A Little Glimpse of Heaven...

My family talked a lot about heaven this weekend.  As the end of the world approached Saturday night, I made the family go furniture shopping with the promise of dinner out hanging over their heads. My son only went because he really didn't want to scavage around and find something for himself!  My daughter went because she knew I had a coupon to TGIFridays, boy, was that a disappointment!  We won't be doing that again!

Anyway, we talked about how if the rapture really did happen right then, would we ever laugh at the fact that the last thing we did on earth was shop for furniture for our earthly home!  As I get older, I honestly would like for God to call me home while I'm still walking around here.  I also would like it to be sooner rather than later because my own children are still young enough not to have made dangerous and grave choices that I worry about.  If God called us home, I would not worry about them anymore!  I'm not so sure that's a real good reason to want the rapture to take place but I'm a human mother....what can I say? 

My daughter did not want the rapture to take place friday night!  She has a long list of things to do before God calls her home! Some of those include:  going to Falls Creek, going to high school, going on vacation this summer, etc! I had to laugh because I remember being thirteen and thinking the same exact thing!  Oh, how time changes your perspective.

Earlier that saturday morning, I caught a little glimpse of what heaven may be like. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning. I was wearing shorts and flip flops and working in my gardens.  I always listen to Christian radio because music sticks with me and I tend to sing out loud most of the day so I to imbend in the brain only stuff I won't be embarrassed to sing out loud in front of my kids.  I was pruning roses and I caught myself singing a praise song,...don't remember it now...but it was about singing and worshiping God. 

I came to the realization that I just might already be in heaven because, here I was, doing something I loved to do even though it was work and I was praising God while I was doing it!  As a kid, I sometimes got the idea that heaven would be church all the time.  You know, sitting still in the pews and singing hymns - not the most fun by kid standards.  As I got older, I began to think that in heaven, we will have jobs but it will be an honor to do them and we'd be singing and praising all day long.....just like I was doing out in my roses! 

I do know that I have no idea what heaven will be like.....I do know that if it is even close to last Saturday morning, I'm ready to go today!

It's the End of the world!!!!

So chicken little is at it again!  This time, it's an eighty-something year old man who says the rapture is tonight!  Oh, has he mentioned that he miscalculated last time?  Yes, there was a last time!

Got me to thinking....what if today really is the last day I have on earth?  What would I do differently?  Would I still sleep in, work out in the yard, yell at the kids to clean their rooms, etc....or would I get up at the crack of dawn to see the sun rise one last time, make a killer breakfast for my family and spend the day having the time of my life?

I would hope to think I would do the latter.  But here's the deal, we don't know if the world will end today. We don't know if we have another breath so we trudge through our days getting things 'done'.  We can't live each day like it's our last because for most of us tomorrow will come and things we didn't do today will still need to be done. We have to work to buy food, clothes, shelter....those things to help extend our lives! 

I try each day to spend just a few minutes thinking about what 'if', what if I don't wake up tomorrow, what if Jesus comes, what if that car pulls out in front of me?  I try to take that moment to think about how my day is going.  We all need to savor living a little more in the United States and not worry about getting as much.  Being content is something that we need to decide is a way of life.  Being content with having a job that pays the bills. Being content in the home we live in and the car we drive.  Being first is sometimes not the best.  Being content and savoring each day like it is our last......I think that will satisfy us much, much more!

Loving the rain!

We had rain last night, lovely soaking rain!  We need it badly but not as badly as the poor people out in western Oklahoma. It's basically a desert in southwestern Oklahoma, it's been over a hundred days (maybe more) since they've had moisture.  In a farming state, that's bad...real bad!

But this morning, they finally had a good soaking rain! Maybe, just maybe, the farmers and ranchers can pull out a growing season.  We sometimes forget that we are ultimately still closely tied to nature.  We live in air conditioned and heated homes, we travel in a climate controlled vehicles....everywhere we go, we try to control the climate.  don't get me wrong! As a perimenopausal woman myself, I am so very thankful for air conditioning!  I'm not sure I would be able to make it in this climate without some relief!  I am thinking that this summer, I'm just going to wear my swimsuit instead of underwear so when that hot flash hits me, I really can strip off my clothes and jump into the pool!

All that controlling the climate makes us forget that we really can't control anything! We think we have control and then lack of rain reduces the wheat belt of the nation into a desert.  We have too much rain in one place causing floods of epic proportions and no rain in other places.  We have tornadoes reducing leafy green towns into open fields littered with a lifetime of possessions.  We really have such little control as human beings and yet, we think, we do.   How very little we really do!

I'm glad for the rain here.  It means my gardens will grow lush and green, it means that my veggies will grow and grow and my harvest will be plenty.  I'm glad for the rain for my fellow Oklahomans.  They needed it worse than me but I'm glad that we both got blessed!

Grilled chicken caesar salad

So I needed something really quick and fast for dinner.  I had a bunch of lettuce, radishes and green onions from the garden so I decided a grilled chicken salad would fit the bill.  My son requested that instead of the regular greek salad I do, that I make a caesar salad.  I had grilled chicken breasts in the freezer. I always keep them handy for quick meals.

Now I have a lot of salad dressing recipes, from green goddess to the junior league and almost everything in between...didn't have a caesar salad recipe and I was not planning to drive into town for a bottle of salad dressing!  I scoured the recipe books...nothing! Not even in the old, old ones!

Here's the website; http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1615,142189-245199,00.html

I doctored it a bit but it was a hit!

CAESAR SALAD DRESSING
Read more about it at www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1615,142189-245199,00.html Content Copyright © 2011 Cooks.com - All rights reserved. 1 cup mayonnaise 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp Worcestershire 1 clove of garlic (minced) 1/4 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 1/2 c Parmesean cheese 1 tbsp of milk or half and half Mix all ingredients together and shake or whisk until well blended. thanks to Shannon for sharing!

I added a little less mayo and a little more lemon juice. I also used fresh parmesean.  I was going to use a little anchovie paste but I had used it up a few weeks ago in a puttanesca sauce. Ok, did I just say or type that? I sound like an uppity-food snob! he! he!  Anyway, I think it could use a touch of the paste but even without it, it was a quick and easy great tasting dressing. 

I'm thinking it would be a great base dressing to add fresh dill or basil or just about any herb for a creamy dressing.
I'll definitely be making and keeping this dressing in my fridge all summer long!

Strawberry Pie! My-Oh-My!

Here's my recipe for strawberry pie! It's my mom's pie recipe.  It's good, it's fresh, it's so, so good!  Strawberry pie should not originate in a bag from the produce department!  That bag that is gooey, bright red and gross!  I have to say that it turns my stomach thinking about those bags laying there!

Try this and you'll never go back to those gooey bags!  Make extra because it is so super delicious on waffles and pancakes and over ice cream.  I do not put this pie together when it's just the four of us.  I make the crust and then when it's time to serve, I cut the crust and place the strawberry mixture into the shell. 

Mom's Strawberry Pie

Mix together 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 3 cups sliced strawberries.  Let stand one hour.

Mix 1 cup crushed strawberries, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 1/2 T cornstarch and a few drops of red food coloring, optional.  Stir and boil until the liquid is clear.  Boil a few minutes until it is thickened.
Let cool and mix strawberries into the mixture.  Don't put into a cooked pie shell until just before serving.

Okie Dinner

Sunday started cold around here. In the span of a week, we went from almost ninety highs to around forty lows!  Sunday after church, I put on a pot of brown beans for dinner.  I figured that it might be the last weekend to eat a big pot of brown beans.  I don't like to eat hot food like soups in the summer.

All afternoon, those beans cooked in my crockpot.  I had soaked them in boiling water during church so they didn't need to cook too long.  I seasoned them with a polska keilbasa, garlic, salt and pepper.  I put the sausage on top in the crockpot so they could cook last.  After about three hours, I stirred it all up and let it cook another two hours.

I served the family a traditional Okie dinner.  The kind of dinner my grandma would have loved.  She served brown beans with every meal.  I love brown beans! My sister not so much.  She told my grandma one time that she was allergic to beans.....it went over until grandma mentioned my sisters allergies to my mom!

Well, I served brown beans, fried potatoes and onions, cornbread, wilted lettuce and strawberry pie! We ate until we were ready to pop!  The meal started talk about our relatives that lived during the depression.  Both my husband and I had relatives that traveled to California to find work.  One of my grandmothers always said they didn't know what a depression was....they were dirt poor before the depression and they were poor after the depression!

It started me to thinking about hunger in America.  I'm pretty sure my grandparents knew about hunger.  I'm sure they experienced it during the depression and probably before.  But my grandparents knew how to find and grow food and make simple meals that were tasty and inexpensive.  A bag of beans is not expensive.  Growing the lettuce, green onions and radishes are cheap.  Flour and cornmeal is not expensive.  The entire meal cost less than five dollars not counting the strawberry pie, but I grew the strawberries so mine cost me a pie crust and some sugar!

 My husband pointed out that the problem isn't necessarily hunger but the lack of ability in America.  When you don't know how to cook a bag of beans, peel and fry a bag of potatoes, or stir up some cornbread then you have to purchase pre-cooked meals.  Expensive pre-cooked meals.  Pre-cooked meals that are not healthy!

My grandparents ate squirrel and rabbit.  They picked poke and made poke salad.  They hoed a row and planted.  They survived.  When America finally get hungry enough, maybe we will relearn those tasks.....

Honeysuckle...

Well, the honeysuckle is blooming again. That's a smell that I always associate with summer and May and school getting out!  A very, very pleasant smell.  I love to sit outside on my backporch or swing in my hammock and simple breath that honeysuckle in...down deep into my lungs.  Always makes me think I inhale summer into every cell of my body by taking that honeysuckle way down deep.

I'm so ready for school to be over.  We all have finished state testing and now the kids are officially done...stick a fork in them done!  Done, I say!  Very difficult to motivate done...especially my son and all my students.  I'm trying very hard to keep a happy face and a happy voice when I speak to them, because quite frankly, the teachers are done too!  I think that's why I enjoy the honeysuckle so much.  When I'm out there breathing, I'm not thinking about finals and grading and trying to get my son to do one more thing....I'm simply enjoying the warm evening, playing with the dog and breathing that sweet scent.

I truly believe that a warm summer evening is what contentment is...you know the feeling, the breeze is just cool enough to keep you from being hot, the leaves on the trees are so fresh and green that they almost seem unreal, the flowers are blooming, the air is scented just enough you can almost taste it, you're walking hand and hand with your love talking about the day.  Not the bad stuff, just the good stuff..oh, and you have a glass of iced tea!  Can't forget that!  I never want in that moment.  I never want anything more than to live for that moment, I'm not cataloging my coupons for the next shopping trip, I'm not worrying if my house is clean enough, I'm not thinking about anything except being there, in that moment.  If that moment is the last one I have on this earth, it would be enough....that's contentment. 

If you've never had that type of contentment,....move to Oklahoma and experience the month of May! I guarantee you, it will change you!

It Happened

I'm sitting home by myself on a friday night...husband and son are in Arizona hiking and my daughter and many of her closest friends are experiencing their first junior high dance....Mother's day is coming and somehow, my kids have grown up! 

I don't know when it happened....I still remember how special those first few Mother's Days were to me.  Growing our family through adoption made Mother's Day really, really special and a bit bittersweet.  I was happy, I was finally a mom but I knew that each of my children's birth mothers had a hole in their hearts that day.  I have treasured each mother's day but somewhere along the way....my kids went from being babies to being young adults....

It had to happen..you know, when they are driving you crazy running in the grocery store or even worse, laying in the floor throwing that fit they somehow learned, a little older lady smiles sweetly and says, 'treasure these days, for soon, very soon, they will be over!'  Yeah right!  When you're in the thick of those wonderful (terrible) days, you just want them to end and you to get a good night's sleep!  Well, I'm there, they are almost gone!  And it hurts and I'm sad...but I'm also proud of them both.  My chest bursts with pride when someone outside the family comments on how polite they are or how hard they worked or how giving they both are!  My husband and I seem to be raising two pretty wonderful kids...I'm not sure how we got so lucky! 

It had to happen.....I'm up once again late..but this time, I'm rocking alone in my chair...waiting to be the pick-up mom....

Strawberries!!!!!

I'm doing a snoopy dance about now!  My strawberries are getting pink! That means that in a few days I'll be eating home grown strawberries from my garden! Yipee!

Oh yeah, my daughter wanted to plant them last year so I really should let her have the first one.  I will, I promise!  I was worried about the winter being so cold but I don't think we lost a single plant!  And they are sooo big!

Now, I'm ready to fight the squirrels, who have been eyeing them for the past few days.  I went to Atwood's yesterday and bought me a net that you use to keep birds off of fruit.  I have created a tent over the berries so no one but me or anyone with opposable thumbs can get under!

When I first tried a garden the first year we lived here, the deer, rabbits, squirrels, foxes, armadillos, you name it they came and ate my garden.  So the next spring, my wonderful husband made me a fortress garden!  It has twelve feet tall chicken wire around it....I call it my giraffe pen.  He doesn't do anything half way and he does good work, after over ten years and it's still standing!  I've only had to restaple the chicken wire a few times and it keeps out just about everything, except squirrels...and one pesky turtle.  I find him every year and take him back to the creek....then he returns and I take him back to the creek.  We do this on and off all summer long.  One day, I think I'll drive him up to Lake Oologah and see if he returns!  It's about twelve miles....

We used to do that with our ducks when I was growing up.  They'd sit and poop on the front porch so mom and dad would load them up in the truck and drive them to the pond...not twelve miles but a pretty good walk from our house....we'd get home and pretty soon...here they would come, marching in a line right in the path!  So funny!

I'm patiently waiting for the strawberries...or at least I'm waiting, maybe not patiently.  I can't wait!  My mind is just spinning with all the goodies I'll be making in the next few weeks!

Update on our psychotic cardinal..

So I'm about ready to turn the boy loose with the beebee gun to take the poor female cardinal out of her misery.  I know, it's mean. I know, it's not right.  But GOOD GRIEF! She is driving us all crazy!

A few weeks ago, when she was trying to beat up the other cardinal in the window, I could wax poetic and make references to how we are like that...trying to get what we want and not turning and looking at the big picture.... Now, I just want her gone. 

We have stickers in the windows, we have foil taped to windows, my daughter has placed books and posters in her windows...did I mention that it's not just the front picture window anymore? Oh no! She now moves from window to window trying to scare off or attach or do whatever it is that her little psychotic mind is doing!  When we go to the window to scare her off, she just moves to another one! 

This starts about 5:30am, first daylight here in Oklahoma and goes until mid-afternoon.  Like I said, it's driving us all crazy.  And yeah, the male has left.  I guess he figured it was no use trying to woo a crazy female....if only some human men felt that way! he! he!

The beebee gun is looking better and better but I know if I turned the boy loose, I'd feel bad...and he'd probably just shoot out the window so the bird could move in....

Salad Days are here Again!

Oh yeah! I'm picking veggies from the garden! WooHoo!

I picked my first head of romaine lettuce yesterday.  I pulled my first few green onions also.  Guess what we're having for dinner tonight!  Grilled chicken, grilled potato packets and a green salad!  For some reason, fresh picked veggies just taste better....

We finally began to get rain last week.  I was so very thankful because I really didn't want to start watering this early but to get those veggies fresh from the garden I would have dutifully set up the water timer and started dragging hoses around. 

I'm just a garden junky.  I love searching each day for a new treasure to eat at dinner!  It won't be but a few weeks and we'll be eating fresh strawberries and I'm so excited for that! Fresh strawberries on my cheerios and waffles, fresh strawberries on our salads, fresh strawberry pie!  My daughter is wanting to make strawberry jam also.  That way, we'll have strawberries during the winter from our garden. 

Oh, how I've missed you garden and spring!  Welcome back!

Giving...

Over the last year, I've written a lot about giving.  Giving of your time, your talents and your money.  This week, I have been given the chance to put all of the above to the test.  I'm facebook friends with many of my former students.  I am proud to say that I have students living all over the world that check in with me and let me know how and what they are doing.  Most of the time, I'm proud of what they are becoming....sometimes I have to chastise or give a gentle nudge to do the right thing....  I found out this week that two former students, who have married and have a young son, needed help.  What started out as me pledging money has ended up being me trying to raise the bar on my giving and now I'm coordinating raising the entire amount!

You see, the husband is in the military and is now in training across the country and will be sent to Afghanistan for at least a year.  He has been given leave in June for four days and the wife and child would like to bring him home to visit them and his family before he's gone....they are young, they are a military family and the military doesn't pay for leave travel, they don't have the money.  She posted on facebook for ideas from friends so she could work and raise money to bring him home.....

I look at my former students as 'my kids'.  I care about them.  And one thing I've learned over the last few years is that I'm good at organizing....both my home, my time and my friends!  I'm going to start listing on my resume community organizer.  Hey! If it worked for the President of the United States, I'm going to use it too!

Anyway, a post on facebook to my list of friends has brought me almost to my goal of raising $400.  It's no surprise really, just yesterday in the paper, Oklahoma was listed as the most charitable state.  Oklahomans give over $1500 a year per person to charities.  That's per person!  In a state that has a pretty low per capita income....I think it's because that's the way we were raised.  We help each other.  Just like in the pioneer days.  You may not have much but when a neighbor is in need, you help. 

Once again, I'm proud to be able to use my talents and money to help someone in need.  I'm proud to have friends that also have a heart for giving.  I'm proud to live in a state that leads the country if giving.....

Love my cuppa!

Ok, I know, I'm not British. But it sure seems like everyone on this side of the pond is really polarized about the upcoming British nuptials..  Me?  I don't care a whit, everyone is trying to play this that she's a commoner and all.....PLEASE!  I'm a commoner, she is not a commoner. She may not hold a title but she's got lots of money in the family. Enough to get her into a very prestigious university so she could hang out with the Prince!

I don't dislike the British.  I happen to know a couple that are simply charming and very polite.  I have hosted a couple at my home.  I just don't care about the wedding.  What I do like is tea!

That's right, I love a cuppa!  I have a hot tea almost every afternoon with a couple of my new favorite cookies.  Now normally, I make my own, but I do have a couple of favorite store bought ones that I squirrel away from the family.  I love those little butter cookies, I love Pepperidge Farms dark chocolate milano cookies and my my new favorite cookie is from Nabisco.  They are the new Newton Fruit Thins..the cranberry citrus goes so well with a cup of Earl Grey or Constant Comment tea.  They have a chocolate version but I haven't tried them yet!

I love to take a few minutes in the afternoon and sit and enjoy a cup of hot tea and a cookie.  I don't eat the entire bag, just one.  It just takes about ten minutes to turn a hard afternoon into a little more enjoyable one with a cup of tea and a cookie.  I can see why the British love their afternoon tea........not so much their royal weddings!

Black Swallowtails...they're here!

I've been noticing many more butterflies lately.  I've counted many more black and zebra swallowtails and monarchs this year than in the past few years.  I have a plant called rue growing in my border garden.  I bought it several years ago at the end of the season for very little.  I usually buy things at the end of the year when stores are trying to give away the few haggard plants they have left. 

The rue plant is a very pretty plant.  It grows about three feet tall in Oklahoma and has a pretty lacy light green leaf and a yellow flower in late May.  I will prune it back occasionally so it stays bushy.  I was worried that this years cold would kill it but it came back just like always.  Rue is an insect repellant plant but I didn't know that when I bought it.   The label in the plant said citronella but that happens sometimes in those end of season sales.  You don't always get what you thought.  Sometimes is good, sometimes it's bad.  This time, it was good!

What I have found is that black and zebra swallowtails love to lay their eggs on the plant.  I think the caterpillars eat the rue and make themselves very yucky tasting to birds and other predators.  I was looking last week to see if I had any eggs and saw little caterpillars all over the plants!  I was so happy!  I love helping the butterflies!

I've planted my dill and have transplanted my parsley, other favorites of the swallowtails.  I have finally successfully started milkweed and my mother-in-law sent me more seed to start this week.  I look forward to seeing even more butterflies in my garden in the upcoming years!

Easter!

Well, we've had another Easter and it was good.  This year, we went to my mom and dad's and had Easter with them, my sis and her husband and daughter.  We even got to see my brother, his wife and their girls.  It's good to live close enough to see family often.  It's not as often as it used to be since I have to work around my kid's social schedule now.  I guess I should be happy they have friends and they get invited places!

I was gone all last week and finally made it home on friday afternoon.  Everyone was happy to see me, including Kate, my big black german shepherd!  She jumped up into my lap and immediately started crying and whining...my husband said it was quite sad how much she missed me!  I missed them also alot....I'm glad I only have to do testing once a year!  I normally work from home so one week a year is not too much to give so I can work the rest of the year out of my house.

Although the family did their best to keep the house in order.....they just basically maintained the chaos!  There were no dishes in the sink or piles of dirty clothes but one can tell that I was not here to do the things I do each and every week.  Things like changing the sheets and towels, vacuuming and dusting and grocery shopping.  I'll be busy, busy this week trying to rein in the dirt that is encroaching upon this household! 

They are also very happy to see my culinary skills back.  Yes, we did eat good, very good in fact, at nanna's this weekend.  Pulled pork sandwiches with a wonderful relish that is too die for Saturday night and and ham and scalloped potatoes for Easter lunch.  As we drove home with some more pulled pork for our dinner on Sunday night, we discussed what we would be having for dinner this week. 

This will be a very normal week finally!  Neither my husband or myself will be missing from action this week.  First time in three weeks!  And the kids are so very happy with all this normalcy. Family dinnertime is something that we all miss when we don't have it.  We miss that bonding time as a family.  Just like a couple that spends time apart, families are off when they don't have that family dinnertime. 

Sunday night, we ate pulled pork sandwiches and pickles and fruit salad around my second hand dining table laughing and joking until we were crying!  I could actually feel the tension of the past few weeks cracking and falling off me.  As we cleaned up the table, my husband and son wrestling in the kitchen made me smile.  My daughter and I were making jokes about 'men', my son was joking about 'chuck norris' and my husband was wiping tears of laughter off his face at our antics, he said, 'I just want to tell you all how much I miss you all when I'm gone!'  The kids shrugged it off but we shared a knowing smile....I felt the same way! 

It's good to be home, it's good to celebrate another Easter with family and it's good to get back to normal!

Out of Town...Mom is Missing!

So this week, my job has required me to be out of town all week due to state testing.  I had to travel to southern Oklahoma to test the kids that live in this area.  My husband was great about working from home this week, he's been gone so much lately, he felt he needed to get caught up on work and the best way to do that was to stay home and work in the home office since I'm out of it!

I honestly think it's good for the family for me to be missing in action every now and then.  They seem to really understand just what I do when I've been gone a bit.  My husband also says everyone realizes what I bring to the family besides the one who does a bunch of work!  He says that mom's (me especially) bring a certain feeling at the end of the day that he can't do! 

I understood that today as I was sitting at a restaurant eating.  My cell phone rang and it was my daughter.  I had called her before dance class but I had to cut it short because she was straightening her hair for dance pictures.  She called me back to discuss a decision that she felt was wrong that a friend made.  Her dad just wasn't the one she wanted to talk to about it.  For one thing, he wouldn't understand......he's a guy afterall!  We talked about it for a bit until she felt better about it and then we talked about shopping for dresses for the big school dance coming up.  We both agreed that Dillard's after Easter and prom would be the best place to shop so next week, we're hitting Dilliards!

I've been gone for three nights now and hopefully, tonight will be my last night.  I'm hoping to go home Thursday night if I can get everyone to show up the next two days.   I really miss my family!
I guess I'm just a homebody...I like to cook, I like to meet my kids afterschool and talk about their days, I like to be home with dinner when my husband comes home from work....I like all that everyday stuff that a normal, everyday mom and wife does....that boring stuff that the world says is not important. 

I know three people who don't think that any of that stuff is not important.  I know three people who are ready for their mom and wife to be home......make that four of us! I'm glad state testing is only once a year!

Tornado Season!

Spent some considerable time in the old storm closet last night.  The weather people started telling us a couple days ago to expect large storms so I was glad that last weekend my husband got my son's new closet put together and we moved all his stuff out of the closet.  I then spent last Sunday night refolding and putting away properly all the stuff I'd been blindly stuffing behind his clothes!  Just in time!

My daughter had a track meet yesterday and I worried all day long that they would be caught up in the storms but she called me about 5 o'clock to tell me they were pulling into Claremore.  I ran into town totally unprepared for her to eat with my son and I.  My husband was out of town so it was just going to be he and I and I was planning to just find something in the fridge.....now I had three mouths to feed. And a storm was coming!

I ran in as the wind began to blow and grabbed the old stand-by...tomato soup and cheese quesadillas.  Quick, easy, cheap and the kids love them!  I buy the tomato soup when walgreen's has them on sale and I use coupons to make them about fifty-cents a can.  I use two for three of us.  I buy the tortillas for a buck for twelve when Reasor's has them on sale and I buy the cheese on sale and stockpile the freezer.  The entire meal costs me less than  five dollars.  I rounded out the meal with some strawberries and cookies while we listened to the tornado sirens sitting in the storm closet!

Shortly after we cleaned up, I ran and put Kate in the garage because the sky was beginning to get green.  I was taught that when the wind died down and the sky got a greenish tinge, it was time to hit the hole!  All of us but Grandpa, he'd stand outside and watch the storm.  Not me. God gave me enough sense to know to get and stay low!  We dragged out the boxes of junk out of the storm closet and all of us...me, the kids, and two cats got inside.  Well, almost two cats.  One doesn't like the closet so she hangs around just outside.  I think if we ever did hear the 'sounded like a freight train' sound, she'd quickly jump in before we shut the door. All of us, plus two ipods, three cell phones, a laptop, two radios; one that uses batteries, one I can wind up or use solar power; a lantern, a flashlight, enough blankets and pillows to sleep an army and we waited.....and listened to the hail, rain and tornado sirens.  It was actually pretty good quality time with the kids.  I had them trapped so we had to visit and talk....

Thankfully, we had no damage and we had good rain.  We've all been so dry for so long that most of us Oklahomans were excited for rain, even if it meant the chance of a tornado.  Just another day in Oklahoma in the spring.  We keep our eyes on the sky waiting for the next one to come along......the storm closet it cleaned and ready to go!  Maybe I'll call a family meeting in the storm closet when I'm feeling lonely!

A Cardinal Moment!

All day long, the young female cardinal has pecked on my picture window in the living room.  She started early in the morning, so early that it woke me up.  I have a very large window in my front room with two little windows on each side.  I love being able to look at my beautiful surroundings without blinds, shades or curtains.  I feel that, even if I'm vacuuming, I am outside!  Well, so do birds and insects.  I have to buy those pretty vinyl clings that match the season and put them up to keep birds from hitting the windows and knocking themselves silly....it does help but usually a few times a month, I hear a crash, run outside and scoop up a dazed bird to put him or her in a little cage to keep them safe from the visiting cats until they've gained their senses again. A few times, they've released themselves in the house.  Oh, that's usually when my husband calls and one of the kids say, 'mom can't talk,  (uncontrolled giggles), she's chasing a bird with the butterfly net....yeah, in the house!'  My poor, poor husband.

Anyway, today this young female cardinal has had two courters bringing her food.  They have worked and worked to win her heart.  All she wants to do is peck at the reflection in the window.  It's become really annoying.  By lunchtime, my son asked, 'why is she still doing that? Doesn't she realize that it's a reflection?'  'I guess not', I reply, 'she's young and this is her first mating season. I'm not sure if she is trying to get in the house to build a nest or if she's upset at her reflection, maybe it will get the guy.'  My son, in frustration, said finally in the middle of the afternoon...'Good grief! Why would she sit there all day long banging her head over and over when obviously we aren't going to let her in!'

I began to think about myself....'we do the same thing, you know.' I told my son.  We want something and even when God tells us 'no' and closes the window, we still run forward and try to crash through over and over until we hurt ourselves. 'Do you think that God ever looks at us and explains to the angels that we're young and immature and can't see the big picture just like we're talking about this little bird?'  Do you ever think that God thinks, 'When are they ever going to learn? I have something so much better if they'd just turn around and look at what's behind them?'  when I said that, my son smiled....'Never thought about it that way' he said.

I began to pity the little bird after that, I began to feel sorry for her.  She was missing so much behind her because she was focused on that bird in window that she drove away her suitors and she was alone.  If she'd just turn around and focus on what she could have...but instead, she's still flying into the window over and over again.

Reminds me of someone I know.......

Hummingbirds have Hit!

Saw my first hummingbirds today! I was so excited. I put out the feeders on Thursday so it didn't take them long to find the feeders!  I only put out a little food in them because I didn't know how long it would take them to get here. 

I also put out my oriole feeder.  I usually wait too long to get it out.  I look outside and see an oriole trying to eat out of a hummingbird feeder and then I run and get my feeder and by that time, the poor oriole has given up.  Well, this year, I have it ready. I'm hoping that one stops by. 

I love watching little hummingbirds eat all summer but usually by mid-summer, they stop eating at my feeders as much as they did in the spring. By mid-summer, I have flowers blooming all over that they prefer.  I'm sure the nectar tastes better than plain old white sugar!  I would like it too!

I noticed zebra swallowtail, black swallowtail and monarch butterflies this weekend also.  Even though I don't have a lot of blooming flowers right now, I do have a place for them to lay eggs.  I have dill, parsley and some shrub-like thing I bought years ago that the swallowtails like laying eggs on.  I thought it was a citronella plant but it may have been mismarked.  It doesn't look or smell like citronella.  Well the butterflies really like it and it does well in this hot Oklahoma summer so it's staying!


The butterflies like the nectar on the cherry trees and are keeping the tree colorful.  It's fun to see so many colorful butterflies landing on the tree!

I'm so glad spring is here! We've started having salads for dinner and I know it's so much better for the kids than some of the heavy winter meals we eat.  This week, we're having a grilled chicken greek salad, tuesday is crab salad sandwich night with fruit salad, wednesday night is church dinner, thursday night will be  homemade pizza, and friday night will be  tomato soup and quesadillas. The next few weeks will need to be simple meals because I'm helping with state testing.  I will be BUSY!

Girls Retreat

You all pray for me today when you get a minute.  I'm leaving this afternoon with my daughter and a passle of other mostly junior high girls on a church sponsored girls retreat.  I'm actually looking forward to it but it can be stressful being 'in charge' of a group of girls. Mostly, because you never know what types of backgrounds many of the girls will bring, what type of lives they come from and I worry that I won't be prepared with the 'right' answer when I need it.

I know, I know, I don't need to be perfect but I always worry that I'll say something to a young girl that will cause her to carry something into adulthood that I didn't mean to give her.  At the junior high level, many girls and boys are so self-conscious that almost anything you say can be taken the 'wrong' way.  When I taught that age, I often felt that I was walking on eggshells! 

Please just say a little prayer that I'll have the right words to say when I need them, that everyone will be kind too one another, that the group of girls will form a tight bond that will outlast the two day retreat and that the sponsors get a few hours of sleep!  I'm looking forward to spending girl time with the sponsors and the girls from my church.  We, so often, don't get to just really gab and visit.  Did I say I'm riding the bus?  After surviving all the camps from last summer, I can do anything! 

The weather is supposed to be nice, the company will be great so just say a little prayer today that everything goes as planned!

Thanks!