Tag Archives: #amblogging

Meet My Blogger Friends and a Chance to Win a Prize

5 Aug

My daughter Rebekah Lyn’s  new release Jessie is traveling around the blogosphere visiting with some of our friends. I thought it would be fun to re-blog some of them here. Be sure to click the blog title to visit their blog and tell them Onisha sent you!

Blog Tour Graphic copy

 

July 22, 2014 Shanna Hatfield’s Blog

Shanna was the first stop. She shared an excerpt. Be sure to click above to read the whole post.

A-OK

Chapter 3

May 5, 1961

The call of a blue jay screeched through the open window, jarring Jessie from a dream. He rolled onto his side, rubbed his eyes, and pushed up on his elbow to look out the window. The sun hadn’t risen above the orange trees yet so he guessed it was about six. Spotting the offender on a limb not forty feet from the window, he wished he had his shotgun nearby.

“Jessie, you awake?” Ricky whispered from the upper bunk.

“Yeah,” Jessie muttered, pushing the thin sheet back and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Ricky dropped down from the bunk above, his eyes glittering.

 

July 22, 2014 Stop Two Faith Blum, Writings, Ramblings and Reflections

Faith was kind enough to read and review Jessie! Visit her site to read the whole review.

My Review

When I first signed up to be part of the blog tour for Jessie, I was thinking that the book would be a nice, easy read with some good historical information about the time Jessie lived in and that would be that. Boy was I shocked to find out just what kind of book it was. Rebekah Lyn took her book and made each and every character seem truly alive. I wanted to meet all four of the Cole boys just so I could actually see them in person. I wanted to take Mr. Cole by the scruff of his neck and tell him to shape up and fast before he completely lost all respectability

 

July 27, 2014 Third Stop Author Brooke Williams Blog

Brooke is a new friend we met through DiVoran Lites. She interviewed Rebekah. I liked this question and answer! She is in the middle of her own blog tour so visit her site and learn more about her.

We’d love to hear a few quirky facts about you they don’t usually come up in interviews. 

I am mildly obsessed with my garden, particularly my lemon tree. I visit the back window several times a day just to look out and admire it. I enjoy watching birds visit my feeder, but I don’t want them getting close to me. I had a bad experience in an aviary years ago that has made me skittish when birds get too close. I have a particular path I follow when shopping at Target and get anxious if we stray off that path.

August 1, 2014 Fourth Stop Sara B. Gauldin’s Blog Segbwrites

This stop almost didn’t happen! I forgot to send  the information to Sara and she graciously forgave me and posted it anyway. Be sure to visit her blog!

The tea sounds like it was a great success. Aside from writing do you have any future plans and will tea be a part of them?

Yes they are! The dream I have for my future is moving to the mountains of North Carolina, which I love, and opening my own tea shop and bakery. I would run my tea shop from April to November and spend all winter writing,-bringing together the two things I love most and seems to take me back to those days of watching Aunt Virginia in the kitchen, pouring out her heart to make others happy.

August 5, 2014 Fifth Stop Annie Douglass Lima’s Blog

Rebekah finds writing a conversation far easier than an interview so she chose to create an “off the record”  conversation among the Cole brothers. There is a hint  in the interview of a problem one of the brothers will experience. If you have read Jessie, comment below  and be entered to win, a lovely bracelet we are making.

Afternoon with the Cole Boys

Max, Ricky, and Sam snaked through the underbrush, arriving at their fort ten minutes after the final school bell rang. “How long you think Jessie is gonna keep going to these tutoring sessions?” Ricky asked.
“Until he’s caught up and his grades improve,” Sam replied.

“It was more fun when he didn’t care about school and we could all hang out together. I miss going hunting or fishing anytime we wanted,” Ricky said.

 

We have more stops coming up ! I will post them next Tuesday. If you  visit the blogs and   leave this  comment “Onisha Sent Me” you will be entered to win a digital AUTHOGRAPHED copy of Jessie!!

If you would like to enter for a bigger prize, take a chance on our rafflecopter giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Some really cool stuff in this bag!

Some really cool stuff in this bag!

 

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The Art of Living the Bible

4 Aug

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistAt one time in history it was essential that educated people knew and understood the Bible, especially writers. It is still necessary for Christian writers because we are teachers whether we think of ourselves that way or not.

We can get anything from the Bible we want. If we’re militant, the military is there. If we regularly stress with too much work, we can find more work and pressure in the Bible. If we’re tired of driving our lives in the fast lane, we can find peace on almost every page of the Bible. It’s all in how we perceive it.

In addition, we can find various ways, to read the Bible. Seminary students must study the Bible as a textbook, a history book, a literature book, and a language book, but as open-minded writers, we are free to read it any way we want, especially if we ask the Spirit of Christ to guide us into understanding.

This is my favorite way to utilize its wisdom at this time in my life.

Every year I buy a small, page-a-day Bible verse calendar, and each day I tear off the page and splack it to a new journal page. I then use it as a prompt. I get out a Bible and write out the verses using four criteria.

  1. Write from the point of view of the author, which is God, not man.
  2. Write in the present tense. For instance if it says, I am going to bless you, write, I bless you now.
  3. Don’t dwell on descriptions of sin. Jesus has already atoned for our sins and shortcomings. We’re interested now in going ahead with Him.
  4. Write down things that expand the passage to your satisfaction. (Judge these things against the rest of the Bible.)

In this way, I receive revelation and insight and welcome many joyful surprises. Here’s a sample from Ecclesiastes 3:11. This book of the Bible tells repeatedly how futile it is to live out of our own intellect instead of following the Spirit of Christ.

My Beloved Child, I made everything beautiful for its time. One flower, one butterfly, one tree—although impermanent, is beautiful in itself–nothing added. So are you. Love and work are my gifts to you.

Stop trying to fix the past or re-live the good times. Stop Worrying about the future. Nothing your imagination makes up is going to happen, but if something seemingly bad happens, you won’t have known about it in advance. Relax, do your jobs, always try to love and forgive. “One handful of peaceful repose is worth two fistfuls of worried work.” (Direct quotation)

Here’s another quotation, this one from artist advocate, Jill Badonsky from her book, The Muse is in. “Everything in life is art. From how you walk and how you smile at a stranger to how you love someone and the way you choose to feel. It’s art.”

2 Timothy 3:14 in The Message says:

There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word, we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.

What is your protocol for absorbing the Word of God these days?

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Transition to Maine~Part 1

3 Aug

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

                                        

                                                           

In previous musings, I’ve mentioned how we were assigned to Loring AFB, Maine (Do you think if we ask for New Mexico, they’ll send us to Maine??). And they did.

Our Karen was born in Wiesbaden, West Germany, and was not quite three-years-old when we rotated stateside. That was an eight-hour flight back to the States, so I had purchased a few “new” toys that I hadn’t let her play with, just to keep her occupied on the plane trip. As we took off and began the long flight, I glanced at her and saw her eyes closing. And I exclaimed – “Oh no you don’t!” – and brought out some of the toys. Those eyes instantly popped open. We had a set of little books – about 3½” by 4″ – just kid-hand-sized, with about six books in there. Wish I had kept them. We had a blow-up doggie that we deflated before landing. You get the picture. We played/read for a while, then they brought lunch. After we ate, Fred and I put up the arm rests between our seats, and Karen stretched out across our laps for her nap. Fred and I slept for a couple of hours each before Karen woke up. Perfect timing.

Fred’s parents were living in King of Prussia, PA at the time, and picked us up from the airport at McGuire AFB, NJ and took us to their house. We stayed a few days with them, then flew to New Mexico for a visit with my mom, grandmother and Aunt Jessie.

Karen and "Oma" - her grandmother

Karen and “Oma” – her grandmother

 

 

Four Generations

Four Generations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we flew to Detroit, MI to pick up the new car we had ordered, then off to Fred’s sister’s house for a few days. She and her husband had a little boy, just one year younger than our Karen. They had a grand time together.

From there we drove up to Loring AFB, Maine. It was July, and we caught the “two weeks of summer” right away. We learned about the black flies that make their appearance in Maine during that time. They were really pesky! We stayed in a furnished guest house while awaiting assignment of quarters. While there we ordered some furniture from a local store, since we had been living in furnished government quarters for the three years in Germany.We learned that we were living in Aroostock County, which is a Native American word for Beautiful River.

 

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What surprised us the most was that Aroostock County is one of the largest potato producing areas in the country (Idaho and Wyoming being in that mix). It is also the largest county – land area – east of the Mississippi River. We were nearly on the upper tip of the state, only three miles from the Canadian border, and the nearest town was Limestone, with Caribou being the closest “large” town. We were four hours driving time north of Bangor, and that was on the interstate – which was a two-lane road! The County Seat is Houlton. You might remember that from all the weather reports in winter that pronounce it to be the coldest spot in the U.S.

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Puppy Love

1 Aug

From My Heart

Louise Gibson

author of Window Wonders

 

 

 

I am an animal lover.

They all need tender loving care.

When I come across a story such as this,

I truly have a need to share..

 

“Last spring a dog became stranded

in the water at the bottom of a canal.

A passerby. seeing the pooch whimpering

and trying to climb to satety, scaled  down

the wall, jumped into the water, pulled the

dog out by he scuff of the neck, and carried

it back up to dry land.. The dog ran away and

shook itself, but then it quickly returned,

ran to its rescuer, and showered the man

with lots of nuzzles and licks.

The video of the grateful canine became

a sensation.

 

Sometimes we can learn a lesson

from our four-footed friends.

Everyone who is in Christ has been rescued.

Have you returned to the Savior to thank Him,

to praise His Holy name?”

 

 

Jesus once healed ten lepers,

but only one came back with thanksgiving.

If you have been to the cross,

you have reason to praise Him.

He has given you purpose for living.

 

We are the most blessed people on earth.

God has not promised skies always blue,

but even in tumultuous times,

He has promised never to forsake you.

 

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Chow Chow Memories

31 Jul

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

 

As I was scrolling through Facebook this week, I came across a recipe for Hot Chow Chow Party Dip. That made me think of all the chow chow I have eaten in my life. Many of my aunts made it every year and I remember tales of hands being irritated from all the hot pepper they chopped up. Usually when they came to visit us in Florida or we visited them in North Carolina, someone would share a couple of jars of their latest batch. So, needless to say, I will be trying out this recipe but I won’t have any homemade chow chow to use. If you still make homemade chow chow, I would love to read your recipe!

chow chow copy

 

Chow Chow Party Dip

 

Ingredients

– 1/2 C Foods of the Smokies Hot Chow Chow (Or any brand you can find)

– 8 oz. softened Cream Cheese

– 1/4 C Mayonnaise

– 1 t Celery Seeds

– 1 t Garlic Pepper or Garlic

– 1/2 t Paprika (optional)

 

Directions: Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate at least one hour. Serve with you favorite crackers, chips, or vegetables.

 

Recipe courtesy Sabrina Dickson, Alabama

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My Western Trip~Part 13

30 Jul

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Small Red Plane

I started out early the next day so I could stop at the Timpa R/C Model Airfield to see what kind of planes they might be flying. There was a small crowd as the winds had been blowing fairly hard the day before and the weather man had forecasted more of the same. The Timpa R/C site is located on 160 acres of unobstructed land for radio control airplane and helicopter flying, with a 750’ paved runway, paved run-up area and covered assembly area with tables. It was one of the nicest R/C sites I have seen in a long time. The club members were very cordial and I got some great photos of them and their planes.

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My next stop was to visit the CAF Arizona Airbase Museum in Mesa, AZ. This was a very enjoyable visit, as the museum had a great collection of well-restored aircraft including the only Grumman AF-2S Guardian I had ever seen. The Guardian was a huge aircraft and I couldn’t believe it was carrier rated back when U.S. carriers only had smaller straight flight decks. The plane was in their restoration hanger in the final stages of preparation for its first post restoration flight test.

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The Wings of Flight Museum was on the other side of the Falcon Field Airport, so I hitched a ride with one of the local FBO fueling employees in his electric cart. Wings of Flight turned out to be a private aerobatic team that hires out for airshows and other aviation events mainly in the immediate Arizona area. Two of the pilots were taking a break from an aircraft inspection and invited me to join them for a cup of coffee. They told me about how their eight-plane business had gotten started with just two of them, and how it just kept on growing. They didn’t seem to be in any kind of a hurry and could have talked to me all day if I had wanted to. They seemed like a really great bunch of guys, doing what they all loved to do – fly.

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Next, I headed to Peoria, AZ to visit the Challenger Space Center that actually turned out to be a children’s learning center. So I headed down the road to Chandler, AZ to visit the Rawhide Western Town. This was a smaller version of Tombstone, but was more about attractions and a Steakhouse than anything else. When the street barkers started calling for people to head for the O.K. Corral shootout show, the whole place became deserted, and I left. Somewhere on one of the smaller roads on my way to or from the Rawhide Western Town, a Roadrunner ran across the road in front of my car, and I was instantly transported back to when I was much younger, driving on a two-lane road somewhere in New Mexico, where it was a common sight to see Roadrunners run from one side of the road to the other. What a thrill that was!   By the time I got back into Phoenix, and found the Wingspan Air Museum, they were closed. So I stopped and had a delicious Fuddruckers ¼-pound BBQ Burger and Raspberry Ice Tea, after which i went to the motel for some rest and TV.

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

 

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The Butterfly Effect

28 Jul

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistHave you ever heard of the butterfly effect? (with reference to chaos theory) It’s the notion that a butterfly fluttering in Rio de Janeiro could change the weather in Chicago. In other words small actions can have big results.

Last night, Nan’s mom and I went to the fifth grade chorus performance at her school. Nan had invited me and I usually tell her mom I’ll pick her up, but this time, I put it on the calendar and forgot about it until practically the last minute. I jumped in the car and ran over there and Nan’s Daddy was doing some computer work. He sat and talked to me about his hopes and dreams for the children. He and his wife are having their fifth child in a few months. They’ve really spread them out. The first one (a boy) was born about twenty-four years ago. Dad was hoping for a boy this time because boys are easier to raise. I said I was hoping for a girl, ‘cause I think girls are easier. It was none of my business, though. Instead of arguing, he said maybe a girl would be best. I wasn’t trying to persuade him. He said Nan and her mom would probably enjoy a girl since their other daughter is grown and gone. It seemed as if that short positive conversation opened a new thought for him – the flutter of a butterfly’s wing.

When the mom and I got to the concert, we sat down front so Nan could see us when she went by. Every kid in the group wore black pants, a white shirt, a turquoise satin cummerbund, and a matching bow tie. Nan gave us a big smile and a wave.

While we waited for the concert to begin, Nan’s mother said she didn’t think she’d put Nan in chorus next year. I had envisioned a whole string of years of chorus and all the friends, trips, and new experiences they would entail for Nan, plus thinking about how singing and playing music is for people. Again none of my business. But Mom wanted to talk so I ventured a question about whether Nan wanted to go to chorus next year. She said she’d ask her. That gave me freedom to tell how much our children enjoyed music in school and what a nice bunch of kids they met. I wanted a little to persuade this time. When I said they got to go on trips and do fun things, that clinched it. “She can go if she wants to,” Mom said.

Upon such small encounters, ones we’re not even looking for, lives can drastically change — the flutter of butterfly wings.

Here’s my paraphrase of Hebrews 10:24

Don’t give up the habit of meeting together with one another. Be concerned for one another with a sincere heart and sure faith. Accept Christ’s atonement so that there are no guilty consciences. Omit resentment and judgment. By example, gently inspire and encourage each other to do well in their decisions.

What do you understand that passage of scripture to mean?

By DiVoran Lites

By DiVoran Lites

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Beans Gone Wild

24 Jul

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

 

We returned to North Carolina after nine days in Florida celebrating the launch of our daughter, Rebekah Lyn’s new novel,  Jessie. I couldn’t wait to see if our tiny garden had survived the days of neglect. I would say it has survived!

Beans Gone Wild

Beans Gone Wild

 

Gardening in North Carolina clay is very different from gardening in Florida  so our  garden is  an experimental project. The past two years we grew bush beans and they did quite well. This year we decided to try runner beans. Is this height normal? I suspect we may have made the poles too high as we have more vines than beans.  I picked this morning and the majority of the beans came from two bush bean plants  from last years seeds.

Picked beans copy

 

There should be enough for my husband and I to have one serving each for dinner tonight.

We have decided to give up on bell peppers. We just don’t have enough sunlight for them. The first year we planted, our tomato plants grew great but the last two years have been awful. We did plant them in different locations but it hasn’t helped.  Nasty greem tomato worms love to eat the foilage and have to be picked off by hand and smashed. This so grosses me out!  If anyone has suggestions for deterring them without pesticides please leave them in comments.

In the Fall we add in compost from our compost heap and in the Spring add mushroom compost to enrich the clay soil.  I have to admit, I took the Florida sand for  granted. I had no idea it was such a great soil for growing. So far, in North Carolina  we haven’t been able to germinate flower seeds directly in the soil, unlike Florida where one simply  fluffs the soil, spreads the seeds and gently push a thin layer of sand over the seeds. Within a week, the seeds have popped up.

Do you have any gardening tips you can share?

If you would like the chance to enter a super easy giveaway from Rebekah Lyn 

CLICK HERE

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My Western Trip Part~12

23 Jul

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill

 

After lunch, I headed south to visit the city of Tombstone, a historic western town in Cochise County, Arizona, founded in 1879 in what was then Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. By the early 1890s, prosperity from silver mining, the town had expanded to the point where the ladies and gentlemen of Tombstone could attend operas presented by visiting acting troupes at the Schieffelin Hall opera house, while the miners and cowboys saw shows at the Bird Cage Theatre, said to be “the wildest, wickedest night spot found anywhere between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast.” The U.S. Army attempted to keep some kind of order in the Territory, but under the surface tensions were growing. 

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Shortly after the Earp brothers arrived in Tombstone in late 1879, an ongoing conflict developed between them and the Clanton brothers and Tom McLaury. The cowboys repeatedly threatened the Earp brothers, over the years, until the conflict escalated into a deadly confrontation that turned into a shootout, the now-famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The city of Tombstone has survived the ravages of time, and is now a thriving tourist attraction, with many period clad characters walking the streets, encouraging visitors to enter their particular establishment to get in out of the heat. I had a sarsaparilla in Doc Holiday’s Emporium , and it really did quench my thirst.

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Before leaving Tombstone, I visited the Wyatt Earp House & Gallery, which was closed at the time, but I was able to look in the windows of the house and read the inscriptions on the bronze statue of the famous lawman. Just outside the town of Tombstone was the famous Boothill Grave Yard (originally called The Tombstone Cemetery until around 1884), were many of the area bad guys are buried. And, of course, I couldn’t leave Tombstone without visiting that historic site. Well, as you might guess, the grave yard was full of famous named people, and the Curator even has a brochure you can purchase, listing many of the 250 people buried there; when and how they died, and who killed them, if known. A few of the famous Tombstone legends you will see on the headstones & markers throughout the grave yard include, Frank and Billy Clanton (O.K. Corral shootout) and their father “Old Man Clanton” (killed by Mexican cattle rustlers on a cattle drive), Tom McLaury (also of the O.K. Corral Shootout) and 3-fingered Jack Dunlap (a train robber) who was shot while attempting to rob an express car guarded by Jeff Milton. On my way back to Tucson I stopped in Benson, AZ to visit the Benson Railroad Museum, but it was also closed, so I just headed back to my motel for a nap and some dinner.

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

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My Diet Journal~Part 4

21 Jul

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistWhen we first started talking about our diet, some very dear friends mentioned that we looked good to them. We appreciated their compliments, but we had both knew that if we didn’t put a stop to it, we would continue until our health was threatened again.

From tomorrow, we have four days of the diet left. Bill has gone under the weight he was formerly happy with, and I’ve lost a total of ten pounds. That’s fine. I didn’t have a specific goal.

When I was reading the plateau page of the hcg protocol, I came across a suggestion to take apple cider vinegar, so I decided to try it. At the store, I saw Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar and recalled how many times I’ve read about their products nutrition books. I picked up the bottle. The vinegar inside looked cloudy, so I read the label, and in large print, it said, “With the Mother.”

Aha, I thought, I remember Mother in the vinegar, my own mother told me about it one day when I pulled a bottle of vinegar off the top shelf and it looked as if it had a jelly fish floating in it. Mother laughed, told me its name, and reassured me that we could still use the vinegar.

Apparently, the Mother in apple cider vinegar (ACV) consists of fine spider-web molecules which account for the cloudiness. It is protein enzyme that occurs naturally and is good for digestion. In 400 BC Hippocrates, the father of medicine, praised ACV for its amazing natural cleansing, healing, and energizing health qualities.

That connected with the new/old information that is now coming out about fermented foods, such as coleslaw and yogurt which have probably been around as long as APC. I have since learned that in olden days when there was no doctor or veterinarian available folks put it APC on the food of sick cows, and sick people and many of them got well.

So there I was catapulted into another world, APC for animals. Naturally I began to wonder whether Jasmine and Lily would accept it on their food. I could not believe that they would.

Jasmine

Jasmine

Jasmine has allergies that make her itch until she scratches off big patches of fur. When left untreated a bacterial infection results. She has also been poisoned by a combination of cortisone, that melter of bones, and flea repellant.

On the other hand, Lily has a heart murmur,

Lily

Lily

probably congenital and though a large cat, weighs only six pounds. Her pharmaceutical is an ACE inhibitor which she is now on. But what if the old-fashioned remedy would work?

It didn’t seem likely that they would take it, but I tried six drops on their grain free, canned fish to see if they refused. They liked it. Wow! We’ll all try it for a while. Maybe we can get well, or a lot better, anyhow.

 

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