No More Mrs. Nice Gal!

I had a BEAUTIFUL tomato on my plant yesterday. It just needed a day to reach peak ripeness, so I left it there with the intention of picking it this morning. I went to my garden this morning and discovered that my lovely tomato had been cruelly ripped off the vine, bitten into and discarded by something. My guess is either racoon or opossum. Either way, I am off to my garden to strengthen the fencing around my veggies.

No more free lunch, Mr. Whatever You Are! You have been plundering my garden for long enough. You are now officially on my list! I have a husky, and I'm not afraid to use her. (Actually, I am afraid to use her. But I sound really scary, don't I?)

A Quick Post

Is it just me, or is this summer just flying by?? I swear that we have been so busy every weekend. Today my kiddos went to a birthday party while I played "hostess" at church to the folks who were getting their pictures taken for our new directory. Tomorrow we go to church and then over check up on Grandma. (Who is going over to one of her friends condo tonight to play cards, by the way. Hear that sound?? Yep, it's me beating my head against the wall. But I guess that you should enjoy every moment of your life, even at age 87 when you just had a stroke a week ago.............Sigh.)

I lost some of my spring peas to powdery mildew. That is my garden scourge. So, I am just going to hurry outside rightnow, cut down all of the rest of my little peas, put down some fresh peat moss, and plant my peas for fall. In case anyone does any gardening, don't pull up peas when they are dead. Cut them down at ground level and leave the roots. Legume roots are nitrogen rich, so they add nutrients to the soil. :) That's my garden tip of the day!

Have a great weekend!

A fun tag and a Grandma Update:

I have been tagged by Lady RFH for a "Random Things about Me" list. But before I get into that, I just have to tell everyone that Grandma actually got to go home from the hospital yesterday. :) She seems to have suffered some damage to her facial muscles, but the CAT scans are not showing any other signs of damage. She's still a bit physically weak, but she should improve slightly over the coming weeks. She has an appointment with her doctor next week, and that is when they should let us know if she needs any physical therapy, etc. I guess that any lingering damage takes some time to show up. I'd like to send out a big thanks to everyone who said a prayer for her. She was very fortunate that there was not more damage.

And without any further delay ~

Random (and perhaps boring) things about ME:

1. My favorite candy bar is NOT a KitKat bar, although I do enjoy them a lot. I'd have to go with Snickers or Payday if I had to pick a favorite candy bar.

2. My favorite color is GREEN, and my hubby hates green. It does make decorating the house a bit of a compromise. But at least my garden is green, so I win there. ;)

3. Most of my friends have switched their music preference to Country, but I just can't let the whole Metal/Rock chick thing go. I can listen to all types of music, but when I am left to my own preferences I always go back to the rock. It's in my blood and I am pathetic.

4. But I do have a soft spot for Country. I was raised on it. If I had to pick some favorite current artists, I would have to go with Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and Toby Keith. In the "Old School" category, I have a secret love of all things Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn.

5. Falling under the rock chick category: I have always wanted to do a cartwheel across two Jaguars while wearing a white dress. (Ladies of a certain age KNOW where I got that idea from.) ;) But at this point in my life, it's just not worth the hospital bills.

6. I studied to become a psychologist in college. I was going to change the world and help people. I never got my degree because I got married and then became pregnant with my oldest DD shortly after our wedding.

7. If I were to go back to college, it would NOT be for psychology. I no longer believe that the discipline of psychology is beneficial to society as a whole. Don't get me wrong, there are LOTS of wonderful people in the field of psychology who do many great things to help people on an individual level. Without these dedicated professionals, many people would be left to suffer with the effects of mental illnesses like depression, etc. But I also believe that the idea that we are somehow slaves to our genetic programming and abnormal impulses has done society as a whole much more harm than good. Certain aspects of psychology have become part of the liberal agenda, and I cannot participate in something that I don't believe in. OK, I am stepping off of my soapbox now...........

8. My mom and many of my relatives on her side of the family suffer from depression, other types of mental illnesses, and thyroid disease. That is the reason why I wanted to pursue a degree in psychology.

9. I have been a stay-at-home Mom for 9 years and I no longer know what I want to be when I grow up. ;) But I do dream of working as a home health care worker for the elderly if/when I need to return to the work force. I guess that I have a strong need to take care of people.

10. Sometimes I think that I want another baby, but sometimes I think that I am just too old now (even though I'm really not that old). So I'm leaving it up to God.

11. I have never travelled outside of the United States. That's going to change.

This post is officially too long now, so I am going to get back to cleaning my house. Hope that everyone has a wonderful day.

I'm Back!

Our family enjoyed some wonderful vacation time with my DH. We had a long list of home improvement goals that we swore we would accomplish, but we didn't finish a thing. Oh well, I have plenty of time to try to get stuff done before the kiddos start school again. Better start typing up that To-Do list. :)

Switching gears, we ended our 10 day vacation time with my hubby by going to visit his Grandma. Grandma is in her upper 80s and lost Grandpa to cancer a little over 18 months ago (after almost 65 years of marriage), so she lives alone in a nice condo close to my hubby's mother. Long story short, after we arrived at her condo we quickly discovered that she had suffered a stroke sometime over the weekend. Based on the info that we gathered from her and her neighbor, we think that she woke up on Friday morning with the symptoms. But she didn't tell us or my hubby's mom until we arrived on Sunday. :( DH's mom talked to her on the phone several times between Fri and Sun, but she didn't say anything. Hubby talked to her on Saturday, but she didn't say anything. Her neighbor tried to get her to go to the hospital, but she wouldn't go. But she went shopping, got her hair done, and went to church. UGH!!!! We finally convinced her to go to the hospital. She's still there and they are running tests to try to find out the extent of the damage and whether or not she has a clogged artery. So, if you wouldn't mind offering up some extra prayers it would be greatly appreciated. I think that she has become lonely (even though she refuses to move in with any of us) and scared since Grandpa has passed and she just doesn't know how to take care of herself anymore. It just breaks my heart.

To my dear Lady RFH: I have been having some email trouble and I think that I somehow lost the email that you sent me. I am working to recover it (hopefully!) and email you back. I'm so sorry ~ I didn't want you to think that I forgot about you or was ignoring you. :( Blogger almost didn't let me log in today. It said that my email didn't exist. It's some weirdo problem that I can't figure out. If I can't get it , I'm going to make hubby take a look at it. ;)

Well, that's all that I have time for today. Hope that everyone had a great weekend. I'm off to catch up on reading some blogs, etc.

UPDATE: It's about noon here and I just found out that Grandma's carotid artery is fine. God is so good!

Moving on....

I just wanted to let everyone know that I probably will be a bit scarce next week. My beloved hubby actually gets to take some vacation time next week, and I really plan to enjoy this extra time with him. I'm going to be spending today and tomorrow preparing to be able to take it easy on the home front. So I am getting off of the computer RIGHT NOW.

Thanks to everyone who has been so kind to me! :)

I Just Have to Say This

about THIS. She has in the past encouraged a reader to leave Chick Tracts around such as "Why is Mary Crying" and she is studying a book about the history of the Bible promoted by the Chick website. (I don't believe that you will be able to find the post about leaving tracts because I think that she removed links to her archives.) From the little that I have been able to read (only because I just can't stomach it) by Jack Chick and his other promoted authors on the Chick website, I got the impression that Ms. Brauer gets a great deal of her ideas from Chick publications and from other various websites and publications that are inspired by this kind of mindset. THAT is the reason why I included the link about Jack Chick in my post, not because I thought that her link led readers to the website or anywhere similar. She seems to be refuting my impression about the origin of her convictions, so I guess I will leave it at that.

I STILL don't get the Muslim Messiah thing. But a kind reader told me that Jack Chick says that the Catholic Church founded Islam to draw more people away from Christianity. Maybe that is what she means.

I rarely believe EVERYTHING that is presented to me by the media. I usually find the news to be very biased, especially against anything to do with Christianity. (And I am including the RC Church in this statement!) The Papal decree was not presented in its entirety by the conventional news media. The media only gave the public a small snippet of what the document actually says and, in my humble opinion, picked only the parts that would upset non-Roman Catholics the most. Christianity is at its weakest when it is fighting amongst itself. Please read this: What the Vatican Really Said to get the whole story. You may not agree with what the document says, but at least you will have the complete story.

At least Ms. Brauer seems to have something against all Protestant denominations, too. I guess that I can't win either way. ;)

And my comment didn't make the cut. It got twisted instead. Sigh.

I'm going to let this go now

because it certainly won't get me anywhere. But I am going to put this comment up here just in case it doesn't get published. Or in case it gets twisted if it does get published.

This is my my Response to a comment left on yesterday's post on Keeping the Home web page. I sent this in today. Let's see if it makes the cut. Hmmm.... Do you smell that? It's gasoline. And I am the crazy girl who just dumped it on the open flame. Why do I do this to myself??

----------------------------

Patty ~ I asked Candy a question without being mean and responded on my blog because Candy has a reputation for only allowing certain comments to be published. You asked why people who disagree come back. I can't answer for others, but I come back because I think that people can say whatever they want without the use of slanderous propaganda such as Chick Publications. I was raised as a Protestant and I have NEVER encountered anything like this until I started using the Internet. The nastiness that is shown in the name of love to whole group of fellow Christians just blows me away. Of course, I know that many folks don't think that Roman Catholics are Christians so I guess that makes it OK to lie about them and what they believe. ?

Candy's bible knowledge is very strong. I disagree with her interpretation of many things, but she is free to believe what she wants and I will not argue with her. She is my sister in Christ. It is the use of inflammatory literature apart from the Bible that I question her on. Please do not misunderstand that. You can make your point without using little comic books and web sites that are viewed by many people as controversial at best.

Have a wonderful day!
-------------------------------

I'm letting this go. Really, I am. I just had to say my peace. Can't we all just get along? Peace and love, man, peace and love. We are never going to get anywhere if we keep fighting each other. It's so sad really. Christians could make such a difference in this world, but we look so silly when we do this to each other. We look especially silly when we use such inflammatory rhetoric to blast each other. It just saddens me and sickens me all at the same time. (Sigh)

Updated to add: Oops! I didn't let it go. See above post.

I. CAN'T. TAKE. IT. ANYMORE.

Please, Dear Readers, forgive me for what I am about to do. My patience has finally reached it's limit and I have a very low tolerance for complete ignorance. (See definiton 2) But, really, WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS and exactly who does this little girl think she is?????:
__________
From Keeping the Home website

(***My comments are in italics ~ KitKat***)

Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Roman Catholic or Christian?

The new Pope (Vicar of Christ - the Greek roots of 'vicar' is "anti", AKA Greek Vicar of Christ = antichrist) proclaimed the other day that you are saved ONLY by being a member of the Roman Catholic church. Of course, anyone who has read his or her Bible knows that that is not true. (**** Ok, before I even thought of converting to Catholicism I was taught by PROTESTANT Pastors that the word Vicar means one who acts in place of Christ. And not to be understood by the exact definition, because of course there can NEVER be another Christ on Earth. But this word refers to a person commited to serve the Lord. Also, I was taught that the meaning of the word Vicar in this context comes from the Latin root. Am I WRONG in this understanding??? ****) (*** Updated to add: What is the point that you are trying to make if you KNOW that the Latin root means "substitute"? I think that you are stretching a bit.***)

To learn how to receive true salvation, click here.(*** I refuse to go anywhere with JACK CHICK. Please forgive my Wikipedia link. It was the best that I could find on short notice.***)

Although not admitting it, this pope is leaning closer and closer to pre-Vatican 2. This is great news for many high-ranking Satanists, because part of their advancing in the religion of Satan is to become a pre-Vatican 2 priest. One ex-Satanist in his book "Lucifer Dethroned," even claimed that when he was leading the Eucharist in his pre-Vatican 2 church, the wine really did turn into blood. This was great for him, because at the time, he drank real blood daily. (***WHAT??!!?? Where in the world does she get this stuff?***)

In other news - did you know that the Muslim messiah is supposed to reign for 7 years? Coincidence? Hmmm... (**What exactly are you saying here? Are you trying to imply that the POPE is somehow the Muslim Messiah? Or something else? I don't understand your logic. To say that we have different world views is an understatement.***)

I truly believe we are the generation of the fig tree. If we indeed are, then most of us will be witnessing "the end." The signs of the fig tree are lining up like perfect little ducks in a row.

Do as the Bible says - "watch and pray." Not "be ignorant and feed the flesh while there's still time." How do you know what to watch for? If you don't have an inkling, then you need to get your nose out of the TV guide or the latest fiction, and get it into the KJV Bible. This is serious stuff. How's your spirit doing?
______________

My spirit is doing just fine, Thanks for asking. But I wonder about yours, dear fellow blogger. Why do you do this? What are you getting from it? There are so many other things in this world to worry about! There are so many other things in this nation to worry about! I really just don't understand. Why???

Update: If you are interested, please read the article by Elena at My Domestic Church to find out What The Vatican Really Said Yesterday.

My Great Husky Huntress

Life with a Husky can be full of surprises. For example, I've been surprised to discover that she loves tomatoes (both red and green) and can pick them off the vine without ripping up the plant. I have been surprised when I went to the back door to call her inside, only to discover that there was no doggie there. Then I was surprised to find a large hole dug out under our fence. I was even more surprised to find her in the yard the very next morning just when we thought that we would never see her again. She can dig out and IN. Who would have thought! And, boy, our neighbor was sure surprised when he saw the size of the hole on HIS side of the fence. I'm still trying to make it up to him.

I've been surprised to see my beloved doggie running up to me while I was outside talking to my neighbors. Huh, I thought that I left her inside the house so that she wouldn't dig under the fence to come find us. Just when I thought that I had the doggie equivalent of Houdini, I was surprised to discover that she had jumped out of the living room bay window (right through the screen!?!) that I had left open because there was a nice breeze. Ah, surprises!!

But all of those things happened a little over a year ago. She has been SOOOO good this year. No digging out, no getting overly worried when we leave, etc. Just a good, gentle, loving, obedient dog. But she still knows how to keep me on my toes! This morning I was opening the windows upstairs when I looked down into my backyard and saw my beautiful, majestic Husky looking up at me and *SOMETHING ELSE* laying on the ground next to her. Something else that was furry and not moving. Could it be a bunny? No, that was my husky gift last week. This little present had a long tail and sharp claws. Oh goody! An opossum. Just what I always wanted! So I yelled out the window for my dainty doggie to GET AWAY from the dead opossum and I went outside to confirm my suspicion. Yep. It was definitely an opossum. And it was nice and stiff too, so she probably caught it for me last night. Now I had to be a big girl and pick it up all by myself so that the girls could go outside and play later. Great. My lovely husky had picked a day that my hubby left for work extra early and would be home late to leave me this lovely gift. I try to be loving to all of God's creatures, but I am really not a big fan of opossums. Or dead things. YUK! So I scooped it up into a few plastic grocery store bags and began the long trek across my yard and around the house to the garbage bins. It's not really a long trek. We have a small suburban yard. But it sure FELT long as I was carrying a dead opossum in a plastic bag while saying "Ew Ew Ew!" over and over again. My faithful Husky was following me the whole way, looking at me as though she just didn't understand why I didn't love the gift that she left for me. After all, I told her to guard the garden. She was just being a good girl. I knew that something had been marauding my garden, and I was guessing by the teeth and claw marks in some discarded tomatoes that it was an opossum. And now my loyal and faithful companion has probably solved my garden dilemma. Good Dog!?!

Like I said, life with a Husky is full of surprises.

I am so proud!

I konw that pride comes before the fall, so I guess that I should watch myself. :) But the walking Rosary around the grotto in front of our Church is coming together and it looks SO BEAUTIFUL! And the flowers that I (with help from the RE Director) planted are doing so well! I have to admit, I was so worried that they would die. (I guess that I had performance anxiety or something since our wonderful RE dir. made such a big deal about me planting them since I love to garden. I said many prayers over those flowers while I was planting them!) We are going to finish the stepping stones over the summer and hopefully have them set in place before October (the month of the Rosary). If we accomplish all of these things, the Bishop (!!!) will come and bless the walking Rosary in October. I am honored to play a part in creating something that will hopefully last for many, many years. :)

I'm going to try to post some pics once we have it completed. I guess some before and after pics may have been fun, but I didn't think of that until right now.

My Summer "Top 10"

Summer has been in full swing here in the Midwest, and all of this heat made me start to think about the things that I love about summer. I know that everyone is just waiting on edge to hear my deep thoughts about the season (please note heavy sarcasm here), so I took the time to make up a "top ten" list.

Top ten things that I LOVE about summer (in no particular order):

10. The ease of summer dressing around the house. Nothing says "Relax" like shorts and flip flops or sundresses.

9. Swimming in the pool with the kids on hot summer afternoons.

8. Swimming in the pool with my hubby on hot summer nights after we put the kids in bed.

7. Lightning bugs, fireflies, or whatever you call them in your neck of the woods.

6. Lemonade, preferably with a shot of Absolute Peach. Am I a bad girl?

5. Watching my hubby grill our dinner. He looks so manly around fire. ;)

4. Iced Tea.

3. Long, sunny, hot days followed by warm nights and campfires. S'mores, anyone.?.

2. Ponytails.

1. My garden, of course.

And, just for the sake of balance, here is my other top ten list ~

Top Ten things that I HATE about summer (in no particular order):

10. Me, in a bathing suit

9. Repeat sentence above 9 more times.

Well, there you go! :-) Does anyone else have anything that they love about summer? I'm in a summer mood, can you tell?

I've been tagged! :)

Courtney and Anita tagged me for this wonderful Meme:

Five things that I dig about Jesus

Here are the Rules:
Those tagged will share 5 things they "dig" about Jesus.
Those tagged will tag 5 other bloggers.
Those tagged will provide a link in the comments section here with their name so that others can read them.

I'm going to agree with Courtney about changing the word "dig" to "love" because it suits me a bit better.

So here we go...............

5 Things I Love about Jesus:

1. He loves me despite the fact that I am truly a poor miserable sinner.
2. He loves mankind so much that he was willing to suffer and die for us.
3. I find it incredibly touching that he loved his mother so much that he made sure that she would be cared for after he was gone from this earth WHILE he was suffering and dying on the cross.
2. His ability to show his humanity makes me feel a bit less unworthy. He hung around with a wide variety of people here on earth, too, so I am ever hopeful that I would have been able to hang around him had I been alive at that time. Could you just imagine being able to see him on earth??
1. Those times in my life when I felt that I was unable to carry on were the times when he would pick me up, dust me off, and lovingly carry my soul until I found the strength that I needed to continue on. He is truly my strength and refuge.

Both Courtney and Anita gave so much better answers than I did, so be sure to check them out.

I am horrible at tagging people, and the few that I would tag I am sure have already been. So I am going to say that I would be honored if you would do this Meme, and leave me a comment letting me know that you have. ;)

I think that this is a perfect post to share one of my favorite quotes:

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ in me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me.
Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left,
Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit,
Christ where I arise.

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me;
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me.
Christ in every eye that sees me;
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Salvation is of the Lord; salvation is of Christ.
May your salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.

~ The Breastplate of St. Patrick

A sad confession......

I'm not as young as I used to be. There, I said it. I keep trying to deny it, even though I the mirror tries to tell me that I am not in my 20's anymore. I can ignore what is in the mirror, but there is no ignoring what my body is telling me.

There was a time in my life when I could go out, stay up until all hours of the night, and then go to work the next morning. Yeah, I was a bit tired, but I could still make it through the day and be somewhat productive. Um, NOT ANYMORE. If I stay up until, let's say, 3:00 AM talking to my cousin and her husband like I did when they came over for a visit on Saturday I am completely useless the next day. We're talking useless as in sleeping on the couch until 11:00 am and ordering pizza for dinner.

Please remind me to never do that again. EVER.

Quick Post and Parsleyworms

I am very blessed to have a hubby who gets to work from home sometimes. He has been able to do a lot of his work from home for the past few weeks or so. I'm not complaining, but it does limit the amount of time that I can get on the computer because he needs the computer for work. So that is one of the many reasons why I have been short on posting time lately. Today is also one of those days that my DH is working from home, so I have to hurry to get this post up. Please ignore any errors in spelling or grammar. :)

I also would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the folks who left me "Get Well" messages and prayers. I am feeling so much better now, and your kindness really helped speed that along!

I was pretty excited this morning when I was able to harvest 3 heads of broccoli! I have 7 more that are still developing and 1 that is working on getting a side shoot after I cut off the main head a few days ago. I also have 2 heads of cauliflower that are blanching and a few more that are starting to form small heads. I should be able to blanch them in about a week, and they will be ready for harvest about 2 weeks or so after that.

My girlies are really looking forward to the annual arrival of the Parsley worms on our carrots. The tops are just about big enough to attract them. As I have mentioned before, I try to control garden pests by natural methods. But I rarely try to control the Parsley worms. They only feed on the tops of my carrots and once they are done feeding they turn into BEAUTIFUL black swallowtail butterflies. Since I try to attract as many butterflies into my yard as possible, I personally feel that it would be a crime against nature to destroy these creatures. Instead, we have learned to live in harmony with them. I allow them to eat my carrot tops. They don't destroy them and we don't use the tops for food anyway. They reward us for sharing by producing a spectacular butterfly show when they emerge from their cocoons. It is a win-win solution for all of us, even though my carrot tops are less than impressive when the parsley worms are finished feeding. I even allow the girls to keep one worm each, feed and care for it, and watch it go through all of it's stages in a butterfly keeper. We release them once they have hatched and dried their wings. They get to learn about butterflies AND about trying to garden in sync with nature rather than against it. :)

Well, I am off to do yard work and prepare for the 4th of July. We may (or may not) have a small gathering. I want to be prepared either way. Have a great day!!