Oh, it felt so good outside this morning.  It was 64 degrees.  My DS#2, who runs cross country, should enjoy his 6:30am run this morning.  It feels really good.  Fall is my favorite time of the year.  The cool is so refreshing after the Texas heat of July and August.  This morning was a blessing to my spirit.

Why was I outside so early this morning?  Well, little Miss Lily Mae is quite the prima donna, and doesn't like to walk outside when it is wet, so I had to carry her outside when I got up.

My washer has been broken for over a week.  I've become a fixture at the neighborhood washateria.  The repairman is to come first thing this morning to fix it.  Yippee!  My washer is old and worn out.  We're having to repair it about every 3 or 4 months, and this current problem was fixed back in February.  DH will not even discuss getting a new one.  Oh well, as long as it gets fixed today, I'll be a happy woman!

Today's job is the pears.  I gave away some yesterday, but still have a lot.  I'm going to take some to Miss Ruby, an elderly lady at my church who is just a sweetheart.  She'll want me to stay and visit when I take them to her, so I'll block out some time this afternoon for to call on her. 

I just really like older ladies.  I always have, since I was a child.  I always liked to speak to the older ladies at church when I was a child.  There was Miss Anna, who to me was 100 years old (not literally) and lived in a shack, but she always had a kind word for me.  Her little shack was so dark and was heated by a warm morning wood stove.  She liked to quilt.  Every young lady in the church got a quilt top when they got married.  I so looked forward to getting a quilt top from Miss Anna when I married, but she had gone to heaven by then.  Some of my fondest memories are of me and my friend Malinda baking Christmas cookies and delivering them to the older ladies in our church and we sand Christmas carols to them while we were there.  Then there was Miss Flossie.  Everyone loved Miss Flossie.  No Sunday was complete without a hug from Miss Flossie.  There was Mrs. Steelman who was always graceful and dressed meticulously.  She always joyfully welcomed our Christmas cookies and singing.  There was my neighbor, Mrs. Bledsoe.  She had quite the social life, and I loved seeing her sparkly dresses.  I was always welcome in her home, and went and "hung out" there frequently.  Mrs. Bledsoe was very thin, and she always talked about wearing her "falsies" with her evening dresses.  I always thought that was funny.  It took me a while to figure out what "falsies" were.  Mrs. Bledsoe always had a tea cart in her living room with a silver tea service on it.  I thought it was the most elegant thing I'd ever seen.

I hope that I can be as graceful and loving in my advancing years as these ladies were to me.

Blessings to you,

Karmann

My father gave me a big tub of pears.  I guess it is time to make some pear butter....and perhaps give some away, too.  I need to find a recipe for pear butter.  I'd really rather make jelly.  Oh well, I'll let you know what I did with all those pears.  I'm not going to tackle them until Tuesday.

Winston is improving just a bit.  Week before last he was so pitiful.  I cried all week.  Wednesday of that week he met me at the door when I got home from church.  He also barked at my husband when he came in.  These were things he hadn't been able to do in about 2 weeks.  This past week he seemed much more like his old self.  I took the dogs out to my dad's place, and he was trying SO hard to run in the field.  It was more like a loping limp, but he was trying.  He is getting better.  Yesterday was a rough day-he was in a lot of pain, but he seems to be pain free today.

Speaking of dogs, we have a new one at our house.  I found a sweet little dog on petfinder.com.  I took a road  trip to Brownwood, Texas to pick her up from the Brown County Humane Society.  She is a sable & white parti-color American Cocker Spaniel.  She is skin and bones, but she's eating all the time.  She won't be so skinny in a couple of weeks.  She is the sweetest little dog.  She is about 3 years old and was abandoned at the humane society.  She had just had puppies, but they were not left with her.  She had been someone's pet, I'm sure.  Well, she has a home with us now.  Beauregard and Winston just ignore her.  She is friendly, sweet and quiet.  She is a cuddly little dog.    Here she is after a grooming session and a bath.  she also has on her party collar!

She was spayed the day before I picked her up.  She also has her own health insurance and a microchip for identification.

If you want a loving pet, check with your local shelter, humane society or breed specific rescue group.  There are lots of wonderful dogs who would love a "furever" home.  All three of mine have come from a shelter or rescue.  We have turned into a cocker spaniel haven!

Blessings to you,

Karmann

Last week, my sweet little cocker spaniel, named Winston, began acting strangely.  Now, I got Winston two years ago from the local Cocker Spaniel rescue group.  He was one year old at the time and quite neurotic.  He shook all the time.  After a month or so in our house, he had stopped the shaking bit, but remained somewhat neurotic, and we discovered he was actually quite stupid.  Nope, he isn't the brightest bulb in the fixture, but he sure is cute, he loves me, and that is all I need from him.

Anyway, last week, Winston was back to shaking all the time, and sleeping by the door, not in his bed on the end of the couch.  Saturday I asked DH to take him to the vet, but DH said he was fine and didn't need to see the vet.  Well, Sunday morning, my sweet little Winston couldn't walk.  He was stumbling and dragging his hind legs.  We got in to see the vet on Monday afternoon.  They determined that Winston had hurt his back quite badly-probably from jumping.  Yes, he loves to jump over things instead of going around them.  They prescribed pain killers, muscle relaxers and steroids.  Then the vet said he needed to go to a chiropractor.  I was thinking "I didn't know they had canine chiropractors" as the vet proceeded to tell me to see Dr. Wright, who I happen to know is a people chiropractor.  I looked at him rather puzzled, and he said "yes, she sees animals, too". 

Tuesday morning off we go to the Chiropractor.  She was very sweet and Winston didn't mind what she did to him.  Wednesday, he seemed to be getting around a little better-at least he wasn't shaking and he actually barked at something.  (Not only is he a jumper, he is a barker.)  Thursday he was much worse-his hind feet were folding under and he was just dragging his hind legs.  Yesterday the chiro said it wasn't looking good.  Perhaps he has a spinal cord compression and we could be looking at a permanent condition.  She said as long as he can manage to get around, his bowel movements aren't affected and he's not in pain, he could stay like this.

I lay in bed last night and cried and cried for hours.  I'm so very sad.  My sweet little bouncy dog is now such a sad and pitiful little guy.  He can't even bend his head over to eat or he will fall over.

These little guys sure do get in our hearts!

Blessings to you,

Karmann

Well, I got this entry all typed up and zapped it into space.  I hate it when I do that!   I'll try this again!

July was a busy month here at our house.  The second week of July took us to Louisiana to visit my in-laws.  The visit with my DH's immediate family was the usual tension filled, basically unpleasant, visit.  I did enjoy the time I spent with my new MIL.  She is such a sweetheart!

We had a wonderful visit with DH's grandfather.  He is 84 and was disabled by a stroke 10 years ago.  He still manages to live independently.  He has been such an example of Christ in my DH's life.  He is a wonderful man.

Granddaddy was in the U.S. Navy in World War II.  He was on a submarine tender in the Pacific.  We got him talking about his time in the navy.  I wanted to kids to hear him tell about the history he had witnessed, hopefully to make this history more real to them.  He was in Tokyo Bay when Japan surrendered.  He went ashore at Hiroshima shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped.  He was in many other hot spots in the Pacific.  The kids were most enthralled when he told them about swimming in the middle of the Pacific ocean while some of the seaman stood on deck with their rifles to shoot sharks if necessary.  Here is a picture of my DH, DC and my dear Grandfather-in-law.

Last week, while driving out to my Tuesday morning bible study, I noticed that the wild grapes were ripe.  Thursday afternoon, I took the boys out there to pick wild grapes.  I'm allergic to touching the grapes, so I sent them to pick the grapes.  They were moving a bit slowly, so against my better judgement, I got out and picked some.  We quickly got 3 grocery bags full.  I went home, scrubbed down my arms really well and rubbed in benadryl.  Then I donned my latex gloves to pull the grapes off the stems and wash them.  Soon, my finger was itching.  Of course, I had ripped my latex glove.  I went a scrubbed down again, rubbed in hydrocortisone cream, then donned the big rubber dishwashing gloves.  It was a bit difficult to pull those little grapes off the stems with those bulky gloves on.

The grapes cooked down to slightly more than a gallon of juice.  Out of this, I got three batches of jelly.  16.5 pints of jelly.  I had enough to share with each of the ladies at my Tuesday morning bible study.  My dad will get some, and there will be plenty for us.

So far this year I've made peach jam, peach jelly, plum jelly and wild grape jelly.  I will probably make some blackberry jelly, too.  It is my favorite.  I have a recipe for mint jelly.  I've got a lot of mint in my backyard, so I may make some mint jelly, too.  I'll let you know how that turns out.

With all the rain this year, my flowers have been so pretty.  I have one lone spider flower (cleome is the Latin name).  My granny always had spider flowers in her yard.  The gardening books say it should grow well in this area, but I've not had much luck.  I have one this year, and it is beautiful.  Here it is:

The abundant rain has certainly been a blessing this year (except those who have been flooded out of their homes).  It is nice to see green in the summer instead of the usual brown landscape of a N. Texas summer.

I have a house full of boys this week.  My daughter cares for two school age boys four days a week.  This week she is having to teach the incoming freshmen in the band how to march.  She does this in the morning.  My sons are watching the boys she keeps while she is doing her marching band bit each morning.  The funniest thing is, the young boys carry on just like my teenagers still do, and my boys get on to them for fighting and making noise-but they do the very same thing.  I think I can get a lot of mileage out of this when my guys start carrying on with one another!

I've got lots to do around the house.  The yard was the focus last week.  The inside was neglected, so I'm having to make up for it this week.  I also have some new curtains to hang in the living room. 

I'm working on some new piano and flute pieces.  I've been making myself sit down and practice for about an hour a day.  My hands were really hurting last night.  I've neglected my flute playing for about 3 or 4 months.

My bible study was on forgiveness.  We went through Nancy Lee DeMoss's book "Choosing Forgiveness".  Forgiveness is a difficult thing to live out each and every day.  I must always remind myself that Christ has freely forgiven me, and I am to freely give forgiveness to those who have offended me, as Christ as done for each of us.  Sometimes I struggle.......

I hope you are having a productive and fun summer!

Blessings to you all,

Karmann in Texas