My baby is nine today

Ella is nine going on twenty-nine .. today
I really do see pieces of me in her, bless her heart. Here are my favorite pictures of her.

do you remember

The 1960's When flowers in your hair made you a hippie. Peace signs on your clothes made you a rebel against Vietnam... the music was the devil pulling young people into sin.

2011... if flowers make you a hippie what does feathers make you...peace signs are everywhere and are a fashion statement and OMG if Elvis moving his hips and The Eagles were the Devils tools what are the artist today???

I kinda like the feathers and I can listen to almost any kind of music that isn't just nasty with the lyrics.

My daugther and granddaughters are the models.

Love my chickens but are they worth it??

Between hawks and chicken snakes, I'm in defend mode all the time. Went to roost the slow learners that haven't learned to get on the roost bars... at 9 last night, open the door and there was a 6.5 foot chicken snake with one of my babies squashed in its coils... beat that snake with a shovel. I know it sounds violent but I was pushed over the edge by the lifeless body of a chick. Getting moth balls today.

Oh my aching back....

What do you think I'll be doing today. Bean beans, butter peas and tomatoes... just one day's worth and I gave my sister-in-law just about that many so I really picked double the amount you see. Ymmmmmeeee but hard work

What's for supper?
baked chicken
fried okra
zipper peas
butter beans
green beans
squash/green tomatoes/onion/sliced hot peppers mix together and fried in olive oil on medium heat
cornbread
cheese potatoes
sliced tomatoes

OH my GOSH

Yesterday at the workshop... I took Burning Bridges... I found four mistakes in Chapter 1... a polished, critiqued many times, thought I was done with it, chapter. Okay taking out the makers and going over entire manuscript. Maybe when your looking for other things you see the small things... or maybe I wasn't reading it just looking at it... they are fixed and that is the important part. None were big mistakes but that really isn't true because any mistake is big... one typo... and three words spelled wrong ... okay not really wrong but I used axe on one page and used ax on the others... so one of them is wrong.

The Juices are flowing.... the spark is back

A entire afternoon of brainstorming ... really an entire day because Sheila, Jana and I talked the entire trip down to Birmingham... is like the zap of energy my writing needed. Thanks friends. Learned a little at the workshop. I guess the most important thing I learned was how to convey my thoughts after critiquing writing buddies WIP... now they won't let me get away with "It just don't feel right."

An we walked along a creek which is always soothing for the spirit.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow... can't wait

Traveling with writing buddies to Birmingham... can't wait for idea bull session.. staying with Irene and again can't wait ... then going to Southern Magic RWA workshop on editing... don't we all need that. Which manuscript should I bring??? I'll just bring several and choose on Saturday.

By the way, here is Irene's new poetry book.

Don't you just hate that words can not be erased

I was nasty to someone yesterday and regretted the words the moment I said them. Not sorry, because what I said was true but did I really need to say them... NO - did they change anything, NO Can I unsay them, NO

Words have power because once they're said they are out in the universe forever.

Just remember kind words are the white knight of human race and mean words are the black knight and each one you say kills the kindness in your heart a little.

Quick wit isn't always a gift, sometimes it is your down fall.

Words hurt. Yes I told the person I was sorry I hurt their feels but that didn't take back the words.

We are on the down hill slide before school

Late night, sleeping in, hanging at the pool,creek, river will soon be a thing of the past. Summer should be a slower time where kids and adults refuel for the next year... not so!

First day of school will be in 1 month or in scary terms 4 weeks.

You better get as many late nights and even later mornings because the cops have been called and this party is just about over. In case some of y'all don't know it... this post is for my grandchildren. :)

I love sunsets

The only thing I love more is sunrises. I love to be up early and listen to the birds greet the day. Everything smells new, I don't know if it's the dew or what but you get the sense of new, refreshed, kind of like the entire world starts over every morning.

Sunsets are like therapy for my soul and mind. All troubles and problems leave for a few precious moments while I stare in awe a God's masterpiece. If every person in the world would spend five minutes a day watching the sun come up or go down... well I think there would be less murder, beatings, anger, suicide.

Let the beauty of world be an ointment for your battle scars from the rat race we call life.

My granddaughter Jaselynn took this picture last week.

I've been called a witch before

Now I know which witch they were referring to... the Wicked Witch of the West

Why?

Because I've been melting today. I'm melting, melting.

Stay cool and kiss a frog... it might be a prince and he'll take you to his castle in Switzerland where it's not 100 degrees with a heat index of 112! Yikes!

Hot, humid, hot, humid, hot

ETC ETC ETC ETC

Alabama in July and August... not the place to be.

I picked green beans last night and thought was going to pass out before I finished and it was at 7:30 pm

Heat index today is 101 here.

Good day to stay in and read a book

What do you do when chicken snake eats your baby chicks?

You go get more... the picture of the big ones are the only two left out of six. I was going small and a chicken snake found a hole in the chicken coop and ate the other four.

My husband, being the sweet supportive type.... not... said, "I told you they wouldn't last."

So what did I do... why I went and got thirty chicks. Why you might ask... well I figure if there is thirty running around that old chicken snake won't know which one to grab.

I really don't like killing a chicken snake because they help keep mice and rabbit population down and they eat the bad snakes but if they fellow shows his chicken eating face and will have to take a hoe to him. How's that for a PG13 post.

I've been turning them out into the pasture every evening. Done they look happier in the pic where they are in the grass instead of herded into a bunch in the coop?

Look at the little brown ones... they have puffy cheeks! They are half Rhode Island Red and half Yellow Buff..... so cute.

4th of July in the South...you better be up for it

First let me say... I am not a firework loving chick... I rather not spend hours waiting for dark to shoot off ten minutes worth of very expensive fun.
Now my kids loves it. My grandkids loves it. My husband loves it. Yes I sit all alone on this subject.

When we do a little backyard display in the south... well it's can be a huge thing. My son is 6'2"

You got to have swimming, good friends and of course good food.

Here is a poem I wrote about freedom



Freedom

Freedom to worship in the church of my choice
Feeds my spiritual soul

Freedom to study and read
Helps me reach my intellectual goal

Freedom to strive for a better life
Is the democratic way

Freedom to vote in elections
Gives me a political say

Freedom to express my beliefs and views
Allows me a literary voice

Freedom to agree or disagree on issues
Fulfills my activist choice

Freedom to protect my family and country
Is my patriotic right

These freedoms are mine to use
If they don’t infringe on the freedoms
Belonging to you

Have you ever felt mixed up and different

I've been different since birth ... I think. My mother said I never wanted help doing anything and that I didn't talk until I was three. Now I know some of y'all are laughing but I would just click and point and someone would get what I wanted... sounds pretty smart to me. Mother said when I got old enough to debate issues, like bedtime, that is when I started talking.
I also started walking when I was eight months old and took a bottle until I was three. What was my mother thinking... three years old!
Now I do have to say my mother miscarried twins just a few months before she got pregnant with me and was sooooo happy when I was born healthy.
My point is my family is a little different... why... Yankee mother-Good old boy southern only son daddy= only daughter, oldest ... and I tell my brothers prettiest and smartness

We might be different but bless these little guys heart. Some say Donkra and some say Zonkey but however you say it they are so ugly they're cute. I want one.