Good Morning!
Today’s header photo is from Janice.
On this day in 1869 Central Pacific and Union Pacific Rail Roads meet in Promontory, UT. A golden spike was driven in at the celebration of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S.
In 1872 Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for the U.S. presidency.
In 1908 the first Mother’s Day observance took place during a church service in Grafton, West Virginia.
In 1933 the Nazis staged massive public book burnings in Germany.
And in 1969 the National and American Football Leagues announced their plans to merge for the 1970-71 season.
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Quote of the Day
“Only God Himself fully appreciates the influence of a Christian mother in the molding of character in her children.”
Billy Graham
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Today is Mother Maybelle Carter’s birthday.
Today is also Bono’s, so my favorite U2 song. From U2VEVO
And here’s another of Mother Carter with her Autoharp.
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Wandering Views 
Good Saturday morning!! 🙂
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Good morning Nancy.
Janice sent that header photo for you since you mentioned liking them. 🙂
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Thanks for that beautiful photo to start the day!! That is a most gorgeous iris Janice! I have to go outside today and cover all of my emerging plants with pine straw…we are supposed to get 6 inches of snow tomorrow…wet heavy snow… 😦
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Snow?
No. No thank you.
I’m going fishing for a little while. See you folks later. 🙂
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Good morning! Saw a gorgeous sunrise this morning. We are having a nice time on our getaway.
L. Texted me photos last night before her 8th grade formal. She looked radiant! I’m sad I wasn’t able to be there, but it was important for us to be at my cousin’s wedding, and she seemed to understand that. I can’t wait to hear all about it–but know she’ll be sleeping late today.
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Morning all. Just got back from dinner at a friend’s. Please continue to pray that my van will run well until I get my new vehicle on June 24th. I was the driver tonight taking 4 other ladies home. Each stop I made the van died and I wasn’t sure if it would start again. This is called driving with a prayer. As ladies, we cannot walk home.
After dinner we had the joy of putting micro sd cards into audibibles fhat will be sold out in a village. It was a thrill to check each one and hear a language I did not know that will be receiving the scriptures in audible form.
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Awwww. AJ pays attention to Chas and me. Thank you. Also irises are one of my favorite flowers!
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Have fun fishing AJ…good to know someone has warm weather!
What a fun time for your girl Ann…a lot to look forward to when you get home…I can just imagine her excitement exuding as she tells you of her special night…daughters can be so much fun! Hope you have a blessed day at the wedding festivities…that island sounds heavenly…except for the price of milk… 🙂
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The Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers weren’t very good by modern standards. But they brought country/western music from the backwoods and plains to the living room.
Actually, it was the New York guy who went roaming down the mountains looking for talent.
I knew his name, but have forgotten. Jimmy Rodgers died, I think it was 1937, but there is likely a Carter somewhere out there now.
They are at the head of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Rightly honored. All Nashville owes them.
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Kim, nobody don’t pay attention to m.
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It’s me that nobody pays attention to.
I heard Hank Snow singing “Mother” this morning and tried to find it on YouTube, but couldn’t find it. It’s a song from Hank’s days in Canada before he made it in Nashville.
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I changed my mind. The river is still too high. 😦
So I stopped and bought a new faucet for outside the house since I broke the handle on the last one. That’s almost as fun as fishing…. 🙄
It’s OK though, my wife has off the next 5 days for my birthday. She said I’m expected to go fishing, so I pretty much have to now. 🙂
She’s a good woman. 🙂
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Poor you.
Does anybody have those attachments that you stick on the faucet and then you can just quick release or attach the hose to it? We had those in Germany but I have never seen them here. Sure would be handy.
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So when is the real’s birthday?
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As you can see, I am sitting around doing nothing. The twelve year old boy is doing the outside chores this morning, other than mine which were done an hour ago, and the chickens, which the six year old is taking care of.
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Now, Mumsee, I heard you never sit around and do nothing. You sit around and eat bonbons. 🙂
I want some, too, please. 😯 🙂
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Since we are having a tribute to the Carter’s I will add this because it seems to be the weather around here.
We are either going to have to move our administration building at church or dismantle it and move it. We have another vestry meeting in the morning at 9 am so we can present united leadership to the church at 10am. They hurried up and put gutters around the building yesterday to divert some of the rain we got over night. We only got about 8 inches last night, so that was good.
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It was the mom I recently mentioned, “child of the 60s” that divided her iris plants and shared them with me. They are beautiful. Maybe all the psychedelic influence had a good effect in her appreciation of flower colors. I could not have chosen a more perfect color for an iris on my own.
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AJs birthday is Wednesday, May 14th
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That is the same day a sixteen year old turns seventeen!
It was cinnamon rolls, Janice. And very good ones I might add. Made with whole wheat, beans, teff, amaranth and some other stuff.
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Hearing Bono count in Spanish with an Irish accent at the beginning of ‘Vertigo’ made me laugh.
I see I missed the QoD yesterday. I can’t think of any particular memory triggers that I associate with you fellow wanderers, but I do think a lot about you all and I have a lot of time for thinking right now.
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Well, once again, tradition must be followed. It is tradition around here for each child to believe he or she is the best dog walker and can relax on the rules. This time it was a Rhode Island Red chicken that paid the price.
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Oh, Mumsee! Rhode Island Reds are the sweetest chickens. 😦 My brother majored in Poultry Science for undergrad and he continues to raise a few chickens. I like the Rhode Island Reds. Guess the dog found it to be sweet and succulent.
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Mumsee, so sad for the poor chicken and the erstwhile dog walker, but your comment made me laugh, again. From what I remember of those dogs, they probably had a great time. Is the chicken salvageable for supper?
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I like irises. And gardenias. And lilacs (they are in bloom now). D2 came over yesterday to spend the night, and the first thing she did when she got out of the car was run around to the other side of the house to smell the white lilacs. So childlike for a 26 year old.
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Wednesday is also the day a 20-year-old turns 21 and a 12-year-old turns 13. And it’s the 31st anniversary of the day I met my man. 😉
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Great day, Wednesday!
The six year old dog walker returned her dog to the kennel with no casualties. She said every time Jake started to look at a chicken she just pulled her toward herself. Good work six year old. Now if the older ones would only take a lesson….
Nope, the chicken was well divided by the time I arrived, at least the dogs did not need to be fed.
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My brother killed a dog over a threat to his chickens. That begs the question, is there an order of priority in the animal/human pets world? Is a chicken worth the life of a dog? I have always been troubled by the whole situation.
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Well it was a Yard Dog ( Southernism–Barefooted as a yard dog)
I am assuming in this case it WAS a Spring Chicken rather than a hen who was no longer a spring chicken (Southernism)
I always think of this and laugh because a friend’s wife was trying to explain to all of us that she was much younger than we were. She mixed her sayings and declared herself a Yard Chicken…plenty of those at Mumsee’s.
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Let us just say, in this case, it was an extra chicken. If they were getting into our layers, we might have an issue. When they started killing chickens, they lost their freedom. They used to be free to run all over and do whatever to keep the riff raff out. But when they started killing what they were here to protect, their mission changed from protectors of the farmlette to therapy dogs for the children. We consider it to be quite therapeutic for them to be responsible for animals of various sorts. Which is why we have far more animals than we need. But if they were to become more aggressive, to the point of threatening to bite a child, they would be done.
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Janice, every once in a while someone will write a letter to the editor of our local newspaper, expressing their outrage that their precious dog, who was so good and harmless that they didn’t bother to confine said dog to their yard. Then one day, they get a knock on their door from the local police force, saying that their dog had been shot by a farmer because he was threatening their livestock. They express their deep sorrow that their dog should have been cut down while simply having some harmless fun. Then someone will write a counter letter, demonstrating how a dog chasing sheep or cows can cause serious injury or death, threatening a farmer’s livelihood.
We have a combination of farmers and cottager or retirees from the city where we are and the city dwellers sometimes have a hard time grasping the facts of life [Like the cottager who phoned the humane society when she saw a donkey in a nearby field biting the cattle – the donkey was there to ward off coywolves and other predators]. If your brother was raising chickens commercially, he had every reason and right to dispatch the dog. I have no objection to pets; but a pet is not a human being and does not have equal rights. Those who let their dogs out of control can expect something bad to happen, whether it gets hit by a car or shot by a farmer.
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Pet thread.
I get to have lunch at the beach today, a few of us from church are getting together to celebrate the 81st birthday (tomorrow) of the lady I drive every Sunday. She and I also were at the same previous church together before transferring to the current one (I transferred over a few years before she did).
The house we’re going to backs up to this sweet little view:
http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc6063.php
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Certain dogs develop bad behaviors. Once some dogs get a taste of blood you can’t train it out of them. I know a vet who put his own dog down for snapping at his child.
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Peter, I love gardenias but have not been successful with them. A long time ago I had planted some minatures underneath our downstairs bedroom window thinking it would be nice to open the window to that fragance. They may have lasted one year. As a child I remember the across the street neighbor would constantly nurse their gardenia bush. As I said previously, I plant the plant and leave it alone. I also have a bit of a lilac plant hanging on at the mailbox. My mother gave it to me. I have not had good luck with it either. The best it did was when the mailbox post had to be replaced and the roots were disturbed. That caused it to bloom the best it ever had. It has now died back to just a few straggly branches mixed in with the thriving barberry bush.
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My neighbors, who keep chickens, a few weeks ago asked if one of them had gotten into my backyard. It hadn’t (they found it somewhere else, safe and sound), but I’m afraid if it did it might not have lasted long with my 2 dogs. Of course, maybe my dogs would be satisfied just herding it from corner to corner.
I need to replant a strip that runs next to my stairs leading up to my house. I want something colorful, but it has to be OK in a small, narrow space with eastern sun.
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Plenty to comment on today; I’m another iris fan, though mine are all deep purple.
Missed yesterday’s wonderful comments about how we think of each other–as the daughter of a geographer, I see a map and each of you is a star in a different corner. Thoughts of you trigger all the time–Kim every time I see a mother with an eye-rolling teenage daughter (prayers!); Mumsee all the time, but most often during Zumba; . . . and so on. Often one or two of you are the first people God brings to mind to pray for, so I slip in my words on your behalf early in the California morning!.
My husband knows most of you as well–we were just discussing Peter’s house sale troubles the other night while on a walk! (He had no fresh ideas, Peter!)
As for Donna, I actually knew of her long before I encountered her here on the blog. She has a distinctive last name and has worked for the newspaper in my hometown for many years. (It’s also the newspaper I interned on before she was hired). I’ve “known” her name since the 1980s!
Chas–the sage of NC
Cheryl–the editor married to a handsome man in Illinois
AJ–the fearless herder of cats, er commentors
Karen–in the center of God’s eye, always
Jo and Alisun and even Phos–God’s women in unusual places
MIM–beautiful woodwork
Karen–in the wilds of Canada
Jill–friend of friends in CO
Janice–prayer and writing, not to mention the adventurous Bosley
Arrows–children and music
Annams–adventures in homeschooling a Texan
Mrstherealaj–glory! A celebrity!
🙂
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One of my brothers was born May 14, and a different brother married on that date. My seems like a good month to be married or born, though I’m kinda partial to June as a birth month myself.
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Michelle, Illinois is one state my man has never lived in (though I have, 14 years in Chicago). 🙂 Close, though.
That was fun yesterday, though. I had a lot going on and didn’t participate much, but I read the thread.
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We have friends who had one of their dogs put down after the animal bit the child of some other friends of theirs. They understood the dog was being protective, but their first priority was to make sure their friends would always feel welcome and safe in their home. In other words, people over animals. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but their love for their pet didn’t trump their love for their friends, and their concern for their well-being.
I’ve mentioned before how the neighbor dog often comes to our house when his owner is gone for the day. We don’t feed him, or anything like that, but his owner leaves him outside, untied, when leaving the house, so the dog comes over here, enjoying the attention our kids give him, and runs back home when he sees his owner drive by on her way home.
The dog is good with the kids, and he’s been very good therapy for 5th Arrow, who was deathly afraid of dogs for years before that. The dog’s showing up here acted as something of an inoculation, though we didn’t realize at first that good would come of it. We had asked the dog’s original owners (relatives of the one who owns him now — long story) to keep their dog at home (something like half a mile away, at the back of our dead-end road) because of our son’s extreme fears. They didn’t try very hard, and the dog kept coming here anyway.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as our son gradually got over his fear of dogs as he got more used to the neighbor dog.
However, the dog barks up a storm and goes running up to delivery people, our rural mail carrier, and so on if he’s here when they arrive. The UPS man and our regular mail lady both know to whom he belongs, and have not had any bad encounters with him. But a couple weeks ago, we had a substitute mail carrier for a couple days, and the first day, the dog was here when the young man who was subbing tried to deliver our mail, but was afraid of the dog, who had run down our driveway, barking. (He’s a big dog with a big bark.) I was in the house, with the windows open, and could hear that the mailman had approached our mailbox, stopped, and seemed to be there for longer than usual, considering there was nothing in our box that needed picking up. I was occupied with something, so it didn’t dawn on me right away that the dog, whose barking I had hardly noticed, might be keeping the mail carrier from delivering our mail.
So I went outside, and just as I got onto our driveway, I saw the vehicle pull away from our box and drive down the road. The dog came up the driveway, met me, and turned around and walked with me down to the box.
No mail in it.
The next day, I watched for the mail to come, and walked down to the box to talk to the carrier (the dog was not at our house that day). I told him I was sorry I hadn’t gotten outside soon enough the day before to keep the dog from running down to the box, barking, but I told him he wasn’t our dog. The poor kid (he didn’t look like he was out of his teens) looked pale-faced and big-eyed, telling me how he couldn’t roll down the window because of the dog.
I like the dog, mainly because the youngest two children enjoy him so much, but I don’t really like having to keep tabs on him around the time the mail comes (which is often around lunch time) on the days he comes here. I don’t know much about training dogs, either, and am not sure how trainable he would be at his age, when he wasn’t trained before. (I think he’s close to five years old now.) And he’s not our dog, so I don’t feel like we should be responsible for training him, anyway.
Any ideas, those of you with dogs?
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Or anyone?
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Training him would take time and energy which is not available to you. But, it could be something that 5th Arrow could take on. What is he now, twelvish?
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With his issues, it might be really good for him to learn to control a dog, and controlling it for the short time the mailman is coming by would be just the perfect start. Talk to the neighbor, of course, and then see about putting his collar and leash on him for that time, and letting the Arrow walk him around. Better practice before the mailman comes. He could practice walking the dog for fifteen minutes. Teach the child that he can go in any direction and the dog should follow him. He should never have to pull on the dog. That comes with practice. And several pulls before hand, until the dog learns to pay attention to the boy. After a while, he should be able to walk the dog while the mailman is delivering. Win win for the boy and his confidence, the dog and his temperament, and the mailman, and for you as you see your Arrow grow a little stronger in his character.
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Lunch and shopping with the hubs. There is a new grocery store in the area that sells aged beef. We had been wanting to get their steaks (I had been there before and scoped it out). Mr. P asked if I would like to go out to eat tomorrow for lunch/Mother’s Day. I decided to spend that money on the steaks. (What have I been telling you for years—I really am a man’s dream woman what with the love of red meat, my own tools, trailer, etc!)
So my Mother’s Day Meal will be steak (rare) , baked potatoes-butter and sour cream, salad with blue cheese. I will have to fast for the rest of the week to counter act the damage that will do.
Victoria used to give us fashion tips so I will share with you that a trip to Dillard’s today has revealed that THE color lipstick for the summer is Misty Rose.
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Mumsee, wisdom, children, animals. Win, Win,Win, Win. 🙂 ♡♡♡♡
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Sounds like a plan to me, Mumsee.
I had to put a dog down for viciousness once and I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten over it . . . Once a dog bites a child, I’d never keep it again.
Dogs take a lot more training and time than I’m willing to give at the moment. My husband would like another one and I told him he had to take care of it.
We’re now waiting for the elderly cat–who is driving me crazy–to die and then we’ll revisit the issue.
Meanwhile, all sorts of people–strangers as well as friends–keep asking us when we’re getting another dog.
Sigh.
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I like that idea, Mumsee. It may work, and I could see it being a good confidence-builder for him.
Fifth Arrow is ten years and three months, chronologically. Developmentally, several years less. He has a lot of wiry strength, though, physically speaking, so he may be able to handle the dog when it’s on the leash. (If they have a leash — we’re out in the country, and he just runs around outside instead of getting “walked”, so it’s possible he doesn’t have a leash at all.)
Certainly it would help him with his language skills. And working to teach the dog to pay attention would be an aid in helping the boy himself to learn to pay attention. 😉
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Mumsee, wisdom, children, animals. Win, Win,Win, Win.
Amen, Janice. 🙂
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You might find that the dog is already trained to a leash, they just don’t feel the need to use it. He sounds a lot stronger than six year old, and she can manage a trained dog on a leash. Though I would certainly not put her in a dangerous situation with the dog. But, presumably, the dog is occupied with the new fun game and will ignore the mailman if he is on the other side of the house. And he can make his own signals for the dog. Dogs do a lot of visual cues. So it would be encouraging for him to be able to communicate his commands to the dog with hand signals or other body language.
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I sometimes have regrets about putting down our dog. She was very good at keeping the other dogs in line. She was also an excellent camping dog. But then I think about what I would have thought if she had decided to treat one of my children the way she was treating her own pups. Full grown but she nailed our hundred twenty pound dog and put a hole in his side because he growled at the rat terrier. I know she was just trying to keep order but she could not do that to my children and she had nipped one. And so we made the decision. It was easy but hard.
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We’d have to teach him to let go of the leash if the dog went running toward the mailbox while he was holding it. (So far, no matter where the dog is on our property, front of the house, in back, wherever, it runs down to the road when a vehicle goes by.) The boy also loves to run, and he likes to come down to the mailbox with me (he knows he’s not to run down the driveway) to get the mail, then wants to race me up the driveway. 🙂 I let him because it’s fun and a good challenge for him. He’s as fast as I am now, and sometimes faster. I might have to quit doing that now, as he loves challenges like that, and might be similarly driven to race the running dog down the driveway as he is the running mom up the driveway. 😉 Or train him to only race me, and not the animal! (This is the same boy who ran after a sick raccoon in our yard a year or two ago before anyone knew what he was doing. I think we got him trained out of that — or I hope so anyway. Yikes.)
Life is always interesting here. 😉
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The dog considers you and yours to be part of his pack. He is protecting you. That is good, but he needs to know that boy is in charge, not dog. What Cheryl said the other day about making the dog lie on its side and relax will help the dog to see it. But you want you or your husband to do it first, to make sure the dog is going to listen. Once the dog understands the boy is in charge, the boy should be able to learn he can run and play with the dog off leash but must never run with the dog on leash. The dog will understand, and I suspect boy will relish the power.
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Thanks, Mumsee. I’ll go back and find that comment of Cheryl’s and reread it. Your comments are very helpful, too. ‘preciate it. 😉
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Re: Killing the dog instead of the chicken- In some cases, chickens are income, whereas a dog is rarely good for income. They usually cost more than they “earn”.
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Not only are chickens potential income, but some dogs that kill never can be trained out of it. And dogs can kill for fun and not food. My sister once was watching out her back window, with a couple of her children, when two dogs leaped their fence, killed half a dozen of their chickens in a few seconds, and then jumped back over. Dogs that kill like that can destroy all the chickens in a neighborhood quickly (and flocks take months to build up . . . if you get your chickens all past the age when they’re likely to get killed by snakes or raccoons or hawks, and they finally start laying, and a dog kills them just for fun–well, such a dog must be either penned or put down).
When Misten was a puppy, I was waiting until she was old enough to be somewhat calm, and then I planned to do foster care. I had my first foster kids, a long-weekend placement, when she was about a year old. The kids were two boys, four and five as I recall, and young enough to be intrigued by my big dog but a bit scared of her. Well, when I was training her, I was terrified that she would bite a kid playfully and someone would make me put her down, so I was very firm about not allowing play biting. (Unfortunately I wasn’t as proactive about jumping up on people–I worked on it, but not as hard as I should have–since the biting seemed like the real threat.) Well, the boys I had for that one weekend would play with her, but from outside the fence. They would run outside the fence and she would run alongside them inside, or they would throw the ball for her and she’d bring it and drop it just inside the fence, allowing me to reach through and get it.
On their fourth and last day with me, the boys decided they wanted to go inside the fence and meet Misten face to face. Unfortunately (1) she was still a big puppy and (2) I wasn’t careful enough in my instructions to the children. The younger boy panicked and ran. Misten thought he was playing, and so she chased him. When he stopped running, she jumped onto her hind legs, either to jump on him or as a way to avoid running into him (putting on the brakes quickly), I’m really not sure which. She’s always been super gentle with children and old people, very careful in her movements around them. At any rate, in the process she either scratched him or he thought she did. There was no mark on him, but I know she got close to him and she may well have made light contact. Late on he told me, “She bit me!” I knew she hadn’t bitten him (I would have seen it, as I was close–she simply went up a little as she stopped, and her paw might have made contact with him but her face did not), but I was scared he might tell someone else my dog had bitten him, and there might be some kind of ramifications from that. So I told him, “She didn’t bite you, she scratched you, and she didn’t mean to” and hope that was enough. Apparently it was, as I never heard anything more. And fortunately the other foster kids I had were very dog savvy girls who loved Misten right away.
But somehow I had just assumed that if I had a collie, kids would be drawn to her unless they were just afraid of all dogs. It never once occurred to me that kids’ first impression of a collie would be that it is a big dog, and that little children might be more hesitant with even a friendly big dog. I can’t tell you the number of times a child has reached to pet her, and Misten has reached out a little too (from a sitting position) and that makes the child withdraw his hand. Misten is just being friendly, and she gets frustrated. So I usually start by having them pet her back end, which puzzles her. She looks over her shoulder in obvious bewilderment why anyone would stroke her rear instead of coming and letting her sniff them. She actually loves having her rear end stroked, and sometimes made people at the dog park laugh by backing up to people on the bench instead of approaching them face first. But when I’m holding her front end so a child can pet her at the opposite end from her teeth, she can’t understand that. But she’s patient with it.
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Great advice from Mumsee and Cheryl again. We tell children to pet Keva under his chin – he always lifts his nose when they reach to pat him on the top of his head and that makes them nervous, so scratching him under the chin calms both the children and the dog. At Easter he had a 3 year old and a 1 ½ year old following him around and when they weren’t, he was following them around – so cute.
Mumsee, you can get those instant hose connectors at Canadian Tire 🙂 I love those as I can never turn the hose ends tight enough to prevent leaking. I’m sure some place like Home Depot would have them as well.
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Petting a dog on the top of his head can be seen as threatening (by the dog). Pet from underneath, on the chin — first hold your had out, open and facing upward, so dog can sniff.
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Was talking to a couple at the dog park today, asking how they met (both had been married before, think they’re living together, not married, now, kids from prior marriages probably mostly grown). He’s a dentist, she works for one of the airlines.
Anyway, he told me they met online via a dating site and were matched “99%” which is probably remarkable. He said among the key issues is that they’re both atheists. He said it’s so important for people to agree on that issue (religious vs. atheism) and on that I could agree.
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Interesting post about how churches have changed in recent years (fewer choirs, more casual dress, larger congregations, more “screens” — though our church dumped the screen many years ago, deciding to go ‘backward’ on that and some other trends that were big back in the day):
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2014/05/how-worship-services-have-changed-since-2000/#more-18766
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fifty seven!
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Kare, thanks, husband just happens to be in Canada and he has never been able to find them for me here. Though He is the one who found them in Germany.
Oh, hi Donna. Never mind on the fifty seven.
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Hi mumsee!
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Good thing I am in a chemically altered state. I have gotten three Mother’s Day texts today. One from my own child, but she is out to lunch with her paternal family. I am not a bundle of tears. I am going to sit in the sun on the Bay.
The dogs and the hubs got me a nice mother’s day present.
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I have not received any mother’s day texts from anybody. One of my children did say happy mother’s day to me, and a lady at church did. And my brother sent me an email. But it is still a happy day.
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Nothing from my dogs. Or the cat.
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blessed to have six skype videos from my Colorado daughter. I know the work it took to do all of that. The grands even shared piano and violin music. Of course, it took me all afternoon to download and watch them. God is showing me the ways that I am honored by my children. I am not bragging, but, being far away, it helps to look for the blessings. See post on today’s thread for another blessing.
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I tried to send a comment to you from the mall in Hickory. But the WiFi was so slow I couldn’t get on. I’m not talking about several seconds like you have with dial-up, I’m talking about minutes. I finally backed out when my battery got down to 50%. Yes, it took that long. I’m talking several minutes here.
It has worked in the past.
I took the Ranger to Greensboro because we had a couple of lawn chairs to give to Mary (middle GD who is having Graham dedicated). I had some comments, but forgot what they were, so you are spared.
We drove back from Greensboro this afternoon.
Chas is tired.
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That was yesterday I tried to send the post.
Elvera was shopping. Since I couldn’t get on, I started reading a book.
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Today the sermon was on the 23rd Psalm and the Good Shepherd, the priest brought that back to Mother’s taking care of their “flock”.
The dogs gave me a massage, a facial, a manicure, and a pedicure….of course they sent Paul shopping. He was smart enough to go ahead and make my appointment for next Saturday from 9 to 12. The Baby Girl eventually showed up with The Essential Johnny Cash which has some songs on it that I had not heard before. We had aged rib eyes, baked potatoes, and salad for dinner. I am a happy woman.
I am off to take a shower and put on my comfy jammies and retire to the sofa to fan myself. I won’t eat bon bons because I am too full.
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I have only heard from my daughter in Pasadena…she has tested us the most…and is now my most attentive…interesting…(offering hope to some here who are treading rough waters at the moment with their offspring 🙂 )
I met the most charming little dachshund yesterday Donna…he must have weighed 3 pounds…he is a year and a half and what a strut he has. Of course he charges up to me with his ferocious bark..his owner brought him in the antique shoppe I was visiting (I once worked there)….I opened my hand and scratched his chin…instant love…he followed me everywhere in the store and his owner was worried he wouldn’t get him back (I did suggest Max would fit inside my purse!) 🙂
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“God’s Helpers” by George W. Wiseman
God could not be in every place
With loving hands to help erase
The teardrops from each baby’s face,
And so He thought of mother.
He could not send us here alone
And leave us to a fate unknown;
Without providing for His own,
The outstretched arms of mother.
God could not watch us night and day
And kneel beside our crib to pray,
Or kiss our little aches away;
And so He sent us mother.
And when our childhood days began,
He simply could not take command.
That’s why He placed our tiny hand
Securely into mother’s.
The days of youth slipped quickly by,
Life’s sun rose higher in the sky.
Full grown were we, yet ever nigh
To love us still, was mother.
And when life’s span of years shall end,
I know that God will gladly send,
To welcome home her child again,
That ever-faithful mother.
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Your dogs gave you a whole spa treatment?
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Yes, Youngest Stepson sent a text telling me Happy Mother’s Day. Daughter in law sent me a message that she and Precious Baby Boy had made a gift for me but did not get it in the mail and just now Middle Stepson called to tell my Happy Mother’s Day and to make sure he was the first to call. He was the only one to call. BG sent a text and eventually came over. everyone else sent a text he was the only one to call.
Donna, the dogs had an advantage. They had Mr. P do do their shopping for them. 😉
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A few weeks ago, I dropped and shattered a little English teacup and saucer I had purchased while in Greece. I had a sixteen year old cleaning it up before I knew it had hit the floor. I told him just to put it in the trash as it was not fixable. But secretly, seventeen wanted to glue it together for me. She just gave it to me, all glued back together. But the glue she used was not for eating out of so she put a lovely plant in it. A nice dandelion, so I will have fresh dandelion leaves to eat, right here in the house! What thoughtful children I have…..
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Why don’t we have a like button
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I would hit on a thumbs down on Kim’s new avatar.
😆
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I was struggling with Mother’s Day today. Went to church grumpy, the worship leader talked more than we sang, I felt sorry for myself and just sat down. I happened to be sitting beside the wife of one of our pastors and she sat down with me and shared that she didn’t like Mother’s Day as her first child was stillborn on Mother’s Day. She does have a boy and a girl now, but whoa, that put things into perspective for me, then she offered me some chocolate 🙂 Daughter texted me a “happy Mom’s day” and son called and told me I had passed the mother test and he loved me and I really was a good mom. I’m starting to think churches really shouldn’t put as much focus on Mother’s day as they do. Another friend told me she felt so bad about her mothering that she skipped church on Mother’s day until about 5 years ago. I’ve met her grown children and they are wonderful people. I guess that shows that God can take our broken parenting and turn it all to good. That is meant as encouragement to all us moms who were not the perfect mothers.
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Just got back from family exercise. Mrs L walked, D3 ran and I rode. There is a state park nearby with fairly level trails. D3 is training for a 5k run, so she has been going regularly. Mrs L goes with her and they walk or run a 2.1 mile trail. I went today with the bike I just had repaired and rode 4.5 miles on two different trails. It was my first time trail riding. The second trail has thick grass, so pedaling was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Oh, well. I need to get back in shape!
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Aww, mumsee, that’ so sweet. 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’m glad our church doesn’t make over Mother’s Day (or other holidays particularly, either). All the women are given long-stemmed carnations (which most of us donate to the mother of the most kids in our row — we sit behind a family who takes up an entire row so they got ours). A brief mention is made from the pulpit, with an exclusive touch, but the sermon is not at all about it (we were back in Romans today, about prayer) and everything else is as usual.
Just got back from walking my dogs through the neighborhood park with lots of ducks and geese. Nice day there, there was a large Latino family at one of the barbecues and playing Mexican music, and a young couple was having photos taken, I’m guessing engagement, but they did have what looked like a profession photographer working with them with backdrops.
It’s very windy here late today, the wind gusts kicked up about 2 hours ago.
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inclusive, not exclusive — I do think churches have become more aware that the day is complicated for many of use. 😉
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My dogs need to get a personal shopper.
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NancyJill – I am so sorry you didn’t hear from your other grown children. 😦
{{{Hugs}}}, dear friend.
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Aw thanks Karen…I just got off of the phone with daughter who lives in town…she said they got just a dusting of snow and their roads are totally clear…they live about 25 minutes away from us at a lower elevation…amazing! So the only one I haven’t heard from is the son in KY…which is nothing new…I will admit it does sting a bit..but it is what it is…and he is who he is… Hope your day was blessed beyond measure! 🙂
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