"Bureaucracy is the death of any achievement." Albert Einstein

Becky Kelley - Where's the Line to See Jesus - OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

Mesa Farm Living Nativity

I went to see a living nativity last night at a farm owned by an old friend, Dale Perkins. He was the farm steward at Heifer Project in Rutland where my kids and I volunteered one year as a homeschool project.  I went with my friend Marla. So, with two missionary-types in the picture how could it not be a great night? And it was. I have seen the Christmas show at Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster, PA where they use real animals and have flying angels on invisible wires and it is fantastic - but it's a slick production, whereas Mesa farm is the real thing. It struck me that here we were more than two thousand years after the event. a bunch of unrelated people gathered in a real barn (well riding arena) smelling real manure, watching a donkey be stubborn, braving a pretty cold night to share in seeing a re-enactment of that event. This year, it seems,  angels favor Ugg boots, donkeys don't like to be on a short tether, and camels can work up a powerful appetite, but angels are right there to hand over some hay from the manger. Sheep poop and donkeys bray at inopportune times. Mary had an easy labor - the angel handed the baby to her - but the baby didn't cry, just like in the song we all sang. There was something about the cold and the dirt and the hay and the actors wearing jeans and farm boots under the robes that captured what must have been the meanness of the real occasion. Nobody could make this up - that God himself became a man in the lowliest of places. Yet it is fitting that He was born in a stable, because He was surrounded by all kinds of  natural life.

Driving the Jet(ta)

I have to drive my son's car for a few weeks. I've driven a Suburban for the past 23 years. The Jet is different. First I get in, start the engine and then accidentally wash the windshield, because the gearshift is on the floor and not on the steering wheel. There is so much room in the garage! I pull in and can walk all the way around and have room to spare. The big difference is the acceleration. The Suburban has power, but whatever added on air intake thingamagigger my son had put in makes his car take off like a jet and sound like a jet doing it. You can experience G-force if you're not careful. When he wanted to put it in he told me it would "improve engine performance" I had no idea it would improve acceleration. I do not think it is good for a young boy to have a car that zooms like that. I hope he is being careful - are you reading this Buddy? I am taking very good care of his car for him and I hope he is taking good care of mine. And not ever speeding in it.

Mary's Boy - Boney M Christmas song

From cakewrecks.blogspot.com

Lloyd Price - Personality

Poems from my walk

Hurried paws
Unhurried pause
Snuffle snuffle
Quite a kerfuffel
What the hell
Do my dogs smell?


Autumn Forensics

In the dying light a skittery scratchy sound
As dry leaves, swirling twirling curling
reveal the wind's fingerprints on the ground

The kids are home

They drove all night because they were driving a friend to Harvard who wanted to see the Harvard Yale game today. Since I didn't konow about it until they got here in the morning, I couldn't be worried about them driving all night. YIKES! Why did they do that? Well I said, now you'll have to sleep all day and they laughed at me. NO! said Kyle, we'll just stay up and go to sleep tonight:

Yeah, right.

Leslie isn't asleep, yet. Here's my reader:

But she'll be out soon, I'm sure.  So far we've managed to go shopping and spend over a hundred dollars on food. - All kinds of food that I try to stay away from, too. Oh well, I got Lelsie and Kim a card for the gym, so we'll have to use them!!

Oh yes, and Buddy brought laundry. Even after the load I did for him when we went to visit.

I know, I'm pathetic. he's pathetic. Leslie does her own laundry and already helped me walk the dog.





Yoga

I took a yoga class today. I didn't realize it was a yoga class because it was called "Body Flow". I thought it would be a low intensity work-out that I could do to wind down from Zumba!
There was a distinct disconnect between the soft slow music and the teacher's soft mellifluous voice and what she was asking you to do. It seemed to me like this. Read this in a soft, slow, soothing voice.

Gently raise your right leg forward and place your foot behind your neck. Now on the left. gently raise your left leg forward and place your left foot behind your neck. Feel that gentle pull on the muscles. Place your hands in the praying position. Look up at the sky. Now tense the muscles in your right buttock and move your right buttock forward. Now the left. Now walk around your mat using only your butttocks.

Well it seemed like that to me. I think they should forget about waterboarding and send terrorists to body flow class. they'll sing like canaries after they've been in the triangle for a few minutes.

When I wrote the above I thought I was making it up, but evidently I wasn't.

Bikers Rally To Support Boy's Flag Display - News Story - KCRA Sacramento

Bikers Rally To Support Boy's Flag Display - News Story - KCRA Sacramento

A Bumbling Idiot

That's what I become when I walk the two dogs on leashes. What's missing from this picture is a bag of dog poop dangling from one hand. That adds to the mix. The story of my life is having "brilliant" ideas but never considering the ramifications of what it will mean in my life. "Let's keep a puppy!" Now I have to feed walk and clean up after two dogs. We have to pay to board two dogs when we go somewhere.

Anyway, you would think that the law of averages would mean that they would walk on the same side of barriers at least half the time. Nope. 97% of the time they choose different sides - from each other or from me. Once a dog goes around a tree the wrong way it is almost impossible to get them to go back the way they came. They just do not get it. I have perfected several strategies for untangling - there's the twirl with one hand over the head - the one hand behind the back switch and the ever popular drop the dang leash and pick it up again gambit.

Emma is the mad pooper. She can't just squat and poop- no- she walks as she poops and drops presents in a line behind her. I have to be very vigilant to get it all. It's like a very ugly Easter egg hunt. Zoe is more normal, but JUST LATELY- she has been doing the walking poop trick too. When they do it at the same time I become the bumbling idiot of poop scooping.

Yesterday at 7 AM I was out in the common area of the townhouse complex and was tying a bag of poop- so that I only had a loose grip on the leashes and I was pre-occupied and they spied a cat across the street so they bolted after it, dragged the leashes clattering behind them up on a neighbors porch. They live with a cat, for heaven's sake! You'd think they would be used to cats.

One of the best articles ever written

TIME BANDITS: newyorker.com

This article is great on so many levels I can't even begin to list them.

Obama's 2010 First Pitch vs. Bush's 2001 First Pitch

Remember the good old days when this was a free country?

A Car and a Pumpkin

We got a new (used) car. It's our third Suburban. We kept our first (big blue) for 12 years and 150 thousand miles. Our second one (also big blue) was 10 years old and had 210,000 mi.

This is what it has. It's probably the best car I've had. It has a moon roof and leather seats. I think they are heated. That is not what we paid. We paid 29,000 and got 2200 for the old suburban.

Happy Halloween!!!



Public-Employee Unions Funnel Public Money to Dems - Michael Barone - National Review Online

Public-Employee Unions Funnel Public Money to Dems - Michael Barone - National Review Online

The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg

People often ask me why I decided to homeschool my children. The answer is simple in one way and endless in another. The simple answer is "Schoolschmertz" (loosely based on weltschmertz) - a free floating dissasisfaction with everything the schools were doing.  There are several points of contention that stand out. One was when Kim came home one day with a list of "cliches". They were not cliches - they were aphorisms- they were not tired and hackneyed- they were timeless truths.  This made me realize that kids these days are not learning the old standards - the stories that teach moral lessons in a fun way.

A child's education is not complete unless he has read "The Emperor's New Clothes"  Apply the lessons of the story to the current controversy over evolution and motives become clear.

The Goose that laid the golden Egg should be required reading for anyone who wants to "Tax the wealthy"!

DON'T SAY THIS

I just heard another person say "chomping at the bit" It's CHAMPING at the bit. Thanks to McDonald's hardly anyone can pronounce "gri-MACE".  It's NOT grimiss. Long lived has a long "i". Data has a long "a" and is plural. Media is plural. It's wheel BARROW not (Lord help us all) Wheelbarrel.

I really love the English language. When used correctly it is capable of creating great beauty. People should try to be more careful in using it .I have actually responded to those who have told me that their dog is "spaded" with "who dug her up?" It never gets a laugh.

There was an article once in the Worcester Magazine on how the internet is affecting people's ability to write proper English. Wouldn't you know he made a couple of mistakes in the article. I e-mailed him about it and he wrote back, properly chagrined. It can be a tricky business. At least he cared. I like people who care and I am miffed at my kids who think that if everybody says it wrong then they should, too. I never mind being corrected. It's how you learn.

One of my favorite mistakes was when Southern Living Magazine had a food article entitled "Pancakes for Breakfast are Crepe" (It's really funny if you know how to pronounce crepe - it rhymes with pep)

The New York Post has some really clever headlines. One of them, however, was about how Oprah had endorsed Obama and they titled it "OMENTUM". They weren't up on medical terminology.

A Good New Book

Quanah Parker was the last chief of the Comanche. He was the son of Cynthia Parker who had been kidnapped by the Comanches and who became one of the wives of the warrior Nocona. This book manages to capture (I think) the truth of the times - honest and balanced - detailing the good and bad on both sides. Quanah eventually surrendered and became a successful member of the white community, although he reamined a polygamist. He founded the Native American Church which is based on the use of Peyote.
(Peyote was mixed with water to use in taking communion) Which leads to the following:

Here is the QUOTE OF THE MONTH by Quanah Parker:

"The white man goes into his church and talks about Jesus - The Indian goes into his tipi and talks WITH Jesus."

This one's for you, Buddy

Biking with the Designated Hitter



Explaining the title - I was reading a blog awhile ago and a woman kept using the term DH. Well it didn't make sense to me since she wasn't at a baseball game and it didn't make sense in context. So I asked my husband, "What does "DH" mean?" and he said designated hitter. So how could both of us be wrong?

I did figure out later that it meant Dear Husband. However, if I use the term it will always mean designated hitter to me. I thought about it and in life if I ever needed to hit somebody since I am weak and my husband is VERY strong I would probably want him to do it for me. He actually was my DH when Buddy was 5. I needed to spank Buddy and he looked right in my eyes and said "You can spank me but you'll never make me cry!" Even with a stick and quite a bit of force I couldn't. Later on, Rick had no trouble making him cry. Maybe in the future I'll do a blog on boys and their mothers. - and why they NEED Fathers.

Anyway, we had a great time biking. Last month Rick and my friend Marla and I went biking in Otter Stae Park and we also looked for the entrance to the Ware River Rail Trail. That is when we saw the MONSTROSITY. When it suddenly appeared looming over the horizon, my first instinct was to say, "I feel like I'm in a science fiction movie!" and Marla said, "I expect to see Godzilla coming over the hill."

Again, I don't think a picture does it justice. But believe me, this thing looks like a huge alien monstrosity in real life.

One Hundred and One Famous Poems

My Dad had this book when i was a child. He would read poetry to me at bedtime (and sometimes he would cry). Little Boy Blue always got to him. It's about the death of a child. There are a lot of great poems in here and i just love this book. I wish I had my Dad's original - i bought this one for myself. The cover hasn't changed! I used to like "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley. Of course, now I know he was a famous atheist. I guess he appealed to the defiance in a child. I recited it in the fifth grade and everybody laughed. I should have gone with "Trees" (also in there). When i was in college, one of my first friends, Pat Croyle, had a book with favorite sayings and poems that she had written out and darned if "Invictus" wan't in there. Now they have the movie and I guess Nelson Mandela liked it, too. I tend to cry reading "Barefoot Boy". " The Daffodils" is in there. Tower Hill Botanic Garden has a field of daffodils that always makes me think of that poem. Well, what made me think of this book is James Russell Lowell from my previous post. "June" is a great poem - "What is so rare as a day in June, then if ever come perfect days.' My grandmother had to learn that one in school. The stanza I like best is

 Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,
The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in;
At the Devil’s booth are all things sold
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking:
‘T is heaven alone that is given away,
‘T is only God may be had for the asking;

Everybody should have this book.

Why Aren't We speaking Arabic?

Because on October 10,  in 732 Charles  Martel, Charles "The Hammer", fought the Muslims at the Battle of Tours and saved the Western World from Muslim domination. The crescent roll was invented to commemorate this decisive victory So even though it's a day late- go out and eat a crescent roll and thank God and Charles Martel that you aren't wearing a Burqua (if you're a woman) You might also ponder the possibility of having to wear one in the future if the West doesn't wise up.

Death on the Path to Life

I walked the dogs yesterday in Dunn State Park near our new townhouse. What is more glorious than an October afternoon in New England?  (apologies to James Russell Lowell) The bright clear sun in the cloudless, dead blue sky shining on the riot of colors in the woods makes for one incredibly beautiful scene after another.   I really wished I had a camera. So, today after church I went back to take some pictures during my walk.

As I began to take a few pictures, I realized that my pictures would never do justice to seeing the real thing. This is especially true because it is hard enough to take pictures, let alone take pictures while trying to walk two dogs on leashes.

As I was walking it struck me that all of these beautiful leaves were dying and the sermon this morning was on that very subject – the necessity of dying in order to have life . Christ died to save us and we have to die to ourselves to have life in Him. It occurred to me that Autumn and its incredible beauty is really a perfect picture of that concept.



Nature always makes me wonder at God’s power and beauty and goodness, but today I had an added blessing in being able to think more deeply about death on the path to life.



The Natural Man

At the bottom of it all – “it” being the divide, today, between the left and the Right, at the bottom of it all is………us - Or rather our view of us. It was famously stated in the Walt Kelly comic strip “Pogo” – We have met the enemy and he is us.

To the Left man is inherently good, born as a blank slate – tabula rasa- and everything that goes wrong with him is the fault of the world – parents, schools,  the environment. If you want a good laugh watch the West Side Story song “Gee Officer Krupsky” clip. All of their agenda  is directed toward creating a perfect world in which basically  good people will not be corrupted and be allowed to bloom. This agenda is well intentioned but doomed (and it is dooming us) because it is based on a fantasy understanding of the world. People who used to rub snow on frostbite to treat it really believed they were helping the person- oops too bad your toes have to be amputated.

On the other side is the view that man is born sinful, the world is fallen and the agenda is to make the best of it.

Take for example, the welfare state and all of the entitlement programs of the “New Deal” and the “Great Society”  These do-gooder programs which threw money at problems actually resulted in destroying the fabric of Black Society. Look up the facts and you will be shocked at what happened to the black family as a result of these programs. Daniel Patrick Moynihan  (a Democrat!) wrote about it quite awhile ago. Thomas Sowell has an excellent book on the subject.

A lot is being said about improving US schools. Mostly Obama wants to – you guessed it- spend more money. THE ONLY STUDY ever done that found a DIRECT causation of improved achievement in academic performance found it was due to the kitchen table. Well actually, it was what happened around the kitchen table. A married mother and father sat around that kitchen table with their child and encouraged studying. This was found across economic, ethnic and social classes.

Hillary Clinton wrote a book: “It takes a Village to Raise a Child” – Phylis Schlafly responded: “It takes a mother and a father to raise a child and the village should mind its own business.” Amen.

West Side Story-Officer Krupke

I forgot Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell is probably the best black thinker/writer in the US.

Really Smart People

"The British parliament's first avowedly atheist member, Charles Bradlaugh, would stride into public meetings in the 1880s, take out his pocket watch, and challenge God to strike him dead in 60 seconds. God bided his time, but got Bradlaugh in the end. "   .....Theodore Dalyrymple (Anthony Daniels)

There are some really really smart people writing in the world today. Anthony Daniels is one of them. He can be found online at city-journal.com. Another one of my talents is finding people who are smarter than I am and listening to what they have to say. Here is my list of the smartest people in the world today:
                            1. Robert Bork "Slouching Toward Gomorrah" - a must read
                            2. Anthony Daniels
                            3. David Berlinsky
                            4. George Will
                            5. Ravi Zacharias
                            6. R.C. Sproul
                            7. Ann Coulter
                            8. Michelle Malkin
                            9. Justice Clarence Thomas
                          10. David McCullough
Who am I missing? Tell me.

   

                FALL

It’s my favorite time of year.  Somehow it’s connected with food. PUMPKIN. One of my favorite treats of autumn. As my friend Holly said on facebook – Pumpkin spice lattes have arrived at Dunkin Donuts! And suddenly the world is a nicer place. There is something about the smell of pumpkin and spices mixed with coffee and the warmth of the cup in a cold hand that screams contentment. I had to give up caffeine otherwise it would scream fulfillment. I read about a guy who said that caffeine made him kill someone. Any coffee addict will tell you caffeine would not do that. The LACk of caffeine, however, could make you kill a bunch of people if they stood between you and your fix. Back when I was addicted we had an ice storm. No power for days. I drove three towns over, through downed power lines and tree limbs in a landscape that looked like a war zone to find a Dunkin Donuts that had power. In the book “Angela’s Ashes” (highly recommended- a must read!) Angela’s children are dying left and right and she becomes inured to it, but she really has a fit when she can’t buy coffee!

HOT APPLE CRISP with melty ice cream. Hey KLB, do you remember the Fryeburg Fair and the delicious Apple Crisp? You can’t really enjoy warm foods as much in the summer as in Fall and Winter. Of course there are good cold pumpkin foods too – Pumpkin Pie Blizzard at DQ. Pumpkin Chiffon Pie at Thanksgiving (secret recipe from S. Burns)

This year will be even better because we moved to a townhouse and will not have to rake leaves. YAY. We may have been one of the few families left who used no power equipment to get up the leaves. We also shoveled our own very long driveway. Better winter this year, too.

Evolution

Well, obviously I do not believe in evolution. I have proof, though, that it is a false theory. The proof is: cats and dogs. Cats and dogs did not come from a common ancestor - ask anyone who has ever had both. Ask a cat! Don't ask a dog. a dog might look at you and say, " hmmm...four legs, two eyes, fur...could be possible." Ask a cat. He will tell you there is no way EVER that he shared anything in common with a dog. He would tell you that a billion trillion years would not be enough for a dog to evolve into a cat.

We all know that back in the 1700's before microorganisms were known that some scientists believed in spontaneous generation when maggots suddenly appeared in rotten meat. They weren't stupid men, there were just things that existed that they couldn't see and had no knowledge of.

Today, scientists see an entire WORLD, for heaven's sake, and have decided that is just suddenly appeared out of nothing and that LIFE just suddenly appeared. The basis of the theory of evolution is the  mother of all spontaneous generation. Today's scientists believe in evolution  because they can't see God( just as scientists of old couldn't see microbes) and they're just as ridiculously wrong.

By Popular Demand

I am changing the name of my blog already." Loosely Connected Thoughts" seems to be more descriptive of the content 

Nature

We have about 700 acres of timber land in maine. We were there this past week-end to cut down a few trees for firewood for this winter. When we started to look for a tree to cut, suddenly they all looked so nice and pleasant where they were. Each seemed to have it's own personality and place in the world. I realized as I was walking and walking and saying , "no not that one" and my husband was beginning to look peeved - even then I realized I was being a lunatic - there are 700 acres of trees for crying out loud-but I couldn't help myself. This is actually a real talent I have - i am able to step outside myself and realize that I am being nuts. It doesn't usually stop me, but I do have the realization of it. We did find a couple to cut down. I yelled timber. my husband got the testosterone flowing as he used the chain saw.
We stayed overnight in a tent. When you get to be over 50 it is no longer possible to sleep comfortably on the ground. I heard coyotes yipping in the night. I peed behind a tree and wished I had a gun just in case a coyote jumped me. We also have bears on the land. i wouldn't even let myself think about that
When we got back to our house we turned on the TV. We only get two stations CBS and PBS. They have a lot in common- BS. I can't stand the CBS news. It is pure propaganda. I can't stand Katie Couric. I watched a hummingbird program on PBS even though it was the dreaded pledge week - the only time all year they put on the good shows. Anyway, it was interesting, but they had a YALE PROFESSOR on who had been the scientific resource person for the show (also married to the producer- how convenient) He was an evolutionary ornithologist. One of the things he actually said in explaining the evolution of coloring was   - "Fruit wants to be eaten" This is why I would never send any of my children to Yale. Once you start believing in evolution you can believe any darn thing - like that vegetation can have desires. The only other option would be the unthinkable notion that there was some kind of a plan for how things would work together- much easier to think fruit is colorful because it wants to be eaten.
My favorite Bible passages of all are at the end of Job when God speaks and tells him, "Stand up like a man!" and tells Job about His creation

All of the Good Blog Titles Were Taken

So here I am with the blog Teri Marie the name I absolutely loathed being called when I was a kid. My Mom had a friend who called me Teri Marie all of the time. She was a nice lady but I hated being called that. I hate it when people call their kids by their first and middle name when they are mad at them. Usually it is people who can't control their kids no matter waht they do and are grasping at straws with the two names. A lot of people say the first and last name of their kid when they are mad at said kid (note my phrasing Kyle Spangler!) Anyway, when my daughter was little we had a neighbor who did this a lot - "Frank Shaughnessy you stop hitting your sister with that stick!" So my daughter said to her sister one day, "Leslie Shaughnessy you stop that!" .ie. she thought that if a kid was bad you called them Shaughnessy.
Anyway, that's my name and That's my title. People think blogging is new, but actually, people have blogged for quite awhile, only they used to call it writing an essay. The difference is that the writing had to be better and it had to be really good to be published for someone else to read it. Case in point - E. B. White. Yes, he wrote Charlotte's Web, but he also wrote a bunch of essays (for the New Yorker, I think). his essays are just wonderful. If you want to make a new friend of a really interesting and thoughtful man, who unfortunately is already dead,  read the essays of EB White. I always cry when I read the one about going fishing with his son. Now that I have blogged a little bit I think I should change the title to "thoughts loosely connected" If you read this blog and start to notice that my thoughts aren't connected at all anymore please notify my husband so he can shoot me - speaking of which I'm going to learn how to shoot a 22 next week so i can kill coyotes if necessary.