It occurred to me, then, how nearly real life resembles the first rehearsal of a play.  We are all of us stumbling through it, doing our best to say the proper lines and make the proper moves, but not quite comfortable yet in the parts we've been given.  Still, like players who trust that--despite all evidence to the contrary--the whole mess will make sense eventually, we keep on going, hoping that somehow things will work out for the best. 

                                                                       ~Gary Blackwood

I just discovered this_site , and am enjoying the videos on it.  I don't know how to embed these, but the second one on the page, Fixing Health Care Through Brainwashing, was really interesting.  An excellent video that addresses not only the media being government controlled, but also sheds some light on what a national health care plan might mean.  Watch it at http://www.standingwatch.org/

Edit:  Another one on the same page that you shouldn't miss:  The Lie of "Economic Recovery"  This one was great!

A lot of emotions cross your mind when you find out you're going to be a grandma.

At first, it's sort of surprising.  Me?  A grandma?

Then it makes you thoughtful.  How in the world did time go that fast? 

Then you realize that you're grinning.

And then it's just SO exciting! 

She's a little over two months old now, and again I'm wondering...
How did time go so quickly?

I have many -- say a zillion or so-- ideas for things to blog about throughout the day.  The big problem is when I have those ideas.  It's almost always when I'm not able to write them down--when I'm hanging clothes on the line or fixing a meal or reading to the kids or walking the dog.  The time my mind really seems to kick into high gear is at bedtime.  When I am getting ready for bed, I come up with some of the most witty or profound or just downright interesting stuff.  Problem is, I never can remember it by the next morning.  It's such a frustration. 

Like last night, for instance, I thought of numerous things I wanted to say, all of them riveting, I'm sure.  But where are they now?  Gone.

Gone with the wind.  Or maybe out through the exhaust fan. 

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So anyway, life has been happening.  One of the biggest issues is that our post office cat had kittens.  I call her that because dh brought her home from the post office one Saturday last summer.  She was tiny and scrawny, obviously not quite ready to leave her mama, but had been discovered outside the back door when they opened.  Dh ended up bringing her home.  We fed her kitten formula (found the recipe online, should you ever have a need for it) for a time, and she actually lived.  She got rather filthy before we realized she had never been taught to lick herself clean, so we taught her.  (yeah, I can see you wondering about that one!    No, I didn't lick her.  Just stroked her with a damp cloth, which stimulated her to lick herself.)  She also didn't know that trick about scratching and burying her um... piles.  No, I didn't teach her that, but sometime over the winter, I think she figured it out.  At least she doesn't make messes on the deck anymore, which is a blessing.  I once drained a nasty abcess on her side when a scratch got infected.  In other words, I have invested a lot more time in this cat than is really normal for me.  Anyway, recently she started getting fat, and I groaned inside.  She is so small still, and has just barely learned to care for herself--how in the world can she care for kittens? 

Apparently not very well.  She had six, and three of them have now died.  I can't tell for sure whether the others are okay or not, since she has them tucked back in her house and it's hard to see, but I am NOT going to get up and feed them with an eyedropper every two hours round the clock, especially since I'm not sure that would help anyway.  They are so very tiny.    Dd is very sad--she was so excited to have kittens.  I just hope that at least some of them will make it. 

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I am always on the lookout for nifty ideas to incorporate into my dream home (or any home) and one thing that has always been on my want list is an area inside the back door for shoes, coats, etc, with a bench to sit on and lots of storage.  If there isn't space for an actual mud room, I've never been sure what to call this.  Tonight I was reading Fine Homebuilding magazine, and there it was--a Drop Zone.  Isn't that great? 

My mind really nabbed onto that term.  A Drop Zone.  Yeah, that's what we need.  A spot where we can drop everything as soon as we walk in the door.  Oh, we've always had one, really.  It's just that we didn't call it that.  In one house, we called it the Kitchen Table, and in another it was the Countertop.  Here we call it the Top of the Freezer.

And those are fine names, but Drop Zone?  Oh, that is much better!  I am looking forward to having a Drop Zone in my dream house, where the kids can drop their shoes and their socks and their books, and dh can drop his lunchbox and his sweatshirt and the mail, and no one will ever have to bring anything into the house again!  Won't it be wonderful?

And it can have little kindergarten-type cubbies like the one in Fine Homebuilding.  That will be nice to hide the mummified sandwiches and stinky socks so that they don't become an eyesore.

Drop Zones.  What a terrific idea!

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I just read the most amazing book.  I like books that bend my brain and make me think about things in a new way.  Turnabout certainly did that.  It's about an experiment on aging.  They have found a drug that reverses the process, and they try it out on a select group of old people.  It's quite interesting to think about what it would be like to get steadily younger at the same rate other people are becoming older.  Since the project is not government-approved, they have to keep it all secret, so that makes it really challenging.  Fascinating concept!

You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory...   Daniel 2:37

I've read that before, but never really noticed how very similar it is to the Lord's prayer:  "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory..."  But Daniel was saying this to an earthly king, Nebuchadnezzar!  He even called him the "king of kings" a term I usually reserve for God.  So what's the difference?  The Lord's prayer goes on to say ",,,FOREVER" 

Ah, yes.  A man may be the king of kings and have a kingdom with power and glory, but only GOD has that forever.  Other kingdoms come, and other kingdoms go, but the kingdom of God will stand for all eternity!