Front Porch Stories

I really miss having a hot tub! When we lived up in the mountains we had one on the back porch.  It was the first thing I did of the mornings and the last thing I did at night.  It really made me feel good!  Not only was it good for my body but the view was awesome.  The house sat on a hill and there was a pond at the bottom of the hill and you could hear the fish jumping and on a moonlit night you could see the deer grazing in the field across the creek.    We haven't got a hot tub here yet but I have been looking on the internet at Rec Warehouse.  They have a great variety at reasonable prices.  Pop thinks that we should be able to get one this year.  Check them out they have stores all over the state of Georgia.

How many four year old children can count to ten in three languages?  Children are amazing!  I've been involved in the martial arts for years, and the style we studied was from Japan. One of my students wife and children would sit and watch as we did class.  I had no idea how much attention this little girl was giving us.  One Sunday afternoon we were doing an extra class at my son's skating rink.  My daughter took the little girl and they were skating while we were working out.  We always counted our punches in Japanese.  We started to count and she would say the next number!  She was so cute!!!  Then along comes my oldest son's daughter and Dora the Explorer! Before she was five she could tell you hello, goodbye, thank you and count to ten in three languages!  She is such a smart little girl.  My other little girl isn't so little anymore, she is in college.

As I was walking through the woods today, I thought about my Mama.  I think she knew every tree in the woods!  Every since I can remember people would bring leaves to her and ask what kind of tree did they come from.  She would have loved this place.  We used to go walking in the woods all the time before her knees started to hurt her when she walked.  We have hard wood bottoms and a stream that feeds into a big creek.  I can see her walking along the creek and in the marsh looking for herbs like yellow root.  It's been so long since I have seen it growing wild I wouldn't know it if I saw it.  There are some early marsh flowers that are just beautiful, but they only grow in the marsh. I sat down on a tree that had been blown over and I cried for a while. I really miss her!  Sometimes it seems no matter what I do or were I go she is there with me.

 I can not imagine the kind of cold that the folks up north and out to the west have been having.  I would not know where to begin to weatherize a home for those kind of temperatures.  The first year after my divorce, I wasn't smart enough to winterize the house and wound up with frozen pipes!  Oh my, what a challenge!!  I didn't have the money for a plumber, so underneath the house I went.  I enlisted the help of my oldest son who was all of twelve.  I have a bit of a problem with tight spaces and not only did he hand me tools and pipes, but he kept me talking so I wouldn't be scared.  Gosh it was so cold and if I close my eyes I can see us skinning up under there.  Thankfully we got it right on the first try!  I then went and bought a roll of plastic and closed off all the places that air could get under the house.  Have you ever hit your thumb with a hammer when it's 15 degrees.  Hurts like a son of a gun!!  Needless to say  I never waited til the middle of winter to

I wish my mom could see some of the pictures that I have taken of the birds in my backyard.  We had a big window in our kitchen and she kept her bird book on the table, so she could identify any visitors. Pop likes to watch the birds too, and he keeps me in bird seed.  He has helped me to set up to take pictures of our birds. 

I know how dangerous three wheelers, four wheelers and two wheelers are.  A lot of people said I was crazy for letting my boys have those types of things.  I felt like if those folks weren't paying my bills, or the doctor bills they needed to mind there own business.  Kids have to do dangerous things while they are growing up so that they will grow up!  The saying around our house was, "if it's not bleeding, I don't want to hear it".  The oldest had a three wheeler and when he was old enough he traded that three wheeler for  motorcycle.  He learned how to ride on a back woods dirt road on a street bike, that was way to big for him.  It challenged him every time he rode.  He has own bikes off and on all his life. There is one sitting in his garage right now.  His daughter has rode with him since she was tiny.   She is eight and has her own set of leather, of course her's has Tweety Bird on the back.  The two of them draw a bit of attention every time they ride.

It was a crisp sunny January morning, and James called up his buddy DeWayne (aka Hollywood) and told him some of the guys wanted to ride over to Huntsville, and while they were over that way they could swing by and see Granny.  As they walked up to the door Hollywood said, "I sure am glad you told me to bring the leather otherwise we'd be freezing"! I know that's right!  James punched in the code to the Nursing Homes keypad, DeWayne said "I like that," they can control who's going in and out. As they walked down the hall dressed in leather from the do rags on their heads to the boots on their feet, one of the nurses started to follow them.  Mama was having one of those days where she didn't recognize us but when those boys walked in the room, her blue eyes started twinkled like stars! The nurse walked in and said, "Ms. Sparks, you know these guys"?  Mama smiled and said, "these are my biker boys, that one is James and that's Hollyw

As I warmed up and looked around the Civic Center I did not see any other female Black Belts.  The folks who were putting on the event, came and told me that if I wanted to compete, that I could do so either with the men or the brown belt ladies.  I gave it some thought and decided it wouldn't be fair for me to compete with the brown belt ladies. I told them I would do forms and weapons with the men and I would skip sparring.  If you have ever been to one of these events you know that nothing starts until the men have competed in forms. When you compete you never want to go first, because they take the first three and set the standards for everyone else.  Very seldom do any of those three place in the finals.  As we were standing inline, I noticed that the line kept shifting until I was the first in line.  I just looked around and smiled.  My thoughts were, I may not win but I'll put on a good show.  I was given a standing ovation, and my male counterparts were a bit shocked th

Writing about the martial arts last night got me thinking about all the good times and bad that I had while an active martial artist.  James came rushing in the hotel room all out of breath and blooped on the bed.  Before I could ask what was going on, there was a knock at the door.  I gave him a hard look as I started to the door, when I opened it there stood a very well know black belt.  He said, "tell the boys no more knocking on doors, then turned and walked away".  When I closed the door and turned to my son, he says "wow that was close".  What are you talking about!  Well some of us including that black belts son have been knocking on doors and then running off.  The last door was a room "FULL" of upper ranking black belts.  What a way to start a weekend at camp!  The incident was pretty much laughed off, but even after I reached the rank of black belt someone would say you remember when the boys did that. Those very boys have become very productiv

Everyone has their own kind of security blanket.  Lots of kids hang on to their favorite blanket or stuffed animal. When I finally got enough courage to leave an abusive marriage the kids and I really struggled to hang on.  My oldest son had asthma and he and one of his friends tried to convince me for months to let him take a martial arts class.  They used the reasoning that it would be good for his breathing.  I finally gave in and went and talked to the instructor said it would be good for him and he would keep an eye on him.  Because of the distance I would sit and watch the class and decided I would like to give it a try. I ask my son if it would embarrass him if I started taking class with him.  He said he would really like it if I did.  To make a long story short not only did I love the class, I became obsessed with it!!  Between my faith in God and the martial arts I was able to get through more trials and tribulations than you can imagine.  So I guess you can say that the mart

We sit on the porch until the weather gets so bad that we can't.  Pop surprised me the other day by putting up a bird feeder in the back yard.  There is a window just as you start up the stairs to the loft, and I like to sit there and watch the critters.  Now I can watch the birds at the feeder as well. The way it hangs it's just far enough away from the tree that a smart little squirrel can stretch out from the tree and get a sunflower seed from the tray.  He is so cute when he does that!  I would love to get a picture of him but he runs every time I get around the corner with the camera.  I did some trial and error shots through the window and I think it will probably work. Our wren is still here and after reading in a book about what they like to eat maybe I can give it some good things to carry it through the winter.  There were so many goldfinches looking through the leaves for sunflower seeds that the leaves looked alive.

I was talking to a friend of mine who came to our house a lot when we were growing up.  She said she had been reading some of the recipes on my recipe blog and the one about chocolate gravy brought back some memories for her.  She remembered coming to our house one winter and mama had made vegetable soup and corn bread for super.  Their house had gas heat and we still heated with wood and she remembered how cold the old house was and how good the hot soup made her feel.  She remembered that the cover on the bed was so heavy she could barely turn over.  The next morning mama made chocolate gravy for breakfast.  I remembered the night she was talking about the very next night it snowed.  You may not believe this but the snow was coming through a crack in the ceiling.  My mom had some old newspaper and she put them on the bed and then put another quilt over the paper to hold it down. My sister and I slept in that bed and when we woke up, that part of the bed was covered with snow.  I reme

As my mom and I were sitting in the kitchen watching the snow fall,when James comes thru and says his inhaler is empty.  What!! My inhaler is empty!  Don't you have an extra?  No, this is my spare, I forgot to tell you that it was almost empty.  Great, I don't know if we can get out to get to the drug store.  Deborah Ann, if you are gonna go, you better go now.  If you wait any longer it will get dark before you can get back.  I better call and see if the drug store is still open.  It seems like every time it snows somebody has to run out of medicine!  If it isn't James, it's mama or one of the other kids.  I hate this road when it snows!! James, get your coat on so you can go with your mama.  We barely got the car out of the driveway.  Thankfully there had been some traffic on the road, we don't have snow plows here.  If we can get to the main road we can get to town.  We slipped several times but we got to the drug store and back up the mountain on the main road. 

Pop-Glo-Karl Since both Pop and I are retired, we sometimes do things on the spur of the moment.  We have friends that I guess you would call snowbirds.  They have a place in North Carolina where they stay in the summer and a place in Florida for the winter.  They are both in their 80's and we got up last Monday morning and decided that we would go down for a visit.  We called and made plans to stay with them from Thursday to Saturday.  Pop said he wasn't sure how well he would be able to travel so let's get a few days head start in case we had to stop a lot.  So we packed up and left on Monday.  Surprisingly he traveled really well!!  He was able to drive and we just took our time and enjoyed the trip.  We told the oldest son our plan was to come home with iodine poisoning from eating so much seafood.  We came real close to accomplishing that!!  We both love seafood and we stopped at just about every place we thought would have some fresh and ate til we hurt!  We had a