Category Archives: love

I am Loved

Christianity, Family, GOD, humor, hope, LIFE, love

MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2011

I am loved!

I know it is only January but, I am encouraged by the new year…I have no real reason that I can claim why the feeling of hope but I just have that presence of mind that this will be a good year. Maybe because it is the beginning or because I am always excited about all things new. So much so I like to keep things new. I almost think that had I been born in the generation before me I would have been that one who kept the plastic on the lamp shade and the furniture. There is something about it all still being new, not all covered in cat hair or dust(mites), glad I can’t see those, creeps me out just knowing they are there. I am not the person who should watch the Discovery programs on all the creepy stuff that happens during the night while we gently sleep. The layers of skin and mites and spiders that crawl in our mouth…..shhhhhhh! I need to stop talking about it even now! I am the one who hates to write the first page of a new notebook or paint on the clean white canvas or wear a new white shirt because I know the minute I put it on it will get a smudge, I will flick mascara on it, which only mushes and will not come out no matter how much I try, then I have to find another one to wear..it is an endless cycle! So when “things” are new it causes my OCD (never officially been diagnosed, but I am sure I have it) to kick into high gear and then my procrastination sets in and I am back at square one again. But today with the start of a new year I feel strong and hopeful and encouraged, but I don’t know why, just a feeling. I haven’t made any public resolutions, I do have some between me and God, can’t say them out loud..the Devil will hear them! I know that God will keep them on the down-low though, He is cool like that and I know He will carry me through these days when I am not so sure… I can do all things through Him who strengthens me! I am a “glass half full” girl and I need to remind myself that every day. I always have a 50/50 chance of being right. I am blessed, I have a husband that has ALWAYS loved me, I have never wondered about that, and he is the funniest person I have ever known and even if we were not together anymore, I would have to be his best friend because I would miss him so much, he is that cool, he is my best friend and we have been in the foxholes together and survived it and I attribute all of my sanity and ability to maintain this 28 year relationship all to him…as he has followed the Lord. We have not always been perfect as parents or people, believe me I can be a pill! He has given me the grace to be the real me and put up with all my psychosis and yet hung in there loving me all the same. We are entering into the good years I believe and I can only hope a beach house is involved…it could happen!. I am also blessed because I have a big ole batch of kids who someday when they all find their paths the Lord has designed for them, they will come home and visit and love on us and be the people who I know they can be…I have seen the future and it is bright for them, all of them, they are my best friends, each unique and all of them as funny and quick-witted as their daddy, they are well read and smart and sharp-tongued like me, sorry world! Look out though, they are a force to be reckoned with and I am more proud of them than any parent should be. I am also blessed because I am a sister with sisters who keep me in line and who were the first ones to encourage and look after me, girls are tough, lets just be honest, but they taught me how to be a girl who is a friend and because of that I have a few great friends who love me unconditionally, fat or skinny, mad or sad, doing right or bad attitude, they are there for me, you girls rock and I am thrilled you have chosen me. So of course I am hopeful about the new year, what have I got to lose, I am not any richer or skinnier or younger but I am loved…that’s all I need!…except this lamp and this phonebook…that’s all I need!

Baby Girl

Christianity, enjoyment, encouragement, Family, GOD, humor, hope, LIFE, love

FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2011

Baby Girl!

After twenty-five years of raising a girl, I would have to say that boys are easier! This is my conclusion because I have raised three boys…or nearly got them raised! Do boys ever really grow up? This is not to be said in any way to slight my daughter or to seem as if it hasn’t been a joyous adventure, it has been. But, only to say that it has surely been an adventure! Along about the time my beautiful blond, blue-eyed first-born was nearly one and a half I got the feeling I was ready for another baby…yes, I think I did drink the kool-aide! Crazy as it seemed to probably everyone, I wanted another and not only another child but a GIRL! It took me a little while to accomplish this, a lot of practice…over and over but finally after six months the rabbit died and we had ourselves a baby. This baby in fact is the one I prayed for, made a special request to God, picked her out especially…blond, blue eyes(that was a given, her brother came out that way..ha)A GIRL!, (fifty-fifty chance!) and not just a girl but a spunky, feisty, tomboy, but frilly still, girlie girl! I wanted her to be well….like me I guess! OOPS…what was I thinking? I knew I was having a girl, I painted the room white and pink…had pretty wallpaper with pink flowers, before I had a test done to be for sure..I just knew! I had picked out her name long before we had our first…Bethany, the city of Mary and Martha and when I first heard it I knew I loved it, I had not known of any other girls named that, it was unique..special, only I wanted Esther as her middle name but after NO BODY BUT ME WANTED IT, except for Charles, we loved that book in the Bible so much….I bent under a public outcry (wimp!) I went with the only vain choice..Rose. She now thanks me for not sticking her with ESTHER! So here we go, God does answer our prayers, hardly gained any weight, 13 pounds! she was a lot smaller than Will but perfect in every way…we were so blessed and I couldn’t contain my joy. We all three were so happy, our family was perfect, one boy….one girl…all were healthy. She was beautiful..her skin was like light pink velvet…I was smitten with this little thing. The funny thing was that about two months old she began to be colic ridden…and all that goes with that! She wouldn’t take a pacci..ugh! and when she was asleep…she wasn’t. Dear sweet daddy was the only one who could get her asleep but she still had one eye open..ha This one didn’t want to miss a thing and she didn’t. When she was four months old we found out our joy would be made even more full…I WAS PREGNANT AGAIN! so thirteen months after she was born we had Samuel. So then she decided she wanted HIS PACI! Only to put it in her mouth upside down where it stayed for the rest of the time. There begins the trials and tribulations of raising a girl. They have that precious and so sappy sweet way of getting what they want. If it doesn’t come from asking sweetly they will get it any way possible! This short time we have had this unique, special little girl has been nothing short of joy unspeakable with a mix of feisty ness and a chaser of screaming at the top of her lungs. The real truth of the matter is that it is probably all my fault…I prayed for her, picked her out special and God loves me enough to give me just what I ask for…another helping of ME! He is funny that way…you know HE is laughing the whole time. If I were HIM I would do the same thing. “Hush up lady…I got all these problems in the world to fix and your there whining about a thing that is gonna be, regardless of what you say..I got this…it’s in the genes”. He got all this figured out way back when. I have to say that I wouldn’t change one thing about her….she is the only girl in the midst of three boys and she could beat all of them up, she could rule and reign over all three of them and has at different times, she gets her way, nearly every time and she is smarter than all of us put together. I just hope she never figures that one out…Girls are pretty special…I am glad I had one (only one!) and I am a better woman because I had the honor of raising my little girl. At twenty-five years old today, Bethany, welcome to the rest of your life….the world is at your feet, YOU ARE STRONG AND BEAUTIFUL AND SMART AND GOD LOVES YOU EXTRA SPECIAL! THIS IS YOUR TIME TO TAKE YOUR PLACE IN THE WORLD! Look out world…here she comes! Happy Birthday Bethany Rose…I love you, Mom.

Two for the price of one

Christianity, enjoyment, encouragement, Family, GOD, humor, hope, LIFE, love

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Two for the price of one!

As I look back on the past years I am reminded of the awesome miracles that I have been given, today especially since on this day twenty four years ago and also fifteen years ago, respectively, I was given two amazing opportunities to see Gods hand at work in two beautiful ways. It has been said that there is nothing more precious than the smile of your own precious baby and I would have to say that there are never more true words. The first one of the September 21st babies was not without incident…not his fault at all, but he came on the literal heels of his loud and proud older sister…well only thirteen months older! Yes kids, mom and dad got busy and we are pleased to announce the birth of our second son..what! Yep that is the response we got…people were mortified, no, shocked, no, loud mouthed and rude about it would better describe it!! How odd that two normal, loving, christian, healthy people would have the nerve to have yet another child only thirteen months after the second one. Oh, I forgot we were suppose to stop at two, we must have not realized the rules. Well, we were young and stupid and happy and in love. How dare we! Needless to say I may have a little bit of an axe to grind, still…writing is therapy ya know! As it turned out, God is good, this new baby came and we couldn’t be happier. He is beautiful and the best baby in the universe. I SAY THAT SERIOUSLY..he was calm and sweet and there were times I would have to look to see if he was ok, he was so good, a juxtaposition from that older sister afore mentioned. This little one looked like my side of the family…I was thrilled, he had the same skin as my daddy, darker hair at birth than the others but soon turned lighter and he was a puddin’ of a child. I was in love again…and all those nay sayers can just talk to themselves, my little lefty (his Aunt Ramona’s fault, btw) has been a joy to love. He has been the calm in the storm and I see me in him and even more my sister Jan(she was the third child too and they are very similar), his eyes are big and dreamy and I am blessed to be his mom. This man now is a comfort and keeps me on my toes, being an avid reader and too smart for my own good, I see greatness in his future. This brings me to the TWO for the price of one part. Zip ahead nine years and to repeat the shock and awe that was so powerful just a few years back we are expecting another bundle of joy! I don’t want to presume to think that anyone including me would think that this comes as a surprise, although I wasn’t really trying to get pregnant BUT I was kinda wanting to. That is the truth, I felt like I had one more to have, I knew it would be a girl and then it would be perfect! Two boys, two girls, everyone would be perfect and beautiful (we do make pretty kids, she says humbly) and with presumption I went, not worrying about a thing…till the day I found out I wasnt just sick…I was with child. I kinda freaked out for about five minutes until my beloved said the kindest words he could ever say to me…” Don’t worry, this is what you do best, being a mommy” and at that moment I was at peace. Needles to say I have failed many times in that department, crashed and burned even, but I sure do love it. Then, after we gave this little one a girl name only to find out HE is a boy! then a momentary fear of something happening within the womb that he could be born without some limbs for which GOD IS GOOD and he came into this world perfect without any difficulties. This little guy was loved to the max before he ever got here….once our ten year old girl welcomed the fact she wasn’t getting a little sister ( Dodged a bullet there, by the way..what was I thinking, ONE GIRL IS PLENTY! How do you spell drama?) Our beautiful boy was born on the exact same day as his brother, only nine years later…Two on the same birthday! As a side note here: also the Saturday UT VOLS played Florida..GO VOLS! After attempting to make Sam believe that he got the ultimate birthday present…a baby brother (NOT) we all rallied around this kid. No one child had more people to wait on him hand and foot. But he sure was sweet, like his birthday mate, easy and sweet and calm and we all loved him so much. I was finally finished having babies, all tied up and complete, I felt now for sure our nest was full, Daddy was loving this kid, we were older and more experienced and this was a piece of cake. Bethany got a real life baby doll to play with and the boys had someone to show how to be a man. We had a blast, it was never a chore and we all loved to love him, this little boy with the big name, Nathanael Joseph, for which I shortened to NJ one day on a whim which stuck. This boy has been a blessing from the start, I know that God gave him especially to me, to keep me going. He has been my own personal life mirror, he is real and honest and confronts my humanity at every point. He has kept me sane (well that could be questioned) but I feel like he keeps me grounded. I like this kid, he is as funny as his dad and as happy a kid as you would ever meet. He brightens my day and has a song in his heart constantly. He loves God and never meets a stranger, welcomes his friends to his world without question. Our family is richer for having him, we all have had a part in raising him, he is the best of us all. Happy Birthday my two for the price of one children….no mother could be more proud of her boys and I can not wait to see what the Lord has for you two in your days ahead. Just don’t forget to take care of me and your dad!

“My pigtails are too tight!”

Cancer, Christianity, Family, GOD, humor, hope, LIFE, love

Today I had a funny thing said to me while in a conversation with my sister-in-law on the phone and it cracked me up so much as our talks usually do and sent my mind reeling to the point that it made me think long and hard about life and the frailty of it. She was telling me about a recent surgery and she had gone back to the doctor for the stitch removal from the back of her neck. Now as a rule these stories of medical adventures are not something that I take joy in hearing about from most people. It isn’t that I am particularly heartless or uncaring, (although I have been told that Mercy is not one of my strong spiritual gifts) it is just that I get a bit creeped out by all the messy details, but I attempt to listen intently and nod in concern at the proper times. On this day I was paying close attention because my dear sister is dealing with an awfully frightening battle, one that I am prayerfully hopeful will be a conquest for the Lord which will reveal his mercy and healing power, so I am astutely interested in all the details, she is my husbands only sibling and has been one of my closest friends for the last 28 years. We have raised our kids together, been through ups and downs as families go, day to day crisis, jealousies and frustrations, good times and bad. We have had many times of rejoicing, we have been in ministry together (I secretly prayed for her ability to cry every time she walked into church, seems so caring!}, encouraging each other and telling each other the plain truth on most occasions. It has not always been pretty but, it has always been fun, we have laughed about all the ridiculous stages of our lives(this one being funny, thank goodness for cell phones in compromising situations), kept each others kids, stayed snowed in playing cards all day with our men and taken our family vacations to the beach. We haven’t always agreed but we have always eventually been able to talk it out and remain friends. We know more dirt on each other than anyone else, it’s in the vault and will remain until Jesus comes..we are buddies, com padres, friends and freinemies! To sum it up…sisters, she was there when I was missing my two sisters, I was her only one, even though only by marriage, she was with me in the delivery room with my third child, she made him a southpaw…I am convinced of that, needless to say… we are tight. So when she said that her stitches were so tight before the doctor took them out that “it felt like her pigtails were too tight!” it totally cracked me up. The visual was killing me and if you have ever had that problem, i.e. pigtails too tight, you can completely empathize with her. It took me straight back to when I was a little girl with pigtails and the awful pain, one that hurt your head all day long and it finally dawns on you after the headache that won’t go away, that it is the pigtails that are causing it. Then you have the decision to make…do you endure it or take down your hair and deal with the awful humps in your hair from the rubber bands? So you leave it up till you get to the safety of home and that is why it was such a funny thing to say..it was so childlike, so naturally plain and real. It was a remembrance that made me feel happy. Happy is what I want to be when talking to her about her situation, a hard one to stomach, yet she has handled it with all the grace and courage that I would expect from her. This is typical of her, strong yet frail on the inside, she will maintain this attitude of gratitude for her family and her Lord. She has much faith and she is a force to be reckoned with so good luck Devil! You’ll not win! Her precious grandfather who passed away a few years ago at just short of 100 years old, who by the way was just about the most quick witted person ever born, would often say…”bring me my flowers while I am still alive!” So to my precious sister, not just in-law but for real, here are your flowers, you are important, you are a valuable prayer warrior in God’s army and and a friend of great heart and love. The times we have laughed and they have been many will be some of my most sacred memories and when the day comes that we actually figure out how to be committed to our adjoining rubber rooms in the insane asylum, I know we will have many more, three square meals a day and all the rook playing we want. And eventually, which ever one of us that makes it to heaven first, be sure to find out where the best bathroom is! We have covered most of Tennessee, Alabama and the Gulf, that will be a new frontier for us. Seriously, we must always be prepared for anything! AHHH, middle age….ain’t it grand!

New York, New York

enjoyment, encouragement, Family, GOD, humor, hope, LIFE, love

Today I had a very pleasant visit with my precious mother. She lives with my older sister, for which I am very grateful. My sister has taken the daunting task of “looking after” our mother of 82 years young and it is, I am sure a blessing and at times a frustration. Not to say it would be hard for my sis, she loves her with her whole heart, but anytime you have the full responsibility of anyone it can be a bit much, but she does this with great joy and love for our mom and our family is blessed to have our mom in a safe and loving place. For this I will always honor my sister for the sacrifice she has made. While visiting with my mom, whom of which I respect more than she could ever know, she was telling me of a time long ago when I was around 5 or 6 years old. Now needless to say, she like me can’t tell you where she laid her glasses last, but can remember the past joys and sorrows as if they happened within the past hour. Odd how that happens and I am already right there with her. We were talking about growing up with hopes and dreams for the future and I was relating to her how it seems odd to me that kids these days are many times without any goals or plans for their future. We debated it back and forth and we realized it is because kids of this generation or for the past 20 years or so have not had to struggle so much. We like most parents have tried to give our children everything they needed as well a wanted. I grew up not as poor as my Mom, but without a lot of the more modern doo dads of the day, hand-me-downs and such and I think I am the better for it. It gave me a strong work ethic and the strength to work for what I wanted as I got older. My mom grew up very poor, in a town that the main employment was a Limestone factory, Sherwood, TN, which is on the Alabama side of Monteagle Mountain. When the Limestone factory left, all the work left and men had to travel to cities close by (close meaning up a mountain and down the other side usually!)Her goal was to someday leave that tiny town and become something amazing, maybe a nurse? Well as fate would have it, she married a handsome man who joined the Army and took her to Germany, eventually, had 5 children total and ended up on a farm way out in Readyville, TN. Well, probably not the excitement she was looking for as a young girl but it was something. I am pretty glad, that is how I got here and I am lucky to have a great mom. She did have aspirations and her adventurous spirit came in handy after many years of marriage and the eventual time, after my dad left us, of just her and us kids, and later on she was able to take a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska to visit my older brother and his beautiful family, who was in the Army. From that trip she stayed and went to work on the North Slope, the gas pipeline and stayed for 9 years. My mom has lived her life renewing it over and over, never scared of the next chapter(or she never showed she was), forging ahead for a new adventure. During our conversation about the kids these days she proceeded to tell me a little story about myself. She stated that when I was home one day with her, which wasn’t the norm because I most days stayed with my Granny Maxwell, while she worked and my siblings were at school. But on this day she was home with me and she said I had an old handbag that my precious granny had given me and I was sitting on the step down into our kitchen in our old farm house. She said I was playing with the purse and talking up a storm (no!) and stated matter of factly that …Mamma, someday I am going to take my new purse and be an artist and go to New York City! I almost cracked up and said, why did I say that, did she know? She said it was because every afternoon of my young life, while at my Granny’s house, after lunch everything in our world stopped, and we would sit in the living room and watch her stories. Stories are Soap Operas and in the south we called them Stories! She said that the Stories were were all from New York City and I had always wanted to go there. What a revelation to me….I did not remember that, I did remember the handbag, it was black leathery and one of those claspy button closures on top for which I would usually pinch my finger every time, with one short handle, old school, old lady bag that always smelled like Juicy Fruit gum on the inside. The funny thing to me was I have always wanted to live in New York….You give me a good chick flick with New York scenes, i.e. “You’ve Got Mail” and I am there. I have told my husband and he has always known of my desire to go to the Big Apple and has told me plenty of times he would take me someday, I am still waiting, not in a hurry, I will go when it is the right time for me to, But I never knew I had that dream so young…to be an Artist and live in NYC! I may never be a famous artist, I realize my limitations but I might just get there someday? For this time in my life, the Lord made a different path to take, He set me on HIS path and it has been rewarding and a blessing, He gave me so much more than I had ever dreamed of, I am blessed. But someday I will go. This brings me finally to the point…I had a dream, hopes of a future, I always knew there could be MORE! It boggles my mind at the inability of the younger than me people of today who have nothing they want to do, not about money or success, but a dream, a hope of if there was nothing standing in their way. I don’t really know what to make of it, it saddens me, once a person looses hope, what is left? There is a song that Martina McBride made famous a few years ago, which to this day makes me cry when I hear it. It talks about getting out there and going for it, whatever IT is, just at least try…just dance! That is what I hope for my own precious children whom I have attempted to have influence on these past 26 years….JUST DANCE! Whatever you want in your heart of hearts, whatever it takes to make it happen…go for it. The worst thing that could happen is you could fail…so what. Failure is sometimes the best thing. It can cause us to get up and try again, which in turn builds character and faith and causes us to live and not waste away with what could have been. I still have hopes and dreams, I am not to old, I know there must be more and I will not miss the chance to dance( with my beautiful husband, hand in hand) and one day it might just be in New York, New York!!!

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Amazing Love

Christianity, Family, GOD, LIFE, love, , , , , , , , ,

As I write my thoughts today, I am reminded of the most memorable day of my life with the exception of my Wedding Day, which was of course the day that changed my destiny forever.

But the memories that I have today are of the most amazing event that could ever happen. At the time I had only known about God for a few short months, I had only snip its of the awe inducing world of God and they weren’t much. I do attribute any knowledge of Biblical matters to my sister who is right above me in the birth order. There would be times when I would have questions, I would hear about it in school; this was back when it was normal to hear about God and the baby JESUS at school, and I would ask my sister. She being an avid reader, to the point of that’s all she did when she had the time after farm and house chores, she would ALWAYS find the event in the BIBLE and make me read about it. NEVER would she just cut to the chase and tell me, I would have to work for it and of course this would full fill her need to make me read more, for which I now thank her, I finally like to read, it is a delicacy in the world of four kids.

But back then I really only knew the high points, Christmas, Easter blah, blah, blah! At the time of my first pregnancy I had only given my heart to this God I speak of about a year earlier and being a new christian I was in the baby steps myself. I did have a good teacher thou, my new husband was raised in the “way” of the Lord. He had not always been all fired up about it but as the scripture states (paraphrased a lot) teach them and when they are old they will always return to it! It worked…He came back to it or should I say the Lord and he did it in a big way, all in that one was.. I was glad but he really got sold out and here I am twenty eight years later a preachers wife…..geez!

This brings me to this amazing event that was about to happen, how can after all the new events that had happened to me in the past nearly two years, married to my best friend (love of my life, funniest guy I ever met and loves me more than I deserve), salvation (getting to live in heaven someday and dodging the impending doom I was headed for) and now this…..the greatest miracle ever done. People say that it is a great thing but even a dog can do it and a lot more at one time ( I assume a man said that not that I am male bashing but really?) This momentous event is the birth of my first child. This is even more of a miracle than the obvious and anyone who ever knew me could attest to that fact. I was reminded recently that I had written in my High School Annual(Go Patriots ’77) that I thought then I would probably become a teacher and at a last resort get married. My hopes were not high at that time, I was a scrawny high school senior who had not yet crossed over to the maturity level of my peers at least physically.

Needless to say I didn’t get asked out much, I had lots of big brothers though which was actually more fun! The idea of marriage and kids were ridiculous and I am not exactly sure how it happened, maybe I was sold into white slavery, ambushed by a masked man who kidnapped me and brainwashed me? HaHa Nope, just saw a boy who was scary……..(Robert Redford-like) beautiful and blonde….that’s all she wrote…I was bitten..the love bug won…yeah for love bugs! This brings me to the birth…that event that made time stand still, on this day I became a mommie, I fell in love in a way that is only understood by those that have had the same event happen to them…wow it is amazing, the amazing love! How could this squishy little punk have such an impact on a reasonably smart woman. First of all, how in this world did all that happen inside of ME! Seriously, who thought that up? And how did he figure all that out? Never did I ever realize the existence of GOD as I did at that moment…wowza! did that really happen? I was awake, although I had a C-section….surprise! scary and totally foreign….I had never been in the hospital before and it was freaky and a bit unexpected, I was secretly happy, the thought of screaming my guts out and pushing that almost ten pounder through that Holy of Holies….well, that was an awful part of the event, Gods little gotcha….stupid apple, Eve what in the heck were you thinkin’, thanks for causing all of eternity to suffer well, the girls, typical! Not me sista..I got a pass, and boy o’ boy was I happy…five days of bed rest and pampering by my scared to death husband. He was as flipped out by the rush into surgery as I was. Worked in my favor though so cool. I never looked back, that’s the way to go, I say.
 
So I was alert and I still say…how did that all happen, God is so smart, he is God for pete’s sake. This is an undeniable fact….HE really does know what he is doing, that is awesome, building a whole person inside one young girls body. Totally terrific and amazing, that is the only word for it….AMAZING!
 
God gave me a little boy, we named him after his daddy, a junior, and it was the incredible thing that made me know how tender and precious life is. It all went well, he was strong and perfect and I was in love..immediately. How could God allow this to happen within Mary’s womb and allow his only son to be slaughtered by his own people, the chosen ones. Why would HE go through the pain He must have had and give up the only real and precious person he created only to know he would suffer?
 
Amazing love, that is why. I get it…He loves me that much, we are all His children and He loves us all that much. I can’t see it and it must be why He is God. I know I couldn’t do it but HE did..thank you my sweet Lord. And now on the eve of my own first borns birth, twenty seven years ago, I am still in awe of the miracle of birth. I am thankful for that child of mine and the three others that followed but, I must say the first time is amazing…Happy Birthday to my first born.
 
The amazing love that I have for you, is pale in comparison to how much the Lord loves you. You have blessed my life and I am comforted in the fact that HE loves you even more than me and HE will always keep his hand on your life, choose Him everyday, HE picked you out especially for me and I am honored to be your mom. Even if you are a “pill” most days!
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Reflection

Christianity, GOD, LIFE, love

When a person gets to a certain age it becomes apparent that the days are shorter and the time that we had which seemed so abundant is now only fleeting memories. My son is so looking forward to summer vacation. The clock couldn’t tick any faster for him..he is so ready to be out of middle school and move on the High School. Okay I must stop there for a minute. WHAT!!! High School already…case in point! He is the age that my oldest son was when he was born….good grief! Geeez….I can’t even talk about it with out getting misty eyed. The hard thing for me is that these days of reflection seem to be coming upon me more and more. I can hardly get through one day without reminiscing about the life I have had in the past thirty years…WHAT! 30 years!!! Oh my goodness…I have been with my husband for 30 yrs and well where did the time go? WOW! I mean I can remember so well all those times then…seriously…the beautiful blond hair and blue eyes with cute freckles on his nose that instantly made me take a second look at him. It is a fact that Hubble Gardner had nothing on him…this man of mine. I knew he was the ONE! We were on our way and a few years later we were blessed with a beautiful, blond, blue eyed baby boy…twenty seven years ago…WHAT!!! 27 years…I am about to give myself a heart attack! Later we had three more to follow, each one just as special as the first, just a beautiful. And then I realize we have four! Yowza! These have been good times, mostly and when it was hard or is hard it is my memories and my reflections back that keep me going. I don’t believe in looking back..turning into a pillar of salt is not my idea of a good time! Reflection is a good thing, it allows me to take stock of where I have been and what I value the most. I am able to adjust and give thanks to the one who has kept us all from harm. He is a good God, He has allowed us to walk this path with Him alongside us. He has given us the strength, He has carried us when we couldn’t go another step. Even so today I feel Him holding me up, encouraging me and standing with me in the gap, as I interceded for my family and my friends. This life can be interesting to say the least. I never know each day what twist or turn will come. All I do know is that I know who to turn to and that it is His comfort that keeps me, His abiding love that catches my tears and surrounds me like a warm blanket. Just the way I do as I mother these babies of mine. I have had a good teacher.

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Best Friends

Alzheimers, Christianity, enjoyment, encouragement, Family, GOD, humor,hope, LIFE, love, Old Age, Parents

This is the day I reflect on the last year…not on New Years Eve or New Years Day but today…January 2nd. What is so great about this day? Nothin’ at all but, it is not a typical day that a person would typically make the run of the mill reflections or words of encouragement or wax poetic about the things to come. Since I do not consider myself…”run of the mill” I of course change things up and find myself on this day… pondering. The last year has been a time of many changes, the loss of precious family members, gone but never forgotten, as a matter of fact it seems as if they are only sleeping and soon we will be together again (that’s my two cents on the future…we will be together again soon…see you guys in heaven….Maranatha!!) We have survived another year of twists and turns, rebirths and confinements…healing and becoming the people we thought we had lost…..I am one happy Mom needless to say and I see a bright future for the first time in ten years. The world as we all know it has changed, presidents come and go, wars and rumors of wars stop and start and… the beat goes on. And sometimes lives sorta become frozen in time. The hardest thing about these times are the losses….or even more, the lack knowledge of the loss. There are times in a person’s life when the world becomes very small and somewhat retroactive. I have been plummeted in the middle of a life that has been halted, a season of unknowing the reality of the moment. And even though this time of life for us is demanding and frightening and even down right scary as hell(yes I said it) it has also had some comforting realities. I am living through a time in my mother’s life that has over the past year or so been gone, even though she is physically in the here and now, she is mostly living in her memories and wanting to share those good and bad times of her life with me. It is an education to say the least and even though painful, has opened up a whole world that I had not known…a time before me or at least before I was old enough to understand. It is somewhat fascinating to hear about what the life back then was for her, as well as sad but it gives me comfort in knowing that our memories are what we have, sometimes the only thing we have and they are precious…to be savored…until that day when they have vapor ed away. I do not look forward to that day for her or for that matter, myself. After one particular day of stories…painful…funny and at times disheartening it was time for me to leave and she thanked me for listening…it was sweet and I said I enjoyed it and she is my friend…and her reply was…”you’re my BEST FRIEND!” I was honored to say the least, knowing of course that my sisters are probably hearing the same stories and been given the same title, but for me it was a sweet surprise that I will always cherish. Mostly because she is my momma but also because maybe when the day comes that she may not know me as her little girl anymore…she may remember me as a friend…her best friend and that will be enough. I hope! Later that day as I was telling my precious husband the story of my day and I asked him if he will take care of me if this awful disease befalls on me…he smiled and said..”yes, I will NOTEBOOK you! Boy… what a way with words that man has….I instantly know what he meant.(his reference was to the book/movie THE Notebook by Nicholas Sparks)which is the sweetest story ever of unfailing love. Now there is a best friend and once again I am blessed by this man of mine. So to those people in my life that have given me so much love…I am the one that realizes my joy is in the memories we make and remembering the days..good, precious and even the hard ones and as long as I have my best friends I have a good year ahead. Look out world!

Reflection

GOD, humor,hope, LIFE, love

MONDAY, MAY 16, 2011
Reflection
When a person gets to a certain age it becomes apparent that the days are shorter and the time that we had which seemed so abundant is now only fleeting memories. My son is so looking forward to summer vacation. The clock couldn’t tick any faster for him..he is so ready to be out of middle school and move on the High School. Okay I must stop there for a minute. WHAT!!! High School already…case in point! He is the age that my oldest son was when he was born….good grief! Geeez….I can’t even talk about it without getting misty eyed. The hard thing for me is that these days of reflection seem to be coming upon me more and more. I can hardly get through one day without reminiscing about the life I have had in the past thirty years…WHAT! 30 years!!! Oh my goodness…I have been with my husband for 30 yrs and well where did the time go? WOW! I mean I can remember so well all those times then…seriously…the beautiful blond hair and blue eyes with cute freckles on his nose that instantly made me take a second look at him. It is a fact that Hubble Gardner had nothing on him…this man of mine. I knew he was the ONE! We were on our way and a few years later we were blessed with a beautiful, blond, blue-eyed baby boy…twenty seven years ago…WHAT!!! 27 years…I am about to give myself a heart attack! Later we had three more to follow, each one just as special as the first, just a beautiful. And then I realize we have four! Yowza! These have been good times, mostly and when it was hard or is hard it is my memories and my reflections back that keep me going. I don’t believe in looking back..turning into a pillar of salt is not my idea of a good time! Reflection is a good thing, it allows me to take stock of where I have been and what I value the most. I am able to adjust and give thanks to the one who has kept us all from harm. He is a good God, He has allowed us to walk this path with Him alongside us. He has given us the strength, He has carried us when we couldn’t go another step. Even so today I feel Him holding me up, encouraging me and standing with me in the gap, as I interceded for my family and my friends. This life can be interesting to say the least. I never know each day what twist or turn will come. All I do know is that I know who to turn to and that it is His comfort that keeps me, His abiding love that catches my tears and surrounds me like a warm blanket. Just the way I do as I mother these babies of mine. I have had a good teacher.
Posted by Rosemary Mcknight Fritts at 10:22 AM

HERO

Christianity, enjoyment, encouragement, GOD, humor, hope, LIFE, love, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2011
HERO
How do you measure the life of a man?

Is it by the great wealth that he managed to accumulate or the land or homes or vehicles?

Is it by his position in business or his standing in the community?

The only way any man can be measured is by the fruit of his labor, the life he has lived on this earth and the lives that were changed by his love and the only real definition of success is how he was loved. This world is filled with complaints and negative thoughts that ride on the back of negative people. You can’t throw a rock without hitting someone who is complaining about something, no matter how trivial, we continue to be bothered and letting anyone who may be in our path know of our great plight in life.

I must admit I am the first whiner that I can think of. Honestly, I get sick of my own self, some days. I spend precious moments attempting to figure out why the world seems to pick on little old me! Good grief! Get over it! Come to find out, as I have grown very much older and wiser (well, the jury is still out on that one) It’s not all about me….as hard to believe as that is, I am not the center of the universe. How’d that happen? I never got the memo….was there a meeting, was there a quorum?

Did we vote? Yep they voted and I lost…..shocking how that happens.

Well actually not so much, I humbly say I have always known it wasn’t all about me. I am thankful I wasn’t given that burden to carry by my parents. But I know now that it is all about one person, that was on this earth for only thirty three short years, who gave it all so that we might have life everlasting and I have watched that same sacrifice and humility play out in the life of a man who without any fan fair or parade, lived everyday like it was his last. I have never known anyone that lived so completely complain free, even when he struggled for every breath in his last days on this earth. He would always have a smile and a kind word for anyone he met. He encouraged every person he knew and on those few occasions when I dared to be a complainer in front of him, he would say…..”ahh Rosa (he called me that from the first time I met him!)the Lord will help you, just stay close to him. Augh!

Why did he always have to hit me with that one, seriously!! does it always go back to that? can I not have five minutes of feeling sorry for myself. Does he even remember that I am married to his son and gave him four( I outta get the prize) grandkids and am a preachers wife and and…and….NOPE!

Stopped in my tracks with the harsh reality of Jesus suffering an awful punishment just so I can stand here and whine about, in my overly dramatic fashion, my bad day. This man who never complains about anything…ever… stands there and basically strips me down to myself and reminds me …it’s not the end of the world.

This guy I speak of is probably the sweetest and kindest gentleman anyone who reads this would ever know. Thirty years ago, I met a boy who had a father who from the first time I met him, made me one of his own. Without any question or judgement or hesitation, he welcomed me into his family and gave me a name. I was a part of him and not one time did I ever NOT feel accepted by him. I was never an “in-law”, I was a daughter and isn’t that just like Jesus.

This man is Curtis Fritts and he breathed his last breath holding the hand of his beloved wife and his one and only grand daughter, Bethany….his son and my only precious daughter. I know she will never forget the honor of being there with him, she saw the best man in this world enter into his reward for a life lived fully and without any reservation for where he was going.

As he took that last breath, he left behind all the pain of this world….not that we ever heard him complain about it!

Thank you Dad for loving us all. There is your measuring stick…..they will know HIM by our great love. Amen!
Posted by Rosemary Mcknight Fritts at 2:38 AM

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