Honey Bees

At the library we've had a problem with  honey bees and in talking the the librarian I remembered something
I had not thought of for years.  When the children were small we lived in Fontenory addition in Milan, IL.
Our backyard had lots of clover and we had lots of honeybees.  One day I was doing laundry and my washer was on the back porch.  Debbie and Lora had been playing in the backyard and then they came in
on the back porch.  Lora was probably about four at this time and she was rocking in their little rocker.  I
noticed that she was rocking honey bees.  They were all over her lap.  I said "Where did you get those?"
Debbie said "She catches them but I can't they sting me but they don't sting her."   I said, How did you
catch them?  Lora said, I just put my hand over them and pick them up carefully.  I was amazed.

A Funny Story

The Rider Family had met over at Sam and Nadine's and the women were sitting around the table talking.
Violet was telling about the summer Bill came back from service and was working with Lawrence's brother and dad.  His dad had done somethig Bill thought was dangerous and he told Lawrence, he was going out
to the mental hospital where they were doing some construction and get a job and he did.

This made me think of something that had happened right after I started dating Bill so I told this story.
I was in the bedroom at my parents, getting ready to go on a date with Bill.  He and my dad was sitting in
the living room and I think this was the first time my dad had met Bill.  Dad had ask Bill where he worked
and Bill told him he worked construction at the mental hospital in Anna.  Dad said, Have you ever had any
trouble getting out of there of the evening?  For a minute Bill didn't say anything and I thought "Oh dad, I
like this guy, why did you say that.  Then Bill just laughed and said Well he hadn't had any trouble so far.

My Mother

Many women do noble things but you surpass them all. Proverbs 31:29
Today being Mother's Day, our church service was on Proverbs 31.  It made me think of my mother and
this verse was the one that made me think of her.  If I had to come up with one word for my mother as I was growing up, it would be patience.  She never yelled at us.  I can never remember her raising her voice at any of us or my father.  I wish my children could say that about me but they can not.  My mother raised nine children.  She cooked three meals a day.  She made most of us girls clothes.  I don't know how she found
enough time in the day to do all she did.  She worked in the garden and she always had time to plant flowers.  I can remember her scrubbing clothes on the washboard before she had a washing machine.  Even though, she didn't have a highschool education, she could help with homework but the most important thing
she taught us was right from wrong.  Some times I thought she must have a sixth sense because she always
seemed to know if you were doing something you shouldn't be doing.  I feel very blessed to have had her
for a mother.

Amazing Facts

I'm reading a book titled "Killing Lincoln" and it's amazing that back then he had so little protection.  There was one door into the box where the Lincolns were watching the play.  A soldier named John Parker was supposed to be guarding the door.  He is bored because he can't see the play from where he is and apparently he's also thirsty.  He left the door unguarded and goes to a saloon so there was no one there to keep John Wilkes Booth from going right in.  He was never  charged for leaving his post.  He was not punished at all.  This is a very interesting book and things have definitely changed in Washington DC.

Judas

We had the Lord's Supper today at church and the Pastor mentioned Judas Iscariot.  I started thinking
about him on the way home from church, so after lunch I looked up everything I could find about him in
the bible.  There's no good thing said about him.  Why did they let him be treasurer when he was a thief?  While he traveled with Jesus, he apparantly didn't learn anything.  Was he in the boat when Jesus  stilled
the storm?  He must have seen Him perform miracles yet did he not know He was the son of God?
Jesus said "I chose the twelve of you but one is a devil."  What exactly did that mean?  He apparently was
remorseful when he knew Jesus was going to be put to death.  He gave the thirty pieces of silver back
and killed himself but nothing is said about him asking forgiveness.  Well there's lots of things I'm never
going to understand and I guess this is one of them.

A Little Elegy

Without you no rose can grow
No leaf be green
If never seem
Your dear face
No bird have grace
Or power to sing
or anything
Be kind or fair
And you nowhere

I read this in a book of poetry that I was typing a card for at the library and
at first I thought it was a silly poem but....
The roses still bloom and trees are turning green, the birds are singing but
not for me because you're no longer here.

Looking Back

I was getting ready to go to work at the library this morning and looking at myself in the mirror I thought "Oh my, you'll soon be 79 years old".  What have you done with all those years?  Sometimes when you look back on your life, you can see so many mistakes you've made.  Could I have done a better job with my life?
I'm sure I could have.  I didn't always listen to what my Dad and Mother taught me and I'd have done better if I had.  It's easy to see mistakes when you're looking back but it's not so easy to see them at the time.  I grew up when there wasn't so many pitfalls to fall into as there seems to be today.  What would my life have been like if I had not had christian parents?  If I had not been taught right from wrong how many worse mistakes would I have made.  I can't help but think, what will some people today think when they are old and
look back at their life.

A Child's Birth

Our Sunday school lesson Sunday was on the birth of Jesus as we are studying now the book of Luke.
It was on the time when the angel visited Mary to tell her that she would have a child.  It made me think
of the birth of our  first child.  I did not see her in the delivery room as I had had a hard delivery and did
not wake up until I was in a hospital room.  I remember the first time they brought her to me.  It was not
the first time I had taken care of children.  I had taken care of my younger brothers and sisters and had
also taken care of my youngest sister-in-law as her mother had had a stroke about a month after Bill
and I had married.  The other sisters still at home were still in school so the job to take care of his mother
and baby sister fell to me.

I felt very different about this baby.  I laid her in the bed beside me.  I  was overwhelmed with  the responsibility I felt.  I thought, this is a awesome responsibilitty and I don't know if I'm up to it.  This child depends on Bill and I.  Raising her and teaching her is our responsibility.  I can remember how awe-struck
I was that morning the first time I saw my first child.  She is now a beautiful lady and has raised a family
of her own.  God blessed us even though we made many mistakes.

Family Reunion

I had been reading on facebook about several people giving up something for lent.  I had never thought about doing that before.  I thought only catholics did that but after I thought about it, I thought, maybe that's a good thing.  I thought I should give up listening to country music.  I thought, maybe I don't have to give up music all together.  I should be able to listen to gospel music during lent.  So this morning I put in a cd I hadn't listened to for a while.  A song played titled Family Reunion.  It starts out "Each year we have a family reunion" and it goes on to say that each year faces are missing.  It made me think of last summer's family reunion when I
looked around and saw so many faces I didn't even know and all the faces that weren't there.  I turned around to my brother and said "Are we at the right reunion?"  That brother will be missing at this year's reunion.  Several family members that we have lost this year and won't be at the family reunions here again.

The song is really about the family reunion we'll have in heaven and what a reunion that will  be because of
what Jesus did on calvary.  I'm so looking forward to that reunion to see all the ones that we don't see at our reunions here anymore.

School Days

I've been watching this TV show called "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader".  It has made me try to remember what I learned in first, second, third, fourth, and fifth grade.  I definitely didn't learn some of
the things they question you about on that show.  Some of those things I didn't even learn in high school.
They must be teaching a lot of things today they did't teach in the fortys.  Of course back then we didn't have pre-school or kindergarden.  I think the main aim of first grade was to teach you the alphabet and the numbers.  We started out reading in a primer and I can't remember if we went farther than that in first grade.
We didn't learn any geography or history until seventh and eighth grades.

I really think the main aim in grade school back then was "reading, writing, and arithmetic", and sometimes it was taught by the tune of a hicory stick as the old ryme goes.  The grade school I went to had two rooms,
although most schools back then were one room.  They were called the little room and the big room because the little kids were in the little room and the big kids were in the big room.  When I was in eighth grade our teacher had a large stick, he called a friend.  It was on the wall on top of a picture and sometimes he used it 
but not for discipline.  If you missed over so many problems in arithmetic or so many words in spelling there were so many wacks with that friend.  In this day and age that would not be allowed but it definitely made the kids study harder.

I enjoy watching the TV show and it's very seldom an adult can answer all the questions.  Just two questions for each grade on different subjects, but some of them are definitely not subjects taught in those grades when I was in grade school.  I think maybe I prefer the generation I was born into.

A Poem Speaks

I watched the movie "Spender In The Grass" and there was part of a poem there that I wanted to read.
When I found it, it was not a poem, it was an ode.  I usually don't try to interpret poetry.  I just want to
enjoy it but for some reason I want to understand this ode.  The second verse is"

The rainbow comes and goes and lovely is the rose
The moon doth with delight look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth; but yet I know where'er I go
That there has past away a glory form the earth.

Did he write this when he was an old man and had lost many people he had loved?
He says again later in the poem:  Whither is fled the visionary gleam
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?
And the title of the movie was taken from this part:

What though the radiance which was once so bright, be now forever taken from my sight
Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower
We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.

 He talks later on in the ode of the faith that looks through death
Perhaps if I was still young, this poem would not speak to me the way it does today.
So I believe William Wordsworth was an older man when he wrote this ode.
The best part of the movie was finding this ode.

Wisdom

I've always heard that wisdom comes with age but I'm not sure that's always true. 
When I think of wisdom, I always think of Solomon.  When he became king, he ask God for wisdom and
God gave him wisdom.  But as Solomon became older, did he remain wise?  God had clearly instructed His people not to marry foreign women that they would turn their hearts away from the one true God.  I Kings says Solomon loved many foreign women.  He married many of them.   In his old age they turned his heart away from God ,just as God said they would.  So was Solomon wiser as he got older?  I don't think so.
So have I grew smarter through tthe years?  I don't think so.  I still make as many mistakes as I always
have.  But I'm never going to make the mistake of turning away from God.