America’s Lost Culture

A few days ago, I was listening to a speech, and the speaker said something that caught my attention- “People around the world think that Americans don’t have a culture.”

Hmmm…

think about that.

We don’t have a culture?

I would disagree on one hand, because we do have a culture- people see hamburgers, they think ‘United States’. People see/hear a President, they think ‘United States’. People hear “all men are created equal” and they say- “Yep- that’s the United States.’

We have stories- legends- but they are few and far between.

But on the other hand, I have to agree with this speaker. The United States has lost its culture.

What once was a nation founded on the truths of God’s Word is now a nation that could care less what God thinks- as long as it seems or feels good, it’s alright.

Our foundations- the start of our nation- was what set us apart from the others in the world. we were those stubborn 13 colonies who wanted to be free of Britain. There was a war, and by God’s grace, we won. A nation was formed under His name- a nation that said “all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” A nation whose pledge stated that we would remain “under God”.

When our nation threatened to split itself in half over the cruelty of slavery, God showed his hand again and we were made the United States once more.

But as the 20th century slipped by, our nation shifted. We don’t care as much about what God desires for us- we only care about our desires. We don’t share stories of grandfathers, history, of family traditions. We simply follow the crowd and let valuable lessons slip by.

We, as a nation who calls itself Christian, has lost its Christ-likeness. The very word “christian” means “little Christ”. We are to be made more like Christ- but our nation has fallen away from that.

Yes, our nation has lost its culture- but we, as true believers and followers of Christ, have a culture that will withstand all shifting of other cultures and nations.

Though the nations may fall off of maps and disappear, as followers of Christ we can know that our nation- the body of Christ around the globe, and above the globe- will never disappear- for Christ is our unshifting foundation- our cornerstone that holds us to Him.

ten years to the day

I can see the front of the brick school, the flag hanging motionless in front of the doors.

My mom was standing right outside those doors, waiting for me.

I asked, only a first grader, why she was picking me up instead of me riding the bus home.

She shook her head slow, and said, “Planes crashed into some buildings today, and I wanted you to be home with me.”

I nodded, not really understanding, just happy to be with mom.

The TV was on all afternoon and late into the night- my dad came home fast from school.

I remember lots of tears all over the nation, hearing and recognizing the man they called President Bush asking for prayers- many prayers.

It was the day that our nation fell to its knees.

And today we remember-

10 years later.

And I pray that our nation would again seek and find the God that we sought so fervently that day-

and realize just how marvelous and beautiful and patient and saving He is.

That His promise then is still true today-

‘I will never leave you, nor forsake you…’

Down on the Farm

Many thank you’s to Granny and Grandpa for taking us to K Farm!

Here’s our day spent farming in the 1890’s…

There is a beautiful farm near us now that is stuck in the 1890’s.

There are threshers, farmers in straw hats, a garden the size of our entire property, and so much to see and chores to be done.

One of the few places where you pay to work. :)

But what fun! To be a pioneer for a day…

and our first stop was to feed the cows.

Like Daisy, the dairy cow.

Arriving there just as it opens has its perks- like seeing the animals in the barn and having a gracious farmer show us around.

Here are three of our pioneers perched on a fence, wowing at the sheep.

R especially loved these guys because they were soft, small, and unintimidating. They even followed him around!

We collected some fallen and shelled acorns and fed them to the pigs. Phew! They were the stinkiest animal there!

After feeding the pigs, we wandered back up to the house to see what we could assist with. They were close to threshing time, and the treadmill and thresher were out, just waiting to get used. While walking back up, a farmer stopped us and asked, or, really, told, us to go let the sheep out- they hadn’t eaten yet.

M, Cousin I , and R all ran down, glad to be of help.

They propped open the gate, and WOW!

Those sheep can RUN! They took off straight for the woods to munch on leaves and whatnot.

The farm also hosted a LARGE chicken coop full of chickens and two roosters, one of which spent the morning strutting around the front yard.

Up on the porch, a lady sat with a large bowl full of mango melons fresh from their extremely large garden.

What is a mango melon, you may ask? And what on earth do you eat it with?

Well….

Mango melons were grown solely for the purpose of pickling. You slice a V shaped slice out of it and dig the seeds out. (they look like cucumbers on the inside) Then you scoop out the seeds and sew the V shaped part on, making a little lid.

then, after letting them soak a while in salt brine (extremely salty water), you fill the inside of them with tomatoes, garlic, onions, anything tasty with flavor, and you pickle the whole thing.

YUM!

While we were there, they were also picking their onions and beans. Here are just some of the onions they picked…

After helping out on the porch, we wandered through the GORGEOUS house feeling very Jane Austen-ish :).

The root cellar was very interesting, and I couldn’t help but picture all of the pickles, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, and barrels of other things filling it very soon.

After this, we took a quick break for lunch, then came back, and found, to our delight, that the trolley was running!

They needed to wear out the horses so that they would be gentler that night when they had a bunch of little kids coming out, and we were happy to help them :).

After this, we all split up to go help in various places- the kitchen, the garden, the barn.

L and I pulled weeds in the potatoes, M and Cousin I and Cousin K went down to the pump and the barn.

On our way out, the Big Blacks were out to pasture, and M, who would simply LOVE to be a farm vet or a farmer was able to make a friend-

What a perfect day!

Thank you again Granny and Grandpa!

Kaye

The Flight of the Bumble Bee- Mamo Camp Day 4 (pt. 1)

My sisters, cousins, and I spent the last week up north at our grandparents’ cabin on the lake. It is such a blessing to have grandparents that are willing to take all 5 of us, ages ranging from 5 to 17! This was the 11th annual running of what we call “Mamo Camp”.

And what a week we had!

Over the next couple of days or so I hope to let you in on what we did that week through some pictures, stories, and funny happenings over here. Enjoy!

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Mamo and Papa have a beautiful old Victrola record player in their living room with dozens of records to dance your socks off to.

So of course, we selected a few of our favorites to play and jam to in the living room.

(And so for your listening entertainment, I have also added, on each song’s name, a link to a YouTube video of the song. :) Enjoy!)

Our unanimous favorite was “The Flight of the Bumble Bee”.

A close second was “The Woodchopper’s Ball”.

Coming in third place was the classic “Big Wig in the Wigwam”.

And our honorable mentions were “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm”…

and “Let’s Dance- Fox Trot”. Congratulations to our winners and better luck next year to all the rest!

Gotta love them golden oldies…

Kaye

Lickety Split- Mamo Camp Day 3 (pt. 4)

My sisters, cousins, and I spent the last week up north at our grandparents’ cabin on the lake. It is such a blessing to have grandparents that are willing to take all 5 of us, ages ranging from 5 to 17! This was the 11th annual running of what we call “Mamo Camp”.

And what a week we had!

Over the next couple of days or so I hope to let you in on what we did that week through some pictures, stories, and funny happenings over here. Enjoy!

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One of my grandpa’s friends from his antique car club was at the DQ at the same time we were… and is this not the coolest fire truck EVER???

He had it painted and redone, and it looks absolutely beautiful… and like it would be a lot of fun to ride in!

And isn’t the name on the side just simply perfect?

I’m a history geek, so the idea that he had had the place and date of when this fire-engine was used on the side made me so thrilled…

and I had to see if I could find a similar picture online of back-in-the-day- and I did!

totally AWESOME.

TOTALLY.

Kaye