A Hero's Hero

This is a little early, but life is about to get real busy and I didn't want to miss this opportunity :) Happy Memorial Day!!


A Hero's Hero


So Many Soldiers
Living On The Street
Their Spirits Broken,
With Defeat.

What Must They Think
When They Look Around
Eyes Passing By,
Staring At The Ground?

Does Anger Fill Them
When We Turn Away,
From The Debts We Owe
That Should Be Repaid?

What If At That Moment,
Just Once, Instead
We Saluted In Honor,
Right Hand To Head?

To Let Them Know
They Are Not Ghosts,
Thanking Them For Being
Braver Than Most.

If Everyone Would
Show Them Grace
We Just Might Find
Their Pain Erased.

For All The Heroes
Still Fighting To Live
And For Heroes Like You,
Who Continue To Give.

IF You See Someone
Who Is Really Lost
Please Stop And Remember
What Our Freedom Cost.




I found this poem on a bookmark I received from the Veterans Administration. As a country we do not treat our Veterans with the dignity and respect that they deserve. It's time to give them better. Freedom isn't Free.

The Petite Dessert Test

I found this little quiz over at Sweetly B Squared. Kind of fun huh? Love this tart thing with the little fruit on it and just a touch of chocolate. YUM!

You Are Colorful

You believe that there is a lot to still be discovered in this world, and you're hoping to find some of it. You are an adventure seeker, but you're also realistic. You want an adventure to improve your life. You are an extremely independent person. You know what's best for you and your life. You are surprisingly easygoing. You like to keep everything as low-pressure as possible.

The Petit Dessert Test

Blogthings: We Have a Quiz for Almost Everything

Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler

My name is Avocet Abigail Jackson. But because Mama couldn't find anyone who thought Avocet was a fine name for a child, she called me Bird. Which is okay by me. She named both her children after birds, her logic being that if we were named for something with wings then maybe we'd be able to fly above the shit in our lives. . . .
So says Bird Jackson, the mesmerizing narrator of Connie May Fowler's vivid and brilliantly written, Before Women Had Wings.

Starstruck by a dime-store picture of Jesus, Bird fancies herself "His girlfriend" and embarks upon a spiritual quest for salvation, even as the chaos of her home life plunges her into a stony silence. In stark and honest language, she tells the tragic life of her father, a sweet-talking wanna-be country music star, tracks her older sister's perilous journey into womanhood, and witnesses her mother make a courageous and ultimately devastating decision.

Yet most profound is Bird's own story--her struggle to sift through the ashes of her parents' lives, her meeting with Miss Zora, a healer whose prayers over the bones of winged creatures are meant to guide their souls to heaven, and her will to make sense of a world where fear is more plentiful than hope, retribution more valued than love. . . .



Although I didn't come from an abusive home I really related to Bird's situation. The 'feelings' that she spoke of seemed to really ring true for me. At a very young age I knew we weren't rich, but I never realized how poor we were. Now that I'm older and can see the whole picture I really see just how poor we were. My older siblings really lived through a lot more, but I remember all the other girls in school had much nicer cloths than we did and they could get involved in school activities because they had supportive parents. My parents were not 'bad', but because there were nine of us, they didn't have the individual time to spend on each of us.

This was a very well written book and like I said I could really 'feel' what she was portraying. It brought a whole new perspective to some of the other things I've read lately. I remember a few books that spoke of Dad being a pilot and all that comes with that kind of finances and another book that spoke of buying a new home and how Mom was home cooking and baking - I was trying to remember those things in my life and they just weren't there. At a time when there were very few Mom's working mine had a full time job and we were on our own after school til someone got home.

This book reminds me a lot of my past and makes me really appreciate all that my Mom did to protect us and keep us safe. It brings to light all that could have gone wrong that didn't. Although we didn't have a lot we had each other and there was kindness and lots of fun.

What's your mothering personality type?

I saw this fun quiz over at Sweetly B Squared and thought it might be fun. Check it out.

I'm a "Happy Together" Mother! (Extraverted, Sensing, Feeling, Judging) I have a highly developed sense of family and what it takes to be happy in life. What's your mothering personality type? Take the MotherStyles quiz at FamilyEducation.com!

The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark

At age eighty-two and in failing health, Olivia Morrow knows she has little time left. The last of her line, she faces a momentous choice: expose a long-held family secret, or take it with her to her grave.

Olivia has in her possession letters from her deceased cousin Catherine, a nun, now being considered for beatification by the Catholic Church—the final step before sainthood. In her lifetime, Sister Catherine had founded seven hospitals for disabled children. Now the cure of a four-year-old boy dying of brain cancer is being attributed to her. After his case was pronounced medically hopeless, the boy’s desperate mother had organized a prayer crusade to Sister Catherine, leading to his miraculous recovery.

The letters Olivia holds are the evidence that Catherine gave birth at age seventeen to a child, a son, and gave him up for adoption. Olivia knows the identity of the young man who fathered Catherine’s child: Alex Gannon, who went on to become a world-famous doctor, scientist, and inventor holding medical patents.

Now, two generations later, thirty-one-year-old pediatrician Dr. Monica Farrell, Catherine’s granddaughter, stands as the rightful heir to what remains of the family fortune. But in telling Monica who she really is, Olivia would have to betray Catherine’s wishes and reveal the story behind Monica’s ancestry.

The Gannon fortune is being squandered by Alex’s nephews Greg and Peter Gannon, and other board members of the Gannon Foundation, who camouflage their profligate lifestyles with philanthropy.

Now their carefully constructed image is cracking. Greg, a prominent financier, is under criminal investigation, and Peter, a Broadway producer, is a suspect in the murder of a young woman who has been extorting money from him.

The only people aware of Olivia’s impending choice are those exploiting the Gannon inheritance. To silence Olivia and prevent Monica from learning the secret, some of them will stop at nothing—even murder.

Clark’s riveting new novel explores the juxtaposition of medical science and religious faith, and the search for identity by the daughter of a man adopted at birth.



This book reminded me of an Agatha Christi mystery. Good read in a dorky kind of way. I do like reading about how people live. Olivia was a meticulous old lady... no children how could her house be dirty? Dr. Farrell also single and house neat as a pin.... guess that's just a dream of mine - a clean house. I don't even have an excuse anymore! Oh well, too many other things to do - like read books.

I've told myself no more books before I do some of the projects that I have started or bought stuff to make. Gotta clean up before I want to be outside in the garden.

The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg

In The Pull of the Moon, Nan does something that I imagine most of us have dreamed of doing at one time or other in our lives: she leaves her old life behind, embarking on a road trip of self-discovery.

I enjoyed this novel very much. On one level, Nan’s journey has all the elements of “too good to be true”. For one thing, she’s lucky enough to have enough money to go on this trip, to be able to drive where she wants, stay where she wants, eat what she wants, for as long as she wants. But when one looks beyond the premise, deep into the heart of the novel, one finds something that sings in its authenticity.

Nan is not running away; she’s running toward, toward a place where “My mind was in my heart, anchored like a bright kite in a safe place.” Parts of the novel are laugh-out-loud funny; other scenes are particularly poignant.

Berg captures that sense of loss of self using the smallest things, things we wouldn’t normally even think about:

When I got to the grocery store, the oddest thing happened. I found it very, very difficult to buy anything. I would pick something up, then think, no, it’s Ruthie who really likes pineapple. No, Martin is the one who loves London broil. I wanted to get something special, a real treat, something I liked to cook and liked even more to eat, but everything I picked up, I put back. Finally, I leaned against the dairy case and thought, well, come on, Nan, what do YOU really, really like? And then I thought, my God, I don’t know. I’ve forgotten.

We get to follow along as Nan begins to rediscover her own perspective on life, a woman-centered perspective that touches on so many familiar things. She describes being fifty as

an impossible age in many ways. Not old. Not young. Not old, no. But oh, not young. What it is, is being in the sticky middle, setting one gigantic thing aside in order to make room for the next gigantic thing, and in between, feeling the rush of air down the unprotected back of the neck.

Nan’s physical journey may not be particularly realistic; after all, who among us could really take such a road trip, with no destination in mind other than coming to a much-needed self-understanding? But it doesn’t matter. Nan takes the journey for us as well as for herself; through her we are able to do what our particular personal resources might prevent us from doing.

As Nan says after finding herself unable to resist buying a pink biker’s sleeveless T-shirt, “Do you want this? life seems to be saying. Is this what you want? Well, take it, then. What do you think it’s here for?” And the rest of the book explores how she comes to fully embrace what life is telling her.

This was not a favorite book for me. I remember having a lot of those feelings, but I remember being told that the 50s are the best years of your life so I tried to make them that. They are the years when your children are old enough to allow you more time for yourself and you finally have a few pennies to do a few more things that you want to do. Guess I just got lucky that my 'period' of unrest was short lived. Not a book that I would recommend. I bought it because a worker at the store recommended it to me. Guess her tastes are different than mine.

Easter Fun

We went our Son and Daughter-in-law's home for Easter Dinner. The girls are getting to a very fun age.

Punkin loves getting into the playhouse. I really fits her perfectly doesn't it? Love that smile.



The Easter Egg Hunt was more for the 'big' girls, but Punkin loved playing with the eggs. Just her size.



Muffin would get an egg and sit and open it. Then think about getting another one lol. Here she is just sitting and being pretty.



Peanut definitely knows the drill and you can tell when you see how full her basket is compared to Muffin's. She was just so excited to be getting eggs.



We handed out prizes for eggs when we got back in the house and bubbles were part of the package. They loved making bubbles on the back patio and they were both pretty good at it.



It seems like every time we're there we see how many we can fit into the playhouse. This time my son was it with the three girls. Punkin saw Daddy and the other big girls in there and just lit up. She loves it.



I'm a little disappointed in the pictures, but you get what you get :). The girls are just so much prettier than these pictures. I noticed too that we didn't get any of the adults in their Easter finery. Oh well, I'll take notes and do a better job next time NOT! How was your Easter?

Fun Day Off

If I didn't have to work for a living I would have a lot more fun :) I was trying to come up with a dessert for Easter, and I found some fun cupcakes for the kids. Usually I come up with something more adult, but the kids are of the age where they'll really think these are fun.

Are these bunny faces and chicks in their baskets not fun?



The bunnies are just two ears (marshmallows cut in half then sprinkled with pink sugar), mini m & m's for eyes, jelly belly nose and two mini marshmallows for the mouth/cheeks. Cute huh?



This one is even simpler. Just frost, plop a peep in the middle, add a few jelly bellys and then sprinkle with green sprinkles. The example had green coconut for the grass, but I thought the girls wouldn't like the coconut so I just went with sprinkles. (it appears I need a steadier hand with the camera)



I didn't want to end up with a lot of cupcakes so I just made a dozen and used the rest of the batter to make these mini pecan cinnamon bundt cakes. I don't make cupcakes often, but I invariably forget that they don't take a lot of batter. I put too much in everything lol. Luckily I didn't spill over into the clean and newly repaired oven. A whole nother story.



Another thing that I had planned for my day off was to clean up some of my projects laying around. While in Georgia in the Spring we went to The Scarlet Thread, a quaint quilting shop. They had kits for making potato and corn bags. I've made potato bags before, but had never heard of a corn bag. Same principle, only the bag is bigger for corn. They also had a potato and a corn fabric. Because these bags go in the microwave oven you MUST use everything cotton. I've since learned to also tell recipients that you must watch while using them too. My sister's caught on fire while in use. I know I used all 100% cotton so I don't know what happened... maybe her microwave has a stronger wattage? Whatever, whenever using these fabric bags in the micro always stay in the area and watch them cooking. I will continue to use mine because they produce a quick moist baked potato. Can't wait to try out the corn bag.



Don't you love the corn fabric?



More projects await, but it's such a nice day that we're off to enjoy our first of the season (in Michigan) motorcycle ride. Do we ever finish up all of our projects? I can think of at least three or four that I'm currently working on. Guess that just leaves me with something to look forward to. ;)

A Blessed and Happy Easter to all.