Changes

 Life is a constant source of change. I’ve changed, our family has changed. Donald and I have been married for 47 years now. We have five amazing children, two wonderful sons in law, a gorgeous amazing daughter in law, a beautiful granddaughter and five rambunctious grandsons. Well almost, the youngest is getting there! 

We lost our mom, Mema, and mother in law in January of this year. She was 98 and had lived in the same house for 90 years. Losing her has been the deepest grief I’ve ever felt. I was blessed to have her 68 years and she was absolutely the best mom a girl could have. I’ll see her in heaven, but I miss her in this life which is only temporary. The old house has been torn down (which was the right thing), but it’s a loss for me as well. God and my brother kept it together for as long as she needed it. She was able to live there till the end, minus a couple of months last summer after she had a health scare and my brother told her it was his house or rehab. He and my wonderful sister in law live up the street so she would sit by the window so she could see her house. She loved her family and those we chose so well. She prayed for us and her great grandchildren everyday. 

I’ll always love you mom and I miss you so much. 

 So many things have happened since I was last here. I finished my 26 year career of teaching our five children at home. I went back to college and finished my bachelor’s degree. I love Sociology! I had a short lived 4 month stint of substitute teaching (whew!) and was hired as assistant archivist in June of 2016 at our local junior college. Then a few short weeks later I started working afternoons for Dr.  Gatlin at her new veterinary clinic. C-vid in March 2020 ended my job as they closed archives and never reopened it. I personally think this is a sad move as archives contains so much local history and for several other counties as well. But no one asked my opinion. (Grin)

My husband had to take an early retirement due to several surgeries and no longer being able to lift. As a radiation therapist, it was a requirement. We went through a stressful time with Met Life insurance, but as always God was faithful. Why do I doubt when things are hard? 

Dr. Gatlin is allowing me to work from home since my job is strictly online. I love the medical jargon and typing her notes on our client’s pets. Working from home started during C-vid as I have respiratory issues and she told me I needed to. I have the most awesome boss who cares about her employees!  I went back and the second wave hit so back home again. I’m strictly working from home now which I love. It gives me time to work around important things like husband, children, grandchildren and doctor appointments. Part of the aging process it seems. I am taking weekly allergy shots which appear to be helping me! 

It was definitely a transition, at least for me, with us both home most of the time. I have to be honest and admit I love some “me time.” That was the heart of the matter. Donald is loving retirement and being free of so much work related stress. Now I just stress him out. 😉

I’m not even sure this is going to post so it all may be for naught  I’m going to see if I can get it to post and maybe I can figure it out again later. 

don't try to talk me out of it

I have been to two weddings in the past 8 days. Both were at the same place and at the same time...different days of course. I have worn a skirt and blouse both times. That means that I've worn something other than jeans twice in eight days. This may make the Guinness Book of World Records. At least for jean lovin' girls *ahem* like me.

I absolutely love jeans. I have my favorite pair of work jeans that I counted 11 patches on the other day. One of the iron on patches is coming off and I had to decide whether to trash them or iron on another patch. Now the whole seat of these jeans are ripped out and patched. They are perfect other than the fact that they are totally worn out. I decided on the trash and then promptly changed my mind and put them in my clothes hamper. Now they are clean and in my ironing basket so when I do the ironing I can put another patch on. It's so good to have made up my mind and stuck with my decision~!

Now if I could only make up my mind to do the ironing~!

bountiful

I'm sitting in our garage and the rain has stopped. It's dripping from the tree splattering on top of my van. The birds are singing, the cats are close by, and I'm perfectly content. I am so grateful for the break in temperature. You don't get many days like this in July in Texas. The northeast is blistering though, at least according to CNN.

Now it's raining again and I love the sound. People, don't take your hearing for granted. I've always had a hearing loss and the older I get the more I suffer with it. One of my hearing aids has decided to quit working and since it's over 7 years old and already been repaired several times, we've decided to get new ones. $4600 and that is with insurance paying $1,000. I am trying some demos and I can hear so much better with these. It's amazing how technology changes and improves. These "talk" to each other and I must say they are pretty amazing. When we get the part to fit right that goes inside my ear we'll be purchasing them.

My hearing loss was inherited from my dad and his side of the family. I saw an ear specialist in Dallas and there's not anything they can do for my type of loss. Sometimes they can do surgery, so if you have a hearing loss it might be worth your while to get it checked out. Who knows? Maybe you're a candidate for surgery. I would have it in a heartbeat if I could.

The rain seems to make everything so clean looking and the breeze is still blowing on my face. I'm looking out at the blooms on my squash and okra and still am amazed at how God grows my garden. The wheat seed has to "die" to grow. I guess it's the same for the vegetable seeds. I really don't know.

I love days like today. I do have to admit when I saw the temperature online and got excited about working in my yard I was more than a little disappointed when I saw the rain. But it has turned into the perfect day despite my disappointment. I just found some projects to do in the garage and I'm enjoying the outdoors also.

We make our plans and God directs our steps.

there's a reason the text is blue

For some reason this has been one of those days. I had absolutely no reason to be out of sorts, but out of sorts was I. I have been struggling with allergies the past several days and haven't felt very well, but that's not a reason not to have a good day. I've just been annoyed at things that shouldn't annoy me and not as kind as I should of been several times today. I hate days like today; not so much the day itself, but the way I responded to situations.

After dinner Donald and I went to get a cherry diet coke from Taco Delite and then I watered outside. There was a nice breeze so I cleaned the area by the front door and cut some runners, little trees that keep cropping up, and washed some brick that had turned black on the ground. I really need a power washer....really~! I think I've just not had enough outdoor time lately. It's been too hot and humid, and when it gets a bit cooler later before sunset the mosquitoes want to feast on me. I'm not a fan of hot, humid weather, or mosquitoes. Not that anyone else is either; at least it's their right to like either, but I just don't get it.

Okay, I'm changing the subject about my lousy attitude. I'm glad God's mercies are new every morning, because I need a new start and a clean slate. I'm already feeling more optimistic about tomorrow.

it's time to get over it

It's a rainy Saturday morning on a holiday weekend. I slept late and am now watching soccer with Ben and Donald. I love sports; I'm not sure why though. Let me explain.

When I was in school I was never very athletic. Nor am I now, unless you call ripping up vinyl, tearing up carpet, hauling bricks, laying bricks, gardening, and doing tons of laundry being athletic. I always.....WHOA, Germany just scored again and the dude did a BACKFLIP after he scored!!!!!! Sorry, I tend to get sidetracked easily. But Germany just won the game people~!

As I was saying, when I was in school I always hated PE and standing there knowing I was not going to be chosen till the end. It was always the same and I was always embarrassed. There's something about standing alone or with one other person knowing that no one wants you on their team, but will have to take whoever is left standing. I always said if I ever taught I would never let kids choose sides. I would find another way to do it.

It was humiliating, and I still remember the feeling. On a more positive note ONE time in softball I actually HIT the ball and made it to FIRST BASE~! I still remember the elation I felt upon my success~! Still... and I'm 55 years old. See, I am definitely scarred.

I played basketball for six years. Well, maybe I should say I was on the team for six years. I went to a very small school and the only thing outside of schoolwork was basketball. When I was in seventh grade they were one person short of having enough to have a team. So the girls in eighth grade talked me into playing. I touched the ball occasionally, but that was about it. Why I continued playing I don't know. But I'm glad I did, cause in the eighth grade we had a fantastic coach and I enjoyed it much more. I still wasn't very good, but practiced often at home. I mostly threw up air balls in the gym, but I was so good at home. I was perplexed about this for years and after I started dating Donald I was telling him about it. He asked if I practiced on the goal that was in our front yard. I told him yes and he started laughing. He said it wasn't regulation height~! I never knew it because it looked totally different having nothing but space behind the goal versus a wall about three feet behind the goal in the gym. I would of been SO GOOD if they had lowered the goal the in the gym~!

When Donald started traveling about ten years ago I started watching basketball again with Ben. It was a bonding experience and he taught me lots about it. He knows players, statistics, rules, etc. If I like a player I grow quite attached to him. I fell in love with Steve Nash because he looked so little and cute. This was back when he played with the Dallas Mavericks. I affectionately called him "Little Stevie" and later found out he was 6'3" and taller than Donald. Wow, those other guys make him look sooo short.

When Donald was home on weekends he would watch with us. He didn't appreciate the fact that I talked throughout the game and screamed and hollered and jumped up and down. He wanted me to sit there and watch the game "quietly." Those of you who know me well knows darn well that "quietly" isn't part of my vocabulary, much less my makeup. He eventually gave up and I scream and holler all I want. Our kids' friends would come over to watch me watch the game. I had quite a reputation going there for a while.

Basketball is my favorite. I will watch college football (I don't care for pro), baseball, and soccer.

I can't stand golf. For the life of me I can't see what's so exciting about it. I mean, they don't even get exercise, they ride around in those little carts. Maybe that's the fun of it though. Sorry if you love golf. I don't mean to offend and obviously I don't understand.

I loved it when the kids played soccer. Donald had to strongly reprimand me once and tell me I was going to get thrown off the field if I didn't shut up. But hey, someone was messing with my kid and that's something you DON'T do. Play by the rules and be nice; is that so hard??? Obviously it was for this guy and the refs didn't see it or call it....so I did. What's so wrong about that???

The soccer game is over and Germany won and the only sad thing is that Dirk wasn't playing. Yeah, I know, he plays basketball not soccer. But he's from Germany and one of my favorite players. He would have been great~! :)

Penguins

Sometimes I forget how blessed I am. I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and wants only the best for me. I have a wonderful husband who is faithful and has always worked so hard for our family. I have five wonderful children here on earth and one waiting in heaven for me. I have a wonderful mother and an awesome brother who takes care of her since my daddy died. I have a wonderful church family and a terrific pastor. My kids are blessed with wonderful friends. We have a wonderful home and enough cars to look like we are running a used car lot when everyone is home. And there's usually some of their friends here so that makes for more cars. We have very tolerant neighbors, also. :)

We have food to eat and clothes to wear. Our kids are all responsible young adults who work hard and are loyal to each other. We have four wonderful cats and a brilliant dog. Now Ben will argue about my cat, Yoda, being wonderful, but that's beside the point. That's his viewpoint and not mine at all. I love how each of our children have their own personalities and so do each of our pets. And I am grateful how Donald tolerates all our pets even though he's not a pet lover like some of us.

I love how God is faithful to work in our children's lives. I love how he has blessed them in spite of very imperfect parents who have made tons of mistakes. I am grateful for his mercy and grace. I love how I can trust Him when I am concerned and I love how He always comes through. Not necessarily in my time frame and definitely not how I think or desire, but it's always perfect in the end. He does have our best interests at heart.

There are things I desire for our children that I don't see happening in the physical. But I know that God is their All in All and I can trust Him with their lives.

I love how this is my blog and I can ramble on and on and not have to make sense or worry about anyone disagreeing with me. It is, after all, my opinions and viewpoints and you may or may not agree with them. But that's okay. I'll still be your friend if you want to be my friend.

I am grateful for the many friends in my life. I am grateful for old friends who have chosen to no longer be a part of my life. They helped shape who I am today. I am grateful for the ones who have remained my friends through the years, and love me and accept me for who I am, even when I'm stinky with a rotten attitude. And I am grateful for the ones I am just beginning to get to know and love.

And I think it's totally great that I can title this entry "Penguins" and put a picture of them up when this has absolutely nothing at all to do with even one penguin~!

keyhole

I've been gone from the blogging scene for quite a while now. Facebook has taken up the majority of my computer time and I absolutely love it. The rest of the time I've been pulling up vinyl flooring, ripping up carpet, staining floors, painting, working in the yard, and have I mentioned facebook??? Rebekah didn't know what she'd created when she set me up a facebook account. She loves to tell this story about my first facebook experience. I was searching for former classmates and found one. Without thinking I said aloud, "Oh, he looks so old." Then after imaging what he would say if he saw my picture, I wondered about myself aloud. Then I said, "Nooooo." Rebekah got a good laugh and I suddenly felt much older than I did 60 seconds earlier.

I don't usually accept a friend request unless I know the person. However after commenting on a mutual friend's comment for months and laughing at all her comments I broke my rule and clicked on "accept request" or whatever it is you click on to be friends with someone. She always makes me laugh and I love her comments....kinda a "kindred spirit" type of facebook thing I guess. I met her in person today and after sharing a few laughs and hugs I am certain I made the right decision. She is as wonderful in person as she is on facebook~!

I just got back from going with Bethany to have her car inspected. We had a long discussion about attitudes and such. It seems it's harder to forgive when someone hurts someone you love than when they hurt you. Sometimes we want to "waller" in our unforgiveness for a while. Sometimes we make the right decision and do what we know we should do. Sometimes it takes a while to work through all our feelings. In the end, I have a feeling that God gets us where He wants us, even though we may dig in our heels and resist the journey. That's the neat thing about God; He's faithful even when we aren't.

We all fail; we all mess up; we all need a Saviour. God knows this. He provided our need before we knew we had one.

the look of love

When Rebekah was young we took her to Six Flags and had her caricature done by an artist there. This is what he drew. Notice Donald in the lower left hand corner. I guess the artist could tell that he was smitten with his young daughter!

the Colour of His Love

Does God's love have colour? Oh, yes, most definitely! Here are some examples from one life, my own.

The colour of His love is watching my daughter weep for her friend in ICU. It's brothers and sisters being friends and taking care of each other. Picture a husband cleaning the dirty bathroom for his wife while she sleeps in bed during the afternoon because she's sick. His back is hurting and he has no business bending over that tub, but he does it anyway.

The colour of His love is a daughter calling her mom at work and saying, "Don't worry about dinner. We're getting chicken." She also paid for it for the whole family. It's another daughter taking her mom out to lunch and not letting her share the bill.

More colours of His love are my son building a bridge for my backyard project and tearing down a brick wall because his mom wants the brick. Another son loads and unloads bags and bags of free rock and soil and compost that his mother isn't even sure what to do with. The colour of His love showed her exactly where to use them months later and it's perfectly perfect~!

Yet other colours are a dear friend taking time from her busy day to come check on me because she loves me, my little black kitty that simply adores me and will come to me when I call his name, and the gentle rain that washes everything clean.

The colour of His love is abundant in this note that my wonderful husband wrote seven years ago and I will keep it forever. Read slowly and picture His colours for yourself.....

Someone who paints red birds on white backgrounds,

Someone who has my numbers on their jersey,

Someone who draws me flowers on napkins,

Someone who collects pennies and likes cats,

Someone who knows me too well not to speak up,

Someone who doesn't know any better than to love me!!!

Sound like anyone you know,

Sounds like my family

good times and poison ivy

We have had such an awesome Labor Day weekend. Donald's twin brother and his daughter came in Friday afternoon. Their other brother lives here so we were able to get together with Doug and his wife. Their two sisters were in for a couple of hours also. We laughed and ate, and ate and laughed...well you pretty much get the picture. It's always so much fun to listen to Donald, Ronald, and Douglas. Each of them have their own version of how the story took place!

I only have one younger brother and when I first met Donald I was pretty much flabbergasted with all the noise and laughter and kidding and commotion. It didn't take long to get used to it though and now I love to sit around listening to their stories. It doesn't matter that they've been told and listened to numerous times. They are still just as funny as the first time I heard them. We also had a VHS of clips of movies when the kids were growing up. It's fun to listen to the commentaries on those also.

The boys went camping and the girls went to Frisco shopping and we went out to eat twice on Saturday. I cooked brisket, baked beans, buffet potatoes, and fried okra for dinner Friday night. We had coconut pie and Chocolate Delight and Lauren brought cookies, a pie, and pastries from Central Market. They were delicious along with the guacamole that she makes. It is the BEST guacamole I have ever had! I was sad to see them drive away and wish they could come more often.

Today Donald is taking me to Sherman to eat at Jalapeno Tree. I want to run by Lowe's (of course) and more than likely Sam's Club.

I got into poison ivy while cleaning the wisteria off our fence in the back yard. Of course I was wearing shorts and flip flops so it's all over my arms and legs and feet and I am going CRAZY itching and trying not to scratch. Some of the places are better and others are still breaking out and oozing and it's so gross!!!! Really gross! Of course I don't suffer in silence so my family has heard how miserable I am many times the past week. I think because I continued working in the yard all day afterward and not bathing until after 8:00 p.m. it made it much worse than it might have been. Lesson learned...the hard way!

a picture says a thousand words

Baby Zachary at Heather's shower

Yoda in the dryer, before he became an outdoor cat

Look hard and you can see one of my hummingbirds!

I have a watermelon growing on the vine. It is mixed in with my flowers getting larger!

Cantaloupe growing also...finally.

I'm working on another area in the back yard. I found this discounted at Hobby Lobby!

My okra is way taller than I am. Now I know that's not saying much, but it's taller than the boys also!

Pretty canna from the plants Shiela gave me last year.

For some reason Bright got in the bathtub when it thundered. Do you think he's trying to tell us something?

tooooo, toooo, toooo, looking out my front door

our Daniel

The summer is flying by. Daniel graduated on June 30th. It is official; I now only have two more years of homeschooling to go. I can honestly say I won't miss it. It has been and is wonderful and I am blessed to be able to homeschool our children. I wouldn't trade the last 24 years for anything anyone could offer me.

It's just that I have new interests now and I don't seem to have enough time to indulge in them. I am still working in our yard and the change is amazing. I absolutely love what God has provided and enabled us to do with what He's given and provided. My patio isn't finished, but I've decided I'm waiting for cooler weather. I've been harvesting vegetables from my first ever vegetable plot and it is so satisfying to eat what I've planted or set out (my tomatoes and peppers). Donald doesn't even like tomatoes, yet he's eating mine!! Of course there is no comparison between a store bought and home-grown tomato. The kids have enjoyed the okra and squash and I am loving the cucumbers. I've learned a lot with my small raised bed garden this year. Even Donald is talking about expanding our endeavor next year.

I am working part time and though it's not a lot of hours it has changed my little world drastically. I am thankful that God provided this job ahead of when I thought I would search for a part time job. I'd rather it come to me than look for it!

I love my God, my family, and my life. I'm so blessed!!

farmer's daughter

Yoda likes to play in my work bag.My baby

Yoda likes Donald and I think Donald likes Yoda, too. ;)

my first onion crop ever!

Beautiful bloom on my okra plant

Waiting on the okra to get big enough to eat!

I am so excited about my small garden! I dug my onions this week, and although I had to put them too close together to get everything planted, I am still happy. Some are rather small, but they shall be used also.

I am going in a bit to pick cucumbers and try to find enough squash to fry for dinner. Ben loves fried squash and okra. The okra will take a while longer. I can't believe how fast these vegetables are growing. One day the cucumbers were tiny and the next almost big enough to eat! I can't wait for the tomatoes to ripen, then I can have a salad from my garden! This is a natural high for me; you can laugh if you want, but I am amazed at how this stuff grew from the tiny seeds I put into the earth a couple of months ago. God is incredible to do it this way. Maybe it's so we will see Him in it.

after the storm

Your love surrounds me
Your love astounds me
Your love is everything

(Kari Jobe - Pure)

My heart is rejoicing with these lyrics today. They are running over and over in my head, and over again.

We had a storm last night. We knew it was raining hard and Hannah came into our bedroom and said a big limb was in the yard. Donald went to check and I stayed in our comfortable bed. This morning I realized it was a "big" limb, several of them in fact. It fell right beside our bedroom and we didn't even hear it; it fell right between our house and the street where Josiah's pickup was parked. It was like God directed it exactly where to fall so we wouldn't be damaged. There are a few leaves and sweet gum balls on the roof. Tuesday night at Celebrate Recovery Eddie asked the question, "How big is my God?" Big enough to keep us safe and tell the limbs where and how to fall!

I was out taking pictures this morning, all the while rejoicing at God's goodness and protection; our neighbor was on his way to work. He stopped and asked if we have a chainsaw and I told him no. He has one and said he will come over this afternoon after work and bring his saw! I didn't even ask God for help in cleaning it up, but I have absolutely no idea how we would have managed it.

My God is an awesome God!! Thank you, Father!

transformation

From this..... to this........

Now I'm working on my walkway and about to go look for lumber for my bridge.