Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

How many of you out there read instructions? Whether its a new toaster, a new tool, or something the kids got for Christmas, how many of us actually read  the instructions instead of just scanning them, or tossing the instruction sheet aside? Let's be honest here...show of hands. Okay, I have to be honest, I don't read the instructions until I have  to. When I get to the point that I'm stuck, or a part doesn't fit, then I read the instructions. A tool or appliance? When I need to troubleshoot or in the case of my new microwave, I actually did read the instructions, and they helped, but I still had to go back because I kind of only scanned the last part of the booklet, and I got stuck as to how to get it to do something. Most of the time, I'm golden. I can put something together using common sense, or I can use a tool or appliance that I just got because I've used one before and know how to use it safely. I'll toss aside instructions that make no sense an

Have you ever worked a puzzle? I'd say most of us have, if not as an adult, certainly in school when we were kids. You know what I hated the most about puzzles that other people had worked before? Missing pieces, or worse yet, pieces that don't even belong with the puzzle you're working. As some of you might know, my Dad had a stroke three weeks ago. Praise God it wasn't one that caused a brain bleed, but because of the delay in getting him into the hospital, he was unable to receive the medicine that busts clots within four hours of the onset of stroke symptoms. So what he has is a clot in a micro-artery in the middle of his left brain somewhere. That aside, the stroke did its usual damage. There is memory loss, both long term and short term, although that's hit or miss, and what we call "filters" are now missing...filters that made him who he was, controlled his temperament, and speech, and parts of his brain were damaged...the parts that control some