Two Wolves... food for thought

I don't know who wrote this to give credit...  It came to me in an e-mail today, and I thought it was worthy of sharing. 

           One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.  
           He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

"One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

"The other is God - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: 

"Which wolf wins?"

 The old Cherokee simply replied,

           "The one you feed."

 

 

Thanks friends for hanging with me during my extended break.  I will be returning very soon.  Don't forget about the giveaway!  I didn't...,

Oceanic Blog-A-Thon 2010

That's right... it's time for Oceanic Blog-A-Thon 2010, hosted by Crazy Cris over at Here and There and Everywhere, in celebration of World Oceans Day.

Actually, World Oceans Day was June 8th, but better late than never!  Being tied up in the real world, I didn't hear about it early enough to work on a post, but here's a link to last year's post.  I reread it and found it still very relevant.  Cris has lots of new posts for this year, so hop on over and check it out!

With the events unfolding in the Gulf, what better time than now to explore and reflect on this vast watery world.  I would like to wish you all Happy World Oceans Day, but lately, when I think about the oceans, I get really sad...

A Quick Note on Mother's Day

I know it's not Mother's Day... but since I've been so busy with the new baby, I'm a tad bit behind.  (OK, tad means a very small amount... so I'm more than a tad behind.)  Anyway, before it turns into winter again, I wanted to share my Mother's Day flowers with you!

The gorgeous lilies in the back are from my daughter Jen.  I planted them by the kids' swing set.  They wanted a flower garden in front of their club house, so that is the start.

The bouquet in front is my favorite!   Sorry, Jen, but you've been outdone again by Lexi.  Ever since we've lived here, Lexi has picked wild flowers to bring to me.  I was always afraid she'd end up with a weird rash, but so far so good.  She always takes such care to choose which flowers go in her arrangements.   Sometimes her arrangements are symmetrical, sometimes not. She usually tries to find a big variety of hues, but right now, yellow is her favorite color.  She decided on some tall, airy ones for the back-side, with shorter bright ones for the front...  and a touch of lavender for punch!  I think she has a talent for floral arrangements.

I remember picking wildflowers along the road for my mom, but mostly we brought her those bright yellow ones that appeared in the lawn.  Did any of you do that?

Time for Grandkids

Just thought I'd post a few recent pics of the new grandson with my youngest granddaughter.

Although Brady adores his cousin Melody, he refuses to smile for the camera.  No matter how funny something is, when the camera comes out, the expression goes serious!  Mommy said he got that from Daddy; he hates the camera, too.

Brady had fun squirming around on Melody's lap.  Good thing it's a big chair.  She's only three years older, so he's a lap-full for her.

Just like big people, it melted her heart when he smiled at her. 

This is my favorite shot:

Seems they both really love to watch Dora!

...and each other.  

I simply must brag on the intelligence of Melody's older sister Grace.  Gracie is five and just finishing kindergarten.  I was trying to trick her last week, but couldn't because she's so smart!  She told me that she's not really smart.  I said, "Yes, you are very smart.  I bet you know the capital of Mars."  She asked, "Is capital the big or the little letter?"  I said, "The big ones."  "Oh, then 'M'."  Now, is that genius or what?

Thank you, Tioga!

You may call it OCD, but I've been tracking what states and countries have visited my blogs.  It's an obsession.  I posted about it back in November, when I was visited by Bydgoszcz, Poland.  That day, I passed a thousand cities.

As of today, I've been visited by over sixteen-hundred cities around the world.  That amazes me!  Blogging has made the world a much smaller place... more like a neighborhood.

It used to feel like this...

 Now, it feels more like this...

I had a goal to be visited by all 50 states.  Delaware, North Dakota, and Rhode Island were the last holdouts... until this week.  Yep, all three showed up on my visitor widget.

So thank you, whoever you are, for visiting me today from Tioga, a city way up in the northwest corner of North Dakota.  Tioga is the Iroquois Indian name for Peaceful Valley.  My life is complete.

Not Enough Thyme!

How do you like my new title graphic?  Time is short these days, so I don't have much to spend on a picture. All the items in the collage are from photos I took here on the farm (except for the clothes line.) 

Speaking of time...  I have some lemon thyme in my front garden, but I don't know if it's edible.  Mr J and I had to make a trip to the feed store this morning, so on the way back we stopped at a small nursery to see what kinds of shrubs and herbs they had.  I spotted some lemon thyme that was solid green and edible.  On the same table with the other herbs was the green and yellow variety of lemon thyme that I have.  It did not say anything about being edible.  If it wasn't raining, I'd get a picture of it.  Maybe someone in Blogville knows.  But it is raining and dark, so...  if you don't hear from me anymore, you'll know it's NOT edible!

Last year I told you about planting onion chives off the bedroom deck where we built the new steps...  I love sitting on the steps and munching away, but I forget about the fresh chives when I'm cooking!  I do want to expand the herb garden, so today I bought a couple more perennials...

  On the left is Pineapple Sage, and on the right is peppermint.  The sage tastes exactly like pineapple.  It should make an exciting addition to a stir-fry.  I have an addiction to Altoids Peppermints.  I think I can pass them up now.  Just a pinch off this plant gives you nice peppermint breath that lasts!  I hope they spread fast... I can see me chopping them down to the ground in no thyme!  LOL

I'm not much into annuals.  I like plants that stay year after year and spread.  I had some rhubarb in one flower bed, but something dug it up.  I'll try a different spot next time.  We're also going to plant some asparagus.  It is a lovely garden perennial, but gets much too large to  place where the herbs are going.  I will place it out in the lawn and build a new garden around it.  I think it will look good placed between Mr J's new plants...

Mr J picked up these two varieties of lavender... English and Munstead.  I think they would look splendid framing the asparagus, and would make an ideal garden spot for the windmill.  The windmill was damaged by the hurricane that blew through the mid-west a year-and-a-half ago, and has been in storage ever since.  Sounds like we've got another spring project.

I need to visit my bloggy friends!  Brady is keeping me away for awhile, but I'll try to get around to you all this week during his nap times.  Wish me luck.