I need a man around the house.. my son just doesnt cut it in that department!

How long has Josh been out of town this time?? I have lost track.. seems longer than it realy is I know. Two, three weeks??

It seems like the "manly" stuff that needs to be done around here just keeps pilling up.  I try.. I realy did.. and so has my son.. but we are just no sub for the real Man of the house.

So Josh when you get home..

The downstairs toilet is clogged.. I tried plunging it.. still.. it is not going down and if it is flushed there will be an overflow..

I got a flag pole and American flag to hang out on the front porch.  We tried using the drill gun to hang it with the screws it came with.. but I am weak.. lol and it is an allummanim post.. are you even supposed to screw in to it?  If not I just wasted money because there is no where else I want to fly the flag.

Speaking of drill gun.. The screws that hold the dishwasher in place in the cabinet are all loose.. and have come out.  I can only find one screw and tried to put it back but I think you may want to look at that when you get home.

We were going to mow the lawn.. no relay!! But can't get the lawn mower to start. I don't know why.. it has gas in it.  Pulling on the starter rope for half an hour really did work my muscles and Zanes lol.

And the children have seem to of grown deaf!  I tell them, "Don't eat anywhere but in the kitchen" and two seconds later.. right in front of me, what are they doing??? Eating and Drinking in the living room.  I tell them, pick up, do your chores, but they don't seem to understand my voice.  The only thing that does get them going is the threat of your belt.

And while all the hugs and kisses from the children do comfort me when I am feeling lonely, they are not what I need.. You will be working over time when you get home I think so make sure you are properly hydrated dear and are full of energy.

Josh is supposed to be home this week.. not sure when.  They keep pushing it back because of the weather.  I am hoping for the weekend and if it is sooner than that I will be surprised but verrrrrrrrry happy.

FYI.. I NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE!!! AND AWAY FROM THESE CHILDREN!!  awww but... SUMMER SCHOOL starts tomorrow!! Whoot Whoot!!

 

CarnivAOL and what is a Pollyanna..

CarnivAOL is back this week.. so be sure to check it out if you are thirsty for some good reading.  I submitted my Pollyanna entry for this week.

So what is a Pollyanna and why did I choose to use that title to go along with that post??

Well...

A long while ago.. maybe even a year or two now, some one accused me of being a Pollyanna in the comment section of my journal. It was meant to be insulting and rude but actually I saw it as a complement.  I remember seeing that movie with the young Hayley Mills in it and knew the charter was sweet, kind and got under ppl's skin for just being her loving self. So to call me a Pollyanna.. really does not bother me that much, actually it was kind of encouraging lol.

Lately I have been reading in the blog-o-sphere some dark poetry and stuff that is just opposite to who I am.  I understand it, been there, and done that but I felt that some my get the idea because I don't write moody commentary or gloomy feelings that I can be written off, that I don't have anything to contribute, that I am just not as creative.  My Pollyanna entry was me venting about that feeling and telling myself who I am and kinda taking ownership over being called a Pollyanna.  I know I am not a total Pollyanna.. I am not that good..just yet lol.. but she is not a bad person to aspire to be like in my opinion.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Pollyanna and how it has been used in our modern day language.

Pollyanna is a 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter that has become a classic of children's literature. A series of Pollyanna sequels (Glad Books) were later published by Elizabeth Borton.

Pollyanna tells the story of a young girl named Pollyanna who is adopted by her very wealthy Aunt Polly after her father's death. Upon Pollyanna's arrival, the dispiriting town in which her aunt lives becomes miraculously pleasant and healthy due to the gladness the child has brought.

Through the success of the book, the term "pollyanna" entered the language to describe someone who is cheerfully optimistic. It then became by extension (and contrary to the spirit of the book) a somewhat derogatory term for a naïve person who always expects people to act decently, despite strong evidence to the contrary. The real theme of Pollyanna is that she kept the spirit of forgiveness towards all and could find gladness for whatever was given her.

Word Of The Day: refulgent

brought to you by alphadictonary.com

• refulgent •

Pronunciation: ree-fUl-jênt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Shining brightly, resplendent, illustrious.

Notes: This Good Word is a shining example of a word with a happy and supportive lexical family. The noun may be refulgence or refulgency; however, if these do not please you, refulgentness is also available. The only choice for an adverb is refulgently.

In Play: In July of 1838 a young radical by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson addressed the seniors of Harvard Divinity School, saying, "In this refulgent summer, it has been a luxury to draw the breath of life. The grass grows, the buds burst, the meadow is spotted with fire and gold in the tint of flowers." Literal or figurative shining may be conveyed by today's word: "Fred's face was refulgent from hearing about his promotion as he emerged from the boss's office."

 

You could see the inner joy she had reflected all over her face by its refulgent glow that would shine everytime she said HIS name.

Word Of The Day: Soldier

Today's Word is brought to you by alphadictionary.com

• soldier •

Pronunciation: sol-jêr • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A member of the army or armed forces. 2. An enlisted man or noncommissioned officer in an army. 3. A member of a social insect species whose job it is to defend the colony, as a soldier ant or bee.

Notes: Today's Good Word is so familiar that it has developed a large and healthy family. The adjective is soldierly "like a soldier", as soldierly behavior and the quality of being a soldier is either soldierliness or soldiership. All the soldiers of the world or any subgroup of them comprise a soldiery, a word that can also mean "knowledge of military matters". The noun itself becomes the verb, for every active soldier soldiers.

In Play: Soldiership, of course, is not something we play at. It is an activity that the soldiery of the world takes very seriously inasmuch as soldiers stake their lives in their occupation. In the US today we pause to display our respect for all those soldiers who have fallen around the world for causes in which they believed.

 

What does it mean to be a soldier in God's Army?  We fight not flesh and blood but spiritual principalities with the double edge sword of the Word Of Truth.  With Jesus Christ as our general and a full armor he has given us, how can it be that it seems we are loosing out in this culture war?  Many are deserting and falling to the propaganda of the enemy, the father of all lies.  The faithful are growing fewer and fewer.  Has God's Army grown timid? Content to be occupied instead of conquering? But have no fear, the battle lines are just being drawn and the final battle has yet to come.  Our commander has the enemy's play book and has shared it with us.  He is just preparing us for that day when He comes and gathers the troops and changes the corruptible into the incorruptible and the war will be brought to the Earth and victory will be claimed over Satan.  In that day you are either with God or against him.. who's side will you be on?

Echos threw History.. read it, remember it, live it.

I wanted to write something for Memorial Day but my own words fail me.  I don't think I can appreciate to the fullest what this Holiday is to mean and I think it is lost to most of us lazy, ungrateful Americans who forget our past and the sacrifices made on our behalf.  Even now as our nation is currently at war, if it doesnt touch us close or know someone personaly it is easy to think it is a far off thing that can go to the back of our mind.

My son is starting to be a Civil War buff.  They covered it in his 5th grade social studies class this year and for what ever reason he really enjoys learning about that era. When they have shows on the History Channel or Discovery he drives me nuts by pre-programming them in and often times it is on after his bed time.  He leaves books all over the house and now and then I pick them up and actually see what my boy is learning. In the upstairs bathroom he had one about the Gettysburg Address.  

Now I am sure I have read the story before and who hasn't heard the Address it's self in every elementary school but I gleaned new things from reading it again as I sat on the throne or the thinking chair as it is sometimes refereed to.  I didn't know or remember that this famous speech was given at a dedication of a grave yard for those on both sides of the Civil War, that the citizens of the town of Gettysburg had raised the fund from states all over our country to make one befitting those who had fought and died.  I also didn't know that Lincoln was so unpopular in his time either nor that he had drafted this address over three times wanting to get it just right and in the end went for a shortened version because he knew he would be following a long winded speaker.  His words echo down threw our history, reminding me to remember those who have died, past and current wars and what they have died for, so that they may of not died in vain,

"that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Take a few moments of your time to re-read this speech that you may of heard long ago and let it sink in today of all days. 

GETTYSBURG ADDRESS (1863)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Source: Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 7 (1953-1955), 22.

Word Of The Day: cancrine

Word of the day brought to you by alphaDictionary.com

• cancrine •

Pronunciation: kang-kreen • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Crab-like, having the features and characteristics or the shape of a crab (cancriform); crooked, bent, moving sideways. 2. Related to crabs.

Notes: The English language exhibits an odd quirk when it comes to the names of animals: while the names themselves are of native Germanic origin (dog, cat, cow, horse, pig), the neutral adjectives that semantically correspond to those names are all borrowed from French (canine, feline, bovine, equine, porcine). This may be the case because we tend to associate negative characteristics with animals which carry over to their native adjectives: dogged, catty, cowish, horsy, piggy or piggish. Today's good adjective is among their number: cancrine is the neutral adjective because crabby has such pejorative connotations.

In Play: Crabs are taken to have jagged shapes, so today's word most often refers to squarish, jagged figures: "Dutch Masters wrote his name in a cancrine scrawl that couldn't be read but also couldn't be mistaken for another hand." Although cancrine itself is not pejorative, its associations are not particularly pleasant (crabs and cancer), so it can serve to underscore words that are already pejorative: "Featherstone's greasy leather jacket bore a cancrine swastika that announced his personality long before you were within range of his voice."

 So that  he would not fall to a horrible death, he scurried about the jagged rocks in cancrine movements.

Word Of The Day..

Word of the day brought to you from alphaDictionary.com

• snool •

Pronunciation: snul • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: An extreme toady, a willing kow-tower, someone who submits tamely to oppression, a 'yes man'.

Notes: Today's word holds no spelling or pronunciation traps. It is a lexical orphan without derivatives though it may be used as a verb: to snool is more natural than the Chinese word kow-tow. It is a useful substitute for all those horrible phrases, such as to brown-nose, to suck up to—all of which have unpleasant connotations.

 

When she asked if the BBQ could be moved to another location and in a way insulting me and my home, anger rose up in me and I finnaly broke out of the snool mold I had been in for months.