SWEET BIRD, and SWEET MEMORIES

I have so many precious family pieces. Pieces, that once belonged to my family that are now together in heaven. Some things I know very little about, some I know ever detail of, all I cherish in the same deep, loving way. Most are kept in a trunk, in my workroom, but some I have no idea where in my house they live. However, I do enjoy stumbling across them as I clean and plunder...sometimes I move them to a safer spot, sometimes I just place them back where I found them until later.

Each summer off, I clean and discard things, as well as, rest and relax from the school year. 

I have a closet under my staircase that had been neglected over the years, each summer it has been left to hold on to it's packed away memories.

It stores Christmas things that I take out each year, but in the back...ooooh, in the back of this deep, deep closet has sat boxes not touched since the day we moved in 14 years ago. 

So, this was the summer to clean and discard from those mysterious boxes. It was a major chore to move, tug and pull them out of the dark. But once in the light, oh what fun! Sweet memories and puzzled questioning. Why did I keep this or that!???!!

Some held school work from Jared's elementary years. Oh, how sweet to lay my mama eyes on those art pieces, awards and writings. Just thinking about the little fellow who made it all, brought tears to my eyes. I miss my little boy, but I am so blessed. I am getting to see what he is becoming and where he is going with his life. I couldn't part with most of  the work done by my little man, who is now a 6' 2" wonderful, grown man. I bought new containers for that precious stash, hardly discarded any. I know, I know. Please don't tell that Peter guy that forces people to throw meaningful things away on that TV show. Sure, I know, whatcha gonna do with it? Well, for now it's going to sit in my closet and wait for the day I look at it again.

Also, way back in the back of the closet I found my wedding dress. I had been wondering where it was! I designed my dress...drew it off on a piece of scrap paper and hired a friend to create from my drawings. 

It is a precious keepsake, 

so it is no longer stored in a box way in the back of that closet. 

It's in the top of my newly organized bedroom closet.

Many precious things were found in those few days of closet cleaning, stuffed toys, baby clothes and some Christmas are on their way to the thrift store as donations. 

However, just as everything that was staying was going back in I realized there was just one more box I had not gone through. UH! MORE!!

This turned out to be one of the best boxes. Deep in the bottom of this box, for what reason I do not know, was an old ledger book. It was my Great-Grandpapa's. It dates well back into the 1800's...way back. My Grandpapa was born in 1880 so this dates way before then. I have a table that has a glass top for storing and decorating...that's where that book now lives. I had forgotten all about the book. I remember my Grandpapa showing it to me. The lettering is beautiful, but hard to read with all it's curves and swirls. As I was slowly flipping through the book, and fussing at myself for letting it dwell in that box for so many years, I found an ink drawing of a bird. Under the bird it said Sweet Bird in pencil. Maybe someone wrote that years after the bird was drawn in ink. Just time I saw the bird, I sighed. It's beautiful. It also reminded me of the art work you see on blog headers and as different labels and blog decorations.

It may become my header one day...

Imagine this drawing is close to 150 or more years old.
The person who drew this never dreamed of a computer, and certainly never dreamed it would end up on a blog. 
How amazing is that? And a bit ironic. 

Cindy, of I Owe It All To Him, is asking for our favorite words this week. I am going to link up and I'll have to say my favorite word for now is MEMORIES.

I want to share this YouTube video with all my ARTSY friends.

I've seen it several times and Susan has it on her

Youth ART Month blog. 

It's perfect for use in the ART classroom and I am planning to use it in a few weeks during Open House at school. 

As an ART teacher you spend a great deal of time promoting art...being an ART cheerleader of sorts. 

It's a shame, but it's a reality. 

Everyone loves ART and is fascinated with the ART, but ART has to constantly plead for it's existence, especially in our public schools. 

I could go on and on, on my soapbox for ART, but I'd rather just enjoy and love it! 

Why let that dark cloud rain over all the 

fun and learning that comes from ART?




VICKI

I'm really not in a FOWL mood...

Get it? Sometimes I just crack myself up...

You know about our trip to visit the street chickens. So while I am on our feathered friends I thought I'd show you some of the magnificent photos Bill took recently while he was working his fun second job. He has his real, big boy job, but some times on weekends he works at the GA National Fairgrounds. It's a wonderful place! The fair is held once a year, but year round they have many events like horse shows, dog shows, cattle shows, wedding receptions, concerts, conventions and RV shows. It's a very busy place! It's also a very beautiful place with a huge lake and landscaped grounds.

National Fairgrounds Clock Tower

One day last week we had several loafs of bread that were going stale,

so I told him to take it all out to the fairgrounds and feed it to the fish when he went to work. 

Well...the fish got to eat very little of the bread, because of some winged seasonal visitors. However, Bill got some wonderful pictures of the visiting Canada geese and turtles that live in the huge pond.  

Uh oh...wonder if the geese have heard the loaves and fishes story?

Showing off...

Remember the post I made about the mother geese and babies crossing in front of our car at a busy intersection? I wonder if any of those geese have found this beautiful lake...it's a few miles from that intersection, in distance and safety. That's a nice thought though? I've wondered about those brave little geese many times.

Some job Bill has, huh?

The End!

  

MORNING WITH THE CHICKENS...

THE KING OF MAIN STREET

A GUY AND HIS GIRLS

                                                                                          

We literally woke up with the chickens this morning. However, these chickens were not in our backyard.

BIDDIES

COULD THIS BE A LOVE TRIANGLE?

HANGING OUT BEHIND NABiLA'S FOR THE TREATS

We hit the road at daybreak this morning to go where these chickens hang out. Down winding country roads, through beautiful south Georgia farmland we traveled to Fitzgerald, GA. 
A quaint, beautiful,  southern town, Fitzgerald, is off the beaten path of interstate highways and overpopulated areas. This tucked away, sweet little village is also the home of hundreds of street chickens. They roam wherever their hearts desire and add to the charm of the town. Having heard of these renegade chickens I wanted to see them as they carried on their chicken activities.

I grew up not far from Fitzgerald, but I never went there very often. However, this week I have been down there twice.

I drove the 60 miles there this past Wednesday to attend funeral services for the father of one of my friends. 

Though sad circumstances brought me to this place, I fell in love with it immediately. 

Maybe because of the roaming chickens, 

but I think that was only part of it. 

Fitzgerald has the same southern qualities as the town in which I grew up. It's a traditional southern town with genuine, friendly people, moss draped trees and slow simple living. 

Also, no visitor can hide there because everyone knows everyone.

It could be the setting for any movie made about the south. 

Main Street is lined with breathtaking historical homes, some Victorian; some small bungalows; and some Antebellum. 

A portico between two Main Street homes.

The line of homes on Main Street appears to flow seamless into the businesses on the other end.

The streets are paved with bricks and the sidewalks are custom designed with blue and gray geometric shapes.

There's wrought iron everywhere

and older landmarks of the town have been updated and remodeled. 



One of my favorites was the Art Deco Style
Grand Theatre.

As we left the funeral, we searched for a place to eat lunch. Fitzgerald is full of One Way streets and we rambled and rambled until we came upon Nabila's.

I had read about Nabila's restaurant in GEORGIA magazine, so I was excited when we found it there on the corner of Main Street. Here we ate the most wonderful Southern buffet meal that I have eaten in a very long time. 

Unless you are from the south there is no way to explain how a meal like that can make you feel. 

There's a saying here...
"It was so good, it would make you want to slap somebody!"  

Exactly!

The only thing missing for me was my Granny and her Boarding House cooking, and my mama's cooking that she filled with so much love. This food was very close! 

When I got home that Wednesday, I told Bill about the restaurant and he immediately yelled,

"Road trip Sunday!"  

 It's not unusual for us to take off on a Sunday to random parts just to eat and explore. 

 And that's exactly what we did today in Fitzgerald. 

Bill is not from the south, he's lived all over, and he doesn't quite have the same connection I have with the food I grew up on. 

However, he knows what's good, enjoys southern food, and he enjoys chasing after chickens with a camera! 

What an incredible morning!

I had been so disappointed that in all my one way street ramblings on Wednesday, I had not seen one single chicken! 

So seeing a chicken became our mission of the day.  

Dumpster Diving Diva! 

And chickens 
we did see!!!!

You know, it's really the simple things in life that make it so wonderful, isn't it?

Fleeting Summer and a Book

WHAT A DAY!!!!

I am on the Better Seeking Team for my school...a one year rotating position that I have had for 7 years now...beginning my 8th. Did you notice I said it is a one year position? Hmmm! I'm proud and more than willing to sit on this BST committee, much longer than is required, but it does require me to give up  

3 of my summer days 

to sit in on meetings that basically have nothing to do with what I teach. I teach ART. Of course, through ART I do teach math, social studies and the language arts. I am not a regular classroom teacher and I do not teach in the way a regular classroom teacher does, but in ART I do integrate the other academics. While things covered in the meetings really don't apply to my subject, it is also about things that are best for our school and I care about that, so it does apply to me there.

It is interesting to sit and hear all the data gathered from the test scores and it is fun planning for the coming year. However, if it's all the same to the powers that be out there in education land, I'd rather stay home and enjoy my day, thank you very much! But today I had to go to school and sit and listen, give my two cents worth on some things, and plan for the coming year. I do enjoy seeing all my teacher friends, I do enjoy finding out how our wonderful students did on the test, and I do enjoy being treated to a wonderful lunch! 

I did have a few minutes to work in my room. I rearranged tables to prepare for the huge amount of students I will teach this year...larger classrooms, fewer teachers, less or no money...whatever! 

I am meant to teach, and teach I will! 

THIS IS GROOVY CAT...HE'S ON THE FRONT OF THE BOOK

So today marked the time when it really hits me that summer freedom is almost over. It's bittersweet for a teacher. You are ready to see your students, ready to experience the fun of learning with them, ready to have a more structured life, but at the same time you hate to give up the freedom of sleeping late, not dressing professionally and eating whenever you doggone well please. I am so pleased and thankful to have such a wonderful job, however, and mind you this is not complaining, I don't want to go back...yet.

OK, so I've rambled on about my day...now may I just jump randomly on to something found stashed away in the bottom of a basket in my slowly blossoming, but still cluttered workroom? (you do remember I linked my cluttered places to The White Farmhouse giveaway...oh and I won, did I tell you that!!!???) 

SWEET MARGARITE IS THE MAIN CHARACTER...OPENING PAGE

What, you'd rather I just hush? 

Sorry, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

This is my book, or parts of it, rather...I wrote a version of it almost 30 years ago, and as an assignment for an ART class I took when getting my masters I had to create a book...soooooooo I rewrote my book from long ago and gave it a recycling theme to fulfill the assignment requirements and here it is...

It's an altered book of sorts...done my junky way as things usually are with me. I used tissue paper, magazine clippings, my own watercolored drawings and even pieces of burlap. It's a collage of sorts, and finishing it makes me feel complete ...one more project started and finally finished, one less thing to get to someday...

check this one off my list!

THIS IS THE BACK OF THE BOOK

I just love it when you run across something you haven't seen in awhile, you hold it and it brings back good memories and good times. Finding this caused me to remember my life long ago, 

and it also caused me to realize I have a wonderful life now too.

Yeah, I know, starting to get mushy, should have hushed long ago.

THE END

I can tell you are dying to know 

what I did on my 

birthday yesterday! 

Yeah, yeah...I can see you are sitting on the edge of your seat!

Let's see...

where to begin? 

I know you are not all that interested in my over night trip to Paris, everybody does that,

so I'll just get right to the best part of the day...

I played in a flower field with the Zinnias and Sunflowers

 

 

What a wonderful day!

 Just my Bill and me, 

we enjoyed fellowship with flowers and people. 

We dined on the best burgers a little hole in the wall restaurant could produce and we ate  

Peach Ice Cream Blossoms

that proved GA truly is a peach! 

All this combined with all the birthday wishes by card, phone, facebook, blogland 

and some actually in person, 

all of this is what put the

Happy

in my day!

And I wanted to share the beautiful flowers with you!

EVERY DAY ABOVE GROUND IS...

A GOOD DAY!

 THIS IS MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF RECENT DAYS.

I AM SITTING

HERE WATCHING THE CLOCK MOVE SLOWLY TOWARDS 

 MIDNIGHT...

ONCE IT HITS THAT 12 I WILL BE REACHING 56 YEARS OF AGE! 

YOU GO GIRL!

WHAT A WONDERFUL BLESSING!

WHAT A WONDERFUL JOY!

(Now my husband, being the sweet fellow that he is, reminds me that actually I will only be 56 tomorrow, because after that I am working on 57! Thanks! Bill)

Not writing this for happy wishes, 
though they are wonderful! 
I am writing this to say...

NEVER LET YOUR AGE HOLD YOU BACK! NEVER LET AGE KEEP YOU FROM DOING ANYTHING THAT YOU DESIRE! 

NEVER!!!!!!!!!!

My what ifs...

What if I had said at 28 it's too late for me to marry? 

Course some would say too young on that one.

I wouldn't be celebrating 28 years married to the best guy around.

Or, 
oh I am just too old to have a child now...I'm 32!!!

 I wouldn't be a proud mama to a fine young man, who amazes me daily!

 

Become a teacher at my age, really!!?? 

I'm too old, I'm 45 after all!

I would not have received hugs, and I love yous, tonight from some of the sweetest little students around.
We were trying to be seated at a restaurant, but you can't say no to all that sweetness! 

Get my masters degree? Ha! 

Not at 53! 
No way! 

Yes way!

If I had not, I wouldn't have all my new younger friends that I met in class...so blessed am I!

I wouldn't be getting a pay raise during these hard times, and I would not have found new avenues of expression...I can dance! (Well, sort of.)  
I can write poetry, move, sing, act and tell stories, though not at the same time...yet!

You learn about all kinds of things in a masters program.

If you are living you are still going to be whatever age, 
you may as well do whatever your heart needs you to do.

After all Socrates learned to dance at 70...so I've heard...I wasn't there. 

The great thing about getting older, is you don't lose all the ages you've been. Maya Angelou


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! 

Thanks Mama and Daddy!