Summer Memories

In case you think by the look of this post my family is still visiting, they are not. My son and his family left almost a month ago, I'm just that late getting this post up.

My oldest son enjoys baseball and doesn't mind traveling to see a game. Shortly after we heard his family was coming for a visit, he called to tell me that he wanted to get tickets to an Oriole Game. His family was going, did we want to go too? Did any of my siblings want to go? He also wanted to visit his grandparents as part of the trip.

We didn't want to miss spending the day with them so we agreed to make the drive. I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the idea because it meant a really long drive, we would leave at daybreak and wouldn't be home till close to midnight.

I'm glad that I went because it ended being a lot of fun. My brother planned a cookout, several of us met there visited with my parents, got a bite to eat then continued on to the game. When I think of the logistics of this event I amazed at how well it went. My brother remarked that we should make this a tradition, it could be our "Christmas in July" (We are generally only able to get together at Christmas time because we are all spread out around the country) Who knows it might happen.

After the game (which our team won with a Home Run in the bottom of the ninth inning) we gathered together for a group photo before we all went our separate ways once again. Love the memories we had the opportunity to make this summer.

Grand Visit

 This was a long awaited visit. We hadn't seen our Grandchildren since the fall and we weren't too sure we were going to see them this summer until I received a text back in March asking us if we could have a crew come pick them up at the airport in July. We were thrilled to say the least.

We stayed busy the entire time they were here and before we were ready, it was time for them to leave. We had all decided early on that we would let them set the schedules, after all it was their vacation and we would do or go wherever they wanted to go. We have a beach, they do not, so you can guess where they wanted to go the most.

I'll have to admit, I'm not really a beach person and by that I mean, I like the beach, I just don't like lugging all the stuff you need for a day in the surf and sun, and although I like the water, it's usually too cold for me and I don't like the "jellies" or whatever other critter might be sharing the water with me. In my imagination everything I step on is a crab ready to bite my toes. All that to say our beach days were wonderful, warm warm, no "jellies" and the only other critters we saw were dolphins swimming about 15 feet further out. I spent a lot of time in the water and enjoyed every minute of it. And because we had so many hands, I really didn't have to carry much at all.

Other things we did were pool, zoo, Top Golf and as a treat from my son and daughter in law a Bushel of Blue Crabs. Oh and there were ballgames, two of them in one weekend.

It was a week full of memories, and as always, a chance to reconnect and love on my grandchildren. There were a couple of memorable events, the details of which I will omit, but I will never read Ten Little Monkey's again without thinking of Little Red.

Packages Of Cheer

I've sent boxes of goodies to family members for as long as I've been married.

During our early years of marriage my husband spent a lot of time on deployment and loved getting "Care Packages"  I would fill them with home baked goodies, chocolate chip cookies made to fit Pringles Potato Chip containers were his favorites. (the cans helped keep them from breaking) I would include photos, candy, newspaper clippings about things happening at home (this was before the Internet) cassette tapes and any other little thing I would come across that I thought he might enjoy..

When my youngest went away to school I sent packages of things that a college student might appreciate. Things that work for college students include, home baked goods, gift cards to local fast food places (there was a coffee shop we knew he frequented), toiletries, socks, and snacks. College students are notoriously poor so just about anything is appreciated. 

As Christmas gifts I have sent my youngest son a baked good a month. He received a book that gave him three choices each month that he could request and we would make it and send it. He travels a lot more so he doesn't always get something each month anymore but I will still send a box out when he's home.

Now I have far away grandchildren. I wanted to stay connected, I wanted something for them to look forward to, something that would help them remember us, so we started sending them "Goodie Boxes" I enjoy putting them together as much as they enjoy getting them.

Their boxes include a variety of things. Their boxes take about a week to get to them so cakes don't travel as well but cookies and brownies do. I shop the thrift stores to look for clothing or trinkets that would make them smile. Sweet treats are always included and books. Last month I found these adorable baby dolls at the thrift store and little clothes to fit them, the girls were delighted. This month I found a cute idea on Pinterest using Mason Jars for treats. I love trying to think of new things to include in a box. Most items are found at the thrift store so the cost is minimal, my biggest cost is the shipping and that is totally worth it for me. Dear Daughter In Law took a photo after they received the last box, they were each wearing clothing I had sent and items that were included. Oldest granddaughter not home at the time so she is not included in photo.

Have a far away loved one, think about sending something to brighten their day.

Monday's Memories

This pink Barbie Car was a gift to my oldest granddaughter, from her mom and dad for Christmas one year.Her parents found it on ebay and had it shipped to our house, where it has "lived" in our garage ever since. I think Miss B was either four or five when they bought it for her and it has been used by each grandchild.

Whenever the children would come over to our house and the weather was nice, they would try to convince their Pop Pop to pull it out so they could drive it.

Even though it was pink, it appealed to both my granddaughters and grandson, and any other child that came to visit. Yes that is my grandson with that red hair!

When the two oldest were too big to ride in the car, they would run along as the two youngest girls took turns driving.

Sometimes it didn't turn out so well. This was a memorable photo.  I'm sure my son will pull it out when my granddaughter decides it time for her to learn to drive. No real harm was done to either car. We did get a lot of laughs over this. You see how fast Little Red is getting out of the car, she didn't want any part of the accident.

Last summer the girls drove the car when they came to visit. Little Red did just fine but Little Miss found it a bit cramped for her long legs, she managed however, she didn't want to miss the opportunity to drive the pink Barbie Car. It was apparent they were going to be too big for the car soon.

My daughter in law has given me the okay to sell the car, she doesn't think anyone will be small enough to drive it the next time they visit, but I'm not quit ready yet.

I hate the thought of the car leaving,  Maybe I'll get a chance to see a grandchild ride in it one more time before I have to let it go. Who knew there would be so many memories associated with a pink Barbie Car.

Season of Change

When it first started I didn't think our season of change would last so long. It started when my husband lost his father and our grandchildren moved away. Each event impacted us in a different way.We grieved the loss of the closeness of the grands and felt the added responsibility of keeping closer tabs on my husbands mom. Now that she is gone, there are different responsibilities and EMOTIONS that wash over me like wave after wave, I'm often caught by surprise.

In the midst of all of this, my parents health has been failing. My dad has had two significant events in the last six months, the last one happened just a day after my mother in law passed away. Life has changed for them, which means life has changed for us. I want to fix it but can't. 

When I look at the situations around me it is easy for me to get anxious, to despair, to be depressed or to even get angry. Thats what happens when I focus on the here and now. Some days I'm so bombarded by events that it's hard to focus on anything else. We need to keep our focus on things eternal.

I don't believe there are random events in this life. I believe the Lord orchestrates everything. I believe he is sovereign. I believe he is good and that he uses all things for those that believe and are called for his good purposes. Seasons of change are so hard but I am continuing to learn to trust him. He has proven himself faithful again and again, he will be this time as well.

The comfort of holding a child

Happy days at the Garden

Visiting Our Grands

One would think from this post that we spent Thanksgiving with our Grands, not so, this visit happened over a month ago, I'm just behind in posting, priorities you know!

Our trip out west was a short one, but we filled it with as many memories as possible. I learned that my son and DIL do not live out on the Frontier at all, but the Prairie, so I guess I will have to rename them my "Prairie Family". The Landscape was a lot different then I was used to, and it's usually pretty cold, but the weather was mild so we were able to spend a good bit of time outside. I heard the temperatures dropped the week after we left, I was thankful we missed it.

Other random things I was thankful for were that we were able to make this trip at all, (it was questionable with everything going on with Sweet Lady) that we caught each and every flight (three coming, three going back) that our luggage made it on all flights, and that everyone stayed healthy so we could enjoy the trip.

My DIL made sure our schedule was full, there was a day at the park, a day at the museum, another day we explored a Pumpkin Patch and on the last day we went to the zoo. In the evenings we taught the children some games (they had never played Mille Bornes before) which resulted in lots of laughter and giggles. My son took his dad into work, (which my husband thoroughly enjoyed) and we got to see a high school football game and watch my granddaughter cheer. Thank you dear DIL for making us feel so welcome and for thinking of fun things to do while we were there, it couldn't have been a sweeter visit ( I'm already thinking about when we can see them again! ) The photos included in this post are just some of the memories we had from our visit. Warning!!!! Lots of photos, because there were so many good memories!!

Proverbs 3:5-6

This is one of the first scriptures I memorized as a new Christian, it helped that it was written on the wall of one the first churches we attended. Every Sunday I would read those verses and apply them to whatever confusing hard thing I might have been struggling with.

Age doesn't change everything, I still need the reminder that I will not always understand.

I must trust the Lord even when I don't understand, acknowledging that he is always good and always faithful. That he is in control of every situation and can use what I would understand as bad for his glory. I've seen it happen, it helps me believe for the future.  That doesn't mean I don't have to go back to these verses and remind myself what is true, I still want to have it all figured out. He wants me to learn to trust, for me it will be a life long lesson.



(Photo taken by my son of my granddaughter running along the Missouri River)

Summer's End

There is no denying summer days are done. We have been eating our dinners outside on the deck, under the mosquito netted table for the last couple of weeks. It's was all about trying to squeeze the last little bit of time outside before we have to take everything down for the winter. That event is going to happen this weekend. I kind of dread it because it makes it official....summer's over. My husband and I have spent the last couple of weekends cleaning out our garage....and throwing away and donating, in preparation for the seasonal storage. A side note to my "Frontier Family".... I couldn't get rid of the Pink Barbie Car but the wooden crib is going and we are not done yet!

I've been on one of those kicks again, I feel the need to get rid of things that we are not using, so in addition to the garage, I have been cleaning closets and drawers. It seems like I just did this , but I don't think I was radical enough the last go round. Getting rid of "stuff" has felt so good! One of my cool weather projects is to continue the cleaning out. We haven't moved in almost two decades and you can tell.

Small Groups started again this month. After praying about it, we decided we would not lead again this year. I was concerned about losing the relationships we had made but shouldn't have. We ended up moving as a group to another small group, one in which we already had some established relationships. We spent the first meeting worshiping and praying for our loved ones. The anxiety I was feeling about moving to another group was really needless, we immediately realized we were with family.

Thank you for your prayers for the children and families mentioned in my last post. My grandson is much better and has resumed all previous activities. The recovery of the one child continues to be amazing and the steadfastness of the parents of the third child continues to challenge me in my own life...with the need to continue to be more eternally focused.

June Moments

I'm bit late on getting my June Moments together, but like I mentioned in my last post, it has been a crazy busy couple of weeks. To make matters worse, I never cleaned up any photos while the Grands were here and my IPhoto went into overload mode. Too many photos, not enough space. I have spent the last two weeks deleting photos or moving them to a backup drive. I have a long way to go but, I am getting things organized and can once again upload photos.

So ya'll know the Grands were here for just over two weeks, so it should be no surprise that the bulk of my photos are from their visit. While they were here we celebrated both Sweet Lady's and Little Red's Birthday and our 40th Wedding Anniversary. We will be doing some official celebrating of the Anniversary a little later this year.

Sweet Lady has kept us busy with all the details involved with her move. She's been at her new home for about three weeks now and we couldn't be more delighted.

Youngest son was also here while Grands were visiting, it made for a really busy house but we loved it.

The house is quiet again, but life continues to be busy. I have struggled with God's purposes in this "season" of life I am in. I can't explain it fully, but I am more at peace than I have been. I still don't understanding all of his purposes but I have to believe he is directing my circumstances. In that truth I can rest, but it's a work in progress.

It was a month of laughter and tears, of beach days and rainy days, celebrations and goodbyes. This month has had it all.

So without further ado, here's a little glimpse of June

A Whirlwind Couple of Weeks

The last several weeks have absolutely flown by. Honestly I can't believe we are looking at the end of June.

We spent the first two weeks of the month with the Grands, and let me tell you our days were full. Each day was filled with some type of activity. We spent a lot of time at the beach, the pool and the zoo. We celebrated two birthdays and an anniversary (our 40th) and ended the visit with a day at the Water Park....I think everyone was tired by the end of the two weeks, including the children.

We drove them back to the airport last Monday (an eight hour evolution for us) and immediately began getting ready to move Sweet Lady from her previous residence to her current one. The move was completed on Friday. There is still some tweaking that needs to be done to make her room more comfortable for her but we are getting there.

The photo above is our Grands and DIL waking out to their gate, headed home...a hard goodbye. We will miss them, but will cherish the memories we made while they were here.

Meanwhile I'd taken so many photos while the family was visiting that I nearly crashed my IPhoto, so I have been busy trying to make that functional again...I have deleted almost three thousand photos in the last several days )I still have twenty thousand on file. Today was the first day I have actually been able to post a photo...As you can see I still have much work to be done.

I am thankful for these summer days.

May Moments

May was full of flowers and family. We started the month with a visit from my sister and ended the month with the arrival of our DIL and grandchildren. In between we spent most weekends at the Garden's enjoying all the beautiful flowers. The roses were blooming this month and they were spectacular. May is also strawberry picking month for this area and we managed to pick 20 pounds before we realized it.

Our grandchildren flew in on the 29th and we have been enjoying every minute with them. "June Moments" will probably be photo heavy with all our everyday activities with them but for now, here's a little sampling of what our month of May looked like

Happy Day

We've been counting down the days, and the time has come......

They're here!

We were so excited that we were at the airport at least an hour and a half early. We entertained ourselves during the wait by walking the terminal and sitting at the coffee shop sipping large cups of flavored tea...which in turn resulted in several trips to the Ladies Room. 


When we first spotted them, we hugged and cried then hugged some more. The next couple of weeks will be busy for them, so many people have missed them. 

We are not sure what the next two weeks are going to look like but it doesn't matter because for the moment...they are here!