The corn maze...

Home, Home on the range

Where the deer and the antelope play

Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word..

(Dad! I can do this!)

Watch..

huh...

and the sky is not cloudy all day-eeee!

September's book review

Enticing cover isn't it?  I sighed when it came time to pick up this book. Yet again, this is another book that has been in my collection for years and I have no idea from whence it came.  It looked silly and suffocating at the same time. Quite a feat. 

It's written by Noelle Wheeler, who judging by her picture on the back cover; could have only been in her late teens when she wrote it.  Compiled into sections such as "virtue, home, strength, service, royalty, stature, liberty,lyrics, purpose, and vision" it is a retelling of women's lives lived in wisdom of God's providence.

Once I realized my repulsion to the cover was partly due to my age (I believe it's directed towards preteens), I gained a good appreciation for the content within.  Some of the women (Betsy Ross, Catherine von Bora, Jenny Lind) I had heard of, and others were unfamiliar.  My personal favorites were those that detailed the pioneer women, probably due to the Little House series that so many of us read as children.  One particular story still amazes me.  "Mrs. Jameson of the Alleghany Settlement"

The Jameson family was one of the many who went to seek their fortune out west.  Coming upon the Alleghany River, the husband, wife, and baby of 8 months contrived a raft to float across on.  The river had been swollen by recent rains, and the raft split.  Mr. Jameson drowned before her very eyes.   She, the baby, and all of their possessions continued to float downstream with the current.  Managing to paddle the remains of the raft over to the shore, she docked the raft, clutched her baby closer, and climbed upstream a mile to where they had left the oxen behind.

Okay, so stop a second.  Imagine yourself passing along on land that was completely unfamiliar and leaving everything that was familiar. You've been traveling for days on end in a bumpy cart trying to keep a crawling baby entertained, fed, and rested; making sure all of your supplies hold out for the journey.  Part of your trip will inevitably involve crossing a river on a raft, and upon that trip, you literally watch the raft split and your husband removed from you forever.  But somehow you have to gather your wits about you to save yourself and your child in that very moment when the last bit of familiarity has been taken.   These were not weak women.

Mrs. Jameson deemed the best course of action to stay put in hopes of meeting up with other travelers heading west.  The problem was that they had crossed the river further down than most pioneers and she found herself alone for two months.  She planted corn, set up a pen for the oxen, and fashioned a rudimentary kitchen from which to cook; all in a dense bush so as not to be found by Indians.  But a close call with Indians impelled her to move her camp back to a rocky ledge.  She slept with her baby by her side amidst the howls of wolves at night (even having to hit one that got too close) and fashioned yet another "homestead" ; including a rolled rock pen and a fragile cabin.  In late August, she was gathering blackberries and laid her baby down to pick them more easily.  As she gazed back at her child, she saw what would generate tremendous fear in any parent's heart, a rattlesnake poised to strike her child.  I will forego the full details that Mrs. Jameson left behind (they gave me nightmares for two nights) and summarize to say that she prayed for perservation to our Heavenly Father, grabbed the snake as it sprang upon her, and using her two hands tried to suffocate it.  It coiled about her waist, brought her down with a blow to her head with it's tail, and she snatched up her nearby hunting knife and cut off it's head.  The remainder of the snakes body coiled about her tighter bringing her completely to the ground, but eventually eased in it's death, and Mrs. Jameson fainted. 

When she woke up, and saw the carnage around her, she snatched her baby into her arms and vowed to make the end of all of the reptilian family surrounding her.  She unknowningly had settled into a den of snakes and had just made an end of it's patriarch.  In the days that followed it was not uncommon for her to kill 4 or 5 snakes in a day---(this is where I swooned- are you serious)??

Within a few weeks she caught the attention of some emigrants floating down river and they decided to settle there in the land with her.  Their number was now fifteen and in time swelled into it's own populous town.  She remarried, but was forever known as the "Mother of the Alleghany Settlement". 

I've decided to keep this book for my girls to read.  It's a good reminder of how our God "is the same, yesterday, today, and forever".  I'm just going to go decoupage the cover now....

You know the fashion industry has gone too far

when you see "nude" diaper covers.

This cover was a freebie from an order I recently placed; I had no choice of brand, color, or style, though I threw a comment of "girl colors" hoping for mercy.  My guess is that all the moms revolted in the stores, resulting in an abundance of this um......color?... um.... style?..... um....... REALLY?

So we are now able to avoid the dreaded "diaper line", just ignore the duck bum and you'd never know. .... well, minus the odor....