I Ran a Test

In case you didn't catch it, I've been feelin' lousy, so I guess I hope you didn't.

I've been coffin' and wheezen' up a storm for a couple of weeks now. I couldn't tell if it was a real life cold, knew some folks who had one, or just allergies. So I tried my darnedest to give it to those closest to me, Dirt, EBet, Anna Coleen. And nothin' nobody has so much as sneezed.

Test over. Now for the cure.

And because I am a bit preoccupied (with spring) and already feeling super lousy (with spring) and can barely get my regular work half done, nah, lets say I'm getting about a quarter done and that would be generous, well then Dear Reader I'm ditching my hippy and I'm reachin' for the quick and mainstream chemical cures. Seventeen bucks for forty days of breathing, works for me. Even as we speak it's workin', I can actually breathe and I think I might get to sleep not sitting upright tonight!

Live Writer, my new favorite way to prep my posts no longer works for me, unless I want my posts to be three sentences long. Uhhhh that's what I have FaceBook for (and why I secretly hate it). So... I may be goin' Word Press, we'll see. But I think I need a degree in something or perhaps this process will give me a degree or two, of increased body temperature, it doesn't appear so easy as blogger, hope that means it is more reliable.

Green Is Such A Nice Color Eh?

Since everyone is hoping I feel better and I wasn't sure I had said anything about not, 'ceptin maybe Kathy let it out of the bag, I'll 'fess up.

Yes, my walnut behind my chin, previously known as a lymph node, which was one encouragement for me to fast, turned ugly. I have had a fever since early Thursday morning, it has come down somewhat only to go up this afternoon again with every gland in my body now a little walnut, okay some are hazelnuts some are almonds, but everyone is distinct and angry.

I have never slept so much, well maybe except for the romantic influenza last spring. Fevers wipe me out like no body's business, I can function with a migraine but not this stinking fever.

I hate being sick it is a stupid waste of time. I could say that I have managed to listen to The Mill on the Floss, David Copperfield and Ralph Moody's second book in his Little Britches series. But really I've just slept while they played on the ipod. And quite frankly I downloaded them to listen to while I finished up the trees.

I am not a sicky!

But it must certainly look as if I am eh?

So thank you for your well wishes, I appreciate them and obviously I need them. I hope that this resolves itself soon because I'm starting to feel queasy and I hate that the absolute most. I promise if I don't feel better I will call for an appointment Monday but I know I won't get to see anybody 'till, oh what, maybe Friday. Okay, I'm done whining. Politics and fevers make me whine, and puts fire in my eyes. Too bad there isn't Current Presidential Nonsense and Liar Package Aspirin to take and make that mess all go away.

This to shall pass, and it sure isn't the worst thing to have to contend with so I am blessed, honest I am.

The lambs are really cute. The farm is doing well, I hear (except the trees are not getting pruned very fast), check out the girls' blogs. Bet should be putting a post up shortly. Gotta love those Vick Chicks, well Dear Reader, you don't gotta I guess. But I do and I'd be dead by now if it weren't for them.

They Got Our Numbers, Well Dirt And Bet's That Is

Anna and I still appear to be flying under the radar.

But "they" know all about Dirt and EBet. Each received age appropriate mail today.

Well at least I hope that Dirt's mail was age prompted and not caused by a trip to the doctor or a EMT visit at school to revive him that I was unaware of,

because this is what Dirt received in the mail today. Now which would you rather be greeted with, a bold brazen reminder of your immortality or a bill to remind you of your past misplaced optimism in your personal economy?

But then again it could be because I went to the "nearly emergency room" nearly dying this last week, after all it is addressed to Dirt but it is for him to get us both ready to be planted or roasted. And because I always seem to end up making it all about me, I'll just leap there right now. It was for me!

But the cemetery ain't got reason to come for me this week. And Dirt's too busy to be bothered with kickin' the bucket, this week anyways, so we'll just ignore their good advice to "prepare" for the inevitable. I think we'll just wait till it happens. After all, what else would he or I have to do when the other of us pops off?


What did my Bet girl get you ask?


A little reminder that even though she has never set foot in a public school or private school as a student, our government knows she is out there, and they want to want her. Just fill out the form and if you don't have asthma they wanna talk.

Aww, I'd gladly give a child to the military, if I had a boy child. I just think it is funny that young people have to register, clearly they know she is here and how old she is.


But what did Bettikins do with her calendar? She leafed through it a little. I'm wondering if perhaps it will be a reminder to her that we here at home have a roll to play in it. Her momma is learning to be a better wife this last week so that her husband can go fight the good fight on the battle field that God has called him to. I wonder if she was looking at the calendar and in amongst noting the special days they show, she was wondering how to be supportive to those who serve us so well.

Well I've gotta go, love to stay and chat some more but my mind is still struggling to stay focused on any one thing to long. Last day of the drugs today. Hope their out of my system soon but mostly hoping this naggy cough heals up so I don't go down this psychotic episode road again. I've got some supplements and tomorrow is the day I get myself back into reporting in at the Sheet Diet. See you there or here.


God has us in the palm of his hand, Dear Reader, sink in and feel his hold on you today, I know I have and it feels ... indescribable. Nothing, Nothing, can remove me from Him.

Still Tripping

Can't wait to get off this stuff. I do not see how other people can take it. I am glad I checked out what the side effects are because I would have thought I had gone crazy. Bipolar to be exact.

Mania. Wow. Thoughts are racing. And they are not all good or interesting or funny. But my house is getting pretty clean.

I thought it would be better when my dose lowered but I'm on just a third of the original dose and I am still wired, rubber band tight. The gut issue is not as bad. Ya woo, now I can also apply the mania to eating. That oughta look sweet!

I think it is a funny thing about me, when I have a reason, like surgery, to take a a sedative or even anesthesia it takes triple doses to knock me out. But give me something that might wire people out or give them borderline psychotic episodes and watch out Tasmanian Devil here I come. But I can drink coffee all evening long and still fall asleep just fine and rarely have I drunk so much coffee as to get "jittery".

Well I am tanked up on Sleepy Time tea and extra Valerian and I am going off to bed. I can't really think a straight line anyway. Even a Lanny straight line, which as we all know is no straight line for sure.

So I am off to bed. Tomorrow I am going to expend my mania on driving and shopping and planning the rest of my life. (Phil's nervous but I think I can do this and not veer from the shopping list. Although I have had knocking out walls and major painting projects running through my brain but the girls are babysitting me tomorrow.)

Wednesday, I hope to be normal, okay, my normal, and back here with something funny or compelling to talk about. My fond desire is to never blog about my health again but unfortunately I've arrived at that age haven't I?

Not Off The Face Of the Earth

Unfortunately, I am still here. Thanks mostly to Prednisone. And thanks to same said Prednisone it was not safe for me to blog for a few days. Don't know how some folks take this stuff but when I was on the high dose for three days so I could breath, I was kinda freaking out. couldn't sleep, weird thoughts, bad gut. Feeling better today, now that I am beginning on the taper down doses.

New Tozer book from Terry is great and as soon as I know my head is clear from bizarre thoughts I'll share lots.

My grandson Kai had his seventh birthday today, we joined the rest of the family for a night out on the town at his favorite restaurant, Brank's for barbecue. Then back to his dad and mom's for Aunty Bet's homemade, totally from scratch, including drilling the fresh coconut, coconut cake. I am glad that she loves to make it, because I love to eat it. But I was a good little non-overindulger and had just one piece.

Dirt, (gotta mention the Dirt every once in a while eh?) he hates coconut. Won't touch it. Well except for the coconut cookies that I used to make, mostly coconut but you couldn't tell. Yep, he ate nearly all of them.

Glad that her Daddy's dislike for coconut doesn't stop EBet from making the cake. I think she needs more practice with cake though so I have her talked into cake once a week and once a month it could be coconut! Oh, but she can't stop making her pies though, we should get those and cake.

Just thought I'd let you know I'm still here, didn't stop breathing, didn't float away. The girls and I will have birthday pix and stories tomorrow. Well actually today, but I haven't shut my eyes for longer than a blink so it is still Saturday, not Sunday like the heading is most likely gonna say. Not saying it is lying, just saying we have different perspectives on a day.

Praying for all those flood victums around our soggy state. Wondering how they are all doing, wish I could have gone and filled sand bags but breathing was kinda important.

Weird post for me, maybe, but I warned you I am under the influence of drugs, well that and Luden's Wild Cherry cough drops. Dirt bought them for me. Just like his daughters, I can get anything from him, I just have to keep my choices under two bucks!

"Say goodnight Gracie,"

In Bed

On the eleventh day of Christmas
my True Love gave to me
A good reason to stay in bed.

A Cold

No, worse, the Romantic_Influenza take II.

If God doesn't give colds then he at least gives good health and that is the reason I am staying in bed. Not because I have good health but because I want mine back.

Yesterday, my Nettie Pot and I became reacquainted on a regular basis, I think I used it four times and I still hold the record for consecutive sneezes. And if you have heard me sneeze, that is a frightening thought, some people would rather go to a punk rock concert.

I told Kathy that I have been holding off what I thought was the making of a cold for nearly a month now with large doses of vitamin c, good amounts of d, e, and beta carotene but that I had let it slip this last week. I should have not let it slip and I should have been using my nettie pot as preventative.

So no pictures to day for sure. Unless you want to see how the nettie pot works? No big outside projects, just me and the pile of seed catalogs and a case of tissues.

Fasting, Moderation and Balance

Dirt served me breakfast in bed and I'm ready to just fast now. No, his breakfast wasn't bad even though the potatoes were touching the syrup, ick, but it mattered little because I quite honestly could taste nothing. So what really is the point of eating? To stay alive you say?

But what?, I have been eating all along, quite a bit actually, and I'm not so well off now am I? Oh don't pull that "everything in moderation" baloney on me. Some of us were never intended for moderation, self control perhaps but never moderation! And it is not the same thing! Nor is self control balance. There is nothing "balanced" about a life lived completely for one thing. Not that I am there yet but I am aiming and that aim does not include balance or moderation. Two things have done untold damage, the words, "balance" and "focus on the family".

Okay, I'm done. Either you get it or you don't, more of my words will not convince you otherwise. Besides it is difficult to uphold a rant when I can barely uphold my head. But to put it down, (my head) means certain pounding and flooding feelings so upright it is. Upright with a slant.


Typos and Punctuation

Wow, I just corrected about fifteen typos. And I think my left side is paralysed. All of my typos were reversed letter orders and the letter orders reversed were the difference between letters under the control of my left hand and my right hand. Right hand won every time. Left is a little slow today. Funny, it is always the other way around.

I think that there should be a punctuation mark for puzzlement. It is not a matter of a question mark, I am not asking you a question. If I'm excited and I want you to know it, I use an exclamation mark but nothing available to the puzzled. Words? If words were all I needed, then why an exclamation mark, couldn't I just use my words to convey my excitement? (That was a real question, I'm not puzzled.)

And personally I think that you should be able to use an exclamation or question mark mid-sentence, (you may have noticed I do, even though it is not accepted by the Society for Correct Writing).

And why not an exclamation mark and a question mark at the same time?! Am I not allowed to ask a question excitedly!?

And commas should be everywhere, I breath a lot, you should too, but I never really rest, so why should you, if when I was so busy writing, I just kept going, why can't you just keep up. But if we are always stopping, I may loose you. See you could have left me there but you wouldn't have if I had just used a comma.

Periods make you sit down and rest. Commas keep you going, urge you on. If you were running a marathon which would you rather have in your pit crew, a bunch of periods or some fine commas, giving you an energetic pause?


Birding and Criminals

My little unidentified brown sparrow has found my bedroom window. He is usually seen only at the feeders, (he is looking quite plump) and not on this side of the house. I usually only see my little kinglet friend here at this window. How nice of him to come and visit.

Ahhh the mystery is solved, upon the arrival of a Rufous Sided Towee at my window I wondered if they were all coming looking for the Mistress of Seeds (uh, that's me) so I called out and Bet came to answer my inquiry about the fullness of the feeders. "Nope, they're all full, they just like to come visit you, mom. Well, that and there is a Steller's Jay back there."

Hah, they are not coming just to visit me, they are coming to escape the criminal element. There are two kinds of criminals, Stellar Jays and Starlings.

There is nothing redeeming about starlings. They were raised poorly, have no scruples or sense of community, they even look bad, easy to pick from a line-up because they look like they just killed someone and therefore are intolerable. Marla's vandals were of the starling type. Bad seed. No, not the kind they eat, the egg they come from, bad, bad to the egg white!

But movies are made of the Stellar Jays. The Ocean's Eleven gang, they are Stellar Jays, blurring the lines between good and bad. When I was a kid it sure seemed like there were a lot of movies about criminals, all of the western outlaws had a movie made about them, then there was The Longest Yard, and some movie with Sydney Poitier and somebody else running away from a chain gang. Paul Newman was a criminal once, I mean portrayed one or two. They were all Stellar Jays.

A Stellar Jay could either go wrong or go right, many law men were just Stellar Jays that were barely kept from wrong. Like the Erp brothers and a few others dimly in my mind as I watch the antics of the birds on this side of the house avoiding the rough and tumble but good hearted Steller Jays.

Yap At You Later

There really must be something productive I can do today although if you needed to be entertained for a little bit Dear Reader, then I guess I have been productive, although the entertainment value is only worth what you paid for it!

But I suppose I should be wrapping up my first seed order and getting that off so that it can hurry up and get back here. One of the web sites for a seed house said they wouldn't be getting to the orders for six weeks!

Guess who isn't going to be trying that seed house!? The seeds wouldn't get here for P. Day, that could stand for Presidents Day but when I have my garden hat on it stands for Pea Planting Day! Not to mention I am starting some new artichoke plants this year, and I want some more onions and a jump on the nightshade fam.

You know, some people think that the nightshade family, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and peppers are poisonous and cause arthritis. Well that may be true, especially for us European types, as the nightshade fam are all native to this here land mass. Call it a slow revenge for that whole chicken pox on the blankets move we tried on the natives.

"Here have some potatoes and tomatoes. If getting hooked on them to the point of having a famine because you didn't grow anything else and they got blight doesn't get back at you, then maybe a couple of centuries of eating way to much spaghetti sauce or potatoes in various forms will get you some whopping food allergies."

Just saying that there might be some justice a foot here. I must not have had any culpable relatives (or at least it seems so so far) because taters and tamaters don't seem to bother me much. I find no point in eating eggplant. Only one food is more devoid of any nutritional merit and that is Iceberg lettuce, please, lets not call it a vegetable.

However, around here that doesn't keep others from wanting to grow eggplants, they're so cute. Why some might say their smoochie. So I better quite messing around and get my order off. Wow check it out, over five paragraphs ago I said I was leaving you! "Say good night Gracie." Good night.

Oh wait, one more thing. Eleven stands for the eleven faithful disciples.

Dear Reader I sure hope we are counted in the bunch that is faithful and not pretendy schmendy sellouts! I am Glad that God has given us their example of faithfulness among others! Celebrate, even if you have Vicks on your chest. I know I do!

Things In the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

PurrBob the hockey player

It may appear as if I skipped a day but I didn't because it is not a new day until I go to sleep and wake up again. So my computer may think it is tomorrow today but it is still today to me

Why am I up so late? Because my brain is on fire still and lying down is not appealing. So the pups are on the couch now after being excited to still be up after the girls went to bed and Purr Bob is tearing down my house. I have righted a pitcher and a picture, rescued a notepad from being eaten not read and now he is playing tile hockey in the dinning room probably with a bottle cap of Dirt's.

You may ask, dear Reader, why I don't just throw his furry little self out the door? Because if he is left out at night he climbs the clematis and the fire escape to the girls window and tries to get in. Not necessarily a bad choice, until you know that he is on a metal roof whilst doing his shenanigans. So in he stays at the request of the concerned pet owners.

I did not finish my rejuvenation project today but I most definitely will have it and more done by Thursday.

I realized I can't really replant everything until I have taken up some plants from connecting beds that I wish to put in the one I am working on. I also need to put some of the ones I have been taking out into the other adjoining beds.

And I think I am going to have Dirt bring home a bag or two of Alfalfa pellets to put into the top six inches of the soil before I plant. I haven't priced alfalfa pellets in a while so I am not sure what has happened with the price of them. We'll see.

This maniac is still terrorizing my kitchen and dining room. I wonder what destruction I will wake up to. Dirt has requested that I try to get some sleep so I am going, with a long prayer list to distract myself from my four days of searing brain matter.

Just a Real Quick Happy Dance

This here is the honor of the week for me, heck who am I kidding, honor of the really long time for me, cuz I can't remember the last time someone gave me an award!

But I can't finish all the rulez to receiving this award because it is hard to hold my head, close my eyes and blog at the same time. It also makes for an odd looking dance, but Daisy, I am dancing on the inside, just not moving my head. The vicadin are not working today.

I worked with sunglasses on today, normal for some perhaps but odd for me.

It is way past my bedtime, but nut job radio and migraines do not mix well. So now I am going to go see if Dirt is asleep enough to leave the radio off. I have no idea what they are talking about tonight but the way my day is going it is either the breathairian or some chick having an alien baby. How such a smart, wonderful, caring, concrete thinking man can listen to that craziness, I have no idea.

I know, you may wonder why I received an award right now with such a lamo post. Better luck tomorrow, and I will finish the rules for sure. Good night dear reader, I am praying that you are all safe and sound and finding that the Holy Spirit guides you more each day, by leaps and bounds.

Titles Are Important But Occasionally Difficult

If I thought my lap top was becoming only a blog tool, I certainly do not think so any more.

It was very nice of Rebecca to have loaned me her lap top yesterday until we get together for gathering tonight. But I sure as heck hope that my lt comes back with all my stuff on it, soon.

But most likely it won't be returned until November fourth, a coincidence?, I think not. That would be two weeks after Dirt sent it in, which is what we were told to expect, or at least what Dirt told me he was told. And it would so serve me right as I am certain I was beginning to become way too involved in the political season. I am also on a strict news diet, just enough to keep me informed.

Some messages are not to hard to figure out. I'm not saying that a person ought not to care, I would never say that I still believe whole heartedly that you must be engaged in the life around you. But one must respond to what they are called to, and I know I was not called to politics, either directly or indirectly. To be an aware citizen, most certainly, but you dear reader were not exposed to even a fraction of what was swirling in my head, and that would definitely go well beyond being aware. Any who, lest I get carried away I will now stop talking. Besides my ballot is nearly all filled out and ready to mail.

I miss my lt, as I said above, I hope I get it back with my stuff on it.

But even if it is erased and all I get back is what I started with in April, oh well, I have lost many a yellow note pad in the middle of what I thought was a stellar thought about God, or a phenomenal organizational breakthrough and out there somewhere float many many note pads with vital ideas about my garden.

So it will not be the first time I have lost writings and ideas and heck even pictures, but I will say it is hard to live without the new "yellow pad" in my life. Yeah, I have written, ink and paper written, a few things, but it just doesn't seem the same.

And I must say that I have noticed that my handwriting has improved since I last wrote a lot by hand. Odd isn't it? I would have thought it would be the other way around. So much for, the more you do it the better you get.

Oh, by the way some of the mistakes in my last post have been corrected, so in case you were wondering if I was slipping into relativism I have corrected the glaring mistakes I saw.

Sunday's Lutefest was terrific, made all that much more terrific with the addition of some new faces at our celebration of the true European discoverer of North America.

There is a lot going on and little time to tell you all of it. Terry gave me another book by Tozer, we're wrapping up Foster's Celebration of Discipline (or are we), my tulip and hyacinth bulbs arrived, Terry and I switched to a later work out time and really getting to it, which reminds me of my abandoned Sheet Diet, the girls are getting ready for a gaming show on Saturday, Ivan and Holly's first public outing, Dirt's birthday on Saturday, our good friend's anniversary to celebrate, tricks for treats to get ready for, more apples to squish into various luscious concoctions, more beds to bury under mulchiness and plants to fuss over, a sewing room to clean out, an office to organize, notes for a book to find, not to mention all that has already happened in the last few days and tons of pictures, is your head spinning? because mine sure is.

The Tozer book alone is quite sufficient. I am struggling reading it. I don't make it very far before I have to drop it and just let my mind and heart sit. Thanks Terry!

Meditating on Jude. Reading Philippians.

I can't post all that I have read and thought but I would love to leave you with one quote from

The Pursuit of Man, by Tozer:

"Without doubt we have suffered the loss of many spiritual treasures because we have let slip the simple truth that the miracle of the perpetuation of life is in God. God did not create life and toss it from Him like some petulant artist disappointed with his work. All life is in Him and out of Him, flowing from Him and returning to Him again, a moving indivisible sea of which He is the Fountainhead. That eternal life which was with the Father is now the possession of believing men, and that life is not God's gift only, but His very self."

Oooh, I'm Not Doing So Well

Yesterday's sting is now swollen and itching and burning wildly. My wrist is red, tight and hot. but that really isn't the worst of it. In the middle of the night I gave myself whiplash. I have no idea what I was dreaming (that could be a blessing) but I woke myself up sitting up whipping myself around. And oh dear, man o man, my neck went zingityzing and then I couldn't move it. For the rest of the night if I moved I woke up whimpering, this morning I cannot move it without extreme pain. Asked Dirt if I could take one of his magic Vicodin and he released one to me (sheep shearing can be a painful occupation). That was nearly three hours ago and I have not experienced any relief. Oh well.

The girls got up at six this morning to go sit with Terry's dad. He is well into his 90s, not sure his exact age. He has recently had some difficult times, little strokes and other stuff that makes him unable to stay home alone.

I am so pleased that Terry chose to take care of her dad at home that when she needed help I could not imagine not helping. Of course our helping is by no means an altruistic move. Terry pays my girls.

Even more than that, however is the "educational" aspect. We have no idea what will happen in the near future for them. One or both of them may marry into a family where they may have to take care of an adult and this opportunity to help with Terry's dad may prove to be a valuable introduction to that.

Even if it is not in their near future, someday they will draw on this time and gain strength and resolve to do the right thing. Education is all around us and we shouldn't think we need to go to school to learn things that came so automatically to our forebears.

What we all need to do is stop thinking that life is all about fun and filling ourselves with our desires. Then when the unavoidable comes we won't be so stinking surprised, taken off guard and unprepared. Quite frankly I am sure that Bet and Anna are having fun right at this moment. So the right thing needn't be a bummer.

Well, the girls ought to be heading home soon, so I think I may take another of Dirt's magic pills so that I can help them finish painting the living room today and get some gardening done so that next year will be a good year.

Have a very good day dear reader and if anything silly or exciting happens you will be the first to know.

Electric Day

7:00 Order some chickens for next year's laying and breeding program and 25 broilers. Too late to get the ones I really wanted, once again procrastination does not pay off.

9:00 The electric day really begins now with electromyography, not unlike tripping over the electric fence while wearing the dog's training collar while the dog is standing on the switch and then landing into a pile of thistles. Good news is I'm not crazy, the test shows that I have valid reason to think my toes feel numb because of the bad news that I have peripheral neuropathy. So step one is done, now for step two, hopefully finding out what is causing it, there are a slew of causes, and getting it stopped or better yet, reversed.

10:21 After the electrifying test, we, the girls and I, head up south hill for a blood draw for a thyroid follow up. I dash in, dash out and off to Costco for some quick shopping,

10:39 Costco, ah lots of carts in the parking area, not crowded, yay. I get some undershirts, jeans, dress shirt and a pair of shorts for Phil and groceries for the house.

11:35 We hustle our bustles to Stephie's, eat our sushi lunch while she finishes her dishes. Kai has a small taste of pickled ginger, thinks it is good, has a big chunk and it ends up in the sink. New experiences don't always go smoothly.

12:00 We jump in the cars head over to Michelle's get a bucket of ice for my oysters to stay cold since we forgot the ice chest at home and then head to Point Defiance.

12:30ish and we have a fun time in the fuchsia garden while someone, we won't mention who, complaines that she just wants to get to the zoo and why do we have to do the garden too.

1:00 As we head back to the car we travel through the rose garden and now someone is wandering around smelling everything, picking out the best flowers and guessing their names.

1:30 No parking in the zoo parking lot, circle, circle, circle, circle, got one! Did anyone else hear musical chairs music playing? Off to the zoo. Quick stop at the ladies room and that means a quick stop to see if they have anything on sale in the gift shop. Yahwhoo a way cool pitcher or is it vase, well it is a fish and too cool to let the 50% off sticker get overlooked. Okay now off to the animals.

The draw for the day is clearly the lemurs and the meerkats; the mole rats, pygmy owls, poison dart frogs, elephants, tigers and penguins are just extras today.

3:00 But now my achey legs (you go sit on an electric fence on high and let me know how your legs feel) are really done and so we head out to the parking lot, trade passengers, Michelle rode out with me so I get Anna back and Steph takes Chelle and head off to finish the rest of our day separately. All very much to Anna's chagrin, she would like for the day together to continue for ever.
3:39 Since we're in the "neighborhood" I stop by the downtown Tacoma's Group Health office to pick up earrings I left there back in May but not until we swing through the Proctor district to see if Auntie Gee Gee is home, she wasn't. While I am on the same floor as radiology I stop at their desk to see if I can schedule an appointment for a lumbar series that was ordered with the EMG. Well, I can't make an appointment but I can just get it done as a walk-in, how 'bout now. This is too easy, but okay! And I am still out in under 3o minutes so my stay in the parking garage is free!

4:00 Okay so we're in the "neighborhood" lets stop at the W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=21 In the door and immediately hit with the beautiful fragrance of lilies, some really cool things inside, like the pitcher plant, many different orchids, Vireya rhododendrons and other botanical treasures.

4:40 Tuling down Yakima I can not help but pull into the Dollar store that inhabits the old Elvin's store in the old Hi Ho shopping center building that I used to frequent during my late childhood. Having fun finding things like boraxo bar soap, paper doilies, a hairbrush for in the car (coulda used it today), hand lotion, a cream pot and a few other things all for a buck!

5:47 Home, Anna jumps out runs in the house and changes her clothes while I show Phil his new ones, they kiss me good by and head off to shear a couple of sheep at the bottom of Muck Creek Hill. Bet and I unload the groceries and the dollar store finds.

5:59 An old man named Jessie calls for kittens - I thought our ad was done yesterday, he wants a female, he is on limited income, I ask Bet if she is willing to sell the tabby female that she and Anna want to keep (a couple of our mom cats have gone missing (maybe with the little blue rooster Who's Poop Is This? )).

She says no and so I ask the fellow if he can't do with a male. I listen carefully to his story about how he has always had two cats at a time, three or four sets, most of them living for 13 to 15 years, always females, usually sisters, always allowed to have one litter each, indoor cats. I listen to how he can't spend much on a cat and how one of his wives spent $20 bucks on a cat back in the day when the military didn't pay much (they pay a lot now?) and that caused him to call the cat "Riches". I get sad as I listen to him tell the tale of how his latest set of sister cats are two and a half years old, and how they are strictly indoor cats and when he was gone back east to a funeral one escaped and got run over. Okay, I'm not in tears but I am close. I take his name and number and I tell him I will try and find him a black or nearly black female cat.

I hang up and go talk to Bet. Having successfully talked Bet into giving up her little kitty to this nice old man and his sad and lonely cat, I call him back tell him that my daughter is willing to sell the tabby she was keeping for herself and give him directions from his Hawks Prairie home to our house. I just hope he can get here and get out of here before Anna comes home. I can handle one crying girl but not two.

6:30something As I am watering containers and Bet has the puppies out playing with them she tells me to grab them cause "that guy" is here. As I am trying to grab them I see his car and ah yes, Phil's truck pulling in the driveway. "That Guy" gets to know the kitty while I quickly and quietly explain things to a shocked Anna, Dirt steers completely clear. Of course Jessie buys the kitten puts her in a cardboard box that he says his latest two kitty cats rode home in (I believe him).

6:46 I finish watering the plants down in my nursery beds. Anna consoles herself with a visit to Mercy (I'll have to tell you all about her soon, thanks Cindi)

7:27 I find some old frozen burger patties and go in and make dinner. Hey it works. Bet sets her trap for mystery killer or a raccoon whichever. Gee, I recall I bought a chunk of meat yesterday to put in the crock pot for today. I'm sure its got something to do with the peripheral neuropathy (why I can't remember the things I set out to do)

8:12 The girls and I join Phil in the living room for "So You Think You Can Dance" (he has been staring at the frozen face of Kat Deely for twelve minutes) and I start writing this post which seems to have taken longer than the actual day. But there it is, proof that I can get something done.

Nearly Midnight I don't believe that any of today is on my "To Do List" for July but I still feel pretty stinking good about my accomplishments today.

Better Late Than Never

I believe it was Wednesday when I said I would work on my new blog site at tea time. Well I got it going today and with all that is going on, haying, watering, it is by no means finished. So please go to http://sheetdiet.blogspot.com/ if you like to watch things in progress.

The Next Morning: A Continuation Of The Last Post

Hmmm, first I would just like to say that I am still savoring last nights dinner, it is one of my favorites and very hard not to over eat. My good friend Sheila prepared Salmon, her rice blend, a nice tossed salad, topped off with strawberry short cake and whipped cream, may her Tuesdays always be so busy! What a great meal.

So where did I leave you dear reader? Are you wondering how bad I have it? Am I going to be sipping the Kool-Aid, forbidding my family to go to the doctor and just sitting in my dinning room waiting for God to fix things? Well I hope that isn't what you came away from the last post with. But just in case you were wondering allow me to clarify and please if you continue to question the soundness of my mind please feel free to shoot me off a comment.

The problem I was having was that the "diets" seem to conflict with one another while they all appear to be based on good R & D and don't especially have a lot of post introduction product to sell. Yet there is certainly a bent each one brings to the table, a certain ailment group that the "diet" had success with and is now addressing except that the authors seem to think that everyone is going to either have or come down with some form of said ailment and therefore This Diet is the diet to end all diets.

What the Holy Spirit was and is telling me is that He can guide me through the duty of feeding my family. Not in just a general sort of "God, make sure all my choices are good ones today" but in a very specific manner. The Holy Spirit brought to my mind a picture of a group of people that are gathered around a meal table, you've dinned with them often I'm sure, and someone in the group prays a typical meal time prayer "over the food" and it ends something like, "Father, bless this food to our bodies." Other than what the heck does that really mean, I was struck by the picture that the Holy Spirit showed me that usually happens next, nearly everyone at the table eats what they choose to eat and eat plenty of it, or freak out over something at the meal and completely avoid that particular food. How often do we ask and then ignore.

A picture came to mind of how God wishes for us to eat, Act 10:9-16

About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching
the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted
something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by
its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

Yes, he uses this illustration to get Peter to speak to the Gentiles, however he did use this illustration and the illustration is not false. Not unlike the issue we run across in Ephesians 5, is Paul talking only about marriage or only about the relationship of the Church to Christ or is he talking about both? God has given us plenty. Plenty to eat and nourish our bodies, to heal an ailment, to celebrate and feast with and to fast from.

Along with that God loves to talk with us, sometimes he gets through to us in a trance, sometimes in a meditative moment, sometimes in the middle of a seeming ordinary conversation about something that might be totally unrelated or appearing to be. Sometimes he talks to us through others, dietitians, doctors, scientists, nutritionists, moms, dads, sons, daughters... But we need to hear His words through them and not get caught up in their words or their spin or their philosophy once it departs from the message God is expressing to you.

So no, I am not throwing off information from the scientific or even anecdotal field of nutrition and fitness because I believe that the Holy Spirit can speak to me through those things as well as a bath tub but I hope to earnestly pray so that I may clearly hear.

Call it a sheet diet or a 1 Corinthians diet (1 Corinthians 6:12, 10:23-27) or any number of passages that we can find on or using the subject of food and its beauty, simplicity and detriment. But I am not interested in Old Testament legalities that Christ has freed me from, unless he clearly invites me to partake in them for an illustration or ailment. I invite you dear reader, if you are interested, to come along with me on my journey. From here on out my journey with God specifically in the arena of food, fitness (lack of laziness) and the spiritual disciplines associated with them will be on another blog site, which I intend to set up later today during tea time. But for now I must say see you later because I have an appointment to exercise with my good friend Terry and share with her my eureka.

Romantic Influenza and a lap top

We are all still suffering a little from the Romantic Influenza. My good friend Rebecca had it a few days before I did and that is what she calls it. When she first pegged it as the "Romantic Influenza" I said, "Why? Cause we can die from this?" That made her giggle, okay rasp-giggle, so it must be why.

The Romantic influenza had me out of any sort of rational participation in life for five days before I realized I just needed to go to bed and stay there. So I did, for three days, then I resumed to a level just below rational participation for five more days. On the first five days I didn't go anywhere and on the last five days I wished I hadn't.

I would also peg this influenza as romantic because I fell in love during this bout of the crud. My husband has of late gone on a technology upgrade feeding frenzy. Since February we have new TVs and the components that go with them but the latest, just five days before the romantic influenza, was a new computer, a lap top. And I am in love! Okay so for the first few days of the new relationship I was so over whelmed if I wasn't just staring at it, I was playing spider solitaire. But right at about the time the romantic influenza hit so did my acceptance of this new relationship and once I accepted it I quickly fell head over heals in love.

You need to understand that the last computer purchase was back in '96! So I missed several system changes that you all had the pleasure of experiencing. I am not in the ranks of those who are complaining about Vista, claiming that XP was just fine and that "they" should have left well enough alone. Heck I missed the whole "we were fine with Windows 2000 why do we need XP" thing that probably happened too. Trust me anything that doesn't give me the time to clean a whole room between commands is a good thing. I wanted to say that it was like going from a crank up phone linked to a local operator to a cell phone but that would have been hyperbole. It really is more like going from a rotary phone with a party line to a cell phone. You really have no idea the leap of change. I feel like Rip Van Winkle.

Once I upgraded my e-mail program from Windows Mail to Windows Live Mail and called to have the techy help me through fixing my whatever so my battery would work properly I have been good to go, smooth sailing. I don't see what all the fuss about not liking Vista is all about, how it is so horrible. Okay, my learning curve on language etc. is more like a 87 degree incline but it is good exercise for my brain right?. I haven't cried for ten days. Well except for that one John Wayne movie I watched.

The whole e-mail thing kinda cracked me up after all was said and done. When I first opened my new e-mail via Windows Mail, DSL no less, I was ready to go at it. I wrote a lovely letter to a friend and then I went to spell check it. Mind you I must use spell check. Even though I am the daughter of an incredible English teacher who knew Latin and every play ever written, I stink at English, spelling most of all. And no thanks to a garage sale I had once and an appliance I had for sale all my friends have experienced my lack of spell-ability. Okay here is the dirty laundry, I hear an "l" in stove. Where, you ask? Why like this, S-t-o-l-v-e. And that my friend is just the tip of the iceberg. My spelling is sometimes so bad that I'll just bag the word and use a different one that I can at least get close enough for the spell check program to figure out what I want.

So when I was using Windows Mail, went to spell check my lovely creative endeavor and all I got was some ridiculous notice that it couldn't check my spelling because "this language is no longer available for spell checking" and would I "Please select another in the spelling options dialog" suffice it to say I was shattered. I had no idea that my spelling was so bad that it couldn't even be recognized as English. But then I went to try and find this "spelling options dialog" and as far as I could tell no such animal existed. So I went to the "Get help from communities link" and after a thorough search all over all the possible places that had anything to do with my current problem, I found that I was not the only one who could not get past the "this language is no longer available for spell checking" and "Please select another in the spelling options dialog" message. Somewhere in all my searching (I spent a full day on it and nothing else, except drinking plenty of fluids, taking aspirin and using my neti pot) I came across the recommendation to download Windows Live Mail. So I did. And even though I am not excited about the layout of the window and getting used to it not looking like my old aol e-mail page I am okay with it. Hey, I can spell check . I did go through a bit of a rigmarole at the start cause I didn't set it up right with my DSL folks, after that nice lady at fairpoint solved that problem I was good to go.

The battery thing was a way easier solve. I know that probably somewhere in the itty bitty manual or in the web page explaining how to use my computer there is some mention about how to correctly use the battery. For the first few days of using my computer I was near a plug so I left it plugged in and didn't think about the battery. I had put it in when I open the package and that was the last time I thought about it. Maybe when I changed rooms I recognized that I could cause I had a battery in it so I could unplug and not stop what I was doing. But then I needed to go to a spot that to have a plug in would have been a problem. After all I had a battery I would just go. Not so. When I unplugged my computer went immediately to sleep. So I called the technical support people and the young man stepped me through this hocus pocus thing with taking the battery out, turning the computer back on, hitting the f10 key till something happened and then doing something else. I don't remember what all I did or the technical terms for what happened. I remember him saying something about "build up" somewhere that needed to be discharged?

Anyway what he did helped and then he told me not to leave the battery in when I plug in. So now I have a routine for taking out my battery while I run the computer on AC. I just slip it into a nifty little bag that I bought for my lap top the last day I was out before I went down with the Romantic Influenza.