Then I Thought of Home

I know we haven't had Thanksgiving yet but I also know the reality of it is many are already doing their Christmas shopping. After watching television for a little bit I had a thought, I thought about the things we shouldn't buy our kids for Christmas. Have you noticed the toy or educational commercials lately? Have you really listened to or looked at them? I  am always struck with the picture they give. Now first of all don't read what I'm not saying, I don't think there is a thing wrong with a child being able to entertain themselves, I think it is an important thing to learn but I also think as humans we are prone to go to far one way or the other. We all have to agree we live in a time that is different from any in history. We spend less time with our children than any parents before us. Truth is that means we have less time to speak into their lives than any parents before us. We have done this so long we have lost sight of what we are doing. ...

The preacher was coming to dinner and so I was up early preparing the meal and doing last minute things. I had a couple of things to put away but being in  a hurry I just threw them in our bedroom on the bed. When I got ready to dry my hair I was in a hurry so I just threw the wet towel on the bed. I dressed, left the room and shut the door. I wasn't worried, I mean who would be in there anyway. So after church I  went home before Mark so I could get things on the table and when Mark and the preacher, we'll call him Frank got here we sat down to eat. This was back when Lucas had his long hair,  so Frank was at one end of the table and Lucas was at the other. Frank  asked Lucas if he had ever considered going to Bible College, Lucas looked at him, looked at the bowl of mashed potatoes he was passing, flipped his head to shake the hair out of his eyes and said, "No." I cleared my throat and asked if anyone needed more gravy. Then Mark sai...

Sometimes you just need a simple, quick dessert and this is one that works every time. I got this recipe out of our family cookbook. Rhonda Albertson, my cousin, I won't get into the once or twice removed stuff I'll just say my dad and Rhonda's mom, Regina are first cousins. When I was a girl Rhonda was already married and lived across the field from us. We spent a lot of time at her house and one of my favorite memories of her is the bike rides she would take us on. We would start out from home there on Bear Creek, go to Martinsburg, down Dutch Creek Road, be on the highway for just a few feet and then turn onto Old Palmyra Road. We finished the ride by stopping at Frank and Regina's,  that's Rhonda's folks. Which is worthy of a whole other blog, Frank and Regina's house was used as a stop off during the days of the underground railroad. I remember going down in the basement and seeing the place it had long been walled up but you could still s...

Several of you have asked about Mark and I and how we met. I know I've told some of it before but I'll share in this blog some of how we came to be. To start with we rode the same school bus. I can still see Mark, his twin brother Mike and their sister Karen waiting at the end of the lane when the bus pulled up. I didn't like him,  I never did. I had an assigned seat with his sister Karen and that was the year a lot of people from New Albany starting moving out to the eastern part of the county and our bus got really overcrowded So it was Mark's sister, Karen, another girl and two kindergartner girls.  Someone had to hold the two little ones on their lap, Karen was the oldest so she said she wasn't going to do it so the other girl and I did. This still makes me laugh because if you know Karen you know she is just one of the most giving sweet people you would ever want to meet yet she made us hold those girls and one of them wet on me. No kidding. Bu...