Ahhhhhhhhhhh, Spring

Thanks

Thanks for all your kind words, comments, and prayers in regard to Kewon.  They brought tears to my eyes.

Annie

Statistics

This is the face of a statistic that you read about in the paper or see on the news every day. This young man’s greatest risk of death is not cancer, not AIDS, not starvation…his greatest risk of death is by murder.

He has the deck stacked against him. He is poor, he is a high-school drop-out, he is currently unemployed in the traditional sense, he is black, and he is gay. Most adults in this kid’s life have let him down in many ways, by their choices of partners, choices in how they spend their time, priorities they have chosen, and substances they have abused. The school system has failed him. If you saw this statistic walking down the street, some of you might be nervous.

This is also my godson, Kewon. This is the kid that was visiting the neighborhood and saw me walking my dogs when he was 8. Two days later, he asked me to come out and play. So I did.

This is the kid who asked me what the rainbow looking stuff on a shell was called at Fort Monroe beach and I told him “iridescence.” He’s never forgotten that word. This is the kid who looked at art books with me and listened to what I told him.

Later, he invited me to the Portsmouth Children’s Museum where his artwork was hanging. No one else in his family wanted to go. The picture depicted his bedroom. When I asked him how he had chosen the subject he said, “Because you told me that the Van Gogg (Van Gogh) guy painted his bedroom because he was too poor to be able to afford a model. I though that would be a good idea for me.”

This is the kid whose mother, when I asked her what big present he would like for Christmas replied, “I don’t know Miss Annie, you know him better than I do.”

This is the kid whose mother also used rent money to help bail her adult daughter’s drug dealer boyfriend out of jail, who didn’t pay her back. They were evicted and he was homeless at 16, living from couch to couch and too ashamed to tell me. His only link to his family and to me was a cell phone. When he was caught by a school administrator texting his mother who was in the hospital with MS, they took his phone. He became nearly hysterical and was told that if he wanted it back, he’d have to drop out. So he did. Throw away, inner city child.

This is the kid who once walked a mile to the ferry landing, took the ferry to Norfolk, walked a half a mile to the Dollar Store, and used the very little he had to buy me seeds and some garden gloves for Mother’s Day. I cried for an hour after he went home.

This is the kid who got in with the wrong crowd, not doing drugs or stealing, but just looking for acceptance. He went to a so-called female friend’s house to help her mother clean their house. The mother had been ill. This mother and daughter sent him to the store twice to pick up things, giving him counterfeit money to pay for it. He had no idea and certainly got no advantage from it, because he gave them back all the change. Now he faces four felony counts. Afterwards he sat in my living room and cried saying, “Miss Annie, when is it going to get easier?” My heart broke.

And despite all of this, this is the kid who is the newest employee of Marriott Corporation, effective Friday, working in the laundry and in housekeeping. This is the kid we coached all weekend, developed business cards for, who went to Goodwill and found a brand-new Polo by Ralph Lauren oxford cloth shirt and a Joseph A. Bank tie. I can assure you that he was the only interviewee who wrote a thank you note and enclosed his business card which he uses for odd jobs and mowing lawns.

So this is the child of my heart, Kewon, not a statistic, but a human being who perseveres despite circumstances which would knock the rest of us to the ground. This is the kid whose secret dream is to go to Paris some day. The kid who loves salad, because he never gets fresh anything at his house. The kid who drops off his GED homework for me to check after he’s worked his little landscaping business all day. The kid wth the great smile and the heart for helping everyone. You don’t need to cross the street if you see him walking.

Kewon is in God’s hands.  His trial is on my birthday. I only want one present…not guilty. We serve a God who makes all things new, and a God of justice. But next time you think of statistics, think of Kewon. The next time you hear about missionaries going to foreign fields, remember the missionary field right near your house. Kids and dogs…they aren’t throw ways. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. And if you can throw a few prayers his way on April 26, this “mother’s” heart would be glad.

Thelma and Louise

Sometimes I am not so fond of people in general, especially people who believe that animals are disposable. 

Somehow these two beautiful dogs were dumped in my neighborhood over the weekend. 

Huskies follow me, I don't know why. Thelma pictured right here is the third husky-type dog which has adopted me in the last twelve years.

Louise, standing there next to Thelma,  is a pit bull Labrador mix.  She is a lover and is so frightened that we have to carry her up the stairs.  Both of them cringe when you reach out too quickly.  Clearly, they have been abused by someone. As I said, sometimes I don't like people very much.

Here's Francis Beast, our adored Siberian husky who passed away during Christmas 2009.   He was a retired senior citizen in this picture, stretched out in front of the fireplace.   He found us in 2002.

 

This is me in the front hall with Maxine and Lupa, our first Siberian who found us in 1999.  She really looked like a wolf.  She was older when she found us, but loved us until she went home to be with God.  With me is Maxine, a lab mix who is still our main canine girl.  She is much loved and well cared for in her old age.

This is Little Bit, a Jack Russell/dauchshund mix who we adopted about a year after Maxine Bean.  She is fiesty, just like the little guy who always starts the bar fight.  She is also extremely smart and knows the precise geographic center under the bed where you can't reach her.

So we already have two dogs and really weren't looking for another, never mind another two. 

However, my beloved Maxine is not getting any younger.  In fact she is over 12 and was run over by a car when she was a rescued dog, so her arthritis is pretty bad.  We will love and care for her until it is time for her to go back to the Creator.  The huskies have a history of coming, when another dog is ready to go home with God.  One dog doesn't replace another, but it does make things easier.

Easter Weekend

Bowman's Garden Center is a magical place.  I'm getting ready to plant my garden and though I'd share some Easter weekend pics with you.  Happy Day!

It is Finished

I Feel A Bad Moon Rising

So this is one of my favorite restaurants, Baker's Crust, in the Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk, VA.  Baker's is a kind of an upscale bistro, with really amazing rotisserie chicken, artisan bread baked on site, wonderful sandwiches, and really great soup, such as the kickin' corn and crab chowder.  But I digress.

We were in a somber mood, having come from Jack Roper's wake.  Jack was my friend Sarah's father, a real pioneer in shipbuilding who built the largest dry dock in the world, the Titan.  http://hamptonroads.com/2010/03/roper-turned-norfolk-shipyard-titan
But, again I digress,.

.

As we were being seated, I noticed that the hostess' eyes were dancing with supressed laughter.  Mystified, I followed her until I saw it

Apparently no one has told this guy that crack kills or that wearing a gunbelt pulls your pants down, as does a toolbelt.  This is why is is called "refrigerator repairman syndrome."  And OF COURSE he is sitting in a hard-backed chair that has a wicker type material across the back and under one's posterior, but leaves everything else just right there and a'hanging out in front of everyone.

Half the staff was laughing, and I had tears rolling down my face.  Our waiter, Timothy, who reminds me of a young man depicted in a wall mosaic found in the ruins of Pompei, came to the table, "Here's your bread and butt......uh butter," he said.  I lost it again.  There Mr. Butt Crack with the Smithfield Armory t-shirt sat...stolid, immoveable,and completely clueless.

So in an age which has become inreasingly ill-mannered and often unkind, perhaps I was both.  Or maybe people with heavy belts need to get a clue and modesty is best practiced by both men and women.  The air conditioning was on and, for the life of me, I cannot understand why he couldn't feel the air on an area of the body which shouldn't be hangin' out in the breeze.

So God rest Jack Roper, and God bless my friend Sarah and somebody give Mr. Smithfield Armory a clue.  Who needs to see this while they're eating?

So we apologize for the interruption to The View from 256's Holy Week musings and return you to your regularly-scheduled blog, which is already in progress.

Is There Anything Quite as Lovely as Spring?

God is an artist.  The sky is His canvas and nature His colors.

What Goes Around Comes Around

 

So the other day, my close friend Nancy, The Thirft Shop Queen, came over for tea.  We always show each other our latest thrifted treasures.

I pointed out my new, teeny tiny brass bird cage with an even tinier brass bird.  I love it.  You may have noticed from reading this blog that I love birds and bird cages.

She said, "Neil's brother brought that back from Portugal for me."

Nancy had dropped it off at Goodwill a few days earlier.  We've agreed to check out each other's charitable in-kind donations from now on.

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's Way!

In my former, unenlightened non-frugal days, I'd spend a lot of money at Michael's for seasonal decor.  I've learned since then.  It's Goodwill and the Dollar Store for me, baby.

I love metal flower containers; the flat kind with the handle.  I use one in my bathroom to park my curling irons in style.  My house is trimmed in dark green.  I don't find accessories in the right colors for my front door and porch.  So I keep green spray paint stocked when it is on sale.  When thrifting, I look for a pleasing shape vs. a pleasing color when buying containers of any sort.

Heart-shaped recepticle at Goodwill:$1.25
Flowers on hand: 0
Spray paint bought last year: 0
Dollar Store Bunny:$1.00
Eggs from last  year: 0
Hippity Hoppity Effect: Priceless

I love the reflection in the window panes of the old school my neighborhood saved.  It was built in 1920 on land the man who built my home donated to the city.  Instead of being demolished to make way for another 7-11, our beloved Shea Terrace Elementary School is now on the National Registry of Historic Places and can never be touched.  We'll have to go outside the neighborhood to buy overpriced phone cards, stale Slim Jims and unhealthy snacks! 

The building is now an apartment building for the elderly.  One resident is a former teacher from that very school who lives in her former second-grade classroom.

Mysterious

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.

Albert Einstein

Dining Room Views

For several months,the dining room has been undergoing a transformation.  First, the floor was painted to reflect more of a cottage look.  Second, three pieces of furniture which were tired and somewhat beat up were transformed with my favorite high-gloss white paint.  Of course, all of this took much longer than I originally thought, but the end results have been worth it.  The hutch that has the soup tureens was given to me by a woman who once lived next door.  It is half of a Hosier cabinet. The other half is in my bedroom.  I purchased the very large Victorian breakfront at a thrift store in Honolulu.  I inherited the pie crust table from my grandparents.  The two-door crackle finish cabinet was a housewarming present from my mother.  It has always been white and actually was the inspiration for the rest of the room.  The green drawing on top of the crackle cabinet came from Dollar General, of all places!

Frugality and Flexibility

As I learn more about being frugal, I have come to realize more and more that a key factor in successful frugality is flexibility.  Actually, being flexible about things is a key to a successful life in general.  In the world of being a good steward of one's resources, the ability to switch to Plan B, C, or D to remain frugal is essential.

Take tonight, for instance.  I feel lousy.  I've got that beginning of a really bad cold feeling, in which I am tired and my head feels like it is filled with old socks or something.  I had dinner planned.  I don't know about all of you, but if I don't have a plan for dinner by noon, I'm sunk.  I don't have to make dinner by then, of course, I just have to be Anne with the plan.

I got up from a four-hour sleep with napover.  That's like a hangover, folks, but without the happy feelling of having imbibed.  I went downstairs to start my planned dinner, a stir fry with chicken breast, green pepper,and onions.  Somehow, the chicken taken from the freezer earlier in the day was more foul than fowl, if you know what I mean.  YIKES and here I was all fuzzy-headed, well more so than usual, anyway.  I had already started the peppers, onions, and mushrooms. 

It occurred to me as I stood there in my jammies that one of my favorite subs is a veggie sub in the oven with mozzerella cheese.  I had everything for veggie subs, even some sub rolls from the Dollar Store in the freezer  I seasoned the stir fry with some red pepper flakes, a squirt of lime juice from the plastic green lime thingey, and a bit of mozzerella cheese.  YUM.  And so was born another meatless meal added to the permanent repertoire.  Flexibility, that's what its about baby.

Pic courtesy of Thriftyliving.net.

It All Started With A Piano Bench

My friend Nancy has some kind of internal radar for finding interesting things left out for trash pick up. A few weeks back, she spotted a beat up, but structurally sound, piano bench while we were out walking the dogs. She didn't need it, but I had a vision for it.

I took it home and spray-painted it white.  I've had no decorations out on the porch since Christmas, so I assembled the vignette you see here.  I spent no money.  The baskets were thrift shopped.  The little blackboard says, "There's No Place Like Home." 

I've been fascinated with the labeling I've seen a lot of my block girls doing and took a stab at it with my "Deliveries" tag.  I get a lot of things, like old books and items from catalogs, by mail. The basket is for my  mailman to leave my parcels in.  The old-fasshioned font was downloaded from a free website and printed out on cardstock. 

I had a lot of fun with this.

I'm participating in Show and Tell Friday
http://www.romantichome.blogspot.com/

Peter Johnson, Jr.

I'm a big Fox News junkie.  It is on in the house almost all the time when I am at home.  There are quite a few of the different commentators, analysts, and anchors whom I like.  One of these is Peter Johnson, Jr. who subs in as an anchor for the morning news and appears as a news analyst for legal matters at other times.   I like Peter because he is very measured and fair.  He makes insightful comments and reasonable arguments.  You can certainly see that he is an attorney without being told.

This past week, he's been on a lot substituting for vacationing anchors. I wanted to find our what kind of lawyer he is and got to his company's website.  There was an email address, so I sent him a quick note of thanks for his great reporting.  I also suggested that he'd be a great blogger.

Imagine my total shock when I received this personal email from Peter before dinner this evening.

Anne. Thanks so much for your extraordinarily generous e mail. It really made my day and I hope to keep your confidence in the future. I write from time to time for foxnews.com and foxnation. Be well and I will think about a blog-not a lot of time to do it though. Peter.

Isn't it great when someone you admire from afar really turns out to be admirable?

Happy Valentine's

1 John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Little "Greenhouse"

What did I ever do before Goodwill opened up near my house?

I love this little miniature greenhouse that I picked up at Goodwill a few weeks ago.  The top comes off and it has a delightfully "cottage=y" Victorian look to it.  It sits on my coffee table in the living room with a marked-down daisy plant from Food Lion.

It makes me happy every time I look at it.  I think I see a future with it filled with shells during the summer.

Updated Living Room Mantel

After I did this "fluffing" on Saturday, I thought...is this influenced by Daisy Cottage Kim or what?  Its a stronger color palette than I usually use and the books just made me think of her.  I picked up four of the books at my favorite informal book exchange at Starbucks.    The bright orange one has such an interesting cover that I'm trying to think of a way to display it.  And the price was right

On Thinking Frugally

I was invited to a Superbowl Party which was pot luck.  I don't like football much, but the ads are fun and I really like my friend, Pat, who asked me to the party. She has an amazing old house on a peninsula surrounded by a beautiful creek.  They have added a great room to the house with a large stone fireplace, which is where we watch the game.  It has been a neighborhood tradition for many years.

I was completely stumped on what to bring and so let it go until the last minute.  I was going to buy something after church, but was totally uninspired on even that.  Finally I decided to buy two Subway foot longs and slice them into individual pieces.  I was musing aloud to my husband and we both thought that surely we must be able to come up with something that cost less than $12. 

Finally it came to me.  Hummus; a great Middle-Eastern dip made from chick peas.  I had all the ingredients in the house.  Chick peas or garbanzo beans, as some people call them, are a staple at our house.  I sliced up some flat bread, arranged some celery and carrots on a platter and I was done.  For no additional outlay of cash.

Frugality is a mindset that has to undergird everything that we do in order to be practiced successfully.  There is always a way to do things less expensively, more efficiently, and in a more timely manner.  I slip in and out of this mindset. 

However, I find that when I look at it as if it is a game, rather than a grim necessity, I am much more willing to remain in the frugal zone.    Thinking "I can't buy that" is not fun.  Thinking, "I'd like to bake some bread" is fun.  Getting a used book on Amazon for next to nothing is fun.  Planning a special meal for after church is fun.  Thinking that you can't afford to go out to lunch is bleak.  Finding bargains at Goodwill involves the thrill of the chase and is great fun.  Re-arranging things you already have in wonderful new ways is fun and is a way that I express my individuality.  Anyone can hire a decorator, spend a fortune, and have a beautiful home.  But it isn't creative and it doesn't use intelligence.

The women I admire, my heroines, Debra @ "As I See It Now," Judy @ "Anybody Home," "Manuela @ "The Pleasures of Homemaking and Kim @ "Daisy Cottage" all have created gorgeous homes using elbow grease, creativity, thrifted finds, and panache. Alex @ "Living Without Money" created amazing artwork (very Pottery Barn looking)  by printing black and white shots of local landmarks.   Frugality:  it is smart, it is creative, it is "green," and it is beautiful.

pic courtesy of the recipe exchange

The Chrysler Building

I love New York City.  When I visit, I don't take in a Broadway Show, I don't go clothes shopping at Macy's, and I don't go to expensive restaurants.  I walk for hours, find interesting ethnic restaurants or noodle shops, and I take pictures.  I love the architecture and the wonderful old brownstones.  My favorite building of all time is that Art Deco beauty, the Chrysler Building.

After my last trip to New York in October, I printed a number of pics we took of iconic New York sights like Radio City, the Empire State Building, a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park, photo-shopped them to black and white, and printed them out.  I used cheapie black frames on sale from Walmart and hung them in a kind of gallery in my long, dark upstairs hallway.  Then I found a wonderful New York skyline painting to go with my own pics.

Enter Megan, one of my favorite Starbucks peeps.  In addition to making one heck of a Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte, she also represents a company called Upper Case Living.  They have wonderful decals of various sayings and other decorating features  which you can transfer to your walls.  Megan kindly came to apply the Chrysler Building decal which I chose.  This was good, because I stink at that sort of detail work.

And the result is what you see right here; an homage to my beloved City. Now when I wake up and see it as I start my day I think, "How cool is that?"