The Excitement Never Ends

Back to the prompts for today! This looks like a fun one, so we’ll see how it turns out. At my age, life has settled in to the point that there’s not much that makes me truly giddy, in the I-feel-like-a-kid-again way, and thinking about this prompt now, I realize that I quite miss it! I wonder what happened…?

The prompt is: Tell us about the last thing you got excited about — butterflies-in-the-stomach, giggling, can’t-wait excited.

The last thing that got me truly excited was our recent trip to historic Bardstown, Ky. We had planned it for weeks as a getaway for the entire day, just to sight-see and have fun, while at the same time, involving a great deal of places that would bring life to Abby’s recent lessons in US government and history. We were all excited, to be exact, and planned it down to the last jot and tittle.

I remember a few days prior to that Saturday, I had started making mention of it several times each day. I think the family got tired of it 🙂 but they never let on if they did. It had been years since we were there last, so I guess some of the excitement stemmed from knowing what was there and all the things there were to do and see. We visited historic buildings,

Wickland, Home of Three Governors

St. Joseph’s Church, the first and oldest Catholic Church in the state, supposedly.

Back courtyard of the old jail, where the “bars” were made into the building, of the same stone.

A one-room school house used in the early 1800’s.

a pioneer graveyard,

as well as old country stores and we took as many back roads as we could.

The trip was, indeed, wonderful. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to utilize the campground and stay a day or two, but that wasn’t feasible this time. As the day drew to a close, we wound up taking “the long way around” and went through a few more back roads with a little more history. We wound up going through the town where Jimmy was born and he was able to point out many landmarks and tell stories of yesteryear as he remembered them.

Yes, that was something that really made me so excited that it took a day or two for the excitement to wear off. It went from “I can’t wait until we go!” to “That was such an awesome trip”.

What does it take to make YOU giddy?

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And The Award Goes To…

If I hadn’t made a commitment to do ALL of these prompts, I probably would leave this one off for sure 🙂  I am not even remotely a person that thinks about myself and certainly not in a celebratory way…

You are receiving an award –- either one that already exists, or a new one created just for you. What would the award be, why are you being honored, and what would you say in your acceptance speech?

Ugh…

Well, let’s see. I guess if I really had to get an award for something, it would be my frugality, HA! So let’s see how this plays out, shall we?

The award would be a $1000 gift certificate for one of our local discount/salvage grocery stores. (No, that certificate doesn’t exist in real life haha) And I am being honored for being overheard in our local grocery saying, as I so very often do, “I’m not paying that much for <said product> when I can get it so much cheaper at the discount grocery!”

I can get staples like flour, corn meal, dry beans and rice at about one fifth or less of what they sell for at the major grocery chains. Even with coupons, the discount grocery’s prices are, hands down, unbeatable. I can get canned foods for over half off the lowest grocery store price, and so on. I just can’t allow myself, even during the times when we have plenty of money for it, to pay those kinds of prices when I really don’t have to. And to be honest, I don’t see why anyone else does it either. Maybe if more people shopped where the prices aren’t ridiculous, the ridiculous prices would come down?

My acceptance speech would be…

“I would like to thank whoever is responsible for driving the price of beef to between $4-9 per pound, pork to $3-5 per pound and chicken thighs and legs to $2 or more per pound. It is that kind of increase that drove me to being able to find out about the discount groceries in the first place. Without you, I never would have known that I could get the same amount of protein and not even NEED meat. And even more so, that the price of those kinds of protein are massively less in comparison.

“Thanks is also in order to whoever came up with idea of the discount grocery in the first place. I haven’t done any research and I don’t know all the behind-the-scenes facts, but I know that I appreciate you all more than you will ever know. Especially the girls at the checkout who are cheerful even if the person in front of me was having a bad day and took it out on you. You see to move right along and not let it keep hold of you.

“And finally, to all of those who told me about the discount groceries and where they were because Lord knows, without word of mouth, they’d be the best kept secret on earth 🙂 ”

Not a very good prompt today, but I guess it was all in fun. Nothing wrong with that I suppose, which is why I didn’t mind playing along.

However, I am reminded of a prize much more worthy of attaining. It is the only one that matters to me, and that fact will not change. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:14

I hope everyone is having a good Saturday. As always, thanks for stopping by and have a blessed weekend!

A Merry Heart

Today’s prompt is actually three-fold, as if to make sure we don’t skimp 🙂  I just read it and it already has quite a few thoughts running through my head. So without further adue…

Do you consider yourself funny? What role does humor play in your life? Who’s the funniest person you know?

I don’t really consider myself funny, but I suppose I can be at times. I have a blog post that I wrote about attempting to recreate my mother’s biscuits that actually turned out pretty funny. Well, it was more funny to me, I guess, because I was the one who had lived through it! But I attempted to portray that through my writing. I wanted you guys to actually see me with lard all over my hands hollering for someone to come and turn the water on, and then laughing about it the way I did afterwards.

As far as humor playing a role in my life, I wouldn’t really say that it does. More people would say, I think, that I’m a little more on the serious side. Maybe that I worry too much or take some things too seriously. In my honest opinion though, I consider that part of being “grown up” 🙂  I think many Facebook memes call it “adulting” and sometimes it’s fine to lay that aside. But on the overall, maybe it’s just that I’m balanced. At least in my own mind!

The funniest person I know? Well, there have been a precious handful. My brother, who died in 1988 at the too-young age of 31, was most definitely one of them. He seemed to always have a smile and never showed up without a handful of jokes. Where he got them, I never knew, but I don’t think he ever told the same one twice. Everyone liked him and I can still see his huge smile. We shared the same eyes so, like me, when he smiled really, really hard, his eyes seemed to vanish into slits. That’s when you knew he was really happy… there was no hiding it. His daughter carries on a great deal of his personality to this day, with her smile and laughter and eyes that just seems to laugh all by themselves.

And then we had a drummer in our band a few years ago that missed his lot in life when he didn’t become a comedian. He was from Humboldt, Tennessee and I found this out in particular when I asked him, “You ain’t from around here, are ya?”. His strong East Tennessee accent made everything he said even funnier, and keep in mind that I have an Appalachian accent myself! Not that it was something to poke fun at, rather, there were just some words that he would say that came out comical, just because they were so different from the way the rest of us said them. I can’t do them justice in print, so you’re just going to have to take my word for that one 🙂

In closing, I’ll just add a few of my thoughts that had sort of strayed off from the topic a bit…but not really. I got thinking about it from a Biblical perspective, especially the part that says a merry heart doeth good, like medicine. But I don’t ever recall there being an actual story in the Word about “humor”. And please do correct me if I’m wrong about that, because I’m certainly no Bible scholar. Maybe to understand the true Biblical meaning of happiness is about the same as humor.

But these days there are just so many different types of humor that it can draw you down the wrong path quickly. The Bible also speaks out about “coarse jesting” and I would suppose that to be along the lines of bullying someone or dirty jokes and the like.

Of course, it could be that there actually was humor in the Bible and the writer’s simply didn’t write it that way. I don’t know. It seems to me like the times were a little too serious for humor to be something that was common place. There was too much to be done and too much at stake for one to wander off into some other train of thought.

But then, that’s just me thinking. And that can go places 🙂

What do you think? About humor, and it’s place in our lives as well as in a Biblical sense. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Once again, as always, thanks so much for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Also, a shout out for the amazing artist that did the smiley face and rainbow for my featured image…my daughter, Abby!  ❤  She is amazing and did that from scratch!

Secret of Success?

Today’s writing prompt is another that I wouldn’t normally “choose” to write about. First of all, I don’t often write about how I feel about myself and the job I’ve done. It feels somewhat akin to bragging and I don’t like to do that unless it’s secretly, to my husband or kids 🙂  I can take it if they tell me I’m over the top!

So, today’s topic is:

What would it take for you to consider yourself a “successful blogger”? Is that something you strive for?

I actually laughed out loud when I read it 🙂  I’ve never even taken the time to stop and contemplate what successful blogging would mean to me, let alone how I might go about attaining it. “Success” in blogging wasn’t even a thought in my mind when All Out War came into existence. It was actually kind of selfish, if I’m just going to be honest. At the time, I only wanted to vent, but so much has changed since then!

What WOULD it take, I wonder, for my blog to be what people consider successful? Well, I’m not exactly sure. I’ve heard tons and TONS about adding advertising and using that as a way to make money, but I just can’t bring myself to do that. I’ve been on blogs where you can’t even maneuver around for all the advertisements slammed in your face, and I just don’t want to be that way. If that’s what it takes, I’ll never be successful, because I know when I’m on those blogs, I simply leave. I don’t like it, it’s intrusive and if I don’t like it, I’m certainly not going to turn mine into something like that. Even in my freelance writing, I won’t even use a blog like that as a hyperlink, because I won’t send anyone else to it either.

Then I’ve heard things, as well, about giving away something free, usually an eBook, or setting up some kind of class or something like that, but I don’t have anything to offer that anyone would want at this point. There ARE some eBooks I’m looking to publish at some point, I just don’t have that kind of time right now.

And no, I don’t suppose at this point it’s something I particularly strive for – this successful blog. Which is probably the answer to the first part. I guess if I really wanted to take it to another level, I could. But in my life at this particular time, it’s just not the most important thing. I have my family, I’m homeschooling one in high school, I have a disabled son, I’m a freelance writer by trade and I’m in a band. So for however much I’d like to make the blog more of a priority right now, it’s just not feasible.

Maybe someday…

I DO love the blogging life though! It’s become so much more than what I thought it would be when I started. I had this idea in my head of an online type of journal that I’d never lose and that I could come to and bear my heart and soul and throw everything I had at it. Having never been a blogger before, I soon began to realize, there’s waaaaaaaay more to it than that!

I never expected to meet so many amazing people! And to share in their journey, from half a world away, or more, is absolutely thrilling! I find myself checking my email first thing in the morning, not just for all my account info and business emails, but for new posts from so many of you! There are homeschoolers that I watch, and I get to see some of the best recipes I’ve ever seen. Which is really saying a lot, since I’m a collector and I’ve looked! 🙂  There are stories from countries I’d love to visit, but that I still get to see through pictures posted and stories told. And there are days when my faith is so weak, but then some of you post that one thing I needed to hear so much, that it makes my whole day.

So I suppose my blogging life is indeed a successful one, not just in my own writing, but in my reading as well. So thanks to every one of you that stops by to read, comment, like or share. You all mean the world to me and I’m glad our paths have crossed. You’ve not only transformed my blogging you have become something I look forward to.

Have a blessed day!

Walk On

Today’s writing prompt is an interesting one and certainly not one I would have thought to write about on my own…

Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.

I’ve always been a shoe person. I’m not even sure where that got started because, as a child in the Appalachian mountains, as well as in the rural countryside of Central Kentucky, I ran barefoot every chance I got. Perhaps it was the fact that my mother made sure my little sister and I got a new pair of shoes almost every Easter, along with a dress and sometimes a hat, and it might be that it instilled some kind of sense of the importance of nice shoes. And God forbid that we attend any important function in anything less 🙂

My dad always told me, as well, that you could judge a persons character solely on the look of their shoes alone. He said that anyone who wore shoes that were dirty, unpolished and otherwise ruddy looking was a lazy person who couldn’t even be concerned with their own appearance. Of course, he did say that some people couldn’t afford better, and that there was a distinction. But anyone that dressed well otherwise, he said, and still didn’t care about the shoes, was really something else.

And that’s something that has always stuck with me. I’ve never been able to go anywhere without first sitting down to clean my shoes well. And it will probably always be as such.

Now, what are my favorite shoes? Wow, that’s a hard question! I guess it would depend on the season. In the summer, I love my flip flops and my slip on canvas shoes that have somewhat of an oriental look to them. Only they’re camouflage. Of course. In the winter, my favorite shoes are either hiking boots or my heavy soled leather lace-up shoes. I’m not one that can be kept indoors in the harsh winter weather, and I have to have a shoe that can take me across the rough stuff 🙂

Where have they taken me? Oh, that could be a book in and of itself! They’ve taken me everywhere! They have taken me on many hiking and fishing adventures with my family. They have taken me to school and to work. They have also taken me across many stages including one on the infield of Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky and one in a television studio in Nashville, TN.

They’ve taken me back up the mountains of my childhood and they’ve taken me to the final resting place of many a loved one. They’ve carried me to and fro across my home as I prayed for my family and they’ve been carefully placed aside as I lay down to rest at night.

My shoes. Who knew they really meant as much to me as they did, and yet get so little recognition. 🙂  Well, I’m glad I took the time to look into that.

As always, I thank you for stopping by. I really do appreciate it.

If you’re following along with the prompt, where have your shoes taken you?

Pants On Fire

I have just found a 365 day writing prompt challenge from the Editors at WordPress, and I thought I’d embark. I’m not sure exactly what kinds of questions or prompts are on here but I’m going to do my best to answer them all, being as brutally honest as possible, something I just haven’t done much of here, on All Out War. As I’ve said before, that’s actually why I started this blog, for a kind of soul therapy of sorts, but just couldn’t do it.

I haven’t looked backwards or ahead, simply scrolled down for today’s prompt and it was this:

“What was the last lie you told? Why did you tell it?”

I don’t lie. It’s one of the strictest codes I enforce on myself and it’s been ridiculed by people I’m close to as well as by coworkers at places I’ve worked, when – believe it or not – I was asked to lie 🙂

True, there are little white lies in this world, but I try not to be a part of any of that, nor any situations where I would find myself having to tell them or depend on them. For any reason. It’s not that I’m trying to play the “holier than thou” card, or anything like that. It’s just that I have a deeper relationship with God than would allow me to indulge in such things as He has forbidden. In the Ten Commandments none the less.

And yes, there is debate upon debate about whether or not we are to adhere to Old Testament commandments. It’s true there are some that don’t seem to be feasible in this day and age, and others that seem outright crazy to just read them off. But I’m not here to debate or to  try to push any of my own personal beliefs on anyone else. You have your own personal relationship with God and it is for you and you alone to work that relationship out with Him. Paul said this himself: Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12

But HAVE I lied? Yes. I have. I have done a lot of things I’m not happy to say that I’ve done and that forgiveness, I’ve also had to work out between me and God. That’s why I also try my hardest not to judge anyone, no matter what they’re going through or what they’ve done. How dare I judge anyone because they sin differently than I have?

So what was the last lie I told? Why, it’s the one I always tell… “I’m fine…”

Someone once asked the hypothetical question, I wonder why people say I’m fine instead of just saying what’s really on their mind? And I think the answer was that, in most cases, when someone asks “How are you?” they aren’t really inquiring as to your present state of being. It’s more often a trivial way of being cordial, or being friendly, or simply finding words to fill a void that might otherwise be there.

Really – who asks “How are you?” and wouldn’t mind standing there for fifteen minutes or so, hearing about how their spouse is thus and so, and the kids are just a mess, and the job is going horribly and the hairdresser didn’t listen to a thing I said…. and on and on? Asking how someone is doing is usually just a way of being nice and then moving on. It’s the unspoken code of life for most people.

My husband, on the other hand, has a completely different way of answering, and I have to say, it made me jealous to think why I hadn’t answered that way myself. When someone asks how he’s doing, he simply smiles and says, “Better than I deserve.”

AH! And how true! What a way to answer, and NOT lie! This is what I want to say, but it rarely ever sits on the tip of my tongue as it does for him. Maybe one day I’ll train myself. Because truly, aren’t we ALL doing better than we deserve? I mean, if the wages of sin were payable immediately, I think we’d all be in trouble. So, indeed, THANK GOD that I am, and always have, done better than I deserve!

The second half of the question in the prompt asked why I told the lie. And I think, pretty much, I summed that up in the above banter. Because, in much the same way that the person who asks “How are you?” isn’t really expecting an honest answer, so then I, in answering “I’m fine.”, don’t wish to divulge all the minuscule travesties that I might have been through up to that point.

Again, it’s a courtesy thing.

As always, thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope that you come again!

I’m going to put these prompt writings in their own little category, and if you’d like to join with me, just look at the top of my blog page and click on “How To Get In Touch With Me”. If you send me a message and your email, I’ll gladly send you the pdf containing all the prompts. Or, you could simply write about what I’ve written about on any given day.  🙂  I’ll always put the prompt at the beginning of the blog and use the title as my own title.

Have a blessed day!