SPRING NESTING

Yesterday we hoped to see a cardinal build a nest in the shrubs outside the windows at Nancy's house. A pair of young cardinals came to look into the shrubs and the female flew off. She came back with a long thin stick and worked her way to the spot they had looked at earlier. I kept watching but she never came back to build the nest. I think papa cardinal talked her into locating somewhere else. I was disappointed because I wanted to see a life cycle just outside the window. They may have been spooked by the cat in the house looking out the window at them.

LENTEN LAMB & WRITERS

Nancy roasted lamb that she had in freezer and we had a couple of meals remembering what the Jews ate at passover which seemed the thing to do for Lent. I told her that they wouldn't have had rice with it, but what do I know. She has studied Seder meals and said they would have had bitter herbs with unleavened bread, matzah, as well as eggs and wine. I don't remember eating lamb before. It is fat but had a lot of meat on the ribs we had. We had broccoli with it and I don't think that is an Egyptian veggie.

Monday night we attended the local Writers Bloc in Granbury as guests. I presented one of my published Livestock Weekly columns and they gave it a good critique. Made me realize I need to edit the columns better before I submit them. I have always just dashed them off, like this blog, which is a big mistake. The speaker was a seller of millions of books. LeAnn Weiss is the writer of Christian books and known as the Hugs writer. She said she received $1.25 royalty on a million of them, but had over 6 million books published. They have been translated into many other languages. She gave us tips on how to research and write our ideas by being creative.

Another guest at the meeting was a SciFi writer who has written 4 books since he retired as a civil engineer 3 years ago. He hasn't published any. One member of the group has published for the Stephenville and Granbury city magazines and another has published many devotionals.

The meeting was held in a three story retirement community that got my attention. When we get old we might consider it for a residence due to the proximity to FW and Weatherford medical facilities.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

You didn't know that I was Irish. The photo was taken on my cell phone during a recent visit to WalMart. I didn't purchase the hat.

SPRING BREAK AND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

We are enjoying having my daughter and two granddaughters for part of their Spring break here at Halsell Hill. They came in yesterday. Sue and her daughter, Diana, joined us for lunch and an afternoon of reminising about the Halsell girls lives. Sue was born in Kokomo and Lou in Okra, neither of which exist today. Kokomo was gone in the fires the same time we lost all the buildings in Cross Plains.

This morning Kathy went to Kiwanis with me and we were inspired by the talk by Mindy Estes about her mission trip to help women in Romania rescued from sex traffic. She says it is a problem even here in the US.

At 10 Sue came and went with Kathy, Val and Ness to visit with Ike at the nursing home in Baird. Nancy and I met them at Olive Garden to celebrate Val's 33rd birthday that is on the 25 but she is here today. We decided that we took her to Olive Garden for her 16th birthday and for many years since. We enjoyed the food and even some of the chocolate desserts.

Nancy and I visited Pete and Mary Schulle at the Reliant Rehab hospital while the girls drove around Abilene. I even got home in time for a nap. It has been a beautiful day.

3/12/12 at 12 Noon

At 12 noon on 3/12/12 my Easy Water system said it was "descaling". I had to hire competent installers and two of them got it installed in 2 hours. I decided that I would have had to had four hands to do it myself.

Now to wait 3 months to see if it is working. It is supposed to condition the water so that the lime doesn't deposit on all the metal surfaces like my hot water heater elements.

PHOTO CATCHUP

These are my photos of Emilynn Pagenkoff's first birthday party. The weather was great so that the party moved outdoors on the deck.

Proud parents with their Panda BD cake by Ashley.

These are the proud Rodenberger grandparents with Emi.

Emi really likes chocolate!

                                                      Val and Kathy get to hold Emi.

LITERARY UPDATE

I haven't updated all the books that I have read lately. I have finished several hard backs and Kindle downloads. I finally finished THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS by Thomas S. Kuhn. I have been reading it off and on for several months preparing for the books I am writing on creation science. When I first read this book back in the '60s I couldn't help but think that evolution should be removed as an acceptable scientific paradigm as he went through the requirements for a good paradigm. (His first edition was the book that introduced his creation of the word-paradigm.) In this revised up-dated edition he doesn't mention evolution hardly at all. I clipped a lot of his statements but haven't been able to download them to my computer because the formats are incompatible.

Another book that I just finished is one that came with the Kindle so it took me a year to read it. The AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN gave me some new insights into his religious practices. He believed in God and supported both churches and many missions like orphanages, schools and hospitals for the poor. He liked good preaching but was bored with most of the preachers and didn't attend one church continuously but contributed to churches all of his life. He measured the distance that he could hear Whitefield by moving back down the street until sounds drowned out the preacher and measuring the area predicted that 15,000 could have heard him that confirmed what he had heard about him preaching to 25,000 in an open field away from city traffic. He developed and tried to practice a set of principles based on his Christian beliefs that included #1Temperance, eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation; #2 Silence, speak not but what may benefit others or yourself, avoid trifling conversation; and #13 Humility, imitate Jesus and Socrates. I had seen an opinion piece referring to Dr. B. Franklin. He only went to school for two years, but entered the printing business and started writing and reading extensively as a teen. He received honorary Master's degrees from English and Scottish universities after he was recognized for his electrical experiments and finally an LLD from an American University before he died. He used the power of the press to influence the public thinking and was always looking at every thing with an inventive mindset. He developed fire departments, the post office, raised troops and even lead an army into battle against the French and Indians. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

For lighter reading I downloaded a Western: Mobley's Law, A Mobley Meadows Novel by Gerald Lane Summers who sent an email telling me I could read his novel for 99cents and I downloaded it. I really enjoyed the story of a bachelor lawyer appointed as a Federal Judge by President Grant to go to Texas and report on the events as the reconstruction Governor is facing a reelection campaign he can't win. This is a real shoot-em up frontier western story that was historical and fascinating. I recommend it for you Kindle readers.

I have used the Methodist Book of Discipline to answer questions even as late as last week. I searched the Bible on the Kindle to find that there are 255 times Light appears in the Bible.

One book I am still working through is Observations upon the Prophesies of Daniel, and the Apocolypse of St. John by Sir Issac Newton. I read many years ago that Newton thought his most important writing were his writings on the Bible but he is much better known for his contributions to calculus, physics, astronomy, gravity and electromagnetics. His biblical commentaries include quotes from the Latin as well as a thorough knowledge of the Bible and history of the Middle East and Europe from Christ to his time.

I also downloaded Wesley's Notes of the Bible and was disappointed to find that the download was only the New Testament notes that doesn't help me teaching the Old Testament in my SS class. I still look him up on the net to read his Old Testament comments often. I like to quote John Wesley to my Methodist students and preacher friends.

I will have to report on real books I have read later.

CHOCOLATE BIRTHDAY CAKE

I have to quit posting Chocolate titles or turn this into a cooking web site, but yesterday we joined in the celebration of my youngest great-granddaughter's first birthday in Fort Worth. She was born March 1 but we celebrated Saturday with relatives coming as far away as Alaska and San Antonio. Got to see some long lost friends and eat great food. The baby is Emilynn and her mother had an Asian theme to go with all the panda bears she has. The food was my favorite and I was the only one who took advantage of the chop sticks to eat. Two kinds of sticky rice started off. One with veggies that I took. A crunchy salad, sesame chicken tenders, with a choice of sauces. I took soy-ginger on mine. Added an egg roll, fresh fruit-pineapple, grapes, blueberries and I skipped the strawberries. There was an asian layered dish with all kinds of good stuff in it like almonds.

But the baby likes chocolate and she had two Panda decorated chocolate cakes her mother made. Before we could sing and take photos she had chocolate icing in her fingers and on her face. I will try to post photos later when I get the time. And after the present openings and everyone was leaving we were told to take favorites that were a package of small cookies with a chocolate center and a box of fortune cookies with religious fortunes.

Books were suggested for the gifts and I gave one of Lou's children's collection books. Nancy gave a Bible book. She got a lot of books, plus dresses etc.