Tuesday's Tip

Honey, do you remember when we talked about rotisserie chickens? Well, I have another tip for you! Not only is it easier to pick your chickens while they're hot, but you'll be even happier if you do it with GLOVES covering your pretty hands! My friend, Wendy, is so smart. She bought a box of surgical gloves. Whenever she is deboning a chicken, she puts on a pair of these gloves. At first it may seem wasteful, but it is so smart. Wearing the gloves protects your hands and it keeps it more sanitary. When you are finished deboning the chicken, you simply throw away the gloves! Don't you feel smart now?! I know I do!

A Day at the Farm

Our youngest, Hurricane, had the most fun field trip on Friday! We were able to visit a local farm called "Horsepower for Kids". It was the neatest place! The farm was filled with horses and all kinds of farm animals. They even had some more exotic animals like a llama! We had a wonderful morning "out in the country".

Life is so different for our children. As children, we had some electronics like Merlin, Math Professor, and Atari, but we were not inundated with them. Our lives were spent playing games outside like Tag, Red Rover, and Mother May I. We rode bikes, made potions, and played boys against the girls. Today's children spend less time in free play and more time in structured activities or with the tv, computer, or a handheld electronic device. Our morning at the farm was so precious because it allowed the children to enjoy God's beautiful creation. He made us! He also made donkeys, zebra, goats, pigs,and chickens!


The children delighted in chasing chickens, feeding carrots to the goats, and even riding ponies (we had to leave before the pony rides commenced!). Did you know goats like carrots? I did not, but apparently they do! One big goat literally chased us for the carrots we had brought to feed the horses!

Sound the Alarms! Mama Henley is going down!!!

I consider myself somewhat computer savvy in that I have a blog and can search the internet with the best of them. Now, if you have a real technical problem, I am not the girl to call, but if you want cheap tickets to Paris, I'm your gal. I can navigate safari! This morning I had a little one to one at the Apple store because I have used up all but 2G of my 250G hard drive! Now what is Mama Henley to do? I just can't trust those external hard drives to really hold all of my info, so I met with an Apple Genius for some help.
We finished our hour lesson where I felt more like a fool than a wise man. My one to one man had moved on to his Snickers bar in the break room. I decided that my lap top needed a little charge while I waited for some files to be deleted. This was my mistake. Earlier I had realized that there was no place to plug my power supply, so I had used the cord that was plugged into one of the store's laptops. After a while, I plugged it back in to the Apple laptop. Well, I decided to use some of their power once more. The only problem is that I detached the wrong cord. AND IT SET OFF THE STORE ALARM!!!! Suddenly an alarm louder than all 5 of my children screaming at once began to sound. It was LOUD. IT was RELENTLESS. And it would not STOP. At this point, I was so nervous and afraid I was going to the slammer, that I could not plug the silly plug back in. I thought it was like a car alarm and would stop the alarm. I was not so fortunate! I told the Apple genius closest to me that I was so sorry but that I was so nervous I could not plug it back in the laptop. I looked around at people staring at me like I'm an idiot! The man closest to me looked at me while he covered his ears with his hands!!! At long last, a man arrived with a key and stopped the dreaded alarm. I asked him to please forgive me and told him repeatedly how sorry I was for sounding the alarm. He was very kind and told me it happens all of the time.
So, I felt like an old dinosaur who has no idea how to work these new-fangled computers, so dejected, I packed my bags and headed out into the Florida sunshine!

Tuesday's Tip

I was honored recently to be asked to help a friend in the kitchen at a ladies' luncheon. I had nothing to do with preparing the food, rather, I helped her plate it so that 84 ladies could be fed in an easy fashion. The plates held quiche, green salad, pasta salad, and a muffin. I was not in my own kitchen, so it was difficult to know where utensils were located in this kitchen. It was time to scoop the pasta salad on the plates, so I looked around for a spoon. I did not find one, however, I DID find a one cup measuring spoon. It was the PERFECT size! I scooped 1 cup servings of pasta salad onto each plate. It was the perfect amount of food and looked delightful on the plates!

Hey Cute Readers...

Happy March!

I feel so behind. What happened to February? And January? I mean, time is flying at Mama Henley's house. Time has me by the tail and I am losing! I haven't finished our taxes, I still have some Christmas cards I haven't sent, and my coupons are taking over. In fact, DH offered to help me because I have so many to cut. So, we've been fellowshipping over coupons and newspapers and scissors. I am one blessed girl!

I feel like I can never get our house in order. No matter how hard I try, I fail. I weeded so many clothes out of my closet that I hardly have any pants to wear! I just haven't finished my re-do. I have been trying to go through all of our closets and drawers and I purge and purge some more, but our stuff has babies.

I have a friend who keeps an amazing house. Clutter flees from her home like women running to a great sale at Target. She has mastered the art of caring for her home. I have mastered the art of working harder than any woman in America and looking like I must watch soap operas all day. If you can believe it, I haven't seen one Charlie Sheen interview. Not even one. I know he's been saying crazy things, but I haven't watched any of it. I've been too busy picking up the same toys in Hurricane's bedroom and trying to match our endless supply of socks! Do you ever feel this way? I feel like a complete failure in so many ways because I just can never do enough. How do you do it all?

Law too Loose for DUI?

A few weeks ago a drunk driver drove down our street and slammed into DH's car. Upon impact, her car was totaled. The story is hard to type, but she tried to escape, further damaging the property of others and her car. When her car would no longer move, she hopped out and ran away. For 2 hours, she managed to elude police until finally our neighbor found her and she was arrested. Despite the fact that we saw her driving the car and crashing into 3 things, the policeman did not check her blood alcohol level. This woman was driving with a suspended license, no insurance and a stolen tag with a sticker from someone else's car on it. She spent a whopping 6 hours in jail and was out on $250 bond. We spent more on our deductible to fix DH's car than she did no her bond. Wow.
As we slept innocently in our own home, she hurt our car, which in turn saved her life. Ahead were 2 huge trees and water. She never saw our car, so she never hit the brakes. She truly could have killed herself.
Today our newspaper speaks of a dentist named Moye who killed 2 people in October as he drove 89 miles per hour on a 30 mph bridge. 89 miles an hour!!!! He struck and killed 2 pedestrians who were walking on the bridge. He was arrogant when he was arrested and had no idea his foolishness had killed two people. His good time ended the lives on 2 people in their 20s.
Those of you from Raleigh have watched the sentencing of a Raleigh plastic surgeon who killed a young ballerina 2 years ago. What can we do to strengthen our laws so that this does not continue to happen? Why is it that we have repeat offenders? Both the dentist and doctor had previous records of speeding or DUI, I believe. What can we do to prevent this? Why does the law seem to protect the person who is drinking and driving more than it protects the innocent victims? Please join me in taking a cab if no one in your car is truly sober enough to drive. It's just not worth it to take someone else's life. I pray I never make the same mistake.

Tuesday's Tip

Good Morning! Can you believe the rising gas prices?! I cannot!!! One day it jumped 14 cents a gallon, and then it has jumped another 7 cents per gallon in the past few days. Unbelievable! I am a little bit fanatic about not having an empty gas tank. My rule of thumb is to fill the tank whenever I hit half a tank of gas. I can't tell you how many times this has saved us from having to stop for gas when an unexpected trip comes along. We're able to hop in the car and GO! Unfortunately, now more than ever you want to keep your tank full because the prices are going UP every day! So, stop and take the time to fill your car with gas and you'll be glad you did!