The Front Porch Swing

[Beekissed]

A thread for friends to laugh, share, cry, pray, love and just BE together. I'm officially dusting off the front porch swing, bringing out the ice tea and bug spray and inviting friends over for a chat about anything and everything that is good~except it's winter, so we'll just have to pretend we can smell the honeysuckle, hear the bees buzzing and a breeze tickling the wind chimes.

Pull up a rocking chair, settee or swing and lets fellowship with one another...and lets do it in love for one another.


That's the only rule for all visitors to the group ~"Love thy neighbor as thyself."


ROLL CALL! Checking in(remind me to add your state/country to the list of those visiting so we can see if the whole world will visit our front porch! Great suggestion, TexasLisa!) Post your favorite view of your state when you check in! We love to see where everyone lives!

States: WV, TN, TX, WI, GA, PA, UT, NC, WY, OR, IA, MO, VT, OH, VA, WY, MI

Countries: US,


Some good links for things you'll want to know:

http://www.feedipedia.org/

 

[lovingmyhens]

For those of you who prayed for me and my job interview, I want you to know that all our prayers were answered. I was offered a 3rd grade position at a school in Katy isd and I'm thrilled. Thank you guys!!

 

[Blooie]

Cindy and Will adjusting straps on Kendra's gait trainer. Her first time in it. She was not happy - don't know if this picture shows the alligator tears in her eyes or if it was the other shot. Who cares? She ain't crying in it any more!

Okay, okay, this is huge! I need to see if my brain will let my fingers keep up. KENDRA WALKED TONIGHT. YEP YEP SHE WALKED!!!
Calming down...taking a breath.....breathing...okay, ready GO! This is a bit of a story!

Every year cash donations from the citizens of Cowley pour in for families in need here in our community. People add 50 bucks to their water bill, or drop off $10 or whatever at the town hall, and since we don't have a large list of people on the gift list it amounts to a pretty good Christmas for lots of people who might not have had much - usually a couple of hundred in the form of gift certificates from the grocery store and cash for each family. I'm in a awkward position because they keep Tam on the list as a single mom, even though every year she lets the council (especially me!) know that she and Evan are fine. But Evan wormed his way into the hearts of every member of the council so they just leave her on the list because of him, and because they admire how hard she's worked to provide. Besides, Evan built the mayor a bat house. LOL Problem is that when her name and Kenny and Jenny's come up, I step outside. I just can't vote for the distribution for my own family for some reason. It doesn't seem right.

Anyway, for Christmas this year the town of Cowley gave the kids the funds to buy Kendra a gait trainer. It's a medical device that puts her in an upright position with her feet on the floor so she can learn how to use her legs in that familiar way we do. The insurance the kids have wouldn't pay for one. They denied it because they'd already bought her the wheelchair, so they determined that they had already provided her with some form of mobility and she didn't need a different one - even with a recommendation from her doctors! But by the time it finally arrived, she was in casts again. No way to get her to be able to use it when she has two casts on each leg and can't bend her knees. Then after the casts came off her legs muscles were very sore and weak, so then we had to start all over from crawling. She simply couldn't stand in the gait trainer. Besides, we're pretty isolated out here and Kendra's amazing physical therapists had never worked with a gait trainer before and they weren't comfortable with trying to fit her when they weren't even sure what the proper fit was. But we got a call on Thursday - a therapist from Billlings had agreed to come down for Kendra's session on Friday afternoon and help get it fitted to her properly and show all of us - Ken, me, Jenny, Katie and Cindy (Kendra's regular therapist) how to teach her what the gait trainer was for. She HATED it. She cried almost the whole time. Didn't help that it was 45 minutes past nap time either.

After the fitting and the lessons, he told us if we had any problems to call him directly, but in the meantime to start her out being in it for about 15 - 20 minutes a couple of times a day until she wasn't fighting it any more. So that's what Jenny was doing all weekend. The most we were hoping for was that she'd figure out that if she stood rather than sat in it she'd be more comfortable. Tonight I got a FaceTime call from Jenny....apparently there was a sleeve of crackers and Kendra's sippy cup on the coffee table in the living room. Jenny was doing supper dishes. Next thing she knew, Kenra was eating a cracker and enjoying her juice. Nobody else was home to help her, so there's only one way Kendra got from the kitchen to the living room.....she walked in her gait trainer! So Jenny held the iPad about 10 feet away from Kendra and I called her. She WALKED over to see me on the iPad screen. And she was grinning - she was walking and she LIKED it! Oh, boy, what a God we have! I'm going over as soon as I get home from my doctor's appointment tomorrow and get it on video!

KENDRA WALKED! I'm so excited tears are running down my leg!

 

[Blooie]

On a different note, I did something today that surprised me. I have served Cowley on the Planning and Zoning commission, and then I ran for and was elected to town council. I love being part of what's making Cowley one of the most admired communities in the state (that's according to the state reps who were here when we applied for a grant for our new park - which I just learned today that we got!!) But my term is up this election. When I announced to the council 3 months ago that I'd decided not to run, the mayor and my fellow council members just smiled and the mayor said, "Write in!" I decided that I'd served in one capacity or another for the past 7 years - 3 on P&Z and 4 on council. When I made the decision not to run, it was with Katie, Evan and Kendra in mind. I want to spend as much time as I can with them, making laughter and memories and leaving them something of me behind when I'm gone. But today Ken and I were driving home and from Powell when I looked at the clock in the car and said, "Well, the deadline for filing is in another 20 minutes." He was quiet for a while then he said, "You need to call Lisa (our amazing town clerk) and ask her to stay for a little bit. And you need to reconsider not running." He made some pretty persuasive arguments....telling me that we had so many projects that we'd started and I should stay to see them through; that I had made a difference on the council (I'm famous for smacking the table and saying "It's NOT my money!" and voting no if I think that's the right thing to do); and that people in this town really do like and respect me.

I told him that I appreciated the way he believes in me, but that I was leaving because of Katie, Evan and Kendra, and because in 4 more years I'd be 68 years old. He was silent for a minute then he replied, "I thought they were why you ran the first time. And how old will you be in 4 years if you don't run?"

So I filed today. I am running for re-election and when I left the town hall I felt good. I hadn't realized how much serving the people of this town meant to me until I'd almost muffed the chance to keep doing it.

 

[Blooie]

Ahem, so what did everyone do today? Ahem....I was a little busy......Ahem. Anything look, well, new?

Welcome to our new friends......my bucket is the one with big, um, hiney pad on it. Teehee

I'm really sorry about your babies, Linda. I thought that Meyer had a really good reputation. I didn't order the girls (and Charlie) from there, but don't they supply a lot of the places like mypetchicken, etc?

Glad so many of you enjoyed the Saga of the Little Spider. It got better today when they were falling all over themselves over a bee. (Not you, sweetie! I wouldn't let them eat you!)

Who am I kidding...I've been off here most of they day - I'll never get caught up. So pass the lemonade please, and here - in between the little project I worked on today I managed to whip up some chocolate pudding. Um, I might want to switch to Pepsi if I'm eating chocolate pudding. Nothing sucks my cheeks in harder than taking a bite of something sweet then drinking something not-so-sweet. But I worked up a colossal thirst today, doing nothin', ahem........ Dad used to tell us that doing nuthin' is hard work, 'cause ya can't stop to rest.

 

[lindz8504]

I have been bator watching! We have pips and a couple zipping!

 

[lazy gardener]

I have to take a public stand here, since this issue has been placed in a public format. I do believe that if you read the scriptures, they speak very clearly about the issue, and to my knowledge, they were not written within the last 100 years. Bee stated it well, and, if this thread is closed down for a few of us standing up for what our Lord says, then, let me be counted among those. To do any less than stand for my faith, is to deny my faith. So, tolerance is not a one way street.

 

[lindz8504]

I got a dozen again today! That's 2 days in a row!

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

I've seen a lot of dog and cat shaming photos... But this is by far the best !!

 

[TexasLisa]

GUESS WHAT???? I have 6 chicks!!! 3 Americaunas and 3 Speckled Sussexs. The feed store is getting Australorps in on the 19th and I put my money down for 3. Guess who is smiling???? DH has the camera, will post pictures later tonight.

Lisa