Autumn, Grandsons, and Things

Hello everyone!

I hope all of you folks out there in blogger land are doing well. I am going to start this blog differently, with a Scripture. This is one of my favorites.

"Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16

We live in a world that is speeding up, leading us into ever more confusing areas of life. It is difficult to know what to do sometimes, especially if a person is young, because of peer pressure, pressure from what is seen in ads on TV, magazines, billboards, etc. This is a good verse to remember when confusion sets in. In the book of Judges a phrase is repeated over and over, "and every man did what was right in his own eyes." Unfortunately, it was not what was right in God's eyes. It is important for us to remember that just because it is an accepted practice in our society, it is not necessarily a right thing. God has His laws. They are clear in His Word. I have found that joy, true joy, is in the attempt to follow God's will and His ways. Stand in the ways and see, look for the old paths, where the good way is, that's where the rest is. With Love

I have quite a few friends in mourning this morning (that's another set of duplicate words I will have to explain to my grandson) of the Chicago Cubs. Many of us were hoping they would break their curse and get it done this year. Ah, but there's always next year. Joe Torre has something to prove to the Yanks and I think that is the point. And to quote our good friend Forrest Gump that's all I have to say about that!

My young grandson Adam, whose photo is above, and I had quite a day together yesterday. Adam will be five in December. He can read, write and reason like a child much older. Of course, you must remember I AM, his grandmother. We were having a discussion yesterday about the words "son" and "sun," and the difference in the two. When a person usually meets a four year old, the child usually drops his eyes and begins to contemplate his shoes. Not Adam. He will tell you everything about himself in five minutes. He is presently attending a Catholic school, although we are not Catholic, and has already learned to recite parts of the prayers in Latin. I'm not terribly excited about that, but the concept of his learning Latin does excite me. Now, understand, I personally refuse to get involved in this election. Please don't comment on this. But, my daughter, Stacy, Adam's mother has enough excitement about Barak Obama for ten people. Adam walked into my house yesterday and said to me, "Gramma, talk to me about Barak Obama." Did I mention he's four and one half years old?

The weather has been beautiful here in southwest Tennessee, cool clear nights, warm sunny days, very dry, just the kind of weather for a beautiful Autumn. We are still having Hummingbirds. I saw one on the feeder yesterday morning. One of my birding Gurus, Laura Erikson, says that the feeders should be left up all winter, as does the official Hummingbird website. From September 15th to October 15th approximately, we were covered up with Ruby Throats. It was terribly exciting. One beautiful Sunday afternoon, they buzzed and twittered around the house and feeders, and drove my two cats crazy, especially the younger one. My husband, Robert, set up his video camera and took about twenty minutes of video through the screen. We tried to capture some stills, but the combination of taking the video through a screen and those little wings beating at however many zillion times a minute - well, it didn't work. All I can do is tell you it was marvelous.

I am looking forward to the arrival of the White-Throated Sparrows and the Juncos, the winter visitors, and to the Sapsuckers. There are other winter visitors, but they are the most visible. I haven't mentioned that I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which has made getting out and doing any birding these last few years very difficult. Now that I have been diagnosed, and am on medication, maybe I will feel like getting out and doing some birding this fall, and especially this next spring, but that is a blog for another day.

With love, I am totally Over The Hill.

Martha