Butterflies are symbols of change. I have been seeing many butterflies the last few days before my foreclosure sale that is about to take place. After that, my life will really change. I lose my home and have to start all over again.
I still don’t know where I’m going but have an idea. I’ve resolved myself to a small apartment for now so I can just relax for a while. If I like it, I’ll stay, if I want to move on, I will do so. Butterflies can do this.
Repeating the rainbow!
Not sure what I will post as far as photography to show that I am finally on the way to my next destination.
After I had to let my house go to foreclosure, I am just waiting for the news that the sale of my house will be done. They should be posting that horrible sign telling the world of my failure any day now. I was so broke I had to file for bankruptcy because I would never be able to pay what I owed on my very upside down mortgage in my upside down life. I will have to move to some income based apartment if I can’t find a cheap fixer-upper and go off the grid. There’s a reason this blog is Po’ Girl Shines. I refuse to give up or sell out or see things in a bad light in my life. I will keep on shining till I get called home to be with the Lord Jesus.
So I sold my condo in 2005 to buy this house closer to my work & made a few bucks, literally, at that time but was told by the mortgage company to stop looking for a cheap house because they could adjust the interest amount lower and I would be able to afford a more expensive home with no money down, interest only for the first 10 years at an adjustable rate. I always thought this was discrimination to the poor to make them pay a higher rate of interest on their mortgage if the price of the house was lower.
The decision to keep the rate adjustable on my mortgage turned out to be in my favor because of the very low-interest rates the last number of years. Problem is when you do finally start paying off the principle and they decide to raise the rates no one can afford these payments anymore. They have greeded themselves out of commission. Not a well thought out plan for anyone involved.
My plan was to retire early and sell this home within the first 5 years of purchasing it. After just a couple of years real estate values all started to drop. A little at first, but the almost $20,000. difference made me wince. I just hoped that the values would rebound again and then I would be able to sell it. I did put some equity in my home by retiling the bathroom in actual ceramic, not that plastic tub surround stuff, and replaced some of the windows. By this time I held off on anymore improvement in which I would have to spend additional monies. Five years after my purchase, the home value had gone down to the point of no return, literally.
In 2011 my next door neighbor and friend passed away and her home, similar but not as finished off as mine, was sold for $29,000. The fact that I still owed $133,500 on mine told me I was in trouble.
For some reason the people I worked for thought of the employees in the same terms they thought of the taxpayers that were not paying their taxes. We were the enemy and treated all of us as such. Everything was a fight and harassment was over the top. I probably qualified for being disabled from what they did to me, but was too proud to show how broken I really was.
I cannot say some of the things that went on there but suffice to say that I did document some of them and was able to leave my employment and qualify for unemployment until I found other work, which I never did. If I had known I was going to be driven from my job like this I would have documented everything and filed a lawsuit against them. No one deserves to be treated like this in any place of business.
I decided to try to keep my house and kept paying on it and draining my savings, even my retirement to almost nothing. Let this be a warning to anyone with money problems. Don’t wait till you have nothing while you vainly seek employment, seek professional help early because you can have a small savings if you must file bankruptcy. If I had known this, I would have filed earlier and kept something to try and begin my life again.
Even if you have faith, don’t harm yourself waiting for miracles that don’t happen. That’s just common sense and God gave most of us this to get by between miracles.
This just added to many other “broken” things in my life.
I managed to make it back home OK, but having to wait until after the holiday to get it fixed.
With too many herbs to mention by name, where you live determines what and when to plant. When I was first gardening, I learned the hard way not to assume we were warming up early just because we had an early warm up. Living in southern Michigan, I plant my cool weather or hardy plants mid-April and the warm weather stuff by Memorial weekend, or end of May sometime. Check for your area on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map and prevent frost damage to tender seedlings. As long as your soil is enriched and aerated, all you need to worry about are the three W’s, Watering, Weeding and Watching for pests and your garden should be a success. My most successful gardens were dug by hand in clay soil. I worked in some peat and manure and that was it, besides watering and organically killing any pest, usually by hand. Because it was near the country, all the bigger varmints killed the little ones so no varmint damage like I have experienced trying to garden in the city.
You need to decide by choice or convenience if you prefer to purchase young plants or start them by seed. Some seeds you can just toss in the garden soil and some you will want to start indoors and harden off before planting outdoors. You might try experimenting depending on the type and size of the herb. Know the size and the needs of all plants so you can better design where you wish to place them in your garden. Find out which ones are annuals or perennials so you aren’t surprised when come back the next year with a vengeance! I’ve had spearmint go wild on me, much to my neighbor’s chagrin, and had to weed it back to keep it on my side of the fence. I would have loved the free spearmint if it were the other way around, but some city folks want their perfect little lawns. You can find a treasure trove of plant and garden information on the various Cooperative Extension Service sites offered by local colleges online now. Below is a sample page from the book “Vegetable Gardening Know-How” in the herb section to give you some idea. The author took it from the Cooperative Extension Service of Kansas State University. The book was published in 1975, FYI. 
Get to know your herbs. Currently I only grow those I intend to use for cooking. I used to grow lavender to give to others that loved it. I had an allergy with this plant so I finally stopped, as beautiful as it is. You can decide to grow a little around your yard, planting some in between your other garden plants or actually design a beautiful garden that you designate for herbs only. Be sure to lay out your design on paper first, keeping in mind the size and needs of each plant so you don’t end up crowding or shading some. Don’t plant herbs requiring rich soil right next to those needing dryer soil or shade loving plants next to those needing full sun. Be aware of these things and you should be OK, providing you don’t over water your garden. Some starting out actually kill their plants with kindness by over feeding and too much watering because they are afraid the least sign of dry soil means certain death for the plant. Most need to dry a little between rainfall or watering. You’ll get the hang of it once you start. Try to use containers to trap rain if you can. Some have gone back to actual rain barrels which are great! WARNING! Check to be sure you are not breaking the law locally if you do this. Yes, I am being serious! In some states, like Colorado, it is illegal to gather rain for gardens even though it saves water in the long run. It has to do with some petty “you own your home but don’t have water rights.” First place, I would take that all the way to the Supreme Court if I had to for the simple reason is rain is not water. It’s rain and can be proven so if facts are presented. If any area of our government in America becomes that petty and controlling, it needs to be stopped and to do this, you must not obey it and fight it. That’s the only way we have managed any freedoms in this world at all.
I hope you enjoy the intricacies of these various herbs.
Sometimes mildly bi-polar is not so bad. I’ve never been officially diagnosed as such but it runs in my family and my Doctor recently told me that it’s possible I may be “mildly” bi-polar because I’m a creative type and very sensitive. I’ve always been able to function normally, sort of, so this comment did not surprise me in any way. Not sure why all the labels they insist on giving everyone, but on to the challenge and that is I made blueberry muffins early this morning. Someone gave me a whole slew of frozen blueberries last week and I’m not going to let the go to waste! Besides, I have to make way in the freezer for ice cream cause summer’s comin’ fast! Thank God!
Sometimes it appears I become obsessive when taking photographs of various subjects, which is why digital is truly a blessing. I used up rolls of 35mm film years ago and it was quite expensive. I was playing with my macro lenses and want to share some of the over 100 shots I took this morning.
I couldn’t stop! Blueberries produce such fascinating hues and muffins are so textured! Enjoy my blueberry muffin art and try not to get hungry. There is a recipe at the bottom in case you want to try these.
As stated in my previous post, the last number of years have all been a blur.
I have never been so disorganized and out of touch and this is such a bad time to be this way. I am now in the process of cleaning everything out and packing as I go along, expecting to be moving before the end of the year. Certainly before winter sets in again.
I wanted to share some of the projects I have been working on sporadically since sometime last year as well as other odds and ends. This blog may be a blur as well.
I’m going to end this blur of a post with a question.
Po' Girl Shines 
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