SCHOOF FAMILY ANIMAL ADVENTURES

The kids with Baron

Years ago (1972 ish) during a bleak and weak moment, I adopted a puppy.😎

Peanut Butter

I had been struggling with a profound life change.  I thought that the companionship could help me through the initial shock of a failed relationship.
My hopes were dashed by all the shenanigans this little adorable blonde lab managed to get into.  I quickly learned that adopting an animal was not something to enter into lightly.
The butter on the counter disappeared and crotches from dirty underwear went missing.  Slippers were chewed.
A lick on the face and furry cuddles made up for all his mischief.  I named him Smoochie.
However, animals and I have a love hate relationship.  They have always just sort of dropped in to my life.

During that year, a house mate and I had moved in to this cute little cottage bungalow  with a large front yard.
With sadness, I was forced to take him back to the shelter where he remained only a few hours when my then house mate made me retrieve him and he became hers.
I never saw him again after moving out of that cute little cottage to continue on in my education.

Smoochie Look Alike

My next encounter, came shortly after my husband and I moved out to the valley.  As we were settling into our home with a large back yard, a beautiful Keeshond was wandering around my uncles neighborhood.  Well long story short, after many inquiries and searches, he appeared to not have a current home so he came to live with us.
We named him Baron Von Schoof.

Baron Von Schoof

  He showed high spirits, high energy.
He ruled much of our time in pre-children days.
His spastic times of freedom, frequently found him spending time at the shelter.  Time after time we found ourselves bailing him out.  Each time trying to make his environment more secure.  He raided the trash and also got into a lot of mischief.
For lack of someone to care for him, we took him with us up to Oregon on a vacation.
He was in Doggie Heaven and that was an adventure.  He loved traveling in the old blue van.

Our first Christmas, with our "first child"

He loved his visit to the farm and a dip in the Wilamette River.  He loved running.

On the way back at the California fruit inspection check point, he bounded up on to my husbands lap to have the officer distracted by the “beauty” of this dog and that is how we got a whole crate of fresh peaches smuggled in.  She only asked where we had come from and just before she could ask if we had any fruit…

FRITTIE

When the youngest of my four kids was around 18 months old, Baron took sick and we lost him.
We never got another dog after that. Young kids and dog pooh don’t get along to well and living in the city does not help.
One Saturday, we were at one of those used homeschool curriculum sales and someone brought a box full of baby kittens.
That is how Peanut Butter came to live with us to the children’s delight.

KIRBEE

Peanut Butter was a Tom cat and terrorized the neighborhood female cats.  I was so naive to the fact and never even thought to neuter him.  He did not live with us to long before he met his demise by sampling some poison.  He died a painful death.  The vet could do nothing for him.

Fluffy

Then came, Snowball, the cutest little ball of kitten fluff, and of course the kids fell in love with her.

Snow Ball

  We did have her spayed but she had a wild streak in her and it came to the point she did not want to be around anybody.  She disappeared one day into the wild and we never saw her again.
One day two hamsters appeared and we learned they are escape artists.  Countless times found us searching the house.  One, we named Smudge because she had what looked like a black smudge on the blonde colored coat.
  The old house we were living in had one of those old grated floor heaters.  Countless times we would find them there.
Well Smudge died from lead poisoning.  She chewed on and ate a lead pencil.  The male one just got out of cage and disappeared.
Then to the delight of the kids, two rabbits showed up in our yard.  We captured them and made an enclosure but they escaped and ran back into the wooded area where they had come from. 
Well wouldn't you know one morning as we were all piling in the car to get to church Sunday morning, we spied a rabbit in our front yard.  My husband put it in the back yard and we continued on to church.  When we got back from church a couple of hours latter and went to check up on it, low and behold THAT WAS a mama and she had had babies while we were gone!

Kirbee at UCD

Kirbee at UCD

One day, my son, who had a tender heart for animals, befriended, a mamma cat who we named Frittie.  He coaxed her into his bedroom and lovingly took care of her.  Well, one day, we all learned where little kitties come from.  That is how Fluffy, Roi Roi, Kirbee, and Pirate came to live with us.

Kirbee~Roi Roi~Fluffy

One day we heard a commotion outside and it appeared that a big bird must of swiped Pirate away and we never say him again.  Frittie died not to long after this.
Kirbee was the runt of the litter and she lived the longest and spent her retirement at UCD and Davis.   None of this batch are still living.  Roi Roi got hit by a car and Fluffy got sick.

Our Babies ~ Dora (right & Jack left) siblings

A neighborhood mama cat took up residence in our back yard and unbeknown to us had her babies under our house.  When the 4 babies got big enough, my daughter captured them.  She found a home for two of them but could not find a home for the others. 

DORA

That is how Jack and Dora, our current residents came to live with us.  They have been with us for about 7 years now.
In between all this menagerie, we have also had fish in an aquarium.😎

JACK

Yes, we have had some animal adventures along our life journey and they still keep happening with the recent mother racoon who had babies under our house. 
On occasions, a possum will saunter through the yard in the early morning.

Dora

 We can just stay home and let the adventures roll on.

A VERY SCARY RIDE

The good doctor had offered us a ride into Mexico City in his car to get supplies to take  back to our remote tribal village. (1960 ish)

His eye is on the sparrow
And I know he watches me.

It started out as another routine trip into the city and I had anticipated yet another trip with my father.  We left my mother and other siblings early in the morning.

 That day we would have taken a truck ride into the nearest larger town and then taken the bus, however, we thought it very fortunate to hitch a ride with the very young intern doctor.  I got so I hated to ride those chicken buses.
Through out the day our travel took us on some incredibly steep and winding roads.  The scenery was spectacular and I sitting in the back seat with my father was totally unaware of it for the most part.
  The Sierra Norte de Puebla, the rainiest in Mexico is an area filled with caves, caverns, and waterfalls which we pretty much left unexplored due to busyness or lack of knowledge that they were there and only known by the locals.
(Googled the area now and I see all the color and places we missed.)
I was excited at the fact that when we got to the city, I would be allowed to choose a comic book or two while Dad chose the Time magazine to catch up on the world news.

The sheer number of mountain roads, paved or not led to many occasions of trusting God for our safety.
On looking back in time, Dad, has often mentioned to me how many times God had protected us through out our lives.
As we continued on our journey that day, we were sailing down a down grade, suddenly out of control on a curve we were ready to plunge off the windy, mountain road, with a ravine below.
Slowly winding and grinding its way up the mountain side one of those crowded chicken buses suddenly appeared at just that moment when it looked like we would go over the edge. 
We slammed into it--broadside, stopping the car from plunging down the mountain side into the ravine below.
The good doctor was more concerned about the legal implications with the other driver than he was with our welfare.
Dad had used his arm to keep me from flying into the front seat and as a result, I bit my tongue quite badly and was bleeding but other than that no one else was hurt.

This Today, but back in the 60's it was just two lane

After a few minutes The doctor was helped to disengage the car from the bus and we were coasting, our way down the mountain side as the car was disabled.
As soon as we reached the bottom, some large doors opened into a large courtyard of either someones hacienda or residence and the car was pushed in, the large doors shut behind us.

1960 ish

We never saw or heard from The Doctor again.
Dad and I took our meager luggage and walked to the bus station.  We took the next bus out to Mexico City.
 God, has protected me far more than I realize when I start reviewing my life and reliving short recalled incidents.  (for future blogs)

UNDER HIS CARE  click here

GROW OLD WITH ME

"Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ" ~Phil.1:6 (Life verse)

 

“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, 'A whole I planned, youth shows but half; Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!” ~Robert Browning (Browning (1812–1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of the dramatic monologue made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.)

 

"I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." ~Ps.37:25 

 ONCE UPON A TIME

  "A person’s days are determined;
    you have decreed the number of his months
    and have set limits he cannot exceed." ~Job 14:5

" Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. " ~Psalm 139:16

 "Our days may come to seventy years,
    or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
    for they quickly pass, and we fly away." Psalm 90:10

Come!  Grow old with me

A quick reminder that God is the same as yesterday, He is the same today, and will be the same tomorrow.
  I on the other hand am the one that is not the same as yesterday, each day I'm not the same and tomorrow I may be different.

As I look back on my life, the Lord has done a phenomenal job at taking care of me.

I WAS YOUNG!

  Every year close to my birthday month I have been making it a point to take personal inventory of the blessings I have received from God since I was born. 

The main point being that after all these years, God has not abandoned me and has provided what He deemed best for me.  Yes, for me!   The reality is that I am getting old and I cannot escape or run away from it! 

The next few years I will be needing him even more. it’s  impossible to escape the reality of old age and the infirmities that arrive.  I often think that the ills of old age are constant reminders to not get to comfortable in this world and long for Heaven.

It will be God waking me up each morning and starting me on each day.  “He may not come when you want Him, but He’s always on time!” His time to provide.

One positive result that I found quite pleasant in growing older is the fact of not caring so much about what others think of me.  I can do what is important to me. My choices are based on what I can do, or am interested in doing.

Isaiah 46:4

^" Even to your old age I am he,
    and to gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
    I will carry and will save."

 Growing older is not a choice I have in life.

  When I was  young, I hardly gave death a  thought. 

The aspects of getting older are difficult.  I am reminded of the reality,I am not as strong as I used to be.  I don't have the energy of youth and some things I used to do, I don't want to do.  There are things I still can do, but take longer.  Over time I have noticed hearing deficits and beginnings of sight decline.

My thoughts sometimes go to other places I wish them not to go.

When I was young, I did not appreciate many aspects of life.  "Youth is wasted on the young." 

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." ~2 Cor.4:16

Spiritual condition health checks are becoming more frequent.

  ^"But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth." ~2 Timothy 4:17

God Is Still Working On Me to Conform to His Image,

  I often recall my girlhood and early adult years and gain perspective how those past difficulties and experiences were also encouraging spiritual influences in my life and how the negative and positive facts of those experiences were used of God to forge on in my life journey.

So here is what I know:

God IS near.  God IS here.  God IS there.  God IS in this moment. God IS present.  I am IN His care. Nothing can separate me from His love. THIS IS WHAT SUSTAINS ME, knowing this.

  Back to Robert Browning's poem on growing old and if you are into poetry and want to see all 32 parts GROW OLD WITH ME:

Ay, note that Potter's wheel,

That metaphor! and feel

Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,—

Thou, to whom fools propound,

When the wine makes its round,

"Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day!"

Fool! All that is, at all,

Lasts ever, past recall;

Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:

What entered into thee,

That was, is, and shall be:

Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure. 

My experience in unpleasant circumstances prepared me for a better job!

 WHOM SHALL I FEAR song

 

 

 

 

 

 


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HAPPY OX`Y`MO`RON MONDAY

Sorry, I can’t help you out right now, I am involved in a  minor crisis, trying to make sense of a clearly insane logical, confused dream that I found myself in last night.  I had no choice but to continue on, going nowhere.

The long and short of it was I desperately wanted the frightening comfort of re-creating the chaotic organization of the calm storm ahead. 
A fine mess I found myself in as I drifted again in a deep sleep.  I found myself in an absolutely unsure of my surroundings, almost ready to escape the confines of that dream.
A cold sweat woke me up briefly as the dark light of the moon sent a shadow streaking through the curtain.  I struggled to wake myself up to re-create the dream.
Good grief, I said to myself, "I am going nowhere".
A quick fix was to give into the insane logic unfolding in peaceful protest in pronounced silence.
With a mean smile, I found myself in the kitchen.
I heard a disturbing noise and set out to investigate.  I smiled as I found the paper towels in their place.  The dull knife was where I last placed it.
A short distance away I came across two little uninvited guests.  In unison, the two little dark chocolate colored twins dressed in unique uniforms of a non discript color, each gave a half giggle then drawing a blank stare, they vanished.

I turned and spied a partially completed project, nearly complete lying in the corner.  It was a fail safe home full of spiders, cat fur, and dust bunnies.  I gingerly took it outdoors to dispose of it stopping briefly to talk to my husband.
I heard another disturbing noise and found another un-invited guest in my living room.  I was pleasantly confused.  He greeted me and introduced himself with a loud whisper and a mean smile.  He sat in a wheelchair with a defiant nod and was going nowhere.  "Go ahead, back up" I said to him.  His demeanor changed to that of a ladies man and was really quite charming for his youth.
Then with eyes wide shut, he disappeared.

I turned my attention to the scene unfolding outside in the front yard.  A dozen or so young people were working outside weeding, mowing my yard and sprucing it up.  A big smile came across my face and I knew I had to get my phone and take some pictures.
I reached the bedroom, I opened the door to retrieve my phone and to my horror, the room was bare, only the bed remained.  My computer was gone.  My phone was gone.  I was devastated.  I fast walked to the other rooms. Everything was gone!  All the activity and uninvited guests had been a distraction so everything could be taken.

Final conclusion, I woke up to find myself into Monday.
HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!





"A permanent state of transition is man’s most noble condition. "

Author: Juan Ramon Jimenez

EGG SHELLS & SANITY

On God's love for us: "If there is any one truth I would gladly impress on the mind of a young Christian, it is just this, that God notices the most trivial act, accepts the poorest, most threadbare little service, listens to the coldest, feeblest petition and gathers up with parental fondness all our fragmentary desires and attempts at good works. Oh, if we could only begin to conceive how He loves us, what different creatures we should be!" (p. 61 Elizabeth Prentiss-STEPPING HEAVENWARD)

MY WORLD OF ADJECTIVES:
anger, bitter, chaotic, clingy, complainer, confusing,
  critical,  demeaning, depressive, disorganized, draining,

 drama,  emotional,  erratic, exasperating, explosive, fear-inducing,  frustrating,  impossible,  incomplete,

 inconsistent, irrational, irritable, irritating,  miserable, moody, , perplexing, resentful, sarcastic, seesaw, suffocating, tense, tiresome, train-wreck,  undependable,

 unforgiving, unhappy,  unpredictable, unreasonable, unreliable, untrusting, vengeful,  wound-up.

WELCOME TO MY WORLD!

Every day, I wake up anticipating to having to tread lightly—each day I wake up--  to walk on eggshells ever so carefully  lest I be lashed at.
  It’s the daily adaptations to prevent  painful episodes, to keep the peace and some semblance of order that wearies me.  For forty years! I have been trying to make sense out of this insanity.





Psychology Today describes my everyday world:
 
 "... life where one minute things are ok and the next minute there is an explosive outburst. One minute everything seems fine and the next minute, with the slightest of provocations, there is an acrimonious verbal assault that lasts for hours leaving you, scared, bewildered, disparaged, even questioning your own sanity. These individuals are not just mercurial, they are arbitrary and capricious in how they deal with others and so you never feel like you can relax around them—turmoil seems to always be either around the corner, a small incident, or one misspoken word away. Out of necessity you have to tread lightly, as if on eggshells, just to survive."

“There is no wilderness so dreary but that His love can illuminate it, no desolation so desolate but that He can sweeten it.  I know what I am saying.  It is no delusion.  I believe that the highest, purest happiness is known only to those who have learned Christ in sick-rooms, in poverty, in racking suspense and anxiety, amid hardships, and at the open grave.” (Elizabeth Prentiss)

MORE LOVE TO THEE-ELIZABETH PRENTISS click here for BIO

1. More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!
   Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee;
   This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee;
   More love to Thee, more love to Thee!
2. Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
   Now Thee alone I seek, give what is best;
   This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee;
   More love to Thee, more love to Thee!
3. Let sorrow do its work, come grief or pain;
   Sweet are Thy messengers, sweet their refrain,
   When they can sing with me: More love, O Christ, to Thee;
   More love to Thee, more love to Thee!
4. Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise;
   This be the parting cry my heart shall raise;
   This still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee;
   More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

LOUD YET QUIET

“Remember that thought is speech before God.”

— Charles H. Spurgeon

 My book and small Bible with the lunch bag remain in the bigger bag as I make myself comfortable for what would later prove to be a very long day.  Sheer exhaustion almost over whelms me as I slink into a comfortable seat next to two ladies. 
The room is exceptionally quiet yet I am surrounded by total strangers.  I close my eyes at the sheer joy of it and wallow in my thoughts and observations and settle down to people watch.
My shoulders begin to sag and ache as time drags on.  The silence is broken by a ringing phone and then the two ladies next to me begin to chat in some foreign language.  Then silence punctuated by an occasional , cough, or sneeze, laughter floating out from the distance of the lobby.
I debate whether to use the restroom and forfeit my seat or just wait.  I finally give in and lose my seat and search for another one.  Seating is at a premium.

A lady walks past me blurry eyed and slightly unkempt clothes as if just drug out of bed.  Another lady follows dressed in 3-inch heels looking very professional followed by a man in flip flops and shorts.

I settle more into my environment.  My shoulders relax and I continue to enjoy the relative quietness.  I rest my head in my hand  elbow on the chair arm and close my eyes not daring to fall asleep lest I should miss something.
The quietness continues, a sort of peacefulness with a hundred of us strangers each encapsulated by our thoughts or cell phones.  The sight is really quite eerie as many are bent over the electronic devices.  The lady in front of me is intently pouring over a game.
The room resembles a flock of sheep grazing on books, magazines, newspapers, iPhones, and iPads.  So many enamored with their phones and  as if frozen in time.
We continue to wait.  The pace has slowed down.
Then I sense a slight restlessness as chatting increases although in subdued  tones and murmers.
I gaze at the floor to ceiling windows with a view of pines and other trees all in a row, casting shadows on some of the buildings.
In the distance on the flag pole, I see the flags swaying in the slight breeze.
The silence is again broken as a group is called, each by name.
The silence resumes.  My eyes periodically get heavy as the room temperature rises. 
I surprise myself at the many thoughts that have sailed through my mind through out that day during this quiet time of waiting.  I am thankful for all the Scripture I have memorized in my youth.  Not that I have been dragging them out of my mind all day but here and there.
If thoughts could shout they were, loud but silent.

 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ..."  Phil.4:8





 

STEPPING OUT SIDE THE BOX

While stepping in among the perils and minefields of caring for a loved one, I have long learned that it is nearly impossible to try to take a loved one out of their box and make them climb into mine.
 Oh, it may start out as being successful! The tragedy is that as ones world is shrinking mine has/is expanding.
As something is grasped today, that something may be eluded tomorrow. Preferences escape.  Empty boxes of cereal placed in random places waiting to be transported to the recycling bin.
It is a recipe for a volatile relationship, especially if caring for ones own loved ones.
We all want to keep our private domain and maintain our own little corner of paradise.   I believe that concept is one of the reasons we may turn down the help we so desperately need.
While our concerns mount, we try to pocket the odd remarks here and there, something forgotten that should have been remembered, confusion of plans or entries on the calendar when they have changed, or losing the car in a parking structure. We want to chalk it up to approaching THAT senior age.
The tendency is to bat away clue after clue that something is happening. 

My first encounters with the cognitive and memory test several years ago while care giving,  can give an indication of what may be going on, however, with some there may be no obvious sign of cognitive impairment at present to outsiders.

MY LADY -2010-Better is a one day in God's court.

I have an over-developed sense of the melodramatic at least on the inside and as time progresses it becomes apparent that behavior alters, subtly at first, and then more obviously.  All the endearing qualities that you enjoyed slowly disappear and confusion sets in and becomes more evident.
One redeeming quality of this disease is that it appears to protect the loved one from understanding just what is happening.
Many times, I resent the fact that I have to make so may decisions.
Then there are the obsessions brought on by dementia, whether it be with tissues or the latest collapse of personal hygiene.  Their movement becomes slower and thinking is more ponderous or more frequent visits to the bathroom, every ten minutes.  Fighting with the night clothes and midnight romps down a hallway.  Digestive systems taking full revenge.  Eating slows down.
Their world continues to shrink as mine says "stay in their BOX!"  They appear to be the happiest, and most content in their ignorance when you join them in their BOX.

A tightening settles across my chest whenever I find myself trying to cope with the latest events, the latest incidents.  My lungs feel an enormous weight, my heart and breath quicken. The emotional strain is sometimes inconceivable.

CO-LOVED ONES

  It is inevitable and evident when I make most of the decisions that
these are stressful,  emotional, yet thoroughly wonderful days, usually a build up of trivial things anything that threatens, comes crashing down.  Plans go out the window often.

I live/lived in a mixed fiction and reality world, one in the box and the next dreaming of running away.  I try to sort the fiction and reality and try to sort out exactly what transpired when I am not present and a loved one is trying to explain some concerns, a mixture of past and present.

The images remain strong as I marvel at how beautiful my last respite was.  Yes, manage to get out of their box and back into yours periodically, only move your box around or get a bigger one and keep it open or discard it.
"Don't be killed on the inside with memories." with what was and never will be again.

MY LOVED ONE -At 95 (June 2017) Living with us

Don't feel guilty if you don't get out more.
If your loved one places something in odd places or scatters tissue fragments do not scold or correct.  Short term memory allows no allowance for walkers,false teeth, or canes to be left in odd places.

"Dementia alters behavior in all sorts of dramatic and distressing ways, but sometimes its the little pleasures that are gone that hurt the most."  (Excerpt from a book, I recently read.)
When THINGS start to happen there is often the misunderstanding that a moment of forgetfulness is just loosing a few loose screws when in reality it may be the beginning of the early stages of an unpleasant journey.

That journey may just begin with the surrendering ahead of time of the losses ahead.

The comfort we have is that God is in the BOX with us.
 

EXTEMPORANEOUS

This is going to be one of those blogs that is Extemporaneous.  I have never done this before.     This is my first.

It has been awhile since I have blogged not because I have not had the time but my mind has had one of big pool of assorted topics to think on and a swirl of the past and the present and a combo of both.  It’s been hard corralling those thoughts into somewhat of a cohesive piece of work.  Grandma Frogger is on vacation to the Bayou.
As I write, I am listening to Jambalaya with the Carpenters.
When I was in high school, they were really popular with the “in crowd”.  However, I was not with the “in crowd”.
I hung out with three sisters from a very conservative musical family from church who  considered the Carpenters anathema.  However being the naughty girls that we were at times, we would sneak times to listen to someones record, probably over to my place where I lived with an uncle & aunt who were not so tight on music.
I had one of those record players that looked like a little suitcase with the little round thingies to make the 33 and 45 rpm work with the spindle.
Jambalaya is one of those songs with a very catchy tune and can stay in your mind for the rest of the day. 
“Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gayo,” is hardly lyrics I want to meditate on for the rest of the day, however, there are times, I get into somewhat of a wild, reckless mood.

  How do you explain to the grandkids what “gayo” meant then and that in my early days it meant to be happy and joyful.  How far our world is today from mine to the grandkids.

I am also bemused by my husbands recollection of one of his memories as he got into trouble with his parents for accompanying a friends family to the movies to watch Pinocchio without his parents approval.
Going to the movies just wasn’t a good thing for a good conservative Baptist and a CM&A er’s.

The first 13 yrs. of my life were pretty much devoid of most media.  TV was a novelty and I do not recall members of my family having one either until years later in black and white.
We have come a long way from those days.  TV went off the air at ten and there were only a few channels.

My first visit to the movie theater was in around 1974 (I was in my 20’s) to watch The Sound Of Music somewhere in Pasadena.  The feeling and awe was surreal.  I had never before been in a movie theater.  The first feeling was as if I had stepped into Satan’s territory and yet the anticipation of participating in something that may not be approved by God.  I did not know what to expect.  I felt like somewhere along during the time sitting watching that I would somehow be transported into another world which I was. 
 I was captured into that world for the time I was there totally unaware of those around me and my first date with my husband to be.  I was a little startled by the loudness and wondered who was hard of hearing.  It was an unforgettable moment.
I could probably count on my one hand the many times I have gone to the movies.  I just could not justify spending the little money that God allowed me to have in those and subsequent days.
 Upon finding out that those movies were available after a time to rent,borrow, or buy at a cheaper rate and could watch over and over again, I could not see the point of going to the theater and paying for a husband to fall asleep anytime during the movie.
What it all boils down to is that I never got into the watch part of TV or movies and to this day could not carry on a conversation about the latest or oldest movie.

I must confess though that I was curious to watch Iron Man 3 that my son-in-law had helped produce simply because he had spent so much time on that movie.
In fact, my husband and I shared ear buds and watched it on one of our train travels back from the Pacific Northwest one year.  I was pleasantly surprised as I was expecting perhaps something else.
I could watch Anne of Green Gables many, many times and still be entertained by Anne with an e’s voluminous verbosity and vocabulary.
When I am old and in a “nursing home” just sit me in front of the Anne Of Green Gables series.  Ha,Ha.

Not to long ago, as I was blogging about my in laws that I never knew but only from my husband and writings I found in “THE BOX” they mentioned watching The Bells Of Saint Mary in 1947 or 1948 on their honeymoon.  I was curious, watched it on my computer and found it very enjoyable even though in black and white and filmed so long ago.

I remember when we were first married, had moved into our 1949 house in North Hollywood.  We did not have a TV for our first 3 yrs.  One day my husband brought an old used, black and white, turned it on and the quietness and silence that I had so treasured was broken.  It forever transformed our lives.  For me the sound seemed deafening even on mute.  I had trouble concentrating and focusing on more mindful pursuits.
I am sure, that along this last half of my life I have watched other movies and videos, however, reading books and blogging is my passion during this season of my life.

I find that spending time in front of the TV or watching videos fosters a mindset of spending less time with God and in His Word.