The Best Things!

It's my birthday today! Hmmmm .... what do I want?

A husband whose first words at 6 am are "happy birthday, dear" ...........

Text from a friend .............

Text from a sister ............

Call from my dad .............

6 AM text from a daughter .............

10 AM note from another daughter ..............

Yesterday's early wishes from still another daughter .............

Coffee with another friend ...........

A list of FB wishes to check and read !!!!!!!!!!!!!

What more could anyone wish for?????????????

Time with each one to just watch their faces, enjoy their joy, their love, their zest for life!

I'll continue to relish, and be thankful, and keep that time for days! No @($% or !!!! or **** can tell the thrill of sharing love. It's deep and sweet, confusing or clear, but solid and assuring.

What a wonderful time to be alive! To count each day as a gift, not only from the Giver, but from each one who shares him- or herself with me!

No better gift .......................

In the Meantime

Just read the blog of one of my children ... saw some new pics of grandkids ... felt some warm tears .........

Life has been very hectic lately. I've felt more stable in the past 2 months than in the past 2 years, partially from staying home, working on overdue projects ... working, working, working.

I know life is as it should be. I'm growing and learning. Listened to my husband chatter with excitement describing his awe at what only God could have orchestrated in his work. Felt some warm tears there too.

Read as my daughter explained how God is building her and her faith, and her joy in the process.

Heard another daughter expound thoughts and feelings about the growth and development of her family.

Am anticipating as the third offspring is waiting, in the doorway of a life-lesson. I'm not the teacher, so I don't know the lesson plan. I do know the Teacher, and I know he is Good.

Lots of waiting. I want to be with them. Hear their thoughts, watch their growth. They are too busy living to give constant reports, and living is about the process, not the reporting.

So I am doing something else in the meantime. And it is good!

I'm watching personal friendships become instruments of my own faith, tools in my own development, lessons in listening and waiting.

I'm appreciating the hope of the second chance, the next sunrise, the rest at day's end.

Think I'm learning the value of waiting! And the unexpected joy!

The Prize or the Price

OK, picture this!

Twenty squirmy-wormy, squiggly-wiggly kinder-bodies, slithering across the gym floor, all hunters on a 15-minute safari .... that was supposed to have been PE class..............

Lesson plans weren't working. Half of the class was either pouting, crying, pushing or bouncing, and the other half would very soon be lost .

I went for follow-the-leader. These little guys are so green! I never know if they understand English, and I forget their names from one week to the next. But with follow-the-leader, it's mostly the same kids that continually need to be re-aligned ... and easier to remember 5 names than all 20.

We started out as whinnying horses ... then headed back to the "group space" watering hole.

Next we became trumping elephants ... and regrouped at the watering hole.

Then we were leaf-eating giraffes, and roaring lions!

And finally the hunters ... stalking the prey ... with just a few minutes till we needed to line up..........

Mission met! Task accomplished! Safari a win!

Yes, I was leading the tromps through the "jungles" along the basketball lines! I was trumping, and roaring, and they were following! And when we became the hunters, one little guy fell to his belly, with a "this is how they do it!", and everyone else dropped .... except the Teacher-Grandma, who crouched on two legs, "glistening" with exertion.

That was the prize! Price? I was wiped out ..... till I got my diet coke!

The Busyness of Slowing Down

Still crisp mornings but no frost yet for a while. I harvested my herbs Saturday, and now have intense concentrated smells in different places in the house. Chives on the dining room table, oregano hanging from a pole downstairs -- and parsley still waiting to be cut. Basil holds its aroma till it is crushed. Ummmmm.

More TTD today than I can touch, let alone finish, so I want to be smart about what should be first, and so on. The best thing for me first, is to think about the list, think about others, and talk to the Big Guy about all I care about that I can and can't affect today.

You may be on my latter list. Those I can't touch but I care about. I think about people on that list as I make my applesauce, put away my fabrics, fold laundry, or even spread my mulch.

You are important because I've been where you are and know the stress of caring but being too stretched.

You are important and I care for you.

But the One I talk to cares much more, and knows how to help.

Hope you have a great day, a wondrous fall, knowing that those who aren't close by wish they could be, and wish they could help, and are always pulling for you.

May the God of Peace give you strength and joy as you carry your load, and the assurance of his constant presence and care.

Slowing Down

I love this time of year, when it's crisp in the mornings, warming in the afternoons. School starts from my childhood always involved wearing a jacket in the morning, and carrying it home.

I like the change of pace that fall brings. It seems summers are becoming more of a flurry rather than the kick-back time they used to be. We hurry-up-and-have-fun and then have to rest from our recreation. :o) Where's the fun in all that?

But I'm also tired of the hand watering of my flowers. These past three weeks I've been painting and sanding, packing and unpacking, installing and shortening -- to bring the basement face-lift to an end.

I've neglected my flowers, checking for limp or dead parts as I run out for a sprig of basil at suppertime. 'Ooo, a little soft, but I don't have time now....' and I toss my concerns to the wind.

But the last few nights I've noticed a bud emerging in the rose pot on the table. Little by little, it's surviving my neglect and becoming beauty on its own -- or at least without me.

Hmmmmm ..... without me ........... Hmmmmm ...... Life !

My Thing-To-Do

I feel like my thoughts of these past months aren’t worth sharing. No deep insight. No mountain top ecstasy. But as I read “where I’m at” thoughts of others, I am encouraged, affirmed, and just blessed and loved, to be included in their sharing. So……

Life lately has seemed such a list of to-do things. Not that they aren’t meaningful, or fulfilling, but too fast, too many, too overwhelming. Sometimes I actually have a moment of “how did I get here?” and would credit that to “senior moments” except that I remember having those thoughts and being scared when I was just a busy young parent. A few moments ago I read a devotional that that spoke of faith in God. It described faith as a continual choice. It’s not just daily – sometimes it’s minute by minute. Faith is making a decision to go on believing that God has my best interest at heart and is working all things for my good. But not just for my good; for the best of everyone I love, whether heartsick or ill, in financial or spiritual crisis, nearby or far away, with similar struggles or challenges I can’t imagine. No one I know has wisdom to handle all that! Faith in God is the only hope!

Larry just returned from a trip overseas. I didn’t accompany him because multiple challenges made it seem a bad choice for me to go, but I continued to grieve the loss of opportunity. I stayed home and worked on the house. A couple of the workmen who came that week were interesting specimens, one believing in God, but scared to believe in people, and the other choosing “the straight and narrow” because “it’s the only way to live.” Both had backgrounds in “ethics” or religion, but both are very cautious. I’m coming to believe this is just the way of human nature, and we’ll let each other down, no matter which generation it is. Somehow I feel these guys were part of the plan for my not taking this trip. I’m not yet quite sure how – and I am not sure whether I will understand or not. More and more, I’m convinced that my focus in life MUST be obedience to God, to the thoughts he puts before me. Like laying in bed this morning thinking about all the people I care about and want to help – and then remembering the one I’m most frustrated with. God reminded me I can’t ask for mercy and then refuse to give it. And as I see another dear friend struggling with unexplainable trauma, my obedience must be trust in God – alone! – and not trying to fix or counsel. Such a distant act of caring, I’m tempted to think, but no, it’s the obedience I’m called to give. My obedience must be to Christ. Obedience to Christ FIRST leaves the door open for me to SAY yes, then rush to find what others would have me to DO; obedience to Christ ALONE means I will wait for and be satisfied with what he directs.

So as I want to find peace and joy, I’m learning to DECIDE to have this faith each day. Not just faith that he made the mountains or the galaxies, but that he has a plan for every moment of every life. Whew! That he has a plan for every moment of suffering? Every moment of uncertainty? Every moment of obedience or DISobedience? YES! He alone is God. I am called only to follow him, not always understand his ways. I’m not talking about mystical enlightenment. Rather just doing what I know that I know that I know. Repent, forgive, listen, give, wait. It’s so simple, it’s scary. No hiding. If I know it, I must obey it.

So I choose to rejoice today in the “desert roses” I see, what I have rather than what I don’t have. When I get angry or feel defeated, I’ll once again ask him to help me have the heart he wants to use. Please God, take this very little faith and make it what you want. This is my act of obedience.

The Things We Do For Love

Remember the old song of the '70s? ".... like walking in the rain and the snow, when there's no place to go, and ya feel like a part of you is dying....."




Actually nothing is dying here! We're planting a LOT! THAT is part of "the things we do for love". Larry actually is involved ONLY for love because -- it turns out -- he has ended up feeling more overwhelmed by my efforts to relieve some of his stress.




A friend has been helping me with some backed-up yard work that Larry hasn't had time for because of the stresses of his work. I just wanted to help him out! So she and I planted and organized and rearranged, all with the intent of making it nice, having a great time doing it together, and hoping for his pleasure in one job he didn't have to do for himself.





He had taken down a monstrous tree that was diseased and dead, all the while grieving that a huge old shade tree would be gone, and it will take tens of years for its shade to be reproduced(...the things you do for love...).

The stump grinder came and spent a good part of an hour grinding this one monstrous stump, at LEAST 36" in diameter. A week later (after company came and went) I shoveled the mulch created from our monster stump into a pile in the center of the yard, after filling all the mobile containers we had, and found one more root the workman hadn't ground -- probably because he knew it was potentially in line with irrigation lines.

I asked Larry to pull out that root -- which he started -- but then we found another root three times its size under the first. The surprises continued all day as he dug and axed and mattoxed in 90 degree heat. Roots were intertwined with all the irrigation we uncovered, making ONE MORE task overwhelming! I stayed outdoors and brought him water while I moved rocks in the shade, most concerned for his work in the heat.

Finally, after breaking three irrigation lines, we were able to quit digging, knowing we had clearance for connecting the breaks. THANK GOD for my man! We bought the irrigation pieces at Lowes, returning home to "the easy part". He spent hours on Monday putting back the lines, then I thought I'd work Tuesday putting back the dirt.

Not so. First, I'm not a shovel girl. The back can't do that kind of work. Second, I hadn't remembered to get the "organic material" he told me we needed to mix in with the sandy soil we have for planting our tree. Today he took the truck and will get compost or organic soil from one of the local nursery supply places.

We'll get there! I'd just not intended to burden him more. We'll be glad, at least, when the tree is in, and then he'll dig me holes for the bushes. I THINK I can take it from there..............