I had hoped to include only the segment concerning Tepako, New Zealand, but now I find that to be impossible.

So hunker down for a little bit and eventually you will get to to see Tepako, New Zealand.

Cold and miserable alone in my thoughts,that appeared to be a wonderful title for a post, but I digress….

Let me tell you a story. I sell or help sell mulch for a local garden club through the month of May for the most part. Mainly, we sell at one location, but sometimes the local arboretum asks us to sell there as an additional feature to spruce up or round out their plant sale.

Here at that local arboretum I was today. Since we are selling at two locations today we were spread out a little thin. Normally there are at least 4 people to help load the customer’s cars with the bags of mulch. Today only 2, Ted and I. I arrived in my pickup about 10 minutes late and saw Ted go into the building. He didn’t see me. I unloaded my gear- foldup chair, garden magazine, lunch “pail”, blanket, and something to sip on. I waited to find out if we are selling within the arboretum at another location and then loading at this location or just at this locaton. I waited 5 minutes… 10 minutes, it felt like 15 minutes.

Just before he came out a gentleman approached me asking questions–how long was I going to park there? When was I going to move my pickup? etc. I said I was waiting for Ron and was going to sell mulch here. Then I pointed Ron out and this man was still asking questions. When I left to re-park the truck since I found out we were selling in one location today, I overheard the man telling Ron to not leave the truck there, but move it forward a bit. If I had done this it would have been even more in the way. I became so annoyed to have someone not listen to me or not care enough to make sure he understood what I was telling him.

After I came back, Ted took off into the building again- to get warm- I thought. Fine. As soon as he would come back then I could get warm. 5 – 10 – 15 – 20 – 25 – probably 30 minutes went by. By this time, I had the indoor blanket around my winter coat and I finally felt somewhat warm.

If truth be told the temperature was only 45 degrees, not even close to freezing. However, I believe our body slowly adapts to lowered temperatures, and 70 degrees last week did not help a bit.

That annoying man came by pushing a dolly. He asked how much the mulch was and said, “.. nice big bags”. I quickly turned around and got out the money box and log sheet to take his money. But when I turned back around, he had disappeared. This made me even more annoyed. I thought he was going to buy. However, he was just talking..maybe he asked to be able to tell others the cost, but this I will never know.

Ted came back and suggested I go in to get warm, so I went inside and toured the plant sale. It truly felt warm and toasty inside. I was probably in there about 10 minutes, just enough to get warm. I came out to find him sitting in his pickup and then he told me he had sold 6 bags of mulch. That felt puny to my paltry 2 bags when he was in the plant sale building. Shortly, after that he went inside again.

I was puzzled. I started thinking maybe he hadn’t dressed warm enough or maybe he was in pain from the cold, but wasn’t telling me.

I sold another 2 bags and the director came by and saw me huddled with the blanket around my coat. She told me we could have coffee or anything we like inside. I told her thanks. So after 30 minutes or so, I decided enough was enough and I would see if they had some tea to warm myself up. I did see Ted talking and he did go outside after getting a cup of coffee. I mentioned something to a helper and she said, no, she was observing that Ted had been talking with a bunch of people. Oh, so that’s it.

I came out and Ted said I sold 12 bags. I believed him because our pile of mulch was down by half. We talked for about 10 to 15 minutes about different horticultural things. Then he went inside. This time I headed straight for the vehicle to keep warm and was and enjoyed reading my garden magazines. Ultimately, I sold 2 more and later when he went inside again, I sold 2 more. He beat me by 2 times with less than half the time.

To be fair, the very last time I went in, to return my mug, and he was still inside I overheard him giving gardening advice to another helper. Also when he almost bumped into a little girl and asked if he had, they said it was Okay. He said it was not okay, and I’m sure he apologized.

So, was he caring of me, his partner for the morning and then some?, no, not really- he gets a D. Was he caring of others in giving garden advice and being helpful?-he gets an A+. If we were situated further from the center hub of the people gathering, he probably would have gotten an A in caring for his mulch partner.

I though of myself and my hubby. He does the cooking and sometimes I have “my head in the PC” and forget to help in the kitchen or something. Here I would get a D or F in caring.

So was Ted caring? It depends who you talked to. His friends and members of the community would have said Yes. I who was freezing outside would have said No. There is really no right or wrong answer here, just a reminder that we need to review our “Caring” from time to time to make sure we are still on track. We can all lose sight of the goal to be a caring person.

My husband keeps on having these dreams that show what our Family Ranch or rather City of Truth is going to look like. He is actually even seeing it at different stages of development. It started with him seeing what our first house will look like. Next came night visions of what the main Ranch house that is a log cabin prototype looks like. The last dream showed an octagon with rooms on both walls all surrounding a glassed-in indoor swimming pool. He even saw behind the pool with plants at one end, nonetheless!! Clearly this is an advanced stage of our Family Ranch.

My first response is that our Internet Marketing business is still in the foundation stage where little money is coming in. So why is he not having dreams, or myself for that matter, about the internet marketing strategies that we should be attempting and the strategies to carry them out??

Then I am brought up short to the motivation issue. I was always motivated to study so that I would be seen as knowledgeable, given recognition and get a good paying job. Somehow that good paying job has eluded me, but the other two have been achieved at times. However, since I have done a variety of jobs, I feel like I have been given a vast array of education and experience on people and life in general. This should all come in handy at the ranch, since I will be dealing with all types of people.

My husband never saw the value of book learning, as he is a hands-on person. You should see this big man’s wooden chair that he built out of two by fours. I feel like a wee person in a king’s chair when I attempt to sit in it. It makes a great herb drier during the summer months!

Hence, my husband, like many men I would surmise, needs to see the goal ahead to keep on working toward it even when it is not physically apparent. And, yes, I did actually see him get online yesterday and start working again at our Internet Marketing business. It is truly amazing that what motivates one, may not motivate the other.

Some additional thoughts are: do not become locked in your generation.  Interpretation:  do not seek out only those of the same age as you.  Cross those generational boundaries. Live a little.  Enjoy life.  Two of my suggestions do just that: selling door-to-door and biannual family camps.

For some reason, once a sibling becomes a preteen we allow them to live only in their generation.  They want to hang out with their friends all the time —we let them.   They have to have a cell phone- an ipod, a nintendo, etc –we let them, no questions asked nor any restrictions put on the use. 

How are their grades?  Good? Then moderate use of the game toys. Not good?  Take them away until Good is reinstalled.  Why moderate, because these are tools not our life.  Our–their life revolves around relationships whether we like it or not.   Who says?  Jesus does. 

I challenge you to find where Jesus mentioned heaven as such and not in terms of relationships to others.  “I go to be with my Father.” or “I go to prepare a place for you”    Relationships rule.    Do not let the younger generation have their way of living in the vacuum of only their age group. 

Did you know that in the Jewish households of years ago, that the grandfather taught or educated the children?  How or why so?  Well, the father was busy working, and the mother was busy preparing the daily meals and keeping the house.  So it was the grandfather that educated the children.  This is way cross generational.  Tell me about it. 

Why the stories that that grandfather had to tell the children. I am sure they were spellbound and I am sure they had respect for their elders.  I’m also thinking it went beyond respect to comradeship, another term for friendship.  Wow! Think about it.

I’ve put forth a lot of problems. What about solutions? They are as varied as the trees in a forest. All arriving at one end. We must teach our children about Jesus in our/their lives and that we have a responsibility to live out the life God has called us to. We were bought with a price. So let the Holy Spirit guide you here.
Some possible suggestions are twice per year take your children away to family camps where you can share responsibilities in a more primitive way of life. No couch potatoes here!!! LOL

Or…you could encourage them to be paper delivery boys. Or, they could earn money doing chores around the yard, like mowing the lawn and weeding the garden. Already doing that? Then step it up a notch and get them to become door-to-door salesmen and they get to keep the profits. Take time to teach them how to make simple dishes. No cheating—only good wholesome food–no Kraft macaroni and cheese. That is easy enough to learn without assistance. Teach them how to make bread. Use the breadmaker. I have been given a refrigerator bread recipe that if I get permission to share I will.
Remember the goal is as parents to make responsible adults out of our children or to get them on the right path. This is not an easy task, but with the assistance of the Holy Spirit you will make it. The entire next generation depends on it. Whatever the Holy Spirit tells you to do, Do It. (Sound familiar?)
I will think upon this as a dog worries a bone and come up with other suggestions.  Please do comment and include your own suggestions. The easiest one is that we all move to the country or live on a farm.  LOL But for most of you, that is not an option, at least, not at the moment. Again, tell me or others what you are doing or plan to do as an entire generation depends on it.

We are continuing the thought that teaching goes a long way toward helping a person enter the stream of society.

About a month ago my husband burned himself from some hot oil on the stove. I calmly told him to stick his hand in the freezer.  Now, I found him some wrapped frozen meat to put on his hand. I told him as long as his hand did not hurt he was successful in taking the “heat” out of his hand burn. (I am not a medical expert, so I will explain things as I understand them. )  So should it begin to hurt again, then we went looking for another frozen item to put on it.  I let him know I have past experience in this burn thing and to keep at it until it did not hurt anymore. It took a few hours and then my husband filled a ziploc bag with water and froze it lying down about 1 inch thick.  Future insurance. LOL

Now, why did I have experience? With my first husband, years ago, I burned myself nearly every other day. Why, again? I was told by my mother that I would do and understand certain things when I was “grown up”. Guess what? I was never taught before that time. And so, once “grown up”, I had to learn things the hard way. When did I learn to cook? After I left home. Now, at 4-H meetings I did learn how to bake. They are project- oriented and so each item taught has to able to be presented at the County Fair. Meat might spoil sitting out over 2-3 days. Yes, I even asked them for meat lessons and that is the answer I received.

Lastly, especially since it is Christmas, all religions are taught at the public school as a spectator, an observer. Where are the young men and women who will stand up for Chist? They are in that 25% that I left out. But that is not enough!!! Where is the honor that a boy shows for a girl when he protects against those who might try to harm her in word or deed? For a young man to do that he has to know where he comes from—whom he is loyal to. He has to know that he belongs to Jesus and that Jesus would never let him down. However, should he try to protect a girl, would she appreciate the effort he has shown? Do girls today know whose they are and who is their Lord and Savior? Or would she laugh in his face, and say “It is alright—it doesn’t matter.” because she doesn’t think highly of herself. She hasn’t been taught.
This thought is to continued in the next post.

As today is Christmas, please bear me a moment of reflection. These past 5 years being a substitute teacher has been great–and I mean that. I do applaud the public school system. They do attempt to teach all students with excellence. However, why is there unrest in 75% of the high school students? Not for lack of education…but has it been the right kind? 

Even though we are aghast at the ages, 100 years ago, 15 and 16 year old men (boys) and women (girls) frequently got engaged and subsequently married. That is unthinkable today. What made the difference? What they had to look forward to. 100 years ago this country was mainly composed of farming communities and the whole attitude was towards self-perpetualization of the community.  Hence, a farmer might give a cow and some hens to his daughter and another farmer might give a steer and a rooster to his son, along with a couple of goats. Those two youngsters would start a farm on a piece of the farmers property. Sure it was hard work for the girl and boy, but they both knew what they had to do.

Recently, I saw a neighbors boy, of say 12, run from snow bank to snowbank each time tumbling himself in the snow. That boy was desperate for something to do. As he lives in the city on a very small lot, there isn’t much for him to do. To his father’s credit or discredit, whenever the dad works on a car, or makes a fence, or adds on a new porch, the boy is no where to be seen. The dad does all the work himself or with a another neighbor, who is the dad’s brother. How do they expect the boy to end up with skills that he has not been taught?

Tune in tomorrow for more thoughts on this subject.

Welcome to my ranch.   I may not have horses, yet, but mark ,my words I will.

It has only been 4 weeks, but it seemed like a lifetime.  My site had been hacked.  The hackered entered code to change himself into a user, and then inserted his website as a script into many of my php wordpress files.  I finally had to either clean all my files or delete my base files in wordpress and begin again.  I have done a little of both.   I also upgraded this site to the newest version of wordpress.

Tell me if you have experienced hacking in your websites or blogs and what you have done about!  Thanks!  We can all learn from the sharing.

Like most people I have tried everything from Chromium picolinate to Acai berry and while they were healthy for me they were healthy for my weight too.  That means that I did not lose any weight.  I even have been on the Sugar Busters diet just to maintain my weight, to not increase.  That means I have stayed away from corn and carrots and potatoes as the theory goes that these easily turn into sugar in the body.

I have just discovered a whole new way of life and I love it.  I was going to call them green Slurpies but have just discovered that it is a trademark so any suggestions as a name is welcome.  Most people call them green smoothies, but I would like my own personal name.

For example, I raise red worms for the organic fertilizer they produce as well as really being wigglers for fishing.  Well, my husband called them “squirmies” and the name stuck.  So what can I call my green smoothies.

I try to drink them warm every other day for supper.  I am now at 215 down from 225 in 2 weeks time.  One person had testified that she lost 105 lbs in one year which is over 2 lbs per week, so my 5 lbs per week is not far fetched.  The amazing thing is that the energy is there and I don’t have to drink them every day.

Well enough for now I just had to share this amazing discovery and ask you all to pass the word.   Being overweight can now truly be a thing of the past!!!!

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