From a Cluttered Desk

I am Tammy Cardwell, she of the cluttered desk. (Hey, you think I'm kidding?!) I'm having a blast here in Blogland and invite to you to peruse my ramblings. Like a buffet, they offer variety - essentially whatever makes it to the top of the piles that sometimes clutter my brain. We'll eventually cover it all - homeschooling, God, our church, the Eclectic Homeschool Online, books I'm writing and publishing, conferences I speak at, the joys of grandmotherhood, and hopefully chocolate. Of course, this is only what's near the top now. Who knows what's in those piles?

Did I spell it correctly?

Ah, who cares. The point is… You have GOT to see this!

Antwerp station. Suddenly Julie Andrews’ voice, singing a well-known (to us anyway) song, starts playing over the public address system. What follows…

….is priceless!! (And HUGE fun!)

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

I just slipped over to read The Conservative Contessa and found a thought-provoking post.

Here’s a short excerpt.

When in England , at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.

He answered by saying, ‘Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.’

You could have heard a pin drop

She has several other such stories in this blog entry. Are they all true? Well, I didn’t check them out, so I can’t really say. They are the type of story that makes you think, however, and that is always good.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

How many ministers use their wives as examples in their sermons? A lot? Most? All?

Well, in this video the wives of Florida Hospital Church get a little of their own back. This is hysterical.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Okay, are you ready for a laugh?

Or a groan

So you know I work at Bath & Body Works. We sell Dr. Wexler’s skin care products and I am totally sold on them; I’ve begun using some of her anti-aging products faithfully (For me to take care of my skin at all faithfully is unusual!) and I’m seeing a definite difference.

So not long ago I had a customer ask me what I use on my face.

I answered her.

She listened.

She then turned, pointed to one of the sales associates, and said, "I want to know what she uses on her face. I want my face to look like hers."

On the outside, I was most polite and courteously passed her off to the other associate. On the inside, I couldn’t get to the stockroom fast enough, caught as I was between outrage and hysterical laughter.

The other sales associate, you see, is THIRTY YEARS younger than me. Sure, I’d like my skin to look like hers too!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

A friend just shared something really fun with me. It’s a right-brain/left-brain thing.

Go visit and see which way the model is turning.

Then see if you can change the direction she’s turning.

When I first saw it, I thought it was a trick question because she switched from clockwise to counter-clockwise and back every few seconds, but it turns out that my left and right brain were taking turns.

Fathinating.

Which Way is She turning?

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Well, it’s actually 1 pint, .9 ounces

To Professor J. R. R.  Tolkien on this, his birthday!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Now here’s an idea whose time has come. Of course, for all I know it’s been around a while and I’m only just hearing about it. It’s Gift Card Rescue and it’s a site where you can exchange unwanted gift cards for wanted gift cards, sell unwanted gift cards (for less than their value of course), or buy gift cards at discounted rates. This could have been a life saver for a friend who once received a gas card for a company that had no stations in his state. It could also make life a lot easier on those who have been given cards to stores they’d never dream of frequenting.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

I have a spam filter that traps thousands of spam comments every week. I used to do spot checks and found that everything it caught truly was spam, most of which gave me the willies just seeing as comments…no need to go to the sites they linked to.

But I happened to spot check yesterday…day before?…anyway, and found a genuine comment amongst all that spam. So if anyone has ever posted a comment to my blog and found that it never appeared. I apologize. It is entirely possible that it simply got caught up in the thousands of spams the filter caught and sent out with the trash. I wish I could say it will never happen again, but I can’t. When you get as many spam comments as I get (Astounding considering how few real ones there are), you just can’t check them all.

And trust me, you wouldn’t want to.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Two great things belong together, yes? In this case, the two greats are Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash. I grew up listening to Johnny Cash (And Lawrence Welk’s band and a wiiiiiiiiiiide variety of other music), but never knew he had a television show. Even if I’d known, I’d never have guessed that Louis Armstrong had once appeared, or that Satchmo had ever played with the "father of country music."

Enjoy the YouTube video.

I’m glad I have friends who track down such jewels. It’s nice to come across things like this in those moments when I need a lift.

Celebrating Jesus!

Okay, this may sound ridiculous, but for the first time ever I’m actually enjoying wrapping Christmas gifts. Why? Because I finally figured out where to do it! LOL!

Maybe it would be different if I were shorter, but  I’ve found that if I wrap gifts sitting on the floor my back starts hurting far too quickly thanks to all the bending over. And tables are too low, which means my back still hurts from bending over. This year, however, I stumbled upon the ironing board, set to just the right height for me, and it is working out to be the perfect solution. Now, maybe it would be less than ideal if my gifts were larger, but still…I’ve wrapped some decently-sized gifts and haven’t have a bit of trouble - no frustrations, no back aches, and no wishing I didn’t have one more thing to wrap.

Indeed, I’m rejoicing that I do have more to wrap just as soon as I can get out and buy more paper. For the first time in more years than I care to think about, I actually have money to buy gifts for my family. I’m still not getting everyone as much as I would like, but I’m really quite pleased with what I’ve got and very much look forward to our Christmas day gathering.

Hey, here’s a tip in case you could use it. Bath and Body Works has a huge canvas bag that’s on sale for $5 right now (At least it was when I worked on Sunday). If you have large gifts, this makes a FABULOUS large gift bag, especially if you get the matching luggage tag (75% off) and use it as the gift tag. I’m actually trying to see if I can have my grandson’s name put on the bag I plan to use for him.

This is my only day off between now and Christmas, so quite possibly the only time you’ll hear from me until then. With this in mind, I bid you all a very merry and fabulously blessed Christmas!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C