Where's the butter?

Sam's Uncle Ralph loved butter and expected it to be on the table at every meal. Therefore, his first statement upon sitting down to eat was, "Where's the butter?" Usually it was sitting right in front of him--but this was his routine.

These days I am often asking myself "Where's the butter?" Or where are the scissors, or where is that pen or where are my glasses? I can lose something in the span of a nanosecond.

I think Mary Norton's Borrowers have taken up residence in my house. These are little people in that wonderfully creative children's book who make their home between the walls of your home and who "borrow" small things to furnish their houses.

I don't know what has happened to my eyesight. I can search my purse for lipstick three times, decide it's not there, and then go back later and find it in the purse.
It couldn't be because I turn 69 tomorrow, could it? Naahh.

Babies, babies, praise God!

The church will not die out if Otter Creek has anything to do with it--We blessed about 35 babies last night in our annual baby blessing. The last few years have averaged 35. I think there are 30 young women about to have babies soon.

Such a blessing to see young parents up there who are committed to rearing their
children in the Lord's care. Who knows what lurks in the minds of those precious children? Who will be the tribe's best preacher? How many will be elders? How many will be Bible class teachers? Scientists who find a cure for cancer? Teachers who crack the ghetto? Musicians who write new hymns for their generation?

It is exciting to contemplate and pray about.

It's snowing, it's snowing!

Beautiful flakes are falling now--as I work on the Abilene seminar I look out and see white, white, white. Love it.

I got my Buick back yesterday--looks nice with an added benefit--the people at Nolensville Collision and Repair buffed out some scratches on my hood as well. I highly recommend them. Very nice and prompt.

Driving the Mazda3 rental car was a challenge--I know why I like Buicks now. I felt as if I were in a little white box traveling down the road among giant SUV's and Hummers.

So glad that incident is over and all is settled, except for the sure- to- come raise in my automobile insurance.

Jumping for joy

As I was driving down Pettus Road today, the snow was falling softly. In a field to my right, a pony was running around, jumping for joy, waving his hind legs in the air enjoying the beauty and the clear cold air of the day. His mane and tail were flying in the wind. It was a wonderful sight. How long has it been since you jumped for pure joy?

Murder she wrote

Today I began a new course in Lipscomb's Life Long Learning series about classic women mystery writers: Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Dorothy Sayers....
Kim Reed of the Lipscomb faculty is the teacher.

I enjoyed today and will enjoy reading all the books we are going to share. I haven't read these authors in years, having gone on to more modern writers like Sue Grafton and Margaret Truman.

What fun.

One year

Yesterday marks one year Otter Creek has been in the new facility. As a newcomer, the facility seems ready made for us, but I know there are others who miss the old building--why I don't know other than history. It was too small and needing grave repair. So glad we are on Franklin Road and more visible to the community.

We are having about 30 babies born each year now and that would predict that this building will be too small in a few years. Change and growth are good!! The new building feels like home now.

First Call

One of my favorite Christmas presents was the cd "Rejoice" by First Call. It is a collection of hymns sung a cappella. The sound reminds me of the old group 2nd Chapter of Acts (still miss them). Some of the arrangements are a little funky, but there are two harmonica solos by the master Buddy Green which tear your heart out--why is it that old hymns sound so poignant when played on a harmonica or violin?

Overall, the album is really fine--One track I especially enjoy is "Come to Jesus" which I plan to use in Abilene later this month.

Thanks kids for the present!

Super Bowl, etc.

Our small group enjoyed the Super Bowl, esp. since the Colts won. I know why they get the big bucks. If I had to do anything for three hours plus in the pouring rain, I would require big bucks too!

I hardly spend any time surfing--most of my time on the computer is spent in answering e-mail and writing my blog. However, there are some sites I enjoy going to occasionally. One is Garrison Kiellor's column on writers at newsletter@americanpublicmedia.org. He always begins with a poem and gives interesting facts I have never heard about writers. It is an egghead kind of thing.

Groundhog Day

My parents married on Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, 1934. They were both 17 years old--babies! They were married at the home of the Baptist preacher in Anson, Texas. And that is all I know about them--don't know how they met (they lived in the same rural area), what they thought of each other as they courted, and how dad popped the question. For for a do-over when I could ask these questions!

I do know that Mom had probably just returned from business school in Lubbock (her father came and got her, forcing her to quit because he found out that she was using some of the money he was sending her to take dance lessons). She may have married out of spite, to get away from home, or who knows? She and my dad were very different--she was the first to graduate from high school in her family; he quit school after 6th grade to work on the farm. She was an avid reader; she had to teach my father to read and write--seems he didn't learn much in school. She was a member of the church of Christ; he was a Primitive Baptist (and this caused discord between my mother and his mother all the days my grandmother lived). She was a spiffy dresser; he loved wearing overalls, etc., etc. I wish I knew all the story.

After marriage they lived in an area called "the shinnery" near Anson, Texas where my dad sharecropped during the week and worked sacking groceries at a market in town on the weekend. It was a hand-to-mouth existence at best, as the Depression wound down. My dad would later learn to be a carpenter at an army base during the War and go to be a trucker as well. Mom did not work until I was in Junior High when she went to work as a seamstress at Frank's in Hamlin. She later worked for the Malouf's as seamstress and bookkeeper putting her business school acumen to work.

Snow, snow

I have been humming that tune from the old Bing Crosby movie Holiday Inn all morning since I woke up to find that snow had finally blanketed our part of the land last night. It is is the best kind of snow--not icy, but soft and easily made into snowballs.

Living in West Texas, I rarely got to see snow and even here in Tennessee snow has been lacking in the last two winters. I am always glad to see its beautiful Robert Frost whiteness and to truly be able to see what "white as snow" really means. It is an opportunity to eat snow ice cream, watch the kids next door play, and to remember all the pictures I have seen of snow. Sam bought me one of Fort Phantom in the snow that I treasure. And he, as the artist he was, painted a snow scene which hangs in my bathroom along with another one handed down from his grandmother of an old farm house covered in snow. And who can forget that scene in the movie Dr. Zhivago of the snowy cottage of Zhivago and Lara? I love snow when I don't have to be go somewhere.

Thank you God for the beauty of snow. Who but you could have created it? Thank you too for your son whose blood "washed me whiter than snow."

Significant Deaths

The editorial pages in over 400 newspapers are considerably lessened today by the death of Molly Ivins, a Texas columnist who died yesterday of breast cancer. She is the second strong Texas woman to die this year--Ann Richards, her friend, was the first. Molly always tickled my funny bone and made me think. She had the label of liberal which she proudly wore and said one of her greatest honors was to be banned from the campus of Texas A and M. She was born in California, but she got to Texas as soon as she could.

She counted herself a friend of George Bush, but fell out with him during his governorship and when he left Texas. Her nickname for him "Scrub" is an example of her humor. She was an ardent opponent of the war in which we now found ourselves embroiled.

I will miss her column and her insights into the world in which we live. I don't know of another who has the same Texas savvy and wit writing today.

Holbert Rideout, a long-time friend from Abilene also died this week. He had suffered from Alzheimeer's for several years. Holbert and Sam served as elders together at the Minter Lane Church for several years. Holbert was the editor of Christian Bible Teacher when he recruited me to write a column for that publication several years ago.

He was long-known as an "expert" in Christian education. His wife and I served together as librarians in the Abilene School District. Stella once worked for Sam as librarian at Bowie Elementary.

Holbert was kind, gentle and always finding ways to serve others. He was the first person at my house when he found out that my mother had died. I will miss him and his example.