Fall

Autumn is officially here, it has been for a few days now. This morning was the first real sign of it because somewhere during the night a little cold front snuck through. I love when the weather changes, it is almost too good to be true sometimes. You just think you can't take one more minute of the heat and God sends a cool snap your way, or you think that the earth is going to dry up and blow away and suddenly, rain. I hate to say I have a favorite season because all of them are wonderful in their own ways...but I sure do like it when Autumn shows up. 

Rodney and I went to our neighbors house, (incidentally when you live in the country like we do a neighbor isn't someone who lives next door but can be any friend or acquaintance who lives within ten miles of you) to pick okra on Saturday morning. When we arrived George, our "neighbor" showed us where his garden was, this was another little adventure getting to his garden which he had nestled in a corner of a pasture where the ground was "new".  As soon as we pulled up to the garden I was so happy to see that there were pumpkins and squash growing there too. I politely asked if he wouldn't mind my harvesting some of these as well as the okra and, like any good country neighbor, he told me to take all I wanted that they already had plenty. I was interested in the butternut squash more for its charm than for its forage, but have been told that this fruit (is it a fruit or veggie??) makes the most exquisite pies and other decadent dishes. It is a handsome little gourd isn't it? Now I'm thinking I'll have to research the genus of the butternut squash, be it fruit, veggie, gourd, is a gourd a veggie or a fruit?? These are the things that keep me awake at night. 

Square bales

Our last cutting of hay is now sitting in the barn (old chicken house) nice and tidy in beautiful squares. I absolutely love square bales of hay. They are easy handle, easy to feed and there is a lot less waste. Having said all that, getting them baled and in the barn is quite an undertaking!

The picture above is of my dad doing what he says he would rather do than play at Pebble Beach or fly in a jet. I have a hard time believing that but he was sure acting like a kid in a candy store while performing this little chore. 

I have to tell you that the smell of hay is one of my favorites...the other smells on this list include Christmas trees, freshly mowed grass (which is a lot like hay I guess) and babies breath. For some reason I also like the smell of musty air conditioners but I'm not sure why?? 

Anyway, after we got the last bale stacked in the barn, our poor bodies were quite exhausted. I think we are all still recovering from it. I am supposed to be cleaning my house today and I'm finding it difficult to stay focused. I am hanging my clothes out on the line and in between loads, I'm just wandering around aimlessly. I watched that movie "The Blue Lagoon" while I was folding a load (very slowly folding). Now I want to go live on a deserted island somewhere and eat bananas and swim in the ocean with Rodney. Of course we would have to both loose about 20 pounds and 20 years and get really tan for the vision in my head to become reality. 

So, I guess I need to quit daydreaming about sex on the beach and get back to my luxurious laundry duty. Oh...add that to my favorite smells list by the way, fresh line-dried laundry. 

Goats and Metallica

The kids and I spent the day in Texarkana at the Four-States-Fair yesterday. This was our second trip to this fair and I was astonished at the number of goats that were there to be shown. Our goats have become quite a project around here and, like any consuming project, we've become somewhat biased about our goats, thinking that any judge would surely see the time and effort, not to mention money, that we put in and move them right up to first place. Well, when we began surveying the competition our hearts were quickly beginning to have doubts about our livestock. Where some of these beasts came from, I have no idea. There just was not comparison, it made me want to pack up my puny little goats and come back home. We didn't place at all...but we weren't at the bottom of the barrel either. I thought Taylor should have gotten a prize just for being so pretty, but unfortunately, they weren't handing any "pretty" ribbons out. It was a good learning experience and we had a good time so I guess the trip was a success. 

We listened to XM channel 51 the whole way there which is the Metallica channel. Then on the way home we stopped at Sam's and picked up their new CD and listened to it all the way home. My brain was still thumping with bass and drums when we got home, or it could have just been because I let Taylor drive home that caused my brain to be burdened with noise. I started listening to Metallica when I was in high school and still go through heavy metal phases now and then. I've kind-of always prided myself in being so open-minded about music...that is all but rap, if you can even call that music. Music in our house ranges anywhere from Frank Sinatra to CCR, from Andrea Bocelli to AC/DC, and from Michael Buble' to Metallica. Opera, Classical, Classic Rock, Punk Rock, Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Standards, Pop and everything in between. When the kids were little I started filling their little heads with show tunes and made them watch every classic musical from My Fair Lady to Oklahoma. It surely has broadened their scope of thinking. 

My house is very quite today, I'm cleansing my palate for my next musical phase. 

LOVE

I recently volunteered to teach the teenage class at church. I've only been doing this for about a month or so and am finding it quite challenging because teenagers don't seem to interact much with the teacher but just sit and stare at you like zombies. They really have me doubting my intelligence at points. When I ask a question that somebody actually, voluntarily, knows the answer to, all my hope is restored and I feel that I may possibly be getting something through to them. 

Today we studied about the fruit of the Spirit. I learned a lot from this lesson and I hope that they did as well. After our scripture searching, reading and "discussion" we had a word search to complete towards the end of the class. For about 5 minutes we sat in silence trying to find Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, and Temperance among all of the other letters in our word search. I happen to really like word searches. I don't do them often but when I'm presented with one I enjoy finding the words and will not be settled until they are all found. I had the solution to the search in my bag and was tempted a few times to peak at it, just so that I could forget about it and move on with my life. When class was dismissed I carried mine along with me to worship service. I was looking before service began, while people were mingling and saying their hello's and how-do-you-do's, I had my head down searching for the fruits of the spirit on a piece of paper. By the time church started I had found all but one...all but LOVE. At one point I just figured that they forgot to put it in, it just wasn't there at all. I sat it aside as we sang but still couldn't be content knowing that "love" was lost and I couldn't find it. When the song service was over, I pulled it back out and placed it quietly on my lap and began my search again. Then, and then...hold your breath...Rodney's finger reached over and pointed right to it. My whole body responded to this tiny gesture, heart welling up, butterflies in the tummy, and a rush of blood to my brain. I found it ironic that the person who brings more love to me than anyone ever has was the finder of that fruit of the spirit that he is so completely full of. He is my love and the giver of it and the keeper of it and all the beautiful feelings and emotion that go along with all that love is. Rodney has always been a blessing to me, even when he is driving me crazy. I do appreciate these times of actually feeling the blessing, feeling the love because, as the Beatles said, All you need is love!!!

views

I have to say before I even begin to write this that I am a very quite person when it comes to controversial topics. I've never felt the need to protest or march over any sort of injustice. My fights are fought at home, on my knees before an almighty God who can do all things. Politically, I am very open minded about certain things, party is one of them and I do not consider myself either republican or democrat. I try to keep up with what is going on in the news and with the candidates for president. When it comes down to who I will vote for, I simply must choose the person who shares the same values as I (or close to them). This whole issue of abortion has been one of great debate, great pains and one that I have chosen to keep quite on. I'm sure that you can all guess that I am pro-life, always have been. I have listened to the other side, the reasons for abortion, the political views and the "rights" that women are entitled to. How a woman would be made a criminal if abortion was made illegal and how making it illegal wouldn't stop those who would "choose", only make it more dangerous. I've considered every angle, every view and I can't for the life of me, accept any part of it. It is inherently part of who I am to KNOW that a life begins at conception. I can't see the view of the choice group, those who claim it is a right...I can't for one minute even get it not even to ponder it. 

I have, for many years, put this topic on the back burner. Taylor has been a pro-life believer since she was very little and with no influence from me. She found out on her own that this thing called abortion existed on this planet and, like me, was shocked and couldn't understand the concept behind it. We have discussed it at length but for years, like I said, it has been pushed aside. Now that we are in the middle of an election year it has become present again in our lives. I did a little research this morning and am now in the throws of panic that somewhere this morning a baby is being murdered so that it's mother will not be inconvenienced by it's presence in her life. 

Do you remember the line in the movie "It's a wonderful life" when Clarence the angel tells George that "when a person isn't born, it leaves a terrible hole in the world". Remember how many lives that George Bailey touched? Remember what a mess things were when the angel showed him what life would be like if he had never been born? Oh, the holes we have in our world! Oh, the mess we have made of our planet by simply not allowing those souls to enter the world, those who would touch our lives and change us for the good. No, it is easier to just toss them in a dumpster and forget they ever existed. And now, look at us. Look at the mess we are in. I am very much an optimist and can see that there is hope for our sad state. I don't think that I can convince all of the liberals to see the light and accept that abortion is murder. I think that my place is to make sure that the lives that I CHOSE to bring into the world, my beautiful children, will see to it that their children and their children's children, will carry with them this conviction of life. That the flame that burns in me, will burn in them and that they will touch the lives of others and that it will spread like a brush fire. This is my duty to my precious children...what would life be if they had never been born? Well, the story still has much to reveal, but thank you God that they have a story before them.