Our 1914 Acorn stove

~ 1914 Acorn stove, 3 electric ovens, 1 warming oven, 7 gas burners ~

UPDATE: 11/12/2015 I just found out the stove restorer's name is David ERICKSON, not Livingstone. Haha on me.

When Dave and I moved to the farm, he asked me what I thought we'd need most. I told him, "heat and eat". He looked at me quizzically. I told him because we were living in a rural area, we'd have to be self dependent; we couldn't rely on anyone other than ourselves to provide for us. More than likely, we'd lose power due to storms, wind, snow or ice and, more than likely, we'd lose phone service for the same reason. We needed to be able to keep ourselves warm as well as provide food for ourselves. Thus, heat and eat. I wanted a well, a gas cook stove and a wood burning stove for heat. 

~ enamel tea kettle found at thrift store ~

Back in December, I blogged about our Woodstock Soapstone stove we used, and I use, for heating. When Dave asked about a heating stove, I told him about cast iron stoves and pot bellied stoves which is what I knew growing up. Aunt Bonnie used a pot bellied stove and burned coal which is the warmest heat imaginable. It's also the dirtiest heat imaginable which is why I leaned toward a wood burning heat stove. Dave did some research, as he always did, and came up with the Woodstock Soapstone stove which has held its price admirably. Well done, Dave!

~ 1914 Acorn stove emblem ~

When we moved here, there was a stove...of sorts...but nothing that we wanted or could really be used. It had been well used and, hopefully, well loved for years, probably decades, and it was time for "our" stove. In the autumn of 1995, while reading This Old House magazine, I found an article featuring David Livingstone Erickson who renovated old stoves in a former train station just outside Boston Littleton, Mass. I showed Dave the article, we oohed and cooed over the antique stoves then turned to each other, both of us wearing wide grins. "Why don't we buy one of his stoves?" So I found Mr. Livingstone's Erickson's phone number, called  and asked about his stoves. He said he was working on a pretty sage green and white model that we could have if we'd send him a deposit. We agreed, sent him a check and then waited...and waited...and waited... Finally, on Monday, July 1 he called us and said, "Your stove is ready, when can you pick it up?" We looked at our schedule and said, "How about Thursday?" 

~ two lower ovens, both roasting "cold" ovens ~

I arrived late Thursday afternoon, gave him the certified check and they loaded our stove. As I was saying good-bye, he asked casually, "Have you seen my other stoves." As Dave would have said, "My ears got pointy" and I said, "No and I'd love to see your other stoves." We walked into his warehouse and I just about passed out. It was full of beautiful, restored vintage antique stoves. I'm not quite sure what's vintage or antique so you choose. Anyway, I walked around admiring his stoves and spied this Acorn. 

~ 7 propane gas burners, 3 large, 3 small, 1 simmer ~

"This is a beautiful stove; is it for sale?" 
Livingstone looked at me and said, "Well, a woman is interested in it." 
I asked, "Is this a woman who gave you a deposit six months ago and then never once bothered you?" 
He looked at me. "She didn't give me a deposit, she just said to call her when it was finished because she might be interested in buying it. Besides, it cost more than the stove you bought and I don't take personal checks because I've been burned."
I nodded. "I understand but if I can have cold, hard, Yankee dollars in your bank account by 5 p.m., will you sell me the stove?"
His eyes got big. "I don't take checks, how are you going to do that?"
I explained about bank wire transfers, called Dave and Livingstone Mr. Erickson gave him the necessary banking information, then Dave said, "It's 1:00; I'm headed to town now."
The green and white stove was unloaded while I looked through the telephone book to find a U-Haul store. The sage green and white stove was a perfect fit on the truck but this black and white beauty was about one-third larger. 
I found a hotel room and settled in for the evening and the next morning, bright and early, I was at the shop to pick up our stove. One of his men met me at the door, eyes big as saucers. "Right after you left yesterday, that woman showed up, the woman who thought she wanted the stove. She walked into the shop and said, "I love it!"
I started to laugh. (Sorry, was that wicked?)

~ oven indicator on the hot oven ~

He looked at me and continued, "I've worked here a lot of years and this is the first time something like this has ever happened." 
About that time, Mr. Livingston Erickson came out and continued the story. "Yeah, it was a little rough for a while but like I told her, you never gave me a deposit. This other woman (meaning me) gave me a deposit six months ago and never bothered me again." 
I said, "It must have worked out all right because the stove is still here." 
Livingstone Erickson said, "and so is the money in my bank account." 

~ side view ~

This old stove has been a charmer and still works as well as the day we purchased it; we've enjoyed it thoroughly. It's baked thousands of pans of Thistle Cove Farm shortbread, baked my infamous Bird Seed Bread, slow cooked roasts, hams, casseroles, soups, stews, omelets and God alone knows what else. 

~ old soup ladle ~

This old stove has blessed us with a lot of meals and held up to the "heat and eat" aspect of our living here. It's a half ton (maybe but not really sure how much it weighs) of beauty and purpose and continues to make wonderful meals. When we've lost power, the gas cook top still cooks and we'd still eat hot meals and I'm able to make hot coffee, tea and hot chocolate, perfection!  
We have been blessed, greatly blessed indeed.

A few months ago, I found David Livingstone's 
Erickson's card and called him; no answer. I did an internet search but can't find him so haven't a clue if he's still in business or even alive. Even so, he's remembered fondly and daily as I continue to cook on my 1914 Acorn stove.

P. S. When Dave and I bought the stove, Mr. Livingstone Erickson told me, as far as he knew, this 1914 Acorn was one of two in existence. The other he'd restored and it was now living in Ralph Lauren's Colorado home. (I bet mine is happier -grin!-)

Blessings ~ this old 1914 Acorn stove ~ David Livingstone Erickson ~ propane ~ as always, great memories ~

Thistle Cove Farm

~ our homestead ~

It's been said when the first Anglo settler's arrived on the shores of the New World, a squirrel could run from tree top to tree top from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Old growth, virgin forests provided the fodder for the cabins Anglo settler's needed from protection from the elements and to provide a home for the family.

Some time prior to the Revolutionary War, King George gave a land grant of several thousand acres to those first Anglo settlers. The Bowen's and the Ward's were the first Anglo families in the valley but I'm unsure to whom this farm was given in a land grant by King George. I've not yet researched back that far but hope to sometime this summer. 

The War Between the States brought discord, death and destruction; brother against brother, father against son, families against families. Down the valley, Melindy was a part of the Bowen clan, Dave's Mothers' clan, who freed her when she was a young girl. Today, so many people don't understand why a young black woman would stay with those who had owned her but where was an uneducated, poor black girl going? Her skills were survival and homemaking; during the War, she'd dress in men's clothing and march around the house, silhouetted against the light. She was trying to make the Yankee's think there were men on the premises when there was naught but woman and children. 

~ looking weary and tired ~

So the story goes, Aunt Melindy, as she came to be known, despised the Yankee's because when they finally came to the house, they made her kill her chickens and cook for them. She felt a strong kinship with her white family and they with her and she stayed with them until Dave's Grandfather bought her a small house in town. She moved to that small house but continued to return to her employer's as daily housekeeper. 

Our farm, nameless until Dave and I named it, was sold with several thousand acres to either Shadrach or Meshach or Abednego White for $300 in back taxes around 1870-1885. The White family lived here until 1948 when a Gillespie, a relative of Dave's Mother bought it and owned it until we bought it in 1995. Yes, Dave and I are the third buyers since the late 1800's.

When Dave and I moved to the Cove, our house was rather pathetic. Hay, several old, broken toilets and other debris were stored on the second floor and that first January winter of 1996, I had to shovel snow from the inside of the house to the outside of the house. Dave and I lived in three rooms with our bed set up about three feet from the soapstone stove we used to heat our few rooms. Each morning I'd walk through the house, kitchen pot and wooden spoon in hand, banging and making noise to run away the animals who'd sought shelter during the night. 

We'd stripped the house bare, removed the plaster walls and ceilings down to the studs and put up R-19 insulation that would pop out of the walls during violent winds. We finally realized we had no hope of walls before spring so we decided to put up 6 mm plastic to hold the insulation in the walls. It might surprise you the house became discernible warmer with such a small addition. If Dave and I could get the inside temperature up to 50 degrees F, we'd sit around in shirt sleeves and celebrate. Mostly, we wore three or four layers in order to keep warm and the coffee pot was never empty nor cold.

~ fresh paint ~

The weighted windows didn't work, the sky could been seen through sections of the roof, some chimneys had broken off at the roof and bricks tumbled into the fireplaces. It was colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra, as the saying goes. That same January of '96, on Monday the 22th at 7 a.m. the back porch thermometer read 35 degrees below Fahrenheit; thank God, there was no wind chill that night. Even so, Dave and I slept in 2 hour shifts in order to feed the stove so we wouldn't freeze to death. During the wee hours, Dave stuffed our two cats under the electric blanket but I'm not sure if that was to keep the cats or our feet warm smile. 

~ a new paint job ~

I kept a journal of those first 18 months and it provides excellent reading now. It also reminds me how strong and brave we were to take on such a huge job. Dave and I were newlyweds, having dated for six years before deciding it was time to make a change. We put our Richmond homes on the market and Dave moved to the farm in May 1995. In late June, I moved to the farm and on July 22 we were married on the front lawn. It was a small wedding with a few family members, a few friends, a neighbor or two and a picnic lunch with a country ham and a sheet cake that said "Congratulations Sandra and Dave". Sandra, my beloved best friend, stuffed Mason jars with thistles, Queen Anne's lace and ditch lilies to sit around the tables. The day was, in a word, perfect! 

Last week, Jude Sherlock and his crew, spray washed then spray painted the old farmhouse. After they spray washed, the poor old house reminded me of the first time Dave and I saw it. Paint was peeling, stripped to the wood and sadness was the crown. On Saturday afternoon, after being painted brilliant white, the Grand Olde Dame looked marvelous! Now, the house absolutely glows in both the morning and afternoon sun and it pleases me so much to have it painted. Everyone who has seen it comments on how beautiful it is now. 

We've come so far...this old house, Dave and I. Lives were formed and changed here, love was tasted and tested and proved worthy; our lives were filled with grace and peace and joy and, to be truthful, some arguing and disagreements. That's a good thing though because it means we were listening and talking with and to each other, always growing toward each other and not away. It was a good great life, filled with sweetness and I'm reminded of the verse "taste and see that the Lord is good". 

Blessings ~ Aunt Melindy ~ Thistle Cove Farm ~ a summer wedding ~ good friends ~ a sweet life ~

Thank You for Serving

"I will not drown in shallow water

Not with your love within my reach

I did not come this far to falter

And will not rest until I'm free

You are the sun, you are the flower

You are the wind across the sea

And I will kneel here at your alter

And pray you'll take my soul to keep

O, precious one, you are the mountain

You are the earth beneath my feet

In you we're one, now and forever

In you I find the love in me

Through your love my eyes are open

Through your love, I'll learn to see

And in your name bread is broken

By your grace I'll rest in peace

I will not drown in shallow water

Not with your love within my reach

I did not come this far to falter

And will not rest until I'm free

Through your love my eyes are open

Through your love, I'll learn to see

And in your name bread is broken

By your grace I'll rest in peace

I will not drown in shallow water

Not with your love within my reach

I did not come this far to falter

And will not rest until I'm free

I will not rest until I'm free

Until I'm free

~ Randy Travis ~

On Decoration Day, decades ago, after church services on Sunday, we'd have dinner on the grounds. All the women would bring their best dishes, we'd drink gallons of sweet ice tea and hot coffee, finish with pies, cakes, cookies. Then, we'd gather the bouquets of field flowers, plastic flowers and some store bought flowers and we'd decorate the graves of those family members who'd served in war. Stories were told, people remembered, tears shed...good times, all, even in the sadness. Today, how many of us remember those service men and women left on foreign fields having given the ultimate sacrifice - their lives?

Now it's called Memorial Day and not many people decorate graves or have dinner on the grounds. We've lost something and our lives are the poorer for it. We all talk about slowing down, how many do? We all talk about simplifying our lives, how many do? We all talk about eating together, how many of us do? 

So very much, I miss talking with Dave. We'd sit and talk for hours or we'd sit and enjoy the silence for hours. We lived slow lives, quite lives, lives filled with grace and a lot of love. If your life needs more grace, more love, more quiet, more slow...it's well within your reach. Today, promise yourself and your family the gift of time...time to slow down, to eat at the same table, together, every night this week. What is more important than your family and your family time together? Today, on Memorial Day, make a promise to make memories together. They don't have to be monumentous memories; they can be as simple as greeting the day together with a hot cup of coffee or taking a quiet walk. Those simple memories will stand you in good stead when the cold winds blow and, trust me, you should be preparing now because those winds are gathering now.

Blessings ~ service men and women ~ Randy Travis ~ Decoration Day ~ Dave ~ Memorial Day ~ dinner on the grounds ~ 

Sabbath Keeping

"One who has no sense, 

shakes hands in pledge 

and puts up security for a neighbor." 

~ Proverbs 17:18 ~

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be." ~ Polonius, Act 1, Scene 3 Hamlet ~ 
"Good times are when people make debts to pay in bad times." 
~ Robert Quinlin ~
"It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times." ~ Rutherford B. Hayes ~
"The man who never has enough money to pay his debts has too much of something else." ~ James Lendall Basford ~
"He who promises, runs in debt." ~ Talmud ~

"Debts are like children. 

The smaller they are, 

the more noise they make." 

~ Spanish Proverb ~

"There are four things every person has more of than they know: sins, debt, years and foes."  ~ Persian Proverb ~
"Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need most." 
~ American Proverb ~
"The only man who sticks closer to you than a friend in adversity is a creditor." ~ unknown ~
"Promises makes debt and debt makes promises." ~ Dutch Proverb ~
"Interest on debts, grow without rain." ~ Yiddish Proverb ~
"A church debt is the devil's salary." ~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
"Rather go to bed supperless, than rise in debt." ~ Benjamin Franklin ~ 
"Never spend your money before you have it." ~ Thomas Jefferson ~
"Creditors have better memories than debtors." ~ Benjamin Franklin ~ 
"No man's credit is as good as his money." ~ E. W. Howe ~
"A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove you don't need it."
~ Bob Hope ~
"Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work." ~ Robert Orben ~
"Money often costs too much." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ 
"If you lend someone money and never see that person again, it was probably worth it." ~ Sandra Bennett ~
"To many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like."  ~ Will Smith ~
"If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning." 
~ Aristotle Onassis ~ 
"Money isn't the most important thing in life, but it's reasonably close to oxygen on the "gotta have it" scale. ~ Zig Ziglar ~ 
"Money is like a sixth sense, and you can't make use of the other five without it." ~ William Somerset Maugham ~

"For the love of money is the root of all evil." 

~ 1 Timothy 6:10 ~

If you'd like a name added to the prayer list, please let me know. Names will be kept for one week, then we begin anew.

Prayer Keeping ~ Maxine ~ Stephanie ~ Debbie ~ Deborah ~ Quesenberry family ~ Timi and family ~ Kim ~ Sandra ~ Grills family ~ Jim ~ Beth ~ persecuted Christians ~ 

Letter to a Little Girl

Dear Pie:

*Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship. ...

*Things not to worry about:

Don't worry about popular opinion
Don't worry about dolls
Don't worry about the past
Don't worry about the future
Don't worry about growing up
Don't worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don't worry about triumph
Don't worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don't worry about mosquitoes
Don't worry about flies
Don't worry about insects in general
Don't worry about parents
Don't worry about boys
Don't worry about disappointments
Don't worry about pleasures
Don't worry about satisfactions

*Things to think about:

What am I really aiming at?

     Scott

F. Scott Fitzgerald, a devoted father, doted upon his only child, Frances, aka "Scottie". In 1933, when Frances was 11 years old and away at camp, she received this letter from her father.

Personal note...Please forgive me for not posting more; life has changed seasons and with the coming of more daylight, there's more work to be done both inside and outside. As God brings you to mind, you're tucked into prayer.

Blessings ~ great authors ~ children ~ interesting work ~ prayer ~ nothing to worry about that God cannot handle ~

Sabbath Keeping

"Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well. 

The prince and the judge ask for a bribe, 

and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; 

thus they weave it together." 

~ Micah 7:3 ~

"What we weave in time we will wear in eternity." ~ unknown ~
"We sleep but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning." ~ Henry Ward Beecher ~

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,

When first we practice to deceive."

~ Sir Walter Scott ~ 

"Marriage is an authentic weaving together of families, of two souls with their individual fates and destinies - of time and eternity - everyday life married to the timeless mysteries of the soul." ~ Thomas More ~ 
"Each person has his own safe place - running, painting, swimming, fishing, weaving. The activity itself is less important than the act of drawing on your own resources." ~ Barbara Gordon ~ 
"Do you not know that there comes a midnight hour when every one has to throw off his mask? Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked.? Do you think you can slip away a little before midnight in order to avoid this? Or are you not terrified by it? I have seen men in real life who so long deceived others that at last their true nature could not reveal itself...In every many there is something which to a certain degree prevents him from becoming perfectly transparent to himself, and this may be the case in so high a degree he may be so inexplicably woven into relationships of life which extend far beyond himself that he almost cannot reveal himself. But he who cannot reveal himself cannot love, and he who cannot love is the most unhappy man of all." ~ Soren Kierkegaard ~

"My life is but a weaving

Between my Lord and me;

I cannot choose the colors

He worketh steadily.

Oftimes He weaveth sorrow

And I, in foolish pride,

Forgets He sees the upper

And I, the underside.

Not til the loom is silent

And the shuttles cease to fly,

Shall God unroll the canvas

And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful

In the weaver's skillful hand,

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned."

~ Benjamin Malachi Franklin ~

"He who is false to the present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and you will see the effects when the weaving of a lifetime is unraveled." 
~ William Ellery Channing ~ 

"You are therefore no longer mere foreigners or persons 

excluded from civil rights. 

On the contrary you share citizenship with God's people 

and are members of His family. You are a building which has been 

reared on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, 

the cornerstone being Christ Jesus Himself, 

in union with whom the whole fabric, 

fitted and closely joined together, 

is growing so as to form a holy sanctuary in the Lord; 

in whom you also are being built up together to become 

a fixed abode for God through the Spirit." 

~ Ephesians 19-22 ~

If you'd like a name added to the prayer list, please let me know and give me your e-address. Names will be kept for one week, then begins anew. Around the world, people are praying.

Praying Keeping ~ Maxine ~ Debbie ~ Jim ~ Deborah ~ Stephanie ~ Sandra ~ 
Carolyn ~ Quesenberry family ~ Kim ~ Timi and family ~ persecuted Christians ~ 

Thistle Cove Cottage

Thistle Cove Cottage is ready for rental! 

Located in beautiful Cherry Grove, North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Please visit here and here for photos and information and please

forward this e-mail to your friends and family interested

in a beautiful beach vacation.

If you have questions, please e-mail me at

thistlecovecottage at  gmail dot com

Best wishes,

Sandra 

Blessings ~ Cherry Grove ~ vacation ~ condo ~ 

Faithful Attention

Dearest Mags,

So often, when reading something you've written, something grabs and shakes me. So it is with your phrase, "faithful attention". You're right; life isn't fair but it hasn't been fair since Father Adam and Mother Eve made their first, great mistake. Every time I see a beer bellied sloppy man schlepping around, don't you know I think, "Why God? Why Dave and not that man? It's just not fair" is the cry of my heart. And yet, I do know part of the answer. God has used Dave's death to use me to tell people about Jesus. There have been so many opportunities taken to tell people how Dave made his peace with God mere days before Dave died. Has God used Dave's story to lead someone else Home? I don't know but I do know one plants, one waters and God receives the harvest.

Mags, obedience is better than sacrifice...obey. You and I know what to do: we're to be about our Father's business until He calls us Home or sends His Son to retrieve us. Mags darlin', please don't spend too much time on the questions when you've already got the answers. The answers to what's important...eternity and our places there. Tell your sons, family, friends, neighbors, strangers in the journey about Jesus. Be a candle, albeit flickering at times, in the darkness. As long as there is Light, the darkness will be overcome and you and I have overcome because He overcame.

Pay faithful attention to what's important. Turn off the noise so you can hear His whisper because, beyond the shadow of a doubt, we will be thrown into the fiery furnace. How can we survive if we've not prepared? We are old souls, Mags, who occupy bodies for too short a while and then, eternity! God is watching, helping when we ask, loving us toward Home; God is watching us, Mags; let's not disappoint.

Blessings ~ struggles that make us stronger ~ death because then there is LIFE ~ eventually...HOME ~ Mags ~ 

Sabbath Keeping

"Honor your father and your mother 

so that you may live long in the land the Lord has given you."

~ Exodus 20:12 ~

"Favorite children are often the cause of much sin in believers; the Lord is grieved when he sees us doting on them beyond measure; they will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to David, or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If Christians desire to grow thorns with which to stuff their sleepless pillows, let them dote on their children." ~ C. H. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning ~ 
Our mothers always remain the craziest, strangest people we've ever met."
~ Marguerite Duras ~

"All that I am or ever hope to be,

 I  owe to my angel mother."

 ~ Abraham Lincoln ~

"If you want to be treated like a mother, act like one." ~ Jeannette Walls ~

"Mothers are only human. 

You turn it over to God and then you just wing it."

~ Jo-Ann Mapson ~

"Mothers possess a power beyond that of a king on a throne." ~ Mabel Hale ~
"The phrase "working mother" is redundant." ~ Jane Sellman ~ 
"The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at which you will always find forgiveness."
~ Honore de Balzac ~

"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. 

They have clung to me all my life." 

~ Abraham Lincoln ~ 

"The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom." ~ H. W. Beecher ~ 

"Motherhood has a very humanizing effect.

It reduces everything to essentials. 

~ Meryl Streep ~

"An ounce of  mother is worth a pound of clergy." ~ proverb ~
"A mother's arms are more comforting than anyone else's." ~ Diana, Princess of Wales ~ 

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

 Honor your father and mother 

(this is the first commandment with a promise) 

that it will go well with you and that you may live long in the land." 

~ Ephesians 6: 1-3 ~ 

If you'd like a name added to the prayer list, please let me know. Names will be kept one week, then begin anew. Around the world, people are praying.

Prayer Keeping ~ Maxine ~ Deborah ~ Kim ~ Jim ~ Quesenberry family ~ Townsend family ~ Timi and family ~ persecuted Christians ~

So Far, So Good!

Someone sent me an e-mail with this photo; don't you just love it!? I'd love to give credit so if anyone knows, please tell.

Blessings ~ friends ~ family ~ companion animals ~ good preaching ~ life ~ laughter ~ fun ~

To One of the Rare Ones...

Dave, second from left, sitting with Bedouins and Tuareg of the Sahara, aka Blue Men, in their tent, in the Moroccan Sahara Desert, about 9 clicks from the Algerian border.

HAPPY BIRTH DAY, Beloved! 

click - At Last

"Thou art my life--I the brook, thou the spring.

Because thine eyes are open, I can see;

Because thou art thyself, 'tis therefore I am me."

~ George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul ~

Blessings ~ 22 years of friendship and love, including 16 years of marriage ~

An Unholy Alliance

Yeah, how's that sequester going for us, fellow Americans?

White House tours have been stopped, saving $72,000 a week or $288000 a month or $3,456,000 a year.

While Biden spends $1,000,000 seeing the sites in gay Paree and London and, as of March, had been on three vacations in 2013. In case your math skills are lax, that's one vacation per month! Earlier this year, the Obama's spent more than $20 million on their Hawaiian vacations. What about you? How are your vacation plans shaping up? Are you even going on vacation this year? Oh, you don't have the money; well, that's because the White House clowns are spending it while telling us to tighten our belt.  

Thanks to the Pres and Dems, there's no Sequester at Planned Parenthood (PP). Yes, I do know the Reps have their own share of ills but, as national policy, they are against killing the unborn.

The Pres, Dems and PP are making sure babies are still being killed though...no sequester for the unborn. For the year 2011-2012, PP had $1.2 BILLION in assets and received $542 MILLION in Tax Slave Dollars. I resent my Tax Slave Dollars going to kill babies. People were up in arms over baby killing in Viet Nam but now it seems to be just fine. My, how times and leaders have changed.

Last month, the Pres, speaking to PP at their annual gala, trashed me and my beliefs when he accused pro-lifer's of wanting to "...turn back the clock to policies more suited to the 1950's than the 21st Century." It's difficult to talk about something you've only read about and the Pres doesn't know the 1950's were a pretty safe time for the unborn. So, yeah, in that respect, the clock needs to be turned back. Contrary to what the Pres said, it's not about "women's health care" at PP, it's about abortions and the $$$$ killing the unborn makes for PP. Just because the Pres is in favor of killing American babies in the womb, does not make it all right, either with me or before God.

My question Mr. Pres, is how can you defend PP's practices of Dr. (and I use the term most loosely) Kermit Gosnell? Is it because the unborn being killed are infidels in your eyes? Reader, don't you know Gosnell? He's been on trial since mid-March for murdering babies he aborted. Huh? Yes, that's right...he'd abort a baby and if it wasn't dead, he'd kill it outside the womb. Dr. Mengele would be proud, PROUD, to call Gosnell friend and would applaud his practices of aborting babies and then killing them outside the womb. Gosnell is on trial in Philadelphia now but I think a war tribunal might be more appropriate, followed by an old fashioned firing squad.

What?! You don't know about Gosnell and his killing of the unborn AND the born? Yeah, but you sure knew about Michael Vick and his dog fighting escapade didn't you? And by extension, does that mean dogs are more important than babies?

The Susan B. Anthony List, Advancing Pro-Life Leadership, has set forth The Top 12 Reasons to Defund Planned Parenthood now.

1.  The Pres and Dems are willing to shut down the federal government in order to keep dollars flowing to PP. PP is one of the largest and strongest supporters of the Pres with both $$$ and volunteers.
2.  PP is independently wealthy; over the last nine years, taking in more than $500 MILLION in PROFITS. PP has almost $1 BILLION in ASSETS.
3.  PP is this country's largest abortion provider, since 1970, providing 5.3 abortions, at least.
4.  PP's business model is based on abortions. A former director, Abby Johnson, now a Pro-Life Advocate, said she was given an "abortion quota"!
5.  Copied directly from the Susan B. Anthony site, "More taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood equals more abortions, fewer adoption referrals. Claims that taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood results in fewer abortions are false. From 2000 to 2009, Planned Parenthood saw an 80 percent increase in taxpayer funding, receiving $202 million in 2000 and $363 million in 2009. In 2000, Planned Parenthood performed 197,070 abortions while making 2,486 adoption referrals. In 2009, they performed 332,278 abortions and made just 977 adoption referrals. That means an 80 percent decrease in the number of adoption referrals."
6.  PP is not safe for girls and young women. Lila Rose's Live Action recently released undercover videos showing PP employees in several states willing to aid and abet in human sex trafficking of girls as young as 14!
7.  PP is fighting an Illinois that requires staff and volunteers to report suspected sexual abuse of minors. PP also fights parental notification laws, all the way to the Supreme Court, that would inform a parent if their underage daughter is seeking an abortion.
8.  There are 1,048 federally qualified health centers providing cancer screening, contraception and STI testing according to the Chiaroscuro Foundation. That's not counting the tens of thousands of doctors and hospitals providing care.
9.  PP does not provide mammograms and is not a significant primary care provider to women.
10. 60 to 70% of Americans oppose tax dollars funding abortion.
11. Margaret Sanger, PP's founder, believed, quite strongly, in eugenics. Sanger said, "In this matter, the example of the inferior classes, the fertility of the feeble-minded, the mentally defective, the poverty-stricken classes, should not be held up for emulation..." Referring to immigrants and Catholics, she wrote: "[They're] an unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all." "The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." PP carries on Sanger's proud tradition today when they said in a filed tax return, they are committed to "a U.S. population of stable size in an optimum environment."

Which means WHAT, exactly?

12. Tax Slave Dollars are subsidizing PP television commercials, radio ads and written propaganda to protect its Tax Slave Dollar funding.

PP donates enormous sums of money to elect and re-elect a vast majority of Dems to office thus ensuring that tight little circle continues. PP gets Dems elected, Dems see that PP receives $542 million in Tax Slave Dollars. Yes, it does bear repeating!

Another thing...Abby Johnson, Pro-Life Advocate, says she's not flying United and asks those who do fly to do same. She wrote on her blog about Jeff Smisek, CEO of United Airline and Co-Chair of PP's Annual Gala held last month. Yeah, the same Annual Gala where the Pres delivered the keynote address denouncing those of us against abortion. More than a million abortions are performed in the USA each and every year! Almost 32,000 people were killed by accidental discharge, suicide, murder or undetermined intent.

The numbers say Abortionists are killing 1,000,000 plus babies while people wielding guns are killing 32,000. Think on that for a while...

The bad news is, more than thirty years ago, I was counseled to have an abortion and I did. It's one of the worst decisions of my life and one I regret constantly. The good news is, God forgave me that terrible decision because I asked His forgiveness. If you're contemplating an abortion, I urge you to speak to someone other than "planned parenthood". A decision to have an abortion will follow you the rest of your life and can have dire consequences regarding future pregnancies. Please, do not trust people who give only one view; get a second, even third, opinion. Yes, it's that serious! If you don't know where or how to find help, contact me and I'll find someone to help you. God cannot bless us if we're living outside His will and I'd rather have God's blessing than PP's "help".

Blessings ~ Abby Johnson ~ Pro-Life folks ~ Lila Rose ~ Susan B. Anthony List ~ 

Sabbath Keeping

"If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out,

how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country,

how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?"

~ Jeremiah 12:5 ~

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." ~ Mark Twain ~

"All it takes

is all you've got."

~ Marc Davis ~

"I had as many doubts as anyone else. Standing on the starting line, we're all cowards."
~ Alberto Salazar ~

"Run when you can, 

walk if you have to,

crawl if you must; 

just never give up."

~ Dean Karnazes ~

"Listen to your body. Do not be a blind and deaf tenant." ~ Dr. George Sheehan ~
"I don't have to run faster than the bear. I just have to run faster than you." ~ Dave Bricker while on an Alaskan bear watching trip ~

"I feel His pleasure when I run."

~ Eric Liddell, 1924 Olympic Gold runner and winner, 

 Chinese Missionary who 

died in the Weihsien Interment Camp ~ 

"Having a truth faith is the most difficult thing in the world. Many will try and take it from you."
~ Steve Prefontaine ~

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,

let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles

And let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us."

~ Hebrews 12:1 ~

If you have a name for the prayer list, please let me know. Names will be kept for one week, then we start anew. Around the world, people are praying.

Prayer Keeping ~ Maxine ~ Debbie ~ Kim ~ Townsend family ~ Tim and family ~ Quesenberry family ~ Weaver family ~ George and Kim ~ Boy Scouts and Gov. Rick Perry ~ persecuted Christians ~ Pastor Saeed Abedini ~

National Day of Prayer

"Heavenly Father, 

we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and

to seek your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good,"

but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost spiritual equilibrium

and reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor

and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness

and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn

and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists

and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children

and called it building self esteem.

We have abused power

and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions

and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography

and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers

and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today;

cleanse us from sin and set us free.

Amen."

~ Billy Graham ~

Blessings ~ National Day of Prayer ~ Billy Graham ~ God's saints ~ a country where prayer and freedom of religion are still allowed ~