Road Trip Friday

That hazey look is pretty much what it looked like around here all day yesterday. Somehow, I don't see any reason why it will look any different today. A typical yucky winter ~ almost, but not quite spring day. Has anyone noticed that I am ready for some springtime?

All that aside, today is Seth Day and I am looking forward to it. I hear from his mama that he is in the process of perfecting his crawl. Also as he crawls, he eats anything that will fit into his mouth. The other day he tried stickers. When Riley was about Seth's age, he gave Ladybugs a try. You would hear crunch, crunch, crunch and check out his mouth...... sure enough it would be full of Ladybugs. ( I think I would like to explain the reason for the large abundance of ladybug population so that there would be mouthfuls available for Riley to crunch on as a snack. It is due to Ohio thinking several years back that they needed to import a zillion of them to aid in ridding the state of its aphid problem. As it would happen they created another problem with a ladybug population that is out of control and not enough for them to eat). Riley saw his own solution, eat them before they could bite him. At any rate today should be a busy day keeping up with our mobile grandson.

Has anyone caught the new GE commercial on TV lately? I just happened upon it the other day while I was sick. It made me laugh and perked me up. It starts with a shot of a nice looking home in the country and a tree across the road uproots itself and drags its root laiden body across the road to stand next to the house. Then the camera takes a look around the house at all of the energy saving products (GE no doubt) and even the solar panels on the roof. It throws in a verbal line or two about saving energy and living 'Green'. Then it shows the tree snuggling up to the house and goes from there to a couple of farmers standing in the field across the way. One says to the other............... (Are you ready for this?)........... "House Hugger!" I loved it! I have to applaud GE for this one.

Have a great day everyone!

~Jo

Off And Running....

I want to thank everyone for their words of encouragement while I was down with this nasty bug. Wouldn't you just know that the days when I was sick the weather was warm, although rainy and now it has turned cold again. I am feeling much better now though, but just a bit overwhelmed.

There was a time when I had four personal web sites that I designed and kept in operation. They were all located at Geocities and then the "Yahoo" happened. Shortly after their merging, one of my sites was eaten up over night and just disappeared. In fear of it happening to the other sites that I had spent so much time creating, I proceeded to move them else where. One thing led to another; JD retired, we moved to the mountain and dialup became the norm as opposed to high speed. Needless to say, my sites have been hanging out there in limbo.

Yesterday, I thought I would take a quick look at the one site that I hadn't gotten around to moving. It is a site that was and is very near and dear to my heart. It deals with Family Violence and Abuse. Fortunately it is still there at "Yahoo!Geocities" but there were a few links that were broken and some e-mail addresses that needed updating, so I set about tweaking. Low and behold................. All of a sudden I wasn't able to access the site after just a short time doing work to it. I was told to click a link if I was the site owner. Upon doing so I was informed that I had used my allowable time on the site. How ever if I wanted more time, I could have it if I purchased my space on "Yahoo!Geocities". They call it free spaces, but when you really take a long hard look at it, very little is free any more. Where Geocities is concerned, once they merged with Yahoo it was a downhill slide for all connected to them. Ohhhh wellllll !!! Not worth stressing over.

The web site of yesterday is becoming a thing of the past any way. With Blogging being the present wave, I have decided that what I need to do is move everything from the site to a blog. Which is what I am going to be doing as time allows me. You can check out the progress if you like by going to Childhood Stolen . The content has been contributed by victims of Family Violence and Abuse. Right now all that is there is a heart felt poem on the blog, but as time goes on and the stories, poems and artwork are moved to the blog it may be more than some people can handle. You will be your own best judge of that.

I ask that you keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I take on the task of bringing this information to blog form where it will hopefully be there for someone to reach out and grab hold of in their time of need.

God Bless.........

Mardi Gras 2008

"Laissez le bon rouleau de temps."

(Let the good times roll.)

I had planned a nice little post that would include some Mardi Gras history and facts. I had done my research and it is all saved in my documents, but it just isn't going to happen this year. It seems as if I have caught some sort of stomach bug. I was up all night with it and a 101.8 temp. Needless to say I have been sleeping on and off all day today. JD is a wonderful nurse, seeing to it that I have everything I need and waking me up at 2 hour intervals so I can check my blood sugar readings. I am taking my insulin and meds, but not able to hold anything down but popcycles and 7up so I need to watch those numbers. It frustrates him when I am not well that there really isn't much he can do for me. He wants to "FIX" me, but most times there just isn't any fixes available. It is just a matter of letting it run its course.

It may be a while before I am feeling well enough to post again. Until then, I will come by and visit as I feel up to it......

Blessings my friends!

Meaningful Monday

A group of alumni, all highly established in their respective careers, got together for a visit with their old university professor. The conversation soon turned to complaints about the endless stress of work and life in general.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen and soon returned with a large pot of coffee and an eclectic assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal - some plain, some expensive, some quite exquisite. Quietly he told them to help themselves to some fresh coffee.

When each of his former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the old professor quietly cleared his throat and began to patiently address the small gathering... ''You may have noticed that all of the nicer looking cups were taken up first, leaving behind the plainer and cheaper ones. While it is only natural for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is actually the source of much of your stress-related problems."

He continued...''Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In fact, the cup merely disguises or dresses up what we drink. What each of you really wanted was coffee, not a cup, but you instinctively went for the best cups... Then you began eyeing each other's cups.''

''Now consider this: Life is coffee. Jobs, money, and position in society are merely cups. They are just tools to shape and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not truly define nor change the quality of the Life we live. Often, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee that God has provided us... God brews the coffee, but he does not supply the cups. Enjoy your coffee!''The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have."

So please remember: Live simply. Love generously. Care Deeply. Speak Kindly. Leave The Rest To God.

Never Judge another person or compare them to someone else.

And remember - the richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

For Want Of Springtime

In snowbound,

voiceless,mountain depths,

to herald spring,

pine trees sound in tune.

~ Princess Shikishi

Wishing all a Happy Groundhog Day and to our English friends and family, Happy Candlemas Day.

Feb. 2 may be Groundhog Day in this country, but in England it is Candlemas Day, 40 days after Christmas. Folklore in that country holds: "If Candlemas Day bring snow and rain, winter is gone and won't come again. If Candelmas Day be clear and bright, winter will have another flight."

Personally, I tend to look to the Forsythia for my weather forecast as to how close we are to the much anticipated springtime. I remember without fail, every year when the Forsythia bushed out in bright yellow blooms my mother would say, "Three more snows after the Forsythia blooms." I don't recall that ever being wrong. There are many that refer to these little sayings as 'Garden Folklore'. Perhaps they are, but then again perhaps not. There is a reason why these little sayings got started in the first place other than boredom or someone just wanting to say something that was way out there. How many people check out those little caterpillars in the fall to see how furry they are or how wide the brown band is on the Bear Worm? I also prune my rose bushes while the forsythia is in bloom. Every year those bushes grow big and strong and produce beautiful roses and lots of them.

While you are waiting to hear if Phil sees his shadow I will leave you with this little poem:

To the Groundhog

Will you

Won't you

See your shadow?

Will it

Won't it

Really matter?

Do you

Don't you

Grin to see

People Take you Seriously?