Today

Today I am thankful that I live in the United States of America.  Today I am thankful that our children, their spouses and our grandchildren are safe.  Today I am thankful that our siblings and parents are safe.

Today I grieve for Syria.  I grieve for the loss of life.  I grieve with the living for their loved ones that no longer are.

Today I wonder how long, how long before God steps into the blue sky and says enough. Today I look towards the blessed hope.

 

Way out in the sticks

We live way out in the sticks.  I guess it's really not that far.  We're only 20 some miles from the nearest town.  The miles are what is fondly referred to as "hill miles".  A hill mile takes longer than a straight mile, mostly because there are curves 

and inclines and more curves 

 

an a couple of STEEP inclines thrown in.

There is a beautiful creek.....

something that is called a soft shoulder.

What the sign really means is there is NO SHOULDER ahead.

To make things extra interesting there is a half mile of gravel country road that leads up to our home.

  (keyword Up).  

The drive into town is one of the new things in my life that I am getting used to.

This past week was the first time we drove from "town" back to our house in the dark.  There was a women's event at James River that I wanted to attend, but I (the coward that I am) did not want to drive back home in the dark, alone.  I mentioned to Lyn that I'd like to go to the event and then dangled our grandson in front of his heart.  I said "You know, if you dropped me off you could go hang out with Ki."

If Lyn saw through me taking advantage of him, he never said a word. He just agreed to drop me off and pick me up and drive home in the dark!  That man sure does love me a ton a much!

It was an uneventful drive home.  It was dark, there were curves and steep inclines and winding roads that my husband navigated just perfectly.  It was a beautiful night.  The stars were out and the sky looked just beautiful.  I think I can manage it, maybe, one day on my own.

Living the country life, down the winding road, up the steep incline and off to the left - Ingrid

Only 5 boxes left to unpack.......

It's just over a month since we moved to Missouri.  The actual moving part went quickly it's the unpacking that has taken time.  I keep asking myself, why didn't I get rid of that in Wisconsin?  Why did I think that was so important that I needed to move it?  It's not just me, my husband - Lyn is asking the very same questions.  What was so important that I couldn't get rid of this?  These questions just lead us to the local Goodwill to donate the items we couldn't let go of.  I keep telling myself - No More Clutter.  Check back with me in 10 years and we will see how I am doing.

Now about our new place.  My friend Deb was right, she warned us about the night and the quiet.  It gets really dark out in the country and I DO need nightlights (Lyn laughs at me about this).  The quiet is also deafening.  There is no traffic noise whatsoever.  I am getting used to having a farmer for a neighbor, this means waking up to cows mooing or roosters crowing depending which sound hits my waking consciousness first.

My favorite view from our house is overlooking the Ozark Mountains.  I can't wait to see what happens in the fall.

We have inheirited a dog with our new place.  His name is Bennet.  He actually lives down the road.  He comes up to our house for breakfast and to lay around on our front porch.  This really is the best way to have a dog.  No responsibility. No picking up afterwards.  Just a head to pet.  In repayment he semi-protects our house.  

We've found some snakes around the property.  So far the count is snake's 2, Gunther's 4. My husband thought it would be funny to place this snake on the garage floor for me to find.  It worked, it scared the bejeebers out of me.

Fake Snakes.  It's still there, in the garage, my daughters tell me I should cut its head off.

This friendly turtle came to visit us.  We've also had a few lizards which are interesting to me, having never really been in an area where they live. 

If you look very carefully inbetween the spindles there are two deer in the meadow.

So far we are enjoying the country life, and we're about ready to start Lyn's business.  That's a whole nother story.  I'll keep you in the loop.

It's difficult coming up with a name for your blog in today's world.....

I’ll bet your wondering about the name of my blog…..I was at a Women’s event and there was a hair and make-up demonstration.    The stylist was applying make-up to a model’s face.  She was putting a shimmery/glittery substance around the model’s eyes.  As she applied the make-up she was talking, giving advice and this is where I got the title for my blog.   She said, (to the best of my memory) “Women with, um (she was searching for just the right word here) MATURE SKIN shouldn’t use anything with glitter in it because it gets stuck in the crevices of the skin.”  

Oh my goodness.  I have mature skin.  I really do.  The skin is there, I don’t know how I got it.  When I think of my skin it is soft and smooth dare I say supple, so it comes as a bit of a surprise when looking in the mirror that I come to the realization that this is a woman who should not use products with glitter in them.

Fast Forward to the next day…. I am putting away the table decorations from the table my daughter’s and I hosted.  There happened to be some glittery ornaments.  One of those crazy ornaments had a wild mind of its own.  It did not want to be placed in the box.  I grabbed it gently not wanting to get glitter on my fingers, and it popped out of my grasp, jumped up and hit me in the face.

I really didn’t think much more about it until I started to get ready for church.  Looking in the mirror, right above my eye was a big smear of glitter.  I just learned that glitter was a big huge no-no for mature skin!  I used a dry rag to try and brush it off my face.  Yeah - that did not work.  I made the wash rag wet, that did not work.  I tried covering it up with make-up, that did not work.  Nothing was working; everything I tried spread the glitter further around my face and into the crevices of my skin.  I ended up going to church with glitter in my makeup on my Mature Skin.

Welcome to my blog!