Okay..so let me get this straight...The White House is going to fly the flag in honor of China's 60th birthday.....of what??? 
COMMUNISM is what!!!!!
And here we sit watching it all happen right before our eyes...little by little...until...........
Does anyone care any more....blinded and dumbed down by the mindless junk on tv and the absence of all the truth portrayed by the media and don't forget all the missing facts in the history books published for the government schools and used by many Christian schools and home schoolers too? 
I don't know....I don't want to admit this really but all I see is a land of complacent people who have or are becoming dependent on the government and following blindly.  Real heros are not studied any more...not even talked about and I would bet most children do not even know who some of these men are....the ones who fought for liberty and freedom through out the ages for ALL...not for self fulfillment or their own glory or for big money.  Heroes today are movie stars, pop musicians and pro sports players. 
Are the children and adults studying the lives of great people like:  William Wallace, Martin Luther, John Bunyan, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,  John Newton, William Wilberforce, George Washington, George Whitfield, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Winston Churchill, John and Betty Stam, Corrie Ten Boom, Clara Kramer, Darlene Deibler Rose, Bruce "Bruchko" Olson, Brother Andrew.........How about the millions of every day men, women and children suffering around the world in places like CHINA, Vietnam,  Burma, North Korea?  Check this site out to learn more....VOM
Are our AMERICAN children studying what it is like living under communist rule or what is was like living through WWII in countries invaded by Russia and Germany and Italy and Japan?
Do they know what life was like in East Germany before the wall was taken down? Do they even know what the wall was?
Why do some parents "protect" their children by not allowing them to read books about things like the Holocaust yet allow them to watch cutesy "Disney" movies filled with lies (example:Pocahontas) or spend hours playing brain zapping x-box and game boy games or worse yet....read seemingly harmless occult like books (not even going to say the name I am thinking.)
I have been accused of exposing my children to too much of real life....that they know too much.  Pish posh I say to those people.  How are they going to know when they are being duped if they do not know what the truth is...how people were duped in the past and what evil looks like?  Our heavenly father does not hold back anything in his word, so why should I?  It is all there...slavery, bondage, rape, war, adultery, murder, drunkenness, prostitution and of course godly intimacy between a man and a woman.....you get the picture don't you?
I beg you to talk with your children and grandchildren about the real heros...the real men and women who were selfless in their convictions and actions.  I know they were not perfect by any means....but they were not an immoral bunch of money hungry fools either.
I do honestly feel like and know the enemy has been so busy distracting whomever he can with  entertainment and busyness that in most homes today the ancient stories do not have time to be told to our children.  How are they going to know if we do not make time to tell them?  They are not going to read about them any more in school books or even hear about them in churches.
It is up to us older folks now AND you younger parents...we cannot let them down. 
They are going to become air heads like the Eloi people in "The Time Machine"  blindly following....

"What have you done? Thousands of years of building and rebuilding, creating and recreating so that you can let it crumble to dust. A million years of sensitive men dying for their dreams, for what?!!! So you can swim, and dance, and play.

Do not let your lives get so busy that you do not teach your children about the real heroes.....which may as near as their papa and grandpas who fought in the previous wars such as WWII and yes, Vietnam....or their grandmas who gave their all to plant victory gardens and hold the family together.

Here is a great book if any of you have  despising feelings towards history. 
"More Than Dates & Dead People" by Stephen Mansfield
 
Then there is my original point ....why are we allowing OUR government to fly this communist flag at the White House?  It would be one thing if it were to celebrate the people or the history of China or better yet...bring attention to the poverty and persecution of the Chinese people but surely not the anniversary of Communist China. 
Then, why stop with China?

 
*Just a little addition  <------Link.......Hmmmm....let's see, who in history can we think of that went straight for the children.  I know...you are going to accuse me of comparing someone to Hitler....but I was thinking more of the Child Catcher in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

Once that.."going back to school" dread is in you, it is really in you. 
I am so grateful neither of my children have had to experience this...we are always in learning mode.


I've been busy...gardening, painting odds and ends, taking pictures, cleaning out junk, going to the beach...and still working on the Chicken Coop Art Studio ( Sorry E...no chickens)  We are however calling it the "Chick Coop" now...us gals will do our sewing and art work out there.  Will it EVER be finished???  I hope SOON..hint hint PJ.

We kids ventured to the beach house last week....I do not know when I have had a more relaxing time.  I took my two and two others.  Late nights and early mornings, and we found the most wonderful totally vegan cafe and juice bar...totally vegan.  E did not have to think twice about eating anything there.  She cannot have a drop of dairy...so this was PERFECT.  We got take out all three times and ate our bounty at various places...on the windy gazebo by the bay, in front of the tv watching "Laura" and in the van on the way home.  We are so hooked.  I did not have to lift a finger of cooking.  They did it all when we did not get take out.  Will made us breakfast and grilled our dinner and we had the most perfect stuffed portabellas ever, made by J.  I know I have posted that poem before about sleeping on an island...why is sleeping on an island so wonderful?  We can hear the ocean from the house...when the neighbor's AC is not running and watch the moon slowly glide around the house through our bedroom windows at night.  I love it there so much and would move there in a heartbeat if I could.

sunrise

sunrise walk

sunset over the bay

down by the bay

I don't know..John Lennon with an Amish beard???

Jaws?

The best meatless kabobs ever

Jen's stuffed portabella mushrooms

sun bathers..book readers

Jen wanted her toe nails done on the way home...she is tucked in the way back.
She named our vehicle...The Spa Van.

The library in our little beach town was built in the early 20's and it adorable...old looking and rustic..brick and cozy.  It reminds me of a solid old light house.  To insure going back, I took out a stack of library books.   
"Oh, Honey...but I have to go back..the books are due in two weeks."   I may be blonde but I ain't no dummy. 

The photo contest this week was anything GREEN....I entered again and you are most welcome to check that out and vote on your favorite.

You all have probably heard this...but if not...please watch...
all the way to the end. 
If you pay taxes...and are pro-LIFE....you NEED to hear what is really going on. 

Last weekend...oh it was glorious!
Let me say this...I am moving...yep...I am moving to the 1940's.
I took the plunge and soaked myself in the 1940's for the weekend.  I always do..but this year I did it completely.
From hair to shoes.  It was a hard working weekend but not without rewards.  I had KP duty at the Spider's Web Enlisted Men's Club ....which was a real place in the South Pacific during WWII (Henderson Field).    I did dishes all weekend with my son while my daughter waited tables and made sure the real veterans and some "celebrities" were well fed.  The first day it rained cats and dogs but that was okay.  My husband did the dishes that day.    The next two days were sunny and perfect weather. 

Last year I met a special woman who had served in the army Nursing Corps.  She was assigned the 59th Field Hospital of the 90th Infantry Division.  This Field Hospital came ashore on Utah Beach on the 31st of July 1944.  The hospital followed Patton's army across Europe.  She participated in assisting the wounded following the Battle of the Bulge.  She was part of liberating the concentration camps, Gosen and Mauthausen.   Her lecture completely mesmerized me and when I got home I tried to find a copy of the YANK magazine her picture was in and the other photos of the liberation.  I found it!  I took it with me this year to show her hoping she would be back.  She was indeed and she was thrilled and wanted to sign it and have her picture taken with me!  I was the one who was honored to have my picture taken with her.
Her name is Evangeline Coeyman.  Her photo was in the May 18th, 1945 issue.  I am not sure who the other gal is.

Later, Will and I went to hear two of the 9 (still living) Doolittle Raiders speak.   They were emphatic to let us know....do not watch the movie Pearl Harbor......not factual at all.  But the  movie...Thirty  Seconds Over Tokyo is.  A new book is out as well and yes, we bought it and yes, they signed it and yes.....it was a thrill to sit there and hear these precious elderly gentlemen speak of their experiences.  One was Jimmy Doolittle's copilot, Dick Cole, and was on  plane #1 as it left the air craft carrier and the other was a navigator, Tom Griffin, and he was on plane #9.
If you know the story and love history and this era....you will understand my excitement.
By the way...the book is called "The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan" by Carroll V. Glines

Dick Cole

I found doing dishes outside in the South Pacific...over looking the mountains of my town    .....extremely relaxing and it even crossed my mind that I might actually enjoy living in a walled tent...just like at Mary Jane's Farm...and doing my dishes in galvanized pans with water heated right next to me over a fire..okay..so it was propane...but still....it is something I am sure I would love.  In the summertime. 

Oh yes..and the planes...the glorious planes.  When I was a little girl, I lived right down the road from this airport and could hear planes at all hours.  Planes are in my blood.  When the air shows came to town I could sit in my back yard and be thrilled in the privacy of climbing to the top of my swing set to watch...instead of fighting the crowds.  I loved to see the Blue Angels zip above me.  

Well...my thrill this weekend was the P-51 Mustang..."Old Crow"....and of course that beautiful B-17, Yankee Lady.

Bud Anderson

One of the professional photographers strolling the grounds snapped a picture of Elisabeth and I along with our other 40's friends.  He sent us all a copy.    The photo was taken by Mr. S. McCormick and it is copywrited.
Here we are....loving every minute.
 

And now this...change of subject......it came upon me without me even realizing it...but it was a day worth celebrating...No more TV reception.  I don't watch TV and while we do have one we only use it for school DVDs or old movies.  We do not have cable and we did not buy the "black box."   YAY!!!!!  We did not buy the converter box.  
This is strange but....I can sense when a tv is on...as well as a radio.  Even if the sound is all the way down...or I am not in the room.  I get the creepy crawlies.
For us....it is much more fun to play a game...put a puzzle together, together....garden, play horse shoes (Will just made us a horse shoe pit), watch the kitten play with the dog's tail, watch the dog run in his sleep that is always a hoot,  TALK...we love to talk here at our house...and have folks over to talk with too.
Simple thrills....they are the ones that make me happiest.

By the way....you know what is coming!     It is the new photo contest and this week both my son and I entered.
The topic is......BUILDINGS and they must be at least three stories high. 
Take a peak and please vote........THE LINK to iliveinmycamera

Well...the latest here at our house is a case of rocky mountain spotted fever..otherwise known as rickettsia...otherwise known as a tick disease.  Lovely eh?  As if lyme was not enough.   No spots were evident but fatigue certainly is.   I have prescribed complete r&r for the patient and that includes some time by the ocean in the near future.   We are armed with some herbal remedies and the traditional antibiotics.  But if anyone out there has been through this one, please share.  My son is the victim and he certainly has had his share of the damage a tick can do.  Anyone out there ever have this one too?

 And for your viewing pleasure and for a good laugh.....I had fun with a curious kid last week.