Time Travel

Today's post is just me doing a little reflection and asking myself some questions about time travel. 

Admittedly, I've been sick and feverish lately, and am taking antibiotics, so that might influence my present craziness.  I'm not sure, but I thought I would share some thoughts today.

• If you were to travel back in time, what could or would you contribute to change the world?
• Would you try to change the future?
• If you went back in time 100 years, what do you know now that could help that time period's civilization?
• I'd say, "Wash your hands!" is a big thing although it's simple.
• What stories would you tell?
• Planes? Trains? Automobiles?
• If you traveled into the future and saw amazing things, would you come back and tell what you saw?  
• Would you warn us if we're doing something now that harms us in the future?

 There are many videos on the Internet about time travel.  Several of them show the White House upside down in the year 2020, but those aren't the ones that truly interest me, as they don't look that believable, but there are two videos I'd like to share with you.

This first video is a short compilation of things that really make you wonder.  Seriously.  Watch and see what you think.



This second video is a little chilling when you think about it. This is Al Bielek.  Al tells us what he saw when he spent six weeks in the year 2137 and two whole years in 2749.  Google him and you will learn more.



Whether you believe or not doesn't matter. What is real is real whether we believe or not.  Today I'm just thinking about what I would personally do if I ever traveled through time.  

I find it odd that when thinking about time travel, I automatically think about going back in time, but if you Google time travel most of the information is about future time travel.  I find it fascinating that I have little interest in going to the future.

How about you?  If you could time travel, would you go to the past or to the future?  What would you do there?  

Fascinating.

Tweety and Polly

Today I'm still thinking about birds, but not the barnyard variety.  I'm remembering Tweety and Polly, Mama's parakeets.

My Mama loved animals.  All animals.  When I was growing up we generally had big dogs outside and sometimes a chicken, duck or rabbit too, and small dogs, cats, and birds inside.  Mama added fish to the mix later in life, but when I lived with her it was just the cats, dogs, and birds.

There were always horses in the yard, but they were never our horses.  I did get to feed them at times, ride them at times, and pet them a lot, but they were not mine, and I was reminded of that often, but I digress.

Birds.

When I was growing up Mama had a big birdcage that looked like this without the thing on top:

At one point we had four parakeets living there, but most of the time we just had Tweety and Polly. 

Tweety was a green parakeet that looked like this:

He was a handsome thing and he knew it. Tweety was so spoiled.  He would let you hold him a very long time without complaining, and he would sit on your shoulder while you walked around the house when the cats were outside, but I didn't let him do that often because I had bird poop down my back too many times. 😉
  
Polly was a bluish white parakeet that looked like this:

She was so very pretty.  I always wanted to hold her and pet her, but she was cranky, and she would bite!

We still don't know why they died other than they were over a decade old at the time.  I imagine they died of old age.  It is so sad to lose a pet, but those two had as happy a life as any caged bird can have.

Sometimes Mama would put the cats outside and let Tweety and Polly fly around the house.  We had high ceilings and wooden valance boxes over the curtains in that old house. Tweety and Polly loved to perch on top of the valance boxes and stare down at us while making that smug little bird "nah nah" sound as if to say, "You can't catch me now!"

They'd always go back in their birdcage when they got hungry, so we always did catch them, of course. 

Mama would talk to those birds.  She'd say, "Talk a little bit?  Talk a little bit?" or "Polly want a cracker?" Over and over and over.  You see, her sister, Ellen, had a parakeet that she had trained to say, "Love you," and such as that.  Mama was convinced that she could teach her birds to talk too, but Tweety and Polly never really talked.

Later in life Mama had a cockatiel that could say a few words, but he/she (We were never really sure which.) mostly loved to imitate the alarm clock or the security code or phone number beeps.  It was pretty funny. 

Tweety and Polly never did any of that, but they sure did sing.  It was a happy sound.  Made the cats crazy, of course, which is probably why they did it, but I just loved to hear them sing. 

When Polly died and Tweety was very old and lonely, Mama was afraid at his age a young bird companion might hurt him, but she worried about him being alone and lonely, so she bought him a mirror.  Tweety would stand in front of that mirror and talk and talk and talk so happily.  He didn't feel alone anymore I guess. 

Tweety would turn his head and do those little lovey chirping sounds...almost cooing...to the beautiful bird in the mirror.  It was good to see him happy.  

Sometimes though that bird in the mirror would just piss him off (probably because it mimicked him all the time) and he would squawk at it menacingly.  They always made up in the end though. 😉   

One morning when Mama woke up, she went to feed Tweety and change his water and found him dead on the bottom of his cage.  She cried all day long and into the night.  Inconsolable.  It makes me sad to think about it.  We knew it was bound to happen one day, but that didn't matter.

The heart wants what it wants.  If the heart wants its little green bird, it is gonna break in two when it discovers the bird has passed away.

Sometimes I like to think of Mama up in Heaven with all her loved ones, her parents and siblings, aunts and uncles, and all her animals plus Tweety and Polly.  I bet Mama is in such a happy place right now.  A piece of her died everytime she lost a person or a pet.  I'm thinking she's whole again now.  That is such a happy thought that I think I will end here.

I'll write more by and by.

All About Chickens!

Today I've been thinking about chickens.  Don't ask me why.  I have no clue, but that is what is on my mind, so I decided you might like thinking a little about chickens yourself.

Now.  When I was very little (before Daddy died) we usually had at least one chicken in the yard.  She would give us eggs until she grew too old and then, well, you can guess what happened.

I always struggled with eating animals I knew personally, so as I grew older, I tried to never get attached to farm animals that were being raised for food.  It is not in my nature to be that way though, so I cried many times watching my family eat when I was little.

It just seems wrong to eat your friends.

Eating strangers now...that is different.  I know.  I'm crazy.

Anyway, I grew up in a very small town where there were a few chicken farmers.  I remember going in chicken houses with Daddy and his friends to gather eggs when I was small.  I can still smell those houses.  It is not a smell you forget. 

There were rows and rows of chickens squawking and flapping their wings and laying eggs everywhere, and there was always a rooster. 

Oh that rooster in the hen house thought he was hot stuff!  He'd swagger around like he was God's gift to women chickens, which, I guess he thought he was.  He would also jump on your head and spur your eyes out if you were not careful to avoid him...or at least that is what I was told. 

I was always careful to avoid him.

Then when I was a about a pre-teenager or so, a friend's sister got all involved with show chickens.  I had never seen such chickens in my life!  Gorgeous! 

Some show chicken breeds are:  Ameraucana (These lay blue and/or green eggs!), Ancona, Black Australorp, Black Breasted Red Cubalaya, Black Jersey Giant, Black Sumatra, Brahma, Campine, Cochin, Crevecoeur, Cubalaya, Dark Brahma, Dominique (America's First Chicken), Dutch Bantam, Faverolle, Hamburg, Houdan, Java, La Fleche, Lakenvelder, Langshan, Leghorn, Malay, Orpington, Phoenix, Polish, Rhode Island Red, Rhode Island White, Rose Comb Mottled, Salmon Faverolles, Seabright, Silkie, Silver Gray Dorking, Silver Phoenix, Silver Spangled Hamburg, Sultan, Turken - Red, Welsummer, White Faced Black Spanish, White Jersey Giant, Wyandotte...and the list goes on!

And you probably thought a chicken was just a chicken!  NOT so!

Leghorn is a breed of chicken.  Foghorn Leghorn, the cartoon character, was a Leghorn breed of chicken.  That is why he was white. 

This is a Leghorn chicken.  See?  Just like Foghorn Leghorn!

The chickens I loved the best that my friend's sister raised were the ones with feathers down to the ground like the Silkie breed.  I always thought they were beautiful, but as I look at pictures of the different breeds today, I find the Dark Brahma, the Wyandotte, the Orpington, and the Seabright to be my favorites.   

If you click the links above, you can see photos of all the different breeds.  Which are your favorites?  

Now.  A serious word about fighting chickens.  

DON'T FIGHT CHICKENS!  

I am so against throwing away any life for a human's amusement.  You have no idea how strongly I feel about this.  If you know of anyone participating in such a horrible thing, please call the police immediately.  If it were up to me, all people attending such functions would be sterilized so they could not breed more humans prone to such activities.  Be glad I am NOT in charge.

That is all I'm going to say about that lest my blood pressure rise too much.

Now...back to the more pleasant part of the post. ☺️ 

Clearing my throat now...ahem...

As you can see, chickens are much more than what's for dinner.  They come in all shapes, sizes, colors and dispositions...much like people, I guess.  They even lay different colored eggs!  How awesome is that?

I do enjoy chicken for dinner, but I also like to see all the varieties of chickens.  I also like to be very thankful to the chickens who give their lives so I can eat.  I think that is what saying grace should be all about.  We should acknowledge and bless the animals that die for us, as well as the animals that live for us.  We should be more aware and more thankful.  

Just my opinion.  Everyone has one, I know, but I thought I'd share mine with you today.  If you are still reading, I thank you so much!  I hope you found something interesting and new in today's post.  I'll post more random things by and by.  It is my nature, I'm afraid.

Happy Birthday Mama!

Mama has been up in heaven these past eleven years, but I still always remember her on her birthday.  

Today would have been my Mama's 99th birthday if she were still alive.  Hard to believe that she would be so old, but there you have it.  

Next year I think I will throw a party on Mama's birthday to celebrate her 100th birthday.  Who knows?  She may even attend.  It was never wise to underestimate my Mama. 

But I digress....

Hmm...let's see...I was talking about Mama's birthday.

When I was a little girl I HATED Mama's birthday with a passion because back then Mama's birthday was usually the first day of school or the last day of summer vacation. 

I would whine and complain and generally be miserable just from the heat alone in late August, as we had no air conditioning back then, but add in school starting back and me having to purchase a birthday present for someone who had everything she wanted and hated everything else, and I'm sure you can understand the loathing I felt towards Mama's birthday.

My father also died on Mama's birthday in 1962, so every birthday Mama had after that was overshadowed by losing Daddy.  For most of Mama's 1960s birthdays she would not want to talk to anyone, and was generally grouchy and sad remembering Daddy on that day, but in the 1970s and 1980s when the younger of her grandchildren came along, her birthday meant parties and cake, so it was better then.

We also had air conditioning by then, so life itself seemed somehow much better in general.

At those parties we would tease Mama about needing to call the fire department before we lit the cake...just in case.  Case in point:

Mama with her youngest grandchildren, Katie and Chad

As Mama's birthdays became larger and larger numbers, the fire on the cake got bigger and bigger.  The last one we dared light was so huge that when I wrote a poem about birthdays for one of my poetry books, I used it to create my illustration.

Yes.  That is Mama's real birthday cake fire, and, yes, Mama really did blow out that fire!  She was about 80 by then, so this was impressive!

This is the birthday I always think about when I think of Mama's birthdays.  We laughed and laughed about that cake fire and teased her unmercifully.  She laughed about it for years everytime we mentioned birthday candles.

I sure hope her wish came true, and I hope she has a very Happy Birthday up in heaven today.  Until we meet again....

Ginger's Haircut

When I was seven years old, after my Daddy died, we moved to a smaller house with a horse pasture in the backyard and also on one side of it.  We had a double-car garage with an unfinished apartment over it that served as a barn.  The garage had no doors, so the horses could easily go inside out of the weather.  

That's when I met Ginger.

Ginger was my friend, Sudie's horse, but she lived at my house. She was smaller than a regular horse and larger than a pony.  She was red...thus the name.  

Ginger with one of her foals.

Ginger would bite.  Ginger would kick.  When Ginger laid her ears back on her head, you might as well get ready.  She was up to no good.

Looking back now I think, "Well, who could blame her???"  We pretty much worried Ginger to death, I'm sure.  

Our neighborhood was just full of little girls back in the 1960s when we were little and Ginger was in her prime, and you know how much little girls love horses.

Poor Ginger.

One time Sudie, Ruth, and I decided to cut Ginger's "hair" (mane).  Have you ever seen a horse with bangs?  -laughing-  Poor poor Ginger.

Imagine something like this only the bangs were straighter and much shorter and sticking out more.

I still remember that conversation very well.  The three of us had a pair of scissors and were discussing who should do the deed.  We went back and forth until Ruth finally said, "Let me do it.  My aunt's a beautician."

Well, that made perfect sense to Sudie and me, so we let Ruth do it.

Man.  We got in trouble!  -laughing-  

Sudie and I were only 8 or 9 years old at the time and Ruth must have been 10 or 11, which is probably why our parents didn't actually kill us.  

It still makes me laugh every time I think about poor Ginger with that haircut.  It took a very long time for it to grow back out to where she looked normal again.  

Ginger was also how I broke my arm in third grade, but that is a story for another day.   😱

Tai Chi for Arthritis

My rheumatologist recently told me that she wants me to take Tai Chi classes to combat my joint problems, bursitis, and general inflammation, so I started researching the Tai Chi classes offered in the Charleston, SC area.

Yes.  I know.  I'm a research-aholic.

Here's what I discovered:

• Most Tai Chi classes in the area are offered via martial arts studios and have a martial arts focus.  All ages can attend these classes.
• Tai Chi classes offered nights and weekends are mainly for younger people and are not of the arthritis/joint help variety.
• The Medical University offers Tai Chi classes, but you also have to buy access to the Wellness Center so it is $125.00 per six weeks' course (Wednesday morning only) for all ages (about $21.00 a class) and you have to pay for parking.
• The Lowcountry Senior Center offers a Tai Chi course through Roper Hospital that focuses on arthritis.  Only people ages 50 and above can take this course.  It meets every Thursday morning and costs $45.00 a month (about $11.00 a class unless there are five Thursdays in the month, then it is about $9.00 a class) AND there is free parking.

 Guess which course I am taking?  Any idea? 😉 I'll give you a couple of hints.  I need the arthritis focused Tai Chi, and $11.00 is less than $21.00 (plus parking).

Yup.  You guessed it.  I'm at the Lowcountry Senior Center.  I'm having to take annual leave from work to take the course, but it is so worth it.  I've only had two classes so far, but I have another one this morning.  It is easy for me to do and I feel much better afterwards.  I sure hope I can find something similar when I move next summer, as I believe my rheumatologist is correct.  I need to take Tai Chi.

My instructor's name is Reggie Westbrooks.

Reggie is the director of the James Island Masters Studio. He is a 5th Degree Black Belt in the art of Shaolin Kempo and a certified instructor in Tai Chi, Kung Fu and Fitness Kickboxing. Reggie also trains in Wushu and Wushu Weaponry.   

Reggie receives his Tai Chi training from Laoshi Joshua Grant. Joshua is the director of the Tai Chi and Internal Martial Arts program at the Boston Kung Fu/Tai Chi Institute, and is the U.S. Gold Medalist Tai Chi, 2x U.S. National Champion in Wushu Tai Chi, and Founder of the Boston Kung Fu Tai Chi Institute.

I feel honored and privileged to study under such a multi-talented and accomplished Tai Chi instructor as Reggie Westbrooks.  

For the Lowcountry Senior Center Tai Chi classes he has focused his teachings on movements that help with arthritis, and I find him a patient and excellent teacher.  

He also furnishes his Tai Chi students with a DVD of the movements so we can practice at home.  When he forgot to bring a DVD to class for me, he sent it to me in the mail at his own expense.  That is the kind of person he is.  Excellent!

I'm so very pleased with this class and would recommend it to all my peers who have trouble with stiff joints and arthritis.  I truly am blessed and I know it and I am very thankful!!!

My Family Tree

I've been doing genealogy again lately.  Today I thought I'd share some of my family tree with you.  It is MUCH larger than this, of course.  

I'm in the process of adding my information to wikitree.com. Most of my information is not there yet, but I'm working on it because, unlike ancestry.com, wikitree.com is free and shareable.

You can see what I've had time to add so far by clicking HERE.  Enjoy! 

Hey! We might be cousins! If we are, let me know! 

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The Fathers

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The Mothers

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DNA

A Funny Video to Cheer You

Do you ever just feel a little off? Not really sick. Not really well. Tired. Stressed.

Well, that is kinda the way I feel today, so I've decided to share a funny video to cheer myself up (and maybe you too).

Enjoy!

Pretty Convincing Information About Past Lives

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the afterlife and whether or not we have all lived past lives.  I've done a good bit of research on the subject which tends to make me ask more questions.

Here are some of the questions I've been pondering:

1. Why do I feel like I've known some people forever when we've just met?
2. Why do I intensely dislike some people on sight?
3. How do I just "know" some things like the words to songs I should not know and how to fix things I should not know how to repair?
4. Why do I know so many stories from other time periods?
5. Why am I so good with animals?

The list goes on and on and on and on....

I've had these questions on my mind a long time and, as I said, I've done quite a lot of research on the subject, so I thought I would share some things with you today.

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If you have not yet read the book, Many Lives Many Masters, RUN, do NOT walk, to the nearest library or bookstore and get yourself a copy!  You want to read this book.

Brian L. Weiss, M.D., a graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School, is the author of this book. 

Dr. Weiss was head of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach when he began treating a 27-year-old woman named Catherine. 

Catherine was depressed, anxious, and also suffered from phobias. Dr. Weiss ended up using hypnosis with her to try to get to the root of her problems.  Having no luck and feeling frustrated one day during a hypnosis session, he told her to go back to when her problems began. 

She did. 

Catherine went back to another life.

Over the course of her treatment, Dr. Weiss documented 86 lives that Catherine had lived and became convinced that he should write and share this case study thus putting his career on the line.

Many Lives Many Masters was his first book.  It is the case study of Catherine, and it will rock your world.

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Then, as luck would have it, I ran across the book, Mission to Millboro about a whole town being reincarnated together on the opposite coast from where they lived in a previous life.  You may have also seen this story on Oprah back in the 1990s.  These people have actual memories from their previous life together that are supported by verifiable facts.  Fascinating.

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But perhaps the most fascinating past life information of all is recorded in Dr. Ian Stevenson's Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation book.  You should also check out all his past life research. 

Dr. Stevenson has case studies of children who remember recent past lives. Their previous parents are still alive!  The parents from the previous life were found and all the children's memories verified and documented. 

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Seriously. You want to explore this stuff. 

Now.  Before you ask or get all bent out of shape, I am a Christian.  

You may ask yourself how a Christian can believe in reincarnation.  Simple.  I believe God can do anything He wants to do.  Just because we don't believe or understand it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

God gave me a brain to use, so while I never question my faith, I do question most other things.  I hope you do too.

Annabel Lee - By: Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe's last poem, Annabel Lee, is one of my very favorite poems.  There is a mystery about it, and I do love a good mystery.

Some people say Annabel Lee was written about his wife Virginia Poe whom he lost two years before the poem was written.  Virginia certainly was his beautiful bride, and they did fall in love as children. 

Virginia Poe

But there is a story in Charleston, SC about a sailor whose beautiful sweetheart, Annabel Lee, died of yellow fever while he was away at sea, and I, personally, think Mr. Poe may have heard this story when he was in the army and stationed at Sullivan's Island near Charleston, SC in 1827.  Like most Charleston residents, I like to think Charleston is the "Kingdom by the Sea," and I love the mystery of the beautiful Annabel Lee.  Who was she really?  Did Poe really pine for her?  Was Charleston the "Kingdom by the Sea?"

You decide. 

Today I'm reading the poem for you, and I'll also include the words below.  Enjoy!



Annabel Lee   By Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
   In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
   By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
   Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
   I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
   Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
   My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
   And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
   In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
   Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
   In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
   Of those who were older than we—
   Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
   Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
   Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
   In her sepulchre there by the sea—
   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Newgrange and Ancestors

When I had the good fortune to visit Ireland in the summer of 2005, one of the most remarkable places I saw was Newgrange.

Here is a snapshot I took when I was there:

Newgrange is located in County Meath, Ireland in the Boyne Valley.  They believe it was built by Stone Age farmers c. 3200 BC, and is a Stone Age "passage tomb."

On the Winter Solstice, the light of the rising sun enters the roofbox at Newgrange and shines down the passageway and onto the floor of the inner chamber for about 17 minutes.

The Newgrange tour takes you down into the innermost chamber of the tomb.  You want to do this tour.

Newgrange is simply a remarkable structure. It is older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza, and made of huge boulders that are not native to the area. No one knows exactly how the ancient farmers moved the stones to this location.  It is just a marvel to see.  Amazing. 

But that is not really what I want to talk about today.  

Today I want to tell you about my emotional reaction when I found myself in this lovely countryside.  At one point I remember looking around and breathing the fresh air and thinking to myself, "This is just like home (meaning the hill country of South Carolina on the North Carolina line)."

That is when I literally broke down and cried.  I couldn't help myself.  The weight of what I was witnessing hit me square in the heart.

My ancestors moved to America and settled the country around Whitaker's Mountain, Crowder's Mountain, King's Mountain, McKown's Mountain, etc. back home because they were homesick.  My Irish ancestors had been forced out of Ireland for whatever reason (famine, religion, etc.), but they missed the rolling hills, the smell of good earth, the cool breeze of their Irish home.  When they found the rolling Carolina hill country, they felt at home...or as close to home as their new country would allow. 

My heart went out to them.  All those souls standing behind me with all their stories unwritten, untold and unremembered.  I felt them that day.  Their spirit still lives in those hills of County Meath, and I cried for them.  

I hope they know that at least one of their offspring returned to their home and understood what they had lost.  May God bless each of those whose lives led to mine.  May God bless and keep them forevermore.

Readers' Choice "My Blog" Awards

Today I've been analyzing my blog to see what kinds of things you like to read best.  Please feel free to share this, so others can read them too!  

It looks like My Original Huguenot Ancestors: A True Story wins the blog award so far at 203 hits!

Here are the top ten most read blog posts as of yesterday afternoon:

Post	Hits
My Original Huguenot Ancestors: A True Story	203
Remembering My Brother, Howard	161
Ruby's 1927: A True Story	156
Remembering My Brother, Howard: A True Story	146
A "Love" Connection in Antioch Community	123
Thomas's Childhood: A True Story	109
My Tour Guide Years in Lovely Charleston, SC	109
Flying the Friendly Skies When the Skies are NOT so Friendly: A True Story	104
Change Your Luck	101
Online Housing Obsession	98

It looks like you are loving the true stories best.  The personal history stories.  Stories about things that really happened and people that really lived.  The exceptions are the advice post about how to Change Your Luck and the humorous Online Housing Obsession post.  

You like the reflective stories that are the most difficult to write.  I can't write those for you everyday.   Looking back is painful on many levels, but I will continue to write those posts for you when I can.  Those are stories I want my granddaughters to know.  Stories that need to be shared.

The least favorite post I've posted so far is one of the longer Jack Tales, but I feel very strongly that those need to be recorded and shared with the little Appalachian children (of all ages) who have never heard the tales, so I will continue to post them for the few of you who do enjoy them.  

The Appalachian dialect needs to be preserved.  It is important.  The inflections and way of wording sentences are not as common as when I was a girl.  I blame television and radio and the Internet and movies, etc. making everyone sound so similar.  Something rare and valuable will be lost when all those who understand the "Jack Tales" dialect have passed away.   

Those of you who can understand the tales should be PROUD!  Revel in who you are.  You are rare birds to be admired!

If you missed any of my top ten posts, you can click the links above to read (or reread) them.  

Enjoy!!  And thank you so much, dear readers, for reading my blog.  I'll write more by and by.

Ten Tips to Help When You're Feeling Overwhelmed

It's the beginning of the new school year.  You have a bazillion things to do and not enough time to do any of them.  It is natural to get that old familiar overwhelmed feeling at this hectic time of year.

So I'm dedicating today's post to giving you some hopefully helpful advice.  Here are a few tips to help you deal with those overwhelmed feelings:

1. Breathe.
   Just stop and breathe.  Regroup and restart.  A breath of fresh air can go a long way to calm your frazzled nerves.
2. Take a break. 
   Stop what you are doing.  Hydrate.  Give your mind a little rest.  Refresh.  Then tackle your to-do list again.
3. Do one thing at a time.
   It is easy to get distracted by starting multiple things on your list.  Fight the tendency.  Start one thing, finish it, go on to the next.  That is the quickest way to complete your list.
4. Ask for help.
   I know.  This is HARD, but if you have an approaching deadline and you know your list is too long to finish, then, by all means, ask for help. It is okay to ask for help.  You may be surprised at how happy someone else may be to work with you on your project!  You never know until you ask.
5. Say NO!
   This may be the hardest thing of all, but if you already have too many things to do, just say, "NO!" when someone asks you to do more.  You are not doing them a favor by agreeing to do something that you do not have the time or energy to give your best.
6. Take time to take care of yourself.
   Do NOT forget to eat.  Give yourself enough time to get a good night's sleep every night.  You will finish your work sooner and better if you are nourished and rested.
7. Prioritize your to-do list. 
   Finish your least favorite tasks first.  This always helps keep me motivated.  
8. Stick to Deadlines!
   Do NOT allow others to move deadlines.  It will cause major problems for everyone who is depending on all the work being done on time.  The failure of others to plan is never an emergency on your part.  If you never make deadline exceptions, then people will eventually finish their required work on time so that you can do your work, etc.
9. Forgive yourself.
   It is okay to NOT be perfect.  It is okay to make mistakes.  We learn from mistakes.  
10. Encourage yourself.
    Reward yourself for a job well done.  Tell yourself out loud that you are doing great and you only have a few more things to do before you are caught up!  Words of encouragement really help even if they are coming from YOU.  Remember that.

I hope you've found this list a little helpful.  I have to remind myself of these things all the time.  Life is just hard when you stretch yourself too thin. 

Take care and I hope you all have a wonderful day!

My First Kiss: A True Story

When you think of a first kiss, you think about starry-eyed romance.  You think about a movie scene where the teens are totally, madly, and completely in love with each other when they share their first shy kiss. 

My first kiss was NOT like that at all.

I was a teenager when it happened, as is typical, I think.  

Back then people would rent our small town's Community Center for birthdays and other types of parties.  The Community Center was only about two blocks from Mama's house, so whenever I was invited to a party, it was an easy walk to get there, and Mama would usually let me go.

When I was invited to that particular party, I remember it was Autumn in the late 1960s, and I was a student in the old Blacksburg High School (grades 7-12) that was torn down in the 1970s.  

I can't remember whose birthday it was, but I'm thinking it was a birthday party.

I honestly don't remember much about that night other than I was at a party at the Community Center and someone said, "Let's play "Spin the Bottle!"

I didn't want to play, but peer pressure is a formidable thing at that age, so I played. 

The boy who kissed me was maybe my age or a year older.  He didn't know it was my first kiss.  If I could remember his name, I would tell it to you, but I don't really remember.  I just know he was taller than me with dark hair, and it was not a good experience.

The next day at school that boy told everyone I had sex with him.  -sigh-  If a kiss shared fully dressed in front of a group of teens at a party is sex, then that is true.  If sex is more than just a public kiss with all your clothes on, then that was a lie.

Story of my life. 

No one would believe me when I said it was not true.  The more I denied it, the more they believed it.  I'm still upset about that.  If I had had sex, I would have told them.  It was just not true.

That was my first kiss.  It was the only kiss I ever shared with that young man.  I regret the kiss.

A first kiss really should be all about infatuation and romance.  Your heart should flutter and you should feel so happy that you're still floating on the feeling the next day.  

My first kiss was not like that, but I sure hope my last kiss is.  Time will tell, I guess.  😗

Firsts

Today I'm thinking about firsts.

Yesterday my Facebook feed was blown up with all the "First Day of First Grade" and "First Day as a Senior in High School" etc. posts.  This made me think about all the "Firsts" I've had in this life.

• First birthday
• First steps
• First day of school
• First home-run
• First race won
• First day of college
• First graduation
• First date
• First kiss
• First child
• First job
• First car
• First home
• First first first...

 Life is filled with Firsts! 

All the firsts I automatically think about are "good" firsts - firsts that inspire hope and anticipation. But life is also filled with bad firsts.

• First skinned knee
• First childhood disease (chickenpox, measles, mumps, etc.)
• First broken bone
• First tooth pulled
• First fight
• First race lost
• First death in the family
• First friend moved away
• First pet passed away
• First bicycle wreck
• First bad grade on a test
• First experience of being bullied
• First broken heart
• First first first...

 Yes.  Life is filled with firsts.  We choose which "Firsts" color our lives.  Which "First" memories we keep.  Which "Firsts" define us. 

Life is a messy business.  The only thing certain and truly reliable in life is change.

Firsts are about change.  You can not grow without change.  You can not learn without change.  Change is generally traumatic.  The sooner we learn to accept and embrace change, the easier our lives become. 

Just some thoughts for you today. 

My Maternal Grandmother's Funeral Photos: Gone But Not Forgotten

It was 1956.  Only a few days before my first birthday when my beloved maternal grandmother fell dead of a heart attack while hanging clothes on the line.  Her sister said, "Janie said she felt poorly this morning, so she wanted to finish the laundry first thing."
This is typical of my mother's family.  Hard workers.  All of them.  Dedicated and strong people who for the most part all died of heart attacks or some weird and very rare form of cancer.

Personally, I hope I go like Grandma.  Useful until my last breath and never a burden to my children or grandchildren.

She was 65. (b. Jan. 6, 1891 d. Jun. 19, 1956)

The photos below were taken at her graveside in the Camps Creek Baptist Church graveyard in Mooresboro, NC.  Her siblings were the Humphries family I posted about on August 1, 2016.  Many of those siblings are pictured here. 

Above, my family is pictured surrounding the flowers covering my maternal Grandmother's grave.  June 1956.  The little girl in the foreground right wearing the hat is my cousin, Edith, Aunt Vernie's daughter.  The lady crying third from the right is my precious Aunt Jean.  Her husband, George, is holding her arm trying to comfort her.  Aunt Jean was the baby of Mama's family.  Losing her Mama was a horrific unexpected blow.

In the above photo, the young boy in front is my red-headed brother, Gene, who passed away of a major heart attack in 2002.  His ashes were scattered at sea by the US Navy with full honors as he was a Vietnam War Veteran and this was his request.  My sweet and very beautiful sister, Miniver, stands beside him.  My father is behind the children on the left and my mother is cross-armed wearing white with a black collar. I do not know who the man in the middle is, but the man second from the right is my Uncle Orson (by marriage) standing beside his wife, my Aunt Vernie wearing black. They all look like they just lost their best friend, which, I guess they did.

The lady in front center with her head bowed is my dear Great-Aunt Alt (Great-Aunt by marriage, but also a cousin, as that family married cousins a LOT) The man with the glasses looking to the right is my Uncle "Bud" Ellie standing beside his wife, my precious Aunt Ellen, who died of cancer when she was only 61 or so.  The man on the far right is either my Great-Uncle Void or my Great-Uncle George.  They were brothers and looked very much alike back then.  The rest are other Aunts, Uncles, Great-Aunts, Great Uncles, and a bevy of cousins of different ages and degrees.  I sure miss all these people. 

My maternal grandmother, Janie Humphries Batchelor, lies beside my maternal grandfather, Dawson Marcus Batchelor, who died of Thypoid Fever leaving her pregnant and destitute.  If you are curious about that story, read my June 13, 2016 post.

That is all for today.  It hurts too much to look back for too long, but it is important to record family history for my sons and granddaughters and all my family generations yet unborn.  Someone will be glad I did one day.

Children Grow Up Too Fast: A Walk Down Memory Lane

This evening when I got home from work, a neighbor's little boy rode his bike (with training wheels) over to me and said, "Hey, Miss Alice!" with a big happy smile.

That child is the cutest thing and just loves to talk, so I asked him if he was going to school this year.  He excitedly told me, "I'm going to the BIG school this year!!" and grinned that little charming grin that is going to break some hearts about ten years or so from now.

I said, "You are?  The BIG school?"

He nodded his head up and down, "I'm FIVE!" He held up five fingers, and gave me a smug knowing look.  FIVE is BIG!

Let's face it. FIVE is impressive.  It is a whole handful of fingers!  He was so proud.

I'm still smiling about that encounter, and now I'm remembering when my own little boys were small, so I thought I'd share some photos with you.  I have a bazillion photos, so I'll try to control myself and only share a few of my favorites.

At first there was just Dave, of course.  I really love these two photos taken before Marcus was born.

Dave Hambright smiling at his Mama!

Dave Hambright just a couple of months before his brother, Marcus, was born.

Marcus and Dave 1976.  Dave was so proud of his brother!

Marcus and Dave. Aren't they adorable?

And then there were three!  Dave, Marcus, and Eric (6 days old) - 1978

Dave, Marcus, and Eric. Eric had naturally curly hair when he was really little.  So precious!

And they grew...

And they grew...

And they grew...

Then suddenly...they were grown....

And POOF!  They were gone.  😢

I'm so very proud of the men my sons have become, but I will miss having all my sons home everyday until the day I die...maybe longer. They grew up way too fast.  

These three are my heart.  I love them more everyday. 

The Anniversary of a Real Life Nightmare: A True Story

All mothers live in fear of the call I received, August 13, 2015, a year ago today.  

I will never forget that day and the weeks that followed.

I was at work and had just come from a 3.5 hour meeting when I saw a "Call me immediately!" email from one of my sons.  When I pulled my cell phone from my purse and saw how many missed calls I had, I panicked.

My son was trying to reach me to tell me his brother needed me, "Mama, don't panic," he said, "But Dave has been in an accident at work."

Dave was working as a welder (welding Mac trucks) at the time, so I knew how serious the accident must have been.

I immediately prepared to leave work.  Saved my files and shut down my computer. Sent emails to cancel my appointments, etc. Told my Dean I had to go to Charlotte and I didn't know when I'd be back, but I'd take Annual Leave for the trip. He was fine with that.  Thank goodness!

Called my dogsitter. Rushed home. Packed.  Drove the 3.5 hours or so to the Carolinas Medical Center in record time and found my son, Dave.

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Carolinas Medical Center - Charlotte, NC. Yes, I did finally find my son there after a LOT of walking and asking people to help me. The workers in this hospital are awesome!

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By the time I found Dave, he was still conscious, but he had lost a LOT of blood and he was in a lot of pain and needed surgery.  I stayed with him until he had recovered enough from the first surgery to care for himself.  Then I went back last December (2015) to stay with him again for his second surgery.  

Dave is still disabled from the accident, and may need a third surgery before all is said and done, but they saved his right arm (although it is terribly scarred and without feeling in places), his right hand (although it doesn't exactly work and may require more surgery), his shoulder, and, most importantly, his life.

I will always be grateful to his co-workers who took action and saved his life a year ago today.  If it were not for them, my son would have bled out, screaming for help, on that concrete floor of his workplace. 

Those brave men who acted quickly, faced all that blood, and saved my son's life, are now and will always be my heroes.  I can't thank them enough. May God bless them all.