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!
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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!
I am soooo excited because we have an extra twenty four hours this year. Â Tomorrow is the day…that extra day! Â I think of all the times I have said…if only I had an extra hour in each day. Â And now here they are, all at once , twenty four unscheduled hours!!!! What are you going to do with yours? Â I am going to get out of bed making a joyful noise to the Lord! Â “This is the day the Lord has made…I will rejoice and be glad in it” Â Next I am going to Curves (I go there regularly)…not so much for the exercise but because we go for coffee afterwards. And I go for coffee not so much for the coffee but for the company. Â I always order just coffee…a senior refill $1.06 bottomless cup! Oh, but tomorrow…be still my heart….I am going to order a cinnamon twist to go with my coffee! Â I am sure I heard somewhere that calories do not count on Leap Year Day!!!! Â Next I am going to go to an antique and craft mall that has been beckoning me for months! Â Then I am going to take my grandson to the play area at the mall. Â Not sure what will follow that but I will make in memorable. Â Because it will be another 4 years before I have 24 unscheduled hours. Â Have fun with yours!!!!!!
My daughter said I should start blogging again.  I guess she thinks I have a lot to say.  It certainly seems that way when I get around my friends.  Oh how I love to sit around the table with coffee and friends.  There is always something to talk about! We try to solve the problems swirling around us….. the..”what is this world coming to..” topics.  We always have to part ways with no conclusions and a promise to get together soon and resume discussion. But, what a privilege  to have the freedom to state our opinions and concerns.  May US Freedom continue to ring!
Can’t believe the world is trying to pass me by. Â Where has the time gone? Â Well here I am in 2011 and now 69 years old. (I know, I can’t possible be that old) and I hope a bit wiser. Â I am learning to be content with all that I have, to count my blessings and just savor every moment of every day! Finally I have come to terms with the critters in my garden. Â I have been so stressed out over the deer and bunnies eating everything….and I said to myself “no more” this Spring I planted only things they had not eaten in the past and fenced off a little area around my patio for the flowers. Â So altho not as colorful as it was many years ago….it is green and I am at peace with the wildlife. As a matter of fact we have seen a mama bear and her cub pass through the yard a couple of times and have a gorgeous 4 point buck that enjoys the shade near our porch. Â Ahhhhhh God is good, I am in awesome wonder at His great creation!
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!”