I posted about the Renuzit TriScents “Transform Your Home with Tanya Memme” Promotion a couple weeks ago and now they have picked the top ten semi-finalists so I went over to register and vote. You can vote once a day up until June 7th. I thought the video above was adorable, but that isn’t where I put my vote today. I felt really bad for several of the semi-finalist and it’s too bad they can’t all win. Do one of these families a favor and go view the semi-finalist gallery and pick your favorite.

Unfortunately I didn’t know any of the semi-finalist, it would be nice to help someone I know win the 20,000 home makeover. I chose the Hiatt family from the semi-finalist gallery shown below because her husband served in Iraq and they touched my heart with all they need to get done. I think everyone should vote and help someone in need. Of course for their favorite not mine. I will probably split up my votes between a couple different ones.

It only takes a minute to register and the videos aren’t long so it didn’t take long to view the ones they had, like I said several of the families I felt really bad for so I’ll split my votes. You will really enjoy the video of the little girl, she did a really good job.

I have found that gardening is good for the soul. I think I mentioned before that I was never good at making anything grow, while most of my siblings were very good at it. At one point when I was young I even managed to kill cactus now how pathetic is that? The past 5 years I have learned to take pleasure in actually planting different things and watching them grow.

I grew some fantastic tomatoes last year and I think I’ll grow some herbs this year. Gardening is great for everyone, but especially therapeutic for older people. Our neighbor stays totally occupied with his yard and growing his flowers since his wife died. Everyone goes to him for advice and he loves to help. It’s a great learning experience for children and people like me.

I’m stubborn so I never ask him for advice because I want to learn on my own, but I see him checking out the different things I plant. I find that I really enjoy watching the things I plant grow, it’s very fulfilling and I feel like I have missed so much all these years. Pretty soon we may all be growing our own food because of the sky rocketing price of gas pushing the prices ever higher.

Organic gardening has become very popular because more people want to get away from chemicals, it’s more expensive to buy of course, but if you have a little piece of land you can grow your own organic vegetables naturally without the help of commercial fertilizers and other chemicals that are used to make the produce grow faster and bigger.

When you grow naturally it may take longer for your herbs, fruits, and vegetables to grow, but you can be assured that chemicals wont make you sick. Our neighbor always puts fertilizer around his plants and it’s sickening and my silly dogs try to eat it even though I try to keep them away and they always get sick. If you have allergies or asthma those chemicals aren’t pleasant or healthy to be around.

I do know you have to work the soil through out the year so that when you’re ready to plant you will know that your soil is rich enough in vitamins and minerals to help the seeds and plants grow. Composting will help fertilize your garden and ensure that your organic garden is healthy and hearty.

When we had race horses I use to muck out the stalls and a lot of the farmers not to mention the mushroom growers always came around for Speedy’s fantastic manure. You can find simple tricks to use all over the Internet on how to make your organic garden grow and you can even pick up my favorite “Organic Gardening For Dummies” it will show you all about making a bin and taking care of your compost.

I’m not religious as I have stated before, but one thing that concerns me and I’m sure many others is the idea of taking prayer out of public schools. No, I don’t think it should be forced on children, but would it really hurt? There has been many different interpretations of The First Amendment in past years.

I think it’s great that we have the freedom to choose our religion, but many choose to interpret that part of the document as a rule to get away from religion and God. We have always had the choice of sending our children to a private school if we can afford it or using the public school system and it wasn’t always a problem that you had a religious faith that you upheld.

We are concerned with Nate because his parents chose to send him to a private church academy where prayer is allowed and encouraged, he will start 1st grade this year and the academy goes to the 4th. As yet Bill and I don’t know if they have decided to leave him there or try the public school system. I want what is best for Nate and Bill is concerned that the little guy might not fit in.

There is a huge problem at the administrative level and we should be concerned that they are becoming more oppressive in as much that people of faith are being forced to go “into the closet” and hide their values and their religious beliefs. We want our children to learn how to be who they are even though they might be different from who other people are, that’s part of life.

Just because there are people who don’t like religion or have other faiths should that be a mandate to rid our school of something so basic as a prayer? I don’t think any body has the right to force any type of belief or religious system on anyone, especially a child. Of course we raise them the best we can and teach them things we were taught and that we think is right for them, but they will make their own choices when they are older.

Whether a person is Atheist or not and no matter what his belief system do you honestly think a prayer is going to corrupt our children? “In God I Trust”

People seem to have a hard time discussing death and dying because no one really understands it. Of course you hear accounts of people dying and coming back and they try to share this miracle that has happened to them, but people are sceptical and fearful because they don’t believe or understand. I believe!

People fear what will happen to them after they leave this reality and depending on the faith and teachings that they were taught as children they will cling to those ideas. I have met many that were very devout in their belief and their way was the right and only way to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. I personally believe in no religion and I think one is just as good as another.

I do however believe in God and spirituality and that there is nothing to fear in dying. It’s simply a return of the energy to it’s source. I also know that nothing or no one can actually harm me, the real me because I’m not this body. Sure they can blow my body to bits or chop me up and yes this body would hurt in this reality, but like I said this body isn’t me.

I think everyone has to find their own truth and just because your truth isn’t mine or mine yours it doesn’t make either one wrong nor does it make it right, it just is. When I was young before my Mother died she must have been searching for her own truth because she exposed me to many different religions.

I remember the snake pit and the people that worshiped with them and then there were the Pentecostal, as children we called them Holy Rollers and they scared me more than the snakes. I thought they were like one of those chickens that jerked and flopped all over the place after my Mama had wrung it’s neck and the weird noises and sounds that came out of their mouth was spooky.

It’s really weird that I would marry into a family that all spoke in tongues and flopped all over the place. I even witnessed my Mother-in-law fall and crack her head several times and have no recollection or pain afterwards. Tommy’s sister was an Evangelist and practised laying on of hands and she tried to make me receive the Holy Spirit, but it just didn’t happen so she said I was blocked by a demon or devil.

At any rate I have been in many churches of different religions while growing up and they all believe that their way is the only way to God. I believe that everyone and everything is already safe with God and this is just a dream of life, the only problem is I can’t figure out why I wanted to have this dream in the first place.

I have always had a yearning to go home even when I was home, if you can understand what I’m referring to, maybe you’ve had the same yearning. I also believe that we share the same soul and are united, these are my truths and they make sense to me. Poor Bill at times thinks I’m a nut, but he’s very respectful toward my way of thinking just as I am toward his and everyone else.

I don’t fear dying, but I don’t like this reality of feeling pain. I was in bed with my Mother when she died and she was not afraid, I was 7 years old and it made a lasting impression on me and 6 months later my Daddy died and he had been paralyzed on one side of his body for as long as I could remember and used a cane to drag himself around.

My sister hollered and we all went running into his room and he did the strangest thing, he put that paralyzed arm and leg up in the air and shook them both. He was not afraid!