I Saw it on Facebook

   

So, which are you?

A.  Next to the wall.

B.  Over the top.     

All my years growing up, Mama put hers on to come over the top (B).  Now Mama went to school back when home ec was a very serious subject. Mother would cut her shortening to get air bubbles out when she measured for a recipe.  She'd whip down the seam edges inside a garment when she sewed.  So, I trusted her judgement on this totally.

When I started keeping house, the roll went on over the top.  And that's how it's been for over thirty years.  

Then one day last fall, Pete put a roll on himself.  Next to the wall. (A)  Now I was ecstatic that ANYONE other than me put a roll on!!  Usually they just sit a new roll on top for me to put on.  But after all these years of habit, I just had to switch it.  

Not to long afterward, Pete loaded another roll...to the wall. I was like "Hey, sweetie, I'm proud of you, but couldn't you hang it the right way, over the top?"  And he has a mini-melt down.  Started sputtering about that's how his mama always hung the roll and he's always had to deal with it my way, etc. etc.

Now, I surely admired his mama, too.  And I often feel totally overloaded and overwhelmed these days.  And I decided to call a truce.  When he hangs one, I leave it like he put it up.  And when I hang one, sometimes I hang it his way.  In honor of Hazel, his mom.  And because I figure thirty years is a long time not to have it your way.  

Now, leave a comment and tell me which way the roll rolls in your home.

The Tail is Wagging the Dog

So, at work yesterday, one of the girls said, let me tell you what my sister said happened at her school where she teaches.  And she went on to say that the Book Mobile was at the school. And ONE parent objected because among all the other books, there were some that spoke of God or Christianity. So the ignorant school district forced them to remove those books!!!

Are you hopping mad yet?!  If you aren't you should be and shame on you for not being so.  All over America one or two bellyachers and hollarers are scaring school districts and cities into giving up rights that are STILL protected by the Constitution and supported in The Courts by throwing a tantrum and stomping their feet and threatening to sue.  

If it doesn't scare you and sicken you, then I have only one question for you?  Are you just plain stupid?

Today it's Christian books, symbols, speech, etc.  But what about tomorrow?  What group may decide to use the same tactics to threaten certain science publications that don't agree with their views.  Or history publications because it portrays their homeland at a time when it was behaving badly?  Or medical publications because they don't agree with the treatments put forth?  Fahrenheit 451 was a work of fiction.  But are you gonna sit back and let it become a reality?!

Say you could care less about books, symbols and free speech?  Then why don't you care that a small minority is changing the face of America?  This is supposed to be a Democracy!  Do you understand the meaning of the word? Do you really want to end up living in a land where 90% of the people are living a way of life that only pleases the 10%?

I'll tell you what I told my co-worker.  Send you sister this link:
Liberty Institute.  There she can find resources under issues explaining what her rights still are under the law as it stands. Students can find the truth about their rights.  And the military and cities can find information and help as well!  You can get help if you or an organization you are involved with are attacked in this manner.  And you can get involved and give help in many forms, from volunteering, signing petitions to giving financial donations.

If you sit back and do nothing, don't even open your mouth to complain when the freedoms we have are gone. In Texas when a few are trying to ride heard on the majority we say the tail is wagging the dog. I say, chop the tail off, so the dog may live in peace!

  

A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal: Musical Memories

Life & Faith in Caneyhead is all about my life, thoughts, ideals, beliefs, opinions, and experiences.  Since that is the focus of my blog, each year I choose a theme that will allow me to further explore and expand while staying true to my focus. 


I mentioned in a previous post how music stirs up memories for me in more detail than any other catalyst.  My 2015 Theme is:   Musical Memories.  

Just what will that entail?  For each day of the Challenge, I have chosen a group, singer, song or genre.  I plan to include a picture or album cover to correspond with each day's entry and will either link to Spotify for you to listen in or include the lyrics in the entry.

Yet, that is not the focus.  Only the setting.  The springboard, if you will.  From this I will replay for you my memories that are evoked by this musical experience.

It is my hope, that you will find a connection either in memories the musical prompt brings to mind from your life, or that my memories will trigger memories of your own. Please share those here with me in the comments and we'll stroll down memory lane together.

"Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind.

Memories, sweetened through the ages just like wine."

Written by Billy Strange & Mac Davis

Performed by the King, Elvis Presley

Memories by Elvis at the '68 Comeback

  

I Saw It on Facebook

Okay, so the truth be told this needs no explanation.  Every woman enjoys a little eye candy sometimes. And truth be told I've never seen a hot delivery guy.  

But for take out, I recommend New York Pizza and Pasta in downtown Beaumont.  I'm just saying....

Spring IS around the corner!

Glorious sunshine for the first time in a week and a half! Temps up to the mid seventies.  Evidence is clear in Caneyhead that Spring really is around the corner!

Red Bud trees are blooming in yards and in the woods.  A little town near here has a "Red Bud Festival" every year.

Honeysuckle has started blooming in the edges of the woods as well.

In the yard, there's clover here and there.

   

And the peach trees are sporting their blooms.

Anywhere they can, dewberries are blooming out as well.

Not to be outdone, the pine trees are doing their own thing.

So, for a while now in S.E. Texas, no matter what color your car, it will have a dusty yellow topcoat courtesy of Mother Nature.

Which brings us to this Maxine Cartoon.

Thirty-One Years

These days, thirty-one years at anything is a long time.  Our father's and grandfather's often worked for the same company that long or longer.  Our parents and grandparents were all married that long or much longer, unless death parted them.  So, it's easy to understand why I'm so proud and happy that Pete and I are celebrating 31 years of marriage today!  It's an accomplishment!  As the Gatlin Brothers sang "We're number one!  We've fought every battle together."

So, I ask you to celebrate with us.  And I share this from an entry ten years ago:

What convinced you the most in your choice of a spouse?

Humm....was it any one thing? Keep in mind, I was not allowing Christ to be Lord of my life at the time. So I did not consult Him, or seek His will. I made a purely human, worldly, carnal choice when I picked my sweet and precious Pete. He did everything a man was "supposed" to do: opened every door, pulled out every chair, took my coat, you name it. He courted me. Also, when he was out of work briefly, he spent his very last dime on a Valentine card for me. So I knew he was not selfish. He was handsome and fun. Could, can, make me laugh. He respected his parents very much. All the women in his life highly recommended him. But the two things that touched my heart the most were that he was content and able to just hold me, cuddle. And the fact that he was strong enough to stand up to me when I was totally wrong or irrational. Most of the thoughtful and kind men I had ever dated would crumble and back down when I strongly asserted myself. So I felt the odds were good he would never come to resent me and I would never lose all respect for him. So far, this has held true. Twenty-one years together, this past March. (But I owe God much credit and thanks for that!)  

And I ask you to please go and read my tribute to my husband:  This is Dedicated to the One I Love - A Working Man.  (Keep in mind it was written before he found Christ.)

Last year, being our thirtieth, Pete bought me an anniversary ring for my right hand.  (The only jewelry he's ever bought.  I had Mama's rings Daddy had given her when we married and I wanted to use them.  I'm not a big jewelry person, so it was never on my gift list.)  He hinted he might get me one.  And I plainly told him that if he did, all that mattered to me was that he pick it out himself.  I wanted his taste, as I respect his taste in all things.

Our anniversary fell on a Wednesday, the second Wednesday of the month, which is the Business Meeting and Birthday Fellowship at the church.  We have a business meeting and then afterward, everyone with a birthday or anniversary comes up front for the congregation to sing to and afterward we all adjourn to the Fellowship Hall for cake and ice cream.

We both wanted to be there to celebrate our day with them, especially since it fell on the exact date.  But when they called us up front, Pete had a surprise worked out for me. He pulled out my anniversary ring and presented it to me in front of the church.  In front of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  It was beautiful.  And special.  And just another reason I've managed to love this man all these years through everything life could throw at us.

What is your most memorable anniversary and why?

I Saw it on Facebook

Do you ever wake up in the morning and as you crawl out of bed you find that part of your body forgot how to work overnight?

Sometimes I jump out of the bed so fast, that it takes about five steps to realize something is wrong.  Usually, as the day progresses things slowly loosen up and the neurons find their pathway again and every thing begins to work like it should.  

But then there are days when something just has a kink in it all day long.  On those days it seems the only way to correct the situation is to go back to bed and sleep and hope everything reboots correctly in the morning.

I'll Have to Remember to Take My Lunch Late on Thursdays

So, normally, I stop and eat my lunch at work about 11:00 AM, right before or after I put the routes together.  I only have coffee for breakfast, so I'm usually hungry by then.  After I eat, I take my mid-day smoke break and chill by reading.  It gets my mind totally away from work and leaves me feeling ready to plunge back into whatever they throw at me.  So, I'm all finished and back to work by Noon in my Central Time Zone.  

But, now the A to Z manic fun has begun.  And I've missed two A to Z Chats already.  So, I've got to remember to do one more thing before I stop and eat on Thursdays, so I can begin my lunch at Noon or later and take part!  

If you tweet (or are a twit), and are participating in this year's Challenge, then I heartily recommend you join in as many chats as you can to stay in the know.  Here's the schedule:

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge Twitter Chats

‪#‎atozchallenge‬ ‪#‎AZchat‬

2015 - Thursdays - 1pm-2pm EST (NY, USA) / 8pm-9pm EST (NY, USA)

FEB 19 - 1pm / 8pm

FEB 26 - 1pm / 8pm

MAR 5 - 1pm / 8pm

MAR 12 - 1pm / 8pm

MAR 19 - 1pm / 8pm

MAR 26 - 1pm / 8pm

APR 2 - 1pm / 8pm

APR 9 - 1pm / 8pm

APR 16 - 1pm / 8pm

APR 23 - 1pm / 8pm

APR 30 -1pm / 8pm

If you are unsure of what time that is in your area, you can use this handy tool to find out:  Time and Zone Converter .

Then at the correct day and time, just go to Twitter and enter one of the hash tags above and voila! you are there.

Another great way to stay connected to everything A to Z is to sign up for The #atozchallenge Daily .  This is a cool way to stay informed in a "newspaper" style.    

Ensign B of Tremp's Troops

Time Saving A to Z Tips

The A to Z Challenge is an extremely fun time, but also a very hectic time.  I want to share a few things I've picked up in my past three years.  While this post might be redundant on some levels, perhaps at least one tip can save you or others you are connecting with some time. 

1.  Clean the cookies on your browser.  Now try loading your blog.  Did it jump right up there or creep up?  Too much graphic intense material can slow down you blog's load time considerably.  (i.e. oodles of pictures, videos, music).  If your blog didn't load quickly, you might consider lightening the load before April.  With so many blogs to visit, no one wants to waste time or bandwidth on a lot of extra stuff.  

2.  Make leaving comments as easy as possible.  Take off the verification and trust your hosts spam filters.  Blogger's is excellent, I might add.  Don't know about the others.

3.  When you visit a blog and comment, many people will be wanting to return the visit.  But if you have five blogs, and only one is in the A to Z Challenge, or you are hoping to highlight a specific blog, then they are going to be very confused when they go to your profile page and try to decide where to repay the visit.  Instead, let them know in your comment, where they can repay the visit if they so desire.  It's really easy.  

Here's what I past into my comment when I visit:

All you have to do is open an email or office or sticky note.  Type in what I have here and substitute your own blog URL and name where mine are.  Then save it where it is handy (I save mine on a sticky note), and before you go visiting, open it, copy it and then paste it in each comment you leave.  That way, everyone will know what blog you are posting to or promoting.  Saves them a big chunk of time and no guessing games.  And let's you drive visitors where you want them.

4.  Write as many posts as you can before the challenge starts and use the scheduling tool in the right hand column of you Blogger blog to allow you to post it on the correct day.  If you use a platform that doesn't offer that option you could write your posts in office or some other app and then all you'd have to do is copy paste and post on the correct day.  That way if life gets busy you'll still make your post and you'll have more time for visiting, replying to comments, and such.

5. If you are using Blogger, you can add any blog URL to your reading list, even if they use another platform or don't have a "follow me" gadget.  Just click on their home page or blog title.  Copy the URL in the browser.  On your dashboard, under where it says Reading List on the left, click add.  Then paste in the URL.  Click save and give it a little time and you'll see their posts appear. 

I hope at least one of these suggestions will be a help to you.  If you're not into the challenge yet, click the logo in my sidebar and go sign up!  You'll not regret it.  

 Ensign B of Tremp's Troops