The Teacup Bouquet

  If you have a daughter, or someday want children, you need to know something.  First of all, you are beautiful.  God made you precisely and intently and specifically.  Your daughter thinks you are beautiful.  She looks at you with admiration, with trust, with an innocent view.  She thinks you are the loveliest woman she knows.  Take caution with your words in front of her.  "I just need to lose a few pounds", "nothing looks good on me", "I can't go out without makeup on".  Common sayings among women. But your daughter is listening.  She is learning.  She is mimicking.  Ladies, please don't cause your daughter to think that you are not beautiful, radiant, and lovely.  Sadly, she, too, will soon begin to believe what you say about yourself just as much as you believe it.  Sadder still,  eventually she'll probably believe those things about herself.  Teach her self respect, dignity and self worth through your...

I've experienced living but not making memories. And I have experienced loosing memories I once had.  I have felt amazed, even astonished, when folks tell me that things happened that I participated in or of serious decisions I made,  all the while  appearing very cognitive, but having no memory of it when it comes up later in my life.  Thinking further on these situations, it becomes somewhat frightening and very mysterious. Sometimes I feel sorrowful when I don't have the fond precious memories that my family laughs about and enjoys. Sometimes I feel lonely and in my mind I ask, " How can this be?"  But until recently I had no answers for it. Thank God that he has helped me with this and given me some info from a capable neurologist that helps me understand. Now, I see there are so many possible answers to my question, "how can this be?". Here's some possibilities: We're not in the moment . Instead, our ...

As I was eating my Oikos Traditional Greek yogurt for a snack this afternoon, I wanted to know a little more about the nutritional benefits of regular and greek yogurt, so I found this article by Dr. Marybeth Feutz ,  on her site Agricultured, Food Questions Answered It turns out that both Greek and regular yogurts start out with the same ingredients – milk and bacterial cultures. In fact, both types of yogurt even use the same bacterial cultures ( Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus , if you were wondering). The bacteria ferment the lactose (milk sugar) in the milk and produce lactic acid. Different strains of bacteria have slightly different fermentation processes, and have slightly different fermentation products, but the end result is primarily lactic acid. So some strains of bacteria might produce a fermented yogurt that is more acidic, or more bitter, or more sour. After fermentation, the liquid whey is strained off the solid...

"Putting away Christmas"  is always a challenge for me.  I'm sad to return it all to it's storage where it will remain tucked away for the next 10 months.  My 35 or so nativities are lovely out on the shelves as they depict such varying views. Thought you might enjoy viewing my nativity collection. I have several new ones this year that I still need to add, so check back in a few days and hopefully I'll have added the new ones. Sometimes this slide show moves slower than it should.  Please be patient and it will continue...

That night I woke up to hearing my baby sister Lucy ,  age 4 whispering to me, age 8, that she needed to go to the bathroom. Today that would be as simple as sliding out of bed, padding to the bathroom and doing your business and then padding back to a big soft bed. Not so in our old house in Indiana! We had a one seater out house and if you had to go outside, it was a chore. So my response was "Let's go!" It was Christmas vacation from school and we were so hyped up abo ut Santa coming and what presents he would bring us so going to the outhouse wasn't that big of a deal! We pulled our coats and boots and hats on and headed down the basement stairs and out the back of the basement into a truly white December night. The air was so still and cold, we felt breathless! The stars were twinkling all around us and we hurried to our duties. As we walked back up the sidewalk to the basement door and our warm house, we saw some falling stars. Lucy caught her bre...

I've been thinking about Jesus, the Savior of the world being born to that young couple in Bethlehem.  I wonder, was Joseph by Mary's side through her labor and did he help her with the birth? I reflect back on May 27, 1974 when my first little baby was born in the hospital up on the hill in our town. I got the standard treatment:  At the beginning of a mother's hospitalization for the birth of a child she was put into a labor room. In my hospital that room was about 10'X10'.  It had a bed, a rolling table with a pitcher and a glass for water, a little one or two drawer metal chest and one chair ...and that was about it.  Mothers would spend from a few hours to 2-3 days in this little room.  Dad could stay with Mom in this room, but when the birth was near, Mom was taken to the delivery room where Dad was not allowed to go.  It was a very sterile environment and about the same size as the labor room.  There were sever...