Stray Cats and People

As you can tell by my blog I am an animal lover. My husband is not. I feed every stray that comes to the door. He boots them away.

After almost 3 years of marriage he is finally getting used to the idea that animals are a big part of my life and that God teaches me things through them.

I would like to share about a stray that comes here. Let me back up. Since coming here we have had stray cats come to our door. Most run off, but once in the while one will stay. Some time ago a large Tom cat showed up, with a tiny kitten. This kitten could not even eat on it's own and was quite scared. It took a week to get her to come close to me, but the Tom came right away. He was super friendly, and was by the steps one day when my husband walked out. I told my husband that "he was a friendly Tom". (the cat, not my husband). The cat meowed, so I said Tom again, and he responded the same. I said "come here Tom" and he did. My guess was someone dumped them off and this was Tom. I fed Tom and he would climb on me for his loving all the time. The kitten was not so. She had to be coaxed and bribed to come, jumped away at every move and was a real scardey cat. She was so tiny I worried about her. She finally would come and let me pet her and after a bit would climb up on my lap, and then into the house (husband was not happy, but she was hurt and he realized how much I was feeling at the time).

Somehow the Tom would come back injured all the time, and then one day did not show up and has not been back. However, some time later another stray took his place. This stray started stealing the food from the original cat (Rick's from before all the strays). I finally started feeding him so that our cat could eat. No matter what I have tried he is there for food, but will not let me close. He is jumpy, runs off and does not want to get close. He has been here since June, and finally comes just out of my arms reach. He will cry at the door if I am not there on time, will eat the food, but not let me get close.

I look at the difference in these three strays. Kind of like people huh? They show up and some are friendly right away. Easy to make friends with and want to be friends. Others you have to coax out of their shell and finally they realize you are not out to hurt them. Then their are others that have been hurt so much in the past they will not come close to anyone, but are there for what you have to give them.

Here is my "mooch". He will not let me close, but here he is begging for his food.
He will not eat until he watches me go in the door and then hears it close. This pic was taken through the screen so it is not as good as the other.
He is all black with a white tip on his tail. A pretty cat. All three strays are black, but that was their only similarity.

I can't help but think of people and how some that are so standoffish may be that way for a reason. I am not going to give up on this black cat. I will continue to feed him and try. He has taught me a lesson about people maybe I can learn more as I keep on trying to befriend him.

Winter Sneaked Up

I went to bed Sunday night and it was still summer. Warm, but not too hot, sunny and nice. As usual I put the fan in the window before bed and went to sleep.

During the night the fan started acting up, the motor was running funny, making weird noises. I got up and shut the fan off since I was getting cold anyway. Stupid fan would not shut off! It kept running. I was so tired and getting colder and could not get this fan off soI went back to bed, pulled the covers up tighter and finally woke up enough to realize the wind was blowing so strong it was making my fan run harder than when it was on!

I got up, pulled the fan out of the window, closed the window and went back to bed. I could hear that wind just howling out there.

Morning came and I got up and realized it was also raining. It had been for some time and the dog bed (which is under the window) was soaked, as was the floor. Not only was it raining, the temperature dropped from 89 to 49! OH NO! Winter is coming!

Yesterday was busy and cold, I had to dig out my sweatshirt and long pants as the temp outside stayed low and it continued to rain. I do not like this winter stuff.

I moved to Texas from Maine when I married Rick. There is much about Texas that I do not like, but one thing I do is no real winter. Yes, it gets cool, and a few nights down right cold, but no snow for the most part. Now I have been here a few years and here I am complaining about it getting down to 49 for the first time this year. It was even colder this morning at 41. I actually had to turn the heat on to warm the house for when my granddaughter arrived.

Winter has sneaked up on me. Yes, I knew it was coming, but the nice 70's, 80's and occasional 90's have been here so long I was lulled into feeling it was never going to hit this year.

Having the mind I do, I began to wonder how many of us are doing the same about the Lord's return? Are we lulled into thinking it will never happen in our lifetime? He is coming in the clouds and those of us that are His will be leaving this earth? Am I looking for Him and ready? Are you?

My New Venture

As I wrote in my previous post, yesterday was my six week anniversary with blogging. I have been thinking about another blog, and yet a bit nervous about starting a second one. my mind has been racing:

• Could I do it?
• Could I think of enough to say on two of them?
• Would I be able to keep up?
• Would this second one be relevant and meet the needs of younger women?
  
• Would anyone read it?
• Would they????

Many other thoughts have run through my mind. I actually had this second blog in my mind when I started this one, but decided to get my feet wet with this and see how well I could do, then add the other.

Today I worked on the other one, and am waiting for the designer to see if she can make it 3 column before I put too much in the sidebars, but "Meet Me In The Garden" is launched.

I am hoping to make a difference in some lives and fill the command in Titus 3:5 by being the older who has something to offer the younger women.

I would appreciate your prayers in this effort, as it is part of the tugging on my heart in my desire to serve my God.

Anyone experience this? I need advice

Today is my six week anniversary at blogging. I am amazed that I am actually doing it and loving it. I used to wonder how people that blogged found so much to write about, day after day. I still wonder! Yet things are there.

I do not know about you, but for me I find there is so much going on in my life and around me that there seems to be a shortage of time, and yet this is an outlet for me and a "must" in my day. I am hoping that something I say and experience can help another and what they say and experience can help me.

Today that thought is on my mind. I wonder how many of you have experienced what I am now experiencing and can maybe help me. Your comments are so welcome on this "problem".

My neighbor is a man that has both legs amputated from diabetes. He lives alone and seems to be quite bullheaded. We have had to revive him many times because he does not watch his sugar and eat right, but does not want to go live with family or in an assisted living home. He calls them old peoples homes and "he is not going there".

This past week we had to bring him around twice. The first time he came out of the shock ok, the second time he was having convulsions and we could not get him out and had to call an ambulance. We also called his sister.

His house is a filthy mess, dishes and pots piled high on the counter, the floors are cluttered, the table and couch the same way. His bedroom has no sheets on the bed and stuff all over. I did not get into the bathroom, so I can only imagine.

His sister and he have trouble getting along, they love each other, but both seem a bit hard headed. I really like both of them, and am trying to keep peace. I want to do what we can to help him, and probably understand more than anybody what he is going through since my first husband was diabetic and more than once had to be revived. Willie took care of his sugar and monitored it closely, yet still had problems later in his life, this man does not monitor or eat right.

His sister and I have talked, as well as I talked to him, and want to do what I can. I think I can get farther than his sister, but hate to stick my nose in, just show up and tell him I am cleaning his house, and he better take care of himself.

I have sat and talked with him about his sugar, how it is so important to check it and to make sure he eats right. I understand his problems, and gave him ideas about how to deal with some of it. My past has given me a lot of insight into these things.

We sent food to him last night, and probably will now and then to help him, but that house! I thought of having some "clean up" evenings and asking his sister to help, but am afraid the two of them will just fight. So, how would you handle the problem? Any ideas?

What you sow, you reap

We hear that saying from the Bible but I know it is true. It has proven itself like never before. Let me tell you how.

When I was a child I liked crickets. I protected them, moving them out of harm when I found one outside. If one was in the house making that cricket noise I thought it was great. If they came out of the corner and were in danger of being stepped on or eaten by the dog I was sure to catch it and free it to the outside.

Crickets eat mosquitoes, they sound good when you are camping and what harm could they do?

I had long forgotten those cricket rescuing days of old, until I moved to Texas. This year I was fully reminded of my cricket loving days and I know that what you sow is what you reap. We have crickets! Never in my life have I seen so many. I am sure that every cricket I rescued told all their children through the generations, millions of them!

My husband drops me off by the Walmart door, crunch, crunch, jump on my legs, my arm... EEK!!!!!! I scream and run into the store. More crickets in the entry! I shop, come out and the jumping, crunching and screaming start all over.

We clean the offices in a plant near here. Mind you people have been working all day, but there they are, crickets everywhere; in the sinks, in the offices, under the desks, down the hall. I open the closet to get my bucket and there are crickets in the mop, in the bucket, under the broom. Do you know how bad crickets stink when you vacuum them? Yuck!

Yes, I am reaping crickets for all of them I sowed when I was young.

While I am sure this is not what the verse means, and I am not being cursed with crickets because I saved them when I was young, it does make me think about the sowing and reaping. I wonder what things I am sowing in my life and what will I be reaping because of it? Love? Kindness? Anger? Self-centeredness? What we sow when we are young usually magnifies itself when we are old. A bitter old person was sowing that bitterness when they were younger. What will I be like when I get older?

What am I sowing? Is my money being used right? Am I helping others? Am I serving the Lord or myself?

I find myself pondering these questions tonight because of crickets. God uses some strange things to bring home His lessons.

Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Today is Tackle it Tuesday and last week I was all set to have something spectacular to write about today. Well, I do not. What I have tackled this week is life. I have no pictures of before and after, but it has been a tackle.

A week ago Friday my 32 year old step son Jason was in a bad car accident. He is in a hospital about 65 miles away and we have been running up there as much as we can. I decided that this past Saturday was going to be my clean the computer room day and tackle that mess before going up to see Jason.

Friday we went to see Jason and I bought a webcam on the way home. I wanted to be able to let my baby grand daughter in NC see us so that she would know who we were since we see her so rarely. Supposed to be easy to install and the mic was just a "simple" plug in. I ended up on it all the rest of Friday. The webcam was not problem, the "simple mic plug in" was. I will not repeat it all but you can read about it here.

Saturday I got nothing done on the room, so now it is scheduled for this week. We went to see Jason and spent all afternoon. He did not want us to leave.

Life. Like the saying "best laid plans of mice and men" go awry, we have been facing it this week. As I write this Jason is in surgery to reconstruct his arm from his leg. We will be going to the hospital again and my plans for getting this room cleaned, the wall in the living room painted and the other bedroom straightened up will have to wait.

Sometimes we all have to tackle life and just let other things go.

You can see me but not hear me...

I am tired! I have a love/hate relationship with computers and mine has put me through the test the last few days. If anyone has an answer let me know!

I have a baby granddaughter that lives in NC. I live in Texas. I want her to know her Grammie like the other grandchildren do and finally saved my pennies to buy a web cam. I have wanted one for a long time, even when the other's were babies, but could never get one. Finally I got one and it came with an ear phone and mic. Friday I installed the webcam and mic. My granddaughter could see me, but the mic will not work. Frustration!

Today we had to go to the hospital to see my step son and on the way back we stopped at several places to try to get advice on the mic. We even asked the Geek Squad at Best Buy! Everyone said plug it in, change the sound card device manager so it knows there is a mic and it will work. (we already tried this a dozen times). I came home, went through it all again, headset works, mic does not!

Here is it, 8PM, I have spent all day and have a messy house and still no mic. You can see me but not hear me, I guess for some that is the way they like it. UGH.

We did see our son and he is doing some better from the accident. He still needs prayer as he is going to be going through re constructive surgery this week. There is still much pain, but when they try to rebuild the arm he will be hurting even more.

So, now that I have had an unproductive day, and an unproductive blog, I will say goodnight. Unless I kill my computer I will try to have more to offer next time.

Traditions

I know I promised that I would have study helps by today, I will try to get them up tonight. This week has been busy and the baby has been active and keeping me hopping. I do need to admit that today I was working on trying to find images for my blog face lift. I am having trouble and can't believe that I can't seem to search and get just the right thing. I guess it will come, but I am getting impatient with my plainness.

Today I was thinking about why we do things? Why do we cook the way we do? Why do we clean house in the order we do? Why do some people have to do a thorough spring cleaning and others just clean as usual and maybe wash the windows? Why do we talk to babies like we do? I repeat things to them. Try to get them to know what it is. Other people just talk baby talk and do not tell them what something is.

When my first husband was in seminary we lived in Indiana in a mobile home park. The park was all Christians, either college, seminary or retired missionaries. Most of the people were about my age and I thought my way was the way everyone did things. I just thought it was THE way. Not arrogantly, I just thought everyone did it that way. I found out that there were all these people and we all did things and made things differently.

I used cloth diapers (had no choice back then) and would hang them on the clothes line. My diapers were white as the day I got them. Do you know how many people came up to me when those diapers were on the line and wanted to know how I got the diapers so white? I just assumed that was the way everyone's diapers looked. But, I found I did things differently than others and mine were white.

We learned from each other, at least those of us that were willing to learn. I discovered just how much tradition played a part in what we do. There were some there who would not change. Their family did it this way and that was that. They did not know why things were done as they were, but they did not want to acknowledge that there might be another way to do things.

I heard a funny story about tradition. A woman was cooking a large ham and cut the ends off before putting the ham in the pan. Her husband asked her why she did that. She said it was what her mom did so she did it. He told her to ask her mom and find out why. When she asked her mom why she always did that her mom said "Because my mom always did it that way". The daughter pressed the mother to find out why her grandmother cut off those ends. When the grandmother was asked she said "because my roasting pan was too small for the ham, so I had to cut them off to get it to fit".

Three generations cutting off the ends and two not knowing why. Traditions. They can be good and they can be bad.

I look at Christians and how many of us are caught up in traditions. We do not know why we do things, we really do not know what the Bible says about what we do, but we do it thinking it is the right way. That is until someone breaks our bubble and challenges us. Why do you do as you do? How about your church's traditions? Are they according to the Word of God or are they traditions of men?

As I sat rocking the baby today those thoughts were running around in my head. I need to examine my traditions and ask "why" and is it in God's word to be done differently?

I have a splinter

Last night I went out on the back patio to untangle my dogs leash and I got a splinter. It is in deep, I broke half of it off trying to get it out. I am in pain. This morning my husband made another attempt to get the rest out, but could not get it. It is in my foot, so every step lets me know it is there. Pain, throb, step by step.

I have a few choices. I can let it go and see if it comes out by itself. I can try to dig it out some more. Or I can go to the dr. and get it cut out. It is Saturday, the dr. will be hard to come by, but doable before noon. Hmmmmm choices.

Life is like that. How many times have we let things get under our skin? Maybe something someone has done or said. Maybe something we have done or said. We have the same choices. We can let it sit there and fester up and infect us. We can try to pry it out ourselves and make a bigger hole, a bigger injury and then it festers up and infects us too. Or we can take it to the Great Physician who can rid it from us if we let Him.

I have a choice now. I know me, I will go try to get it out myself, put more drawing salve on it and try again. If by Monday it is not out I will go to the Dr. However, by then who knows what it will look like. I am babysitting today and know it will be hard to go with her, or so I think. Maybe before noon I will change my mind and see the Dr. For my splinter I may get away with this and not have it get too bad, but the splinters of life do not work that way. We need to handle things God's way.

The pain from my splinter has made me think about this today. Like most people I have splinters inside that I need to go to Him about. Hurts that seem to keep me from being all He wants of me. Examine yourself for splinters. Ask HIM to reveal them and let the great physician remove them for you.

Ain't No Place To Put A Sticker

Now that I have posted two posts I guess it is time to tell how the name came about. Life is strange, so is love. Over time I hope to be sharing things from my life that may help you along yours. Hopefully you will do the same with me. "Ain't no place to put a sticker" is one of those misadventures in life and raising kids.

When our children were growing up my late husband was a pastor. We did not have mega churches, nor mega salaries. We did have a mega family though. It seemed like the kids kept growing and needing and the budget kept shrinking. As the family grew we needed bigger vehicles as well. Our vehicles were not Fords, but they were Fix or repair daily. We did have a full size van though and it ran pretty good.

Our oldest son, Erik, got his drivers license and we allowed him to make the "milk run". You see we bought our milk from a farm about 10 miles away and a family with 5 kids goes through a lot of milk. On this day Erik and his sister, for some reason, decided to come home off the beaten path or maybe I should say on the path instead of the road. It was raining.It was a farm road. Had ditches on the side. It was raining. It was muddy. Mud is slippery. There was a large sharp curve. The poor van did not have a chance with a teen behind the wheel! They rolled totally around, landing back on the wheels. Praise God no one was hurt in spite of broken milk jugs, tool box emptied on them and a hammer coming down right by my son's head. The only harm to the kids was a broken fingernail on a teenage girl. Catastrophe!

We arrived to see the damages and found we could actually drive it home. There was broken windows, windshield out, the top and bottom of the van did not line up and it looked more like a rectangle that was pushed over so the top was off to the left. Remember I said it was raining? There was no windshield but thank God the windshield wipers still worked!

Now, we were close friends with our mechanic, we had to be since we needed him so much. I think we actually bought his new building. We drove that van right down to the mechanic and asked him to please inspect it since it was due for inspection. (snickering under our breath of course). Good old Charlie looked at it and in his back country way, so kind and loving, said "ain't no place to put a sticker".

Life is like that sometimes. Things hit. Things crash. That is life. Somehow, the "ain't no place to put a sticker" makes me laugh and realize it's going to be alright.

My first post

Now how was that for a creative title? I hope to get the hang of this before long, but till then I guess you will need to put up with some rambling.

My daughter, Jessica, knows I have been wanting to start blogging for some time, in fact I did try it about a year ago, but one post was all I got done. To push me on, she called me today to tell me I have been tagged. Now, I had no idea what that meant, so she explained. My next post will be my "tag", however I wanted to start by welcoming you to my blog. I hope we can get to know one another and enjoy life and love and the joys and perils of both.

Peggie