The ladies who raised and inspire me

Since my poor husband has been sick, I've had to take up doing more things so he can rest and get better; and I'm pleased to say that he is doing better. As a result, I've been getting up earlier than had become usual for me; and I'm getting quite good at it. Today was trash day, so I needed to take the garbage bags out to the curb, as he's not able to yet.

Then when I finished that chore, I migrated into the office, to get online, with a bowl of caramel, peanut butter oatmeal. When I got on facebook, in running through the posts on my home page, I ran across a post by a writer that I'm friends with; and no, I'm not giving his name. He bragged about how he cussed and how the characters in his books cussed, and encouraged people to brag about how they cussed. 

I didn't care for his post, and I posted the following comment on his post:

Well, I'm from Kentucky, and I grew up in a day and age when cursing in ordinary speaking was frowned upon and discouraged. If you dropped a hammer on your toe it was one thing, but your ability to curse wasn't something you advertised nor were proud of. Like I said, I grew up in a different day and age when folks were still taught and practiced manners and etiquette and such. Sad that such things have become extinct in modern day society.

That moved me to send him a private message, sharing my thoughts on his post, and letting him know that now I definitely wouldn't be reading and reviewing any of his books. (Note - I do run a book review blog and am always reading something.) But then I moved on from that. I got to thinking about the 3 ladies who taught me what manners and etiquette mean. 

They are:

My mother.

Momma and me when I was 1

My grandmother on my father's side.

My grandmother on my mother's side.

These are the 3 ladies who helped shape me into the person I am today. Yes, there were other factors and people who influenced me and affected who I would become, but these 3 ladies were my three main influences.

And have no doubt, they were ladies. I can't ever remember hearing any of these 3 ladies say even one curse word, and they discouraged it in others. In fact, in their presence, others just didn't curse. 

This all has set me to thinking, about the person that I want to present to this online world of today. And I want to honor those 3 fine ladies and their influence upon me. I put up the following post on facebook:

There was a time when you didn't hardly see a woman out in public in pants, and she certainly didn't use curse words. The emphasis on being a lady was taught to the young women of society. Back then, being a lady was about a lot more than just cursing. It was a way of acting, of carrying yourself, of dressing, of being.

In today's society, we've lost that to a great extent, among the female society; which is sad. Our President's wife is a great example of a woman who is a lady.  Unfortunately, public examples of ladies are few and far between today. One only has to check out the headlines about comedian Kathy Griffin to find an example of the total other end of the spectrum, far removed from the term lady.

So I'm going to endeavor to take a step back in time, to be the lady that these three fine women taught me to be. To regain that elegance and grace, that way of speaking and acting, that is mostly lost in today's society. It may not change anyone else, but it will change me; and I'm good with that.

Dear democrats, why Hillary lost

Dear Democrats,

You know, you people seem to still be struggling with why Hillary Clinton lost. I thought I'd share with you and clue you in.

The woman called a large segment of the American public deplorable, and implied that they were ignorant, and biased, and backward. 

Have you forgotten about that?
Are you really that surprised that she lost?
How did you think she was ever going to win after doing that?

Something for you to remember - if you insult people, they will not vote for you. 

Me, I'm one of those 'deplorables', and proud of it. And I'm descended from pioneers who settled this country, not immigrants.

Good day.

Update about The Leisure Zone blog

Just an update on my book review blog, The Leisure Zone.

Wanted to share some updates about my book review blog.

• We currently have 2 reviewers: one full time, me, Jacqueline - and one part time, Shadow.
• We did away with the review team about a year or more ago, as it just wasn't working out for me.
• Currently we have a backlog of reviews to post.
• Because of that, I'm taking a break from my read and review list until we get worked through the backlog of reviews.
• So naturally, I'm not adding to my read and review list right now.
• Shadow's status is pretty much unchanged.
• In order to get caught up on my review posts, I'm going to start scheduling posts to automatically be put up each day in the blog.
• Posts will go up at 10:00 a.m. central time, each day in the blog, except for Sunday.

Have any questions, comment and ask.

Do not comment with a review request.

Comments that are review requests will be deleted and ignored.

Visit the blog site for review request info and form.

Some of my 'take a break' reads

Right now, I'm taking a break from my read and review list for my blog, The Leisure Zone, and I thought I would share some of my reviews on Goodreads, of the books I've been reading.
So, here they are:


Dragon Rose by Christine Pope
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book. The author has managed to write a fairy tale story, in the classic tradition of many other much older fairy tales. I loved it. It's an awesome book, very well edited, with a great story and awesome characters. You'll be mesmerized from start to finish. There is no violence or graphic sex scenes. But there is a most awesome story. If you're a fan of fairy tales, then this is a book you'll definitely want to read.

Montana Snowfall by Caroline Fyffe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a good book, but, it is most definitely NOT a stand-alone novel. It's part of a continued series, and it reads like one. There is a lot of characters in this book, and bits of story here and there about them. Yes, there is the story about the 2 main characters, but about 1/3 to 1/2 of the book is about these other characters. It has a definite continued series feel to it. There are stories started but not finished in this book, and you're left with the feeling that they were continued from a previous book, and will be continued in a following book.

You should not read these as stand-alone novels, even though they are billed that way. They are really not. It's a continued series. From this one book I read, it seems to be a well written series; but you should start with book 1 and read through the whole series, rather than pick up one book from the middle and read it. I enjoyed it all right, but it would have been much better had I read the whole series.

Wild Angel by Miriam Minger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book and I really enjoyed it a lot. It has a rich story and characters, and is very well written. It's an excellent book. For some reason, it no longer seems to be available on amazon in ebook format, which is a shame. A wonderful story with great characters.

Date Night on Union Station by E.M. Foner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very good book, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's got great characters and a fascinating story. Purely great science fiction. If you're wanting a fun and fascinating science fiction read with a great story and great characters too, check out this book.

View all my reviews

And yes, the stupidity continues

Please note, I'm referring to the stupidity that goes on in Washington, D.C. Never in my life have I known of a group of people to be so clustered together in one area, that was so gifted at making the simplest things difficult. But Washington D.C. - our nation's capitol - abounds with just that sort of people.

I spent some time today watching the House intelligence committee on tv. Well, I didn't find much intelligence there. For one thing, they kept asking questions that Comey and the other guy couldn't or wouldn't answer there in that public setting. So why have it?

Here's my theory - so they would have a chance to sit there on their fat government asses and spew out their propaganda. Because that's exactly what they did.

They didn't address at all the folks who have been leaking classified government documents to members of the press. I don't think they asked about that much at all even. But they are still obsessed with Russia. You know, if they're all so obsessed with Russia, why don't they all just move there. I think it would do our country a whole lot of good.

I've come to the conclusion that our government is a walking clusterfuck of epic proportions. What would do it a lot of good is to evict all the politicians and send poor people, ordinary people, housewives, to Washington. Send someone up there who isn't a politician or a lawyer or a billionaire. It would do our government a world of good.

I mean, that's who we started out with you know.
Just ordinary folks who wanted to live free, to have a better life.

Seems we've forgotten that. What a pity.

An unhappy day on facebook (or how it has become the unsocial site)

Yesterday, I had an unhappy day on facebook. I ran across one of those 'copy and paste' posts that a few of my friends had shared. The piece that they copied and pasted started out with something that was not at all true of the Christian faith. So I posted about it, on my timeline and on my Walking With God page too. Then I later went back and deleted the posts, because I feared someone reporting me to facebook, and getting my account penalized. But not before someone had commented on the post, railing at me for what I said.

Now what I said wasn't that bad. It was completely true of the Christian faith, and I supported what I said by scripture from the Holy Bible. It just wasn't pc.

So here's what it was - there was this post on facebook that started out with a line saying that you could be gay and be Christian. Which you can't. That is totally not true.

The rest of the copied and pasted post was a laundry list of 'stand for nothing, everything goes' garbage. What bothered me was about half a dozen of my friends shared it, and their friends commented on it, rah-rahing it.

But not one commented on the thing that had bothered me.

Deleting that post made me so sad, so down. And that's when I realized that I wasn't going to post much of anything on my timeline anymore. That seems to be the place where the hateful trolls find me. So a simple solution to eliminating that stress point of upset was to quit posting on my timeline except for a very limited range of things.

And I came to the conclusion that social sites weren't very social at all anymore. They were full of mean, hateful people who were opinionated to the point of being a bully about their opinions. They didn't respect your right to share your opinion on your timeline, unharassed. If it was public, they felt they had a right to express their opinion right there on your post. They don't seem to give any consideration as to how their comment might make you feel. They don't seem to think that maybe they should express their opinion on the subject on their own personal space (timeline, profile) on said social site.

Then I began reviewing the posts od one of my blogs that I've had since around 2011. I've recently rechristened it for books and writing, and I wanted to check out the posts there; to find out if I wanted to delete or move any of them. That's something I've recently figured out, about moving a post from one blog to another.

It was then that I realized that all this now, it had roots beginning back 2-4 years ago and more. I read my posts in that blog, talking about the very thing that is still happening now, that is worse. So it's all brought me to a change.

I spent a good amount of time today going through all my facebook groups that I belonged to, and dumped about half of them. I no longer simply unfollow people who make those mean comments, I unfriend them. And to avoid those mean comments, I'm not going to be posting much on my timeline. I've put up posts saying that too. Some of my friends have encouraged me to keep on with my posting, and I appreciate all the kind words that they have shared. I really do. But when the mean trolls come by, leaving their angry comments, those folks aren't there at that particular moment. It's just me and the hater.

And I have several chronic conditions and live with daily chronic pain. So I definitely don't need the stress. Previously before, in recent years, I have re-evaluated how I invest my time; and the time has come to do that again. I'm tired of dreading comments.

It's sad that our world has reached this state, but it has; and I don't know when it will get better.

What's happened to my America?

What has happened to my America? The one I grew up in? That America was a much kinder, gentler place; much more free of hatred and prejudice and bigotry than the one we have today.

Today's America is a place I do not recognize as my homeland. People are so hateful and mean. And today's America is much more bigoted than the 20th Century America was, only they don't call it bigotry. They don't recognize the monster for what it is, and that monster is eating our land.

How long will it be before the hateful words and protests turn into bullets and skirmishes between the extreme leftists and the police and military of the United States? Don't think it can happen? Let the hate continue, and it will.

I've never before witnessed such hatred for a newly elected President as this nation has right now. Especially when he hasn't done anything wrong. All he did was win the election .... and those on the left, those of the democratic party, they hate him for winning. They want to totally ignore the fact that the heartland of America are the ones who put President Trump in office.

During the election, they threw every kind of smear they could dig up or fabricate against Trump, all the while ignoring his promise to ordinary Americans to:

Make America great again!

Hillary didn't make any kind of similar promise to Americans. She seemed to mainly specialize in making snide remarks about her fellow candidates. Personally, I never liked the idea of Clinton as President because I knew her when she was just a first lady for her husband Bill. She sucked as a first lady because she was ate up with envy of wanting the position her husband had, and ever since he left office, she never quit reaching for that office and the power that it held which enticed her so much. She didn't care about serving her country or making it great, just about having the position her husband had held, and the power it had.

The Presidential race of 2016 was one of the most vicious ones that I've ever in my life witnessed. I, as did many others, had hopes that once the election was over, that things would settle back down to normal again. But sadly, they did not. Things only got worse. Leftist mobs roamed the streets in protests against our newly elected President, and sometimes those protests got violent. They harassed and tried to intimidate the electoral delegates into changing their vote and putting Hillary in as President in Trump's stead; in spite of the fact that Trump legitimately and legally won the election. I think they managed to ruin Christmas for everyone. I don't think this has ever happened before.

And when the new year of 2017 rang itself in, the hatred from the leftists and the democrats continued. It continues still today, as I write this post. Many of the democrats boycotted and refused to attend Trump's inauguration. On the day of the inauguration, there were violent protests in parts of Washington DC. The day after the inauguration, there was a 'women's march' which was in reality, just a 'we hate Trump' march. One woman boasted about being a 'nasty woman', and another declared that she would like to blow up the White House; and both of them were known celebrities. One of the organizers of this 'march' had known ties to terrorists in the middle east. And pro-life organizations were not particularly welcome. 

The President's cabinet still has not been confirmed, because democrats are being as hatefully obstructionist as they can, just for sheer hatred and party politics. Even the news media and Hollywood celebrities have entered fray, saying some of the most horrible things against our President. The news media has even stooped so low as to put out lies as legitimate news stories, even when the news outlet knows that the story doesn't have a leg to stand on. All in an attempt to smear the President. Even now, they talk of finding a way to impeach him, even though there is absolutely no grounds. 

It's gotten so bad that you can't even share your opinions on most anything on your own timeline on facebook. That's why I've created this blog in the first place, to give myself a place where I could share my opinions in some sort of peace. 

People glorify illegal immigrants and proclaim their 'rights' under American law, when they have none since they are here illegally. They want to paint everyone with the brush of being descended from immigrants, despite the fact that settlers and pioneers and pilgrims came here first and built this land. They want to forget that fact. 

Me, I can't forget that fact, because on both sides, I'm descended from those pioneers and settlers, going back into the 1700s. I'm quite proud of that fact too. Once upon a time, others were proud of being able to say that. But not any more. 

During the campaign, back in 2016, Hillary called Trump supporters 'Deplorables'. Yes, a Presidential candidate called the American people that, simply because they pulled for her election rival. Yet people still hailed her. But those she applied this name to, they turned the tables on her and became proud of the label she had intended as a smear.

As for me, I guess I'm the most deplorable of all.

I'm proudly and avidly patriotic.

I'm a Christian.

I'm conservative.

I'm a Republican. 

I'm an avid supporter of President Trump.

I'm descended from settlers, not immigrants. 

Yes, I'm a very deplorable person. Just the type that the democrats and their leftists like to despise. 

But all this leaves me very sad tonight, wondering where my America has gone; and is there any hope for ever bringing it back. I wonder how far will this hatred go, what unbreachable divides it will leave in my nation. 

A country so divided against itself cannot hope to stand. But people cannot seem to get beyond their hatred.

In previous elections, after the election was over and the President elected, things would calm down and folks would give the new President a chance. But that has not happened with President Trump.

Well, despite it all, I still have my President's back. Like my ancestors before me, I support my President and my nation. And I despise those who would tear it apart.

It all makes me wonder who is behind all this? Who is organizing these ongoing protests? And how many of these protestors are simply paid agitators?

Our country, the United States of America, is in trouble folks; and if you don't realize that fact, then you better wake up to it pretty damn quick, before hatred washes it all away.

May God have mercy on us all, for we waste this great gift He has given us. He will not forever be patient with us and our land. For we have walked far away from Him.

I will close this post with this passage of scripture, from the Holy Bible, the Old Testament:

2 Chronicles, Chapter 7

King James Version (KJV)

Verses 12-22

And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.

If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments;

Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.

But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.

And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and unto this house?

And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.