I Found the Lost Tomatoes

And the 265 other photos.

This is a shadow one doesn't want cast upon her curtains.

SugarPlum made magazine art when she was last here for a visit.

I caught Son4 before the mirror in the kitchen,
admiring his harvest earrings.

Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD.  Praise ye the LORD.  -Psalm 150:6

Son3 Goes to WashingtonNot

Update: caucus coverage currently (3/10) front page KVOE news

Make that the county.

Kansas caucuses are held today, and the Ron Paul Campaign asked Son3 to deliver in our county caucus a speech on behalf of Dr. Paul.  What a privilege, and an honor, has come to this 20-year-old man, who never experienced some of the blessings his parents knew in the former United States of America, but has educated himself in the ways of civil government in a measure which enables him to champion and seek the freedoms we all once enjoyed, as ordained by God (YHWH), and enumerated in the (treasonously trampled) Constitution of this republic.

We attended the Kansas Pre-Caucus Convention in Wichita yesterday, in the company of 1,500 others; a crowd clearly favoring Dr. Paul to fill the office of the Presidency, and effusively welcoming him to the podium.  Santorum was elsewhere in-state, drawing a crowd of 200.  Clever media camera coverage, however, magically portrayed comparatively sparse attendance where Ron Paul was the speaker.  And the beat goes on.

In his lecture detailing the Quigley formula, G. Edward Griffin succinctly describes what we experience every four years:

"These people [global elite] laugh at anyone who takes a political party seriously.  They laugh at all these people out there campaigning for Republicans or Democrats.  ...All they have to do, they say, is control the elections.  Allow people to vote, so long as they don't vote for anything significant.  ...Candidate against candidate, but we own them all, so what difference does it make?  ...Republican leaders who run corporations that build electronic voting machines steal elections, using software; using machines that not only are capable of being hacked, but ladies and gentlemen, are designed to be hacked.  Now that the elections are at hand, we find that the rigging of elections is being used to promote certain Democrats.  You see this has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats.  This has to do with the Quigley formula.  Rigged elections is the ultimate form of the Quigley formula: giving people the illusion that they participated in their own political destiny because, by golly, they went to the polls, and they touched a screen, and a light went on, and they got their little sticker that says I Voted.  And they have no idea what went on inside that machine when the numbers were counted.  Or they get a piece of paper and they put it through a scanner...they have no idea what goes on inside that scanner and how the numbers come out.  That is the ultimate embodiment of the Quigley formula.  What we're dealing with here is a phony wrestling match."

Despite these evil machinations, champions of liberty strive to revive the republic, to ring the cracked bell of freedom, to occupy [Luke 19:13] till the Saviour comes.  Even so, come, Lord Jesus.  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.  Amen. [Revelation 22:20b, 21]

[Note: In the article linked through G. Edward Griffin's name, under section D, reference is made to a particular religion and its leader being of God.  The god of that religion is of the world, and many of the religion's practices of pagan origin and intent.  Believers in the God of the Bible (YHWH) may be found, however, in various and sundry ill places from which they would do well to depart.]

Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.  Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.  Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.  Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.  For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.  But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.  -Proverbs 1:20-33

English *Hysteria*

The baby, who turned 16 this month, has for all intents and purposes finished his formal studies of English grammar and composition.  Wanting, however, to do a quick review of all the bits and pieces, we're now making our way orally through a textbook I likely picked up in a library sale and hadn't employed in the education of any of the other four.  It's proven itself to be a handy tool for the purpose of review.

This morning we literally skipped the section on double negatives, as "We don't have no extra chairs," is clearly non-standard and gave us both a chuckle.  No instruction from that section was necessary.  Moving to Placement of Modifiers, I said it was a section worthy of review, for it's sometimes tricky.  I didn't know it could move either of us far beyond chuckles.

Non-standard sentences were provided, and the student was to rewrite them, placing the modifying phrases in the proper positions for clear meaning.

1.  The famous explorer told us about running into a family of baboons in today's assembly.

This should have been a clue there would be a quick end to English today.

3.  The fashion display attracted an enormous crowd in the department store window.
5.  The teacher required three articles from magazines on Pike's Peak.
7.  You are the only one who can do a double somersault on the diving team.
9.  The woman was reading a mystery story in a yellow dress.
10.  We saw a meteor falling through a large telescope.

Maybe we didn't need placement of modifiers review after all.  And I was laughing so hysterically, what I needed was oxygen.  I made one attempt at moving on to participial phrases, but that family of baboons in the assembly wouldn't stop somersaulting through my mind.  Gasping for breath, I said, "I can't do this any more," tossed the fabric scrap into the book, and closed it.  [When I grow up, I'll make some real bookmarks, although rag rug strips, torn pieces of yarn labels, and folded Aldi ads can do the job.]

Thanks to the baboons and that book wearing a yellow dress, we've an extra-long lunch break today.  Not enough time, however, to get to Pike's Peak for a magazine, so I think I'll watch a another crochet tutorial.

O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!  Deuteronomy 5:29

History Snippet: Plains Indians

Reading to me about the Plains Indians, Son4 continued, "...In many tribes, women would cut off a finger to mourn the death of a loved one."

He looked up and said, "Well, that's productive," then lowered his head to the text and continued reading.

The sincerity of those Indian women engaging in a practice such as that is so similar to men and women today believing in, and acting upon, the theory of evolution and the religion of psychology.  Maybe man's rebellion against God is ever so slightly more sophisticated in the 21st century. 

No, maybe it's not.

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith.  Grace be with thee.  Amen.  I Timothy 6:20-21

A Man Fully Growed

Poor Cubby Bear.  It was Son3's 19th birthday and the first on which he was employed full-time; he'd be out the door before sunrise on his special day.

Back at the farm, Son4 and Mom were studying American Government and Economics and what to do about sloping floors in a piggledy old house and laying plans for making the birthday boy's afternoon and evening a gleeful occasion.  We struck out of here in the early afternoon to pick up a cake mix and the birthday boy.  If I got the cake baked as soon as we got back home, it would be cool enough to decorate before dinnertime.

We ran into the road grader about half a mile from the house.  This man likes to scrape mountains into the middle of the road before he smooths it, and the last time I tried to straddle the pile, I about took the belly out of my van, so I hugged the side of our narrow gravel road this time.  Error. 

I don't know what was lurking in the grass, but whatever it was had a knock-down-drag-out with my tire and won, which I didn't know until I'd pulled onto the blacktop, where some other crew had made a bumpy, dirty mess digging out a culvert, confusing my travel issues.  I'd no more put the period on the sentence, "I think maybe we have a flat," when Son4 said, "Hey, we're leaning."  Leaning.  Reminds me of when I was pregnant with Son4, his dad had moved ahead of us to a new job in another state, life was not a picnic, and 4-year-old Son3 asked, "Are we tipping?"  Yes, that's what he asked: Are we tipping?  Listen, I can tell you tipping is far worse than leaning, but I'd rather not do either. 

So I slowly coaxed my van to the first street in town, since there is no shoulder betwixt here and there, and I was thankful for that decision a few months ago to join the cell phone world.

"I'm at First and Locust, and my tire is flat as a pancake." 

"Is there a can of Fix-A-Flat in the van?"

You know, it was 93º in the shade.  I was in the shade.  I was also leaning and seeking no good-wife awards at this moment in time.  It was Son3's birthday, I needed to get a cake mix, pick up the birthday boy, bake a cake, decorate it, and be ready to go to dinner at 5:30.  "I have no idea whether or not there's any Fix-A-Flat in here, but it doesn't matter.  The tire is flat as a pancake and I had to drive on it like that at least two blocks to reach a place I could pull off."  In my mind, driving on a pancake meant I'd ruined the tire, and no can of anything was going to put me on the roll again.

Well, he really couldn't leave, because he had to start-up "clear" before day's end.  Now don't worry your pretty head with "clear."  Just go with it, because I knew what it meant, and it's all about me in the first place.  He'd send Son3, who was due to get off work in 15 minutes anyway; he could just leave early.  "Well, ask him to stop and get a cake mix on his way." 

So Son3 showed up about 30 minutes later with a cake mix and jacked up my van.  All my other flats have presented themselves in our driveway, so Charles has always just thrown the tires in his truck and gone to town for a repair or replacement.  This meant no one had ever removed the spare from beneath the van...and no one knew how to do it.  Calling Charles resulted only in learning that while I was leaning on the road, a water line had broken beneath the plant, and 18"-tall, muddy fountains were dancing through the cracks in the floor.  One area (containing a new $12,000 piece of equipment) already had 6" of standing water.  Fire truck, EMTs, city vehicles, and the water department were on the scene.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I'm leaning here!  Don't make me tip!  "Never mind.  We'll figure out something."

So I told Son3 to just put the tire in the truck, go back to town, and buy me another one.  About that time, Mrs. Piecrust called me, and we discussed whether or not I can stand to remain on Facebook, with every depravity known to mankind floating past my face.  You know, sometimes you're just better off imagining it's not out there.  So we explored that for a while, then she needed to get back to work, and I let her know before she hung up that in addition to the depraved state of the world, I was sitting in town, under a tree, leaning, on Son3's birthday, and the plant was flooding.  The birthday boy had been crawling around in the dirt and gravel for at least 40 minutes and was gone to town now.  Hadn't I been cool, hot, calm, and collected during our conversation?  ºÜº

Then Son4 and I took up a game of hangman.


I called Son3 to see how he was faring at the tire center.  When I learned it would be another 20 minutes before the new tire was ready, I told him he better go to the bakery and choose a birthday cake.  I'd make him a real cake on another day.  He agreed it was a good plan.

By this time, two officers of the law, in two different vehicles, had passed me three times in this little zero-horse town.  After all, I'd been sitting there nearly three hours now, and I guess they have to be somewhere appearing to do something.  And now one of them decided to stop.  "Are you getting help?" he asked, with a sober look on his face.

"Yes.  I'm just waiting for a tire," I replied with a big, fat charade of a smile.

"Well, don't let that thing fall," he said in a commanding tone, same sober, official look on his face.

"Ohhhh, no," I answered, eyes big as saucers and trying to align myself with his gravity.  Don't let that thing fall?  Did I seem too cheerful about my plight?  Just needing someone to boss around today?

Son3 showed up with the tire and a birthday cake, and I didn't let the van fall.  [*Sahhh-lute!*]  I made the mistake of asking Son3 if he was tightening the bolts really well and was met with the clown acts from both 3 and 4: (3)"No." - (4)"He's just finger tightening them." - (3)"With my pinky finger."  Man.

Hot, and some of us filthy, we were back home 3 hours after we left the house for an intended 35-minute excursion.  Son3 opened his gifts, cleaned up, and we went to town for dinner.  It was a birthday none of us will soon forget.  Son3 — to be sure — is a man fully growed.  And we didn't tip, but we sure were leaning there for a while.

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.  Psalm 46:10, 11

MomCam

Although I decided to stop blogging birthdays, this is the first blogging year Son1 has been home for his.  Enter MomCam...

♫ Pickin' his teeth with a carpet tack ♪

Oops.  Wrong song.

The aftermath of gnawing smoked ribs for dinner.


A paddle around the pond in the YachtNot


When the beau docked and disembarked, he steadied himself, set his foot upon the craft,
and gallantly(not) shoved his lady friend adrift.  Twice.

Campfire.  Recordings from McKrunk's Elevation Jazz Orchestra, one of Son3's Irish ditty discs (who in his right mind sings about his corduroy britches?), the polar bear (slobber bomber extraordinaire), and the ridiculous puppy (ears flapping and 4" legs a blur on-the-run) provided the evening's entertainment.

Despite those mischievous YachtNot launchings,
the lovely lady produced a lovely birthday cake for the pesky prince.


♫♪ Happy birthday to you
To Jesus be true
God bless you and keep you
Happy birthday to you ♫

37

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.  The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.  The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.  More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.  Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.  Psalms 19:7-11

Lights-Camera-Action

Ironically, as I grabbed the camera and tethered it to the PC, so I could upload its contents from the past several days, I thought about not so often any more finding surprise photos, snapped by other family members.  There had recently been a couple of shots of Pierre and a few more of Purrle.  No big surprises, though.  Maybe those thoughts added to my delight, when I discovered quite a stash of what someone had determined was nice light-play by a near setting sun.  As I cycled through them, I wondered who had caught these and decided — because I know them — it must surely have been Son4 or his dad.







By this time, I was leaning heavily toward one in particular as my mystery photographer, and a satisfied smile broke across my face when I arrived at the final photo, the photographer's unmistakable signature:

Son4

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  II Corinthians 4:6

Chess Anyone?

The chess board has been hanging around on the kitchen and living room tables the past few days.  I won't play the game.  That measure and type of thinking is funnot, so I might as well clean a toilet and have something to show for my labors.

Son4:  I played chess against myself, and I lost.

Mom:  That's pathetic.

Son4:  It was kind of a drag too.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28

Is That Your Game Face?

I stopped in the new Goodwill store on Saturday, hoping to find an embroidery hoop, since our Wal*Mart stopped carrying them 2½ years ago (who knew?), and it's too cold to dig through barns looking for anything.  I found one at Goodwill.  Actually, I found three.  Okay, two of them had stuff in them, but even stuffed they cost the same or less than new and empty, so I snagged them all...and SugarPlum was happy as a pig in mud to carry home with her the stuffings.  Unbeknownst to her, I needed the hoops, so I can embroidery faces on animal puppet washcloths, but that's a task and report for another day, so forget that part.

I also found dresses I couldn't live without, tongs of just the sort Charles prefers for his smoking and barbecuing ventures, more sheets for weaving projects, and the find to end all finds: the game Guess What I Am.  I'd never seen it or heard of it before, but the cover looked intriguing, so I snatched it.  No, no, no, I paid for it.  I mean I grabbed that thing quickly, because I wasn't about to let any of the other...oh, maybe six...shoppers in the 6,000 s/f store beat me to it.

Mrs. Piecrust's Spelling Bee Bingo game just got shoved to second place.  Sorry all over myself, Mrs. Piecrust, but really, you enjoyed a year-plus reign as best supplier of games.

Over dinner...

Poppie:  What did you do today, SugarPlum?

SugarPlum:  We played games.

Nana:  SugarPlum was a kangaroo.

SugarPlum:  Well, Nana was a snake!

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.  For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.  Isaiah 55:10-12

Marionette

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.  This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. ~1 Timothy 4:8, 9

Have You Seen the Avocados?

They were on the kitchen counter.


More photo upload surprises for Mom.  Thanks, fellas.

Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.  And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.  ~Matthew 11:4-6

The Boys

For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.  He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.  He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.  Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.  ~Proverbs 2:6-9

☺

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children.  ~Psalm 103:17

Twenty-eight-and-a-half excruciating months.
Rescued at last.

How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.  ~Psalm 36:7 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.  Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.  ~Psalm 145:2, 3 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.  ~Matthew 18:6