Pet Peeve, Bullies, Air Fryers, Beads and a Tip...Oh My

Good morning Y'all!!!  I hope and pray that where ever y'all are today that you are having a blessed day.   The sun isn't necessarily shining in my neck of the woods, but it isn't gloomy either.     The flu and all the stuff that comes with it has been rampant in these parts and sad to say, many have lost their lives due to it.    I, too, was a sick with the flu and some of the complications that go with it and am just now getting back on my feet and feeling good.   I started getting sick on Dec. 28th and went downhill quickly after that.    I think it started out as a bad cold that got worse and started down into my chest and at some point I was exposed to the flu, because when I started knowing it was more than just a cold and should seek medical attention, my breathing was already affected.    I went to one of the clinics out town to be treated and they done the flu test and I was red hot with the flu, but I wasn't given Tamiflu because I had been so sick for many days before seeking treatment.    You know, I can usually keep going with just a head cold or even a slight sinus infection, but when it stopped being that and I started feeling like I was in distress, then I knew it had gone from bad to worse.    Here it is, almost the end of the month of February and I am finally starting to feel normal again.   I really don't know if normal is good, but it's the best I have!!!    hahahahah    Oh, I was just kidding, what ever normal looks like for me, it's looking pretty good these days.   I'm so blessed to feel good again!!!   I do praise God for that too!!!!

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Pet peeve time.    Ok, so y'all know I'm not shy one little bit about telling you what bothers me.   I ain't.    Well, I'm gonna share another pet peeve with y'all now.    I really dislike watching videos of any kind or viewing pictures from a cell phone that has been taken in portrait mode.   I can't stand it.   If I am watching a video that has been recorded in portrait mode on tv or on computers, there is always more black space on either side of the video than what it actually takes up on the screen.   Do you notice that?   Or am I the only one that is so bugged by that?    If its pictures that should be taken in landscape and it's done in portrait, I want to shake people by the shoulders and ask them if that looks ok to them, really!!!   I really wish people would do a little research on the intent of the manufacturers when they are making the cell phones, they would see that their ideas was to be used like cameras have always been from the beginning.    Think about going to a movie theater and watching a movie that should be in landscape format to fill the whole screen, all twenty acres of it, hahaha, only to look up and see a skinny strip running down the center of the screen, with 2/3rds of the screen black, because it was recorded in portrait mode.   I would get up and walk out and demand my money back.   Well that's basically what I do with videos and pictures on line that I look at that are recorded or shot in portrait mode and a ton of black screen showing.   I leave it, never to look at it again.   So, there you have it.   My pet peeve for the day.    I hope and pray that people will actually learn to use the cameras on their cell phones the way they are intended to be used.    Just one woman's opinion.   And on my blog, my opinion is the only one that matters.    hahahaha

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Our loss is heaven's gain.    It's sad, but one of my Junior High School teachers passed away the last Sunday of 2017.    He was missed at church that morning.   Having never missed a Sunday for more than 32 years, everyone suspected something wrong.   One of his friends went to check on him and he had passed in his sleep.   He was without a doubt, one of the best guys most of us had ever met.    If he met you once, he never forgot you.    He was a man of integrity and everyone knew it.    He was sports fanatic and a music fanatic.    Everyone knew that.   He had a music segment on the local radio station where he played music and talked about the singers and shared lots of trivia.   People soooo looked forward to his segment.    If anyone ever needed any baseball stats, they would call him and he always had the answer.    He was very hard to anger, but if you succeeded, watch out.    hahaha   Although the teacher was a few years older than my husband, they kinda grew up together and knew each other all their lives, went to church for many years together, up until we moved away.    I would usually see him at the funeral home and he was always the same friendly upbeat guy that he always was.     He wasn't married, although he had been at one time.   He had no children, yet, he had more people that loved him than the average 20 people do all combined together.    So, I guess you could say that his whole teaching career was full of "his kids", because everyone claimed him as a friend and mentor.  He truly was a good role model for the young guys to emulate.   You know, there is a scripture where Paul is talking about the things that you have heard and seen from me, you do likewise, and you will know the Lord.   My very loose paraphrase.   Well, that is who this teacher was.    People say that we may be the only Jesus that others will see.   Well, lots of people seen Jesus in this teacher.    I am happy to be able to say that I certainly did.    His part of the world just lost a ray of sunshine, but heaven just gained a wonderfully excited resident!!!     I know he is talking and laughing with saints of old and asking questions and actually giving them stats on a lot of things.   hahaha    I know one thing for sure, he is a home and loving it!!!!!!    Rest well, my friend!!!!!

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Bullies or bullied.    One of the things that I have thought about here lately is bullies and being bullied.    Who determines who a bully is?    What characteristics makes up a bully?    Another question, that's a bit tougher, I suppose, is "are you or I a bully", or "have you or I ever been bullied"?     I suppose another question to ask is, "why do we let bullies get away with bullying"?    Those are some pretty tough questions.    And it takes some serious assessment of ones own character to determine if in fact, one is a bully.    If you have ever been bullied, you don't have to think about that, just a serious "yes" will come to mind.    And I will answer one of my own questions.    Yes, I have been bullied, and it's not fun at all.    I even asked myself if I had ever bullied another person.     And I have to say, that I do not believe that I ever have,  I just have to ask God to show me if I have, and I will repent of that.    I don't ever remember putting a target on anyone and making their life a living hell.   I believe I would seriously remember that.    I can tell you that eventually, I learned to stand up for myself and face whom ever it was that was trying to bully me.    I learned that it was pretty easy to turn the tables on a bully.    Most of the time, speaking truth was enough to shut them down.    If speaking truth wasn't enough and a street brawl is what they was wanting, they seen I was ready for that.    But, I did learn that if you stand up to a bully, you can take them out with yesterday's garbage.    

Now, for the one's that let bullying happen in the first place.    Shame on you.    It's been happening for many years and it will keep on happening.    We see no respect in the homes, no respect in the schools, no respect in the churches, no respect in the work place, no respect in the market place, no respect for and by law makers...........and the list goes on.     There's lot places in scripture where we see that lack of respect causes a LOT of problems.    One of the 10 commandments actually says "honor your father and mother so that your days may be long."   My rough interpretation, but you get the gist.    How can we honor our parents if we have no idea what respect is?     It starts at home folks.    It does.    But, guess what, if you are at school then the teachers and principal are the ones that we should be respecting.     They are also the ones that should be protecting us, back in the day, and now protecting our kids from bullies.   Instead, most ignore it or make the situation worse.    I can remember when bullies would get kicked out of school!!!!   No questions asked, if you was a bully, you was gone.      School bus drivers would also deal with bullies by banning them from the school bus and no one questioned their authority.

Years ago, all 6 of us, my 5 brothers and I, were all in school at the same time, so we was all on the bus together.    My middle brother was small for his age and people liked to pick on him, mostly just fun picking and it didn't bother him at all.    There was 2 older guys on our bus that loved to harass and torture and terrorize the younger kids.   As long as my older brothers was around, most of us was safe from the bullies, but if they were ever around and my brothers weren't, then they would terrorize the smaller kids.    One afternoon, school let out.   My middle brother got to the bus and the bullies was on there already.    The school bus driver was on there too, but he was afraid of the bullies, so he never said a word.    I got to the bus, and here I was just a little bitty kid and they started trying to pick at me too.  They was tossing my brother around like a rag doll and I was crying and I kept looking out and waiting to see some of my other brothers coming.   I looked and seen the 2 oldest coming and I ran off the bus, crying and screaming for them and they tore out like lightening and got there.    By the time they got to the bus there was already quite a few other kids on the bus and they were terrified also.  There was no one who could take the bullies on.   My oldest brother got on and stopped at the bus driver and asked why he didn't stop this and the bus driver just looked at him like a deer in head lights.     Those 2 brothers of mine got on there and they stopped it!!!!    I'm telling you they stopped it quick!!!!   They showed the 2 bullies the door of the school bus and literally threw them off the bus and did not let them back on the bus.   We don't know how they made it home and didn't really care.  My brothers got everyone calmed down and they looked after the rest of us until we got off the bus.  The bus driver was scared to death of those 2 bullies.   We all were.     But my parents had always told my brothers to look after all of us, and they did.   They not only looked after us, but whomever was around.   Just like the other kids on the school bus.     There was 2 or 3 other good guys the ages of my older brothers and they also helped that afternoon when my brothers was getting the bullies off the bus.     The other guys did not step up on their own to do anything, but since my brothers did, they helped and I am happy they did.    The next day, my oldest brother went to the principals office and told him what had happened the afternoon before on the bus and the bus driver did back my brother up.    I believe I remember those 2 guys getting kicked out of school permanently over that.    They should have already been out of school, but they had failed so many times and they were still in school.    They didn't want to get jobs, is what it was.  These two were already what one would consider grown men.   They were out of their teens!!!!!!  YES they were.    They both ended up in prison.

Before the event that I just spoke about happened, one of those two would always get a seat behind me after we got on the bus and he would pull my hair all the way to school.   I would be crying.    I told my oldest brother what was happening and he said to just get on the bus like normal and do like you do every morning, and that "I'll be watching and I'll stop it!"   Well, that morning, I got on the bus and the same thing happened.   My brother was watching closely and he came to the bully and took him by the wrist and started twisting his arm behind his back and told him that WOULD twist it OFF if he ever touched me again.   He lifted him off the seat with the twisted arm and walked him half way back the length of the bus and gave him a shove down the aisle and said "do not, and I mean do not ever touch my sister again!!!!"   Folks, that was the last time that that bully messed with me.  But, that is when he targeted my middle brother.

But, we all have stories of bullies.   Some of us may have been the bullies that the stories have been written about.     There's not a lot we can do about yesterday.    But we can determine to do better from this moment forward, if we are one of those bullies.     If you are a parent of a bully, scripture says "spare the rod, spoil the child".    Get a rod and use it!!!     I am so thankful I was reared in a time  when my parents didn't have to worry about going to prison just because they disciplined one of us.  Now, if a parent disciplines a child, they risk prison!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     That's one of the reasons bullying in school and everywhere else has gotten worse.    But now we actually see  people that have never had any kind of discipline having children of their own and don't know what discipline is or how to administer discipline.   So the cycle is getting worse.    One of the things I've always said is that "you can't teach something you know nothing about".     So you can't teach a child to behave if you don't have the behavioral skills you are trying to teach.   Makes sense doesn't it.    I guess I just hate to know that people, kids and adults alike are still being bullies and still being bullied.   It really is a sad society we live in, when we care more about animals than we do children, or human beings in general.   Many will treat animals MUCH better than they will treat others, even people living under their own roof.     Lack of discipline in homes and in society as a whole, is what is taking this country to "hell in a hand basket!"    I have decided that most of the bullies as kids, grow up to be bullies as adults.   This is just one woman's opinion of bullies.     One thing for sure in this life.    My walk on this planet, either helps those around me, or hinders those around me.    Same with your walk.     Like I said earlier, we can't do anything about yesterday.   It's gone.   It's a part of history.    But today, that's a new story and we can write it any way we choose.    Bless others versus hinder others.     That's what's in the balance.    Which one weighs the most?     Hopefully the side that has bless others on it will win for all of us.    I know it will, if we ask God, thru the shed blood of His Son, my blessed Redeemer, to take full control of our lives and ask Him to give us a burning desire to do good and bless others.     We can't do it with our own futile efforts.   It's impossible.    But Paul once said, "I can do all things thru Christ, who strengthens me"!!     An awesome scripture!!!!     So, maybe we can't stop bullying on our own, but we can thru the strength of Christ!!!!!   woop wooop!!!  yay!!!   A little shoutin' up in the house right about now!!!!     Well, I'm off that rant and it felt pretty good just to get this down in writing.   You know, sometimes I start  and I never know the direction it takes and this is the direction it went.     I just let God take me where ever I need to go.    Sometimes it's for me and sometimes it's for y'all.    This time it was definitely for me.     To show me that it is possible to make good choices, with a lot of help from Christ, who strengthens me!

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Air Fryer joy.   If you stuck with me this long, you deserve a prize!!!   hahahaha     Well, sorry, no prize this time, maybe soon though.   You never know.    I got an air fryer for Christmas.    Been wanting one for a long time, so we went to Wal Mart and picked up the Farberware one they had.    It's smallish, but if it was much bigger, I wouldn't be able to pick the "thang" up!   Hahahaha     So, now the fun begins.  Learning to use it.    I am trying to remember to take pictures when I use it.  That will help me remember what I made in it and then I can share them here with y'all.    I'm trying to fix everything from scratch so I can control the ingredients.    I do a LOT of cooking in my "electric pressure cooker" and I'm hoping the air fryer becomes as useful and valuable as the EPC has.     So far, it's looking pretty good.    I did order a 5 piece accessory set that should be here by next Friday.    I look forward to that.     That will give me more ways to use it and also be able to cook more than just a bit at a time.   So, I will let y'all know how that turns out.

So, this is my attempt at the 2 ingredient bagel recipe.   It is equal parts greek style yogurt and self rising flour.    Once you make the dough, you can put any add ins you want.   In these, I sprinkled a bit of cinnamon and used a small box or raisins.    This was just a small batch of 2.   Cooked at 400* for about 5 or 6 minutes and turned them and cooked for another 4 or 5 minutes.  Not over 10 minutes.

 This is what they looked like when done.     Looks pretty good, huh?

This is a close up of the sliced bagel.   I am telling you, I am sold on this recipe!!!  I love these and my husband does too. 

 So, after the 2 little ones was good, I decided to make a small batch for the freezer and they freeze up great and cook really well in air fryer.   Yum, I can keep these in the freezer now and have them whenever we want.

So, this what my air fryer looks like.   This is the manual one from Wal Mart.   It is Farberware brand.  So far I am thrilled with it.    On the top of it is the settings.   The bottom knob is the timer and the top knob is the temperature control.   The handle sticking out is what you pull the fryer basket out with.     It's a pretty neat contraption.   hahaha      I love that you can control the ingredients you use.   No more greasy oily food!!!!  Yay!!!!    This one is a 3.2 quart size.   It's a pretty good size unless you want to cook more than one thing.    So, I have 5.3 sized Cooks Essential air fryer ordered from QVC, with delivery date to be in April.   Those were so popular that the demand was far greater than what they had to sell.    But, anyway, I'm on the list and can't wait to get the larger one to go with the one I already have.    As a matter of fact, it was my husband's idea for me to get a larger one!!!!  So I jumped on that like a duck on a june bug and got it ordered, before he changed his mind!!!   hahahah      Naw, he wouldn't have changed his mind, just pickin' at him a little.   I got a good hubby!!!!   Yay!!!!

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Paper bead making.    I have been making a few more paper beads.   If I don't feel like doing anything else, I can roll a few paper beads and it don't take long to get a few cranked out.    My aim is to try to start selling some of my jewelry.    People are always coming up to admire it, so I hope to be able sell a little along the way.    I did get a request for a set of jewelry back before Christmas and I have that made, just waiting to put in the hands of the lady that requested it.   I just pray that she likes it as well as I do.     It's really hard to know people want and expect.     I try to do what I would be seriously thrilled with myself.    But, I realize that not everyone has the same tastes in jewelry as I do.    So, we'll have to wait and see.   But I am getting anxious to see if she likes it.    I'll let you know what the verdict is.    In the mean time, I keep rolling and cutting and rolling.............it really is better than therapy!!!!   Hahahaha     The fun really starts when I get to put them together.     I think my jewelry making skills are getting better all the time.    I make all my ear wires now and I can make 2 at a time, so they are perfectly matched and that is an amazing trick I learned!!!     My Family Community Education Club thru the Extension Office wants me to do a work shop on making paper beads and I am getting that sorted out.    I made myself a tool, actually a couple of tools for rolling beads and I got some extras made to share with the class.    I am hoping it will be an ongoing class.    I would love to see the ladies make all kinds of jewelry like I am doing.    If it works out, then I will also show them my tricks for making ear wires and eye pins and all kinds of stuff.   I look forward to that this year.

My tip for this post will be about the finishing of the beads.    Instead of buying all the expensive products to dip your beads in, unless money isn't a factor, use a solution of mod podge and water.   2 ounces of mod podge and 6 ounces of water mixed in a container works well.   I can get the 2 ounce bottles of mod podge at the Dollar Tree, for a dollar.    Dip a strand of 20 or so beads, strung on fishing line,  in that mixture 4 times and it hardens the bead not only on the outside, but on the inside too.   It helps to make the bead water resistant.   I won't say they are waterproof, because I haven't dropped any of my beads in water to see what will happen.  I may try that though. 

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Well, that's about if for today.   I hope you seen or read something here today that blessed you.    I hope that we will do our part to try to stop bullying.     I hope you get an air fryer and share with me what you are doing with yours.    I hope you roll a bead or two.   I have several pictures I need to get posted  of my beads, I think you will like what you see.   Well, anyway, tell someone you know that God loves them.   You may be the only person to ever tell them that.    I hope you come back soon and I hope to get back soon myself.    Remember that God loves y'all, and so do I!!!   hugs, patty