God Forgive Us

They slay the widow and the stranger,

and murder the fatherless

Yet they say, 

'The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.'

He that planted the ear, 

shall He not hear?

He that formed the eye,

shall He not see?

They gather themselves together against the soul of the 

righteous, and condemn the 

innocent blood.

But judgment shall return unto righteousness: 

and all the upright in heart shall 

follow it.

                                                                                                    from Psalm 94

       Our bloody hands - we as a nation stand guilty.  How can we commit holocaust in our nation, turning blind eyes as 50 million lives are murdered?  It is murder.  Not only is the baby murdered, but it is tortured while its life is being taken. By week twelve the baby has eyelids, a little nose, hair and he can cry, feel pain and suck his thumb. Yet, 12 weeks is also when 11-12% of abortions take place.  The procedure for partial birth abortion is as follows:


  'Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby's leg with forceps. The baby's leg is pulled out into the birth canal.  The abortionist delivers the baby's entire body, except for the head.  The abortionsist jams scissors into the baby's skull.  The scissors are then opened to enlarge the hole...The scissors are removed and a suction catheter is inserted.  The child's brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse.  The dead baby is then removed.'

  Graphic, sickening, horrific.  Worse is that it's true. That in America 115,000 are performed every day.

 God have mercy and turn us from this wickedness in our country - both  those who know it is wrong and those who don't. May we all take a stand for life.

http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html

over the weekend

this past weekend we made a trip to see uncle tim and aunt emily for some help on music.  

we always get more than that.

their house is one where you feel at home as soon as you walk in the door.  it's one of those places that is so cozy, you instantly want to curl up with a book on the couch and you don't feel bad 

for making yourself right at home - you really can't help it.

there are only a few places like that for me 

and the cannon house is definitely one of them.

it's a good place to play hide and seek, a 

good place to explore anything from nooks and crannies, to weapons, 

plato, socrates, fantasy maps and closets..uncle tim has a whole closet shelf dedicated to his favorite movies.  he sat on the floor in the middle of shoes and low hanging shirts

and helped us pick one.

watching movies with U.T is definitely a favorite past time now. 

we now also know how to tie a tie, 

do a military tuck 

{and what it speaks of a man who takes the trouble to do it before he goes out}

what the cabaret singers were 

{before they were too scandelous}

and how titus was baptized in the cold cold waters of a winter pond.

he didn't like it.

 sister Margaret>

 aunt em's super yummy breakfast...she made amazing food the whole time

and every meal we had music and candles...PLUS they were on their second round of the twelve days of 

christmas.  yesss! 

{titus and the pond}

his story telling is worth the whole trip.

i love pandora, but i'm not going to pay for it.  

therefore, commercials.

and they scare the thunder out of  me every time

there  i am cruising through some brian crain and then

BAM!.......that woman's voice is so loud.

here, while you're here,

 listen to some beautiful music 

and this too

aand this one

sunny wednesday

  Here are some pics from a very windy, sunshiny and cloudy wednesday.

 

friendly tuesday

tuesdays have always seemed nicer than mondays.  mondays have a stuffy rudeness to them.  but tuesdays are almost always friendly.

   i sometimes get on a kick of not editing any photos i take unless it's in - camera settings.  i've been in one of those moods and i took some pictures on the way home that i was pretty happy with for them not having any outside touch ups on them.

     mama and the girls were on their way home from a party, so they stopped and we howdied  before we all went home :)

goodnight, rainy tuesday.

Monopoly Mondays and Mo-dawns

'What do you think a saloon was in the olden days? asked dawn,  'Cause it says in Pride and Prejudice that they were sitting around eating meats and such in one.'
 'That might have been a salon they were talking about, Dawn' I said.
She pshawd incredulously, and laughed, 'Gabe!  That would have meant them sitting around getting their hair done...No, no...this was a saloon, but I just can't see Mr. Darcy and all  them sitting around in one.'

  She finished today, by the way.  She shut herself in her library for a couple of hours and would only stick her head out of the door to advise me on a key decision in Monopoly or to look reprovingly when I made a bad one.  At one point she opened her door with a frown, grabbed the phone and walked outside.  When she came back in she said, ' I called Rachel and she and I both agree that that was one of the worst decisions in the game we've ever witnessed.'  I had just sold Boardwalk and doom was on my head.  In spite of risky Monopoly games, though, she still finished the book.  Sixty-one chapters in four days.  Nice, Dawn.

rainy sunday noon

 Yesterday was Mr. Hendroshibell's 85th birthday and we had him and his daughter {Miss Permillia} over for supper.  He is a wonder with woodworking and gardening and hunts with a crossbow.  Not two weeks ago he killed a buck.  Mr. Henderson's land is a magical sort of place - more like a paradise than a yard.  He has trails and creeks and all sorts of fruits and vines and trees growing on his land.  If you've ever been there, you know what kind of enchantment comes over you when you're there.  And if you've never been, I can only hope that one day you will.
   Last night Mr. Bibb was sitting at one end of the table and Abraham was to his left.  We talked about nematodes, airports, gardens and farmers and what people did that day and how far Chris had gotten on his bookshelf he's making.  At one point Mr. Henderson said,
 'You know, Abraham, I'm as curious as I can be about something.'
 'Yessir?  Well go ahead.'
 'I noticed,' said Mr. Henderson, 'that when you take a bite of food you kinda have to do this,' and he made a smoothing motion with his index and thumb, starting at the middle of the mustache area and moving to the tips of his mouth.
'Yessir,'
'Well, what I wonder is, what do you do when you kiss a girl?'
At that the table kinda shook and there were hoots and back-slappings and table - thumpings.  Abe said simply
'You know, I haven't run into that problem yet, Mr. Henderson, but whoever she is, I reckon she better not be ticklish.'

 
     And now Abe's gone.  But we had him since Christmas, so I really can't complain.  Still, it's sad.
That means only a 10-pot in the morning instead of a 12-pot and probably, there will be coffee leftover anyways - means no more bushy beards poking through my door early in the morning and wide eyes and him saying 'Let's hear the pitter patter of  Brille's feet...', and no being able to walk into the boy's room at any time of the day and see the little reading nook's light on and a bent head and stack of books and a pair of boots...no 5 mile walks and talking about the strange and perplexing, the idealistic vs. reality, good habits, bad habits, and any other thing that might come up.  means one towel, and washcloth in the bathroom instead of two, and no shaving kit that he'd leave on the counter every day, and which, every day i'd put back under the counter .  No punching bag, or teasing or belly laughing so hard it hurts.
No more, that is, until he comes back.  Entonces, hasta luego, adios brum!!! We waved and at the turn in the road he slowed down so much, we knew he was taking a good look.  And it's good he did, 'cause we were waving something fierce. 

isn't he handsome?

p.s. moriah has read 43 chapters 

of pride and prejudice 

in the past 

3 days.

go. dawn, you reading machine.

and life at the asylum goes on

 {i need to stop doing this - writing posts and forgetting to post them.  oh well.  here's yesterday's.}

daddy went to work early and came home late.  so late - poor daddy - that mama had to keep the hen in the oven extra long, and it was nearly nine by the time we finished. anne had cold hands so she balled one up and handed it to abe, who was talking to mama and moriah at the time and didn't notice it.  daddy asked him to pray so we all bowed heads and held hands.  a couple of words into the prayer, though, abe burst out laughing as he looked at anne's ball of cold pinkish purple in his hand.  'Benign!' he said and then he just bent over and laughed.   well, that was enough.  that and all the other silly things through the day were too much  and by that time everyone was laughing so much that finally daddy had to pray and even then we didn't get all the way through without a few stray laughs.

This morning was one of those mornings that was so cozy I really didn't want to leave.  Daddy was in his chair, feet up and hair all pushed to the middle of his head like a mo-hawk.  I guess it does that because he sleeps on each side so evenly during the night.  Anne had made that signature coffee of hers that is so strong it curls your face up and nearly gives you chills going down, Abe half limped into the kitchen with a 'Brille, don't know 'bout you, but those lunges yesterday nearly done me in',  and Dawn had her long gown on.  I can't describe her morning hair and do it justice.  It's just huge, tangled and wiry. I love morning time at our house and am so bad about procrastinating that I'll put off almost everything else just to be around then.  But I had to go, and this, as do most good, hard things we must do in life, proved not to leave me shorthanded.  Chris and I spent most of our day together working at his house. The air has been so sweet and warm that we opened the door, and when our work was done he fired up the grill and we made a smasher of a lunch.

       don't these sprouts look like birds?

tonight we girls were working out on the driveway.  the moon is so bright 

we could see each other and the ground

and our ghostly puffs of breath.

a truck from the neighboring subdivision squealed out of the entrance.

'that's a scary truck', anne said.

'they must be running away from somebody', said merry.

'or maybe the wife is having a baby' said milly.

'psh!' chawed anne, 'not with that kind of music on.'

'maybe it was soothing to the woman,' offered milly.

'no, that was crazy 80's music.' said anne.

'hey. guess what.' said milly.

'what?' 

'the first star in the bottom row of the little dipper

just twinkled twice.'

and so it did. 

goodnight.

january days

quiet days.  i like it when the sun hangs low in our backyard.  in late afternoon it slants through our pine trees, shooting in through the kitchen windows, lighting up mama's african violets and the blue glass bottle and the hanging apple.  when you try to cook though, it glows gold in your eyes and makes the cabinets and everything else especially hard to find.  i forget how much i laugh when anne is home until she stays for a while.  then i remember. i love my bros, too.  chris has started a new shift at work so he has come over in the evenings this week.  we keep our white lights strung up in the school room and he and i have talked out most of life's problems there this week on the soft couch that half-swallows everyone who sits in it.  chris has talked code over cups and cups of hot ginger brews and i've interpreted them - or tried to.  in the shadowy patches of twinkling lights and dark, i can only make out some of his expressions.  almost all of them are mischievous smirks - so i never know if i've really guessed his secrets or not.  but he goes away saying 'enough, delilah!' and gives me hope that i just might have.  abe says 'one thing for certain:  by the time i go home y'all will be ready.'  {he always says that, and we're always sorry to see him leave}  most of the day he stays tucked in his reading corner studying, but he emerges and will walk across the kitchen hunched, both arms hanging loosely by his sides, wide-eyed and gaping.  then he'll whisper something ridiculous until we laugh.  our cousin who's about five years old sat on a pew in front of abraham and myself one day last week.  he leaned over to his mom during the service and said something.  she glanced back at us, then at him and tried not to laugh.  later she told me, 'he asked me where abe's mouth was.'
  it's amazing how sad i feel over one deleted post. ONE.  yes, yes.  i accidentally deleted a post from my blog.  after i did it i thought - wait...did i just ??? no!!!  but i did it.  it's forever gone.  and that is why i should stick to hard and fast, true blue, authentic paper and ink.  none of this digital business where, with a couple of clicks anything i've written can be erased.
   yet, here i am, writing yet another post.  writing it and being determined that i will not be beaten by the digital age.

listen to this and soak it in.

oh life.  it's a good good  thing.  thank you God for life.

here's a  verse that has been a gold nugget today:

‎'Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily:and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward.'

Isaiah 58.8

 Today we had the little girl we keep and the transformation a baby can make on my daddy gets me every time.  and abe too, he was all goos - and bubbles.  

    This statement is always an understatement of what the reality is and so many things go into it that I can't just say why in one sentence. But if you've met her, then you know it.  And if you're one of her kids, then you know it even more.  And that is, that my mama is amazing.  

   happy thursday.

happy new year

  'Amazing how we can be shifted out of our daily routines so quickly.  You drive to work and spend all day there in a different world.  You drive home in a different world, then right at the crook of the driveway when you're about to pull in, there it is: breathtaking.  You see the sunset, you see the first star shining and you wonder "where has my mind been all day?"   It's a good reminder to stop and reflect on His glory.  Interesting how we can so easily float in and out of consciousness of our Creator's majesty.'

   Abe said this as we walked toward a blazing horizon of vivid pink and scarlet and blue.  Sprawling limbs of trees were etched against the sky, dark and spidery.'  12.24.12

   As I have thought about this last year and its events that will always be a part of my life, I see too, God's hand, His mercy.  I hope I can approach this year and see it through with a more Christ centered focus where He is ever before my eyes, beautiful and strong.