Greensleeves

Here's me playing Greensleeves on the hammered dulcimer. I actually do a longer version of this, with three verses, each one different. But since I can only film one minute at a time, this is just one of the versions. The final few notes didn't quite make it in the video.

Jesu, Joy

Here's me playing Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring on the hammered dulcimer. My digital camera will take only a one-minute movie, so I did a shortened version and left out the fancy middle part.

Fresh Ginger!

My ginger experiment is coming along very nicely. I had wanted to find young ginger, but the kind in the stores is usually pretty mature (read: strong). Young ginger has a milder flavor. What to do? I decided to try growing ginger myself. It seems to like this big pot on my back deck. The stems have gotten so tall they're bending over. The leaves have a nice gingery fragrance when you brush against them.

Turns out growing ginger is very easy. Just take a fresh root, lay it on some dirt, and that's it! Doesn't even need a lot of sun, especially in the early stages. Just warmth and moisture. Since ginger comes from tropical regions, it's loving this 100-degree weather we've been having.

It's not ready to harvest yet. It takes well over 200 days to be ready. Here you can see the new growth coming out of the planted "root." (The edible part isn't really the root, even though people call it "ginger root." It's actually the rhizome.)

The bulbous part between the stem and the original "root" is the rhizome (I think). We'll see how it looks after 200 days. I can't remember the date I first did the planting, so don't ask how long it's been.

Know what else likes the heat and humidity? All those little bitty mushrooms growing around the ginger. You can see their creamy brownish caps all over the pot. They'll grow a bit then die...they don't hurt anything. The grandkids like pulling them out.

I'm Just Sayin'...

I said from the start that my new grandbaby looks a lot like her father when he was a baby. Maybe all babies look alike. But I'm just sayin'....

Photos on the left are baby Blueberry. Photos on the right are Blueberry's dad at his birth.

New Baby in the House!

My son's wife just gave birth to their first child! (Known hereafter as Blueberry.) Her birthday is 8-9-10, 11:12 pm. That's almost spooky!

She's a doll! Don't take my word for it...see for yourself. 

Here she is with her parents:

Here's Blueberry with her great-grandparents, my husband's parents:

And here we all are:

Can't leave out my daughter (Blueberry's aunt) and her two children. Too bad my daughter's husband was at work. He missed out on the photo-op.

Innocent Blood

If you look up the name Nicodemus, you'll find the most common meaning is "people's victory." But there is another meaning to the name in some cultures: "innocent blood."

Some people have reacted with disgust when I tell them this meaning to my maiden name. I don't understand that reaction. To me, it speaks of the ultimate innocent blood, shed for my sins.

Only the blood of an innocent could redeem mankind. If Jesus was just an ordinary man who died on the cross, His death would be meaningless. Thousands of men died on crosses during the Roman occupation.

But Jesus was different. He was innocent. Not only was He innocent of any crimes against the Roman Empire, He was innocent of all sin. He did not deserve to die, much less to die in such a gruesome way.

His innocent blood, shed for me. That truly was a "people's victory." It humbles me to bear the name.

The Nicodemus Family in History

Oops. My apologies to my readers, but somehow I have managed to accidentally lose all the text that had been here. So sorry that you have come here in vain. At least all the comments have been preserved.

Truth or Fiction?

There are few things in this world that bother me more than the propagation of untruths. The ability to email has done more to promote blatant lies than any other phenomenon.

Unfortunately, conservative Christians are the worst at passing on statements that purportedly support their cause. Most of these forwarded emails have long ago been proven false. By passing them on as though they are true, you make the rest of us look gullible (at best) and idiotic (at worst).

Please, people...before you forward those emails you get, check them out at any of these reliable sources:

truthorfiction.com
urbanlegends.about.com
hoaxbusters.org
breakthechain.org
hoax-slayer.com
snopes.com (No, it's not owned by flaming liberals...another untruth. Snopes info is well documented, with sources cited.)

Who Do You Believe?

I have often heard the following said by people who love to forward chain emails, after I tell them that the email is untrue:

"How do you know you can trust Snopes to be true?"

For real? That's your response?

You'd rather believe all those chain emails than a research site that cites actual sources? (I say Snopes, but it could be any of the sites listed above.)

Think for just a minute. You get an email from a friend, who got it from a friend, who got it from a friend, and so on. No one knows where it originated. Yet that's where you prefer to place your trust?

Don't carry your ignorance on your sleeve. Even if you don't completely trust Snopes, what is your logic for completely trusting anonymous sources?

Here's my philosophy toward chain emails:

1. Almost all of them are false. There are a few good gems out there, but very few.

2. If the content interests me in the least, I check for accuracy. I'm usually disappointed.

3. If it ends with any form of "You better pass this on or else!" I immediately delete it. Take that, you foul demon!

Getting off high horse now. But in future postings, I plan to expose some of the worst offenses to hit my inbox.

Rich Mullins I'm Not

However, I did just buy a hammered dulcimer and am learning how to play it. I'm catching on pretty quickly. I bought the dulcimer the Saturday before Christmas, and by Christmas Eve I had memorized and could play 8 Christmas songs! It was fun playing for the family...they were all pleasantly surprised.

In the photo below, I'm explaining the string arrangement to my grandson, who is barely in the photo, on the right.

Now I'm working on some Rich Mullins songs. You can find instructional videos on You Tube--yippee! I appreciate the guys who went to the trouble of making those videos.

I also joined EverythingDulcimer.com so I can get acquainted with the dulcimer-playing community. I'm sure I can learn a lot from them.

This has been a lot of fun, as well as quite a challenge, especially for someone over 50! And it gives me something to do while Tim is playing Call of Duty. :-)