Filed under: Day-to-Day, My Grateful Page | Tags: dad, God, Gratitude, life
that my father had an ulcerative sore on his leg and sought medical attention for it? Was it by chance that his doctor wasn’t in and he saw his PA? Was it by chance that the PA did some kind of exam that led him to believe my father needed an abdominal ultrasound? Was it by chance the ultrasound found a 9 cm transverse abdominal aortic aneurysm? I think not.
For me there is nothing circumstantial or done by chance in the life a Christian. I believe as do my sibilngs that God drove my father to the doctor before the aneurysm was so large it burst. How long did he have it? Why was it not found until now? I don’t know specific answers to that other than it was to accomplish God’s higher purpose in my father’s life and those around him.
Praise the Lord for His watch care over us even when we are unaware of the need for it. I praise the Lord that my father went through the surgery well and will soon be able to go home!
as we drove home from church last night we rode with the windows down and we were assaulted wtih a myriad of unfamiliar smells… Unfamiliar only in that we haven’t had these smells for a very long time!
Smells like wet dirt… now I bet you never thought about the smell of wet dirt but when you’re so used to smelling dust, wet dirt is a very pleasant smell. Then DH got into a “can you guess what smell that is? Well, we then smelled wet corn…
The North Platte which is usually a mere trickle of a stream has swelled it’s banks. Where there used to be little islands with trees growing, you can now see only parts of the little trees that were growing. When the N. Platte swells like this, it’s banks often get rearranged. It’s rather interesting to see. It is running deep and a lot faster than in the past.
Well, I told my DS the other day that we’d had rain for 5 days straight which is in itself a record, however, DH told me it was more like we’d had rain for a month straight. It’s almost like we’re trying to catch up on all the missed rain we’ve not had. Farmers have had difficulty getting into their fields to take care of crops but no one is really complaining…. yet.
Tuesday we’d had nice weather all day and nephew NM was trying to get cut hay baled before a storm that was predicted was to come in. Well, he got the hay in the north field baled and came through the yard fast later in the day trying to beat the storm so he could bale Uncle V’s hay. Don’t know if he got that done or not.
Things are so green we could almost make money…lol. It’s almost July and the pastures are still looking green. I even saw some pretty wildflowers I haven’t seen in a long time… I picked some and was told it was pigweed… sigh.. they looked like flowers to me!
The yucca will bloom nice and pretty in the pastures this year too.
The toads sing the Hallelujah chorus every night… it’s wonderful to hear…
Then of course, there’s the mockingbird. Now, I just read the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” last summer while DD was taking her summer English course and I liked the book but I wasn’t sure why the name was so appropos. Now, I do. We have had a mockingbird singing outside our bedroom window at night now for quite a while… mockingbirds can sound like other birds but they’re the only bird who “sings” at night. They can keep you awake with their “singing”.
Well, I must needs get onto work. Until next time, be thankfkul for what God sends you. Love God, love others and pursue those relationships!
Lately, we’ve been studying the life of Joshua in our Sunday School lesson and I’m really enjoying it even when I have to say “ouch!”. Last Sunday’s lesson was about building a memorial.
The point made within the lesson that got my situp and pay attention notice was that we need memorials in our lives not shrines.
Memorials help us to see where God has moved in our lives in the past for our benefit and help us to proceed into the future where He wants us to gain victories.
Shrines on the other hand, while they give us a memory, they keep us within that memory and keep us from moving onto more victorious living.
Memorials remind us of the power of God, where shrines often remind us of our own impotence.
Memorials are based on gratitude. They keep us living in the present and moving into the future. Shrines are based on ingratitude and fear. They keep us living in the past unable to live in the present or move into the future.
So, I’m learning to remember with awe and gratitude.
That’s my thought for today so, until next time…
Love God, love others and pursue those relationships!
I’ve been thinking on the seasons. What brought it on was a painting I had done of Denali National Park set in the autumn of the year.
Spring and Fall are my favorite times of the year. I see spring as not just the beginnings of new life but also the awareness of that life. Spring is when all the birds come out to herald the sprouting of green grass (that is if you’re blessed with that), the first crocus to push it’s head through, Iris, the budding of trees, animals giving life … it’s a wonderfully positive time of year.
In human life, I regard spring as the time from birth to approximately 25 years of age. It’s a time of discovery and learning.
From 25 to about 50 I consider to be the summer of our life. It is when everything is in full swing! There are heated times, cool times, times of rain and times of great growth. It’s a time to be using what we think we know.
From 50 to… I don’t maybe 85 I consider the fall of our lives. It’s a wonderful time to be alive because you’ve begun to realize what you only thought you knew but didn’t really and… it’s okay because there’s still time to learn…It’s a colorful time of year. You get to a point where you realize that what other people think is not nearly as important as you thought it was when you were say …. 13 – 30. You realize it really is more important what God thinks of you than what other people think. After all, they’re fallible and less than all-knowing but God… God knows everything and He delights in one of His children being humble enough to realize they don’t know it all and are willing to come to Him for knowledge.
Autumn… a colorful time of life. A time of rediscovery… a time to pass on what one really does know as it relates to true life. It’s a time of realizing this life we see is not permanent, nor is it the all to end all… It’s a time to realize that there is life after this one and God wants us to join Him there. It’s a time to be grateful for having been given life… for being allowed to share that life with others…
Winter, I consider to be about 85 to whatever age God blesses you with. It’s a time when things have perhaps stopped growing so that they’re noticeable outside and are not as colorful as they once were yet there’s an awareness of the crispness of life. It’s a time of hearing the deeper and most relevant things in life. It’s also a time of reflection… a time to find one’s inner child… Well, I’m not in the winter time of my life yet… but I did find my inner child today. It has warmed up today so that the snow has started to melt around the edges… and so, as I was outside, I found pure joy in stomping on semi-melted snow and feel it splaaat! There’s just something immensely satifsying in that…
Well, that’s enough of my reflections for now…. until next time, enjoy the season of life you are in and love God, love others and pursue those relationships.
Filed under: Day-to-Day, My Grateful Page | Tags: Gratitude, snow, weather, wood
fire… After yesterday’s snowfall and blizzard conditions, we decided to sleep in a little as blizzard warnings were out until 6 a.m. this morning and dh felt it would be too dark to be able to see where he was going. It was nice. Depending on where you look (the wind blew lots of snow into the ditches), we got anywhere from 5 -8 inches of snow.
The cattle bracing for the storm
They’ve been fed and are ready to bear the storm.
After the snow
After the snow comes the shoveling of walks. This was a wet heavy snow which is normally what we get in the spring. This is actually the largest snow fall we’ve had all year. We desperately needed the moisture and this will do wonders for our pastures as long as the wind doesn’t kick up.
I’m so grateful for the wood that we got cut and ready for the woodstove, though I had to keep sweeping off the porch in order to retrieve more every so often last night. Today, the sun is already out.
Well, stay warm and dry… love God, love others and pursue those relationships!
We’re under a winter storm warning today through 6 a.m. Friday! This is a very much needed moisture maker for us. They’re calling for 5 -10 inches of snow. Now, the bad part is there’s also a blizzard warning going on. At the moment everything is quiet. In a little bit, I’ll go out and make sure my chickies have plenty of food and water to hold them through, just in case I can’t get out of the house… lol.
Today’s such a great day to stay home! So for my grateful page, I’m grateful to be a SAHM as well as a work-from home transcriptionist.
After Monday and Tuesday having 62+ mph winds where it was hard to stand up when you walked outside, this morning is extremely pleasant. DH and I got some wood cut, though I have to say, I am a little nervous thinking I should go out and get some more thicker wood… hmmm
I’m not really
very savvy with the chainsaw… and something tells me dh will be home early today.
Life is all about change. We start as babes and grow into adults. When we’re teenagers, we think life will always be this way or life is taking too long and we’re anxious to become adults. When we’re privileged to enter the adult world, we realize we were watching from the outside and seeing only the fun stuff, not realizing to whom much fun stuff is given, much responsibility is also required.
As parents, we feel the responsibility of raising our children right. Raising them so that they will become viable contributing members to society. We pray they will always do what’s right yet, we know when they leave our nest, they have every opportunity to do wrong.
When we become part of the sandwich generation, i.e., still have children in the home and aging parents who also need care, the responsibility often tends to weigh on us. Now, we have two generations we need to guide into safety and often neither generation is willing to accept change guidance from us. Yet, change is part of life. We must accept change or we die. Oh, we may not die physically, but if we’re unable to accept the changes that come into our lives, our spirit dies. We tend to look at life and think it’s over when in reality, life still has much to offer.
We live in a society that seems to think when you reach a certain age, life is basically over. I think of one lady, though, whom we had the privilege of picking up and taking to church every Sunday. When we first started picking her up, she was 88 years old. She lived in a retirement apartment complex and was often taking people in their 60s to their doctors appointments, to Walmart and various other places. She had a keen mind and always had to be doing something.
Every day she’d go for a walk outside around the block. She was interested in life! I think that’s key as we get older. To be interested in life and stay interested. We may may understand some of the newer technology coming into play but if we fear it, we freeze our spirit. If we learn about it and/or learn to use it, then we have opportunity to stay interested in life!
Miss Irene (that’s what we called her) was an adopted grandmother to dd who had no living grandmothers close to her. She was an example of vibrant living until she went home to be with her Lord at the age 94 11/12 years of age. She celebrated her 95 birthday in heaven!
She’s what I’d like to be at her age. Now granted I think she was something of a spitfire in her younger years (something I can never be accused of 
). I want to stay interested in life right until I take my first step into the clouds! How about you?
Now, maybe I’ll take a walk “around the block” 
and stay interested in life. Hear those meadowlarks sing one more time before the snow moves in…
So, until next time, keep the fire going, love God, love others and pursue those relationships!
We got a skiff of snow overnight but the wind has been so high….60 mph or better yesterday and today…. that it’s removing any moisture from the dirt that the snow might have had.
These are days where we say a lot of real estate is changing hands but no money! We are so dry that the sand has no moisture with which to retain vegetation. Yesterday as we started toward town from home the sky was whitish almost as though there was snow or rain being blown in the air. However, the closer we got to that area, we realized it was real estate. There is nothing to stop the wind out here and if you’re a trucker and you’re smart, you’ll find some shelter from the wind and park your truck until the storm passes.
A tree felled by the wind.
We have many dead trees that need to be cut down so that we hopefully will avoid damage to any out buildings. This is one that came down between last night and this morning. The chickens are glad it didn’t fall their way.
The Lord has such a sense of humor as well as being gracious. Just last night, dh was saying, “I really need to get some wood cut (we had thought we were through the cold stuff… silly us!) for the wood stove.” Usually, we have to go out into the windbreak looking for dead trees needing to be cut down. We have been so busy the last few weeks that we haven’t been able to keep our supply up. So, this is just a few yards from the house so it will be right there when dh gets home from work. He can cut some of it up to get us through tomorrow. Instead of us having to go figure out which tree needs to be cut down… the Lord felled this one right close.
Well, I haven’t done much with my grateful page lately so…. even with such high winds which can be wearing on the body, I am grateful for this tree felled down so we will have wood to keep us warm when the next storm comes through. I am grateful that the Lord was looking out for dh’s health (he’s not been feeling well lately), I’m grateful the tree was not one that could have fallen on any of our out buildings or our house. I’m grateful to be able to be inside out of the wind. For though we are supposed to reach 43 degrees today, the wind will keep it so that it feels like an artic blast coming through.
God is good. Regardless of what happens in our lives… He is good. For that I’m grateful. There is so much we can focus on that’s bad these days yet… if we keep our focus on the Lord, we know He is good.
So… until next time, stay warm and out of the wind, love God and love others… pursue those relationships!
Filed under: Day-to-Day, My Grateful Page | Tags: birthdays, little sister, memories, parents
Yesterday I had a very good day though I still had to work… but alas, that is the world of the adult… you have to work EVEN if your birthday falls on a workday… 
However, the Lord blessed me with a shortened version of my usual Tuesday work… so that was nice.
Well, Odie is presently having his manhood taken care of today at the vet so he will be better able to tend to business. I will go later this afternoon to retrieve him…. Alas, Marmaduke has departed from our presence…. He is missed. However, he was an old “man” and was having issues associated with that age. He’d become very protective of me which wasn’t so good for anyone else… in fact, he’d become an issue even for family members…so… 
we bid Old Man Marmaduke Adieu.
I was talking with my SIL RM yesterday and we were talking about birthdays and the years between each of my siblings… (I have five). I had a memory of when I was very young. We lived in the very first house I can remember when I was sent to the neighbors to spend the night. At the time, I thought it was neat (we didn’t use the word “cool” then… ) that I got to spend the night at the neighbors house, even though they were older. (Where my two older sisters were, I do not recall). However as I was thinking about the reason why I was sent there, I realized it was the birth day of my little sis. She was born on my 2nd birthday. This is one of the very few memories I have from that age and I never connected the spending the night with neighbors with the birth of my ds until a few years ago… Must be my age…. can’t remember what happened an hour ago… but I can remember things when I was two…
I am most grateful that God has allowed me to reach my present age. Though I have to admit when I was dd age, I never thought I’d get to be this old. To me 25 WAS old… and yet, the Lord has blessed me along my journey. I am grateful for the friends and family He has put in my life. You’re all so precious to me and become even more precious the older I get and realize that temporary parting of our ways may come sooner than any of us expect.
Well, I don’t know what just came over me… so I’ll have to go and think about that… until next time though, stay warm, Love God and love others… pursue precious relationships….
Today, I’m grateful for my feet. Yes, I’m grateful to have feet. I’m grateful that they are able to walk, run (when I get momentum going!), skip, jump, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera… all the good things feet can do, mine still can do them.
I’m grateful to have shoes to put on those feet, though I must confess my hillbilly (my mom was born in Kentucky) roots do come out often, most often in the summer. I’d rather be without shoes than with them unless, of course, it’s cold and the shoes keep them warm!
So, today, I am grateful for my feet and shoes and well, socks too… to go on them.. though I have to confess, I don’t always where a matched pair of socks. I’d like to tell you that I’m just that eccentric to wear unmatched socks… alas and sigh, no it’s because I generally can’t find a pair that match… I don’t know how it happens. I can put a matched pair in the washer and where one goes during that time, I do not know but they often come out solos….
So, yes, I am grateful for feet.. shoes to put on those feet and socks to put in the shoes… even if they are unmatched… 
Today, I am grateful for the grace that has been extended to me by Almighty God. Were it not for His grace, I would not exist. Were it not for His grace, I’d have no hope of eternal life.
I am grateful for His creativeness. He brings sunshine and rain in His time. He brings clouds and snow when the earth needs it. I am grateful that He allows us to enjoy His creation, no matter what His highest creation is up to.
