Tour of My Caneyhead

Beautiful weekend around Caneyhead.  Outside yesterday enjoying everything.  Made me want to share some with you.  So enjoy your mini tour of my Caneyhead. 

Fresh Yard Eggs from Our Hens

Pete's Picture of the Large New Moon Over the Jack Gore Baygall



Bug's puppy, Dezi, that she got from her Uncle Benny.



Pete's dog Lucy, that he got from his sister Mary.

The Lady of the Hill

Kate Jasmines

Large cedar that slapped the roof during Hurricane Rita

Stand of willows by our little pond.



Figs waiting to ripen in the sun.  Can you find fourteen?

Old tractor that we still use.

Hope you enjoyed your afternoon here with me.  God bless and come again soon!

Barbara

P.S.  If you haven't taken my poll in the sidebar yet, please do before you leave!

Beginnings & Endings: The Beginnings

The week preceeding Mother's Day was not just a week of endings, but a week filled with beginnings!

First, our precious little Baby Ruth turned a month old on that Thursday.  She's growing like a weed and truly beautiful. 

Then on Saturday, we were invited down to Bubba and Candy Girls house for a little belated birthday party/mother's day cookout.  That was a first!  It would tickle me pink if it became a Bubby birthday/Mother's Day tradition.  He cooked cabbage & sausage in the house and his best friend, Parker, cooked ribs outside on the pit.  His mom was there, too.  Along with some mutual friends of all of ours.  They played washers and horse shoes.  I mostly played with Baby Ruth.  Did mix up my potatoe salade to go with what the guys were doing.

This was Candy Girl's first Mother's Day.  I picked her a bouquet of our kate jasmines and put in an old bottle and took to her to make her living room smell good.  She's such a good little mama!  I'm so proud of her.  Bubba is no slouch as a daddy either, but he leaves diaper changes to her and since Baby Ruth is being breast fed, that duty goes to her as well.

When the big day got here, I couldn't wipe the silly grin off my face sitting in church Sunday morning with my whole "new" family on the row:  Me, Pete, Bug, Bubba, Candy Girl and Baby Ruth.  Amazing how our family almost doubled in just a year!  Counting my blessings and reflecting on how Our God keeps His Promises, even if we begin to despair.  Thinking of the hurdles He got us through to get to this point.  Seeing His hand in so many things.

Beautiful when Pete helped to pass out the roses to the mothers - white for those whose mothers were gone on to thier reward, and red for those who still had their mother on earth.  I of course had white, Candy Girl got a red one.

Yes, it was a time of wonderful, memorable firsts I'll always cherish.

Barbara

P.S.  Like Life and Faith in Caneyhead on Facebook to get more of the inside scoop on what goes in Caneyhead....including pictures of Baby Ruth!  Check my sidebar.

Beginnings & Endings: The Endings

The week preceding Mother's Day was a week of Beginnings and Endings. 

First I found that my last remaining uncle, Uncle Rene, had passed away on the sixth.  I went up to the viewing at Farmers Funeral Home after work on Tuesday evening.  Sad, but so good to see cousins I rarely get to see. Mostly Uncle Rene and Aunt Norma's children.

There was their oldest, Buzzy.  He could always draw Snoopy as good as Charles Schulz.  Made him seem real "cool" to me as a youngster.  He served in Vietnam and has had to deal with all that entailed.  After he was back, he served as a volunteer fireman.  That always made him seem real cool to me as a younger adult.

And there was Bruce.  Bruce seemed real cool to me, too when I was a teenager.  He had a motorcycle at one time and for some reason I'll never understand, mama and daddy let him take me for a ride.  It was the days of bell bottoms and he took some curves so tight that they brushed against the pavement.  Didn't even scare me, after all, I was with my older, cool cousin.  LOL  Later he was my idol because he got a beautiful white and blue Mustang Cobra.

And there was Linda.  Just a few years older than me.  Just enough for me to look up to some.  But not so much as she wouldn't play with me as a child.  Me and a boy from their home town that I had met at church camp double dated with her and her boyfriend to their senior prom.  And I was asked by her to be in her first wedding. 

And there was a cousin there from Arkansas as well.  Lawrence Wayne.  He's one of Aunt Catherine's boys.  He had been a Sheriff's Deputy up there at one time.  And he and his wife have drove the big rigs up and down the roads.

Of course Aunt Norma was there.  She said she just felt numb.  No wonder.  Mama Ruth and Daddy Jess had let her marry Rene when she was just fifteen, before he left to fight in WWII.  By the time he got back she was eighteen.  A friend of theirs told a story at the funeral home about the first big fight they had.  Said Norma stormed off to the bedroom and began packing her bags to go home to mama.  In a little while Rene walked in, got out a bag, threw in a pair of jeans and Norma stopped and asked, "Where are you going?"  He looked her in the eyes and said tenderly, "With you."    

The Uncle Rene I knew and remember always had something to say.  A story, a place to talk about.  And when he finished, you almost always walked away feeling like you learned something. He served in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theater. Him and Norma both sung in their church choir.  They traveled a lot.  All their lives, but especially after retirement.  They shared a love of photography.  Pictures of any and every occasion, place and person in their lives. 

What I didn't realize until I watched the wonderful slide show at the funeral home was how truly handsome he had been.  How he and Norma loved the beach.  Pictures of him in trousers rolled up and a t-shirt, sun shades:  looked like a candid snap shot of movie star from by gone days.

My other ending came on Bubba's birthday that Wednesday...it was the first time I was unable to hug, kiss, see, touch my boy on his birthday.  His company had sent him to Houston on a job and he was stuck out of town. 

See the next post for The Beginnings.

Barbara



 

Reflections on the 2012 A-Z April Challenge

Suppose I jumped into the A-Z Challenge without much thought or reflection.  I had seen where my friend Betty had posted about planing to participate in it.  The idea stuck in my head.  I was just getting back to blogging, wanting to settle back down to posting on a regular basis.  Finally the thought formed that it'd be a great way to get myself back into the "habit" of turning to my blog to express myself again.  And it really didn't seem so awfully hard.  


I tried to direct my entries toward people and places from my life.  A couple of entries strayed a little, but overall I stuck to the theme.  Some decent writing.  Not necessarily the most read, the most commented on, or even my personal favorites.  But overall, I'm happy with the result.  Posts are a little like children.  Can be hard to say you love one more than another.  But I think the two that are closest to my heart are the two that have lifelong themes embedded into them:  B is for Dam B and R is for Radio.  It reminds me of the continuity of the past and the present.  That though things and people or gone or changed, they are not forgotten. Reassuring for a woman who had lost her mama, her daddy, every grandparent and one of two sisters by the time she was twenty-three.


Perhaps that is why this experience became cathartic for me.  Yesterday afternoon as I was washing dishes, and after I had chided Bug for taking her daddy for granted, I began to cry.  Cry for the teenager that lost her biggest fan and champion.  Cry for the college student that couldn't believe the nymph in her live was gone.  Cry for the young woman who eloped because a wedding without mama and daddy would have made a joyous day a sad occasion.  I grieved for the first time in a very long time not for them - they are together in Heaven with our Lord & Savior - but for me.  For me who hasn't gotten to hear their voice, feel their touch, enjoy their company for almost thirty years.


I didn't know this post was going here.  I seldom know which direction a post will take.  I formulate an idea, and then I let my heart and fingers take over.  Try to stay out of their way with things like grammar and storylines and crap that English teachers shove down your throats but yield terse, confined results.  No offense to teachers.  One must first learn conformity to understand how not to conform. 


Yes, I do not regret in one bit taking part in this challenge.  And I would gladly participate again.  I would recommend it.


Barbara

A Prophet is not accepted in his home town.

In the book of Luke, Christ Jesus said "Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. ... said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is not a Prophet who is received in his town.”

Now granted I am not actually a prophet.  And I'm certainly not Jesus.  And what I do here on this blog is nothing of life changing importance.  But I can somewhat commiserate with our Savior in my blogging experience.

Let me elaborate.  In my own household, my family seldom if ever reads my blog entries unless I point them out to them or leave them up on the computer and they happen to sit down and get to reading before they knew what bit them.  Usually, they seem to like what they do read, but it's seldom a big deal.  They don't leave comments and they rarely comment in person to me.

Then there is my extended circle of family and close friends.  Most of them have knowledge that I blog.  Some don't understand it at all.  Some occasionally come by and read but never comment on the web or in person.  A couple have come here just to be nosey or try to stir up trouble between me and Pete.  And of course they don't comment. 

I have a small core that adore what I write here and try to read every post.  They even print posts out to show to others or to pass to my sister who doesn't have Internet.  Although they may applaud my efforts in person, they never comment on my blog.

There have been a few posts I really wanted a select number of my work colleagues to read and I have emailed them links to the appropriate entry.   Some commented in person enough to let me know they read that post.  But they never left a comment.

I have even ran into a person or two that know my blog and have read it and when they realize I am that Barbara they are tickled to tell me they have read L & F, yet they have not commented.

Why is it that other bloggers and virtual strangers will comment, but not anyone I can point to and say I know IRL?  Is it that you are that shy?  Do you think if you comment the world will suddenly know your full name, where you live and what you had for breakfast?  Do you think you have to belong to Blogger or sign up for some unwanted service to leave a comment? 

Let me put your mind at ease.  If you click on the spot that says "comment" at the end of a post, the page will expand.  You'll be able to see any comments that are already there.  Under that will be a blank box for you to type your comment in.  Directly under that box is a drop down menu labeled "comment as".

Now you can see that you can sign in and comment under several blogging associations, with an AIM screen name or an Open ID account.  This is great if you want to generate traffic and create back links to your own blog or profile.  If you have a web page you'd like to promote or maybe have me visit, you can sign in with your name (first name, whole name, nickname - it's up to you) with the link to your site included. 

And then too, you can choose anonymous, which won't link to anything.  You can reveal your identity in your comment or stay completely incognito.  It's all up to you!

You just don't want to comment on Blogger for some reason or another?  Comment on my Twitter feed by the appropriate post.  Or on the Life & Faith in Caneyhead page on Facebook.  

The point is, if you read and especially if you enjoy, then join in the fun of it all and comment!

Barbara