Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

               Photo of Sunset from Arabia Mountain, Georgia taken Nov. 27, 2011  by my husband.

"Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" is one of my favorite songs during Advent.  (Our church choir sings this beautifully.  I would put it on my blog if I had a recording of it.)  On YouTube,  I listened to quite a few recordings but so many of them were so...polished and somehow just seemed like professionals doing a job rather than singing a hymn.  I found a woman singing this as she was accompanied by her husband on guitar.  I love this recording...you can hear children in the background, every so often you can hear someone whispering, and the recording itself isn't perfect but please stay with it and see if you are not moved by the genuine feelings that come across.  You might want to just listen, but watch it too as her hands are very expressive as she sings.

Wishing you all a peaceful Advent.      

SIBOL Sunshine International Blankets of Love

Today marks the day that SIBOL reached the magical number of 120 blankets made!  That means a grand total of 3000 squares that women from all over the world have either crocheted or knitted and mailed to Sue McGorie who lives in England.  Sue carefully records each square received and then emails each and every person who sends her a square.  She and some of her "Sibolettes" crochet the squares  together and then puts a lovely border around each one.  They are displayed on her website and then each one is named.  Then, they are lovingly tied up with a beautiful ribbon and then taken to elderly care homes in England!  Just recently, someone contacted Sue and informed her that many elderly people were suffering in their own homes due to lack of finances that they too could use some of the blankets.  What do you think our Sue said?  Of course, she said that she would be more than happy to share the blankets with them and so she did!  Here is the website www.sunshineinternationalblanketsoflove.blogspot.com  Please go and look at the blankets.  They are beautiful!

I have written about SIBOL before when I mentioned in one of my posts that I like to make things and that I have sent a few squares to Sue.  She truly treats each square that she receives with such respect!
And she appreciates everything that she is given.  Just listen to her own words...

"Please don't ever feel your crocheting is not good enough.  The other thing is - I worry about the cost
of postage to you all.  The last thing I want is for anyone to be out of pocket.   I would be grateful for one square honestly!  I know postage is so expensive!"

There, doesn't that make you want to send her a whole boxful of squares?  She just began this on Feb. 28, 2010 and it was in honor of her grandmother who lived until the age of 103.  These blankets are truly works of art.  I read on one of the crocheting websites that the crocheters and knitters should really call themselves fibre artists and I agree.    I am thankful that she accepts my squares and actually uses them in the blankets.  I can't wait to see my little plain Georgia snowman square in the next snowman blanket!

Baby It's Cold Outside by Frank Loesser

As I typed my last post, I listened to several songs by Doris Day before I chose "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps".  There were others that I liked but I only wanted the very best sound quality to be on there.
I know most people never click on the links to the songs but I honestly spend some time to find the very best of what I want to say! Anyway, one of the songs that I listened to was "Baby It's Cold Outside". 

I only had a vague memory of that song, but I really liked it in the movie, "Elf" and I have found it for you here.  ( Oh, and I really liked that movie too.  Will Ferrell is very often even too silly for ME but I thought this was a sweet movie and the innocence portrayed in this film was I thought quite touching. And Bob Newhart as the Elf Dad and Ed Asner as Santa Claus, they are just perfect!)

There have been so many singers that have sung this song.  I just saw something that said something like 160 artists have recorded it!  It got me to wondering, who WROTE the song?  It was written by Frank Loesser.  Please read more about him here at www.frankloesser.com  "Baby It's Cold Outside"
was in the 1949 movie Neptune's Daughter starring Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban and it won the Academy Award for Best Song.  The interesting thing to me is that he had actually written it  a few years before as a duet for he and his wife to sing at their housewarming party for their friends! Wow, imagine going to a party and having a song like that performed for you! According to what I have read, his wife was furious that he ended up using it for the movie.   And also, there was a bit of a question that it should not have been considered for the Academy Award since it wasn't WRITTEN for the movie.  Since the song had never been sung professionally, it was given the go ahead to be included as a nomination and it did indeed win the Academy Award.

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" was his song all the way, he wrote the words and lyrics.
If you go to the link for Frank Loesser above, you will see that he wrote the lyrics to over 700 songs!   What an amazing talent.  Songwriting is such a wonder to me.  How can anyone take words and music and put them together in such a way that makes them last for years and years and they never grow stale and each new generation can enjoy them?    (And this applies to all music, not just popular music!)    Here is another wonder for me, his daughter, Susan Loesser is a wonderful artist and you can see her work at this site - www.susanloesser.com  All of his children must be so proud every time they hear their father's song on the radio. It does make me think though, that of all the singers that have sung this song, and all those who have listened to it, how many of them know who wrote it?  Hey, they should all read my blog, right?

And it does get cold and snowy in Georgia, here are some photos to prove it! The cedar tree looks really lovely with the snow, doesn't it? Those are our icy cherry trees in our front yard.  Remember them in the snow and I will show you how they look in the Spring.  That's a promise!

Doris Day and Dog in Sunbeam

 Doris Day released a new album a couple of months ago in the UK.  Incredibly, it debuted at number nine on the Bilboard charts.  She is now 87 years old and  made history by being the oldest artist ever to enter the U.K. top ten with new material.  (Vera Lynn released an album a few years ago at the age of 92, but her album was of previously recorded songs.  And please understand, this is just to set the record straight, I have great admiration for both of these women.)  The new album is called "My Heart" and should be released in the US very soon.   This song that I found on Youtube is more well known as the song from the TV show "Coupling", but I love to hear Doris Day sing it! (This is not on her new album, but I like it, so that's why it is here.)

Just by looking at Doris Day, you might think that she has had a sunny, happy life with no heartaches. That simply isn't true. She has been married four times and one of her husbands, Marty Melcher, squandered away much of her earnings, which forced her into doing a TV show in the 70's. Her only child, Terry Melcher, died in 2004 of skin cancer.  She has worked tirelessly for many years trying to help stray animals in America and the proceeds from the album will go to her Doris Day Animal Foundation.

Tonight, on the news there was a moving report on ABC news about a young American soldier who had been photographed with puppies the night before he had been killed.  The family worked hard to get one of the puppies so as to remember their son.  As the ABC news reporter was interviewing the family, the dog walked out into the backyard and suddenly, a sunbeam shone straight down onto the dog. What a beautiful thing to capture!

Is the world too cynical for Doris Day and a dog that can bring comfort to a grieving family?  Happily, not yet!

Two Good Movies!

Snapdragons at the base of Stone Mountain 11/27/11.

                                        Kay's Happy Jalapeno Corn Casserole 11/24/11.

TWO GOOD MOVIES:  THE MUPPET MOVIE  AND CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER.     THESE ARE GOOD.  KAY SAYS WATCH THEM!

Movies!  I love them!  Many times I disagree with the choice of the movie critics.  About Schmit is one example, the critics loved that movie.  My husband and I use that movie to judge the bad movies we see. "Was that as bad as About Schmidt?"   "No, only about half as bad".  Now,those two movies above? I have no idea what the critics have said about them but I just saw them both and enjoyed them very much.

On  Thanksgiving Day, after enjoying a nice time at my Dad's, my husband and I came home and watched The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  This came out last year and was on TV.  It is a wonderful movie!  Beautifully filmed and staying fairly close to the book with only a few exceptions, it was such a nice ending to a wonderful day.  After the film was over and we were reading the credits, remarking on how much we loved it, we see the  British director's name... Michael Apted.
Ah, I said there you have it... he is one of my favorites!!   This is the list of movies that he has directed that I have seen and love: Coalminer's Daughter, Gorillas In The Mist , Thunderheart, Amazing Grace, and now... this one I just saw on Thanksgiving!  He also did some fascinating documentaries on children that he first filmed when they were seven years old.   Have you ever seen them? 7up/ 7plus seven/21 up/28 up/35up/42up...he filmed them every seven years.   I love everything that he has ever done!

The second movie that we saw was in celebration of our son's birthday.  All three of us went to see the new Muppet Movie and it was such a joyous movie and we enjoyed it very much indeed. ( I just noticed that the Muppet Movie will be out in theaters in Britain, I think in February, gives you something to look forward to, right?) It is also directed by a British director named James Bobin.  (Kay, do they have to be British for you?  Well, I can't help it, they just are!)  The story is so cleverly written, the music is good and of course, there are muppets!  This movie works both for children AND adults.    Even though Jim Henson is no longer with us, I thought it was a very nice touch to have a poster of him above the theater at the end of the movie, it was as if he was giving this movie his blessing.

Jim Henson's Rowlf was on the Jimmy Dean Show in the early 60's.  I remember staying up to watch that show just so I could see Rowlf!   Kermit was also Jim's voice. In the Muppet Movie from 1979 these muppets sang a song together. (Both voices are by Jim Henson, he just recorded them separately and the voices were blended together later.)   I found this song on Youtube.  If you listen to it, you might just sing it all day too!  Would love it if I caused someone to sing!   Please let me know if you have seen either of these movies and if you haven't, then I urge you to do so!

Kyle Maynard

Since I wrote my last post about Kyle Maynard and his climb up Stone Mountain, I have been in touch with his business manager and best friend, Joey Leonardo.   That name makes me smile, because you see, in my small town Georgia upbringing,  the name "Joey" always sounded like "Joy" to me.  How appropriate since I began my post about the song which really means having JOY in your life! Also, he gave me another link and I am so grateful that he did and I would like to share it here, it is www.missionkilimanjaro.com


MISSION: For Kyle Maynard and the entire Mission Kilimanjaro Team to summit the highest
                      peak in Africa together.

       
PURPOSE:  To send a message to our heroes in the Veteran community and to young people
                      with disabilities around the world that no obstacle is too great to be conquered
                       with an active, no-barriers lifestyle and mindset.
                    

I mentioned in my last post that he works with and is an inspiration to disabled children but also,
if you go to the  link above, you will read how Kyle met a couple of veterans at the Atlanta airport and that they made him realize what a powerful influence he could have with veterans who have lost limbs in the war.   From what I have read about Kyle, he has been working with veterans ever since.

Now, neither of these young men know me at all.  I am just someone who likes inspiring true stories about REAL people.  I, for one, will do everything I can to tell anyone who will listen that this is something to talk about, something to support...dare I say to even cheer about? Why not?  We hear about heroes all the time, but honestly, how many true heroes do we hear about on the news?  Everyone should know about this upcoming mountain climb to the highest peak in Africa.  
      This is good news.  Let's spread the word!

NOTE:  After I posted this I thought of a very good book.  It is  "Reach for the Sky" by Paul Brickhill.  It is the story of Douglas Bader who lost both legs in a plane crash in 1931 and even though he was dismissed by the Royal Air Force, he talked his way back into the Force and became a famous hero in the Battle of Britain.   I highly recommend this book to you!

NO EXCUSES

  There is a song that I like that has as one of its lines, "And when you have the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance".   Now, as I read those lines, I think of those who are physically unable to dance or to even move very much, but  I hope that they have JOY in their lives, which is really what that song is saying to me.  There was the most amazing story recently on the news about a young man from Buford, Georgia,  who climbed Stone Mountain in October.  His name is Kyle Maynard and he has written a book called "No Excuses".  Here is the link to his website: www.kyle-maynard.com .  He was born with shortened limbs, with his arms just to his elbows and his legs just to his knees.  Now, you would think that climbing Stone Mountain would be difficult enough but that is just in preparation for his goal of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.   Yes, you just read that right, he plans to climb Mt KILIMANJARO!!!  By doing this, he plans to raise money for children with disabilities in Africa. 

Please watch this video above.  The people who were walking beside him that day were inspired and  one of them took a photo of him saying that she wanted to show that photo to people who said they COULDN'T climb the mountain!  This reminded me of the line from Ralph McTell's  " Streets of London" song,  " And how can you tell me that you're lonely, or say for you that the sun don't shine.  Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London, I'll show you something, to make you change your mind."  He wrote that song about the homeless in London but the woman's remark on the mountain about Kyle Maynard  very much says the same thing...

So, have you climbed your mountain lately, either physically or figuratively?

NO  EXCUSES!