What a neglected little blog this is!!

News Flash?

According to the news on the Internet today, Michael Landon was a father at 12 years old. Seems his eldest son was found dead at the age of 60. Michael died in 1991 at the age of 54. Granted, my mathematical skills are not so great....but! I suppose it was either a misprint or an adoption. Either way, my sincere condolences to the Landon family.

There is not a cloud in the sky here in my little corner of Alabama. It's not expected to stay this way, and the drought is definitely over! It's the other end of the spectrum now, we are having flooding issues in some places. The weatherman says my day will be mostly cloudy today, with a chance of rain later this afternoon. In other words, the local forecast is: Rain, Forever.

I have been absent from Blogger for so long that when I came back to make an entry, it made me realize how much I miss AOL J-Land. The journals were so much easier to deal with than Blogs. Yes, I know they are the same thing, but the programs are not.

I am at work, so I better act like I'm here for something other than blogging.

Later, Sweet Taters

Ropes are for Hanging

When you get to the end of your rope,
Here are the Knots to hang on to:…

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet Knot crushed;
We are perplexed, but Knot in despair;
Persecuted, but Knot forsaken;
Struck down, but Knot destroyed
—II Corinthians 4:8-9

(Pictures from Knot & Rope Supply)

It is Thankful Thursday
...and I am thankful…

For the rain! The drought has officially ended.
For God’s vast patience, countless (and sure) mercies, and boundless grace.
For people who like me.
For the protection and blessings of my family, whom I dearly love.
For my sisters.
For my sisters who weren’t born my sisters.
For my job…I am truly blessed in this area.
For Freedom.

Questions from the Politically Unminded

Just where is all this bailout and stimulus money coming from? We, the taxpayers, I know. I am just having a hard time wrapping my mind around this much money being thrown about. Are they just printing more currency? Will our "dollar" eventually be just worthless paper with nothing to back it, paper that no one will honor? Money is given for mortgages, and the renters feel they deserve a handout, as well. The banks are bailed out, and the car companies want some of the action. And wasn't it the insurance companies who were handed bailout money, who then kept the same bad managers who got them into the fanancial jam, and proceeded to give said managers hefty bonuses?

In addition to a mega-mega $$ handou...I mean stimulus package, we've got a president allotting money for abortions. Yes, I'm aware it's a woman's body, and she has a choice. Perhaps the choice should have started with ways to not get pregnant if she (and he!!) aren't ready for a child, and one of those choices clearly is abstinence! Judgmental, am I? Maybe, but taxpayers' money shouldn't pay for any child's demise. It's just a fetus? Not according to God, who created mankind.

So, if the government is "giving" all this money (which looks amazingly like our own...tax...money), does it come back to us with a price? I mean, will the government have more control over us as individuals? Will they, in essence, "own" us?

With all these various hands out, opened and expecting, in this age of "I'm-owed-something-whether-I-work-for-it-or-not," we've got parents who won't even meet with their children's teachers (upon the teacher's request) about said children's education. Caught a story on a TV news network earlier this week. The head of the NAACP was a guest, and he told the teacher who called with this personal observation that people were too busy working two and three jobs to bother with meeting with teachers. Say WHAT?

How many people do you personally know who are working two and three jobs, and how does that number compare with those who have some kind of goverment assistance (food stamps, WIC, Medicare....and the like)? One most likely greatly outweigh the other, no matter where you live.

When will it end? I hope it's not the same time our personal freedom ends.

Choices

A teenaged black boy flagged me down in the middle of the road on the outskirts of a rough neighborhood. I was leaving a park not far away from the university, and I was on my way back to work. He was in the middle of the road, and he didn't give me much choice but to stop. It was a narrow road with a ditch on my side.

I cracked my window a little bit to see what he needed, and he told me his car was broken down and he was trying to get to work. I didn't see any car. He asked me if I could give him a lift to a place that was much further than where I was actually going...but that notwithstanding...I really felt uneasy about letting him in my car.

He asked to use my phone, and I let him. He called someone, then asked me if I would speak to the man he called. I was a little uncomfortable, but I took the phone. The man introduced himself as the boy's father, and asked if I would give the boy a ride to work. I told him that I was sorry, but I really couldn't do that. I handed the phone back to the boy, they spoke a few more minutes, and he handed me back my phone. I told him I hoped he understood why I couldn't give him a ride, and he said he did. He then asked me for some money to buy a drink. (It really was a hot day, last summer.) I gave him a couple of bucks and went on back to work.

I was feeling guilty because I'd left him there. What if he was just a nice young man trying to get to work, willing to start out walking in the hot summer sun to get there? I consoled myself by thinking that really, in this day and age, I couldn't just give a complete stranger a ride somewhere, and that I really had more than just myself to think about.

That next morning, I got a phone call from the boys father. The boy hadn't been seen since he started out walking, and his few minutes with me were the last contact his family had had with him. I got one more phone call from the dad, and then one from his grandmother later that evening.

I never did find out what happened to the boy. I was just thinking about him this morning.

Valentine's Day

It’s hard to believe it’s already mid-February. It must really be true that the older I get, the faster time flies! We’ve had such a mild February so far. I’m sure we’ll see more cold weather, but it’s been very nice. Today, it’s just a beautiful day in Alabama.

I’m sitting out this semester of school out because I was working on things for my compensation ladder at work, which I just finished up yesterday, complete with three certificates and a plaque. By the time my job gets finished with me, I just may know a thing or two. Maybe.

I love my job.

Ole Boy has a new grandson! His name is Sebastian Cale. His mom plans to call him Cale, but I think I’ll call him Sebastian. He’s a cute little thing, don’t you think??

It’s Girl Scout Cookie time. Don’t forget to support them. I did my part, trust me! lol

Next weekend is my birthday (21st), and Ole Boy and I are heading up to Nashville for the weekend. It just worked out perfectly that it’s winter break at work, and I have a three day weekend on my birthday. How good is that?

A couple of weeks ago, all the birds out front disappeared. Then we notice this guy in the tree. I grabbed my camera and kept inching closer and closer to him…he finally flew away. And the next thing I knew, all the birds (and there were many) that had been hiding from the hawk in the bushes flew out. I think I startled them. They acted glad I scared off the hawk…

It’s about time to go for a Valentine’s late lunch. I’m just too old and grumpy to fight the night crowd tonight.

Happy

Valentine's

Day!!

Buying Christmas this year?

In these tough economic times, people are worrying about buying Christmas. What does that mean, exactly? How does one “buy” Christmas? Is there a way to buy the birth of Christ? What is the purpose of all the money that’s being thrown around this time of the year? (I chose the word “thrown” deliberately. In essence, a goodly portion of the money spent at Christmastime is money blown.)

People who are still paying credit cards and Christmas loans from not just last year, but the year before and the year before that, are planning to put more on credit cards. Why?

And there are those who say, “There won’t be any (or much) Christmas at my house this year, I don’t have any money.” Since when did Christ’s birth cost you money?

I have to stop here and say that I have been guilty of saying some of the above in times past. And I have gone into deeper debt when I couldn’t afford what I was already paying out. Just so that I don’t sound all judgmental….

When (and how) did we get it all so twisted? Buying, buying, buying, going deeper in debt, swimming dangerously near the pool of bankruptcy…HOW does this celebrate Christmas? If just half the money spent in the US on Christmas were given to worthy charities…well, my mind will not even compute the possibilities.
When Christmas becomes the burden of buying instead of the celebration of God’s gift of his only Son to us, we have really big problems.

Instead of toys that will be lying all over the house within weeks, why not give your children the ultimate gift? Time. Wrap up a hand-made certificate that gives them one night a week of YOUR TIME for the next year to play games, bake cookies, read stories, have a Bible study, just to listen to them talk, help them write and illustrate stories. One evening with no yelling, no criticizing, just your time. Just you. Can you think of a better gift?

Do you cook? Give the gift of choice. One night each week, the kids get to choose (and help fix) dinner. They get to plan, help shop, and learn to cook, and learn a lot about an important part of life as they go.

Do you smoke? Give it up for your children and loved ones so that they will have you longer. Can’t manage that? Go to the doctor, they have plenty of ways to help you.

Make pretty cards to give to family members and tell them how much they mean to you. Tell them what you don’t normally tell them… bring up things from the past that they did that means a lot to you, and let them know this many years later, you still very much appreciate it.

Give a certificate of labor to your parents….to clean the gutters, rake all those leaves and brush up and haul them away, clean the windows, or whatever else they may have mentioned over the years that needs to be done.

Take the five or ten dollars that you would have spent on 10 different people and make one $50 or $100 donation to a worthy charity. Give each of those people a handmade certificate telling them that in their honor, you donated to St. Jude’s…or where ever.

If you find yourself short on cash this year, consider these types of gifts, which are much more celebratory than your spending money that you don’t have…and for what purpose? Will your family love you any less at Christmas when you don’t have extra money, than they did in June when you didn’t have extra money? If you can’t afford it, those people who love you truly wouldn’t want you to go in debt for them, but they would appreciate your giving of yourself.