There are just a few household jobs that make me
growl. One of them is putting new sheets on top bunks,
I invariable hit my head, or my knee or my whatever.
The other growly job that must be faced on a regular
basis is cleaning the tub/shower. My tendency was
always to put it off until we had overnight company and
then spend enormous amounts of time making it look
as though it had never been used before. (Good thing
we often have overnight company or the ickniness would
have built up to a gargantuan level.)

But I came up with a solution a few years ago that works
for me.

Every time I take a shower (which isn't everyday, no "icks"
please, I take baths in between showers since I don't need
to wash my hair everyday), but every time I take a shower
I clean one part of the tub/shower stall. It isn't so daunting
when taken in bits like this. One day I'll clean the tub,
a few days later it will be the walls up to the middle and then,
finally, I attack the upper walls. Basically the entire assembly
gets cleaned once a week. I no longer have to panic if I get
unexpected company. This is a system I've been able to keep
going for several years now.

For more Works For Me go over and visit Shannon at Rocks
In My Dryer.

I know I already posted briefly on Reformation Day, but
really this is just priceless. You've got to sing along with
the Reformation Polka to get the full meaning of this day.

"Today is Reformation Day, the day we celebrate the beginning
of the Protestant Reformation. October 31 stands as the day
that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle
church in Wittenberg. Luther, when he did this, surely had no
apprehension of just how significant an event this would be. And
yet this act now stands as a defining moment in history, a moment
which marked a point of no return. With the luxury of hindsight
we can see that Luther was now committed to Reformation. There
would be no turning back. The true church would rise from the
false, the gospel would finally shine forth once more."
Tim Challies at ChalliesDotCom has gathered a plethora of
resources to enjoy on the birthday of this most important day in
church history. I urge you to spend part of today reading and
contemplating how the reformation has been used by God in your
life.

Up and Down the Gravel

1. Last week was Grandma's 96th birthday. We had a party
at my parent's home where we feasted on cream of broccoli
soup, wild rice soup, fried apples, pumpkin pie and chocolate
cake with chocolate icing. G'ma Opal got to play High Five.
I'm not sure, but I think she won. That is enough birthday
present in itself for her! We gave her a potted plant and she
said, "I won't thank you for this. You are not supposed to
say 'Thank you,' for flowers or they will die." Somewhere
during the evening she also quoted the following little poem.

If a task is once begun,
Never leave it 'til it's done.
Be the labor great or small,
Do it well or not at all.

That pretty well sums up her philosophy on life. We had a
lovely night. Four more years to 100!

2. Yesterday Kent beckoned me outside and we climbed the
gate and walked through the field. There was the sweetest
newborn red-baldy bull calf nestled in the grass. His momma
was still licking him. He is looking great. That brings us down
to one mamma that still needs to calve. If she doesn't, she'll
be hamburger. Our cows make the BEST hamburger, delicious
and very lean. It evens out all the bacon grease I cook with.

3. We are still giving shots twice a day to Fezzik, our Great Pyranees.
His leg is getting better. He is putting weight on it, though he still
limps some. I had to order more penicillin, hopefully it will get
here today.

4. What a loverly windy day it was yesterday. We took a long walk
and Hattie, who has been enjoying the story about Daedalus and
his son, told me that someday she would collect a lot of feathers,
melt some wax and make wings to fly with. I think I'll do it with
her. The trees weren't just dancing and swaying in the wind, they
were swooshing madly back and forth. What a day for a daydream
it was.

We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking
only to learn that it is God shaking them.
Charles West

Sallie at A Gracious Home has a very lovely and thought-

provoking collection of quotations and pictures.

Should a person who is colorblind play Red Light-
Green Light?

Reading is Dangerous: Part I

Reading is dangerous. Reading can put you into precarious
situations. 'Tis a good thing when those situations turn out
to be relatively private, as was the case a few days ago when
Princess Daughter and I were driving in the car and she said
something about a bowket (a what?). She went on to explain
what she meant and understanding flooded my mind. A
bouquet, as in, a bouquet of flowers. I corrected her and she
laughted goodnaturedly.

Quite different was the time my brother stood up in speech
class to, you know, give a speech...in front of people. Somewhere
in the middle of the speech he mentioned hors dee vors. How red
does one turn when you say, "hors dee vors" but you meant "hors
d'oeuvres"?

I'll never forget the blank look on the faces of my sister-in-law and
niece when I mentioned some book as being "mackabree". At least
they looked blank at first, then they broke up into hoots of laughter.
"Oh, Laurie, you must mean 'macabre'." And I was a grown woman.
I should have known better. (Okay, I was a short woman, but quite
old enough to know that word.)

My sister insisted as a girl that the word she was reading was
"conqueer" rather than "conquer". And as a young person I
felt so romantically "mellonchallie"; I wouldn't have know
"melancholy" if I had met him on the street.

Reading is dangerous territory. Enter at your own risk.

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Originally uploaded by BookMonger.

How 'bout those Cards?!!!

There is nothing that will make one feel more James Herriotish
than sloshing through a soggy field in the gloaming of a late and
drizzling October day. Especially if said sloshing ends with
a wrestle with a Great Pyranees and a shot (for the dog, not me.)

Does it seem fair, I ask you, that Kent got to give the shot
and I got to hold down the dog? Of course, Princess Daughter
helped hold, but that ddidn't stop me from becoming mud
caked and hair covered. Somehow, in holding down Fezzik,
I found myself totally sprawled on top of him. When the shot
was safely administered I was trying to get to my feet by
moving west and he was trying to roll to the east, it was a
hopeless situation. Hopeless, that is, until Kent reached down
and hauled me up.

Oh, and we get to repeat the fun two times a day for a week.

I don't judge a book by its cover. I judge it by how hungry
I become while reading it. The hungrier I become the better
the book. Can you read Heidi without stopping to eat
toasted bread with butter melted on it and thick slabs of
cheese on the side? I cannot even image that a person could.

I recently finished the Singer series by Calvin Miller. It was
actually a reread. Way back in my highschool or college years
I read them for the first time. Ever since then they have
been sitting on my bookshelf waiting patiently to be picked
up again. Last year my sister, known to some of you as
Philippine Sister, borrowed them to use in a homeschool
drama class she was teaching. They put on a big performance
using one or the other of the books. Sadly, I was not able to
make the showing and so missed my sweet niece Kinsey's
acting. After Philippine Sister returned the books I decided to
read them again before putting them back on the shelf.

These books are poetic narrative. They are a retelling of the
life of Christ through to the end times. The Singer begins the
narrative. The Singer represents Christ and is put to death for
the saving of the people on Terra (Earth). The Song tells of
the spreading of the gospel and the persecution of the church.
The Finale represents the end times and the final conquering
of Sarkon (Satan) and evil.

These are good books. They tell the most wonderful story.
Yet somehow the characters are flat and I have difficulty in
sympathizing with them. The end war, which should make
the heart just tremble with excitement, is lacking in oomph.
I recommend these books, but with this warning, they will
not make you hungry.

Dorothy L. Sayer's The Complete Stories, on the other hand,
will leave you craving tea (with cream luv), duck and ale. She
always tells a ripping good tale. The stories in this volume
are grouped into categories. First are the Lord Peter Wimsey
stories. Lord Peter is, as always, enigmatic, brilliant, and
yet, somehow, down to earth. What a personage Dorothy
Sayers has created. These are followed by the Montague Egg
stories. Who can resist a seller of fine wines and spirits, especially
when he (the fine wine seller) can't resist speaking in couplets.
"'Whether you're wrong or whether you're right, it's always better
to be polite,'" as it says in the Salesman's Handbook."(The
Poisoned Dow '08, p. 485) The volume ends with a series of
rather macabre stories. They will make you shiver as you cuddle
under your blanket. It is hard, hard, hard to beat Sayers for a
dose of delightful mystery reading.

A small chill stole across the landscape of my life last week.
Billy went down to Grandma's house to take out her air-
conditioner for the winter, and when he got there she confessed
that she had been crying. Grandma never cries.

Princess Daughter and I went down to visit her a few days ago
and Grandma told me the whole story.

She had gone shopping in the Bluff and had a great time. She'd
been wanting new clothes and came home with a bagful. But,
being a Fleetwood, she needed to shorten the legs of her pants.
She carefully measured and cut three inches off of each leg. Then
she sat down by the window to hand baste the hem before she
sewed it on the machine. It was a dark, dreary day and the pants
were dark, as was the thread. Threading the needle was frustrating,
but finally that was accomplished. One leg was neatly basted. Then
when she lifted the other leg she saw that it was not cut. Oh, a little
grinding of the teeth (joke here, she has no teeth!) and then the
tears, she had double cut one leg of the pants.

Enter Billy. Said confession of tears occurs. The chill arrives in my
heart because that is not like Grandma.

But, the story continues. Grandma set the pants aside for a few days.
The sun came out and she began to feel better. She took those pants
back up and decided to resew on the part that should not have been
cut off. Then she hemmed the pants. She said, "The pants are dark
and I don't think anyone will notice. If anyone goes nosing around
close to the hem of my pantlegs I'll just kick them." So, you are
warned. Keep your nose away from those feet.

The Little Snake - Lower White Oak Canyon Trail

The Little Snake - Lower White Oak Canyon Trail
Originally uploaded by letskyce.

Walking in exhaustedly after the first day of The Garage Sale, I turned to set a load of things on my kitchen table. You could not guess what was lying on my table. Well maybe the picture has given it away and you have guessed. There truly was a small snake, head smashed in, lying on a leaf, on my table. That is my kitchen table. The place where we eat our dinners. We do not do the "in front of the TV in the living room" thing.

I wondered, tiredly, which of my boys put it there for me to enjoy. Then, I think, I picked it up to assure myself that it really was a snake I was looking at. It was. One of the boys, right now I can't remember which it was, carried it out for me. I WIPED the table. Then I forgot about it.

A few days later Princess Daughter casually said, "Oh yeah, I was walking down the road the other day and there was a little snake. I didn't know if it was poisonous or not so I smashed its head and carried it home for you to see."

I am not really bothered by the odd snake or two. Still I think I liked the flowers she picked for me the other day just a wee bit more.

Mayberry Ramblings

I did the errand thing in Mayberry today. If I have to get out
on a gloomy, drizzly, icky in everyway day, I'd rather go to
Mayberry than anywhere else. You can always count on a
warm welcome everywhere you go.

The trees are really becoming quite stunning. I do not remember
such a lovely autumn in recent years. Maybe it is because we have
had a wet fall. (Refer back to previous paragraph.) The colors are
really glowing. I feel quite sorry for William Paul, Paul Marion, D.Jay
and Jimmy Lynn, because they just can't rhapsodize over the trees
as the rest of us can. Poor things they are color deficient. How much
they miss. It does make me grateful that I am a woman...since this
terrible malady runs in families but tends to skip over the females.

Let's see, what was interesting in town today. Two of the ladies at
the bank were changing lightbulbs in the overhang of the drive
through. I volunteered to help since I am so tall, but they just
laughed at me. Pat's (librarian) arm is getting better but is still in
a sling. She is going to Las Vegas for a family reunion at Thanks-
giving. I saw Oscar. You can't miss Oscar. He works for the local
phone company which is now a new phone company for us. Wind-
stream bought out Alltel in our area. Windstream has a quirky bent.
They make one phoneman in each area drive a lime green vehicle.
Oscar got chosen. You can see him for miles. He loves it. Not.
I caught up on gossip at Fred's and the grocery store, so I am set for
the week.

Upclose and Personal

What's cooking? Pork chops in the crock pot for BBQ sandwiches.

What books did I find at the Sheltered Workshop the other day
that are now on my to-be-read-bookpile? Beowulf, Clouds of
Witness & The Unpleasantness at The Bellona Club by Dorothy
Sayers, War on the West by William Perry Pendley. I got a few
other books for Hattie and myself, but they went into her pile or
onto the regular shelf already.

What other books am I already reading or about to embark on?
The Complete Short Stories by Dorothy Sayers (almost finished
with this one...I just love Dorothy Sayers), In the Steps of Moses
by Louis Golding, Ambassador to the Penguins: A Naturalist's Year
Abroad a Yankee Whaleship by Eleanor Mathews, The Singer Trilogy
by Calvin Miller (finished this morning) and Above All Earthly Pow'rs:
Christ in a Postmodern World by David F. Wells (this one Kent is
reading, but he wants me to go through it too.) Maybe if I quit working
on my crosswords I'll make some progress through these. Maybe not.

What big projects am I working on? Garage Sale. Mom and I are doing
the garage sale thing this weekend. The money will go towards getting
my family back to Mexico for a mission trip next summer. We really
miss Cuernavaca.

GirlTalk has a very interesting post about Distorted Beauty.
Watch the video, but don't forget to go back and read the
rest of the post.

One of the melancholy parts of my children growing
up is that they do not say so many bloopers as they
once did. But, Princess Daughter came out with a
really good one Sunday night at church.

She and I, along with a few adults, were standing
around fellowshipping after the service. I used the
word hesitate and she misheard me. I am sure she
misheard me. Surely I didn't really say what she
thought I said. I said, "Billy is hesitating...." She
turned to me and said, "Mom, that is hes-i-ta-ting,
not hes-i-pa-ting." Then she turned to the others
and said, "My mom always pronouncinates words
wrong."

The looks on their faces was priceless. And she took
the laughter well. She is even telling the story on
herself. She is growing up. (Now a little lecture is
due on politness.)

gravel road

Notes from up and down the gravel.

1. I wish I could show you a picture of our two Jersey
calves. They have two different mamas, but look
like identical twins. They are doing something we
have never seen before. Whenever they nurse, they
both nurse at the same time off of one of the mama
cows. Usually a mama cow will not let any other calf
but her own nurse off of her, unless she is trained to
nurse others, but both of these mamas will let both
calves nurse at the same time. It is strange but
adorable.

2. I may not have mentioned it yet, but it is bow season
here in Ripley County. The deer are beginning their
rut. We have been seeing quite a few bucks as we
drive up and down the gravel and blacktops and even
as we look out our windows. Tyler is quivering.

3. This morning Tyler told Hattie to look out her bedroom
window if she wanted to see something special. He ran
and got the binoculars and also a gun with a scope so
they could see better. Ducks were having a grand old
time splashing in the pond as it was raining.

4. Grandma had me giggling the other day. She wants to buy
a shed to put at the corner of her garden so her implements
will be protected. The shed she has in her yard gets water
in it and is stuffed full of odds and ends. She found a shed
she likes and when she told her son Jim about it he said, "I'll
bet I can find one cheaper on the internet." She said, "Fine,
but I want it to have a lifetime guarantee against termites
like the one I found does." Just how long is a lifetime guarantee
if you are going to be 96 in two weeks? I hope 100 years!

A nice poem for a gloomy day.

WEATHERS

This is the weather the cuckoo likes,
And so do I;
When showers betumble the chestnut spikes,
And nestlings fly;
And the little brown nightingale bills his best,
And they sit outside at 'The Traveller's Rest,'
And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest,
And citizens dream of the south and west,
And so do I.

This is the weather the shepherd shuns,
And so do I;
When beeches drip in browns and duns,
And thresh and ply;
And hill-hid tides throb, throe on throe,
And meadow rivulets overflow,
And drops on gate bars hang in a row,
And rooks in families homeward go,
And so do I.

-- Thomas Hardy

Jennifer at Snapshot has a gift exchange idea list going.
It is a growing list and will include lots of different idea
categories for gift exchanges. With Christmas coming
soon this sounds like a winner.

Semicolon tipped me off to a really wonderful site.
Daily Lit will email you a portion of a book everyday.
Why, you may ask, would one wish to be mailed a
book portion? There is a good answer. Really.

If you've ever had a book you wanted to read but
have never gotten around to reading, this is a great way
to accomplish your goal. They take the entire book
and break it into small bits and email you one bit each
weekday. That way you can go through the book in a
palatable style.

They have over 200 books listed from which you may choose.
Authors from Shakespeare to Austin and Lewis to Twain are
included. I dedided to start with Dante Aligheri's "Divine Comedy".
I am about 1/3 the way through the "Hell" section. Not that
I understand it. But, at least I'll be able to say I've read it!