Have to share this from my niece Linda. Such wisdom and good advice but done with humor.

To all the girls who are in a hurry to have a boyfriend or get married, a piece of Biblical advice:  “Ruth patiently waited for her mate Boaz.” While you are waiting on YOUR Boaz, don’t settle for any of his relatives; Broke-az, Po-az, Lyin-az, Cheating-az, Dumb-az, Drunk-az, Cheap-az, Lockedup-az, , Goodfornothing-az, Lazy-az, and especially his third cousin Beatinyou-az. Wait on your Boaz and make sure he respects Yoaz.

I think I and my three daughters did pretty well in this, and I hope their marriages turn out to be as stable as mine….and as happy too. All three have been married now more than 26 years: Val in 1983, Steph in 1984 and Andrea in 1985….and after they’d graduated from college. It seems to me that nowadays there is less pressure on girls to have a boyfriend or to be married before reaching a certain age. The modern woman is becoming convinced that she can be complete, happy and secure without having a husband, and there is no longer any stigma to being single all one’s life. Love IS wonderful, but if a loving mate is never found, it’s better to live simply serenely and single than miserably mismatched and married!

I found this article very interesting….reminded me of one I posted around 4 years ago, so I am sharing an excerpt of it below this more recent one.

A Look at the Hard Truths About Human Nature by Satoshi Kanazawa

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The article below is from the ABC News website back on 10 Sep 2007 which I shared 4 years ago and is a bit relevant to the above more recent one, and it explains why people (like me) are politically liberal….our brains are just wired that way.

“The brains of liberals and conservatives respond differently to stimuli, scientists say. The brain neurons of liberals and conservatives fire differently when confronted with tough choices, suggesting that some political divides may be hard-wired, a study says……’Conservatives tend to crave order and structure in their lives, and are more consistent in the way they make decisions. Liberals, by contrast, show a higher tolerance for ambiguity and complexity, and adapt more easily to unexpected circumstances’……Using electroencephalographs, which measure neuronal impulses, the researchers examined activity in a part of the brain – the anterior cingulate cortex – that is strongly linked with the self-regulatory process of conflict monitoring. The match-up was unmistakable: respondents who had described themselves as liberals showed ‘significantly greater conflict-related neural activity’ when the hypothetical situation called for an unscheduled break in routine. However, conservatives were less flexible, refusing to deviate from old habits ‘despite signals that this … should be changed’.

“The affinity between political views and ‘cognitive style’ has also been shown to be heritable, handed down from parents to children, the study published in the British journal Nature Neuroscience says….Intrigued by these correlations, New York University political scientist Assistant Professor David Amodio and colleagues decided to find out if the brains of liberals and conservatives reacted differently to the same stimuli.”

To make a long story short: The brains DID react differently “…..respondents who had described themselves as liberals showed ‘significantly greater conflict-related neural activity’ when the hypothetical situation called for an unscheduled break in routine. However, conservatives were less flexible, refusing to deviate from old habits ‘despite signals that this … should be changed’.”

This brain thing may explain why at age four or five I would never color a whole page at one time in a coloring book but would skip around coloring a little here and a little there using different or strange (said my cousins) colors for faces, etc. while my 2 cousins were diligently working on the same page until done. I liked changes….and had a child’s short attention span also.

’nuff said! My brain is one of the reasons I’m a liberal. Wow!

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and sometimes just eight words are all it takes!

This is art you can wear!!!  My lovely creative daughter brought me three beautiful pendants she designed from images from the Book of Kells. I found some chains for them. She really should market these. Don’t you agree?

They are so interesting and lovely. I’ll enjoy wearing them. Here are some photos of them.

This was a good comment about ALEC (which helps write legislation for lawmakers of Republican states to introduce for passage) and ALEC’s tactics. Altho’ I don’t know who “granny” is, she is a kindred spirit of this granny too! Whoever she is and wherever she is, I thank her! I hope citizens of ALL states where voting is being made so much more difficult will push back!

Walker’s Wisconsin

Submitted by granny on August 4, 2011 – 9:36am.

The tactics being used in Wisconsin to create a GOP dictatorship are both dangerous and clever. The fiendish Koch/ALEC cabal that Weyrich, Norquist et al have developed over the years can bring this state and this country to ruin. Sadly, the major “news” media, in great part bought and paid for by Big Business, far too rarely report the treasonous acts of the GOP. Sadly, too, even in the best of democratic times, there’s an apathy among voters. Voting takes time. “My vote can’t make a difference, ” etc. And this apathy is just what the GOP strategists are counting on. Now they are re-enacting the anti-voting tactics that prevailed across the South until the late 60′s.

But in the 60′s African Americans and some of their non-Black allies rose up and demanded enfranchisement for all Americans. We’ll be back in that anti-vote condition in Wisconsin unless democracy-loving Wisconsinites rise up, go to the polls, and push back the tide of tyranny. We can do it – but only if people VOTE WHILE WE STILL CAN.

I loved the movie version of “Kiss Me Kate” and played the 33 1/3 LP record so much I wore it out while learning all the lyrics so I could sing along. Lately, the song “It’s Too Darn Hot” has been playing over and over in my brain! Driving me crazy! Anyway, I couldn’t find a You Tube version of the movie version with Ann Miller doing the tap dancing while sing the Cole Porter lyrics….just one of her dancing to some inaudible background stuff. However, I did find one of the revival and update of that musical. The movie version of that song for the stage play was changed so Ann Miller, playing Bianca, the younger & “hotter” sister of Kate, the shrew in “The Taming of the Shrew,” could dance and show off to that number with different lyrics. The U.K. version of this decade has the original lyrics which, of course, had to be cleaned up for the movie. “The Taming of the Shrew” was the play within the play. 

Anyway, it is also too darn hot in Middletown, USA and my plants are needing rain badly. I hope I’ll soon be singing the lyrics to “Singing in the Rain” instead of : “According to the latest report, every average girl you know, much prefers her lovey-dovey to court when the temperature is low. For when the thermometer goes way up and the weather is sizzlin’ hot, Mr. Adam, Eve would rather not. For it’s to darn hot.” Ann Miller sang that line in the movie. If you watch this You Tube version of the stage musical, you’ll hear them sing, “According to the Kinsey Report…….” instead…. and a lot more ”adult” lyrics.

Here’s the link: http://youtu.be/Y8akvxDJQVc

Hallelujah! I hear thunder! Hope the rain comes falling down!

Here are photos of those two dresses by Jane Schaffhalsen for Belle France. She was a favorite designer for some celebreties like Jane Fonda and Ann Margaret and others. These are both rayon and neither had the huge shoulder pads favored by Tammy Faye Baker and others in the early 1980′s. I can’t remember for sure but remember buying them on sale at Gloria Gooden’s shop in downtown Muncie after having lunch and listening to friend Diana’s marriage woes….her unfaithful university professor husband was a real cheating piece of….well a cad anyway….like others in his department. I told her she should write a book…it sounded like what we were watching on that  ”Peyton Place” tv evening soap series. I DO know I wore the dress on the right to my granddaughter Meredith’s baptism….and she turned 21 in May…..so it’s at least THAT old.

It’s hard to judge them hanging up….much better on a body. Both have unusual skirts with self fabric ties that are hard to see in the photos. The plain necklines are really nice for wearing necklaces which we mature or “well seasoned” women love. And the absence of a waistline seam or belted waist is also reminiscent of the late 1920′s although these are much longer in length than dresses the “flappers” wore back in the “Roaring Twenties.”. The dress on the right has really full butterfly type short sleeves….like my mother had on some of her dresses back in the early 1930′s. I think that’s one reason I purchased this dress…reminded me of one Mom wore in early photos I have of her. These dresses also have sort of uneven hemlines that were popular in the late 1920′s and early 30′s if I remember correcly Mom’s description of the fashions of her youth.  Anyway, my talented daughter Val (aka @Murisopsis) wanted pictures so here they are:

  Here’s a good one for a laugh and I know exactly how this feels. I even let out all my breath before stepping on the scale.  

The evening of July 4th 2008 I sat next to my husband’s hospital bed holding his hand all night and talking to him even though he was comatose and probably wasn’t able to hear anything I was saying. I was saying my “goodby” to him and assuring him…and myself…that it was okay for him to go….that I’d be alright and that I’d always love him …. forever.  It also was kind of an anniversary of the night we’d started being a couple while college students. We’d gone on a picnic with friends and watched fireworks at the park and then all of us spent the rest of the evening on friend Barbara’s screened in porch drinking beer and laughing and talking. I reminded Leonard of that night more than fifty five years ago. I wonder if he heard and remembered along with me….maybe he added those memories to his dreams. I’ll never know.

On a happier note, I found two of my favorite dresses that had been hanging in my closet forever….well anyway hanging there for over 21 years….and had cost so much (even on sale) that I couldn’t bear to give them away. They both are designer Jane Schaffhalsen Belle France dresses. It’s a good thing I didn’t get rid of them for now they fit me again!!! Yay! (as Michelle Bachmann says). They may be dated, but are so pretty. I pressed them both and decided to wear them to church the next two Sundays….a “retro look” or “vintage fashion” thingy. I’ve lost weight the past 3 years but hadn’t tried them on until cleaning out my closets this past week. It was a nice discovery, and those dresses brought back memories too. I googled Jane Schaffhalsen and found those vintage dresses she designed still are quite popular…..and fetch a good price especially if they are in good condition….and mine are both like new.

I think this is too good not to share. I try to be and do all these but am still working on some. Maybe before I shuffle off this mortal coil I’ll manage to do/be more of these. I’d better start working on them soon since I’ll be 80 next spring!!!

A Healthy person displays:

-Unconditional acceptance of self and others regardless of race, age, sex, and belief systems.
-The abilities to accept mistakes as a form of learning.
-Vulnerability and accessibility, yet with a firm sense of personal boundaries: “No, you can’t walk on my head.”
-The courage to be honest with self and others without cruelty.
-The capacity to be real, authentic, genuine, and consistent with others.
-The ability to say no when necessary.
-Confidence with regard to assertiveness and willingness to take reasonable risks for the sake of discovery, stretching and learning.
-The resourcefulness to accept criticism as a guide to learning and growth.
-The facility to let go of control and accept spontaneity and the novel turns of life.
-The ability to make intimate contact with others.
-Acceptance of situations impossible to change.
-The courage to ask for help when it is needed.
-The power to face emotional pain, experience it, and let it go.
-The capacity to forgive one’s self and others.
-Simplicity with regards to material and emotional needs.
-Generosity with love and material things.
-Kindness and respect toward one’s body.
-The ability to make decisions and act on them.
-Silence of mind and word unless intentionally engaged.
-Grace, rhythm, pace and natural timing.
-Responsibility for thought and action without blaming one’s self or others.
-The ability to be direct and brief with anger without the intent to harm.
-The facility to wait peacefully.
-The capacity to say “yes” to more of life.
-The ability to listen intently and respond truthfully.
-Flexibility and adaptability of mind and behavior.
-The courage to apologize when necessary.
-The capability to accept and enjoy differences in others.
-The facility to feel, think, and act with equal proficiency.
-A good sense of humor.
-Respect for all living things and the resources of the planet.

From: Transforming Your Dragons by Jose Stevens.