Tired or Lonely?

More Grandchildren Pictures

Someone recently passed on the thought that there are two kinds of grandparents: tired or lonely. Most of the time, we are lonely - lonely grandparents, at least. All of our children live 3 hours or more away from us, so it is a very special time for us when they come to visit.

We aren't lonely right now. But we ARE tired. A good kind of tired.

I suspect it is the same with ALL friendship and relationships. Without them we are lonely. But relationships and friendships take time and energy. Relationships can leave us tired sometimes. A good kind of tired.

Splendor in the Afternoon

Sunday afternoon in the park was followed by dipped ice cream cones (which melted quickly in the hot summer afternoon - and were quickly placed into convenient cups)! Enthusiasm for baths ran low, so we filled one of the old-fashioned tubs with water and took "un-baths". Red and blue colored tabs were added to make the water "pretty".

Busy Saturday and One Tired Grandma

My husband and I indulged in a feast for the eyes yesterday--a housewalk in the Southwood Park Neighborhood of Fort Wayne. ARCH’s Annual Home and Garden Tour raises money for its mission of preservation and identification of historical architecture in the city.

Every home on the walk had its unique style. We saw lovely antiques, fascinating art, and individual tastes in decorating. Pictured above are three of the nine or ten houses we saw. (One was an amazing 13,000 sq. ft. mansion!) The lawns and gardens were also very interesting. We enjoyed every minute of our time. We gathered many ideas for our own home and garden and had a late lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Casa D'Angelos, before heading home.

I left in the late afternoon to meet our daughter and her family. Abigail and Titus quickly moved their seats into the backseat of my car and we made the hour and a half trip home. The trip passed with happy chatter. These will be exciting days for Grandma as they stay with us for a few days.

Morag Prunty, Authoress Extraordinaire!

Though I am generally a pretty fast reader, it took me (what seemed like) an eternity to finish this book. I enjoy books about relationships. I like happy endings. This book contains the separate reflections of a granddaughter and her grandmother on their marriages. Shortly into the book, I got a pencil and paper and jotted down page numbers where profound insights were written. I filled an entire paper and began to despair of how I would ever have the patience to copy everything I wanted to remember! Frequently I'd just have to put the book down to let it sink in.

I believe the title came from this line: "They say there is no such thing as a perfect marriage, but there is. A perfect marriage is one where two people live together for most of their lives until death separates them. There is no such thing as an easy marriage...."

How these two couples navigate marriages that are not so untypical was sometimes reassuring, sometimes instructive, sometimes convicting, and at last very heart-warming! If you like this genre of books, I recommend it. Warning: You'll probably shed a tear or two.

Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord

He was kind. He was good. He was conservative in lifestyle and thought. He was faithful and thoughtful. He was intelligent and frank. He loved the Lord and studied His Word. He was my Uncle Russ. Early this morning he passed through death into the Lord's presence. I will miss him. We didn't see him much lately. But we stopped in a couple of months ago. I'm SO glad we did. He and my Aunt Jane waved as we left. I have this wonderful last memory and picture of him.

We don't grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring back with him those who have fallen asleep...The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. From I Thessalonians 4:14-18.

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

Thanks for checking in on me today. In lieu of any comments here, would you mind going to my family blog and wishing our first granddaughter, Abigail, a happy birthday? Maybe just a short word of blessing or simply "Happy Birthday"...I know she'd be thrilled.

And when you do,
stay long enough to dance to the music!
I think you'll like it!

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed thy hand hath provided--
great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Words by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1923. Ac­cord­ing to Chis­holm, there were no spe­cial cir­cum­stanc­es which caused its writ­ing—just his ex­per­i­ence and Bi­ble truth. The hymn first ap­peared in Songs of Sal­va­tion and Serv­ice, 1923, com­piled by Wil­liam M. Run­yan. It is the un­of­fi­cial “school hymn” of Moo­dy Bi­ble In­sti­tute (my alma mater) in Chi­ca­go, with which Run­yan was as­so­ci­at­ed for a num­ber of years.
Tiny starter plants, rain, sunshine, a small border in our hosta garden, a harvest of fresh greens! EVERYTHING I need for life and godliness (II Peter 1:3) comes from the hand of a Faithful Father! Thank you, God.

Family Trying On Hats in a Chicago Thrift Store

Oh, how I love this picture that our daughter sent to us. Never let it be said that I didn't bring my family up to be thrifty! And now it's passing on to the YOUNGER generation, too! I'm SO proud, and I can't stop smiling.....

What's So Special About Sunday? (Part 3)

Click on picture to enlarge
IT'S FATHER'S DAY

I will celebrate with my EARTHLY father this afternoon. He's the one sitting in the middle of this Christmas 2009 family picture. We will meet at Pizza Hut (his choice) and then go to their home to play table games. My gifts to him include a bottle of Dad's Root Beer, some freshly gathered mulberries, and nine pages of humorous quotes, readings and jokes that I hope are new to him.

First, though, we'lll celebrate the Heavenly Father at our church. There will be a slide show featuring the "Dads at SSUBC". There will be a few inexpensive gifts awarded to dads in several categories. There will be a sermon titled "Fatherhood: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" based on Gideon who had 71 sons and who knows how many daughters! (see Judges 9:5)

Romans 8:15-17 tells me: "I have received the Spirit of adoption as sons (daughters), by which I cry, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit himself bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God, and if a child, then an heir --heir of God and fellow heir with Christ, provided I suffer with him in order that I may also be glorified with him."

I want to grow in my awareness and understanding of my relationship with Abba. One day, my earthly father will leave us (unless Jesus returns first). But Abba will never leave or forsake me! I also read that last provision of Romans 8:17 - "provided I suffer with him..." and know that I have a lot to learn about that, too!

We enjoyed a late game of Upwords last night. It is our favorite word game - similar to Scrabble, but the letters don't have different values AND you can put letters on top of each other (up to 5). Our practice is to add our two individual scores together and record anything over 500 points on the top of the sheet of instructions. Last night was a "548 point" game! (A click on the picture shows 500+ scores for the past 2 years. I know we recorded them somewhere before that, too.)

We've bought Upwords games at garage sales or thrift stores for each of our children. (Don't know if they ever get them out or not. It's kind of a stage-of-life thing, I think.)

Ten Things About Myself

Here's for both Lady M and Marcy who in the past few days have reached out to me with a challenge to list 10 honest things about myself. I am a relatively newcomer to the world of Christian women bloggers, so I ask for grace and understanding as I attempt to rise to this challenge.

1. The oldest of 4 children raised in a pastor's home, I turned 60 on my Christmas 2008 birthday.
2. I met my husband of 38 years at Sterling College in Kansas where I completed a degree in elementary education after receiving a diploma in Christian Education from Moody Bible Institute.
3. I enjoy silence and solitude and am sometimes selfish in this enjoyment. I also enjoy good discusson and stimulating conversation.
   
4. Though I wrote a book several years ago titled "The Beauty of a Disciplined Life" (Victor Books, out of print), I struggle in the area of discipline daily.
5. I owe a great debt to Donna and Brenda who took the time to teach me the basics of blogging and set me on the path to many friendships and much inspiration and encouragement.
6. My "obsession" with thrift store shopping has been tempered (but not replaced) by maintaining 4 blogs.
7. While learning to be content with what I have, I never feel I have "arrived" when it comes to knowing Christ! But one thing I do...I press on to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
8. I have much to learn about parenting adult children (3 plus 3 spouses)and being a long-distant grandmother of 8.
9. I love and treasure God's Word. I'm so thankful for having been taught it in my childhood, youth, and college years as well as many great hymns of the church. The Word of God continues to unfold in my life and mind daily as I am taught by God's Holy Spirit and godly men and women of faith.
   
10. I achieved a weight goal THIS VERY MORNING that has eluded me for over a year! (See details at Power, Love, and Self-control)
    

There is obviously much more about myself I could share, but mostly I am a woman covered by God's grace. So many flaws and so much sin is covered that I cannot possibly comprehend its extent!

Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush!

When Peter wrote in II Peter 1:3 that God has given us everything we need for life.....he probably wasn't thinking about mulberries. But they're on MY mind these days. We have a large, old tree in the back and for several weeks every summer, it is "MESS CENTRAL"! The fruit itself is rather bland in taste but has nutritional benefits if you can get the berries before the birds get to them.

And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant
yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth,
and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food." Genesis 1:29

The mulberry is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium and high in Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Iron, Dietary Fiber, Riboflavin, Magnesium and Potassium.

The nutritional value and health benefits of mulberries make them ideal for maintaining optimum health and weight loss. Most web sites make a point of saying: "Don't include mulberries in your diet if you're interested in weight gain." Since I'm not interested in weight gain, I'll be eating mulberries on cereal as long as they keep falling! Thank you, Lord.

The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, Et Cetera

The day turn out fine for the zoo. A little humid, but generally cool. The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo recently opened The African Journey. It has a lot of hands on activities - including the bongo drums. The children were less interested in the animals in front of them and more inclined to say, "Let's see something else."

I took a couple of hours out of the day to have lunch with a friend who is making decision regarding her husband, an Alzheimer's patient.

We grilled out this evening. The humidity cleared up, and we took a walk to the park around the corner from our house. As I write, the children are getting their baths and grandparents are getting ready to crash!

The Joys of Grandparenting

Our Kansas children and grandchildren arrived last night. It was hard to take a picture of these active children with my cell phone camera which has a pesky delay in it. It's different than taking pictures of plants and inanimate objects! The third child who played the most sedately got overlooked in my determination to capture these two!We have plans that include the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, a cookout, and a visit from an aunt and uncle and cousins. Hopefully, the rain will run its course this morning leaving us time to accomplish these goals.

Answer: The Chicken

Which came first? The chicken or the egg?
And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds:
livestock, creatures that move along the ground,
and wild animals each according to its kind."
And it was so...And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:25

Will God Not Much More Clothe You?

Found at garage sale yesterday. No pricing. Donations went toward a church mission project.

Why do you worry about clothes?
See how the lilies of the field grow.
They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,

will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
(Jesus, Matthew 6:28-30)

Which Came First? The Chicken or the Egg?

I never realized just how beautiful a chicken could be! I visited my friend yesterday and toured her small organic egg operation. This black & white striped hen stood out in contrast to the majority which were the gold color seen in the background.

Each hen had such a personality! The freshly gathered eggs sat like a piece of fine art in the gathering basket, and I was gifted with a dozen to take home for our eating pleasure.

Three Hershey Bars Later

Curious? Then you'll have to see Power, Love, and Self-Control entry for today, June 10th.
I don't think I could bear to type it out a second time.

Flowers Surround Me

I never stopped to think how many floral paintings and patterns I have collected over the years. I began to photograph them to put in the side column of my garden blog. Here are a few of several I added to Scene in our Garden.

I Will Awake the Dawn

I woke up around 3:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Finally I showered, came downstairs, made coffee and began to journal. My Psalm for the morning is 57. I began reading, remembering times when it seemed that I, too, was in the "storms of destruction". I remember the helpless feelings I experienced. I remember the simple prayers I prayed (when I COULD pray), "Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me."

The mood of the Psalm changes around verse 7 as David got a grip on himself and realigned his heart with the steadfast love of God (verses 5 & 10). "My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast." (Interesting repetition--corresponding to his repeated prayer for mercy in the first verse.)

Then he continues, "I will sing and make melody!" (When the situation seems impossible, it is STILL possible to sing and make melody....hmmmm.)

And here were my words for today: "I will awake the dawn!"

I will, too! With thanksgiving; with praises. "For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds."

"Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!"

Here comes the dawn now!
I thank You. I praise You.
Lord, You are over and above ALL today!

Am I Blue?

Have I mentioned that I like "blue"? I found the lower set at the Huron garage sale this past Saturday. They were about to be packed up and delivered to Goodwill where I would have had to pay more for them! I have slowly been picking up pieces of this pattern. It's a little bit gaudy, but fun, I think.

Now I need the lid to the sugar bowl. Does anyone have an extra?

The Inarco Company which manufactured the pieces above was known as International Art Ware Corporation. It started in Cleveland Ohio, and was founded by Irwin Garber in 1960. The company began with the name International Art ware Corporation, better known as INARCO. A designer by trade, Garber had a penchant for the artistic side of figurines. His wife, Roselle, is believed to have been a model for a number of the company's head vases. In its beginnings, the company imported ceramic and glass floral containers and giftware. In 1986, INARCO moved to Jacksonville, Florida, after it was purchased by Japanese giftware distributor, Napco.

All Nature Sings and 'Round Me Rings the Music of the Spheres

After a 1/2 bagel & cream cheese breakfast and cup of coffee, Gary and I headed out to walk a nearby neighborhood where just about every street deadends at Lake Erie. A few folk were out watering their plants, but mostly it was a very quiet and peaceful morning. The water was smooth. This was a beautiful prelude to our corporate worship this morning!

On the glorious splendor of your majewsty
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
They shall speak of the might of your awsome deeds,
and I will declare your greatness.
Psalm 145: 5-6

Hunting in Huron

I've been attending the United Brethren in Christ Church Convention at Sawmill Creek Resort in the Sandusky/Huron OH area. This afternoon while my husband golfed, I ventured into downtown Huron where I was told there would be a citywide garage sale. There were probably 50-75 vendors who had rented tables and set up along side an inlet where many small yachts were anchored. It was a beautiful afternoon to enjoy the sight of sailboats coming in to dock as well as take in an interesting giant garage sale.

Satisfying Food ... April 22 Revisited

I traced it back to April 22! We had recently discovered a healthy, filling, and delicious
alternative to other fast foods.

I'm revisiting it along with nutritional information
in my "baby blog" - Power, Love, and Self-Control.

We've had very cool weather the past couple of days. While traveling home from Chicago earlier this evening, this made for a most satisfying meal!

"Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." Isaiah 55:2

Our Chicago Visit

"Children's children are a crown to the aged"
(Proverbs 17:6)

We passed the morning playing "find the nickels", building blocks, reading books, and enjoying our grandchildren. Our daughter is taking a week's graduate class and we are helping out for a couple of days. Hope the rain stops before tomorrow!

Power, Love, and Self-Control

Some of you will think I've really LOST it! But here I go!

June 1st is the birthdate of yet another blog. I have quietly and consistently been working at establishing (RE-establishing, really) some healthy habits of diet and exercise. Encouragement and camaraderie have been vital to my discipline. Now that I am started, I want to give back some of what I have been receiving. You are welcome to check out the "baby blog" and let me know YOUR secrets, YOUR struggles, and YOUR successes. Send your pictures. Send your best hints.

I'm no expert--only experienced, having been down this path a time or two (or five or six) throughout my adult life. Here's the link: Power, Love, and Self-Control.

Hymn Sing and Ice Cream Social

What a great evening! Folks from several area churches joined ours for hymn singing and ice cream sundaes. We sang 25 songs in just a little over an hour.

It was a free, uplifting, and friendly way to spend a Sunday evening. One led, almost everyone sang, at least one slept, many visited, and most ate...(Some of you would have been proud of me - passing up the desserts! I am serious about getting my weight off and enjoying improvements in my health and energy level.)