I have a question: I am interviewing my uncles and aunts (and mom) about their childhood. Several of them have mentioned a plant that grew in their chicken yard and how they played with the stems, leaves, etc, using the items for 'toys'. But, they cannot remember what they were called. Commacristis or somethng like that. Does anyone out there know what it was or is called?

It's hard to say joy with a frown on your face!

I have never heard the Fruit of the Spirit taught the way I heard it taught last Sunday. We were visiting our former church in Fernandina, Florida and were truly blessed. The teacher is teaching a series with a different fruit each week, but he reviewed the two previously taught. He uses the opposite of the fruit to illustrate how important the good attribute is. Example: Love / self love (for if you hate, then it is really self-love; Joy / frustration (maybe a synonym of that?) and Peace / worry. I wish I could hear or read  the whole series! But, that is a long way to go to church!

I have thought on it all week! This week, when I get frustrated, I am trying to say 'joy' instead of 'shoot'! I have tried to stop saying shoot for years and now maybe I can come closer! It is hard to say joy with a frown on your face! I've goofed sometimes, but I am trying!

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart! But, I need to get it out in my life!

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Gal. 5:22-23

Today, I got a wonderful gift from my uncle. I went to see him and catch him up on my genealogy of our family. He let me copy the genealogy pages out of my Great Grandpa's Bible. I took photos, touching the pages gently. I felt as if I should have on white gloves like they do in a museum. He had not thought to show me the Bible figuring I had got all the information from a cousin who, I guess, had seen it years ago. But, some of the dates I had were wrong, so it was neat to get them correct.

This uncle is only about 7 years older than I am. I have another one who is a year or so younger than he is. My mother had 12 siblings who grew up with her. There were wo more, but they died young.

Butterfly Smiles

I visited my mom today. She lives 6 miles from me. As I drove home, I counted 37 butterflies dancing in the air. Each one, or two at a time, made me smile. Well, except for number 26. That one got too close to the front of my car. I guess I need to start breaking for butterflies. But, then I think people would get awful upset with me. Thankfully, no one was behind me on my leisurely drive home. :)

Last week, I saw a butterfly fluttering around my butterfly plant. I had camera in hand so started snapping photos of it. None turned out that good, but it flew to the porch where I stood, landed and I got this unusual photo. It was as if it was saying, "You looking at me?"

Devotionals

There are two devotionals I mainly use. #1 Baptist Bread. #2 is Days of Praise. Both are KJV. Days of Praise, we have been getting for many years, either through the mail or from our church. Baptist Bread we started getting in 2009. Our church supplies it to us.
Here is the devotion today from Baptist Bread.

ZERO

Zero

Sometimes I feel like a zero – a big empty nothing. I make so many mistakes and am constantly wavering in my decisions and goals I want to do for Thee. Dear God, how can You use someone as frail as me?

You knew me when I really was but nothing Before I was conceived – before my parents knew me. You loved me knowing just who and what I would be. Enough to send Jesus to die on the cross for me.

The shape of a zero can be easily made onto a heart. The place You let love flow through and joy impart. And because You are the Saviour of my soul, You give me wonderful peace that makes me whole.

Yes, Dear God, You made the world out of nothing, Looked at it, then liked and blessed everything. And You tell me if I give my life over to Thee, You will make something special out of me!

by   Belinda Jo Adams (C) 2005

New Cook Book

No, I am not that ambitious. And my cooking is too plain for anyone to want the recipes!  But, my niece had published her cookbook and I am proud of her. Here is the link:

http://jeniskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/07/thank-you.html

family research

I have been working on the family tree now since November 2010. I have found out so much, sometimes it is mind-boggling. But, exciting. I am now at the point of putting each family line into a booklet form for my parents. I thought I could make, for example, Jo's Family, then include the ancestry back as far as I could , then add the descendants at the end to connect the two lines. I made one for Steve's mom and it looks pretty good. Photos along the way, makes it less wordy.

When you run off a ancestral chart, there are a lot of repeats, which is good in its way, but for the book, I am taking out the repeats and instead of going by generations, I am going by family name (surname).

As I find items in the past, sometimes I am finding stories about our g-g-g-g-g-g grandparents. So, I am also getting people and story ideas for a new novel!

my page on facebook

Someone told me I should make a page for my books on facebook. I did not realize how easy it would be, so as of yesterday, it is done! Well, started. My publisher had called recently (well, one of their workers trying to sell me a publicity campaign) and suggested I make a fan page. I did not know about that. It seems kinda conceited to  make a fan page for youself, but a page on my fb account did not seem that way. Maybe it is the same thing. I don't know! :)

half-sugar cookies

For more than 30 years, I have not put a lot of sugar in cookies (or other baked items). They turn out just fine and now when I taste a cookie with the full amount of sugar, it is SO sweet. Too sweet! At one time, I used honey, but finally, I just started using half the amount of sugar. I usually try to use raw sugar, whether it helps or not, I do not know. But, I refuse to buy those fake sugars. I get tickled when people say, 'I bought this and there is no sugar in it!' Well, it is sweet. What is in it? I had a doctor tell me, when aspartame came out, to leave it alone. Have you noticed they don't even list that any more. They use another name for it that means the same.

Recently, I discovered a peanut butter by Peanut Butter and Co. I like the Dark Chocolate Dream. When I get to craving a Reese cup, I get a spoonful of that and know I did not eat all the fake sugar in the candy. It is cheaper at the grocery store, BTW, than from the Internet.
A couple months ago, I could not find it, so bought a small jar of hazelnut chocolate, not even thinking to read the label. Mistake! I tasted it and realized I had wasted my money. Today, however, I made cookies with it and there was enough sugar, I did not add ANY sugar to the cookie dough! They are delicious, if anything a little too sweet. :)

Connecting with Friends

As Aggravated as I get with the Internet and computing, it is a blessing sometimes. Within the last half hour, I have talked via email with a good friend in Brazil and then via Facebook with a good friend in Alaska! That is really neat.
We have friends all around the world and to think, we thought we'd be in our home town all our lives and only know those we knew there. But, God had other plans for our lives which includes many, MANY  friends!!
Hello to ALL of them!
(as if very many of them even read this! ha!) But, I had to say it.

Well, it looks like pumpkin because it looks so orange, but it is watermelon. A seedless watermelon. Not as many seeds as a regular one, but a lot more than we expected. Steve said he would dry some of the seeds and plant them so we could grow seedless watermelons.  Think it will work? Can you grow seedless watermelons from seeds?