Monday, May 31, 2010
Welcome to my parlor....
Country Lakes...
We are planning to grab a little salad and take off for a nearby lake... The temperature is beautiful today, and even though we have heard the thunder rumbling a few times yesterday and today, the rain's away for a bit... Time to picnic on Memorial Day, drive-through style! Mom loves to take rides. Even though, to my aghast horror, I heard her tell a mutual friend she "hasn't been anywhere in three years," (grrr... gasp..... grumble), I think we've hit quite a few hot spots. I know I'm not Daddy. That's the bottom line. However, as I told my principal, "Mom could pretend!" He laughed and laughed, saying that pretending just wasn't something my mom and his mom's generation ever did... He smiled at me after he'd had his laugh for the day and said slyly, "After all, THAT's your specialty!" .... uh.. yeah, pretending? guilty as charged... I think it is! Have a great day.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Remember. . .

All along the road today, Mom and I saw the evidence of family. Family reunions, families working together in the fields, family time getting ready to happen as motorists and motorcycle riders headed toward something fun. Memorial Day is a gentle holiday, its roots in the honoring of Civil War heroes, and its blooms in full scale honoring of traditions and family memories. We have floral baskets for the cemeteries, and we will deliver those tomorrow afternoon. Tonight... a little full-ish moon and some quiet time to think. May you enjoy a blessed and happy AND safe holiday weekend.
If you didn't catch my nostalgic reminiscence of Memorial Days that I wrote last year, you might like to catch up on some cemetery secrets HERE.
I am linking to Tracey's Notes on a Cottage Industry Words to Live By.
Friday, May 28, 2010
I'm quacking up...
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Well, had a minute to spare the day Mom got her perm, so I visited Dartha, Quackerack, and all the gang... Poor Dartha. She moves sooooo slowly.... kinda like I do. Something dreadful is going on with my right knee... Perfectly dreadful. I've been to the doc twice. He told me Wednesday if he helped me as much in three days as he did the last time I was there, he'd have me in a wheelchair by the weekend. I thought that was kind of funny.... but it wasn't. My knee is MISERABLE!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Feast your eyes... A Blissful stop
Monday, May 24, 2010
Randolph Mercantile... Patriotic Pride
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As you are now,
So once was I.
As I a now,
So you will be.
Prepare for death,
And follow me.
Chilling but somehow comforting.... little epitaph on one of my favorite old stones... How very true.
So once was I.
As I a now,
So you will be.
Prepare for death,
And follow me.
Chilling but somehow comforting.... little epitaph on one of my favorite old stones... How very true.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Words to Live By
Joining with Tracey on Notes on a Cottage Industry for Sunday Words to Live By:
A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Summer of Space, the Final Frontier..... Stardate 2010.

As of 3:30, it's officially over. We have a little meeting and a teacher's picnic/party on Monday, and then summer has arrived with its possibilities.
I used to have a S.I.P. every single summer. Summer Improvement Plan. In my past I set up a rigorous discipline for myself, my home, my life... Yeah. Not. so. much. I recently modified that to a more blissful plan. I truly want to make any needed changed to my life, my physical health, and my spirit... but I need to accept the days as gifts to be opened, filled with wonder, and scattered to the four winds of faith, art, friends, and family. I would love to learn to enjoy, to simply work and have fun with it.... like my Daddy.
If I were just a'dreamin', I would have a few dreams for the summer, but these aren't really goals...
1. I would love to carve a room out of the front of Daddy's barn. I could move over some of my favorite pieces of furniture, my books, and some "stuff."
2. I would love to claim the closet in the room I live in... in the name of the "confederacy" or anything that might stake it as my own. Currently, it is the happy home of my stuff on the edges and on top and loads of Christmas and holiday boxes, old lace and what-nots from Mom.
3. I would love to find a place to hang my clothes and open up this really cool and convenient door to the laundry room, again claiming a little of it as mine to put some of my beloved dishes so I could set tables with all my cool things.......
4. I would love to entertain even more than we do.
I guess this could be the Summer of Space.... the final frontier... Only I don't need to acquire the Starship Enterprise......... just some ambition and some organizational strategies.
We shall see....
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Copycat
I am usually original, but today I am going to copy something from Tracy's blog, A Cottage Industry. For today, take a minute and read this inspirational post .
If you do nothing else, stop and think of something you would like to accomplish. In light of this, don't we think we could at least take some steps toward it?
If you do nothing else, stop and think of something you would like to accomplish. In light of this, don't we think we could at least take some steps toward it?
Monday, May 17, 2010
I'm excited... The teacher becomes the student!


This morning I checked into the blogworld and saw that Tracey of "Notes on a Cottage Industry" had posted a Blisslist. I was gobsmacked. I couldn't think of one thing I wanted to do. Period. Travel? Kind of difficult. Shop? Nah. No room in the inn. I thought a bit and kind of whined a little whine to myself, sniveling about my lack of dreams. I began to rummage around blogland, and I remembered something I'd read on Karla's Cottage blog about gluebooks. I saw a class had started yesterday on Greenpaper, a beautiful--- breathtakingly beautiful--- blog. I decided to go for it, so I checked it out and there it was. I'm in! I'm in! A little trip to Paypal, and I'm already learning so much even from her introduction and first lesson. Stay tuned for anything I might create... The teacher becomes the student... After all, that's what made me choose this profession after all...
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Words to Live By... Barn Wisdom
I have often wondered what it is an old building can do to you when you happen to know a little about things that went on long ago in that building. --- Carl Sandburg
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Ah, the memories of this old barn, my grandfather Emanuel's. Isn't it amazing--- the power of memories? I can shut my eyes and see the hanging leather harnesses, left from days of "Old Pat," a draft horse I never laid eyes on... but the tales of plowing and unearthing a swarm of blue racers... the stories my grandfather shared with me when I was a little, pig-tailed tagalong... those tales are monumental in my heart and soul. The barn was dusky, dim-lit shafts of daylight filtering through the openings, a load of oats lying fragrant in the oatbin. We often shelled corn on a hand-sheller, one deep yellow cob at a time. The kernels became either a treat for the hens or a spew of rapid gobble for his huge sow pigs with babies... Either way, the animals were crazy for it, and I felt proud to have been a part of its preparation. Paw-paw chewed Beechnut Tobacco, and we sat in that doorway spitting, checking to see who was the best, the most accurate... had the farthest landing.... I didn't realize he had the advantage with something actually IN his mouth... but I didn't care. Paw-paw was so much fun. He walked kind of funny, in the hot-potato, "weeble-wobble" way I do now. Now I realize that saunter resulted from severe arthritis in the knees, but then I felt sure it was simply the magical way all grandfathers were supposed to walk. We made those chore trips last a long time, coming in all giggles and tease. My grandfather has been gone for almost 39 years. Is that possible? I drive along the highway every single day, and my eyes rest on this eyesore of a building. "We ought to tear that down," we say. We know it... But its beauty rests in my heart, and it doesn't look to be evil, decrepit, shabby, or barren... It still keeps the echoes of the baby calves stamping in the cold, their breath fogging out in the cold afternoon as they wait for warm milk or sugary omeline from his hands. It has been possibly 25 years or more since I've been in this barn, but I know it by heart.Searching for a quote from a favorite, Sandburg,this one catapulted me to thoughts of this building, and I had my Sunday's words to live by for Tracey's blog.
Check out others HERE at Notes from a Cottage Industry.
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Ah, the memories of this old barn, my grandfather Emanuel's. Isn't it amazing--- the power of memories? I can shut my eyes and see the hanging leather harnesses, left from days of "Old Pat," a draft horse I never laid eyes on... but the tales of plowing and unearthing a swarm of blue racers... the stories my grandfather shared with me when I was a little, pig-tailed tagalong... those tales are monumental in my heart and soul. The barn was dusky, dim-lit shafts of daylight filtering through the openings, a load of oats lying fragrant in the oatbin. We often shelled corn on a hand-sheller, one deep yellow cob at a time. The kernels became either a treat for the hens or a spew of rapid gobble for his huge sow pigs with babies... Either way, the animals were crazy for it, and I felt proud to have been a part of its preparation. Paw-paw chewed Beechnut Tobacco, and we sat in that doorway spitting, checking to see who was the best, the most accurate... had the farthest landing.... I didn't realize he had the advantage with something actually IN his mouth... but I didn't care. Paw-paw was so much fun. He walked kind of funny, in the hot-potato, "weeble-wobble" way I do now. Now I realize that saunter resulted from severe arthritis in the knees, but then I felt sure it was simply the magical way all grandfathers were supposed to walk. We made those chore trips last a long time, coming in all giggles and tease. My grandfather has been gone for almost 39 years. Is that possible? I drive along the highway every single day, and my eyes rest on this eyesore of a building. "We ought to tear that down," we say. We know it... But its beauty rests in my heart, and it doesn't look to be evil, decrepit, shabby, or barren... It still keeps the echoes of the baby calves stamping in the cold, their breath fogging out in the cold afternoon as they wait for warm milk or sugary omeline from his hands. It has been possibly 25 years or more since I've been in this barn, but I know it by heart.Searching for a quote from a favorite, Sandburg,this one catapulted me to thoughts of this building, and I had my Sunday's words to live by for Tracey's blog.
Check out others HERE at Notes from a Cottage Industry.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Send off for Seniors.. Drive Thru Wisdom...


I felt like a drug dealer from South America. Our school is a bit strict about food in the classroom. I am one to follow rules, (usually), but I am also all about celebrating holidays and special graduation occassions... and I have a new motto prepared in case of heavy flack: "Hey, you can't fire me; I retire!" That sounds pretty good to me... We celebrated briefly in two of my classes with breakfast together and the gifts I'd chosen for my kids. I got them these metal signs (below) from Tenderheart Treasures.

Random Rain, Floods, and Flowers. . .
Monday, May 10, 2010
World Traveler Returns...


Victorian Tea Party



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