The View From My Kitchen Window: Last fall

I'm in the middle of cleaning house and canning.  I thought I would share a previously unpublished window view from the fall that adds a little color.

Now back to work.  The tomatoes and pickles (and dust bunnies!) are calling.

Monday Memories: (Almost) Twenty-Seven

It doesn't feel as though it has been twenty-seven years.

Most days I don't feel as though I have changed.  Most days!

Sometimes I sit and remember.

I remember the trips to Gatlinburg and the trips to the beach.

I remember the years when we could barely pay the insurance bills.

I remember the evening he held our new baby in his arms and told me that life was so much better with our son.

I remember the loss of his father, and a few years later of his mother.

I remember the time I had surgery; he took the week off and never left my hospital room.

I remember when I was so sick and he had to take care of going to work every day and then coming home to take care of me and the housework.

I remember all the Sundays of worship together.  The first Sunday we were married we went to a little church in Warner Robins together and it "just happened" to be communion Sunday.  I'll never forget that first time we celebrated communion together as a married couple.

I remember the times we have "put up" with each other's short-comings.  For the record, his list of shortcomings is much shorter than mine!

He is a handsome man.  He is a strong man in body and in faith because he relies on the strength of God.

He is my better half.

Happy (almost) anniversary, Mr. Marvelous. 

..in joy and in sorrow, in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part

  

I love you!        

Things Are A Little Different

I am not quite sure what to do with myself on Thursdays now.

In December our family was slapped in the face with the news that my oldest brother's wife (who has been part of the family since they were juniors in high school) had pancreatic cancer.  Unfortunately this particular kind of cancer and its rather grim prognosis is no stranger to our family.  The Aunt who shared my name died of it several years ago.  We have had a number of friends receive this diagnosis and most of them have died.  It is a scary diagnosis.  I gave myself one day to cry ~ and trust me, I spent most of that day crying! ~ then it was time to figure out what I needed to do.

For six months my sister-in-law and I made the three-weeks-on-one-week-off trips every Thursday to the clinic at University of Alabama in Birmingham for chemotherapy.  We would check in at the lab, wait for blood work, wait for the results, and then she would go back for a 90 minute infusion.  We clearly saw God's hand over every single moment of that time.  The physical side effects were more caused by the steroid injection that had to be given before starting the chemo than anything.  There were a few blips in the lab work, but never so much that the chemo had to be postponed.  Had you run into the two of us there, you would have assumed that we were there to visit a friend; neither of us looked like someone going through chemotherapy for cancer.

We met some amazing nurses (Cathy is one of our new heroes!).  We had visits with some people who were waiting on their family member to go through their chemo.  We prayed over a lot of people.  We were prayed over by a lot of people.  We cheered a lot of folks on when it was their turn to ring the bell.

The UAB Kirklin Clinic has a tradition.  On the wall by the exit door hangs a bell.  There is a poem (that I forgot to copy) that talks about leaving and moving on toward health.  The tradition is that when a patient completes chemotherapy, they ring the bell three times to share with everyone that they are DONE.  When there are people in the waiting area, they get a round of applause.  It is a hopeful time for those who are waiting; perhaps they too will get to ring the bell soon.

On Thursday, June 26th we got the news that the PET scan was completely clean.  There is no cancer anywhere.  On Wednesday, July  2 when Nancy woke up, she walked outside to find her car looking like this

 

Her good friend had snuck over early that morning with her daughter and not only decorated the car, but cut out, pinned and hung purple ribbons over the entire picket fence. 

Now that is a labor of love!

That afternoon we went in for the eighteenth ~ and final! ~ dose of chemotherapy.  My brother was able to leave work and come up to the hospital to celebrate.  Nancy came out with the nurses behind her, walked over ('scuse me, I'm getting a little teary here) and it was her turn to ring the bell.

So many people have walked this last seven months with us.  You have prayed over Nancy, her husband and her daughters.  You have prayed for her doctors and nurses.  You have prayed for peace for the family.  You have prayed for opportunities to share Jesus with the people we met.  Many of you who have prayed are not likely to ever meet Nancy, her husband or her children here on earth.  Trust me; you will be getting huge hugs and thank you's when we meet in heaven!

For several months I have carried a picture in my heart of Nancy's last day.  I wanted to line the hall and the exit with the people who have prayed for her.  I wanted her to walk out and see all the people who love her so much cheering her on.  Obviously I was not able to engineer that.  But as we walked out on that last day, I realized that God had engineered something much better for her:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.   Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.    Hebrews 12:1-3

Oh yeah.  They were there all right!  And they were singing the song of my heart

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow!

Praise Him all creatures here below,

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! 

I think that now I will spend my Thursdays saying "Thank You!!!"

For Barbara Today

My friend Barbara lost her beloved kitty last night.  Cocoa had been a part of her life for a number of years.  A few years ago I shared this story with Barbara, but I think it bears repeating today.  Who knows, perhaps it will help someone else today.

I have a very, very wise mother.

When I was growing up, our family had a huge, black, Persian cat.  The cat was unusually long-suffering of the five little rascals in the house and made a good family pet.  The cat had one bad habit.  It liked to lay in the middle of the street, and eventually....well.....

The next morning our Mother told us the sad news that our cat had died.  I ran to my room, buried my face in my pillow and sobbed.  Finally Mom came upstairs, picked me up and held me in the her lap in the rocking chair.  When I was able to talk, she asked me why I was crying so hard.  I told her that I was sad because the cat had died and the cat couldn't go to heaven so I would never see it again.  Mom was quiet for a few minutes and then she spoke words that have stayed with me the rest of my life.

"Sweetheart, Heaven is a wonderful place and a place of perfect happiness.  If you need our cat to be there in order to be perfectly happy, then it will be.  If the cat is not there, you will be so happy with heaven that you won't even miss the cat.  The thing to remember is that you can trust our Heavenly Father to provide everything you need to be perfectly happy there"

Don't I have an amazing and wise mother?!

Yes, that's the same rocking chair               

It's That Time of Year

Life is getting a little crazy on the homestead right now.  At least it is for She-Who-Harvests-Cans-Freezes-And-Pickles.

Here is the run down from the past week:

We defrosted the meat freezer last week and I found a couple of turkey carcasses waiting to be turned into broth.  So I got busy, made broth and canned 23 pints.

The Zephyr Squash (remember them?) are in kill-me mode.  So far I have put 24 4-cup bags in the freezer.  That's in addition to what we are eating.

The sixty tomato plants are ripening.  I spent most of one day this week getting 6 quarts canned.  Sigh.  Tomatoes are a lot of work.  I will be grateful when I don't have to spend money on them at the grocery store, but it gets a little overwhelming sometimes to do all that work and only have 6 quarts!

The cucumbers are in full swing.  So far I am on day eight of a batch of fourteen-day pickles and have put up 7 quarts of quick sweet pickles.  This makes my sister-in-law very happy.

I'll post more about this later, but we have also harvested a good supply of potatoes, including Russets, Yukon Golds, and Reds.  Should be enough to last until we harvest our second planting in the winter.

The beans are not being as productive this year...

...and the peas are only just now getting ready.  Eggplant, okra and melons are coming along.  The herbs are (mostly) doing very well.  Now if I can just find a minute to get out there and harvest them for drying...

Best of all, the artichokes are still alive and thriving!

I'd write more, but the pickles are hollering for me....

The View From My.....Rabbit Hutch??

Our Mama rabbit George tried to tell me that there was something going on.  

 

She kept trying to let me know about some new neighbors.

 I'm a slow study, but I finally figured it out.

Fortunately I did not remove it; turns out that the Mama wren is still sitting when we leave her alone. 

I'll let you know if they hatch!

Monday Morning Memories: Watermelons

A few weeks ago when I told you the story about my birthdays I mentioned watermelons and promised to explain that story to you.

My birthday is in early June.  When I was growing up, that was the start of watermelon season.  Especially since we usually wound up on vacation in Florida over the week of my birthday (which probably contributed to the confusion about the date; we celebrated all week!).

Watermelon was considered a really big treat in our family.  Those were the days of the long ones with lots of seeds in them.  Dad would slice them in half long ways and then cut each half into four long pieces.  There were seven of us in the family at that time (including Mom and Dad), so that meant that there was one extra piece and we took turns getting the extra piece.

I don't exactly know how it came about ~ whether I requested it or whether someone else suggested it ~ but at some point after I turned five we started the tradition of my birthday cake being a watermelon.  Dad would slice it in half, Mom would put candles in it and it became the perfect "cake".  Since it was my birthday, I got to have the extra piece.

I do recall that on my tenth birthday it was my year to have a party and I chose to have a regular cake instead.  I also recall that only two of the fifteen people invited showed up.  I went back to family parties and watermelon after that!

The summer I turned seventeen I graduated from high school.  It was an odd summer.  Dad had just accepted a position as senior pastor in Macon, Georgia.  We went to the beach but one sister and one brother had the nerve to have grown up and gotten married, so it was not the usual collection.  Somehow I just did not feel "right" the whole time we were there and couldn't quite enter into the spirit of things.  The family were concerned about the fact that I was so thin and wasn't eating.  A few weeks later I finally went into the doctor and discovered that I was full-blown diabetic.  The doctor was so afraid I would slip into a coma that he wouldn't even let me go home to get a nightgown but sent me straight to the hospital.

There were a lot of adjustments that had to be made over the next year(s).  I remember the frustration of trying to figure out that crazy diet.  At one point I threw the book across the room and screamed "I'm never going to figure this stupid diet out!!!".

In the middle of the frustration, I remember the realization that there was one thing anyway that was not going to have to change.  I would not have to change my birthday "cake"!

Years later I shared this story with Mr. Marvelous' parents.  They were highly amused and helped us continue the watermelon tradition as long as they lived.  The night before Mr. Marvelous and I got married we had the obligatory wedding rehearsal with the obligatory rehearsal dinner.  My father-in-law was determined to do things up big and planned a wonderful time at a lovely restaurant in Macon with everyone invited.  When the time came to clear away the dishes and bring out the dessert, a waiter came to my side and served me before everyone else.

With a large piece of watermelon!

I Dare You!

...to read this all the way through.  Then tell me if you think it is as relevant today as it was 238 years ago.

---

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Weeding Herbs

A young lady came to my door the other morning.

She wanted to discuss with me the state of my herb beds; she thought they needed weeding (she was right!)

She offered to help out.

She would be happy to keep me company while I did the weeding

In exchange for the weeds that were pulled up.

Or she could hop in the bed and do the weeding herself while I kept her company

There was only one problem....

She wanted the parsley as payment.

I chose to do the weeding myself, thank you.

  I did enjoy having company.

 I just want to know how much Mr. Marvelous paid her to get me out there and get those beds weeded? 

Walkabout Wednesday. Wow.

Two years.

For two years I have been tracking my daily walking.  Granted, there was that one span of time where I gave up wearing the pedometer, but two years ago I started doing this.  I have been to Demopolis, Alabama. 

Photo from Rural South West Alabama

I have been to New Orleans and had beignets.

 

I walked to the Space Center in Houston, Texas.  

I have seen the Luecke Trees. 

I have visited Kermit, Texas (who could resist with a name like that?!).  I went to Alamagordo and went sledding in White Sands. 

I went to church in Mesa, Arizona and got to hear an old college buddy preach (and enjoyed it very much, Rowdy!). 

In a last-minute change of plans, I swung north and visited the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, and the Hoover Dam.  

I have been to Joshua Tree National Park, Salvation Mountain and the Salton Sea.  I have looked at the stars from the Palomar Observatory. 

Two years (almost exactly) after starting, I am here. 

Photo from Raymond Shobe at Photostream/Wikimedia Commons

I did it!!  

Photo courtesy of Travis Rigel Lukas Hornung via Photostream and Wikimedia Commons

I made it to the Pacific Ocean and have even this month gotten to THE DROP OFF  (cue Finding Nemo music)

I have finished Phase I of the walk and have stepped off into the ocean to begin Phase II. 

I'll be walking on water for the next who-knows-how-many months.  At the end of Phase II, I will be having a cup of tea (and Gardenias for Breakfast) with one of my favorite authors, Robin Jones Gunn. 

Yippeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

The View From My Kitchen Window June 30, 2014

Have a good Tuesday!

Monday Memories: The Family

I have an amazing family.  I am one of the original Gang Of Five which has grown over the years to Gang of Six, then Seven and finally up to Gang of Ten (we all got married). 

That's my wedding; I was the last of my generation to get married, and by that time we had six ~ with two more on the way ~ in the next generation!

Within a decade or two of that, we had added another generation that was 14 and has now grown through marriages to 20 and still another generation of ~ currently ~ 8 (I'm including the one who will make her appearance in October). 

We are scattered to the four winds these days.  At least we (currently) do not have any out of country, but we are spread from Washington state, Utah, Washington D.C., Tennessee, and the South Carolina Low-Country; with the main emphasis being in the Birmingham area (and I'm still trying to figure out how that happened!)

My parents this year celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.  Yes, we are all very aware of the blessing that is.  Ten years ago they celebrated their 50th and most of the family (at least most of those who were family at that time) made it to the celebration and reunion. 

 

The only thing Mom and Dad requested for their anniversary this year was another reunion.  Unfortunately it wound up being only those east of the Mississippi and south of the Virginia-Tennessee border, but we still had 19 there (almost 50% thanks to the Coming Attraction).

We shared some hilarious stories. 

We ate.  A lot.  Once we got the charcoal going (Thanks, Ben!)

 

We picnicked.

                    We talked.

                                   We laughed....a lot!

                                                    We went out on the boat (Thanks, Robert!)

My gorgeous girls!

And even went swimming....

 

We hung out by the pool.

         We played games.

                We watched a beautiful slide show (Thanks, John and Diana!)

                         We rejoiced in the recent scan that shows no cancer (Thank You, Jesus!)

                                We prayed over our cousin who is battling his cancer.

                          We teased each other.

 

Most of all, we rejoiced in God's goodness and faithfulness to us as a family. 

On our first morning together, some of us (*ahem*) met together for family prayers (that's what we grew up calling it) and read together Psalm 34.  There were a lot of other Scripture passages I thought about reading, and a lot of things I thought about saying.  But through the night before, I was impressed that most of all, we needed to focus on giving thanks to God for His goodness, and love, and mercy, and kindness and faithfulness to us as His children.  Between a clean scan for my sister-in-law, sixty years of marriage for my parents, and a new baby on the way, it seemed most appropriate.

So "Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt HIS name together"!

Now I can start planning next year's reunion!

Weekend "Doin's"

What are your plans for the weekend? 

I'll be spending my time here...

...celebrating these two and their sixty years of marriage....

.....and admiring this kind of scenery










So whatever you may choose to do this weekend, I hope it is full of the grace that I have learned from those two, and that it is committed to the glory of God.

       Happy Weekend!                

Tomatoes

Mr. Marvelous has gently objected to the way I have written about him planting SIXTY tomato plants this year.  He reminded me that one-third (that would be twenty) of these are determinate tomatoes.  That means that they all get ripe at the same time and then they die and I don't have to fuss with them anymore.  That also means that one week soon I am going to have to deal with twenty tomato plants worth of tomatoes all at the same time.  That also means that there are a mere forty tomato plants left that will be producing all summer long. OK, maybe only 35-38; a few of them maybe didn't make it.  Still.....

He loves me.  This is his way of keeping me occupied, giving me something to do with my time during these long summer days, keeping off the streets and out of trouble (I don't know how to fix everything that happens to Little Red(neck) truck) (Yet).

All that to communicate that we have a tomato plantation this year.  That's what I get for fussing about running out of tomatoes in January.

There is a little something that comes with tomato plants.  In truth, there are a LOT of little somethings that come with tomato plants.  Meet our Nemesis, TOMATO HORN WORMS!

Ugly little things, aren't they?

Every morning and every evening Mr. Marvelous walks out into the plantation and starts looking.

 

 There are signs that you can look for to help you find them; they are well-camouflaged little buggers.

You look for droppings on lower leaves

You look for plants that are missing leaves (!)

You look for half-eaten tomatoes

Then you pluck the little nuisances off the plant and put them with the half-eaten tomatoes in an old coffee container.

Then you go have fun!

Turns out chickens are not just for eggs and meat!  

Ha Ha, you evil Horn Worms; take that!!

A Little Walkabout

I went for a walk this morning to try and find a turkey poult.  I was not successful, but in the process I found this little ham.

 I do love country life!

The View From My Front Door June 23 2014

Do you remember the turkeys who came to call last fall and winter? 

In the past we have had them visit in the fall and winter, and then they disappear until the next fall and winter.  It seems that this year they are much more comfortable around us.

Over the past week, Mr. Marvelous and I have noticed the turkey hens wandering across our road in the mornings and then back in the afternoons.  It has been fun watching them and we have even caught glimpses of a few poults.  The poults at this point are as big as a very large dove and are fully feathered out.  It's vastly amusing watching them get distracted by something, look around and realize that Mama is not in sight, and then race like mad to catch up to her.  Sound familiar to any Mama's??

Monday morning I was bustling about doing my "morning chores" while Mr. Marvelous was working from his home office (also known as his recliner) (he really was working; that Monday morning conference call thing).

I glanced out the window and for the first time saw turkeys in the front yard.  There was one hen with two poults trailing along behind her.  I felt as though I were watching a parade.  Unfortunately Mama and babies are all a little bashful at this point, so they were gone by the time I grabbed the camera.  However, this hen was most happy to pose for me.

Hopefully they will come back soon for a longer visit.  In the meantime, the camera is waiting by the front door, and I have adjusted the settings to silent.  I'll keep watching!