View from the Front Porch - Page 140 of 169 - Award-winning Author Judythe Morgan

12 06, 2014

CLEAR EYES, FULL HEART, CAN’T LOSE

By judythemorgan|2014-06-12T06:00:01-05:00June 12th, 2014|Guest blogger|1 Comment

A guest blog by Jody Payne

Sh-h-h, please don’t let on about this.

I was never a big fan of football before moving to Texas. And I admit I still don’t completely understand the game itself.

Okay, that was a lie. I have no idea what is going on out there.

A friend of mine, David Patton, way up in New Jersey, that’s someplace north of the Mason/Dixon Line, told me to watch Friday Night Lights.

We went to high school together and sat through many football games on Friday nights. He watched the games, and I hid my eyes and held my breath every time I heard that horrible crack sound of bodies crashing into each other.

But I’m older, and hopefully, made of sterner stuff now. I can take it without sobbing out loud as long as I see the player get up and walk again.

The thing is this: Friday Night Lights is dead on. Who wrote the script anyway?

Everywhere I go in Willow Flats, people are talking about the chances that the high school team might win the game next Friday night.

Coaches get free haircuts if they will just make a few quotable comments.

Women with blue hair are delayed trying to get their grocery shopping done at the grocery store because they’re interrogated about their grandson’s chances of being able to start on Friday night.

At the feed store, farmers discuss the value of certain plays.

Plays? There are formal plays? It always looked to me like the whole idea was just to get the ball through that H shaped thingy at the end of the field. Apparently there’s more to it than that. It’s not that easy. Who knew?

I spend every Friday night sitting on a cold, hard bleacher. I watch my breath in the wind of a blue northern that has made it all the way from Canada with the sole intention of to drying up my lips and making sure I will have a sore throat when I wake up Saturday morning.

Maybe that’s the takeaway life lesson. Life isn’t always easy, but it can be a lot of fun.

What I like about the game down here is what it does for communities. Does football teach our boys that if you want something bad enough you have to endure a few bruises? That some things are worth the effort?

I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I read somewhere that Texas contributes more than its share of soldiers to our military. I wouldn’t doubt it. These people are descendants of hardy pioneers, and they strive to teach their children to do their best.

Here in Texas, living on the welfare of the government for generations is something to be gotten over with as fast as possible. Of course, sometimes it’s necessary to get a boast up, but then a Texan is expected to become self-sustaining as fast as he can and give the next person a hand up. It’s passing on the good stuff kind of society in the Lone Star state.

I’m proud of the people in my new hometown, and as much as I love to travel, I know I will always come home to Willow Flats, TX.

I can’t miss the big game on Friday night.

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Jody Payne is a writer (fiction and non-fiction), a horse woman (dressage, no less), an animal lover (just ask her two rescue dogs Annie and Janie or my two four-legged boys, Toby and Buster), and most of all she’s southern through and through.

Visit her on FB: https://www.facebook.com/jodypaynesays

Her website: www.jodypayne.net

11 06, 2014

PTSD – One Word Wednesday

By judythemorgan|2014-06-11T06:00:58-05:00June 11th, 2014|one word Wednesday|0 Comments

June is PTSD Awareness Month…

Learn what PTSD is, who is affected, and how treatment can help.

Visit the National Center for PTSD web site for information and ways to help raise PTSD awareness.

9 06, 2014

A Polite Question

By judythemorgan|2014-06-09T06:00:31-05:00June 9th, 2014|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

I’m sure you know what question I mean.

You’ve probably heard it many times yourself…

“What do you do?”

I wear so many hats – wife, mother, sister, daughter, cousin. It’s hard to zero in on only one to answer the question.

Then I enjoy so many things – playing Pickleball, reading, walking with my dogs, gardening. How do I zero in on a single answer about what I do?

I could answer with one of the many professions I’ve held over the years – teacher, administrator, DAC, antiques shop owner, volunteer. I enjoyed every job I’ve had. It’s crazy to relay all those in answer to a polite, rhetorical question.

I’ve thought about how to answer and discovered that in everything I am or do, there is one common thread. That thread is storytelling.

Like all of us, I share personal stories in social conversations, but I also make up characters and write their stories. Stories, which, in turn, become published, adding the category of author to my numerous professions.

Stop and think about it. We are all storytellers.

As a teacher, I told stories to help my students learn. As an antiques dealer, I told stories about the antiques I sold, and as a volunteer, I tell stories to make others feel comfortable.

Mostly the stories we share are anecdotal. But, it’s important to note that I also make up characters and their stories and I love what I do.

So when someone asks me the question, my answer is “I’m a storyteller,” which, in most instances, provides an opportunity to mention my published books.

I would love it if everyone I told I was a storyteller or those reading this blog went to FB and liked my author page, or bought a copy of my book, but the truth is, doing those things wouldn’t change my answer or what I do.

I’ll always tell stories, no matter what the format.

I am a

I’m grateful my stories take written form in bookstores and in libraries. At the same time, I recognize when I’m old and in a rest home, I might not be up to writing.

I am hopeful, however, that I will be entertaining my fat, happy great-grandkids with verbal tales about my scandalous past.

The medium may change, but my storytelling will always be the same. For you see, there’s always a story to tell. And, remember, I have Irish genes so the stories don’t have to be totally truthful.

So what about you, how do you answer when someone asks what you do?

6 06, 2014

Gift for a Mother Hen – Miller Farm Friday

By judythemorgan|2014-06-06T06:00:52-05:00June 6th, 2014|Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

by Guest Blogger Chicken Wrangler Sara

Our Rachel, Miller Farm Daughter #2, has taken up crochet.

She’s made the standard scarves and blankets. Lately, she has also gotten creative. She has made baby hats with ears to look like panda bears and hats out of her school colors with pompoms on top for college friends.

For Mother’s Day she made me pot holders:

These will replace the worn-out ones she and her sister made for me out of the loops and loom many years ago.

We told her if she didn’t find a summer nanny job, she could open an Etsy shop and sell her crochet.

Fortunately, she started a full time nanny job on Tuesday. She’s realized (very quickly) that crafting is not the easiest way to make money.

Meanwhile, I’m happily benefiting from her creativity.

5 06, 2014

Migrant Mother and Her Story

By judythemorgan|2014-06-05T06:00:35-05:00June 5th, 2014|Company's Coming, Guest blogger|2 Comments

By Guest Blogger Jane Carver

If I said the migrant mother in the picture made during the depression, you’d know exactly what photo I’m talking about…

Though photographer Dorothea Lange couldn’t ask the woman her name, the woman told the photographer anyway. Because she did, that photo will forever immortalize Florence Owens Thompson and her two children.

Like the Mona Lisa, a person looking at the photo can imagine all kinds of thoughts going through the woman’s mind.

Over the years, I’ve imagined her story so many different ways.

Now, more than eighty years after that particular photo was taken perhaps the woman’s story—of sorts—can be told.

Author Marisa Silver has written a story she thinks might have led that woman to be sitting in a migrant camp the day photographer Dorothea Lange came by taking pictures as part of a government project.

Ms. Silver named the woman Mary Coin and that’s the title of her latest book published by Blue Rider Press.

It’s a fascinating story of what might have happened that day in 1936.

I believe author Marisa Silver wrote the book just for me, to answer the question I’ve always wondered about.

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Jane Carver is a former schoolteacher

a new grandmother, a quilter, an artist, an editor, a dual personality author, writing adult fiction and young adult fiction, and a blogger extraordinaire

Learn more at Ms. Carver’s websites: Adult Fiction or Young Adult Fiction.

Or visit one of her many blogs:

http://janiecarver2011.wordpress.com

http://RomancesByJanie.wordpress.com

http://JaneGracePresents.wordpress.com

http://WritingImagination2013.wordpress.com

Her latest release as Jane Grace:

Intense (Young Adult Fiction) Sensitive subject but more about the compassion and help received afterward that makes up the story. Nova Dean dreams of going to Nationals in Debate but to do that she must beat Adam Parks and his team. Their rival is intense but not as much as the help Adam gives Nova after she’s raped. Only with his help can she take one step at a time back to a life she can endure. Only with his help are the rapists caught.

Her latest adult fiction as Jane Carver:

Return with Honor

The death of Jud Longtree’s best friend gives the local police chief reason enough to suspect him of murder. With the help of Lottie Amberville, they use both logic and creativity to find someone who may have murdered more than once.

4 06, 2014

HOPE – One Word Wednesday

By judythemorgan|2014-06-04T06:00:34-05:00June 4th, 2014|one word Wednesday|0 Comments

On Monday, I blogged about my hope of summer’s arrival and how encouraged I was when the only daffodil of the fifty bulbs I planted last fall came up.

Today I offer this wonderful quote from Anne Lamott to encourage you to continue to hope for whatever you’re seeking.

2 06, 2014

Expecting an Exciting Summer

By judythemorgan|2014-06-02T06:00:54-05:00June 2nd, 2014|Make Me Think Monday|4 Comments

This little guy popped out of the ground last week, bringing hope that spring and summer will arrive.

It’s about time.

Snowstorms in May were a major shock though our visiting grandchildren thought it was wonderful!

My sister and her daughter from Texas decided to pack their long johns when they came to see us over Memorial weekend after the grandkids left.

Unfortunately, they needed the extra layer. It was cold and rainy the whole weekend.

That didn’t stop my hiking niece and husband from climbing up to 10,000 feet on Sentinel Peak.

Summer folk are returning to town. It’s amazing to watch the RV parks filling and summer homes coming to life.

Last week the exterior painting of our house was finally been completed. Soon, the mountains of dirt from the excavating for the garage addition will become tiered landscaping. Now that will be a much-welcomed sight.

The summer will bring family and friends escaping the heat where they live. Another thing I can wait to have happen. Nothing’s more fun than sitting on the porch visiting.

And, most exciting, I have a book releasing in June.

Details on official release date coming soon…

We’re off to a tremendous start for the season. So how’s your summer shaping up?

30 05, 2014

How Many Chickens? – Miller Farm Friday

By judythemorgan|2014-05-30T06:00:08-05:00May 30th, 2014|Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

By Guest Blogger Chicken Wrangler Sara

When I was in high school, it was a popular youth group activity to see how many people you could fit into a VW bug. I don’t remember how many we fit but according to one website, the record is 20.

I thought about this as I went to get eggs last week and found four chickens in one nest box:

This made checking for eggs particularly challenging. Apparently the crowded conditions also made it a challenge for the chickens.

They laid as many eggs on the floor of the coop as in the box.

Today I went to check eggs and found this:

It took me a few minutes but I finally counted five chickens in the middle nest box. Can you find them all?

Perhaps I should put together a children’s counting book. I wonder what number it would go to. I’ll keep you posted…

26 05, 2014

What are you doing this Memorial Day weekend?

By judythemorgan|2014-05-26T06:00:25-05:00May 26th, 2014|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

I’m guessing you are doing or did one or more of these things…

• Spent time with family and friends munching on hot dogs and hamburgers

• Celebrated the unofficial beginning of summer by bringing out the white clothes and shoes

• Shopped or attended a sporting event

• Spent time at the beach, taking in the waves

Memorial Day weekend is for all of those things, but more.

Today is the federal holiday established so we could pause and remember fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins who never came home.

If somehow you forgot the origins, you are not alone–too many of us do.

But it’s not too late to celebrate and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Today is not over and it is the official designated Memorial Day 2014.

I suggest two ways to honor those who have served:

Read some of many poems written to honor relatives or friends who died serving their country by typing Memorial Day 2014 Poems in your search engine.
Listen to this incredible tribute by Wisconsin Legionnaire William Berg, who played Taps for his post since before World War II. Mr. Berg passed away in July 2013 at the age of 94.

One last word to all those who serve by going off or staying behind at home: my personal heartfelt thank you. I’m sincerely grateful to all of you.

22 05, 2014

Cedar Break Sadie, The Occasional Goat

By judythemorgan|2014-05-22T06:00:44-05:00May 22nd, 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Welcome to the porch today guest blogger, Becky Burkhalter. She’s a writer and published author who raises goats. Here’s her tale about Sadie.

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Everyone has heard the joke about the occasional table … (what is it the rest of the time?)

Would you believe I have an occasional goat?

Sadie looks like a goat. She was born of a goat, I do think that’s her actual form, but she isn’t always a goat.

She started out as a Valentine, born on February 14. She was a tiny thing, the weaker of twins, and we brought her inside to nurse her and keep her warm.

‘Keeping her warm’ meant, of course, keeping her in the bed with us. Isn’t that where normal people snuggle a baby? On second thought, don’t answer that.

She didn’t stay inside for long, and she’s been in since, although not often. This seems to have caused her confusion and from that first day we shut the door in her sweet face, she’s been searching, with a fluid malleability unique even for goats, to find her place.

It came on quietly and without fanfare.

She still seems to be pretty sure she’s a people and has never understood why we don’t let her live in the house. However, as time passed, she became comfortable in being whatever seemed to have the most benefit on any particular day.

I noticed her, one day, being a horse. Goats, you know, stay locked in their yard while horses are granted the pasture and large bales of hay.

Horses are fine to be, but chickens get to come up in the shade of the barn alley, out of the wind, and peck grain out of the dirt. Alley trumps pasture, grain trumps hay, and being many times larger than the others by far trumps being only as tall as everyone else’s kneecaps. So many days, Sadie is a chicken.

Sadie also tends to be a dog on days we have visitors. Dogs get to sleep on the porch. They get lots of attention, scratches behind the ears and all the leftovers cleaned out of the truck. French fries, of course, trump even grain. In the case of a cookout, there are too many good eatables to mention and unattended plates are free game. On those days, it’s good to be a dog.

There are days, of course, when it’s good to be a goat. Goats fit through fences like horses can’t and get to roam the far pastures, and beyond, until they’re chased home.

Chickens fit through fences, but don’t go too far and dogs just have to stay in the yard.

Goats who have figured out how to turn sideways in order to squeeze through a stock gate still get choice pickings of hay and grain – but sometimes get yelled at.

When the yelling starts, it’s better to go back to being a chicken.

Sadie’s latest transformation is to become a mom, which she is handling in her usual fine fashion. Her little daughter appears to be a goat, but only time will tell.

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Becky Burkhalter takes frequent flights of fantasy, in real life as well as in her writing.

It’s said that life is stranger than fiction, but Becky’s out to prove it’s possible to integrate life both ways. Whether she’s racing her Arabian horses through the woods, rapid firing her .45 or gargoyling from local rooftops, Becky finds it hard to stay grounded in the real world. Although she has yet to ride in a space ship (she did get to simulate crashing a 727) or to meet a real vampire (that she’s aware of), anachronistic dress, “QaQ poHmey” and pints of brew (yes, it comes in pints) are standard fare on the odd weekend.

Visit her on her website: www.BeckyBurkheart.com

Connect with her on Facebook.

Bloodcup: A Tale of the Last Amazon Queen is available from Amazon, and other ebook outlets.

What is it to be a priestess and a queen but a life of service to the people and the gods?

Historic legend tells us Hercules stole the Golden Girdle of War from the Amazon Queen, Hippolyte, at the command of King Eurytheus. Once it was taken back to Mycene – the trail grows cold.

In BLOODCUP the young warrior-priestess Aekhosora seizes command in the aftermath of that bloody theft to lead the army of her people on a vengeful journey south to recover the girdle. Plunging into the marshes of the Danube, through Thrace, past Mount Olympus, with only a brief stop at Delphi, they march on Theseus and all but take Athens before they continue south to death and slavery at Megara.

Suffering the whims of slavery, she struggles to stay true to her god, her goal and the man who takes her home, a man who finds himself the master of a queen striving to restore a lost and scattered people.

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