Sky Watch Friday - "Let There Be Light"

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And God said,
Let there be lights

In the firmament of the Heaven
To divide the day from the night;

And let them be for signs,
And for seasons, and for days, and for years.

And let them be for lights
In the firmament of the Heaven

To give light upon the Earth:
And it was so.

And God made two great lights;
- - - And set them in the firmament of the heaven
To give light upon the Earth

And to rule over the day
And over the night,
And to divide the light from the darkness:

And God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning
Were the fourth day.

Excerpts from Genesis 1, KJV




Food for thought:
What did God create on the third day?

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Pretty Little Maidens All in a Row - - -

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Results of today's 7th Grade
Life Science vascular tissue lab.

Put a little water
And a lot of food coloring
In a little beaker,
Insert a carnation
Whose stem has a fresh slant cut,
Wait overnight - - - observe.

Aren't they pretty little ladies?

(Thank you to Kelly's Flowers and Gifts
for donating the carnations!)
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Happy Birthday, Haley!!!!

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Have you heard of "The Other Sister"?
Well, this is our other daughter,
And it is her birthday today!!!

Happy birthday, Haley!!!
We are so proud to claim you
As our other daughter.

--"Mom"
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Saint Patrick's Day Post

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An Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand


(photo from eHow)
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The Big Dance - - -

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The teams are selected,
The brackets are set - - -

Let the Dance begin!!!!

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I Came, I Walked, I Conquered!!!!

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For six months I've been carrying this little "Y" membership tag around on my key chain. It was in totally pristine, unused condition - - - because, well, to me exercise is a four letter word.


But because I'm "all about" being healthy (those of you who know me in person, STOP CHOKING on your laughter right now!!!) I decided to join my friend, Diane, for an early Saturday morning walk around the Y gym track.


Here is my PROOF that it actually was morning and that I actually did go - - - if you know Marion, or if you Google Planet our fair town and search out the Y, you will see that I HAD to be facing East to take this picture, so it has to be a sunrise and not a set - - - - that's all the proof I've got!!!

Also, check out the time stamp on this post, (I PROMISE I didn't alter it) take into consideration the fact that I had to go to the Y, let my feet do the walkin', return home, edit and resize my photos, and THEN make this post - - - - and you'll see I had to be quite an early bird this morning!!!

For those of my blog readers who used to live here in our fair town - - - this is our new YMCA, just opened this fall. Can you tell what famous Marion Icon was revamped to become the Y????

By the way - - - that is my candy-apple red Wisconsin Badgermobile Durango in the parking lot on the right side of this picture - - - further proof of my presence there.


This used to be the Marion Coliseum, home of the historical, famous Marion Easter Pageant. It has been restored and refurbished into a really lovely Y. I'm SO GLAD they kept the architectural details on the face of the building.

They added this new wing on the south east side, just in front of the river.

Now for one last shocking announcement before this post is finished:

Diane and I have made plans to walk two days during the week (BEFORE SCHOOL) and Saturdays. It is our new "routine."

I'll let you know how it goes - - - -

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Spreading Our Own Brand of Love - - -

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All over the world!!!

Well, all over North America anyway.

Please go here

to see what my sixth grade class

And I have been up to THIS time.

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They're Coming!!!

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50,000!!!

Sometime in the next few days, this blog will log it's 50,000th visitor. Will it be YOU????



(Perhaps you're thinking, "What's the big deal???" Well to ME this is a BIG deal. I've not listed my blog anywhere and just rely on word-of-click to pick up my clientele, so 50,000 visitors is HUGE to me. Thanks for adding to my numbers!!!!)

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"The Trouble With Tribbles"

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And pictures is they don't reproduce reasonably.
(For all you young whipper snappers, that is a reference to an original "Star Trek" episode)

The pitcher on left and the bowl on right are both from Burr Camp.

After I told the story of getting the Burr Camp pitcher WITHOUT a bowl and buying one to complete the set, my daughter, Keri, asked why I didn't use the Burr Camp bowl instead of buying one.

The FIRST reason was that I had the pitcher several years before the bowl came my way.

The second reason is a perspective problem that my pictures failed to show.














With this combination the pitcher on the left looks like a 2X lady trying to squeeze into a size 8 dress, and the pitcher on the right looks like a skinny minny wearing a tent.

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Sky Watch Friday

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Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Born of the One Light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day


Lyrics by Cat Stevens

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Thrifty Thursday - Treasure Hunt

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Thanks to our dear Miss
Leigh, "Big Daddy's Girl" as
I call her - - - we are
gathering again to play
"Thrifty Thursday"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A tisket a tasket,
A little china basket.
It has violets of blue
Especially for you!

I use it to hold my rings.

Since my maiden name is Heavilin,
I've always wanted some Johann Haviland china,
You know - - - just in case he's a long lost relative,
Or something.
Then one day I spied these little beauties
In an antique shop - - -
Six berry bowls and a dessert plate.

This china hat box
Came to me one fine Mother's Day
Filled with a delicate flower arrangement.
The flowers faded and died - - -
But the hat box is still perfect!

This pitcher came from my
Beloved Burr Camp.
(If you missed my camp story check here.)
Unfortunately, the bowl was long gone.
I started looking in antique shops for
JUST a bowl - - - and found this one!
The bowl is a slightly different shade
Of white than the pitcher - - -
But to me they are a perfect pair.
And a daily reminder of
My sweet camp memories.

This pitcher really was a thrifty buy!
I found it on a sidewalk sale table
At our local Cracker Barrel.
Just a little wanna-be antique.
Later I found the bowl in
A box of "oldies and goodies"
From Burr Camp.
I remember it being used to serve
Mashed potatoes.
I think it makes a perfect
Companion to my
Little frugal pitcher.

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What Are They Thinkin'?

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It's time for "Around the Horn"
Followed by "PTI" on ESPN - - -
But they're showing soccer.
SOCCER?!? What is THAT all about?
You'd think this was a
Sports network or something!

No worries - - - I'll watch my shows
At 6:00 PM on ESPN2 - - -
Oh NO I won't - - -
Baseball's on ESPN2.

How dare they actually show the SPORT
Instead of just the pundits
Talking ABOUT the sport????

What ARE these ESPN people thinkin'????

;-)
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Up There on a Par With World Hunger - - -

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OK - - - it's not even close,
But work with me here - - -

(photo from Ksspecials)

My hair has been looking like this.
I've been just WAITING for my appointment,
Which was this evening.

I had SUCH HIGH HOPES
Of coming out of there
Looking something like this:

OK probably NOT like that,
But hopefully EXACTLY like this:

When I got to the shop,
My sweet, wonderful, talented stylist
Had forgotten to write down my appointment
And ANOTHER LADY was already in the chair.

I must confess, I nearly broke into tears,
Because, well, you know - - -
I'm going to have to look like this:

Until Thursday.
Waahhh Waahhh Waahhh!

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Tell Me Why - - -

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This picture has absolutely NOTHING to do with the rest of this post! It is just a visual to catch your attention. Do you see that darlin' little 25 mL beaker in the foreground? Isn't that just the cutest little piece of lab equipment you've ever seen? I ordered those - a set of 12 of them - for our school lab and they arrived Friday. My sixth graders and I are busy thinking up names for all twelve of them - - - I'll announce the winning names later.

Now for the MAIN purpose of this post, which will also be picturless.



TELL ME WHY:


1) We are forced to participate in daylight savings time. Even the NAME is misleading. There is no such thing as SAVING daylight nor SAVING time. We have a set number of hours of daylight out of each 24 hours depending upon the latitude at which we live and the season of the year. There is no saving it.

Each year when we go through this nonsense - - - and we didn't USED to do it in Indiana until three years ago when our Governor pushed it through the assembly - - - it takes my body a good three weeks to adjust to the spring time change. My cells, capillaries, and synapses all KNOW it is only 3:30 AM when I get out of bed even though the clock says 4:30.

In case I haven't made myself perfectly clear yet: I HATE DST!!!



2) Fat female abdomens pop up on my Yahoo mail homepage EVERY TIME I go to my e-mail!!!!

I mean, these aren't just ordinary fat bellies - - - these are bellies gaping out of their clothing and then BOBBING up and down as if they didn't already catch my attention without the motion.

It is so gross. I go to extreme lengths not to notice my own mid-drift shape, why in the WORLD would I want to see others'????????? YIKES.



3) Folks HIDE the controls to their music players on their blogs? I am sitting here in a silent early morning house, and I go to my favorite blogs - - - trying to be silent as a mouse - - - and the music begins to blare and I can't find the controls to quiet it or turn it off. Or worse yet - - - I'm trying to covertly check my blogs at SCHOOL while my students are taking a TEST - - - and there goes that music.

All I ask is that either the music be the kind the viewer has to TURN ON, or that the control for it be located RIGHT UP THERE NEAR THE HEADER so an old idiot like me can FIND it quickly.



4) People send forwards. I hate it when my inbox is full, and I'm SOOOOOO excited to get mail, and I open up my Yahoo - - - - squeezing my eyes tightly SHUT so I won't see the bouncing belly - - - and peek out of the corner of my left eye (bouncer is on the right) and low and behold - - - 1000 of my 1001 e-mails are FORWARDS!!!!!!

OK - - - so I only had 14 e-mails and 13 were forwards - - - but you get the idea. Folks, do ANY of you actually read those things? I "just say delete."


Well, now, how was that for sneaking in a list of pet peeves with a fooler photo and a less than full disclosure title?????

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So Typical - - -

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On So Many Levels!

About a year ago at our school's Health Fair,
I was GIVEN this little weekly
Medicine dispenser strip.

Hubby kind of poo-pooed it - - -
What did I need that for?,
Who cares? - - - you know the routine.

Well, I was not deterred.
I began to use it
And was thankful for the "daily" markings
As sometimes I forget if I took my
Meds today - or was that yesterday?
Perhaps you can relate.

Anyway, I've been happily using
My little medicine strip
For over a year now.

About a month ago,
Hubby came home from Walgreens
With this:

The fisherman's tackle box medicine dispenser.
It's set up for taking meds four times a day,
But hubby uses it as once a day for four weeks.
I don't even know how much he spent for it.

Let's make a list in the comments
Of all the ways
This is "typical" hubby behavior.
Who wants to be first?

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The Stuff Real Heros Are Made Of - - -

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There are two heroes in this story.

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I So Didn't Mean To Cause Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

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When I posted about this little stool the other day!!!!

If you are clueless about that of which I speak, see my previous post and then return here.

You see to me this little stool represents loss replacement. It is a very happy thing. I didn't even realize I was going to bring tears to eyes with the FIRST part of the story. But, evidently I made quite a few of you sad because you inundated this blog with sad comments. Well, OK, there were only 6 sad comments - - - but I call that a true inundation.

Then there were two of you who urged me to try to find the original stool - - - something I HAVE thought of trying to do. And my daughter, who knows the depth of my propensity to follow rules (that's a nice way to say I'm legalistic) said I was silly because I didn't just TAKE it when I saw my name on the bottom of it - - - in retrospect she may have a very valid point.

BUT - - - here is my response to all these things.

First of all, there is a certain tug at my heart strings wishing I could have my own Grandpa-constructed stool. That would be nearly more nostalgia than my little heart could stand. Because you see, not only did I ADORE that particular grandpa, but Burr Wesleyan Camp is deep in my veins. Deep in my veins.

I'm a PK who lived in three different communities as I grew up, but we spent at least three weeks at Burr Camp each summer, so it was HOME. It was our ROOTS. The other PKs were our siblings. We played "war" in the woods, gave each other really ridiculous nick names (which we thought were quite fabulous at the time), made a club house under the stairs, and engraved our names on the hallowed walls of Harmony Hall.

As we grew older, we found the most interesting boys on the planet at Burr Camp. We moved out of our parents' cottages and into the dorm. We dreamed of getting married someday in the tabernacle. We sat in the Pump House and played Concentratino for hours. Some of us (that would be my Sister Pam and her best friend) tried elaborate schemes to sleep somewhere other than our dorm room without getting caught by "Aunt Lois" the counselor, who just happened to be Sister Pam's and my REAL Aunt. (Oh that woman could walk on silent cat feet and was everywhere at once, so even though Sister Pam is a Sumna Cum Laude, she never succeeded in tricking Old Eagle Eyes.)

Burr Camp is where, at twelve years old I gave my heart and life to Jesus and understood what I was doing and stuck with it. Burr Camp is where I realized I needed to give 100% of the control of my life to the Lord, did so, and stuck to that. So Burr Camp is hallowed ground to me. (And to many others over many generations)

But I digress - - - back to my little stool. You see, mine was not the ONLY stool at camp. There were 5 or 6 of them. Mine may have been made for me, but when I was finished with it, it remained at camp, in the window sill, for future generations of camp children to use. That is why when I refound it as a 40 something year old adult who certainly didn't NEED to sit on it any more, I felt I should leave it there - - - allow it to continue with it's primary function of helping to nuture current and future camp children. It had it's own legacy to pass down.

Little did I know at the time that Burr Camp and all of it's trappings were going to be sold.

Now as for what happened to those little stools, mine included, I can only guess. You see, they were meant to be utilitarian. Though mine was well built by Grandpa, none of them were stained or varnished in any way. They were just little raw wood stools which had become gray and weathered over time. They didn't look like much when I found them still in the camp windows 36 years or so after I was finished using mine.

My guess is they were either discarded and burned, or were carted off by some folk who "squated" in the dining hall for the better part of a winter when the camp was no longer in use. If they were still in the window sills when the camp was sold, I would guess the current owners threw them away as their use may not have been obvious to modern day humankind. They may have just looked like trash.

However - - - the NEXT time I am near our beloved Burr Camp (which I think is now called Burr Ridge Rustic Retreat) I shall stop by and enquire. If I find my own precious little stool, I shall be sure to post about it here.

Now - - - please all my hordes of blog fans, dry your little eyes and REJOICE with me that the Lord chose to send the above pictured replacement to me. I am keeping it in my possession and in my sight. I am a happy, contented, peaceful stool owner again.

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Favorite Furniture Pieces

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I'm connecting some more of
My favorite things to Leigh's
"Thrifty Thursday" Party.

My focus today is on several of my
Favorite pieces of furniture.
Some of these were truly thrifty
(free to me thrifty)
Others - - - not so much.

Hope you enjoy,
Leave me a comment so I'll know you were here,
And come back and visit often!!!

My little school room desk.
I don't know anything about it's history
Except that it came to me FREE
About 32 years ago
When it was cleared out of
A Boy Scout Club House.
And I didn't even HAVE a Boy Scout!!!!

I purchased this dresser in an antique store.
I'd been looking for just the "right thing"
For a corner in my family room.
I walked into the antique mall one day
And this dresser jumped up
And SCREAMED my name.
I wrote a check on the spot
And brought it home.

Perhaps you will think me CRAZY
To place a DRESSER in the family room.
Well, crazy I am
For I LOVE it there.

This is my GEM.
My friend, Vangie, had this dressing table
In her antique booth.
It was love at first sight - - -
And the love only deepened to PURCHASE status
When she told me the story:

This dressing table was
Hand made in the late 1800's in shop class,
WITH LOVE
By a young man for his sister,
Right here in Marion Indiana.
Vangie knew all the names involved,
I have forgotten them,
But NOT their story.

The two side mirrors can tip
In so the lovely sister could
View the back of her hair!

I use it as a sidebar in my dining room - - -
Which just happens to be
My favorite room in the house,
But I'll post more about THAT later.

And last for today is this precious little stool.

When I was a mere toddler,
My Grandpa Butcher made a little stool
Quite similar to this
To put in my chair at the table
In the dining room at Family Camp - - -
Sort of an original booster seat.

Years later when I was speaking
At that camp,
I FOUND my little stool!
I know it was my exact stool
Because my name was
Written in pencil in my Grandpa's hand,
Underneath the seat.

Foolishly, I thought it belonged to the camp
And left it there.
BIG MISTAKE.
A few years later when I wasn't there,
They SOLD that camp - - -
And I'm sure MY little stool went with it,
At least I NEVER saw it again.

So, when I saw THIS stool in an Antique shop
I didn't care WHAT THE PRICE TAG SAID,
To me it was priceless.
I coughed up the money
And thought it was quite a thrifty deal!!!

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Two Odds and One End

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ODD ONE - My SECOND Bloggy Win Ever:

Headless was giving away these little readers,
I won them
And they arrived today
Complete with a special little
Personal note!!!

Thank you, Headless.
I can't wait to read them to Mackinley.


ODD TWO - Something New in my Sidebar:

Perhaps you have somehow missed the fact
That I'm somewhat of a sports nut.
In fact - - - MORE than crime dramas
(Which I DO love on TV)
I love "Around the Horn"
And "PTI" on ESPN.
My weekday just isn't complete
If I miss them.

So, in honor of one of my favorites,
The Honorable Woodrow Paige,
I am adding a list of
His chalkboard sayings
To my sidebar.

I wasn't sure you could actually
SEE and READ this lovely icon
Miniaturized in the sidebar,
So I'm showing it to you
Here in nearly life-size.

(At the bottom of the photo,
There is a URL of a site where
You can, if interested, create your
Own such icon.)


END - All in a Day at School:

Please take this story in the spirit of
Fun with which it is intended.

One day in my sixth grade science class,
In an effort to add some HUMOR to my
Cajoling of a few of the students
Prone to blurting out of turn,
I asked if I needed to get a "blurter's hat."

Far from being "put off"
By the idea,
They all chorused "YES!!!"
Which was followed by several girls
Volunteering to MAKE hats for me.

The very next day they appeared
Three hats in hand.

Today, just before the
"End of class" bell,
We had our FIRST model.

I fear rather than deter
The problem,
This may become
A sought after "Treat."

Gotta love these kids!!!

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Where Have All My Genes Gone?

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AKA: ALL My Genes are Recessive, WAY Recessive

I should be used to this by now.
Every one of our four babies looked
Just like their daddy.
I may not have been involved at all - - -
Except I DO remember nine months of morning sickness
Times four.
And I think I remember the deliveries too - - -
Or did I just imagine those things???

And now our grandchildren are coming along - - -
And guess what???

My genes are STILL hiding

They are ALL Greg.

Later Addendum:
Oh, Oh, Oh!!!
I just thought of it!!!
Mackinley is SMART AS A WHIP - - -
He got THAT gene from me!!!
;-)

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