Thursday, May 31, 2012

City-Slicking Rednecks Celebrate...

If this is YOUR kind of campfire food,





come find out more at



My blogging friends have been such a blessing,
as we blog through our lives together.

I'd love to have you follow me over to Wordpress
 and  become a follower.

Thanks!



Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Up or Down? The Debate Continues...

Husbands can be annoying,
but usually because wives are easily annoyed.






Follow me to


to read about my Midnight Splash
ans find a solution to the age-old problem -

up
or
down?

*****

Because I eventually plan to develop an
author website,
yea' I wanna' be an author,
I've changed to Wordpress.
Later, my blog will merge with my website.

I don't want to miss my blogging friends who have supported
me through years of laughs and tears.

Wordpress doesn't have the same functionality,
but you can sign up to receive my blog in your email.

I'd love to have you remain a part of my journey!

Thanks!

Momma Mindy






Thursday, May 10, 2012

Never Weary in Well-Doing

Galatians 6:9
 And let us not grow weary while doing good,
for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.



It's easy to lose heart,
when we're
tired,
tested,
battle-weary
and
discouraged.


Follow me over to my new wordpress blog
to see how the Lord greatly blessed me
in a surprising way.

I was weary,
and almost said
NO
to a blessing the Lord had planned
to encourage me at a time
when I needed it most.

C'mon, click on the link,
I know you wanna' hear how the story ends...





Sunday, May 6, 2012

A Peeping Tom is Watching My Cheese Move

I have two serious issues to blog about.

One is
cheese moving,
as in Blogger has moved my cheese so many times,
I'm no longer interested in the maze.



I've moved to WORDPRESS, as in
 MommaMindy.WordPress.com

Please follow the cheese crumbles over,
my followers mean so much to me,
and I'd love to have you continue to be a part of my life.




My second serious issue is that I have
a peeping Tom.

Portions of my life, blogged and unblogged,
are being made public for the whole world to see.


My most recent blog is at Wordpress,
sing the title to the tune of
"Where is My Hairbrush?"
if you can without annoying yourself.

C'mon, click on the words
"recent blog" above to find me.

I didn't go far...

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Things I Don't See in My PNW Neighborhood

In May 1986, my husband graduated from college
the same weekend we had our first baby.

The Lord led us to Wichita, KS, to teach at a Christian school.
We put down roots so deeply, we still count it as our spiritual home.
The Christians we fellowshipped with greatly impacted our lives.
We left with four children a solid foundation.

We've been gone 18 years,
so long I forgot what the state was like,
especially if you live out in the country.



My recent trip back to Kansas brought it all back to me.


(When I travel  I like to compare my old homes to my new home.
I previously blogged about the Midwest and Hawaii.)

 See that white trail behind the school bus? 
That's dust.  Big, huge clouds of dust.
It follows you like a bad habit,
leaving even your teeth and dashboards gritty.


I saw armadillo roadkill.
Another night, an opossum tip-toed across the road in front of us.
Instead of turtles in aquariums and in fancy restaurants,
 they have turtles on the road.


It was a good thing my sister warned me that if I heard a woman scream
"Help me!  Help me!" 
I shouldn't be alarmed.
I guess peacocks have a Hitchcock vocabulary.
The donkeys across the road occasionally harmonized
for an interesting lullaby.

 

In the PNW, we rarely have bugs in our houses.
We rarely have bugs outside our houses.

And when a person from the PNW visits people in KS
and never remembers to close the screen doors,
they end up having bugs outside their houses
and
inside their houses.

"Who left the screen door open?"
That would be me.
"Who didn't shut the screen door?"
That would be me.
Moths.
They totally freak me out.
They hover in a holding pattern around outside lights,
then kamikaze into your hair when you try to enter your home.
EEWWW!

Of course,  in the PNW we have spiders big enough to carry off our firstborn,
but that's another blog...

This is a very, very loved dawg.
Ya', that's how ya'll say it in Kansas.
But, is it really a dog,
as they would call it in Seattle,
if it hasn't been had its toenails painted or eaten an organic dog treat?
She's never been to a doggie park, either.
(Is this OK, or should I report them?)

Do you see what I see?
The gun?
The deer mount?
Out in a public place?



Notice this menu.
No sushi.
Nothing free range.
Nothing offered for our culinary delight after it experienced a  "low stress kill."
No kiddin', I actually heard that line in a PNW restaurant once.
I pretended I was coughing to cover my spasmodic laughing into the
organically dry-cleaned linen napkin.


This here is a hedgeapple.
In season they are bright green, like a tennis ball.
Only, don't kick one when you first move to Kansas,
it's like kicking a bowling ball.
Ya', I dun did that once.

We have some littering in  our area, but not much,
thanks to high fines and years of having a toll-free tattling reporting number.


The Quick Trip sign brings back memories of chips and pop,
snacks often ingested after buying gas.
One time we stopped for chips and pop on the way to the hospital.
My son was almost born in a parking lot much like this.

Oh, like the gas price?  I paid $4.19 two days before this.



Ya' don't be seein' this in my big ol' neighborhood either,
my little sistah, LAHRIE. 
She followed us down to KS, then ended up staying.
We called her LORRIE growing up,
but ya'll know how it goes when yuh marry a SUTHERNER.
Kansas is southern to someone from North Dakota,
by the way.

She's crazy, she eats Beans 'n Greens,
she argues with me about who prettiest and smartest,
and can out belch me and out-cook me,

 
but, she's one of the things
 I miss the most about Kansas.

There's no one like her in my PNW neighborhood.

I love you, little sis!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Unexpected Journey of a Blogging Mommy


I've been so very thankful for the love and compassion
 shown by my readers during the past year. 

Your prayers and your comments have upheld me
during a very hard time in my life.

When I first started blogging,
I intended to be a "mommy blogger"  and share
whatever the Lord brought into my mommy moments.
I envisioned sharing spiritual lessons,
recipes, housekeeping tips, crafts, and funny stories about my kids.


Instead, I became a "cancer blogger" as I
typed  my way through my second and third round of thyroid cancer.


Then, I became a
"I'm trying to keep an Innocent Man from going to jail blogger."


When five friends were called home to Jesus in less than a year,
I became a "grieving blogger."

When my  pain was so great and my anguish raw,
I wondered if I would turn people away from my words seared with suffering.
I wondered if I should quit writing.

Instead, the Lord opened up doors to hearts.

At times, the Lord lifts my burden.
Just when I need it most,
someone comments or sends an email
voicing their appreciation for my words of pain
and words of encouragement.

Other times, He allows me to help carry burdens of others.
I've learned  many, many, many people are suffering
and they've cried with me and shared their stories with me.
They grieve for my pain and for theirs,
but through the journey,
we've upheld one another.
We have been blessed in the fellowship of suffering.



When I first started blogging,
I intended to be a "mommy blogger" and share
whatever the Lord brought into my mommy moments.

Since these are the things the Lord  brought into my moments,
so this is what I write, because


Moment by moment I’m kept in His love;
Moment by moment I’ve life from above;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.