Remember me?

Sometimes I wonder how forgettable I am. And sometimes I wonder how much I forget. Sometimes I wonder if I forgot something or someone important. Or special.

If you've ever looked at my profile, you know I follow a lot of blogs. Thankfully I have the Dashboard to remind me of all of them and update me when someone posts. Otherwise I may forget some of them. But I don't think so.

Some of you know that in the last year we've lived without electricity twice. The first time was a little over three months. The second time was right at one month. Quite literally during those times I thought about my blogs and the blogs I follow at least 5000 times. I missed them. I think all of the people I follow are special and have become quite attached to all of you.

I've just recently gotten to be back here and have been doing my best to catch up on all your blogs. I love to leave comments almost as much as I like to receive them. Thank you to the people who do leave them for me. They really make my day (Unless you're one of the spammers. In your case, I don't like you at all.) and bring a smile to my face every time I read them.

I feel like I'm rambling a little so to wrap this up, I'd just like to remind everyone of my blogs.

I have this one of course. It's my news/things-that-happen-that-I-want-to-rant-about blog. I've been writing it almost a year now.

There's my Happy At Home blog (just click on the title to visit it). It's my ME blog. I write in it the most often and talk about me, my life, my worries, my joys and just about anything else I can think of. I've been writing in it over a year.

Then there's my cookbook, The Eat Food NOT Money Cookbook (again, click on the title to visit it). It contains all my favorite recipes, readers recipes and occasionally recipes from other sites that I fall in love with that are inexpensive and easy to prepare. I also do a monthly review for Cooking Light magazine. I've been writing my cookbook almost a year too.

I'll continue to visit all of you that I already visit and any new blogs that I find interesting. I hope you will continue to visit me and check out my other blogs as well. Have a great day everyone!

Busy little bees

One of the blogs I follow is Linda’s Bees. I’ve always avoided bees. I’m highly allergic to them. But because of Linda and her wonderful bee blog, I’ve really become interested in them.

I’ve already learned a lot about these tiny creatures from Linda and the various links she provides. I went on a site yesterday that she had mentioned and I watched bee movies. They were really neat. I enjoy learning new things.

Then this morning I came across a bee story out of Fresno California. With my new found bee interest I decided to read it. It seems the citrus farmers and the beekeepers are having a battle.

The citrus farmers say that the new seedless variety of tangerines that they are growing do not require bees attention. As a matter of fact bees ruin these tangerines by pollinating them and causing seeds to grow when seeds are unwanted.

The beekeepers say they are losing a lot of bees right now due to the lack of nourishment during the winter months. There just isn’t enough food for all the bees and they have to compete for the food that is there. The tangerine groves provide that much needed food.

The story read to me a little like an elementary schoolyard fight. The beekeepers say if you don’t want the bees doing what comes naturally to them, net your trees. The citrus farmers say make your hives smaller. Less bees equals less competition. And if you don’t like that, move.

I’m leaning towards agreeing with the beekeepers but probably not for the reasons you think. First, the whole let’s mess with genetics and chemically manipulate a fruit that human beings are going to eat thing doesn’t sit well with me at all. Cloned sheep is another no-no to me. Or those people that clone their dogs. I just couldn’t do it. It’s not natural.

But I digress. The second reason I agree with the beekeepers is they’re right. You can’t blame beekeepers for bees pollinating your trees. Even if the beekeeper wasn’t there with their hive, bees would still have access to your grove. All a beekeeper in the area does is increase the amount of bees. I think trying to blame the ruination of your crops on a specific group of bees is like saying there’s a little water in the ocean. It just doesn’t work.

Dear soldier, thank you for my freedom

I often complain about silly things that happen. I have even been known to write long articles on the injustices that take place around me. I’ve also made big to-do’s over things I think are just ridiculous. American things.

Well, I take them back. The things I’ve said against America anyway. Not all of them, but a few. Like saying our government is too involved in our personal lives. I discovered this morning that it could be so much worse.

Gambia is a small country in Western Africa. As a matter of fact, it is the smallest country on the African mainland. A man named Yahya Jemmeh is the ruling president having siezed his power in a 1994 coup.

In 2002 he implemented a democratic civilian government and was then elected to the position he had seized. It is my opinion that he’s nothing more than a schoolyard bully and the people were afraid to not vote for him. He was quoted by a state journalist as saying “I will develop the areas that vote for me, but if you don’t vote for me, don’t expect anything.”

In 2006 a plot to overthrow him was discovered and many army officials were arrested while other prominent army officials, including the army chief of staff, were said to have fled the country.

Today Gambia is back in the news. A British couple that were running a missionary there have been arrested for talking badly about the government. Specifically they were arrested for sedition (covert conduct that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward a rebellion against the established order). They were sentenced to one year in prison with hard labor and a fine. For writing emails. That’s all they did. Criticized the government in emails that they sent out to their followers. I couldn’t believe it.

The Fultons (he is 60, she is 46) were running an educational center there through their church Westhoughton Pentecostal Church in northwest England. They also provided medical care to prison inmates and terminally ill people that could only be reached by boat.

They officially apologized to the President and promised in a letter to never speak or write of Gambia or their government again. They also promised never to return to Gambia without his permission. They are asking for clemency and to be able to return to the United Kingdom with their young daughter.

As I sit here writing this, thoughts of my freedom are running through my head. I couldn’t imagine living somewhere that the government was so far into my life that I had to worry about what I said or wrote. Or wasn’t able to have my own opinions and express them freely.

If you ever had any doubt as to why our children, siblings, spouses and friends are fighting in wars, this should be an answer. They are fighting for our freedom. They are fighting for our rights. For our opinions and ideas. For our voice.

Which one are you?

There are a lot of different people in the world. Some are strong and reliable. Some are weak and unreliable. It seriously blows my mind (to steal a catch phrase from the 60’s) how many different forms of strength walk this earth.

The strong build lives that are good and right. They stand up for the weak. They never follow the crowd. They are leaders.

My father was a leader. He never settled for anything until it was what he wanted it to be. If we were hungry, he found a way to feed us. If he had to roll up his sleeves and dig a ditch in 110 degrees to put that food on the table, he did it. He never complained. That wasn’t his style.

And he was disgusted by weakness which is probably where I got it from. It literally makes me sick to my stomach to witness weak people following others because they can’t do anything on their own. I’m not talking about misfortunes. Don’t get me wrong there. I feel sorry for people that are having a hard time in life. As long as they are working on improving it.

It’s the ones that sit back and complain about all the bad but never get off their butts to fix it. You know someone like this I’m sure. It seems like they’re everywhere I look.

And the worst ones latch on to anybody they think will carry them along for a little while. Oh, everybody likes them, I think I’ll just agree with everything they say… I try not to hate, but I do hate that. To me it says you aren’t worth the effort it would take to try to explain to you why that’s wrong in the first place.

I don’t know what my point is exactly, except maybe to say don’t be weak. Don’t be a follower. Stand up and be strong. Ultimately it will pay off in your favor. Life is so much better as a leader. I promise.