Five Things

Five Things To Consider on Presidents Day 2011.

1. pay your taxes Romans 13:6
2. pray for government 1 Tim 2:1-2
3. praise our government Romans 13:7 ( honor = praise)
4. participate in government Romans 12:4-6 (lobbyists)
5. persuade our government

Saturday Wanderings

February 19, so typical of any day in February, is blustery. In 24 hours we have seen it all, warm weather with snow banks diminishing, followed by rain with more disappearing snow, strong winds moved in with snow by Saturday morning and COLD. I DO NOT Like the cold but I LOVE the snow.

(Louisville, KY 2009 - ice storm paralyses the city)

In my attempt to eliminate chemicals from our everyday life and because I found my self getting a tad bit "stinky" at my last birth support (31 hospital hours) I set out on a mission to find a natural deodorant. The local healthy food stores brands were a bit pricey - $6-10 so decided to check on line where I also find an answer for everything.

Now a bit of Benson Family history. When Doug and I got married back in 1974, we were green before green was green. I made everything from scratch - no processed food for us, we canned and froze our garden bounty, bought beef from a friends farm. Those were the days when gas and oil were doing what they are today and we kept our house a bit cool and use a wood stove in the kitchen to keep us warm. In fact, we had to stop new chimney production on Sept 17 so I could have a baby.

This is like the beauty we had in our kitchen. My mom purchased it at an auction back in the early 60's to use in our summer home in Ohio. I still have it. We aren't using it now but hey some day who knows.

One of the "green" things we did was to switch to the use of baking soda as toothpaste and deodorant. Worked okay but the salty after taste and the gritty pits ......well, we got tired of it.

Today, thanks to the internet, I can research recipes and found one that I am trying - so if you want to know how it worked out, you will just have to tune in next Saturday and find out.

LaGrange Letterboxing

After having Tyler here for a month it was time for him to return home. We started out at 3pm Friday and arrived in LaGrange, KY 12 hours later. Yes, we were tired.

On Saturday we gathered our letterboxing gear and ventured forth. Gosh, I couldn't believe how cold it was outside. Be we weren't deterred and found lots of boxes. We only did drive by because of the cold but visited some really unique places.

Journal and Hitch Hiker. Told Doug we need to design something to facilitate letterboxing in a small car that fits between me and the glove box.

First Stop Pewee Valley - where we found this marker. As a lover of vintage childrens book's this was particularly sweet.

Annie Fellows Johnston, a celebrated author of children's and juvenile fiction from the 1890's until her death in 1931, is best known for her "Little Colonel" series, a semi biographical opus of 13 novels dealing with the aristocracy of old Kentucky, particularly the story of a young girl, who came to be known as "The Little Colonel." You may recall the Little Colonel - Shirley Temple portrayed.

Directly across from the caboose and marker is this darling playhouse.

What a unique place to hid a letterbox. The clues were particularly interesting.

ON THE TOP STEP OF THE OLD STEPS UNDER THE TOP STEP OF THE NEW STEPS AT THE BACK OF THE LAST TRAIN CAR IN FRONT OF THE PLAYHOUSE ON THE CORNER OF 146 AND 362

Our next stop found us at this sweet little red church practically hidden from the road and behind of all things a kitchen home improvement store with the drive way blocked by the company trucks.

This was a toughy as I didn't have a compass and it was very over cast. But I figured since the road ran north and south that 250 was just about over there. Except when I got "there" I found a geo cache. Eventually, I found the right cluster of trees and grabbed my find.

Thank goodness Joseph Gividen pointed the way.

Wasn't quite sure what this was all about but being a lover of cemeteries I couldn't pass it up.

Lazy Weekend

I haven't had a weekend like this in - wow - a very long time. Douglas is still in Kentucky with Tyler but they hope to start for NY after Kati's dr. appointment. AND Hopefully, Kate will be able to ride up with them. So this weekend I spent "playing". I worked on an order for VISTA Print yesterday, made a couple hats and watched some John Wayne movies. Today, after cleaning the bedroom, ironing and mending, washing clothes I settled in to do some more knitting.

Here is a group of men who are knitting socks using a sock making machine. I particularly like this photo because it was my father who taught my mother how to knit.

This Mom - my today hero!!

Today I heard a story about a mom that just blessed me. Her son was born just last week and she was going to breastfeed him, but apparently the nursing staff thought other wise as they told her that he was losing weight and she needed to give him a bottle. This was a one day old baby!!!! This Mother told the nurses to "just leave him in my room, he will nurse when he needs to and will do just fine". I can almost hear her heavily accented Russian speech as she tells those nurses - "Go, Go, I know what I must do. He will be just fine, now Go". She was not to be bullied by the medical world who think they know best for babies.

Today, this mom is my hero.

Happy 2011

As I look back on 2010, I realize how much I have to be thankful for. I have a terrific family, a job I love, a church family that loves me, and I got to see my grandson Tyler every day for 9 months. I have also grown in my walk with Jesus. In fact, every year I learn more and more about how to stay in step with HIM.

I always loved Calvin and Hobbs and 30+ years ago those could have been my words. I don't need to change, everyone else does. But all that changed starting in 1978. This year will be no exception. And this year I'll have a better plan for growth.

Christ Centered Plan - inspired by todays message

by Rev. T.G. Burgess January 2, 2011

As we start into the new year, we need a plan,

a plan centered in Christ, based on the Bible....

1. What will last - be realistic and make plans you can keep, plans that will last

2. Set goals for each area in your life and write them down.

3. Prioritize your goals - what's important should be first, right.

4. Develop an overcoming mentality - Prov 24:16, How do you view your failures and mistakes? All we need to do is look to such winners as Tom Landry, Bill Walsh or Chuck Noll, Three men who didn't quit because of early failures. Within a 15 year period these three men won a total of 9 super bowls - Landry 2, Walsh 3, Noll 4. I'm not a football fan but those sound like pretty awesome stats to me. If they didn't have an overcoming mentality - they would have given up on their teams after the first year.

Syracuse football team's formula for

Pinstripe Bowl victory defies all logic

5. Depend on the Holy Spirit. Is there any other way. How can we ever hope to change with the Holy Ghost Power.

6. Apply diligence with an attitude to win. What ever it is we can win if we do not give up.

And this picture will make no sense to anyone but me. I love feet, especially newborn feet. It is the image on my doula business card. After of course, a deeper walk with God, my number one priority is to grow my doula business in what ever direction God will take me and the Holy Spirit will lead.

oops becomes a new scarf

One of the nurses at work is also a knitter and was working on a scarf but ran out of yarn. Told her I know a store in Rome, she called they had some, I picked it up, wrong lot number and really the wrong shade. SOOOO, instead of exchanging it, I fell in love with the feel of it and decided it would make a nice scarf. However, knitting is my thing and this is crochet and I've been taking way to long to finish it. Almost done.

On another note, just found a great TV show - Hot in Cleveland. Love it. James introduced me to in. For someone who is not a sit come watcher, I am enjoying this one. Love that Betty White.