Authentic Compassion

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

What you see isn't always what you get


Still not in the blogging mode but wanted to share a lovely picture I took this evening of a cloud I thought looked like an angel - when I posted the picture I clearly saw - angel is headed into jaws of mega crocodilian creature. My camera did not process what my eyes were seeing! It is still goofy on Buhlaland but warm day and a long nap may have helped. Finding new routines and trying to work around the health issues - it is good on Buhlaland just a touch goofy!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

In the realm of totally inappropriate

Sorry about weird spacing - gotta love the free part but blogger does have it's eccentricities!


Please click on this link Bovine MC Hammah and click on the picture of a blue cow and a chocolate bar



Lyrics you are hearing:




Can´t touch this




Moo, moo, moo, moo




Chocolate hits me so hard




Makes me say “Oh, so good!”




Thank you for giving me a mouth to eat with and two hype feet




It feels good, when you know your´re down




A super cool cow from Airy town




And I´m known as such




This is a beat, uh, you can´t touch




I told you, blue cow (Can´t touch this)




Yeah, that´s how we´re living and you know (You can´t touch this)




Look at my chocolate, man



This is an advertisement for a chocolate candy bar - from Norway. Somehow this makes me laugh and I've watched it a dozen times now. ahhh the golden oldies - can't touch this! It is silly on Buhlaland and that is good.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Tart and tangy and uses lots of eggs!


Pie glorious pie - it deserves much more adulation than it usually gets. Most people think pie = homey dessert but nothing to get worked up over like tiramisu or creme brulee. Lemon Meringue Pie is pie perfection - tangy, tart with the sweet airiness of meringue answered by a good buttery flakey crust. For Labor Day (I know I know - I am irreparably far behind in blogging - work with me people) we had a couple of dear friends over for ribs and salads and quiche. We have had an absolute GLUT of fresh eggs. The cluckers have been busy producing deliciousness daily. We get 8 eggs every day - unfortunately a couple of the hens have decided to stand UP when dropping an egg - dropped eggs -even fresh well cushioned nesting box eggs - will have a tendency to crack when they hit a hard surface. So some days it is 6 eggs and other days I find a surprise egg hiding under the rail which leads to the nesting boxes (somebody in too much of a hurry - waiting her turn and blam - too late).
It is fun having fresh eggs to share with people. End of September and the days are getting shorter,this week unseasonably cool for Texas --we are thinking about when to start leaving on the coop light. 2009 is our first year as chicken keepers is the term chicken tenders? - (no that is what I order at the joint on Main St with extra gravy) or chicken wranglers? (mental picture of chickens strutting around in blue jeans?!) I guess the right term for us -- people who have 8 egg laying chickens in the Coop Mahal. Returning from the rabbity trail down which I just led you dear reader--the goal was to illustrate how we have plenty of eggs and when I want to be extravagant with egg whites it is perfectly fine. Used 6 egg whites for the meringue and 4 yolks in the lemon pie filling. It was tasty - yep - tasty indeed. My photos don't do the pie justice but you'll have to take my word on it - it was GOOD on Buhlaland on Labor Day (and pie the next morning for breakfast wasn't a bad thing!).
Picture of my hand holding regular sized Buhlaland egg and one whopper (turned out to be a double yolker) comparing with credit card sized donor card - an attempt at educational photography.






Ah the cluckers - they seem to conspire and murmur cluckity thoughts when I am out with the camera - I can no longer wear crocs in the chicken run - they peck through the holes at my feet! It is good to have eggs, chickens, pie and holidays here on Buhlaland.
I think it is possible that in addition to angel food cake and manna - we'll have lemon meringue pie in heaven.





Tuesday, September 15, 2009

What you need or what you want?




Picture of poison oak turning fall colors.Has almost nothing to do with today's blog unless you really stretch the idea of beautiful poison. I was reading Max Lucado's website and below I've inserted most of a short message about greed. (Emphasis added by me.)



"In 1900 the average person living in the United States wanted seventy-two different things and considered eighteen of them essential. Today the average person wants five hundred things and considers one hundred of them essential.
Our obsession with stuff carries a hefty price tag. Eighty percent of us battle the pressure of overdue bills. We spend 110 percent of our disposable income trying to manage debt. And who can keep up?" “Be on your guard against every form of greed.”Luke 12:15 NASB

We (here on Buhlaland) want to know the difference between what is OUR will and what is the Lord's will in our lives. We don't believe God wants us to be miserable, He loves us enough to provide a way back to Him. We do believe He wants us to love Him first and others as ourselves. Easy to see how our neighbors waste their money on "stuff" - harder to ferret it out in my spending.(speck in someone else's eye and log in mine issue!) No wise answers from this blogger - but what IS essential to you? Do we really believe there are more than ten times as many essentials in our lives than 100 years ago? It is sufficient on Buhlaland - and that is good especially when we remember to be grateful for sufficiency. It is good we have a Lord who is Jehovah-jireh - God who provides -- maybe not what we think we want but definitely what we need.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Rainy Days and Mondays don't always get me down



It is a Monday and we've had such rainy days - a total of 5.25 inches of rain here on Buhlaland since Friday. Soggy and drippy and ticked off goats. We are working on setting up a new normal for our lives. DH has had the final diagnosis on his continuing health issues - very serious and requiring lots of adjustments to our normally busy lives. Didn't want anyone to think we'd disappeared for good (or bad?) we're still here on Buhlaland and working to get life back on track a bit.
Only thing getting me down is being tired - and smelling the roses (even drenched ones) can give me a real pick me up.
Hope all is well in your world - it is good on Buhlaland - a bit stressed but that can pass -

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Ordinary Life



Sometimes it is easy to twist our heads around and get a totally wrong view of a situation. Here is dear old Nubiana trying to convince me she needs more grain to get her day moving smoothly. Nubie is twisting her head around convinced that she'll see a hand or bucket from which grain will appear. Recently I know I work at keeping my view of our world on the level by doing the ordinary bits of life put in front of me. Despite the potential of bad - I know there is always good within reach. " My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."2 Corinthians 12:9
Not huge on quoting sources other than scripture but I find these lines from Oswald Chambers'
My Utmost for His Highest deeply comforting.
“We look for visions from heaven, for earthquakes and thunders of God’s power . . . and we never dream that all the time God is in the commonplace things and people around us. If we will do the duty that lies nearest, we shall see Him.”
“When the Spirit of God comes, He does not give us visions, He tells us to do the most ordinary things conceivable . . .whenever God comes, the inspiration is to do the most natural, simple things—the things we would never have imagined God was in, and as we do them we find He is there.”
It is easy to get caught up in the BIG picture and forget - God knows where we are here on Buhlaland and He is within prayershot all the time. It is good - and yes Nubie got some grain - how could we refuse a face like that? Here on Buhlaland it is good to be a goat and even better to be a sheep of the Great Shepherd.