Happy one year Anniversary

I just bumped into the fact that I've been keeping a Blogger for a scoch over a year now. (Spell check is telling me "scoch" isn't a word but it has to be - we use it all the time!) Anyway for the sake of consistency and conciseness I'm reposting some of my early ramblings here so I can eliminate an old blog under an unwanted url. The ramblings are ok, I just had to regroup and start fresh because of some problems.

So here it is: Post # uno from August 21, 2006. I'll get the others listed over the next few weeks.

Monday, August 21, 2006

I've been pondering the meaning of "bemeusement" for a while now. It's one of those double edge words. The old English prefix "be" has a couple of meanings:

1. choseness such as "by" or "near". Eg. 'be-fore'.
2. an intensive thoroughness. Eg. "be-wail'.

Muse of course means to think.

And the suffix, "ment" changes the verb and/or noun (however you wish to use the word) and shows the result or product of an action'. Eg. 'refreshment'; 'atonement'.

So the question is, am I close to having a thought or am I intensive and thorough in thought? I like to think the latter applies but in all honestly must admit it's not always the case. One of the skeletons in my emotional front hall closet is a much hated nickname - "squirrel bait." I still don't think too much of the person who came up with this good natured insult. But then, I was a ditzy kid.

Sometimes I'm a ditzy adult. Now that I'm approaching 50 I can blame it on age. My Mike will tell you it's the blond highlights. (My response is that it's meant to disguise super intelligence!) Whatever the case I sometimes find myself wishing I didn't know about some things. I'd much rather have a close (impersonal) knowledge of some things than the heartache of intensive thoroughness.

But then, I'm thankful for the hours spent at the back of Subway crying with my friend who's child was arrested. I'm glad I was there to support the friend who had to flee with her children because her husband crossed the line to molest a child. These are ugly things. I find myself bemused, as in dazed and bewildered, at the idiocy and level of sinful indulgence people can get themselves into. Squirrel bait? Maybe. I don't WANT to understand!

But then I do. I was blessed to be brought up by the Word. We didn't have Awana. Shoot, I was in my teens before I even heard of Wednesday evening service! Nobody knew we were supposed to have family devotions. We went to church on Sunday Mornings and that was pretty much it. Except - every generation (at least in one part of the family) lived the Word. And we kids were taught right and wrong based on it's principals. I can't say we were raised in the Word, but we were certainly raised by it. And without exception we all dug into it and embraced it as our own as soon as we were old enough to appreciate it's impact on our lives. Even my old heathen, citified, cousin dragged his younger brother to the Cross as he approached death. The Word did it's work. The circle won't be unbroken.

But back to understanding. Prison ministry has taught me many things, one of them being that we were privileged beyond measure. Without exception all the people we minister to in the jails had little if any real anything real or good up to landing in jail. Granted, each person is responsible for their choices and their actions, yet when darkness is all you know and all you've ever known, well, walking in light is out of the question. Some just walk in deeper darkness than others. And all need the same thing: redemption, atonement, forgiveness. But for the grace of God, I could be one of the women waiting to be transferred out of a hell hole, living for mail call, abandoned by my family and trying hard to stay out of fights or worse. That much I understand. I don't need deep pondering to get it.

So - as apparently I'm starting a new blog unbeknownst to anyone but myself, I'll try to offer real thoughts. I may even play with my word. After all, the misspelling is intentional, but that's another topic for another day.

WHITE LIE CAKE
(from this morning's email:)

Have you ever told a white lie? You are going to love this, especially all of those who bake for church events.

Alice Grayson was to bake a cake for the Baptist Church Ladies' Group in Tuscaloosa , but forgot to do it until the last minute. She remembered the morning of the bake sale & after rummaging through cabinets, found an angel food cake mix & quickly made it while drying her
hair, dressing, & helping her son pack for Scout camp.

When Alice took the cake from the oven, the center had dropped flat and the cake was horribly disfigured. she thought, "Oh dear, there is not time to bake another cake."

This cake was important to Alice because she did so want to fit in at her new church & in her new community of friends. So, being inventive, she looked around the house for something to build up the center of the cake.

Alice found it in the bathroom - a roll of toilet paper. She plunked it in & covered it with icing. Not only did the finished product look beautiful, it looked perfect.

Before she left the house to drop the cake by the church & head for work, Alice woke her daughter Amanda & gave her some money & specific instructions to be at the bake sale the moment it opened at 9:30 & to buy the cake & bring it home.

When Amanda arrived at the sale, she found the attractive, perfect cake had already been sold. She grabbed her cell phone & called her mom.

Alice was horrified - she was beside herself. Everyone would know! What would they think? She would be ostracized, talked about, & ridiculed! All night, Alice lay awake in bed thinking about people pointing fingers at her & talking about her behind her back.

The next day, Alice promised herself she would try not to think about the cake & would attend the fancy luncheon/bridal shower at the home of a fellow church member & try to have a good time. Alice did not want to attend because the hostess was a snob who more than once had looked down her nose at Alice because she was a single parent & not from the founding families of Tuscaloosa . But, having already RSVP'd, she couldn't think of a believable excuse to stay home.

The meal was elegant, the company was definitely upper crust old South &, to Alice 's horror, the cake in question was presented for dessert! Alice felt the blood drain from her body when she saw the cake! She started out of her chair to tell the hostess all about it, but before she could get to her feet, the Mayor's wife said, "what a beautiful cake!"

Alice still stunned, sat back in her chair when she heard the hostess (who was a prominent church member) say, "Thank you, I baked it myself."

Alice smiled and thought to herself, "God is good."

I can't remember the last time my house was this much of a wreck. We're down to the home stretch on all this insurance repair work. Half of my living room is covered with a big plastic sheet where the guys have been mudding the skylights they replaced when they did the roof. There's a pile of sheetrock rubble at the end of the hall where they patched the hole Becky made with her foot when she couldn't stop (some years back). I knew the house had wear and tear from rearing and launching three of our four, but hadn't really paid attention to how bad it was till all this started. Now I see rooms and trim that need to be repainted, carpets that need replacing, etc. But mostly I just want to CLEAN!

Things will be better once all this is finished. No more drips during rainstorms, the barn repaired, fences will be mended. I'm looking forward to cleaning closets and having a huge yardsale.

For the moment I'm enjoying sitting across the table from Beck, listening to Sufjan Stevens and contemplating the shower I need to remove white paint splatters from my arms. (Had to paint the trim on the barn door!) She's struggling through chemistry and I'm enjoying my friend Rachael's new blog. Check it out, http://ccaschooldaze.blogspot.com/. Rach is one of our kids, an extraordinary young woman. We'd keep her but she's needed upstate to teach. Rachel is a recipient of our redbird special. We forgot to tell her about the insane cardinal that flys into the windowpane of the guest room every morning. I'm told she hit the floor standing when it happened.

I guess I better mosey back and get started on that shower before this paint gets any harder to scrub off.

Reflections on a busy Sunday

Irene and I switched weeks for prison ministry this month because of a schedule conflict. She's gone on the third Sunday and I've gone the fourth for quite a few years now. We pretty much have a routine - I load her up with Bibles and Bible lessons prior to her going, then get many lessons back which have to be checked and delivered along with new lessons when I go a week later. Very seldom do I get to give out Bibles as she makes first contact with all the new prisoners.

There was little of that today. Everyone had a Bible, and only a couple of students needed new lessons. It was nice to be able to concentrate on their needs, answer questions and focus on the lesson. Today's study was on the wife of Jeroboam in I Kings 14. It was a difficult lesson to study, and even more difficult to teach, especially having to do it three times consecutively. At one time long ago we had "church" in the library with only the women who wanted to participate. Those who didn't remained in their cells. We never went past a certain door that went into the female section. Then one Sunday the rules had changed. We were taken through "that" door to the individual cells and things have been very different ever since. It's been that way three or four years now.

It was a good change. We have access to EVERY woman in the jail. Even if they chose to ignore us or sleep during church time, we are at least able to leave a tract or volunteer to pray with or for them. The down side was that we had limited time with each group of ladies. God graciously fixed that around a year ago when they changed visitation days for the women. These days I'll wait or teach through lunch, but can stay as late as I'm needed. The biggest challenge remains following the spirit's lead to give a fresh lesson on the same material with three very different groups of women. They each have different questions, they each have different needs.

Today had several highlights:
1. HA, my best student ever is finally gone. She was one of the only female trustees ever at our jail and is being reunited with her daughter while in rehab. This is an answer to many months of prayer.
2. TB is gone on to rehab too. She was another good student and a trustee.
3. SB, an in and out inmate for quite a few years delivered another classic one liner during a lesson. Concerning Jeroboam's wife, "She done got busted!"
4. KC, a girl I led to Christ some years back and CCJ's only female sex offender, is back. This is not good news. Don't ask me how it happened but the year I knew her before she developed a relationship with a man "outside", supposedly a Christian. Somewhere in the years between she married him and had two children. Now he's dying of cancer, her babies are in foster care and she's behind bars again. She looks awful. We wept as we prayed for him.

Many things will change between now and the end of September when I go back. At least eleven women have court this week and several more are waiting for court dates. Some will make bail, some will go on probation, some will go on to Tutweiler. I make it a point to never ask why or where as it's irrelevant to my purpose for being there. It's still good to see it go well as in HA's case. Seeing lives healed is what it's all about.

It's around 10:30 pm August 11, 2007 and our youngest son is officially a married man. Hallalujah and Amen! The bride was beautiful, the bridesmaids lovely, the the groomsmen spiffy, and the wedding a wonderful mix of sweet, funny and sentimental. It was uniquely them.

So now the former Heather Truitt is a Horton and we couldn't be happier. We've loved her from the start and am so happy God led our son to such a wonderful young woman. We have two awesome daugher in laws now. Bonnie Carrigan married our Brian a year ago. They were down from Raleigh for the wedding and it's been great getting to spend time with her during all this.

Every wedding has it's bumps and lumps. The ones for this wedding involved Mike's car. He spun out on a slick exit ramp and took out a rear fender and tail light two days before the wedding. This resulted in a very beat up Mike for which we had to seek professional help and a truckload of holistic products to get him through the wedding. The other bump/lump involved his engine going out after Wal Mart goofed up on his drain plug during an oil change. This involved an investigation, filing a claim with Wal Mart, and securing a rental car, all of which had to be done with a heat index of around 110 and Mike in great pain. Norman and I concentrated on helping Mike while Cindy, Brian/Bonnie and Becky concentrated on helping me pull off a rehersal dnner. With God's help everything was done, Mike was able to stand during the serivce and dance during his dinner.

Fyi, I posted a few photos on our farm site. Be sure to check the lower left one.

That's it for now. I think I need to locate our stray children and get some sleep.

I've nothing profound to say today. Some days are like that - full and rich but not necessarily profound. That's a good thing. I think if we had to deal with outstanding events, outstanding thoughts and outstanding people every day the profound would become mundane, hence the mundane is key to our appreciation of the profound.

Last night however was profound. Mr. Elmore Herman who is the current president of the Florida Beekeepers Association, spoke to WBA and it was a most excellent meeting. We hope he returns often. As close as he is (40 miles from Dothan) several times a year wouldn't be too much. The other profound bee item was that the amendment I proposed and lobbied for within WBA passed unanimously. It puts me out of office this December but will be good for the club in the long run.

The other profound things had to do with people - profound conversation with a friend, and a surprise visit by our Cindy. Good things!

I don't know it it's profound but I had an ionized foot detox yesterday. It was very painless and relaxing, till I saw the water. I'll spare you the disgusting details but suffice it to say that it was so effective I hope to do it again soon.

Today is business as usual, sort of. My friend Donna is finishing her first sandwiched quilt, that is, one with a top, lining and batting. It's been a delight to work with her. She has the capability to become a world class quilter.

And I'm back at my desk on the computer playing instead of balancing accounts (can you say "blech" !?) From the looks of my pile I'll be here a while. (Blech!) Another work related item is that Terri's dad went to hospice and they put him on morphine drip this week. We continue to hold them up in prayer. She told us some months back that he had made peace with God so we pray his homecoming will be as easy as possible for the whole family.

Mike will marry one week from tomorrow. What a blessing! We're getting another daughter!

And the work on the back part of the house is coming along very nicely. You can tell it's an actual room now. I think we've got a color picked out and will be looking for tile here soon, after the wedding no doubt. I've been making cheesecakes for the reception like crazy the last week - 8 made so far and I sacrificed one of them for last night's bee meeting. It was the new white chocolate raspberry flavor (my recipe) and there was none left. Not even a scrap. I've concluded that I like shortcake crusts better than graham, but will be doing graham for the New York ones I'm making tomorrow. Transporting these things frozen to Pensacola is going to be the biggest challenge.

No more rambling! All the talk about food has made me hungry and besides that, duty calls!