FLOWERS FOR THE PRINCESS

Seems someone dared me so here it is! I know I won't get flowers for the Princess so I am giving myself some before I start.

This story began years ago! So far back that I doubt if the details that some seem to remember as facts - are accurate. But nevertheless it makes a good story. As to some of the characters in the story, well let's just say - they may be a little younger than I am but I doubt their minds being any sharper. Be sure to read the moral to the story at the end.

The story goes like this: (Maybe)

Once upon a time there was a Princess who's name was Arielle. She was the oldest daughter of the lovely Queen Marianna. In line, also, were Anna and Maria who were quite a bit younger than Princess Arielle. Only they had not earned their title yet. There is a lot that goes into being a princess. You must be in training for awhile and learn how to perform certain duties. Princess Arielle listened to the Queen and read books on how to perform house hold duties. A series of books she read were the Miss Piggy Wiggy series. (She is too old now to remember the author.)Now Miss Piggy Wiggy would show you how to make a bed and praise you if it was done right. When you finished- she would inspect it to see if you had any wrinkles in it. No wrinkles in the sheets! No siree! It had to be wrinkle free. So, as the story goes, Princess Arielle practiced and practiced until she could do it perfectly. But -there seem to be a problem! Anna and Maria must have an afternoon nap! That was an order from the Queen. You see, the Queen needed a rest for an hour or so from the two little brats. At their age they could keep a person busy. So naptime came and went, but Princess Arielle's work was not over. She had to go and re-make the beds. Yep! Wrinkle free!

The ones that lived in the Palace would have told you that those two were not little angels. They loved to cut out paper dolls - probably from Sears and Roebucks Catolog. Can you imagine the mess? Princess Arielle had a job picking up behind them. But she did it faithfully day in and day out. Not a word of complaint for she loved the two little brats.

Our Queen Mother was not an ordinary Queen. She like to do the cooking for the family. Not only did she have three lovely daughters but she also had three charming Princes. One had already found his Princess and moved on. The other two required a lot of attention, also. Now, Queen Mother took a lot of pride in her children and wanted them to look their best at all times. This required some help from Princess Arielle who was still in training but advancing right along.

Several years passed and Anna and Maria were getting older. They watched Princess Arielle make beds, sweep and mop and iron their clothes. The many duties a princess must learn to get her prince charming! That was way back when Miss Piggy Wiggy taught you how to hang clothes on the clothes line outside. All the wash cloths went together, all the towels went together, all the under wear according to size, and then the boys jeans were put on wire pants stretchers so they would not have to be ironed. All the dress clothes were starched with homemade starch and hung to dry. Princess Arielle always liked to hang clothes and iron. The dress clothes were brought in and sprinkled to be ironed. The next day she would take them to the palace porch and iron for the whole family while Anna and Maria would play. They had no conception of what was being done for them.

Well, the time finally came! Princess Arielle had finished her training. She was now qualified to run a household by herself. But that would be a few years yet! In the meantime - it was time to train Anna and Maria to be princess. But how? It semed Princess Arielle came up with an idea! She would play a game with them and make work seem like fun. She would sit on the throne and give orders and they were to obey the princess. They were to do a thorough job and see which one could out do the other one. She taught them how to sweep the palace porch, even in the corners and how to pick up anything that was out of place. (The princess is so old now that she can't remember what all she taught them and she wondered for a long time if they had learn anything.) Something happened before she got to the end of their training. They caught on that they were doing all the work while she just sat on the throne. The idea of playing Princess was a great idea, anyway. Wasn't that how they learned a lot? They may not admit it or may never have realized what they really learned as servants to the Princess.

Princess Arielle moved on with her life and found her Prince Charming. But it took Princess Anna and Maria awhile to get on with their life. They had to go out and look for their Prince Charmings. I sometimes wonder if these Prince Brothers just felt sorry for the Princess Sisters and married them to have someone for their slave. To clean house, wash and iron clothes and whatever duties come with being married to a Prince? Only they know! But they all ended up having a good life so all the hard work that the Princess Arielle did was not in vain.

The moral to this story is: If you have lazy little sisters -just play a game of "PRINCESS" with them. Just be careful not to get caught! If you do get caught you will never hear the end of the story. <

I thought I would share another old dish with you today. It is two plate's that my husband's grand father gave us shortly after we married. He told us we would not have to fight over a plate now. He also gave us two forks. The plate has always been interesting to me. It has detailed work with raised work on the lip of the plate and the bird sitting on a window sill. I always think of a song that I have no idea where it came from. All the words I remember from somewhere in the recess of my mind is:

There's a blue bird on my window sill, there's a rainbow in the sky. There's a blue bird on my window sill, I'm not ashame to tell you why.

I've often wondered if Grandpa thought we didn't have dishes or if we fought over a certain one. Maybe neither - but I have been ever grateful that he gave them to us personally. We never used them to eat on. I had this one on the wall in a plate holder for years. Now it is in the pie safe. We have several other things that were passed down after he passed away but they don't have the same meaning. Maybe I'm just too sentimental for my own good!

FLOWERS

Beauty from an old dirty bulb from Ozark Country Parson. Silas loves to plant things and watch them grow. We are anxiously waiting for the next blossum. Do different irises have names like roses do? If so, can anyone tell me the names of these two?

THIS ONE WAS GORGEOUS. SO FAR IT HAS HAD THREE BLOOMS. JUST WISH IT WOULD LAST LONGER.

MORE OATMEAL

These dishes came in oatmeal in the 50's. We used them to serve punch at our wedding and I have kept them all these years. So they have Precious memories. Strange how a oatmeal dish can mean so much but the older you get the more memories you had. I had forgotten about them until I started taking pictures of some of my older dishes. Does anyone remember them?

OATMEAL, ANYONE?

QUOTES

I thought I would put down a few quotes that I have written in my Bible. Not sure where they orginally came from. Listed are ten of them. 1. GRACE - Giving to us that which we don't deserve. (Salvation) 2. MERCY - Withholding from us that which we deserve. (Hell) 3. Tithe is the debt I owe. Offering is the seed I sow. 4. As our Substitution, Jesus died FOR us. As our Representative, Jesus died AS us. 5. FAITH Forsaking All I Take Him 6. Faith makes nothing easy, but possible. 7. Christ is our Lawyer God is our Judge 8. Love is the Crowning Grace in Heaven Faith is the Conquering Grace upon earth. 9. Christians oftimes murder Love to protect what they blindly call Truth. What is Truth without Love? A dead thing, An encumbrance, the letter that killeth! .

A WANDERING MIND

Maybe I am a little antique as some of my grand children say. I saw in a magazine where tomato plants could be planted upside down. So as my husband and I were planting them in two planters upside down - our grandson, John, walked over. He ask "Nanny what are you doing? Don't you know those plants are going to reach for the sun?" Then teasingly he said, "Nanny, that's crazy." Maybe it is nuts but when you get to be an antique I think you should have the privilege to do crazy things! That's the fun part of being older. If things turn out a mess you can always plea insanity. Right? Sure enough, the tomato plants are reaching upward toward the sun, but we will wait and see! My mind wandered back when I was a child. I remember going outside to play by myself. My two sisters were too young. And the stinking boys were doing boy things. I just went out under some pine trees that Louisiana is so noted for. I gathered up pine straw and starting building a playhouse. I partition off rooms with little rows of straw, making sure to leave spaces for open doors to go into. When that was done I looked for some old logs or pieces of wood and made my table and chairs. What else did I need? Oh yes, dishes! I did not have a tea set but that was the least of my worries. Pieces of old broken plates or whatever I could find that resembled dishes was fine. So I made my tea set and set the table. I needed to dress up for my tea party so I ran inside and got whatever I could find before Mama caught me. Not much, just something to throw over my shoulders for a shawl and I put my shoes on. I decided I wanted high heels, so I found two old cans and pushed my shoe heels down into the cans until the sides of the cans pressed in toward my shoe. When they took hold I had my high heels. (I wander how many other girls did that back then? Would be interesting to know!) I played for hours out under the pine trees. What fun! I remember walking the railroad track for probably a mile. I went to town one day with an Aunt. She was fun to be with. I told her it would be a shorter distance to town if we followed the tracks. No train was due so she agreed. Then we decided to see who could walk the tracks the longest without falling off. I don't remember who won, but she sure could walk those tracks. I went to Hammond with her on the town bus. I don't remember having been on the bus before. When we got to Hammond she told me to pull a small rope that was hung above our heads. I did and about that time a noise went off and the driver looked at me. I starting saying, "She told me to, she told me to." Then my Aunt started laughing. She looked at me and told me that rope was to signal the driver when a person wanted to get off. That was news to me! I remember flour came in big cloth covered bags. They had different prints so they could be used for something in the home. Mama sure made use of them. She made me flour sack dresses! Even after I started to school! The cloth was pure cotton and if Mama didn't have enough material she would tell Daddy to get the same print next time so she would have plenty material. When the dresses were made up they sure didn't look like flour sacks. I guess I wore them with pride because I don't remember being embarrassed. At our class re-union a couple weeks ago we were talking about our younger days. One of my class mates said' "Does anyone remember the flour sacks?" Right away I knew what she was talking about. She also had worn flour sack dresses and bonnets. I'm quite sure we were not the only two. I wander if printed flour sacks came back how many Mothers would know what to do with them! Most Mothers don't know how to sew, much less make flour sack dresses. I was surprised at how many of my class mates did not know how to sew. Between Mama and majoring in Home Economics I'm glad I know how. Guess being poor had it's advantages. I say we were poor but we really were not. One of the classmates had some pictures of our early years. He and I had the same 1st grade teacher. His wife worked for the school and as they were throwing out some old files and pictures she got the ones that we all were in. He had our 1st grade class picture. As we were meeting to plan the re-union he made the remark that he had the picture and most were so poor they did not have shoes to wear. I told him I was in that picture. He said he would look for me. That night he called and said "Aliene, you are in the picture on the front row and guess what, you were one of the kids that had shoes on." (I just suspect some of them took their shoes off to play.) We played Jacks, pop the whip, jump rope, later doubled jump rope. I could jump double rope good but the catch was-we had to name a movie star before we cold go. I didn't know many movie stars but I soon learned.

THE POTTER

  I thought for the day that I would add a poem I wrote almost 15 years ago. (I had this on my blog when I first started but I did not have any followers.) I was going through a very difficult time then. I find comfort in reading God's Word. It has been my consolation since I was a child. I have penned writings and poems on paper for years thinking they were just for me. I've read over them many times and found encouragement. I always keep my concordance near by and a dictionary. Sometimes I am amazed at what a word really means.The Scripture for that particular day was:  

Philippians 3:10 "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." 

  To be made conformable is to be made in His image. Right then  this poem

 popped into my head and I put it down on paper.  So I am posting it again.

 

THE POTTER

Lord, you are the Potter I am the clay,

Put me on the Potter's wheel and mold me I pray.

Molding is a life time of forming day by day. 

Sometimes it means heartaches For that little lump of clay. 

Sometimes it means sorrow, Sometimes a lot of pain.

Sometimes the skies are bright Sometimes there is rain.

Lord, help me to remember You are at the wheel,

Trying to confrom me to your blessed will.

Remind me often, Lord that You suffered heartaches too

So much - I can't imagine just what you went through.

So mold me and help me not to murmur nor complain 

To adversities that come that bring a lot of pain. 

Mold me, Lord,and shape me in Thine own sweet way 

So I can be of service and used of you each day.

 I find at this time in my life that the Lord  is still molding me.  One day I will be in His image completely and oh~ what a day that will be.  No more heartaches, no more pain, no more sorrow.  Until then I try to remember that what He does is His business.  At times I have no idea what He is doing but I know that it will be for my good.  If He can get the glory ~ that is all I want.

 

NEIGHBORLY LOVE

What ever happened to the good old days when neighbors were truly neighbors? Really! Where did they go? Where are the days when a neighbor would just drop by for a cup of coffee and the fellowship that went with it? Today we can live by someone and about all we know is their name. No so in the good old days. I'm not what my grand children call antique yet. I do remember - yes - I remember and that is why, as my husband and I were in Ponchatoula a little over a week ago, we passed by what use to be The Lutheran Church. As we went by I snapped a picture of it. The church was on the corner about one block where I attended school for 12 years. Behind the church then was the parsonage. It is no longer there. Across the street from the parsonage, that is no longer there, was the place where our family lived. That house is gone, also. Nothing familiar but the Old Lutheran Church! I don't know how old I was, if I was in school or not, but memories came flooding back. Especially memories in the parsonage. It was far more than just a parsonage, a place where the the Reverend and his family lived. It seemed to me to be a special place. I guess first in my memory was a little girl that lived there whose name was Irene. You see, Irene and I were play-mates. She was the youngest of the family, probably a year or so older than I. She had older siblings but only one brother at home. Most of our play time was at her house. While her mother cooked and cleaned we would play real quietly in Irene's room. Sometimes we would go to the church through the back door into a storage room and play. We were always quiet as a mouse because we didn't want anyone to know we were in there. Especially her Dad! We found the communion cups and one day we had a tea party. Another day, in our imagination, we had a church full of people and served communion. We did not pass out the cups but just pretended to do so. What we used for the Bread I have no idea. But I'm sure we thought of something! I just know we were having fun. We never took the communion tray out, just the cups. When we were through we put the cups back and would sneak out the back door. Irene's Mother had lunch ready and she would invite me to stay. I felt special! We would all sit at the table ready to eat when Reverend Boriack would open the Bible and read, then he would pray what seem to be a long prayer. I'm sure it was not as long as I then thought. After prayer we ate lunch and was ready to play agian. But wait! The Reverend was reading from the Bible and then prayed again. That was at every meal. The Reverend was a German, if I remember corectly, very serious, very disciplined, and so smart. I found out very early in our friendship - If I wanted to eat with Irene that I would first hear the Word and Prayer before and after each meal. But I really did not mind. Let me say a little about Irene's Mother. She was a very sweet,affectionate person. I remember she would always tell me to come anytime "you sweet little thing", give me a hug and see me back across the street. I had many visits there and enjoyed them all. My Mother talks about Mother Boriack and what a good neighbor she was. We were not Lutheran but that did not matter. What are neighbors for? Let me tell you Mother Boriack's version! I had five siblings, so with Mother and Daddy that made eight of us. Mother was sick one time. I don't remember this - but as Mother told it she was not able to do anything. With six children, none of us old enough to do a whole lot- that meant things piled up. But we had a neighbor, Mother Boriack, who brought food over and got all the dirty laundry. She brought it home with her and did that dirty laundry. Laundry in those days was not a simple matter. She might have had a roller type washer. I don't remember. I'm sure she had no dryer. So that meant washing, rinsing, hanging on a clothes line outside and bringing them in when the sun had dried all the clothes. Not only that, but in those days starch for the clothes was made by hand. Then the dress clothes were dipped in the starch, rung out, hung out to dry and when they were stiff as a board they were brought in and sprinkled, rolled up real tight and left awhile. Later they were ironed and put on hangers if any were available. Oh yes, the sprinkler was made from a RC bottle with a cork sprinkler stuck in the top. (In case you don't know what RC is - it is abbreviation for Royal Crown Cola.) When those clothes were returned home they were washed, folded and ironed. Mother Boriak had even ironed the bedclothes. I'm sure she must have worked hours on that batch of laundry. I would call what she did a labor of love, wouldn't you? What neighbor would do that in this day and time? With all the modern conveniences that we have today - electric washer and dryer, spray starch (should some one need to iron), time saving gadgets and so much more - shouldn't we have more time? Which means we should have more time to be a good neighbor. Again, I ask- what ever happened to neighborly love? Can anyone tell me? It was once found in a Lutheran parsonage. Can you help me find it? That was the good old days. Do you think it will ever be revived in the day we live? Probably not, but I do have those precious memories of what a good neighbor was in the good old days.

SUNDAY SCHOOL GIRLS

This morning, like every Sunday, my husband and I left for church. I try to get there early to greet about 15 third grade girls. Silas (Hubby) makes sure I get there on time. If he can't be early he is not going. This is everywhere we go. I told him should He dies before me I was going to start his home-going early. Back to my girls! We have a bus ministry at church. About six buses going in all directions in Livingingston Parish. (For most of you a Parish would be called a County.) The drivers get up early and start out. They get the children there on time and then run to other duties they might have. I look forward to greeting my girls. Some of them come and give me a big hug but these are mostly our regular church girls. The rest are put on the bus with no parents with them. So I try to greet them with a big hug! My heart bleeds when I see some of them. A couple come in dirty pajamas, unkempt hair and look so lost. I know we were taught you do not bring food to church and eat there. Well, these happen to be hungry children and grab cookis and drinks like they were starved. We are not in the Sanctuary and these kids need love. So several teachers even bring sandwiches for the hungry kids. Why? I will tell you. They need love and they need someone who cares. The bus drivers go into almost ghettos to get these kids and I want to be as faithful as they are to not only feed their physical bodies but to fed them spiritually. I pray for these girls that God will somehow help them to find Jesus as their personal Savior. And I want to stand at the judgment and say I did my best. We have over 125 children at church the same way. What a responsibility. Help me pray for these kids physically and spiritually. You may have a part at the judgment because they got saved because you prayed for them. Prayer does not go un-notice by God.

A SPECIAL NEICE

I want to first say thanks to my neice, Karla Cook, who took time out of her busy schedule to help me set up this blog. I have learned it is the busiest people who do the most for others. I have learned, also, as I have grown older that things that we think are so important are not really that important. Somehow we get our priorities out of order. Why do we think we have to have such a clean house anyway? Guess what? I have learned that no one will probably see it. Usually when it is at it's worse is when someone wants to stop by. (That surely isn't very often anymore.) But I came upon a secret. I park my vacuum in the living room when the carpet needs to be done. That way- should someone come by they will get the idea that I was fixing to vacuum. Pharisee!! Yep! But it works! Well, I am sure Karla didn't have her vacuum in the living room to fool someone, but I am positive she had a lot of boxes to unpack. And her husband and girls to attend to and she could probably add to the list like home schooling, re-decorating, etc. But she let all of this go to help out a blog dummie. Thanks Karla! I hope I can return the favor one day.

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