Don't You Dare!

Oh yay for me!  I get to treat myself to a nice little blog today. So far this morning I've enjoyed reading my devotional, Be Still and Know by Millie Stamm  I am really enjoying that devotional!  I've also made my dad a Father's day card, Father's Day popped up on me!  In the card, I wrote, To the Swellest Daddy Ever!  That is so appropriate for his times when he was young, his brother, my Uncle Wesley had written that very thing on his military school portrait to my grandfather back in the 30s  My dad?  He is now 83 years young. 

I talked with my dad yesterday over the phone, I was telling him about our satellite internet here in the country and how the bandwidth was eaten last week by some glitch etc.  He tells me:  Maybe when y'all move back to America you can get regular internet!  I laughed a little hoping he was being humorous, but not sure. He quickly sensed my apprehension over the phone and then said on moving away from the country...

Don't you dare!

I laughed so hard and so did Daddy!  Yep, that's my dad!  Happy Father's Day to the swellest Dad ever! 


This is my mom and dad when they were first married I'm thinking this was taken around 1953 or 54.  I just love this portrait, it's just sooooo period.  So retro...so vintage.  Those of you old blogging friends who have seen this photo please oblige.

Mother and Daddy are both 83 and look remarkably well for their age.  I just showed Mother the 'Forks Over Knives' dvd and I sent a copy to my dad.  Yep, that should help keep them on the right track healthwise, at least a little. I'm a vegetarian for humanitarian reasons, and that goes for most dairy, I cannot call myself a full vegan because I will eat eggs if they are from a humane source.  It's good to be careful on how God's creatures are treated as you probably agree and the health benefits are amazing!  We can go back to Genesis. : )

Last night Jem and I had a nice evening on datenight, so fun.  We keep it simple, nothing expensive, usually an outdoor cafe on the square etc. maybe coffee if we're up to it.  Jem and I were talking about our childhoods, Jem, he had been brought up on top of a grocery store in a poor, more humble part of town, and there was nothing wrong at all with that...and then the family moved to a larger home in one of the most snobbish areas in the world.  Vanity Fair.  The people there are about as warm as a witches broom til this day.

Poor little Jem was thrust into a school with very wealthy & rude children.  It's not that they were wealthy, I know wealthy people who are kind and remember where they came from but the particular area that I am writing about, for some reason...It's just wreaks of a very sick and synthetic lifestyle...the children were horrible to Jem, never inviting him to birthday parties, making fun of the way he talked, the way he walked.

My highschool experience was the same in many ways...I went to highschool with the most intellectual kids in the country.  I was a Seabrook girl, daughter of two founding families, one Italian, one German...and then NASA moved in.  The astronaut's kids, the scientist's kids...the cream of the crop in academia.  One could be a very smart youth but would feel very average in this circle of kids shipped in from other parts of the country. 

Many (not all) of those youth made us Seabrook youth feel second class, it's so sad, so very tragic now that I think about it.  We were the salt of the earth and these new people came in, we welcomed them and then we were treated in that horrible way. It was nothing more than a farce, an ugly farce. The grade curve was a cruel one.  I wonder how many futures were tainted because of it. There are many farces in life, all counterfeits for what is real.  May we teach our children and youth to recognize them.  It reminds me of the Twila Paris song about God speaking to her... 

When You speak to me When I take the time to listen There is more than what I think, I feel When You speak to me When I sit and still the motion There is nothing left but what is real.  ...There is an answer to every question, the answer is You...And the Heavens open when you speak to me... pouring life into my waiting heart...


But all in all, all of these experiences in our childhoods or youth, they make us a better person, a person of mercy and compassion.  A  person of.....discernment in most cases.  There is nothing left but what is real.

Medicine seems to run in the German side of my family.  In this society it's difficult, there are days when society makes you feel as you should slap a stethoscope around your neck. Ha! There are even homeschool moms who also would like to make you feel this way, they have no idea of our backgrounds or who we are, where we are from, what we are capable of, most are too busy grasping for approval, the god of academia, perhaps false religion and the ever present and juvenile-I-want-to-belong takes over any true love for the Lord with many of them...It's interesting, they forget about the Lord or perhaps think godly people are too-too or either they are into their new-found circle (whatever it may be, I've even seen new-found false theology) ... until their family gets in trouble.

And really... it really doesn't matter about those fleeting thoughts of what those in this world think  I'll be a Mary any day at all.   

We'll know them by their fruits and we'll be known by our fruits.

On academics and talents:  My art has been used with my girls soooo much in homeschool, and any medicinal knowledge or giftings I have has been used in the study of nutrition and herbology and I've used it sooo many times to treat our own family.  God is the ultimate Healer and He teaches us so many things if we ask.  He answers prayers. I can be a doctor of sunshine in my home and the nursing home ministering with my toothy grin and hugs, whispering a prayer and the name of Jesus into the resident's ears, it may be the last time they hear the sweet name of Jesus. We see the reward of grown children who have caught the vision also as we watch and observe them minister too.  Whether it be medicine or art, the love and care for animals....A love for family and real friends, not mere numbers of acquaintances mind you, I'm talking the real deal here... My Father in Heaven reigns.  He is so much bigger than any world system...just so much bigger.  It will never, never make sense to the world.  Never.  Rejoice!

..................................................................

We had a great Sunday, our entire family went to a little town church, the big old fashioned one that our old acquaintance pastors. It was so very nice, they even had an altar time after service.  We don't see altar time much anymore do we?

  I met two great ladies in the church restroom, it seems to be the meeting place there to meet new acquaintences.  So funny!  But so great! 

I'll close this deep thinking blog with some pics of late, I hope you enjoy them:



A little miniature tomato from our garden!  See how tiny?  This isn't a cherry tomato.  Isn't that something?




Delle & Becs cleaning out the pool. (horror movie scream!)  *big smile*  They are being rewarded now with a clean pool to float around in!



 Jem preparing for the post for the chicken fence.   All kinds of goings on at the Forest Cathedral!



  Marianna taking care of those chickens! I love the look of her in her skirt, I think it's so feminine and pretty.

Muffie watching the chickens, these little Schitzu doglets are the sweetest ever.  See Sweetie the miracle chicken in the background?  Isn't that great?




This says...Home.



Two cotton clothing items Mar picked up at the resale shop, they will be dyed navy-blue.  Dying is a great way to refurbish clothes!  Make sure and get enough (doubling) dye for dark colors!


We had quite the storm that afternoon!  Isn't this so dramatic?




And a pretty evening  the next day, sunsets are pretty in the summer here, the reflection in the pond is so hard to capture!

Randomness:   

For supper?  I think I'll cut up some unusual looking squash from the garden and make a light pasta gravy with it.

I'm listening to:  The theme to Pride and Prejudice...I just love it...

Reading?   'Patch of Blue' by Grace Livingston Hill.  The inscription in my old book?  To Violet, Merry Christmas 1937, Love, Mother

I'm sooo loving this book.

This week holds our 33rd wedding anniversary!  We have fun together and get along better now then ever.  We're so blessed to have four sweet daughters too.  We're just little peoples here that love and take care of each other all the while tellin' it like it is; truth and boldness sprinkled with discernment but saturated with love. Yes indeed.

Take care All, We see through a glass darkly don't we? 

   ~amelia