Irritating pests!

Pests! Wintertime insect pests! They are are driving me crazy. I thought once it got cold outside they would disappear, but they seem to multiply. And when we kill them, they STINK! I think I killed close to 20 on our sliding glass doors yesterday.

They are multicolored Lady Asian beetles, ladybugs, I suppose. I got this photo from an Iowa State website about insect pests in Iowa. I guess they migrated up from New Orleans where they think they arrived on some ships. The article also says there really isn't anything we can do about it. They don't really respond to normal household insecticides. We can try to seal around our doors and windows. It just amazes me that even after days of subzero temps, they still show up! They must be living somewhere where it doesn't freeze.

So I just get out tissues and squish as many as I can find. The cat takes a bat at them every once in awhile.

Life's Simple Pleasures

Sunshine. Sunshine on plants. Sunshine on warm cat and carpet. Sunshine.

What's that noise?

I was sitting in my quiet corner this morning with the cat curled up next to my legs when all of a sudden she jumped off and ran in to the kitchen. I could hear some rustling, very slightly. She can hear Dennis coming up the stairs before he even gets to the stairs. I sat there waiting and listening. The wind is blowing so I figured it must be something against the house. I went in to the kitchen. I could hear the noise DISTINCTLY. The cat was crouched on the countertop facing the middle of the floor. She just looked at me and didn't move.
I got down on the floor and listened. Oh, my, goodness, SOMETHING is under the cabinet floor or the stove! How did it get there?
Wait. Now we hear it ABOVE the stove. Must be in the attic. Sounds bigger than a mouse.

New Car

I'M not getting another new car, but Will has hit another milestone or rite of passage. To be fair, he did research and buy the last one, but I think Den went with him, and it was a cheaper, private party purchase. This time he went to a dealership. He researched, bargained for and finally purchased this car. It's been fun to get online with him while he showed us different cars. He's phoned us and talked about test driving. He's called the bank and filled out loan papers only to find that the dealer's bank, unbelievably, will give him a better rate. We've talked about money, financing, payments. But he did it all on his own. It's so tempting for parents, even parents of adult children, to want to "help", but it's so much better when the "child" does it on his own. Makes us all feel good!

So sometime today I'm going to take him to the dealership to pick up his 2008 Mazda6. He's pretty happy about it.

Blog facelift

Everyonce in a while I get in the mood to CHANGE things. I used to move around the furniture regularly, but here, there's no where else to put it. Too bad.

I decided I needed a cheerier picture for my blog title. Although I do love that mysterious road disappearing over the ridge on that gloomy day,but for the middle of a very long winter I needed something more cheery. So I changed the photo and some of the colors. Ah, now it feels like something new! Fresh. Maybe I can take another six weeks of winter....Maybe I need to find SOME room where I can push the furniture around.

The Power of Forgiveness

Yesterday I was driving and listening to The Story with Dick Gordon on NPR. It was the second half of the program that airs here from 11-12. The Story ( click on the link to listen to it )was about Eva Kor, a woman who survived Auschwitz. She described her experiences. I missed that part, but the part I heard was her "gift" to the Nazi doctor, Mengele, who had used her and her twin sister for experiments. Her gift was forgiveness. She established a center for others that have endured similar experiences. Here's a link to her website. She tells her story and how she could forgive.
I don't know whether she is a Christian or not, but what she says about forgiveness has some truth to it.

 I call it [forgiveness] a miracle medicine. It is free, it works and has no side effects..

She also calls it "chemotherapy". It works for yourself. You can't take it for someone else. Corrie ten Boom has a similar story of forgiveness when she met up with a guard from the camp where she was imprisoned.

These stories also go along with my Bible reading today in Matthew 18:23-35, the story of the servant who owed an astromical amount to his master, but was forgiven when he begged for mercy. Yet he went out and imprisoned one who owed him pennies. Forgiveness. We've been forgiven so much!

In Remembrance

Because I have all these scanned photos, I have to post this one. Today would have been my Gramma's 99th birthday.  I was the first grandchild, and she was MY Gramma! I think she made us all feel we were special. She raised her seven children mostly alone, with the help of the "village". No electricity. No running water. Seven children in nine years. Lots of diapers. Cows to milk. Water to pump. Fires to keep. Not only that but after she came to know Christ in her life, she taught her children faithfully. And they also are His followers.  "Her children shall rise up and call her blessed." What a  blessing she was to me.