Betty Botter Baked Bread & Snacked on Sesame Seeds by the Sea Shore

No, I don't know Betty Botter; I just wanted to combine two tongue twisters. Today, a woman-friend taught me the art of mixing, kneading, braiding, baking, and glazing homemade wheat & sesame seed bread. I felt like a 1940s housewife. Her whole adorable house smelled of firewood and bread dough. During rising and baking intervals,the two of us chatted and played with her chubby cats around her old potbelly fireplace.
I left her house as the horizon was turning baby-blanket pink. I turned left instead of homeward right and drove until I could see nothing but wet rocks and sky ahead of me. I pulled into a pebble parking lot and took in the view. If the sky were the dome of the Pantheon, then the oculus was periwinkle, the walls were pink, and the line between the two colors was as distinct as Vespasian's bald spot. The moon made me think of the firefly-filled crystal ball from Prince John's purple-curtained chariot in Disney's Robin Hood. (http://www.youtube.comwatch?v=om8CSWFKJmk) That may be because I had Oo-de-lally Oo-de-lally Golly What a Day stuck in my head this morning. Anyway, the moon was ginormous and bright! It hovered over the ocean that had regurgitated it a few minutes before. The pacific will swallow it back up in the morning. The water reflected the sky's soft tones aside from the foam which shone like neon in the moonlight. The waves lapped and splashed on the darkening rocks and I sat for a few minutes in my car and ate sesame seed bread while I watched the night fall.

Snow White v. Maid Marian

interesting, huh?
AND Little John does the exact same dance with Clucky http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YineYdEwTAQ&NR=1 that Balu does with the orangutan in Jungle Book http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9cWkUhZ8n4&feature=related. BTW, the same actor plays both bear character's voices. And in this same scene, a the band members are taken directly from Aristacats! Don't tell me the love scene doesn't remind you of lion king.

Lady, you are a treasure.

My sister-in-law wrote this. I love it :).

“The Father’s Love”

A Father gently strokes the head of his young child, her eyes gazing up into his. “All the world is for you”, he tells her. “Every mountain is so that you may be close to the heavens, every brook to reflect your beauty, every star to shine your brightness. The trees dance to your songs in the wind; their leaves soften your footsteps. The sweetest nectarine is nothing compared to the sweetness of your soul. Your grandeur is captivated by the first day of spring. The strength of all the oceans combined is no match for the endurance your spirit possesses. The purest silver tarnishes in your presence. You are a prized jewel, a diamond among rocks. All will be impressed by your beauty.”

Many, however, will see it and plan evil plots, for they cannot withstand the goodness you emit. In disguises they will knock on your door, seducing with false promises. They hunger to steal every delicate piece of your precious heart and destroy it, for they gain pleasure from a woman’s pain. Empty and hopeless, these victimized women turn hard and cold. Too fearful of experiencing the agony they had felt before, they shut their hearts to the world and to themselves, living a life without love.”

You will not fall for such disaster, for I will save you when you call upon me. I will carry you when you are weak. I will be the burning fire that keeps you warm on a barren night, and the lighthouse whose light beckons you to shore when you are lost at sea. The meadows whisper my adoration of you, the lilies my affection. One day a worthy man will come for your hand. He will bring you much happiness and love, and you will give to him everything except that which belongs to me; there will always be a sacred place for me in your heart and you in mine. For a love with a man is good, but the love with the Father is holy.”

Feeling an inner peace, the little girl began to nod off into sleep, her hand still grasping tightly to His.

Bandwagon Bobbleheads... roll off

Big eyes in baby beds
Bandwagon bobble heads
Base drum, humdrum, clones on parade

Saturdays in shopping malls
Phone calls from bathroom stalls
Pitter patter, bitter batter, bottled renegade

Despondent fools on bar stools
Buoyant boys on red bull
Bad habits, “dag nabit”, old hopes delayed

Sing along with Spinal Tap
Hypocrisy's a booby trap
Lash out, drop out, end this lame charade

Face down on the floor
Knocking on the right door
Limbs askew, by Christ renewed, a lifelong serenade

first impression of my husband

So I am writing this book and my husband and I are side characters in it. I started typing about when the main character-girl meets Chris for the first time and I got a little carried away. I'm not leaving all this in the book, but I did want to document it somewhere. So here it is- a first impression of my husband.

"I turn to see a tall man in boots and Rangers hat pull a gas can out of his pickup bed....Chris looks clean cut, yet somehow rugged at the same time. There’s a confidence in his stride that looks particularly good in his snug jeans. Both his blue eyes and his smile are bright and his voice is warm and welcoming. 'Now that is a man,' I catch myself thinking."

I am proud of my husband

My husband is helping in Haiti with the Coast Guard.

Faith in a Limitless God

Luke 17:5-6 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.

Sometimes, I forget just how limitless Jesus is. He has calmed storms, healed lepers, turned water into wine, turned darkness into light, and made a sinner like me holy. He says that whatever I ask for in His name, He will give me. He says that, by His name, I can plant a mulberry tree in the sea. Why do I shortchange his power despite all evidence?
In Mark 9, a Philippian man brings his son, who is possessed by a demon, to Jesus. He says to Jesus, "If you can do anything, help us.” Jesus responds "If I can? Everything is possible for him who believes." Immediately the man exclaims, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" In response to that request, Jesus heals his son.
The people of Nazareth lacked faith too, but, unlike the father in Philippi, they did not ask for more of it. In Matthew 13, "Jesus said to them, 'Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.' And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith."
I feel like Jesus’ “hometown” is now in my heart. If I lack faith in His power, He will not do many miracles there. But if I ask for more faith, then I see many miracles. Ephesians 2:8 says that our faith is not from ourselves. It is a gift from God. Like the man at Philippi in Mark 9 and like the disciples in Luke 17, we should ask Jesus to give us the gift of faith.

Three Kinds of Snow from an Espresso-drinking Bookstore Shopper

1) Clustered chunks of snowflakes fall steadily like powdered sugar, which gravity seems to pull more slowly than salt. They are in no particular hurry, but they know where they are going and how to get there.
2) Smaller more compact pellets of snow plummet like dry white raindrops. To squirrels, these must be like hailstones. (These do not fall as spaced out as the clustered chunks do. But I think the same quantity of snow falls per sq. inch per hour for both types).
3) Clumsy wondering flurries seem to have no idea where the ground is and don't seem to care much about getting there. They drift leftward and rightward and collide often. Some even appear to drive upward on occasion.

The third is the kind of snow I watched from the espresso shop in historic downtown Dover today. That is where I wrote these definitions.
Afterward, I took my little espresso to an old multi-room resale bookstore. Do you know what a bookstore that is too small for its inventory looks like? Well, The books are compressed tightly and their weight causes the cheap shelves to bow in the middle. Rows of books even line the bases of the shelves, narrowing the isles. In some places, books are even crammed sideways ontop of stout codexes. Some books have seen many a shop and some have long stared at the walls of a cardboard box while others are hot off the press. The diversity in age reminds me of a small-town church. The place was quite comfy. Too bad there was no room for a chair.