![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/1c03c29e0b.jpg\")
When my grandma died in 1999, something had to be done. She was widowed in 1971 and was left to care for the farm and my uncle. He had a developmental disability and had lived at home all his life. Grandma was a strong woman and did what she had to do to take care of things. Toward the end of her life, an aunt (a widow herself) came to live with them and then stayed on to care for her beloved brother.
\n\n\nThe farm was left to another uncle to see that the family was taken care of. To do that, he had to have part of the farm logged. They never told me about it, and when I came for my annual visit and went for my usual hike back on the hill, I stepped into the clearing and…the trees were GONE! It was a punch in the gut, and I dropped to my knees and cried.
\n\n\nThanks for reading Kneading Faith! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
\n\n\nFirst, no one owed me an explanation. I was just one of the grandchildren. Second, I understood that forests need to be maintained to remain healthy. But this was “clear-cut”…the hallowed grounds of my youth had been laid bare. I know it had to be done…I just wasn’t prepared for the shock of seeing it like that.
\n\n\nFast forward to today. I remarried in 2018 and now live with my husband on the five-acre homestead he has owned since 1979. I’ve spent most of my adult life praying to live on a piece of ground such as this in my home state of West Virginia. I’ve always wanted to be a farm girl. Our land is flat and surrounded by wooded hills and creeks. I’ve come to know each tree. The black walnut trees that sporadically grace us with an abundance of nuts. The pear trees are even more sporadic in their production of juicy fruit. Tall sycamore trees whose leaves are as big as a dinner plate and whose naked white limbs reach out like ghosts in the winter woods.
\n\n\nIt’s an idyllic little paradise here. I’ve come to take our views for granted, I’m afraid. Then one morning last week, I awoke to the sound of a chainsaw. Not unusual to hear people cutting up firewood or trimming fallen branches. But this was different. There is an intensity in the sound of a chainsaw that is felling a tree. It’s going after it in a way that means business. Then…the unmistakable cracking of the last bit of wood that’s held the tree up for decades. It crashed to the ground with an unceremonious thud.
\n\n\nMy heart hurts.
\n\n\nOne after another, after another. The trees came down. Then the heavy equipment came in to haul the trees-turned-logs away. They came back the next day and the next. It’s been five days now, and it’s clear now. They are logging the hill that has been our beautiful view at the end of the far field. I feel the sting of tears just writing these words. The beloved trees that bring us the promise of new life every spring, when we begin to see the first touch of green. The beautiful trees that offer their glorious golds and yellows as the backdrop to mark the end of another season.
\n\n\nIt’s like a train wreck…you don’t want to watch, but you can’t take your eyes away. One must have the proper attitude about trees on another person’s property. They are a cash crop to that person….a savings account, as it were. We move with the rhythms of nature here in the country. Animals are slaughtered for food. The ground is plowed for gardens. It’s a shock to the system when something you took for granted gets yanked out from under you.
\n\n\nWe’ll adjust. What choice do we have? And eventually…the bare hillside will become verdant with new growth, and the circle of life begins yet again. In the meantime…
\n\n\nMy heart hurts.
\n\n\n💔
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHe will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4 ESV
\n\n
***Gratitude Journal*** Today, I am grateful that I can learn to adapt to change while still honoring the pain it causes me.\n\n", "date_published": "2025-06-04T04:45:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2025/06/04/what-happens-when-the-last.html", "tags": ["Growth","Change","Insight","Homestead","Country Life"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2025/05/09/should-you-toot-your-own.html", "title": "Should You Toot Your Own Horn?", "content_html": "\n
![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/www.marshmallowranch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_2465.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1\")
The view under the tractor with the owner deck removed.
\n\n\nHave you ever done something that made you immensely proud? You know…the kind of thing you really want to tell people but you’re afraid it might be boasting. It’s perfectly acceptable for Christians to take pride in their accomplishments as long as it doesn’t come from sinful pride. The Bible teaches us that pride can lead to self-centeredness and arrogance. However, there is nothing wrong in enjoying the fruits of your labors and taking pride in a job well done, as long as you are giving credit where credit is due. God gives us great gifts and talents, so we need to acknowledge His role in those abilities.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/www.marshmallowranch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_2464.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1\")
The mower deck after it was removed. It was so dirty and Mr. FixIt found several big cracks in the belt you see there. It turns the blades.
\n\n\nTo that end, I am immensely proud of a job I did yesterday. The drive belt on my riding mower wore down so the thing wouldn’t move forward or backwards. I went to town on Wednesday and bought a new belt. After breakfast yesterday, Mr. FixIt and I went out to the building to put it on. We watched a couple of videos on YouTube explaining how to do it. The first was how to remove the mower deck. Of course, Mr. FixIt knows how to do that, but didn’t. He is very good about letting me learn how to do things around our little homestead. He was my coach while I did the work.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/www.marshmallowranch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_2466.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1\")
Trying to figure out how to get the belt off that pulley with the black rod in the way.
\n\n\nRemoving the mower deck wasn’t that difficult. It is just a matter of removing a few cotter pins then pull the thing out from under the tractor. Let me tell you…that thing is HEAVY so it was great that Mr. FixIt was there to help. Once that was done, we had to push the tractor up on ramps, chock the wheels, and set the parking brake. That moves the tension off the drive belt and makes it easier to remove. I did everything step by step, but when I got to a certain place, the underside of the tractor didn’t look like the video. At this point we were hot and ready to take a break.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/www.marshmallowranch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_2468.jpeg?fit=768%2C1024&ssl=1\")
Cleaning the mower deck with a wire brush while Mr. FixIt sharpened the blades.
\n\n\nI looked up the exact model of Husqvarna we have and there was a video on changing the drive belt. When we watched it, the whole thing became clear and it didn’t take me but a few minutes to get the belt off. Putting it back on was merely reversing the steps. While I was working on the tractor, Mr. FixIt was working on the mower deck. It’s been quite a while since we took it apart so he cleaned the undercarriage, sharpened the blades, and put them back on. When he inspected the belt, it was old and cracked nearly all the way through. So, back to the tractor store for a new deck belt, and some new wheels for the mower deck. When we were checking out, the guys were talking about it being a difficult job and my sweet Mr. FixIt said, “My wife did the whole thing by herself!” The gentlemen were suitably impressed. Most people wouldn’t think of doing this kind of job themselves. I never did till Mr. FixIt came along. Doing this job ourselves saved us at least $300 and in this economy, that’s a lot of money.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/www.marshmallowranch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_2469.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1\")
It looks a lot better after Mr. FixIt blew the old grass off with the compressor.
\n\n\nI was proud. I am so grateful God blessed me with a brain that can figure out how to take things apart and put them back together again. He gifted me with mechanical skills that are normally not considered things that women do. That feeling of pride took me back to my childhood. My dad and I didn’t have a close relationship, but when I was young, he laid me across the fender of a pickup truck and showed me how to change the spark plugs and the oil. Even though I really didn’t do anything, my dad always set me back down on the ground and told me what a god job I did. I have so few warm memories of him, but that’s one I cherish.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/www.marshmallowranch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_2470.jpeg?fit=768%2C1024&ssl=1\")
A dirty and sunburned face means a a lot of work has been done.
\n\n\nIt’s going to rain most of the day today, so the tractor will have to wait till tomorrow. In the meantime, I need to bake bread again and get ready for tomorrow’s college graduation party for the youngest of the FixIt family’s grandchildren.
\n\n\nLife is good, y’all!
\n\n\n🚜
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house.” Proverbs 24:27 NLT
\n\n
***Gratitude Journal***\n\n", "date_published": "2025-05-09T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2025/05/09/should-you-toot-your-own.html", "tags": ["Faith","God","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2025/04/26/learning-new-tricks.html", "title": "Learning New Tricks", "content_html": "\n
Today, I am grateful for the gifts God has given me and the health and strength to use them.
![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/www.marshmallowranch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/f1d846d7add2643ffb6b73fa768ff534.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1\")
Image by Ginny McKinney with Meta AI - It’s not me, but the resemblance is uncanny!
\n\n\nTurns out, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. I’ve been writing my blog for over a dozen years now over on the book of faces. I have a good sized following there, but I worry about the future of the platform. I spent three years copying about 8 years worth of back posts over to my website to give me control of my content. I didn’t want to lose all that writing. By my rough calculations, I’ve written over two million words in those twelve years. It’s time for this ol’ gal to learn new tricks and branch out!
\n\n\nI have a lovely niece who lives in NYC. Her job is helping people with their online presence. I’m just a simple farm gal, living on five acres in West Virginia with my husband and a farm cat named Pumpkin. But I have a lot to say and she’s helping me learn a new platform on Substack.
\n\n\nYesterday was beautiful here on Marshmallow Ranch. It was a bit cooler with a little rain. My Bonus Daughter came over for a visit midday and that’s always a treat. After being gone for nine days at the beach, I’m still catching up with putting things away so I haven’t been cooking quite as much. Sometimes it’s nice to just have a ham sandwich and some chips and call it a day. We are loving the homemade bread I’ve been baking so we’re eating more sandwiches, toast, and French Toast. Ooooh, my waistline is reminding me I’d better slow down with that.
\n\n\nI’m meeting some of my high school girlfriends for coffee this morning. It’s always fun to see them and it’s been a while since we’ve gathered. It was a long, cold, snowy winter so it’s time to get out and about again. We are going to a birthday party for Mrs. FixIt 1.0 this afternoon. If it’s dry enough tomorrow, I’ll go out to The Farm in the afternoon to mow. It probably needs a brush hog by now!
\n\n\nI hope you all have fun plans for the weekend!
\n\n\n🩵🌷🩵
\n\n\n“Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge.” Proverbs 18:15 NLT
\n\n\n*Gratitude Journal*** Today I am grateful that God brings me good teachers and I can learn new things.
\n\n", "date_published": "2025-04-26T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2025/04/26/learning-new-tricks.html", "tags": ["Growth","Aging","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2025/02/11/the-language-of-rebellion.html", "title": "The Language of Rebellion", "content_html": "\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/5823411453.jpg\")
In yesterday’s post, I lamented that I didn’t like the Super Bowl halftime show. I’m not a big fan of rap. I’ve heard of Kendrick Lamar, but I can’t say that I haven’t listened to any of his music. So, I was a captive audience…mainly out of curiosity. As I watched the measured choreography, my brain struggled to find some understanding in his craft. I couldn’t help but think I was missing something. Something told me he was sending out a message…that this was an anthem of rebellion of some type. But, try as I might, my white-bread brain couldn’t suss it out.
\n\n\nIn yesterday’s post, I lamented that I didn’t like the Super Bowl halftime show. I’m not a big fan of rap. I’ve heard of Kendrick Lamar, but I can’t say that I have listened to any of his music. So, I was a captive audience…mainly out of curiosity. As I watched the measured choreography, my brain struggled to find some understanding in his craft. I couldn’t help but think I was missing something. I had a feeling he was sending out a message…that this was an anthem of rebellion. But, try as I might, my white-bread brain couldn’t suss it out.
\n\n\nGranted, I couldn’t understand the lyrics. Thinking back, I caught enough words to make me want to investigate further. I don’t like explicit rap. But I came to understand this was Lamar’s art as activism…his paint and canvas. In much the same way as Michelangelo’s sculpture, David…was a symbol of resistance against the powerful Medici patronage in Florence. Marcel Duchamp, Otto Dix, Jasper Johns, Banksy, Picasso…all famous artists that used their work as the language of rebellion against the rise of fascism, war, famine, racism, dehumanization, Apartheid.
\n\n\nKendrick Lamar was speaking in his own language about something that runs deep in the fabric of our history. For example, the image of the dancers forming an American flag while bent over symbolized how America was built largely on the backs of black people. His songs “40 Acres” hark back to the inhumane practice of slavery. “Wesley’s Theory,” “For Free.” There was symbolism of Uncle Tom and Jim Crow…all in an effort to remind us…the NFL may take the “End Racism” signs down, but we need to keep our eyes open. Unfortunately, it still happens.
\n\n\nI’m not getting into a political discussion. I was just interested in the symbolism and how it fits into our society as a whole. Unless you are a multi-linguist and speak many languages, you really only understand your native tongue. It’s understandable that there will be any forms of free speech that we do not comprehend. But, we can learn…open our minds and hearts…and look into the hearts and minds of others. This is part and parcel the message Jesus gave us…
\n\n\n💜
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLove one another as I have loved you. John 13:34
\n\n
***Gratitude Journal***\n\n\n
Today I am grateful for a God who can give me an open heart and mind to learn and grow in my love and understanding of others.
#understanding, #compassion, #art
\n\n", "date_published": "2025-02-11T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2025/02/11/the-language-of-rebellion.html", "tags": ["Overcoming Obstacles","Growth","Grace","Peace","Wisdom","Courage","Choices","Change","Insight","Healing"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2025/01/15/shiver-me-timbers-its-cold.html", "title": "Shiver me Timbers - It’s COLD!", "content_html": "\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/2bb07f3d47.jpg\")
Wowza…we’re hitting single digits pretty regularly here in WV as of late. I sleep with the window open in the little bedroom. I snuggle down under the electric blanket in that cold room and sleep like a rock. Mr. FixIt keeps his window shut and the furnace grate open…his blanket on just enough to warm the bed then he shuts it off. After several years of trying to sleep his way, I was just getting more and more sleep deprived and I knew it wasn’t healthy. So now we sleep in different rooms and we are much nicer to be around. We still get snuggles and hug whenever we pass each other in the house all day long so we aren’t hurting for contact. It’s just the sleeping part we had to address.
\n\n\nYesterday was very busy. I had a medical appointment. I delivered Christmas presents to those who were sick and couldn’t come to our party. I went to Tractor Supply and bought three bags of birdseed. I stopped at my friend Jon Six’s hair salon to drop off a whole bag of hats, baby dolls, and baby blankets that I knitted and he was so happy to get them. He’ll take them to the place where homeless girls have their babies.
\n\n\nAs I was driving to my next stop, I prayed for the recipients of these gifts that they may be protected from the cold. I felt my privilege lay heavy in my chest as I effortlessly went about my day of shopping…returning to my warm home and ample pantry. Tragically, we had an unhoused woman fall asleep outside of her tent Monday night and she was found yesterday morning…deceased. It breaks my heart.
\n\n\nIt reminds me that so many are just one catastrophe away from being homeless. I spent three years traveling around in my camper. There were times when that was a real struggle…especially when I first moved to WV and lived up by the Ohio River in weather like this. I was so blessed to have that comfortable house on wheels. I can’t imagine having nothing more than what you can push in a grocery cart. It’s a problem everywhere and it just seems to be getting worse. I may not be able to do much or give a lot of money, but I can at least help keep them warm with a hat that I’ve prayed over as I knit.
\n\n\nMy last stop was the gas station and the grocery store before I went home. I brought everything in from the truck. Since I still had my snow boots and heavy winter coat on, I went to the front of the house and knocked the icicles off the gutter. I put everything away and by that time, I asked if my husband would be satisfied with hotdogs for supper. He was fine with it. I just didn’t have it in me to cook. I found quart containers of chicken livers at the grocery store for $1.50 each so I put one in the freezer and I’ll cook the other container with caramelized onions, mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans for supper tonight. Comfort food that I am extra grateful for today.
\n\n\nI hope you are keeping warm and there’s food in your belly.
\n\n\n❄️🩵❄️
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’”
\n\n
Deuteronomy 15:11 ESV
#unhoused #homeless #winter #helpisontheway #helpingothers
\n\n\n*Photo Credit: AI Generated Image by Ginny McKinney
\n\n", "date_published": "2025-01-15T03:00:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2025/01/15/shiver-me-timbers-its-cold.html", "tags": ["Overcoming Obstacles","Camping","Comfort","Grace","God","Humbled","Insight","Mental Health"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2024/06/11/an-ordinary-monday.html", "title": "An Ordinary Monday", "content_html": "\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/eb5c0aa2d2.jpg\")
I love days like yesterday. I went to knitting group and helped the gals learn how to make teddy bears on the circular knitting machine. There were only three of us because one is recuperating from Covid. I stopped at The Pig on the way home to pick up a few things. I’ve been hankerin’ for some smoked pulled pork so I bought a good sized pork butt to throw in the smoker today. I haven’t used the smoker for probably two years so it’s about time! Mr. FixIt had an appointment in town so he stopped to get me some corn on the cob and strawberries for a shortcake.
\n\n\nWhen Mr. FixIt got home, he suggested we go out and wash the camper, but I talked him out of that. It looked like it was going to rain. We’ll get it done before we go on our trip. The pool is staying clean and sparkly and that makes me happy. But it got cloudy in the afternoon and the temperature dropped to 70° so there was no way I was getting in that water! I spent most of the day reading while Mr. FixIt watched TV and snoozed in his Big Red Chair.
\n\n\nAre you detecting a pattern here? I have these great ideas of an evening when I’m writing to you good people, then by morning I’m off chasing butterflies and rainbows. I have some thing very common to people with ADHD…”wait mode.” When I am presented with a big event coming up, like the Colorado trip, I go into wait mode. It’s kind of like freezing up…sensory overload from all the things running around in my head that need to be done and my executive function goes out the window. People with ADHD are often called lazy, without ambition, disorganized. We KNOW what needs to be done. We can write 5,000 lists, but when it comes time to actually DO the thing…we shut down and blank out. That’s why we’re really great with a deadline because at the last minute, we will work something to death to meet it. I really try NOT to be this way, but trying not to be who you are causes more problems. I know this is how my brain works. I’ll get it done. I might make some people crazy, but if they really know me and love me, they’ll understand.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/f84fae3cd4.jpg\")
Speaking of butterflies, I came around the corner of the camper the other day and ran right into a monarch butterfly! I was SO excited!!! My milkweed patch has exploded this summer and I am hoping for more of these orange and black beauties. When Mr. FixIt and I went out for our walk around the pollinator gardens last night, we saw a bird sitting on the ground. There is a window near there. And there are plenty of places where it could have fallen from a nest. I tried to identify it with Merlin and Google Images, but I’m not sure what it is. It said starling, but it has a black beak and starlings have light colored beaks. It had moved when I came back later so hopefully it’s on its way.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/0eb5046c4b.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/9fbe4a6f95.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/f5936ba34d.jpg\")
I snapped a few photos last night to identify some plants around the edges of the fields. Wingstem, Horse Weed, Creeping Charlie and a surprise coming up at the back of the wood pile…Sassafras. Grandma used to go out in the spring and pull up sassafras saplings, peel the bark from the roots, and make a tea fur us. She said it was a spring tonic to clean our blood. There have been studies done over the decades that have disputed this and the FDA has actually banned the roots and barks of the sassafras because it contains a high concentration of Safrole which has been known to cause cancer in rats. Grandma would pooh pooh the idea, but the last time I drank sassafras tea, it caused some most unpleasant gastric distress so I’ll not be drinking it again.
\n\n\nMy friend Loretta from knitting group brought us some more succulents to plant. I hope I can polish up this brown thumb and turn it green! I used to be able to grow beautiful plants. But now I swear I could kill a silk flower!
\n\n\n🌸
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2024-06-11T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2024/06/11/an-ordinary-monday.html", "tags": ["Farm Life","Insight","Mental Health"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2024/02/22/water-water-everywhere.html", "title": "Water Water Everywhere", "content_html": "\n“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””
\nMatthew 11:29-30 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/152da0f0ae.jpg\")
A little trip to the coffee shop before my appointment…let’s make teddies!
\n\n\nI had a follow-up appointment with the endocrinologist yesterday. When I saw her a year ago, it was for my hyperparathyroidism. For some reason, my numbers were still high even after two surgeries to remove two adenomas. She noticed that I had some symptoms of Chronic Kidney Disease (it runs in my family) and she wanted to see me back in a year for repeat labs. This time, my parathyroid number was great but my kidney numbers elevated a little bit. My doctor is determined to get to the bottom of what’s causing this. I’ve been reading up on Vitamin D so I checked to see how much I’ve been taking in total. So many things have Vit D added and I never thought to add it all up. I was taking WAY too much. I have to reduce my Vitamin D intake because that can effect calcium and that’s what’s wacky. I have to stop my morning antihistamine. But when she got to my fluid intake, things took a turn.
\n\n\nAs you know, I started drinking RYZE mushroom coffee a year ago. I went on Noom and made several lifestyle changes and lost over 30 pounds. I also bought a second type of mushroom coffee that has more of a cocoa flavor. I’m afraid I am one of those people who think if one is good, two has to be better, right? Well…maybe not so much. I was drinking the RYZE and about a half dose of the other cocoa flavored mushroom coffee mixed in…AND I was having two mugs of this a day. Hey…I feel great! No muscle aches, no acid reflux, sleeping like a baby, and NO anxiety attacks. However…something has made my kidney numbers get a little wonky.
\n\n\nPersonally, I think it is the cocoa flavored drink because it has Chaga mushroom in it. Multiple studies have shown chaga can cause oxalate crystals that can damage your kidneys. I had NO idea until yesterday that the extra cocoa drink I was consuming did indeed have chaga in it. The RYZE does not.
\n\n\nThat being said, my doctor doesn’t know exactly what has caused the abnormality so she wants me to stop my beloved RYZE and the other drink, make the other changes, and recheck everything in six months. I am so bummed because, even though I can have the occasional cup of tea, I have to strictly stick to water. W.A.T.E.R. No sodas, no fizzy drinks, no flavorings. Ugh…I’ve never been a great water drinker as it is so I’m going to have to really up my game in the hydration department. As I’ve told you in the past, I’m not a doctor and I don’t give medical advice. I just tell people what I like and what has helped me. The lesson being, be sure you only use the recommended amount of anything. “Too much of a good thing” you know. And, remember to ask your medical provider if there’s a problem with you using supplements. I am sure I’ll be able to start the RYZE again after the labs get better because I don’t think that is what caused this. Till then….boring, boring, boring old water.
\n\n\nI know I share a lot here…I speak from my heart. But I do this because I’ve learned I’m not the only one who goes through the things I do. And if by sharing I can help another, then that’s what I’ll do. I hope I don’t make you uncomfortable.
\n\n\nMr. FixIt and I went for a long walk after supper. The sun was shining and it was in the low 60’s. It was a beautiful day. Today is supposed to be rainy and we don’t have anyplace to go. It’s a knitting day!!!
\n\n\n🩵
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2024-02-22T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2024/02/22/water-water-everywhere.html", "tags": ["Health","Self Care","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2023/11/30/opportunities-to-rise.html", "title": "Opportunities to Rise", "content_html": "\n”Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.“
\n3 John 1:2 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/8429a2043b.jpg\")
We stopped at an art gallery and I saw this amazing nativity. I’ll share more photos tomorrow.
\n\n\nMr. FixIt and I needed to leave home by 10:30 so I could drop him off at his friend’s house and make it to lunch with my friends at 11:30. I fixed us a quick breakfast and we sat down to eat and have our coffee. The sun came out and we were thrilled the temperature was going up as it got down to 13° during the night. I took a sip of coffee and glanced over at the wall above Alexa and there was a ghostly apparition above it. I studied for a minute and finally realized the sun was reflecting off the window bird feeder. I couldn’t have had some fun with Mr. FixIt but I opted for adulting. lol
\n\n\nI had so much fun meeting with my high school friends at lunch. We laughed and told stories and shared memories. I love to see us at this age. We’ve gone full circle. Most of us really only made friends as adults, but you’d never know it. For some reason, our class is really tight. We talked about how meaningful it is to know people now who may not have treated us well in high school. When we come to realize everyone suffered the angst of adolescence in different ways. And the majority of them grow up and become pretty cool folks.
\n\n\nOne of the gals told us she was at a class reunion and a group of gals came in who had heckled her in high school. She sat back and figured they would leave her alone. Instead, they all came over and asked her to go sit with them. She had heard one of them had breast cancer. She asked how the lady was doing. She said she was doing really well…great in fact. Then…she died three weeks later. She thanks God that she had the opportunity to rise above.
\n\n\nThe same thing happened to me. One of the girls who gave me all kinds of grief in gym class wanted to come to the next reunion. She had never attended and she felt nervous about it. I had connected with her on FB a few months before to encourage her to come. She told me she was afraid people wouldn’t like her because of the way she treated them in school. I assured her we had all grown, and if there were anyone still holding a grudge, it would be an excellent opportunity for her to mend some bridges. She showed up and folks welcomed her with open arms. And… a few weeks later, she died instantly of a heart attack.
\n\n\nSometimes God gives us opportunities to resolve conflicts long before we are called to the Golden Gates. When we have the wisdom and maturity to step up and make things right, it’s good for our soul. When we can clear things off the slate, we not only get to talk to God about the bad thing, we get to talk about how we made it right. He knows, of course. But He wants to hear it from us.
\n\n\nI hated to pull away from our conversation, but I needed to get Mr. FixIt to an appointment so I rushed off. When we were finished, we stopped at a little restaurant we neither one had been to. We had a lovely meal and when we got ready to leave, I couldn’t find my phone. Mr. FixIt couldn’t call it because he left his in the truck. The ladies in the next booth offered to call my phone so I could find it, which I did. I turned to you and said, “Well, now you have my number, you can find me anytime!” I stuck my hand out and said, “I’m Ginny McKinney!” She paused and looked at me a moment. “From Marshmallow Ranch?” OMGosh! This lady came to a talk I gave at her church seven years ago! It’s a small world, isn’t it?
\n\n\nWe went on and made a stop at the store, then headed home in the dark. It was a good day and I’ll be darned if I don’t have to go back in today for a follow up medical appointment of my own. It just seems to be a never-ending thing at this age. As much as I would love to stay home, I’m grateful to have the opportunity to see good doctors and have adequate healthcare. I’m grateful it’s nothing worse. I’m grateful no one is dropping bombs on us or stealing our neighbors away at gunpoint or killing our children. We are so incredibly blessed to live in this country and we all need to start acting like it.
\n\n\nSo go out there today and do something good for your neighbor. Mend your fences where you can. And bless ‘em where you can’t. Life is too short to hold onto anger and resentment. It’s the poison you take hoping it hurts the other guy.
\n\n\nGod bless you all today. I love y’all!
\n\n\n🎄
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong. But if the man has no next of kin to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for wrong shall go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement with which atonement is made for him.”
\nNumbers 5:5-8 ESV\n
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
\n\n\nChristmas Words… this tree of words reminds us of what we should all focus on this season of goodwill.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/80ade26253.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/05ab4beef7.jpg\")
There are lessons to be learned in the simplest of things. Once you look for God in the mundane, you see extraordinary concepts play out before your very eyes. I’ve been designing autumn themed shirts for my Etsy shop so I’ve been searching through graphics with images of leaves, pumpkins, Pumpkin Spice Lattes…even footballs. While I’m not ready for summer to be over, I do love the change of seasons and autumn is certainly stunning when she gets all dressed up.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/940d865ca7.jpg\")
I was studying a very old cherry tree out at the farm the other day. I remember when that tree was so small, even a little like me could reach up and pluck the crimson red cherries and put them in a pail at my feet. That tree must be 30’-35’ tall now. It’s not necessarily healthy and there hasn’t been a cherry on it for decades. But, I’m telling you, in her heyday…she produced gallons and gallons of pie cherries.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/80aa27789a.jpg\")
As she ages, her lower branches die and the leaves have mostly fallen off by the beginning of August. I watched each golden yellow leaf twist in the wind till it finally let go and made its single, solitary flight to the ground. It doesn’t hold on forever. It doesn’t get a second chance. It just flies.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/93e14f0416.jpg\")
There’s the cherry tree. That’s my mom’s ‘64 Ford Fairlane so this had to have been before ‘69 because she got a Plymouth Duster that year.
\n\n\nWe can do that, too. If we don’t hold on so tight. If we live our seasons with love and intention. If we just let go we might find the subsequent journey to be a little less frightening than we imagined. But, ohhhh….we do want to hold on tight. We really don’t like change.
\n\n\nI’ve always said “Change is my middle name.” Bring me more of it. I get bored if things aren’t stirred up from time to time. Mr. FixIt is hesitant to change. We both grew up in homes that were unpredictable. My coping strategy was to roll with the punches and learn to look forward and anticipate change. His is trying to maintain the status quo so we can stay safe and secure. I think it’s just the difference between a man and a woman…seeing things so differently.
\n\n\nWhen I see a leaf in mid flight, enjoying its journey…fulfilling its purpose…I smile and remember.
\n\n\nIt’s ok to let go of things and embrace change.\nGod will always be there to catch us when we fall…\nor teach us how to fly.\n\n\n
?
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
\nGalatians 6:9 NIV\n
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
\n\n\nAutumn Leaves Teach Us - Long Sleeved T-Shirt
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/d5aea107f8.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/388d84b692.jpg\")
My grandma was rolling in her grave yesterday…I mowed the grass while her beloved Johnny-Jump-Ups were still in bloom. She loved every tiny precious flower that God gave her. She would NOT be happy with me!
\n\n\nWell, the taxes didn’t do me in this year. Neither did the banking or starting a new business in uncharted territory. Nope…what got me was Facebook Marketplace. You know we have the Big Birdhouse up for sale. We put it on Marketplace about a month ago which, in hindsight was probably a bit early. I’m kind of a novice when it comes to selling on FB. Apparently, if your item doesn’t sell in a certain amount of time, you can renew your ad but only for a certain number of times. Here’s a little tidbit of info I didn’t know…if you go in and edit your listing, it counts as one of your times. Who knew?
\n\n\nWe dropped the price…that counted. I added photos…that counted. Then when it reposted…only the first 1.5 sentences remained. I went in twice to try to fix that and used up the rest of my nine lives apparently because I finally got a message that said I could not renew. Go figure. This was actually on Tuesday night. So I waited till yesterday morning to repost. For some reason…my laptop was extraordinarily slow. I mean, creeping. I was trying to get something to work…anything! And it just spun its little wheels. I think the little guy who lives in my computer was kicked back with his boots up on his desk because this was a no go.
\n\n\nI was growling so loud Mr. FixIt finally asked what I was doing. When I told him, he said he saw the ad back on there early this morning. Grrrrr. I asked him to show me, but it was for a specific website…not the blanket, overall, everyone-can-see-it Marketplace. So, I went back to work. After another hour, my sweetheart asked me if I was ready to go to The Farm to mow…which apparently, he was. He suggested I bring my laptop with us and try at the farm. The internet is faster there.
\n\n\nWe arrived and unloaded the push mower and weed eater and I went up to the barn to get the tractor. We had all kinds of trouble with it last year. It was really hard to start. I mentioned this to Frank and Beans…the new owners. They worked on the tractor and, lo and behold…that thing started up the first try! Finally…something was going my way! The yard is only about 3/4ths of an acre at the farm, so comparatively speaking…it is a piece of cake. Well, MY part is. Mr. FixIt runs the push mower in the ditch out front and a few areas the tractor can’t get to. Then he does some weed eating.
\n\n\nWe finally finished and sat on the porch to enjoy our JR’s Pepperoni Rolls and a soft drink. It was up in the 80’s yesterday and we were beat. After lunch, I sat down with the laptop to try to knock out the new Marketplace ad. The clinker was…all the photos were on the iPad and my phone. They’re Apple…I’m old school and kept my PC…they don’t talk to each other. It didn’t matter anyway because my laptop was still having a hissy fit and refusing to cooperate.
\n\n\nI’d say, “To make a long story short” but that horse is out of the barn, now isn’t it?
\n\n\nIt turns out, the cleanup program I thought was working in the background…wasn’t. Let me see if I can explain what happened with an analogy. Let’s say you have a funnel with a small opening and you’re pouring sand in a bottle. It works great till there’s too much sand then the funnel fills up and nothing is moving. Well, essentially my bottle was full. So full, as a matter of fact, I couldn’t even open the program to let out that pesky sand. Finally…I started making a little progress when Mr. FixIt indicated it was time to go home.
\n\n\nBreathe. I choose to love him. I choose to love him. I choose to love him.
\n\n\nI put him off as long as I could then finally closed up shop and headed out the back door. On a whim, I turned on the faucet in the kitchen to check the water…and there was none! We had a couple of long power outages with those windstorms two weeks ago so when the pump was off, we lost the prime. When the power came back on, there was no water in the pump and it ran on and on for who knows how long. We didn’t have the tools, the time, or the energy to prime it so I just unplugged the darned thing. We’ll prime it the next time we go out to mow…probably next week before we head to the beach.
\n\n\nWhen we got home, I finished cleaning the junk out of my computer and managed to get the photos I needed on the laptop. By that time it was after 9:00 last night and I still needed to write my post. I gently closed the laptop, thanked God for the blessings and opportunities of the day. With a kiss and a hug for Mr. FixIt, I headed out to the peace and quiet of the camper to write.
\n\n\nElectronics. Machines. The Internet. They’re all supposed to work. And when they don’t, we have a choice. Pitch a fit, or count our blessings. We can’t control the things that happen to us, but we CAN control how we react to them. There’s always a teachable moment in every situation.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”
\nJames 1:22-25 NIV\n
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
\n\n\nWhen things begin to pile up and you find yourself getting frustrated or angry…choose JOY, Joy can pull you out of a lot of dark places.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/ff91f751ae.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/c576df31c7.jpg\")
It was a day of rest, for sure…but I also piddled around on the computer downloading elements for my designs. It feels good to be creating again. I posted two sets of Grief Support Greeting Cards in my shop with the same sentiments I offer in my writings. They’re quite simple with a line drawing of a flower behind the dual-font script. The inside is blank for your own message and each comes with its own envelope. They are sold in packets of five. These are the first cards I’ve attempted and I hope you like them.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/7e52d15ccf.jpg\")
This pear tree is loaded with blossoms!
\n\n\nIt was pretty chilly here at Marshmallow Ranch yesterday. The only real job we did was replace the gas cap on the Lincoln. The warning light came on the other day saying the gas cap wasn’t tight. It was off the next time I turned the car on, but the “Service Engine Soon” light came on and has stayed on. I replaced the gas cap yesterday and we drove the car around a little but the light is still on. I think maybe when we fill up the car, the light will go out. Let’s hope it isn’t anything major.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/6057fba5db.jpg\")
You can’t see the gas cap in this photo, but I had to slip the harness off the old cap and put it on the new one. The plastic is 21 years old now and I was scared to earth I’d break it but it went right on like it was supposed to.
\n\n\nCar troubles…what a pain in the neck. We started out buying junker cars because that’s all we could afford. Then when money wasn’t quite so tight, we never let a car get 100K miles on it. Now were back to buying “sensible” cars and running them till they won’t run anymore. I’ll never buy a brand new car again…especially at today’s prices!
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/ca5ed41698.jpg\")
Daughter #2 had a birthday yesterday. As a matter of fact, I got to talk to both of my girls. It’s always a treat to hear their voices. I used to get my nose out of joint if they didn’t call me as often as I liked. Now, if I want to hear their voices, I call them. They’re a heck of a lot busier than I am. I know they felt pressured to call me and I’m sure that contributed to them not finding the time. Ask me how I know this. I did the same to my mom when I was their age but I soon mended my ways and called her every Sunday night like clockwork.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/e1370006d3.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/77bf459d15.jpg\")
Our crab apple tree is rotten in the center and needs to be cut down.
\n\n\nI also got to talk to my sweet brother yesterday. He wasn’t feeling well last week so they put off his move to this week. He’s getting more frail and needs to be in a setting where he has 24/7 assistance. He was very proud of himself that he had almost all of his stuff packed! He’s had so many challenges in his life and it makes my heart happy to hear a lilt in his voice. It’s been difficult to reach him by phone in the home he’s been living in. He is hard of hearing so he doesn’t always hear the cell phone ring. And he has a difficult time hearing on the handset of the landline phone in his apartment. Once he gets in his new place and has staff there all the time, we should be able to speak more frequently. I want to get an Amazon Echo for him so we can video chat every week. I think that would be good for both of us. He owns such a big piece of my heart.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/8d0e04762c.jpg\")
Rhododendron Dauricum: A miniature compact shrub, sometimes called Japanese…although the literal translation is Siberian Rhododendron.
\n\n\nThe weather is supposed to warm up the next few days. Wednesday is predicted to hit 85°!!!! It’s what always happens…we go from meat locker to microwave in an instant. No time to acclimate! Some more severe storms are due the middle of the week. Let’s pray for the safety of those in the path and that things settle down some. I hope there’s a little time before we get heavy rain again. We had standing water in our yard this weekend that looked like a pond. We had 2” of rain in a little over a day.
\n\n\nThink I’ll work on the quilt today!
\n\n\nTick Tock, Tick Tock…the wedding will be here before we know it!
\n\n\n⏰??
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”
\nJames 5:17-18 ESV\n
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/f5a7ff2097.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/9b65455c66.jpg\")
*I designed some tender grief support cards over the weekend and posted them in the shop. We all know someone who is grieving. I like to have a few cards tucked away because we don’t always have time to go out and get one when it’s needed. And if ever a card is needed, it’s to support the bereaved.
\n\n\nSet One: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1438665604/grief-support-greeting-cards-5-pack-set
\n\n\nSet Two: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1452879063/grief-support-greeting-cards-5-pack-set
\n\n\nThank you from the bottom of my heart for your support!
\n\n\n?
\n\n", "date_published": "2023-04-03T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2023/04/03/a-day-of-spinning-my.html", "tags": ["Overcoming Obstacles","Crafts","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2022/12/28/eat-the-cake.html", "title": "Eat the Cake!", "content_html": "\n![\"Homemade](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/6b0aaba699.jpg\")
“Here’s the link to Homemade Chocolate Cake...Grandma Lois’ recipe.”
\n\n\nThe other night…I had a dream. I don’t dream all that often. Perhaps more precisely…I don’t remember my dreams. This one was really vivid and clear. I was attending an event honoring Queen Elizabeth. It was jam packed with people…dressed to the nines. All pomp and circumstance, as an event honoring Royalty would be.
\n\n\nI was seated at a long table. It was formally set with fine china, silver, crystal and lovely flower centerpieces. I hadn’t noticed anyone I really recognized till I saw the woman seated directly across from me. It was Oprah! Oh, I was so excited to get to meet her…I’ve always wanted to. At that moment, the service staff brought everyone a lovely slice of triple layer chocolate cake!
\n\n\nEveryone beamed, picked up their forks, and took that first delicious bite…swooning at the decadent dessert. I looked over at Oprah, and with a tinge of sadness in my voice, I said… “I picked a heck of a day to quit sweets, didn’t I?”
\n\n\nOprah looked at me incredulously. Our eyes locked.
\n\n\n“Eat the cake.”
\n\n\nI looked down at this amazing, rich, slice of heaven and wondered if I should. I was feeling pretty porky lately. I’d made a promise to myself. I had not willpower anyway…why not just keep going?
\n\n\nI looked back up and Oprah was still watching me. Her face softened. Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper.
\n\n\n“Just eat the cake.”
\n\n\nSo I did. And it was divine! The world didn’t end and neither did I.
\n\n\nThere’s a difference between being healthy and being deprived. Life is short and unpredictable. We don’t know when the end will come…so eat the cake. “Eating cake” can be interpreted in much more than consuming a pastry. Do the things you’ve wanted to do. Dance. Sing. Draw. Read. Nap. Write. Swim. Bike. Cook. Meditate. Knit. Paint. Sew. Walk. Garden. Work. Hike. Listen. Speak. Stand. Sit. Run. And, pray.
\n\n\nPray always and without ceasing.
\n\n\nLive every day of your life.
\n\n\nLive EVERY day of your life.
\n\n\nLIVE every day of your life!
\n\n\nJust LIVE.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-12-28T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2022/12/28/eat-the-cake.html", "tags": ["Health","Growth","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2022/11/04/money-money-money-money.html", "title": "Money Money Money MONEY", "content_html": "\n“Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well!
\nPsalm 90:12 MSG\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/f2ebdf41d4.jpg\")
Ugh! The thing I hate talking about the most is money. I was never good with money. Well, let me rephrase that. I was never good at SAVING money. I was most excellent at SPENDING it…especially when it wasn’t me that was working my butt off to make it. Hard to admit, but there it is. I used shopping as a self-soothing medication that got way out of hand on numerous occasions. When I think of how much money I’d have now if I hadn’t done that… *sigh*
\n\n\nWater under the bridge, as they say. I used to worry myself to death over money…or the lack thereof. That is before my wonderful finance guru Danielle taught me the concept of stewardship. God graces us with the jobs and the money and the stuff but we have to suit up, show up, and do the work. The better the steward we are, the more trustworthy we become, the more bounty we can be trusted with. Doesn’t mean we’re going to GET that bounty. But it doesn’t mean we aren’t either.
\n\n\nI go long stretches without spending much. Then, there are days like yesterday when it gets spent for me. What is it they say about only counting on two things…death and taxes? Yeah, well…yesterday it was the tax man…actually woman…who absconded with our hard earned dollars. That’s the price you pay for owning stuff.
\n\n\nI never really understood personal property taxes. I mean…we earned the money and paid taxes on it. We spend the money and pay sales taxes on the money we were already taxed on. Then, every year I have to go to the county courthouse and pay personal property taxes on the stuff we already own and have paid taxes on…twice! Ok, I get it…someone has to pay for the roads and maintenance and whatever else we are supporting with those tax dollars. But it chaps my hide anyway.
\n\n\nSo, I go in to pay my personal property taxes and they nice lady in the tax office said the last year I had taxes entered in the computer was 2019. Seriously? I could have sworn I paid them but apparently not. See, there’s this thing called a supplement. In July every year, the tax office send out this paper that has your vehicles and/or trailers, campers, boats, etc. listed. It asked you if you currently own them. You send that in and two things happen…your info triggers next year’s supplement and you information is what your personal property taxes will be based on two years from now.
\n\n\nYeah…clear as mud, right?
\n\n\nI know it’s confusing. It’s taken me years to have any semblance of understanding. When I lived in Colorado, you paid your personal property taxes when you get the tags on your vehicles, campers, trailers, and the like. I don’t know…somehow it felt less painful that way. Here in West Virginia, you go pay your taxes and then you take that receipt with you to the DMV and pay for your registration. I don’t have a good track record for filling out that supplement form so I kinda got dropped off the rolls.
\n\n\nThat would seem to be pretty sweet. However, somewhere down the line, you’re going to have to pay the piper and you could end up owing a really hefty tax bill. As it was, I had to fork out over $750 for two years’ worth of personal property taxes plus $51 for the registration fee. THEN, I got to take my truck in to the garage to get the yearly vehicle inspection…$15. Oooof.
\n\n\nThere was a huge upside to this little adventure.
\n\n\nI got to meet Dee. She doesn’t usually work in the tax office. She works across the street. But here she was, manning the desk and blessing my day. It wasn’t 5-10 minutes into our interacting that I knew…this was my God appointment for the day. We had a lovely conversation about personal issues we both face. I shared Marshmallow Ranch with her and invited her to come join us in cyberspace for a daily dose of love and light. I feel like I made a new friend. We shared our light and I have a feeling we both felt a lot better afterwards.
\n\n\nWhen I wrote yesterday about shining our light into the world, it was exactly this I was referring to. The world has a lot of darkness in it right now. But there is also so much light. You and I cam bring so much more. We can shine it into every dark corner…every nook and cranny…up high and down low. Eventually, the vibrations of our very existence will be enough to change the world….for good.
\n\n\nI mean FOR good…for GOOD!
\n\n\nI had a spring in my step the rest of the day. I didn’t even get a chance to sit down in the DMV…they took me that fast. There wasn’t a wait at the garage. I was in and out of there in fifteen minutes. I came home and fixed a lovely supper of Chicken Alfredo which we thoroughly enjoyed. We nibbled on those peanut butter cookies for dessert. The high was 76° yesterday and sunny. It was a picture perfect day to be a good steward and take care of business.
\n\n\nAnd share a little light.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-11-04T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2022/11/04/money-money-money-money.html", "tags": ["Faith","God","Wisdom","Choices","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2022/11/03/shining-my-flashlight.html", "title": "Shining My Flashlight", "content_html": "\n“for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”
\nEphesians 5:8-10 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/458cf778b8.jpg\")
When Mr. FixIt and I were first dating and I lived out on the farm, I was complaining about the little flashlight I had. It just wasn’t very bright and I couldn’t see very far with it. When you live alone out in the country, you darned well better be able to see more than a few yards in front of you. But the bigger spotlights are so heavy with all those batteries. Then there’s the fact that more powerful lights use more energy so you go through batteries and they aren’t cheap.
\n\n\nMr. FixIt to the rescue. He bought me a very powerful spotlight that is rechargeable. Granted, it doesn’t last as long as the disposable battery lights, but it’s SUPER bright and recharging is a snap and doesn’t break the bank. I could stand on the porch at the farm and illuminate the top of the ridge across the road enough to see an owl in a treetop!
\n\n\nHaving the right tools for the job makes everything work better. The same is true in your spiritual life. The brighter your light is inside, the brighter it shines into the world. God gave us a precious gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us, protect us, teach us, and correct us. He gave us this gift, not to squirrel away for ourselves, but to shine into the world to help others. Like moths to a flame, people are attracted to light. They’ll cross streets to bask in the glow of a lamp they feel comforted by and safe with.
\n\n\nThis light manifests in many ways. Some people shine their light by teaching. Others by serving. There are as many ways to shine your light as there are people. I shine mine when I write. And trust me…when I’m writing without the light shining through…I know it. YOU know it. The world is aching for more light. I found myself worrying the other day. Worrying about the state of the world and all the unanswerable “what ifs” that could manifest in the coming days.
\n\n\nWorry, as the Bible tells us, is a totally waste of time. It makes our lights dim. There’s a grander plan than mine at work here. And I just have to trust that I don’t know everything God has in store for us. All I can do is work with integrity, shine my light without shame, and have faith that the battle’s already been won…on the grand scale. And…when you shine a light for others, your own path is illuminated.
\n\n\nDo everything you can to shine your light…every day.
\n\n\nWe need you!
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-11-03T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2022/11/03/shining-my-flashlight.html", "tags": ["Faith","God","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2022/04/13/certainty-is-a-prison.html", "title": "Certainty is a Prison", "content_html": "\n“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
\nMatthew 5:16 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/9dc6bada00.jpg\")
Knowledge is fluid. Science and medicine and technology is not absolute. While there are some absolute truths, there will always be variables to just about any situation. This was one of the most frustrating aspects of the pandemic. People thought they were being lied to or that the experts didn’t know what they were talking about. That’s because, while there are other coronaviruses out there, Covid 19 was what they call…novel. That means, it’s never been seen before.
\n\n\nIt acted differently than anything the doctors were prepared for. When they treated it the way they’d treated other coronaviruses, it responded just the opposite. Some tried and true remedies actually made things worse. It was like driving a car. You’ve driven every day since you got your license, but for some reason, steering right took you in the opposite direction. The doctors needed to learn how to drive a totally different vehicle.
\n\n\nA good scientist knows new information is always forthcoming. They understand medicine is not an exact science. Knowledge grows and we must grow and change with it. The problem comes when certainty is introduced. Certainty is usually maintained by those who do not know what they do not know. It’s called the Dunning-Kruger effect.
\n\n\nWikipedia defines the Dunning-Kruger effect as the “cognitive bias whereby people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability.” It’s what has often been stated as “a little knowledge can be dangerous.” This is not meant to imply a lack of intelligence…just a lack of knowledge and some level of self-awareness.
\n\n\nThere’s a lot of black and white thinking in the world today. Experts are more cautious because they grasp this concept. I was reading some comments yesterday on Twitter. People were getting impatient with the J6 Committee and what they perceive as dragging their heels, when in all actuality, the nature of a true investigation is not rapid and it’s not black and white. It takes time. If things are done in a slipshod fashion, results are less trustworthy.
\n\n\nWe put ourselves in a self-imposed prison when we become absolutely certain. I belong to an online faith-based discussion group for people who have become disillusioned with organized religions. I enjoy the repartee and find different interpretations force me to dive deeper and read more to satisfy my own thirst for knowledge. The other day, someone posted “Certainty is a prison you don’t know you’re in, till you’re out of it.”
\n\n\nThere is a lot of truth in that. In my second marriage, I was absolutely certain I would be married to my husband till death us do part…because that’s the vow we made. I didn’t take into consideration that we wouldn’t or that we would change or that hanging onto that “certainty” would nearly kill me. It’s best demonstrated by comparing it to a severe illness that comes on gradually. You do not realize how dreadfully sick you were till you felt better.
\n\n\nMore and more people are falling into a black and white mentality these days. And it’s so easy to get angry and call each other stupid for believing differently. That approach is seldom fruitful. There are truths and there are untruths. The problem lies in the telling and who you trust telling it. That is a direct consequence of the Dunning-Kruger effect. I’ll give you an example. Recently, there was a claim that students in Michigan who “identify as cats” were getting litter boxes installed in the bathrooms of grade schools to accommodate them. Seriously. A senator…a seated senator actually brought this up in outrage. And what followed was three weeks of discussion and righteous indignation on the internet, social media, and school boards. It turns out, of course, that this was totally bogus without an ounce of truth to it. But some people read it and, based on who was doing the telling, assumed it must be true without using an ounce of critical thinking skills or investigation.
\n\n\nI grew up in the generation that was taught to question authority. This develops critical thinking skills. We all have our own beliefs and values, but KNOWING that we don’t know everything is vitally important in the ability to expand our knowledge and not become mired in the prison of certainty.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-04-13T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2022/04/13/certainty-is-a-prison.html", "tags": ["Overcoming Obstacles","New Ideas","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2022/04/09/when-the-images-are-too.html", "title": "When the Images are Too Disturbing", "content_html": "\n“An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.”
\nProverbs 18:15 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/54e2dc39e3.jpg\")
Our miniature rhododendron is blooming.
\n\n\nWe had a lovely home day. A bowl of oats. Andy Griffith reruns. Knitting. A visit from my bonus daughter and her husband. We watched the most recent episodes of American Idol. It was chilly and rained off and on all day. At 4:30, we bundled up and headed to town for the youngest granddaughter’s softball game.
\n\n\nWe stopped and grabbed a sandwich on the way and at the last minute, Mr. FixIt called to find out if the game was still on and sure enough…it was cancelled. We whipped into one of our favorite discount stores to pick up some pool chemicals. It’ll be time to start working on that project pretty soon.
\n\n\nWhen we walked back into the house and put our things away, I asked my sweetheart to please wait to turn the news on because I just don’t have it in me. When the news anchor says, “I must warn you, these images may be too disturbing to watch.” I’ve only watched the news a handful of times since Ukraine was invaded. And each time was worse than the last. Earlier this week, I saw the bodies in the streets. I simply cannot do that. It is not good for my health…mental or physical.
\n\n\nI do read the news online to get the gist of what’s going on in the world. I don’t have to read all the stories or look at all the pictures to get an understanding of what’s happening. I read a devastating story about a Russian woman who lives in the states. She was a normal person, a good wife and mother, till she started following the news of the Russian invasion. Something broke in her. She became convinced Russian spies were going to come take her children and abuse them. She became paranoid and heard voices. She started drinking heavily and became violent. And finally, she killed her youngest son with her bare hands. In court, she turned to family members in the gallery and told them she loved them and she doesn’t understand what has happened.
\n\n\nWhat happened is what they used to call a “nervous breakdown”. It a sort of trash basket description of a psychotic break, anxiety, or depression. When I was growing up, once in a while I would hear Mom talking about someone having a nervous breakdown. I sort of looked at it as emotional exhaustion. Something that seemed to happen when people were under an inordinate amount of stress. In my child mind, you got to go into the hospital for a nice, weeklong rest from housework and child rearing. It didn’t seem like such a bad thing.
\n\n\nTill it happened to me.
\n\n\nI was going through a terrible stretch in my marriage to Hubby #2. I was stressed, sleep deprived, and had a baby and a sixteen year old. I coped with alcohol and prescription medications. Sometimes I handled things well…other times, not so much. When he’d had all he could take, he was done. My marriage was over and I was so far down the hill, I didn’t know how I would ever get back up again.
\n\n\nI had that “nervous breakdown”. I overdosed on two full bottles of medicine. After two or three days in our local hospital, I went into a behavioral unit for a couple of weeks to get my **** together. That’s when I found out, it wasn’t a nice week off full of tea and cookies and naps in a darkened room. It was brutal and flat out scary. This poor woman who resorted to murder was out of her mind and it doesn’t sound like she was getting any psychiatric help, even though the police had been called to their home at some point.
\n\n\nI am afraid there will be a tsunami of mental health crises in the aftermath of the pandemic and the current events in the world. I’ve had moments in the last year when anxiety overtook me. But, I’ve been to the bottom in the past and I have more tools in my toolbox than I did prior to that hospitalization. I could recognize now if I needed help more urgently. Not everyone has those tools or that insight into their own behaviors. I urge anyone who is struggling with their mental health to reach out to someone for help. You can start with your doctor or clergy person, your spouse or a trusted friend.
\n\n\nThere is absolutely no shame in asking for help with your mental health. No more so than asking for help with a broken arm or a bad gallbladder. Perhaps this time in our civilization will be the catalyst to finally let go of some of the stigmas surrounding mental illness. No one should be left to their own devices during these challenging times to keep both oars in the water. If you are struggling, please reach out to someone who cares.
\n\n\nWe may not be in the same boat, but we are in this storm together. Let’s walk with each other and lift each other up.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-04-09T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2022/04/09/when-the-images-are-too.html", "tags": ["Health","Fear","Courage","Choices","Insight","Control","Anxiety"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2022/04/06/the-past-as-a-present.html", "title": "The Past as a Present", "content_html": "\n“The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.”
\nJonah 2:5-7 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/7edc61f6ac.jpg\")
Those of you who have been around a while know what happens at this time of year. I start delving into the taxes. And you know what that means. I have to pull out my trusty laptop, dust it off, and fire it up. I’ll bet I don’t turn that thing on more than a couple of times a year unless I’m working on my genealogy…and I haven’t been. I’ve been knitting instead. So…yesterday was “the day”.
\n\n\nIf you look back at this time every year, you will see pictures of people screaming and pulling their hair out while staring down a computer screen. Because…when you don’t boot up a computer for extended periods of time, there are any number of critical updates that need to be downloaded and installed. Maybe the virus protection is out of date and needs to be freshened up before you can even open any of the other programs. Maybe their subscriptions are expired and the wallet comes out to plop down an exorbitant amount of money before you can even start. That doesn’t even count downloaded all the transactions from the bank account and reconciling before end of year reports can be run. Oy…it’s a mess I get myself into year after year after year.
\n\n\nImagine my surprise when I opened the laptop yesterday and the updates went through smooth as silk. Imagine a helpful guy named Anthony skillfully walking me through the download and installation of a year’s worth of transactions without a glitch. Imagine I shopped so little that there were less than 500 transactions in all of last year! It’s a Tax Season Miracle!
\n\n\nNow…I haven’t actually DONE the taxes, but the software has been downloaded, I’ve prescheduled it to download next year and for the foreseeable future so I don’t have to remember to buy a disk when I’m in town since I shop so seldom. The account is balanced to the penny, the categories have been assigned to each transaction, and all I have to do today is plug in the numbers in the right places and…voila! I’m pretty jazzed it’s been this easy so far and it didn’t take me five days of pulling my hair out to get to this point.
\n\n\nSince I worked on the computer instead of going to the knitting group yesterday, and since I was finished in record time, I rewarded myself with an hour or two of browsing the newly released 1950 Census. There are no surprises…I found my parents and grandparents and they were listed at the addresses I knew of. It was fun to go down the list of names on the road that goes to the farm and recognize the people my grandma always talked about….some of whose I’ve met.
\n\n\nIt rained off and on all day yesterday so it was the perfect time to stay in and work on the computer. It will rain steadily all day today as well. The refrigerator isn’t working on the new camper and it’s under warranty, so I made an appointment for tomorrow to take it in for repairs. I’ve made it clear I need it back no later than the end of the month to prepare for the trip to Colorado. They assured me it shouldn’t be a problem.
\n\n\nIf you have a little time on your hands, go explore the 1950 Census. You can access it HERE. My brother and I weren’t around yet, but we didn’t miss it by much. It’s pretty exciting if you’re a genealogy geek like me! The census was mention thirty-six times in the Bible.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-04-06T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2022/04/06/the-past-as-a-present.html", "tags": ["Choices","Be Joyful!","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2022/01/11/finishing-projects.html", "title": "Finishing Projects", "content_html": "\n““Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head.”
\nNumbers 1:2 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/3e0ebd9acc.jpg\")
I am really, really good at starting projects. I’m a Gemini. I want to know how to do EVERYTHING. And, when I start to learn everything about something, I have to buy ALL the things. The tools, the supplies, the materials, the books…the works. Because, my sweet well-meaning Gemini brain LIES to me every time! It tells me something like this…
\n\n\nMe: Ooooooooooh! Look at that _____________ (insert project here)
\n\n\nGemini Brain: Oh, yeah!!! You can TOTALLY do that!
\n\n\nMe: You know it! Oh, I just love the way it makes me feel to start a new project! But, you know…we have a little problem, you and me.
\n\n\nGB: Problem? What problem?
\n\n\nMe: We like to start things, but we don’t like finishing them! And we buy WAY too much stuff.
\n\n\nGB: Well, you know…any job worth doing is worth doing well and you need the tools to do it, right?
\n\n\nMe: Yeah…but we go WAY over board. We don’t need the BEST of everything…in every size, shape, and color! We don’t need instruction books and a video series. We don’t NEED a new sewing machine and 24 balls of sock yarn in every color way imaginable.
\n\n\nGB: I don’t know what you’re talking about. WE don’t buy stuff…YOU buy stuff!
\n\n\nMe: Yeah? Well, you MAKE me!
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/3968fe2822.jpg\")
No matter how much I promise myself, I swear the next project I won’t go “all in”. Actually, I have to say…the yarn and needles for this project were a gift. The instructions and tutorial were online. So, I have zero out of pocket expenses for these beauties. And…I finished them…in one week!!! Of course, I did nothing else. Nothing much anyway. Thank you, Gail…I love this gift so much and will think of you every time I knit with these beautiful needles!
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/326112f27a.jpg\")
I ran into a little trouble with these particular socks. I discovered I probably should have made the top part a little shorter so I wouldn’t run the risk of running out of yarn at the toe. As it is, the feet are quite short, and they’ll fit Little perfectly. Gail shared another tutorial with me yesterday that shows how to knit socks from the toe up on the same circular needle. It took me three tries to get it started right, but once I got it in my head how to do it, it went pretty smoothly. And I really love this toe! I didn’t have great luck closing the toe on the other socks with the Kitchener Stitch. This is smooth and flawless as long as you do it right.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/d5b13cce13.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/5a24f3b5af.jpg\")
I bought the yarn for this sock on one of my beach trips. I had some beautiful sock yarns in a basket behind the loveseat in the family room and something got in and ruined it. There were several places where the wool was eaten away and I surmise it was moths. I had to throw some of it away because literally, the yarn was in short pieces. Not even long enough to tie together and hide the ends. It was a lesson learned to never do that again.
\n\n\nYes, this Gemini brain is going to learn a new skill…but I’m not going out and buying anything else for it. Except maybe some cute stitch markers. Oh, and someone went and told me about a yarn shop here in town! I might stop in there…you know…to say hello. It couldn’t hurt…right?
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-01-11T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2022/01/11/finishing-projects.html", "tags": ["Fun","Crafts","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2022/01/10/lets-talk-common-sense.html", "title": "Let’s Talk Common Sense", "content_html": "\n“Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.””
\n1 Corinthians 15:33 NLT\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/76e1152b86.jpg\")
If you look around…wherever you live…especially if you’re “of a certain age”, you’re going to scratch your head and think “What the heck happened to common sense???” I don’t know about you, but I shake my head…a LOT! Sometimes I think my eyes are just going to keep on rolling and stay that way.
\n\n\nOne of my pet peeves is when you ask your health care provider how to correct something and he/she comes back with a prescription. Lord knows…I don’t need any more prescriptions. I’m trying to thin out some of them I’m taking as it is. I’ll tell you more about that in a minute but I’m going to tackle a somewhat sensitive subject…one that now seems to have lots of commercials representing “cures”. Let’s talk…irregularity.
\n\n\nCome on…every body poos. And the healthier it is, the better you are going to feel. What’s that one commercial call it…crankypated? Pretty good description. It seems the older I get, the more that going becomes not going and that causes all kinds of problems. One of the really fun side effects of hyperparathyroidism can be constipation. I mentioned this to my endocrinologist and he ordered lactulose. It is a sugar that gloms onto fluid and forces it into the stool. Ok, that’s one way to do it, but I only tried it once and it was pretty harsh. (Shubs…I’m sending the rest your way!)
\n\n\nMy grandparents drank prune juice to stay regular. I’ve eaten a couple prunes a day without seeing grand, lasting results. Not that they aren’t good…but I just don’t think of grabbing a handful. And prune juice? Ummmm…no, thanks. I’ve tried Metamucil and stool softeners with mixed results. Then, I remembered the “Activia Challenge” commercial. Hey...I love yoghurt! One little cup every night for dessert? Yes, please!
\n\n\nI am happy to report, after just five days having this little taste treat every evening and things are right as rain again! It is because of the probiotics added to the yoghurt. Our gut biome gets all wonky for a lot of different reasons. When you have to take an antibiotic, it can mess with the bacterial balance in your gut. Certain medications and medical conditions cause constipation. We drink less water as we get older and that contributes. We eat less green, leafy vegetables and fruits like whole apples and prunes.
\n\n\nAnother problem I’ve had for the last several years is acid reflux…commonly referred to in medical circles as GERD. I’ve had upper endoscopies and colonoscopies and, even on a strong prescription acid reducer, I still had gastritis the last time. The doctor bumped me up to the strongest dose I could take and it still didn’t make much difference. Add to that…GERD is one of the major symptoms of hyperparathyroidism, so I’ve got a double whammy.
\n\n\nWhen Mr. Virgo died, I needed a little help with my mood so I started taking the St. John’s Wort regularly. When I was in Florida having my parathyroid surgery in March, the PA was going through my pre-op physical and asking me what medications I take. I was on antidepressants for years and I don’t ever want to take them again if I can avoid it. I figured, if I could take something natural that would work, then that’s what I’d rather do…hence, the St. John’s Wort. She said something about being very careful with that particular supplement because it can have a strong interactions with certain medications. I not only promptly forgot what medication she mentioned, but that she had issued the warning in the first place. It only recently came back to me. (Memory is funny that way, isn’t it?)
\n\n\nAnyway, the other night I looked up on WebMD and saw they have a medication interaction calculator. You put in your medications and it tells you if any of them interact poorly. I wanted to find out which one the St. John’s Wort was messing up. Well, would you believe it was the acid reducer? It reduces the effectiveness. And here I’ve been doctoring for this burning in the pit of my stomach, taking the strongest medicine I could take…for YEARS, and not getting any relief. I’ve weaned off the St. John’s Wort now and I can already feel a difference in my stomach…it’s not burning like it used to. Eureka!
\n\n\nThis is when we circle back to “common sense”. Sometimes you just have to take a step back, do a little research, and be your own best advocate in the medical community. They are trained to fix things and their tools are often medicine. You can rest assured, they don’t get kickbacks from the drug companies like they used to. That’s how some people end up in their old age taking a shoebox full of pills every day prescribed by a handful of different doctors.
\n\n\nI’m here to tell you…I was married to a doctor. For twenty years. And he was darned good at what he did. But…he put his boots on one at a time, just like everyone else. Doctors are not God. And medicine is not an exact science. While anyone with that kind of education and professional status commands a certain amount of respect, it should never come at the cost of you not questioning something. If they push pills, ask if there’s an alternative. Tell them you aren’t an avid pill popper and see if there’s some other natural, healthy way to fix your problem.
\n\n\nMy Aunt Peeps was in her 80’s when she died of dementia and untreated (by choice) breast cancer. My cousin was sitting with her in the hospital one day when the doctor asked her what medicine she took. The answer shocked him. One small prescription…period. No vitamins. No supplements. Nothing over the counter except maybe an aspirin or acetaminophen from time to time. She never bought anything fancy for her skin. She washed her face with a washcloth and whatever bar soap was available. She used Prell shampoo and Crest toothpaste, because that’s what her mother used. She stayed away from doctors at all costs save for the two times she broke her hips. (She actually fell on the ice and broke her wrist once but never went in to have it set. It was always crooked after that.)
\n\n\nIn contrast, when I called my mom every Sunday night, I received the rundown on how many doctor’s appointments they were going to every week and which antibiotic they were currently taking. Doctors were gods in her house. You never, ever questioned them. But I’m here to tell you, you’ve GOT to question them. In a non-confrontational manner, of course. But don’t just take everything they say as the gospel. Write down your questions. Be sure you leave enough time in your appointment to feel free to ask your health care professional to answer them.
\n\n\nSo, there’s my TED Talk for the night. Poop and prescriptions. Don’t be afraid to ask and get your questions answered.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-01-10T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2022/01/10/lets-talk-common-sense.html", "tags": ["Health","Wisdom","Aging","Choices","Insight","Control"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2022/01/08/my-ipad-is-getting-smarter.html", "title": "My iPad is Getting Smarter", "content_html": "\n“If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.”
\nProverbs 9:12 NLT\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/d909ac0159.jpg\")
We’ve come a long way, baby!
\n\n\nEvery evening, I head to the back bedroom between 8:00 and 8:30 to write my posts. This is because…The Big Bang reruns are over for the night, and Mr. FixIt is ready to watch some detective drama. Not my cup of tea. This works for us. I’m always finished writing around 10:30 or 11:00 and I chat with my son-in-law’s mom for forty-five minutes or so to catch up with what’s going on in Colorado. By the time we are wrapping it up for the night, Mr. FixIt heads to bed and we watch some funny video or another for a little while, leaving the day on a note of laughter.
\n\n\nI noticed last night, when I settled in to write, there was a notification along the top of the lock screen on my iPad that said, “Open Pages - based on your location in your home”. I’m not surprised by this. Electronic devices are designed to make our lives easier. My iPhone tells me where I parked. I get in my truck and, based on the precise location by GPS, my phone turns to “Driving Focus”. Text notifications are interrupted and an automated reply is sent to the person texting, telling them that I am driving and using “Do Not Disturb. Send a repeat text if it’s an emergency.”
\n\n\nStill…this is all so “Jetsons” to this Baby Boomer. Remember Dick Tracy’s wrist watch that he communicated through? We’re here now. I remember when I bought our first home computer when Daughter #1 was in…what? Eighth or ninth grade? Hubby #2 thought it was absolutely ridiculous and extravagant…kids were never going to need home computers! When the salesman was showing me how to use it, he commented that someday, women would carry computers a thousand times more powerful that this…in their handbags. Get…out! How could that be?
\n\n\nThe very first flip phone had more computer capabilities than the Lunar Landing Module. Think about that for a second. While we still don’t have personal jet packs, they’re building cars that drive autonomously. I’m a forward thinker. I love innovation and all things geeky. But I don’t know about driving with no hands. It’s one thing on a bicycle. It’s something else on an interstate with a ton of steel and plastic hurtling down the highway on its own.
\n\n\nThere are really good things that come with innovation. When I was a Diabetes Educator, self blood glucose monitoring was a new thing. I was invited to participate on an Advisory Board for LifeScan…later bought out by Johnson & Johnson…to design the next generation meter. It’s been fun to see those innovations we suggested in the mid-‘80s come to fruition along the way. But one idea eluded scientists for a long time. The sensor that you stick to your skin and it reads your blood sugar in real time…anytime, day or night…without sticking your finger. When I saw that on a commercial in the last year or so, I beamed. We thought of that…and, there it is!
\n\n\nElectronic banking, automatic bill pay, instant messaging, Zoom meetings, FaceTime, online shopping…all things that have made the “Pandemic Era” more tolerable. Innovations arrive at what seems like lightning speed now. Online gambling…not so good. Cryptocurrency? Holy cats…how do they “mine” money out of thin air? How can it be worth something if you can’t touch it? Those of us who lived through the bursting of the internet bubble and the real estate collapse may have a little bit of trouble trusting such things.
\n\n\nThat’s the thing, isn’t it? We have SO much information thrown at us in a constant stream of data, our brains can’t keep up. It affects every part of life…not just technology. Things we actually saw and heard…with our own eyes and ears…just one year ago are now being denied by the people who did the things and said the stuff. It’s almost as if…there isn’t an electronic record…video and audio recordings of them actually SAYING and DOING it. We aren’t stupid people. We are often…misled. It’s kind of like a magician’s trick. The hand is quicker than the eye. And, any time we get too close to figuring out the trick…there’s a diversion. They’re banking on us forgetting. Or being so overwhelmed, we just don’t care anymore.
\n\n\nIt’s easy to be lulled into complacency when new innovations and new information and new technology is presented. I don’t think we can afford to close our eyes and ears and bury our heads in the sand. I come from the generation to whom the directive…Question Authority…was our buzzword. “Critical Thinking 101” should be added to the buzzwords of the 21st Century. I try to use my faith as a measuring stick and look critically at those who deliver information and compare them to the ways of Jesus instead of just accepting what the world is telling me.
\n\n\nIn the meantime, my iPad knows when it’s time to write. Now…when it starts bringing me tea and cookies, I’ll be happy.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-01-08T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2022/01/08/my-ipad-is-getting-smarter.html", "tags": ["Faith","Wisdom","Choices","Change","Insight","Home"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2022/01/07/remembering-my-rebirthday-and-watching.html", "title": "Remembering my Re-Birthday and Watching it Snow", "content_html": "\n“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
\nRomans 12:1-2 MSG\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/8a5b75565a.jpg\")
Yesterday was my “re-birthday”. It marked 22 years since one of the darkest days of my life. It turned out to be the turning point that actually saved my life. It was the first day of the 8,036 days I’ve spent sober. It was also the lowest point of my depression. Hubby #2 had long since emotionally checked out of our marriage and I had no idea how I was going to survive without him. That night…22 years ago…I overdosed on two full bottles of pills and could easily have died.
\n\n\nIt was the end of my twenty year marriage, but it was the beginning of the journey back to myself. I became a better mom…a better friend…a better human. In time. It was hard work and I seriously think it was that experience that gave me the tools I needed to navigate the grief of Mr. Virgo’s death. January 6th is Epiphany…a day of joy and faith. Joy and faith eluded me that day in 2000. It took a lot time, but I’ve found both again in ways I’d never experienced…even with my late husband.
\n\n\nI marked the day with Mr. FixIt. We fiddled around the house a little. We watched some mindless TV. He went to the store for bread and milk. I started knitting the second sock. Then we settled in to watch the “Severe Weather Bulletin” on the news out of Huntington. We can’t get the local news through our satellite company, so we watch what’s happening to our neighbors a couple hours south of us.
\n\n\nThe “Severe Weather Bulletin” interrupted regular programming for at least three hours. They had remote broadcasts from eight or ten reporters. They’d switch over and the reporter inevitably said, “Yep…it’s still snowing here.” Then they would pan over and show you the snow on the road. Yep…the road was white. It was snow alright. I had to laugh, because…well, I lived in Colorado for forty years. Where…you know…it SNOWS!
\n\n\n![\"Man](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/66a2adea84.jpg\")
The first snow after Mr. Virgo died. Colorado - December 2013
\n\n\nIt’s so funny to see what happens in different areas of the country when it snows. An inch of snow can paralyze a southern state for days. In Colorado, it’s called October. Or November, December, or any month…clear through May. And sometimes June or July if you’re up in the high country. School let out early yesterday afternoon. You know…to get the kids home before the Snowpocalypse hit. There won’t be school today, I guarantee it.
\n\n\nWhen my kids were in school in the mountains of Colorado, they only had one snow day that I can remember. It was -27 and they couldn’t get the buses started that morning. If Coloradans called off school every time it snowed…well, there wouldn’t be much schoolin’. So, I kinda giggle at the mass hysteria when we get a little snow here in West Virginia. It was awfully pretty. And I was really glad we didn’t have any place to go yesterday. We just made a big pot of spaghetti and watched it snow. It was a really good place to be…literally and figuratively.
\n\n\n❄️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2022-01-07T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2022/01/07/remembering-my-rebirthday-and-watching.html", "tags": ["Colorado","Gratitude","Grace","Be Joyful!","Farm Life","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/12/17/who-gets-your-digital-footprint.html", "title": "Who Gets Your Digital Footprint After You’re Gone?", "content_html": "\n““He orders the snow, ‘Blanket the earth!’ and the rain, ‘Soak the whole countryside!’ No one can escape the weather—it’s there. And no one can escape from God.”
\nJob 37:6-8 MSG\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/670b0d18d9.jpg\")
I follow Heather Cox Richardson. Lately, she’s been sharing some texts that went back and forth during the insurrection on January 6, 2021. Oh, my gosh…was that just this year??? The texters were texting things they ought not to have been texting and it’s going to come back and bite them in the butt, I do believe. At any rate, it got me to thinking about the digital footprints we leave behind without giving it one bit of thought.
\n\n\nWhen my dear friend Sparky died this week, she took with her that close connection we had…in person and digitally. Certainly, during Covid, our connection was nearly exclusively digital. We shared funny memes that were maybe just a little TOO much to put out on our Facebook pages for all to see. We had inside jokes. We talked candidly about everything. I’m really happy I have a treasure trove of her texts that go back over probably five years or more. I have funnies galore. And, I also have private things…the kinds of things you share with your bestie because that’s how you work through things. But they aren’t necessarily things you want your kids finding after your dead, you know what I mean?
\n\n\nSo, I have these things on my phone, which means…unless Sparky erased our conversations every time…these things are also on her phone. Oh, they aren’t state secrets or anything illegal, but if certain people found them, they could be hurtful or perhaps even besmirch a reputation…neither of which is particularly pleasant. It made me think about the digital trails we leave behind and where they go when we die and who gets them and what could they do with them and….well, you get the picture.
\n\n\nI keep a lot of text conversations on my phone because they contain photos, phone numbers, the answers to questions, and frankly…memories of my friend or relative. I probably have every text Mr. FixIt and I ever exchanged, which is sweet. I even have some of the texts Mr. Virgo and I exchanged. But sending out texts between friends isn’t the only place our digital footprints leave trails. Our presence on the internet, no matter WHAT we are doing, or WHERE we are doing it, is…out there. It’s in the Cloud…any number of Clouds, really. It’s on old devices, shared devices, pads, tablets, phones, computers, laptops, readers, home assistance devices like Ring and Alexa and Smart TVs.
\n\n\nI gave up a long time ago thinking that any of this was really going to come back and bite me bad. I mean, after all, I’m a blogger and a storyteller and you all probably know more about me through my writing than some of my own family members do. The things I put out here for you to read aren’t secrets or I wouldn’t be putting them out here. However, private conversations between me and my friends and family on my phone is different.
\n\n\nI’m sure the government officials who were texting directions or updates or whatever during the events of January 6th are pretty upset that the conversations they were having via text are becoming public knowledge. I get that. However, while my friend might be sending me a “you didn’t hear this from me” text, we weren’t in the throes of doing something even slightly illegal. Big difference.
\n\n\nSo, what do you do with all that information? Well, you can ask the executor of the estate to erase it from the phone but that’s not always feasible. You can erase the text histories off your devices, which is time consuming and difficult to remember to do. You can make a pact with your friends or the executor of your estate to clean your phone when you’re gone. I think that’s a pretty good way to do it. Never sharing personal information with anyone ever on digital devices would work, but I’ll tell you what…that horse has long since left the barn for all of us, I’d guess. Except this one strange dude we graduated with. I’ll bet he’s never even had so much as an email address his entire life. I asked him once why he didn’t go on Facebook and connect with us…his fellow classmates. He said, “Are you nuts? Voluntarily let the CIA track me? No thanks!” Yeah, well…ok.
\n\n\nThere are articles all over the internet that discuss this subject and ways to “clean up your mess” but I’ll leave that for you to look up. There’s something to be said for minimizing your digital footprint because your data is like glitter…you will never, ever get rid of all of it. Once it’s out there, it’s out there forever. I’m glad I grew up when I did so my really stupid stuff wasn’t recorded for posterity.
\n\n\n❄️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-12-17T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/12/17/who-gets-your-digital-footprint.html", "tags": ["Wisdom","Warning","Insight","Control"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/10/22/how-country-living-has-changed.html", "title": "How Country Living Has Changed Me", "content_html": "\n“For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.”
\nLuke 8:17 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/85bdae3153.jpg\")
I awoke to the tippy tap sound of gentle rain on the roof of the camper. It sounds the same as my first camper…Little TOW-Wanda. It had a metal roof. Big TOW-Wanda had a rubber roof and I was always disappointed that the sound of the rain was so muffled. And now…Big Bird! Her roof is metal and reminds me a lot of Grandma’s house at the farm.
\n\n\nWe had a leisurely breakfast then hung around till midday at the camper. When it was lunch time, we headed to town. We stopped at Menard’s first and bought a leaf blower to blow the leaves off the camper. Then we went to Red Robin for our later lunch, early supper. They have great burgers. I especially love the plant based Impossible Burger.
\n\n\nWhen we were finished eating, we went over to the Polaris Mall and walked around. On our way over there, we drove past block after block of strip malls with big name stores and I quickly became overwhelmed by all the shopping opportunities. We drove through the parking lot of the mall, looking for an empty spot. Just as we turned off the engine, huge drops of rain began to fall and we rushed from the car to the door to keep from getting wet.
\n\n\nWe parked outside of Macy’s. I always park at a store entrance so I can remember where I parked. When we walked in the door, this was what we walked into. Christmas. I know…it comes early every year now. And will so much stuff sitting on ships waiting to be unloaded, we are liable to face an entirely different holiday season than what we are accustomed to.
\n\n\nRemember back in April 2020 when we’d say, “When this all blows over in a couple of months, then we can _____________”? (Fill in the blank with anything remotely normal.) and now, here we are, getting ready for another holiday season with the trickle down effects of the pandemic still nipping us at the heels. I won’t get into a long discussion about how this might have all been avoided. That’s not what this post is about. It’s about ants.
\n\n\nAs we walked around the mall, people were milling about. I’m not used to people anymore. For more reasons than the pandemic. We live out in the country on five acres. We don’t get a whole lot of company out there. And when we do go into town, it’s nothing remotely like this large upscale shopping mall in Columbus, OH. They have a Saks Fifth Avenue, for crying out loud! We have the Piggly Wiggly!
\n\n\nI suddenly had this very strong image. We were like ants in a colony. Milling about. Picking up this and that and carrying it back to our nests. It was kinda creepy in a science fiction way. I couldn’t relate to these people, even though I know I was once one of them. Let me tell ya, honey…I shopped. I shopped till I dropped. Many, many times. When I was married to Hubby #2, the doctor, we had a house with…get this…SEVENTEEN closets! When we first moved in there, I thought… “What kind of family lives in a house with seventeen closets???” Well, the family before us…they had 4 or 5 kids. And here we were, with a 16 year old and a baby…rapidly filling up all those closets. With crap. Oh…I thought they were treasures, but I can hardly name a handful of things in there that I couldn’t live without.
\n\n\nDid I see anything in that mall yesterday that I liked? Yes. They had a Solo Stove…a gizmo that allows you to have a rip roaring campfire without all the smoke. It was $500. That’s a hard pass. There was a collapsible coffee thingy to make pour overs while camping. $23. Nope. Electric bikes? $4000! There wasn’t a darned thing in there that I needed or wanted. I like shopping back in the day. I’m a little sad that I don’t like shopping anymore. I kept asking Mr. FixIt if we were done yet and could we just go.
\n\n\nOh…I did love going to Menard’s. It’s got TOOLS!
\n\n\nI’m going to have to turn in my girly girl card and get the country girl card now.
\n\n\n???
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-10-22T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/10/22/how-country-living-has-changed.html", "tags": ["Wisdom","Choices","Change","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/08/26/the-found-garden.html", "title": "The Found Garden", "content_html": "\n“As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”
\n1 Timothy 6:17-19 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/bb253717e0.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/2126e55379.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/41624b0e46.jpg\")
I have made many FB friends since I started writing this blog. People I genuinely care for and admire. I learn from them. I celebrate their successes and mourn with them their losses. These were the people my Aunt Peeps referred to as my “pretend friends”. I mean…I can see where she was coming from. She had zero experience with technology and social media. She didn’t understand it and thought I was pretty “cuckoo”, to use her terms. But, my readers are special to me.
\n\n\nOne such friend is Julie Zickafoose. Julie is an amazing woman with a huge, wide open heart. She is an artist, and author, a naturalist. She is a latent hippy mama hell bent on saving Mother Nature and all God’s creatures. Her love for flora and fauna is admirable and…well, I want to be her when I grow up!
\n\n\nYesterday, she wrote a beautiful post on her Facebook page about her found garden. Plants that volunteered in the ground of her greenhouse. Flowers that shed surprising amounts of seed that she was able to nurture over the winter and plant in the spring. Bits of flotsam and jetsam found on the discount shelf in the plant section that she nurtured and revived until the thrived on their own. Strong, sturdy, and unbelievably gorgeous. And…almost all for free.
\n\n\nThis got me to thinking about my measly “found garden” this summer and I’ve decided to make it a goal to nurture some flower beds around the house next summer. I went around yesterday and took a few pictures. You’ve seen these crazy lilies called Star of Bethlehem that revived themselves from what looked like nothing but dead, dry bulbs into tall and stately stem of perfect white stars.
\n\n\nOne day last week, I was walking up the sidewalk and glanced over at that same pot and spotted a tiny little purple flower in the same pot as the lilies. When I went over and took a closer look, I was amazed to find a perfect little petunia. Where that seed came from, I’ll never know. It had to have been in the potting soil I dumped in the galvanized tub along with the near lifeless lily bulbs.
\n\n\nAnother surprise came in a different tub. It was under the bird-feeder. Usually, all you’ll get are grasses, unless perhaps a bird has eaten a berry or something and the seeds land in a fertile place a grow. Honestly, I’m as puzzled as I can be because a virtual plethora of vines with a tulip shaped leaf started growing. And growing. And growing! They started to climb the fence and the other flowers and went crazy. They didn’t bloom for the longest time until this last week. Then they started producing beautiful bluebird blue trumpet shaped flowers and I caught my breath…
\n\n\nMorning Glories!
\n\n\nI have tried for YEARS to grow morning glories and I have never, ever been successful. I have no idea why. I have a black thumb…I can kill a silk plant in no time flat. And these just….showed up! I didn’t have to do anything.
\n\n\nThey remind me of how God shows up. Nothing we can DO can make Him love us more. We can’t “get in his good graces” by our works. He won’t love us any more if we work harder, or earn more money, or win prizes, or rise to the top of the food chain. All we have to do is be kind, be good, be more like Jesus. That’s when God shows up and brings flowers up out of the dirt where none were planted. It’s one of the ways he says I love you, I see you, I’m rooting for you.
\n\n\nFlowers are a gift from God. Little miracles. Miracles happen every day…if you just open your eyes and look for them. I’ll miss my surprise flowers while I’m gone. But, hey…maybe God will have something else waiting for me when we get home! Today would have been my mom’s 96th birthday. Instead, she will be forever 78. Just ten years older than I am now. She left us all too soon, and I miss her dreadfully. Interestingly, the little tiny petunia is purple…her favorite color.
\n\n\nThis makes me smile.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-08-26T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/08/26/the-found-garden.html", "tags": ["West Virginia","Growth","Gratitude","God","Peaceful Moments","Farm Life","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/08/16/please-dont-feed-the-trolls.html", "title": "Please Don’t Feed the Trolls", "content_html": "\n““Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”
\nLuke 12:27 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/a3c568af31.jpg\")
When you own a website or blog, you open yourself up to a lot of good things. And, as they say… “Into each life, a little rain must fall.” It’s unavoidable. I know full well, when I touch on controversial subjects, I’m liable to get some pushback. It comes with the turf. I don’t mind hearing other’s opinions, of course…as long as there is an attempt at civil discourse. I seldom delete a post, and I rarely need to block someone. But, it happened yesterday so I thought perhaps we should discuss it.
\n\n\nAccording to my statistics on this page, my demographic is largely women aged 60 and over…not unexpected since my writing covers grief, faith, aging, health, cooking, family, retirement, farm life, and….well, you get it. You’ve been reading me long enough to know what I do here. It occurred to me yesterday, women in this demographic may not know how to spot a troll on social media…or even know what that is.
\n\n\nThere is a difference between a troll and someone merely disagreeing with something you’ve said and expressing themselves. It isn’t always easy to tell them apart…especially when things get heated. I get a notification every time someone likes or comments on my posts here…the “launch pad” to my website. I try to at least acknowledge every interaction on my page because I like staying engaged with you all. Most of the time you get a ? and sometimes you get a written response…it depends on the subject and how much time I have that day. At any rate, I like for you to know I’m seeing what you write to me and I deeply appreciate you.
\n\n\nYesterday, I broke my own rule. I unknowingly fed a troll and things started escalating. In my defense, I was out on the mower at the end of the far field. I stopped to take a drink and I felt my phone vibrate. I took a quick look and saw some heat and stepped in with what I hoped was a calming response. By the time I was finished mowing, it was obvious I should have taken the time to look into the person making the comments.
\n\n\nThere were several red flags. First, it wasn’t a name I recognized…I had never seen a comment from this person before. And, second…she got personal, fast. Attacking not only me, but other readers. I honestly didn’t take the time to do any research. I have zero tolerance for personal attacks so I removed the ugly posts and blocked the person. Later, in order to make sure I did the right thing, I asked a friend to look this person up and check on two things…when she joined Facebook and how many friends she had. It wasn’t two minutes later when I got the confirmation I needed. New account. No friends. That’s what I should have done first before I ever responded….look her up to confirm.
\n\n\nTrolls and troll accounts can come from a variety of sources. Sometimes it’s nothing more than cyber bullies…anonymous accounts someone hides behind in order to attack and provoke a response from either the owner of the page or their friends/readers/customers. The attacks are usually focused around hot topics and they are meant to trigger people into responding out of anger. This type of troll gets a kick out of the drama and angry responses and will continue to escalate with every response…often getting personal. They’ll send laughing emojis when you respond with anger. They belittle and demean. And they have a hunger to be fed. If you ignore them, sometimes they give up and go away on their own because they aren’t getting what they want. That’s easier to do when it’s just you responding on your own page. It’s an entirely different situation when you have over 6,000 readers on a blog.
\n\n\nAnother kind of troll is what we saw starting in about 2014. Russian Intelligence discovered the United States would be far easier to defeat if they divided us and pitted us against each other. So they went on a massive disinformation campaign to do just that and drew the line in the sand between political parties. This continued during the campaign for the 2016 Presidential election…the fallout of which we will be dealing with for God knows how long. I am sure it continues today as foreign powers jump on the bandwagon, reach into our computers, and stir up a hornet’s nest.They have learned they can destroy us without firing a shot. All they have to do is poke the bear, point the finger at the other guy saying, “He did it!” Then, they sit back and laugh at how easy it was.
\n\n\nRecognizing a cyber bully is easier than recognizing a troll account created by a foreign power. The trick is to stop and think before you respond. Have a peek at the person’s personal FB page. The biggest clue is “no friends” or a really new account. They rant. They pick trigger topics and gauge the audience to actually decide which side of the fence to stand on. They may not even believe in what they’re spewing…they’re just in it for the high of the response.
\n\n\nClemson University created a questionnaire to try to help you figure out who is legit and who is a troll. You can find it HERE. I’m pretty savvy to this issue because I’ve been writing this blog for over eight years now. I got 7 out of 8 right on Spot the Troll. It’s not easy to apply critical thinking skills when you’re in the heat of the moment. So, before you start throwing barbs back, take a breath and do a little research. It’ll be better for your blood pressure.
\n\n\nWe’re all in this together. Let’s try to educate each other and outsmart the fox that’s somehow gotten into our henhouse.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-08-16T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/08/16/please-dont-feed-the-trolls.html", "tags": ["Growth","Wisdom","Anger","Writing","Choices","Change","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/08/12/my-husband-has-ruined-me.html", "title": "My Husband Has Ruined Me", "content_html": "\n“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”
\nProverbs 6:16-19 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/ca3f917a0b.jpg\")
Mr. FixIt has ruined me. Let me explain.
\n\n\nI’m updating the GPS unit I bought in 2014 as I was leaving Denver to drive cross-country to live on the farm. I do not believe it has been updated at all. I don’t know…maybe once? I’ve tried three different times over the last few days and I kept getting an error message. At first, it said to use the USB cord that came with the unit. I thought, if there was any chance whatsoever I still have the darned thing, it would be in the console of my truck. It took me a day or two to get it together and sit in 95 degree heat rummaging through stacks of unused paper napkins, CD’s (who even listens to those anymore?), receipts, packets of catsup and soy sauce, a slip of paper with a phone number on it that’s undoubtedly important, and that cool tool I bought to cut my seat belt and break the window if I ever find myself sinking to the bottom of a body of water in my F-150. Hey…I’m a Girl Camper…I’m always ready!
\n\n\nAnyway, after tearing through the console for ten minutes or so, the USB cord wasn’t there. It was two more days before I got around to trying again. You remember every year when I sit down to do my taxes, the laptop always needs a dozen updates and it’s slow and I need to run a virus scan and the cleanup program and before I know it, three hours have passed and I’m finally ready to get to work? Well, that was yesterday afternoon. Argh! I decided to just order a new cord from Garmin, but I couldn’t find the link so I chatted with customer service. Tyrrone came online and gave me the link I needed. I was ALMOST ready to hit “send” on the payment when I thought some more. Maybe that cord…or one like it that would work…was in this special bag where I keep extra things like that.
\n\n\nI set everything aside, pulled out the bag, and the second cord I tried worked! When I downloaded the update, i kept getting an error message that said, “File cannot be installed on this computer. Please try again.” After trying three times, I realized the Garmin Express file I had on my computer was outdated, so I tried updating it. Again, I got the same error message. I tried to uninstall the old version and got the error message, “Task cannot be competed.”
\n\n\nBreathe, Ginny…breathe.
\n\n\nI chatted with customer service again and he sent another link to work around that and…the computer froze. OMGosh! Why does this have to be so hard? I rebooted the computer, ran through the steps and the program magically disappeared. Yes! That allowed me to download the installer for the new version, which worked out fine. Then, when I started the update, our internet is SOOOOOOOOO slow, as I’m writing this, the predicted time to download is 4 hours, 47 minutes! Ok…fine. I set the whole thing aside on the floor by my chair so there’s no chance I’ll accidentally unplug the darned thing and have to start over.
\n\n\nNow, here’s where I tell you how my husband has ruined me. There was a time in my life when I would have just gone out and bought a new GPS. After all, this one is at least seven years old…it’s served me well. And, you can buy new ones now that are specifically geared towards campers. Sweet! However…they cost $300 or more. After being with my sweet West Virginia boy these last few years (West Virginians are known to be frugal and resourceful) his “frugality” is rubbing off on me! Darn it. I hate shopping now. I spend an inordinate amount of time researching things before I spring to buy them. I’ll often sit for a couple of weeks with items in an online shopping cart, only to go back in later and decide I didn’t really need that after all.
\n\n\nSee? Totally ruined. lol
\n\n\nWhen we first got together, I just grabbed whatever I wanted off the grocery store shelves. Because, and this is my privileged past showing here, it had been many, many years since I had to consider the difference between the price of store brands versus name brands. At first, going shopping with him was immensely frustrating. Then something happened. He hugged me one day and told me we would never argue about money. Which told me, if there was ever anything we WOULD argue about, it would be money. I’ve learned to “watch my pennies so my dollars watch themselves.” We learned to compromise and he rarely buys store brand mayo anymore because it’s just gross. And…after all, the money we save takes us on great adventures! It’s important to be good stewards of the gifts God gives us…one of which is money. It’s even more important as we age.
\n\n\nSo, yeah…I’m ruined. But totally in a good way!
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-08-12T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/08/12/my-husband-has-ruined-me.html", "tags": ["Wisdom","Choices","Marriage","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/07/21/the-mysteries-of-neurodiversity.html", "title": "The Mysteries of Neurodiversity", "content_html": "\n“Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.”
\n1 Corinthians 4:2 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/209203f8f5.jpg\")
My “Secret Garden”…my favorite spot here at home.
\n\n\nNeurodiversity. It’s probably not a term you are familiar with. More than likely, that’s because you are neurotypical. Neurotypical people are your everyday, garden variety humans that do things and feel things and say things like most people. But the human brain is infinitely varied and weird and wonderful. Instead of calling a neurodivergence a “disability”…we become more inclusive if we recognize each other as beautiful and profoundly human and as varied as a rainbow.
\n\n\nI’ve discovered, through some deep discussions with someone on the Autism Spectrum, I am probably a member of that club. Females on the spectrum have an easier time masking it. But I’ve always known I was a bit “different”. I don’t always make good eye contact when I talk to people. I pick up the accents and mannerisms of people around me. I am prone to anxiety and depression. I talk fast and loud…a lot! I’ve never, ever looked at these “quirks” as a disability. On the contrary…they are my superpower. I’m creative. I can be funny. I’m sensitive. I have a big heart. I see and experience the world in a different way. I think in analogies. It makes me a better writer. And a better human.
\n\n\nI stumbled across something the other day that gave me pause. Pathological Demand Avoidance. It’s a subtype of autism spectrum disorder characterized by a greater refusal to do what is asked of the person, even if it’s something they would normally really like to do. I’ve especially noticed this in myself since Mr. Virgo died. If something is my idea, and I have control over it, I’m ok. But, when someone asks me to do something…or I’m expected to do something…it automatically stirs my fight or flight response and I get very anxious.
\n\n\nThis has caused me no end of self-recrimination. It’s made me feel weak. But, I’m telling you, just reading about it has flipped a switch…the light bulb went on. I wasn’t a bad person because I couldn’t go do something with the kids or help a friend. My brain just doesn’t process requests the same as everyone else. A request makes me feel trapped. Reading about PDA is enlightening…and freeing.
\n\n\nI’ve been using my time in TOW-Wanda this summer for self-reflection. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far…
\n\n\n“Normal” is just a setting on the dryer.
\n\n\nWe all fall somewhere on a vast rainbow of diversity. Knowing this gives me a whole new level of empathy and curiosity and love.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-07-21T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/07/21/the-mysteries-of-neurodiversity.html", "tags": ["Wisdom","Aging","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/05/17/it-was-the-best-of.html", "title": "It Was the Best of Times...It Was the Worst of Times", "content_html": "\n“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?”
\nJames 2:1-5 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/5b84ed3082.jpg\")
Charles Dickens was speaking of the events leading up to the French Revolution, of course. And my little slice of reality is nothing in comparison. However, whenever we are going through hard things, our things are the hardest things because they’re OUR things. Grief has many sources, and it’s no small thing to walk away from your family home.
\n\n\nI’ve been at the farm since Saturday afternoon. I thought I’d get a lot done yesterday, but I did not. And that’s ok. I sat on the front porch most of the day, staring at my grandma’s huge rhododendron. It isn’t lost on me that THE most beautiful peak of bloom is occurring during my last official day here. Tomorrow evening is the close of the auction. I’ve asked everyone I know to buy the farm so I can still come here. Who knows the fate of this land besides God? I just have this wonderful feeling it’s going into the hands of someone who will love it the same as I do. I’m going to stand on that conviction.
\n\n\nI was a sponge yesterday...soaking up every ounce of love from this place. I awoke to the beloved sound of a gentle rain on the tin roof...even though we had no such rain predicted. I drove over to the service station-diner-convenience store-tire center early to get some butter. I forgot to bring some over and I want pancakes on my last morning here. The time passed all too quickly and just as the light began to change, I snapped this shot of the perfect blossoms on the perfect bush in the most perfect place I know. I sat on the porch and watched the chipmunks chasing each other around the yard. A flicker kept sweeping in to the old, rotten stump of the poplar tree my PopPop planted years ago...snatching an insect here and there, then flying on. A big, fat rabbit slowly made its way along the base of the spirea along the ditch by the road....nibbling on the new grass and avoiding the bee balm and flags.
\n\n\nThe neighbor across the road was planting his garden. It’s always so lovely because he keeps the deer out with an electric fence. Otherwise, it’s nothing but a salad bar for critters. His wife came out with Molly, their one year old lab pup who is full of boundless energy. Bees from the hives down the road buzzed from flower to flower. I happily munched on my sandwich, sharing some chips with the chipmunks. Four-wheelers came one by one down the road...heading back home after a fun day of “muddin’” on the area’s many dirt roads that lead to old oil and gas wells and timber cuts.
\n\n\nAs night fell, I talked with Mr. FixIt. I told him I saw him on the security camera planting OUR garden. I laughed and told him he can’t get away with anything now that we’ve put those in! lol We hung up and I came in, locking the doors behind me...just as Grandma did over the decades she lived in this little red house in the holler. This is my last day. The last night I’ll spend in my grandma’s house. Even if it DOES sell to someone I know and even if I DO get to sleep in here again...it’ll be different. It won’t be ours...mine. Not physically, anyway.
\n\n\nLife is still lovely...and it will go on. More stories will come. I’ll remember things I haven’t told you about the old home place. And...more likely than not...I’ll tell you stories I’ve told you before. I’m of that age, you know. It’s one of the joys of growing older...you get to tell stories with freshness because you can’t remember who you’ve told them to before. Probably easier on me than you, come to think of it.
\n\n\nThe barred owl came to talk softly to me in the growing darkness. He didn’t give his usual full call....just a short “coo” to let me know he was there. Then, ever so slowly, he made his way from tree to tree...getting further and further away...till I could just barely hear him in the woods on the far hill. Fitting, I think....that things get softer and further away as I let this lovely place go.
\n\n\nTomorrow morning, you’ll read of my last night here...but it’s surely not the last you’ll hear about the farm.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-05-17T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/05/17/it-was-the-best-of.html", "tags": ["Faith","Grief","West Virginia","The Farm","Gratitude","Grace","Wisdom","Farm Life","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/02/12/day-i-shoulda-known-better.html", "title": "Day 333: I Shoulda Known Better", "content_html": "\n“I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering. You will turn back to me and ask for help, and I will answer your prayers.”
\nJeremiah 29:11-12 CEV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/5818d52a24.jpg\")
One would think, after all I know about trauma and grief and PTSD, that I would know better than to watch the unfolding of the impeachment proceedings. I’m not going to get into a discussion of who is right and who is wrong. This is my page, so I have the right not to get involved in the political aspects of all of this. But, from a purely human standpoint, watching it all over again has been brutal.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/336137517f.jpg\")
Why did I watch? Good question. My best answer is, I’m an American citizen and when something of such import occurs, I feel it is my responsibility to know what’s happening. I was interested in seeing the exact timeline...which was well documented. And there were visual graphs that brought that information into clearer focus that I don’t think any of us were quite aware of before...especially those involved.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/887cb80951.jpg\")
I made it through to about 1:30 yesterday afternoon then I became, quite literally, physically ill. It’s a combination of things, really. The wrong thing for breakfast. Coffee has suddenly started bothering me. And, unexplained stomach upset is one of the symptoms of hyperparathyroidism that I struggle with. Of course, one can only brush up against the triggers of PTSD so often without going over the edge and unfortunately, I pushed my boundary too far. It will take some work to re-compartmentalize that information, but it’ll come. And hopefully my upcoming surgery will take care of this particularly bothersome side effect of this disease.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/1e3f796763.jpg\")
In the meantime, I’m working on a few writing assignments and that is always a healthy distraction. I worked a little on the genealogy yesterday, but really...I just needed a break from the noise and the chaos, the TV and the screens, and just go outside and walk in the snow. We had quite a winter storm Wednesday night and it left us with about four inches of the white stuff. Mr. FixIt went out with his new snowblower and cleared the sidewalks once the snow stopped. He does like that and it’s good for him to have something to do.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/68bfc931a6.jpg\")
A walk in the snow did wonders for my disposition. Meandering along the half-frozen creek, listening to the sounds of winter birds chattering low in the hedgerow. The low riffle of water as it trickles across stones worn smooth by the ever present flow. Feeling the collapse of earth beneath my feet where the moles and voles are busy living their lives underground...creating soft tunnels you can trace by the slight mounds in the snow. Seeing the snow covered nests of the summer birds, long gone south for the winter, waiting patiently for the spring thaw and their joyous return. The snow around the feeders marked heavily with little four-pronged footprints of the dozens of visitors...enjoying the abundance of our feeders. The bright scarlet and vivid blues of the cardinals and jays as they swoop in from the brush and trees that surround our property. Trees that reach naked arms to the leaden February sky. I breathe the cold air deep into my lungs with a hunger I forget I have. This long, quiet darkness of winter can wear thin in these days before the spring thaw. But they force me to find the hand of God as he leads me beside these still waters...and restores my soul.
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-02-12T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/02/12/day-i-shoulda-known-better.html", "tags": ["Faith","Health","Overcoming Obstacles","God","Fear","Peaceful Moments","Farm Life","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/02/06/day-this-is-the-night.html", "title": "Day 327: This is the Night the Lord Hath Made", "content_html": "\n“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
\nPhilippians 4:6-7 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/0f29539107.jpg\")
The last few days, we’ve been talking about feeling stretched thin, feeling frayed and frazzled, overwhelmed with the nature of the world we find ourselves currently living in. Changes have been thrust upon us and not all of us accommodate as easily as others. I am sure we would be hard pressed to find someone who has not been affected in some negative way by the events of the last year.
\n\n\nI always put my money where my mouth is, so I looked up some of the links in yesterday’s post. I read about combatting stress and weathering this particular storm. Then I did what I always do...I went to my inner sanctuary...my quiet space of meditation where I commune with God on a personal level. This is where we sit together...sometimes in quiet companionable silence...sometime in vibrant, dynamic discourse.
\n\n\nThese sessions all start out the same way. I get quiet. I find that stillness between my breath and my heart beat, and reach my mind out to God. He knows what I want...what I need. Far better than I. So, I find it quicker and easier to get to the point by just shutting up and listening to the lesson of the day.
\n\n\nAs I sat there, eyes closed, breathing slow and deep, I became acutely aware of my body’s aches and pains. I felt the tension I hold between my shoulder blades...what my masseuse in Colorado referred to as my “trying too hard” spots. I felt bone weary...as though I’d run a marathon. Thoughts flitted by. “Why can’t I sleep better???” “When is this going to get easier???” “Why don’t I know how to do this by now???”
\n\n\nWithin that space...a thought formed.
\n\n\n“This is the night the Lord hath made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!!!”
\n\n\n“No” I said. “You mean this is the DAY you have made!”
\n\n\n“No...I mean this is the night. The day has two parts....I divided it in half. Part for work, part for rest.”
\n\n\n“But, I can’t sleep! I have never been able to sleep well...you know that.”
\n\n\n“Ahhhhh, yes....I do. But, you’ve never celebrated my gift of the night. You dread it. You are afraid of the nightmares you might have. Or the anxiety that might come. Or the hours you might have to lay there...staring at the ceiling.”
\n\n\n“I want to sleep. I try! I really do.”
\n\n\n“Then stop TRYING. And celebrate the hours I gave you for resting.”
\n\n\nNovel concept. I closed my eyes. I felt my face against the pillowcase. I wrapped up in my soft, fuzzy blanket and touched it to my lips. I repeated over and over in my mind.
\n\n\n“This is the night the Lord hath made. This is the night the Lord hath made. This is the night the Lord hath made.”
\n\n\nAnd I woke up at 11:30 yesterday morning! Good night, nurse!!! I haven’t slept like that in....I can’t remember how long. I jumped up and went into the family room.
\n\n\n“Hey there, sleepyhead. How you doing?”
\n\n\n“What day is this?”
\n\n\nMr. FixIt laughed. “Friday. I thought you must be tired so I let you sleep.”
\n\n\nHonestly? I felt like a new person. We got ready and went to town for a couple things. I started making arrangements for the trip to Florida next month. And I feel like a million bucks! I feel like I had a vacation. It was a remarkable different.
\n\n\nGod gives us the days to do our deeds. But he gives us the gift of the night as our time to celebrate hours of sweet rest and slumber. I plan to approach every night in that same way...delicious anticipation of dreamless sleep...awakening refreshed and at peace. Doesn’t that sound lovely?
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-02-06T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/02/06/day-this-is-the-night.html", "tags": ["Faith","Health","Gratitude","Comfort","God","Choices","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/02/05/day-feeling-a-little-frayed.html", "title": "Day 326: Feeling a Little Frayed, Are We?", "content_html": "\n“This day belongs to the Lord! Let's celebrate and be glad today.”
\nPsalms 118:24 CEV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/ec67f2d8b2.jpg\")
I chat every night with one of the dearest people in my life. Sue always has a supportive word, a kind thought, a golden nugget of wisdom to share with me. I didn’t grow up with a sister. One of my lifelong friends is my baby sister. Sue is the older sister I didn’t get to have and I love her dearly. I’ve been sharing with her of late....a bone weariness of the things that have been thrown at us for far too long.
\n\n\nI’ve gone through the grief of losing a spouse. I’ve gone through severe clinical depression and near death. I’ve gone through huge life changes that were cringeworthy in their own right. Now, I’m in a boat with a whole bunch of people...and we’re kinda hanging by a thread. Oh, we’re ok. We’re gonna make it through. We’re old enough and experienced enough to know...this too shall pass. But, man.....that constant surge of adrenalin and cortisol is getting pretty old.
\n\n\nEveryone handles stress in their own way. We all have different coping mechanisms. Some of us have more tools in our toolbox, simply because we’ve been through therapy to get us through crises. And, some of us have been blessed to have had a relatively easy life without huge upheaval. Getting out for a drive in the sunshine the other day was wonderful. Connecting with supportive friends is helpful. Having someone with me to share the day to day is a true blessing and it’s not lost on me how different things could have been if this would have happened say...six or seven years ago.
\n\n\nI have dear friends who are actively grieving tragic losses. To have to do that and cope with pandemic burnout seems unusually cruel and inhumane. One thing that has been giving me rays of hope is watching the “Christmas Covid Crush” begin to subside and the number of vaccinations going up. Slowly...ever so slowly. Nothing ever happens as fast as we would like it to, does it?
\n\n\nI find when I am at the end of my rope, there is decidedly less of the “ME” I need to get me through whatever I am facing. And I’ve faced enough crises to know...when there’s less “ME”, there’d better be more GOD because the alternative is a big black hole of despair. Oh, wouldn’t it be nice if God plucked us off the end there and set us down gently into a field of clover...by a nice stream, perhaps? But....noooooo...God ties a knot in that rope and helps me to hang on. He has the power to “fix things” for me. But, if He did that...what would I need HIM for? What would I learn from the experience?
\n\n\nSue sends me articles from time to time. I found this one about “Hitting the Pandemic Wall” to be helpful so I thought I would share it with you today. There are some good ideas and links that you may use. But, I also thought I would ask you some questions.
\n\n\nWhat are you doing in your daily life to keep from feeling overwhelmed? Have any past experiences helped give you skills you can use during this crisis? I know it can’t just be me that’s feeling a little...strained.
\n\n\nIn other words....really...
\n\n\nHow are YOU doing?
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-02-05T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/02/05/day-feeling-a-little-frayed.html", "tags": ["Health","Grief","Hope","Grace","God","Fear","Courage","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2021/01/12/day-the-birds-of-the.html", "title": "Day 302: The Birds of the Air", "content_html": "\n““You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”
\nMatthew 5:3 MSG\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/9622a30c63.jpg\")
It’s been a long time since we had a really deep down, heart-to-heart chat. It’s been a long time since I needed to process some really difficult things and deal with the resultant side effects. I’m NOT going to dive into politics here...and I don’t want to stir up a political maelstrom. If that starts up, I’ll just delete the unhelpful comments. This isn’t about politics. This is about pain.
\n\n\nI have PTSD. It’s one of those awful things you sometimes get when you face a particularly painful trauma, and I got it from watching Mr. Virgo have his heart attack and the ensuing resuscitation. It went on for what seemed like hours. I was left with flashbacks and debilitating anxiety. EMDR went a long way toward easing that pain. And, it’s been a long time since I’ve experienced the effects.
\n\n\nAfter the events of last week at our Nation’s Capitol, I was surprised I wasn’t feeling worse than I was. I seemed to be handling things pretty well and went on about my business. I now realize what I had done was to compartmentalize my feelings. I kinda packed them up in a neat and tidy box labeled “Bad Things” and pushed it aside. That doesn’t mean I didn’t FEEL things. I just dampened them down and moved them aside.
\n\n\nOver the weekend I started getting a splitting headache and my body hurt everywhere. I was afraid I was getting sick, but this felt more familiar. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I had an experience a few years ago where I came into close contact with someone I believe to be dabbling in dark things. My relationship with God has been so strong since Mr. Virgo died, that I seem to have this radar that goes off when I’m around darkness. I not only feel that crawly sensation on my skin, but I literally get sick to my stomach. I believe that is a spiritual attack and I am very careful to stay away from such things.
\n\n\nA Facebook “friend” writes posts from time to time about church and on the surface, it’s very upbeat. On closer inspection, there seems to be something off. A little too “Stepford Wife” or something. Yesterday, there was a post with a rather surprising photo that maybe could have been read a couple of different ways. I went in to read the comments for an indication as to which direction this was leading. Someone posted a comment with a video. I had seen this video the day before with a comment saying someone from West Virginia had posted it.
\n\n\nI totally expected to open the video and hear something Biblical and I can guarantee you....it was NOT. It was vile and I won’t go into further detail and I certainly won’t share it here. I had that immediate creepy crawly dark sensation on my skin and ran to the bathroom to throw up. I was sick for over two hours. I climbed in bed and read my bible for a while. That always comforts me and reminds me, God always wins in the end.
\n\n\nI felt much better afterwards. The headache is all but gone, as is the creepy crawly feeling. The enemy vanquished back. The verse I read was Luke 12:22-26...where we are told God takes care of the birds and we are so much more important than any birds. When I sat down to write my post last night, the first thing I saw on Facebook was this picture of my cousin Mike, cradling a female cardinal in his hands. It had managed to get into their screened porch, so he gently picked it up to take it outside. We call him “The Bird Whisperer”. I loved this little God wink...a cardinal coming to remind me how important we are to God and we have no need to worry if we remain close to his side.
\n\n\nThese are dark and trying times. I’ve been carefully winnowing my friends list on Facebook again. Not to weed out those whose political beliefs don’t mesh with mine. I welcome respectful repartee. But I don’t respect violence in any “way, shape, form or fashion”, as Governor Justice says.
\n\n\nToday is a brand new day and no matter what comes my way, I know...I can do all things with Christ who strengthens me.
\n\n\n???
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2021-01-12T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2021/01/12/day-the-birds-of-the.html", "tags": ["Faith","Grief","Overcoming Obstacles","Strong Women","Hope","God","Wisdom","Fear","Courage","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2020/12/04/day-finding-my-merry-mojo.html", "title": "Day 265: Finding my Merry Mojo", "content_html": "\n“Jesus said to his disciples: I tell you not to worry about your life! Don't worry about having something to eat or wear. Life is more than food or clothing. Look at the crows! They don't plant or harvest, and they don't have storehouses or barns. But God takes care of them. You are much more important than any birds. Can worry make you live longer? If you don't have power over small things, why worry about everything else?”
\nLuke 12:22-26 CEV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/c81de0f491.jpg\")
This past Sunday, I wrote a piece about trying to find my “Merry Mojo”. I just couldn’t quite put my finger on what was wrong with me, but I was certainly suffering a decided loss of motivation. It’s odd, really. From the moment I started teaching myself to bake the perfect loaf of sourdough to the moment I lifted the last batch of jars from the canner, I was as busy as I have ever been. Busier than I’ve been in a long time, really. As Brene Brown says, “We are so busy that the truth of our lives can’t catch up.” So much truth there.
\n\n\nOne of the really important parts of my life is spending time with my girlfriends. Whether we are gathered around a campfire knitting and telling tales or huddled in a coffee shop catching up on each other’s lives, that part of my life was largely missing. Well, pretty much completely missing. So, I filled in the spaces with everything else. Baking. Writing. Gardening. Mowing. Canning. As busy as I was, I keenly felt the missing pieces of my puzzle.
\n\n\nThis doesn’t even begin to touch what I’ve missed out on by not seeing my Colorado family since August 2019 and not having the West Virginia family gatherings since Super Bowl. Add that in and I had to stay busy to stay sane. But, all that busyness came at a price, I fear. It was hard to practice mindfulness and stay in the moment because the moment was stressful and disappointing and scary and confusing and sad.
\n\n\nOne of the things I absolutely have always loved about this space where I write is finding others who are going through the same things. It helps so much when you know you aren’t the only one experiencing something or feeling a certain way. You not only feel less alone...you also feel a little less crazy. Mr. FixIt is my beloved companion and I adore him. And...unless I have that girl time or alone time to recharge, we step on each other’s toes sometimes. That’s perfectly normal. Chatting with the girlfriends would confirm this.
\n\n\nAfter I posted Sunday’s essay, one of my dear friends reached out to say she really felt me on that one. She’s going through much the same thing. She is widowed and only has one child locally. She doesn’t want to be “that mom” and demand all her daughter’s attention, but there’s no camping and the farm work is done for the year. It’s like looking down a long dark stretch of lonesome highway and not a car in sight.
\n\n\nI texted her and another one of our camping friends and said, “We need a virtual campfire!” Last night, I set up a group video chat in Messenger and we talked and laughed for an hour. It was wonderful to catch up and see my home girls. To find out what they’re doing. To talk about recipes and what projects we’re working on and how we are coping through all of this. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief. It wasn’t a real campground. There weren’t the sounds of owls and crickets in the background or the rustle of a breeze through our hair. But we were just as much together as we could possibly be and declared Thursday nights to be “Girls Night In.” It really helped me find my “Merry Mojo!”
\n\n\nIt isn’t hard to do. I used my laptop and opened a Messenger Chat with my friend, Jan. Then, I clicked on the little video camera icon on the top right. Her phone rang and she accepted the video chat. Once I had her live on video, I selected “Add Another Person” from the bottom bar and rang our friend, Gail. And...voila! There they were, right in my office! It was SO much fun and such a relief.
\n\n\nThis is going to be a long, dark winter, I’m afraid. The Covid numbers are rising to astronomical proportions and they’re just going to get worse before they get better. Let’s make a commitment to visit with friends and family while we are safely staying home to prevent the spread. I have a project in the works and will be offering some fun ways to interact. I’ll let you know when they’re ready. Till then, let’s try to spread some holiday cheer and reach out and talk to someone. You never know who might just be waiting for you to make the first move. There were three of us in that chat. I would guess a group of four would be as many as you would want to have so you aren’t stepping over each other’s audio. Let me know if you have other ideas for virtual visit with your gal pals!
\n\n\n?
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2020-12-04T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2020/12/04/day-finding-my-merry-mojo.html", "tags": ["Gratitude","Comfort","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2020/11/03/day-election-day.html", "title": "Day 235: Election Day 2020", "content_html": "\n“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.””
\nDeuteronomy 31:6 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/928d9eaa1a.jpg\")
It’s finally here. I don’t know about you, but I am so oversaturated with all the political ads, misinformation, disinformation, anger, divisiveness, and flat out hatred we have all witnessed over the last year. I have no idea what’s coming in the next few days, but if watching the businesses boarding up their windows is any indication, it looks really scary. There is actually a real condition called Election Stress Disorder. Therapy visits are up, along with anxiety levels and the number on the scale.
\n\n\nWe all do what we need to do to get through stressful situations. We may have unhealthy coping strategies like hibernating or overeating, drinking or doing drugs, shopping or whatever else we might come up with to get by. As we sit here today, it’s like watching the fuse on a stick of dynamite burning down and waiting for the explosion.
\n\n\nThere are some coping strategies to help get through the coming few days and keep our anxiety levels down. Remembering to simply take a deep breath can help to center you. Getting some exercise is beneficial, even if it’s just as simple as taking a walk. Avoid “doom-scrolling” through the news and social media...looking at all the worst-case-scenario stories. Our minds can conjure up some pretty scary scenes. Keeping our minds occupied with something other than sitting in front of the TV all day and night can go a long way toward keeping fear in check.
\n\n\nI have my knitting beside my new red recliner. I have four really great magazines to read. I made an apple pie yesterday and I’m sure we’ll nibble on it for a couple days. The biggest diversion of the day is a trip to the dentist for my sweetheart. I thought it was ridiculous to do that on Election Day, then I saw my husband’s brilliant logic...keep his wife occupied and away from the television.
\n\n\nI saw a lot of posts yesterday encouraging people to refrain from gloating if your side wins or try to keep from sinking into despair if you lose. Things like that make me hopeful that we can heal from the ugliness we have experienced during this election. I go further than that to what the Bible tells us to do...love one another. It seems so simple, yet...it’s going to take some real effort, I think. We can do this...we can heal...we must heal. We must.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2020-11-03T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2020/11/03/day-election-day.html", "tags": ["Love","Forgiveness","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2020/11/02/day-reflections-of-my-father.html", "title": "Day 234: Reflections of my Father on his Birthday", "content_html": "\n“But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you.”
\nJohn 13:34 CEV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/1b0c103796.jpg\")
I definitely resemble my father.
\n\n\nI’m not sure I ever really knew my dad. I mean...I lived in the same house with him for nineteen years. He spent much of his time either off somewhere “fishing” (aka drinking at local bars) or puttering at his work bench (aka drinking in the basement). He was a broken man by the time I came into the picture, I think. I don’t think he was happy married to my mom. The woman he really loved spurned him and I think he and mom just kind of settled for each other.
\n\n\nI remember him as being a talented artist, although all of the artwork he saved was done before I came along. He dreamed of being a commercial artist but family responsibilities squashed his ambition. He dreamed of being a farmer and living in a small house in the middle of forty acres but, again, he worked a rather menial job and he was a functioning alcoholic. He settled in as a parts manager at the local Mack Truck garage.
\n\n\nI left home as soon as I could, marrying my high school boyfriend. We moved to England and from there, Colorado. Dad and Mom both passed away long before I returned to West Virginia to live. So, our relationship was complicated by distance, by my need to heal the scars of youth and his need to forget he had anything to do with them. I continued to try to gain his love and approval clear up to 2004 when my mother died. We had a parting of the ways when he said something ugly about my brother who is differently abled. That’s when I was done...and I told him so.
\n\n\nSometimes you have to walk away from relationships that are hurting you. It took a lot of therapy for me to realize just because we were blood relatives doesn’t mean we had to keep hitting ourselves in the head with a baseball bat. I felt a mixture of extreme sadness and blessed relief when I walked away. I was traveling to West Virginia to say goodbye when I got the call he had already passed. I sat alone with him in the funeral home for a couple of hours. I ranted and raved and spewed out all the things I had wanted to say to him all my life. When his ashes were released to me, I took his wife, the box of ashes, and a shovel and went to his favorite fishing hole. Laura couldn’t walk down to the edge, so she said her goodbyes from the high riverbank. I dug a hole, buried his ashes, and placed a stick cross over him. I prayed he made it safe to heaven and if so, I hoped to see him there one day and maybe then we could really talk.
\n\n\nHe would have been 100 years old today. He liked to say he was born in 1919 because he thought it sounded cooler. I’ve long since forgiven my father for not being the dad I needed him to be. And I’ve long since forgiven myself for not understanding him and not being there for him when he lost himself. I’ve stopped beating myself up for not being the daughter he wanted me to be. A lot of change came when I finally accepted Jesus into my heart and I learned a lot more about the act of forgiveness.
\n\n\nHappy 100th Birthday, Dad. I hope you’re having a big time fishing on the best riverbank in Heaven today. I hope you catch a big one!
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2020-11-02T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2020/11/02/day-reflections-of-my-father.html", "tags": ["Family","Forgiveness","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2020/09/01/day-the-longest-summer-of.html", "title": "Day 167: The Longest Summer of my Life", "content_html": "\n“Parents, don't be hard on your children. If you are, they might give up.”
\nColossians 3:21 CEV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/9b5d5efe1e.jpg\")
Remember back when we were kids? School let out in May and it seemed like for-EV-er before it was September and time to go back. Then we grew up and became adults and got jobs and got married (or not) and had kids (or not). Then, summers dragged for an entirely different reason. By late August, we were like... “When does school start??? I’m done already!”
\n\n\nThen...life’s “Third Shift” kicked in. The kids are the ones married (or not) and with kids (or not) and we are left to our own devices. My mom’s generation played Bridge or MahJong if they were fortunate enough to not have to work outside of the home. Our generation plays pickle ball or what have you.
\n\n\nWhatever the case...it’s September. Seriously...March felt like at least a decade ago. I don’t even remember March. Did 2020 even HAVE a March? Or May? How about June and July? I mean...I could accept that it’s July...but September??? Crikey!
\n\n\nI think the total disruption of our routines and all the ensuing chaos has shifted our consciousness somehow and actually created a time warp. I mean...I could just as easily be 1963, if you ask me.
\n\n\nBut, I digress. A Facebook friend asked yesterday if we could say something positive about 2020 so far. I had to think about it...but I came up with several things.
\n\n\nYou may say 2020 sucks big ones, and I suppose it has in many ways. But, 2020 has been a gift in just as many ways. Above all, it has forced me into a closer relationship with Jesus. I’ve gotten to know Him a lot better and recognize His voice in the cacophony of this world. It’s brought me a lot closer to Mr. FixIt, as well. We’ve had to learn a new dance around strokes and staying at home and not doing whatever we want, whenever we want. And, believe it or not, it has brought me closer to our kids because we have more real conversations.
\n\n\n2020 may have brought me to my knees...but that’s not a bad position to be in for prayer.
\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/52466eebd0.jpg\")
I literally did nothing but bake a pan of lasagna and take a nap yesterday. It felt SO self-indulgent...and wonderful!!! Then, around the time the news went off, Daughter #1 called me for a video chat. Ohhhhh, my heart sings when I get to see my Colorado peeps. When we prepared to hang up, I smiled and thanked her so much for letting me see her sweet face.
\n\n\n“I cannot hug you in person,” I said. “But, I can hug you with my heart!”
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2020-09-01T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2020/09/01/day-the-longest-summer-of.html", "tags": ["Faith","Family","Overcoming Obstacles","Gratitude","Wisdom","Courage","Aging","Choices","Be Joyful!","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2019/09/08/revelations.html", "title": "Revelations", "content_html": "\n“...The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.”
\nGenesis 31:49 KJV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/73b3f7e21e.jpg\")
Not the last book of the Bible kind. The \"smack my forehead, why didn't I see that\" kind. A friend of mine had to come to the river to mow yesterday. She decided to camp in her trailer up here last night so we had dinner from the grill and sat on the deck till dark. We were discussing an issue I've dealt with over the years and I made a casual remark to the effect...\"I'll probably deal with this the rest of my life.\" She sat quietly for several seconds and in that wise, no-nonsense, shake-me-by-the-scruff-of-the-neck way I've come to appreciate, she said, \"Well, you can sure do that, but it doesn't sound like much fun to me.\"
\n\n\nStunned silence.
\n\n\nAnd in five seconds, everything made perfect sense. I do not have to make sense of every single thing that has ever happened to me. I do not have to work it out in my mind. I don't have to \"get over\" stuff I've already \"gotten through\". $#|£ happens. Plain and simple. I did the best I could with the knowledge I had at the time. I believed things about myself based on the opinions of others. And they just weren't true.
\n\n\nI could keep working things over like worry beads, or I can scatter them across the sky till they become stars. Scars or stars? You choose.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2019-09-08T01:30:16-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2019/09/08/revelations.html", "tags": ["Courage","Choices","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/11/04/burning-the-candle.html", "title": "Burning the Candle", "content_html": "\n\"From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.\"
\nGalatians 6:17\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/18a0db2908.jpg\")
Grief speaks to us in tongues...a voice only God truly understands. The Holy Spirit is the interpreter. And sometimes he only whispers so you must listen carefully. If you miss His more subtle cues, He likely will hit you a little harder.
\n\n\nI keep pushing and pushing. I say, \"Ahhhh...finally I can sit down and write.\" And, before I know it, I'm up and off again. My good friend Jamie says you can't busy your way through grief. And, just because I'm coping and busy and happy doesn't mean I don't still grieve. I do. It's just different now.
\n\n\nWednesday was a very long, extremely busy, action-packed day. From climbing the steps five times and kayaking with two high school friends to meeting a friend for a picnic by the river to meeting more friends for dinner, I fell into bed late and sank into the deep sleep of exhaustion. I woke up yesterday morning very early and had my cereal and coffee and checked into Facebook. There I learned of the death of yet another classmate after a seventeen year battle with breast cancer. And I felt the clouds roll in.
\n\n\nI was suddenly exhausted, went back to bed and slept another hour only to awaken feeling quite ill. I was sick for a solid three hours and had to move my schedule around. That's when I finally listened.
\n\n\n\"Slow down, child. You aren't breathing. You can't possibly hear Me if you keep up this pace.\"
\n\n\nSo, I stopped. I breathed deep. I prioritized. I changed some things. I asked for help. I prayed. I slept. Because, I had the presentation on the Prayer of Jabez scheduled for last night and I sure didn't want to miss that! I had a little talk with God.
\n\n\n\"Oh, God...I'm feeling so sick. Please, take this away!\"
\n\n\n\"Ahhhh, I've got your attention, I see. You're not at your best today. What's wrong?\"
\n\n\n\"I overdid it yesterday. I'm exhausted. And...you took another one of my friends home. And my heart is hurting and I'm feeling overwhelmed. I thought the waves of grief were gone!\"
\n\n\n\"My child, my child...I can't take them away and make you complete and comfortable. If I did, what would you need ME for?\"
\n\n\n\"Look, I'm giving this talk tonight. I don't know how many people you are bringing this time. I've been praying the Prayer of Jabez for almost a year now. You have exploded my world. But it's too much! You've got the wrong girl. I can't do all this!\"
\n\n\n\"Oh...really? You \"can't\"? Think about it for a minute. What would you need to have in order to do this successfully? Less fear? If you fear less, you don't need Me. I want you to need Me. That's what the Prayer of Jabez is all about. You ask Me to bless you, indeed. I am. You ask Me to expand your territory. I have. You ask Me to walk with you. I do. You ask Me to keep evil far away from you so you don't feel pain. I do, but there's a catch. You have to hold up your end of the stick. You have to pray and avoid sin and seek me in all that you do. Look at you! You're so \"busy\"! I've missed these little chats.\"
\n\n\n\"I know. I keep busy to avoid pain. And loneliness. I make excuses not to talk because sometimes what You have to tell me, I don't want to hear.\"
\n\n\n\"Yes, that's when I force you to your knees. So, what do you want from Me?\"
\n\n\n\"Well, if You're going to expand my territory and put me out there to bring Your light into the world, You're going to have to make me stronger.\"
\n\n\n\"Oh, you and Thomas. Forever doubters. You think you aren't strong enough to do this? I have everything you need to do exactly what I put you here to do. All you need to do ask. Every...single...time. Just ask. Then Seek. Then Knock. Matthew has this in the seventh book, seventh chapter. Just do those three things. Ask...Seek...Knock. And, it's yours. It's not easy being a Gimper for God.\"
\n\n\nAnd, it's not.
\n\n\nBut a couple hours of rest, some ginger ale and saltines...and a long visit with God...and I was good to go. That, and blowing out one end of the candle.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-11-04T01:30:44-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/11/04/burning-the-candle.html", "tags": ["Grief","Overcoming Obstacles","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/10/11/a-note-to-my-younger.html", "title": "A Note to my Younger Self", "content_html": "\n“For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.”
\nProverbs 2:6 KJV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/eed1fb4346.jpg\")
Hello, sweetheart!
\n\n\nLook at you...so young, so full of promise in your first grown up formal dress. Beside you is your first boyfriend, who becomes your first husband, the father of your first child, and...ultimately...your first divorce. It isn't the first time you're going to feel like a failure. And, sad to say, it isn't your last. You have a problem that stems back long before this day. It isn't your fault...your daddy drinks too much and isn't a very good model of the man to look for. Oh, that fellow beside you there is a good man and years from now you're going to learn to be friends. But, he just isn't your guy for the long haul. Neither is the next one, as it turns out. Your \"picker\" is kinda broken and it all started with those shiny, patent leather Mary Janes...remember?
\n\n\nMom took you to buy shoes. You were about nine or ten. You desperately wanted those black Mary Janes. Everyone was getting them. But, they only had one pair left and they were a little too small. When Mom said we'd keep looking you threw a fit and insisted they fit fine. You were so afraid if you didn't take what was there, you'd never get what you so desperately wanted. Unfortunately, you repeat this over and over till you finally learn your lesson.
\n\n\nLeave the shoes, sweetheart. You honestly don't need anything in your life that isn't a perfect fit...be it shoes, jobs, men. Trust me, the right thing/person comes at the right time...exactly when you need it. Really.
Don't put too much stock in what others think of you, either. You can trust your gut. You can do anything you want. Yeah, I know...you don't get to be a doctor like you really want. But, you do ok for yourself with what you knew at the time.
Tell Mom or a teacher or a minister...somebody. Tell them about what happened at the hands of your abusers. You weren't bad. You didn't do anything wrong. It's ok...you don't have to wait till you're 35 to tell. By that time, there's going to be so much damage done, it's going to take a lot of work with a therapist to help you love yourself.
\n\n\nNow, here's the most important thing. Don't run away from God, honey. You feel Him knocking on the door of your heart. Open up and let Him in. Your life is completely healed when that happens. You don't have to wait till you're 51. Because, close on the heels of finding a relationship with God, you're going to find a wonderful man who will be your champion. He will carry your heart on a velvet pillow. You're going to lose him too soon, but your life is going to be so rich because of him.
\n\n\nThen again...when you're 63, you're going to know in your heart that you are the wonderful woman you've become because of the path you take. That 63-year-old self is pretty darned happy with her life.
\n\n\nJust do your best, dear heart. Know you are loved and never alone.
But...really, don't buy those shoes. Keep looking.
❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-10-11T01:30:24-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/10/11/a-note-to-my-younger.html", "tags": ["Growth","Aging","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/09/23/the-artist.html", "title": "The Artist", "content_html": "\n“Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.”
\n1 Timothy 4:14 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/f9ef39a623.jpg\")
I once asked a framer when you can consider yourself an artist. She said, \"When others recognize you as one.\" I asked my artist friend, Marion (whose work I greatly admire) the same question and she said, \"When you order business cards with \"Artist\" under your name. The same goes for writer, speaker, gypsy. I am all of the above.
\n\n\nMr. Virgo turned 60 in 2010. I wanted to give him something special to commemorate such an auspicious occasion. We were living in Denver at the time and my husband missed living in the mountains. Not far from our mountain house sits Mt. Sopris...a 14,000+ foot icon towering over the town of Carbondale. He saw this mountain every day on his commute to Aspen to work and loved the way the light changed it through the seasons. He was absolutely thrilled with his gift and immediately hung it over his highboy where he could see it when he came home at night.
\n\n\nI've been playing with an app that turns pictures into paintings. I wondered what it would do to an actual painting so I created these images yesterday. I love the different styles and it reflects how the light changes over the mountain. I thought I'd share them with you today.
\n\n\nI'm glad I have this painting. I'm not 100% certain, but I'm thinking I might be able to stay at the farm. I'll know more in a couple of weeks. I will find a place to hang this painting so I can see it every day, too. It is a warm memory. I have lots of warm memories of the love God has brought into my life. It's time to celebrate that.
\n\n\nGod continually blesses me!
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-09-23T01:30:28-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/09/23/the-artist.html", "tags": ["Courage","Insight","Art"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/09/08/true-north.html", "title": "True North", "content_html": "\n“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.””
\nJeremiah 29:11-14 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/367eafaf67.jpg\")
I have absolutely no sense of direction. I used to. Seriously, I could drive into a town, get my bearings, and navigate anywhere. I lost that ability sometime in 1983 in the Hertz lot in the Boston airport. My ex and I were on a huge trip up and down the east coast interviewing for internships as he was about to graduate from medical school. This WV girl was trying to get her Jewish city boy to help her fulfill her lifelong dream of having a farm. We traveled to 10 major cities in 14 days. I came out of the bathroom at the car rental office and had no idea which city I was in or which way to turn to get back to the lobby. I never regained the ability to find my butt with both hands and a flashlight, let alone find my way through a big city. Thank God for GPS or I couldn't get out of the parking lot at the mall!
\n\n\nEver wish you had a GPS to help you navigate the decisions you have to make in this life? I was talking to a friend recently and was saying I could not believe some of the stuff I did in the first year after losing Mr. Virgo. Honestly, even my ex-husband called and said, \"What the hell are you DOING?\" Well, in fairness, he didn't use those exact words. But the gist was the same. I ask God all the time to hop in the driver's seat, then I keep grabbing the wheel and telling him \"No, it's THIS way!!!\"
\n\n\nWouldn't it be nice if God gave us audible directions in that Australian dude's voice?
\n\n\n\"Ginny, you need to keep your mouth shut in this situation.\"
\n\n\n\"Ginny, you need to avoid this person at all costs!\"
\n\n\n\"Ginny, what in MY NAME were you thinking??? For crying out loud...you're killing me here!\"
\n\n\nInstead, He whispers.
\n\n\n\"Don't.\"
\n\n\n\"Don't what?\"
\n\n\n\"Just, don't!\"
\n\n\n\"Ok, how about this?\"
\n\n\n\"Nope, not that.\"
\n\n\n\"C'mon...a little direction, please.\"
\n\n\n\"Do this.\"
\n\n\n\"What??? No way!!! I am NOT doing that.\"
\n\n\n\"Do this.\"
\n\n\n\"Nope! You can't make me!\"
\n\n\n\"DO THIS NOW!!!!\"
\n\n\n\"Ok, ok...jeesh! You don't have to use all caps! I'll do it already!\"
\n\n\nThis is the nature of many of my talks with God. I'll just keep reading His instruction manual and keep listening.
\n\n\n\"Recalculating route!\"
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-09-08T01:30:20-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/09/08/true-north.html", "tags": ["God","Choices","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/06/21/eat-colorfully.html", "title": "Eat Colorfully", "content_html": "\n“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
\nProverbs 3:5-6 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/8f65aa54a0.jpg\")
Several of you have wondered what I'm doing to lose this weight. What's my secret? What am I doing to tighten up those abs or tone those arms? So, I'll do my best to give you an overview and make it as simple as possible, because face it....no one wants to follow a complicated diet and fitness program, right?
\n\n\nMany years ago, I worked for an \"old school\" doctor who took me under his wing and taught me a lot. His diet was so simple.
\n\n\nSeriously, if you do those things, you're just about guaranteed to lose weight. Then I met Trainer Paul in February and he gave me his dietary plan. It's great. I worked with it and this is pretty much what I do.
\n\n\nFirst, I cut out gluten in the form of bread and pasta. I don't read labels to look for gluten because I don't buy stuff with labels. I don't eat out of a box or can if I can help it. No processed foods. I cut out sugar...period. And, I cut out diet sodas. I stopped all artificial sweeteners and use Stevia, a plant based sweetener.
\n\n\nI eat a Greek yogurt with fresh berries, two tablespoons of gluten free granola and two of ground flax seeds for breakfast. Maybe twice a month I'll have a cheese omelet instead.
\n\n\nFor lunch, I have a salad with as many different veggies and fruits as I can get in it. For protein I'll either have chicken or quinoa or salmon on it. If I haven't had that omelet for a few days, I might have eggs and cheese in the salad. I use whatever salad dressing I like, on the side, and dip each bite in it for taste. You'd be surprised how little dressing you'll actually eat.
\n\n\nI might grab fruit mid afternoon or maybe a little cheese. Watermelon has been my go to lately because it's been so hot out. I've been enjoying yellow rind muenster of late. Nice nutty flavor.
\n\n\nFor dinner, fish is my favorite. I try to only use wild caught but I'm not all that picky. I will not eat tilapia. I make a fabulous curried salmon...just ask Trainer Paul! I don't eat white potatoes but I do eat sweet potatoes. I also love quinoa, again for the protein and because you can dress it up with mushrooms, onions, etc. and get a really savory side dish. Spring had me eating a boatload of asparagus. I love summer and zucchini squash, green beans, caprese salad with tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil. Once or twice a month I have gluten free pasta with spaghetti sauce. I like grass fed bison and eat that in my sauce.
\n\n\nI don't count calories. Period. I am acutely aware of what I eat and mentally keep track. You know when you're overdoing it. I don't weigh myself every day. Muscle weighs more than fat. While I weigh around 170, my muscle tone has me looking much more trim than I did the last time I weighed 150.
\n\n\nI try to eat superfoods every day.
\n\n\nI use real butter. Not a lot of it, but when I need butter, I use the real stuff.
\n\n\nSweet potatoes, fruit, or a square of dark chocolate satisfies my sweet tooth. I don't crave anything. Ever.
\n\n\nI don't drink alcohol. I do have one non-alcohol beer or one glass of de-alcoholized wine just about every night. I drink a lot of water but still not enough I'm sure. I have nonfat milk in my latte when I buy one and I always drink half and half in my coffee. I drink Spark from Advocare or Powerade Zero when I play hard outside in the heat.
\n\n\nThe word \"exercise\" is seldom in my vocabulary. I go outside and play as often as I can. I really like to walk and climb stairs. I love to ride my bike long distances. And I REALLY love paddling my kayak! I like to play pickleball but haven't this year. I try to use my resistance bands and weights for upper body toning. I just started doing planks...or as my friend Ryb calls it, water boarding. lol
\n\n\nThat's pretty much it. I did jumpstart my weight loss with the Advocare 24 Day challenge but I am NOT spamming you on that. Just telling you I used it. It included a 10 day colon cleanse. It's amazing the junk we carry around with us. That prepared my gut to absorb the nutrients in this great food I'm eating and you are seldom hungry when your body is actually getting fed.
\n\n\nAs with all diet and exercise programs, check with your healthcare provider to see if you are healthy enough to exercise. Enjoy your summer and get out there and play if you are able!!!
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-06-21T01:30:43-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/06/21/eat-colorfully.html", "tags": ["Health","Choices","Insight","Cooking","In the Kitchen"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/06/02/be-present.html", "title": "Be Present", "content_html": "\n“Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”
\nGenesis 1:29 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/6687bbe109.jpg\")
I walked into Panera yesterday for a late lunch after walking the \"Steps of Death\" NINE times! I was starving by 2:00! And their super yummy Green Goddess salad is only 520 calories for the whole size. A bargain after burning off a couple thousand calories on Parkersburg's Stairmaster.
\n\n\nI placed my order and was looking for a booth to wait for the pager to go off. I passed a couple \"having lunch\" together. I use \"having lunch\" loosely because there WAS food on the table and they WERE sitting together. But they might as well have been on separate planets because each had their noses pressed to a flat screen. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I have been guilty of looking at my phone while dining. But it really hits home when I see a couple living parallel lives, especially now. I'd give anything to have lunch with Mr. Virgo again. And I can promise you, I would NOT be looking at a phone screen when I could be looking into those beautiful blue eyes.
Mr. Virgo did his PhD thesis on the lost art of dining. And that was before smart phones. Dining and conversation were huge things for him.
Please...pay attention to your dining partner. Put your phone away and be present. There will come a day when you'll be terribly glad you did...trust me on this.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n", "date_published": "2016-06-02T01:30:24-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/06/02/be-present.html", "tags": ["Health","Presence","Choices","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/04/25/condensation.html", "title": "Condensation", "content_html": "\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/2345d014ce.jpg\")
Condensation means \"to be reduced to a simpler form\".
\n\n\nI was sitting in Church yesterday, listening to our Pastor speak passionately about God coming back to help us, over and over and over again. And the love He gives us isn't just for us. It's for us to give away, to help the next person up. God's love is a gift we are given with the specific purpose of giving it all away. Such is the nature of love.
\n\n\nI've been thinking a lot about love lately. Love comes in all shapes and sizes, all colors and descriptions. I love the color blue. I love rock and roll and country and classical music. I love the paintings of Renoir and Van Gogh and Leonardo DaVinci and my friends Marion Mayer, Rande Brewer, and Fred Haberlein. I love the sculptures of Rodan. I love fishing and being out on any body of water. I love to travel. I love to fly and drive. I love my children and grandchildren...my brother, my family, my friends. These are all easy to love. Loving my enemies can be a challenge, I suppose. I can count on one hand really, the number of people who I genuinely dislike. But...while I may not go out of my way to have contact with them, I still love them.
\n\n\nWhen you condense everything, every little thing in this world, the lowest common denominator is love. It is the essence of life. And...while it is the baseline of all things, it is also the apogee of our life's purpose. I love, therefore I am. When I love, I give my whole heart. This has been known to come back and bite me on occasion. But I would rather love with everything I have...even if it's unrequited...than to never experience the feeling love gives me when it rushes out of my heart.
\n\n\nNothing but love.
\n\n\n❤
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-04-25T01:30:57-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/04/25/condensation.html", "tags": ["Love","Insight","Art"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/01/30/are-you-rich-or-are.html", "title": "Are you Rich or Are you Wealthy?", "content_html": "\n“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
\n1 Corinthians 13:4-13 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/2e723aa8e9.jpg\")
I have lived a lot of lives. I grew up with just enough. A pound of hamburger fed four people. The garden out back gave us the rest. We wore hand-me-downs and were tickled to death with the cast off toys of other kids. We were clean, neat, and used our best manners. A lot of what we had was provided by the kindness of others though I was not aware of that at the time. I never felt poor.
\n\n\nI married young. We didn't have much. We did our best. We had a baby. The marriage didn't work. I lived in HUD housing. I got Food Stamps and WIC. I was pretty poor by all definitions. I lived in an unsafe neighborhood. I had to watch my baby like a hawk. I took what work I could find. I was grateful for the help. Yet I still never really felt poor. Slowly, I moved up the food chain.
\n\n\nI married a medical student. We worked hard. We created a life. A life that ever so slowly became more and more affluent. I forgot what it was like to be poor. I was haughty in my richness. I took it for granted. I thought I would always be a domestic goddess. It didn't turn out that way.
\n\n\nI slipped down the ladder several rungs. It was good for me. It opened my eyes to more important things. Like God. And faith. And hope. And love.
\n\n\nI met Mr. Virgo. He had nothing but a suitcase and some pots and pans. But he had God. And he had a spirit the size of Texas. He had a smile that was brighter than the sun. He had a hug that assured me he would lay his life down for mine. He had blue eyes that captured the stars like diamonds and fed my soul with them. He had stories that carried me to far distant lands to vistas the likes of which I had only seen in books. He had a heart that was solid gold which he gladly presented to me...every single day...on a blue velvet pillow. He had a laugh that sent tears down my cheeks till I couldn't catch my breath. He had a touch that was so gentle it knitted up all my wounded places. He gave me uncountable, unprecedented, unfathomable gifts.
\n\n\nAnd then he was gone.
\n\n\nBut...he left a certain truth about the huge difference between the riches of money and the wealth of love.
\n\n\nIf the time should ever come that I have spent my very last dime, you may rest assured of this..........my darling Mr. Virgo has left me very wealthy in my heart.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-01-30T02:30:41-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/01/30/are-you-rich-or-are.html", "tags": ["Faith","Family","Grief","Growth","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/01/29/the-space-between-us.html", "title": "The Space Between Us", "content_html": "\n“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
\n1 Timothy 6:10 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/3312b80bb0.jpg\")
In the moment after Mr. Virgo died, I had no grasp of what had just happened. I mean, one minute we're talking and laughing in the camper, discussing its merits and the next, he was on the floor, uncommunicative. We quickly went from floor to gurney to ambulance to ER to Cardiac Cath Lab to...dead. One hundred eighty minutes, tops. In my shock, I couldn't grasp where he had gone. The sensation that he had just gone shopping without me and he'd be back any minute really stuck with me for awhile. Or, maybe he was at work. Or he went to get his hair cut. But, there came that fateful day when I had to put away all the fantasy and accept he was gone. And he wasn't coming back.
\n\n\nThis was replaced with an urgent game of \"Send me a sign! Let me know you're still with me.\" I have been told by my more fundamental Christian friends that he is with God and there will be no interaction, no communication, no whispers or touches, no cold breezes or butterflies or bluebirds, no manipulation of lights and music. They tell me he is gone. And, while I consider myself a Christian, until everyone of those naysayers go to the other side, come back, and call us all together with the absolute facts of what it's like, I'm going to assume there may be some flexibility in the interpretation of \"with God\".
\n\n\nI have had too many instances since Mr. Virgo died. I cannot believe they just vanish into heaven and we never hear from them again. I call this \"The Space Between Us\". There is much that occupies this space between us. There's time...the time we have to wait to see them again. The time that has passed since we saw them last. The time when we come close to them for hugs and love and reassurance. The time when they come close to us to see us...to make sure we're ok. The time is felt physically. It's felt emotionally. It's felt intellectually. It's a very real thing, to me anyway.
\n\n\nThis \"time\" between us can be our enemy. We can resent it. It can make us angry. It can cause us pain. And sometimes it does these things when we aren't strong enough to step out of the negative side.
\n\n\nOr this time between us can be a positive thing, if we allow it to be. It's all in how we look at it.
\n\n\nAs a Christian, the day I die is going to be a glorious thing! I will be met by my beloved family members, angels in their own rights, and escorted to the pearly gates. I will be introduced to St. Peter and spend a little time with the formalities before I get an audience with God...and with Jesus. This is what I know awaits me. This is what Mr. Virgo knew awaited him as well. While I miss Mr. Virgo's physical presence, how can I begrudge him of the most amazing experience any of us who are Christians will ever, ever encounter? I mean....really! He got to see Jesus first! What an amazing, amazing experience that had to have been for him!!! A life's fulfillment for him. And I always wanted him to have everything his heart desired.
\n\n\nYes. Yes....I still miss that handsome man's company. I always will. But, he occupies the space between us now. He is waiting for me, with Jesus. And someday, when my time here is through...they will reach out their hands for me.
\n\n\nAnd I will go with them. But in the meantime, I will be the best I can be...here.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-01-29T02:30:56-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/01/29/the-space-between-us.html", "tags": ["Grief","Humbled","Insight","Healing"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/01/28/the-leaky-bucket.html", "title": "The Leaky Bucket", "content_html": "\n““Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord.”
\nJeremiah 23:23-24 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/70ca791fc8.jpg\")
When I was on my three month odyssey in little TOW-Wanda, I had nothing but time and space before me. I had freedom from employment and family obligations. I drove where I wanted, slept when I wanted, and ate what I wanted. I literally laid back in the stream of life and let it take me with it. It was an intense period of purging grief that not everyone gets to experience. And in just that short period of time, I had so many revelations....about God and the Universe, about love and loss, about life and finding the courage to move on through the rest of it without the man I loved more than anything. And, since I think in analogies, let me share an insight with you.
\n\n\nLife is like a leaky bucket. The longer you live, the more holes it gets in it and the faster you have to scoop \"water\" in to keep it full. Because...that's the purpose of life, isn't it? To have a full bucket...a complete, successful, happy life with a full to overflowing bucket. But, remember those holes? They're sneaky little devils. You don't even realize you're getting them till they're there.
\n\n\nWhat if I told you the goal in life isn't to keep filling your own bucket? What if I told you the goal of life is to let your bucket get completely empty? Scary, right? I mean...all your \"stuff\" is in that bucket! Your life, your love, your security, your accomplishments, your hopes, your dreams. Well, here's what I discovered in the wilderness of Colorado. When you let your bucket empty out, your life becomes still. Your mind quiets down. Your soul becomes peaceful and you are at rest. No frenetic activity trying to fill and refill your bucket in an endless attempt at fulfillment. Just...peace. And...here's what happens when you have an empty bucket with lots of holes in it. When you drop it into water, the water rushes in to fill the bucket from the outside. Remember those gems that I've told you to pick up out of the flames you've been walking through? Remember I told you if you didn't have an immediate use for, or understanding of them to just stick them in your pocket because they will come in handy down the road? Well, I'm about to tell you what they were for.
\n\n\nThere's an infinite Source of sweet, flowing water in the most scorched wilderness. You'll see the rivers and streams...evidence there's something greater up ahead. Follow those streams till you come to the Source...a spring from which flows healing waters, straight from God. Kneel down and dip your bucket in. See how the water rushes in the holes, filling your bucket with the purest, freshest sparkling water imaginable? But, what happens if you lift the bucket and try to walk on your way? It starts leaking out all those holes and soon you have nothing left! Try again...dip in and fill the bucket. Now, reach in your pocket and take out those beautiful gems God left for you in the flames of your grief journey. While your bucket is still submerged, reach in one at a time and place the gems into the holes. See? They're a perfect fit! Pull your bucket out. No leaks!
\n\n\nThis was the whole purpose of looking down as you walked through the fire.....these gems that God left there for you. Some were nuggets of wisdom. Some were bits of insight. Some were sources of comfort. But some.....some were designed to fit the holes in your bucket so you could fill it with God and be refreshed and restored.
\n\n\nWhen you find yourself on life's road with a leaky bucket, remember to look for the hidden gems on your path and go to the Source to be re-filled. It's really just as simple as that.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
\n1 Peter 5:6-7 NIV\n
Photo Credit: Pinterest
\n\n", "date_published": "2016-01-28T02:30:14-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/01/28/the-leaky-bucket.html", "tags": ["Grief","Growth","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/01/21/on-death-and-dying.html", "title": "On Death and Dying", "content_html": "\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/c915ac7456.jpg\")
Ok...warning. This is not a fun subject but sometimes we have to touch on the tough stuff. If you aren't up for it, come back tomorrow. It's ok. We'll do something lighter tomorrow.
\n\n\nWe talk a lot here about death and dying. We speak from the perspective of the survivor...the one who was so cruelly and sometimes suddenly left behind. Some of us watched our loved ones go through countless, hideous tortures with the hope of a cure, a miracle, another chance. Some of us had them yanked away instantly.
\n\n\nBut what has modern medicine done to the process of dying if death is truly imminent? What have all the tubes and lines and electrodes and elixirs accomplished...truly. What kind of death has it given us?
\n\n\nThere's a fine line we walk along with the care providers. People deserve every chance they can get to have a long, healthy, happy life. But...at what point do we determine it's ok to allow a loved one to go without jumping through every possible hoop? It's a personal choice to be sure. One to be discussed ahead of time, no matter how uncomfortable it is. But I think people tend to go along with whatever the doctor recommends, even when there isn't much hope. We feel guilty if we don't do absolutely everything.
\n\n\nAs the emergency room staff were working on Mr. Virgo, there was a point when they stopped the chest compressions and I saw...I actually, visually, witnessed...his spirit as it left his body. I was stunned. I looked around to ask the staff about it because surely they must have seen it as well. It was very apparent they did not. No one else was given that privilege. They continued CPR and it became more and more gruesome. Some time later I was thinking \"Stop. Just stop!\" As soon as I had the thought, I felt Mr. Virgo push me from behind and I immediately blurted out, \"He doesn't want you to do this!\" Not \"We talked about end of life decisions yada, yada, yada...\" No, this was a directive...straight from his spirit. The doctor turned to me with a shocked look and said, \"But, he's only 62! We HAVE TO! We can take away later, but we can't add.\" So, what was I to do? Miracles happen. Maybe God would see fit to reach His finger down and heal my beloved husband's heart. So I didn't push it. I didn't say anything else. I let the situation play out. Brutal.
\n\n\nWe nearly turned south that day and headed for the mountains instead of town. I've often wondered if his death would have been much more peaceful for him if I would have gathered him in my arms, held him to my chest, and talked to him about the birds dancing in the branches above. What if his last memories were the sounds of the wind and the melting snow rippling over the nearby stones instead of people barking orders and beeps and bells and metal crashing together? But, in all likelihood, it would have been a terrifying scenario and I would have been left feeling personally responsible for being unable to save him.
\n\n\nThat peaceful scene was a much more realistic soundtrack of death in the distant past. In a time when it was a goal to die with dignity in the presence of those who loved you best. Lying by a window, perhaps. Peaceful. Maybe some soup on the stove in case you wanted a sip.
\n\n\nI don't know what the answer is. I don't know how one could possibly arbitrarily say, \"Well, this one is too old to save.\" But I did read this thought provoking article yesterday and I thought I would share it here as it is pretty much the opposite of what we are usually talking about. Then again...maybe not so much.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-01-21T02:30:51-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/01/21/on-death-and-dying.html", "tags": ["Grief","Hope","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2016/01/05/are-you-lonesome-tonight.html", "title": "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", "content_html": "\n““I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.””
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/753354979e.jpg\")
After the initial shock of losing Mr. Virgo began to fade...ever so slightly, I set out to fill the void losing him created in my life. I only had him seven and a half years. I can't imagine the emptiness of losing your partner of forty years or more. I experienced my first attempt at \"dating\" just five months after he died. Five months? What was I thinking???
\n\n\nWell....obviously I WASN'T thinking...not clearly. I had what has come to be called \"The Band-Aid Relationship\". That attempt to stop hurting. That vain attempt to \"replace\" what I had lost. Oh, he was a perfectly nice man. A gentleman. A tender soul. A man who, even after I ripped the Band-Aid off, screaming in emotional and physical pain and ripping his heart out in the process... This man would still sit and listen to me wail on the phone for hours. OMGosh! What I put him through! What I put MYSELF through in a desperate attempt to make the pain go away. It was very, very sad.
\n\n\nI waited a year before I tried again. Another very nice man. A gentle, sweet spirit that I ran from at the first sign of feelings. I am still friends with this one as well. I'm fortunate to have their friendship. But it caused pain for both of us. What do you do? Just stay in a shell forever and never try? I have many, many women friends who would never consider having another relationship. I didn't understand that. I didn't WANT to understand that. I had a feeling if I waited long enough, I too wouldn't want a man in my life. I was afraid of getting to that point because I wasn't at all sure I wanted to be alone with myself. I wasn't at all sure I really liked ME.
\n\n\nI met someone in May of last year that I thought I might actually WANT to be in a relationship with. But it didn't work out. He rekindled a relationship with someone from before me. That one stung on a different level. It made me stop and take a look at myself. It made me realize I had no earthly idea who I really was. What did I like? What did I believe in? What are my core values? Could I take care of myself? Why was I so afraid to be alone? I set out to answer these questions and get a clearer picture of who I was in the world before ever attempting to add someone else's heart in the mix.
\n\n\nThere have been many moments when I had to force myself to sit still, shut up, and listen to my heart beat. I had to still the chatterbox inside who constantly told me to listen to the opinions of others because they knew better than me what the world was all about. What I was all about. I had to go deep inside and do some serious housecleaning. There were days when I did nothing but sit on the deck and watch the river flow by. And eventually, I began to clear away this fog that I have been hiding in for so long. I began to look at myself with compassion...this poor bruised and battered soul who was so lost and alone. I began to realize that God loved this little waif. And if God loved her, surely I could. I decided to befriend her. I took her outside to play. I held her when she cried and I told her how wonderful she is. I told her she was beautiful and brave and strong and capable. And then I had to tell her a truth that hurt us both. I told her she didn't really NEED a man in her life to be complete. I told her she was going to be fine on her own. She was going to be able to take care of herself. I told her she just needed to stop and breathe...and just BE.
\n\n\nShe listened. Thank God she listened because I was a little worried about her. Integrating that part of myself that was so scared and lonely into the woman I've become was one of the most challenging periods of my life. One that was only made possible because of the loss and subsequent pain I've been through. With God I am never truly alone. And...I like this person I've become. Genuinely.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-01-05T02:30:37-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2016/01/05/are-you-lonesome-tonight.html", "tags": ["Grief","Overcoming Obstacles","Growth","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/12/30/spirit.html", "title": "Spirit", "content_html": "\n“Whoever gets sense loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will discover good.”
\nProverbs 19:8 ESV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/27493aeb9c.jpg\")
The momentum is shifting here on The Ranch. I have a vision. A very clear vision of my books in print. I can see them on shelves. I can see myself at book signings and giving talks and being interviewed. I have been a visual person all my life. I've learned to harness that and use it to create my life. While I am a Christian, I also believe the Lord works in mysterious ways and we cannot come close to understanding how it all works. All I know is, there have been numerous times in my life that I have prayed an intention out into the universe and handed it over to God, and I literally step back and watch Him work wonders. It comes across to some people as something bordering precognizant but that's not it at all. It's trust, and faith, and hope all wrapped into one.
\n\n\nTwo years ago I was paralyzed with grief. I could barely function. Thank God I had my family and good friends who would just sit and listen to me cry and they didn't say a word. There was nothing TO say. By just sitting quietly, I knew I was loved. I knew it was safe for me to let my guard down and cry from the marrow of my bones. On New Year's Eve, I just wanted it to be 12:01 to get that dreadful year over with. I didn't want to breathe any more 2013 air. Even though the strike of 12 only meant a little over nine months had passed since Mr. Virgo's death, to me it meant I had turned a corner. The continued sense of relief I had hoped for failed to hang on though, and I was quickly back on the roller coaster of grief.
\n\n\nNow, two more years have passed. 2014 was difficult being awake and in pain. 2015 has been so much better. And what I'm feeling is this certainty. God's got this. I asked and He's lining up every connection I need to make things move forward with my writing. It has this special feel of ease...weightless, effortless. A big, giant trail of neon breadcrumbs. It's all so peaceful, this faith.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-12-30T02:30:14-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/12/30/spirit.html", "tags": ["God","Insight","Control"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/12/10/today.html", "title": "Today", "content_html": "\n“He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.”
\nEzekiel 2:1-2 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/c73a197461.jpg\")
Not to sound too cliché, but honestly...today is all we've got. There are no promises. We are a heartbeat away from eternity. I don't want to spend what precious time I have left worrying. Or angry. Or jealous. About anything. Yeah, easier said than done, I know. But it's a lofty goal.
Today, I am as old as I have ever been. I have achieved a certain level of credibility merely by riding this planet 62 times around the sun. I've seen 22,824 sunsets. I am some sort of authority on sunsets by now, I think. I can stand proud in my ability to adapt and survive. I am a freaking warrior princess.
Today, I am as young as I'll ever be again...chronologically. Age is a state of mind. I choose to think young...most of the time. I seem to pull it off pretty well as most people don't think I'm 62. I am a lover of life....a dancer of dreams.
\n\n\nToday, I love myself. I'm finally comfortable in my own skin. I live here...in all my impossibly flawed beauty. Baby pooch, flappy wings, cheesy thighs, greying hair, wrinkles and all. I am a wise crone...with fresh, new eyes.
Today, I am flying solo. Sleeping single. Widowed. On my own. But...I am not alone. God walks with me and carries me when I can't do it myself. There are many hearts beating in my chest with me. And the one true heart that stopped beating a thousand or so days ago lives just a fraction away. So near I can feel him because our souls are still one...still connected...always and forever connected. Death didn't take that away. Mere death could not sever that bond. I am fierce and brave.
Today, I get to see my firstborn child. I haven't seen her since the middle of August. I miss her, terribly. Much, much more than I ever have. I am so very proud of her. And happy for her accomplishments. Tomorrow is a big day for her as she gets her graduate degree in Zoology. I am filled with a mighty love.
\n\n\nToday, I get to see my first husband and his family. They are coming for the graduation. I am so blessed to have good relationships with my former husbands. I hear horror stories all the time of people who can't be in the same room with their exes. I understand it doesn't work for everyone. However, I was with these men for a reason. I loved them. I love them still...just in a different way. I love them because they love my babies. Because they are good people. Because they love and respect me. Because we are still family. I am gentle and loving in my heart.
\n\n\nToday. Time and distance heals old wounds if you let them. Hope and love gifts you delicious anticipation for what could come. God can bring you peace if you just ask Him.
\n\n\nI am forgiven and at peace.
\n\n\nToday. This day. It's all we've got. What are you going to do with your present?
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-12-10T02:30:50-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/12/10/today.html", "tags": ["Family","Presence","Insight","Control"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/11/19/writing.html", "title": "Writing", "content_html": "\n“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
\nRomans 12:2 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/aa5488e29d.jpg\")
I've been talking about this book for what seems like for-EV-er! A friend sent me a meme the other day about the different stages of writing a book. It starts with grabbing a cup of coffee and a Superwoman cape all the way down to \"Holy crap! This is such a bunch of hoo-haw! No one in their right mind is going to want to read this stuff!\" Then you eat your way into an ice cream coma. Well, pass the Haagen Daz, kids...I'm at that point. I know it's only because I've read this stuff like...a GAZILLION times that I think it isn't any good. Then I stumbled upon a flash of total brilliance, if I do say so myself.
\n\n\nInstead of going to my usual coffee shop and writing my requisite hours yesterday, I went to the library. I found a table and before doing anything else, I sat there and let my eyes wander around the room. And there it was...to my right. That beacon that calls the reader to MY SECTION....the sign for \"New Non-Fiction\" was right beside my table! It was a sign!
\n\n\nI set out the accouterments of my trade...laptop, iPad and iPhone for handy reference, and the original manuscript and set to work. Ok...I sat there and looked at it. And looked. And looked. And looked some more.
\n\n\n\"Write!\" I commanded myself.
\n\n\n\"Shut up...I'm thinking!\" My SELF said back.
\n\n\nI sat back and shut my eyes and asked myself...
\n\n\n\"What are you feeling?\"
\n\n\n\"I feel like a fraud! Look...I'm surrounded by BOOKS! Real life, page-turning books! All I have is this stack of papers and a promise. I'm just a writer.\"
\n\n\n\"And what do you WANT to feel?\"
\n\n\n\"I want to feel like an AUTHOR!\"
\n\n\nAnd...BAM! Seriously....just like that, I stepped aside and looked at this woman with a huge body of work that she has poured her heart and soul into and saw...an author! I felt it in my bones. It was like a surge of electricity went right through me and in the next two hours, I got more done than I have in the last year!
\n\n\nThe power of the mind is an incredible tool we rarely tap into with purpose. Yesterday, I hit the mother lode.
\n\n\nStay tuned! And don't forget to go to iTunes and subscribe to Girl Camper podcasts. I am featured in Episode 5: Life's Left Turns - When things just don't go according to plans. Janine Pettit has asked me to be the Girl Camper Correspondent and call in with updates as I travel so there will be more of these.
\n\n\nYou can subscribe and download this and other podcasts HERE.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-11-19T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/11/19/writing.html", "tags": ["Positive Energy","Writing","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/11/17/self-worth.html", "title": "Self Worth", "content_html": "\n“While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill— while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.”
\nDaniel 9:20-22 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/168cf04d09.jpg\")
I am an Emotional Archeologist. Every day offers an opportunity for a new awakening...an opportunity to peel back another layer to examine. It may be a brilliant flash of insight...that A-HA! moment that helps you move forward. It may only be to discover a day of contemplating your slippered feet in an armchair with endless cups of tea is not necessarily a day wasted.
\n\n\nAs I've navigated the mountains and valleys, the twists and turns of this journey, I have had many, many opportunities to work through the waves of grief. I know I am blessed to have had this time without the pressures of employment or the needs of others to impede my progress. I have been totally self indulgent in this quest other than the product of my writing. And every once in a while, I hit the lottery in the insight department and wonder how I could have missed that for so long.
\n\n\nI'm referring to the meditation series by Deepak Chopra, brought to us by Oprah. I am half way through a 21 day series on Core Beliefs. Day 10 spoke on the core belief that you are worthy. As the child of an alcoholic and the survivor of childhood sexual abuse, I struggled with issues surrounding my self worth for many years. When I felt unworthy, I was faced with controlling people who disrespected me. When I felt strong and whole, I was seen by others as worthy of respect.
\n\n\nBut what happens if you're grieving...if you're sick...if you're tired and you're not feeling strong? What happens if you believe a lie? What happens when you have your really dark glasses of self doubt on and you can't see how awesome you really are? That's when you need a trusted, wise friend or family member who really knows you who will hold up a mirror and say, \"Look at yourself! You are an amazing, insightful, talented, loving, generous, sensitive, kind, fun, adventurous, wonderful woman! Stop it! Stop looking at yourself through a smoky lens. Step out into the light of day and look in this mirror!\" I am blessed with these wise women in my circle when I have moments of self doubt. They shake me by my collar and wake me up. This same wise friend shared something with me the other night and I wanted to pass it on to you.
\n\n\n\"Guest House\" by Rumi\n\n\n
This being human is a guest house. \nEvery morning a new arrival.\n\nA joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.\n\nWelcome and entertain them all!\nEven if they're a crowd of sorrows, \nwho violently sweep your house \nempty of its furniture, \nstill treat each guest honorably.\nHe may be clearing you out for some new delight.\n\nThe dark thought, the shame, the malice, \nmeet them at the door laughing,\nand invite them in.\n\nBe grateful for whoever comes,\nbecause each has been sent\nas a guide from beyond.\n\n\n
***Meet them at the door laughing because YOU know who YOU are and they cannot shake you!*** This was my message from a warrior goddess of a woman.
\n\n\nMy wish for you today is to find your mirror...your own warrior goddess friend. See yourself as others see you. Take off the dark goggles of shame and self doubt. Our beliefs shape who we are. Stand up straight and tall, hold your head up high. Because, my darling....you are worthy!
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-11-17T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/11/17/self-worth.html", "tags": ["Grief","Overcoming Obstacles","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/11/11/enough.html", "title": "Enough", "content_html": "\n“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
\nPhilippians 4:8-9 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/42b02df62a.jpg\")
Dear Ones...
\n\n\nThis is a letter to you. You know who you are. You're the one who is struggling right now. Your heart is hurting. You cry when you think no one knows. But I know. You've given so much of yourself you can't breathe anymore. Your strength is bleeding out of your very soul. You don't know how you're holding together. You wonder what difference you could possibly be making here. You feel like no matter what you do or what you say...it is never good enough. That YOU'RE not good enough.
\n\n\nI just have two words for you, dear one. Stop that! You are amazing! You are precious. You have so many gifts and talents. You have such a big heart. The people you are doing for may not notice, but God does. He is watching over every minute of your life. I know you get discouraged. But courage lies in the middle of that word. It takes great courage to be where you are. You are brave...you are strong. You have strength you aren't even aware of. You are so much more. Stop talking yourself down. Start building yourself up. Believe in yourself. I do. You are enough. You are enough. You are enough.
\n\n\nWith ever so much respect,
\n\n\nMe
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-11-11T02:30:15-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/11/11/enough.html", "tags": ["Health","Overcoming Obstacles","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/11/03/setting-goals.html", "title": "Setting Goals", "content_html": "\n“Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,””
\n1 Peter 2:7 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/33e0406e3b.jpg\")
Yesterday we touched on ways to ward off the winter blahs. One of the suggestions was to set goals and check items off the lists you create to achieve them. But, how do you set goals? And what do you do when those goals just keep hanging out there like a carrot on a stick? At the end of the first year after Mr. Virgo died, I breathed an audible sigh of relief. Now I could say \"He died last year.\" It gave me a false sense of comfort that it was \"almost over\" and I was going to get my life back...or some semblance of it. Little did I know the second year was going to be harder because the numbness was gone. And now, here I am, over halfway through the third year and what are my goals? I have no earthly idea!
\n\n\nA fellow Rancher said her goal was to find someone else to love happily ever after but now she's five years into this without a knight in shining armor in sight. You could have knocked me over with a feather as I realized that's exactly what I've been doing. I have been looking at every male encounter as a potential mate. Good grief...what was I thinking?
\n\n\nThat's the point though, isn't it? I wasn't thinking. I haven't really been thinking about long range goals. I've been planning to feel better this week. Maybe this month. I've been chasing happiness but at what cost? No one else is refilling the coffers.
\n\n\nWhen I got back from Myrtle Beach, I had to sit down and take a serious accounting of where I am. Not just financially, but in general. That little \"Hey, girl...how ya doin'?\" pep talk we girls gotta have on occasion. And I wasn't happy with what I saw. I have been feeling a shift lately...a ripple in the force, so to speak. Good things will come of this as it is just another layer of the onion.
\n\n\nStay tuned tomorrow for Part Two of \"Setting Goals\". This is far too big a topic for one post to cover.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-11-03T02:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/11/03/setting-goals.html", "tags": ["Health","Overcoming Obstacles","Positive Energy","Growth","Choices","Change","Insight","Control"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/10/31/walking.html", "title": "Walking", "content_html": "\n“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
\nProverbs 19:21 NIV\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/099aae29c5.jpg\")
I get SAD. I don't FEEL sad, necessarily. But I sure feel Seasonal Affective Disorder when it rears its ugly head. I want to be around lots of people AND I want to be a hermit. I want to go to a party AND I want you to sit next to me and shut up. I want to go out to dinner AND I want to crawl in bed with my iPad and stay there till March. I'm not alone. According to the American Association of Family Physicians, about 4 to 6 percent of people have winter depression. Another 10 to 20 percent may have mild SAD. I have had it for years and I've found it's a little worse here in West Virginia than it was in Colorado...mainly because Colorado has 300+ days of sunshine and West Virginia, ummmm, doesn't. It gets grey and cloudy here and it can last for days...weeks at a time. Yesterday I had to get my therapy light out and sit in front of it for an hour and it really helped. I normally take St. John's Wort daily since Mr. Virgo died. At this time of year, I make extra sure I don't miss a dose.* I also increase my exercise.
\n\n\nAnyone who suffers from SAD, or any form of depression for that matter, understands that getting up and getting out is no easy task. We get \"couch lock\". We don't want to do anything but climb in bed and read or sleep. It takes everything in our power to get outside. It hits hard and fast and it isn't going to improve any when Daylight Saving Time kicks in this weekend.
So, what to do? Get up. Get out the door. Go DO something. Cut down on sugar and heavy, carb-laden foods. Play upbeat music. Watch comedies. Call a friend. Call two friends. Call ALL your friends! Make plans with people. Go hike in the woods. Go to an exercise class. Push each other to go that extra half mile. Record your activity so you can see your progress. Reward yourself with bubble baths instead of Ben and Jerry's. Pray. Sing. Dance. Write. Take pictures. Start a hobby. Volunteer. Do something. Do anything. Just get off the couch. You will feel better. Guaranteed!
❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us...”
\n2 Corinthians 7:6 NIV\n
*This is not intended as medical advice. Ask your healthcare provider what, if anything, is right for you.
\n\n", "date_published": "2015-10-31T01:30:58-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/10/31/walking.html", "tags": ["Health","Grief","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/09/29/hearts.html", "title": "Hearts", "content_html": "\n![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/e963361f5c.jpg\")
I vacillate between \"God, I love my life!\" and \"My heart hurts.\" Sunday was a heart hurt day. The day was beautiful. My friend and I decided to start our trip to the beach early and that meant there was a lot to do to prepare. I was busy doing laundry and cleaning house. I wasn't thinking about anything in particular. I felt great...looking forward to getting away to the beach for some R&R with the girls. We've been planning this trip for months and I was feeling really excited. I had the music on and the windows flung open wide to catch the cool breeze coming off the river...the smell of damp earth and fallen leaves filling my perfect little tiny home. Then it happened.
\n\n\nCeline Dion sang \"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face\". Now, I've heard that song a hundred times and it hasn't bothered me a bit. But, in that moment, it knocked the breath out of me and I burst into tears. The unpredictability of grief used to drive me crazy. It scared me to feel so out of control and at the mercy of such rapidly changing emotions. Now I have learned it's normal. It's perfectly normal. The issue I struggle with is different. I want to be strong and put on my happy face. The thought of running the people I love away with my woes is unbearable so I'm not always straight forward with them when I'm feeling bad. That's something I'm working on.
\n\n\nHearts are tender when you're healing from a devastating loss. I have to remind myself, it's only been two and a half years since Mr. Virgo died. That's really not all that long. I've been on this path long enough now to know the sea is calm on the other side of the waves and I will always feel better with the light of day. I always do.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-09-29T01:30:08-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/09/29/hearts.html", "tags": ["Grief","Overcoming Obstacles","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/09/26/less-is-more.html", "title": "Less is More", "content_html": "\n“You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light.”
\n2 Samuel 22:29\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/3e9b01a122.jpg\")
This is a concept I do not have in my skill set. Less is more. I try. I'm more like \"It's not done till its overdone.\" In decorating, for instance. I have this thing for miniature chairs. It all started when I bought the coolest miniature salesman's sample at an antique store years ago and decided to \"collect\" them for a display in my home. Three is a collection. Twenty-eight is hoarding. It no longer looks like a display. It looks like an AA meeting for Barbies. In my downsizing, I ended up getting rid of all of them except the original antique one. And it's boxed away somewhere.
\n\n\nI'm getting a handle on \"less is more\" in my environment. Now, if I could just apply that to my mouth. Sometimes I just overdo things. Someone says something and my brain says \"Hmmmmmm, interesting. Let's dip our toe in the water and test this out.\" Then my mouth does a full cannonball in the deep end and ruins the party. It has cost me friendships...one in particular that was important to me. I've apologized. Time will tell. Because, it's still important to me.
\n\n\nOur work is never done, is it? You would think by this age we'd have it figured out. I think it's more like the older I get, the more I KNOW that I DON'T know, ya know? But, I'm a work in progress. We all are.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-09-26T01:30:03-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/09/26/less-is-more.html", "tags": ["Growth","Humbled","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/09/17/reflections.html", "title": "Reflections", "content_html": "\n“Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.”
\nEcclesiastes 5:2\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/7726cc753c.jpg\")
I sit out on the deck and stare at this river...a lot. It's got good energy. It's my meditation. It has become my refuge, my cathedral, my heart. Sometimes I work on stuff in my head. Sometimes I write these blog posts because I feel inspired by the beauty. But most times I just reflect. Like the mirror image of the far banks, I look at the scrapbooks of my life. I can leave the bad parts alone. I can stay in the pleasant parts as long as I want. It's soothing. It's healing. It is life.
\n\n\nI try not to have regrets but it's not easy sometimes. There are things I would do differently, certainly. But really, for the most part, I'm happy with my life. It is what it is. It is mine. I am who I am. There have been times in my life when it was important to consider where I want to be in a year...five years...ten. Not any more. I'm happy to be right where I am.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-09-17T01:30:20-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/09/17/reflections.html", "tags": ["Health","Gratitude","Courage","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/08/23/love-and-loss.html", "title": "Love and Loss", "content_html": "\n\"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.\"
\nPsalm 23:1-4\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/7e0c45cc14.jpg\")
The other night, I held Mr. Virgo in my hands. Well, part of him. I had the funeral director cut a lock of his gorgeous silver hair so I could keep it with me. He put it in a little plastic bag and stuck that in a blue velvet drawstring bag. I keep it in the leather box of the watch Mr. Virgo gave me for Christmas one year. I keep the red leather box on my bedside table. I can talk to him there. My feelings are a little tender this week. Understandable, given the circumstances.
\n\n\nI haven't taken that lock of hair out for a long, long time. I didn't cry. I wasn't necessarily sad. I just wanted to touch him for a moment. I wanted something tangible to remind me...indeed, he WAS real. He DID exist. He wasn't a figment of my imagination. Sometimes he's TOO far away and I need to bring him a little closer. Just for a minute I need to cradle that sterling silver in my hands again. I close my eyes and feel the texture between my finger and thumb and remember what it felt like to run my hands through his hair. I breathe in deep and I can almost smell him....leather, woods, tobacco, Halston. Just for a moment I hear his voice, see his smile, lay my head on his chest...feel his heart beating. Just for a moment. It fills me with love and hope and determination. Then, I carefully tuck him away...back in his leather box. And I feel better. I am ok.
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-08-23T01:30:11-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/08/23/love-and-loss.html", "tags": ["Grief","Love","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/08/22/stuff-happens.html", "title": "Stuff Happens", "content_html": "\n\"I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body,\"
\n2 Peter 1:13\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/6520edff95.jpg\")
Ok, I debated whether to even bring this up. But it's part of life after the loss of a spouse and that's what I'm here to talk about and practice in my own life. So, here goes.
\n\n\nI met someone interesting in WV. He found me, actually. He's a good man, a widower of four years. He had dated a bit, one relationship lasting nine months. He spoke very kindly of her and there was something in his voice but I didn't explore it. We have SO much in common. We had three dates before I left for CO. They went well. We talked nearly every day all summer for 1-3 hours. Things were going great. Then there was a family wedding over the weekend. I didn't hear from him much. I didn't really expect to because he was busy. Then, Tuesday night, out of the blue, he called to say he had rekindled a past relationship and he couldn't continue this. Needless to say, I was initially crushed, then disappointed, then angry, then resolved.
Dating after loss is difficult, to say the least. The whole getting to know you thing, the questions and answers...it's all so tiresome. But it's also exciting to have something new and fresh to look forward to. Someone to talk to. Someone to care about. Someone to care about you. I've dated a couple of other guys, but I always kept my hand on the doorknob with an escape route firmly in place because it was really way too soon. This one was different. This one was special. I took my hand off the door. That's why this one stung...until I had a chance to think about it. The upside is, I felt the spark. I know it's there and it can come again. I am grateful he showed me that.
Maybe God is protecting me from something even more painful down the road. At first I thought, \"What a tragedy!\" But that quickly changed to \"No....having my husband drop dead in front of me at age 62 is a tragedy. This is a minor inconvenience...a bee sting.\" A friend said God weeded my garden for me. Sweet thought, but even with the way this went down, I think he's a good man. He went with his heart and was honest and up front about it and told me before it went on.
\n\n\nSo, I licked my wounds, and sent him a lovely note in which I told him we all deserve to be with the one we love and that I truly wish him the very best. I don't know if I'll try again. I do believe in love. But there are seven available women to every man with a pulse, and frankly you have to figure out...\"Is the juice really worth the squeeze?\"
\n\n\nIn the words of Jed Bartlet... \"What's next?\"
\n\n\n❤️
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.\"
\nHaggai 1:9\n
\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-08-22T01:30:50-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/08/22/stuff-happens.html", "tags": ["Grief","Growth","Insight"] }, { "id": "http://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/2015/06/22/remembering-the-grand-adventure.html", "title": "Remembering the Grand Adventure", "content_html": "\n\"Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.\"
\nPsalm 41:9\n
![\"\"](\"https://mashmallowranch.micro.blog/uploads/2026/915a760482.jpg\")
I took this photo a couple of years ago on the first leg of my Grand Adventure. I went on a long drive yesterday afternoon up by the ski area and the lupine looked just the same as this. I love them! They are airy and misty lavender-blue. I cannot believe how green it is in the high country right now. I was told Colorado has had ten inches of rain this spring. If it continues, it will look much like back east. But if it dries out, as it is likely to do soon, we could be in for a heck of a fire season due to the incredible amount of underbrush that has developed. We went from cool and rainy last week to 93 degrees and bone dry the last three days. It will dry out fast if that keeps up. In the meantime it was a beautiful weekend!
\n\n\nI had a deep awakening yesterday. I love it when someone who knows me well points out the obvious flaws in my logic that I simply do not see. Such was the case with yesterday's post. A friend of mine who is wont to shake me by the scruff of the neck, did just that. I have, on more than one occasion, spoken of my \"failure as a doctor's wife\"…as if it were some kind of job I had applied for and had the skills but just didn't complete it successfully.
\n\n\nI have always looked at that as a role I played instead of just being married to someone who happened to be a doctor. His job. Not mine. Being a doctor's wife was never my \"job\" so how could I fail at it? As my friend points out so eloquently, I was \"never responsible for his approval or his happiness\" so how could I be a failure? Wow…..just, wow.
\n\n\nI am quick to tell others, including my children, that we are not responsible for anyone's happiness but our own. Yet, here I am…fifteen years after the fact…considering myself a failure at something I had no control over. I have carried the belief (however deeply it was buried) that I did not make my husband happy so he left me for someone else. I convinced myself, and subsequently tried to convince YOU, that I failed as a \"Doctor's Wife\" as if there was a certain skill set I should have had in place and didn't. How liberating! I can let go of that belief. I'm free of the lingering self-recrimination that came with that falsehood. I love, love, LOVE when another layer gets peeled back and I can \"clean house\" inside!
\n\n\nThe new belief is \"At one time, we loved each other deeply then we grew apart. We each found true love with someone else.\" Period. No judgements. Wow.
\n\n\n❤
\n\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-06-22T01:30:00-06:00", "url": "https://marshmallowranch.com/2015/06/22/remembering-the-grand-adventure.html", "tags": ["Growth","Gratitude","Wisdom","Aging","Choices","Insight"] } ] }\"The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.\"
\nProverbs 4:7\n