September or Fall’s a Comin’

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It’s here, whether we want it or not. Fall.  You know, that glorious season right before the bitter winds of winter?   The season of beautiful foliage on the trees as they make their last hurrah before they loose all their leaves.    The season of trips to the orchards for crispy apples, trudging through pumpkin fields to pick out that perfect pumpkin, taking drives down country roads to see all the beauty of the season.

In the past September was, for me, the time for the start of a new school year.  Going shopping for new shoes and clothes.  It meant the smell of new crayons, getting new yellow tablets, and new  school books.  I have always loved the smell of books.  Somehow you don’t get the same smell from a Kindle.  It was meeting the new teacher, getting your seat assigned, and hoping your best friend was still there for you as you had not seen her all Summer. It was seeing the big yellow school bus coming down the road and wondering if the driver would be nice or grumpy.

September meant that Summer was officially over and it was time to get out jackets and sweaters and knee high socks.  No more shorts and sleeveless tops.  Early evenings and homework before bed.  No more hide and go seek games in the yard.

On the farm September meant harvesting.  The corn was ripe, ready for picking and I would ride in the wagon behind the corn picker as it threw the corn cobs out into the wagon. Oats combined and shoveled into the oats house so the animals would have something to eat during the long winter.  The Spring calves were almost grown and would be the new milk cows.   Time for butchering a hog or a cow for meat for the table.

September meant  my mother gathering in the last of the vegetables from the garden and canning  or freezing all she could for our family to eat.  Winter was coming and we must be ready.

Some people are sad when September comes.  Songs are sung about September.  September is both a beginning and an ending.  But September will come no matter how much you want one last day at the beach, one last ride at the amusement park, one last lazy day to dream.  It will come and stay for only a moment like all the other months as the year rapidly draws to a close.  Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas come one after the other before you know it. September has the last holiday of the Summer, Labor Day.  This weekend we will have our grandsons staying with us so it won’t exactly be a holiday, but we will plan some fun things for them.  It reminds me how quickly the boys are growing and how we must grab the little snatches of time we have with them.  They have been in school for a couple of weeks already. No child should have to start school before Labor Day in my opinion.

September means a lot of things to me and as I grow older it means different things. I watch as others send their children off to school and feel nostalgic for those days, yet glad I don’t have to take part any longer.  It means time for a new haircut, a new exercise routine, more books to read, less lawn mowing, closing the pool, getting the house ready for winter.   It means more sewing and quilting and antiquing and being able to take a vacation during the school year.  Yes, September is a month of change and I am glad of it.

I saw a bright red Maple leaf on my porch yesterday.  Yes, Fall’s a comin’.   Bye.

 

Being a Witness

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Being a born again Christian, I am called to be a witness for Jesus Christ.  Being a witness is testifying that you believe on Him and that He leads your life.  If I have already lost some of you, I understand, but this is who I am and I must be truthful about my beliefs.

I have not always been a good witness, I am ashamed to admit.  I know there have been times people didn’t even know I was a believer because of my actions.  I am sorry for that.  Losing your witness is the worst thing that could happen to a Christian.

Through some tough circumstances and a realization that I cannot make it through this life without Jesus, I have recommitted my life to Him.  I try every single day to live my life as if it were my last day and that I will be coming face to face with Jesus.  How will He judge me?  I know He will be righteous, but if I got what I deserve, I would not be spending eternity in heaven.  Jesus took what I deserve on the cross so that I wouldn’t have to.  I should never, ever forget that and never stop being thankful for that.  To think that our God loved us enough that He sent His only Son to take our sins upon himself so that we might be saved.  The only thing God asks of us is that we accept His son for doing that.  How easy is that?  But people think they have to do all kinds of good things to get into heaven.  Good things are not what God is looking for(not that good things are bad or that God doesn’t want us to be good.)  What God is looking for is repentance of our sins, an acceptance of His son and a life lived for Him.

Every day I ask God to make me a good witness and a blessing to others.  I ask him how I could witness for Him and He always gives me an answer.  One day he grabbed me by the nape of my neck and took me to a Sunday school classroom in our church and said, “See, you are needed in this classroom to teach these little children about me.”  Okay, He didn’t literally do that, but at the time it seemed like it as I was not thinking about being a Sunday school teacher again as I had done it for decades and was taking a break.  There are no breaks with God when you are following Him.   Now I enjoy the little children so much and love each Sunday I am with them and I pray I am teaching them about the love of Jesus through my words and actions.

God sent me a clear sign this past week to be a witness.  I was asked to mentor a high school senior girl who wanted to make quilts for the Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.  I was not even thinking about it, but I had been asking God what I could do to serve Him.  Next think I knew, someone telephoned me and I was teaching a young girl how to sew and make quilts for children in the hospital.  Then I started making quilts  for them, too,  and got all enthused about it.  God amazes me sometimes in how He can get things done if we just ask Him for advice and listen to Him.

God has a plan for all of us if we just ask Him and listen.  You will know if God has called you.  Don’t be fooled into thinking if someone asks you to do something and you don’t feel called to do it, that you should go ahead and do it.  I did that one year. I was asked repeatedly to teach a class.  I didn’t feel called to do it, but begrudgingly agreed.  It was the worst year of my life.  I did not look forward to one Sunday in that class. I know the children were not witnessed to as I should have done.  Someone else who felt called would have been a better teacher than I was that year. I regret that year and learned a lesson very clearly from God.   Man does not decide what your calling is. God does.  You have to ask Him, though, and be open to what He tells you.

Another calling I have had is helping start and keep a women’s Bible study.  David and I felt called to purchase the DVDs for the classes and I have taught a few and other ladies have taught and we formed a bond in our group and learned so much about the Bible.  I am having a Beth Moore Bible conference simulcast in our home in a couple of weeks with several friends from church.  I feel like God is going to bless it and I can’t wait.

If you are a Christian and have not found your calling yet,  seek God’s advice and counsel.  He will gently, or in my case, not so gently lead you into what you should be doing.  Perhaps you are good at writing.  You could write the shut-ins of your church.  Maybe you like to visit people.  There are a lot of lonely people who would love to have you come to see them.  Bring cookies and they will really love to see you!  Maybe some family you know needs a babysitter so that the parents can get a break once in a while.  David and I sit on our porch and wave at people.  I wonder how many of those people get a smile out of it.   Little things can mean a lot.  You never know who you are witnessing to.  A looooong time ago, when I was a teen-ager, I had a Sunday school teacher tell us that someone is always watching us and seeing what we do.  It’s true.  No matter what you do, someone is watching.  If you do something good or nice, they will notice. If you are mean and hateful, they will notice too.  I don’t ever want anyone to ever see me mean and spiteful ever again in my life.

What is your calling?  Is it important to you?  Do you believe you have one?  Everyone does, you know.  Some are just closed minded about it and don’t want to see.

Be a blessing to someone today.  Bye.

Good-bye, Old Friend

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I have had dogs in my life for as long as I can remember.  We always had a dog or two on the farm and when one would die, another one would magically appear, it seemed.  None of our dogs were registered. All were mutts, but all were good dogs, except Butchie.  Butchie belonged to my oldest brother and he brought him to live at the farm when he couldn’t take care of him any longer.  Butchie had been teased by neighborhood children and learned to bite as the result.  More than once he chased the milkman to his truck and our neighbor to her car.  I really think the milkman hit him on purpose one day and that was the end of Butchie.

We had a little dog who went under the corn crib and birthed a puppy.  My brother, Fred, came into the house one morning and said he heard a puppy crying under the corn crib, but he couldn’t reach it.  Its mother had died and it was all alone under there.  So I was selected to crawl under the corn crib as I was the smallest one around and bring out the puppy.  It was a black and white puppy, almost like a dalmatian.  I think our dog had been with one of our neighbor’s dogs that were dalmatians.  Anyway, we brought the little puppy into the house and Mother wrapped her up and fed her warm milk with a bottle and we raised her like that until she could eat from a bowl.  Mother named her Orphan Annie because she was an orphan.  It became my job to feed her and care for her. Orphan Annie grew up to be a sweet little dog.  She did have a few mishaps along the way.  Like the time we kids were jumping out of the haymow into a bed of straw on the barn floor and I thought Annie should be able to jump, too, so I pushed her and her leg was broken and she was in a cast for several weeks and I was in trouble.  Then she was out in the field when Daddy was mowing hay and got one of her legs cut off.  She ran around on three legs the rest of her life.  Seems that little dog had a hard life, but I think she was happy for the most part because we all loved her.

Through the years I saw dogs come and dogs go.  My brother’s favorite dog disappeared one day and he looked for him for weeks and one day he found him caught in a fence.  Poor thing had died there all alone. I still feel bad about that.  It was hard on my brother.

When I got married, we didn’t have a place for a dog so we had none for a few years.  Then we got one that immediately ran away and we never found her.  We got a black Labrador and when we moved to where we live now, she was stolen from us.  One of our boys was sure they saw her in the back of a pickup truck one day.  I hope she had a happy life.  So more dogs came and went.  I decided I wanted another Labrador so we bought Bonnie.  She was registered from a long line of registered dogs.  Never having had a registered dog, we didn’t know what to expect, but they are just like any other dog.   Bonnie was a nipper at first and drew blood quite often until I broke her of the habit.  After that, she became the sweetest dog. Right after we got her, we took a trip out west so we hired a dog sitter.  I missed that dog so much the whole trip, even drawing pictures of her and writing about her.  I know, I am weird, but I do get attached to my animals.   Bonnie loved to jump and play and run races around our old dog, Subaka, who was getting along in years.  She was on her last legs when we got Bonnie and, you know, I think Bonnie kept her alive for another couple of years by playing with her.  They would chase a ball all around the yard and field for what seemed like hours.

When Subaka died, I decided I wanted another lab.  This time we got a chocolate lab and named her Bellelattedah, Belle, for short.  The day we brought her home, Bonnie picked her up and threw her over her head.  Even after doing that, Belle and Bonnie became best buds.  Sleeping together in the big doghouse or under the deck.  Wherever one was, there was the other.  And then we got Molly Marshmallow.

Bonnie died last week.   It was one of the hardest days I have been through for a while.  She got up one day and could not walk on her back legs any longer and was gasping for breath, so I called the vet.  They could not get her in and sent me to another vet three hours later.  Bonnie did not have three hours and I called back my vet and said I wanted them to take care of her “Now.”  David and I put her in the back of his pickup truck.  Her last truck ride.  She loved riding in cars and trucks.  I stayed at home and cried.  I knew she was dying.   When David came home with her collar, I sobbed.  The vet said her lungs had filled up with water.

Bonnie will always have a piece of my heart.  I will miss so many things about her.

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I will miss this sweet face.

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I will miss seeing three dogs looking at me through the back door.

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Bonnie never became a mother, but her motherly instincts kicked in when we brought Molly Marshmallow home.

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She seemed to enjoy the little puppy.

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I will miss Bonnie’s sweet smile.  She seemed to always be smiling.

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I will miss Bonnie smelling the flowers.  From puppyhood, she always was smelling the flowers in the garden.

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I will miss feeding three dogs on the back deck.

Some people will say, “she was just a dog.”  Yes, she was a dog, but she was much more than that. She was a friend, a companion.  someone who was with me even more than my husband.  She was around 24/7 always ready to come to me and be petted.  Never angry, always happy.   She was family.  She has made me smile so many times and only made me cry on her last day.  No, her death is not as important as a grandparent’s, a parent’s, a sibling’s , a friend’s or any loved ones, all of which I have experienced, but she has taken a piece of my heart just like all the others did with her passing.  I will miss her the rest of my life.

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Good-bye, old friend. I loved you.  I don’t know if dogs are in heaven, but I sure hope I get to see Bonnie one day again.  Bye.

 

 

Into the Woods

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Growing up on the farm, we kids spent a lot of time playing in the woods behind our house.   It wasn’t a big woods, although at the time it seemed big to me.  It had a little creek running through it that my brothers would dam up and then on hot Summer days we would swim in the little pond they had created.  When I think about it now, I cringe because of all the snakes, crawdads and water spiders that were probably in that water.  But to farm children on hot summer days, it was a welcome relief and fun besides.

Since I have been married I have wanted to live on a farm or have some land.   We are at the age where a working farm is probably out, but this week we became land owners.  Something I never thought would happen.  We bought a few acres in Brown County, up a steep hill, in the woods.  We closed on it yesterday and went for our first walk in the woods.  It has a little stream that runs down below the hill.  I cannot wait until David gets his bush hog and clears a few paths so that we can go for lots of walks in the woods.  We aren’t sure what we will do with the land.  Leave it as it is, build on it one day, who knows.  It is just nice knowing we have some land that we can take our dogs to where they can roam and run and chase squirrels and we can get away to the country.

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Peace and quiet and green all around.

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Thick brush that will have to be cleared if we want to be able to walk there.

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A clearing, perfect place to build a little house in the woods.

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We even had our first visitors.  How about that?

There is something about owning land that makes a person feel good.  My dad owned eighty acres and the land is still in family hands.  I am glad of that.  I planted some hollyhocks seeds along the woods.  Next Spring we will see if they come up.  Bye.

 

The Death of Grandma Moses

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I use to play with puppets when I was a girl.  My brothers got marionettes one Christmas.  I was so jealous and I played with them as often as I could.   My hand puppets had rubber heads and cloth bodies and just enough room for a small hand to be put inside.  I would put on my own puppet shows to entertain myself and my little brother.

A year or so ago David and I were in Nashville and I came across these really nice puppets.  I thought they would be good to use as a puppet ministry with my Sunday School class.  I did it a few times, but they have been sitting in a small chair in my girly room and once in a while when the grandkids come over, they get them out and play with them.

There is Scar, the pirate.

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There was Grandma Moses.

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And there is Molly the puppet.

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The grandkids were here the other day.  After they were gone, I noticed Grandma Moses was missing. I just thought she was someplace in the house and I would find her one day.

Then David brought in a little dress that he had found Molly playing with.

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I didn’t recognize it and just assumed Molly had dug up something under the deck.  Then David started finding feet and hair.

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When I saw it all together, I realized what it was.  It was Grandma Moses.  Someone had taken her outside and left her to the mercy of a dog who chews everything.   I was not a bit happy that she had been taken outside because we have told the grandboys several times not to leave anything out in the back yard they don’t want chewed on.  Well……….

One day the grandboys will be over and Scar the Pirate and Molly the puppet will have a talk with the boys about who took Grandma Moses outside.  Scar and Molly miss Grandma Moses and want to know who would have taken her outside and just left her.  She was a poor, little grandma who never did any harm to anyone.

We will have a proper burial for Grandma Moses when they get here.  I hope they bring flowers.

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We lost a good friend this week.  When my heart doesn’t hurt so much, I will write about her.  Bonnie  died yesterday after eleven and a half years of being a part of our family.  I will miss her.  Bye.

Summer Fun and How Not to Photograph the Blue Moon

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We had a Blue Moon the other night.  For those of you who don’t know what a Blue Moon is, it is when two full moons happen in the same month. The second one is called the Blue Moon.  Ever hear someone say something only happens in a Blue Moon?  They are not rare, but don’t happen often.  We had an especially beautiful clear night for looking at the moon.  Not a cloud, except for the cloud of mosquitoes that was hovering around me as I took pictures.  I didn’t have the tripod up so I tried to take the pictures with my shaky hands.  Let’s just say some of them were not the best.

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No, there were not two moons, just my not being able to hold the camera still.

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It rose behind  the trees across the street.  See that figure at the bottom.  Kind of looks like an angel doesn’t it?  Rising in the mist.  I don’t know what it is really.

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That moon would not hold still!

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It was so bright.

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Loved the silhouettes on the moon, or are they moon creatures???

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Finally, a sort of good picture.  By then my legs and arms were a mass of mosquito bites and I was thinking about going in where I would be safe from the blood thirsty little critters.

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But still, because I wanted to keep my readers happy, I continued snapping pictures.  What is that line across the moon?  Does it have an equator?   Or is that a big rubber band holding it in the sky???

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Ack!  What is that?  Time to go inside.  I think this is a giant mosquito coming at me.

We had one final big swim and cookout Sunday with the grandkids.  It isn’t very often they all can get together and with school starting and sports, homework, plays and other activities, they won’t be getting together again soon.  Anytime I can have them all with me makes me happy.  They are all growing so fast and soon will be all grown up, just like our kids did and they will all go their own ways and do their own things, so for this little bit, I will enjoy every minute I have with them.

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The water felt so good.   It’s been really hot around here lately.  The boy cousins were having a great time playing together.

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Our lone granddaughter stayed out of the rough housing.  She was smart.  Me, not so much.

I did not want to go in the pool because I knew my hair would get wet and we were going to church that evening, but as I sat watching all the fun and since I was so hot, I decided to get in my suit and join the fun.  I told the grandboys I did not want my hair getting wet.  No, no, no.

Well, after one dumped a whole bucket of water on my head and almost lost his swim trunks to me, I knew my hair was doomed.   From then on it was splash Grandma and I enjoyed it.

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I think they are ready for America’s Got Talent.

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Good balancing act, don’t you think?

I hope my grandchildren will remember all the fun they had at their grandparents’ house.  We certainly enjoy them, but boy, was it quiet when they left.

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I see the moon,

The moon sees me,

Down through the leaves

Of the old Oak tree.

Please let the light that shines on me,

Shine on the one I love.

Over the mountain,

Over the sea.

Back where my heart is longing to be.

Please let the light that shines on me,

Shine on the one I love.  Bye.

 

Another Summer Day

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I have so been enjoying this Summer.  It is going way too fast.  In another week, many children will be going back to school.  I find that kind of sad. I remember when Summers were long and lasted for months.  My grandson told me he was kind of glad to be going back to school which made me happy.  If he is glad about it, then it’s okay with me.

I can’t tell you it’s been an eventful Summer.  One lazy day has melted into another.  David and I have been busy at many things and yet, it seems we have done nothing.   Many of our days include this….

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Someone is almost asleep on the turtle raft behind us.

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Someone told us once that it was like swimming in the Garden of Eden in our pool.  I guess it kind of is.  Flowers, birds and butterflies surround us as we swim.

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Belle enjoys being in the garden although she and Bonnie spend most of the hot days under the deck where it is cooler.

We watched this while swimming the other day.

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The most beautiful butterfly with a large wingspan.  We didn’t know what kind it was.  Maybe someone who knows could leave a comment.

It flitted from flower to flower all afternoon.  David and my daughter chased it with their cameras trying to get some good pictures.

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I post all these flower pictures because I know that before we know it there will be two feet of snow in our yard and I will think we will never have beautiful flowers again.

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David and I did manage to do some antiquing a couple of weeks ago. We found this really eclectic antique store in northern Indiana.  It had just about everything you would want to see or buy.

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Inside these doors is a wonderland of antiques and fun objects.    I could have stocked up on so much chicken paraphernalia.  We almost missed this place as we thought it was in town, but it was off the beaten path and we just happened to see a sign for it outside of town.

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This giant tin man stood sentinel out in front of the store.

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I baked again.  I love baking fresh bread.  It is so much better than store bought.  My favorite sandwich is a hamburger on fresh, homemade bread.   Can’t do that too often, but once in a while it is a treat.  We are getting tomatoes out of the garden now and that just adds to the lusciousness of a hamburger sandwich.  There is nothing better than a slice of a fresh tomato with a little salt sprinkled on.

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Made some potato soup.  I think I am getting hungry writing this blog right now.  Unfortunately, the soup is all gone.

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The last fresh rhubarb crunch of the season.   I froze a few packages of rhubarb and this winter we will have some more of this.

David and I have done something I never thought we would be able to do.  I can’t tell you what it is yet, but soon I will be able to write about it.  I am so excited that we have done this.  And no, I am not pregnant again!!  Impossible!

I will leave you with a couple of selfies I tried to take with Molly Marshmallow.   Let’s just say, she made it difficult as she kept licking my face.  Love that dog.

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Here’s to Summer, pups and beautiful butterflies.  Bye.

 

 

Molly’s Birthday and Porch Sitting.

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Molly’s birthday was yesterday and I almost forgot it.  I looked on the calendar last night and saw I had almost missed it so I got a big spoonful for peanut butter and took it out to her and said “Happy Birthday, Molly,” and she licked almost all of it off and got it stuck to the roof of her mouth and I started laughing.  She is one year old now.  Almost passed all the puppy stage and all the chewing.  She still brings whole logs from the wood pile up to the back deck and gnaws on them.  I think she is part termite or beaver.

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She has turned into the sweetest dog.  She loves attention and playing with Belle.  As soon as I open the back door, she runs to get something to tease Belle with and the chase begins.  As soon as I go back inside, she drops whatever she has and lays down.  I guess she needs an audience.

Molly has a bark that would scare anyone.  I know I would not go into a yard with a dog that barks like her.  She sounds fierce.   Anyone who comes to our house hears it and wants to know if she will bite. “Only if I tell her to,” I tell them.  I don’t want strangers thinking they are safe to just come into our yard.  She is actually very sweet, but I would not guarantee that she would not bite if she thought I was in danger.  David was hugging me outside the other day and she got very upset and barked.  She also gets anxious when anyone waves their arms and yells.  She gets so excited at seeing anyone her whole back end sways back and forth.

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She loves kids.  She is still a little intimidating to some though because she jumps on them.

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Molly has been a good addition to our family despite all the destruction she did while teething.  David and she are pals.  When he is out in the yard, she ignores me and follows him.  I love her.

I have been sitting on the porch in the evenings.  It’s so relaxing and I can see so many things.  It’s a parade right out in front of our house.  Cars going by, ambulances racing to an emergency, police cars with their sirens blaring going to an accident, people walking, people riding bicycles.  I watch to see how many people are talking on their cell phones while driving.  A lot of them are.  Yesterday I saw a man driving with his left hand holding a phone to his left ear with his right hand while driving.  Now that can’t be safe.  Trains going by.  There doesn’t seem to be as many right now.  One day David counted over a hundred cars on one train.

Everyone who comes to our house to visit finds themselves on the front porch sitting on our swing.  It’s a good gathering place to sit and chat.    Even the children that come love to sit on the swing and  David will swing them real high.

Sometimes I read while I am sitting on the porch.  I use to do that for hours when I was a kid.  There is something about gently rocking back and forth on a swing and reading a book.  The world is shut out as you escape into another one.  I do some of my best thinking on the swing.  Making plans, thinking about family, praying.  Yes, I pray a lot on the porch swing.  I was looking at the clouds yesterday thinking that one day Jesus will return in clouds.  Will I be sitting on the porch swing when He does?   Where will you be?

I think if everyone had a porch swing and sat on it for an hour a day, most of the world’s troubles would pass away.  You can’t be angry while sitting on a porch swing.  I find I feel love for my fellow man as I watch them pass by.  I wonder what their lives are like.  I even pray for them that God is watching over them.  There is so much trouble and sadness in this world.  We all need a little porch sitting to slow us down, calm our nerves and get in touch with the One who created us.  He wants only the best for us.

We have three swings in various parts of our property. I can go anywhere in our yard and find a swing to sit upon, but I love our front porch swing the best because it is my seat onto the world.  Come sit with me and chat a while.  I guarantee you will find it relaxing.  Bye.

 

Forty-Seven Years

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For those who are reading this and have not even reached the age of forty yet, you may think forty-seven years is a long time.  When I was young, anyone over twenty seemed old to me.  Then I became twenty and by that time I had been married a year.  I felt pretty grown-up then and was expecting a baby, so I was officially an adult.   Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our forty-seventh wedding anniversary.   Just three years shy of fifty years.  How did we get here?  How did our marriage last when so many marriages fail?

I don’t have any secret formulas.   There were times I could have left my husband because I was immature and was only thinking of myself and how things were affecting me.  I am sure there were times he would have liked to have just shucked it all and given up, but he didn’t and as a man of few words, I never knew if he ever was unhappy. But, we stuck it out.  We stood together through the hard times and now we are reaping some good times and feel it was all worth keeping it all together.

Love has a lot to do with.  I cannot think of a time when I didn’t love my man.  Yes, he can make me exasperated sometimes, but I can be pretty exasperating myself.  We raised three children together and if you have ever raised teen-agers,  you know that can be one of the most stressful times in any marriage.  Teen-agers try their parents and parents need to present a united front, but sometimes it didn’t happen that way and I blame myself for that.   I didn’t like to be the one doling out the discipline, but it usually turned out that way.    We made it through the teen years with a few scars, but our marriage still solidly in tact.  We have watched our children grow into adults, make some pretty poor choices at times and good choices in others, but still making us proud in so many ways and we love them all so much.

Forty-seven years ago I walked down the aisle at a little Methodist church where David and two pastors stood.  We had two pastors because we had just gotten a new pastor and I wanted our old pastor to take part in the ceremony as I had pretty much grown up while he was our pastor.  So both pastors took part in the ceremony.  I was shaking in my white satin shoes and don’t remember a whole lot about it, but suddenly the pastor was saying, “I now pronounce you man and wife.  You may now kiss the bride,” and I knew it was a done deal.

That night we stayed in a little motel on our way to Traverse City, Michigan for our honeymoon.  The next morning the motel owner presented us with a gift of new bed sheets which I thought was so nice.  The honeymoon was spent with David’s relatives and we had the most fun.  Plus I had to keep pinching myself that I was now responsible for myself, I was truly a grownup and free from my parents’ control.  Anything I did after that was going to be on me.  We boated, swam, walked the streets of Traverse City where the Cherry Festival was going on, eating French fries splashed with vinegar.  We went to the city zoo.  I met lots of new relatives.  We ran around all over town in our little Volkswagon bug enjoying the scenery and just being together.  We even got stopped by a policeman because David ran a red light accidently, but he just gave us a warning.

Back to reality and sharing a life together began.  I worked at a Stucky’s saving money to continue college.  David worked at a factory.   We lived in a little apartment in the middle of the small town where I grew up.  There was a pinball room directly below our apartment and we would go down and play pinball.  Then we discovered I was pregnant a month into our marriage and we needed to look for a bigger place to live, so we bought a tiny house outside town in the country and set up housekeeping.  The house had a tiny bedroom, a tiny living room and a tiny kitchen.  I was so proud of it. I enjoyed cleaning it and arranging the furniture as much as it was possible in such a tiny space.  We celebrated our first Christmas there and the next Spring, our first son was born.  Then we had to look for an even bigger house because eight months after the first son was born, we were expecting again!   We found a big house on top of a hill in Richmond and again I set up housekeeping in my bigger house.  We had enough bedrooms for us all.    Then our second son was born and I was busy.  David had begun working for the military by then and was in the military for thirty-seven years.

And so the years passed swiftly.  One year the boys and I went to Grayling, Michigan to camp with David while he attended guard camp for two weeks.   It was there that I had a sneaking suspicion I was pregnant again. I kept telling David I thought I was, but he said I was just imagining things.  Well, he was wrong!  I was, again pregnant and nine months later we had a little girl.  Having a girl was so different from having boys, but I loved it.  Dressing her up in all the cute clothes.   I was so happy on our hill with my three children.  I was also caring for two other children and keeping busy and happy.

Then one day David came home and told me he was being sent someplace else and my world fell apart, or at least I thought it had.  I was going to have to leave friends and family and go some place where I knew no one.  Our children would have to go to a strange school.  I was not happy about the move.   David and I took one weekend to find a new house which is the one where we now live.  I wanted an older fixer upper with some character and some land.  We got it all with this house, but I must say we have been fixing it up for the last thirty-eight years and still have more we want to do.   We made the move and I cried for days.  By and by things got back to normal, I met people and found a church and got the boys in school and they seemed to thrive so all was good.

We have seen so much through the years.  I could write an entire book about our life as a couple and what all we have done together.  We have traveled in almost all fifty states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands,Canada and Mexico.  We raised our three children to adulthood and they are productive members of society.  We have seen loved ones and friends pass away and babies born into the family.  As the song says, “Sunrise, sunset, swiftly fly the days.  One season following the other….”   Our seasons have flown by.  Here we are the elders in our family now and we still love life, God and family and look forward to more years together, but if it should all end tomorrow, I can say we have been blest and have had a wonderful life.  Just remember if you are married right now and think you cannot make it to forty-seven or more years, you can if you decide to and learn to love and care for one other person more than yourself.  That is what a wife and husband are to do.  A young man told us the other day that not many marriages make it as far as ours.  I find that sad because all it takes is love, a relationship with Jesus Christ, and a determination that your marriage will not fail. That it is your top priority.   It will all be good if you both do those three things.  Bye.

Feeling the Pain

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I have never been a fan of going to the doctor.  I have a really great doctor and I don’t mind so much when I have to go see him.  Right now I am contemplating a trip to the doctor and this is why.

Yesterday David got thirty bags of mulch for the garden.  He was busy with something else, so I proceeded to lift them out of the truck and stack  them.  No problem.  I have stacked hundreds of bags of mulch in the past.

Then, last night I started to bend my left knee and an excruciating pain shot through it, clear up my leg.  Every time I tried bending my knee I was in tears.  I had pinched a nerve or pulled a muscle.  I took pain relievers and a muscle relaxer in hopes of softening the pain a little.

I took a heating pad to bed with me, but I spent the night looking for a comfortable position for my leg.  It was like it was its own entity.  Not a part of my body except for the pain.  I don’t think childbirth was as painful.  I finally ended up in a single bed in our guest room and fell into a restless sleep.

Now today I am sitting in a recliner, unable to bend my knee unless I use my hands to gently raise it.  I had to make baked beans and a cake for a funeral dinner at out church today and I managed that and drove to church, but had to get someone to help me get the baked beans inside.  I felt so puny.  I was so glad I managed to do it as the funeral was for a man I have known ever since we started going to our church thirty some years ago.  He was a godly man and a good man and we will surely miss him.  I am sure they are celebrating his arrival in Heaven.

This afternoon, David and I are going to look at some acreage in Brown county and I am hoping I can walk the property lines to see where it goes.   I am determined to do it as I really would love to own some property in Brown Country which is a wooded, hilly area in our state.   We shall see.  David says if I am not better in a day or so, I will go to the doctor.  I imagine him twisting and turning my knee and me screaming in agony as he does it and I don’t relish the thought.  I am praying the pain will go away before I have to see a doctor.

When I was a little girl, my parents took all us kids periodically to the doctor for polio shots.  Back then it was a real threat.  In fact, one time my parents thought I had polio because I got a very stiff neck and could not look up.  Those were the times when doctors made house calls and Dr. Barton came to our house and put me through a series of neck exercises.  He decided I didn’t have polio, but suggested we all have polio shots and we did.  My sister would tease me about how long the needle was and scare me half to death before I even got into the doctor’s office.  Perhaps that is why I have a slight fear of doctors to this day.

Later, when I was in school, I suffered with tonsillitis quite often.  I was absent from school for six weeks in second grade because I had such severe sore throat problems.  My mother would talk to my teacher and get my homework and I would lay in bed all day eating soup and reading and doing my homework.  I was so glad to get back to school with all my friends.  I still have my tonsils even though the doctor had recommended they be removed.

I am not a good patient and do not like being bedridden or chair ridden as I am now.  Perhaps this is God’s way of slowing me down and having me look to Him.  Anyway, I have empathy with those of you in pain right now.  It isn’t fun.  It’s humbling and there is nothing to be done but endure it.   If you are a praying person, say a little prayer for me that my knee might be healed.  Thank you.

I have sounded like a whiny baby here, but, hey, every day isn’t all sunshine and happy.  Bye.