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Maxine Lee is grandmother of our good friend carterzest. Today’s guest post from Maxine is the last in this series of seven drawn from the narrative of her family’s history from her 2005 publication – Some Assembly Required.  The publishing of her stories was a result of her dream “to leave a printed account to my family, of my beginning, my birth place and childhood, and a few of the lessons life has taught to me.”  Thank you, Maxine, for sharing with us what you gathered for them.

Bing Crosby, with Pennies from Heaven, provides a nice book end for this enjoyable series as well as a framing for Maxine’s Scripture thought for today, which carries the same title. Thank you, Maxine, for all of the word pictures of all the pennies from heaven that fill our lives – blessings past, present, and future.   ~Sharon

General Foods

Hog Butcherin’, Hayin’ and Puttin’-By

In the early summer, we had ice cream. Dad and the boys went to the lake and cut out huge blocks of ice in winter, buried it in sawdust piles which kept enough ice to make ice cream. Churned by hand, packed in ice and salt and covered with gunny sacks to harden, the ice cream was soon ready to be eaten.

Since we always had milk, mom made biscuits and white gravy. That is still one of my favorite things – with sausage or salted beef. We often had fried potatoes. They were crisp, salted and peppered and cooked in an old black cast-iron skillet – the best way to do fried potatoes. Adding onions gave the potatoes still another flavor.

I know we had meat all winter and chicken in summer, but it didn’t make that big an impression on me. I do recall wanting to chew on the bony pieces of chicken, because the meat was always juicier on the wings and back. We were given only one piece of chicken and it was hard to choose: quality or quantity.

In summer, there were green onions and radishes, watermelon and cantaloupe. I didn’t learn to like the melons until I was older. I have already mentioned how important fish was to us which I still appreciate. Dessert was a once-in-a-while event.

When we lived in Oregon, meat became a once-a-week treat. In fact, it seems we never had anything in the house to eat. My teen years were the hardest, food-wise and otherwise; but that’s another story. When we lived on the Flynn place, and while Mom was in town one day, my brother got the bag of raisins down from the top of the cupboard, ate a lot, and talked me into helping myself to the raisins, that way Mom wouldn’t get quite so mad at him. We must have been hungry. (more…)

Recent Mississippi Polling pdf

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Y’all already know the topic of this captured moment.  However, in case anyone needs a reminder (more…)

In the middle of the night 4 thugs broke into a family home in New Port Richey, Florida.  These are three of them:

The Father calls 911 – a local operator switches him to another dispatch – and this happens: (more…)

That headline might sound ridiculous, but at the core of this story – that’s what’s going on.  And before you dismiss it, it’s far more common than you would think…

Happy Fathers Day from the New Jersey Politburo:

BACKSTORY – A 13-year-old New Jersey middleschooler was twirling a pencil in class.  Another student said he made it look like a gun and reported it to the teacher.

The teacher over-reacted, the school’s initial response compounded the stupidity.

Dad went public.

The community and media ridiculed the school heavily.  The School District Superintendent had no choice but to side with Dad – the entire incident was insufferably silly.

Embarrassed, and feeling pressure from both district administration and the media as well as the broader public, the school backed down, way down, even sending Dad an apology.

However, either for spite -or because they are constitutionally stupid- I’d guess the former, the administration of the school filed an “incident report” with Child Protection and Permanency, a division within the New Jersey CFS (Child Family Services).

That kicked 13-year-old junior and Dad into the New Jersey CFS system.

Dad was now demanded by the state to send junior to a psychologist for an evaluation.  That’s when things went downhill….. quickly. (more…)

(Via Sharyl Attkisson)  The news came late in the day on Friday the 13th.

According to the House Ways and Means Committee, the IRS reports having “lost” former IRS manager Lois Lerner’s emails to and from other IRS employees sent between January of 2009 and April of 2011 due to a ‘computer crash.’

In light of the disclosure, these are some of the logical requests that should be made of the IRS:

• Please provide a timeline of the crash and documentation covering when it was first discovered and by whom; when, how and by whom it was learned that materials were lost; the official documentation reporting the crash and federal data loss; documentation reflecting all attempts to recover the materials; and the remediation records documenting the fix. This material should include the names of all officials and technicians involved, as well as all internal communications about the matter.
• Please provide all documents and emails that refer to the crash from the time that it happened through the IRS’ disclosure to Congress Friday that it had occurred.
• Please provide the documents that show the computer crash and lost data were appropriately reported to the required entities including any contractor servicing the IRS. If the incident was not reported, please explain why.
• Please provide a list summarizing what other data was irretrievably lost in the computer crash. If the loss involved any personal data, was the loss disclosed to those impacted? If not, why?

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Funny, well sort of, “it takes a Bush to protect vital U.S. interests” ie. American Citizens…. (the headlines write themselves) ….

WASHINGTON DC […] Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush to move from the North Arabian Sea into the Persian Gulf, which CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported Friday was expected to happen. The Bush is carrying fighter jets that could easily get to Iraq.

“The order will provide the commander in chief additional flexibility should military options be required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq,” Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement Saturday.

A guided-missile cruiser, the USS Philippine Sea, and a guided-missile destroyer, the USS Truxtun, would accompany the carrier, Kirby said.  [*NOTE* The ships carry Tomahawk missiles… /SD]  The ships were expected to arrive in the Gulf later Saturday.

Fighters from the al Qaeda splinter group, drawing support from former Saddam Hussein-era figures and other disaffected Sunnis, have made dramatic gains in the Sunni heartland north of Baghdad after overrunning Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul on Tuesday. Soldiers and policemen have melted away in the face of the lightning advance, and thousands have fled to the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq. (more…)