Things change. True enough. Sometimes, though, things change that you don't want changed. Nothing stays the same. True again. Sometimes, though, you wish things could stay the same. Like growing children. Of course, you want them to grow up, but sometimes, don't you wish you could slow them down? Naturally, they wouldn't like that, what kid doesn't want to grow up as fast as they can? But, as I get older (and older), I find that time is fleeting. It passes so quickly. I can still remember when my girls were babies and now they are grown up women with babies of their own. I had no idea when I was wishing that they would walk, or talk, or just go to the bathroom by themselves, that I was wishing away the most glorious time in my life. It was a good time.
Not that now isn't good...God has blessed me with lots of grandchildren and I love them all so very much. Julia is nearly 16 and ready to get her driver's permit. Aubrey is 13. Chase is 11. Eden is 4 1/2, Addy Lin is 2. and Lila is 1. Such a great variety of personalities. Each one different, each one very special. Each one is growing up so fast that it makes my head spin. The old folks of my generation always said, "As you get older, time passes more quickly." I know for a fact that this is a true statement. I also think that because you don't have as much to strive for or to accomplish, you are just more aware that it is passing so quickly. When you are younger and you have so much to do, you don't notice that time passing so fast. It is as you get to the later years of your life that you realize that the old folks of your generation weren't so wrong after all and that you have become the old folks of your children's generation. I don't know if I like being old, but I like my life very much.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
My Oldest Daughter
She is an awesome woman. Not because she is my daughter. Not because of what she does or what she looks like, but because of her heart. She is a strong woman of God. I have watched her battle a battle that I would never have wanted to see her go through, and one that I could not help her with. I have watched her be as weary as she has ever been, yet she did not sway from her obedience to God. She has gone through it with grace, character, and with God at her side. She is honoring and obeying God and I am so very proud of her. She can truly say with all humility that she gave her all to try to win this battle. Sadly, it was not to be and her family will not be the same because of it. I believe, that with her help, her family will come out of this strong and loving and will survive in spite of their hurt. She can do anything with God. I admire her so much. She is a better person than I could ever be and I aspire to be more like her. I love this child with all my heart.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Eden's Lemonade Stand
This is a sweet story about my granddaughter, Eden. She is 4 years old and goes to Waters Edge Church, in York County, VA. We are a mobile church, setting up and tearing down for each of our 4 services on Sundays. She became a christian last year and gave her heart to Jesus. She told her mom that she didn't want to live one more day with sin in her heart, so she accepted Jesus into her heart and went around telling everyone who would listen that she was a christian now. It was beautiful. Our church has been, for the past three years, on a spiritual initiative called "The Big Dream." This is the last year of this spiritual initiative and our big dream is to build a building to house our church. Well, the story is this...Preschoolers in our church were to do chores to earn money to give to the big dream. Eden did that and earned the $7.00 she had as a goal for doing her chores for the week. She then decided to do a lemonade stand in her front yard during the community garage sale in her neighborhood and earned $40.00 to give to the big dream. That is something for a four-year old little girl. She never once asked could she have some of the money for herself and she was so proud to give to the church the money that she had earned herself. God is good.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
House Guests
OK, here I go -- again. How much blogging is too much blogging? Are there any rules about this stuff? Are people going to be sick of reading what I am writing? I guess if they are, they can just stop, huh?
Anyway, I want to say this...
There is a old saying, "House guests are like fish -- they all start to stink after a few days." Something like that anyway.
That is simply not true in all cases. I enjoy having house guests.
I get my house deep cleaned before they come so they don't figure out that I am not the most diligent housekeeper. My piles of "stuff to put away" actually gets put away. Some of it anyway. The cleaning gets done whether it needs it or not. More often than not, it NEEDS it, if I am being honest about the whole thing. My daughter came into my house the other day and said, "This house is CLEAN." She rarely makes that comment, so you know it is spectacular then.
In fact, we just had some guests and they have been fun to have around. My floors have never been swept so much since the last time they were here. She sweeps the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning (and probably in the middle of the day when I am at work), and she even mopped my kitchen floor. That lady is a dynamo. She is like a machine. Always putting something away or folding laundry. She does more than she should all the time and I try to get her to stop, but she can't help herself. My house is always picked up -- she cleans more than I do in a normal week. Also, her husband would do anything I asked him to do for me. No task is too much. I try not to say much out loud, because as soon as it is out of my mouth, they are trying to get it done for me. Their bed is made every single day -- mine rarely is. Sometimes I get a tiny twinge of guilt about my unmade bed, but I manage to resist it. These are Good People.
You can hardly tell they are in the house -- if you peek into their room you can see suitcases, so you can tell they are there, and they are physically present when I get home from work, so I know they are there. These are low-maintenance guests. They don't expect for us to take off work for them and they go with the flow. They entertain themselves all day while we work and when we come home, they are happy to do whatever we have planned. They love our children and our grandchildren and never act like they get tired of seeing them. They have very little complaint. They do think the coffee is too strong, but that is a small annoyance, I guess.
I can never leave my kitchen dirty from the evenings' dinners because if I try, she will just clean it up herself and I can't have that. I must try to keep up with her. Mind you, she is probably 10 or more years younger than I am, so she has an advantage. She doesn't quit until it is "dying ready." Our granny used to say this about house cleaning and dirty dishes..."You need to keep your house 'dying ready.' That means that if you die during the night, you won't be embarrassed for those funeral people to come in and see your house." She wouldn't have wanted to be "caught dead" in an untidy house. I miss her.
I think that 'dying ready' is funny. At that point, I doubt you care what people think about you any longer. At least, I hope not. I hope to be in my reward, not worried about whether or not my toilet is clean enough for strangers to use it. I will be dead for crying out loud (another weird saying).
So, in closing, let me say. I have enjoyed these people and I look forward to their next visit.
Anyway, I want to say this...
There is a old saying, "House guests are like fish -- they all start to stink after a few days." Something like that anyway.
That is simply not true in all cases. I enjoy having house guests.
I get my house deep cleaned before they come so they don't figure out that I am not the most diligent housekeeper. My piles of "stuff to put away" actually gets put away. Some of it anyway. The cleaning gets done whether it needs it or not. More often than not, it NEEDS it, if I am being honest about the whole thing. My daughter came into my house the other day and said, "This house is CLEAN." She rarely makes that comment, so you know it is spectacular then.
In fact, we just had some guests and they have been fun to have around. My floors have never been swept so much since the last time they were here. She sweeps the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning (and probably in the middle of the day when I am at work), and she even mopped my kitchen floor. That lady is a dynamo. She is like a machine. Always putting something away or folding laundry. She does more than she should all the time and I try to get her to stop, but she can't help herself. My house is always picked up -- she cleans more than I do in a normal week. Also, her husband would do anything I asked him to do for me. No task is too much. I try not to say much out loud, because as soon as it is out of my mouth, they are trying to get it done for me. Their bed is made every single day -- mine rarely is. Sometimes I get a tiny twinge of guilt about my unmade bed, but I manage to resist it. These are Good People.
You can hardly tell they are in the house -- if you peek into their room you can see suitcases, so you can tell they are there, and they are physically present when I get home from work, so I know they are there. These are low-maintenance guests. They don't expect for us to take off work for them and they go with the flow. They entertain themselves all day while we work and when we come home, they are happy to do whatever we have planned. They love our children and our grandchildren and never act like they get tired of seeing them. They have very little complaint. They do think the coffee is too strong, but that is a small annoyance, I guess.
I can never leave my kitchen dirty from the evenings' dinners because if I try, she will just clean it up herself and I can't have that. I must try to keep up with her. Mind you, she is probably 10 or more years younger than I am, so she has an advantage. She doesn't quit until it is "dying ready." Our granny used to say this about house cleaning and dirty dishes..."You need to keep your house 'dying ready.' That means that if you die during the night, you won't be embarrassed for those funeral people to come in and see your house." She wouldn't have wanted to be "caught dead" in an untidy house. I miss her.
I think that 'dying ready' is funny. At that point, I doubt you care what people think about you any longer. At least, I hope not. I hope to be in my reward, not worried about whether or not my toilet is clean enough for strangers to use it. I will be dead for crying out loud (another weird saying).
So, in closing, let me say. I have enjoyed these people and I look forward to their next visit.
Names
A regular day. Nothing much going on except for work. Nothing much to write about today, so I figured I would put on my thinking cap (wonder who thought of that saying) and just ramble some.
I was thinking about the names that people name their children. Now, I say from the beginning that it is absolutely NONE of my business what people name their kids, so this is just my thinking out loud on the whole naming thing.
Honestly, Sunday, Apple, Suri, Shiloh, Moon Unit, Meadow -- what kind of names are they for little girls. Celebrity choices. I guess that we could say the same thing about Eula, Zorba, Edith, Gertrude, Maude, or my personal favorite, Doris. Those lovely names from previous generations.
What kind of names are those for little girls? How can you look into such sweet little baby faces and name them Eula or Doris? Those names don't evoke images of cute little girls. They make me think of really old ladies. Now that I am getting up in age, I feel like my name does fit me, sort of, possibly, kinda, or maybe in a few more years. We'll see. I'll get back to you on that.
I don't know of too many people who actually like their names. Of my two children, one does like their name and one doesn't particularly like their name. I thought they were beautiful names for my beautiful babies, or I wouldn't have picked them, would I? The thing is, when you name your kids, you are in your "generation." By the time they decide they don't like their name, they are in their "generation" and your choices are out-dated. Besides, they have heard their name thousands of times in different contexts, so they are probably more sick of hearing it than anything else.
You are never going to satisfy all people. If you pick a trendy name, you get grief about it. If you pick a non-trendy name, you get grief. If you pick a boy name for a girl, you get grief. If you pick a girl name for a boy...you get the drift--I needn't belabor this point.
Suffice it to say, you get to pick your child's name and no one should be able to naysay your choice. But, of course, everyone has an opinion and they can hardly restrain themselves from giving their opinion. I have that problem sometimes and I wonder, what was I thinking? They don't care about my opinion of their choice of name. Why try to spoil it for them? I am trying to be less critical of people's choices and less vocal about what I think about it if they choose the wrong name.
The thing is this, your child is going to be stuck with that name for the rest of their life. Be sure it is one that at least has a good monogram.
I was thinking about the names that people name their children. Now, I say from the beginning that it is absolutely NONE of my business what people name their kids, so this is just my thinking out loud on the whole naming thing.
Honestly, Sunday, Apple, Suri, Shiloh, Moon Unit, Meadow -- what kind of names are they for little girls. Celebrity choices. I guess that we could say the same thing about Eula, Zorba, Edith, Gertrude, Maude, or my personal favorite, Doris. Those lovely names from previous generations.
What kind of names are those for little girls? How can you look into such sweet little baby faces and name them Eula or Doris? Those names don't evoke images of cute little girls. They make me think of really old ladies. Now that I am getting up in age, I feel like my name does fit me, sort of, possibly, kinda, or maybe in a few more years. We'll see. I'll get back to you on that.
I don't know of too many people who actually like their names. Of my two children, one does like their name and one doesn't particularly like their name. I thought they were beautiful names for my beautiful babies, or I wouldn't have picked them, would I? The thing is, when you name your kids, you are in your "generation." By the time they decide they don't like their name, they are in their "generation" and your choices are out-dated. Besides, they have heard their name thousands of times in different contexts, so they are probably more sick of hearing it than anything else.
You are never going to satisfy all people. If you pick a trendy name, you get grief about it. If you pick a non-trendy name, you get grief. If you pick a boy name for a girl, you get grief. If you pick a girl name for a boy...you get the drift--I needn't belabor this point.
Suffice it to say, you get to pick your child's name and no one should be able to naysay your choice. But, of course, everyone has an opinion and they can hardly restrain themselves from giving their opinion. I have that problem sometimes and I wonder, what was I thinking? They don't care about my opinion of their choice of name. Why try to spoil it for them? I am trying to be less critical of people's choices and less vocal about what I think about it if they choose the wrong name.
The thing is this, your child is going to be stuck with that name for the rest of their life. Be sure it is one that at least has a good monogram.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Source of July
Well, now, it isn't supposed to rain on the 4th of July. What about our fireworks? What about our s'mores? It was a pity. After a perfectly lovely day of family and friends, it had to rain on our fire. It certainly upset our 4 1/2 year old granddaughter -- who also calls the 4th of July the Source of July. She cried and was quite sad. She had to come back the next night to do s'mores, and it rained again. How can you get through that disappointment? She didn't even blink an eye. She said, "Well, it's raining again. I guess I'll just have to come back another day." No fits, not even one tear. I love it that she likes to come to our house to spend time. She is unpredictable and quite adorable. I love spending time with our family. It makes my holiday and it makes my day.
Next week, we are celebrating the 30th birthday of my niece. Another family get-together, another cookout. No, I never tire of being with them.
Next week, we are celebrating the 30th birthday of my niece. Another family get-together, another cookout. No, I never tire of being with them.
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