Jane Reinheimer -- copyright 2009, all rights reserved

Baby Steps! What an exciting video to watch. It's an adventure that spans the entire development of little human beings living inside Mom. Take a 5 minute vacation and watch this video: http://www.babystepsdvd.com/index.php There's an English narration that explains the developmental steps as they take place inside the womb. Praise be to God. Take a moment to pray for all the previous little ones who have yet to be born! As a Christian nation, we must get legalized abortion off the books of this land and do all we can to protect the lives of the least ones of us.

July 3 -- add on

Since a lot of you don't read the news/watch broadcast news, etc., let me be the first to tell you that Sarah Palin is stepping down as governor of Alaska. She intends to hand over the reins of power to her lieutenant governor at her annual picnic on July 26.

So, since everyone else is speculating, let me tell you what Quint and I think. We expect that she just may run for senator in 2010. That will give her some added exposure on Capitol Hill, give her time to be with her kiddos without the heavy necklace of CEO of the largest state in the union, and give her time to broaden whatever she needs to brush up on. Then take a run for the presidency again in 2016

Meanwhile, the Democrats are saying she's abandoning the people of Alaska. As if there weren't a succession plan in place.

Funny, but no one is saying anything about Ted Kennedy being unable to represent the people of Massachusetts. And nobody but nobody filed any ethics charges when Obama was running for office on the taxpayers dime when he was supposed to be a sitting senator. But Palin? Oh, contrare. So far she's had 15 ethics charges filed against her for making speeches while still governor of Alaska.

I personally think that anyone who runs for president ought to take an unpaid leave of absence if they intend to campaign on the taxpayer's dime. It's not like we'd have to have a bake sale for these people who miraculously become millionaires while in office. They can afford to do the ethical thing if they want to and not stiff the taxpayers while they go gallivanting down the chicken circuit garnering votes for office.

July 3 --

It's a bit early but I gave Quint his birthday present -- an electric ice cream maker.

And, natch, we made a batch of ice cream right away. With Splenda. In one part of the batch, I added smooshed up peach pulp from fresh peaches. Can't wait to check that out after it sits in the deep freeze to finish getting hardened off.

Here's the recipe:

VANILLA ICE CREAM

5 large eggs
3-1/2 to 4 cups Splenda
2 tablespoons vanilla

Mix that really really well in the large bowl of your electric mixer. I mixed the above at medium speed for about 5 minutes.

To that mixture, add 4 cups of warm milk that has been scalded. Add this warm milk very slowly so that the egg mixture doesn't clot up on you. Turn the mixer speed back to low and add 1 pint whipping cream, and one quart of Half and Half.

Then put all of that into the canister of your ice cream maker and make according to the manufacturer's directions.

While the ice cream mixer was doing its thing, I peeled peaches, about ten medium size peaches which I then blended to a pulp. This actually made too much peach pulp. I only used about two cups of the peach mixture because I only wanted one quart of peach ice cream. The rest of the peach pulp will be peach preserves. And the rest of the vanilla ice cream will have a variety of toppings, like sugar free caramel that I get from Wal-Mart.

I put the ice cream into quart sized plastic containers that get stored on the door of my refrigerator freezer. That way, they don't freeze solid as a rock and can be scooped easily later.

And to my readers in South Carolina, it looks like you folks have a serial killer running around. Supposedly killed four people in the last six days. Go to this site to eyeball a sketch of the guy: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529956,00.html

Supposedly he's about 6'3" and weighs around 200 pounds. Needless to say, he ought to be considered dangerous and since the victims were shot, we could assume he's armed.

Serial killers have an uncanny ability to blend in and look like every other law abiding citizen. If they want to. But since we don't know what sets them off or triggers their murderous rage, just be wary of strangers. Even the ones who look like they're behaving themselves. Especially if they're loners.

Encroachment seems to be a theme with these killers. Whether psychological, emotional, or physical encroachment. Who knows until you get into their heads. The killer sure isn't going to oblige you and give you any clues. In fact, serial killers tend to think they're superior to the rest of us mortals. To them, we're just stupid flatlanders who live down here in the valleys of their depravity while they soar the mountain heights of being contemptuously better than the rest of us. And they tend to be very self-centered, to the point of narcissism.

And they blame everybody else, or anybody else for everything that's ever been done wrong to them. They don't know what an accidental slight is. Oh no -- when people do something that hurts their feelings, there's always a sinister motive attached to misdeeds.

So if you want to look at a very minimal profile, think of contempt for everybody else, blame for other people and pathological self-centeredness. All this leads to paranoid thoughts that make a killer believe that mean people should be punished.

All the murders happened near Charlotte, South Carolina, within ten miles of each other.

And poor little rich girl, Ruth Madoff, is pleading to keep her fur coat as the feds seize the penthouse digs that belonged to her and her very crooked husband Bernie who just got a 150 year sentence. Is Ruth the poor little done-wrong wifey? I don't think so. She was the accountant at the family biz Ponzi schemer's office. She knew stuff. So can she keep her fur coat? I hope not. Boo hoo to you Ruthie. Next time turn somebody in if there's a crime being committed and you know about it. That, in itself, is against the law. You'd never be able to convince me that the accountant, namely Ruthie, didn't know what was going on.

And now for lunch. Today I made Tuscany White Bean Soup. I'm getting ready for the austerity program that's coming. They may be eating Wagwu Beef in the White House but out here in the heartland, we're not eating all that luxuriously. Besides, vegetarian dishes are better for you anyway.

July 2 --

We're a nation of counters. We like numbers. Americans like to keep track of things. Maybe not where we put our stuff, but definitely how much stuff we've got.

And so Rasmussen Tracking Polls have become world famous.

Today, Rasmussen offers up some new digits for our digesting pleasure.

One of those is that only 32% of people polled strongly approve of Obama, while 33% strongly disapprove. If my memory serves me correctly, that's the first time the pro versus con has flipped.

Overall, Obama's approval rating slipped to 54%. Down another point.

And what about that giant humongous boondoggle of a stimulus package that was supposed to offer jobs and more jobs galore? You remember the one, it was pushed through Congress because the White House said if it wasn't passed immediately, the unemployment rate would probably go above 8%. Well, today the unemployment rate hit 9.5% with no end in sight for the upward moving trend line.

Those are dismal numbers, but how about the folks who are doing really well in this administration? They're making out pretty well. According to the CNN Political Ticker yesterday, there are 122 people on the White House payroll who make more than $100,000a year. And twenty-two Obama staffers are the top dogs, coming in at salaries of $172,200 -- like Rahm Immanuel (chief of staff), Robert Gibbs (press secretary), David Axelrod (senior advisor) and Gregory Craig (White House counsel), Anita Dunn (communications director), Jonathan Favreau (speechwriting director), and Valerie Jarrett (senior advisor), James Jones (national security adviser), and Lawrence Summers (national economic council director).

There is one guy who makes $192,934 -- David Marcozzi. But he's one of those employees who's on loan to the White House. He's the Public Health Policy Director.

As taxpayers, aren't we just the most generous people in the whole wide world?

Why, my goodness, we even give our congressional politicos, more than a million bucks each for expenses to run their district offices. Any thing they want to spend that money on. And the representatives even get to charge off their leased vehicle expenses to us taxpayers too. And unless they specifically vote not to, they get an automatic raise every year. Even when unemployment is on the rise and even when Americans are pinching their budgets really tight. Plus, they keep raising taxes as if our pocketbooks were a bottomless pit for them to dip into anytime they want more money for their hot little hands.

No wonder the taxpayers are getting together at Tea Parties to see what they can do about all this nonsense from Washington, D.C. The liberals may be calling these Tea Parties are bunch of right wingers but don't you believe it. Democrats and Republicans alike are teapartying. Congressionals may not be willing to work together on Capitol Hill, but people who live out here in mainstream America are sure talking to one another. And mainstream America is wizening up!

As far as getting elected to the White House, it was the 3% voters who identify themselves as independents who put this administration into the White House. Not the Democrats and certainly not the Republicans. So now you know why the independents are courted so sweetly in national elections. They're the ones!

We recently watched the BBC series Duchess of Duke Street.It was delicious. Set in England in the late 1800s and continuing through World War I. We enjoy the BBC series. They have real stories with real plots. Not a screen full of sex and trash like Hollywood blisters the public with here in America. We like well-written stories with stars who look like real people. We don't want a bunch of gore and naked people who gratuitously slap the screen full of vulgarities, both visually and audibly.

This evening we'll finish the series The Fall of Eagles. It's a four-disk series about how the big shots in Yerp started World War I. The actors are phenomenal and the story is faithful to history. So we're getting a brief history lesson as well as some first class entertainment.

And for those who may be interested, Rasmussen's tracking poll says Obama's approval rating fell another point. Down to 55 in the last day or so. Hmmmm.

Guess what? People who think they can control climate by taxing those of us who are breathing in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide are just showing us how small-minded they are. But it isn't about climate change or even climate control, folks. It all about how to stick it to the taxpayers. Again.

And the economic crisis? Well, the leaders Yerp are considering tax cuts to get their economies flowing again. Not stimulating their debts by printing bogus money.

And Honduras? Obama says the "revolt" is illegal. Isn't that kind of sort of like meddling, like he said he wasn't going to do by issuing an opinion about Iran? The truth is, the Honduran presidente was trying to figure out a way to stay in the presidential palace even thought his term was ending. The Supreme Court of Honduras ordered the military to move him out because El Presidente seemed to have a great reluctance to give up all those luxuries that comes with being president. So where's the illegality?

Obama isn't too terribly far from the 50-50 mark. And if he keeps going at his present rate, his approval rating will be under 50 by the time all those Tea Parties finish up their 4th of July gatherings.

June 29 --

Ever hear of Maxine Waters? She's a very left-leaning representative from California. Los Angles area. Used to be a state rep. When she was a state rep, she somehow got a part of a public school named after her. Now that she's been a federal rep for a while, she tried to get an earmark floated through Congress to fund a program in that part of the school that was named after her.

Well, apparently even Congress has some rules about earmarked funds for "named after me" memorial type programs because another rep, Mr. Obey, challenged Waters' earmark and said he wasn't going to approve it.

Then a push and shove incident erupted on the House floor. Waters was escorted off to a cloak room to cool down a bit and Hoyers counseled Obey for a bit. Then Obey left the chambers and Waters continued her diatribe with "He pushed me first."

Read here: http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/waters_obey_fight/2009/06/26/229208.html

Supposedly this was caught on tape by C-Span. I'll bet it's been c-scanned by now. Right out of existence.

But anyway, how's that for our glorious representatives in Washington putting their best feet in the big mouths! Kind of reminds me of two bullies in a fistacuff on the playground. And they wonder why Congress' approval ratings are so low.

And speaking of approval ratings, Rasmussen has Obama's approval sinking like a rock -- now at 54%. That's a long way from his mountaintop 76% on inauguration day. Looks like he's rapidly approaching the 50-50 mark.

I'd be nervous if I were a left-leaning politician these days, what with the socialist regime down in Honduras being toppled by a coup over the weekend. Then there was that other vote in Argentina. That didn't bode well for the Argentine lady who took that country by storm. The voters ran her out of office too.

Gee whiz, have you noticed that the socialist regimes all over the world are being run out by the voters. I think I'd be worried, real worried, if I were on the left-leaning side in Washington. What with the 2010 elections approaching fast and all.

And now there's apparently a movement afoot to change copyright laws to protect what the Associated Press calls "hot news." Can't talk about a hot news story, link to it, make a reference to it or summarize it for the first 24 hours, if this movement moves into legislation. Read this: http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/06/28/first-kill-the-lawyers-before-they-kill-the-news/

Folks, be very carefuly when you go to the polls a year from November. If we lose our freedom of speech, what do you suppose will follow?

June 28 --

All I have to say is goodness gracious, these teenagers are fantastic. Sometimes there just aren't words to describe the superior quality of trained voices. My good friend Antoinette from Paducah sent me this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqUkUjeF4-c

If you thought the Three Tenors were great, just wait 'til you hear these three teenage tenors singing O Sole Mio.

JUNE 26 --

It's going to be another scorcher here in the Midwest. Temperatures threaten to be in the 90s again. But, hey, it's summer. Iced tea weather. Today I am restricting my gardening activities only to shady areas. Call me chicken if you like.

We have a bumper crop of clover this year. People seem to object but I don't mind. When it's mowed, it looks green anyway. Besides, clover is one of those plants that puts nitrogen back into the soil. And besides, the little bumblebees love it.

Well, of course, you heard the news that Michael Jackson died yesterday. Is he the third in that bewitching superstition that says death comes in threes? Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and now Michigan Jackson? We shall see.

And this just in. According to an artible in Breitbart.com, (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D991TBBG0&show_article=1) the Centers for Disease Control now estimate that there are a million people in the United States that have swine flu. The CDC says it came up with this number by estimations, not an actual "nose count." The average age is the 12 year group, then 20 year olds head for the hospital the most, and the largest group of death-related flu victims are 37 years old.

Take all the necessary provisions -- you know the drill -- cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze -- and wash your hands. A lot. It's not that soap is such a great germ killer. Rather, it washes the germs down the drain. You can get rid of more than 90% of the germs on your hands just by washing your hands for the length of time it takes you to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

June 23 --

Condolences to the family of Ed McMahon. McMahon died last night in a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 86. Johnny couldn't have done it without him. The two together were hilarious. Good chemistry between them.

Midnight rumbles flew through the area again last night. Good thing because I never did get out there late yesterday to water the poor little flowers. Not with all those giant mosquitoes flying about. Besides, God's water is much cheaper than the municipal stuff.

And speaking of governments. Sort of. That's supposed to be the next bubble that bursts.

I can see that. What with all the legislators who can't seem to balance a budget, won't work together, and want more and more money, how in the world do they think the poor taxpayers are going to sustain their ever-increasing levels of spending?

And the ones in Washington gave themselves a nice little raise in the costs of running their offices. They all get over a million smackroos, you know. That's not their salaries which is already in the upper six figures. That's the allowance they get to spend on aides, lunches, staff, lunches and cocktail parties and all expenses related to schmoozing the taxpayers into re-electing them.

Eventually they'll figure out that as the IRS receipts keep going down, the money is going to evaporate. Then watch for the bubble to burst.

June 22 --

Here's a truism about anger: Whatever arouses your anger is what controls you.

Martin Luther, the great protestant reformer of the middle ages said: Don't say that man made you angry; say instead, that man aroused my anger.

You see, if you are not an angry person, people and things can't make you angry. But if you are an angry person, just about everything and everybody that comes along will tick you off.

So if you want to be in control of how you feel and what you do, get in charge of your inner being. That's where your anger lies, rolled up and coiled like a snake ready to strike out.

Learn to say, "So what!" Or, as Abraham Lincoln used to say, "This too shall pass."

My mother had her favorite saying: Sometimes you just have to let it go. That's so true. Why in the world do we hang onto what causes us discomfort?

Could it be that you feel more alive when you load ourselves up with painful feelings? And, like the people who cut themselves, there's a huge medicinal dose of epinephrines that come to your rescue.

It could also be that people express anger because they would cry if they didn't. And they're afraid that if they started crying, they'd never stop.

So spend some time with yourself. Go to a quiet place where you feel safe and make a list of the ten things that make you angry. Then after you make that list, go back and write a sentence or two with each item you've identified that would tell you why this particular thing arouses your anger.

If you do this on a regular basis -- like at the end of each day -- you'll discover that after a couple of weeks, there may not be anything left on your list. Or maybe there'll only be a couple of tough things left that you're still working on.

If you get stuck, send me an e-mail and tell me where you think you're stuck. E-mail jane@janereinheimer.com and type "anger" in the subject line.

Truth is, we make a mess of things when we go spewing off all that anger. Not a good idea. It really erases big chunks of our self-esteem.

And now I have a couple of observations about the boondoggle that the White House wants passed that's called the health insurance legislation.

The White House is saying it's now or never.

Please tell me that's a promise because I've also heard that there's less support for this measure than there was for the Hillary version when the cicadian-like national health care package last reared its ugly head.

Not only that but Rasmussen has Obama's approval rating falling from 56% to 53% this last week. That honeymoon's over. All those golden promises about fixing everything right up just kind of went by the way side because nothing is better.

Then there's the matter of some 46 million people who are uninsured. Last I heard, that includes 10 million people who don't want to be covered on a plan that's available to them. They're probably covered on a spouse's coverage at work. Or they can afford to self-insure, like the rich Hollywood types.

So that leaves 36 million uninsured, of which 11 million are illegal aliens. I thought I had heard that there were 20 million illegals in this country. Does this figure mean that 9 million illegals went home? So, just counting only 11 million illegals, that leaves 25 million uninsured people. And since there's two things the government agencies don't do well, like keeping tracking of things and counting, who knows if that 25 million that's left is a real number or one that Joe Biden picked out of a hat.

To make matters worse, the legislation that's being debated and yakked up has huge sections missing. Hence another boondoggle. This one is right up there with that last one that had to be passed right here right now and there wasn't enough time allowed for legislators to even read it. "It" is what we all know as the great hurry-up stimulus bill of some $700+ billion, a small percentage of which has only been distributed. So I guess it wasn't really a crisis after all.

Neither is the health care crisis. In my opinion.

And have you noticed that the more the government rants about the global warming crisis, the cooler the temperatures become? Apparently no one in Washington thinks it matters that sun spot activities account for climate changes. Perhaps, just perhaps, they think their collective egos make things happen.

God has a way of dishing up humble pie to such people. And he's watching. Believe me, he's watching.

June 17 --

As I've promised to many of you who have contacted me, today I would like to talk about anger. I've facilitated workshops about anger and also zoomed in on it with the psychology courses I taught both at Moraine Valley College and Joliet Junior College up north.

Anger is greatly misunderstood. It's really an energetic reaction to something that happened to us that we do not like. Not at all.

That something is usually a feeling of having been betrayed. Or disappointed. Or frustrated.

Whatever angers us controls us.

We have an opportunity when we are angered to make one of two choices. One is a negative choice and can lead to potential disaster if we tap into the power of all that ferocious energy. Road rage comes to mind.

If someone cuts me off in traffic I can give the errant driver the road, or I can make a distorted assumption that the other driver is out to make my life miserable as long as I'm within a car length or two of the driver's car. I personally reframe rude drivers with the thought that they are hurrying to get to an emergency, maybe going to the hospital or something like that.

Not once do I figure that any driver is out to get me or make my life miserable.

And as challenging as I am, especially during cognitive therapy sessions when I confront the possibility of a client's distorted belief system, it would never occur to me to try to take down an errant driver who's trying to be the big shot on the road.

But anger? There's not enough room in my life to indulge in anger. I don't want to be controlled by all those angry thoughts. They'll eat you up alive from the inside out if you let them.

So if you're angry, sit down somewhere quiet and spend some precious moments with yourself and figure out where all that betrayal, disappointment or frustration is coming from. After you identify the underlying cause of the anger, then focus on a solution.

If you've been betrayed, maybe you just need to shrug your shoulders and say "so what." If you're disappointed with someone or something that's happened to us, maybe you just need to shrug your shoulders and let it go. Same goes for frustrations.

This is life, not heaven. There are frustrations aplenty here on earth. And you're going to be disappointed while you're still wearing your bones and flesh here on earth. Someday, when you get to heaven, you can ask Adam and Eve what they were thinking when they screwed everything up in a perfectly good paradise. Thanks to them, we all now have warts in our psyches.

Remember the words of the poet Khalil Gibran who said that pain carves ruts in our soul so that we can fill them with joy. If you don't have deep feelings and deep sorrows, your feelings run pretty shallow up there on top of your heart and soul. Sure, you're gonna get your feelings hurt. But you're also going to know and experience the deep joy that fills up those ruts.

June 15 --

The humidity is either 135% or the streets are sweating or it' raining ever so lightly. And since I hear the vague pitter patter of little raindrops, my guess is that the sky is falling.

Time for indoor activities. Quint is reading. I spent most of the morning cutting out 3-1/2" quilt squares. This afternoon I'm going to spend so time transferrng old blogs to my hard drive and deleting them from the home page. I'll start with the oldest blogs first.

On another matter, doesn't anyone over at the State Department, or in the White House for that matter, know that Bermuda is a British territory? I'm surprised that the self-proclaimed smartest woman in the world, who is now sitting on the throne at the State Department, didn't seem to realize that sending terrorists to Bermuda without first consulting Bermuda's home office is a huuuuuuuuge gaffe. So if Hillary really is the smartest woman in the world, then how come she's flunking contemporary global civics lessons?

So if England's Prime Minister Brown, who recently won the book of records prize for weaseling/begging/pleading/sobbing/groveling so that the Labour Party wouldn't throw him out of office, already told the US that Gitmo terrorists can't come to Britain, did they really think it would be okay to send Gitmo terrorists to a British territory? In fact, there are about a hundred countries around the world who are refusing to take the Gitmo terrorists.

Good grief!

Oh, and I read this juicy little tidbit on Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526420,00.html) Seems like a Rev. Father and Son twosome out there in southern California figured out a way to get a raise without practically anybody finding out about it.

It amounted to more than three million dollars.

It involved forgery, grand theft and fraud. These tricksters were living high on the hog as they jetted back and forth from their Orange County digs to time shares in Hawaii and Palm Springs. Oh, and not only that, but they also bought a Cadillac to get around in high style with. Now they're going to be guests of the state for a couple of years even if they did pay back $3.1 million.

They must have skipped right over the 7th Commandment when they were preaching and teaching at the Calvary Baptist Church and School in Yorba Linda, California.

Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. God is watching you.

Actually God is watching me too. Just knowing that little tip keeps me on the straight and narrow. I mean, I'll have enough explaining to do when I get to the Pearly Gates as it is. I don't need the extra baggage of doing all that intention stuff.

June 12 --

Are you ready to pay more taxes?

Here's a creative way that the Government plans to get you. It's a proposed tax on company-paid cell phones. If your boss provides you with a company-paid-for cell phone, you'd have to count a portion of that cell phone as a personal fringe benefit, therefore, taxable. That is, unless you can prove that you pay for your own personal cell phone in addition to the one you get from your boss. Not only that, but you have to be able to prove that you make some personal calls during business hours from your personal phone. So says an article in the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124473141538306335.html

And in case you didn't docket your calendar, you might want to know that this is election day in Iran. Yep, that's right. Captain Marmalade (Ahmadinejad) is running for re-election. I really like the idea of the requirement of a photo ID and also the right index finger being inked. Hard to vote more than once when your fingerprint is put on the ballot. Why don't we do that in this country? Just a little thing like that requirement would put busloads of fraudulent voters out of business, don't you think? With purple ink on their fingers, they wouldn't be able to go from one poll to another and spread their fraudulent cheer.

And this is a head's up on the high seas: North Korea has said that any sanctions against it would amount to an act of war. And if an act of war is committed against this country, then King Ping Pong Il says he will retaliate with nuclear repercussions.

Keep in mind that the UN Security Council has five veto-empowered members: US, China, Russia, France and Britain. And then there are these two countries who don't have veto power: Japan and South Korea.

So here's my point. If the UN tries to invoke maritime sanctions and China vetoes the measure, can the US effectively push back against China? These maritime sanctions might include such things as exporting nuclear stuff to other countries -- like Iran, for instance. Or Chavez. I'll just bet that Hugo would love to get his hands on nuclear material.

The problem with China, at least for now and probably a long time into the future, is that China has bought a whole bunch of US debt. Thanks to Obama's huge debt that was floated to pay for trillions of dollars of money that stimulated China more than the US.

We need to watch what China does with the UN position against North Korea. Any one of the veto-empowered members of the Security Council can put the nix on sanctions against North Korea. We'll have to wait and see which way China moves on this.

So even if you don't watch the news because it's too depressing. Or if you don't watch the news because the world scene is too complicated. Even if you think you have more important things to care about, you need to know just how treacherous the world situation has become. It will have an effect on your life and the life of those you love for now and possibly the rest of your life.

The time to start thinking about such things is now, while you still have a chance to do something about it.

June 11 --

I received this e-mail from my wonderful friend Cody from Warrensburg, Missouri. She has been such a blessing in my life and brings me such joy. Enjoy!

Subject: Fw: WHAT HAPPENS IN HEAVEN

This is one of the nicest e-mails I have seen, and it really puts
things into perspective...

I dreamed that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We
walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My
angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is
the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are
received."

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many
angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people
all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second
section..

The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section.
Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for
are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them."
I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working
hard at that station,since so many blessings had been requested and
were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door
of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was
seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section,"
my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed. "How is
it that there is no work going on here?" I asked.

"So sad," the angel sighed. "After
people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back
acknowledgments ."

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked.

"Simple," the angel answered. "Just say, 'Thank you, Lord.'"

"What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked...

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof
overhead, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a
dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy ."

"If you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the
world who has that opportunity."

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... you are
more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day."

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of
imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation .... you
are ahead of 700 million people in the world."

"If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest,
torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three
billion people in the world."

"If your parents are still alive and still married .... you are
very rare ."

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're
unique to all those in doubt and despair."

OK, what now? How can I start? If you can read this message, you just
received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very
special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the
world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along
to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.

ATTN:
Acknowledgement Dept.:
'Thank you Lord, for all that I have been blessed with, for giving me the
ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful
people to share it with."

----

Note: If you have something you'd like to share with readers, just send me an e-mail at: jane@janereinheimer.com I'll only use your first name. Otherwise, if I were to use your last name, you'll end up on Google as a contributor to my web site. I found that out quite by accident with my darling friend Antoinette.

June 10 --

Today would have been mom's 85th birthday, bless her heart. Wonder what she's doing up there in heaven. I'm sure she's found a very comfortable cloud by now, and has settled into the mansion that Jesus prepared for her. Rest in peace there, Mom. Still miss you though. Always will.

I hear thunder outside. That means no playing outside at least for the morning. You know that if you can hear thunder, you're at risk of being hit by lightning, don't you? Even if the sun if shining bright overhead. Lightning can travel a long, long way to get to you, so don't go outside and play around with that stuff. Or sit in front of an open window either. I had a client who was sitting on a couch in front of an open window. Just watching the storm roll in from off in the distance. Then she felt the hair on her arms raise up. Then she felt tingly all over. Then she got knocked off the couch. Fortunately she survived but was plagued by headaches. Horrible headaches from the lightning strike. Better to be safe than sorry. Lightning won't travel through glass, like in a closed window, but it can get through a window screen.

In politics, you may have heard that Indiana pensioners brought suit to halt the Chrysler shenanigans. The pensioners have a stake in how the Chrysler matter is resolved.

But here's the kicker. Just in case you ever wondered how the Democrats got the reputations as being the out-of-touch-political-party and gleaned a 30-something approval rating. That would be a 70% disapproval rating! Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan) chides the Indiana pensioners for not being willing to make a "small sacrifice" in their pension matters. The Indiana pension fund had invested in Chrysler stock.

Well, if Dingell is so all-fired interested in people making "small sacrifices," then how about this: what kind of small sacrifice would Dingell be willing to make? Would he be willing to pay for his car lease out of his own pocked instead of soaking the American taxpayer? And not just the car lease either. You know he charges off his gas and insurance and maintenance. If all the lawmakers paid for their own car expenses, then maybe we'd believe them when they say they have the best interests of the taxpayers at heart. Read more: http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTA4MTRlYmFiODhhNGU5MDI0YjhhMGNkZTY1NzAwY2Y=

Maybe, just maybe, penioners aren't millionaires. Not like most of Congress these days. It always amazes me that these congressionals come riding into Washington with pretty meager means, then the next thing you know, they're filthy rich. How did that happen? Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Well, I don't know about you, but I don't have to wonder too long.

Yep. It looks like Obama and his liberal-left leaning cronies are going to have to eat their failed economic policies.

And according to the latest Rasmussen poll, 45% of Americans say they trust Republicans to do a better job of managing the economy. The Democrats only get 39% on their scorecard.

Perhaps that's partly because IRS receipts are down 34%. The Democrats just can never seem to figure out that if people aren't working, they aren't paying income taxes.

And the Democrats refuse to take a page out of the Republican play book that lowers taxes and other pro-business positions. The Democrats can't figure out that if taxes are lower, their companies can hire more people. More people working means more tax receipts for the IRS.

But what's the attitude of the White House? Well, Mr. Barack Arroganteur Obama says, "I won." That's th end of that.

Or is it?

The Tea Parties are cranking up again. You know, those little groups that House Speaker Pelosi calls radical right-wingers! Truth is, if she or her many, many, many taxpayer paid staffers were to do their homework, they'd find that the Tea Parties are made up of Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Independents. Truth is, if she had any idea how many Democrats were gathering at Tea Parties she'd be nervous. Very nervous.

June 8 --

I made headway yesterday in my play-in-the-dirt antics, but nowhere near what I had hoped for.

My very nice neighbor across the street, Beverly, brought me some ferns which I most happily planted. They need shade which isn't hard to do in the back yard. I even moved some irises that didn't bloom this spring. Probably because they were planted in too much shade. Moving the irises to a sunny spot in the yard should make them happy. And it gives me room for the ferns.

I planted some petunias in among the irises in another area. I like to keep the iris greenery up and at 'em for as long as they stay green. The green leaves reaching for the sky lends drama to the flower beds and a splash of color in the iris beds is much to my liking.

For now, it's drizzling. Just barely. It reminds us of when we were in Lucerne, Switzerland, several years ago. A warm summer drizzle did little to hamper our walking about that beautiful city. When you go on tours, you have to be prepared for all sorts of weather. Otherwise, you'll spend all your time indoors during inclement weather. Lucerne was nice. We were glad we packed umbrellas though.

The precip looks like it's going to stop here before lunch, so my afternoon plans include more digging around. I do want to get all the impatiens planted. I have five packages of seeds. They'll be up and blooming in a little over a month. And I'll have plenty to transplant in lots of shady areas around the yard.

That pretty much takes care of what's happening in my world.

As for the world at large, looks like Obama has dropped down below 60% in his approval rating. Rasmussen has him at 56% while Gallup puts him even lower at 45%.

Remember that rush to get the big fat stimulus package passed? In such a hurry that most lawmakers, by their own admission, didn't have time to even read the darned thing. The White House said that interest rates were going to go skyward if the stimulus didn't pass. Guess what? Interest rates have gone way up -- over 5% -- and that was with the so-called stimulus package being passed.

And the White House said unemployment would surely go up if the package wasn't passed. Well, guess what? The package passed and now unemployment is headed higher and higher without a plateau in sight for months. In the meantime, the liberal media says it's actually good news because the bad news wasn't as bad as originally thought. That's not exactly what I'd call a silver lining there guys.

I'm sure glad my deep freeze has menus planned through June 23rd. I even found a couple of strip steaks so we're having those for lunch today, complete with potato planks and a fresh garden salad made with lettuce from the garden. Tomatoes haven't come in yet, but I have some from the produce aisle that will do just fine.

June 4 --

It's going to be dry today. Hopefully the rain is going far, far away. I'll be enjoying an outdoors playday in my garden. I'm really behind this year. But then, it's been rainy. Today I'll be adding some peat to the rose bed. That ought to loosen up the clay that gets rock hard when there isn't any rain.

And I have to transplant some morning glories. Just a few to the bed by the kitchen window.

My herb garden has dill and oregano are coming up nicely. Don't know what happened to the marjoram and parsley. I'll probably have to replant them. And this year I planted jalapenos and cayenne. We like our food spicy and go through quite a bit of sliced jalapenos throughout the year. This year, I'm going to can some. I did that about ten years ago and made the mistake of not wearing gloves while I slice the peppers. Ended up with bright red hands that lasted for several days. I spent a lot of time with both hands in a bowl of ice water to put the painful heat out of my hands. This year I'll know better.

On another note, it looks like Obama is coming back to the U.S. without being coronated king of the world. He may have thought the middle east would go "gah gah" over him like his Democratic audiences here in the U.S. but it just didn't happen. And now he heads to Germany where Her Honor Merkel has already made her thoughts known about the foolishness of printing stimulus money.

And how about those English? If the Prime Minister, Mr. Brown, gets a vote of "no confidence" on Friday, he may be ushered off the political stage. He's about as far left as Obama is so I'm hoping that our congress will take a lesson from the other side of the pond and move away from the liberal far left. That is, if they even want to have a prayer at getting re-elected in November 2010.

But as far as the Brits are concerned, Parliament could then go to the Queen with the "no confidence" vote and she could, in essence, tell Parliament that it's okay to start a new government. That would usually mean that there would be new parliamentary elections and the prevailing party could create a new government, new prime minister and all. The "no confidence" vote would call for Brown's immediate resignation. So the lefty liberals in England may be going bye-bye with Brown if he gets booted out. Two of Brown's cabinet members have already resigned.

And that would leave liberal leaning Obama without much in the way of European counterparts since Gemany is more moderate and France got rid of its leaning lefties when Sarkozy came to power.

As for me, I'm off to dig in the dirt while I ponder thoughts of world peace.

June 1 --

Probably to noone's surprise, GM filed for bankruptcy this morning. Details are still emerging about this gigantic revelation. For starters, what will it mean for workers and their changing lifestyles? How many of these GM plant towns are "one-horse" towns? That is, the town's economy revolves around the GM workforce and its impact on the grocery stores, drugstores, clothing stores, etc.

GM has been replaced as one of the DOW 30 stocks. That is, as of June 8. Even when it emerges from bankruptcy, it won't be going back to the DOW 30 anytime soon because of the huge government stock ownership. Something like 60%. That's too close to nationalization to be a DOW 30 stock. So say the "rules."

Same goes for CITI. It's being replaced by Travelers Insurance. The government has a 30% stake in CITI. Off the DOW 30 it goes.

And then the horror of horrors this morning to learn that an airplane went down while en route from Brazil to France. 228 souls aboard, all feared lost. Early comments are mere speculation but the story is that the cause rests either with air turbulence or the plane was hit by lightning. We'll learn more as the investigation gets further down the line.

And the Illinois farmers are having a dickens of a time getting their corn crop into the ground. Soil is too wet. Still.

Treasury Secretary Geithner is in China for a few days. It will be interesting to see what the spin on that trip will be. China has told the White House to quit printing money. The White House is trying to assure China that all those billions it bought in U.S. Treasuries are safe.

Well, maybe China has the notion that if you print money when you're in a deficit spending mode (like the U.S. economy is right now) then the money doesn't look all that safe.

Do you think China will get to see the game plan for the U.S. economy before the American taxpayers will get clued in?

May 28 --

Here I go with my third attempt to post this blog today. So we'll see if it's a success or not.

I spent about forty minutes this afternoon running two 3-lb. bags of onions through the blender. Chopping up onionis is one of the least favorite cooking tasks I know of. So I make a once-in-a-long-while project out it. After the chopping is done, then I put the onion pieces in snack bags and freeze them. Makes it real handy for cooking. The fresh frozen onions are so much better than the dried onion bits, I think. I ended up with about 25 snack bags of onions in the freezer. That ought to last some little while.

Oh, and the body that was found in the Fox River turned out to be a guy, not Stacey Peterson. Good thing there was enough left of him to get DNA samples. As it was, he was headless and armless. That way, there was no dental record or fingerprint record to be found. The murderers must have forgotten about the DNA. Somewhere there must have been a missing person filed on this guy.

And more news. This time it's a big scary earthquake. 7.1, in fact. It rocked Honduras and Belize. Even made a big bridge fall down. There'll probably be a bunch of people sleeping out under the stars tonight. Pray for the victims. It has to be especially scary for the children.

Then there's the matter of health care reform. This White House is still trying to push health care down the throats of the American taxpayers. It's not like it's been tried before. Again and again. But now the White House says it's this year or never. Here's hoping it's never and then maybe all the liberals will just shut up about it. The Obama plan calls for a national sales tax or a value added tax to pay for the trillions it will end up costing taxpayers.

What he ought to be concentrating on is figuring out how to get the IRS to collect more tax dollars from the deadbeat. And maybe a good place to start would be an audit of each and every member of Congress and their spouses. Then follow the money trails to see where all the little financial fingers go once those earmarks get paid out.

I read today somewhere that IRS receipts are way down for the year. Like 34%. That amounts to some $138 billion. The liberals don't get it. They never do. If people aren't working, they don't pay taxes. If companies continue to shut down, then more and more people will be out of work. No taxes there.

And GM says it's going to shut down for 9 weeks this summer. What they didn't tell you is that the workers will be collecting 80% of their pay. So how's that saving them any money? Guess it doesn't matter anyway, because it's likely that GM will file bankruptcy on Monday, if they don't file over the weekend.

What a mess! And while Obama says he inherited this financial boondoggle, just keep in mind that it's Congress that makes the laws and passes budgets, etc. etc. And Obama was sitting in those hallowed halls for the last couple of years voting on the very programs that have helped bankruptcy the U.S. Congress, after all, has been a Democrat majority since 2006. So who created this mess? And now that the Democrats have both houses of Congress plus the White House, things keep getting worse.

I personally liked it better when Bush was in the White House. We had a DOW that was cruising along in the 11,000 and 12,000 range, and everybody's 401(k) was secure. Not to mention the pensions. Now what we have to "look forward to" is the Bush tax cuts to be done away with.

And hyperinflation. I'll just bet the White House doesn't have a game plan to ward off hyperinflation.

Gee, it's starting to sound like Jimmy Carter rode back into town. And everybody was afraid that it was going to look like another Clinton term.

May 27 --

Listen to Susan Boyle sing Memory from the broadway musical Cats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Ayk9G7-sc

What an incredible talent who was discovered. She's a spinster who lives in Scotland with her cat and sings in her church's choir. And yes, she's got talent!

May 26 --

Uh oh. Now Red Bull Cola is in trouble. It's been pulled off the shelves in Germany because it contains an ingredient called "de-cocainized extract of coca leaf."

That means it can't be classified as a food anymore, but rather, as a narcotic. Narcotics come under a whole different set of rules.

The company that makes Red Bull says the claim is nonsense since de-cocainized extract of coca leaf is used in a lot of foods.

It's a popular leaf among the club set. Supposedly good mixed with vodka. Has lots of caffeine, vitamins and sugar.

Here's something that smacks of sexism. Whats-her-name the new Supreme Court nominee says this: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male."

Her comment was made at a lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and reported in the New York Times.That comment might be just enough to shipwreck her confirmation too, even if Obama does say that there are 150,000 reasons to think twice about not confirming her. Or something heavy-handed to that effect.

Then there's state rights. That's a subject you're going to be hearing a lot about in the next year or so. All the way up to the next election. The founding fathers/framers of the Constitution intended for the United States to be governed by a weak federal government/strong state systems. Not the other way around. Now there's a movement afoot among many state to seek enforcement of the 10th Amendment which gives states sovereign power. I suspect this whole subject is going to get wrapped up in Tea Parties that will build into stronger and bigger groups from now 'til election. Even if Nancy Pelosi does say that the Tea Parties are fringe groups.

Wake up, Nancy. The Tea Parties are made up of Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Libertarians. Fringe groups? I don't think so. The Tea Parties are made up of citizens who are really getting sick and tired of politicians in Washington who seem to forget that they were elected to conduct themselves in the best interests of the American people. Unfortunately, the politicians seem to have forgotten that.

And back to the domestic front. About a month ago I figured out a really neat, foolproof way to keep track of all the stuff I have stored in the deep freeze and the freezer in the refrigerator. It all started because I figured it was getting to be time to defrost the deep freeze. After all, I'm seeing lots of little blooms on the beans and peas. And there are still ears of corn way down there on the bottom of the deep freeze.

So I got out one of those Month At A Glance calendars. You know the kind -- there's an empty square for each day of the month. Just with what I have on hand, I have enough food on hand to make the main meal of the day all the way forward to June 28. That's a whole month from now. Why didn't I think of this ages ago? I mean, it's so easy! And leftovers? Whenever there's enough food left over, I make a TV dinner out of the stuff and put a label on the freezer container, then add it to a menu date on the calendar.

Voila! Supper's done.

May 25 --

Thank you to each and every person who is or has ever served in the armed forces of the United States.

Without your courage and valiant service, America would not be the same country. We all owe you a debt of gratitude. Quint and I send our heartfelt thanks and prayers for your continued well-being.

And let's see -- for those of you who don't really watch the news that much, you need to know that North Korea exploded (underground) a nuclear bomb. Japan is very excited about that. The UN Security Counsel is meeting today in an emergency session.

And Iran is moving six warships out into international waters today. Iran says it's to protect Iranian boats from Somali pirates.

And what's the White House doing about all of this? Mr. "Everything-Under-The-Sun-Is-Bush's-Fault" Obama went golfing. Good grief.

In case you haven't heard, House Reublicans voted to have a resolution calling for 2010 to be designated the Year of the Bible. The resolution was promptly rushed off to committee where it will, no doubt, die a natural death. Do you think Obama would have signed it? He could sign an Executive Order designating next year as the Year of the Bible if he really wanted to, couldn't he? He seems to be signing EOs for a lot of other projects. I'll just betcha he doesn't though.

May 22 --

A big huge bumblebee has adopted my yard. I don't know where it lives, but I think it commutes from somewhere else and comes over here for free smells. Anyway, it apparently likes the flowers, even the silk ones that I cheated with and put among the real flowers. Just to give the gardens a boost of color. (I have no shame.) This bumblebee looks like the DC-10 of flying things. It's much bigger than a Japanese Beetle which used to be the DC-10 in the garden. However, since I've been using a very very mild soap spray on the flowers, I haven't seen the beetles hovering about. Good riddance, if you ask me.

In case you didn't notice, there were some five initiatives out in California that failed to get the voters' nods of approval. Five of them! Count them.

The voters are tired of government growing like a fat pig. Tired of government officials who keep giving themselves bigger and better raises while they, the voters in California, have the highest unemployment rate in the country -- now cruising around 25%.

Are California voters saying something about the mood of the country and leading the way? It would seem so.

Novemer 2010 looms on the horizon and if I were any incumbent -- any incumbent at all -- I'd be afraid. Very afraid. The voters all over this country just may walk into the voters' booths with pink slips in their pockets.

After all, if you look at all the states and local governments that are approving budgets with bigger and bigger deficits, it's clear that no one is managing annual budgets for the taxpayers they represent.

May 19 --

How much emotional trauma can you sustain before you start to suspect that physical symptoms are pulling your emotional stress into feeling not well?

Given the state of a loved one in a psychiatric unit up north and the real likelihood that a court hearing will require long-term hospitalization, in my own mind I've been doing a kind of psychological autopsy for the last several years when things started to unravel for her. Well, maybe things were unraveling much longer than we all realized as she tried to manage with coping skills that apparently were slipping through her mental "fingers."

Sleep deprivation was enough to bring her to an overwhelming despair. She became more and more incoherent.

So where does that leave the rest of us who are trying to keep our coping skills functioning so that we can through our days?

Well, for starters, we know that people who are coping share a few things in common. People who are not, are unique in their instances of despair and incoherence. So we look at the healthy behaviors for how we should be living in our skin. People who are hanging on to life with varying degrees of healthy zest have three things in common: faith, family and friends.

In that order.

God, and your relationship with God, absolutely has to be the most important thing in your trick bag of life. Without God there is no such thing as mental or emotional comfort. Without faith, that most inner part of you that is your soul flounders like a fish out of water. Your soul will continue to be hungry and thirsty. You will find yourself gasping for food and drink. Without faith in God, nothing else matters.

Next comes family. Whether you live in the same county with all your relatives, or you live halfway around the world, the feeling of family means you are part of a community that's bigger than you are. Familyship connects us to one another. It's a deeper, more powerful relationship than the one shared with friends. We walk through our path of life with family. Friends can come and go. They are part of their own family and become sojourners in our lives.

Friends bring us a social connection that adds richness to our lives. Social connections give us opportunities to kind of field-test a value system that evolves throughout our lives. We yearn for social connections if they are missing. Friends can ground us and keep us from doing stupid things. Friends, like family, can bring great joy to our lives.

And if we are very fortunate, we marry our best friend and start a family.

And that takes care of what I think about that.

On another matter, I have two other thoughts. One is wrapped around all that mess with Nancy Pelosi and her accusation that the CIA lied to her and to Congress with that water-boarding matter. The headline thought that came up is that it's against the law to lie to Congress. It's a crime for the CIA or any individual to lie to Congress. But don't you think the counter to that ought to be true? Shouldn't it also be a crime for Congress to lie to the American people, the taxpayer/citizens who pay their bills?

In fact, it is. Maybe not a legislative law, but certainly a higher law. It's one of the Ten Commandments, the 8th in fact, that says "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

And finally, this morning the thought of two different "unintended consequences" surfaced in my mind.

The first is the ongoing threat that one of these weekends, GM is going to file for bankruptcy. I heard a figured being bandied about in those hearings some weeks ago that if GM does go bankrupt, it would mean about 3,000,000 job losses. Well, when I remember from an economics course that each 100,000 people amounts to a tenth of a percent of unemployment. So 3,000,000 workers would mean a rise in unemployment of a full 3% wouldn't it? That would raise the unemployment from 8.75 to 11.75%.

Ouch.

The other unintended consequence that strikes me is this credit card mess. Now the debtors in this country who couldn't pay their mortgages have also realized that they can't make their credit card payments. So the president had one of his transparent secret meetings with the biggest bankers at the White House. Who knows what happened and what was said behind those closed doors. But here's what emerged. The credit card companies can't raise the finance charges on the poor people who aren't paying their bills. Nor can the credit card companies charge an over-limit fee.

The unintended consequence? The credit card companies say they're going to raise the finance charge on the accounts of their best customers.

Good grief!

Does anyone in Washington have a game plan besides the one they're using now? That is, they say they're "fine tuning" it as they go. In other words, they (by their own admission) don't have a real plan.

May 17 --

Somehow, life is slowly returning to normal. Whatever normal is, that is.

Quint continues to do well in his recuperation. And I have discovered that chasing the lawnmower around the yard is a fantastic exercise for the triceps. If I had known that all along, he would have had to fight me for the lawnmower. I mean, it's better than the strength training machine at the fitness center that I used to head for.

We were privileged to host our dear friend Laura from Atlanta for dinner on Saturday. What a treat that was! It was soooooo good to see you Laura. It's always a treat to have good friends stop by.

And now that it's a bright, sunny day, I'm going outside in a few minutes to get at some gardening. I've also learned about the special features of mortaring things. Mortar as in cement wannabee, that is. It seems that the deck that was removed from the front of the house had been hiding some unsightly boo-boos on the front steps. Probably from when the forms were removed and the concrete wasn't really finished off to be smooth. All Quint had to tell me was that it was like icing a cake. Hey, I can do this!

My roses continue to thrive in the front where they are enjoying their new flower bed in the spot where the deck had been. The new petals on a couple of the bushes are at least triple the size of the little punies that are on the rose bushes from before the move. I also have discovered, compliments of our nephew Dicky Reinheimer, that a solution of soapy water is just fine for keeping little flying critters away from the flowers. I have one of those little spray bottles that holds a pint or a pint-and-a-half of water to which I added a couple of drops of dish soap. Just plain old dish soap, not the stuff that has bleach or other cleaner boosters to it. Works great. Whatever was starting to chew on the little darlings' leaves before the spraying have decided to move to another part of the neighborhood.

So I'm out of here and going out to catch some of those little sunbeams that are dancing around out there.

Will his life change any? Of course. For one thing, he has to retire from mowing the lawn. That's good news for me, because mowing is great therapy for me. Besides, it's good exercise for the triceps. I'm going for the tone!

And no more snow shoveling. But we have a self-propelled snow shovel so I'll most likely get that job too. I don't mind one bit. All in the name of good exercise.

As I sat in the surgical waiting area, i realized why I don't do much marriage counseling. For one thing, most married couples just want to learn how to fight better. You know, get new fight skills. That's a waste of time and money. But for the couples who both agree that they need help improving the way they cue each other and are willing to forgive and let by-gones be by-gones, then that's a couple who's serious about couple counseling. The other couples play blame games that have its origin of games-playing that goes back to adolescence.

Solutions are not possible when couples engage in blaming each other. Even if it's just one person in the couple who's doing all the blaming. It undoes the possibilities of becoming a golden couple who'll be celebrating their very special 50th anniversary one day.

When couples blame each other, they are dishonoring their marriage vows to "love, honor and cherish."

Any marriage can be saved, except those that have the three As going against it -- abuse, adultery, and/or addictions.

So what's the secret to a long, happy marriage? It's so simple you're going to think I'm kidding with you. The answer is: marry the right person. In other words, take time to find out whether the person you want to marry is the right person.

Questions to ask: How are you going to share power in your relationship?

How are you going to rejuvenate your relationship when you've reached the point where you have all the kiddos you want? That's when marriages get re-engineered.

And do you have the same financial habits? Or does financial stuff get trapped inside the "money is power" philosophy? Or does money bring you entrapments as a couple that define your success and how well you're doing?

Anyway, those were the thoughts that were going through my mind after the first half hour. That was the "normal" time I had allotted for busy things like looking at recipes in the waiting area magazines. Then, as I started to do my Robert Browning routine for the overtime I was not prepared for, the joy and value of a wonderful marriage filled my thoughts. It also made me realize, finally, why I see very few couples for couple counseling. I just won't tolerate the game-playing.

I think of marriage counseling as a Titus 2:4 ministry. Might want to look that one up.

May 4 --

We finally have bright, warm sunshine here in Middle Earth Illinois. The tulips are done in. The irises are just beginning to send forth blooms. The roses have buds on them. And today I'm going to plant some more stuff.

Quint goes back to Springfield on Friday to have Stent #1 put in. Probably in the artery that's most blocked. Then, in ten days or so, he'll have the second stent inserted. The cardiologist wont' do both stents at the same time because one of the medications that Quint takes for diabetes interferes with the dye that's used in the surgery.

The cardiologist also says that Plavix ought to take care of the partial blockage of the third artery in the heart.

He's one lucky man to have the blockages discovered when he did.

And yes, I finished the confirmation stoles. Everything turned out really well.

Now I can rest for a bit before I make a cake for refreshments for Ladies Aid today.

April 24 --

We continue to enjoy our out-or-town guests. And finishing up the confirmation stoles. And getting ready at church for the Mother-Daughter Banquest this Sunday afternoon; then next weekend, the celebration dinner for the seniors at our local high school.

The spring flowers are getting up the nerve to burst into bloom. I actually saw irises sending up flower stalks yesterday. Two buds are ready to pop open. I have lots of irises. That's owing primarily to a hugh collection of irises that were going to just be dug up in an area at church that was in the path of the new construction of a building addtion.

And since it's genetically not possible for me to countenance a flower being destroyed, I moved the irises to my back yard and also dug up plenty for ladies at church who wanted them. So all the irises eventually got new homes.

What occurred to me is that we do not have any alpha politicians in this country. Not nary a single one. You would think that an alpha would start to become visible, wouldn't you?

What we have here is a man in the White House who voted "present" most of the time when in the Illinois senate. What kind of vote is that? Is that a "wish I weren't here" kind of vote or a "can't make up my mind yet" vote? And even now that he's in the White House, he's still relying on his approval ratings to figure out what he's supposed to be doing.

That's not an alpha anything, folks. That's an anti-ankle-nipper. And Obama's approval ratings have dropped one more percentage point. Rasmussen has Obama's approval down to 54% now. Oh sure, I'll bet you can find other polls who say other things. But since I started with Rasmussen when he had Obama with a 76% good report, I'll stick with him just for the sake of constancy.

And then there's that mess with Fidel Castro. If Obama thought he was going to Havanna and play loosey-goosey with the campaign rhetoric, he'll need to rethink that. Fidel says he misrepresented what brother Raul said. So Obama is not going to slip a fast one past the Castro brothers. Fidel especially didn't like it when Obama said some political prisoners ought to be released as a show of good faith. Not so fast there, Fidel says. He didn't exactly remind Obama who his very best big friend is, but surely Obama has someone over at the State Department who can clue him in about how tight Cuba is with Russia.

And if you think Obama and Russia's top guy are good buddies, look back at the G-20. Obama didn't exactly make a lot of friends at that summit. No wonder Obama's numbers are starting to slip again in the polls.

Obama is no alpha politician. He's a rock star who's addicted to being applauded and adored -- a microphone hog -- a media hog and a clueless self-named celebrity.

April 21 --

The report from Quint's cardiologist is a kind-of-good-new and OMG! Fortunately, the need for a heart catheterization is not an emergency. So next week, we go to Springfield for Quint to have his heart inspected from a different perspective.

Thank you for all your prayers for our family. We are all in need of prayers, and now especially, for Quint.

And changing the subject a bit. I heard that Obama is going to crack down on tax cheats. Especially the high income variety. He wants to make sure they're all paying their taxes. But doesn't that sound like your cabinet members, Mr. White House? How about you either (1) hire new vetters, or (2) require all your potential new cabinet posters and high ranking under secretaries and other employees have an IRS audit. That ought to catch most of the tax cheating skunks who want to work for the U.S. taxpayers.

I also heard that social security recipients are going to get a whopping $250 "stimulus" check sometime around the end of May. La tee dah. That's about half of what each congressional politician gets each month in the congressional automatic pay raise. Wouldn't you think that the representatives and senators would give up this automatic raise as long as the economy in this country is tanked?

The Democrats really can't logically blame the economy on the former administration. After all, the Democrats have been running the tax show since 2006 when they took the majority in both houses. And, as you remember from your social studies, civics, humanities courses back when you were in school, all tax matters come from the House Ways and Means Committee. Then the appropriations bill scoots on over to the senate for its vote. That's where Obama was. He actually got to vote on the tax bills for this mess that he's blaming on Bush.

But that's what people who are stuck in adolescence do. They blame everybody else for any and every problem rather than doing the mature thing like looking for a solution. And furthermore, solutions aren't possible when people insist on playing the blame game.

So unless you want to advertise your emotional immaturity and stuckness to everybody around you, quit blaming everybody else and start looking for solutions for problems in your lives. It feels so good to act like a grownup.

April 18 --

Under the general category of "Saying it doesn't make it so," this article comes from The Australian. The article purports that Antarctic ice is growing, not melting.

Remember those mean old comments that those of us who are living and breathing and spitting out carbon dioxide into the atmosphere were the cause of events that doomed the planet? Well, it appears not to be so.

So, Al Gore, you can sit down and be quiet now. Your Inconvenient Truth is either not the truth, or actually more convenient than you care to admit.

See this article: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25349683-601,00.html

I just love it when scientific data trumps political rhetoric.

So now, can we sue the feds when they tax us for breathing too much and tell them to take their carbon tax and ... well, you know the rest.

And now you know why each and every state held at least one Tea Party on April 15, there were over 750, even though Nancy Pelosi says it's not a grass roots effort. There were lots and lots of people at those Tea Parties who claimed to vote for Obama. Bet they won't in 2012.

The Tea Parties weren't about politics. Rather, they were about the taxpayers/voters in this country who are sick and tired of a bunch of politicians who keep raising taxes and don't seem to have a clue as to where the Treasury gets its money in the first place. And if some politicians do know, they don't seem to know that they work for the taxpayers of this country.

If I were a politician in this country, I'd be worried about job longevity. I wouldn't buy green bananas and I certainly wouldn't start reading a 1200 page novel.

And then there's that pesky little Rasmussen poll for Obama's approval rating. It's giving Obama a 55% overall approval rating. He had been hanging in there at 56% for a little while but now he's falling. Maybe because people across the country believe he's falling down on the job? Maybe he ought to pretend he's president instead of campaigning all the time.

Now he's in Mexico saying some mean comments about how the United States hasn't done enough to "our neighbors." Are you kidding me? What about NAFTA? What about giving allllllll those Mexicans jobs here in the good old USA? But never mind all that. In my view, what Obama is really doing is lilypadding his way to Chavez. That is, he's in Mexico making nice, under the premise that we ought to be nice to all out neighbors in this hemisphere. Then, when he feels like it, he'll mosey on down to Venezuela and make nice with Chavez.

April 17 -- amazing video from my niece Karen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgHmSdpjEIk

This is called the Dance of 1,000 Hands. But get this -- all the dancers are deaf mute. They watch for the cues from dance masters at each corner of the stage. And they do it magnificently!

Prepare to be amazed! Then think about how you can use the trials and tribulations you have in your lives into something of beauty you can share with other people on this planet.

April 17 --

Do you hold yourself responsible for your anger?

Or do you think you are angry because someone is frustrating you or mistreating you?

Truth is, anger is an internalized feeling that other people can arouse in you if you are an angry person. On the other hand, if you are pretty laid back and not a hostile person, there is little anyone could do to arouse angry feelings.

We get a lot further in life when we recognize that our feelings of anger are hostile feelings that are lying there quietly inside us.

When aroused, we make other people carry our anger for us. How, exactly do we do that? Well, it's kind of like giving someone a piece of our mind. We don't actually carve out a piece of our mind and give it to someone. And for sure, no one has an anger bucket that they carry around. Those are metaphors.

What I mean when I say that we make other people carry our anger is this. We project those unpleasant, negative feelings that we have inside us. We project them out onto other people. That's a lot more comfortable than actually putting up with the sneaky little feelings playing hide and go seek inside our heads.

But if I spit those feelings out onto another person, then I've tagged that person. He's "it." Or she is, whichever the case may be.

And that person who is the target of my bullying bulls eye is going to carry my anger around in a little anger bucket. That way I don't have to own up to why I'm really angry in the first place.

But it's just not nice to be a bully. It won't win you any friends even if you've gotten the apology thing down pat. People just don't like being around a bully. You won't get invited over to other people's houses for dinner. You won't get to play cards with them either. And have you ever noticed that people kind of avoid you?

That's because we're already carrying our share of our own stuff around inside our heads. We don't need to carry the fruit of your little temper tantrums around too. So be nice to yourself and be nice to people you care about and people you'd like to associate with.

And I'll leave you with this thought about anger. It revolves around a theme. That theme could be encroachment. Like you feel when someone is getting too close, psychologically or physically or socially.

Socially because if someone gets too close to you, you might be expected to do something for someone.

Same goes for psychologically. Then you'll feel like your well-being is threatened, or maybe you fear that someone will get the upper hand so you guard against psychological encroachment.

And physical encroachment can be anything from someone just plain old physically getting too close to us, or maybe being too personal and touchy to your liking.

Another theme that produces anger is what we call "discounting." That's when people put us down. They marginalize our sense of value.

Those are only two themes. There are others, but these are the two biggies.

So spend some time with yourself and ask what theme triggers anger feelings within you.

April 16 --

I just knew it would happen. Someone threw a box of teabags over the fence at the White House. And so goes the evacuation, all up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. You should have seen this one coming. The liberals were just waiting for a grand opportunity to make some hay out of a protest of tax dissenters. You could have mailed a picture of a teabag and it would have had the same effect, but in the meantime, you can't go littering the landscaped lawn of any public building.

Now if you were a group of liberals, all would be forgiven because you'd just be exercising your rights to free speech. See how that works? There are two sets of laws in the United States -- one for the liberals and one for the conservatives.

I'm opposed to littering, no matter who's doing it. So just hold onto your posters and smile for the cameras. But don't go throwing tea bags anywhere. When the patriots in Boston Harbor had their tea party, things were much different.

In the first place, it was all about taxes paid to the English crown. Now we just pay an excess of taxes so that people who are really elected to govern and legislate can live like they think they are entitled, which would be like royalty.

Our society is a lot more litigious in 2009 than it was during the old tea party days. Everybody is suing everybody else. Well, maybe "everybody" is a bit of hyperbole. So just forget about throwing tea bags anywhere. You can make your point quite validly by calling your protest a tea party. Anybody who's a student of history will know exactly what you mean.

But it was a great undertaking to have all those tea parties across the United States. I saw a map on TV with a little red dot in locations where tea parties were schedule. My my my! I, for one, can't wait until the 4th of July to see those tea parties spread out even more.

And I hope they continue to build as we get ready to go to the polls in 2010. That's where the real tea parties will take place.

In closing, let's hear it for the Navy Seals! Go Seals! If I ever get in trouble, I want a Seal on my side. Leave it to the good ole U.S. Navy. Sailors risk their lives every day with little fanfare. And Seals -- well, those people don't want attention. Might just give away their cover.

And just to remind you of the hazards of being a member of the U.S. Navy, here's the Naval Hymn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnm-4kSLKdI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KCiMdR1ox0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Iu8y2pvuRg&feature=related

And while Hillary frets and concerns herself with a policy of how best to deal with the pirates on the open seas, I have a suggestion. Let the U.S. Navy take care of the problem.

Note to pirates: Don't make these guys mad at you. And leave our maritime vessels alone too. The Seals will get you. Every time. It ought to be an act of war for pirates to fire on a U.S. vessel, whether military or commercial.

April 15 --

I will admit that I've never planted Hyacinths. But thanks to the squirrels who live in the neighborhood, and specifically the ones who have built a super highway from the trees in our yard to other trees. I suspect that these little critters can go all around the neighborhood without their feet even touching the ground.

But they did transplant some hyacinths in my Iris beds. And one is blooming near a hollyhock. They're very fragrant, so I may just add them to my spring blooming repertoire. And I got this tip from the nurse at the doctor's office. She says she plants jonquils among her tulips. Since there aren't any little furry creatures who like daffodils and jonquils, they won't even go into her tulip bed if they have to even get close to the jonquils. So if you want only tulips, like I started out a couple of years ago, you do so at your own peril. This fall I'm going to mix everything up. Lots of hyacinths and tulips in amongst the daffodils.

So let's see now. We have readers at this very minute from Canada and Australia. And for India, France, Germany and Pakistan. Also from Mexico and Japan. Gee whiz. There are some night owls reading the blog as well as early risers and mid-day "lurkers." Welcome to you all.

I am going to start talking about insights in this blog.

A wise psychiatrist said at a continuing education workshop I was attending that the goal of counseling, or therapy, is to lead the client to insight. So I've been thinking about that a lot lately and decided to begin compiling a variety of insights that you might find helpful as you go about your busy lives.

Then, after I have a whole bunch of insights, I'll put them together in a booklet that you can get.

The insight for today has to do with a quote from George Burns that I dearly love: I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.

There's just way too much time spent on delving into the past. That time is long gone and it will never come back to you. It's already spent and you'll never get the minutes and hours and weeks and months back no matter how much you concentrate on things that happened to you.

But as I've gone through my nineteen years of counseling, I have noticed that unhappy people spent a lot of time ruminating in their past.

If you sit for an hour fretting about something that happened in the past that was particularly bothersome, you have cheated yourself out of a "today hour." Now you've wasted two hours -- the one you spent a long time ago that's gone and the one you spent today worrying about something that happened in the past.

Now to be sure, the past has a strong purpose. It gives us benchmarks for future behaviors. It forces us to learn when we make mistakes and hopefully be able to profit from our mistakes.

Mistakes become blessings when we are able to learn even just one single lesson from whatever we did.

Sadly, when we can't learn the lessons from our mistakes, we don't make a profit. And if we do that often enough and long enough, pretty soon we become emotionally bankrupt. Don't want that to happen. Ever!

But because we're all human and we want to figure things out and make sense of the world that we live in, we ponder things. We fret about things. We spend a ton of mental energy looking for something significant about something that happened to us.

Sometimes, though, we just do things we regret doing. Sometimes we do stupid things. Sometimes we do silly things. Sometimes we have to let things go. Bury the hatchet, as my mother would say. Sometimes we just need to forgive ourselves and go forward into our future, like George Burns said he was going to do. What a great philosophy for him to have.

And what a wonderful lesson for him to share with us.

Quint has a saying that I'll share with you. It's about me and my garden. Especially when it's been long enough and the flowers have not sprouted in their appointed time. That is, the time for germination that's printed on the back of the seed envelopes. Quint says, "If you don't sprout, you're out."

I'm going to make a little sign for my flower bed with that printed on it. Maybe it will inspire some stubborn plants to start growing. I can only hope.

Other than that, the next big thing tomorrow is Tax Day Tea Parties going on all across the country tomorrow. Good for you guys. I personally think it would be better if people mailed their congressional representatives a picture of a tea bag rather than a tea bag. If you think that any of those tea bags ever get to the elected officials, then I have a flash for you. They most likely don't get past the mail rooms. And you're inviting trouble that will look like an investigation into your well-meant behavior when the congressional offices start "closing down" or evacuating congressional office buildings owing to "mysterious leafy substances."

Now you and I both know that the congressionals know darned well that the leafy substance is tea but they're going to get as much mileage out of the tea parties as they can and will do whatever they can to discredit your good intentions.

Then I also look for PETA to file complaints if you actually toss the tea bags into the water. They'll sue you for violating wildlife habitats or some such argument.

Can you tell that I was a paralegal before going back to grad school for a masters in psychology?

Maybe I'll write about an insight called "anticipating problems and avoiding them."

I think the Tea Parties are great. Even if there is never a single solitary tea bag at any of the overburdening taxation of the elected officials. They know exactly what the tea parties are all about and it's beginning to bother them. Calling the tax protests "tea parties" is a brilliant idea. They're just sorry they didn't think of it themselves.

Just don't let their political angst land on your heads. Save your money for supporting your favorite elected official's campaign, not hiring a lawyer to defend your right to make a point. Make another point by getting a person elected who's not going to tax us for putting on our shoes in the morning.

April 11 --

Happy Almost Easter!

Since I check all the little darlings every morning, there are a few new additions to tell you about. First of all, the Clematis has sprung to life. And as Quint says, "If you don't sprout, you're out." This is the Clematis that struggles with a mean old trumpet vine that thinks it's Queen of the yard. It isn't that I don't like trumpet vines. It's just that I prefer Clematis. And this Clematis is a beautiful royal purple. I planted another Clematis on the other side of the yard. It's a pale lavender. Pretty but not nearly as gorgeous as this deep purple one that was here when we moved in.

And the Meadow Sage is sprouting up from the roots. It was something I transplanted from a church location last year. When we added a Family Center and Sunday School rooms to our present church building, the Meadow Sage had to go. Or get trampled.

And since it's not in my genetic code to see a plant (except dandelions) destroyed, I rescued it and brought it home to my plant hospital. It was in full bloom and a good robust four feet tall, so I wasn't sure it would make it. But this morning, there are abundant little shoots coming up from the roots.

I watched and learned my gardening know-how from my mother. She could make a stick grow in a crack int he sidewalk. The saving grace is water. When you are going to transplant anything, try not to disturb or cut too much of the root system. Then immediately put the entire plant into a bucket of water. I like to have a full bucket of water sitting very close to what I'm digging up. The plant stays in the bucket of water until I'm ready to put in the hole that will be its new home. And I put some Miracle Grow into the new home/hole. Then, very quickly, move the plant from the bucket of water to the hole filled with water.

It generally works well. Remember that there are tiny little microscopic hairs growing on the roots. You don't want those little hairs exposed to the mean old brutal air. The air will suck the life out of the root hairs. But the little hairs are happy if they can go scuba diving in a bucket of water until you move them to their new home.

I just transplanted about nine roses to a new bed at the front of the house. The new rose home is where the old deck used to be. Now the roses will get lots of sunshine for about six hours a day. That's much much more to their liking. And my friend Antoinette tells me that if I plant some aromatics in among the roses, it will discourage little critters from getting at them. I'm thinking onion sets. I'll let you know how it works. It works for me because I have to plant the onions somewhere.

I like to blenderize my onions and freeze them. A snack bag is just about a good size for whatever I want onions for. I think it's probably a cup of chopped onions when it's full, but not bulging full. I have a plastic basket in the freezer that's just for chopped onions. Might as well do a whole bunch of onions at once if you're going to get the equipment out.

I planted grass seeds out front in that part of the yard that isn't the new rose bed. When the grass sprouts, you'll never know there used to be a deck out there. Our next trick is to put railings on the front steps.

But while I'm waiting for it to warm up enough to paint outside, I'm going to help Quint put up some shelves in his workshop in the basement. He puts the brackets on the shelves and I put the shelves on the walls. My Dremmel for pilot holes and a Black and Decker cordless screwdriver make quick work out of that. Quint has more power oooomph in his screwdriver and drill. Too heavy for me.

We're waiting for the results from Quint's MRI and stress tests that he had at the hospital yesterday. We pray for good news.

Oh, and there's a new addition at the bottom of this page. All the way down by the counter that keeps track of how many hits I've had since June 2006. Nearly 200,000, I'll have you know. It's a "Sign my Guestbook" which isn't really a guestbook. Rather, it's a place where you can add your comments about what you're reading on this web site. Hope to hear from you. It will be easier than sending an e-mail. At least, that's my intention.

Right now, we have readers from France, Pakistan, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Japan, India, and, of course, the good ole USA! Welcome, welcome, welcome.

As far as political antics are concerned, the big news seems to be whether the White House can convince the American people that Obama was doing anything but bowing to some Arab. Like, are you going to believe the press secretary, at Obama's behest, or your own lying eyes, as Groucho Marx would say. They can make any claim they want about Obama looking for a lost contact, but let's not be silly here.

He just doesn't know anything about protocol. If he did, then he would know that American presidents do not bow to other foreign leaders. We don't dilute our sovereignty. Obama may think the United States is a rag tag new sovereign power that hasn't been around all that long, but let me tell you something. When there's a crisis anywhere on the globe, who sends naval hospitals? Who sends cargo planes filled with medical and food supplies? Who sends its citizens to help other nations get back on their feet?

We do. We're the United States of America. Our people love the people in other countries. And we will do anything in our power to keep our citizens safe should other people decide we don't have the right to exist. And because of that, we don't bow or curtsy. But we will shake your outstretched hand.

April 10 --

We're on our way to the hospital for a morning of stress tests. Poor Quint. I think one of the things he didn't like most about this ordeal was that he could not have his morning coffee. Full throttle, turbo-charged super-unleaded coffee, that is. None of this decaf stuff for him.

Back later.

April 8, 2009

Today is the day I'm going to go through the refrigerator and get rid of everything that hasn't had a lid taken off it for a while. Primarily that would be condiments. I already have the refrigerator organized with a two baskets on the middle shelf. One basket has condiments in it; the other has leftovers.

They're very recent leftovers that will be used in some kind of a new dish. I don't like to serve the same dish twice in a row. For instance, the corned beef we had yesterday for lunch when Charlie (from Peoria) arrived, became sandwiches for a snack later in the day.

And, sadly, our good friend Charlie is now back on the road. He's on his way to Chesapeake to visit his daughter and family. It was sure grand to have him here for a day's visit. Wished he could have stayed longer but he was anxious to get on the road again. Wants to make it to Beckley, West Virginia, before he calls it a day. Then he'll get up in the morning and make the second half of the trip. He left with a container of fresh strawberry jam I made yesterday morning.

I will also transplant a couple more roses today. Maybe I'll get them all moved into their new bed at the front of the house where the deck used to be. And what to do with the mailbox that had been on the deck. We did not want the mailbox in a spot that would require the mail carrier to come up the steps so Quint put it on the side of the house. I scavenged enough bricks from here and there to make a walkway to the mailbox so the mail carrier can deliver our mail with ease. We don't want any mishaps of anyone tripping on the concrete stairs if we can avoid it. In fact, our regular mail carrier is recuperating from an injury from last winter. Didn't happen at our mail stop but it was an injury that required surgery to her shoulder. Ouch! The temporary carrier says the regular carrier will be out a couple more weeks at least.

I will admit that the paralegal in me just wanted to make sure we didn't have a culpability for injury, but actually saving someone from being hurt is just as important. If not more important.

And on to other things. The other night we were watching a program about the seven deadly sins. One of the deadly sins is called vainglory. What in the world? The definition reads: an excessive elation; pride over one's accomplishments; empty pomp or show; ostentation.

That sounds like the Obamas to me. Him and his entourage of 500 people and no less than 12 teleprompters. With all that ostentatious vainglory, no wonder the Yerpians didn't give a hoot for him. Except for the socialist bending Yerps, like Brit Brown. The only people who really give a hoot about the Obamas in Yerp are the media types. Just like here.

If you get out and talk to real, honest to goodness people who work for a living, they're pretty sick of the grand show of money spending. That's because we know that it's our money he's spending. It's our taxes that fill up his coin purse. We know that; Obama and his crew of merry men have not figured that out yet. They think the money is coming from the "Treasury."

If they remembered their civics lessons, they'd know that treasury money comes from taxes from the people.

So that's Mr. Vainglory for you. And his band of merry men too.

And then there's the tragedy of that huge earthquake in Italy. Death toll is now at 260 last I heard. Prayers lifted for all survivors, especially those who have lost their dear ones in the tragedy.

And the Somali pirates are at it again. This time they got Americans. We'll see how that sets with Washington. After all, Mr. Biden says we're safer now than when the Bush team was in the White House. We'll see about that. Somehow I don't think Korea would have started testing missiles if Mr. Bush was watching what Big Bully Il was up to.

And the deficit keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Obama says he inherited all these economic woes. Not a grain of truth to that comment. He forgets that he was in the U.S. Senate for the last two years of Bush's term. He voted -- or was supposed to have been there for voting -- when the budgets came up on the Senate floor. But then, maybe he was too busy campaigning. I wonder if Obama was even there when the votes were taken. And if he was there, did he vote yes, no or present?

I still am thinking that GM is going to file for bankruptcy. Probably sooner than later. The possibility is in the news more and more. As if the corporate moguls were getting the American public ready for a soft landing.

Anyway, the White House doesn't make tax appropriation bills, Congress does. Specifically the House Ways and Means Committe. And after tax bills pass through the House, they go over to the Senate for approval. That's the way a bicameral system works. After the bills pass both chambers of congress, then they go to the White House for signature.

In other words, there's a lot of politicians in congress who put their stamp of approval on spending bills before they get to the president for signature. And those spending bills get bloated, absolutely bloated, with pork barrel projects, or earmarks.

So Bush did not leave Obama with an economic mess. Congress gave him that. And Congress has had control of both chambers of commerce since 2006.

So there, all you little pipsqueaky vainglorious buffoons.

April 7 --

Okay, let me see if I can say this plain enough. I am a Christian. Politically, I am definitely a conservative. A Republican conservative.

That said, I do not require you to look exactly like me, or to agree with my political points of view.

However, when Obama makes a statement like Muslims and Christians all worship the same God, I say "Not!!!!"

Last I heard, Muslims do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to bring salvation to the world through the forgiveness of sins. Muslims do not believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again three days later.

Unless you believe that scenario of events, you do not worship the same God that I, as a Christian, do.

That belief is a mark of my faith. It is not subject to debate or revision.

Politics, however, may be another matter. Although I'm not sure. For instance, if you believe you can spend money you don't have, then we have a difference of opinion.

And yes, I've been behind people in line at the supermarket who have those food stamp cards or stamps who buy better cuts of meat, better quality food items -- not like the generic stuff I buy because that's what I can afford.

And because we pay income taxes, our congressionals drive better cars than I could ever afford. Because I give them tax money that allows them to lease those ostentatious vehicles. They probably gas them up at the pump at my expense too.

In fact, there's a lot of expenses that get paid because I've paid my income taxes.

And I was working when my kiddos were playing basketball after school, or doing their adorable pom pom routines. You think the lawyer I was working for would have let me off two hours early so I could go watch their games? Not on your life. That is, not is I wanted my job the next morning. That's not quite the same as the welfare moms who can't go to work because they have to raise their kids. Gee, maybe I should have collected welfare instead of working hard to raise my kiddos as a single mom.

Nope. Welfare was not a word that was in our family culture. And my daughters got a strong work ethic from all that sweat equity that was alive and well in our family.

So my taxes have supported a welfare state for years. And whether they ever admit it or not, the congressionals are welfare recipients too. That is, their entire existence depends on people like me who paid taxes that gave them their livelihood.

The congressionals don't have to get too high and mighty with me. They're on the public dole too!

And so are all those executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who got millions in bonuses, even though congressmen/women balked when private industry principals were denied bonuses. And then there were millions that the congressionals paid bonuses to their own staff members. So who are these congressionals who are shaming private industry for doing their exact same thing that they are doing -- that is, rewarding good, productive employees with bonuses.

Okay, so maybe Fannie Mae and Freddie Macs are not good, productive employees. But I'll just betcha they make good precinct workers. And I'd even wager that they make telephone calls in favor of their favorite dictated-to-by-the-boss people running for office. Can I prove it? Good grief no. They're dumb political hack workers, but they aren't that dumb.

But one of these days one of the employees is going to tape record some government employees putting the strong-arm on a potential voter and sell the tape to a media outlet. Kind of like "tripping," if you know what I mean.

April 6 --

The monsoon season has arrived in central Illinois. Actually all the extra heavenly water today was good for the roses I transplanted yesterday afternoon. The roses are all going to have a new, much sunnier home location now that the deck in front of the house has been removed.

The front of the house looks much better. More symmetrical. Who would ever put a deck on the front of a house? Especially on half of the front of a Cape Cod? Well, someone who likes it that way, I guess.

Anyway, we like it much better. And the roses will like it too, I'm sure, as they gobble up all those little sunbeams that God shines down on them during the day.

I'm recuperating from a root canal. Going very well. Had to go all the way to Decatur for an endodontist appointment. But since this endodontist is one who has a reputation for being able to get the tooth very very numb, he is worth the trip.

Other than that, nothing much new around here.

But then, there's that pesky matter of North Korea shooting off their big missile. They said it was going to be an orbital satellite but since it didn't get that high up, now they're admitting it was a missile. And then Obama said they shouldn't have ought to have done that. That must have scared the North Koreans out of their mind. Right? I mean, coming from a man who used to be a senator who only voted "present," why would they fear anything he had to say?

Oh, and then, Obama says he's going to convene a world summit to talk about the North Korean problem since they obviously have broken the rules. But isn't that what the UN Security Council is supposed to be convening for? They met today and they couldn't figure out what they wanted to do either.

Does that make you feel safer today than you felt yesterday?

I'm going back to my sewing. I'm almost half finished with the confirmation stoles for church.

April 3 --

It's probably no surprise to many readers, especially those who live in Illinois.

Indictments were handed down today for Mr. Blago, the former governor who was recently impeached and given the old heave-ho by state congressionals.

These were federal indictments, mind you. All that scheming to get a "good price" for Obama's "golden" senate seat, pressuring a congressman and just plain old lying to FBI guys brought the gavel down on Blago.

There were 19 indictments in total against the former governor and his buddies. His brother got a true bill against him too. Same is true of Blago's former mainman fundraiser, and some former chiefs of staff.

Read this article in breitbart.com: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97AJPLG0&show_article=1&catnum=0

Supposedly the rock-and-roll buckola started about the time Blago took office in 2002. Wow! He sure didn't waste any time trying to get a juicy return on campaign funds. Now all he's got to show for all that fun and games is a 16-count indictment that makes him the state's chief scumbag.

No indictments yet for Mrs. Blago. Maybe forthcoming? Do you think? See the Chicago Sun Times article: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1508772,rod-blagojevich-indicted-040209.article

You just know there's going to be a lot more newsy stuff coming from all these headline makers when they start singing in court. I'm still waiting for Rezko's chorus line melodies. He's not going away by himself. And Blago is going to take some more people with him when he goes for his striped jumpsuit ride to a federal facility near you.

Another indictment was handed down against a librarian. Well, not actually a librarian. More like a library trustee for Posen. Posen, by the way, does not even have a library, but never mind all those details. Trustee Quirk got herself elected as the library trustee, collected library funds, then wrote herself some checks so that she could take a run over to the gambling boats. So says the indictment. Read Sneed: http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/1507799,CST-NWS-SNEED02.article

Do I miss living in the Chicago area? My answer is a loud six letter word: nonono!

And then there's that Obama thing. His gift to Queen Elizabeth. Wouldn't you think he'd have had one of those 500 staff people who got to go on a European vacation with him at least check to see if the Queen already had an iPod? I mean, when a person has been the reigning monarch for 57 years, redundant gifts aren't necessary. And besides, what kind of an egomaniac would give the Queen of England an iPod full of your own speeches? I mean, if you're going to give her an iPod even if she's already got one, then at least fill it up with Spice Girls music so she can at least give the darned thing to Famous Prince Harry the Cutey.

I tell you. There's just no accounting for taste. And don't even get me started on Michelle's gawd-awful stupid clothes. If I were her, I'd hire a dresser. She's just not doing all that well by herself.

I, for one, am still glad to see the Chicago Sun Times still publishing. They filed for bankruptcy the other day. The Tribune has been in bankruptcy court for a while now.

Guess that's what happens when publishers don't deliver the menu that readers want to read.

April 2--

I am happy to report that the results of Quint's echo-cardiogram came back "normal." Thank you, God, for answered prayers. And thank you so much for all of your answered prayers. Your e-mails and e-cards mean a lot to both of us.

And now comes Joe Biden, in a video being shown at conservativexpress.com, who says that the middle class people have to "share" to get the economy out of the recession.

Huh? I have an idea. First let's get all the Democrats who took campaign donations -- and the few Republicans who also took money -- from AIG and any other corporations -- to give those donations back. That money belongs to the taxpayers of the United States. When that money is paid back, then maybe the middle class folks will be willing to talk about sharing.

Maybe.

I, for one, am not willing to share with an administration that's swigging it up at Wednesday night cocktail parties at the White House eating waggy wuggy beef from Japan that usually goes for $100 a pound. I don't care if the beef has a rich, buttery taste. For a couple of people who didn't even have to work their way through college, the Obamas sure got used to living pretty high on the hog real quick.

So don't talk to me about sharing, there, Obama or Biden.

And I suppose you heard that another Cabinet nominee has a tax cheat problem. That would be Sebelius from Kansas. Oh sure, it was only $7,000. And it's being heralded as "unintentional errors."

Well, here's the story. I've been around politicians from most of my adult life, either working in the township office, or a village office, or as a volunteer precinct captain. One of the "guiding lights" that absolutely drives politicians is paying their taxes.

I have tried and tried to imagine what kinds of scenarios would be in place that would for such a thing as "forgotten taxes." Sebelius used the old excuse that when she knew she was going to be nominated for Health and Human Services, she hired somebody to "scrub" her last few years tax returns.

Does that mean if she hadn't been nominated, then she wouldn't have had her returns "scrubbed?" Besides, I'd just bet that she and her judge husband don't do their own income taxes. They have staff who keep track of such things as how much money they make, how much they claim as deductions and you can bet that somewhere somebody knows down to the last red cent how much income they had coming in from speaking engagements, cookie bake sales, or wherever else they get their money.

I'm very tired of these big shots just shrugging their shoulders at us poor little taxpayers and saying, "Ooops, my bad."

Give me a break. It's bad enough to be a tax cheat, but do you have to compound your moral ugliness with lying too?

Are there any Democrats anywhere who pay income taxes? Seems to me that they ought to think real hard about trying to get rid of the Republicans. We seem to be the only people paying taxes. On our own, that is. On time, that is.

April 1 --

No report yet from the cardiologist regarding Quint's echo-cardiogram earlier this morning. Wonder if the cardiologist can tell from the echo just when this heart attack happened. That will be one of the questions Quint asks when he goes in for a feedback session.

Other than that, Quint feels find. We went to quilting today. Quint and Bill do a grand job tying the knots in the quilts. I think they have eight quilts to knot before they catch up with the quilts that are not knotted. All in good time, they say.

I got the white satin yesterday and started cutting out the confirmation stoles when we got home from quilting. I had already cut out all the letters for the kiddos' names, plus the dove of the Holy Spirit which goes on the heart side of the stole.

It rained most of the day here, so I wasn't able to go outside to work in the yard anyway this afternoon. I have tulips that are ready to pop open. It looks like they're all going to be red. The daffodils are in a bouquet in the dining room. Mainly because I wasn't sure they'd survive the frost the other night, so just in case, I went out and rescued them from the cold. Not sure if you can call decapitating them a rescue or not. But since all the flowers in my yard are planted for bouquets, they ought to feel pretty fulfilled when they get to come inside and share their beautiful fragrance and bright, sassy blooms. Next comes the irises.

Plus, I have a bonus from my fuzzy-nut gardeners, the marauding squirrels. This time, they dug up someone's hyacinths and a couple of crocus and spit them out in my iris beds. And I'm still finding tulips that the squirrels dug up, took a bite out of the bulb and discovered that they really didn't like the taste so they buried the tulips wherever they felt like it.

I have to make the exciting trip over to Decatur this morning to see an endodontist. I'm fortunate to have one of the best endo guys in this hemisphere, so I don't mind having a root canal. My mouth and jaw will be numb for a few hours. Probably most of the way up to my eyebrows. But it beats the alternative. There's no way I'd ever want any kind of a dentist breaking into the root of a tooth without a supernumber injected into my mouth.

Well, about the time you thought it couldn't get any worse, now comes an article on caranddriver.com that the Obama is demanding that GM and Chrysler get out of NASCAR because he considers this an unnecessary expense.

Oh boy. If this is true, there's going to be a whole lot of unhappiness out there in tourista land. The tourism business is already suffering enormously since congress and the White House started taking a dim view of business meetings at such luxury venues as Las Vegas. Think, for a moment, of all the wait staff, cab and limo drivers, cooks, chefs, hotel attendants and cleaners that will suffer through more lay-offs.

And all this from the man who went to Europe and took 500 federal employees with him on a nice little paid vacation. I call them rubber people because of an idea that I got from watching a saga type movie. There were 300 million extras riding a horseback charge across the plains of Europe somewhere. Turns out, it was all a camera trick. What was actually photographed were about a hundred soldiers on horseback. Then it was a cut-and-paste version of the same riders, multiplied hundreds of times.

So I got to thinking -- because my mind wanders around like that -- that if Hollywood figured out how to make those impressive battle scenes, then a politician could fill up a stadium with wild, crazy screamers. Just take 50 or so, maybe even all the way up to 500 people sitting in a stadium and copy them. Then multiply those same groups of people until it looks like Elvis Presley had come back to life and was performing to a sell-out crowd. Those cut-and-pasty people are what I call rubber people.

Good job for photoshop.