Wow What a wonderful time with family. Two days of good food and good fun!! All twelve grandkids together! I am so blessed! Hugs from big kids and little. Our tradition of everyone in the family reading a portion of scripture to tell the Christmas story is always the highlight! Thank you Lord for this family of mine!
Author: Baba (Page 2 of 4)
I am many things – daughter, sister, wife, friend, mother and my crowning accomplishment is grandmother (Baba) of twelve! I love God, I love life, and I love having fun! My motto is: "Life is too short to be anything but joyful!!
Seasons come and seasons go…
Winter warns us with shorter days, cooler nights, a sprinkling of snow on the mountains.
Spring tip-toes…is bashful, she peeks in one day and darts back into winter’s shadow the next. By the time she finally arrives summer has pushed itself in in full force!
Ahh summer…beautiful days, warm evenings, green grass and bright flowers in all their glory! The long lazy days of summer.
While we are clinging to those glorious days of summer…there it is, all at once, the golden glow of Autumn dancing before my eyes in a smorgasbord of colors…like an over-enthusiastic child waving its arms and shouting, “Look at me, look at me!” God has opened his paint box and no words can describe the wonder of his lavish work of art….oh the beauty…
Fall is in my face!!
Sunflowers courageously waving along the roadside are summer’s encore they seem to be shouting “One more dance…just one more dance!”
I walked out the door early this morning and just like many, but not all mornings for the past few weeks, a lovely scent wrapped itself around me. I sniffed through my garden trying to find the source. Earlier I had thought it was chokecherry…but the chokecherry blossoms are long gone. I sniffed every tree, weed and plant but could not find it. And soon, I am so accustomed to the aroma that I can no longer smell it. Perplexed I sat and pondered as I often do and came to one conclusion. This is a Heaven Scent! It surely must be the early morning sun kissing the earth. God’s way of saying rejoice, enjoy and bask in my Son!
I thought of many heaven scents I am so blessed to know. Rain…or, more so, the coming rain which is an indescribable fragrance! Or, how about the salt smell of the sea, laundry dried on the line, a puppy’s sweet breath, fresh mown grass, just turned soil, pine after the rain. I love the outdoorsy smell of an energetic toddler in from play, the aroma of fresh brewed coffee, baking smells of vanilla and sugar, the yeasty smell of rising bread, the bury my face in its blossoms fragrance of lilacs, bitter sweet chocolate…oh, be still my heart, I praise my creator for giving me a nose and the sense of smell so I may enjoy the beauty of Heaven sent heavenly scents!!!
I have too many shoes!! Shoes are under my bed, they clutter the floor of my closet, they are beside my bed, beside my favorite chair, in my gym bag and in the trunk of my car! I once heard a woman say she had over fifty pairs of shoes, and my self-righteous self said “that is sinful!” So I counted mine and yes, I too am a sinful woman! “Well”, I rationalized, “ya gotta have dress shoes in black, brown and navy, ya gotta have casual shoes in all three colors plus tan and everyone needs a red pair! Sandals for dress, sandals for casual in several summer colors. Shoes for the garden, shoes for the snow, plus tennis shoes…yep in polka-dot, plaid, striped and plain. not to mention running shoes (I don’t even run), walking shoes and wading shoes, that’s right they are called water shoes for when you want to go barefoot I guess”
I bought one of those helpful shoe storage bags that fit under the bed that holds 16 pair of shoes. I was able to cram over twenty pair in there by doubling up. Then I filled the shoe rack in my closet plus a box for seasonal shoes!! Too many shoes. I didn’t check those under the bed for over a year…funny I hadn’t missed them at all! So I took stock and gave away every pair that hurt my feet, squeezed my bunion or chaffed my toes. I still have way too many shoes!
That Shoe By The Side Of The Road
Have you ever wondered, as I often do
When beside the road you see a boot or a shoe
What is it doing there? and where was it going?
Can you step out of a shoe without even knowing?
And why would the owner just go off and leave it?
It seems to me you would go back and retrieve it.
For what good is just one shoe?
To be of any use, you really need two!
It looks so sad sitting there watching the cars go by…
I wonder, don’t you? If shoes can cry.
And just how long should a single shoe wait
Before hopping off in search of it’s mate?
And do they instinctively know
Where all the single shoes go?
I like to think there is a place somewhere out there
Where all single shoes find the other half of their pair!
Yes, I do believe “Shoe Heaven” must be their goal,
Because everyone knows…..all shoes have a sole.
I remember singing the ABC song….isn’t that how we all learned the alphabet? Â Twenty-six letters that have the potential of making a gazillion words! Amazing! Â I have seen gigantic dictionaries! Â Words, words words. I love words, I love to read and I love to write! Â I even like to read the dictionary! Â Years ago I started a journal I called The ABC’s of Praise. Â I am going to resurrect that journal on these pages one at a time.
My first entry:  Thank you Lord for the alphabet…it helps us keep things in order, just as Your way and Your creation are in order, there is an order to all You have created.  The alphabet helps me keep lists…lists of names, places and things.  It is the means to our communication via words. It is there to describe thoughts and ideas and to share with others verbally or written  Thank You Father for our ABC’s!!!
Three half dollar CD’s took me down memory lane to lazy summer days of long ago. How that music transported me back (has it really been 50 years?)
Frankie Avalon, Pat Boone, Paul Anka, Tommy Sands…Brumuda shorts, drive-in movies, car hops…Only the Lonely…and oh, remember Ally Oop and Cathy’s Clown?? What those songs did to my soul! Puppy Love, Johnny Angel, Sweet sixteen…was teen-age love really that passionate?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…those were the days!!! Music of the 50’s and early 60’s were the best. I think everyone probably feels that way about the music of their youth…but honestly…these were the best!
Well, this afternoon I went back to a golden summer long ago. A white convertable with the top down, (girl friend what make and year was that fabulous car of yours?) Hours spent on our beach (well Prospect Lake) smearing bottles of baby oil on our bodies and baking in the sun…..wow did I have a fantastic tan….I can prove it too..I’m still carrying the signs of it on my arms!!! We took picnics up the canyon with our battery operated transistor radio singing along with every song! Shopping down town to find the perfect shirt within our meager budget. What would my grandkids think if they knew their Baba used to sneak into drive in movies in the trunk of that convertable? What did a movie cost back then 75 cents? Warm evenings dragging main and stopping for cokes at every drive in.
I really wasn’t in my garden watering, weeding,pruning and planting….I was revisiting those olden golden days of one particular summer of my youth and I wouldn’t trade those memories for a million dollars!
My older two had spread their wings and left the nest…we had just moved them up to college. My heart was in my throat as I drove the “baby” to his first day of Middle School. As he disappeared into the throng of kids I sat in my car thinking, “OK, I still have six full years with him at home…that’s a good long time isn’t it?” Then I blinked my eyes and we were in the parking lot at C.U. hugging our goodbyes….. his first year of college.
Wasn’t it only last week that he got married? Didn’t we just welcome his first born yesterday? Now, today, we are welcoming his third born child into the family.
In a few weeks our daughter takes two of our grandsons to the very same Middle School and I want to shout, “Daughter, don’t blink your eyes, sweetheart, don’t blink your eyes!”
My son loves bringing his boys “back home” (to his “home” that is) to visit Baba and Zedo and to show them the old climbing tree, the remains of a fort in a tree, the path to school and the junk yard that holds all the broken bikes, Tonka trucks and homemade go-carts of his youth. He enthralls them with stories of his childhood escapades and adventures. So I’ll let him tell you, in his own words, about that hole in the fence.
“I have decided not to fix that hole in the fence and I have given up on the grass-less dirt spot in the lawn right under the swing. They add character to our yard, but more importantly they provide entertainment for the boys (and I am sure sister will love em too). I imagine them bringing their kids over to see Baba and Zedo and telling their kids all about the “short cut” out of the yard through the hole in the fence. If I ever replace the fence I will put a half picket there to preserve the hole.”
There they were, two little boys on the porch jumping up and down and shouting “She’s, here, Baba is here!” As I parked the car and got out they ran across the lawn and through the hole in the fence (I’ll tell you more about that hole in another post) and into my arms!!!! What absolute joy filled my heart….can a Baba hold so much exuberance, joy and love in her being? I think not…it bubbled out and overflowed. Wow do I love those boys!
Sunday morning, June 14…..5:35 am…..I opened my eyes… I was facing the window and a movement caught my attention. A deer I thought (of which we have many wandering through our yard day in and day out) but as I focused my eyes I did a double take…believe it or not a magnificent adolecent mountain lion was standing just outside my window. He wasn’t more than 10 feet from me! Golden in color, muscular and regal, he looked my way then walked nonchalantly away. I yelled for my husband Del, “Quick, look there is a mountain lion just outside the window! “ Unfortunately he did not get to see it.
What a way to start the day! Believe it or not!!!!! a mountain lion up close and personal!!!!!