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I'm no longer posting here...

Instead, try KatieSpeaking.com!

Thanks, and I'll see you there!

Katie
3/7/12

The Academy Awards Goes To...

Maybe it's just part of being a working mother, (as if identifying myself as "mother" wasn't descriptive enough) but I honestly cannot remember the last time I watched an awards show-or-any-show from beginning to end.  Unless it's online.  Who's with me on that? YO!!!!

Noah's film making!

Tonight I'm watching the award show for The Academy of Motion Pictures, LIVE simply because my kids are making movies every day.  I kid you not!  ; ) To hear the interviews from the Red Carpet, it's an educational experience!

Don't believe me?  Ok, right this very moment, Noah, age 7 is using the built in camera on a laptop to record a digital image on this electronic game he has.  The image is being recorded and then projected on a wall!  So even though I am at a table across the room, I can see what he's creating!  Crazy!

Gabe and Lego parts!

Gabe, 9, is busy with Legos...  He's running from room to room gathering Legos, creating an Imperial Star Destroyer of Star Wars, which, according to Gabe has a $399 price tag.  Gabe is almost never wrong about prices of desired objects. When he was born, we all said he looked like a little old man.  Now, I think "little old banker!"  Back to film making, the other day, Gabe took my phone and was going from room to room making the sounds of a jet-engine.  When my phone finally landed, there was a great video from the perspective of a jet pilot!  I'd share it if there weren't so many items out of place for the back round!

Oh, oh, oh, and for those of you who loved my 20 Questions and Answers of Going Blonde, actress Viola Davis gave a moving interview from the Carpet about growing out her hair in it's unaltered form.  She said it was her husband who encouraged her to go natural.  On that note, I owe my husband a huge shout out for ALWAYS encouraging me to drop the bottle of hair color and go natural, too.

Oh, my Honey just walked in!  I better go thank him!  The show must go on!  Enjoy!

Soli Deo Gloria! ~K. De La Cruz

The Days Are Long, But The Years Are Short

Life is just flying by for me and my family!  Sometimes, as homeschoolers, the labor is so intense that we forget how quickly the years pass!  A friend posted this quote, "The days are long but the years are short!"  'Tis true!
I appreciate your readership so very much.  I think about you throughout each day.  I'm always getting ideas and filtering them; "How quickly could I make this into a post?"  It seems it's never fast enough!  


Thank you for reading and sharing the stories you love with those you love!


FYI... Stories in the works:
*Our family's new favorite book: The Invention of Hugo Cabret (It's a GREAT movie, too!)
*Trails and hikes in East Tennessee
*Rethinking the Voting Void... Do our Votes Really Count?
*How Pecan Pie Saved My Marriage
*The Feingold Diet Impact
And more!!!


Much love and thanks again!
Katie

Hobbies and Happiness @ the Living Heritage Museum

Single-Room Pioneer House now on display at the Living Heritage Museum!  Akin to Little House on the Prairie, my kids and I lit up when we saw this part of the museum! Curator Lisa Chastain is pictured here, and she's my new BFF!  Thanks, Lisa, for indulging me with so many wonderful details during the tour!  I love your work!

Click here to listen to my interview with Living Heritage Museum Curator Lisa Chastain!

Don't miss this event!

Saturday, Feb. 18, 10 a.m. Program – Tennessee Sampler Lecture

In the Parlor.

Ex. Dir. Ashley Rush, Cur. Lisa Chastain and me :)

My Aunt has many portraits like these in her home...Perhaps that's why I like them so much!

Lisa said all the kids who visit the museum play "find the two brothers" in this painting!

In the country store! 

A scale such as this may have been used for trading vegetables...  If you've got 1lb carrots and I've got 1lb peppers, let's trade!

Tools of dentistry/torture haven't changed that much! LOL. ;)

All-natural pain killer for before/after the dentist...

And now we're living history!  This still was conviscated from Starr Mountian in 2011!!!  It was the first still to be confiscated in thirty years!  Fact: McMinn County allows for the sale of beer, but no other alcoholic beverages.

Kids are allowed to "camp out" as the soldiers of the Civil War would have done.

It's a RED COAT! Oh, wrong war, lol.

Samplers such as this would be the work of a wealthy man's daughter, you can tell by the complication of skill needed.  Who ever crafted this would have had a lot of time to dedicate to her "work" and probably would have been viewed when a potential husband came for a visit.  (Fact:  My Aunt has Samplers in her home, too!  I never knew what they were called before visiting the Living Heritage Museum.) 

This too is a Sampler, albeit a sample-of-stitches!  It's actually the work of a student at Tennessee Weslayan College when it was a finishing school for women.  (My mother will like that bit of info!)

Little, but not least! I love this alpahbet sampler!  So cute.  Thanks, Lisa for holding the frame for me!   

Soli Deo Gloria! ~K. De La Cruz

Morgan Johnson, 17-year-old Victim of Suicide Remembered With Love

Since Tuesday when the news of 17-year-old Morgan Johnson's suicide first scrolled across Facebook, I feel as if I carried a ton of bricks.  Almost unable to move with the sadness of this young woman's death.  I didn't know Morgan but my husband taught at her school.  I've wanted so much to do something for this GEM of a young lady, for ALL young ladies ARE GEMS.  Rare and highly valued, as all persons are, I'm reminded that in a dark world such as ours, we need to hear the good news of our "gem-ness." At times we all fear that we aren't worth much.

Community gathered at the L&N Depot, Etowah, Tennessee

I gathered with some spiritual people last night (Thursday) and we spoke of Morgan.  We spoke of our responsibility to love each other, to bear one another's burdens, to do it without expectation of anything in return.  We felt downcast for we were thinking that we are terrible failures at loving this way.  We spoke of the most loving person who ever lived and how our favorite book about him tells us he gave up heaven for us.  HE GAVE UP HEAVEN FOR US.  Because, for him, us knowing him, us knowing his father, WAS what he lived and died and rose again to realize!  His love for us never fails!  He will fill us to over- flowing with love for each other.  We need only look to him!


On Morgan's Facebook page, she says she knows this One Who Loves her most.  Someone had to tell her that.  Someone shared that good news of a hero!  I went to a candlelight vigil for Morgan to represent the One Who Loves. He has a plan in all this.  He works all things together for good for those who know him.  You and I are invited to know Him!

I've wanted so much to do something for this GEM of a young lady, for ALL young ladies ARE GEMS.

Haley Martin, friend of Morgan's and coordinator of the candle light vigil met with me after the event.  I was grateful for her willingness to do something in honor of Morgan.   


We need only look on the One Who Loves to be filled with love...  Let us rest, gazing upon him!  He will be our strength.  He will never leave us nor forsake us, not even in death!  

From the Daily Post Athenian: Authorities looking into whether bullying led to student’s suicide

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE  for  Wednesday, February 8, 2012.

BREAKING NEWS - Authorities looking into whether bullying led to student’s suicide Special to The Daily Post-AthenianThe McMinn County Sheriff’s Department is looking into the possibility that bullying may have led to the suicide of a 17-year-old McMinn Central High School student on Tuesday. While no direct link with bullying has been established, authorities continue to investigate the incident. “I’ve kept in close contact with the young lady’s parents,” said Sheriff Joe Guy. “Neither her parents, school administrators, nor our school resource officers had received any reports that she was a victim of bullying prior to this unfortunate incident. “There have been some allegations made afterward, and we will look into those allegations,” Guy said. “Her parents and I agree that the most important thing is to do whatever we can to prevent another family from having to experience a tragic loss like this. “If any kind of intimidation or harassment occurs in our schools, it needs to be reported before a tragedy happens,” he added. “Students who have knowledge of any issues are encouraged to go to teachers, parents, guidance counselors, ministers and school resource officers. “Our community is committed to dealing with the problem of bullying, but we need people to speak up before, not afterward when it is too late,” Guy said. The incident occurred Tuesday around noon in a church parking lot in McMinn County. The student had not attended school that day. Guy said that he posted two of his chaplains at McMinn Central High School today to assist school officials and local clergy members in counseling students and staff members as they deal with the loss. “Our community has lost a beautiful, intelligent young person with so much hope and promise,” Guy said. “It’s just devastating. Our thoughts and prayers are with her parents, friends and family.” A candlelight vigil is planned for tonight in Downtown Etowah. Read Story

Soli Deo Gloria! ~K. De La Cruz

Three Little Acts to Change the Future for Better!

Vision Casting Tomorrow, February 4th.  Athens Alive 2035 Event

1.  Attend Athens Alive 2035 tomorrow from 10 AM to 2PM.


Tomorrow, we are invited to the Athens Middle School auditorium, to share our hopes for the future!  I've shared on the air that, "this side of heaven, there is no "heaven"" and that's true.  But until Christ returns, it is our work to redeem the relationships of people to God, and then to be ambassadors of God's love to his creation! 

 “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." Mark 16:15


Which is why, when Athens Public Works Director, Athens' own Young-Man-of-the-Year and friend Shawn Lindsey wrote the email below, I wanted to share it with you!


2.  Listen for INSPIRATION

"Dear Friends:I was in grade school when my teacher talked to us about the concept of utopia.  I was fascinated with the idea of a perfect place.  It consumed my thoughts and I wanted to learn more and more about it and I have pursued it my entire life and still to this day the idea of utopia keeps me up nights.  For those that may not know what Utopia is Wikipedia defines it as: 

Utopia (/juːˈtoʊpiə/) is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. It has spawned other concepts, most prominentlydystopia.

 I later read books like Don Quixote by Cervantes who told us a story of a man who decided to see the world as it should be instead of how it was.  I admire this kind of crazy.  I like the fact that there are those among who have the attitudes, the belief in themselves and those around them, as well as the courage to change the world for the better.  Now it seems to me as if we all have that chance this Saturday.   I hope to see you at the Middle School and to be ready to decide the future of the community we all love and the faith to make it happen.  I think it is the time and the place to begin brining an Abundant Life to those we will leave this community to in 2035.  I can’t wait for the journey between now and then and to see the path laid before us as this process is completed.

Please look at the attached and share with your fellow Athenians at work, school, church, and with your civic clubs.

 Sincerely,

Shawn Lindsey

Public Works Director

City of Athens

phone: 423 744-2746

Isn't Mr. Lindsey a great writer?!  You can see why I wanted to share this email.  We thank God for The Lindsey Family and the blessing they are to Mc Minn County!
Tomorrow, our family will not be present for this event.  Our dear Uncle Clarence Croft, who used humor & engineering to redeem many an awkward situation will be laid to rest in Madisonville.  Please remember Uncle Clarence's family in your prayers.
3.  Share your hopes for the future of Athens!

Soli Deo Gloria! ~K. De La Cruz