My Reading Blog

This morning I received a text from Michelle giving me an idea for my slice.  She is reading a book about identities and the origin of our names.  So I took her up on it. Of course when our parents birthed children, they named them after family members or movies stars or just because they like the sound of the name. My Dad's name was Hartwell Paul Bernard Milling.  The Paul and Bernard were family names, but where did the name of Hartwell come from?  From the story that I remember, Dad was the 4th child born.  They had a farm hand and he/she decided that "Hartwell" sounded like the right name.  I have no idea the origin of it (I don't believe it's German, but who knows).  A coincidence, our neighbor had a brother named "Hartwell" - not a common name. My Mother's name was Darlene Wilhemena Schimpler Milling.  Again, the Wilhemena is a family name, but I'm not sure where Darlene came from, but I like to think she was named because she reminds...

My heart and prayers go out to all those who are experiencing the tragedy of natural disasters - the volcanic eruptions in Hawaii and Guatemala.  Tornados, flash floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and wild fires.  So many people displaced, villages and towns eradicated and disappeared under the flow of lava.  So many lives lost and families with no where to go. Guatemala is near and dear to my heart.  I have been there on five mission trips and plan to make another one in October.  It is such a beautiful country and the people are unbelievably gracious and caring.  They are hard workers and happy to work the land that they own.  The villages that were in the path of the lava were fertile because of the volcanic ash, but now are buried under all the lava flow.  There were no roads into these areas, there was no quick way out of the flow of lava. And yesterday, an earthquake shook this country. The government in Guatemala is very corrupt and ther...

I had figured out what I planned to slice about today and then I read  Michelle's Slice .  Apparently "great mother/daughter minds" think alike. The girls got out of school on the 30th and Momma had to work until the 4th, so we got to spend some quality time with "our girls".  We no more than got to their house and both girls said, "let's play school.  You and Grandpa will be the students."  They had been "gifted" some decorations from their teachers and had set up their playroom to become their school.  See Michelle's pics from her slice. M was the teacher for the day and we reviewed what we would be doing, who was assigned to which duty, and so on.  The first thing we started was language.  M drew her chart on the chalk board and proceeded to quiz us on different sounds.  Of course, while her back was turned to "her students", one of them started making faces - can you guess who?  Grandpa had P and me giggling and lau...

What do you remember about your grandparents? On my Mother's side, my Grandma died at  the very early age of 33, so I did not know her, but knowing my Mom, I'm sure she was a very compassionate, caring woman.  I remember my Grandpa somewhat, but he passed when I was very young.  He was a tall man and very serious.  A hard worker.  He had a "wooden" leg - he lost his leg in a train accident.  I'm sure most of these memories are from pictures and from my parents. On my Dad's side, I have a few more memories although my Grandma died when I was ten.  My grandparents were farmers all their lives until they moved into town.  They spent the winter months in Kissimmee, FL.  My grandpa was an avid shuffleboard enthusiast.  He went so far as to have a shuffleboard court build in his front yard.  He loved to teach everyone how to play.  In FL, they had courts directly across the street and this was his passion. I remember when...

Last week we had a day of spring-like temperatures and enjoyed having the windows open, hearing the birds chirping and getting the staleness out of the house. After a day of spring, summer hit full force.  The temps have soared into the high 80's and as usual in Arkansas, the humidity has started to climb, and the oaks are shedding their green dust.  The spring flowers have dropped their blossoms.  We went from open windows to air conditioning. While it seemed we waited forever for winter to be done and for spring to appear, it happened so quickly and now another season has appeared. We planted some shrubs and annuals this week and now we water and pray that they will take hold in the heat.  Hopefully we'll get some rain to aid in their growth. It's been a crazy year of weather so far, but I guess no matter what Mother Nature throws at us, we'll survive and persevere.  It give us something to complain about. .

What a fun week we had!  We traveled north to Illinois to visit our kids and granddaughters AND to CELEBRATE birthdays! The girls turned EIGHT (8).  Yes, eight years old! It seems like they should only be a couple of years old, but they are no longer babies.  They have become grown up overnight (or over so it seems).  They are individuals with totally different personalities, smart, always wanting to learn more, they love to read and create. We celebrated our coming up on Friday night and then Saturday we watched them play soccer - they won - P scored two goals and M had an assist.  Then we celebrated again with hamburgers and fixin's.  Monday we took them to gymnastics - they have made a lot of improvement over last year.  Tuesday was the ACTUAL day and we met them after soccer practice to again celebrate at the Tap House.  Thursday we got the whole day with the girls as they were off school and Momma had to work.  Friday - another c...

As I struggled what to write today, I went back to what got me thru the March Challenge - The Question Jar. Today's question: What things did you NOT have as a child that we have today? When I grew up, there were no cell phones, no cordless phones, only phones attached to the wall that you cranked to get the operator so that you could place a call.  But first you had to make sure no one else was on the line, because it was a "party line" consisting of probably five or more other families.  Calling someone was only done out of necessity, not because you just wanted to chat. No computers or laptops or I-pads, Kindles or electronic devices - we had dictionaries and encyclopedias and reference books to find out information. No internet or satellite tv -only three (yes, 3) channels to choose from and after midnight the screen went blank and then a test pattern.  No remote controls, you had to get up to change the channel. No fast food restaurants (except ma...