The Scoop on Granny

Name:
Granny

Location:
Leaning
on the everlasting Arms...


Who is Granny?

I'm the incredibly blessed mother of 9, "Granny" to 13, and wife of "The Papa," the knight-in-shining-armor whose loving support has made it possible for me to stay home and give my life to mothering, homemaking, and 24 years of homeschooling. Life at Granny's House is full of laughter, friendship, books, music, lively debate, writing, and good things to eat. My days are made even more meaningful by coming alongside other moms, giving them the support and encouragement that I lacked as a young mother and helping them to network with each other in ways that strengthen homes and families. A few times a year I board a plane to visit my "away" kids, to attend the birth of a grandchild, or to enjoy some lazy days with my best friend, but I always love coming back to...Granny's House.

My Complete Profile

On Granny's Calendar
  • July 9 -- Molly is 11!
  • July 16 -- Carrie is 5!
  • July 17 -- Uncle Danny's birthday
  • July 20 -- Granny and The Papa's 36th anniversary
  • July 23 -- Aubrey and Dirk's 15th anniversary



  • Email Granny!


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    Granny Cares
  • Care Calendar
  • Agape Pregnancy Help Center San Antonio
  • World Vision

  • The WeatherPixie

    Around the house...
  • Family Grandstand
  • Better Together, Aubrey
  • Happy to be So, Kristen
  • The Welty House, Annie
  • Less like scars..., CJ
  • One Singular Sensation, Shelley
  • Life's A Symphony (My former residence)


  • Granny Cooks (and Eats)!

  • The Pioneer Woman Cooks
  • Full Bellies, Happy Kids
  • Slashfood
  • A Year in Bread
  • A Year of Crockpotting
  • Hold the Toast


  • Granny's House (and yours!)

  • The Nesting Place
  • Like Merchant Ships
  • The Inspired Room
  • IDEA Hacker


  • The HOPE blogs...
  • The Mantooth Family Story
  • Fehrenbach Fold
  • Longenblog!
  • Sabo Family Dynamics
  • The Greenhouse
  • Our Journey, Prathers
  • Sugar 'n' Spice, Smiths
  • The Cole Family
  • Order Out of Chaos, Dittmeiers

  • Granny gets around...
  • Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
  • Breathing Grace
  • I Take Joy
  • Restoring the Years
  • Notes in the Key of Life
  • Spunky Homeschool
  • Raising Five
  • Amy's Humble Musings


  • Family Friendly Blogroll [−]

    Granny stays informed...
  • Real Clear Politics
  • Fox News
  • Drudge Report

  • Granny Thinks...
  • Al Mohler
  • Between Two Worlds
  • Blog and Mablog
  • First Importance
  • Equipping the Saints
  • Desiring God

  • Granny says you may go to...
  • PowerLine Blog
  • Michelle Malkin
  • SteynOnline
  • WSJ Opinion Journal Best of the Web
  • GetHuman
  • Home School Legal Defense Association

  • Granny goes to the movies...
  • Netflix
  • Rotten Tomatoes
  • ScreenIt.com

  • Granny is watching!
  • Blue Pencil Editing
  • SPOGG
  • Mighty Red Pen
  • Conjugate Visits

  • Granny smiles at...
  • Purgatorio
  • ScrappleFace
  • LarkNews
  • Sacred Sandwich

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    Monday, July 06, 2009
    "One of these things is not like the other..."

    While I do not agree with the author that "we agree that basic health insurance should be universal" if what he means is that I should be forced to pay for yours, I do think there's a lot of sense in what he's saying. If we're going to be forced by Obama and Co. to buy a bill of goods, shouldn't it at least be the bill most likely to provide some tangible benefit AND be sustainable in some basic sense?

    If you've raised children over the past 40 years, you've seen "Sesame Street." For years, "Sesame Street" had a segment featuring this song: "One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong."

    There were always four objects. Three of them were very similar, while the fourth was distinct. Young viewers were challenged to discern which object was different.

    My kids are older now, but as a physician, I have been reminded of "Sesame Street" as Congress undertakes debate over health reform, especially the so-called public option -- a government-funded and managed insurance plan supporters claim will provide choice and competition in health care.

    Public option proponents like to predict that this new optional insurance will work "just like Medicare, but for everyone," a line that sends chills of sheer terror through medical providers.

    Medicare has four parts: Parts A through C and Part D, the fairly recent prescription drug benefit implemented by the Bush administration. Let's put Medicare to the Sesame Street test. A and B are wholly government-funded and operated. C is different, but still government-run. All are effectively single-payer systems.

    In contrast, Part D is federally funded and organized, but administered by private insurance providers. Market competition impacts its costs. Which of these parts is not like the others?


    Read this physician's answer and the implications here:

    'Sesame Street' holds key to health care

    Labels: ,


    has spoken at 12:03 AM
    0 Backtalks to Granny



    Sunday, July 05, 2009
    Sunday snippets...

    After a full week of vigorous (euphemism for "torturous") physical therapy, I am definitely much stronger than I was last week. Thank God for some really good therapists and a location very close to our house.

    Despite my semi-isolation, it's been a fun, loud week at Granny's House. Baking marathons, shopping trips, little-girl sleepovers, late movie nights, water fights in six inches of a splash pool, and the annual swapping of sister clothes and shoes have brought all the smiles we're used to when we're blessed enough to have all the kids and grandkids in the same place for even a few weeks.

    I can't claim to get in Sarah Palin's head and know all the reasons that prompted her to make the decision to resign. What I do know is that as I've watched her since the election, I've often wondered if I'd be willing to stay in a situation that continues to devastate her family. Ironically, the very "ethics" rules she put in place to combat a state full of corrupt politicians became the weapon of choice of her enemies as they have slowly and painfully drained her family of resources, forcing her to defend herself against ridiculous charges. But whatever her explanations, she will continue to be ridiculed and marginalized by the left and by elements of the so-called "big tent" right who are embarrassed by her very existence. At least now she can breathe and take some time to think about whether she wants to continue to subject herself and her family to more of the same in the run-up to 2012...

    Planning an airline trip this summer or fall? Check out this handy comparison of the fees charged by the different carriers for checking bags, changing itinerary, sending unaccompanied minors, etc. The fees can really make a difference! (Click on the chart to enlarge.) The State of the American Airline Industry

    The Papa has been monitoring the attendance and activities at the Tea Parties around the country this weekend. Not that you'd have heard much about it anywhere else, what with all the MJ-All-The-Time coverage and the mainstream media's reluctance to even acknowledge the rising discontent in the country over the economic "fixes" we're enduring. But it is interesting to see how many folks braved heat and rain yesterday to make sure their voices were heard.

    And speaking of weather, San Antonio is experiencing one of the hottest, driest summers on record. The upside is that our economy here is one of the best in the country--not that it's great anywhere right now, but if you're willing to endure three-digit days and brown lawns, you can live in a place with fairly low unemployment, still-booming housing and hotel industries, a state with no income tax and no budget deficit, and a business environment that is attracting employers coming from both coasts. But did I mention it's really hot?

    I'm enjoying a little book called Life's Little Annoyances: True Tales of People Who Just Can't Take It Anymore. There's something therapeutic about hearing other people's strategies for dealing with phone menu loops, rude clerks, junk mail, rejection letters, etc. Amazon has it for a bargain price, so get a copy and make yourself feel a little better :-)

    Last night I dreamed that I went out with the kids in the yard and did cartwheels. Hope your dreams for the summer are just as fun but more realistic ;-) Have a great week!

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    has spoken at 3:54 PM
    6 Backtalks to Granny



    Saturday, July 04, 2009
    Things could be worse....

    And they will be.

    After being asked when the public should begin judging the success of the nearly $800-billion stimulus plan, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs answered, "I think we should begin to judge it now."

    Let's take his advice.

    The administration warned that if we failed to support a stimulus package, unemployment would hit a dire 9 percent by 2010. With the stimulus, unemployment, it claimed, would stay in the 8-percent range.

    This week, the Labor Department announced that the jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, higher than any time since August 1983.

    It's not as if the administration was close. As the New York Times notes, "the difference between the situation that the Obama advisers predicted and the one that has come to pass is about 2.5 million jobs. It's as if every worker in the city of Los Angeles received an unexpected layoff notice."

    Don't get too dejected, though. We still have an economic plan with a heaping dose of hope.

    Surely, you'll feel better when the president begins doling out his two-pronged, faith-based explanation — and if we're lucky, he'll do it at a "town hall" meetings with approximately 100 of his closest friends.

    First, you should always assume things could have been worse.


    If you can stomach the particulars, go on reading:

    Welcome to the "Hope" economy

    Labels:


    has spoken at 12:50 PM
    0 Backtalks to Granny



    Thursday, July 02, 2009
    And we're worried about Iran?

    A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.

    Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

    The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

    Labels:


    has spoken at 10:01 PM
    1 Backtalks to Granny



    Monday, June 29, 2009
    Atlas Shrugged watch...
    BASEL (Reuters) - Financial products should be treated like medicines and sold to consumers only when they are certified safe to prevent a repeat of last year's financial meltdown, the world's central bankers said on Monday.


    First regulate drugs, then food, then cigarettes, then transfats, and now mutual funds. Why should we be surprised??

    Central banks seek rankings for financial products

    Labels:


    has spoken at 12:54 PM
    2 Backtalks to Granny



    Sunday, June 28, 2009
    Sunday snippets...

    Living life almost exclusively from a recliner for a few weeks is a good way to gain perspective on a lot of things. In the past few years I've not been particularly active anyway, so it's not like I came to a dead stop from a full run, but it has enforced a certain amount of inactivity even though I'm technically "ambulatory." I don't enjoy asking folks to wait on me for the simplest things...but I have learned to appreciate aspects of the stillness and the time to think, read, process, and plan. Three more weeks of non weight-bearing and I'll begin to integrate into a more normal life again. In the meantime, I am attempting to squeeze all I can out of this unexpected sequestration...

    Annie, Caleb, Erin, and Judah are on their way! If everything goes according to plan, they will roll in here some time Tuesday night to begin our summer of fun :-)

    I've finally gotten a clear enough head (depending on the hour) to start thinking about rearranging our room so it doesn't once again become, quite literally, my downfall. The traffic patterns and the bedding and other features of the room are not conducive to avoiding falls, so painful as it is, I'm giving up some of the things I love to make sure I can walk, which I love even more. I'm pretty helpless to do much about it myself, so everything right now depends on ordering other people around, also not my favorite thing to do (though several of my kids would dispute this). Moving right now is out of the question, so we have to find ways to make this place work... (And thanks to Lyric for prodding me into making some of these hard decisions!)

    Can I just say right now that if I start trying to pay several of you a couple hundred thousand dollars a month to sit in my room and give me large doses of prescription painkillers, just say no? Hearing about the dangerous cocktails that have killed so many celebrities and recognizing the names of the drugs from the little pharmacy at my side WORRIES ME! I'll be so glad to get back to the place where my pain can be controlled with Motrin!

    Congrats to friends Kelly and Tami on the start of their new business, South Texas Technology Solutions. We've had to rely on Kelly's Solutions many times and are so glad to see that he'll be making a living doing what he truly loves! Go Kelly!

    Yeah, if you want to come and see me this week and you go past a Long John Silver's on your way, I love the crab cakes. My appetite has been the pits since my accident and I'm wracking my brain trying to think of things to eat that sound good. True, my activity level is low and I don't need a lot of food, but getting even a few bites down each day is a challenge.

    Since we won't be
    taking an out-of-town vacation this year as planned, we just bought 24 season passes to Fiesta Texas (Six Flags). The Papa has bought a little splash pool for the kids, and together with the trampoline and the grill, we should make good use of the deck. Also planning some little crafts to do with the grandkids and a tea party with the littlest girls, as well as a night or two with all 27 of us camping out here at Granny's House. We might take a short trip to north Texas to see extended family and include a zoo or botanical gardens trip while there, but mostly we'll be enjoying each other very close to home.

    Hug each other close and try not to take for granted the gift of...walking :-)

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    has spoken at 11:58 PM
    3 Backtalks to Granny



    Something seems off with our young president. He appears jarred. Difficult history has come over the transom. He seemed defensive and peevish with the press in his Tuesday news conference, and later with Charlie Gibson on health care, when he got nailed by a neurologist who suggested the elites who support a national program seem not to mind rationing for other people but very much mind if for themselves. All this followed the president's first bad numbers. From Politico, on Tuesday: "Eroding confidence in President Barack Obama's handling of the economy and ability to control spending have caused his approval ratings to wilt to their lowest level since taking office, according to a spate of recent polls." Independents and some Republicans who once viewed him sympathetically are "becoming skeptical."

    You can say this is due to a lot of things, and it probably is, most especially the economy, which all the polls mentioned. But I think at bottom his problems come down to this: The Sentence. And the rough sense people have that he's not seeing to it.

    For an understanding of the concept of The Sentence, read yesterday's column by the inimitable Peggy Noonan. Her insight can tell us a lot about why things are "off"...

    To-Do List: A Sentence, Not 10 Paragraphs

    hat tip: Lyric

    Labels: ,


    has spoken at 12:15 PM
    2 Backtalks to Granny



    Saturday, June 27, 2009
    During the past three weeks, I have received such remarkable care...from my knight-in-shining armor who still thinks of me as his bride...from my extraordinary children, each of whose unique skills and character traits have been a special blessing during this time...from my best friend who has indulged me with flowers, snacks, cards, decorating books, and middle of the night IM's when I couldn't sleep...from my loving circle of friends in San Antonio who have supplied us with scrumptious meals and everything else we've needed since my fall...from a faraway friend who sends bits of exotic teas.

    Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, was a care package I received yesterday from some new friends I've never even met in person. We are readers of each other's blogs and we've carried on a bit of email and f-mail correspondence and a phone call or two, but that's it. This little box contained a lovely CD set, some fun homemade body butters and soaps, but the most fun of all was the T-shirt in the box, proving that these friends really do pay attention:

    If you need to ask, you haven't been reading my blog long enough ;-)

    Thank you SO much to Kendra and Lisa and their families, for the new friendships and the thoughtfulness.

    (And if you think you've spotted Galt, do let me know.)

    Labels: ,


    has spoken at 5:53 PM
    2 Backtalks to Granny



    Friday, June 26, 2009
    Get a life.

    Nearly as tragic as the life and death of Michael Jackson is the fact that Liz Taylor now has an "empty" life without him. Proof that the most charmed life in the world can't protect you from feeling alone and meaningless with the baubles begin to crumble:

    "My heart…my mind… are broken. I loved Michael with all my soul and I can’t imagine life without him. We had so much in common and we had such loving fun together. I was packing up my clothes to go to London for his opening when I heard the news. I still can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. It can’t be so. He will live in my heart forever but it’s not enough. My life feels so empty. I don’t think anyone knew how much we loved each other. The purest most giving love I’ve ever known. Oh God! I’m going to miss him. I can’t yet imagine life with out him. But I guess with God’s help... I’ll learn. I keep looking at the photo he gave me of himself, which says, 'To my true love Elizabeth, I love you forever.' And, I will love HIM forever."

    ~~Elizabeth Taylor

    Labels:


    has spoken at 7:59 PM
    1 Backtalks to Granny



    The truth really is inconvenient.
    Too bad it probably won't be exposed before our gullible Congress finishes ruining our economy over it.

    Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as "deniers." The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S.

    Read the rest here:

    The Climate Change Climate Change


    Labels:


    has spoken at 1:52 PM
    2 Backtalks to Granny



    Granny's Mission Statement
    "...Tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done....that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children."
    ~Psalm 78:4-6

    My Focal Passage for 2009...
    from Philippians 3...

    7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

    8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,

    9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

    10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

    11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

    12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

    13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

    14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

    ~Philippians 3:7-14 (NASB)

    Granny wishes she had said...
    "There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."

    ~~W. Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965


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    Granny is reading!


    Books in the iPod or on the nightstand...
  • In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Alexander McCall Smith
  • Life's Little Annoyances: True Tales of People Who Just Can't Take It Anymore, Ian Urbina


  • Books finished in 2009...
  • Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
  • The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook: Recipes for the Best Pan in Your Kitchen, Sharon Kramis
  • Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places, L. L. Barkat
  • The Full Cupboard of Life, Alexander McCall Smith
  • Financial Peace Revisited, Dave Ramsey
  • The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas
  • The Brain that Changes Itself, Norman Doidge
  • Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois
  • Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, John J. Medina
  • It's All Too Much, Peter Walsh
  • Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
  • 13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time, Michael Brooks
  • Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft, Brooks Landon
  • Led By Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide, Immaculee Ilibagiza
  • A Soldier of the Great War, Mark Helprin
  • Queen of the Sciences: A History of Mathematics, David M. Bressoud
  • Understanding Linguistics: The Science of Language, John McWhorter
  • New Mercies, Sandra Dallas
  • Dutch Masters: The Age of Rembrandt, William Kloss

  • On Granny's list for 2009...
  • The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God's Delight in Being God, John Piper
  • New Mercies, Sandra Dallas
  • The Courage to Be Protestant, David Wells
  • The Disappearance of God: Dangerous Beliefs in the New Spiritual Openness, Al Mohler
  • Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc., Kevin DeYoung
  • So Brave, Young and Handsome, Leif Enger
  • The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, Twyla Tharp
  • Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together, Ron Hall
  • The Beautiful Ache: Finding the God Who Satisfies When Life Does Not, Leigh McLeroy
  • A New Kind of Normal: Hope-Filled Choices When Life Turns Upside Down, Carol Kent
  • In the schoolroom...


    Tunes on the iPod...




    Oh, the thinks you
    can think...

    Oh, the places we'll go...

    Granny always says...

    Granny used to say...


    Grace Notes

    "Were the whole realm of nature mine
    That were a present far too small...
    Love so amazing, so divine
    Demands my soul, my life,
    my all!"