The Clothesline......

My sister Stephanie and I were talking on the phone recently and I was telling her how excited I was, yes excited, over the fact that hubby had put a clothesline up for me. Our conversation turned to when we were kids and everyone in our neighborhood had a line for drying clothes and it was, well just normal!! One of our neighbors at the time had one of those new clotheslines, you know the kind that looked liked an umbrella only no top only lines strung all around. We thought it was so modern and cool!! Now days it's not to often you see clothes drying outside and in fact there are some who want to ban it altogether!!! Give me a break, a ban from letting Mother Nature do her job, not to mention all the creative fun that comes from those clothes hanging on the line!!

I remember when Momma hung the sheets out, she would hang them over several lines to stretch them out so they would dry faster. My sister and I would pretend they were our tents and we would set camp up under them!!! What fun we had, such imaginations, no such things as X-boxes, i-pods or all the other gadgets that so many children have now, just two young minds at work planning our day at camp!! We would run through the clothes and let the fresh smell of those clothes fill our senses!! I'm sure Momma really didn't appreciate us running through them, risking pulling them down onto the ground, but she never said anything and we were always responsible for being there to help fold as she took them down.

I did have one really bad experience with our clothesline as a young girl. Using that creative mind and sometimes not to smart, I decided with my partner in crime by my side, (Stephanie) that I was going to make a swing with an old belt off the lawnmower. I tied that bad boy the tightest I could on the ends and proceeded to take off flying in my new found discovery....when wham, it broke and down I went bottom straight to the ground!!! The force of the hit was so hard it knocked the breath out of me!!!! Poor Stephanie thought I was dying and went running in the house for Momma, out the back door comes Momma with little Stephanie right behind her, by that time I'm sure I was about blue, but finally caught my breath and Momma asked me what in the world was I thinking???? Who knows exactly, but I thought I had really come up with a bright idea and sister and I were going to swing the day away!!! So much for that!!

I've had the opportunity in the last couple of weeks of hanging the clothes out to dry, to enjoy the freshness of towels dried in the sunshine and to let my mind wander back to clothesline tents and the fun and frolic of small children!! In my effort to conserve energy, not to mention the power bill, I am also being given free of charge the opportunity to use my mind while out enjoying the gifts that God has given each and every one of us....the gift of a blue sky with white puffy clouds painting the sky with designs that only we can describe as an elephant or a rabbit, or anything else our eye's decide!!! The chance to witness first hand the changing of the season and to literally enjoy this day the Lord has made!!



Yep I'm excited and loving the clothesline!!

The Fascinating World of Mother Nature

As I watch summer gradually fade away making room for Fall and her glorious colors of red, green, orange and yellow, I'm thinking about the wonders of Mother Nature that I have witnessed first hand this summer. Not that I haven't seen Mother Nature before, but for the first time in a very very long time I have had the opportunity to witness from my yard up close and personal, not from the window of an office!!

One of the special moments I recall is Lizzy and Buck!! Now Lizzy and Buck are lizards, yes I said lizards and yes I did name them, not because I could recognize them from any other lizard in my garden area but of what I was privileged to witness first hand, and I must say it was a sight I had never seen before!!! You see while dear hubby was building the pergola and I being his faithful helper and bearing the heat right along with him from below, I placed my hand on the deck railing while looking up, when I glanced back down due to the stiffness forming in my neck, there it was....Lizzy and Buck totally involved in the mating process!!!! For the sake of Lizzy and Buck's personal privacy I will not post that picture but yes I did take a picture....after all I had never witnessed two lizards mating and was shocked and amazed!! I will however post the cute little picture of the result of that session, their offspring Lizette and yes I named her as well. Now to be honest I have no idea if Lizette is indeed Lizzy and Bucks offspring or one from the zillion lizards that dwells here, but in my mind that is who she belongs too and I was lucky enough to view Mother Nature in one of her glories.



My next observation is from this past weekend while taking out the trash. As I was walking across the brick patio where our swing sits, I noticed this bean or something that resembled a bean moving at a pretty fast pace crossing the brick and of course I stopped, what in the world??? Now in the past I would have been making a mad dash to the trash so I could move on to the next chore in my short time off and would not have stopped to check this pod out, but this amazed me!!! So I stopped what I was doing and watched this process and realized the pod wasn't moving on it's own but was being dragged!!! Dragged by an ant that was at least three times smaller than the size of the pod!!! As I continued to watch this process I saw that each time the ant came to a hole in the brick or a crack the pod would fall down the crevice, the ant would run around a bit, crawl in the space get underneath, push it out and on with it's job of moving the pod to the final destination!! Wishing I had my camera, but not in the habit of carrying it around in my pocket, I just watched till the ant arrived to where I'm assuming was it's home. I ran in the house got the camera and went straight back....pod and ant gone!!! In that short bit of time the ant took it's bounty to where it belonged.

I'm thinking to myself, how many times in our life are we moving along, doing our job and then we find ourselves in a hole or a crevice??? Do we get underneath the problem push it out and continue on as the ant, or do we give up and say, "Oh well, here I am and there's no way out" and give up!!

I think that our heavenly Father puts us in these "holes" and "crevices" to allow us to get underneath the problem, look up, and push ourselves out!!

Oh yes Mother Nature is oh so fascinating, and to think our heavenly Father has sent it to us as a gift to observe, enjoy and most importantly to learn from!! As I prepare the yard, garden and yes even myself for the changing of the season, not only from Mother Nature but in my own life as well, I pray that I will continue to get underneath and push on!!

Ever just had one of those weekends????

You know the kind, one of those that everything you touched, just turned into a major ordeal!! It started Friday evening when we decided to cook some recently purchased fish and have a nice little Fish Fry. We set up the cooker outside because I really don't like cooking fish in the house. I had been all over Friday at Doctor's appointment, visiting my nephew and his wife's new baby girl, Trader Joe's, Earth Fare and finally home. While at Earth Fare I purchased frozen french fries made from organically grown potatoes!!! I was so excited to try these new fries I bought. Hubby got fries and fish cooked and of course we had to test the fries the whole time while cooking and he likes his fish straight out of the cooker so he was steady eating and it's a good thing!! While he came in the house for something, I took the rest of the fish up, made sure cooker was off, picked up the tray with all our fries and fish and went to open the door....then it happened...the whole tray of food upside down on the floor of our porch!!!! I was devastated and really felt as if I could possibly cry, but hey it's just food not the end of the world!! So mess #1 cleaned up!

Then Saturday morning we got up and I decided the down mattress cover we had, needed to be washed. I knew we were going refrigerator shopping (ours is just barely hanging on) so I thought, I'll throw this in the washer while we're getting ready then I can dry it once we're home. Fill the washer with detergent and water and start adding cover....then it dawned on me this bad boy is NOT going in this washer, after all it is a king size and down at that!!! Man what to do now half is in the washer and soaked and at that point felt like it weighed a ton!! Stuff with all my strength get it in and try and spin out the excess water!! Success...kinda, hey I'll deal with this when we get home, mess #2. Get home from shopping load the cover in basket head to laundry mat!! Does anyone realize the cost of washing a load of clothes at the laundry these days??? I'll tell you!!! $3.00 for a regular load, and $4.50 to use the commercial size machine, then 25 cents for 10 minutes of dryer time!!! $6.00 and an hour and a half later and still a somewhat wet cover home I go, just in time for our grand daughter to get here for the night!! So like any other high class redneck I hang the cover across the railings of the front porch to complete drying!!

Now keep in mind I measured and remeasured our opening for the refrigerator prior to going shopping, I pick up the paper they gave us with the picture and receipt of our purchase and was rereading the dimensions just to make sure every thing was a sure fit and I see it....oh no, our opening is 66 inches high and our new refrigerator which will be delivered on Wednesday is 67 3/8 inches high, so I look at my wonderful spouse and said "do you think we can fit in an extra 1 and 3/8 inches in there?? Oh no, there's that look..you know the same kind of look I got when I asked to drive his new mower the day we got it!!!! Not good at all!! His response "NO"!! So another task to do, cut the lower shelf above the opening or perhaps even take it out!! Upcoming mess #3 I see in my future!!

Sunday morning comes and I'm getting myself and a 2 1/2 year old grand daughter ready for Sunday School and church, now folks in my hay day I got myself and three boys ready and never missed a beat or broke out in a sweat but now...it's quite a challenge. I was getting ready and sweet thing was sitting at the dressing table with her set of makeup brushes I gave her "getting ready" herself being a perfect little princess. Well here comes the mistake...I walked out of my bath to go get her clothes and in that few short seconds I come back to a sweet little voice that says "look Mima I painted"!!! Oh my gosh she had taken her little creams I gave her, you know the kind Burt's Bee has in the little pots, opened them and had one of her little makeup brushes and had "painted" every inch of my makeup mirror and was starting on another mirror!!! Price for makeup brush, maybe 50 cents, creams in a sample kit, practically nothing, proud look on my girl's face for "her painting" and mine of shock....priceless!! Oh man, no time for mess #4 we'll be late for church, I'll get to this one later!!

Sunday a day for worship and relaxing normally, but not this day!! After we had Sunday lunch hubby said "I think I'll go ahead and pull that refrigerator out and see if I can just cut the border on the shelf instead of the whole thing out". Pull the refrigerator out, and oh my word!!!! When was the last time you pulled your refrigerator out and looked underneath where it had been sitting not to mention behind it!! Mess #5 got to get done!! Then it happened....just a little bit of sawing without turning the ceiling fan off and OH MY GOSH!!!! Sawdust in every tiny little nook and cranny in the kitchen and even some beyond, covered!!!!! So mess #3 came sooner than I expected and with a vengeance that took 4 and 1/2 hours to clean up!!

Then back to mess #4 the mirrors!!! That one took awhile to get all those creams off the mirrors, but it's done!

Oh and in the meantime while getting ready to paint the front porch we realized...wood is rotting!!! What??? This was pressure treated wood!!! So while shopping for refrigerators we went ahead and got vinyl rails and pickets to be installed so I promise you mess #6 will be here before I know it!!

Whew!!! Time to call it quits for this weekend!! Fixed hubby's lunch for tomorrow and looked up at the light/fan...oh no....is that more sawdust??? Oh well, Lord willing I'll open my eyes tomorrow to a new day!!

The White Wall....

Back in June, I finally got the request I've been making for 2 years!!! A pergola!!! Dear Gene really did a great job and the poor thing had to bear some really hot June weather!!



With me by his side holding and positioning the fan so he could at least have a breeze, keeping his tea glass filled and a month of weekends the project was finally completed and I started my "decorating".



Adding plants, tables, lanterns and anything that added to our outdoor room. Now keep in mind this area adjoins our porch that's covered so we can enjoy being outside during rain or shine with a bit of tropical decor I pulled together.



In the midst of all this Terracotta, mango and lime colors I decided that the side of the house being just all white, just didn't fit in! With my mind racing I thought of different things that could tie this "white wall" in with my idea's...BINGO, I need a mural, but they are expensive and not in the budget right now so I thought a scenic shower curtain!!! Perfect solution, inexpensive, weather proof and not too hard, so that's what I did! Pretty proud of myself for coming up with this idea.


This picture was made prior to the Pergola being completed but you get the idea, I was trying out my thought!!

I was pleased until...my two and a half year old granddaughter came over!! She had been here during the building but enjoyed going up and down the ladder with Mima or Papa standing by holding on to her so there would be no accidents and really hadn't paid much attention to the actual project. This particular day she got here I asked her what she thought of what Papa had done and right out of the mouth of this babe was oooo... bathtub!!! BATHTUB??? What in the world was she talking about? So when I told Gene what she said he stated it's the shower curtain you hung!!! Needless to say the "mural" came down and now I'm staring at the "white wall" again.



I'm thinking if all of us would be honest with each other (maybe not as brutal as a young child) but with loving and caring words we could help each other make better choices in our life and not have to "redo" what we've already done and be much happier in the long run.
So now I'm faced with what to do that will not look like a giant bathtub? Maybe an old iron gate or iron headboard of a bed, I could paint it a bright color that would tie in and give the old white wall some life!! What idea's do you have?? Feel free to send me any suggestions, but please be nice, I've taken enough abuse from a 2 year old!!

The calm after the storm...

Here in the south summer afternoon storms are common and often bring some much needed relief from the heat and humidity, such was the case this afternoon and then there are times when it only increases the conditions of stifling heat!!
This evening we had one of those storms that brought relief, calmness that filled the air, everything green and alive, crickets chirping, tree frogs singing and the hummingbirds filling their tiny little bellies.



It's in times like this I think about the storms of my own life and that of others. There are often many storms in our life, sickness, cancer, death of loved one's, the lost job and these are just to name a few, there are so many storms...but at the end of each and every storm there is calmness, a peace that everything is ok, I threw my anchor out, I held on and all is well!! Sometimes the storm throws lots of havoc our way but in the end...all is good!!! Perhaps not in the way we would prefer but it is good, in the way that is meant to be!!



Ray Boltz has a song "The Anchor Holds" which with my husband displaying the magnificent talent God has blessed him with by playing the guitar I sing, and with every word that comes out of my mouth, I'm feeling every single word!! Yes there is and will be calmness after the storm!!

That Smell....

Have you ever been somewhere and a smell enters your senses and you think...oh I remember?? Well here recently and another from months ago I've had this sensation... That smell.
Several years past after battling adult acne and medications that made me very sick until I adjusted to the oral medication, I came to realize this "stuff" just can't be good!!! Never in my teen years did I have a problem with acne, a pimple here and pimple there, that was it. Then I hit 40 and boy my face went wild...what's this I'm too old for zits!! So I decided after all these meds they were giving me to "cure" my acne I would try some good old fashion remedies, that's when I discovered all natural skin care!!! Best thing that ever happened to me!!! In the process I came upon Thayers Rose Water no alcohol astringent and boy oh boy I love it, but the first time I opened the bottle, it took me back... to my grandma's bathroom!! Can't remember what exactly but, what I do remember is every single detail of that old farmhouse's one bathroom and something in there smelled like Rose's just like my Rose water! So every night when I use my Rose water I think of my dear grandma and the farmhouse and all the happy memories,that leads me to my next smell... in the garden, early in the morning, there's this smell...and I think, there it is again...what is it??? I'm not sure yet, haven't figured it out, but I'm thinking, between the bean's, the cabbage, the dirt, listening to the birds, tree frogs and early morning crickets take me back to a day when I had no worries other than helping Momma, Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa!! What will my children and grandchildren remember??? I pray that their memories are as happy and content as mine are, that they continue to practice what we have tried so hard to teach them, to appreciate each and every blessing that is given to them!! I wonder what smell will take them back and pray it makes them as happy as it makes me!!