Years ago when our 4 children were very young I came across this book. I do not remember if I checked it out at the public library or if someone loaned it to me but it changed my life. I do not like to read at all so it seems strange that I would read this book and also that I am becoming a writer.

Here is an Amazon review about this book:

I borrowed this book many years ago when my children were very young and my husband was in the military and we were moving overseas. I got so much encouragement out of it that I hated to return it! Well, now my children are grown and I am taking a job in Alaska and life is changing AGAIN, and I remembered how much that book and what the author had written had really spoke to me and encouraged me. So I had to order a copy of my own! I too will share it after reading it again! She covers change points that we all face from being young to growing old and does it very well! I would recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with the changes life brings!

I just remember how much reading this book changed my outlook on my life and I was probably only able to associate with the beginning of the book as I had not lived nor walked this path of life very long at that time.

I would love to go back now and reread this book and I will probably do that very soon. I saw a picture today from my very favorite photographer of the Smoky Mountains and it got me to thinking back about this book and the different chapters of my life.

Here is the picture:

The photographer is Deb Campbell and she is awesome! She entitled this print, Fire and Ice.

I saw the picture and immediately related it to myself. Right now I am still fire in my physical body and my mind but I can see the ice right up the road. I want to stay in the part of the road where I am right now for a long time but as you see in this print I am very soon nearing the cold part.

Old age is something we all have to face if we live long enough. Time passes by so very quickly!

This weekend our youngest son and his two babies stayed overnight with us as Mommy had to work and Saturday morning I got up and bustled around and was seeing to the toddler in the high chair and trying to make biscuits and gravy. I thought I had accomplished my feat pretty well until my son said that he found one of my gray hairs in his gravy. I was devastated to say the least and remember thinking that only old people drop hairs in the food. I am laughing to myself now as I write this but that is exactly what I was thinking.

I have lived through many many chapters of life now and have outlived one of my precious sons. He resides as a memorial in many places throughout my home but especially here in my kitchen where I tend to be a lot of the time.

The Bible says this about aging:

Proverbs 20:29 (KJV)

“The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old Men is the gray head.”

When my hair first began to turn gray I used to dye it but it became increasingly more frequent and thus more expensive to keep doing this and also my hairdresser at the time told me that hair was really wanting to be gray. One day I just thought to myself that if my hair wanted to be gray that badly then I would just let it. Ha! Plus by this time I had read this verse:

Proverbs 16:31 (ESV)

Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.

I never felt bad about my hair after that!

We walk through many chapters in our lives and when one chapter closes we cannot go back. I remember when I walked out of the chapter of child bearing years how hurt and sad that I felt. One of the very worst chapters of my life was when my youngest child left home. My coworkers even made fun of me during this time because I was so down in the dumps. I explained to them that our son had never even talked about going into the military like his Dad and older brother and then one day he calls me up after working the summer after his high school graduation and says that he does not want to go to college at this stage of his life and thinks he will join the Air Force. I almost dropped the phone in his ear. He asked me if I was not happy for him and I just said that I hadn’t expected him to leave so soon as he was still living at home. He said we would talk that night when he returned home. We sat up until 3 am talking about it all and even though I was not ready I gave him my blessing.

After he left, the house was so quiet and lonely and my husband and I had to reconnect all over again, plus I felt like someone had this gigantic rubber stamp and was stamping me in the forehead continually and the stamp said:

YOU ARE OLD!

I am past all of that empty nest syndrome now as our house is sometimes overwhelmingly full of children, in-laws, grandchildren and pets. I remember one Christmas after the last group left and Mark closed the door he looked at me and said, Never again, we will rent Standing Stone State Park next time. He didn’t really mean it of course!

We are both retired now and we love it! We can enjoy life and be participants in whatever activity is going on in our family’s lives at the time. We babysit a lot and it gives us a chance to do a do-over in a lot of areas and that is good too.

We laugh a lot about our aches and pains and how we creak each morning as we get out of bed. He snores, I am hot natured and he is cold natured, I like mayonaise and he loves mustard. We grumble and growl and I call him Archie Bunker sometimes and he says I drive like Mrs. MaGoo but life is really good for us and we enjoy being our old selves.

I see the cold icy road ahead of us like in the picture but I pray that we will continue to laugh at ourselves and enjoy that part of the journey too and enter that last chapter of our lives with Joy and encouragement for others that walk behind us a ways!

As the book Change Points encouraged me years ago, I hope my words have encouraged you tonight.

Love and Blessings!

Since this is the week of Halloween I have been thinking a lot of past experiences that we had with our children.

In the picture above you will see Danny with Matt in the background. I had seen an idea in a family circle magazine about taking an old sheet and ripping it up and dressing your child as a mummy. I thought it was a really cute and inexpensive idea.

If I remember correctly Danny’s mummy costume was an old sheet that I ripped up plus another grayish purple cloth I ripped up too to give him some color. The one thing I did not even think of when wrapping him was to put shorts on over his underwear before I wrapped him.

We went along our merry way that night and with each venture in and out of the car, Danny’s wrappings became looser and looser.

We always went to Granny Poston’s, my Aunt Leretha’s, my co-workers, and finally stopped at several church friend’s homes as we returned to our house.

The last house we stopped at that night was a dear church friend’s home and Danny refused to get out of the car as he was getting more and more embarrassed as his underwear was starting to show as his wrappings were separating. I could see his frustration and let him stay in the car but then my friend with her camera in hand called from her porch for him to come on in so she could get a picture. He obliged her without complaining any more. Below is that picture:

Almost every article my kids have ever written about me includes the statement that …. Mom always made homemade Halloween costumes….

I have to chuckle to myself every time I read one of those statements. As I stated in my last blog, God gifted me to be taught to sew at a young age. I made the Halloween costumes because we were poor and it was cheaper for me to do that. You say, well those plastic outfits are cheap…. but when you are really poor even cheap is too expensive. Plus, I used to keep a costume barrel in my basement just full of costumes through the years and we could whip something together really quick if need be!

Mark worked second shift a lot of years on Halloween so it was left for me to make the rounds with the kids so I made sure that I did. We would usually leave home before it was even dark and go to Granny Poston’s first as she got in the bed early. Our second stop was usually my Aunt Leretha’s and she would usually have some kind of supper cooked there which really helped me out and kept the kids from getting sick on all that candy. We were usually back home pretty early so we could all get cleaned up and get in bed.

I think back on those days and it would have been so much easier for us to just stay home or for me to send the kids with someone else but that was memory making times and I wanted that for my kids.

Now that Danny has passed away I am really thankful that I have tons and tons of special memories with him and his siblings. It really means so much.

My grandma Hodges used to always tell me that she was like a squirrel and she would hoard up her memories just like a squirrel hoards up nuts and she would say when she got lonely she would pull out those memories and chew on them for a while. I guess I have been doing that very thing tonight as I remember Danny and this night to remember😊

For about 3 days now my husband and I have been carrying in our outside plants to store away for cold weather. I get so gung ho in the spring to plant all these pots and have lots of greenery on my decks but then in October I am at my wits end as to where to store it all and the plants are so gorgeous right now that I do not want to lose them. Some of the bigger plants were given to us when Danny died and I am really wanting to save them if possible.

As you see in the video the basement now looks like a jungle and plants are in most of the bedrooms too.

The Christmas cactus has only been in a couple of days but the change from cold to warm has already caused it to think it is time to bloom.

I think every year when I go through this process why in the world I plant so many things. I love plants and have a green thumb that is why. Ha!

Today as I was cleaning out spots and moving things around I had a completely different thought about what I was doing. I am bringing all these plants in to protect them because I do not want them to face the bitter cold and take a chance on dying out. I had fear after the first cold night because I had gotten lazy and did not bring them in until the next night. So what does this everyday scenario have to do with God?

I sometimes see God in comparison to a mother hen. Have you ever looked in the barnyard and saw the mother hen all plump and just sitting there and you know that she has baby chicks but where are they?

In Psalm chapter 91:4 it says this in the NIV: He will cover you with His feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 

There is a lot going on the world today that signals that the end time is near and a lot of it makes us as humans fearful. I believe that God is calling us into Him as a mother hen calls her chicks to come and hide under her wings. Times are going to be hard and scary but we as Christians have no reason to be afraid.

In Acts 2: 37-39 (NIV) it says: When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—-for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

How does this relate to my plant story? I bring my plants in to protect them because I know that hard times are coming. God does the same thing with us. His desire is that each and every person be saved and baptized. I believe He is calling His believers into a closer relationship than they have ever had with Him because He knows that the end is near and that we need His strength.

So if you are scurrying around and trying to beat this cold front that is coming in and get all of your plants inside today just please think of this story and take it to heart.

God loves you so much and wants each person to be saved and baptized and dwell in the shelter of His wings until whatever day He decides to call us to our eternal home.

Have fun carrying plants today and rejoice for we have a Father who loves us that much and that is amazing!

Don’t you want to feel love and protection like this little chick has?

Bless It!

I told you a few nights ago a little about my life and have introduced myself to you but tonight I want to introduce you to our children and my greatest blessing.

I have always loved children and before Mark and I married I wanted 6 children. My most lively and hardest to handle child was born first so then we lowered our desire of children to just 2. God had a much different plan in store.

We found out just 3 weeks beforehand that we were having twins for our second pregnancy. We had already made a cute little nursery in our home and everything was all set and then twins showed up! Whew! As I said, the first child was a handful and then we had twins when Danny had just turned 3. Danny had been the very first grandchild on both sides of our family and his little world was totally rocked when the twins came along…..plus they were girls!

When Danny was born Mark was still in the Air Force and I was a stay at home mom. We moved back to Livingston in 1976 and I went to work at Berkline and Danny stayed with a babysitter for the very first time at the age of 18 months. When the twins were born I was working at Union Bank. I had to return back to work at the bank when the twins were 6 weeks old. We had scurried around trying to find babysitters for all of the children but nothing was working out and I really needed to work as we had bought our first home and had lots of bills.

Nearing the end of the 6 week period I went to the bank officials and asked if I could come into work an hour earlier than everyone else and leave an hour earlier than the others. Mark had been working as a welder but had gotten laid off and he had landed a job in Cookeville at Dacco but it was second shift. The bank officials agreed for me to do this and Mark stayed with the kids during the day and as soon as I got home from work I was there with them until he returned home after 11 pm at night. A lot of afternoons Mark would be backed up in the carport of our house with the engine running and I would pull into the drive and he would pull out and we would wave at each other in passing.

Our fourth child came along when Danny was 7 and the twins were 4. Danny had been rooted out of his position of all the attention from the family and he longed for a brother. He even prayed for a brother.

While we were at the hospital having Matthew, my Mom kept the 3 older kids and she taught them this Bible verse because the new baby was going to be named Matthew which means “a gift from God”:

Matthew 7 verse 7…….Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you….. (KJV)

We had our four children, 2 boys and 2 girls. I felt complete!

The other day I heard a sermon and instead of saying they were blessed the person said they were gifted. I have thought a lot about that. I believe that God gifted me with a lot of things since birth and I will explain.

I was gifted with tons of energy. I was gifted with 2 living grandmothers that stepped in and helped raise us three kids, I was gifted to learn at a very young age how to cook, clean, and sew. I was gifted to learn a strong work ethic. I was gifted to respect the elderly and the feelings of other people. I was gifted to have an uncle that was the most patriotic person I have known. I was gifted to know and reverence God…..the list goes on and on. You see, I believe that God was setting me up from birth to be the person that I am today. My only desire in life was to be a wife and a mother. I had no desire to go to college or land an awesome career. I have always worked but pretty much left the job there in the afternoons when I walked out the door.

God had his hand on my life and prepared me and gifted me in a way that later I could handle having 4 children, handle having very little money, needing all that energy, handle having 3 men in my family that were soldiers, and needing God desperately to lead me.

I am so very thankful for God caring enough about me to gift me with all of that knowledge and instinct to do the things needed to raise the 4 blessings that He gave us.

In the picture above it is L to R, our youngest son Matthew. Next is our twin daughter Rachel and then our twin daughter Melinda, and to the far right is our oldest son, Danny.

One time years ago at church an elderly lady told me that most large families always have one ugly duckling in the bunch but she said that all of our kids were beautiful. I feel that way too. All four were so different but so unique and each special in their own way. I always encouraged each of them to be the person that God created them to be and if that meant walking to the beat of a different drum then so be it. Even the twins were encouraged to be individuals.

I could have gone to college, I could have striven to land a high paying job and live in a fine home but all of that was never important to me. I am not knocking it but it was just not my priority.

My greatest blessing in my life has been to have these 4 children and to be gifted by God to be their mother. Time has passed so quickly and now they are all grown and I am a grandmother and really cherishing that role. God has been so good!

So if you are reading this and you have a passel of children and you don’t feel so special then believe me, someday you will look back and see your greatest blessing as I have!

I just finished watching the 10 o’clock news on Channel 5 and they were interviewing Heather, the wife of Sonny Melton who was killed during the Las Vegas shooting and how she is starting different memorial foundations and scholarships to honor his memory.

I got to thinking about this picture of my three younger children and how they ran the Country Music half marathon in April of 2013 after Danny had died in January of 2013.

The Country Music marathon in Nashville is held each year around the last week in April which being that Danny’s birthday was April 29th it seemed a good way for all of us to be together and to honor his memory. The money raised from this goes to fund the St. Jude Hospital for children.

I also participated in this event and walked the 5k with my friend Barbara. Most of our family was in Nashville that weekend and we spent the weekend celebrating and thinking of Danny.

My friend Barbara and I stopped along the route at this one turn and waited for the half marathon runners to pass by because we knew that my kids would be in that group. We waited for so long that our feet became numb from the cold rain. It had been a horrible forecast and it had rained a cold bitter rain during the whole event.

We did get to see the kids and then we walked on. We probably placed last in our division but we didn’t care.

After we got to the finish of the 5k we still had to wait a long time as the half marathon was still going on so we positioned ourselves to where we would be able to see the finish line when my kids crossed over.

The above picture was taken as they ran towards the finish line and they all three held up 4 fingers on one hand and 2 fingers on the other hand as the number 42 was always Danny’s sports numbers when he played ball. I cried so hard during the taking of this picture and I could not have been more proud of my children and how they honored their brother in this way.

Melinda had a company make us all these special shirts that we wore and on the back it says Running for Danny. They later told me that during the race an older man ran past them and said, Who is Danny? They replied that he was their brother and the man replied that that was his name and he smiled as he ran along. They felt like their brother was right there with them.

Tonight, I got to thinking about Heather Melton and about our family and other families that I know that have suffered death of a close loved one and I have thought of scholarships at graduations, motorcycle rides, marathons, and different events that these families do to carry on and honor their loved one.

None of us want to forget our Danny and the more we share of him and his life the more it passes his legacy on.

I write the things that I write for that reason too. I believe that our hurts need to be channeled and turned from the bad things to something good and constructive.

1 Corinthians 15 verse 58 in the NIV says this:

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Satan would be so happy if we just lay down and quit when bad things happen to us and our families but to me that is letting him win. Of all the families I know in this home area of mine that have lost loved ones they have honored and pressed on in some way the memory of their loved one.

I am not saying that it is easy because it is not but we love talking of our loved one and sharing about them and keeping their memory alive. Plus, if this is a help to someone else then it makes the hurt so much easier.

I always tell my kids when they are down in the dumps about something to go out and find someone to do something nice for and it is a way of channeling their hurt into something good. There is always someone out there that is worse off than we are.