Random Musings

From last week's ice storm: (Broken off the hen house; left a good 2" in the chicken wire next to the roof) 17" icicle The dogs weren't too crazy about the ice last week. Buster enjoyed running and sliding some, but Little Dog stayed in the insulated dog house most of the time. The snow was a different story, however. Both dogs played and played and played. The funniest part was when I threw a stick, and Buster actually got a mouth full of snow picking it up. He had the strangest look on his face, chomped his jaws a few times, bent down to pick up the stick, dropped it, and repeated the above process.  What? You're going inside? Already? I've still got three more sticks and two tennis balls! Once the chickens realized the snow wasn't the same as ice, they headed out. I don't know why, but their prints always make me laugh. And amidst the melting snow, flowers are coming up. (The small ones in the middle are bulbs I planted th...

I had set the alarm this morning so we could take my car to the Honda dealership to replace some parts that have been recalled, only to have my husband inform me we weren't going anywhere. We now have a good 2" of snow on the ground, and it's still (as of 4:54pm) lightly falling. I've not looked at the weather forecast, but I think there may be more on the way in the next two days. The chickens are treating the snow the same way they treated the ice last week...mostly staying in. The dogs are liking the snow (they tolerated the ice and slid around some for fun) and have continued their daily ritual of chasing each other. They're not happy because I won't go outside and play, and Buster recently started chasing all the birds eating seed off the ground. I guess he's bored. FedEx and UPS haven't been to our neighbors today, and he loves to race the trucks (inside the fence line). Meanwhile, I've done some family research and baking. No sewing yet t...

Saturday night a movie came on about the beginnings of Facebook. I had read some of the controversial reviews while it was in the theaters, and was curious to see what it was really all about. Many parts of it were very disturbing for various reasons, but there was one stupid part that made us laugh. One of the characters was a pledge for a Harvard fraternity, and one of the things he was required to do was carry a live chicken with him everywhere he went. He was in the cafeteria, and the only thing they were serving that day was chicken. He "had" to feed his chicken, so he cut his meat up into small pieces and put it in the chicken's cage. The chicken ate it. Some students saw it and became outraged that one of the Harvard Facebook founders (it was then for Harvard students only) was encouraging cannibalism and animal cruelty that it created quite a rift between its founding partners. We laughed over that for several reasons. One, the boy wasn't smart enough to go ...

 Lighting the candles at Aunt Linda's 70th birthday (Right: Niki, Aunt Lin, Jennifer, Krista)  Niki's lighter had the LARGEST flame of any I have ever seen. Everyone was laughing about her having a blow torch. She turned it down to the lowest setting, but it was still sending up huge flares (as you can see in the above picture). And when I gathered eggs yesterday...one of them had not only frozen but split open. That doesn't happen here very often!

A week ago today (to be exact) we had the opportunity to see Carly play in her last basketball game of the year. We were a little late leaving, so we didn't arrive at the school until halftime. The games were at Sumiton Christian Academy. I knew where the school was located, but had never actually visited the campus. We arrived. Went inside the gym, and met my brother-in-law on his way out. I heard him ask the lady at the ticket table "Where are the 9&10 year olds? I've been waiting to see my daughter's team come out for an hour." The lady laughed a little and said "They're in a different gym." She then gave him directions. I hated he had to wait that long, but was thankful we met him when we did or we would have missed her entirely! When we arrived at the 2nd gym, a group of parents with 7&8 year olds were asking when their team would play, and the ticket table was sending them to the gym where we had just left. Crazy! Carly after ge...

Last night I watched the Duke/Carolina game. For my AL family, it's the basketball equivalent of the Iron Bowl, except weirder. For one thing, it's a private college (Duke) against the state's oldest public university (UNC). When my sister-in-law was accepted to both schools many years ago, her acceptance letter from Duke included the amount and deadline for the first payment. The amount of the payment decided that Duke was not an option. Another thing that is insanely crazy is this ticket system they have for awarding students tickets to the games. Students at Duke have to camp outside in the dead of winter. They take roll every morning (rumor has it many students don't sleep there but just put there stuff up and register and then show up at roll call) and the ones surviving at the end of the time period get tickets to certain games. The Duke fans call themselves Cameron Crazies. (Cameron is the name of the stadium.) And after watching them during the ballgame la...

No photographs from today's ice storm. The dogs seemed to love sliding on the ice, though, and seemed to think it a bit strange how slow I was walking to the chicken pen. And when I shoveled the ice from the edge of the driveway, Buster kept licking me in the face and Little Dog was standing on the shovel. Not the most productive use of my time. Had a great time with family this weekend, even if the time was short. We managed to surprise my aunt for her 70th birthday, though she kept us wondering up until the last minute whether or not we could pull it off. My job was to try and get her to the church. It took many of us pushing and prodding (at the last minute, that was literally true as my Mom grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the doorway! Bobby asked me who was holding whom?) and scheming. Our last resort, which we didn't have to use, would be that Bobby and I would go to her house and ask for a quick tour of Carbon Hill, which he's never had, and once we had her...

Ever since the National Prayer Breakfast, Facebook and editorials in the newspaper have been popping with articles, memes, and comments (both pro and con) about the President's remarks that Christians should not get on a moral high horse when it comes to Islamic violence. He then proceeded to list some examples of Christian violence, such as the Crusades, the Jim Crow laws, and slavery. So, here's a religious quiz for you: 1. Women are beaten and raped because they have a different faith. Where and by whom did this happen? A. in countries with a high Muslim population to any infidel B. in Tibet to non-Buddhists before the communist take-over C. in Italy to the Waldensian women who were Protestants and not Catholics D. all of the above 2. People are burned alive at stake for being heretics. Where and by whom did this happen? A. In Europe to the Arminians by the followers of John Calvin B. In Salem, Massachusetts, America to anyone accused of being "a witch...

This last month I've read Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi and The Year of Living Biblically, by AJ Jacobs. And both have been interesting and enlightening. Bobby wasn't as excited about the first one as I was (he wasn't thrilled with all of Qureshi's theology, though I don't remember exactly what he found distasteful). But I enjoyed reading through his childhood thoughts and teachings, as well as his questions and answers about Christianity. Some of it also left me feeling very stupid. While I appreciated his scientific analogy of the trinity, it was over my head. Maybe if I had studied chemistry in college I might grasp the concepts, but I didn't. On a different level, Jacobs' book came from a very different mindset, addressed a slew of different questions, and had a very different ending. Jacobs is an agnostic Jew, so it was interesting reading his perceptions of the Torah and New Testament. I was pleasantly surprised to read what he had...

and...the Quilting page has been updated. :)