The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

00:43 Jun 20 2013
Times Read: 709

Stabb and I have been working really hard on the house, getting it ready to list. I can't describe how much work this has been, getting everything painted, cleaned, de-cluttered, and curb-appealed. I keep thinking how nice it all looks for someone else.



It's bittersweet. I've lived here 18 years. I raised my children here. Memories everywhere, most of them good...some, not so much. My neighbor is my dear friend. She even works with me at the Center. I'm leaving it all and moving to something new and unknown. that's not my strong suit. I've never been the kind to fly away with the wind.



I put down roots...deep roots. I watched them break ground for this new dream house of mine in 1994. How can that be 18 years? How? A new baby, story time, tears, proms, holidays, graduations, college, divorce, new love and marriage. All in this home. My children's hand and footprints are pressed into the driveway here. Sometimes, it's all too much.



And yet, with my children grown and a strong love at my side, I feel that I might just be able to welcome the new adventure ahead. We are dreaming new dreams, together. New gardens and stories, new footpaths holidays, and perhaps even grandchildren one day.



We have 5 acres out in the country, and I'm pining for a tree house and a farmhouse table. Stabb is a wonderful carpenter and he'll build these things for me to run my fingers across. I'm sentimental and have a deep need to wear my fingerprints into everything I love.



I'll be an old girl, climbing into my treehouse to be a little closer to the whispering canopy. When I'm surveying all from a new vantage point in my life, I hope my old finger-worn pencil will fill the pages I have not yet met with silky satisfied words to be tied with yesterdays ribbons, all beautiful and appreciated because, no matter what, they have been mine.

Only Paper and Strings
01:24 Jun 14 2013
Times Read: 735






When I lost a tooth in my seventh summer

You teased forth my picket-fence smile

And knotted a string from your paper cup to mine.

Though your voice never came, I pretended to hear.



Tensile contact would forever tie me to you

As my mind was wooed away with wanderlust

Of dreamy words in gilted worlds,

While rain rusted the links of a canting swing

Where fatigue and futility skipped the rhyming rope



Until even I had to see

The melancholy of wrecks,

Of highways and windows,

Trees, each like the next.

I cannot rely on memory.



I’ve forgotten my ticket and the way back to our levee

Where you promised to whisper a secret so sacred and light

The only stanchion I can trust for such a magical thing

Are cups made of paper, and one mending string.

22:31 Jun 13 2013
Times Read: 748








When you donate food to local food banks, do you wonder how much food actually goes to a family? In the Center where I work, each unit of food we give contains 80 non-perishable staple items like canned vegetables, rice, pasta, flour, and soup. In addition, we load them up with bread, milk, and as available: fresh produce and frozen goods. This is a real cart filled with food that I had to rush to photograph, fending off our industrious volunteers who were ready to load it into the family's car! Families who have 5 or more people in their household receive 2 carts just like this one!



The beautiful mural you are seeing behind the cart was created by the Talented Art class from a local middle school. Without the partnerships and food drives of our local schools, we would be lost. The mural is such a lovely depiction of our logo taken from the Book of John.



The first mural (which just so happens to be painted by my amazing father - Thanks, Daddy!) from the walls of our food bank proclaims boldly the verse from Psalm 65 about our God's faithful and abundant provision for His people. He blesses all of the food you donate and multiplies it in carts that truly "overflow with abundance."

21:06 Jun 01 2013
Times Read: 780

There are small things in life that can be more satisfying than big far-off goals. Today I walked through my garden with a basket and a pair of scissors, gently snipping stems. I dug in the lovely raised bed my darling Stabb built for me. I filled my basket with onions, tomatoes, potatoes, jalapeños, bell peppers, sprigs of cilantro, strawberries, cucumber, and basil.

I cleaned everything and chopped my tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and a jalapeño. A freshly squeazed lime and a pinch of salt later, and we have a beautiful pico de gallo with my own organic veggies to complement our fajitas tonight which will feature our onions and peppers. I feel peaceful and indescribably satisfied!