The effectiveness of the tennis grunt...

Age slows things down...Things that took a second to do and to learn and to complete take much, much longer. Frustration on the one hand, but at the same time, puzzle pieces come together as well. My muscles go into autopilot on the serve. After about a half an hour, the body can do what it can do and can't do what it can't. I can't really run or hustle, but I can hobble.

I love how the coaches' words and instructions become deeper impressions on the activity. Where your toss goes and how you complete your motion all blend and become a unified presence in your action. You would run up to the box, were there a box to go to and hug all of the voices that have contributed to that excellent serve that you just did. Your mind prays for the living coaches and enjoys the sweet memory of the deceased ones.

Today, it was the American Twist Serve that I was concentrating on. I can usually do one or two and get them in and where I want them to go, but, not today! I was so frustrated about it. I had a little pain in my back and I blamed the pain on my not getting them anywhere near in. I love Nettie's low and quick toss. I tried a couple of those, to no avail. On the last bunch, with a gratefully warmed up shoulder, I tried to inculcate my oft repudiated "tennis grunt". It worked! They were all ace quality. I said, I guess I have missed an entirely useful experience of effectiveness for my repudiation of the noisy addition to my happy silent game.

I guess I will have to "Cry Out Loud!"

For the Love of POP!

Not sodapop, your father. Love him, would you?

Preview of "Professor Owl's Teatime"

I am so glad that you are with your father on that 10 hour journey through the cottonfields...

Thank you Emily, for your strict concern about the details of life in our large family. Sunday breakfast, who ate and who didn't, who has a project due, what is the timeline for each person's daily schedule. We look like we are taking it for granted, but we aren't and God knows what you do for us.

Thanks the most for driving those many miles to the Chowan, for us. Your service is appreciated and we are very grateful to God for you. XOXOXOX

Mrs. Day said, in the movie...

I'll never see what good a record of the spending is, after the money's already spent?

The older that I get, the more I see that Clarence Day Jr. documented the age old struggle of the marriage condition. Men have mostly a single eye to tasks. I and all the women I talk to seem to have a multitasking glut. We do things on the fly, because we have to mostly. One child on the hip and the other by hand and the pots jiggling on the stove. The correct dance of the two, seems that he should help you see when you have too many balls in the air at the same time. You are going to drop them all...And then, you drop them...Why didn't you tell me the balls were all in the air, if you saw them? Why did you throw all of the balls up in the air? I can usually catch them, but this time they fell to the floor. All of them. We are not dumb and they are not dumb. We were meant to compliment each other.

Today, they tell me it is my favorite bridge's 50th birthday!

I am so blessed to have been emotionally and spiritually groomed for life under the shadow of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Many an emotional joy and struggle was exulted or mourned with the sight of that beautiful gift of engineering in view. We played and we learned and we loved and we grew under the shadow of that great structure. Like a nana, I felt its comfort tell me I was home after a long morning journey through the canals of the underground caves that were the subway commutes.

My favorite memory was when the bridge would be partially covered in the fog and you could really imagine that, Heaven had come down for the morning and that you could reach it if you walked to the other side of the bridge. I certainly know that Brooklyn isn't Heaven and certainly Staten Island isn't Heaven, but God has made a way for us to traverse an even more impossible chasm. Halleluia, before I even knew that my estate was so dire the Bridge of His Grace had already been constructed. Thank you for being a stalwart reminder of Grace and Hope and Future, Mr. Bridge!

These are the good old days!

I did love the enchantment of Mrs. Tassie's face when she said "she's in heaven!" about her mother. There was a beauty of confidence and love of God and her mother that marked her obvious grief.

We traveled through the sad providence with that family in our prayers for them. What a beautiful and sweet Christian family. I saw them in the nursery and then later in the "kid's central" etc. As we dropped Ezra and they dropped their girls here and there. Now, we grieve with them in spirit. I am hoping that their grief is teaching us to number our days and to know that our grief of a similar kind, may it grow our faith and teach us to love God and eachother more. May we carry their hearts in ours through their grief and may they instruct us how to be confident of the condition of our loved ones hearts at their departure from us. what a delightful confidence to know "She is in heaven!" We can't know about the days to come, as Carly sings, but we can follow others who have been where we are going. Hopefully we will stay together and love oneanother into heaven.

For the beauty of the sky!

I simply love the beautiful photos of the recent sky shows we've been having this autumn. The sky seems alive with color and vibrancy in the morning, it does seem more vibrant than usual. I love the sky and these skies have looked to me as though we are making a step up toward heaven, although the providences in the news wouldn't seem to say so. When the sky shows those cloud lines that are straight across like it did these days, it reminds me of the corner of a step. It seems that we just see the side of the step as we go over the side of it. Usually we are on a level point and can't see the changes in levels, but when we get to a bumpy point, I think we are going up. I definitely wouldn't like to think we were going down. Thanks for taking the pictures of it for me.

Today is the day that I found RLS' Kidnapped reading on the Youtube.

I put it on the side of this page because I had already had the reading on the bottom of the page. So, a person can read along with the audioversion, by clicking on both of the gadgets and enjoying it. I enjoy the Kidnapped book, immensely.

It is my opinion that this book is a beautiful reproof of how family distances themselves from one-another for one reason or another. An aunt or uncle can guide your soul to heaven or to hell. God sees and defends the fatherless, here on earth and throughout eternity. Family should draw one to God and not away, if possible.

It is my imagination of this book that when Uncle sent the boy, David up to his expected demise to fall down the rickety stairs. I always imagine him having nearly fallen, fainting out and going unconscious. I see him as Ezekiel falling into the valley of drybones and Fred Hammond singing I Press to his semiconscious soul and him seeing himself marching to heaven with the true souls of the redeemed who come together in his sight. He starts to see the difference between the life, his father had carved out for him, apart from the covetousness of his natural family condition. He sees that his job is not to receive from his uncle, but to give, the only thing that he had and could give, prayer for his dear uncle's lost soul.

That poor uncle was truly the picture of the rich miser. He needed prayer and it is a question in my mind, why the name Ebenezer, seems always the contradiction of those days. The first reading was of the dear parson who gave the remembrance of a loved soul to a poor orphan. What did he give to the child? How was his remembrance always gifted to us? Chapter one we see that wonderful anticipation of living in great abundance with his rich distant family. His expectation is harshly dashed upon the rocks, as we will find out erlong. 1. Money- inheritance 2. Gifties gift money 3. the Bible 4. Medicinal Lily of the valley water-how to make infusion. Fear and second thoughts had come to him in chapter 2. He started to see the futility of his decision to attempt this change in his mean condition. Curses were upon that house. Curses were upon his distant family and he had not known of his mistake to pursue the mystery of family relations. {Perhaps the condition of the church in those days was thus. Perhaps there was no way to have money and holiness, for the deceptions of that day. Only the rich young ruler's proposal of our Lord's could draw a soul to heaven. I am sure that there must've been some rich who were saved, but RLS, warns us all of the deception of covetousness. Alexander, a Greek name and Ebenezer a Biblical name and they lived in antithesis of the expectation. Is the raising of my Ebenezer, the trusting of the law of Moses, which can never make the soul clean from your sins, only it can make you know that you are a sinner.} Will we either be part of the unity of the spirit in godly Alexander who pictured "Christian and pilgrim" in the Pilgrim's Progress or we will be part of the unsaved Ebenezer who holds to the reality of Moses and knows he is unsaved and happy to be thus.

Hither by Thy Help I'm come and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home, Did Jesus seek us when a stranger? Were we wandering from the fold of God? Did He rescue Thee from Danger? or... Are you still in the Danger of that "Ebenezer"?

Why should we feel like working out, after we see our girlish figure escaping us?

Oh dear, baby number 2 or more is on the way and although the first baby meant only delight and accomplishment, the second baby comes with so many emotional rollercoasters.

Will he still love me in 4 or 5 months when he sees the belly protruding and taking over? Can I go through 9 whole months and labor and delivery again? Too late to rethink that decision, now isn't it? So many nurses have said that to me in my tearful estate. You should have thought about that a while ago, now shouldn't you've? Perhaps there are not those thoughts, if you are a princess and have unlimited service and assistants with baby number one. Most of our princes expect full healthy wifely attendance, even in the midst of the morning sickness. Aren't you used to this condition, yet? I hear it is all in your head. I hear that you are psychosomatic about your early morning 'sickness'. That is not true! It is certainly the sensitive husband who will know that and not expect a perky and always exuberant mothering condition. We pray for grace to become thus, but it does take some time.

I worked out, doubly on babies number 2 and 3, just to stem the tide of emotional distress that I know myself to be susceptible to. Aerobics, situps, tennis matches, a tourney or two to enter, just to prove to yourself that your competitive edge is not lost to this tiny personal space sharer. Always taking your medical professional's advice about continuing an exercise regimen is preferred. Once they say you can. Get your exercise on, baby, it is good for your emotional state!

Some girls needn't run from the fat deposits, they have inherited the slim genes. But, us "Amazon women" have to fight tooth and nail for every curve. They are worth the fight, girls. Keep those curves as long as you can.

You know what I always say...PUMP IT UP!