From Thanksgiving to Black Friday

Our Thanksgiving turned out to be a really good one.  We slept in, then gathered up things and went into the deer camp.  It was quiet, peaceful, beautiful, almost perfect temperature!  We got the fire going, put a picnic ham on to boil.  I cut up potatoes and made tator soup.  Had brought fruit salad me and Bug made together at the house Wednesday evening.  Warmed up some green beans.  And Bubba fried up the tenderloin out of the 8-point buck he got last weekend.
We all gathered around the picnic table after dark, gave thanks and ate until we were stuffed.  We relaxed together around the fire.  I came home for the night.  Bug started to, but then decided to stay with the guys.  (She told me she was most thankful for Bubba.  What a way to warm a Mama's heart!)
The family spent today in at the camp.  I spent the day in bed.  (Believe me, you don't want to know!)  The guys brought my little Bug out this afternoon and fed all the livestock here.  They went back in.  So I guess you could say this was a girls' night. 
I can't begin to describe how thankful I am for God's love, His creation, His salvation, my family, my home and all that goes with it.  But I think as I grow older I appreciate more and more the intangibles.....peace, joy, comfort, inner-strength.  These are the things my own prayers of thanksgiving have centered around.  I hope that everyone would be blessed in this way!
As a nation, we spent yesterday attempting to honor God.  Then I sign on the Internet today, and see people fighting over things as they shop with an eye toward Christmas.  We just finished one holiday dedicated to God.  They are supposedly preparing for the next holiday to honor God...and this is how they behave?!  
Retailers refer to it as Black Friday, because this begins the season that can put their books in the black even if they have run in the red all year.  Am I the only one who sees the irony in the name and the behavior..."Black"?!

(Black:  Death, evil.  Dark, unseemly. )

You Are Invited!

                                      

 

You are cordially invited to visit The Best of Caneyhead!

Hosted at Blogspot, it features the entries that I have enjoyed writing the most, the ones that came straight from the heart the ones that seemed to be given to me.  And some that were surprises to me at they seemed to touch others.

This event is free and open to the public.  Dress is casual.  Come and go as you please.  Buffet will change frequently, so come back often.  Those who have only sampled Caneyhead or just recently acquired a taste for it will hopefully find it stimulating.  Devoted regulars are the guests of honor.

No RSVP required, but comments at the door are welcome and can be left by anyone as "other".

Hope you can attend.

Barbara

 

 

Been Thinking Things Over

 Okay, I've been sitting around, looking around, researching, thinking and just mulling over this AD thing.  I'd prefer to have nothing on my journal.  But then again the webspace is AOL's and not mine.  I have nothing against anyone who has chosen to leave.    I'm going to try to stay in touch with them at their new places of residence, but I'll miss them in this community.  I do have a problem with some of the hurt that has been dealt about because of all of this.  I just pray everyone can forgive, heal and move on.

For me the biggest issue about ads, is if an ad were placed here that I just could not support as a Christian.....would AOL remove it?  If they didn't I'd have no alternative but to move on. 

Then there is a little thought that if someone somewhere is benefiting from my writing in a monetary way, then I certainly deserve some compensation.  I write here as a sounding board and hopefully as a light in the darkness......not with an eye toward profit.  Yet I certainly don't want to be used either.

I've found there is a great big Blog World out there, with many options.  And I am toying with the idea of starting one elsewhere.  Maybe a mirror blog....sort of the best of Caneyhead.  Who knows?  Then there is always the issue of time.  And my life allows me just barely enough time to tend this journal, visit and read ya'lls and try to stay on top of the Sisters in Christ Prayer Alert ministry.

Personally, I believe it is the addition of AIM users to AOL's journal pages and the broadening of the reader base (so they hope) that has driven them to start this ad thing.  Are they evil?  I don't think so.  I think they are corporate America doing what they do best, seizing the day.  Do they listen, do they care about us at all?  I think so, within reason....I've got Spell Check sitting here waiting on me.  Most everything I know of PC's and the Internet I learned from AOL. 

Lastly, and most important, Caneyhead is Caneyhead.  No matter where it's at.  No matter what the latest fad or phase.  It's still just a small community tucked in the pines that struggles to live, love and prosper.  Saints and sinners.   Young and old.  We still share, we still help our neighbors, we still enjoy a good visit and a hot cup of coffee.  So, if you're passing through, come on in....put your feet up, relax and visit a spell.  I'll be here.  I'm not leaving. 

 

An ODD Assortment

Geez, Louise!  I was over at Terrie's and she had a link to find out how much your blog is worth......mine was $9,597.18!!   I am very amazed!  But what does this actually mean?  Is somebody buying?

Oh, well....here's a wonderful little tip I learned and tried.  Friend of ours house smelt SO good when we were over there.....even though they smoke.  I asked about it.  She buys Arm & Hammer Carpet & Room Oder Eliminator and instead of putting on the carpet, she puts a thin layer in the bottom of each ash tray.  So I bought me some and did the same.  Sprinkled some in bottom of my trash cans.  Had the idea that you could layer it in a pretty glass bowl with rocks or marbles and set in room like potpourri!

I love my new part time job.....but every since the storm it has been a little more hours than I truly wanted.  Looks like this week may end up being like it should be.  I hope so!  I only just Tuesday caught up on all the laundry since the storm!  And I had everything washed up before it hit. 

Seems like there was something else I wanted to tell you, but I can't recall what it was.  Oh, well.  That's my brain! 

Oh, Bubba killed a spike buck opening weekend of deer season!  Proud for him.  Everyone of course enjoying the treat of deer meat. 

Guess that's it.  Wonder if this entry has decreased the value of my journal????!   I'd better go check. 

Oh, now I know what it was!  Paula had mentioned The Pig Stand Restaruants some time back.  Well, is one on Calder in Beaumont.  It is a wonderful place.  Mixture of buger joint, cafe, truck stop.  You can sit outside if you please, like at the older burger stands.  The semi-circle shape of the building harkens you to a time when folks would drive up, get a coke or malted and sit and stand around outside on a cool evening and talk.  The tables and booths, the menus, the waitresses all put you in mind of an old time cafe.  A place where people could gather to sip their coffee, read the paper and swap yarns.  And the food!  The delicious taste and super large portions would rival any truck stop you can think of.  Unless you are very hungry, think of splitting your order with a friend or mate.  The walls on the inside are full of memoribilia from bygone eras....schools that are no more; cars that you never see on the road, only at shows.  And what has to be the one of the largest collections of ceramic pigs I have ever seen!  Anyway, they are celebrating their 84th year of business this week!!!!  What a milestone!  So few businesses can say that.  And even fewer restaruants! 

I'm so glad I remembered what I wanted to tell you!  Like my pc, my brain still works.....the processor is just getting old, there never seems to be enough RAM and the disc is nearly full!  :o)

Thoughts on Faith for Stacy

Faith.....the essence of things unseen, of things hoped for.  Faith, necessary to a relationship with God.   It is gifted to us by God.  Free and for the asking......enough to accept Christ.  Then others are blessed with more, as a part of their Spiritual gifts when they receive Christ.   I seem to have inherited an ample share, on the whole.  God didn't bless me with this gift because he likes me more.  He blessed me so that I may share it.  Spread it around.  Work it.

Faith is a journey.  The path goes up and down through valleys and over mountains.  Sometimes the sun is in your eyes.  Sometimes a fog rolls in.  Sometimes trees and brush hang over the path and hinder your way.  But you have to keep taking steps.  Small ones.  Or big strides.  Depends on the strength of those faith muscles that day.  Depends on how far the Guide has marked for that days journey, also.  The Guide is dependable.  You have to trust that.  And that in itself is a big part of faith.  He'll urge you on and sometimes He'll tarrly His stride to wait on you.....quietly.  When those muscles cramp up and your knees buckle below you, he'll catch you and carry you if you just whisper His name.  And then sometimes if your throat is too parched from  the journey to speak His name, He'll call it for you.....from His Sweet Spirit within you.

Faith is much like a muscle.  It has to be excercised.  How do you excercise it?  By using it.  When do you use it?  To a point everyday.  But then there are other times it really gets a work out!  And there are blessed times of "cool down".  When you revel in the afterglow of faith extended and met with Faithfulness.

There are times when you can't feel your own faith.  Sometimes because it is out in front, driving and supporting you.  Sometimes because it is weak and fragile.  Sometimes it's like breathing, and at other times it takes every concious fiber of your being.  Sometimes you are bare-knuckles hanging on to the last shread for dear life.  Sometimes you are rolling in the green pastures of abundance.

As for advice.  Stay near the source.  Even when you don't feel like it.  Even if you feel let down or ignored.  Stay in the Word.  It's full of faith commended, faith tested, faith failing, faith restoring examples.  Continue to pray, even if your prayers sound more like rants.  I say it often, but He's big enough to take it!  And He loves you enough to put up with it!  You can't make Him unlove you.  He is unchanging. 
Draw on every memory of faith you have.  That's what they are there for.  Little exercises of the past, to strengthen us in the here and now.  Recall every answer, every gesture.  Praise Him and thank Him for these.  Even if you don't feel like it now.  (If you love me you will obey me He says.  We are told repeatedly to give thanks in all things.)  Do it because you are supposed to.

New to faith, not enough life experience and water under the bridge?  Surround yourself with folks that have a testimony of faith.  Call on them often.  Hear their stories.  Over and over.  Use their blocks to begin building your tower. 

And don't ever think yourself unworthy or second class when your faith waivers!  We all do it in some form, to some extent!  You need look no further than the twelve to see twelve examples of this.  Fact is on our own, none of us are worthy.  We are worthy only because He decided we were worthy on a hill two thousand years ago. 

And buy some mustard seed!  Get a good look at it.  For He tells us from His own mouth if we have faith even of the grain of mustard seed, we can speak to mountains and move them.  Mountains of doubt, fear, dread, indifference.  Any mountain on the horizon of your life.

Whatever else, know you are not alone Stacy!

Storm Stories: Glimpses from the Heart

  Today  I want to share some glimpses into the heart with you.  Share some things people actually did in and around our area for one another in the wake of Rita.  Large things, simple things.  Most I believe for altruistic reasons, but some may have been with motives to promote themselves.  But God is amazing and can use even those actions to benefit others! 

Local News Anchors and radio personalities, some who stayed during the storm, some who evacuated and came right back.  They went into studios that had suffered damage.  They ran on generators, in the heat, to broadcast out local news and helpful information.  They searched and they researched.  They connected us.  Some still return home at the end of the day to homes with blue roofs and no cable.

The Hardin County Sheriff's Dept., who responded to call after call.  Who helped many who had no way to help themselves.  Elderly people who needed ice for their meds.  Older folks who needed a hot meal.  People who needed gas to run their generators and even help cranking them.

FEMA, the National Guard and the Red Cross, who tirelessly handed out meals, ice and water each day of the week.  In heat, in misquitos.  Away from their own homes and families.

Mario Gonzales, Pete's cousin who brought in gasoline for the ambulance service to run on.  Who parked a large BBQ cooker in the parking lot of a destroyed convenience store.  Organized volunteers to keep it going.....cooking and handing out hot plate lunches to anyone who stopped by.  Fed an awful lot of the folks who were in the area to help us.  As frozen meat became defrosted, people dropped off their items, the food was cooked and passed out.  Waste not, want not they say.

The woman who phoned a radio show to say that she was caring for survivors in her home and didn't have enough water.  Was asking did they think it would be alright for her to go over to her neighbors pool and dip out water for flushing comodes, etc.  This is respect of others and their belongings.

My husband, Pete, who went from house to house down our road switching people's water pumps that were wired for 220 and no good with their generator, over to 110 so they could have water in their homes. 

Those neighbors who opened their homes to me to use their phones that did work or their washers that were ran by generators.

Our own family.  My sister and husband who loaded us down with koolaid and sugar, brought us gas when it wasn't plentiful.  Pete's siblings that brought ice when it was hard for us to get and food and other supplies.....sharing out of what they had received.

The business I work for, that opened the doors to their undamaged location to allow displaced workers to shower and sleep there.  Who cooked and fed every worker and anyone else who stopped in every day for a week.  Who brought each worker in one by one to help them get on the internet and register with FEMA.

The many men who left home and family to come help restore our infrustructure.  They worked incredible long days for weeks.  Ate as we did.  Slept in tents at old fair grounds and rodeo arenas. 

The many companies, who forgave monthy payments for a month or even three so folks could get their feet back under them.

The list goes on and on.  I could never mention them all.  But you get the idea.  Folks helping folks and doing what had to be done. 

There is a lot of talk and books and such around these days about angels.  People seem to think that angels are something spectacular.  Actually they are God's go-fors.  I believe in them.  But the amazing, the brillant thing of God is that His Spirit indwells all who believe in Christ.  That ever since the assension of Christ, God's preferred method of delivering help and aid is us.  Ordinary, extra-ordinary, people. 

                                  

Hey, Gang! Jessica is back!

  Say, ya'll!  Jessica is back!  You know, Countrybumkin779.  The one with "the everyday mundane life of a housewife" !  She' okay and she's BACK!  So run on over and welcome her......tell her how much you've missed her.  Or, go let her know you are looking forward to meeting her.  

I'll have a Storm Stories update soon.  By the weekend anyhow.  My part time week has turned into almost full time!  :( 

Thanks folks!

Barbara