Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

This is for all  of the young parents out there and not specifically for one or two , as one person is surely to think. Although, come to think of it, this person probably should consider this as well, but you don't have to. Just saying. First off, I want to quantify the following blog by saying this: As a parent, I stunk. There, I said it. I worked too much, I yelled too much and I blew the teenagers off by dismissing the theatrics as teenage drama and bull. I did a lot of things that I swore I would never do when I was a kid and watched my parents make those same faux pas on me and my brother. In a nutshell. I sucked. HOWEVER. What I did do is I loved them, maybe too much. They always were the first thing in my mind even if at the time to them it looked totally opposite. My heart is theirs, then, now and forever...well, theirs and God's and Chris', not necessarily in that order. They learned morals, even though they probably thought that I was being old fashioned. T...

I know that in the past that I have said that I'm not an alarmist, but I'm going to change my position on that one. With the rumblings going on in the Middle East, the chemical attacks on Syrian women, children and innocents and the threats from Russia and China, I think its time to be an alarmist. While I try to stay away from politics in general, there's another thing that I want to touch on. While I am certainly no fan of our current POTUS, I understand that he was allowed to be put in power by God. Each and every person that has been allowed into power, according to Scripture, is allowed there for whatever reason by God. Yes, God is omniscient, so He knows what is in the person's heart, what this person will do with his/her power, and the outcome of the administration on its people. It is very difficult for us as human beings to wrap our brains around the evil that some of these (I hesitate to use the designation because animals seem to have a higher brain functi...

I've been reading a lot lately on the way  that our economy is going. Its said that by the end of 2015 we will have 5.00 a gallon gas prices. If you think that boggles your mind, just think back to 2008 when we complained about gas prices hitting 1.80 a gallon. That's a big jump from 1.80 to 5.00 a gallon. The thing is, if gas prices do go up as they are predicted to do, that means the cost of living will climb as well, but our paychecks may not. We could see food shortages, gas shortages, rolling black-outs and water rationing like we've never seen before. This is pretty scary. The other things that I have been reading about, if any of you follow my pinterest board, you will see a lot on canning and DIY. Yeah, I'm working on food storage. After Ike came and knocked out power to our little section of Texas for two weeks, it became abundantly clear that if we experienced anything worse than that, like on the scale of the tornadoes earlier this year in Oklahoma, then a ...

There are so many people who say, "If he/she were a true Christian, this/that or the other wouldn't happen", or "They wouldn't be experiencing this/that or the other". How about this one...."A true Christian doesn't dance, do drugs, smoke, drink, have sex, wear anything that exposes the legs or chest. A true Christian goes to church every time the doors are open, tithes ten percent and helps in soup kitchens". "The true Christian doesn't eat this/that or the other...doesn't do this or that, yadda, yadda, yadda". Really? Let me tell you about a true Christian. A "true Christian" is one who has called on the name of Jesus to forgive him/her of their sins. Ephesians 2:8-9 says:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. And in Romans 10:1-13:   1  Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may...

I like fluff. I like things that are whipped and sweet. I like the extra gravy. I like the extras that life brings my way. Sometimes fluff is all there is and there's nothing more to it than a pretty sight and air. As a person with what the world calls a disability, fluff is a bonus on days that you think that fluff doesn't exist. When my back is not going to cooperate with me in the mornings, I have to look for my fluff. Sometimes what I find is Snickers, who actually is good for the back when she walks on it (she runs about 10-11 pounds), sometimes all I get is a pup who can't control her licker. Sometimes that pulls the kink out, more times than not it makes it worse and I gimp through-out the day, but the love of my animals makes me smile and adds to my fluff pile! =o) On days that my hips and legs are not my friends, the fluff isn't as easy to find. Those are the days that I want to lay in bed, cry and have an enormous pity party. Fluff avoids me like the plagu...

You know, sometimes I wonder about God's sense of humor, especially when it comes to me. More than once in my life, when I have said something tongue in cheek, He thought it was a stellar idea and it came to pass. Andrea is one of those times. Not in the "she's a joke" type thing, no, hers was the Down Syndrome thing. I was a Special Needs teaching assistant when I became pregnant with her and the teacher I was paired with had just gotten back from an in service class about Downs kids. Jokingly I mentioned wouldn't it be cool if the baby had Downs and we discussed the ways that I wouldn't have to deal with the peer pressure that "normal" kids had to deal with. Yeah, you guessed it, perfect pregnancy, perfect labor and delivery, perfect kid with Downs. Gotta love His sense of humor, and I have to tell you, I wouldn't have it any other way because she has taught me a great deal about life and God. You can't buy that in the stores or from a tele...

So, there is this site that gives you like seven hundred different classes that you can take online for free ( 700 Free Online Courses ). I checked them out, perused the different subjects that would likely appeal to me and settled so far on five different classes. Now, mind you, I graduated high school in 1978 and have not been back to school since, with the small exception of beginning a course in counseling, which I never completed, so this will prove to be a pretty interesting venture on my horizon. To get back to the courses that I decided on. I chose to take classes on both the Old and New Testament, Food Sustainability; Sustainable Healthy Diets and Nutrition for Health Promotion and Disease prevention, all areas that I am interested in. Imagine my surprise when the first class, Food Sustainability bombarded me with Chemistry. The monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides and lipids made my head spin and the breakdown of hydrogen and oxygen to make up H2O gave me a bit of a ...