Where the wind comes sweeping

This morning me and mine are off to Oklahoma for my 2nd grandaughters 2nd birthday.  Last Christmas I was suppose to make this for her.

The decoupage finish made it hard to get a picture without a serious glare.  For this one I turned off the flash and held my breath while snapping the shot.


Here is the other side. The shot was taken before the decoupage was dry.

As I am putting these up I have realized that in the pictures they don't have the same look and feel as when it is in my hand.

This little guy is  blurry but so cute I let him in anyway.

Enough photo torture!  I don't care what these pictures look like it really turned out cute.

What is it?  I don't know. I made it up. It is themed. Can you guess the theme? It has four compartments each with a lid. Can you guess what kind of  "coffee" I drink?  I still have to buy some child safe spray finish to put on it to help with waterproofing but that is going to have to happen in Oklahoma.

I made my first two for my oldest granddaughter and her baby sister for Christmas. Then Christmas snuck on up and I didn't have time for Lo lo's.

As we were getting ready to go yesterday I told Scout to bring me some hangers so I could hang the little bit of laundry that wasn't coming with us.

 She brought me this:

So I turned it into her suitcase for the trip. Her suit case is full of dress up clothes to use with the children she knows she will see while she is there. A girl has to have priorities after all!

 Ah wants my coffee now and we leave in about two hours, HA, Yeah right. I don't know if I will have much time on line until I get back but I will try to post at least once over the next four days.

 Into the wind I go!


I always have such a hard time transitioning from where I am to where I go.

Ripple Effect

Every morning after I wake up I have a moment. Lying in bed I realize I am awake. Thoughts that I went to sleep with jumble themselves up into a mass of scenarios in my imagination.  Sometimes the dawn of remembering what I have to do that day interrupts a half-sleepy problem solving synapse session gone awry. Somewhere in the mix I notice that my brain has a mind of its own and I feel around for the off button.  I quiet my thoughts, I breath, I turn to the Lord. That last for about 5 seconds.

Thoughts can be very subtle interrupters. Things that grab my gray matter and make me pay attention when I know that I will be much more peaceful if I take a little time off to listen to Him instead of replaying the jumble.

And then of course there are the ah-ha moments. If I were to write them down I could probably (very nearly anyway) claim one ah-ha moment per morning. It might be the solution to a problem that surfaces through the mind muck,  a clean, clear and precise realization that smiles brightly at me as if I were silly to have wondered whether or not it would appear. It could be the "getting" of something, the move from confusion to lucid understanding. And not always about something I pondered on. Sometimes that ah-ha is an obvious gift dropped into the muddle causing a ripple effect within, the end result of which is a smile without. See? It's a ripple. Thank you, Lord.

Ripple. It's one of those words you can say over and over and it starts sounding funny.

But none of those things are the moment I am referring to. The moment that has me intrigued is the one in which my feet touch the floor and I am up and walking. Every morning when I walk away from my bed I have one thing on my mind. "What made me get up?"  It doesn't matter if I lay there for an hour deep in thought or five minutes.  Sometimes it directly follows an ah-ha, sometimes not. I usually agree with myself that it is time to be up and get moving. Even if I am still tired, once I stand the energy finds me.  But what actually moved me? I guess I will just have to keep getting up in the morning until I uncover the answer.


What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Nuts to you SquirrellyO

At our house we love squirrels.
I get a big kick every time out of my hubby, Obiwannabe, when  he calls us to the door or window to watch  our squirrel.......sitting.
We have made many offerings to Oh Wonderful and Most furry of  the Yard, may she always avoid the tires she taunts.
Having worked at a rehab place for wild critters before, I had a litany of  yummy and healthy people foods that she would like.  Eventually they all dehydrated nicely on the concrete of our back veranda.
Recently we were given three bags of pecans. Our squirrel, I'll call her Oh for short, found these acceptable. So acceptable were they that she allowed us the honor of her presence.

Whenever I see Oh I long for the smell of squirrels. Having cared for my share of  their orphaned babies I  can tell you that they have a lovely scent.  As far as I know there is nothing like it.

Go ahead. Sniff a squirrel. You know you want to.

We are not limited to squirrels though. And not everyone is as pleased about Oh being around as we are. There is a bird that I have not yet identified.

I don't know if this one is male or female but I do know that no stinkin' squirrel is going to mess with it's nest!
Just below the eave  it is standing on is a tall hedge. The other day when I came home Oh and the bird were having it out.  Squirrels have a hard time resisting bird eggs. It is probably like dessert to them. Evidently this kind of bird has a very strong craving for heart of squirrel.

  As I pulled into the driveway Oh was bounding across the yard with Pilot (yeah, the bird) doing some sort of  heat seeking kamikaze thing near the flying furry end of her tail.  After circling our big pine tree a few times but not able to get in under Pilot's radar Oh lept into the hedge.  I breathed a sigh of relief thinking that now they would both be happy and safe. But nooo. Kamikazi Mommy actually flew into the hedge!
 I had the sense that I was watching a live cartoon as the hedge shook and shivered accompanied by shrieks and chipperings. Oh flew out of the middle of the hedge and with Pilot guiding the way from behind, made a hasty retreat out of the front yard.

Not all of our wild life is as exciting as all that. So tell me, why does the green anole that basks on our porches bring out the paparazzi in us?  It's true that we never see him hunting or defending  anything. But when you look into his eyes you see the wisdom of the ages.

You see it. Don't you?

Sometimes we just sit out on the veranda, He in his chair, me in mine. We don't share words but we do have long talks.

I had better run now. Fraulein Maria can't entertain Scout all day.

And I'm off! No really, I am.

If I never do a first entry I will never do any. That is why I will do this today and not tomorrow like I did yesterday.   This is just like what my friend of 18 years, Cowbell, says. When you are older it is harder to make new friends because it is impossible to catch them up on your history. And who wants to hash all that out anyway? History aside, today I have progress reports to do and I have to figure out what I will say at our schools award ceremony.  Sounds important, I know. The truth is I am a part time teacher at I private school that I have surreptitiously insinuated myself into.    Yeah nepotism!! I have two students to present awards to and I don't know what to say.  It will come to me I'm sure. Just a little nervous.  Scout, my six year old daughter, is up and waiting for me to read to her out of our present reading project,  Peach Tree Island by Mildred Lawrence.  This thing was copyrighted in 1948 and our copy is actually pretty young when you consider that I was 15 when it hit the press.   I think my older girls read this book (same copy) but I never had.        It is not a great piece of  literature but it is introducing some new vocabulary to her and darn it! I understand what it means. I guess it isn't so much new vocabulary as it is new usage. errr, old usage.  Uncle Eben says that Mrs. Halloran will have his head.  To an extremely literal 6 year old that could be scary stuff. Mrs. Halloran tells Cissie, and I quote...... see," My land of goodness! blah, blah,  blah, blah."   I think I found where Cissie and Jodie, the twins from that old sitcom, Family Affair, got their names.  I only make reference to that because T.V. Land once existed. Off I go then to read an irritating old book, drink some coffee, think about drinking water and not write my thoughts about two much improved boys until just before the ceremony.   Later.