Hunting with Daddy and our dog and coming back smelling like a skunk

When I was a girl at home, Daddy asked me to go with him down to the edge of the woods to see what Julie, our curled-tailed dog, had treed, or was barking at? 

I was still a teenager and had real long hair. I was dressed for bed in my pajamas and had on a housecoat and shoes. Daddy needed me to hold the flashlight so he could kill what Julie was barking at. Sure, I'd go. Who wouldn't help their daddy, right?

Down across the pasture, we went in the dark to the edge of the woods. Daddy told me where to shine the light, and I did it perfectly. Daddy shot. Julie was happy, but the smell was horrendous.

Have you ever smelled a skunk up close? Daddy was so tickled. I was choking on the smell and it was in my hair and in my clothes big time. I had to get back in the shower and start over getting ready for bed. I can hear daddy laughing now.

I didn't go hunting with him anymore, no matter how hard Julie barked!!!

Making Mama Happy Killing Rats

When Daddy was building our house in the early 1960's, he tore down the old unpainted house we had lived in since I was four years old and we moved into the new house. 

There was a chimney that fell down across the yard from the old house and it stayed together though there was a hole broken in it.

One morning mother was leaving for work and said she did wish those rats were killed that were in the chimney that had fallen. Now there is no one more frightened of a mouse than I am, but mother was talking about rats. I am doubly afraid of rats. At least that is what we called the gopher rats.

Daddy had a pump up pellet rifle he had ordered from the Sears and Roebuck catalog, and he had taught me to use it. I don't recall if I was in high school or already working, but one afternoon I put on my blue jeans, got that pellet gun and went hunting. I positioned myself so I could watch the hole in the chimney and I laid down on my stomach a good piece away, pumped my gun up that I had loaded, and started making a sucking sound with my mouth. Oh my, I remember it well.

The sound I made must have sounded like what the rats make because they started coming out of the hole in the chimney. I aimed and I shot one. The rest went back in the hole. I kept doing that until I had shot 21 rats and killed them. I could hardly wait for mother and daddy to come home from work so I could show them what I had done. Mother was so happy to see the dead rats laying all over the ground. I'm sure Daddy was equally as happy and buried them. I still have that gun. 

The Old Chimney Entertained Me After School

Dot Gatlin Merritt and I have been friends a long time. On FB tonight and had my memories flowing following her post about memories of childhood. It reminded me that we had a chimney on the side of our old unpainted wood house on the packing house road in Elba. In the afternoons after coming home from school I entertained myself by taking my little-painted ball with stars on it and throwing it against the chimney as high up as possible. When it hit the ground I jumped over it for fun. I ran after it, came back and repositioned myself and did it all over again.

I remember counting the bricks coming down at an angle on the side of the chimney. There were 13 bricks coming out like small doorsteps to make the chimney wider at the bottom section. My ball hit in the widest part at the top. Guess that is one of the reasons I have counted things all my life.

When we worked with the church at Cedar Grove near Andalusia, the walls were knotty hole pine paneling. I sat on the second row from the front on the left side. There was one panel at one time I could tell you how many knot holes were in it. Seems like it had 30 something. Silly me.

Keeping sight on the goal

One of the hardest things for me to do is keep my sight on the goal at hand. Everything comes into play and directs my thoughts away from it. I'll give you an example:

Last Sunday I began watching my weight more carefully with the goal of losing the extra 25 pounds I want to lose. For a week I've done great. Sunday is my weigh-in day and today I was down 1.5 pounds from last Sunday at the same time. I'm careful to weigh at the same time, as much as possible. Gotta have that right. You would think with that knowledge and encouragement I could come to the kitchen and eat a breakfast that was healthy, right? Not so!

The Diabetic diet I am trying to follow, which I find to be like the old Weight Watchers program I was on in the early 1970's and lost 40 pounds on, lasted just long enough for me to eat a cheese toast and orange, with a cup of Swiss Miss Diet Hot Chocolate. That was it! Then I wanted more. So I got a cheese stick, 5 Ritz crackers, a chocolate p-b Fiber one bar and then a Pretzel, chocolate, Fiber One bar. At this point I told myself it was okay, that I would just count the points on the Weight Watchers diet I am paying to be on each week. They don't say a thing about that extra that I ate raising my blood sugar, but being the diabetic (Type 2) that I am, I know sugar spikes it fast and then drops me just as fast.

Now, I'm thinking, on the Diabetic diet I have blown it for the day, I'd say, but I'm still good on the Weight Watchers diet because I have 15 points to use the rest of the day. Hooray! I'm not sunk yet.

It drives me crazy that I lose sight of my goal and go off the loose end on junk like this. I could really beat myself up about it, but motivation right now says, "when you fall get back up one more time than you fall". I've gotten up now, so here's to the rest of the day. Have a good day!

Children's success may be because Mama and Daddy prayed

The older our children become, the more we seem to pray for them.

There comes a time in life when a parent has to turn over the directing of their children's lives totally to the Lord. We guided, we directed, and we encouraged until they were just sprouting their wings and about to fly, and they grew away from us. We told the Lord that He had blessed them with their talents, He knew where He needed them, and we no longer knew how to direct them. We turned them over to Him by asking that He direct their paths and keep them true to Him. And He's done an excellent job of it too. Quite frankly, much better than we ever did, even though we depended on Him a lot when they were growing up.

But, I've been thinking lately about something. I've been thinking that children grow up and become successful, and they do quite well on their own. But I just wonder how much success they have because they had a mother and daddy back home praying for their success.

Hmmmmmmm. Guess it doesn't matter anyway.

Mama can't believe she is 100.

The DaySpring Hospice nurse checks on mother two times a week. On one of mother's good days last week, she was engaged in a very normal conversation with Erica. Erica asked her when was her birthday and Mother told her, June 11. She then asked, "How old are you?" Mother didn't know, so Erica said, "You're 100 years old."  Mother replied immediately, "I ain't dunnit!"

What's that saying, "You're only as old as you feel?"

This portrait was made on June 9, 2011, which was two days before we celebrated mother's 100th birthday with a party in Elba, AL. Over 140 people attended her party.

Beauty on a Tree Stump

Nine times out of ten if you see me, I have a camera close by. At home I hang it on the back of a chair in the dining room. It seems there is always something beautiful that God has made, and I like to take beautiful pictures.

In our back yard I have made pictures of squirrels, red birds kissing, or what I wanted to think they were doing, the popcorn tree, and even shadows on the ground. But the other day I went out back and saw one of the most beautiful mushrooms I have ever seen. I dashed back into the house as if I didn't rush it would surely be gone by the time I got back, got my camera, and headed back outside.

Now I have never studied mushrooms. I don't like their taste or anything about the kind we eat, but this mushroom nestled in an old tree stump really caught my eye. I wanted to save it forever. The only way I knew I could preserve the beauty was to take a picture of it. The mushroom looked like it was made from satin...layer upon layer of it.

Only God could make such a beautiful mushroom. I hope you enjoy it too!