My Mom and 4/5ths of Her Girls

My Mom celebrated her 76th birthday on 10-10-10, and here are two pictures of me, 3 of my 4 sisters, and my mom.

While we were arranging ourselves around mom and her chair, someone in the family looking on commented on how we looked just like "Little Women." Well, maybe...

Then some smart aleck relative (which could have been any of us, come to think of it) said he thought we looked more like the "Golden Girls!" And that got us going...

I think I laughed the hardest.

The 2010-2011 School Year is Over!

My grading is finished. Now I can put away my school books and papers for a few weeks, and get to some serious housework, quilting, blogging and planning the garden. Watch out clutter, here I come!

Coming Up for Air

Happy New Year!

It's been several months since I've posted anything at all.  After spending most of September in bouts of crying about not having been to go be with my dying mother since her battle with cancer began, we decided that it was time for me to go see her as soon as I could.  I was looking at my schedule to see how to juggle my classes to get there for Christmas, but my husband said Christmas might be too late.  So, I juggled my classes and squeezed in a ten-day visit in October.  Her cancer had entered her brain in the latter part of August, and she began living with my first younger sister's family.  Although she's not suffering any pain, her life is basically walking to and fro from her bed in the bedroom nearest the livingroom to her chair in the livingroom.  We celebrated her 76th birthday on 10-10-10, and I saw relatives that I had not seen since I've come to Japan.  (One of my aunts was shocked to see me drinking beer.  She still pictured me as an under-age teen, I guess!)

Mom is still about the same as she was when I saw her in October, so I guess I could have gone for Christmas, but...  Hindsight is 50/50 they say.  And they are right. 

After returning from seeing Mom, I never got around to blogging again because I had to catch up with my regular everyday vocations!  I'm still not caught up, but wanted to come up for air to let you know that I am still around and hope to be a better blogger in 2011. 

How Do You Read the Bible?

How do you read the Bible?  Do you read it as though it's just a literary work, a book of long-ago myths?  Do you read it as a manual?  Is it a how-to book so that you can attain a life of purpose and personal fullfillment?  Do you read it because someone told you that you have to, or God will not come to your aid?  Do you read it as a check list?  Is it the way that you tally all the good things you have done, and make public what a good person you are?  Are you determined to be in the Book of Life because you've read the Bible cover to cover, inside out and have memorized a million verses?  Or do you just want to know Jesus and His love for you, and not only you, but the whole world?  Here's "What the Bible is Bascially About!"