Front Porch Stories

Have Mercy!!  My son and I were talking about traveling with kids today.  Today you have ipads, iPhone, DVD, and all kinds of gadgets.  No such thing when my kids were growing up!  We had an old '72 Nova, and all three kids had to ride in the back seat.  All you heard was he touched me, tell her to sit on her side, oh my word.  They would get to fussing and I would turn the radio up.  I put all the sound in the back, the louder they got the louder the music got!  In a few minutes they were turn the music down.  When you stop the fussing!  The car also came equipped with a switch, and a book.  Sometimes I would pull the car over and read until they were ready to travel.  Then again, a little hickory tea seem to help move things along.  My oh my how did we survive.  That's real simple, respect and discipline. That's something the world needs more than gadgets.

I am not super computer savvy so I have to have help fixing some problems.  I have been having trouble getting on my blogs for the last two days!!  I have ask for help and never get an email back or any response.  I have worked and followed the how-to suggestions until I finally got it right!  Whew!!  I was getting very frustrated!  Thanks to all the friends and family who put in their helpful computer tips. 

Today is off to a great start!  I've already walked my laps and did a little in the yard.  I think the meds I've been taking for menopause is starting to work.  I haven't had as many hot flashes and my emotions seem to be getting back to being controllable.  I hate it when all I want to do is sit and cry for no reason.  I don't like the feelings of being dissatisfied with my life when I have a great life.  It's a roller coaster for sure!!  Praise the Lord for herbal medications!  My Mom once said that you couldn't get anything wrong with you that God had not put a cure for on this earth, you just had to know where to look.  I avoid doctors if at all possible!! Ya'll have a great day!!

Gosh we could use some rain! We have not had any rain here in over 45 days!  Thankfully we have a good well. We have been watering the grass and the flowers to keep them alive.  It is not usually this hot during May.  My heart goes out to the farmers who do not have irrigation.  Our neighbors who do have irrigation are having to wet their fields just so they can plant.  The cost of groceries are going to sky rocket due to all of the things that are happening across this country.  There is a large amount of farmland in California that can't be farmed because of a minnow.  Farm land has been flooded to save big towns and several states are in a drought.  Then add inflation and you have a mix for high prices and shortages.  I'm glad I buy and freeze for a rainy day! 

How many tickets have you had?  My youngest owns half of three states because of tickets of some sort. I grew up in the muscle car era so can you guess how many tickets I've had?  I have driven some of the fastest, best sounding cars ever made.  There is absolutely nothing like the rumble of  a big block engine!!!  So here we go!! Several years ago my daughter and I went out on a Saturday morning to run errands.  The first thing we did was to go and make a car payment, then we were on our way to pick up her glasses.  Cruising down the highway we are approaching a small town, when I see blue lights coming.  I look down and I'm running 60 in a 45!!  The officer says I could let you go at 10 over, but not 15.  I flirted a little and told him I didn't know the car would go that fast.  He laughed, but gave me a ticket anyway!!  Now for the punch line.....I was driving a Chevette!!!  That's right a Chevette, not a Corvette!!  My one and only ticket was in a four cylinder!!!!

I know that you aren't suppose to judge people on your first impression, but we all do. Now let me tell you a story.  Years back when I was a martial arts instructor our organization made some changes.  We put on this big tournament so that all of us in Alabama could meet the founder of the organization we were going to join.  My class and I went to take part in said tournament.  There was a big dinner and Black Belt meeting planned the evening before the tournament. Being the conservative woman that I am I had planned on wearing the business outfit that I had worn to work.  I was sharing a room with one of the Mom's her two children and another teenager that we had brought with us.  The mother tried to talk me into wearing a mini skirt!  I said NO!  Then her son says, "Ms. Deb you ask us to do some of the hardest things ever, it's just a skirt, how hard is that?"  Yeah, okay,  I wore the skirt.  I was embarrassed, mother of three, over thirty in a mini skirt!  On

I hate it when I get like this!!!!  Praise the Lord that I can now recognize what's happening before it gets to far out of hand.  The first time it happened, I didn't know what was going on and it went as far as me thinking about suicide.  If I could have thought of a foolproof way for my family to have gotten my insurance without any questions, I would not be here.  I was to the point of giving up!!  Thankfully one of my karate students picked up on my emotions and he and his wife called me everyday.  I owe my life to those two!  I can now see the symptoms before it gets out of hand.  I don't like to take pills, but sometimes it's a must.  Part of my problem is menopause.  I have found some herbal medication that helps with the hot flashes and the chemical imbalance that it causes.  I started back walking this morning to get my physical side back in the game.  I also noticed that I need to start stretching to get everything moving better.  It will take a little time to

in a rut and can't get out!!!!!  Do you ever feel that your life is just a drag?  Same ole crap every single day!  Sometimes I get so depressed I can't stand myself.  Pop will say what's wrong with you and I can't seem to get him to understand that it's just something I have to work through.  Bless his heart, he wants to fix everything and sometimes he just can't!  As a matter of fact his trying sometimes just makes it worse.  I can't get him to understand that having to see him in pain all the time takes its tole on me too.  He never had a real family growing up so he doesn't feel the emptiness that I do for my children.  There are times I just sit and cry because I want to see them so bad, but it's hard for me to leave him here alone.  That's part of my problem right now!! I need a kid and grandkid fix in the worse way.  Just say a little prayer for me, because this too shall pass.  Thanks for stopping by, have a blessed day.

There are some things going on in my life that has taken the wind out of my sails for a while.  In a state of depression and will get back to writing as soon as I can shake the emotions.  Thanks for stopping by my blog and I'll try to get my self together by next week-end.

The oldest built the engine for his car last week and his wife helped him put it in over the weekend.  I am really proud of him.  I started him out with everything I knew about cars and he has expanded from there.  We have thrown a few wrenches, had a few fits but it seems to have all paid off.  Being able to work on your own car saves you a lot of money.  I was a single mom and couldn't afford to take mine to the shop every time it broke down.  I did have a shop that I used when it was something I couldn't fix, and he was really good about telling what was broken and how to fix it.  Gosh there were times that I was lucky just to be able to put gas in it.  James says his car is running great(I knew it would).  I miss being close enough to help when he has something like that to do.

There is nothing better on a hot day than some of Mama's homemade ice cream.  I can remember when I was little, lol even when I got big, fussing with my sister as to who was going to sit on the bucket and who was going to turn.  See back in the day, you had to hand crank the ice cream freezer!  Mama would save ice for days and then she would mix up the milk and we would put the churn on the back porch.  Throw a towel over the top so one of us kids could sit on it.  That helps to hold the bucket still until the cream is frozen.  My sister and I would take turns turning til it got thick and hard to turn.  Then Daddy would take over, he was the man!! My Daddy was the best ever and it's to bad that there aren't many like him anymore.  If I close my eyes and lick my lips, I swear I can taste the sweet vanilla flavor that we all loved so well.  Yummy, yummy wish I had some in my tummy!!!!

Sitting here in the heat brings back memories of chopping and thinning cotton.  I grew up in the fields of North Alabama.  I've watched my Mama work with  the sun blazing down on her.  We always took a jar of water to the field with us.  By the time I came along they  had refrigerators so she would put ice in it and wrap it in a towel and put it in a paper bag.  We would hoe from one end of the row to the other stop long enough to get a sip of water, then go again.  You didn't dare drink a lot because that jar had to last til lunch.  Most of the time we were close enough to home to go home for what back then was dinner.  We would eat a cold biscuit or sometimes mama would have a pot of beans on and we would eat beans and onions.  When you are chopping or thinning cotton or corn you cut down some so that they grow better.  Daddy said to leave three stalks in a hill.  Boy would we get scolded if we cut down more than what we were told to.  You thought you were gonna fry!! What in

I really miss my Mama!!  Holidays like Mother's Day and Christmas are the worse. Those of you who read my blog already know she wasn't just my Mama she was my best friend.  It was that way as I was growing up and became even more so after my dad passed away.  A few years after his death, I got a divorce then a couple years later she moved in with me.  She became the Mom and I took the roll of provider.  I don't know what the kids and I would have done without her.  I still have a box of cards and letters that she had saved over the years.  There are letters that I wrote and received from my sister when I was just a little girl.  The first Mother's Day and Father's Day card that my oldest son and I sent when he was a newborn baby.  Those things are priceless.  I know she is planting flowers in Jesus' garden because she could make anything grow.  Her signature meal was chocolate gravy and biscuits.  When she passed away the kids put the ingredients for chocolate g

What does the word family mean to you?  Is there anything more important in your life than family?  I was raised that family was everything. It wasn't that many years ago that almost everyone was brought up that way.  We took care of our family.  There wasn't any welfare or food stamps or unemployment checks.  If you lost your job either your family or your church pitched in and helped you out until you got on your feet.  If your house burned or got blown away your family and neighbors came in and helped you rebuild.  Yeah, they came to help you not steal from you.  It hurts my heart to know, that not only have the people of the south been devastated by storms, but people are stealing what they have left. These families have lost everything including lives of their loved ones and it truly makes me miss my family even more.  Please pray for everyone who has been effected by these storms.  Who knows we could stand in their shoes before you know it.

Until just a few years ago my family always had a garden.  Gardens are not just where you learn how to grow vegetables it where you learn some of life's most valuable lessons.  We worked in the garden so that we could eat, so we learned to provide for our families. It was also where we spent time learning respect, not just for mother nature, but when you got out of line you were sent to pull weeds.  We learned how to work together in getting something done. You spend less time in the heat if everyone puts forth the work to complete the task of the day.  When you are young you don't understand the gratification of a closet full of canned goods, but as you get older it dawns on you the importance of those goods.  City kids miss out on those lessons of life.  Children are like gardens, it you plant them, give them some water and fertilizer they will grow into productive members of society. However just like a garden left unattended, without constant care it will wither and die or

Our area is a dust bowl!!!  We haven't had rain in over a month.  If it would do any good and I knew the right steps, I'd do a rain dance.  It is hard to believe that not to far from us that they have had lots of storms and tornadoes.  It is so sad to see the devastation.  I sit her and pray for God to send us a little rain not just for my flowers but for the farmers. Crops won't grow in dust.  Yet  north of here they are planning on blowing a levee in order to save a town.  My heart goes out to the town, but in doing so they will flood 130,000 acres of farm land as well as several homes.  So we sacrifice for the greater good, or are we.  Where will we get the food that is produced on that farmland?  Guess we'll just import it from a China.  Between inflation, gas prices, and Mother Nature groceries are going to be outrageous! Anyone who can plant a small garden and can or freeze food best be getting ready or else be hungry. 

Pop and I sit on the porch of the mornings and decide what we are going to do for the day.  He said he was going to take one of the lawnmowers and cut grass out front and he wanted me to go to the shop and pick up the other mower.  He put his shoes on and went out to the barn to get the mower.  He forgot to take his drink with him so as I was headed across the yard to give it to him, I saw this big black snake crossing the yard.  I started hollering snake and trying to watch where he went.  The snake went up under the yucca plant and when pop came around the other side with a shovel, it darted out and around the well house.  I saw it go under my big hydrangea plant.  Pop said get me the water hose, snakes don't like water and we will flush him out.  Well it didn't come out.  We watched for a while and then we went and took care of our chores.  Then this evening when I went in the well house there it was!!  Curled up in a corner!!  I was able to pin it down until pop got there t