Back to Basics

Have you noticed that sometimes even a good thing gets so far out that we must stop, take a deep breath and go back to the basics? Do you ever feel that Xmas is at this stage? Don't get me wrong, I am probably one of the biggest offenders (for lack of a better word). However, in the quiet of the morning while thinking back to why we are celebrating Xmas I can't help but wonder if this is what God had in mind when he sent his son.

That reflection raised these thoughts. For Jesus' birthday, there were no feasts, stacks of presents, lavish parties, etc. It was a very awesome day. Not even a bed to lay him in. Yet based on that day's event, we as Christians believe we were given the gift of eternal life. Think back to each of the gifts you received, did any of them give you such an awesome promise? It made me think that we should do further soul searching on how would Jesus want to celebrate his birthday? Would it be with overspending, overeating, jealousy that someone got more or better gifts than we did, partying to the point of drunkeness, just focusing on the entirely different concept than Jesus had in mind for "HIS" birthday party. Has it become "OUR" party? If so, can we give the same gifts he does? Can we give patience, charity, unselfishness, and all those other virtues he so generously bestows?

What if there was just one town in this world that chose to celebrate Jesus' birthday as he would choose? How would they do it? My thoughts are that they would spend their time and money celebrating family, orphans, elderly and those less fortunate. I don't think there would be drunken parties, credit cards maxed out, jealous confrontations, etc It made me stop and ask myself how would I feel if I were Jesus?

Do we need to go back to basics?

Do You Have a Title?

See, even the blog ask for a title! Are titles important to you? They are to most people. For instance, my title is "Executive Senior Research Associate in the Field of Child Development and Human Relations". I know your next question, how did you get that title? Well, I earned it by becoming a mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Now if you will read the title carefully you will see how all this fits together. First, I am diversified and able to multitask which is extremely important in my field. I am willing to work long hours and seven days a week without asking for overtime or comp time. I work in the field (some call them playgrounds) as well as inside. I am not geared to get my reward through monetary compensation. I am a dedicated employee who will probably never retire. I will never file for workmen's comp or sue the company for sexual harassment. I do not require vacation time or sick leave. So now you know how I earned my title. "Just a Mom"

country girl or city boy

I have just had my amusement for the day. Can you believe it came from reading MSN's home page? Jon Katz wrote a very detailed story about his "steer" and how the steer named Elvis fell in love. I was practically rolling in the floor laughing. If Jon would look up the word "steer" in the dictionary he would find out why I found this so funny. Of course, I confess to being a country girl so I knew the impossibility of an occurrence such as this happening. Goes to show, "You can't believe everything you hear and not much of what you read", sorry for modifying this quotation a little.

Warty Frog

The warty frog is not pretentious. It does not berate its Maker for its lack of beauty. It lives and thrives in spite of its outward affectations.

Perhaps it is far wiser than mortals who would strive to cloak that which they truly are.

Lots of wisdom imparted by Mary Summer Rain in this quotation don't you think?

Elfdom

If some of you are wondering if there is such a word as Elfdom, I will answer that quickly. If there wasn't before, there is now. I like that word. Better still I like elves. No wonder Santa is always so happy. He has all those little elves helping him. What jolly little people they are. Now here comes the kicker!! If anyone asks you what I want for Xmas, tell them I want elves. Lots and lots of elves. The more the merrier!

Clan Update

Hopefully all the ailing members of the clan are up and over the sneaky little bug that caught them. Just a quick note from the cave to update what is happening here.

We totally enjoyed all the cubs and their families that made it here for the big day. I think all of us had more to eat than we needed. One neice has called me to remind me that I didn't fulfil my role in the making of a chocolate pie for this specific person. I promised two for Xmas. It seems she has appointed me to take her Grandmother's place in making these pies.

J came through her surgery today. It was quite lengthy, almost five hours but thankfully no report of any lingering problems. There were several of us there to give her moral support and it sure seemed like a long time to sit and wait.

Gerbeans and spouse will be leaving tomorrow. Boy their time here sure goes fast.

I have started another new project. Genealogy! Boy is it ever fascinating. I am about to decide that I may have too many projects going but sure enjoy both the land searches along with the "people" searches.

Will sign off for now -

"Latest Endeavor"

Grammy is into another search. I am now doing genealogy searches working on my family tree. How interesting!! I have gone back as far as several "greats" on certain family ancestors. When Xmas rolls around and the grandkids come and find Grammy glued to the computer on ancestry.com they may get a little irritated, lol.
Howver, I will try to make sure that we don't have to many "sad days". I have discovered that one of our distant relatives was married to the Gatlins of the Gatlin Gun inventors. Another one was captured in the civil war, one was witness to a lynching, etc.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving. Don't know for sure who all will be here but will just enjoy the time. I am trying out a new rocky road chocolate pie recipe. One of the cubettes asked her Mom to make sure that I didn't forget to make the broccoli/rice cassserole and the cherry cheese cake. And they think us "older" ones are the traditionalists, lol.

We had the energizer bunny all day Sunday. She went to Church with us. We then went out to eat and on to the Couches for a visit. She got to go with Papa G out into the pasture to see the longhorn cows. He couldn't get her on the four wheeler though, she said, "no, I too scared". She does not want to miss her bible class and since her Mom and her Nina were going to the city, I talked them into leaving her with us.

I have come to grips with the situation with the cub to the north. Still have some very sad thoughts but don't obsess about it. It is in God's hands.

Happy turkey day to all of you - as you know our family has our love -

New Experience

I had a new experience yesterday that I enjoyed immensely. My siblings and I are in the process of leasing some of our royalty that we inherited from our Mom. As is my usual inquisitive nature, I couldn't figure why the numbers of acres seemed to change each time a land company leased the royalty. I decided that I would try to find out how all this worked. That involved me going to the court house in Atoka County and doing research on two Sections of land. There was one lady that worked there that sort of took me under her wing and taught me the tricks to find information. That was so interesting. I was able to learn how to trace the history of ownership clear back to their beginning. I was able to find out that we were being "underpaid" for the number of acres. The siblings were encouraging but didn't participate in the hunt. I have two more court houses to visit. One in Pittsburg County and one in Cooks County, Texas. Oh yes, another visit to Atoka County for two more sections. That is so fascinating to see all these records. Fortunately, these parcels of land so far have not changed ownership too awfully many times. Each time any transaction takes place, it is notated in first the legal description book under the specific Section, then the deeds are in yet more books and if the mineral rights have been sold they are also kept in minerals deed books. The land in Texas in question that my Papa kept the mineral rights on was land owned by his Dad and it was purchased back in the 1800's. After his death, Papa bought his siblings share of the property. We have no idea how much royalty we may have there. So far, there has not been anyone attempting to lease it. Anyway, I am looking forward to that challenge. Should be very interesting to read about that great grand father on the D side.

Casper had his beauty shop appt today and got his yearly vaccinations. He was really glad to see us when we picked him up.

Thanks for visiting!

"True Family Sagas"

There was this family who lived in a small rural community. They were extremely poor in material things but very blessed with what matters most - family - This family consisted of a mother, father and three girls. Two of the girls were much older than the third one. They were surrounded by grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and too many cousins to count. This family lived in a three room house without running water and had an outside outhouse. The birthdays were not always celebrated with gifts, parties or even cakes. Yet each family member knew they were loved. Christmas also was very lean. Not always even a Christmas tree. Yet each member knew they were loved.

Now when future stories are written about this family, you have the setting.

The episode that I am writing about today took place when the two older siblings were quite young (around ages 11 & 13). Their parents had to go to the Northwest to pick up the patriarch's brother(who was going through mid-life crisis). Anyway, the parents left the two girls with a great-grandmother and great-grandfather hereafter called Pa and Grannie. Pa and Grannie lived one block over in a fairly large house. Grannie was not to keen on cleaning and had many cats that lived inside. Unfortunately the cats got their food from the dining room table also. Now the second night there, the siblings were in bed trying to go to sleep and the wind was whistling through the windows and the house seemed to be creaking. They decided then and there that they would go home and spend the rest of the time there. Which is exactly what they did the very next day.

Now before the parents returned the youngest sibling decided to clean the house and do the laundry. The older sibling refused to help so this created a large confrontation that resulted in a rather spirited fight with feather pillows. Much to their dismay, one of the pillows came apart and those pesky feathers went everywhere. The youngest sibling thought by sweeping them outside, they would go un-noticed. Afterall, they had chickens so feathers were common place. However, piles of feathers are different from a few scattered around or at least that is what the parents said.

Stay tuned!

And Life Goes On!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, with the election behind us what oh what will the networks find to blast away to the unsuspecting watchers! Of course, we could always push the "off" button, heaven forbid. I realize that I am probably in the minority but I actually enjoy politics. Could that be because my Dad had me handing out candidates cards at a very young age? Or calling people to see if they needed for my Dad to give them a ride to the polls? Or maybe it was just the "lively" debates between my Dad and his Dad. One a staunch democrat and the other just as staunch in his republican view. Oh well, my one attempt in running for an office (School Board) was interesting. Even though I came close enough for a run-off, I didn't win. You know those incumbents are hard to beat, lol.

Our cub is currently suffering with "pink" eye. She is sure that this is the disaster of the year. I don't think she minds missing school but does mind missing the academic trip to a nearby town tomorrow afternoon.

The Alien is sure enjoying his new truck. His brother-in-law is very worried that the Alien is going to wash the paint off if he doesn't quit washing it so often.

Our little energizer bunny is sure blooming these days. At Church Sunday, she sat in my lap and immediately she said, "Grammy, where is your purse?" She has already learned where the goodies are.

Earlier Halloweens Remembered

With the recent celebrations going on for this Halloween, it brought back memories of "many" Halloweens ago. There was not the huge attention paid to it in the small rural area where I grew up. Although, the most dire thing done back then was to turn over people's outhouses. For all you young whippersnappers that don't know, there were times when we actually had an "outside" toilet. Come to think of it, there are good sides to everything. You sure didn't have complaints of someone "hogging" the bathroom. It was sweltering hot in the summer and icy cold in the winter. Anyway, there was this one guy in our town who was also the janitor at our school. He was extremely "cranky" so the kids that were inclined to be mischievous seemed to always accomplish turning over his outhouse. That was pretty amazing since he would sit out by it with his shotgun most of the night. In retrospect, the crankiness could have come from him having to put up with all of us everyday, ya think?

My Dad was very involved with young people and had some curious ways of making us think. For instance, one Halloween, he loaded up his pickup (with a camper shell on it) with kids and took us to a town about 35 miles away. His brother-in-law was the deputy sheriff. This uncle took us down in the basement where the jail was located and gave us a tour. To this day, I remember the prisoners yelling and screaming at us. Valuable exposure to that side of life given to us in a purely unassuming way. We all thought at the time that it was just a scary thing to do.

Another time, he suggested that a bunch of us go walk through the cemetery. He recommended a certain route to take. Off we went, it was getting dark with just enough light to make out outlines of things. When we got to the cemetery, we were already worked up in frenzy thinking about all the ghosts that "might" be there. Sure enough, all of a sudden, we heard this "ohhhhhh" noise and looked over to see this ghost just gliding through the graves. Talk about run, anyone of us could have qualified for the Olympics. We beat Dad back to the house and we were excitedly telling Mom about the ghost. About that time, Dad walked up so we told him the story. Before we got to the "ohhhhh" noise Dad said, "Did it sound like this and he made the sound". Needless to say, he was in big trouble. More from laughing too hard than our pommelling him I think.

We had a few trick or treaters last night, not many though. Our Cub worked at the Fall Festival at our Church. She made a "cute" cat.

Never could stand misspelled words

Two men were walking home after a Halloween party and decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery just for laughs. Right in the middle of the cemetery, they were startled by a tap-tap-tapping noise coming from the misty shadows.

Trembling with fear, they found an old woman with a hammer and chisel, chipping away at one of the headstones. "Holy cow, Madam" one of them said after catching his breath, "You scared us half to death -- we thought you were a ghost! What are you doing working here so late at night?" "Those fools!" the old woman grumbled. "They misspelled my name."

"WATCH WHAT YOU SAY"

A man staggered into a hospital with a concussion, multiple bruises, two black eyes, and a five-iron wrapped tightly around his throat.
Naturally, the doctor asked him, "What happened to you?""Well, I was having a quiet round of golf with my wife, when at a difficult hole, we both sliced our balls into a cow pasture. We went to look for them and while I was looking around, I noticed one of the cows had something white at its rear end.""I walked over, lifted its tail, and sure enough, there was a golf ball with my wife's monogram on it stuck right in the middle of the cow's butt.""Still holding the cow's tail up, I yelled to my wife, 'Hey, this looks like yours!'""I don't remember much after that..."

Acts of Love

When we allow ourselves to understand the impact our actions have not only on ourselves but the planet we live on, we realize the necessity to take loving action. We each have the power to correct conditions within as well as to affect the world we live in.

There are so many ways to apply love in our everyday lives. Yet, if we do not take care of ourselves, it is virtually impossible to feel and share love with the world around us. As an act of self-love, we can begin to educate ourselves and learn to take care of our physical bodies as well as keep our thoughts and feelings positive and loving. Nurturing ourselves also teaches us how to nurture life around us.

Practice constant acts of kindness and you bring kindness upon this planet. Forgiveness is the easiest and most powerful act of kindness you can make. Both for yourself and for others, this activity promotes unity, harmony and oneness that transmutes the old into the new.

This magnificent planet is filled with opportunities to experience love, tolerance, peace and joy. When we, as individuals, realize our potential to love unconditionally, we transform ourselves and the planet at the same time. Such is the power we wield every moment of every day. The choice is ours to create a world of joy and happiness, love and goodwill.

Every moment of every day is a new beginning. This can be a powerful mantra or affirmation. The meaning held in these words opens us to a new way of living and experiencing life. Each moment holds a new beginning of possibility and an opportunity to create without limitation. We can let go of what we perceive or believe is before us and allow our personal potential to shine through. Start each day as a new journey of self discovery. Let go of yesterday and tomorrow and embrace the power of now. Remind yourself daily of the newness of life in the moment.

Mixing Oil and Water

Oil and water do not mix - the mantra is familiar to every schoolchild.
Now teachers may want to rewrite their lessons. If you first remove any gas that is dissolved in the water, it will mix spontaneously and even stay that way indefinitely, according to chemist Ric Pashley ix. newscientist.com

However, I doubted that theory even then because I saw first hand how they did mix. I will attemp to explain why I believed that they could mix.

First, I have to give you some background on some history of my grandparents (from both sides). I will begin with my mother's parents.

They were of German and Dutch heritage and were very hard working. They were somewhat reserved but we never doubted their love and dedication to family. However, when we visited their home, at mealtime, everyone ate at the table and it was very quiet. No loud laughter, elbows on the table (you get the picture). Their home was very organized. There were very few idle moments. Papa was a rancher by trade and a very prosperous one. They owned a great deal of land, had cattle, sheep, etc They were also very thrifty. Even though the children were expected to do their share of the work, they also lived a pretty privileged life for those times. Piano lessons, nice clothes, etc Granny D was one of those people you never seemed to see working but her house was always clean, food was always cooked and she always had large gardens and put up food for the winter. When we made the beds in the morning, they were not touched until you got into them at night. If you have never made a feather bed, you are truly deprived. It takes swatting them with a broom to make them nice and smooth. While this might sound like a "stiff" environment, it really wasn't. We grandkids loved to go there in the summer.

Now for the other side of the family. These grandparents were of Irish, English and native American heritage. My dad's parents were totally the opposite. They were farmers and hard workers but never had much but what they did have they would give to others less blessed. An overnight stay at Granny M's house could very well include the kids playing music at night and Granny getting up in her long flannel gown with braids hanging loose and doing the polka with us. As she was a rather large woman, this was truly a sight to behold. Granny M's house was one step ahead of the health department. When there were two or three M's together, they made more noise than 50 of the D's. Mealtime was choatic. Everybody talking at once, don't ask for someone to pass food if you could reach it, (you get this picture also?) Granny M had a reputation as the place on Hwy 99 for transients to stop to get a meal. She didn't invite them in but she did sit them on the porch and fed anyone who came to her door. If you visit with people who relocated to CA in the 50's, at least 50% or them will tell you that they stayed with the M's (free of course) until they found a job.

Now that you have a short synopsis of the background, you see why I grew up thinking oil and water could mix. My mother was a D and my father a M.

One interesting tidbit is that while I enjoyed going to the M's, I chose to go to the D's more often. My older sibling chose the M's. I guess that would give a clue to a shrink on our personalities huh?

Does this remind you of Grandpa J?

The duck and the lawyer

A big city lawyer went duck hunting in rural
Tennessee. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell
into a farmer's field on the other side of a fence. As
the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer
drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing

The litigator responded, "I shot a duck and it fell
in this field, and now I'm going to retrieve it."
The old farmer replied, "This is my property, and you

are not coming over here."

The indignant lawyer said, "I am one of the best
trial attorneys in the United States and, if you don't let me get that duck, I'll sue you and take everything
you own.

The old farmer smiled and said, "Apparently, you
don't know how we settle disputes in Tennessee. We
settle small disagreements like this with the "Three
Kick Rule."The lawyer asked, "What is the Three Kick Rule?"

The Farmer replied, "Well, because the dispute occurs
on my land, first I kick you three times and then you
kick me three times and so on back and forth until
someone gives up."

The attorney quickly thought about the proposed
contest and decided that he could easily take the old
codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom.

The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor
and walked up to the attorney. His first kick planted
the toe of his heavy steel toed work boot into the
lawyer's groin and dropped him to his knees. His
second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer's last meal
gushing from his mouth.

The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer's third
kick to his rear end sent him face-first into a fresh
cow pie . The lawyer summoned every bit of his will
and managed to get to his feet.. Wiping his face with
the arm of his jacket, he said, "Okay, you old fart.

Now it's my turn."
[I love this part....]

The old farmer smiled and said, "Naw, I give up. You
can have the duck.

This is so like someone we all know and loved don't you think?

Things are not always as they appear

One day a small lizard was walking through the forest. He smelled pot and looked up to find a koala bear sitting in a tree.The little lizard looked up and said, "Hey koala bear, what are you doing up there?"The bear replied, "I'm getting high, come on up." So the lizard joined the bear in the tree.They continued to smoke joint after joint until finally the little lizard said, "My mouth is dry like cotton."The koala bear agreed and told the lizard to go down to the river and get a drink and in the meantime he would roll another joint.

The little lizard attempted to lean over to drink water from the river and was so stoned, he fell right in and started splashing around.A crocodile saw this and swam over to help the lizard to shore. He said, "Lizard what is wrong with you?" The lizard replied, "I've been getting stoned with the koala bear. I needed water and fell in the river."The crocodile said, "I don't believe this. Take me to the tree you were in."

So they walked through the forest and they come to the tree where the koala bear was sitting. The crocodile looked up and said, "Hey koala bear, what are you doing up there?"

The koala bear looked down and said, "Holy crap dude, how much water did you drink?"

POSITIVE VIEW OF LIFE - After birthdays

As all of you know, there have been several birthdays going on these past few weeks and in the weeks to come. It started me to thinking about all the things that were positive in my life as it pertains to "another" birthday. I will share a few of these things with you:

I am happy and blessed to have another year as I am not through being a "thorn" in my cubs' flesh yet. I figure that is the least I can do.

If there is a little too much dust in the house, instead of saying something tacky, the cubs say,"you know its hard to see all the dust when your eyes begin to age".

If I put on a little (okay maybe a lot) weight instead of saying, "Boy is she letting herself go, they say, "you know, for her age, she looks pretty good.

The days that I am just plain out of sorts instead of taking it personal, they say, "poor thing, her arthritis must be acting up".

The cashiers no longer have to be reminded that I am a senior citizen, they just automatically give the discount.

Even the IRS gives extra deductions.

Another plus is it doesn't matter if I get off the track, its kind of nice not to have to outrun the train.

So as I count my many blessings, I will gracefully welcome my upcoming special day with a thankful heart.

Rain, Rain don't go away

We are receiving some very much needed rain. It rained most of the day yesterday in a slow soaking manner that does so much good.

Hope all had a cheerful weekend. The Alien and I took off Friday and just goofed around. We drove to a nearby town and ate at the Crackerbarrel, my most favorite place. Then on to Lowes where we checked out every aisle. Deliver me from the malls, just take me to a home improvement store and its like Xmas.

The little great cubette was in true form yesterday at Church. She had to sit in Grammy's lap during Church. She was so good and quiet "until" she put her finger close to my mouth and I just barely touched it with my teeth and in this very clear distinct voice she said, "Grammy don't bite me". Needless to say, Grammy just cracked up. We didn't cause much of a disturbance, hee hee

So far, this appears to be a fairly routine week. I hope to get back on track with my neck adjustments, Casper goes to the beauty shop, Alien's big play day at work is over, Cub's games are finished so MAYBE - what is that old saying, "the best laid plans of mice and men".

Have a happy and peaceful week.

Update

Short note to update you on Ztuffy. He is much improved and has gone home. Still has some recuperation ahead but is on the way.