March 22

Outside my window...darkness, I waited too late to do this.
I am thinking...
I am thankful for...
From the kitchen...baking a pizza
I am wearing...
I am creating...
I am going...
I am reading...
I am hoping...
I am hearing...
Around the house...moving things around
One of my favorite things...morning glories
A few plans for the rest of the week:  Michaels & Half Price Books


Here is a picture I am sharing...

Cute kids, if I do say so myself (the girls are my daughters, the boys my nephews)

Outside my window...a dreary, cold day, trees without leaves.
I am thinking...
I am thankful for...being alive
From the kitchen...
I am wearing...
I am creating...
I am going...
I am reading...
I am hoping...
I am hearing...
Around the house...
One of my favorite things...spaghetti
A few plans for the rest of the week: 

Ancestors

Yesterday we went on a quest to Azleland Cemetery to get pictures of the headstones of our family members.  Many people post pictures of ancestors' burial places to connect their family history on Ancestry.com.  A really great site is Findagrave, you can look up a relative's name and possibly come up with a photo of the headstone and the name of the cemetery.  It is a really great community of people helping people in their searches.  Just request a photo from a cemetery and others will go and locate/photograph it for you.  This is really important for people who live many states away.  I took a list of names that were requested for Azleland, but I could only find one with a headstone the others on my list were not marked.  So I could only take a picture of the one to post.  But at least I did get 8 of our relative's headstones, Mom & Dad, Jody & Granny, June & Jonnie, and Jon's grandparents too.

Today we hit 3 different yard sales but didn't find a thing.  Just as well, since I'm trying to go through this house and get rid of stuff.  The wind is really blowing today, about 35 miles per hour.

Japan has been hit by the largest earthquake in 150 years, and terrible tsunami and fires, also the nuclear power plants are becoming dangerous.  I'm so glad I live so far inland from the ocean.  It can be so dangerous and when it happens it is often so unexpected. 

Reading in the Car

We've gotten into the habit of reading a good book as we travel here & there.  Jon drives, and I read to him and Jonathan.  We are right in the middle of God's Smuggler.  A very interesting book about a man named Brother Andrew who during the '50s and on started smuggling Bibles & preaching into the countries behind the Iron Curtain.  He was constantly in danger but God always protected and provided for him.  We take for granted the freedom we have to have a Bible or to go to a church.  The people in the communist-controlled countries were desperate to know anyone outside even cared about the church and them.  They were in danger just trying to meet in underground churches to hear but it was worth it to them.  One man managed to get his hand on an old Bible that somehow didn't get destroyed or confiscated in his country, but it was missing Genesis, Exodus, and Revelations.  They figured someone probably used the thin pages for cigarette paper.  He had one other tiny copy and was typing those three books out so he could then have a complete Bible to give to a church that had no Bibles.  We are in chapter 15 and don't know yet what happens but we are all ready to hear more.

This method of reading works well for us.  Another of our favorites was a biography of Stonewall Jackson.  What a character he was.  If you want to broaden your reading material into something more educational, try reading to them in the car.  Jon and Jonathan are really my captive audience.  They can't jump out! I guess if they weren't interested they could turn up the radio, but they get so into the books that they wouldn't do that. (besides that would be so rude)  I know if you have younger children or many children it might be harder to do.  But it's worth a shot.  Children have always loved to be read to.

Snow Storm!

I spoke too soon in my previous post, saying, "At least we aren't in the D.C. snowstorm"  The sky unleashed about 12 inches of snow on us overnight.
Can you imagine that much snow in Texas?  This year we broke the record for snowfall in the past 32 years.  Oncor stated that at the moment there are 70,000 people without electricity because of the giant tree limbs that have been falling onto power limbs.  This left many people without electricity to run their heaters or appliances.

Luckily we still have lights but with our power pole leaning (see previous posts), who knows for how long the lights will stay on. 
It started leaning after the Christmas Eve snow which stayed around for about 7 days.  It just saturated the ground so much that the pole started leaning.  Then we've had many days of rain after that.  This pole has been leaning since January 1st and it continues to lean more each day it seems.
Oncor came out to check, started a work order.  About 3 days later a crew came out and marked utilities that were located under the ground.  A few days later 3 guys came out and dug around the pole.  The ground was so saturated that the hole kept filling up with water and caving in, so they had to quit.  A day or two later another man came from the company and he pretty much said the ground was too wet to do any work on it.  Now with the snow piled up about a foot, it may take a few days to melt, which will saturate the ground even more, causing the pole to continue its lean.  The only thing keeping it from falling is that there are wires attaching it to two other poles.

Mom's Night Out

I had a really good time tonight.  Jon was to have a counseling session at the church with a woman at 5:00 so he asked me and Jonathan to go with him.  At the last minute, I checked my email and saw that this was the homeschool Mom's Night Out also.  It was to start at 6:00, thankfully at the church also.  I had totally forgotten about it.  So I gathered up my knitting and off we went.
Sherry Deweese was scheduled to teach the ladies who weren't knitters, how to knit.  She did an excellent job too.  There were only 8 of us so that worked out great for a learning session, not too many.  3 of us already knew how to knit; that was me, Sherry & her daughter.  It was a little difficult for the woman who was breastfeeding her 6-month-old at the time, but that baby didn't want to wait!  So there she was, a typical mom, juggling a baby at her breasts (switching sides as needed), two knitting needles, listening and talking with the young girl that was helping her.  Moms can do it all sometimes.
I just sat back, knitted and enjoyed talking to my friends.  I left there feeling more relaxed and refreshed for some strange reason.  I'm glad I went now.

Computeritis

What did we do before the wonderful world of the internet?  I remember back to when I got my first computer, a Packard Bell in 1992.  Ancient by today's standards.  I think I've gone through Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and now XP.  I used to have to call tech support with my first computer as I  (and I suppose the whole world for that matter) was just learning about computers.  Back then we had to get into the "guts" of the machine.  Typing in miles of code as the tech would tell us step by step what to do.  Things are so much easier now. Bet the techs are happy that things are simpler now.