Short clips

1. I still have not checked out this 'new blogger' thing. I'm just so afraid that I will do something that will just mix it all up. I have to find a day to get with Leslie over at Bona Vita Rusticanda Est. She's my main source of computer teaching. My kids go to fast for me. Leslie is patient. (Oh and if you click on that link, you will see a happy banana. But not for long, I know it's headed for that blender.)

2. My father in law turned 90 yesterday. He was in a bad mood that anyone was paying him any attention about it. I'm not clear on the reason. But he has been this way every since I have known him. He gets kind of 'mad' at me, because I tell him, 'every year you say you don't want it, but every year you know this is going to happen, so why get angry?' I'm not sure I should have said that.

We went out to dinner for his birthday. He did not want to go. We had a cake and sang to him and gave him presents after dinner at his house. He did not want the cake or the presents. I don't know what to make of it.

What do you do? If someone says, 'don't do anything! I don't want it.' Do they really mean it? His daughter is afraid that if we ignore it that his feelings will be hurt. She says, 'he says he doesn't want anything, but he really does.'

Why do people do that? It must be some kind of fear of rejection or disappointment issue.

He gets around really well. He has really great legs even though he says they are weak and he doesn't trust them. So maybe he feels unnerved going out, not sure what his legs are going to do.

We are decided on getting a cane for him for a gift, but we didn't come through because we didn't find one that was cool enough.

3. Christmas here was good. One of the sweetest Christmas' I have ever had. I have some photos that I will eventually post. Madam Blueberry loved her rain boots. They are so cute!!

4. Tonight my sister's here with Nathan and he sleeps over here while she and her husband Gary sleep next door at Bills'. It works out great.

They are here for the preNew Years' party on the 30th. Should be fun. My sister sings well so it's always fun to get her up there to sing.

And at the party we were going to announce Steve's 90th birthday and drink a toast to him, and I wonder, will he get angry? Should we even worry about it? The man deserves a toast. Right?

Tomorrow I am cooking for things I'm taking to the party. Spinach Balls (really good), a taco dip platter (really good and easy), and finger sandwiches. Oh yea, and I think I'm cooking meatballs too. It'll be fine. It's the Spinach Balls people really, really like.

Here’s the recipe for those few who might be interested --

1 box frozen spinach thawed and water pressed out of it really, really well.
1 cup cheese - and kind you want
1 box of stuffing - any flavor you like (I mix cornbread and savory herbs)
2 eggs for each frozen box of spinach
1/2 cup chicken bouillon flavor
1 TBS flour

Mix everything to together really well. Make sure the stuffing is moistened by whatever it's in.

Form the balls - about an inch in size. Now I let mine sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before I cooked that. But anyway, I transferred them to a tray and cooked them for 35 minutes. They are good and they hold together well.

They are the type of recipe that if you don't have one thing, you can find another thing and it will be well.

4. So Saturday +Seldom Seen and the Reminders+ are playing at my brothers. They got some rehearsal time in, not as much as they might love, but it all seems to work about well from the vantage point I have.

It's all about family. And having fun. And working together.

Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family. Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted. ~Paul Pearshall

The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born. ~Pearl S. Buck

Family -
Fam i lee
Fa mil y
Fam i ly
F am I ly

We are connected before we are born to those people of whom we don't know and most often will never know. Maybe once, at Aunt Cleo's wedding, will cousin Bobbie come with Callie Mae and sit in the back and smile all knowingly, probably the only relative willing to give out all the answers to the unanswered questions about Charley, Uncle Buck and the covered wagon from Mr. Marshall's barn. We say nothing and the story is all is lost.

Family - we loose the little parts of the stories all the time. What difference does it make if we fill it up with a really good story instead of one so sad? Could it really do all that damage for little Kelley to know that Uncle Joe went to jail for shotting craps on the side of the milk barn? Life goes on. What fear would be realeased if we just went ahead and told all the stories?

Give them the proper light and the proper love. Love conquers all. God's in control. Truth is truth is truth.

There is craziness in every mix of people. You can bank on it. And if everyone seems sane, well guess what? Look around and count the statistics ~ ummm, maybe it's you.