trick or treat

Let's go with trick: This is NOT Ellie, the GrandDog. But it could be.

reverse gravity

What went down, had to come up! And the deed is done.

Worked like a bloomin' dog yesterday pulling up the last of the JUNK from D's room and then raped, pillaged and left for dead Gabriel's room which is now thriving as the New MacMurchy Guest Room. Fabulous! I even pulled a bed outta there to make room for the queen that is coming from downstairs. The Reverse Gravity is complete! Everything that went down the basement has now come back up. Probably equivalent to 5 trailor fulls when the dust settles.

I will not say which of the children had the greatest accumulation ~ code for JUNK! But here is the wee-est bit of a hint: Her husband is flying through the air demonstrating gravity. Let's just say all the kids owe the mom a one-way ticket to Tahiti. Thank you very much

My counsel to young families ~ KEEP THE CAMP CRAP TO A DULL ROAR! Now I'm very sorry to talk that way among the chilluns, but really!!! I need to see my Pastor of Pain chiro so he can jerk me around. My back and neck feel like I was pillaged and left for dead! hahahahhaahaaaa

Always a Good Time tho ~ care

P.S. To my own chilluns: The superfluous stuff your future kids just have to have ~ Just Say No!!!! Trust me...Even Danny Beth's coveted pink rodeo hat did not survive
the Far-Flung Fling! Anything without a pulse, to the curb! Whhooppppppeeeeeee

ode to Friendship near and far

Wine for two, but no you!
My treasured friend's words last night all the way from the left coast.

To be awash in friendship and goodwill has to be one of the Good Dear Lord's finest gifts. Like wine to "gladden the heart."*

Several friends stood by me this week. You know who you are. I am eternally grateful.

My Prayer for Each of You

That you would have a rich life of Joy and Power, abundant in Supernatural results, with a constant, clear vision of never-ending life in God's World before you, and of the everlasting significance of your work day by day. A radiant life and death.

Dallas Willard

Call me vain

Truth be told, I didn't like the photo below with Danielle and Aaron among the wedding centerpieces. It's good of them but not so fond of my visage. This one's better. If I could only learn to keep my mouth shut for smilin' sakes!

pic 1: A rose among 2 thorns.
pic 2: my beautiful cousin, Linda Jean, with her wonderful girls, Rebecca and Rachel. Linda means "Pretty One." Indeed. I love her...
pic 3: The Scottish Lads ~ Gabriel and Craig from the Mothahland. Craig is one of Danielle's Best Friends and finally Gabe and Craig met at her wedding. Terrific!

bailout commentary

Many years ago I taught 6th grade in Chatsworth, Ca. A deplorable thing happened with one of my dear students and his unwholesome mother. Thomas loved the school and specifically felt safe for the first time during his school career. Because of his substantial girth, Thomas was an outpost for ridicule until entering my room where my obvious affection for the Lad was kindling for friendship. Thomas had friends. He was safe.
All was well until his mother who worked part-time for the school began to pitch a fit because the school principal would not pay her under the table. She did not want to have to declare her salary so she could remain on the state dole collecting unemployment. In her anger, Thomas’s mother did the unthinkable: She removed him from the school and quit her job.
I have never seen such manipulation as she and her son gathered his things out of the desk on the last day. I was heartsick. I loved Thomas. Encouraging him to soar was one of my favorite pasttimes and now he was leaving. Thomas was heartsick as well. But his mother kept saying, “Look how happy Thomas is to be leaving this place! Right, Thomas? You just can’t wait to get out of here!”
Thirty years later, I’m not sure that I’ve ever witnessed anything so malignant. Watching that wicked woman misconstrue her son’s thoughts to justify her own wrong was the height of selfishness. She did not care for her son and he knew it. She thought he was too stupid to notice that Thomas was her pawn.

This duplicity reminds me of the billion buck bailout in the beltway:

"...the voters (do not) deserve to be deceived on the eve of an election by the notion that this is a failure of free markets that should be replaced by political micro-managing." Thomas Sowell, Economist & professor, Stanford Uni

The taxpayer (that's YOU AND ME!!!) tugboat is keeping the ship afloat because of poor management in the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Barney Frank. Now we have the foxes managing the chicken coop and I keep wondering how the federal bureaucrats got into the mortgage/banking business in the first place? They are professional politicians, not experts on anything except conniving to get elected. The power we give these guys is appalling!

And the worst part is that the deceptive mismanagers who profited monetarily, to say the least, are now bold-face lying about their corruptive involvement. No one heeded the Watchmen who warned years ago that Fannie and Freddie were taking in water! Now the very ones who raped and pillaged the chickens are in charge of watching the coop! Liars are bad enough but opportunistic professional deceivers are despicable. THROW THE BUMS OUT!!

It is a matter of record that President Bush was roundly ignored when he called years ago for regulatory oversight of the leaking Fannie & Freddie. Now he's being blamed for the financial debacle along with others who warned of the impending disaster.

Brings to mind Thomas and his mother: Dubious motives, false blaming and zero responsibility. Duplicity off the chart!

Most Americans know intuitively that many of their elected representatives care little for them. We are the pawns. Most Americans know in their gut that while media across the land strikes up the band and raves about the new clothes - Change - the emperor is buck naked. And it's embarrassing.

I love it here

Calling all apprentices

People say, "Oh Care, you'd make the best salesman. I bet you could sell an eskimo a fridge." Not true ~ asking is the hardest part. But it seems time to ask: Would you like to become Jesus' student in Kingdom Living?

Here's a great place to begin:
Psalm 23 ~ "Because the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing." Ponder the ramifications of this before boomeranging out of bed every morning, roll this back and forth over your mind until it starts affecting your decisions and thoughts and longings. I have everything I need because the Lord is my Great Shepherd.

"He makes me lie down in green pastures." Think: Only sheep that are full lie down. The starving ones are ravaging the green. The satisfied ones are lying down in sweet repose.

"He leads me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul." Is there anything more needed than restored souls? Heck, the whole mess in the beltway would be entirely different if those at the helm had "restored souls." (But now I've taken a sheep's trail ~ sorry)
"Still waters:" Thirsty sheep will not be led by the quiet waters; they're slurping. Only a sheep that has been fed and watered is happy to walk beside the Shepherd.

You get the idea: How does each verse of Psalm 23 apply to your shoe-leather life where you walk and talk and work and dwell with your loved ones? How would our lives be different if Psalm 23 were true?

What's the first thing we want to do when smitten with a new friend? Get to know them! Jesus is the same. Get to know Him, for goodness sakes! To know the Good Shepherd is to love Him. You lose yourself in His everlasting arms ~ the safest place in heaven and earth. (But Care, why do I want to lose myself? Cuz then you are found.)

Trading in 'life on our own' is the incomparable bargain of the ages. "Follow Me."

Now don't be tempted to marginalize Jesus with His dated clothes and seeming irrelevance. He is at the center of all things ~ make no mistake.

the focus of our worship ~ Jesus the Lord

While listening to my glorious opera, something reminded me to share this Ravi Zacharias excerpt from his book "Beyond Opinion." The context is keeping the message pure through vigiliant concentration upon the Messenger:

"Speakers fall into a huge trap when they are more concerned about how they say it than whom they are pointing to. C.S. Lewis mentions this in his book "The Great Divorce." The spirit tells the Ghost, a mortal from hell visiting heaven, "When you painted on earth ~ at least in your earlier days ~ it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape. The success of your painting was that it enabled others to see the glimpse too. But here you are having the thing itself...That was not how you began. Light itself was your first love; you loved paint only as a means of telling about light."

"Oh, that was ages ago," replies the Ghost. "One grows out of that. Of course, you haven't seen my later works. One becomes more and more interested in paint for its own sake."

Then the Spirit warns, "Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the things he tells, to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him. For it doesn't stop at being interested in paint, you know. They sink lower ~ become interested in their own personalities and then in nothing but their own reputations."

Art and nature rightly perceived lead to Worship. Forgetting this, seems to me to be the downfall of the scientist. Misses the ForestMaker for analysis of the bark. And hopefully in my zeal for writing, I won't ignore the main character in the Grand Story, "the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us."

the kitchen

Remember all the visual-distraction that used to be above the cabinets? In the landfill it is. Clean as a whistle!

my new home

minimalist ~ less is MORE

It all started with this Chihuly-like goblet! The Scottish friends made the big purchase for my bday. It was happily perched on the fireplace mantel when Joy chirped, "Mom, it's so cluttered! I can't even see the glass."

I saw the light! Four hours later - 3 am central time - Joy and I were halfway through tossing the excess commotion in my living room. I feel like a new woman! Even the allergies have improved with all the dust gone. More stuff = more dust, for sneezin' sakes! I LOVE IT! The place is fabulous!

Nathaniel even re-covered the dining room chairs with the funky coral banner cloth. The only drawback: I can't read in my living room cuz I can't take my eyes off the place! Glorious!!!

Huge Thanx to my artsy Daughtah and her Beloved for helping me see the Chihuly Glass! And to my Fabulous Friends for giving the glass in the first place. It was Olive Yuz that got the Clean-up underway.

Birthday gift from my Girls and their Beloveds

Here they are, Danielley, in all their glory! These Romanian-created beauties go down smooth in the red vino dept. I'm savoring as we speak.

Thank you to my Girls for three of these Beauties for my birthday. One for each of us to relish the Red. Hurry Home

we've dropped all pretense...

Things I love about Sarah Palin

She did not pursue the presidency or national office. It came to her.

Power is not the driving fuel in her tank; service is.

Sarah talks to the American people and doesn't give a hoot in the hotplace about impressing the media with their 'hidden' agenda. Ollie ollie oxen, free free free! Translation: "All ye, All ye, All come free."

She does not have to depend on 'rhetoric;' she actually has a record. Actions not just words.

She leaves Room for God. One example is her righteous choice to consider the womb off-limits trusting that every person has the potential for a wondrous life. She does not have to bear the crushing burden of ‘choosing’ because that’s God’s job. She knows that each child will teach us in his own inimitable way the path of humility and sacrifical devotion.

She is a woman in good humor. The feisty twinkle says, “I don’t take myself to be the savior. But I do know Him. I’m just His servant; an apprentice to Jesus serving His purposes to my generation in “word and deed.”’

I love her integrity. She can tell her accomplishments and be who she is because there’s nothing to hide.

She is a “doer” and not just a “talker.”

She is inspiringly positive. Am I the only one who is weary to the bone with manufactured crisis? Let's be in good humor, shall we? All is well

She knows that every decision and accomplishment is fueled by one’s character. Not “What can I get out of this and how can I steer the credit to myself?”

She holds all things lightly; knowing that Washington D.C. is not the end-all, cure-all. God is and He will have the last and final word.

She ‘gets’ servant-leadership. She has modeled that in her public service and will continue.

Sarah hasn’t climbed the ladder rungs hoisting herself up on the backs of those in front or using the sides of the ladder as ‘connections’ to reach her goal. She sees a need and serves. She sees a wrong and corrects it. I like that ~ so simple.

While folks are kicking around Sarah Palin’s IQ like a football missing the uprights, she is quietly and graciously...WISE! When one knows the Smartest Man in the Universe, one can afford to take their IQ with a grain of salt. Salt that preserves. Who gives a rip about Harvard pedigrees when there’s no wisdom to support the IQ.

She wears hooded sweatshirts. It's Alaska, for cryin' outloud!

She still remembers how most Americans live ~ going to work, raising their families to become upright citizens, and interfacing their lives with others in goodwill and fellowship. She remembers because she's been doing this. Joe Biden had to pretend he frequents Home Depot. goodness...

The last words of a great leader spoken long ago but still relevant and true:
"When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth."
David a man after God's own heart (I wonder if the good shepherdboy wore hooded sweatshirts while tending his flock?)