. Trek fans, Star Wars Fans, Harry Potter fans...they have their own "lingo". Then once you start reading and learning about computers, it's almost like learning a foreign language & culture...not only are there words and terminology you've never heard and must figure out how to use correctly, but there's also totally new things to discover as well! This morning I got my feet wet in the language of chickens. Chick - newly hatched, usually under 1 month old Pullet - a female (hen) under 1 yr Cockerel - a male (rooster) under 1 yr Coop - the house were the chicken roosts & nests Roosts - how a chicken/rooster perches on a pole or board to sleep at night (or chill during the day) Run - the "pen" for a chicken; a totally enclosed area where he/she can run around Broody - a hen who wants/tries to nest (even if she has no eggs) I hope there's not too many more...

Every year a group of city chicken owners (people inside the Beltline who own chickens) host a Chicken Tour of their backyards. For the cost of a bag of canned goods or staple food items, or a cash donation, people can acquire a map that has all the locations plus a description of each place. (All proceeds go to Urban Ministries.) Here's my favorites from today: a converted shed Bobby's favorite - the 15 nesting boxes are only PART of this collection. The owner actually has 35 chickens in three different sets. We got a few ideas from them, I loved their yard's landscaping, and we heard an idea that I hope Bobby forgets. my favorite sign of the day a dollhouse/playhouse in the process of being converted into a chicken house. I like how the side was hinged to open (the front door does as well. The nesting box is small, but seeing as the family only has 2 chickens they really don't need a huge one. We didn't see everything on the map, but a few of them we sa...

Lately I have been absolutely astounded at what teen girls are allowed to wear. Granted, I don't envy the parents' job in the least little bit, but that doesn't eradicate their responsibilities. Case in point #1): A young girl (under 15) goes with the fishing with the family and her boyfriend. She wears swimming clothes. (Swimwear in and of itself is entirely another discussion). While wearing a skimpy two piece, she stands extremely close to the guy on more than one occasion while in front of her parents. If you don't have at least three red flags going on in your mind as you read this paragraph, you might not want to read any further as your common sense was buried some time back. Case in point #2): A mother allows her teen daughter to purchase t-shirts several sizes larger because the junior-sized t-shirts were designed to ride above the belly button and squeeze whatever humps may be. Problem? The low-cut design (which is only lower on a short torso) and loos...

For the third time this year it has happened. I eat totally healthy (or at least 98% healthy) for a day or two and then BAMM ! - a migraine hits hard and heavy. Maybe I'm allergic to fruits or salads, even though I like them. Maybe I'm allergic to diet drinks or juice. I don't know. I suppose some critics would say all three migraines also happened when the atmosphere was in a severe flux, or my body was simply very tired. All these things may be true, but it does make a gal stop and ponder. Man shall not live by bread alone, says the Word. But note it doesn't say we have to do without it, either. If only it said the same thing about chocolate.

It's official. According to Facebook, that is. I'm a full-fledged Yankee. The reality is, I'm a hermit red-neck from Central Alabama and I've never really cared what people in Louisiana, southern Florida, or southern Mississippi did. That had no bearing on my life whatsoever. Now, give me a quiz on "You know you're from Alabama if..." and I'll pass with decent colors. Maybe I should learn how to write my own quizzes.

Last night I had the fabulous opportunity of talking to my nephew, who is 9, on the telephone. This is in itself is almost miraculous. I was thrilled he came to the phone (even if I asked so his mom could quickly take care of something she needed to do), and even more thrilled that I got a few sentences that were more than one word answers. Wednesday morning my hometown of Cordova , AL was hit by a tornado. I peppered him with questions, and one of his answers reminded me of a part of my childhood I had forgotten: the hallway chatter. In the Walker County School system, schools have two types of drills that happen on a regular basis: fire and tornado. During a tornado drill, you grab a hard-back textbook, exit the room in single file, line up, crouching, with your back against the wall in the hall, tuck your head between your knees, and hold the opened textbook over your head. If a teacher knows it's a drill and not the real thing, sometimes you can take the book off your head o...

When I was a little girl, Channel 11 News had a special commercial about weather preparedness. It showed an elementary school in Birmingham where the kids were going through a tornado drill (like the fire drills, they were supposed to be practiced monthly), and then it flipped to scenes of the same school after a tornado had hit it. But of course, these kids were prepared and they knew EXACTLY what to do when a tornado hit. I wanted my school to be in that commercial so bad I could hardly stand it. Every time a tornado passed through the area, we all hoped we would be the ones to go to school the next day and talk about losing a porch or having a tree on Dad's truck or having our tornado wrapped around the pine trees out back. I was never one of the "lucky" kids who had such excitement. The church I grew up in was also a gathering place during storms, because it had a basement. Every time the weather got bad Daddy (or all of us) would have to go to the church so peop...

One day when I showed my husband Sara's blog , he sat there and stared a minute, then said something like, "I wonder if she'd come to our house and think it's really plain, like an empty canvas." And I've thought about the "empty canvas" a few times. For example, in our front entryway there are two places that are about the same size as a canvas in my artroom . Yet I would never think of painting something there, and it would have never ever crossed my mind had Sara not opened up that line of thought and possibility. We also have a tray ceiling in the living room, and my nephew informed me he thought it was the perfect place to line up pictures of him and our other nieces and nephews. I laughingly declined, but later it made me ponder how I could see a simple space but he saw a place in need of something. I think our days in life are that way. The last two mornings have been those hard to get up and going days, and yet both days have been very fu...

Goals are nice. Projects are fun. Meeting and completing each of them is wonderful! But I have these little detours, diversions, unexpected events (fancy names of other projects) that always pop up. For example... One of my goals for April was to clean out the freezer. BUT my big freezer is in the laundry room, and who would be crazy enough to empty a freezer amidst a pile of stuff to be ironed. SOooo , I'm happy to report that the laundry room is almost empty, and if everything goes according to plan (like it ever does), then I will be cleaning out the freezer on Wednesday afternoon. Another goal was to cover the garden aisles. I am happy to report that the entire garden is now planted, 3/4 of a fence is up for the climbing snow peas (thanks Jeff and Tommy!), and 1/2 of the garden has pine straw on top of newspaper in its aisles in hopes of eliminating weeds. Perhaps within the next two weeks I will finish raking and placing pine straw . After I use the lawnmower on the g...

Crazy days with crazy mess More than I can do myself Protocol from my past Demands that I must pass the test. But Sarah had a maid. Little kids in need of homes In need of love, a place to roam Wisdom says the man's too old To start a family that will grow But Abram had a child. Pack of donuts on my desk Powdered white as I like best No one's here to ever know Where that little pack will go But gluttony's still a sin. Use your talents and your brain; Don't waste your life - the world's refrain I have no kids but a semi-career And struggle to keep it all in gear. But is that cleaving to my spouse? Big boxy shoes I hate to wear Along with makeup and high-maintenance hair. Yet I wonder what people think And keep a style somewhat in sync. But isn't that lilies in the field? We talk the talk Teach the truths Dress up in our Sunday suits But how does it live in today?