It's Grant's Style

It's only a matter of time until this crawling style gives way to some real boot scooting boogie.

Hugs,
Shellie

The Angel of Lake Providence

Hey sweet porchers,

Ok, so in reality, you're looking at a kudzu covered beacon at the airport near my home. In my crazy noggin, however, she's The Angel of Lake Providence. Can you look past the weather sock and the steel cage and see her quiet beauty?

Dixie Belle and I have been admiring the kudzu angel on our evening walks for some time. I've thought about sharing her with y'all a dozen times in the past few months, but my cell camera wouldn't do her justice.

The other day I finally came home and got a real camera and drove to the airport to get a better shot. As you consider her image, I'd like to encourage you to join me in giving thanks to Abba Father for the wondrous incomprehensible love of our Savior! Behold the love that led the Creator to step out of glory and into the image of man to rescue those He fashioned from dust and make a way for them to come into His presence. To quote the Psalmist:

What is man, that thou are mindful of him?

and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,

and hast crowned him with glory and honor.

— Psalm 84: 4 - 5

I'm glad I took our kudzu angel's picture when I did. While I was at the airport my friend, Barry, told me the vines were interfering with the tower and they were getting ready to strip her nekkid, so to speak. While that makes me a little bit sad, it only serves to provide more fodder for praise. When our kudzu angel is no more, the Father's love will be as strong and enduring as ever. Join me, will you?

"Give thanks to the LORD for He is good and His love endures forever." Psalm 136:1

Hugs,

Shellie

Props for the Medical Profession

Beloved hubby busted me out of the hospital yesterday evening. ATS will be swearing off medical jokes for the foreseeable future. I have a total new appreciation for the profession. So, here's the short rundown...

Kidney stones are evil. Mine is still with me. Fever and swollen kidney prevented them from blasting it. Instead they gifted my insides with a stint one day and removed it two days later. (Trust me, you don't want more details on that.) They have plans to blast bothersome stone to smithereens Monday.

I'm so thankful I had a Madness Czar in place. Huge kudos to Red for keeping this thing from running into the ditch in my absence! You just couldn't ask for a better friend/assistant. Thanks are in order also for Mike, ATS Radio Production Czar, and Irene, Czar of KWCL, for seeing to it that classic reruns are running.

I will have to ask y'all a favor now. I'm trying to read thru all the caring Facebook wall posts, Facebook wall to walls, personal emails, and DM twitters. I hope you'll understand my decision to try and jump back into the ongoing conversation as I can. I just don't think I can respond to each of these individually unless it's business that must be addressed. We'll see. Right now my the couch is calling, loud. Later.

Hugs,

Shellie

P.S. Almost forgot-- thanks to Linda in PA for yet another wonderful donation to our Water from the Porch Drive. Thanks also to Amy in LA! All told, our new running total is $4,200! We're only six hundred dollars from our goal. I'm so thankful to you all.

Jumping Fit AKA Dancing with Strangers

Just got notice that we are delayed! Not good. Got a tight connection in Atlanta. Oh, well, it has given me time to offer y'all proof that I am a woman of my word. I give you a jumping fit with additonal footage of Dancing With Strangers.

Please pray I make connections!

Hugs
Shellie

Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

Enter to Win Ginormous Prize from All Things Southern!

Hey folks! With just a little more than $400 left to go on our Water from the Porch Project, My Madness Czar and I stormed our brains, (it was way scary) for an idea to kick the momentum up a notch. Here's what we decided: Everyone who donates ten bucks or more will be eligible to win a ginormous prize-packed All Things Southern gift box!


Yes, siree. Every person who donates to this worthwhile cause will be entered into the drawing -- which will be held the day after our goal of $4,800 is met. Those of you who have already donated, not to worry! Your name is already in the hat!

The All Things Southern gift box includes:

An ATS cap and ATS t-shirt an authentic Suck Your Stomach In Apron designed and handmade by your fellow porcher, Chris Williamson, and autographed copies of each of my 4 books, Lessons Learned on Bull Run Road (in audio and print), Twas the Night Before the Very First Christmas, Southern Comfort, and Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On. You can donate one of two ways: 1) Log onto www.allthingssouthern.com and use the Paypal button on the left hand side of the homepage, or 2) Write a check to All Things Southern and mail it to 610 Schneider Lane, Lake Providence, LA 71254. Come on Friends ~ Let's dig that well! What? You say you're behind? In the dark about the Water from the Porch Drive? Details here.

Hugs,

Shellie

Day Unto Day

I've been listening to this fellow in the early morning hours for a long time now. I have tried my best to get his pic. I've zoomed in on him at a distance, I've crept up under his favorite perch, I've strained to find him in the predawn light, all without success. The best I had was a blurred image high in a tree top that only I could identify. And then, yesterday, I was headed down to the dock with my camera around my neck and my hands totally full when I looked up and met him face to face. We both startled, and then paused. I swannee, y'all, I honestly think the bird was laughing at me. "Do it," he seemed to say. "Take a picture of me before I can fly away, but be careful, one false move and I'm gone."

Always up to a challenge-- especially a double dog dare from a bird-- I clinched my Bible between my knees (the ground was soaking wet from yet another storm). Holding my coffee in my left hand and the lens cap in my mouth, and using my chin to help twist my zoom out, I steadied myself for the single opportunity I knew he was giving me-- and praying Dixie Belle wouldn't come roaring up out of the semi-darkness, I pointed and clicked. True to his word, he flew away. But I, for once, was left with this.

Does he not look like he is saying, "You would think she'd never seen an owl before."



The ducks are far more sociable, not to mention plentiful. I have duck pics to spare.



The squirrels like to bomb Dixie and me on the dock with chewed up cypress balls and taunt my poor canine by sliding down the tree for a sip of water.















"If I ever get my paws on that squirrel, well, you know..."




This closing shot would run a close second with my owl if the resolution was better but I had to enlarge it too much for y'all to see and it lost something in the process--

"YIKES!!!!! Put the brakes on, we're running out of dock!"






















Psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare thy glory Lord and the earth reveals your handiwork. Day unto day utters speech and night unto night reveals knowledge."

Hugs,
Shellie

Memories that Move You

***** As of 1:32 PM, CST, 9-25-09, running total is $2,805 *****

Hello folks, let's chat...I was typing the words "Water from the Porch" as a title for my guest blog on an author's site just now when I had a little epiphany. It occurred to me that I can't say those words without thinking about my grandmother's porch in Natchez, MS, the one framed by the big beautiful hydrangeas, the one where I joined with my sister and our favorite cousin to take refuge from sudden storms and hold endless talent contests and beauty pageants-- acting as both contestants and judges. (My sister Rhonda always won the beauty pageant, and though Lisa and I secretly decried the results you really must give us our props for the honesty with which we continued to cast our votes.)

To be sure, the porch really belonged to the small country church next door were my grandfather preached his heart out, as did that house and every other house they ever lived in as a young married couple, and later as a growing family with four kids.

At first glance, I almost passed by that bit of porch information, considering it irrelevant to what I wanted to share with them, but as I took a closer look it began to dawn on me just how integral it is.

You see, it was from that porch that I watched my grandmother offer water over and again to men who came down Pine Ridge Road, down on their luck and in sore need of a friend. Food was offered, too, and whatever spare money could be raked together. My grandparents always gave what they could. Only now do I realize that not once did they give out of an abundance of anything other than love. This is my heritage. Forgive me for being so nostalgic with y'all, dear friends and complete strangers, but my eyes have begun to water at the memory and the realization that such a heritage is a treasure without price. Water from the Porch. It's funny that I didn't see that connection until now, but I had to run back over here to my place and share the memory with y'all as soon as I tied things up at "A Good Blog is Hard to Find."

Of course, you who listen to me blather day in and day out would know that's where I took off in a dead run telling them about our Water from the Porch Drive. Maybe they'll join us, who knows?

Thanks for listening! If you're intending to join the cause and you haven't done so just yet, I respectfully ask you to act on that intention. Y'all are the best readers in the world and I want you to receive the blessing that will be yours on the authority of His word.

"For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name... I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward." Mark 9:41

Hugs,
Shellie

P.S. Remember, if you wouldn't mind posting this on your blogs, facebook profiles, website, twitter pages, etc., I sure would be obliged to you!