Genealogy - My Heritage

IThis isn't my great-grandfather's church. This isn't my grandfather's church. 

This isn't my father's church.

This isn't the church of my childhood.

    Yet, it is. Physically. And even that has changed. 

   The activity center/fellowship hall didn't exist when I was a child. The basement and the classroom where we have Sunday school class didn't exist when my father was a child. The sanctuary where services are held didn't exist when my grandfather was a child. Cool Springs Cumberland Presbyterian church didn't exist when my great grandfather was born.

   As far as congregationally goes, my first cousin 3 times removed (great grandfather's first cousin) is listed on the plaque in the vestibule as the minister when the church was organized in 1891.

    Denominationally, my 1st cousin 4 times removed (great great grandmothers first cousin) organized 4 or 5 churches. And my great great great great grandfather was a pastor who preached at several churches back on the 1840's.

   I'm not sure where this was intended to go when I started it, but I know when I was younger I remember hearing about a church getting rid of its pastor because his wife had an affair. Another church getting rid of an elder because their child ran into trouble with the law. Another church that told a pastor if his wife took an outside job, they would let him go.
   At camp, we used to sing "they'll know we are Christians by our love"
   Watching the news, listening to reports, seeing what's going on in the church world; sometimes I wonder now as I did then, where is the love?

This Is Parenting

   This morning, Brayden said "I'm hungry"
   I, of course, said, "Hi Hungry, I'm Daddy"
   Brayden then said, "I want cereal!"

   I told him that he needs to ASK for cereal if he wants cereal.
   He sighed and asked for cereal.

   Then I thought, cereal sounds like a good idea. Maybe I should have cereal, too.
   Frosted Rice Krispies looked appealing. But so did Froot Loops. Oh, and Golden Grahams.
    And we have ALL 3 in the pantry!

   That's what was left. 3 boxes of cereal. Made 1 bowl. I have teenagers.
   On the positive side, I got 3 boxes cleared off the shelf. 

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What The ?????

   WHOOOMPH!

I looked at the clock, 5:57.

   That's sort of what it sounded like when the house woke me up. Whatever it was it shook the house.

   Reminded me of when the limb fell out of the neighbor's tree onto our roof. Except this time we still had electricity.

   "IS THAT A TORNADO?" Yvette asked me nervously. 

   Then the bed started shaking and I asked her if somebody was washing clothes cause sometimes one of the kids will over load the washer and it gets out of balance and it will vibrate. 

   Nope, nobody is washing clothes.

   Checked at the end of the bed to see if the 100# dog is laying touching the bed and scratching behind her ears. That will make the bed shake. No Dog.

   Open the front door and go outside and the neighbor across the street is looking out their door.

   So I go back inside and post on Facebook asking if anybody felt any shaking. 

So then I go to check CERI. Nothing is showing there yet cause it's on a delay. Finally it shows up:

   Then I read that it was a 3.6. Since there was nothing else I could do, I went back to bed. I read this afternoon they've upgraded it to 3.7. 

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It WAS Beautiful

   Maundy Thursday was dark  and rainy. Good Friday was cold and rainy. Saturday warmed up and the sun was shining for the Easter Egg Hunt. 
Then Easter Sunday. Resurrection Day. 
   Here's the entire service.

 Easter Service 2019.

The prelude, the cantata, the sermon, the postlude. Every part of the service. Beautiful.
   There were 80 people there. They came from 3 corners of the state. And from the middle of the state. And one from out of state. A 90+ year range in ages.
   BEAUTIFUL.
   Then we came home and while we were gone, singing about the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, these had showed up:

   It was a beautiful day!
   I am so thankful for the opportunity to be here to celebrate another Easter with my family and with my church family. I look forward to many more. 

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Upon This Rock

   That was the title of Today's Cantata.
Upon This Rock. And since I helped do some of the decorating I snuck something in.

  That red rock next to the fake rock. It came from I think it was my great great grandparents place in Mississippi. Some of Mama's kinfolks for sure. 
We were visiting down there for a family reunion 40 or so years ago and we went to visit somebody's homeplace. I think it was my great great grandparents. They weren't there anymore, but the house was still standing. 
  Mama said she wanted to take that rock home with her, so I picked it up, we put it in the trunk, and took it home.

   Peter was the rock we were singing about. But I couldn't resist sneaking that rock onstage.

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Coming Up

  

 This coming Sunday would be my mother's 80th birthday. It's also Easter Sunday. Cool Springs Cumberland Presbyterian Church will be having our Easter Cantata. 
   My mother loved flowers, she loved music, she loved to sing, she loved her church and she loved her family. Claudine Minton has commented a few times on how proud my mother would have been to hear Yvette singing in the choir. And how proud she would be to have her grandkids at church.
   I bet she'll be proud Sunday looking down and listening to us singing with Yvette, Zeke, Zara and Gabe all in the choir and all members of her church family.
   I'll post the link after the performance, but I need to quit writing. Dang Allergies!
   

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15 Years Ago

   A child was born. With some amazing dimples.

As time went by, he grew. And so did his hair. The dimples remained the same.

   It's been an adventure . The hair still grows faster than any normal human being. And the dimples remain the same.

   Happy Birthday Gabe!

Devastated 😞

   You've applied for a job. You've spent hours polishing your resumé. Reading the information on how to make YOUR resume stand out. You carefully word your cover letter outlining why you think you want to work there. The attributes that you bring to the job. You submit it and you get a response.

  

  That was the final response. Their initial response (see below) was for me to fill out an application. But it's not an online application. I had to print it out, fill it out, then scan and email it back or take it on to their place of business.

    Then the waiting starts. And you wait. And you wait. You get diagnosed with cancer. You have surgery. You go through radiation and chemotherapy. You plant flower bulbs.You wait 3 months after treatment to have a follow up PET scan. And you've been applying to other jobs. The bulbs you've planted bloom.
   Because when I got that email, I didn't recall applying with that company. I had to go back and find where they had contacted me before.
   

      11 months. 11 months I waited only to be rejected. Devastation. 

   Not really. You've read what all has happened. You've seen the pictures of the flowers. Women have gotten pregnant and given birth since then. It's a good thing I wasn't sitting around waiting on that job.

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Things I've Learned

   So far I've learned a few things in the past month. 

1. I CAN still work. 16 months not working had me wondering if I was capable or not.
2. Working 3rd shift isn't as easy as it used to be. Especially if you're watching a Brayden after you get off until your wonderful, very talented, and sexy wife gets off from substitute teaching.
3. My children are loud. Very loud. Especially when you've been up since 10 P.M. the night before and they get home from school at 4 P.M.
4. It's hard to get to sleep at 4 P.M. when your loud children gets home and Brayden is excited because Zekie is home from school.
5. Having a hard time getting to sleep at 4 P.M. is not good when you have to get up at 10 P.M. to go to work at 11.
6. I don't know how single parents manage to live working. I would have to spend half of what I was making to be able to pay for daycare so I could have slept during the day.
7. I had applications put in at several jobs before I got that job. And I got an interview for one of them. I went and did an interview and while I was doing orientation I had my phone turned off in the car charging.
8. When I finished my orientation and got in the car to start home I saw that I had a new voicemail. I checked it on my way home and it was a voicemail asking me to contact them for an interview.
9. Putting in 250 applications and getting no responses is frustrating.
10. Getting 2 positive responses in 2 days will give you a morale boost.
11. My wife and children didn't know that elephants can't tapdance. There's even a little taken when I informed them of that fact. 

   They seem to be shocked.

   Or maybe they had just never thought about that. I dunno.

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Research Request

   I've seen several people commenting about statements a certain young congresswoman made. I've seen her insulted, belittled and made fun of. 
   I've also seen invitations for her to visit farms. (If she takes anyone up on the invitations, she'll be attacked for spending taxpayer money.)  

   Some things I've observed.
   The average weaning weight has increased in cattle over the years.
   Rolling averages in dairy herds have increased over the years.
   Days to market have decreased for swine, poultry and beef. 
   Feed efficiencies have improved in almost every area of livestock production that you can find a study for.
   Yield per acre has increased in every crop that I can find comparisons for. 

   The thing I can't find is fuel used per acre farmed. So if anyone would have fuel records from their farm and the acres  farmed with that fuel. I'd really appreciate you letting me know. 



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I've Got a Request

  I grew up on a small farm. We raised crops. We had livestock. I had some chickens and sold some eggs when I was in high school. The eggs I sold paid for the food the chickens ate. But it wasn't going to ever turn into a very profitable business. It would have taken a lot more chickens and eggs to pay for housing for the chickens.
 Fast forward a bit. For years I've been reading about the disconnect between consumers and farmers. Usually written by someone in the farming community. 
   They've brought up good points. Many people being 2 or more generations removed from the farm. They've never been on a farm. They have an idealized concept of what farms are like. 
   I could accept that. I lived in town. I'd let people like that. They lived in town, they left to travel to bigger towns. It was easy for me to understand how people could be that disconnected.
   Most of the blogs that I've seen that farmers do spend most of their time defending their practices or defending farming. 
   "If you have questions about food, ask a farmer"
   This implies that farmers are the experts on production. Yet these same farmers will knock/denounce/ridicule/make light of studies or surveys published by experts. 
   What I would like to see is information.
   
   If you have access to a farms records from the past, I'd like to make a request. I would like to see 4 numbers. The number of gallons of fuel used in the past and the number of acres farmed then. The number of gallons of fuel used now and three the nof access farmed with that fuel. 
   This is an unscientific survey. Thanks for Reading. Please respond.

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Signs of Things to Come?

   Matthew 16:2-3
Jesus replied, "At evening you say, ‘It will be nice weather tomorrow because the sky is bright red.’  And in the morning you say, ‘There will be bad weather today because the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to make sense of the sky’s appearance. But you are unable to recognize the signs that point to what the time is"

   Yesterday morning, the sky looked like this. That's red and threatening looking to me.
    I was signing into a new job that I will start today and there was a lady there who said "I think it's going to rain."
  I replied "Yes, at least according to the Bible it's going to rain and possibly storm today"
  She said, "It said in the Bible it's going to rain today"
  So I replied "Well it doesn't specifically mention April 4, 2019, but that old quote about 'red sky at night, sailors delight, red sky in morning, sailor take warning'
   It was interesting having a discussion about stuff in the Bible without it being deeply philosophical or argumentative. 

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It was Kinda Chilly

   This morning it was 32°. That's freezing. 
I was kind of worried about how it we going to affect my flowers. But I went out later today and took these pictures:

  

  
   They seem to have held up fine. The crocus are done. The hyacinths are finishing off. The tulips and daffodils are beautifully blooming.

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