Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Paradise Regained



Hello again, I am fine. Welcome to Mr. Putz; you are welcome to visit my blog and thank you for leaving a comment. To all my friends, I have been reading your blogs, but the lazy way, through Google Reader, so I can’t leave comments; I will try to soon.

I did decide to plant my poinsettias. After a very hot, and I do mean VERY hot fall, we proceeded to break records with our cold stretch (which for us meant temps in the 20s). Before you smugly point out what a wimp I am, may I remind you that we do not have heat in our house, other than one tiny space heater (it's really cute, though, and looks like a little fireplace). I even had to break out my one and only pair of pants! Now, however, the weather is what I call "why I live in Florida weather." Surely you did not expect me to stay in the house blogging about it, did you?

Besides gardening and trying to save what's left of my poor, scorched plants (don't worry, Rosezilla is fine. She's amazing. I mean the rosebush, not me), I have also been painting, since hubby is about to launch another project and the boards needed painting first. He's going to be building a storage closet, of sorts, and he's going to close in my back porch, put lattice up to make it pretty and make a door. Then I can leave my back door open without getting varmints like raccoons, possums, and every stray cat around in my kitchen.

I've been reading "Jane Eyre," which was a Christmas gift, and enjoying it very much. Gonna put the PBS show of it with Ruth Wilson playing the lead on Netflix. I have also been exercising, as promised.

At Bible Study we are in the book of James. I love the book of James. My boys memorized it for school, so since I was their teacher (homeschool), I learned quite a bit of it too. There is so much good stuff in there! A lot of admonition, instruction and comfort. I love James 1:17 "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow" (New American Standard version).

I have been writing some, but mostly for AC; in part because they are donating money to a relief organization (IRC) for the articles I write about Haiti. Living in SW Florida, we have Haitian neighbors and friends, church family and orphans being cared for by other friends; we have, like most of the country, been trying to do what we can to ease the suffering in whatever small way we can find to do it. One young girl, here on a medical visa, was supposed to go back in January. I am so glad she was here and not there. She's such a darling. The young friend who had the recent motorcycle accident, and has EMT training, was asked to go with a small medical team, but she was heartbroken to realize she was not healed enough from her accident yet to stand for very long. (It turned out both ankles were sprained and she had a hairline fracture on her tibia, so it was a little bit worse than I had first been told).

Another friend is adopting a little child from Haiti. I have been told there were over 900 adoptions that were weeks away from completion when the earthquake hit. First they were all thrown into turmoil, but now they are expediting as many as possible. I leave you with a darling picture, from the Joint Council on International Children's Services, of a caregiver from a Haitian orphanage with her young charges while they waited at the airport for their exit visas to be expedited. 


Monday, January 4, 2010

Let the Happy New Year Begin!


(I see they have changed the way they do images on here, and it is messing me up! But I'll soldier on.) Christmas was warm and my roses were blooming their little hearts out. It is cold now, supposed to be between 30something and 50something all week. They said we haven't had 12 consecutive days below 70 degrees since 1935, but we might break the record over the next two weeks.

My head cold is nearly gone, for which I am grateful. I didn't get bronchitis this time, but I couldn't sing Christmas carols without coughing. My husband sings so beautifully, though, that I just enjoyed listening to him instead. (See my Schnozz, up above? Isn't he a hoot? He was a gift, and I love him to pieces.)

Christmas was lovely. I still have the poinsettias across my table, but I am trying to decide whether or not to plant them. I keep hoping I can keep one growing long term. I have a new location in the yard to try out. As for the previous post, all the things say Merry Christmas, obviously, in the following languages: Spanish; German; English; French; Hebrew; Swahili; Russian; Thai; Slovak; Bulgarian; Greek; Italian; Estonian; Portuguese. No, to my regret I don't speak all those languages. Only English, and a smattering of Spanish. I borrowed these from my youngest son's Facebook page. He's a missionary. No, he doesn't speak all these either, although he knows some German, and has been to Greece and Bulgaria.

Christmas was lovely and full of family, beauty and good food. And good news! Thanks to our oldest son and his lovely wife, I am going to be (or rather, as my husband pointed out, I already am!) a GRANDMA!!! The baby is due in late June. And we are EXCITED!!! I've been practicing on all the babies at church.

Our middle son sent us to see Avatar at the movies as one of our gifts; we saw it in 3D, naturally. Although I did not care for some of the language, other than that I loved the movie! It was beautiful, actually stunning, to watch, and an entertaining story as well. Pure escapism with a visual element that was amazing!

Well, for some reason I always do spring cleaning right after the new year, so I gotta get busy. Also, I didn't make resolutions this year as I have not yet gotten the good out of last years' so I will be Gardening, Exercising and Writing. Oh, one more thing. My hubby set up a google reader for me, so I can read all your blog posts in one central location a lot sooner. The only down side is that I can't comment there. I am reading your things, and as soon as I can, I will swing by and say hello. May God Bless us this year and I ask that He give me an even deeper love of and obedience to His Word.
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