I almost went to Walmart for groceries last week. I had a ton of things to do that day and the last thing I wanted was to face the crowds at a huge, overcrowded store. Therefore, I opted for a smaller “just a grocery store” type place. At Walmart, I tend to wander up and down the cooking utensil aisles, the “put it together yourself” furniture aisle, the socks aisle because I like crazy socks and…well…you name it, I am on that aisle.

It is typical for me to spend thirty minutes at Walmart before I have even spotted one banana or loaf of bread. I am pitiful. I just like to look at junk and non-junk that I absolutely do not need. I am also instinctively drawn to any aisle that has office supplies. I have enough paper clips. Wait…let me check…I have enough plain paper clips. I do not have any of the brightly colored ones. I will write that down as a need.

However, last week I fought the tug of Walmart and went to the smaller grocery…that I refer to as the “incredibly civilized store”. It is fancy. There is quiet music and there are quiet people. Not one person has ever rushed passed me with their grocery cart as if they are late to their own wedding. And…best of all…they have a deli filled with delectable cheeses and delicacies from anywhere in the world. And…beautiful flower in beautiful vases. You see…this store appears to be the Neiman-Marcus of grocery stores. Like I said… incredibly civilized. And far more expensive than my dear Walmart Supercenter.

I always felt much safer at the civilized store. Simply less people. I felt safer until last week. 

While shopping at the “civilized store”, I was looking through the large selection of jams and jellies from other countries. One jar that I wanted was on a lower shelf, so I bent down to get it. I suppose it was instinct that made me stand back up and look at my cart. Actually, my cart was right beside me. Before I bent down to retrieve the jar, there was not one person on the aisle with me. Nada! I remember thinking that I would never be on an aisle with no other people at Walmart.

When I stood back up, there was a man with his hand on a bag of potatoes that was in my cart. The bag was right behind my purse. He jumped back when I stood up and said…

“Did they say they wanted potatoes?” and then he said…”Oh, you’re not my wife!”.

He then walked away as quickly as possible. It was such an odd encounter that I followed him and he had totally disappeared. The aisle was very close to the check-outs and the front doors. I looked everywhere for that man…not to be found.

I knew immediately that he was most likely up to “no good”. Perhaps I should have yelled right away for help. I did quickly tell the store manager what had happened and they looked on the security camera footage. Evidently, this was certainly not the first reported incidence. Very scary.

Without instinct or intuition, I would probably have stood up to find a cart without a purse and maybe a parking lot without a car. One click on my key fob and he could have found my car. It was parked on the row closest to the door. Lesson learned. Be careful. Be watchful. Even in the “civilized” store…which really turned out to be not so safe at all.

Can it be safer at a more crowded store? Sometimes! At least, I did not buy any more pens or pencils. At least, I bought some very good cheese. At least, I know that I am shopping for groceries at Walmart today!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/instinct/

The Azaleas and Japanese Maple Tree in our front yard.

Azaleas have a special place in my heart. My parents had a yard filled with the tallest pine trees and the most colorful Azaleas imaginable to a child. As a family, we immersed ourselves in taking care of the flowers, lush green grass and those tall pine trees.

There were most likely other trees in our yard, but I have no idea what they were. And there were most likely other flowers, but what were they? I just do not know. When the Azaleas started blooming, my eyes were totally on those flowers. After I met my husband, I found out that he felt the same way about his parent’s yard and the Azaleas in front of their house.

Isn’t it wonderful how some people are placed together who have similar feelings about home. The land at our farm is filled with tall pine trees and pastures where wildflowers grow profusely in the spring. When we first drove by our current home in Dallas/Fort Worth, we knew immediately that we were interested…because of the yard. We were just lucky that there was a “for sale” sign out front.

“Nature is a revelation of God;

Art a revelation of man.”

 ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow~

Was it really luck or a large amount of help from above? We had been looking at homes with a realtor for weeks in suburban areas. The realtor had never shown us houses in this neighborhood. In fact, she was not even familiar with the area. Sometimes, realtors just focus on one particular area where they think the quickest, most profitable sales will occur. We found the house when we were driving around and almost getting lost on a Sunday afternoon.

It happened to be late Springtime when we first saw the house…the trees were large and full, the grass was very green and there were flowers! We were sold before we stepped foot inside the house. Shows you what curb appeal means to a buyer! The house turned out to be a wonderful place and a fun yard for our children as they were growing up. Our two children were totally immersed in the fun of playing outside in their yard…just as we both were immersed in the fun of playing outside when we were growing up!

It was not long before we planted some beautiful Azaleas and a Japanese Maple to the other flowers and trees in our yard. As shown in the above picture…they flourished with an abundance of love and care!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/immerse/

Justin Townes Earle is a singer/songwriter with a new record titled Kids in the Street being released on May 26th. Justin is undeniably good at what he does and he happens to be part of my extended family. Justin is the son of my rather renegade cousin, Steve Earle who is a successful and multiple Grammy winning singer, songwriter, actor as well as author. Justin has taken his inherited talent for putting words and music together to a new level of expertise.

To me personally, Justin’s music resonates with the laid-back sound of Memphis soul music tied with the blues. I have loved folk music since I was very young and I can hear some of those same deeply felt lyrics in Justin’s songs. With this record, Justin is evidently branching out to new sounds and new directions. I am looking forward to hearing the entire record!

From the magazine, Rolling Stone…portions of a recent article about Justin’s new record…

“Justin Townes Earle-despite a name that evokes both father Steve and his dad’s mentor, Townes Van Zandt- has always had a knack for forging a strong and unusual relationship between roots music’s past and its newest arbiters. He made songs about wandering the Lower East Side of Manhattan feel natural against his sledgehammer strums and the beat of an upright bass, and despite his taste for everything that rested outside of country’s borders-Memphis soul, swing, blues and rockabilly-he’d never ventured beyond his native Tennessee to record an album or work with an outside producer.

But Kids in the Street, Earle’s forthcoming record and his first on New West, does just that. At the production helm is Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis, who took Earle to his studio in Omaha, Nebraska, to make the LP and help the singer-songwriter transition even more heavily away from the traditional folk-country arrangements he grew up around. The album’s lead single, “Champagne Corolla”, is a subtle poke at the pastiche of an American musician cruising around their gentrified neighborhood in a vintage truck, when the people who settled there first toiled for something far more working-class. Stacked with horns and a Motown groove, “Champagne Corolla” is a preview of an album that Earle says will not only tackle some recent life changes-marriage, a baby on the way, a sober existence after struggling with addiction-but wrestle with the ghosts of Nashville, both sonically and physically.”    

  -Written by Marissa R. Moss for Rolling Stone-

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/record/

The cookbook titled A Cook’s Tour of Shalom was given to me in 1978. I possibly have no idea who gave it to me and I have no idea what the gift-giving occasion might have been. Our son was born in 1978, but I would not have received a grownup type cookbook at a baby shower. No, surely not! Actually, it probably could be that I gave it to myself…I am known for that sort of gift-giving! It is a very, very real pattern with me!

I might say to myself: “I took my car to get a car wash and vacuumed all of the inside! I deserve to buy myself a little present!” or “I read all of my current emails today! So really exhausting! I certainly deserve to buy myself a little present!” or “I remembered that I had an important dentist appointment today and I almost arrived on time! I deserve to buy myself a little present!”…such a pattern of self-centered thinking. Not a good idea at all. Yes, I imagine that I bought the cookbook for myself!

This particular and most likely gift from me and to me turned out to be one of the most interesting and amazing cookbooks in my collection. My close friend in high school and also close friend today is Jewish. I loved to go to her house for special celebrations and to her sorority house for dinner when we were in college!

There are so many typically Jewish foods in this cookbook that my Methodist family never fixed…such as Passover Blintzes, Matzo Balls, Farfel Apple Pudding, Wine and Nut Cake, Pickled Mushrooms and Smokey Salmon Spread.

A Cook’s Tour of Shalom was put together by the Temple Shalom Sisterhood in Dallas, Texas. My most favorite recipe in this cookbook is a truly delicious and unusual (at least…to me!) Meat Loaf Recipe…

Fantastic Meat Loaf

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground chuck

1/2 cup cottage cheese

3 tablespoons applesauce

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

2 eggs, lightly beaten

salt and pepper to taste

Mix together well and form into a loaf in a loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Pour sauce over the top. Sauce recipes follows below.

Sauce:

 3/4 cup ketchup

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

ENJOY!!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/pattern/

 A tree in the suburbs… found near what was once a two lane road.

There is a nuance to the outlying areas of cities. Quietly and with subtle dominance, the city found a little two lane road. Just a regular two lane road that has graduated into a six lane thoroughfare. Ahh…the delights of life in the suburbs of a big city…too much traffic.

What happened to the farms that flourished just fifteen or twenty years ago? What happened to the rolling hills filled with trees and cows and horses? New neighborhoods. Big houses and big prices. I miss that little road and those green trees swaying in the breeze. I miss the birds and the squirrels and the little nests high up in the branches. I miss the sound of the wind and leaves whistling a familiar yet almost forgotten tune.

Just a few weeks ago, I started thinking about the many changes. I started thinking how the natural beauty of the area was being replaced by perfectly paved streets and winding sidewalks and the sheer perfection of planned landscaping. I was driving down that now six lane road (that could almost be called a highway) when I saw two exceedingly beautiful trees. These trees are on either side of the driveway to a church parking lot. The sunlight shimmered on the blossoms. The blossoms are near symmetrical in their placement on the branches. Why did the trees look so out of place?

The reason why…the trees are quite simply artificial. The comparison of the trees with the new neighborhoods and their nice winding sidewalks was almost too much for me to comprehend. Artificial trees and concrete streets and sidewalks. What happened to hiking trails, naturally flowing creeks and trees to climb?

I drove into the parking lot of the church to get a better look at the artificial trees. I took several pictures. I shook my head in dismay. I suppose that I believe in letting nature be in charge of beauty. I have the feeling that our Heavenly Father intended for us to see even the smallest leaf and the smallest flower growing on a tree.

One of the artificial trees is pictured at the top of this post. I do not think that Joyce Kilmer had artificial trees in mind when she wrote the following poem…

Trees

Written by: Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/nuance/

My family and I…Thanksgiving, 2016!

I do not know much about swarms of honeybees. Let me change that to I do not know anything about swarms of honeybees. I just know that if I were to come face to face with a swarm of honeybees…I would hightail it to the house! Posting about honeybees simply was not an option!

How about a swarm of cats? Well…I do not have any cats right now! How about a swarm of horses? Nope! How about a swarm of birds? Who am I kidding? I have not yet recovered from seeing that scary movie…The Birds! I was just a kid! Obviously, too young! So what to choose?

I looked all over the place and I finally found a swarm of something…pictures! I have tons of favorite pictures that you most likely do not care about. So…I will just choose a few from the swarm!

Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, playing cards with friends in Tulsa, our son-in-law and friends riding four wheelers at our farm, drone family picture at Thanksgiving, chapel at Big Cedar’s Top of the Rock!

Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo…with my husband and our friends, with our daughter, even little ones can be champions, rodeo awards ceremony!

Various pictures at our farm…including our Granddog!  Plus a stained glass window from the chapel at Texas Woman’s University!

Some of my favorite pictures from our daughter’s wedding! Plus a picture of downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas.

A video of the opening ceremony for the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Star Spangled Banner sung by the TCU men’s chorus. The video is very large and I cannot move it down… I have no idea why and I do not have the patience to try to change it anymore!!! So there you have it…a swarm of favorite pictures and one very huge video!!! 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/swarm/

 I have become totally obsessed with vintage magazines these last few weeks. I have spent so much time browsing in Antique Malls that customers are beginning to think that I am a vendor! Actually, I would like to be a vendor, but that is another story for another day.

Today’s story is about my latest find…the February, 1939 issue of the American Cookery magazine, published by The Boston Cooking School Magazine Company.  I had never heard of this magazine until last Thursday when I was at the Montgomery Street Antique Mall in Fort Worth. I was going to have lunch at the Secret Garden, a pretty tearoom inside the large store.

After lunch, I thought that I would browse around for a short while. Two hours later, I had walked through only half of the 61,000 feet of everything from yesteryear that you had no idea that you needed. I was on a mission to find vintage magazines …specifically the Delineator, a fashion magazine published by the Butterick Company beginning in 1893. If you want to read more about the Delineator , I wrote a post about the magazine on February 19, 2017…the beginning of my obsession with vintage magazines!

An advertisement in American Cookery

There were no Delineator magazines to be found, but I did find a gem in the American Cookery magazine. There was just one problem with the magazine…

There were absolutely no VIVID colors inside the magazine and a small amount of red on the cover! In fact, all of the pages of the American Cookery were in black and white! 

**********************************************************************************************************************************************

A Recipe From the February, 1939 Issue of American Cookery…

Apple Crumbles

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup softened butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

4 cups sliced apples

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:

Oven temperature-375 degrees

Cooking Time-45 minutes

Blend together flour, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Place the sliced apples into a well-buttered 8 x 8 x 2 baking dish. Top with the flour mixture and bake as indicated or until the apples are tender. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

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American Cookery was originally called The Boston Cooking School Magazine, but the name was changed to American Cookery in 1914. The magazine included articles on food and food preparation, cooking and serving advice as well as recipes personally submitted by readers. The magazine stopped publication because of competition from a new entry into the publishing industry.

The new magazine was called Gourmet and featured a much fancier European approach to preparing food. However…one reason that the competition won readership from American Cookery was…

Vivid Color Photographs!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/vivid/

Much to my surprise, I found fourth graders to be an exciting and fun group to teach. They listened when I asked them to listen   …well, most of the time. They worked when I asked them to work…well, most of the time. They laughed at all of my jokes and when I asked them to stop laughing, they did stop…well, most of the time.

They talked when I asked them to talk…all of the time! Honestly, it was the desire of my fourth graders to please the teacher, to make friends, to be happy and very surprisingly to figure out life beyond school. These were children who knew that their home environment was most likely not ideal.

Their parents…for the most part…  struggled from paycheck to paycheck or did not work at all. The children clearly wanted to try to make something good out of themselves…to find success beyond their poverty stricken neighborhood.

Some would make it…how I hoped that they all would figure out life after school.

Even though fourth graders face high stakes state tests in the Spring, I felt like I needed to focus on their hopes and fears for the future. I needed to work on building up their confidence. I needed to teach them that a strong work ethic is the first step. I needed to teach them that they could and should start working on a plan for the future. These fourth graders needed to decide what types of work they might desire as a grownup.

Their opinions and their questions about education and jobs were continuous. Their interest in what they might be when they grew up proved that nine and ten year old children could be deep thinkers as well as deep worriers. I thought that once we got the conversations going about their plans for the future…that they then would realize the importance of making super effort on their regular classroom work. And thus…do well on the big tests in the Spring.

The plan worked. They learned to persevere. They learned to figure out their possible choices and desires for the future. They learned that doing well in school was the important first step.

In order to help each student to start thinking about the future…we began to talk in small discussion groups, to write in daily journals, to post writing samples around the room, to share hopes with the class. Of course, we worked on the science curriculum, the math curriculum, the social studies curriculum, the reading curriculum and so on.

However, our class project was called “working on a plan for the future”. I found out that it is never too early to place a class of children on a strong pathway to tomorrow. How I wish that this type of concept would be taught in teacher preparation coursework in colleges…especially important for teaching the children in Title I schools where crime is rampant, money for food/housing is limited, and street smart children are sometimes the norm.

I had no idea about the possibilities of stepping outside of the box. The “powers that be” were not on board with the idea or supportive at all. So sad, but our class kept on the same pathway no matter what…because it was working.

The students wrote many important stories, poems, paragraphs about future careers. One nine year old girl wanted to be a teacher. These are her words about teachers and what they do:

“Like a Teacher”

Like a teacher, I can help.

Like a teacher, I could know the answers.

Like a teacher, I can help people to understand something that they don’t know.

Like a teacher, I could encourage kids to do what is right.

Like a teacher, I would want to learn and tell people what I have learned so I could pass it on.

Like a teacher, it feels good to break apart something to help someone understand.

Like a teacher is being myself.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/desire/

We will just call the student Hunter. The number one reason…simply because I like that name. And…for the second reason…his relatives were always hunting for excuses to explain his growing number of absences. Something told me that I might should doubt some of the reasons. Sometimes a teacher can just tell when the truth is not exactly emerging!

And then, Spring Break came along and the child did not return to school after the break. Instead of a one week vacation, he enjoyed more than a two week vacation. Upon his return, I received the most classic and elaborate absence excuse note in the history of absence excuse notes! This was upwards towards 20 years ago and I have saved a copy of the note…it is just that confusing and that interesting and just plain…

DOUBTFUL!!!! SEE IF YOU AGREE!!!!

“To the teacher:

During Spring Break, my family went to visit a son in North Carolina. We went by plane and came back by bus. The bus we took to get back to Texas made 3 stops and 2 layovers. We left North Carolina on Sunday morning and were supposed to arrive back in Texas Monday or Tuesday night. The bus broke down coming out of North Carolina and there were no more buses left for us to take. So, we had to spend another night with the son.

The next morning, the bus was ready to leave. We made our first stop in Tennessee. That was OK I guess. The next stop was in Alabama. That was OK too. Now, here’s where we had a big problem. The layover was in Mississippi. The layover was supposed to be for only 4 to 5 hours. But it ended up lasting 2 to 4 days. 

Some man on the bus stole this lady’s purse and gave it away and the police wouldn’t let anyone out of the bus station until it was returned. The purse was returned the next morning. Wednesday morning, the bus needed some small work so we didn’t leave until late Wednesday night. The next stop was in Arkansas. After that, the driver was so tired that he took a wrong turn and we ended up in Atlanta, GA. We stayed there for about 8 hours. They had to call another bus driver to drive us to Texas. After that, we made it home Friday morning, but we were so tired from that long bus ride that we just came home and went to sleep.

Please excuse him from school the week after Spring Break. It really wasn’t our fault. We were on our way home. If you have any questions about the trip, call me. Thanks a lot.”

Doubtful or Not Doubtful? You decide! I just feel sorry for that poor bus driver for making the wrong turn in Arkansas! I do wonder…did anything happen in Louisiana? Personally, I would have made a stop in New Orleans!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/doubt/