mountainmelody

Check out these birds that followed our ferry from Dauphin Island to Fort Morgan. Watch the pelican in the second half of the video!

Yep, it's Vulcan!

I try to ignore it, but sometimes I am just so tired.
:(

In the 1950s, 12 percent of high school seniors said they were a “very important person.” By the ’90s, 80 percent said they believed that they were.

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby. ~Langston Hughes

doomsdays throughout time

Have I ever mentioned this great blog?

Nothing is so beautiful as spring--
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.


What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. --Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

~Gerard Manley Hopkins

more on football and  “pickup-truck alumni”...from the New York Times

blogs wane as the young drift to sites like Twitter

Come hear me play handbells.

3 PM
Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church
Interstate 459, exit 1

Rich people who neglect the poor are not the people of God.

~David Platt

Forget those crazy winter storms...this is my preferred February weather.

Seriously? I like nature more than most people, but...a shrine to a tree? And praying for trees?

people poisoning trees and crying over trees...a lottery to win seedlings from the trees...all in the name of sports



business



lovesick, lonesome, or I love you



love and kisses

I promise to never leave you.

Will you marry me?

Yes, I will.

By now you may have stopped believing the fact that it didn't snow at ALL for the first 6 or 7 years I lived in Alabama. But it's true!

This winter has about made up for it--more snows than I have ever seen in my life! Last night we got 2.5 inches of snow. Impressive!

These pictures aren't the greatest, but they'll give you the idea. First, here is where I found deer tracks leading right up to my car door this morning. Perhaps Bambi wanted to find a warm place to sit down?

 And here are some of the gigantic icicles that were hanging from my house when I got home tonight. Brrr!!

Yesterday I attended a seminar that had speakers such as Colin Powell, Laura Bush, and Rudy Guiliani. But the speakers that got way more applause than anyone else were the football coaches from Auburn and Alabama.

I don't care what your political persuasion is--that's just wrong!

This morning I certainly would not have expected to be blogging about an ice storm today! The storm caught all the weather forecasters off guard. I think I was the first one to leave my work this afternoon, but it still took me a very long and nerve-wracking 2 hours and 15 minutes to make it home.

Here are some pictures from the drive. (Don't worry, Mom! I took these while stopped in traffic.)

Let's just say that this place is very, very close to me.

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. ~Mother Teresa

I am fascinated by different cultures. Today I heard a good presentation that reminded me about high context and low context cultures. Some scholars argue that the American South is an example of a traditionally high context culture in the midst of a low context nation.

A related topic is direct versus indirect communication. I definitely think that in the South, women especially are socialized to communicate more indirectly. Even today, if I want someone else to do something, I always phrase it as a question instead of a command: "Could you please make a copy for me?" And I find it difficult to strongly criticize someone I'm talking to. Instead, I would say mostly nice things and slip a kindly worded suggestion in the middle. But if they were from my context, they would understand.

I think this type of background makes direct communication seem more jarring, especially when it comes from someone with whom you do not have a strong relationship. Understanding the cultural differences is essential.

What do you all think about this--especially those of you from the South?

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature--trees, flowers, grass--grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. . . . We need silence to be able to touch souls.
~Mother Teresa

I'm reading this book for about the third time, and I have to say it's just as good this time around as it was before. This time I've gotten smart and gotten myself a free copy by agreeing to review it! :)

I decided to change back to a black layout. See what you think.

We accidentally went to Auburn on our road trip. It was the week after their national championship--not bad. We saw the toilet paper in the trees at Toomer's Corner and everything!

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. ~e.e. cummings

snow pictures

I went on a great road trip with a friend today. We drove all around the state, eventually making it to Eufaula. I'll post more pictures later if I get a chance!

I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.

~Flannery O'Connor

I finally made it home and am enjoying the snow/ice from the warmth of my house. :)

Still stuck and not sure when I can get home...blah. At least I have a warm place to stay!

My house had 4 inches of snow...but I'm stuck at Shocco with 1 inch if ice!

This is what happens at the bread aisle in the grocery story when snow is forecast for Alabama!

(photo from www.alabamawx.com)

It's going to snow again...maybe a lot!!!

This is amazing, since it didn't snow at all for at least the first five or six years I lived in Alabama!

Every good, beautiful, perfect, inspiring, moving, joyful, sustaining, edifying, unifying, loving, gracious, whimsical, happy, life-giving, soul-stirring, paradigm-shifting, kind, generous alive thing is a gift from God.

~Cathleen Falsani

(Tune: London Bridge)

Help us build a bridge of peace,
Bridge of peace,
Bridge of peace!
Help us build a bridge of peace,
Hi-ho, laddies!

Help us live in friendly ways,
Friendly ways,
Friendly ways!
Help us live in friendly ways,
Hi-ho, lassies!

Don't you wish you could come to the archives with me??

Don't look now, but Jesus is coming back in 1843. You heard it here first, folks.

Two inches of snow are on the ground at my house--the first white Christmas in almost 100 years. But I'm not there!

Baptists of the eighteenth century viewed Christmas as "worldly and popish."

Alabama was the first US state to officially recognize Christmas as a holiday. It did so in 1819.

This year I'm looking for my first white Christmas!!!

...by reading this book and watching this video.

“Birmingham with her congestion of wealth devoted to selfish and worldly purposes presents a situation that should appeal to the heart of every true Christian.”

"In another generation I believe that liquor ill have disappeared not merely from our politics, but from our memories."

Women’s gifts to charity:
$3,204.45
7 pairs shoes
1 bed
1 suit furniture
1 sewing machine
63 chickens
1 quilt

Watch out, world. I've been back in the archives again, digging up crazy old stuff like this. Okay, so this isn't technically part of my research project, but it's just too good not to share!

Don't laugh...it's real snow.

Some day I would like to go to a Christmas market in Europe. Beautiful....but freezing cold, I'm afraid. Nice to visit but not to stay!

How fat is America?