Poems Are Made By Fools Like Me...

Color

Mr. Personality! OR No Animals Were Harmed During The Writing Of This Blog Entry

This is our new cat, Sweet Potato. Sweet Potato was a stray that took up at our doorstep. He was in very bad shape the first time we saw him. He had been attacked by another cat or dog with a large gash on his back and front leg. I doctored him back to health and he has been here ever since.

Before Sweet Potato, we had a miniature schnauzer, named Ginger that we had raised since she was a puppy. She lived to be 15 years old and when she died I vowed I would NEVER have another pet. Never say never. When this poor cat took up at our house, I couldn't turn him away. He was in such bad shape. Every morning I thought I would wake up to find him dead and every morning he would be waiting for me at the back door.

All of his wounds are healed up now and he is starting to act like a real cat. He is learning to hunt and he loves to play with falling leaves. He is still so gentle. He never nips or scratches. He loves to be held and petted. He also loves to sneak in the house. Dear husband cannot make it in the back door without letting him in and it has turned into such a funny situation. When you scold the cat or try to make him go back out he will instantly flop over on his side like he has been shot. Especially when dear husband scolds him. I usually just pick him up and carry him back out, but dear husband tries to make him go back out and it is so funny. Everyone knows you can't make a cat do anything. So there is dear husband trying to make the cat mind and there is the cat sprawled out in the floor playing dead.

Here are some pix of the cat asleep in the yard. He loves to sleep on his back! I know these are not very good pix, but I wanted to share them anyway. They make me smile every time I look at them. He is not any easy animal to photograph. He is either asleep or crawling all over you, so I was happy to have taken these. I will keep at it, though. I would like to have at least one good pix of him.

Photography Contest: Winners and Losers

Scenery: 1st Place
Fog on Laurel Lake



Flowers: 1st Place
Dandelion



Flowers: 3rd Place
Iris Bud



Open: 1st Place
Spider Web



Open: 2nd Place
Dew on Leaf



Animals: 3rd Place
Pufferfish at Aquarium


The Losers

Cumberland Gap

Tickseed

Butterfly

Iris

Clinch Mountain Sunset

I finally entered a photography contest! You all can't call me a big sissy chicken girl any more. The contest is held every year at our local Swappin' Meetin' and is sponsored by a local newspaper. This was my first contest and I entered as an amateur. I used black mattes on all eleven pix.

By The Creek And Through The Woods

Remnants Of Summer

It's Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Ahoy, ye landlubbers! Aye!

This lilly-livered scallywag done walked the plank!

He be found at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies.

YO HO (A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME)
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot,

Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

We extort, we pilfer, we filch, and sack,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Maraud and embezzle, and even high-jack,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

We kindle and char, inflame and ignite,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We burn up the city, we're really a fright,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We're rascals, scoundrels, villans, and knaves,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

We're beggars and blighters, ne'er-do-well cads,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

Lyrics by Xavier Atencio and music by George Bruns

Pirate Vocabulary

Pirate Day History

Find your pirate name here. Aye! I be Mad Morgan Bonney!

Our Garden's Furry Little Train

Fuzzy, wuzzy, creepy crawly

Caterpillar funny

You will be a butterfly
When the days are sunny.

Wiggling, flinging, dancing, springing
Butterfly so yellow,
You were once a caterpillar,
Wriggly, wiggly, fellow.

by Lillian Vabada

The Bug Whisperer

I found some bright yellow insect eggs on the side of the van. I was going to scrape them off the van and place them in our bug catching jar to see if they would hatch. I forgot until the next day when I saw my dear husband washing the van. I ran out yelling at him to stop. I do think sometimes that homeschooling has turned me into a nut. Nah.

I placed the eggs in the jar and put them on the back porch and waited. I really didn't think they would hatch, especially since they had been washed! As the days went by, the eggs started to fade in color and developed a dark spot in the center. I wondered if they were maturing or dying.

Then one day I went out and saw little black spots in the jar. They were hatching! I placed the jar by the van, hoping they would crawl out and know what to do. They didn't. They all stayed in the jar. I moved them to the garden under a tomato plant. When I went back and checked, all but three had left. Remind you of another famous animal story? I got the remaining three to climb onto my finger one at a time and placed them on a tomato leaf.

They were so small it was hard to identify them, but I did google yellow insect eggs and I think they were ladybugs.

Another Bunch

I found these hatching on the back of a tomato leaf in the garden. I can't really identify them either, but they kind of looked like aphids.

Early Morning

Sweet Potato and Green Beans: The Purr-fect Combo

These were taken before the hot weather hit. I had walked up to the garden to pick beans and the cat followed me. Every time I would squat down to pick beans, he would jump up in my lap.

Fireworks 2007

My first attempt at "shooting" fireworks. I ran out of film and then the batteries in the camera died. Thankfully, I had more film and batteries. Hope you had a happy Fourth!

Tea Party

Clinging To The Rock Of Ages

This morning has gotten off to a bad start. I have had a cough for weeks that I have been blaming on allergies. Yesterday, I started feeling like I was getting sick. Today, I need to go trade and run some errands, when all I feel like doing is crawling back into bed. VBS is less than two weeks away and I am totally unprepared. There are dozens of projects waiting for me here at the house, that I keep pushing back because I don't feel like doing them. Youngest son has been having lows again and I am exhausted from getting up during the night. I could go on and on, but I just wanted to paint a little picture of why I am feeling so overwhelmed.

I opted for Lite coffee this morning, since I overslept and needed to jumpstart my day. I cut out most caffeine from my diet at the first of the year. Desperate times call for desperate measures. While on my way to the kitchen for my second cup of coffee, a little thought popped into my brain. Nothing attention grabbing...just a small, quiet thought...you need to pray. Now, of course I have been praying...I pray all the time, but this was different. This was that still, small voice that I am usually too busy to hear. This was my little connection that lets me know that God is so very real and that he cares about me and actually wants to hear from me. Me...on the way to my kitchen...with my empty cup in my hand.

Nothing in my hand I bring...Simply to Thy cross I cling...

Clinging to the Rock of Ages...that's how I feel this morning. Despite my circumstances, my soul is full. I will finish writing this article, pray it blesses someone, and then hit my knees and cling to the One that I know can refresh me. Pray to the One that I know cares about my every need. Lay it all out there at His feet. Fill my cup.

Rock Of Ages

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold Thee on Thy throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

Augustus M. Toplady, 1776
Click to hear song.

Happy Birthday Dear Firstborn Son!

I cannot believe you are 22! Where did you go? While hunting through pix to post on the blog for your birthday, I came across this little poem that I had clipped from the newspaper just after you were born.

Your smile flits across his lips

While mine lights up his eyes;

His is like both of us,

A happy compromise

He is all himself,

And yet, the best of you and me;

In our little son I see

The one that two can be.

by Marian McPhee

I love you! Happy Birthday!