Alexander Graham Cracker Goes to the Moon book trailer

Thanksgiving 2013

Well, here we go. Another Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for my life, husband, family, etc. I can't count them all. Yes, there has been negatives this year, but the blessings far outweigh them. It is 1:00 am and I am still up cooking for tomorrow. Today was Jacob's 12th birthday and I didn't get to see him or talk to him. We will celebrate his birthday next week. I am making him a chocolate chip cheesecake with Minons on the top. We have already celebrated Benny's birthday on the 18th with Minions cupcakes. I took them to Chuy's bar and the bar tender and the waitress gave me a free margarita for cupcakes. They boys were so excited that MomMo made such cool things for them. They took the rest home. The only reason I'm making cheesecake for Jacob is because it's his fav.

Tonight I almost finished the dressing, it's waiting for AaBi's contribution, I finished the yam's, the pumpkin cream pie, and now I am making Trace's Turkey Cookies. This makes me very happy. Momma Jean made these for Trace since he was in the 2nd grade. I have taken up the gauntlet and the original cookie cutter and he had to have two before he went to bed tonight. I feel like she is here, watching over us and smiling. I hope I dream about her tonight. I miss her so much. She made me very happy and we had such a connection. Trace told me she "fell in love" with me and I did with her. If anyone reflected God's light, she did. When she died, I was awed by the amazing comments people made about her. There wasn't an unkind word. Ever. It is so wonderful to have two Mom's. They both are so different but I love them both. Taking care of her during the last year or so of her life was amazing. This woman took on Alzheimer's with courage and valor.  BTW the turkey breast and the chicken legs are in the crock pot. AaBi's bringing green bean casserole and oyster's for the dressing. I can't wait until we are playing games tomorrow and eating until we burst!

Today I realized that when my Mom passes, (not for a long time) I will become the matriarch of the family. It scared me. I need meds to deal with that one.

For tomorrow, as mentioned above, I've already started some of the feast. Tomorrow morning we will put up the winter clothes and pack the summer clothes. Mop the floors and clean the bathroom. Set the table with Blue Willow dishes and beautiful Autumn  Table cloth and a candle in a Chianti Wine Bottle. Trace will make his fabulous mashed potatoes. I have chilled wine and I suppose Mike will bring his beer. The sad thing is that the children won't be here. So it will be the four of us trying to make light of the fact we are childless. I almost cannot wait till Christmas.

Anyway, while all this is going on, I am crocheting hand gloves, making sock monkies, and mailing out signed copies of my book. Next week I need to get busy on making homemade Christmas presents so I can get them mailed. I don't think any of the kids will be here except for AaBi and Mike and Possibly Jessica. She is moving back from Austin. I will be so happy to have her here. I wish the other kids could be here as well despite WWIII starting.

I miss my sister and brother so much. Even Mom. I love the fact that I am the head of my family, but I need my Mom and family too, sometimes. Especially since Tracy's parents are gone. (oh, that means that Pam is the matriarch of the family...scary!)

God, Bless my efforts to promote my book and book sales. Bless the books that I am working on now. Bless Trace's business as Bella Vita. Please help us and make us a profitable business. I also pray for Dr. Williams. Her Mother just passed away and she was in the hospital with lungs full of blood clots. Please help her with her health and cure her. Let her have a long life in your service. Thank you letting us find a place to worship and adore you.

I love you Lord,

LaNell Koenig-Wilson

Perspective of Christian Mothers

Christian Perspective of Mother’s Role in the Home                                                                620 words

 

Christian Mom’s at Home

 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord Our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk with them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Deuteronomy 6: 4-8

 

As Mom’s we have an awesome responsibility to instill our children with God’s love and teach His Word. God commands us to impress His Words upon their hearts, when we sit down to talk, when we walk, before going to bed and in the morning. This isn’t too difficult a task when our children are younger, but what if they are middle school and high school? Sometimes it’s hard enough to get them to look up from their smart phone and acknowledge your presence let alone talk. How do we break through in this new “season” of parenting?

Prayer, Persistence, Purpose.

Cover your children in prayer. Have friends you can call on for a prayer chain. Let God help you impress His Word upon their hearts. He didn’t say you had to do it all by yourself!

Be persistent in talking with your children about God. They are at a crossroads in their lives. The decisions they make now can affect them the rest of their lives. They need God’s Word more than ever. Memorizing scripture can be very helpful when they are faced with temptations and character choices.

 

 

It’s amazing what words God will bring to mind when they need that prompting to make the right choice. We want them to know the Truth and be fully equipped to make wise decisions throughout life.

You have a purpose. God has given you a set of plans to develop your children’s character and a love for Him. As a Mom, you set a shining example of a child of God for your children. They watch carefully every move you make, your choices. Everyone is given freedom by God to make choices about how they will use their will. We can’t control their every move or even the direction of their hidden thoughts, nor would we want to.

Be sure you have God’s Word impressed upon your heart also. You don’t have to be perfect, just truthful and open. You are the beacon that guides your children home, teach them to find comfort there and in God’s amazing word.

“Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise, apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have them ready on your lips.” Proverbs 22:17, 18

“She is clothed with strength and dignity;

She can laugh at the days to come.

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.

Proverbs 31:25-28

        As a woman and Mom, we are created to have a positive impact on people around us – husbands, children, parents, friends, the stranger in the checkout line…being a wise, strong, dignified woman of God blesses others as well as your family.

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30

Guest Blogger on Terrorism

What in the hell is going on? I am getting sick of the press dancing around this issue so today I am going to tell it like I see it. You can call me a bigot or intolerant if you want but I am going to speak for the American people today. Someone has to. Over 2000 Americans have lost their lives in Afghanistan. Over 4500 Americans have lost their lives in Iraq. Almost 3000 Americans died in the 9/11 attacks. That’s about 9,500 Americans who have lost their lives in the war on terrorism and the number goes far beyond that. There are smaller attacks too numerous to mention. One of the obvious examples is Benghazi. The total number is well over 10,000 Americans who have died due to the war on terror and the number continues to grow. Most of these deaths have been in some form or fashion linked to Al Qaeda but terrorism is terrorism no matter what you call it or what organization you claim is responsible. Not all Muslims are terrorists but most terrorists are Muslims. That’s a fact. It’s a fact that you won’t see printed by major media sources because the MSM (Mainstream Media) is soft. The MSM seems slow to admit that the Tsarnaev brothers were linked to Al Qaeda, but they seem slow to acknowledge the facts on anything at this point. Russia warned us at least two times in 2011 about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. In his most recent trip abroad it was said that he spent time training with radicals who had links to Al Qaeda. My opinion is that there is no such thing as a “link” to Al Qaeda. That’s just a fancy dance around the truth. You are either Al Qaeda or you are not. It has become known that the brothers used Al Qaeda’s Inspire Magazine to learn how to build their “Pressure Cooker” bombs. Who reads Al Qaeda magazines? Well in my mind anyone who is reading that stuff, and taking it seriously enough to act on the advice, is at the very least an “Al Qaeda Wannabe.” So let’s stop soft peddling the issue. Whether the Tsarnaev brothers were card carrying members of Al Qaeda, or not, fails to matter. It is obvious that they embraced the same ideologies and Al Qaeda is responsible. In my mind all terrorists organizations are responsible. They spread the hate and the hate ends up leaving innocent people in coffins. The DHS and everyone else seem to be trying to throw the FBI under the bus. That’s how it works in this country. Government officials are slow to accept blame and quick to pass it. I blame a country that has become soft on immigration and that blame goes all the way to the top. I blame Obama. I blame our legislators. I blame the political activists who want to reach out and hug a Jihadi. I blame a government that is making an excuse of Tamerlan falling through the cracks because of being buried on a watch list of 500,000 potential terrorists. Think about that. Think about it hard. The IRS can keep up with 100 Million or so taxpayers without a problem. These things are done with sophisticated software programs. There is no excuse for not being able to keep up with 500,000 potential terrorists. It’s not like they have an individual agent following each of them. If someone is flagged then they should react to an individual situation accordingly and the repeated warnings from Russia should have escalated the scrutiny of Tamerlan. The American people are sick of the excuses. Mistakes were made and now we must turn our thoughts to serious discussion about preventing this from happening again. Tamerlan Tsarnaev should have never been allowed to stay in this country. Period. This will never prevent someone like Timothy McVeigh from blowing up a federal building but it might keep things like Boston from happening. We live in a society that has grown so politically correct that no one has the guts to make the tough decisions, or even have the honest discussions, anymore. They had chances to deport Tamerlan Tsarnaev and did not. They allowed his younger brother to become a citizen even though his brother and mother were in a database of potential terrorists. They allowed Abdulrahman Ali Alharbi into this country despite having 11 relatives who are either suspected or convicted terrorists. Five of his relatives are in Gitmo as we speak. Mosques in Boston are allowed to go about their business despite numerous proven ties to world wide terrorists. Beyond that these same Mosques receive key endorsements from political figures like Governor Deval Patrick. All of this is an absolute insult to those who fought and those who died. Let us not forget the wounds of war, both physical and mental, that our young men and women come home with. They give their service to this country and come home without missing limbs and incur horrendous mental scars of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The number is into tens of thousands when you count those who have not only died but those who have made it home alive, but never to be the same. If we continue to allow these things to happen then we spit in the face of every person and every American family who has been effected by terrorism. We need strong leaders now with the guts to make tough decisions. We don’t need a federal government that continues to invite more hate into this country. If someone is suspected as a terrorist, send their ass home. Plain and simple. Or, at the very least, don’t let them in the country to begin with. Once they are here it is a bit more complicated, but let’s stop rolling out the red carpet for them. Tamerlan Tsarnaev had a domestic abuse circumstance that was grounds for deportation, yet he was allowed to stay. Alharbi’s story stinks to levels of corruption that are unimaginable. A young man from a family of known and suspected terrorists gets a personal visit from Michelle Obama and has since been discovered to be a regular visitor to The White House. As for the younger Tsarnaev brother…if your brother and your mother are on a terrorist watch list then you should not be eligible to even be in this country, let alone become a naturalized citizen. I don’t want to imply that the Muslim community is the only group who feels this way, and I don’t want to imply that all Muslims feel this way, but… Are you aware that 25,000+ protestors gathered in Britain last week? They were Pakistanis who were protesting that the laws should be changed. They are tired of insults to Allah and feel that the laws should be changed to not allow insults toward Allah. This should be a crime in their minds. I can understand the feeling to a point. I am Christian and I do not like it when anyone insults Jesus Christ, but… People who are not willing to abide by the rules of the land should not be here. We have free speech here and if someone wants to make juvenile movie called “The Innocence of Islam” then they have the right to do that. I can be angry about it but I must accept that people in this country have the right to say what they want. I don’t like that Fred Phelps spreads the “God Hates Fags” message and I don’t like the fact that anyone would slander anyone else’s religious views. But in America, and in most free countries around the globe, this is how it works. It is called free speech. If someone can not accept that then they don’t need to be here. Americans do not understand the difference in cultures and they do not understand how much trouble we continue to invite. Let’s talk about Egypt. I brought up that stupid movie for a reason. “The Innocence of Islam” is an insulting movie. I watched about ten minutes of it and I was done. It is not meant to bring about honest debate. It is purely meant to insult the proud Muslim people. I will not defend the product on its merits because it truly has no merits in my opinion. I will defend that they had a right to make that movie in a free speech society. That is how America works. But you must understand that this is not a traditional Middle Eastern view. How many people are aware that Egypt has handed out 7 death sentences to those who they found guilty of participating in the production of that movie? That’s right…7 death sentences. Any speak against Allah or the Prophet Mohammed is punishable by death in Egypt and many other Muslim nations. This is a country that we support both militarily and financially. Is that an American view of Freedom? Do a little soul searching and you will find your answer. It’s not a matter of hating Muslims or any other group. But you must understand the cultures and how they clash. Christians are being murdered in Egypt on a regular basis simply because they are Christians. Churches are being burnt and vandalized. There needs to be a lot of discussion in our nation in the wake of Boston and it can’t be had by people who are afraid to break the rules of political correctness. Are all Muslim people bad? No they are not. Not all Muslims share the same radical interpretation of their teachings. At the same time, when we have reason to suspect that one of those radicals is within our borders we need to kick their ass out, before they can plant bombs in another major city. Think about the families of those who lost their lives in 9/11 and the families of those who lost their lives in foreign lands…and tell me that they don’t deserve a serious explanation right now. We need people in Washington D.C. with guts but what we have is a bunch of bleeding hearts who have policies that get people killed. By rolling out the red carpet for these terrorists they have slapped millions of Americans in the face. This must stop now. I’d like to recommend a good resource for those who would like to do further research. A gentleman named Robert Spencer has an amazing research and news site called JihadWatch. If you would just go look at the stories for the past week on his site you might realize that this problem is much bigger than you think. Americans demand some real talk on a real issue and they demand it happens now…before it’s too late. The enemy has been allowed inside. I won’t sugar coat it. It is truly us or them at this point. They are already here and our government has allowed it to happen. This article, 10,000 Americans Did Not Die for America to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Jihadi Terrorists, is syndicated from http://dcclothesline.com and is posted here with permission. advertisement