Category Archives: Faith and Religion

I’m Here

Oh, I just want to have some time to upload some pictures and get some things written down here. I have been sewing my fingers to the nubbins and baking and decorating and taking the dogs walks and trying to throw some feed and water at the chooks as I pass by. My hens haven’t had a lot of my time lately. When I go out in their yard they all surround me and you should hear the clucking, tsking, and garbled talking. I actually thought I heard a word come out of one of their beaks the other day. I looked at her and said, “Penninah, what did you say?” and she just kept clucking up a storm. I heard a bird last summer as it was swooping down and I felt like I was Snow White and the bird said something to me. It was really weird. I am sure you are thinking I am weird, but I know what I heard.

Anyway, I cannot believe Christmas is just four days away. Is it earlier this year? Seems there was no time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I want to grasp the meaning of the season and keep it close for a while. I watched the Mormon Tabernacle choir’s Christmas special the other day and it was amazing and really was filled with the true Christmas spirit. On the same channel there was a story about Handel and how he came to write the Messiah. I have never heard the entire thing. I have sung in a choir that sang the Halleluhah chorus and have heard it many times, but there is so much more to Handel’s Messiah. It is the story of the Christ and why he came to earth and died for us all. Handel gave proceeds from some of his concerts to pay the debts of those in debtor’s prison. He paid the debts he did not owe for them who owed and could not pay. Sounds exactly like what Jesus did for us on the cross. He paid our sin debt so that when we die, we won’t have to pay it. We all have sinned. Not one of us gets out of this life without sinning. A tiny babe comes into the world wanting only what it wants. Unless it is shown the proper path, it will continue a lifetime of sin because of its sinful nature. That is how we all are born. But Jesus paid our sin debt. That is why we sing Halleluhah to Him.

Speaking of animals and birds talking, when I was a little girl I heard a story about how the animals talk at midnight on Christmas Eve. I always wanted to go out to the barn and hear if our cows, pigs or dogs were talking to one another. What if I go out to the chicken coop this Christmas Eve and peek in on the girls and maybe I will hear a conversation that is going on like this….” Well, did you see the egg Ada laid today. What a show off. She thinks she’s better than all the rest of us because her eggs are larger than ours.” Another hen will answer, “Now, Jemimah, it’s Christmas and we should love one another and just try harder to lay bigger eggs ourselves.” In which Abigail will pitch in, ” Would you ladies please stop your talking? I’m trying to roost over here.” Phoebe will laugh and say, “Hey, it’s the only night of the year we can speak. Too bad there isn’t any humans out here to hear us.” I will be giggling softly to myself as I listen to them, thinking I need to teach them some grammar. Then suddenly Freedom, being the watcher and protector of them all screeches, “Zip your beaks, ladies, we have company!” and suddenly all becomes quiet in the chicken coop. Anyway, that is what I imagine I would hear. Then I would walk back to the house and suddenly my dogs would start singing Christmas carols to me. Now that would be a fun Christmas Eve!

My next post will have pictures and I still have that story about Christmas when I was a little girl. Hope you are getting things wrapped and baked and visiting with family and friends, but save a little time to give to the babe who was born two thousand years ago just for us. Bye.

Dusting Out the Cobwebs and Christmas Thoughts

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Whew, is the time going as fast for you as it is for me? My blog has a few cobwebs from being neglected for several days. I have stories to tell and pictures to show, but I have been extremely busy or at least it seems like the days are going by so fast that I think I must have been busy. While we were getting the tree set up today, David and I were commenting on how it just seemed like we had put it away. The years are starting to run together now and time is speeding up. I don’t know if God is winding the world down and getting ready to send His Son, but it seems something is happening.

I have noticed a strange, but lovely glow lately. I got up the other morning and rays of light were streaming in the upstairs windows. Not your ordinary streams of light. Very different. I went downstairs and the same thing was happening there. I just stared at it and thought to myself, God is getting ready for something.

As we prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth I have a fear that there are too many who don’t believe Jesus is God’s Son and that He was sent here specifically to die for all mankind as a human sacrifice for all our sins. He really lived on earth and talked about His Father in heaven and taught us how we should love one another. But, did you know Jesus talked about hell more than he talked about heaven? He does not want one person to go there, but sadly, many will. And it won’t be anyone’s fault but their own. God does not send anyone to hell, they send themselves. I know this is deep stuff for the Christmas season, but it makes me think of why Jesus came to earth as a tiny baby in a manger over two thousand years ago and though after He became an adult, He only preached and taught for three years, He made such a huge impact on the world that He is still touching people’s lives today. No man who has lived before or since has made such a difference to the world.

As we prepare to celebrate His birth, put aside the presents, the tree, the lights, the sometimes goofy Christmas movies and think about this man whose life has touched us all in some way. He even touches atheists lives because they spend so much of their time denying Him and trying to get Him out of the public arena. Funny that. To try to get a man’s name removed that they don’t even believe in. Jesus did live on earth. Many witnesses attested to that fact. Many saw His cruel death on the cross and then the empty tomb. No one ever saw His grave because you know what? There isn’t any. He rose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of his Father in heaven. One day, and it could be very soon or it could be a thousand years from now,(since a day is like a thousand years to God) He will return and take those of us who believe in Him to Heaven to live with Him forever. Because of God’s timing, Jesus has only been back in Heaven for two days so it may be a few more of His days before He returns.

I am thankful God sent His only Son just for us because He loves us so much. You, me, everybody. I love the Christmas season just because of that. If it weren’t for Jesus, it would be an empty holiday for me. Some say, well, Jesus was probably born in the Springtime. Perhaps, but December 25 is when Christians have chosen to celebrate His birth and I can accept that. Some have made a mockery of the holiday. Some think it’s just about presents. But it is much more important than that. Giving gifts is fun and represents the greatest gift God gave us all. But if next year, I did not get one gift or could not buy one gift for another, I would still celebrate Christmas for its true meaning. Some say it’s a pagan holiday. Perhaps at one time it was. Some still treat it as such, but for Christians around the world it is a holy day. One to remember the greatest gift of all.

I will soon be sharing a Christmas story from when I was a girl in the fifties. Christmas has always been special to me and always will be. A light shines at this time of year that doesn’t shine at other times. Enjoy it for what it is. A special time for family and friends. A time to remember loved ones with whom you shared Christmases past. A time of joy for those who truly believe. Peace, love, joy and Merry Christmas. Bye.

What I am Reading

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A couple of years back, someone asked me if I read books. I immediately knew exactly how Sarah Palin felt when she was asked that inane question by a silly so-called journalist who evidently hadn’t done her homework. Of course she reads. How else could she have ever become a governor of a state? It was a question posed to make her look stupid, but she is still around and the so-called journalist isn’t. I am sure Sarah Palin felt that was an insulting question because men politicians are never asked a question like that. Okay, that’s all the politics for the day. Anyway, when I was asked that question I felt slightly insulted and amazed that there was someone who knew me and didn’t know I loved to read. But I nicely told this person, “yes, I do read.”

I may look like a dumb blonde, and some may think so, but I read incessantly. I have to have a book to read at all times. I read magazines, books, and Bible studies. I read several blogs that are very interesting. There are many talented writers out there who have their little blogs and should be writing novels, I’m telling you.

Anyway, yes, I do read books and here is what is on my bedside table right now.

A wonderful daily devotional that makes one feel that Jesus is actually writing to them. It seems each day, the subject covered fits what I am going through at that particular moment.

Ahh, Pride and Prejudice. I have had this little paperback book for ages. I think I got it at a garage sale once. I kept telling myself I should read it. I have seen many adaptions of the book in movies. The one with Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett was kind of silly, I thought. But Lawrence Olivier was wonderful as he always was and so handsome as Mr. Darcy. Then there was the nightmare that was Keira Knightly as Elizabeth that was made in the last few years. I don’t even remember the Mr. Darcy in that version. I am sorry, but I didn’t like that version at all. Maybe it was because I was spoiled by the best version ever. My very favorite Elizabeth was Jennifer Ehle in A and E’s adaptation. And who could forget Colin Firth? Sigh. He is the only Mr. Darcy as far as I am concerned. I have that version on tape and think I will watch it soon again. I finally read the book and just loved it. I could see Elizabeth(Jennifer Ehle) and Mr. Darcy(Colin Firth) so vividly in my mind’s eye.

The Reader’s Digest. My mother use to take it for years and I took it for years also. I think I got this particular book at an antique store where I buy a lot of my books now. I am reading Fannie Flagg’s “Welcome to the World, Baby Girl.” I read Norah Robert’s “River’s End” years ago. Both very good.

Our church has a Christian book library and I get a book out of there once in a while and this is the one I am reading now.

Gladys Tabor’s book, “Stillmeadow Calendar.” Ms. Tabor use to write for Woman’s Day, I think, and I would read her articles in my mother’s magazine. She wrote homey things about keeping house and a farm and doing all the things that come with that. I found this book at an antique store and read a little bit from it once in a while.

Jan Karon has a new book out about Mitford, hurrah, hurray. If you have not read any of her books about the little southern town of Mitford and Father Tim, you have missed something wonderful. I have read the whole series three times through and will probably one day read them again as they are so good. It’s been a while since Ms. Karon has written about Mitford and I cannot wait to get into this one. We visited the town of Blowing Rock, North Carolina last fall, which I wrote about in my blog. The books were based on a town just like Blowing Rock where Ms. Karon lived for a time.

There is always a book on my Kindle. I love my Kindle because I can read in the middle of the night without turning any lights on and waking David.

We did some antiquing Saturday and among the things I bought were some more books.

Since Christmas is just around the corner, I thought this book would be nice to read. I saw the made for tv movie from it and it was so sad, but good.

Some James Patterson’s books I like and some, not so much. I hope this will be a good one.

Since I am training yet another dog, I thought I could use a refresher course in dog training and bought this book cheap.

I have read many of Anne Rivers Siddons’ books, but I had not seen this one before. It’s one of her earlier books so I am glad I found it. It’s about the south and how it changed over time. I love books about the south. I would have made a great southern belle. Yet, I would love to live in Alaska. Call me crazy.

Yes, I love to read. I hope you do too. Bye.

Antiquing and Grandparents’ Days

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My three grandchildren’s schools had grandparents’s days this week. I really love to go to them. This year we had a grandchild in elementary, middle school and high school. Grandparent’s day was held on three separate days which meant we had to get up at the crack of dawn and drive an hour to get to their school. We made it to the elementary school and the middle school, but we had substitutes go for our granddaughter’s day. We are sincerely thankful they did because after the two days we were completely exhausted. The first day was at our grandson’s school in the elementary building. He is in the third grade and we so enjoyed spending some time in his classroom, meeting his teacher and seeing what they do every day. As they go to a Christian school, they memorize Bible verses. My grandchildren memorize complete books of the Bible which puts me to shame. Anyway, I forgot my camera the first day so didn’t get any pictures. We took our third grader out to eat at Steak and Shake and had a nice visit with him. Wish I had gotten some pictures of him. He’s a sweetheart. The next day we went to the middle school.

This is our middle school grandson. He is the sweetest, kindest, funniest, person. I love being with him. He is taller than me now and getting taller every time I see him.

The kids in this school are so talented. This is the jazz band playing old songs we grandparents love.

The school and its students were so welcoming every day.

David was there for the donuts! How did we get in with all these “old’ people? Huh???

This is our grandson’s locker. Not too messy. We saw one girl’s locker that was totally organized, color coordinated and had a mini chandelier in it. Now that’s organization. I don’t think my locker looked this good when I was in school.

This boy is totally into sports. Of any kind. I especially like lacrosse. He’s playing basketball right now.

All the grandparents wrote something to their grandchild on a wall. We do that every year. We took our middle schooler out to eat and spent some time visiting with him. It was a nice two days. Two of our granddaughter’s relatives went to her grandparents’ day, but I told David I don’t care if it kills us, we are going to all of the three days next year. I really missed seeing my granddaughter. She’s the one who has had a book published and is writing another one. I am so proud of her. I’m proud of all my grandchildren. We have been blessed with the best.

Coming home yesterday we took the back roads. It certainly looks like Autumn now and the trees are changing rapidly. It was such a beautiful day even though it was raining. We ended up in Franklin, where we found five antique stores right together on one block. Of course we had to go through them all, although I must say my feet were killing me because I wore these cute boots that hadn’t been broken in and every step was painful, but I wasn’t going to miss an antique shop. We walked out on a porch of one of them and saw a raccoon in a cage. We asked the owners if they knew it was there and they didn’t, but they were trying to trap it because it had been causing some trouble. So they called animal control.

Of course, I found a few things I couldn’t do without. It’s becoming harder to do as my house is an antique store itself.

I found this wool rooster rug which I am using in front of my sink in the kitchen.

I am always looking for books. I love Mary Higgins Clark books and this is one by her daughter. Hope it’s as good as her mother’s books are.

My find of the day was this laundry tub and rack and a cute sign.

The sign isn’t old, but I liked it. Not sure how I will display the tub and rack, but I am sure I will find a place to put it. Hang a couple of towels on both ends. Instant nostalgia.

Our porch is all decorated for the season. I can’t wait to decorate it for Christmas.. We are going to have a Christmas tree on the porch this year.

Since I didn’t have enough pillows on our sofa, I made a new one.

I started it last year and I have been moving it around in my shop getting it out of the way and one day I decided to get it done and get it out of there. It goes well with my other Autumn pillows.

That pillow in the corner that you can hardly see was made by my mother years ago.

My new favorite candle scent right now. I could eat this candle it smells so good.

Some new little people have joined us.

This is Minnie.

This is Grandma Moses.

This is Scar the Pirate. I will be using them in my Sunday school class in the weeks ahead. How does a pirate fit into a Sunday school lesson? I will have to think about that, but I am sure I can come up with a good story. Bye.

End of Summer Daze

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Before God takes His big paintbrush and paints the scenery with golds, reds, oranges and yellows, I am basking in the last few days of Summer, enjoying the cooler mornings and the sunny days. Enjoying the burst of color in my garden as the flowers seem to know that soon the frost will come and they will be gone. The bees and butterflies seem extra busy gathering nectar. The hummingbirds feast at the feeders preparing for their long flight south. I always feel a little sad when they leave.

We have tried to pack in as much as we could this Summer, from a trip to Chicago, a trip to Cincinnati and short trips antiquing. We got our new puppy and two new chickens. We connected with family and friends we don’t see very often. It’s been a good Summer, but I do look forward to cooler days.

My little Sunday school class had a party to celebrate the year and the children who will go up to a new class. We had cupcakes and cheese puffs and balloons.

This little girl will go into the kindergarten class. I’m going to miss her.

I’ve had this little boy in our class since he was tiny. He is now a big kindergartner. I’ll miss him too.

This little boy is so funny and will be staying with us for another year.

This little girl always has the cutest clothes on. I have taught her since she was two. She’ll be with us another year and I am glad.

As I took pictures of the class the children kept showing me things to photograph.

This is suppose to be a cheese puff butterfly!

I bought some more fabric. Surprise, surprise!

It’s all going in a new quilt I am piecing. I am tending toward pastels and pinks lately. Years ago I would never have chosen these colors. David says I have had different phases in my fabric buying from dark Confederate colors, to polka dots, to pastels. I guess quilting is kind of like painting when you choose colors. It is very hard for me to work on a dark quilt right now. I need bright, happy colors.

I couldn’t resist this fabric and I am going to make an apron from it.

We got out the kiddie pool for Molly. She loved it. I think she is going to like water more than our other dogs. She tries to drink out of the hose while I am filling her bowl. Now I have three dogs at the back door begging for treats. Molly sits as soon as I come out because she knows she gets a treat when she sits. She doesn’t always get one, though.

Molly is growing so fast. She is almost twice the size she was when we got her. I think she will be bigger than Belle. They play really well together now and Belle hardly ever growls at her anymore. I think there is going to be a challenge on who is the alpha dog with those two.

I finished all my sister-in-law’s books and got this book from the church library. I like Max Lucado as he writes in such an easy manner and explains the Bible in terms anyone can understand. Do I want to be like Jesus? I try every day. I fail sometimes and other days I do better, but my goal is to try to be more like Him every day.

We went up to our grandchildren’s house Saturday. I had promised my younger grandson that when I got a new camera, he could have mine. Well, I got my new camera so we got a new memory card and batteries and a charger for my old one and took the camera to him and the look on his face when we handed it to him was priceless(wish I had taken a picture.) He and I took a short walk and he snapped pictures around the neighborhood. I think he likes his new camera. David thinks he will be a photographer.

Here he is showing his sister his new camera as he snaps her picture.

Love this boy. He’s growing too fast.

This is one of their family cats. He looks like he has a mustache. Very distinguished.

We decided to go up to Pendleton for lunch.

They were having some kind of festival going on and the streets were crowded and parking was at a minimum. By the way, I love that shirt that lady is wearing.

The fragrance of funnel cakes was in the air.

These were the menus at the restaurant we went to.

Loved the ceiling and old looking lights.

Waiting to be seated. I love this grandson’s red hair. I think I need to be a redhead again.

We ate our lunch and then after we were finished we began to walk around when suddenly my stomach felt queasy and we had to leave. I felt so bad that I ruined the day, but David took me home, I took a bath and went straight to bed and I felt queasy for a couple of days. We really have to go back there soon as their antique stores looked really good.

The gardenia one of my sons gave me for Mother’s Day finally bloomed. The plant has grown a lot and I will have to over winter it in my shop. The flower smells wonderful. I don’t know how big these get, but this one has tripled in size since I got it.

I am hooked on silent movies. Crazy, huh? There is something about them that draws me in. I think these are movies my mother or father may have gone to the theater to see when they were young.

This was about World War l. My mother was born just before the first World War. This man was getting a tooth pulled here. The script on screen read:

This was kind of a comedy, love, drama movie. It took place in France where a soldier fell in love with a peasant girl. Anyway, I enjoyed it. I love old Charlie Chaplin movies and they make me laugh much more than most of the so-called comedies now. Nowadays the comedies go for the gross and crass and are not my cup of tea.

Mornings are misty and cool. Happy Autumn. Bye.

Give a Wife a Camera……..

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Yesterday I was sitting in my girly room, minding my own business, knitting a hat. Suddenly David pushed the camera into my face with this picture.

Okay, I thought. A little blurry and I said take another one and he took this…

Much better. You like my blue fingernails? Then David started to show me more pictures.

Okay, what’s going on? ” I used the zoom lens,” David said. “Here, look.” I looked at my camera and saw the zoom was fixed. You see, last summer on a small trip we took, I dropped the camera in my car and broke the zoom thingamajig on it. I have still continued to use my camera, but couldn’t zoom in. Then, David, bless his heart, bought me a new camera for Christmas. Unfortunately, me and that camera did not get along well. It was heavy, took too long(for me) to focus and I had to change lenses if I wanted to zoom. It’s really a nice camera, just too much for me. I told him he could have it and take pictures for me while I would continue to use my little, broken camera. It’s worked out pretty well. David takes good pictures.

Then today he starts using my little camera again. “Did you fix it?” I said. “How did you fix it? Oh, I am so glad to have my camera working again.” Then he began to laugh and I looked at the camera closer. It was a new camera. Just like my little broken one, only better. And I could zoom again.

David had ordered a new pump for our water fountain and I had brought him the box from the mail thinking nothing about it. The camera was in the box with the pump. He sure surprised me. Soooo, today I went around taking pictures just checking it out. Here they are in no particular order.

Getting ripe.

You know those bulbs I bought at a big box store and didn’t think they would grow? Well, they are growing and blooming. I have several different gladiola right now and each one is so pretty.

This one was almost hidden behind the Shasta Daisies. It’s amazingly beautiful in person.

Gorgeous.

Magic or August Lilies. In the Spring these flowers grow their foliage, but no flowers. Then as the Summer progresses, the foliage completely dies and disappears and then these spikes of flowers appear. Then they turn into this.

What I am wondering is, how do they know it’s August?

I have a lot of these around the garden. Whoever lived here before us planted them and they have come up every year since we’ve been here for thirty-seven years almost.

Last Summer a friend and I went to a shop hop and I won this quilting book. I haven’t made anything from it yet, but I keep looking at it and planning.

I think this is a darling pillow. I would make it with wools and I think I will make this pretty soon.

Isn’t this bee skep pin cushion cute. It’s kind of labor intensive, but I won’t take it off my list to make yet.

I love this purse although the giant bee on it kind of turns me off, but I could put something else there where the bee is.

Right now I am making a quilt from this book.

Yes, I am making a sheep quilt. I am not going to make it exactly like in the book, but I think it will be cute when I am finished. I’ll try to remember to show you when it’s done. I won’t guarantee it. But I will try.

For those of you too young to remember these are insulators that use to be on the top of electric line poles. When the poles started to be taken down, the workmen would often just leave these laying around. My dad collected a few and I have found some at auctions. They are just a part of history and I like history.

My trusty Riccar sewing machine. One of four I have plus I have a few other sewing machines. A friend asked me one time why I had so many sewing machines. I told her it was because I never wanted to be without a sewing machine when I am working on a project should the one I am using break. Plus, we sold these years ago and I brought the leftovers home with me when we closed our store.

I collect old chairs.

I come from creative parents. My dad used to build and paint these little houses and sell them. I was blessed to receive some from him.

He made this little church.

It even has a bell in the belfrey.

This was the last thing my dad gave me before he died. The cow’s eyes are a little wonky which makes me love it even more. Dad had had gall bladder surgery that year and his health never got back to normal. I use to just put these houses out at Christmas, but I keep them out all year now to remind me of my father. I can’t wait to see him again and I know I will.

Shhh, this is my favorite chicken, but the others don’t know it. Penninah always greets me when I come into the chicken yard. Honestly, sometimes I think I can understand what she is clucking. Here she is engrossed in my pants.

Ada and Abby are now in with the big chooks. David said they went into the coop all by themselves last night. He had been putting them in after it got dark. Seems things have settled down and the big chooks have accepted them more or less although there is an occasional peck when the younguns’ get around their food.

The best fertilizer. I’m just sayin’.

Bonnie. I love this dog. She is getting old. Ten years. We are looking to get another puppy maybe this Fall. When we got Bonnie, we had an older dog who got a new lease on life when Bonnie arrived. They played together and ran and had so much fun. That dog, Subaka, lived to be eighteen years old. I hope Bonnie lives that long. Seems that it would be nice if your dog could live as long as you do, but it’s not the way. I have many dogs waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge. Dogs are the best and the nearest thing to how we people should treat each other. They love us unconditionally, forgive everything and only live to be with you. Sounds like God, doesn’t it?

Belle, the silly girl. She always manages to strike a very silly pose every time I try to get her picture.

Here’s to new cameras and the wonderful husband who surprised me with one. Bye.

Chicago day 3

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Day three of our tour of Chicago. It’s impossible to see much of Chicago in three days, but we tried. We drove all over and saw parts of Chicago most people don’t see. It’s a very busy, active city. People walking or riding bicycles everywhere and the cars. Oh, the cars and the buses that would pull right out in front of you at the last second. But David is a good driver and got us everywhere without a scratch(although we did get within inches of some vehicles at times.) I would say, “David, that car almost hit us,” and he would say, “Oh, it was a mile away from us!” Actually, by day three, we were old hands at getting through the traffic, David with his driving and me not screaming. The grandkids sitting in the back poking each other and laughing and not paying attention to the traffic at all. But why should they?

We saved the best for our last day in my humble opinion. The Adler Planetarium. I have always loved looking at the stars and when I was growing up, I thought I would like to be an astronomer. On the farm where I grew up all you needed to do was walk out the back door at night and you could see millions of stars in the sky. Not like it is today with so many outside lights on at night. Where I live now I can see stars, but not nearly as many as I could on the farm. I would dream of other planets and traveling through space. We could see the Milky Way very clearly in the night sky. When we travel out west, I want to go to as little populated places as we can to see the night sky. I love watching the astronauts shoot up into space and wish I were there with them. So, the Adler Planetarium was the perfect destination for me.

My grandson’s name is Adler, by the way, so he thinks the planetarium is named after him. We had to get him a shirt with his name on it.

In this exhibit, you could move the astronauts around and put them into their capsule.

This was supposed to show you how it felt to be weightless and jump on the moon.

Believe me, I didn’t feel weightless and this was a good leg workout. Wish I had one of these at home.

Okay, I don’t know why this picture is sideways, but this is our younger grandson. He wants to be an architect, though. He likes to build things.

We saw the Milky Way.

We saw a comet.

I didn’t get a lot of pictures at the planetarium, but there was so much to see and read. We went to a couple of the shows they gave. The one I liked best was about the universe and the galaxies. When we went into it, they gave us all a penny and during the show, they asked us to hold our pennies up to the picture of the universe and said that in space the size of Lincoln’s eye there were hundreds of galaxies. We sometimes think our galaxy is the end of the universe. There are so many they haven’t all been counted. Each with their own planets and suns. Seeing this just made my belief in God more confirmed when I think how all this was created. Our sun is just the right distance from earth that we don’t freeze or burn up. The more I learn about the world and the universe we live in, the more I believe there is a great Creator who made all this. I see it every day in my garden. It’s a wonderful world and universe we live in if we just look around. We people are like ants scurrying here, there and everywhere, never stopping to look at the beautiful world around us and how everything works together. How absolutely everything points to a God who made it. I love science and I love God and I believe they are very compatible. Anyway, I loved seeing about the universe. I could have watched it over and over again, but, alas, we had to leave so that others could see the show.

After the planetarium we had planned to go the the Field Museum, but we were meeting our son at a restaurant for dinner so we decided to find someplace to park and walk as I really needed to get out and walk since we hadn’t walked enough. Ha.

So we finally found a little park and David drove by a parking lot thinking in Chicago he could find a “free” parking space, but we ended back at the parking lot and paid fifteen dollars so I could get out and walk. We were at Lincoln Park, a small, free, gasp, park with a zoo and farm animals and it was lovely to walk under trees. It was very enjoyable for me. My two oldest grandchildren were getting antsy as this wasn’t their thing. But, hey, humor grandma for a while. Anyway we had to kill some time and what better place than at a park.

Our final destination to end out trip to Chicago was Ed Debevic’s a popular restaurant there.

Ed Debevic’s where the waiters and waitresses are rude and dance on the tables and in the aisles. It’s a fun place. Our waiter gave us all these hats, threw our napkins at us, asked me why I was eating like a chipmunk, nibbling my food, called my granddaughter a “princess” for ordering a salad and I won’t tell you what the waitress said to David as she delivered his very large hotdog, but we laughed for several minutes after that one. And it was a very large hotdog. We had a good time, but all good things must end and we went back to our motel to pack for the trip home the next day.

Our trip home was called “torturing the grandchildren day” as we took the long way home and stopped at a couple of quilt shops. We were asked over and over again when we would get home and we kept saying, “When we get there.” David and I would have stopped at every antique store we saw, and we saw a lot of them, but well, you know, grandkids. They cramped our style. We decided we would have to come back to these antique stores sans the grandchildren one day.

All in all, we had a great time, but it was good to be home again to my garden and dogs and chickens and less traffic.

Chicago is an amazing city and we hope to go back again. Bye.

People Who Read My Blog

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When blogging began, I didn’t know a thing about it. What was a blog? How do you write one? Who are all these people writing blogs? Then I started reading some blogs, Posie Gets Cozy, Pioneer Woman, Attic 24, Henhouse, Tales From the Coop Keeper and others and fell in love with blogging. I wanted to do it too, so one day I set up my own little blog and started to write. It was about two years ago this summer. I wrote and wrote and learned how to post pictures and wrote some more. Then people started reading it and it amazed me. Then, something horrible happened. David was doing something with the pictures on our computer and for some reason, all the pictures on my blog went away. I almost cried. Then my son set me up with this blog and I am merrily going on my way writing and posting again. He tells me this site will hold more pictures. That’s good, because the last time David checked we had over ten thousand pictures backed up on our computers! You can still read my old blog called I Love My Dogs which I changed to Snicklefritz later, but there won’t be many pictures.

Sometimes I wonder about the people who read my blog. They are all over the world now, which kind of boggles my mind. This little country farm girl who likes to write has people from other countries reading her blog. Hi, all you people. I am so glad you are here. I really wish I could meet every one of you.

I wonder about where you live, what you do, are you married or single? Do you have children? What’s your day like? Do you get up every morning and go to a job? Are some of you stay at home mothers? Or fathers? Do you live in the city or the country? Some of you live in the some of the most beautiful places in the world. Places I will never see except in my imagination. Do you appreciate just how beautiful and wonderful are the places where you live? Sometimes we get so busy with our lives, we forget to look around us at the beauty that is right under our noses. I live in a beautiful state in the United States. My husband and I have traveled to nearly all fifty states and I am always happy to return to Indiana.

Do you travel? Or are you pretty much happy with where you are and don’t go many places? I want to travel to England. I have always wanted to go to England. Some of my ancestors came from there so that is probably the reason why I am so drawn to it. But then I think of exotic places like India and Nepal(where a friend and her family are now doing mission work) and I think I would love to see places like that. It’s a beautiful world we live in. Are you living where there is strife happening? Some places in the world are not very happy places to live right now. Why do men have to be so bad? I see people suffering in other countries and it just makes me know how blessed I am that I live in a country where, at least, I feel safe. I pray for all of you who may be suffering under very poor conditions in your countries right now.

I picture all of you in my mind sitting at your computers, reading my blog and I just want to say thank you. There are thousands, if not millions, of blogs out there and you chose to read mine this day. You are a blessing to me. I hope your day today will be happy and blessed. God loves you and I hope you know Him. I believe in God and His Son, Jesus Christ who came to this earth two thousand years ago. He lived and preached and was crucified on the cross for every single one of us. He took our sins upon Himself. He arose again and sits at the right hand of God, His father. One day He will return to judge us all. He’s my personal Savior. I don’t know how you believe, but I wanted you to know what I believe and that God does love you. He loved you enough to send His only Son to die for your sins. How great a love is that? It’s hard to comprehend.

Well, I just wanted to thank all of you today. You are very special people to me. Sometimes we don’t know how we can affect others, but I hope my blog makes you happy sometimes, makes you think sometimes and sometimes it probably bores you to death, but I will keep writing because I love to write and even if no one was reading this blog, I would still write it for my children and grandchildren to read one day so that they will know their mother and grandmother better.

Have a great day all you people. I love you all and pray for the best for all of you. Bye.

It All Started With a Picture

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Several months or years ago, I’m not sure, time goes by so quickly, I saw this picture in a magazine. I think it was Country Living or Southern Living.

I fell in love with the porch on this house. The stone pillars, the railings, the metal roof. We already have a metal roof on our house which we love so this just looked like something that would go with our house.

I filed the picture away for future reference. At that time, a new porch wasn’t even on our agenda. Then one day David said our old porch was pulling the walls outward in our living room, causing cracks in the wall and it was going to have to go. “How soon?” I asked. “Sooner rather than later,” he replied. So began our adventure into porch building.

We called our favorite contractor, Claude Wright Jr. and asked him to give us an estimate on adding a porch and on replacing more of our old windows. We got the estimate, I almost passed out and then we invited him over to talk.

He, David and I sat around our dining room table discussing what needed to be done. ” Maybe we could save some money by not having the pillars across the front,” David suggested. My heart sunk clear to my feet. The pillars are what I loved about the picture in the first place. “No,” I said. “Those pillars have been a dream of mine for a long time.” After some more discussion, we decided to bite the bullet and go for it. After all, we will probably live in this house for the rest of our lives if we are blessed. I’m not planning any moves, anyway.

Thinking I had lots of time to move the flowers in front of our old porch, David then asked, “How soon can you start?” “Next week,” Claude said. Yikes. I had just a few days to move a lot of flowers. So we said go for it and the fun began.

David and I spent a couple of days digging up and replanting dozens of flowers. He measured how far out the new porch would come so that we would be sure to get the flowers all out of the way. I have a little magnolia tree I have been babying for a couple of years and this is the first year it had blooms on it. I put a fence around it. I cringed for that little tree the entire building process, but the builders were very careful about working around it even though they had to squeeze around it at times.

Soon it was going like gang busters. The old porch was torn down. My house was dusty. The new porch went up. My house got dustier. Then we had a roof, railings, a new tongue and groove floor, wide steps and finally the stone pillars. Hey, so I didn’t dust for a few weeks. The men worked together like clock work. They each knew their job and did it quickly and efficiently. Wiring was done. We even got a couple of extra outlets put in while the walls were open. Men came to install new gutters. It was a busy time around the old Craig house. I had to watch what I was wearing because I never knew when a man would be working right outside a window. Reminds me of a show I use to watch, The Gilmore Girls, where Lorelie Gilmore was having some construction work done on her house and one day she came out of the shower stark naked and found a construction guy standing in the hallway. I did not want that happening to me.

It took about a month, but the work was finally all completed. The dust settled. It’s still settling. I could not wait to start landscaping. I had been purchasing perennials here and there wherever I went and had them waiting to go in the ground. I spent the next few days staining the floor and steps, planting the perennials, replanting some of the flowers I had had to move, decorating the porch, and hanging new hanging baskets.

Want to see the finished project? You don’t? I’m sorry, I am going to show it to you anyway.

First you are welcomed by my little chicken welcome sign.

Come up the wide steps. See the walk David put in all by himself? He planned it and he did all the work. I love it. He’s quite a man. Flower beds on either side. On the left use to be grass. I got rid of more grass. Yay. I hate to mow.

David’s and my rockers. His is the one with padding. I don’t need padding.

David used left over lumber and built this little table to put our drinks upon. It’s really heavy. Took us both to carry it up here. I stained it the same color as the railings.

I put a table and chairs on the porch so we could eat outside. Have we ate outside yet? Nope.

I brought this little chair and pillow that were in the grandchildren’s Adirondack room down and put it in the corner. So, we don’t really have a cabin. I can pretend.

What’s a porch without some flowers?

I placed humming bird feeders all around. The little rascals sometimes zoom right over our heads as they fly through the porch.

David placed our fountain in front of the porch so we could sit and listen to it gurgle and splash. The birds like to drink from it also. We saw one like this in Nashville years ago, but when we went to buy one, no one had any so I went on the internet and found this one. We have been using it for years. It looks like stone, but it isn’t. We have had people go up and touch it thinking it was stone. Our grandchildren, when they were little, ,liked to slap their hand on the fountain and make a splash. Where did those little ones go?

We bought this wind spinner online. When it spins it looks like a rainbow.

David built this bench from a leftover piece of the old porch and some cement blocks and I painted it.

We hung our not glass, stained glass window in our new front window.

I planted annuals in a piece of the old porch.

This use to be one of our dining room chairs that had seen better days. I painted it lavender and set it in the garden.

So this is the ta-da moment. The porch I had dreamed of and kept that picture for. It’s everything and more that I could ever want. David and I spend a lot of time sitting out here and talking and watching the world go by. Why don’t you join us?

It’s almost impossible for me to write a blog and not include flowers. I can’t remember what the yellow one is called, but the lavender one is called speedwell. Kind of looks like salvia to me.

Summer is reading time(although I read all the time). But, anyway, I have a couple of books that I would recommend for reading For my Christian friends out there and those who would like to know more about the Christ I serve there is this book by Max Lucado.

It’s a wonderful book about Jesus. There is a description of Jesus that I have never heard about before. I don’t know where Mr. Lucado got the information, but read the book and see how he describes Jesus’ appearance.

There’s a wonderful series on Netflix called All Creatures Great and Small. It is based on books by this author, James Herriot. This book is about some of the dogs he treated in his veterinary practice and their wild, wacky and sometimes odd owners. I have laughed out loud at some of his stories. All true, with names changed to protect the innocent.

Hope you are having a wonderful summer. Take some time to smell the flowers and read a book. Enjoy it. It will be gone before you know it. Bye.

Happy Mother’s Day

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Today we celebrate mothers. We all had or have mothers. I grew up with a mother who was strict and expected the best from me. Sometimes I think she had eyes everywhere because she always knew what I was up to. I was the kind of child that needed that because I could easily have gotten into trouble without her watching out for me.

My mother was a farmer’s wife. She served big, farmer’s meals fresh from the garden and our own chickens and beef and pork. She was a good helper for my dad. She washed the eggs(hundreds of them) and took some to sell at the grocery store. She took care of all the dogs and cats we kids came up with. She washed clothes on a wringer washer and hung them out to dry summer or winter. She kept a clean house(cleaner than mine.) She had a beautiful flower garden, some of the flowers in my garden being from her garden. She kept six children clean and neat and took us to Sunday school and church years before my daddy was saved and became active in church. She taught Sunday school for many years and made the children felt stockings every year and filled them with candy and the gingerbread men she would bake and decorate. Every morning of her life she got up hours before the rest of the family and read her Bible and then a library book and took her bath, because once we kids awoke, she had no time for herself. She never complained but did what she had to do.

My mother was a great cook and baker. Every Saturday was baking day and she would bake cakes and pies enough to last the rest of the week. She cut up the chickens Daddy would kill and pluck and cut them up on Saturday and on Sunday morning she would fry them before church so that after church we would have a big chicken dinner with all the trimmings.

My mother taught me the love of reading. She took us kids to the library every two weeks and we would load up on books and bring them home and devour them before we went back again to get some more. Mother always had a book she was reading. She read her Bible every single day. She and Daddy gave me my first Bible. I loved reading my little Bible and I memorized many verses as I was growing up. The one hundredth Psalm is my favorite because I have always loved “making a joyful noise.”

My mother took me to the revival where I was saved as a twelve year old. I will always be grateful to her that she thought it was important enough for we children to be in church every Sunday. I love going to church now and being with those who love God and worship Him. It’s my mother’s greatest legacy to me.

My mother was a faithful wife who loved my daddy with all her heart. When he passed away, something went out of her. She had to have surgery on her back just about a week after daddy’s funeral and went into a nursing home where she died a few years later. She missed my daddy every day for the rest of her life. They are together in heaven now and happy as can be, I am assured.

I never thanked my mother enough for what she did for me. I hope she knows how much I appreciated her. I look forward to that day when I can throw my arms around her and say, “Thank you, Mom, I love you.” If your mother is living today, thank her for all she has done for you. You only get one mother and she would love to hear that you love her. That’s all we mothers really want. God bless all mothers today. Happy Mother’s Day. Bye.

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