Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

Not a bad one, mind you. I've had this bug before, but its been probably about oh, about twenty eight or nine years ago. OK, I'm being rude, sorry. I've gotten back into canning. Just after Mouse was born, I tried my hand at canning, and I have to say, I wasn't half bad at it. Mostly it was jams and jellies, and at one point I did some chokecherry wine. Where we (my ex-husband and I) lived was outside of Helena, there was a major over-abundance of chokecherry trees... everywhere . I absolutely loved learning how to can and I loved chokecherry jam! Then when we had to go through everything that we did with Andrea, separating and divorcing, I moved away from it. Literally. Fast forward to this year. A lot of things have changed. I've changed. I was Born Again; Andrea grew to be a very sweet woman; I've married my Best Friend, have another daughter who is absolutely a beauty, with my temper and her Dad's attitude (or is that the other way around...), a hand...

I've said it before, I'm not an alarmist by nature, but I'm getting alarmed by the media. The problem is, the reports that are coming to light are verifiable in many ways, including watching the news as it happens whether it is a political speech or camera personnel in action and watching the raw footage live. Its downright scary. The latest articles to come to light are in regards to the Christian community as a whole. There have been news articles that when checked whether by anti-hoax websites or by actually looking at the particular news agency for the details that have proven to be false, which really brings a sigh of relief from me. However, that said, there have been others that give me the tendency to look towards the eastern skies and to listen closely for the trumpet that will sound signalling that I'm leaving my crocs at any second to meet Christ in the air.  One such news story is out of Colorado. Now, I've seen this story before, but never with the ...

Yesterday was April Fools day for us here in the States, the day before in Okinawa. My daughter and I got into a match of sorts and to be honest, I think it's a draw. She got me, I got her back....even-steven. There were kudos all around and a couple of us (who are pretty much sore losers (me)) got our feathers a little ruffled, but we love each other all the same. Friends, if they are who they say they are, will concede that the jokes went maybe a bit too far but were pretty good all the same. Anyway, that's not where I'm going with this.  As I typed out my title line, it occurred to me that we really can't fool the Master. No matter where we are or what we are doing or thinking, the Master always is there, always knows what's going on, even if we are doing our best to fool ourselves or others. He knows the intention of our hearts, even when we have no clue ourselves. Sure, we can do a good deed, believing that we are being noble in our actions when in reality we...

Eeyore is what I have called my down days for quite a while now. You know how he is, always in a gloomy mood, a little black rain cloud following him around. Well, Eeyore came around about Wednesday, really was gloomy on Thursday and is still hanging around, but he's been pretty quiet for the most part. Let's get this straight; I don't like being in the dumps. I hate depression. When I'm in this phase, it usually accompanies a nasty flare-up and I'm so weepy and short tempered that it scares Mouse. Thursday, I had to cry in the shower so I wouldn't alarm her and I was in there for a good hour. The water had gotten cold by then and quite honestly I wasn't finished, but I was better enough to function. I don't know how others function with this part of the fibro, to me its debilitating. I can't function beyond the basics. I'm short tempered, weepy, in short, I'm a mess. The only  way that I got through Thursday without curling up in a corner...

How many times have you heard your parents say "don't"? How many times have you thought or said "why"? Alrighty then....discussion time.... What part of don't do you not understand? It is a contraction, meaning it is parts of two different words....do and not......do not....what part of that don't you understand? The "not" part? OK, well, then, let's elaborate on the word. Let's look at some definitions of the word "not": (From World Students Dictionary) Main Entry:         not Pronunciation:  (')nät Function:             adverb 1 -- used to make a word or group of words negative not here> 2 -- used to stand for the negative of a group of words that comes before not> (From Cambridge International Dictionary of English) not   Show phonetics adverb 1 used to form a negative phrase after verbs like 'be', 'can', 'have', 'will', 'must', etc....

...and it has me bothered. Not so much for me, but for those who will be severely affected by it; my folks and my brother and sister in law. The headline (Martial law: Tucson City Council Hands Authority over to Military), is alarming in the fact that the general population of the city hasn't a clue this is happening. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is located in the southern part of Tucson, AZ. When I lived in Tucson, I worked not too far from there at the airport where sometimes the fighter jets would use the runways for "touch and go" practice. Those babies are loud, enough so to break the sound barrier and probably pierce a few eardrums for those unlucky enough not to be wearing hearing protection. After reading the article (link here:  http://www.pakalertpress.com/2013/03/05/martial-law-tucson-city-council-hands-authority-over-to-military/  ) I guess you could say that I have no words that would even come close to the alarm that I feel. You know, in the Bible, in Ma...

Trip three, the totally dedicated to sightseeing and spending probably way too much money trip is almost a part of history. I think that we crammed a month worth of sightseeing into five or six days, but I have to say that I enjoyed (almost) every minute of it. I got to see the wonderful world of Kokusai Street, with more nooks and crannies than an english muffin....got to see my baby granddaughter walk for the first time, well, actually, she ran. I got to hear at least two new words from my oldest granddaughter and we played together more this time than the other two times combined, and I spent probably waaayyy too much money on my grandkids. Oh, well, that's what Grandmas are for, I'm told! The weather here has been almost picture perfect which allowed for some pretty interesting pictures of the locals and some of the surrounding scenery. I wished that we had been able to get up to the northern part of the Island where some of the more spectacular beaches are, but with tw...