A Place to Hide

22 Jul

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Heavy rain comes down in sheets, clatters on the aluminum roof of the porch and rattles the screens on the windows. The T. V. says the wind is blowing at 60 mph. Seventy-five mph means hurricane. We are grateful to be hidden in our snug house away from the storm.

This morning our two cats had an altercation. Maybe it was because Jasmine was playing around the cat size basket on the porch they both like to sun in and Lily wanted it. When Lily gets mad, she scares Jasmine to death so Jasmine was backing up through plants and trying not to get nailed. She ran to the French doors, but they were closed so she climbed one and clung by her claws in a place where she knew Lily wouldn’t follow. Lily will climb sometimes, but it’s not second nature to her as it is to Jasmine. Jasmine has an even better place to go, a place where Lily gets a bit of vertigo and hunkers down. She has never gone there voluntarily. I put her there once to see if she liked it, but she definitely did not, so I lifted her down. Jasmine gets there by jumping onto the kitchen counter and running across the stove. It’s definitely a no no, but she goes so fast I can’t stop her. Where some of us might get vertigo, she feels perfectly safe.

I guess we all need a place to get away from others who scare us and from things that go bump in the night. There is one sure place: we sing a song that starts, “You are my hiding place.” When we were younger, we sang, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.” We are speaking here, of course, of our Father in Heaven. It’s good to know that no matter what is happening He promises to be our hiding place. He will not only hide us, but he will settle us down and give us direction and insight. He loves us, his children; nothing delights him more than seeing to all our needs, especially our spiritual needs. We have only to ask and a hiding place appears.

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The Robin Diaries-Part Five

21 Jul

I am always thrilled with God’s timing. Patricia originally wrote the following paragraph  to close today’s post but in light of the tragedy in Colorado, I made an editorial decision to move it up and use it as an intro-Onisha

“With all the turmoil going on in the world, it is very refreshing for me to block it all out and concentrate on the simple, normal life of mother nature and her little critters. I am glad to know that I am not the only one. I know you enjoy it too, and my friend that was here this weekend actually set up a movie camera one year and took a movie of robins nesting in her yard. She let it run until the birds were gone.”

Speak Up Saturday

Patricia Franklin

After all the commotion yesterday, things have settled down today. We had a nice rain last night and I was out pulling weeds from my little garden today – about 10 feet away from the nest. The robins do not care. Neither are they bothered by any of the doves or other birds. In fact, they will get down on the grass and eat with the doves. The blackbirds are a different matter. They chase them away. The robin was loudly tweeting a warning last night, so I went out to see what was happening. Both robins were trying to chase a blackbird away. He finally landed on the fence, but would not leave, so I decided to offer my services and went out and chased him out of the yard.

Somewhere I heard that robins hear the movement of earthworms and that is how they find them. I don’t know if that is true, but I know they have good eyesight. Frank replaced a sprinkler yesterday and we had to dig up a lot of the grass. Any earthworms that I found, I tossed in the grass near the lilac bush. But, I found a huge cutworm and did not want it to get back in the grass, so I just put it on the edge of the patio where I was digging. I stopped working, went in and got a drink of water. Out the window, I saw a flutter of wings, and ran back out to discover the cutworm was gone, just like that.

Earthworms are a good example of soil-dwelling...

Earthworms are a good example of soil-dwelling detritivores (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now as I am awaiting the robin family to appear in public, I have a ring necked dove who tried twice to put a nest on a bare limb, above the picnic table. Twice it blew away. Today when I went out, she had completed her nest and is now sitting on it. It is not much of a nest, but I will be watching her as well now. I don’t see how she can have room for an egg, let alone a baby bird, but we will see.

Robin nest

Robin nest (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life–a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

Romans 5:20 The Message Bible

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Mis-adventures Are Fun Too

19 Jul

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

We have been enjoying the summer exploring with the grandchildren. Two weeks ago we visited the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We had planned some short walks and a picnic at Collins Creek picnic area. The weather decided to change our plans but we were able to grill our hotdogs under a wonderful pavilion at Collins Creek.

This week we were on a waterfall hunt in Clayton, Georgia. Due to bad directions and an over-full ford, we didn’t find the waterfalls but we did discover a great picnic area, Warwoman Dell.  Warwoman has two amazing picnic pavilions, one with a large fireplace the other with a central fireplace with four grilling stations.  We ended our day with the grandchildren wading in the Chattooga River located on the South Carolina-Georgia border.

Uh-oh should have driven the truck.

Love the fireplace. Looks like a great place for a Fall picnic

Wading on the Chatooga

Neither of our days went as we planned but we had a great time. Sometimes those rainy day picnics and mis-adventures create memories that are remembered far longer than perfect days.

How about you, do you let the weather or bad directions keep you from having a good time?

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Just Another Day At The Flying Field

18 Jul

 A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

A friend called the other day asking me to meet him at our model airplane flying field to help him with one of his planes.  He was in remission from cancer and had not flown for some time. The last time he tried to fly he passed out on the field and woke up in the hospital. Now, he wanted someone there in case anything happened again.  It was a beautiful day with just a hint of a breeze right down the runway.  He unloaded his plane and all the gear needed to setup his large electric powered model.

The first thing he noticed was that the three batteries he had charged for the occasion did not have the right connector on them to mate up with the airplane electronics.  He looked in his support bag for the adapters that would solve that problem, but couldn’t find them.  “I must have left them at home” he said.  Then he discovered the battery with the correct connector was still in the plane, but he had not thought to look for it in there, so he could charge it for this trip to the field.  This prompted another search in the support bag for the battery analyzer to see if that battery had enough juice left in it to fly the plane.  Finally he said with disgust, “I must have left that thing at home too.”  But, when he plugged the battery into the on-board flight system, the system “beeped” with a response that indicated “I’m ready to go.”

So, he decided to fire up his new computer radio system to see if the on-board battery had enough charge left for a flight, and broke out his radio control transmitter.  When he couldn’t get the transmitter to show him the correct model information on the display screen, he had to refer to his radio control system manual to look up the proper procedure to set up the radio for the model he had brought to the field.  Every time he thought, he had the right sequence, it would be for the wrong airplane and he would have to start over.

At this point I suggested it might be better if we tried another day when he had time to get everything working properly.  But, he wasn’t ready to give up an opportunity to fly, and this went on for about 10 or 15 minutes.  Finally, he came up with the proper sequence, and when activated, the motor sounded as if it had plenty of battery power, and we were ready to put the wing on and give it a try.  He decided the rubber bands that had been on the wing were old and questionable, so, rather than take a chance, it was back to the support bag for fresh rubber bands.  These he did have, and now all was in readiness for the flight we had come to the field for.

He taxied the plane out onto the south end of the runway to get the feel of the controls.  When he said he was ready to take off, I said, “The wind is out of the south, you need to start from the other end of the runway.”  Would you believe he took that plane off, did a nice slow circuit of the flying field, and brought it back in for a perfect landing?  He said, “I think I’ll call it a day.  Thanks for your help.  Any day I can take my plane home in one piece is a good day.”

 

He obviously felt good about his success and so did I. I hoped that if I ever experienced that kind of devastating illness I would possess the positive attitude, the faith, and the stamina to persevere as he had done.

 

 

I Thessalonians 5:18

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Conquerors

16 Jul

My Take

DiVoran Lites

When my brother and I were kids, in Colorado, Dad bought us a part-Shetland pony to ride. We called him, Yankee. He wasn’t as small as a regular Shetland, or as big as a quarter horse, but he was stubborn as all get out. My brother took to horses right away, he inherited it from, Dad, I guess, who was once an amateur race jockey.

We took Yankee up to the house from the feedlot to bridle and saddle him, but every time I got on, whoosh, Yankee trotted back to the feed-lot with me holding on to the saddle horn and trying to keep my feet in the stirrups. I only weighed about fifty pounds, and I was about to give up. Then one day Dad was there when we brought Yankee, and he saw what was happening to me. He didn’t blame the horse, though. He said it was my job to show Yankee what to do.  We started over.

Back at the house, Dad held the reins in a firm grip down close to Yankee’s mane as I got on. He then showed me how to grab a fistful of rein and a fistful of mane and hold tight. In other words, he showed me how to take control over the situation. Much to my surprise the horse stood until I gave him a nudge with my heels and eased up on the reins a little. I was no longer a victim.

What a great life lesson. In the book of Genesis, God says we have responsibility and dominion over the animals. In Romans 8:37 he says we are more than conquerors. Sometimes problems come and things seem out of our control. Nevertheless, I’ve learned an additional lesson from my Heavenly Father. With prayer and faith, we can tap into the power to conquer anything. What a relief to know that we are no longer victims, but conquerors.

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The Robin Diaries- Part 4 Twittering and Tweeting

14 Jul

Speah Up Saturday

Patricia Franklin

 

This is the 20th day since the robins built their nest. The female has been sitting now for 10 days. She will leave for about 10 minutes or so, not much longer. Both of them watch the nest though. One day some blackbirds came along looking for seeds, etc. on the ground. The female was gone and the male came flying in and sat on the nest. The female came back a little while later and seemed surprised by his presence there. She immediately took off again for some more time by herself and he just stayed where he was. We have about 6 or 8″ of grass growing under the bush now, not to be mowed for another couple of weeks, or until the babies are gone. I’m pretty sure there are no babies yet. If there were, we would see a lot more feeding activity. We have been out working in our yard and garden just about two yards from the nest. They do not seem to worry about us. They will sit on the nest, fly in and out while we are there, or just sit on the fence, or look for bugs/worms in the grass.

Yesterday was the 14th day of sitting on the nest. We had company over the weekend, so did not have time for robins. However, I noticed yesterday both robins were eating a lot and taking turns flying back and forth to the nest. I believe we have some babies now! I have not heard any little peeps yet, but we are having some construction on our street and all I can hear are jack hammers, revving engines and beeping machines going in reverse. In addition, Frank is working outside sanding our windowsills with a power sander so he can repaint them. The poor little tykes are going to be deaf before they get a chance to hear the twittering and tweeting they should hear in a normal day. I sat out with a cup of coffee this morning and did see both adults on the edge of the nest taking turns feeding the unseen little mouths inside. Guess I will get a glass of ice tea and go see what is happening this afternoon. Maybe there will be a lull in the construction noise during their coffee break.

Mother Robin

Mother Robin (Photo credit: striderp64)

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Pallet House

12 Jul

On The Porch

Onisha Ellis

My son, Matt enjoys raising chickens. I don’t know why, but he just can’t seem to have enough chickens or chicken houses. Recently he decided to raise bantam chickens. He got eight of the Cochin type and four others of a breed I can’t remember. I’m not up on my chicken knowledge. This caused a problem since these chickens are smaller than his other ones. He decided to build another chicken house but like with many of us money is tight so he had to be creative.

Matt worked in a factory, which had a surplus of wooden pallets, and they were glad to get rid of them. He took seven home and started building. He framed it with five wooden pallets, put two pallets down to make a floor and used two by fours to create a roof. He picked up some Masonite siding from a surplus supply store to finish the outer walls and put two four by eight corrugated fiberglass panels to make a nice roof. He finished it off with two by twos and chicken wire for a door. This chicken house is so deluxe it even has an automatic water dispenser made using a five-gallon bucket. All total, he built a fine chicken house for sixty dollars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m so proud of him. He has the ability to look at a problem and find creative, practical solutions. In these hard times, we all need to look into ourselves to rediscover that mindset. I fear that in our busy lives we have found it easier to throw money at a situation rather than using our minds to solve problems.

Matt’s chickens even get water front living.

 

Luke 12:42

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Take Time to Read the Label

11 Jul

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Reading is not my favorite thing to do.  I have been told that my word dyslexia is what causes words to get jumbled up as I read and sometimes words even drop out or are added to what I see.  This makes for some interesting if not frustrating situations.

Take for instance the last time I went to the store to pick up a few things for my wife.  She had given me a list of things she needed which included four cans of four different soups.  Years ago, this would not have been much of a problem for me as each soup had only one label.  All I had to do was read the label correctly.

Today it’s a little more complicated than that.  When I looked on the soup shelf for a can of Cream of Celery soup, there was green label “Low Sodium”, green label “Heart Healthy” plain label “98% Fat Free”, plain label “Reduced Fat” and blue label “great for Cooking” – I think that was all.  Anyway, you get the picture.  Now, we were raised on the real thing, when it comes to soup, and my wife still wants the real thing for all her cooking.  Well, as you might imagine, I spent some time looking through all those different labels to find the real thing for each of the four types of soup she wanted.  I even had to take some items out of my basket and put them back on the shelf after I discovered I had picked up another wrong-labeled item.

When I got home, I was pleased to see that I had managed to get all the right kinds of soup on the list.  But then, my wife asked me, “Is this stick the only type of Benadryl they had?” I had spent a lot of time looking over the different types of Anti-Itch products, reading and comparing the ingredients and thought I had the right thing.  But, right there, in big black letters was the word “Stick” not “Cream “on the front of the box.  I guess I had been so involved in checking the ingredients that my brain looked right over the obvious.  Fortunately I had also bought another brand of anti-itch product that just happened to be “cream” for my medicine cabinet, so I just traded with her.

Romans 8:28

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Thyme On My Hands

9 Jul

My Take

DiVoran Lites

My mother, grandmother and even Dad were all good cooks, but they didn’t use herbs. When I became a full-time homemaker, I decided to experiment and my family liked them. Now, I’m learning to grow my own.

Recently I harvested basil, rosemary, oregano, cilantro, chives and of course thyme. Thyme is a small miracle. It adds great flavor to food, it’s a survivor, an antioxidant, and an antiseptic. I love the aroma that lets me know it’s around. The other herbs fit all together in small packets for the freezer, but the thyme filled a colander all by itself.             

Hey, there’s an idea, maybe I have plenty of clock time too. What would happen if, instead of indiscriminately giving it away or throwing it away I ask God to guide me in its use? I’m sure if I put him in charge, the housework will get done, I’ll have minutes and hours to listen and I can develop healthier habits. Hobbies, weeding and mending can still happen. Maybe if I do what I feel is intuitively right for me, I will discover the things God created me to do. Maybe I’ll be more at peace with myself, and more effective in every way.

I spread handfuls of thyme over a cookie sheet and froze it, and then I made packages of  it  to throw into stews and vegetables. When I prayed about individual choices in clock time, I began to feel more settled, more satisfied, and eventually more peaceful. I believe I’ve become more effective in every way.

Check out this snippet from The Message Bible: …”if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.” (Matthew 23:12)

Herbs: Thyme, oregano and rosemary

Herbs: Thyme, oregano and rosemary (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Note from Onisha: I think thyme is one of my favorite herbs too but I have a question, what constitutes a sprig of thyme?

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Does the Earth Still Call?

8 Jul

I missed my Thursday post due to a problem with my hands. This will be short but I wanted to talk about family. Last week my daughter, Rebekah Lyn took on her first solo-canning project. She had an abundance of Roma tomatoes and decided to make homemade salsa and can it. It came out beautiful and I am re-blogging her post so you can read about her experience. In the same week my son, Matt, canned eight quarts of green beans from his garden. He is an excellent gardener and has begun raising chickens too. It delights my soul to see my city-raised children taking up the skills they saw their grandparents practice. When you have a farming heritage, does the connection with the earth still call to the soul?

Rebekah Lyn's Kitchen

Happy 4th of July!  I hope you all take some time today to reflect on what makes this day so very important in the history of the United States, especially as times are so rapidly changing for us.  There is another reason this day is so important to me though.  Today would have been my grandmother’s 90th birthday.  I have been thinking about Grandma Pearl all week and wish she could have been here over the weekend to help me with my first endeavor at canning on my own.

I have many memories of helping her can preserves, green beans, and tomatoes.  I remember setting up the Coleman stove on the back porch, watching the giant pot boil, peeling the skin off the tomatoes and skimming the froth off the strawberries. Those are memories that I will always treasure.

Since I had so many tomatoes of my own…

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