The Road That Takes You.

  I remember when these country roads were small and went both ways....

                          

  Remember when, going downtown meant that's where you mean to go.

  Remember when, standing up for what you believed in meant something and was not looked down upon.

  Remember when, ignorance was not well tolerated and teachers had the say.

  Remember when, parents were parents and not friends to their children.

  Remember when, losing your marbles meant just what it means, and others helped you pick them up.

  Remember when, a secret meant it was kept that way and someones word meant just that.

  Remember when, family meant kin.

  Remember when, asking for a cup meant that others sugar bowls were full, if you were in need.

  Remember when, getting mail meant going to a mailbox.

  Remember when, working hard for something meant earning it and not just going out to get it.

  Remember when, the pledge meant; One Nation Under God.

  Remember when, getting lost meant finding yourself on an old dirt road.

 

  
 I remember when these country roads were small, went both ways and took you where you belong, home.  
                    
Dana Hunt-Me  

"Fezziwig or Scrooge"

 
 Most everyone knows about, Charles Dickens, and one of his most famous novels, "A Christmas Carol". I found this interesting and wanted to share it. 

  I'm feeling like I'm getting Scrooged!

Dana Hunt-Me

"Mr. Fezziwig is a character from the novella A Christmas Carol created by Charles Dickens to provide contrast with Ebenezer Scrooge's attitudes towards business ethics. Fezziwig, who apprenticed Scrooge is everything that Scrooge is not ^[1] and is portrayed as a happy, foppish man with a large Welsh wig. In stave 2 of A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to revisit his youthful days in Fezziwig's world located at the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. Dickens used Fezziwig to represent a set of communal values and a way of life which was quickly being swept away in the economic turmoil of the early nineteenth century.^[2][3]
Scrooge is reminded how his own values have diverged greatly from those of someone he once admired. Fezziwig is also a capitalist, but he moderates profit maximization with kindness, generosity, and affection for his employees. Fezziwig cannot go too far in ignoring profitability – if his products cost too much he will be out competed. If his margins are too low, he will be unable to secure loans to continue operations. ^[4] In the early 19th century such small owner-controlled traders were being swept up. In the 1951 screenplay for the movie Scrooge by Noel Langley, Fezziwig is advised to bend with the times and sell out, but Fezziwig resists this call to progress:

Jorkin: "Mr. Fezziwig, we’re good friends besides good men of business. We’re men of vision and progress. Why don’t you sell out while the going’s good? You’ll never get a better offer. It’s the age of the machine, and the factory, and the vested interests. We small traders are ancient history, Mr. Fezziwig.”
Fezziwig: “It’s not just for money alone that one spends a lifetime building up a business…. It’s to preserve a way of life that one knew and loved. No, I can’t see my way to selling out to the new vested interests, Mr. Jorkin. I’ll have to be loyal to the old ways and die out with them if needs must.”^[5]

In the end, Jorkin hires away Scrooge and buys out Fezziwig's business, moving it from private to shareholder ownership. As agent of shareholder interests, Jorkin and his managers Scrooge and Marley are constrained from diverging from the goals of profitability, making it more difficult to be a Fezziwig even if they were inclined to^[4]. Fezziwig's successor Jorkin demonstrates the weakness of self-interest when he announces to the Board of directors that the company is insolvent after years of embezzling. Scrooge and Marley demonstrate their cunning self-interest by using the crisis to attain controlling interest in the company. In Langley's and director Brian Desmond Hurst's Scrooge, these new managers replacing the Fezziwigs are predatory towards shareholders and employees alike, the product of a process and a mindset that Dickens felt was at odds with humanity itself.^[3][6]
In A Christmas Carol starring Kelsey Grammer, Fezziwig, following a downturn in his business, comes to Scrooge for a business loan. Scrooge, starting to turn into his greedy self, refuses the request, stating that he (Scrooge) would be throwing good money after bad."

 

Look The Other Way.

  I wake up every morning, step outside of my back door and I look out at two of the most beautiful people who have ever stood. They have so much history, so much grace, and they also have so much they could say. I wish I could help them, but I was told to look the other way. Perhaps they might wonder why I look their way? For it has nothing to do with them, just the beauty that lays within. I wish I could help you. Oh, I wish for you, the day, that they can see within you, the stories you portray. I am so sorry I can't help you, but for now, I just have to look the other way.

         Nature is PRICELESS, but not be be over-looked.                               

Dana Hunt-Me

Difference To Different.

   I think sometimes you have to be different to make a difference, and differences sometimes makes you have to be different to be seen and heard. 

                                                     

  Views are different from different angles and angles are different from others views, which could make a difference.

                                                    

  Walking in someone else's shoes would be different than walking in your own. Some shoes of others fit and if by chance they do, wear them; see, walk and feel their difference and maybe even understand. If the shoes do not fit, step out of the difference.

                                                      

  To be different might appear strange, but it is rare and takes strength. To go with the current is easy and most times effortless, it is when you swim against the current that is hard. The current also moves in different directions time to time, we decide which way we will flow and what we might gain or lose within the process of a decision. Each of our decisions are different and might make a difference.

                                                     

  Most who gain something in the process of a decision could make a difference, but often go with the current, with having something to lose on the outside. Most who lose something, are different and often swim against the current, with much more to gain on the inside, during the struggle of the difference.

                                                 

  Difference is to make a distinct change and to have a significant effect on. Different is to stand out unlike most others and to be distinct. Don't let anybodies difference tell you different. 

                                  
  UNDERSTAND? I DO, DON'T BE AFRAID TO BE DIFFERENT!!         
 
    
Dana Hunt-Me

Remember?!?!

  I believe I have MOMMY AMNESIA !!

  I just wish I could remember all the things I wanted to, and forget all the things I remember!!

                             

Dana Hunt-Me

Undercover

  My five-year-old son, Logan, is quite a spunky little fire-cracker. His favorite color is red, he does amazingly well at saying what is on his mind with no holding back; and he is in love with Lightning McQueen, as lots of children are.

  Logan, just started Pre-K and looks forward to going to school everyday. Just the other day, he came home with a little paper book that he had put together at school (staples and all), titled "Steve McQueen". He was so very proud to show off his book that he had made, but, I had to wonder though, who was Steve McQueen to him? So this prompted me to ask him, "Who is Steve McQueen?".  He told me, "My teacher does not know who Lightning McQueen is, so he is now Steve McQueen.", "Oh...., okay." I replied. A few seconds went by and Logan leaned into me to get my attention and said very softly to me, "Mom, I think he has gone undercover!!".

                                                      

  So now he is good ol' Steve McQueen!!

    
*A one liner from Logan's book: "Then Steve McQueen saw Mater." I think it is about the cutest thing ever!! He'd probably think so too...... Cool Man!

Dana Hunt-Me

Along Came A Spider and Then.....

 
 My son, Lucas (who is five), made us aware that he will be changing his name when he gets older to,.......... Peter Parker.

                           

Dana Hunt-Me

IUD.

  I absolutely take zero responsibility of my actions, what I say or do. You and I can blame it on my mom's IUD. I'm proof, good or bad for you, Ha.......I'm here!

 

 

 

Dana Hunt-Me

Pieces of (My) Mind.

  Have you ever sat back and looked at a midnight sky with the stars scattered all around, a natural instant high.  My mind starts to wonder away with so many thoughts and questions that can not be answered.

                                                      

  It amazes me that we are here on a planet, let alone the thought of what is beyond all those scattered stars and space. Everything is so complex, or is it? Is all of this that surrounds us huge or merely just a speck of dust?

                                                      

  I feel we would be foolish to believe that we are the only ones that exist beyond here, there has to be more out there, more to it. Whether it is heaven, other living planets or places, aliens (maybe we are them?), who is it to say and who has the completely right answer.

                                                      

  These questions and thoughts cross my mind time to time, especially when I look up at a star filled night; and I'm sure most everyone else wonders too. Maybe, it would be too much for us to take in or understand now.  Or, could it be that we as "humans" make things more complicated than things really should be and take to many things for granted. It might be that the answer is so simple, that we just can not comprehend it.

                                                    

  If I had only one question to ask and to ever be answered would be, "What is beyond space?" and the answer could not be nothing (I would not except that answer), because nothing has to be something!

  Pieces of My Mind.

Dana Hunt-Me

 

Just Icing On The Cake.

   I have to wonder, what's worse, or perhaps, what's more healthy?

  My two-year-old son loves to pretend he is a dog. He eats our dogs dry dog food and he kindly shares it with the dogs too (so sweet), but..........

  We had birthday cake with blue icing on it the other day, and he had blue poop for three days?? Hummm?? I wonder, I think I'm siding with the dog food!!


Dana Hunt-Me

 

"The Grass Is Greener On The Other Side".

  My son, Lucas, who is five, asked today if this was HEAVEN. My husband and I both quickly responded, "NO!" and we discussed our feelings and ideas of what heaven is with him. For there is no right answer for his question; just faith, hope and a whole lot of unknown trust.

                              
   Even though, in the back of my head, I was thinking to myself,....."Oh, Dear Lord, I hope this is not heaven, but just a test!!", and not that this world does not have beauty within it. I'm only truly hoping for the first time, "That the grass is greener on the other side".

Dana Hunt-Me

Don't Drink and Mow!!!

    This is what happens when you had a few beers and go fire-up the ol' riding lawn mower? Oh Crap,................ Whoops!?!?

Dana Hunt-Me

I'll Take A Bottle of That!!

 
  My nine-year-old son gets so excited to go check the mail at the mailbox (I mean "Old School Mailbox"), to see if anything has arrived for him. He writes letters to his friends and family, and loves to drop his letters in the slot of the mailbox for the mailman to pick-up. It makes me so proud to see him do so. "Signed, Sealed (Stamped) and Delivered."

  He still believes in Santa Clause, The Tooth Fairy and The Easter Bunny, and I wish I could bottle his innocence up forever. I so hope it transfers that long to my other three sons (PLEASE!!!).

                     
            

  Where has all the innocence gone?

  He came home the other night with his homework (He's in the 3rd grade might I add) and one of the last questions he had to do was write a funny "E-MAIL" to a friend about the story he had read. I thought, WHAT IN THE WORLD, what has happened? Can't children just be children? Why is everything so fast and furious(why, Why and Why?)? I barely let him get on the computer for heaven sakes and I want to keep it that way as long as a can, but he knows how to use a computer better than I do (Huh!). I just learned how to download pictures from a camera to the computer (Which I'm sure some people probably wish I hadn't.......).

  Why do all these children have to have all these gadgets and gizmo's, isn't it only hurting them to some extent? I understand that this is the world it is becoming or already is, but still.....,is it going GREEN or something deeper than that? When you have children in texting competitions, isn't there something not quite right with that? Note: My spelling check is questioning the word TEXTING???

  My grandparents raised four girls, had their own animals that provided and fed them and they lived off their land, which was not big. Could you imagine giving a live chicken to an eighteen-year-old now, and saying, here you go make dinner or here's a cow milk it!! How fast time has changed. I suppose that is life now, but can't we slow down just a bit.

  And, yes, I have a facebook page and, yes, I BLOG, but I have always loved to write, I love drawing, painting and anything to do with art, I love photography (Again,"Old School Style"), I love nature, gardening, cooking, camping (Again, "Old School Style", TENT IT!!), fishing, hiking and heck I love playing in the dirt!! But, I look at some of the facebook pages of our young people..... and who in the heck has over 2000+ "friends" (NO ONE!)?

  I guess it is what it is and I can not changed it. I can only write how I feel and I will only learn as my children grow (which scares me for that and them), but, I'll take a bottle of that innocence to go, please!

Dana Hunt-Me

The Best Thing A Parent Could Ever Hear.

  It was early one morning and my husband and I were in the kitchen helping our son, Christian (who is nine), study and finish up his homework.

  Christian sat at the kitchen table doing his work, while asking lots of questions about things other than what he was working on, as he always does (He has quite a busy brain.....and that is a very good thing).

  One of the questions was about going to college and what it would be like; and if he would have to get up early to go to his classes. We told him perhaps sometimes you may have classes that are early. He then asked, "Well, how will I get there?". We replied that he would be able to walk to most of his classes (us,think dorm room???). He sat there for a moment to take our answer in. Then he said, "That would mean I would not live with you guys!".

  He then said, " No, that will not do, I would miss you all to much, I want to stay here with you, I will stay close and drive!".

  What an awesome person he is and what an awesome thing to hear from our son. xoxo

  Dana Hunt-Me

A Hole.

  We were doing our yard work with our children running around the yard. Lucas, my I DO NOT want to listen son, sat in time-out in the yard. He had found an ant hill and sat quite in time-out (Rare), playing way with the ants. After time-out, he got up and played with our other children. About 20 minutes had past and he remembered the ants. So he looked very hard to find the ants, he said, "Mom, where is my "ANT" hole, oh, there it is."


Dana Hunt-Me