Summer Blessings

Sometimes life gets really busy and writing is neglected, sometimes life is messy and its to hard to sort through everything to even try to write anything at all, and sometimes life just simply is meant to be lived without being written. My silence was a combination of all the above.

We loved a family vacation from August 4th - 7th. We rented a vacation house in the beautiful hills of  NC, way up in the mountains, it was steep enough to spin going up the last gravel road and their may have been a gasp that escaped through my lips. It was beautiful! Quiet, awesome view, plenty of space and O so relaxing!We took Marty with us and Jessica arrived a day later. For the first time ever we had the same number of males and females. I loved having all my favorite ladies with me! A day
on the lake was fun, the guys were wakeboarding and we also were tubing and enjoying the pontoon. The weather was perfect and the day was just great! We spent some time in Cherokee and watched the Unto These Hills Drama. Very interesting!. Sunday afternoon and departure time came way to quickly. It was one of those little getaways that you wish could go on and on. Sitting on the back deck with a beautiful view of the mountains was so refreshing to me. I would wake up in the morning and think about the beauty of the deck so I would get up and quietly move to the kitchen and put the coffee on. I took a stack of books and arranged my rocking chair to get the best view of the morning sun and lifting fog. I silently crept back into the house and poured that cup of coffee and then I drank the delicious brew and talked with God and watched the mountains wake up. A hummingbird fluttered around and a butterfly danced in the morning sun. No interruptions, nobody driving in my driveway, no noisy train that roars by our home. It was almost Heavenly and it felt Divine. None of us were ready to come home, but we did anyway.

Mary and I were busy canning again and the garden did well so that was a blessing! I am realizing tho that it would make sense to downsize my garden because I planted more then I could use and that makes me feel wasteful. Corn is never hard to get rid of so next year I will plant more corn and less tomatoes and peppers and zucchini and....But, when planting time comes I might have other ideas. Its to hard to tell right now. Its true that in the fall I am really and truly sick of gardening but when spring comes back again I can hardly wait to get those seeds in the dirt. By January I will be searching seed catalogs and dreaming of beautiful veggies and weed free gardens and I will do the cycle all over again and totally forget that "no weeds" has never been more then a wild dream and big ideas!

Its hard to believe that Fall is here again! Almost a year and 6 month in this journey of widowhood. I look around me and the world keeps moving like nothing ever happened. However for us, and anyone else that dealt with major loss, life is changed forever! We feel it with the seasons that come and go, we remember how it used to be , we miss his smile on our accomplishments. Its always there, the "feeling" of missing, of loss and emptiness. But to dwell on our loss will not benefit us a bit, and we move on. Constantly looking ahead, visions of new accomplishments,smoother sailing ,and  the  continued graces of God on each moment of our lives.

salsa ready for jars

We've had a few uninvited guests that were making themselves quite at home with us. Our first intruders were bees. This old brick house seems to be very attractive to some of God's wild creatures and we are less then willing to share. They somehow got in above the kitchen and I could here them going about there daily work. The steady hum was not music to my ears, in fact it was very annoying. I was afraid that whatever they were doing would bring them through the ceiling and I would find myself in the middle of a beehive/beenest. That did not seem like a good idea at all! The boys tried bee spray. They would get as close as they dared to the entrance hole and then spray until the angry bees came flying out after them. The race was always fun to watch but the bees always chased them away without much if any harm done to the bees in the house. Finally we got the local exterminator to check it out. He dressed like he was going to the moon then climbed a ladder and sprayed. He didn't get stung although he said he thought about doing a good dance and putting on a show since we were all watching him anyway! The bees are gone but I have a soft spot on my ceiling that has a tint of black. I guess they were getting something done up there!

Our next fight was with the bats. A year ago we paid good money to have the attic de-batted. It worked....they just looked for other crevices to hang on to. And in the process they found a way to get in our living quarters, not the attic. There are few things less disturbing then waking up to a bat flying around in your bedroom( ask David) or going to the bathroom during the night and sharing the hallway with a bat (ask Carlin) or coming home from church in the evening and a bat swoops through the hallway. Carlin came darting into my room one night,"Mom, theres a bat upstairs"!He closed the door and slept on a sleeping bag and I texted the boys and told them to keep their doors shut cuz there's a bat in the hall. Sigh! My peace was seriously disturbed. One evening during family devotions I had several volunteers to keep their eyes open while we prayed in case the bat shows up. It didn't. Not then, just a little while later. Well, before that, the boys went upstairs to go to bed and I checked to make sure the hall doors were closed. I heard whisperings from the upstairs hall. I silently waited and suddenly they started yelling and banging and jumping. After a little bit they were quite and I said in a very calm manner" Was that fake?" They said "Yes". I chuckled. Several minutes later I heard a horiffic thud and yelling coming from the bathroom just after the shower turned off. It did not sound fake at all. The other boys went to investigate, I only listened and laughed from the bottom of the stairs. They were laughing non stop as the story was told! He ( they do not like when I tell stories about them for the world to see so I won't tell you his name) just finished his shower and reached out for a towel when a bat went whizzing by. He swung that towel and knocked it down then jumped on it, hence the thud that I heard. He used a different towel to dry himself! The next day I bought some spray foam and Jeremy went to work filling a few possible entrance routes. It worked, they haven't visited since.

she is a dear

And now, of all things the chipmunks moved in, well not in, but under the deck and they make nasty holes in the mulch and scamper around....at least they are cute but that's all. I have no idea how to invite them to go to the neighbors. You've heard the statement," This place is going to the dogs". Well I think ours is going to the critters. Skunks, oppossums, coons and rabbits all like to wander around on our few acres. I think a dog would help but the only dog the boys want is a house dog and then he'd be so pampered he'd likely wag his tail at the critters. And I don't want a house dog. I think the dog I really want is only a dream. He has to mind his manners, he may not pull laundry off the wash line, he may not chase chickens, he may not run to the neighbors, he may not take off with my shoes when I leave them at the door, he may not dig holes in the landscape and he may not tear trash bags. He may bark when a car comes in the driveway, he may curl up on the deck, he may welcome me home with a smile and a nice wag of his tail, and he can take walks with me. But I guess they don't come like that so the chances of me owning a dog are slim. Maybe I'll figure out a way....sometime.

Summer has gone by much to quickly. Its my favorite season and I'm not ready for it to end. God has been very real in the hard times, He has spoken in that quiet assurance of peace, He has comforted in the dark sleepless nights and He has allowed me to go through deep valleys to get a better view of his faithfulness. What is God doing for you? Are you allowing Him to do His work, to grow your faith and give you peace? Life is a journey, walk with God.