FAMILY: WHAT A BLESSING!

 This is not just another post.  This is about my family that I love, and I have been blessed immeasurably by God for allowing me to share this life with such wonderful people.  And, do you realize how difficult it is to condense these beautiful lives into a few sentences each? 

Clark with Asher

My husband Clark:  We've been married for 40 years.  He's a wonderful husband, father, and grandfather with numerous exemplary traits:  for instance, he can fix just about anything.  You wouldn't believe me, anyway, if I listed them all!  He's just that kind of person, and I cannot imagine my life without his presence.

Daughters Holly and Bethany:  These fantastic young women have enriched our lives far more than I could ever describe here.  Both are talented, beautiful inside and out, and are two of my very best friends.  Holly is a dedicated mother who sings beautifully; Bethany is a trained chef who cooks deliciously.  We three share a zany side to our personalities, making us prone to laughing fits.

 

Kurt and Bethany

Holly and Philip

Our sons-in-law, Philip and Kurt:  Total opposites in personality, these two young men are wonderful husbands, and we consider them sons. Philip is also a loving father, a scholar, and a pastor. He's quiet, but beneath that calm exterior lies an extreme sports fanatic! Kurt is a computer genius who can do anything with any item of technology (he would dispute that statement, but it's true). When we first met, I realized I had another early-morning talker with whom I could converse before 6:00 a.m.

Our three grandchildren:
Well, what grandparent does not love his/her grandchildren?? I see some of us in each of them, and it is delightful to "go down memory lane" when they say or do something revelatory of ourselves. Annika, Alexa, and Asher are beautiful, sweet, loving, and God-given enrichment to our family!

FLOWERS AND GRANDCHILDREN BLOOMING

Our three grandchildren had their pictures taken on Saturday, so I am sharing only a few of the 70 that were taken (it took remarkable restraint on my part to pick out only a few!). 

It might be spring, but here in the South it is in the 40's--and we had sleet/snow/rain mix this morning.  So why are my allergies still bothering me??

 

 

WHY DOGS BITE PEOPLE

I must admire the dog owners of the pooches in the photos below--I know that the two dachshunds in our family would never cooperate for such shenanigans! 

The captions are my creation.  I love to come up with comments for funny photos, and have done so for years with our family photos. 

"You have to be kidding!"

"But I already HAVE a tan!"



"Will somebody PLEASE
take this stupid contraption
off my head??"



GOOD-BYE, MY BELOVED . . . CARBS!

"Don't get me wrong; I love carbs, especially anything baked, be it yeast bread, hot biscuits dripping with butter, cake, pie, doughnuts, lasagna, dumplings, etc. HOWEVER, my beloved carbs do not love me back. They make me:  fat, retain water, have higher-than-recommended triglycerides, feel tired and draggy--well, you get the picture."

(See TO DIET OR NOT TO DIET and I WANT TO BE A LOSER, previous posts for background on this topic.)

Like I've written in the other dieting posts, I've been on all types of diets over the years.  After eating low carb this time, however, I want to go on record that I NEVER PLAN TO GO BACK TO EATING LOTS OF CARBS AGAIN!  I am simply feeling so much better now, and it is not worth it to feel awful all the time!  I've lost 20 pounds and 30 inches with a long way to go, but I'm pleased. 

Was it easy?  In a word, NO.  The hardest part was just making up my mind to say good-bye to more than 30 or 35 grams of carbs per day.  Really, in my case it is an addiction to carbs, notably sugar.  Staying far away from sugar is the best road for me to follow.  All carbs (starches, too) turn into sugar during digestion.  Then we have that insulin thingy to contend with, where the body stores fat instead of shedding it.

I was on the Atkins diet 25 years ago when it was controversial and considered downright unhealthy in some quarters ("What??  You eat bacon and eggs for a snack?").  I lost over 50 pounds, but gained it back when I resumed eating those carbs. 

PRO OR CON: DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME?

"We are no longer primarily an agrarian society, and we have electricity everywhere. Therefore, is it still feasible to utilize daylight savings time today?"

You be the judge:  does America want or need daylight savings time any longer? 

Inane comments, which I have heard personally, abound on this issue: 

"Well, the plants and flowers would get more sunlight," reasoned a radio caller. 

 "DST would give us another hour of sunlight," opined a news anchor. 

Geez.

"Hawaii and most of Arizona do not follow daylight-savings time. The Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona DOES observe daylight saving time; the rest of Arizona does not. And the territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa do not observe DST. The Eastern Time Zone section of Indiana also does not observe DST." (Wikipedia)
 
We are no longer primarily an agrarian society, and we have electricity everywhere.  Therefore, is it still feasible to utilize daylight savings time today? 

Although I enjoy getting an extra hour of sleep in the fall, I dislike losing an hour of sleep in the spring.  Granted, these are probably not intelligent reasons for doing away with DST, but they are certainly more logical than the comments given above!

What say you?

HOLY COW! ONE YEAR OLD!

Birthday boy

Our delightful (and only) grandson Asher turned one year old on Saturday.  Since he loves my kitchen cow decor (discerning young man, isn't he?), daughter Holly decided to have a cow-themed party for him: 



fav balloon

 







Ready to party!



"SIGNS" OF THE TIMES, PART TWO

Rather than grammatically incorrect highway signs like before, the signs and pictures in this post are just plain humorous.  Go ahead--laugh!

SOUTHERNERS: I "ARE" ONE

If you are reading this post and are not from the United States, (or live "up nawth"), then much of its content probably won't make sense to you.  However, my fellow Southerners will understand every word.

Although I was born in the South and come from a long line of Southerners, I grew up in various U.S. states and a couple of foreign countries since my dad was a career military man.  I still consider myself a Southerner, however, although even as an adult, I haven't always lived in the South--and I don't always view life in exactly the same way as born-and-raised Southerners do. 

A friend sent me the following, and I understood all of it--I even added a few points of my own: 

Southern FOLKS know their summer weather report:

Humidity
Humidity
Humidity

Southern FOLKS know their vacation spots:
The beach
The rivuh
The crick

Southern WOMEN know everybody's first name:

Honey
Darlin'
Shugah

Southern WOMEN know the movies that speak to their hearts:
Fried Green Tomatoes
Driving Miss Daisy
Steel Magnolias
Gone With The Wind


Southern FOLKS know their religions:
Baptist
Methodist
Basketball
Football
NASCAR

MY TOP TEN: THINGS THAT ANNOY ME

Some of my annoyances below are humorous (now), some are semi-serious, and some are dead serious, but all of them have actually happened to me: 

10. People who block store aisles with shopping carts and/or stand there conversing with several friends--then are offended by an "Excuse me" when other shoppers try to get around them;

9.   Restaurant wait staff who exhibit irritation when customers request anything, even the silverware THEY forgot to bring;

8.   Being in the "wrong" checkout line when the cashier runs out of change and must wait for it, the cash register goes on the blink and nobody knows how to get it working, or the customer at the head of the line is purchasing $500 worth of cat food in those itty bitty cans;