Mrs. Amelia's Daybook

Photo by Robert Stock

Outside my window... It's an overcast day, very grey, warm. neat little breezes, the trees sway and leaves flutter down. I'm praying it won't rain on the driveway (if it does rain) because the propane man is supposed to come tomorrow and won't be able to deliver if the driveway is mushy, his truck is too heavy. We are getting very low on propane! (The sun looks as if it is coming out now)

I am thinking... It will be fun watching the debate tonight as a family, we can make a party out of anything over here. Yes indeedie. We're already talkin' about all the neat food to make. Delle just called about a healthy cookie recipe perhaps going to the store to get the ingredients.

Something funny... Last night we were watching a Duggar's episode and Anna Duggar was talking about cloth diapers for her babies. Delle and Lea were remarking how disposables are so much easier, a worthy luxury so to speak...I commented that the cloth were probably more comfortable for baby. Lea (29) pipes up: "I don't remember disposable diapers being uncomfortable." : P

I am thankful for... My family, God's faithfulness. So thankful my girls know how to cook and assemble meals etc. It was like music to my ears to hear Delle remind me to take the bakery fresh buns out of the freezer for supper. I think that's great.

Also thankful for a wonderful little health store with owners who will help us even with things we already have on hand.

I am wearing... A grass green turtleneck with a black v-neck quarter sleeve sweater layered over it with black nylon workout pants.

In the learning room... Beccs reading "Sinking of the Bismark"

I am remembering... I need to keep my washer and dryer running...and I need to bathe our four doglets if I'm able today....and take my meds and eat a quick lunch.


I am going... Nowhere at all. I need to do a few essentials today without overdoing it. Being ill has kept me from much.

I am currently reading.. So many books right now it's almost comical. My Bible and devotional as always. "First We Have Coffee", Paul Bragg book on Nerves, Patricia Bragg cookbook, "Try Giving Yourself Away" (excellent!)

I am hoping... I will get 100 percent well soon but am thankful to God I'm better.

On my mind... Our family presidential debate party! Yay! All my girls will be home!

Noticing that... I need to put another load of wash in... I'm spending too much time on here. Lea is still out from her walk, it's been a while...Hmmm.

Pondering these words... God you know, it's all of this and so much more...But God you know that this is what I'm aching for...God you know I just can't see beyond the door...So right now.... from the song below by Steven Curtis Chapman

From the kitchen... Supper will be veggie slopppy joes and sides with a healthy cookie desert from Delle.

Around the house... A dripping in the kitchen, Beccs turning pages of her books, sleeping doglet noises, Lea drinking her water after coming in from he walk.

One of my favorite things... This poignant Steven Curtis Chapman song I listened to this morning, if this doesn't touch you nothing will. It also gives me strong feelings and appreciation for my baby Beccs now 18 still feeling free to lay her head on my shoulder as I touch and comfort her face in my palm, or sometimes she takes my hands and place them around her shoulders from behind as she lays her face upon my arms....Thank you Jesus.




Photos I would like to share... These are photos of Mr. Lundy's cows on our property yesterday morning. There was a line of electric fencing between me and the cows. I walked up to this huge white cow along with the elsie cow and they startled and started to run away. I sweetly told them:

"Don't run away, I won't hurt you...It's okay..."

And it was so neat. When I had started quietly talking to them, he stopped and turned around and looked at me for a bit. It was as if he said...

You won't hurt me?

It was so neat as I talked to the two cows and they peacefully chomped away once they sensed I wouldn't hurt them and meant them no harm.









When I came from my morning visit with the cows, still in my robe, two of our four doglets greeted me:

Guiseppe


Muffie:


Have a nice evening, love, ~Amelia

Hodge Podge of Thoughts on Getting Well and Kicking Wastebaskets

A little of this and that, hope you enjoy my Barbara Stanwyck clip of "me" kicking the wastebasket later in this blog...as well as Meet John Doe. 1941. Any of you ever feel like kicking a wastebasket? Any of you fighting this bug going around?

Oh me oh my I'm trying to get well with the good Lord's help of course. The nurse I talked to wasn't kidding when she said 8 weeks recovery.

I came across this as I was reading last night, It's from the book:

"First We Have Coffee" by Margaret Jensen, it's a story of a Swedish immigrant family. A poignant Christian book...

This excerpt takes place after a whooping cough outbreak...

"Very shortly, the dark clouds of another impending storm broke and a flue epidemic engulfed the immigrants. Mama went from one house to the other, caring for the sick and dying. Her own house also needed her. She arose to tend a crying child and the ailing furnace. There was no use in calling Papa; he was critically ill. She would have to do the fixing herself. Walking toward the cellar stairs, she crumpled, her own strength suddenly drained from her. To us, Mama (in her early thirties, slender and beautiful) was ageless, the symbol of life itself, the Statue of Liberty built on the Rock of Ages. This night she wept alone."

"Oh God she cried. "one day in bed, is that so much to ask? Oh God, strength to tend this furnace, is that so much to ask?"

"Softly as a whisper in the night, a Presence drew near. "Why don't you ask Me to heal you? There is nothing too hard for Me."

"Oh yes, Jesus. Heal me, and I will use my strength to serve You."


I too have asked God to heal me, it's becoming a weary time for me and I have "crumpled" several times in the past week.




One day I was by myself, I felt so strange, the rest of the family was at Uncle Sam's funeral. The funeral sounded bizarre. The hurst had to back up as well as the car procession from the major freeway overpass in Midtown! My husband tells me he couldn't believe it. An entire funeral processional including the hurst backing down backwards from a huge and high overpass. Can you imagine?





I went to the health store with Mar and Becs in old town Saturday, it's the place where I took my mother to meet her nutritionist once upon a time. The owners, a sweet middle aged married couple are very well read and have a computerized machine that analyzes our health (specifically) on a given day. After I had crumpled on Friday, Mar. asked if she could either take me health store or the doctor's office. Afterwards Mar. bought me a wonderful lunch to go... Isn't that sweet?




I'm listening to Rush Limbaugh and am shocked at the question of Santorum being too conservative. I've heard it all lately. Our country is in such trouble.

Many people put pocketbooks and "fill in blank" before the Lord and the unborn babies. They seem to think compromise is the answer. The tower of Babel once again?

They look at people like me or my family and they think oh how nice, but we don't like how you got there.

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I become aggravated sometimes...discouraged. My husband called today with a Mr. Potter and George Bailey situation, he being George Bailey. Breaks my heart, it seems it's always someone we thought so much of...

Picture me kicking a wastebasket
...like aggravated Barbara Stanwyck in the beginning of "Meet John Doe". (1941) Oh how could I relate to her when I saw that the other day! Or....Picture Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life" yelling: "And that goes for you too!"


Barbara Stanwyck kicking that wastebasket : )



Here is the powerful end scene of "Meet John Doe" (1941)

Barbara Stanwyck will refer to Christ on the Cross 2000 years ago...


It looks as though you can see "Meet John Doe" (1941) in entirety on youtube. It is a wonderful movie.

It's another Frank Capra movie great. You have to love that Frank Capra, his story is amazing, the real American success. He was from Bisiquano, Sicily, Italy where my grandpa was from.

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Here is a shot this morning, our country neighbor had come trying to round up her cows that had mosied onto our property... She moved here from Midtown. She tells Mar that one day she realized herMidtown home owned her and thus she moved here to the country in a smaller cottage home. I really get tickled with her cows and ponies. One morning she was out in the road in her robe rounding up her cows. The little calves are so cute. : )



My husband's tractor this morning resting by the fresh tilled earth...


The beautiful roses hubby brought me for Valentines!





Our little toy poodle, Esther on Valentines Day.



Aren't these pink carnations so pretty? Lea brought them to me when she knew I was crumpling one day. Isn't that sweet?
Lea set this little table up outside with the retro tablecloth for a Valentines lunch outside. My mother was here so they all enjoyed the outside lunch.



Better run, this is a hodge podge I know. Thanks for sticking with me. Life is a hodge podge isn't it? : )

Supper? Lea and I just put on some canary beans for a nice cozy supper. Things have turned overcast.


Live, laugh, love and get well! Love to All, ~Amelia

This Evening and Before

Before. I figured I would take a walk last week or so...I was under the weather but I thought a walk would do me good and I made sure to cover my ears with a fleece hairband. Little did I know as I walked my doglets on the back of the property my eyeglasses left the scene, I suspect when I was taking pics. (I slip them on top of my head many times, I'm near sighted and don't need them for up close as in spying through my camera) You see my eyeglasses are may times my hairband too. Still haven't found my glasses, I'm wearing twice superglued ones now and I think that second walk to the back to try to find my glasses didn't really do me a bit of good in getting well. Being even slightly chilled and having a cold don't agree with me. In the pic? That's little Muf strutting in front ahead of me. He thinks he's ten feet tall he does.


Lea and Hubs brought this so-cute get well balloon home to me a couple of weeks ago! I think this is neat, it looks like one of my retro men bravely sitting on top of the Brooklyn bridge as they have lunch back then is holding my balloon for me. Only a highly sensitive person would notice such a thing? The balloon is much cuter in person, it has little doodle bugs on it and when the light hits the balloon it reflects it's "Get Well" upon the wall!




Michelle brought these to me day before yesterday and I thought they were so very pretty! They are fascinating I think, the white and the lavender together. So puffy and pretty!

Do you like the Valentine table cloth? Lea gave it to us for an early Valentines gift. I think the colors with the pink and turquoise are kind of retro!


Day before yesterday, I zoomed in the view from across the bedroom, from my side of the bed as I rested. My Bible and Hub's Bible setting there. I love watching the trees sway in the breeze and the different colors of light on the trees at various times of the day and evening through these windows.



This evening around five I thought I'd venture out to the pond at Hub's encouragement...This shot tells the tale. My little old phone, a box with the name of my drugstore medication on it, Delle was going to pick some more up for me and I was ready-teddy for her call. And what relaxing time is not complete without a Grace Livingston Hill book? This one is the 'Substitute Guest' published in 1936, a wintery Christmas-time tale. As usual, I didn't have much time this past Christmas season so I'm enjoying it now. Grace Livingston Hill, what a testimony she has as a Christian author. Many old church libraries have volumes of her books...I enjoy collecting the old copies when I am able, I love seeing the beautiful inscriptions in the opening pages to the recipient of the books from years ago, many during WWII. People were so much more thoughtful then it seems, so much more mannerly. The copy on my lap is obviously a used paperback I picked up online when I first heard of Grace Livingston Hill.



My buddy-boy, Charlie. He is very protective, so emotional. Look at those Einstein-eyes would ya?



Winter-winter sky...



Winter reflection in the pond...



I spy golden light coming behind me...



Aha. The gold evening sun against the trees against that dark blanket of the sky. Fascinating I think.



One last shot this evening before I went in....this looked so heavenly to me.

So that was the view from where I was sitting as the sky changed and I tried to take some fresh air in and get well...

The girls are a huge help, Marianna made a great soup tonight and even eats pressed raw garlic cloves with me like a pro and fellow partner and cheerleader. I called a local smalltown g.p, and talked with the nurse. The nurse said this thing could go on for 8 weeks. What a bug I have caught myself. Hopefully I won't have to trek to his office. At least I they are kind there. That is a blessing to know.

I'm just seeking God in how to handle things, but as long as I'm on the upswing and I know this long bug is something of a norm this year, although hard to believe, I'll watch and wait and depend on the Lord.

He is Faithful.

Love to All, please pray for me, I'm still weak but today I at least washed a load of towels, they are in the dryer and will be dumped in a basket. That's pretty good for me these days. It's difficult to keep a positive outlook at times, but how can I not? There is so very much to be thankful for! ~Amelia