Saturday, September 20

For All Women: It's Your Right!

Women didn't have the right to vote in the US until 1920. Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers fought for that right in both the US and Canada. In the US, women like Lucy Burns and Doris Lewis were determined that women should have equal say in elections. This lead to the Night of Terror - November 15, 1917.

On that night long ago, 33 women were thrown into the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia on a trumped-up charge of obstructing sidewalk traffic. The warden looked the other way while four guards wielding clubs beat the women; some so badly that they almost died.
Alice Paul, pictured above, was one of the leaders who marched on the White House. She decided once she was arrested that she would go on a hunger strike in order to stand-up for what she believed in. The guards tied her to a chair, inserted a tube into her throat and poured liquid down it. They did this every day for weeks.
Dora Lewis was tossed into a dark cell. Her head hit an iron bed and knocked her unconscious. The woman sharing the cell with her was Alice Cosu. She thought Doris had been killed and had a heart attack.

The guards tied Lucy Burns to the bars of the cell with her hands above her head. She was left hanging there all night. She could barely breathe and was bleeding.

President Woodrow Wilson and his cronies attempted to have Alice Paul declared insane and wanted her to be placed in an insane asylum. The psychiatrist would have no part of it. He told the men that brave, strong women were often looked upon as being insane.

US women won the right to vote in 1920 with the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Warren G. Harding was President.

In Canada, the suffrage movement was lead by women like Dr. Emily Stowe and Nellie McClung. Dr. Emily Stowe lead the movement in Ontario, while Nellie McClung lead it in the West. In 1917, women who were related to men actively fighting overseas during WWI were allowed to vote by the War Time Election Act. A hue and cry went up for equality.

Nellie McClung

Nellie McClung actively fought for the right for women to vote in 1916. Women who lived in Manitoba were granted the right to vote that year and Alberta and Saskatchewan also granted their women the right to vote. However, women in other provinces didn't get the same consideration.


In 1918, the ability to vote in a federal election was granted to all Canadian women over 21 years of age. Still, some provinces didn't allow women to vote in provincial elections. By 1922, all provinces allowed women to vote, except Quebec. It wasn't until 1940 that Canadian women across the nation were granted the right to vote in both federal and provincial elections.

If you are a women of voting age, please practice your right to vote. It doesn't matter who you vote for. Thank God we are free to vote for whom we choose. However, to honor these brave women who fought for the right for us to cast a ballot, be sure to do so. This year the US will elect a new President and there is a federal election in Canada on October 14th. Honor those women who lead and participated in the suffrage movement. It's your right!

Friday, September 19

Show and Tell Friday

It's time for Show and Tell Friday. If you would like to participate, drop over to Kelli's at There's No Place Like Home.

Last weekend the boys and I went to a local store that deals exclusively in gifts and seasonal decor items. We enjoy browsing and picking up a little something here and there to make our homes a little more colorful. This store is reasonably priced and they have a Christmas section all year 'round.


Many of my readers know that I like scarecrows. I guess you can tell by the background and header here that they are one of my favorite autumn things. Well, lo and behold this little store had a scarecrow ready for hanging. I thought it would look great hanging outside of my door for the autumn season. I love it!

After we left there, we went to the dollar store and picked up some autumn leaves, a box of pumpkin candles that we will share with others, a ceramic pumpkin that I thought was delightful and a little scarecrow sitting on a bale of artificial straw with a cob of corn and a black-eyed susan beside him. I also bought some of these things for the boys to give their mother. She was delighted.

I bought several of the pumpkins on a piece of binder twin that I will hang along my porch to give it an autumn look. The boys and I plan on going to a local farm where they sell fruit all year round to pick up some gourds, some Indian corn, some cornstalks and a bale or two of hay. Then we will add spider webs and make the place look a little spooky for Halloween.

I hope you enjoyed my show and tell this week. Be sure to click on the link to Kelli's blog and visit others who participate in Show and Tell Friday. I'm sure there will be many autumn decorating ideas this week. Enjoy! ~Blessings, Mary~

Wednesday, September 17

Autumn Photos of Canada and a Urgent Prayer Request

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In a few days autumn will officially arrive. Spring and autumn are my favorite seasons. Spring because it is a time of rebirth and autumn because the weather is cooler and Mother nature paints the forests with reds, oranges, browns and yellows against a backdrop of evergreen.

The photos below are some that I've taken over the years. They show the beautiful colors that autumn brings to our part of the world.


The above photo was taken in northern Ontario in the 1990s. Hubby and I went up north for a weekend getaway. Behind the rocks in this area was a lake. I forget the name of it now, but if we went there early in the morning, we could see otters playing. It was an awesome sight. One of these years I would like to return to this area again.

This photo was taken on the same trip. This one is near Bobcaygeon, Ontario, which is on the Trent-Severn Waterway. You can fish for Muskie in this region. Bobcaygeon pronounced Bob-cay-je-wan is an Ojibwa word meaning "at the shallow currents." It was incorporated as a village in 1876.


The above photo is one that was taken on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. I love Cape Breton in autumn. There isn't quite any place on earth that is so beautiful. It has mountains much like the Smokeys - another place that I love to visit in the fall.

New Brunswick is also beautiful in autumn, though the year I took this the colors weren't as vibrant as they sometimes are. My MIL lives in New Brunswick not far from Moncton. It is a beautiful province with lots of forested areas. There are an abundance of Moose in this particular area.

I'm not sure where this one was taken, but from the other photos that were with it, I would assume northern Ontario. The colors are amazing. And finally, back home to the Grand River Valley. This is the Grand in all of her beauty. The colors were just beginning to change, but like all the rest of the photos, this was taken previously and is not this year's photo.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of Canada in autumn. I would love to see the Rocky Mountains in the fall of the year. I have seen them, but only in winter and they are magnificient. I stayed in Cranbrook, BC, which is in the Interior of British Columbia. The Rockies and Purcell Mountains surround this beautiful town. I would love to visit there again and get some photos. Maybe one day. Until then, I will be happy with my memories of all the beautiful places I have visited in autumn.

If you would like to see some beautiful photos of Cranbrook, please explore HERE!

Take care and enjoy your day. ~Blessings, Mary~

Prayer request Update

Jo at Moodscapes has an urgent prayer request. It seems her friend, Janice, at Wildflower Cabin lost her granddaughter in a fatal car accident on September 13th. The mother and father of Poppy Josephine Hart need our prayers. Poppy Josephine is resting in the arms of Jesus. Please keep the family in your prayers.

Tuesday, September 16

The Grand River Valley

I was looking through some old photos today and came upon these of locations along the Grand River.

The Grand River is a large river in southwestern Ontario. From its source, it flows south through Grand Valley, Fergus, Elora, Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris, Brantford, Caledonia, and Cayuga before emptying into the north shore of Lake Erie south of Dunnville at Port Maitland.

The Grand River's source is in Riverview, Ontario. It starts more like a stream but as it flows south, it becomes wider and more powerful. Some scenes of the river are serene and it looks so peaceful. At other places, it has a swift current and looks mighty.

The above picture was taken in the spring of the year. The water is high here and the current is swift and strong.
Elora Gorge is a pretty spot. I love going there. The river is so pretty as it narrows to flow through the gorge.
At West Montrose, Ontario, the Grand runs under this beautiful covered bridge. Locals call it "The Kissing Bridge."
The beautiful canyon above is near Cambridge, Ontario. Isn't this a beautiful place with the water running through the rolling hills and forests?
This spot in Cambridge, Ontario used to be an old mill, I believe. Before the towns of Hespler, Galt and Preston were amalgamated and became Cambridge, this was located in Galt, Ontario.
It is a quaint little town situated on the banks of the Grand.
Another of Galt/Cambridge. This town was founded in 1817 and many buildings are stone, which reflects the architecture of that era.
Paris, Ontario is also a quaint little town. It was established by Hiram Capron in 1829. Many of the buildings (shown here from the back) are still original from that era. This area often floods into the basements of small businesses in the spring.

A great fishing hole along the Grand. It could be one of hundreds. A beautiful spot to be sure. Great Blue Herons and Bald eagles can be seen at some spots along the Grand.
This is the Grand River near Dunnville, Ontario, where it empties into Lake Erie. The Grand is almost 200 miles long and there are many walking trails along its banks. Fishermen love the Grand, as there are a wide variety of fish species found here, including catfish, northern pike, perch, pickerel and others. It's seldom that you cast your line into the Grand without catching a fish. Rock, smallmouth and black bass are also found here. Almost 1,000,000 people live along its banks.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the Grand River. Once the leaves turn, I'm going to go for a drive and take some pictures of the beautiful autumn foliage. I do hope there are a lot of reds and oranges this year. ~Blessings, Mary~

Monday, September 15

An Update on Aunt May and a Prayer Request


It's late and I'm just going to give everyone a quick update on Aunt May. I made an error in my previous post. Aunt May's cancer doctor wanted her to have a Bone Scan, not an MRI. She had it today. It's unbelieveable that he got her into the local hospital so soon. She will get the results the next time she goes to the cancer hospital for her consultation.

Aunt May is tired and was resting when my mother called her today. She said she's been overly tired. Her husband has to go for surgery on his arm on Wednesday. He has skin cancer and he didn't have it taken care of soon enough. I'm not sure how they will make out, but I'll offer to drive him to and from the hospital if needed.

Please keep both of them in your prayers.

I will post more tomorrow. I've been busy with the boys since last Friday, as their parents both had to work the weekend and today. We had lots of fun tonight and did a little Halloween shopping at the dollar store.

My dear friend, Ann, from Hootin' Anni's has a prayer request. Her friend PJ and her husband John were directly in the path of Hurricane Ike. Anni received an email from PJ and this is what she had to say:

"We heard we can park on hwy and walk in from there (about 2 miles) entrance only with our IDs so that is the plan tomorrow. I have seen some photos but none of our specific house, after seeing those photos it may be just was [as?] well. The debris is mind boggling! I just keep telling myself...it's only stuff...it's only stuff. I'll check in when I can, a couple of my coworkers have power now so can use the computer there and one has even offered a room for us and our cats so we can be close to work on our home until it is safe to be there. I have to tell you, it blows me away that we really got hit this time. I suppose it will sink in when I am cleaning up the dead fish and chasing out the damn snakes from my little house. I just never really believed it would happen, you know?"

After requesting prayer, Anni had this to say about her friend, PJ:

Today, she and her husband will drop off her cats at a friend's house and then the two will go farther down to their exit and walk into the subdivision. I ask that you take this graphic [click on it to open in a new window -then save & add to your blog], pass it on for a continual circle of prayer and strength -with your prayers that they have a home and find that there is not much damage.

So, please take the graphic at the beginning of this portion of the post and prayer for PJ and John. They are certainly facing one of the most difficult times in their lives. ~Blessings, Mary~

What I've Been Doing


I haven't posted since Friday night when I posted Saturday's article What a weekend! On Friday afternoon, I picked the boys up from school and had them until just after 6pm. We went to Wal Mart to pick up a sheet set that they had on sale. I got Queen sized sheets for a bargain. Only $24.99. I'm not sure what a sheet set costs in your part of the world but here they are usually $40 and up. They didn't have much color choice, but I figured a bargain is a bargain, so I just bought beige ones.

I had the boys all day Saturday as their parents both had to work. We grabbed the baseball and bats and went to the park. We met some kids there that the boys knew from school, so we had fun playing baseball. After about an hour, it started to rain and that was a good excuse to head home for lunch. LOL This old Grandma can't play baseball like she used to and with the arthritis in my legs, I couldn't run. Jordan enjoyed being my pinch runner. When I hit the ball he would take off for first base. I actually got a couple of runs without moving away from home plate. All the kids thought this was rather fun and seemed to understand that I needed Jordan to run for me.

After lunch, Brandon and I worked on the autobiography that he has to hand in for school this morning. The specifications weren't too bad to follow. Minimum word count was 200 and maximum 600. He came in around 470. After that we added a bit about his ancestry and a couple of his accomplishments. We had the rough draft done and then Michelle will help him type it. I can't believe these kids aren't learning keyboard skills in elementary school. However, I just looked up the grade 8 cirriculum for our school board and it is choked full of all kinds of things these kids have to know to graduate. I have no qualms about Brandon meeting the qualifications but the load is fairly heavy. I guess they are preparing the kids for high school.

Brandon received an award at an assembly on Friday and this Grandma was as proud as can be. It was for achievement in the first month of school and for working hard and listening. He received the award in front of the entire student body and was the only grade 8 child to receive and award. He was a little embarrassed at being centered out but it made him feel good too.

Jordan is doing better in school so far this year. He has a spelling average of 100%. He and Brandon are both good spellers. Jordan has more trouble with math. Brandon usually does well in math.

This morning I awakened by the ringing of the phone. Seems that Michelle had forgotten she had to work today and so I had the boys again. I was supposed to go to Mom's this afternoon as a lady was coming to show her how to put a quilt on the quilting machine that she bought. I took the boys with me and she taught them how to quilt with it. They were both quite good at running the sewing machine along the lines and making their own designs. It was a learning experience for all of us and quite enjoyable. I will try to get photos of the quilting machine so you can see exactly what we are doing. Mom has over a dozen quilt tops made for all family members and she's wanting to get them quilted.

And an update on Aunt May...

Friday Aunt May went to the cancer hospital for her routine checkup. They are disappointed now that they gave her chemo as they think the radiation would have done more good. She had four x-rays that she hasn't got the results from yet and she has to go to our local hospital for an MRI. Her cancer doctor is confident he can get her in quickly.

I noticed that Aunt May is having a lot of trouble with her short term memory. She can remember things from her childhood and we had fun reminiscing on Thurday. She told me a couple of stories about the things she did when she was a kid. It was nice hearing her memories.

Now that I have you caught up on all the news, take care and have a great week. ~Blessings, Mary~