4:14 PM CDT

Nothing going on. The winds slowed. Rain stopped. Very quiet here.
We are under a hurricane watch and tornado watch but radar shows activity west of us, not much here.

I am praying for Louisiana and Hancock County(Mississippi). I don't know what is going on in Louisiana. I am worried. Big hearty wind gusts blew here. Wished I had a hand-held wind gust meter to catch the speed of several spectacular blows.

We are under a curfew until 5 AM tomorrow. People will get itchy to get out of shelters and homes to see what is going on. I had good company today with Mr.C. and LD who watched Netflix with me while I sewed. I'm surprised we have power.

Thank you for your prayers. Let's see what we can do to help the storm affected in the next few days.

I'll check in again later today.

St. Casserole

Week Three of the Empty Nest

Looking around the family room today, I noticed that one of my children left a message for me. The house was quiet, the kitchen sink empty, no tv's blaring out but, there up on the ledge on the high windows, I spotted one blue peanut butter M&M.

Good job, kids! I cannot get it down with the dust mop or the telescoping cleaning wand thingie!

I miss you.

Love,
St.Casserole, the Mom

Lovely Daughter is registered, moved in and THERE.


ARRGGGHHHHHH!


St.Casserole

Well.Hey.

Today we drive Lovely Daughter to her new school. New School, one of the State specialty high schools is 220 miles away. She'll live in a dorm room with two girls and these three roommates share a bathroom with three other girls. I doubt any of the suite mates have experience sharing a room or bathroom.

I'm not thinking of her adjustments to room mates. I'm thinking of our empty nest.
I realize adult and almost adult children return home but today is the beginning of a new portion of our lives.

I'm not happy to see LD go.

I waited my entire life for children. While I was unsure about how I'd do with marriage, I was clear I wanted children. When God blessed us with LS, then LD, my heart filled to bursting. Marriage to Mr. C. turned out to be a pleasure. Parenting with him suits me, too.

Now, they are leaving our nest. LS begins his junior year at University in a few weeks. He's moved to College Town and begun a job to get ready for registration.


I feel weak and whiney. Crabby and unsure.

We feel good about the specialty high school. She will be secure and safe there, at least, as safe as one can hope for these days.

The school requires auditions and a stringent acceptance policy. For the first time in years, she will attend classes with students who WANT to be at school. Her public high school here is filled with kids who are enduring classes to fulfill state attendance regulations.

Learning is better when students want to be in school.

We've thought this through. We signed the forms. We are ready.


But, I am not ready.

St. Casserole

Woo! Woo! LLS visits this week! Cannot wait to see her!
I wish LSiL could come see us, too!

St. Casserole

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Today we celebrate! In two more days we celebrate AGAIN!

Love,

St. Casserole

Today

Finally. Cold weather here! Frost on the roof! After months of heat with humidity, the weather turned crisp. I am one happy RevGal.

John Holbert, the homiletics professor at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, speaks this morning at a local church. {The flower money pays for this. God bless the flower money!} John's topic is " What's Good about the Good News? Preaching the Alternative Reality of God."

Preacher quick recipe: Pumpkin Muffins-two boxes of Duncan Hines Spice Cake mix, two 15 oz. cans of Pumpkin, two teaspoons of vanilla. Combine the ingredients with electric mixer. Batter will be very stiff. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-24 minutes. Simple, delicious muffins with no eggs or oil.

I am very happy. Landscapers pruned, weeded, replaced dead plants and put out pine straw in our yard. Workers caulked windows and doors along with painting trim. My front doors are a subtle but odd color of green and look great. Getting work done here is frustrating, miserable and expensive. This week's crew did beautiful work. Amazing.

If your child is in theater, she becomes an instant drama critic. Hilarious discussion around the dinner table last night with LD dissing a local theater group who presented "...something about a cat and roofs" (trans. Cat on A Hot Tin Roof) "Dad", she said, "Did you know it was written by a guy from Mississippi?"

I will wear socks with my flip flops today and a turtleneck with my shorts in honor of the chilly weather.

Moving Right Along,

St. Casserole

Press Release from St. Casserole's Cattery

Welcome, Dubbie!

Dubbie, the Bookstore foster kitten joins Andy, Fish and Whistle in the St. Casserole household. He is a native of St. Casserole Town and was born in extreme circumstances then abandoned. Discovered by a kind-heart, Dubbie, along with his three brothers, was bottle-fed and loved until old enough to become a pet.

St. Casserole said, "He's a dear boy and we are delighted to have him with us." LD added, "He's my kitten and I love him already." Andy, Fish and Whistle had no comment. Sister, Fish and Whistle's Nanny admits that she's a bit surprised to have another cat under her care but is ready to bring Dubbie up as she has the Ginger Brothers. Mr. Casserole appeared stunned when he realized that Dubbie joined the household.

Dubbie, a polydactyl kitten, is white with a saddle and toupe of grey striped fur. He has all pink toes 'cept one black hind toe. He's sweet natured and glad to be with people. He will be enrolled at Prof. Whisker's in the next few weeks for Cat School. He's interested in learning to type and create web pages since he has "cat thumbs".

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday I heard a perfect Southern man's voice. Sitting in the pew at the regional grouping of churches discussing churches who wish to depart our fellowship, a speaker's voice caught my ear. I turned around to see a tall man in a seersucker suit speaking passionately about his congregation. I don't know him. Can't recall where he's from or what he said. His voice! That educated dulcet toned Southern male voice was enough.

Accents? I love listening to regional and national speech.

Listening to the Canadian news on the 'net last night, I tried to hear the difference in the newscaster's accent. It was the "ou" sound as in "about". Very different from mine.

We don't know what our voices sound like, do we? I hear my recorded voice played back to me and cringe. Every. Single. Time.

I called LLS this week and heard in her voice mail message our Mother's voice. Lovely to my ears!

I listened to the voices at the Mission yesterday and heard speech bereft of any public education or education in English at all. The woman is a native English speaker but her use of words showed that her speech was private, that is, not used for commerce or the larger public.

The volunteers who come to help us laugh at the use of "y'all" then begin to use it. "Y'all" is a useful word and somehow sweeter than "you guys".

LD changes her accent to fit her audience moving effortlessly from high school speech to talking with parents to navigating the larger world. Some of her tones have an NC quality from her months with LLS.

We'll have dinner Saturday night with one of my favorite voices: a native Mississippian with a cultured accent who commands a room with a beautiful sound.

Our Songbird says that her Southern accent comes out when she talks with me. She sounds familiar to me, so this must be true.

I come from the South and our voices are distinctive.

Listening,

St. Casserole

Fish the Cat is home from the Veterinary. His total hospital stay was one week including two days in Louisiana where he had surgery to repair the fracture in his leg.

The three pins and bone graft need quiet, restrained time to heal. He's in a mid-sized pen in my study. Post-op instructions mean he'll stay in confinement for six weeks. The size of the pen allows his brother, Whistle, to sleep on top of the pen. Whistle likes to be near his brother.

Fish has an Elizabethan collar to protect him from biting his tiny leg staples. He hates it. When I checked on him this morning, he'd pawed the collar off but hadn't taken out stitches.

Fish is eating and drinking just fine. Being confined is not fine.

Thanks to all of you who pray for Fish's healing. He's home, not happy because of the pen, and learning to adjust to life without his cast (4 months!).

Ever the Nurse,

St. Casserole

Remembering Rusty 1986-2005

Rusty, that great ginger cat, died two years ago today. His obituary appears here

LD and I took donations to the Humane Society in Rusty's memory this afternoon.

His gravesite is a sunflower bed now underneath the bird feeders.

I'm thankful I had him as my cat.

Just Remembering,

St. Casserole

How to Prepare Your Child(ren) for the Coming of a Sib

I take as my text this morning, how my mother prepared me for the birth of LLS. 1When a new child will be coming to the family, let your child pray for the new baby. This can happen easily during bedtime or family table prayers.

When your pregnancy begins to show, let your child feel your tummy. Feeling the kicking baby, later on, will entertain your child. You can tell your child, "you can feel the new baby and when the baby is born, you can tell the baby that you felt the baby kicking BEFORE the baby even met you!!!"

If you are given a baby shower, make sure that you have a gift for your child or have a friend bring your child a gift. I recall that LLS got many baby shower gifts but that I got gifts, too, because I was the older sister.

Convey no fear about your going to the hospital to give birth. Be as matter of fact as you can treating the birth as no big deal. How does the baby come out? The answer is: God made Mommies bodies so that they can have babies. 2
Spend time with your child after the baby comes so that the child feels comfortable with the new baby. Somehow, I never felt left out or

I loved LLS from the first time I saw her. She was a tad gross with nasty diapers and a scab on her navel, but cute and snuggly. I felt my prayers helped get her to us and I felt that my mother's pregnancy was a normal time for our family. I was a brand-new 6 when LLS arrived.

We prepared LS for LD's birth as best we could although unlike a bio pregancy, with adoption you aren't always quite sure when the baby will arrive. He did a bit of acting out when LD arrived but mostly took pride in his sister, especially when people commented on her. 3


Footnotes: 1) Old-preaching used this phrase.
2)Tell your children whatever you wish about how the baby comes out of your body. I like the discretion of my Mother being at ease that "God created Mommies this way".
3)Remember, I am not a parenting expert and am parenting still a teen and older teen.I thought about writing on this topic while recalling that my older sister seemed to resent me throughout my childhood and may resent my presence to this day. Maybe Mother learned from the sour reaction of my older sister and so prepared me for LLS's birth in a different manner.

Yours,

St. Casserole
(Next topic: Why is Blogging a Post Easier than Finishing My Sermon?"

Today, LS makes his way back home from France.

Would you pray, with me, for traveling mercies?

Always A Mama,

St. Casserole