In Case You Were Undecided
Category: Inspiring
I Could not Believe My Eyes–And You Won’t Either!
A friend who is a history buff and who comments on Home’s Cool!, occasionally, sent me an amazing link you will want to follow. It’ll only take a few moments of your time, but the photos are jaw-dropping, interactive “before and after” shots of war-torn Europe and the same precise scenes as they look today.
You can left-click on each “before” photo, and it will transfer itself to the present. On a touch screen, just touch and it changes. I loved it.
You could make them into an incredible history lesson
Somehow, I found them hope-giving and addictive.
Real.
Where Is Your Favorite Vacation?
I live about an hour from the loveliest little spot for a vacation. Seriously, it has EVERYTHING!
Let me count the ways:
- Antiquing. Lots of antique stores for your viewing/shopping pleasure. One huge mall and many small near-museums with absolutely everything. Seriously, I almost hate to share this part of it. I want it all for myself…
- Horse racing. If you’re into that. I’m not.
- Art. Galleries galore, including such well-knowns as Kinkade and Chihuly, and several with geological finds that have been made into art, such as geodes. It’s been judged the fourth art-friendliest city in the nation.
- Riverboat ride with dinner and live music.
- Al fresco dining in a below ground restaurant–always cool by dinnertime.
- Real museums, including a Tussaud wax museum.
- Amazing architecture. Totally astonishing architecture, at every turn.
- Breath-taking vistas
- Impeccable groundskeeping
- History, history, history–built with government moneys, yes, by your great-grandfather’s hands to keep your great-grandmother alive, before we paid people to do nothing.
- Food. Oh my. And prices that make you want to live there. One whole restaurant devoted to the breakfast of your dreams. On fun place decorated all over with pennies glued to the walls. Another, gourmet and pristine, a sanctuary for its guests and for its workers, who are legal immigrants, escaped from Romania, who wait on you perfectly and cheerily, with charming accents.
- Hotels. We’re talking, here, of totally expensive, but enchantingly historic, insanely beautiful, antique hotels…
- And–tada–fountains. Fountains full of water so hot, you can use it to make your tea; so pure, it’s piped to the public straight from the ground, to drink. Famously healing hot waters…
And now you know where it is: Hot Springs, Arkansas.
So impressive, the first time I went there, I was five, and even then, I knew I had to go there someday when I could see the whole thing.
Been there so many times, and haven’t seen it all, yet. Talking about it (to my history-loving heart) is never overdone.
For more photos, view here.
For more about Hot Springs, view here, and here.
So…Where is YOUR favorite staycation?
My Dad
He served in the Army, bought a house on the G.I. Bill, raised five kids, worked hard at Kuhlman’s Plastics to provide you with laundry baskets and us with something to eat, gave us airplane rides on his feet, built three rooms and a basement onto our house when we grew too large for what we had, taught me how to back a bent nail out of a 2×4, mowed our two-acre yard with a walk-behind mower, sang a beautiful bass in the church choir, planted a big garden every spring and kept it pretty-well weeded, and lived to see his children’s children.
You’re Teaching Adults, Did You Know?
“Did you notice?”
I asked my husband that question recently, and he just nodded.
We were watching an adult who acted just like a little spoiled child.
Ever seen that?
And how it’s harming us all?
Sure you have!
And there’s a remedy for it, an easy remedy.
And you can play your part.
We see so many adult-sized children floating around and directionless, these days because someone forgot to train them for their jobs.
(You know how immature you feel when you arrive unprepared–like a little bad girl…)
So where are the trainers for the adults who act like little rotten kids?
Look in the mirror.
You see, the training for the job of being an adult comes during childhood, don’t you think? And we adults must do the training.
There is no other really effective and efficient way.
I wanted my children to learn, during their childhoods, how to be great adults. Not greatly over-sized children.
I wanted them to arrive prepared.
I know you want the same thing for your children.
Let’s raise our children to maturity while we can; the day comes when they will rule us.
Let’s all think more about home schooling next year.
Look Up.
With all the tornados floating around lately, come many more words about tornados. It’s a real storm out there and I’d like to add to the din.
I wrote a couple of years ago about my close call with a really big, destructive tornado. People like to read about these events. Not just y’all; I read these stories too.
As I was re-reading some of these writings today, I noticed something. I think the events that shape our lives prepare us for living a successful life in the end. I think we can look back on our childhoods and see how God was preparing us to face our future.
If we pay attention . . .
One thing in particular that stood out for me, as I read these old stories today was this: It was no time for hurt feelings.
Not then; not now.
I wrote about my six-year-old self:
I knew it was a tornado up there, whatever a tornado was. I looked up, too, and stumbled.
Mom scolded me sharply. “Don’t look up! Don’t look up! Don’t look up!” She seldom scolded sharply. It hurt my feelings but I knew it was no time for hurt feelings. Her words were like a mantra, a warbled charm against bad omens . . . don’t look up, don’t look up . . .
As I notice the world today, I realize how much I knew back then, and how much my mom knew, and what good I could make of it if I only paid attention and applied it to my current life.
- When we look at the troubles, we stumble. It IS huge storm all around us, but the storm should not be our focus, at all.
- If someone is trying to save our lives, we should not get hurt feelings. Those who know the way to safety are life-savers. Some of us probably should be slipping into that role, but we enjoy ignoring the storm, more.
- We are in a huge storm, like it or not, and it is NO TIME FOR HURT FEELINGS! Regardless of what happens, hurt feelings are a distraction and not deserving of our time or attention.
- DON’T LOOK AT THE STORM! DON’T LOOK AT THE STORM! DON’T LOOK AT THE STORM!
One caveat:
We should look up.
Jesus told us it would get worse, and when it does, to look up. To stand up. To lift up our heads.
Why? Because our salvation will be very near.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke21:28 KJV
More…
Just a link here. Another family. Another beautiful testimony to the power of a love-filled relationship with God.
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