It has been a cold and rainy day here in the realm, one of those days that might just send you back to bed for a nap or at least a blankie and a book or movie. Not me I have been busy harvesting crops.
I forgot I did go back to bed this morning, Pa went to Lowe's (his home away from home) and I piddled around the inter-net instead of sleeping. Then I got to work, no then I called Pa, who was about to have lunch with TD, and said I wanted to go to the Loveless Cafe. It was after our drive and lunch that I worked hard, no then I was cold so I wrapped up and watched a movie in between my zombie farming. Was it then that I worked? Well, yes I guess I did, I looked up something for Pa, planted some more crops and started to check out FarmWife's blog but ended up here. That's hard work isn't it? After all it is a cold and rainy night. I'm putting in my last crop of the day, heading over to FW's blog and calling it a night. I'm exhausted..............

Christmas has gone, not one of my best. There has been little music, very little cooking, no baking and no sewing, what have I done with all my free time? I wish I could tell you but I don't even remember and maybe I really don't want to. Christmas has not been bad for the most part it is just that it has not been like the past ones. We didn't make the trip home this year, that brought moments of sadness during the events of the day but we enjoyed the day just the same.
Bubba and Beck have been over more this week them in a long time because of their vacation time.
Today we cleaned out the old shed and if all goes well that ugly thing will soon be gone. Thank you Pa, Bubba and Beck and thank the Lord no one has been hurt in the cleaning out and hauling off of all the junk.
Princess left Christmas night and has not been home since then. She is back and forth on were she stands on staying married, it hurts to think of her back in his control but....that's what choice is about. She called Pa and said HT wasn't feeling good so she was going to stay with him, my thought is bring him home but....
The days ahead will bring a new busy to my life and perhaps come next Christmas there will be cooking, baking and sewing back in this most wonderful time.

October is almost over, lets just hear a loud che...October is almost over, lets just hear a loud cheer, if it is like this one next year I'm taking up beer. That is right, I would just as soon be drunk then ride the roller coaster I have been on this past month. For some reason, in the past 5 years, October and January have become months that I have been so very glad to see come to an end. January has become the month of sickness for me. I tell myself that it is because I get so run down during the holidays that I just catch whatever is going around. I also hold to the thought that, since I am a stay at home Grammy, Pa brings in bugs from work and they like me better them him because I end up in bed and he goes on to work.October is a different story, it is a month of sadness for me. The days can be warm and clear with all the beauty of fall or gray and rainy it makes no difference, always behind the view is a cloud of lonely sadness. Perhaps it is just that cycle of life, that time of getting ready for the deep sleep of snow covered days, or the coming of long days filled with to much dark. This year October has seen a time of rest turned into a time a uneasiness, waiting for G-pa M&M pacemaker replacement and recovery. Princess coming to the end of her marriage, her an HT moving back home, Bubba going through a bad time with work, Bucka's mind returning to a time when life wasn't so good and Mom having to live through that again. Yesterday G-pa M&M being moved from assisted living to shelter care and having trouble eating. Yet there are moments of joy that take the sting out. HT is awesome and has the t-shirt to prove it, we have 3 goldfish living at our house, a friend is able to do her college work because we have wi-fi she can use, one of the best is that My Aunt B gave me quilt tops that were put together by my great grandmother and aunt. The best is that no matter how mad, sad or bad things get I am loved. Loved by the God of all creation, by a man who does not understand me most of the time, by children who let me fuss at them still, because in their hearts they know that I only want them to be their very best, by parents who still want me to be my best, and by grandchildren who, at this time in their lives, thinks I am one of the greats and by friends. How cool is that? So as another October comes to an end, I can look back and be thankful, looking forward to November and the celebration of thankfulness.

Magnificent adj.
grand, splendid, impressive, imposing, glorious. superb, noble, stately.

Machiavellian adj.
unscrupulous, unprincipled, opportunistic, conniving, calculating.

Mix and Match
impressively conniving
superbly calculating

"You were easier to take care of when you were small" My mom said that about us children, when we were teenagers. I thought she was crazy, but now I see the small truth in the statement. I have no desire to stunt my children's growth, the truth is that we are either growing or we are stunted. I have in the past few weeks watched one of my start to grow out of a stunted period. I have watched life return in tiny bits and long for a continuous growth. I have also watched that growth stunned by the person who longs to own and control my child, yes own and control. This is a very hard thing to watch and to try to navigate through as we do not know what tomorrow holds.

Today's blessing...yesterday is gone. Today there is a tiny, tiny, tiny speck of better-ness

Get out, and stay out, I am there tonight, I have tried to and will continue to try and keep me and my, out of the conflict they do not belong. Tonight I am sick, my stomach turns upside down and wants to empty with each thought. How am I going to look at you again without hearing the hate in your voice? Will my child be safe or will every word be hunted for a double meaning? Is there to be real freedom? Tonight I say no, tonight I say you won't change, you don't want to, you have a thin layer that will fall off in a second. Tonight I see a life time of egg shells cracked and broken, not by just one but by all who cause you to supect my child.

I have been very busy learning about lots of things.
1. Job was a great man and he isn't to well known.
2.Feedsacks have an interesting history and you can still buy them on eBay.
3. The last lynching in our town took place in 1943 and white people don't understand why blacks have trouble believing us. That was 10 years before I was born, not so far back in history.
4. Old people and kids get really crazy during the full moon.
5. Do NOT walk through a parking lot like you own it. You will get run down by a middle age/old lady, who has many things on her mind and isn't looking around, when she is backing out of her parking spot.
6. If you think your kids drive you crazy now just wait. They get better at it as they get older and older. Then you get old and get to return the favor.
7. Making Christmas stocking for your grandchildren may take you half their lifetimes to get done.
8. The felt stocking kits don't look as nice in real life as they do on the package.
9. God does provide all the things you will need to get through this life. You may think your going to a counselor for one reason and bam the real reason comes along.
10. Reflexology is a wonderful thing.

The New York Times tells us, that the U.S. warns China about their military bill up. Now don't you just know that China is shaking in their boots. What are we going to do? I know, put in orders for all kinds of equipment and clothing, China will be happy to send us all the things we will need to fight against them and I'm sure it will all be quality products they send us.
Every time I hear or read something about the US warning another country about their wrong doings I am reminded of Rett Butler "Why all we have is cotton and slaves and arrogance."
In 40 years I have watched steel mills grow smaller, refineries close, cloth mills shut down and factory after factory move to China or South America. Just how are we going to, in the words of Teddy Roosevelt "Walk softly and carry a big stick"?
I was told there are cloth mills just sitting in Alabama and the men and women who know how to run those mills are dying off. If push comes to shove how long will it take for us to get the mills up and running to meet our needs. Cotton crops are down this year, were will the cotton come from.
We hear day in and day out about the poor and the need to increase welfare, here is a idea put these people to work. The government is paying them anyway so pay them to learn how to run the equipment that has been left setting. Our money is going overseas for that very reason, to teach poor people how to improve their lot in life. If it is good enough overseas why not here?
Enough of that, here is the deal, first it is not a political party, it is greed and self-centeredness, second it is time to shut our months unless we have a big stick to back it up.

A year ago I thought I was headed down Crazy Street. I had a good talking to myself about it, told myself that Christians don't go down this street, that's what "they" say. It worked I was back on the "right" road, that is until May came along and I found out that I had detoured some were and was back on Crazy Street.
July came and I was in the counselors office laying the groundwork for understanding my crazy. Little did I know, God was putting me in the right place for the new Inter-State Crazy that was coming through my life.

Funny, isn't it, how God works in those mysterious ways.

I had been thinking about dropping Facebook but wouldn't do it because I had reconnected with my cousin's and a few people from back home. One day, a person, I am not well acquainted with, posted something, I thought was STUPID, and I started to clean out my friends list and ended up closing the account.
Again, little did I know, it was God's mysterious ways. I didn't need to be on FB while I'm trying to navigate I-Crazy. I'm sure I would have posted something that did not need to be seen. Once said you can not take it back.
So here I am a Christian on Inter-State Crazy and you know what I am sure God has not had as much trouble dealing with it as I have. I'm just going to head on down the road and with the help of a few of my friends get off on the exit God has picked out for me.

Little boys come to an age when, they eat, drink and sleep super hero's.
There are days when I am in so much danger that it almost takes my breath away.
HT has done his best to keep me and Pa safe, but it has been to much for one little boy. This evening HT became a Super Hero "Big Red Good Guy"
You know hero's have to have a name, HT rejected several descriptive names, I went to fix his bath and found his SH name "BRiGG".
So should you ever need a Super Hero just call BRiGG and he might answer or he may just tell you "don't call me dhat I'm HT to lork at smalltown TN".

I hate TransFormers!!
Not the movies, I haven't seen them. It is the toys, at least the new ones. The first time around Bubba had the toys, somewhere around here, there is still one that was much loved. He was about the same age the grandsons are now, when he got his and I do not recall needing a full page 20 picture instruction sheet. That only turns the car into the robot, there are 20 more pictures on the back side to return the robot to the car. Then 2 large pictures showing you how to hook the gun up to the robot and the car.
Now, you might think I'm just to old to get the transforming thing and that is why I hate them, your wrong. I transformed Bumblebee just today.
It all started two Christmas's ago, FarmWife and family were coming home. Being the good Grammy I shopped. The tree was fat with goodies under it and I was ready to receive "Grammy of the Year". There were Transformers.
I had just forgot one little thing, Art and the Rapscallions would be by for a visit and would open their gifts, lots of Bakugan. Back to the store to get a couple for our boys so they could spend the evening playing instead of wishing. Turned out that Art's could only stay for a short time. Gifts opened the boys were happy, Art's boys knew how to transform the Bakugans for the Farmhands. Later FarmBoy decided to put his boys up, it took a while, the boys couldn't remember how to transform them.
Next morning the Transformers were opened and once again FarmBoy is put to work and once again it took a while, a long while, Pa worked on them, FarmBoy tried again and the boys played with HT's toys.
Even though everyone was happy I didn't feel like "Grammy of the Year" and said I would never buy another TransFormer or Bakugan again.
HT discovers TransFormers and wants to go to Aunt FW's almost everyday to play in the boys room. He is making me crazy so I buy him a Bumblebee and after messing with it for what seems like hours, I remember why I hate TransFormers

My new obsession, Hankies.

I have always loved hankies, it comes from the important women in my life. I can not recall a time when they did not have a hankie either in their hand or on their belt or in their pocketbook and most of the time in all three places.
Auntie M always tatted the edges of hers and I found it fascinating to watch her tatting the new ones.
Lace was the hankie of choice for Sunday, along with a plane one just in case a kid needed his nose wiped. Flowered hankies were carried on market days and visits to family or friends.
I don't recall giving mom a hankie but I am guessing that, sometime during our early school years, she was given one of the best hankies that R&L had on their shelves.
Years ago Pa's Granny gave me some of hers. Then his mom got out her collection of family hankies for us to divide up. Pa's sister took them home to freshen up and in the future we are to divide up among the 3 of us. I think it will be nice to pass hankies down 4 generation's.
I have been picking up a few hankies now and then, they are not as easy to come by anymore. Like many things, new products have replaced them. Who wants to wash and iron hankies anyway? Funny thing is I have always enjoyed ironing hankies, it was one of my first jobs.
Just a month ago Auntie Di and I were going to check out a quilt shop only to find out it was closed for the day, so we drove to another one and it had gone out of business. There were antique shops in that town so we spent some time digging through a basket of hankies, not many worth the asking price but we had a good time looking, talking and laughing.
I love hankies.

In a few days it will be my grandma's birthday. She lived a long life and finished it not knowing there was a real world around her. She had returned to her childhood and beyond. 

 As the years pass Speedy Perkins becomes more amazing to me. I'm not sure if anyone else called her Speedy beside my dad but it fit her very well. I can't seem to remember a time when she wasn't doing something. She crochet, embroidered and made patchwork quilts during her quite time. The rest of the time she was busy with housework. That meant cleaning up and scrubbing down a out house.  Laundry being done just outside the kitchen door of their 3 room house. Grandma had a shed, near the back door were she kept things, I do remember the rinse tubs being in there, along with other household things but I don't know were her wash machine was kept.

 In 1964/65 they added on a new living room and kitchen and brought the bathroom and laundry into the house by their new door. How grandma lived and worked in that tiny house fascinated me and still does.

  Grandma was the baby of Great Grandpa's first family. Grandma W. died some time early in Speedy's life and she was taken in by her Uncle Jim and Aunt Lizzy. Speedy was the sunshine in Uncle Jim's life and he in hers. Aunt Lizzy set about raising Speedy to be a proper young woman in a proper house.

 I can just see Aunt Lizzy reading her how to book for 1900's and following it, to the letter. Her nerves being worn to that place were unstable ladies nerves get worn to. Uncle Jim giving Speedy that look that says "it's OK we will get though this". They made it until Speedy was in her teens, then life changed. It may have been the death of Uncle Jim, whatever it was, it sent Speedy back to Grandpa W's and his second family. 

 Uncle Jim and Aunt Lizzy could not have lived to far away from Grandpa because I know that Speedy was close to her 4 siblings. I can't help but think that she must have been a pet to them. Their last connection to their Mama.  

 Grandpa W married Grandma Rosie in his first year of widowhood and lots of children followed, so Speedy's return to the house came in handy but maybe not so happy. I have heard that she was more a maid then a family member. I think her siblings were gone from the house by then, if not her sister were soon to be.

 Time passed and a young man started showing up at the door in a courting mood. Byron was a tall good looking man, just one problem Byron's past. He too had been sent to live away from home. His dad had died and Byron was farmed out. Now, you may have heard that term before, I have and I have used it but I didn't really understand it, until I heard about grandpa's life.

 He and his brothers were busy doing little boy things, sister was mom's helper, life was as it should be. Then one day it all comes to an end, Dad dies.

 A couple, took in two of the boys and raise them as if they were their own. Making sure they were well schooled and able to work at a job they chose. 

Bryon went to a farmer, he didn't finish school and he wasn't part of the family. He was the farmhand a little boy working like a man. 

 Speedy and Bryon fall in love and those silly kids married. OH, the joy, baby 1-2 still glowing in joy, 3-4 joy is fading 5-6 it's gone,7 and 8 not again.  I must tell you, that, mom has said  she thinks they were pretty dumb, when it came to how to stop having babies. I agree but if they hadn't been I wouldn't be here mom is #7. 

 Loving someone does not make life wonderful everyday of the year. Bryon, did what men do, when, they don't know what to do and are to" manly" to ask for help. He good timed it, on the stool at the corner bar. Times were so good that his wife and kids went hungry for days even weeks, just so everyone in the tavern would know that Bryon was a great guy. 

 Speedy did just what a well brought up young woman does. She put on her apron and takes care of life as best as she can. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, gardening, canning, raising livestock and paying bills when she can get the money. Raising children using the Aunt Lizzy method, all the time deep in her heart hoping the day will come when Bryon will really become a man instead of the scared little boy he is.

 I'm not sure that day ever came. Bryon did give up his stool at the bar after something inside started bleeding and he was afraid he would die. By then Speedy had been broken so many times that she moved into the world of "No More I Won't Let You" but would, from time to time step out into Bryon's world. If you watched close you could see the unused love in her face, followed by questions of what happened and why did you leave me. Then she would turn and go back into that "No More World" and pick up a piece of hand work.

 Some people say they fell out of love, I don't believe that. I witnessed both of them looking at the other, with a loving, that passed like a gentle summer breeze, so soft you would not have notice unless you were still. The sad thing was, that, I was the one who saw the love and not the one being looked at. Now I find myself wondering what would her life have been like if only...

Todays list

1. Never eat chocolate candy then put a piece of bubble gum in your mouth. You will end up looking like your puppy after it has had a bite of your PB&J.

2. Never post a vacation spot on FaceBook unless you are really going there. Friends will see you and want to know when you are leaving or if you enjoyed the trip.....Please were am I going to get $7000.00 + for that kind of trip.

3. Dirt grows, if you don't think so just fall and hurt your ribs, then watch the dirt on the kitchen floor multiply hourly.

4. Spring is coming so you might want to think about washing your windows. Maybe not if the dirt is what is holding the window together.

5. Never talk about the need to lose weight, you will in fact have a great need for sweets followed by a great need for chips, more sweets, more chips on and on. Just write it on a piece of paper so your ears won't know and won't tell your brain.

6. Don't spend your afternoon looking at motorhomes on E-bay. You will find just what you need and that need will cost more then the house you are living in, with a lot less room.

I like my "new look" a big thanks to my administrative aide.

You could get lost spelling administrativeitaraisinimddd see what I mean

crochet
anyone?

Today Pa, HT and I had to go down to Fayetteville, I do mean down as it is really south of here.
Anyway, when we left the house it was gray and a little cold, no big deal, 650 AM ( The mother of country music station) tells us that rain is coming followed by a mixture and then snow. All of this is coming thru Nashville and heading towards Kentucky. Thank you we don't have to mess with it. Time and miles go by the sky gets grayer and there is a little rain here and there, I decide to find a Huntsville station to hear a weather report. Do you know, that when you are in the middle of Nowhere, it is not likley that you will pick up a raido station that will tell you were it is located. I gave up. What diffrence is it going make we were still going to Fayetteville.
Our visit is over and we head back north same gray, a spot of rain then another and another until we are home in rain rain rain.
HT decides that a quater mile from the house is a good spot to fall asleep. The plan becomes Pa gets the boy and I get the door and hope we all don't get to wet. Car stops, door opens and ice water hits us right in the face. What happened to going North? We get the boy down in bed, Pa is getting ready for work opens the door and fat snowflakes everywere.
When did we become part of Kentucky?

I seem to have lost my background.

Oh my, I just don't know how to feel about this, after all without a known background it is hard telling what people say.
It may be said, that, I am a woman who is renowned. In what way?
"She is grandiloquent," please no! Acclaimed, demented, genteel, cantankerous, immodest, reticent, magnificent,obtuse, eccentric...NO NO NO this will never do. I simply must have my background.

The Realm may be in great peril.

FarmWife you must restore order here at the palace before some knave institutes his villainous plan and purple vegetation covers the walls

The wonder of it all

There was a stirring in the air, was rain coming or just a wind? The day had been a long one, loading the car, saying goodbyes, driving country roads and Inter-states, wishing it was over.

The moon was weaving in and out of the clouds, brings melancholy to the evening sky and thoughts.

Her eyes showed the fear, the hopelessness, she was alone, there was nothing left, one step. one step and it would be over.
Had she only been still, she would be alive and he would have found her.

Now, it is his heart that feels pain, as he too steps out, the way she had.

Thus bringing this tale of woe to an end.




Her step damaged the front of my HHR and his the front of a Chevy truck.
You have to watch out for deer in the fall.

I would stay and visit but just now I need to get ready and go to church.