Have You Ever Made A Plum Smile?

Plumb was the Artist of the Day and smile was the Morning Show Challenge Word for Family Rewards this morning (http://rewards.todayschristianmusic.com/) and the best way to remember those we've found between the time we hear the words in the morning and type them in on the website is to incorporate them into a sentence. Though truth be known I didn't realize that the artist born Tiffany Arbuckle who's been active in Christian contemporary music, alternative rock, and in many other places since 1997 spelled her stage name "plumb". I'd always thought it was "plum" due to the sound ... but on reflection, Plumb could just as easily refer to the measuring line referred to in the Old Testament book of Amos. Truth's not quite that exotic, though; Arbuckle chose the stage name Plum based on a favorite song of hers and the "b" got added at the behest of her producer.


In any event, I'd always thought "plumb" was pronounced PLOOM.


Current prizes that you can enter to win (and I have been, I admit that) include a 4-day 3-night trip to Venice, Italy, $325 cash, a $100 Amazon gift card, and a $100 Panera gift card. Hey, I have to eat too! And last night after I'd picked up the kids and I'm sure they spent part of the time regaling Grandma and Grandpa about the emoji pillows they'd like for their birthdays. I'm still hesitant about them getting these, and not just in a codgy old man way ... seriously, an emoji shaped like a smiling swirl of poop? (At least I find Jeffrey's now a little more reasonable; he's off the devil kick -- I WILL NOT ALLOW THE DEVIL IN MY HOUSE -- and was telling me about one with sunglasses.) And it was good to let them get dinner at Burger King last night as Martha was there, especially with their 5 for $4 special!


Dance Fever ... has come over me!


For behavior before leaving school I gave the kids a 98 -- and NO, that's not just because Martha urged them to "listen to Daddy"! When I think about it in between the times I consider the symbolism of lasagna in Once Upon A Time and re-learn the lessons of Gideon from the Old Testament book of Judges (and that was just this morning!), pound for pound and attitude for attitude Sarah and Jeffrey are far better at their ages than Martha and I really can expect! They worked with me to catch up on their Reading At Home with several three-minute devotionals and this weekend with Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear (ISBN 9780316324908) by Lindsay Mallick, the great-granddaughter of veterinarian Harry Colebourn who originally found the bear who became Winnie at a train station and bought him from a hunter for twenty dollars.


Proof that yes, two sawbucks in the right place can make an incredible difference.


I did know that Winnie-the-Pooh got his name from Winnipeg, the Canadian city that Colebourn and the rest of his World War I army unit were from. In fact, I recall the first postcard Martha ever sent (I still have it) was to me from her when she was in Winnipeg for a music convention. But after Winnie crosses the Atlantic with them and Colebourn's regiment -- please forgive me, Army members, if I'm getting the groupings wrong -- was given orders to head to France, Winnie was driven to the London Zoo where he would eventually meet Christopher Robin Milne. Both would be in need of a friend, and Christopher Robin's father Alan Alexander (A. A.) Milne would write stories about them, for when the some came home he knew exactly what to name his own stuffed bear. Winnie. And by the way, Christopher Robin died in his mid-seventies while Pooh and the other stuffed animals and still on display at the New York Public Library.


If you're stuffed, you live until you fall apart.


David