Camera Critters – Pheasant

This guy is a ring-necked pheasant who has adopted our yard and family this fall.  He, along with another pheasant buddy of his, enjoy taking long dust baths in the holes they dig in the yard, pecking the screens out of the large sliding glass door, and staring at us through the dining room window while we eat our meals.  They follow the kids around like faithful dogs and stand next to mom as she relaxes on her bench on the front porch. 

We’re fairly certain they were hand-raised, then released into the wild to go it on their own.  They obviously miss human contact, because a better part of their day is spent begging at doors and windows. 

Unfortunately for us, they’ve got to go.  Since they are attempting to destroy the house in their effort to join us in our family fun, we can’t keep them around.  I also worry that they will try to jump on one of the kids or mom in their “friendliness” and hurt them with their talons.  So, we’ve made a call to the DNR and are expecting to see a guy in a green truck show up sometime soon to take the boys away.  We’ll miss them and their nosy little beaks pressed against the glass, longingly looking for some attention, but we’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do.

Fiction Friday – Beautiful

This is my first attempt at Fiction Friday, regularly hosted here at Patterings, but hosted here at Surrendered Scribe this week.  I just wrote it up, brand new fiction coming at you.  I’ve decided to take this wanting-to-be-a-writer-thing more seriously and just…write.  Let me know what you think!  If you hate it, tell me.    I like constructive criticism.

Beautiful

“Child, will you ever learn?”  Mama sighed, as once again I walked through the door after school a mess.  My brand new white shoes were stained brown, my white tights spattered with mud, and my face and hair bore witness to the bramble bush I had fought with.

“Mama, I just wanted to see if that birdie was still there.  She was, sittin’ on her nest and preenin’ like she was gonna be in the movies.  How many eggs do you think she’s got in there, Mama?”

“Eva, how would I know?  All I know is that my little chickie doesn’t have the sense God gave a grasshopper!  Get those tights and shoes off before you go tracking mud through the house.  And wash your face and brush out your hair.  Aunt Jeannie will be here in half an hour and you look an absolute fright!”  With that, Mama hustled me off to the bathroom, where I proceeded to torture myself in the name of impressing my always-beautiful and put-together auntie.  I didn’t dislike Aunt Jeannie, not really.  I was in awe of her shining black hair, her smooth babydoll skin, and her beautiful clothes.  Unfortunately, her attitude did not match her physical beauty.  I knew, even at twelve years old, that Aunt Jeannie didn’t approve of the scratches on my knees or the tangles in my mouse brown hair.  She didn’t seem to care that I’d saved a raccoon baby last week from certain death and that I’d earned a place on the school’s newspaper. 

It really bothered me that Mama was so worried about what Aunt Jeannie had to say.  As I tugged the brush through my curls, fishing out the twigs, leaves, and burrs along the way, I thought about why Mama cared so much.  Aunt Jeannie was Mama’s older sister, by three years.  After Grandmother died when Mama was my own age, Aunt Jeannie took over for their mother, making sure that Granddaddy had all the food he needed, Mama went to school, and Uncle Jimmy – their younger brother – was tucked into bed at night.  I imagine it was hard for Aunt Jeannie, and when Mama turned eighteen, Aunt Jeannie took off for college to become a nurse.  Mama missed her sister, almost as much as she missed her own mama, she’d told me before.  ‘Maybe that was why,’ I thought.  ‘She wants to show Aunt Jeannie that she learned from her how to be a good Mama.’

I decided right then and there to help Mama out. I brushed and brushed and smoothed my hair out as best as my pre-pubescent hands could.  Then I scrubbed my muddy, scratched up face.  The scratches – I didn’t know what to do about them at first – but then I remember that make-up Mama kept for special occasions when Daddy was home from driving truck.  I scrambled through the linen closet until I came up with the little bag.  Sure enough, there was the stuff – foundation it said on the bottle.  I dabbed a little here and there on my face and rubbed it in as I had seen Mama do.  A little pencil fell out of the bag – black eyeliner.  Thinking to make my eyes shine as Aunt Jeannie’s did, I penciled the liner under my eyes.  Then I brought out the lipstick and spread it across my lips, liking the effect of the pink against my tanned skin.

At that moment, I heard a knock at the front door, and knew Aunt Jeannie had arrived.  Now nervous, I quickly threw the make-up back into Mama’s little bag and peeked out the door.  Aunt Jeannie was as stunning as usual, her beautiful face glowing and her perfect nails glittering as she reached around Mama’s frame for a hug.  I frowned; I hadn’t noticed before how thin Mama was compared to Aunt Jeannie.  Mama’s black hair didn’t shine like her sister’s, her face was lined with creases where Aunt Jeannie’s was smooth.  As Mama turned and took Aunt Jeannie’s hand to lead her into the sitting room, I noticed Mama’s was tanned and dry; Aunt Jeannie’s was creamy and soft-looking.  I stepped out of the bathroom and gently shut the door.

As I stepped into the sitting room with lemonade for Mama and Aunt Jeannie, both women turned to watch me.  Mama’s eyes widened, Aunt Jeannie’s eyes narrowed.  “Eva?”  Mama asked, sounding startled and amused at the same time.  “What did you do to yourself?”

“Now, Marianne, don’t embarrass the child.  She looks just lovely.”  Aunt Jeannie’s blue eyes sparkled even more than usual and a smile played about her lips.  “Found your Mama’s make-up bag, did you Eva?”  A small chuckle escaped her lips, but it wasn’t a cruel chuckle.  I knew Aunt Jeannie approved. 

Mama smiled at Aunt Jeannie, and said, “Jeannie, do you remember when I got into your make-up?  Papa didn’t even know you had it.  Until I came walking out of the bathroom with eyeshadow down to my nose and blush spread around like a circus clown!”

“Oh, Marianne!  You looked so awful!  And Papa was blisterin’ mad,” Aunt Jeannie chuckled again and motioned to me to come toward her.  With a tissue she magically pulled from her pocket, she began to blot at my lips.  “I think,” she said, “that it is time we taught this little one to put her make-up on properly, just as I did with you all those years ago.” 

I looked questioningly at Mama, as I had never heard this particular story before, but Mama shook her head and said that the story would be good for another day.  Right now, it was time for my first beauty lesson.  Mama and Aunt Jeannie both took me by the hand and pulled me into the small bathroom.  As they taught me to apply mascara with a wand and sweep color across my small cheekbones, they laughed and reminisced about their teen years and growing up.  Finally, Aunt Jeannie looked down at me, no longer laughing or smiling, and she said, “You thank the Good Lord, Eva, that you’ve got your Mama now.  You’ll never know how hard it is to grow up without one.”

As we filed out of the bathroom, the mood now sober, I gave thought to that.  I had Mama, who taught me to see the world as God made it, to work hard, and to do right.  I also had Aunt Jeannie, who, I realized now, taught me to be beautiful.  It wasn’t that Aunt Jeannie didn’t approve of my animals or writing; she just wanted to make sure I knew how to take care of my outer Eva as well as my inner Eva.

I looked up at these two beautiful women, whose physical selves were so different from each other, yet inside, they both loved me.  And I thanked God that I had them – to teach me, to guide me, and to make me beautiful.

What About? Wednesday…Been A Couple of Months

 

Yes, I know it has been awhile.  I’m sure some of you thought I fell off the face of the earth.  I haven’t, although at times, I’ve wished I could.  Just for a few days of escape.  Today’s What About? Wednesday will be a simple catch up on the past couple of months.

1.  We’re still jobless here.  The situation, job-wise, is looking bleaker and bleaker.  Our state has few new job postings each day and even fewer to do with anything technical.  This leaves us with the disturbing prospect of resorting to truck driving again, which Mr. Nutt does not want to do, but will if we have no other recourse.  I’m seeing a real miracle in the making and trusting God that He will bring it about.

2.  F3 started a blog of her own, at Me and My Daughter.  She is only ten years old, yet she has such a heart for the relationship between a mother and her daughter.  She is writing the blog to encourage mothers and daughters to grow closer to one another and to God.  I’ve put up a feed in the side bar.

3.  F-2 (that would be, negative 2), my step-daughter, has started a website as well.  Sick of Liberals, as is probably obvious by the name, is a conservative blog, but she welcomes all comments.  As she says, we all want the world to be run well and it is a shame that there is so much divisiveness in today’s politics.  She desires to get a real dialogue open.

4.  Mom is going in for another heart cath. at the end of February, with the full expectation of getting another stent placed.  Her doctor informed her that this will be an on-going situation for the rest of her life.  She may need another within six months or it might be five years.  He also believes that the seizure activity was her heart being thrown into an arhythmia because of the blockage and causing her to pass out.  So, the good news is, she gets warning signs when she has a blockage and now we know what all that seizing and passing out is about.

5.  I finished two potholders

and a baby quilt which I will be giving away to a girls’ group home through the women’s group at church.

6.  My computer’s hard drive died in January and I was without my baby for several weeks.  I still had access to the ‘net through other computers in the house, but I really missed my own.  She’s back now, and I’m still working on getting her reloaded and ready to work.  Hughesnet satellite internet service, not being all it’s cracked up to be, isn’t helping the situation.  I can only download large (and by large, I mean over 200 MB per 24 hour period) amounts of information between the hours of 2am and 7am.  I’m trying to rebuild my scrapbooking kits right now, and staying up all night to do so.  I still have a couple of software programs that I need to get back ahold of, including the software to build the church’s website.

Well, that is it for this What about? Wednesday.  You got a lot in the bargain!

One Little Word and a Slogan

Well, I’m really into this New Year, new me thing this week.  Good thing for you that next week is starting soon and I might move on to some other subject. 

But for today, I’ve got a word and a slogan.  My word for 2009: Abide.  I will abide in Jesus, wait on Him, and expect His plan to develop in my life.  Abiding means I will stay firmly planted on the vine, I will grow and ripen, and I will spread love to those around me and as far as my influence can reach.

My slogan: I will abide in the vine in 2009.  Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law he meditates day and night.

What about…?Wednesday – December 31, 2008

Today, since it is the end of the year, I am going to review what my goals were from the beginning of 2008. 

1) I would like to do more with my reading, so I’m going to make a goal to post 6 times this year to my literature blog. I need to do more communicating about what I am learning about in addition to the reading itself.
Well,  I think I did post over there at least six times, but only because I found a great meme about books and reading that I participated in every so often.  I only posted one book review over there during the year and not only didn’t do a lot of reading, but also didn’t write much about what I did read.  I added some new reading goals for today’s Booking Through Thursday meme. 

2) I am doing Starting Points: A Worldview Primer by David Quine this year…
This just didn’t happen.  No excuses.  It just didn’t happen.

3) I’m thinking about embarking on a part-time career that I need to do some learning about.
Yep, this didn’t happen either.  Sigh.  I’m still thinking about it, but financially, I won’t be able to do anything about it.  Maybe later this year, but certainly not right now. 

So, after a nearly complete failure at last year’s goals, you ask…are you setting goals again this year?  Well, yes, I answer.  I am.  They are:

Daily Quiet time with God to include at least 15 minutes of Bible study and 20 minutes of prayer time.

Exercise (walk on treadmill and Core exercises) for 45 minutes daily.

Put in two or more hours of personal study time.

Put in two or more hours each day of school instruction to the kids.

Spend 30 minutes with dh daily.

Pretty simple this year.  Nothing extraordinary or outlandish.  Just stuff I should be doing anyway. 

For the next 90 days, I’m going to make sure that I have my measurable quiet time.  Doesn’t that just sound awful?  That I have to measure my quiet time with my Lord?  I think it does.  This is God we’re talking about, and I have to force myself to get in fellowship with Him.  But that is what the world does to us.  It calls out to us, keeps us busy, keeps us putting out fires, calling for relaxation, calling for rest which does not refresh.  We need to train ourselves to hear and heed His voice, to abide in Him.  That is what the next 90 days will be all about for me.  I will be training myself to abide in Him.  As a reward to me, besides having excellent fellowship with my Lord, I will spend an entire afternoon at the library, all by myself.  But if I miss even one day during the next 90 days (and I’ve told the Fruit, so they will hold me accountable) I will be grounded from the internet for two weeks.  You all know, right, how much of a dire consequence that is to me?  I’m following a plan from Donna Partow which will guide and encourage me to complete these goals.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook – December 30, 2008

FOR TODAY (December 30, 2008)…
Outside My Window…is dark.  Patches of grass is showing through the snow, but it isn’t supposed to last much longer.  More snow is on the way.  Earlier today, the Fruit were out ice sliding on a patch of ice.  It looked like fun…if I were sixteen years younger.
I am thinking…so many different things, I can’t keep them straight.  Foremost in my mind is my need to establish goals for the coming year.  My top five goals for 2009 are: 1)Daily quiet time, to include at least twenty minutes in prayer and fifteen minutes in Bible study.  2)Two hours spent in personal study time each day.  3)Two hours spent with the Fruit in their study time, to include at least a half hour reading aloud.  4)Walk on treadmill for thirty minutes and do Core exercises for fifteen minutes daily.  5)Spend at least a half hour with Mr. Nutt daily, alone.
I am thankful for…good friends.
From
the learning rooms…we’ve been enjoying studying our own pursuits the past couple of weeks or so.  F1 has been in his lab, experimenting with alum and electricity.  F2 has been continuing on his quest for Medieval information.  F3 has been reading and writing stories, as well as emailing back and forth with her favorite author.  F4 through F7 have just been playing and being core phase kids.
From the kitchen…we’re almost out of leftovers from the Christmas dinners.  I actually made dinner tonight – spaghetti and garlic bread.  I really, really want to make a chocolate cake I have sitting on the counter and I also want some nummy sugar cookies. 
I am wearing…my tennis shoes, socks, jeans, navy blue turtleneck, and a heavy maroon sweater.  I’m warm.
I am creating…still with the website, although I think I’ve got most of kinks worked out.  Now I’m just waiting for information from the pastor that I need to put on it.  Same with the pamphlets.
I am going…to Stuffmart and the Thrifty Acres, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day.  Not sure yet, but hopefully nowhere any time soon.
I am reading…Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana.  Still.  I gave it to F1 to read a part that I didn’t understand, because he wanted to see if he could get it.  He lost it.  Sigh.
I am hoping…that my friend can come over tomorrow.  She lives in TX, and we last saw each other during the summer.
I am hearing…F1 and F7 play peek-a-boo. 
Around
the house…Laundry is done, although not completely put away.  Christmas decos need to come down.  Children need to finish their chores.
One of my favorite things…is baby laughter.  F7 has been is such a good mood the past couple of days.  She has the sweetest laugh!
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week…Visit with friends.  Women’s meeting for church.  Let everyone know about women’s meeting for church!  Clean the kitchen.  Clean my room.  (Do those last two sound familiar?  They should, they were there three weeks ago.)
Here is picture thought I am sharing…

Character Confessions – 12/29/08

I know, I know.  I’ve been missing my posts for awhile.  Christmas week was a bit on the crazy side, so I took a brief hiatus.  But now I’m back and hopefully on schedule.  Now I bring you my regularly scheduled Monday Character Confession from Christian Women Take Root.  By the way, on January 8, you can Tweet Up with oodles of Christian women if you are on Twitter.  Check it out at Christian Women Tweet Up.

Have you ever been so blessed that you didn’t know which way to turn?  You are throwing out so many thank you’s that your throat gets hoarse?  Yeah, that was me last week.

It all started when my aunt called me about three weeks before Christmas, asking me if it would be all right if she and my uncle got the Fruit something for Christmas.  They know that Mr. Nutt is laid off and has had no luck thus far in finding employment.  Certainly they understood that, in light of that, we were going with a no gift Christmas.  The Fruit understood it too, and I was blessed and thankful to have such sweet and adaptable children.  My aunt, who no longer has young children at home and no grandchildren to buy for yet, wanted to do some “fun” shopping again.  Well, who was I to deny her the joys of Christmas shopping?  I said yes.  The Fruit ended up with two gifts each from them – and they weren’t just schmoozy gifts either.  She really put a lot of thought into both what they enjoyed and what I would find acceptable.  (It helps that she is a Christian homeschooler, too.) 

Then, the adult Sunday School class at my church went out of their way to get gifts for the Fruit.  Again, we’re not talking goofy, no good, throw away tomorrow stuff.  They made a real effort to get the Fruit things that they would enjoy and was useful.  They also gave us some food and me and Mom some nummy shower gel (called the Milkman, the Gingerbread Man, and the Muffin Man.  Mmmmm…those are some good smelling shower gels!)  Also, a wonderful woman made each of the Fruit a pair of knitted slippers, so I set those out Christmas morning with their other gifts.

To top it all off, several of the women in my homeschool group, who I had been meeting with once a month for about five years gathered up their resources, led by my best friend, and bought the Fruit even more gifts.  They also got together a bazillion gift cards to Stuffmart and the Thrifty Acres. 

My youngest step-dauther, F-2 (read F negative 2, as in before me), also bought gifts for the Fruit.  They were, again, well thought out gifts that she had picked up throughout the year.  She excels at shopping.

On Christmas day, my precious Fruit had all kinds of things to open up and enjoy due to the extreme generosity of those around us.  Because of the gift cards, I am able to pay our propane bill, because I can buy groceries with the cards.  This will keep us going another month or so. 

So, I’ve learned my first lesson of this particular trip down poverty lane: I am loved.  And for that, I am thankful.  In spite of the hardships and the many, many worries I am facing, I know this: God is taking care of us in the ways we most need to be taken care of.  And for that, too, I am thankful.  This Christmas season and as I enter the New Year, I am meditating on the fact that my God knows me intimately, and knows not only the big things that I need like house payments and sleep, but also the little things, like the love of friends and the joy of the smiles on my Fruits’ faces. 

Thank you, Lord!

Character Confessions – 12/16/08

Yes, I know that it is Tuesday.  When you have satellite internet, you only have a very finite amount of download space available.  Therefore, when you exceed said limit, your isp drops you down to a painfully slow surfing and downloading speed.  That happened to me yesterday and the internet didn’t recover until this afternoon.  So, hopefully, you’ll get two posts from me today!  Anyway, on to your post-poned Monday Character Confessions.

A couple of months ago, my pastor asked me if I knew anything about developing websites.  Uh no, I replied.  But I have been interested in learning, so I told him I’d look into it and see what I can do.  Mistake number one.

I attend a very, very small church.  We have absolutely no budget for technology.  I am donating my time, I found a very helpful and free host at Worthy of Praise, and I found a free web design software called Kompozer.  That was mistake number two. 

Not that Kompozer isn’t good.  I think that it is probably great for a free, open-source software which tries to include wysiwyg, html source coding, and css editing.  What is all that, you non-techy people ask?  Me too.  I’ve learned a ton.  Blessing number one.

So I designed a couple of pages (with the help of a free template) and got it looking pretty good.  I decided to put on sermons from the pastor.  We have the equipment at home, thanks to my geeky (yet wonderful!) husband.  Now I have these awesome audio files and no idea of where to put them.  The FTP client in Kompozer does not upload these to my host server, and they recommend having them hosted somewhere else ande hotlinking them to the main site.  Confused yet?  Yep, me too.  I need to find the answer to this dilemma.

I also uploaded a page, just to see what it does, and the entire css messed up.  That was the last straw for the day.  I haven’t figured out yet what happened, but will just sit there awhile until I can get it straight.

So, today, I’m frustrated.  I’ll get over it. 

Jonah…or Mary?

So, I’m still wrestling with why we are facing devastating financial wreck.  I know that the why may never be answered, but I also know that God is in complete control of the situation and that He has a purpose to it.  So I wondered, am I Jonah or am I Mary?

Jonah screwed up.  He was told, flat out, what he was supposed to be doing and he not only didn’t, he tried to run away from God to get out of doing it.  After much trial and tribulation (storm at sea, choosing to be tossed overboard to save the rest of the ship, and oh yeah…those three days in the belly of a fish), he finally decided to do what God wanted him to do.  His heart wasn’t in it, but God’s work was accomplished through him anyway and thousands were saved from destruction.  He still didn’t get it, even after he saw the results, so God had to explain it to him a little more clearly. 

Then we have Mary.  Sweet, sweet Mary.  She was just doing what God told her to do.  She was where she was supposed to be, when, WHAM, here she is, super-pregnant and needing to travel from Galilee to Bethlehem.  I’m pretty sure she didn’t enjoy that trip, having been that pregnant seven times myself.  She didn’t do anything wrong, she was obeying God, yet what did she have to show for it but a long, bumpy trip, labor and birthing in a cave surrounded by animals, and nothing but rags to warm her baby with.  The baby who God promised would be the Savior of the world.

So, am I a Jonah or a Mary?  Did I make a wrong turn somewhere?  Am I not living in God’s will, and he is trying to get my attention and my humility to get me back where I’m supposed to be?  Or am I a Mary, living in His will, doing my level best to stay there, and for some reason that I won’t know until a future date, I need to go through this struggle?

I gotta believe that I lean more on the Mary side.  I’m not saying I’m perfect (particularly perfectly humble), but I don’t know of any glaring God-told-me to-do-it-and-I-didn’t situations.  I do know that I thought for sure we were where God wanted us.  He wanted us to move up here, start going to a new church, and raise our babies in this area, in this home.  Because He is so perfect, so powerful, and so passionate, I know that He has some wonderful things up His sleeve.  I have to admit, I don’t like the donkey ride, the stable, nor the animals.  But, I’m also thankful that it isn’t the belly of a fish. 

I’m trusting in God that He is putting us where He needs us to be in order to do His will here on earth.  Just like He did Mary and Joseph, when He caused them to leave Galilee to go to Bethlehem for a census, just so His Son could be born there and fulfill the prophecy of Micah.

Thank you, Lord, for your grace and your provision.  Thank you that you love us.  Thank you for your Son.

What About…Wednesday?

Edited to add my super cool button.

Special thanks to Raechel Knight for the
digital scrap components of the button!

So, I’m starting my own meme.  At least, I think I am. I’ve never heard of this one, so I’ll call it my own until someone corrects me.  I’ll also try to come up with a super-cool button to go with it eventually, but for today, it is just my post.

What About…Wednesday?
In this meme, I’ll revisit something that I’ve talked about in an earlier post, but haven’t really caught all you wonderful friends up on since.

Today: College

A few weeks ago, I posted about having made the decision to go back to school.  I was hoping for a bunch of financial aid, along with the transfer student scholarship that I got from the school I intend to attend.  I did get a decent grant, but not enough to cover the cost of attending school.  With our financial situation precarious at best, I just can’t even begin to contemplate going further into debt with student loans.  At this point, college is on hold.  Really, this makes the most sense.  Right now we are in emergency mode and if I am going to leave the house everyday, it will be to work and earn money to pay today’s bills, not to get a degree that will pay tomorrow’s bills.

I’m really, really disappointed about this.  I was so hoping to be able to get back to school.  But the fact of the matter is, God is in control.  If He wants me in school, then He’ll make it happen.  Without debt.  As F4 says to me, “Sometimes God says yes, sometimes God says no, and sometimes, Mom, God says maybe.”  School is a big maybe right now.  I’ll be content with that.