The cost of freedom...

This intense little poem is linked to week 161 of Saturday Centus.   The prompt is in bold.   To read other uses of this prompt, just click here.

 

Who are you for me to die?

 

To defend your land,

 

your life,

 

your pride.

 

On the battlefields of night…

 

... two opposing forces fight!

 

And in the conflict of the two

 

I’m trapped.

 

I’m caught.

 

And all for you.

 

The flag we share

 

Red, white and true.

 

Who are you to feel my sweat?

 

As I face the practiced hand of death?

 

(with pounding heart)

 

(with prayers at hand)

 

March, march forward in foreign land.

 

Look ahead.

 

Don’t look behind.

 

Focus, focus …task on hand.

 

Who are you for me to die?

 

My brother, father, sister…why?

 

I’m terrified.

 

I march.

 

I fall.

 

All gave some. Some gave all.

Alphabe-Thursday Letter B

Good morning class. Welcome to round seven of Alphabe-Thursday!

Today we will be bellowing about the beautiful letter:


Please link directly to your Alphabe-Thursday URL (if you don't know how to do this let me know!) and please continue to visit the five links before and after your link and leave a comment. Minimum of 10 links visited please. You can visit more if you like, of course.

I am, as always, behind on visits.   But I'll be by soon!

If you have any difficulties with your link, please make sure to include the number of the link when you e-mail me. It is really difficult for me to find you easily otherwise.

If you have any questions about Alphabe-Thursday or problems doing your link just post it in a comment or send me an e-mail. I'll do my best to help you as quickly as I can.

The McLinkey will be live from 1:00 pm MST time Wednesday afternoon in an effort to assist our lovely "friends across the pond" and continue through 10:00 am MST time Friday morning!

And remember.... link back to this post, you need to be registered as a follower of my blog, PG posts only, and try to visit at least 10 other students (perhaps the 5 students before and after your post). The links will stay live after the final post deadline has passed so you can even wait and visit over the weekend or whenever you have more time.

Please bring your best letter B now!

Sleepless in a caboose!

...and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

 

But we've been up since 3:30 am and it was a long drive home!

 

I can't wait to do a show and tell about the caboose overnight...

 

...but it's not gonna be tonight!

 

It was definitely an experience!

 

I'll be back!

I hate to get all personal on you ...

... And talk about stuff like sleeping together and...

Ummm....

Okay.

I guess  it's not THAT personal...

But it is cool!

Mr. Jenny and I have reservations to sleep in a caboose tonight!!!!

I am soooo excited!

This is the caboose and that building to the right is where the bathroom is!!!!

I'll take a lot of pictures...

But not, you know, of the personal stuff...

Like the snoring and the drooling.

Sigh...

If you've missed the start of our arrival at the caboose, just click here.
 

Sorrow can be marked in many ways...

Perhaps...

...in the tears that burn a path down our aging face...

...In the woulda/coulda/shoulda ache that never diminishes...

...in the flowers we leave behind on the grave.

We care.

But we can't talk of it.

Because our sorrow is too immense for words...

...and words choke like a stone in our throats.

As the years pass we turn the stone of our grief over and over again...

...seeking a less jagged edge...

...a smoother ease of memory that doesn't tear open the old wounds and make our souls bleed again.

There is never a less jagged edge.

There is only the flowers  we offer withering on the grave of remembrance...  

...wilting in the sunshine as a small token that we remember.

And that we still care.  

Saturday Centus - Week 161

 

 
 

Welcome to week ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE of Saturday Centus. 

 

The prompt this week:   'All gave some.   Some gave all."

Number of words:  106 total (including the six words of the prompt)

Style of writing: Any

Additional Pictures: Any

The regular restrictions apply: PG, no splitting of the prompt, play nicely and visit the other entries, any style or genre of writing you prefer.

Please display my link button or just a hyper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.

E-mail me directly with ???'s or ask your question in a comment and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Feel free to link up any time between now and next Saturday...

How to NOT start a road trip right!

Follow these simple instructions to start a road trip in a not particularly pleasant fashion.

 

1.   Wake your person at approximately 3:12 am on the morning you are leaving.

 

2.   Ask them an extremely relevant question.  An example of which might be, "How do you suppose  someone figured out how to roll out corn kernels to make corn flakes?"

 

3.  Prepare for your person to be cranky for a hundred miles or so since you woke them up so early.

 

Sigh.

 

I am neither confirming or denying that I did, indeed, wake Mr. Jenny with this exact question.

 

But, seriously.

 

How do YOU suppose someone figured out how to roll out corn kernels to make corn flakes?

 

I mean, really.   Think how long it would have taken to make just one bowl of cereal.

 

Sigh.

 

You know how sometimes song lyrics...

...get stuck in your brain...

 

and you are compelled to sing them over and over and over and over and over (teehee!) again...

 

...to the irritation and dismay of others...

 

(in my case Mr. Jenny's)

 

...and you realize that the song lyrics you are singing have absolutely nothing to do with what is going on in your life but you can't stop, regardless.

 

Yeah.

 

Me, too.

 

I get all that.

 

Because I have been singing Neil Diamond's "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show"...

 

Over and over.

 

"Pack up the babies,

and grab the old ladies...

'cause everyone knows

brother Love's show

Hallelujah!"

 

(if you don't know this song you can click on the title above for a link!)

 

Anyway.

 

I think I've been singing this 'cuz we are getting for a little road trip!

 

We're off to see our Grandson, Quinn who celebrated his first birthday a few weeks ago.

I've been painting all kinds of stuff to take up in the truck!

 

Signs.

 

A little picnic table.

 

A rocking chair!

 

A growth chart!

 

 

For some reason our laden down pick-up truck is making me think of this song.

 

Although it's not August.

 

And I don't even know who Brother Love is.

 

Hot August night and the leaves hangin' down
And the grass on the ground smellin' - sweet
Move up the road to the outside o' town
And the sound o' that good gospel beat
Sits a ragged tent, where there ain't no trees
And that gospel group, tellin' you and me

It's Love, Brother Love
Say Brother Love's Travellin' Salvation Show
Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies
And everyone goes, 'cause everyone knows, Brother Love's show

 

I love road trips, man!

 

I just hope I can get this song out of my head before my husband leaves me at a rest stop somewhere between Arizona and Idaho!

 

Hallelujah, baby!

 

We're rolling north!

I hope you and Brother Love have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Painted Alphabet - Letter A

Aloha from sunny Arizona.

Or perhaps when you read this I will be in sunny Idaho!

We're leaving in the morning for a road-trip!   I'll tell you why on Thursday's post.

In the meantime.

Ahem.

Nothing says Alphabe-Thursday like...

...

ta!da!

The alphabet!

15" x 16"

I highlighted the letter "R" for our youngest Grandlittle, Remington.

This picture totally cracks me up!   Look at his hands and feet moving at blur speed!

I think he's really adorable.

But then...

I might be biased!
 

Sign is hand-painted and available in my Etsy shop...you can see the mini link at the top right of my blog or click on any picture for a link!  No stickers...no stencils...my designs.

 

This post is linked to Alphabe-Thursday's Letter A.   To read other A offerings, just click here.

 

Alphabe-Thursday Letter A

Good morning class. Welcome to round SEVEN of Alphabe-Thursday!

Gosh.   Hard to imagine we've done six rounds of this already!   I still think it's fun and I'm glad some of you do, too!

I look forward to seeing what you have to share...and I want to thank each of you personally for participating. Sometimes life feels so chaotic that I like the steadiness of one little thing I can depend on!

Today we will be sharing all aspects of the letter:



Please link directly to your Alphabe-Thursday URL (if you don't know how to do this let me know!) and please continue to visit the five links before and after your link and leave a comment. Minimum of 10 links visited please. You can visit more if you like, of course.

I also want to let you know that each week I visit every blog. If it appears I haven't visited your blog by the following Thursday morning, please let me know!

If you have any difficulties with your link, please make sure to include the number of the link when you e-mail me. It is really difficult for me to find you easily otherwise.

If you have any questions about Alphabe-Thursday or problems doing your link just post it in a comment or send me an e-mail. I'll do my best to help you as quickly as I can.

I also want to mention that sometimes when I visit wordpress blogs the only way I can leave a comment is by using an e-mail address DIFFERENT than the one I have linked to blogger.  If you see odd e-mail address that's why I'm doing it.

The McLinkey will be live from 1:00 pm MST time Wednesday afternoon in an effort to assist our lovely "friends across the pond" and continue through 10:00 am MST time Friday morning!

And remember.... link back to this post, you need to be registered as a follower of my blog, PG posts only, and try to visit at least 10 other students (perhaps the 5 students before and after your post). The links will stay live after the final post deadline has passed so you can even wait and visit over the weekend or whenever you have more time.

Please advise us what your A post is, by linking now:

The Days of Swine and Roses

Okay.

Technically it was a single day.

Just one.

And not even a full day.

It was maybe 30 minutes.  But in that time period...

I swear I heard heavenly violins playing.

And I am almost positive I saw angels dancing.

Not going to quite guarantee the roses...

...but the swine.

Oh, baby.

 

 

The swine.

Saturday Mr. Jenny and I had an errand to do that involved driving to the 'Edge of the Earth, Arizona.'

 

We were headed that direction anyway because that's where our youngest Granddaughter, Mo, plays soccer.

At an indoor arena.

Hee hee.

Gotta love indoor arenas when you live in Arizona.

After the soccer game (Miss Mo scored 4 (according to us) and 5 (according to her) goals)...

...we needed to drive quite a way to pick up a picnic table we had made for our Grandson Quinn's first birthday.

We drove.

We drove.

We checked our directions.

We drove.

And then...

Out of the corner of my eye I saw it.

A giant pink pig.
 

With eyelashes.
 

"OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!" I shrieked to Mr. Jenny.   "STOPSTOPSTOPYOUGOTTASTOP!   THIS IS THE PORK SHOP EVERYBODY TELLS US ABOUT!!!! STOP!"
 

Mr. Jenny heaved a mighty sigh.
 

Looked at me across the truck cab.

 

Raised an eyebrow.

 

"Everybody?   Everybody in the whole entire world tells you about the pork shop?"



 I blushed.

"Okay, not technically everybody!" (insert eye roll here)  "Tom told us about it!   Remember?   Remember how we were talking about furnace filtures and then how we ..."

 

Mr. Jenny stopped me.

 

"That's fine.   Let's go in and see what they have!"

 

And he turned the truck into the parking lot!

 

squuuuueeeeaaaalllll!

 

I was excited.

 

I was more excited than...

 

Well.

 

Just trust me.

 

I was excited.

 

And I was even more excited when we went inside and it was SAUSAGE SAMPLING DAY!

 

Seriously.

 

I'm not making this up.

 

SAUSAGE SAMPLING DAY!

 

There were crockpots and platters everywhere.

 

See what I mean about heavenly angels?

 

And there was a cool guy with a 'stache.

 

And.

 

Did I mention there was lots and lots of sausage samples.

 

Oh.

My.

 

Seriously.

 

Swine and Roses.

 

I kid you not.

If you can't make it to the Pork Chop to try their delectable offerings, you can at least read about the 'stache guy by clicking here.

 

PS.   Sorry about the formatting.   Blogger is excited about the Pork Chop, too, and it just won't concentrate on letting me put appropriate spacing in.  

 

 

Peaceful soul winner!

Thank you so much for participating!

The winner of the sign and book is Linda!

Her winning comment was this one: Linda @ A La Carte said... Jenny when I choose JOY as my word for this year, it was in the hopes of moving forward and away from the chaos and guilt. Hmmmmmmm....working on it! I must say at times I get so bogged down in the things I did wrong that I forget all I've done right. I'm throwing my name in the pot for this book for sure. Wishing you Peace my dear friend! hugs, linda May 15, 2013 at 9:20 AM

Linda, please e-mail me your mailing address (jennymatlock at cox dot net with the word 'winner' in the subject line!)  and I will get your prize shipped out to you tomorrow! I did correct the word 'it's' on the sign...so don't worry!

Hugs and peace to you all!

Saturday Centus Week 160

 

 
 

Welcome to week ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY of Saturday Centus.  This is Captain Tessa Rose with a little Pirate Challenge.

Oh.  I learned my pirate name was Tessa Rose from clicking here and going through a kinda/sorta weird quiz.

Hey, it's hot outside.   A girl has to keep boredom at bay in whatever air conditioned fashion is available.
 

The prompt this week:   "ARGH, MATEY!" 

Number of words:  102 total (including the two words of the prompt)

Style of writing: Any but feel free to 'talk like a Pirate' and use your own Pirate Name (unless you think that's silly)

Additional Pictures: Any

The regular restrictions apply: PG, no splitting of the prompt, play nicely and visit the other entries, any style or genre of writing you prefer.

Please display my link button or just a hyper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.

E-mail me directly with ???'s or ask your question in a comment and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Feel free to link up any time between now and next Saturday...
div>

Dried up fountain of youth?

This little one-sided conversation takes place according to the bolded prompt.  It's a SC link.   To read other offerings using this prompt, just click here.

 

 “Holy Shirley Temple! 

You’re NOT going to card me?

Really?

REALLY?

Lookie here, you little dork.

I’ve lost fifty … ummm… I mean… a lot of pounds…

I dumped my husband.

I got this new two-toned choppy hair style…

AND!!!!

I would show you my new tat…

But then, I’d have to kill you.

Seriously?

You don’t want to card me?

I’ve been lipoed, botoxed, lifted and tucked…

And you don’t want to frickin’ card me?

Okay, fine.

So listen up you brat.   Here’s what I want to drink…

You put the lime in the coconut.

Don’t look at me like that!  Of course it’s a drink!!!”

Painted Alphabet Letter Z

Zippety doo dah!

Zippety day!

I painted something for the letter Z!

Hooray!

I like this in a weird, folk-art sort of way.  This sign really takes me back to the days my kids were young.

 16" x 9"

Zis was fun to paint!

 

I hope you enjoyed looking at it.

 

Signs are hand-painted and available in my Etsy shop...you can see the mini link at the top right of my blog or click on any picture for a link!  No stickers...no stencils...my designs.

 

This post is linked to Alphabe-Thursday's Letter Z.   To read other Z offerings, just click here.

 

Just sayin'...

...if you're old...

 

...and, ummm...

 

GRAVITY DENSE...

 

(please feel free to use that in lieu of fluffy or fat if the situation applies

 

blush...)

 

You may wish to resist the urge to cannonball...

into your pool...

 

ouch!

 

...to impress your Grandlittles with how cool you are.

 

It is not a good idea.

 

And as a piece of further unasked for advice...

 

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GO DOWN THE SLIDE EITHER!

 

...

...

 

sigh...

 

PS.   You're welcome.

 

Alphabe-Thursday Letter Z

Good morning class. 

Welcome to the end of round six of Alphabe-Thursday! Today we will be studying the zippy letter:


...but before we do please


I have something important to tell you.

Round SEVEN of Alphabe-Thursday will start immediately. We will not have a break in between rounds.

It's hard to believe we've done the alphabet six times before, but I'm still enjoying it so I'm still going to keep it going.  It's always such a good distraction for me and I'm happy so many of you are enjoying it, too!

I haven't even figured out if I'm doing a theme this round or just random stuff.  I like doing it both ways...so maybe I'll surprise myself!

Ha!

Everything else remains the same.

Please link directly to your Alphabe-Thursday URL (if you don't know how to do this let me know!) and please continue to visit the five links before and after your link and leave a comment. Minimum of 10 links visited please. You can visit more if you like, of course, and please try very hard to visit the blogs that visit you for this meme.

I also want to let you know that each week I visit every blog. If it appears I haven't visited your blog by the following Thursday evening, please let me know!  I am one week behind in my reading, though.  Just starting on the letter Y's.

If you have any difficulties with your link, please make sure to include the number of the link when you e-mail me. It is really difficult for me to find your link otherwise. And, if you see any broken links, please let me know that as well.

If you have any questions about Alphabe-Thursday or problems doing your link just post it in a comment or send me an e-mail. I'll do my best to help you as quickly as I can.

The McLinkey will be live from 1:00 pm MST time Wednesday afternoon in an effort to assist our lovely "friends across the pond" and continue through 10:00 am MST time Friday morning!

And remember.... link back to this post, you need to be registered as a follower of my blog, PG posts only, and you must visit at least 10 other posts...perhaps consider starting from the last posts and work backwards. The links will stay live after the final post deadline has passed so you can even wait and visit over the weekend or whenever you have more time.

Please link your zany Z post now!

Mother's Day. And a Giveaway!

Mother's Day can be hard.

 

As I get older, I find it's definitely not a day for sissies.

Don't get me wrong.

I had a great one.

Spent some time with our newest Grandlittle and his Momma.

Enjoyed some beautiful flowers.

Talked and face-timed with every single one of the kids and Grandlittles.

Spent the afternoon reading magazines... (this always feels like such a guilty pleasure for me!)

And I also spent a lot of time doing what I always do.

Beating myself up.

I've gotten better over the years, but I still do it.

...and frankly...

it's annoying.

I've been working really hard on myself and my attitudes and being positive and dealing with the cards I've been dealt.

And rejoicing in the cards I've escaped.

 

I've tried to have no expectations and become unoffendable...

But, somehow...

On Mother's Day and Christmas all bets are off.

Those seem to be the days that I drag out my remorse and guilt...

And cuddle up with them until I'm feeling kinda/sorta miserable.

 

You know?

It's not like I do it for the WHOLE day!

It's not like I don't enjoy the day!

It's just that...

YessireeBob...

Mother's Day can make your Mother's heart feel sad.

There you are.

Eating your chocolates and looking at your flowers and thinking...

"Man-oh-man-oh-man, I wish I would have done this different.   Man-oh-man-oh-man, I should have done THAT different.   Man-oh-man-oh-man..."

Well.

You get the idea.

 

This year I was starting to get all comfy/cozy with remorse and guilt and I remembered something I read a few weeks ago in my 'Courage to Change' book.

 

You might recall I wrote about that little Al-Anon book in a post called 'Duane T.'  You can read that by clicking here if you like.

 

Anyway.

 

What I read basically said that...

 

When we think about past mistakes we tend to react with guilt and overexaggeration of our mistakes.

 

And when we chain ourselves to the past we can never heal old wounds  and move forward into a more joyous life.

 

By believing in ourselves we become free to contribute in a positive way to our OWN life without blowing our mistakes out of proportion.

 

There was also a quote by John Lilly that felt quite relevant to my emotions...

 

'You don't have to suffer continual chaos in order to grow.'

 

Wow.   What a thought.

 

...

 

...

 

 

It's funny.

 

The more I learn about coping and letting go, the more I am able to cope and let go.

 

And the more I cope and let go, I find peace within myself.

 

It's wonderful to find that...

I don't know if you're struggling to find peace.

But if you are, this giveaway is for you.

AND the sign will be grammatically correct with no apostrophe in the word 'it's'.   D'oh.   BLUSH.

 

The prize contains two items.

 

Two.   Count 'em.

 

The first item is my current copy of Courage to Change.   The one that I wrote about.   I've already ordered a replacement for myself.   I think there might be some extra strength in this particular book and I'd like you to have it, too.

 

The second item is the Peace sign pictured.  This sign is from my Etsy shop.  It's 15" x 16".  You can click on the sign for a link to more information about it.

 

Here's the 'rules':

You can enter today, the 14th, and every day through Saturday, June 18 for a total of 5 entries.
Your comment on THIS post is your entry into the drawing. 
Winner picked by random drawing and announced on Sunday, June 19.
Please be certain that I have an e-mail address to contact you because I will mail the prize out the 20th.

I wish I could send a copy of this book to all of you.

 

It is truly amazing.

 

And so is finding peace.

 

Thank you for stopping by.

 

PS.   I have pictures from 'Picking' at GM (and I got some cool stuff!), but I need to get them off my phone!   I'm going to work on that tomorrow morning!   Right now I have a date with the season finale of Revolution. 

Happy Mother's Day

“Through the blur, I wondered if I was alone or if other parents felt the same way I did - that everything involving our children was painful in some way. The emotions, whether they were joy, sorrow, love or pride, were so deep and sharp that in the end they left you raw, exposed and yes, in pain. The human heart was not designed to beat outside the human body and yet, each child represented just that - a parent's heart bared, beating forever outside its chest.”   Debra Ginsberg