Miscellany Monday

First

Had a busy weekend with two of the grandchildren. They came over while their parents went on a haul to Alabama. The litle one rolled off her toddler mattress and somehow ended up under my bed. The bigger one played "office" at my desk most of the weekend.

Second

Been lovin' the weather. Beautiful days and cool evenings. It's playing havoc with my A/C though. Can't decide if I need heat or air. So we just compromise and do a mixture of both. I did find that with the new arrangement of my office, my hallogen desk lamp now sets in such a way that it not only lights up the dark area of the desk, but puts off just enough heat to know the chill off the early morning.

Third

Had a wonderful Sunday School lesson yesterday followed by an awesome sermon. Went back to church last night and really enjoyed the sermon again. Our new pastor is very inspiring.

Fourth

Spent Saturday evening baking 3 dozen chocolate cinnamon cookie cakes with chocolate icing. I modify a recipe from a magazine for red velvet cookies to make this one. They were a hit. I have 101 new cookie recipes so I'll be experimenting for a while. Lots of friends will be receiving cookies this year for Christmas.

Armchair traveler

There are so many places I long to see. But my fear of flying will prevent me from ever actually going to some of them in person. The best I can do is visit them in books and watch for them on National Geographic. But there are some in the U.S. that are very doable. Here is my wish list for trips in the order I would take them if I could go anywhere I wanted to go.

The Jordan River

Cattleranch in Texas

The Grand Tetons in Wyoming

The Assateague Island to see the wild horses on the beach in Virginia/Maryland

A whale watching cruise at Virginia Beach (The himpback whale migrates there in the winter. January & February is the best time to go here.)

The City of Lights, Paris France

The Ancient Ruins of Corinth

The Highlands and Moors of Scotland



Ireland





The Wine Country in France

Bon Voyage!

When a good idea goes bad......

It was a good idea at the time. In fact, I was impressed with my own brilliance. But, apparently, I didn't think it through.

I have a pack and play I bought with my first grandchild to have as a spare bed when they visit. My two year old granddaughter, Shelby, is getting to that age where it is hard to lay her down inside it when she is asleep. But I'm afraid to put her in the spare bedroom with her brother because it is a sleeper sofa and I'm afraid if she fall out of bed, she would hurt herself on the metal frame that holds the mattress. Plus she still wakes up at night and is a little disoriented and I like her being close by for me to comfort her.

So, I had this wonderful brainstorm. I would borrow her mattress from her toddler bed and put it in the floor beside my bed. I fixed it up with her favorite blankies and a nice soft pillow. I tucked my spare pillows around the mattress so if she rolled off, she would just roll onto a pillow. Pretty good idea....or so I thought.

Around 4:00, as usual, I hear a little sobbing and wimpering as she wakes up and is in need of some Mamaw comfort. I don't want to turn a light on and wake her completely up, so I step off the bed and kneel on the spare pillow to lift her up off the mattress. She's not there. So I feel further down in the bed. No Shelby. I start patting the pillow around the bed and tell my husband, I can't find her. "Shelby where are you?" And I hear this precious little voice wimper the words "I stuck under you bed".

I freaked. Papaw jumped up and turned the light on and there she was half way under my bed with her binkie and blankie laying on her belly. I said "Shelby, what are you doing." And she looks around at me and says "I try to get out."

How not to chuckle at the situation. I tell her to back up and she does so I get her feet and gently slide her out the rest of the way. She grabs me and hugs me and says "Mamaw B, I stuck."

What is the first thing that goes through a grandmother's mind at a time like this. Well, for me it was, "Oh my gosh, how am I going to tell her mom she got stuck under my bed in the middle of the night."

So the next morning, I text her Mom and Dad about it. They are on the way to Alabama. They didn't respond immediately. My text message beeps and with trepidation in my heart, I prepare myself for the lecture I know is coming. When they finally respond, my daughter has written:

"Oh my gosh!! We are both laughing so hard we have tears in our eyes." So much for my worry that she will be worried.

Are we a warped family or what??

I think the next time I have a good idea, I won't be so fast to act on it.

Going Batty

I have been seeing on several blogs lately where they are posting mantels and houses which display Halloween decorations. I have a couple of jack-o-lanterns, a cute little ghost cookie jar, a cloth witch with an apron that holds candy. All tastefully done and cute as can be.

When the kids were little and had friends over, we would go the fake cobweb route with a few plastic spiders. We had the skeleton and black cats.

But one thing I've seen in home decor this year that I never used was Bats. Decorating with bats? Not a-gonna happen with this old gal. I can handle a lot of things and can chase a mouse or kill a spider. But I cannot and will not ever be attracted to bats.

When I was a little girl and Daddy wanted to get us to come in at dusk in the summertime, he would tell us about bats and what attracted them. One thing he would tell us (because we were out there playing ball) was that if we threw the ball too high, the bats radar would detect it and it might swoop down toward the ball. Of course, then Jack and Andy had to throw the ball in the air to see if it worked. Well, that was all I needed to hear. Bath time here I come.

Then when I was 20 and pregnant with my twins, I lived in the 3rd floor attic of an old house that had been converted into three apartments. We had an outside entrance and climbed 2 flights of stairs to get to our apartment. The stairwell was lit by one small bulb. We came home late one night and when we opened the door and started into the stairwell, a bat flew out and zoomed low over our heads. I freaked out. I'll never know what kept me from going into labor or why my kids weren't scarred for life.

So I guess you can see why I do not have any fondness whatsoever for bats. I will not ever consider buying a bat for a decoration for anything. Too freaky for me.

O My Glory!

Sometimes mere words cannot express the happiness we feel inside. I love this song that was sang by Candy Christmas. The words really touch my heart since they remind me of my children's godfather. He would get so blessed at church that he would would just stand up and cry and wave his hands and say Glory. I still have such fond memories of that little country church, sitting on top the hill up the hollow where I grew up. Junior, this one's for you.......

O MY GLORY!

Charlie was a man about 69, he went to our church back in the Georgia pines

He lost his wife and his kids were gone but every Sunday night after the special song

The preacher’d ask the people to testify Charlie’d stand up with a gleam in his eye

He never was a man of very many words, most the time all that we heard was

O my glory, glory, glory that was all that he said that was his story

O my glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, o my!

Well he looked kinda funny with that big old grin.

I said “hey, hey momma what’s the matter with him”

She pulled me up close and then she took my hand

She said someday, baby you will understand.

Sunday after Sunday during prayer meetin’ night

Charlie’d stand up when the feelin’ was right,

He’d raise both his hands and he’d start to cry

Then he’d open up and testify…and he’d say

O my, glory, glory, glory that was all that he said that was his story

O my, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, o my

Many years later I went back to see if that little country church was how it used to be

Momma and daddy and Charlie were gone

But when the preacher got up after the special song

Something very strange began to happen to me

I was shakin’ all over I was weak in the knees

I stood there cryin’ and I tried to explain

But Charlie’s words were all I could say and I said

O my glory glory glory that was all I could say that was my story

O my glory glory glory glory, glory,glory o my

Do Not Delete God

I was working on the church website this morning. I'm in the process of updating our link page. As I was cutting and pasting info for each link, I realized I had pasted the start of the next sentence that I wasn't using. It was one extra word. I went to delete it and saw the word was God. My fingers hesitated over the delete key. My mind filled with remorse. I thought to myself "I can't delete God. It felt like I was ready to commit a mortal sin. It was a typographical error and I did not need that sentence in what I was doing, but yet, my heart stopped at the mere thought of deleting that one word.

But yet, we do not have that same problem in deleting God from our daily lives. Even the strongest. stoutest Christian will occasionally delete God unintentionally. Do we prayer, never ceasing, to ask for His guidance and help in whatever challenges we meet? Do we wait only until we are at that lowest point when we have no where else to turn before we utter a word for Him to help us? Do we wake up in the morning with a smile on our face and a joy that He has provided us with one more day to live? Or do we slap the snooze button until the last minute, only to jump up and rush around to get everyone ready and out of the house on time, not even taking a minute to thank Him for another day?

When others are lambasting His name or criticizing our beliefs, do we quietly stand there and not comment simply because we make it a point to never discuss religions? Do we let them think our silence is an agreement with them? Does it make us look ashamed of our Lord and our Christianity?

As I look back over my life, I stand amazed at the things I struggled with, the conversations I avoided, the things I didn't do, because I "didn't want to cause a scene." How many times did I unintentionally "delete" God? It wasn't because I wanted to, it wasn't because I don't love Him. It is simply because it is human nature to take the simple path. To travel the easy road. We don't want to rile or defend, yet we let others destroy His name, mock him and ridicule our beliefs.

From this day forward, I'm urging all of you to take a stand with me. Let's cover that delete button and make sure we keep Him the central point of our life.

Monday Madness

Today if going to be one of those days. My to do list is growing bigger by the moment. I've taken on a couple of new projects so I've had to do some rearranging in my home office. I had to move my mahogany file cabinet into my husband's office and get me a four drawer one. We have limited space so this involved several things shifting and moving to new locations. I now have the wonderful task of sorting and piling to decide what files go where and how I want the layout of the top of my desk.

So I spent some time yesterday getting the basics done like the furniture moved. There was a nice little side table that I was able to incorporate into my office as a decoration....right up until the point I remembered I had to find some place to put the laser printing I'm going to go get this morning. So I'm back to square one on what goes where.

Some days, I love the task of de-cluttering and re-organizing. Some days I don't. I can tell this is going to be one of those days that I do. I woke up with lots of fresh ideas and have already moved everything around on my desk and freed the clutter there.

A few more things to do then I get to head out to Staples for my printer and a few more organizing tools. I love that store. It is one of my weaknesses. Hoping to find some bargains.

Prayers for a great day for each of you.