The little girl holding onto the huge doll is me. This picture L to R is my baby sister, my Dad holding my brother, me, the doll, and my Mom.

My parents both married at age 17 and I am their first born. For the first few years of my life we lived in a little red rent house that was on my Grandpa and Grandma’s farm.

At my age of 3 we moved to our own farm on the Upper Hilham Road in Overton County Tennessee.

My Mom was a stay at home Mom and my Dad worked during the day and farmed in the afternoons and on weekends.

We had all kinds of animals on our farm and it was such a good life. We grew up drinking milk straight from the cow and making butter from the cream and had our own eggs from the hens and our own hogs for meat. We participated in the work of the farm and raised a garden every year and worked in that too. We had hands on experiences that helped our parents but also gave us very many life lessons that we still use to this day.

Our Mom read to us out of only 2 books that I can remember. One was the family Bible and the other book was Mom’s high school English literature book and is probably the reason that I always wanted to become a writer. I loved the stories from the Bible of David and Goliath and Daniel in the Lions Den but also loved the many plays of Shakespeare and the poetry in the English lit book.

And I also loved country music. We had no TV in the young years so we listened to music a lot. Our Mom was the piano player at church so we grew up on the hymns but she was also a huge fan of Patsy Cline and the country greats. Music was a big part of my growing up years.

One Christmas when Sis and I were in grade school we got a little record player for Christmas and an album of the Mary Poppins movie with Dick Van Dyke. We wore that album out and love it till this day.

My sister and I always shared a room and part of that time had bunk beds. I always got the top bunk because she had very bad eyesight and Mom always gave her the bottom bunk. I didn’t mind though because I was never afraid of heights and enjoyed it.

Our neighbors were all good friends of ours but no one lived really close to us so we played outside and rode our ponies a lot and built a lot of tree houses and forts. We got along good together most days but sometimes had our fights with each other too.

I am 15 months older than my brother and he is 18 months older than my sister so my Mom and Dad had their hands full but they survived. They were both young and great parents and made simple things so fun for us. Mom had a huge imagination and played games with us when she needed housework done and we fell for it every time. Our Dad made sure that we were competitive as he was always having us do some kinds of feats when people came over. He made us feel very special.

We never felt bored or lacking because we didn’t have much money. We were poor but back then everyone else around us must have been poor too because it seemed all the families in our area was just the same.

During the winter months when we got heavy snows the neighbors would all congregate at our house and the parents would play a card game called Pitch in the kitchen while us kids would play monopoly or old maid or jacks or pick up sticks. We always had fun times with our neighbors. In the summer months after church the neighbors would gather in a cow pasture and play softball.

Fall was my very favorite season and still is. I love the beauty of all the colors and the cool and crispness in the air and also the knowing that winter is right around the corner which is a season that I love as well.

I wouldn’t trade anything for the childhood that I had and the farm life that I enjoyed. I have a great love for life, for nature, for our country, and for my fellow man.

I see the glass half full always and believe that we are placed here on this earth to leave our mark and that I am at present carrying my baton but will pass it on someday to someone else and it is an honor and a privilege to be in such a position to do so.

I love living in America and I often stand amazed at why God chose to let me be born here and raised the way that I was. I am so fortunate and graced to be in the life that I have!

I am trying to learn to write and share. I just wanted all of you to know a little bit more about my background and where I came from. I hope you enjoy the things that I write and I want to be a light in a sometimes seemingly dark area and I want to spread as much Joy around as I possible can.

My first day to start blogging was September the 28th and I stand amazed at how well things are going thus far. The outreach of the WordPress.com is a gift in itself. I can’t believe how I can sit here in little ole’ Livingston, Tn. and write and my words can instantly travel all across the world with the click of the publish button. It just blows my mind!

I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making a little girl’s dream come true.

Bless you and Goodnight!