Dumplins & Buttons

I had such an awesome childhood. Of course, I wasn't aware at it's awesomeness tendencies until I was much older than a child. Before their arrival from the mission trip in the Appalachia's, I wondered if my sons would be pondering the same thing about their childhood. Although not the Rockefeller's or Kennedy's of the South, we live a life full of happy memories, gospel accapella, music playing in their heads and their hearts and their fingers, God filled moments. Overall, a good life. I started to think back to my days of frolicking in the land of me where I was the center of the universe. Yes, it's different now!

Those thoughts brought me to the wonderful memories of my grandparents, and especially my grandmothers. Oh how I loved my grandparents! I spent many a weeks with them during the summers growing up. I don't remember my brothers and sister being there at the same time necessarily, which means one of two things: 1) I truly was wrapped up in my own little world where noone but me existed (again, it is different now), 2) My parents desperately needed a break from........me, which is similar to a situation I dealt with one of my children with whom I share some personality traits. Poor mom and dad.

My grandmothers were extraordinary women! Truly devoted to their husbands and their marriages. Truly devoted to the work the Lord set before them. My dad's mom was so sweet and loving. Every time we'd go to make the trip north to see them she would always have chicken 'n dumplins cooking awaiting our arrival! Oh they were soooooo good. I miss that! She was a vertically challenged lady, not cracking the 4'10" mark. She was married to my wonderful grandpa for 60+ years......she was a saint! On marital advice to one of her daughters-in-law, she was told to have said, "Divorce? No, never thought about it? Murder, yes, divorce, no." I can still see her laughing. And those butterscotch cookies!!!!!! My gpa and she were so in love. One day she laid on the couch for a rest and God decided she needed more than just a little rest and she blessed heaven, probably with a plate of cookies! I can't wait! She left behind a necklace. One sacred to the family. She had given it to her daughter, my Aunt Barbara to make sure that each granddaughter in the family got to wear it, if she chose, on her wedding day. It was a necklace given to her by my grandfather in 1912. I was proud to wear it on my wedding day. My aunt gave it to me last year. I was speechless. I didn't feel worthy. I missed my grandma. I miss her still.

I place a photo of the necklace for you to see. The box is tattered, the note is worn, the necklace is perfect. Her poem that she loved and lived inscribed in the photo. She was an awesome woman!

My mom's mother was a beautiful, graceful, lovely lady. She was married to my childhood best friend, my pawpaw. Since he died when I was only 5, I think she felt the honored responsibility to carry on his legacy to his grandchildren. Nan-naw and I spent our time together playing gooney golf (look it up), going to plays/musicals/movies, cooking and sewing. She was a retired home-ec teacher and was the most organized, tight bed-corners, tidy lady. I loved my nan-naw. She played the piano for church sometimes and for her Eastern Star group. "I walk through the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses....." my favorite one to hear her play and sing. She loved her God and he loved her! She loved to sew and I learned so much from her and my mother about the craft. I remember so vividly running my fingers through the old chocolate box that my grandmother had recycled for her extra buttons from worn out outfits and such. I loved that box! My mother remembers doing the same as she grew up. That box has had alot of traffic. I can still remember seeing her in certain outfits that the buttons clung to on her way to church, store, or "Showboat". My Nan-naw met the fate of losing her memory through some sort of demensia/alzheimer altercation. It was a first clue when she couldn't find her gas tank and was looking in the trunk. It just went down from there. Many years of little memories fading into the abyss of her mind. Leaving her with fractured images and confusing environments that we wanted to protect her from, but couldn't find our way into her world anymore. She was a sweet lady. I procured the button box when she had to make the move from home to the nursing home. I knew she had been forgetting alot when I opened the box and it was filled with buttons AND straight pins, OUCH! I visited her often in her last year. I watched her inhale some of her last bits of oxygen from her room. I will never forget pleading with her to let us take it from here and just to let go. She did. I miss my Nan-naw.

Thank you God for my wonderful childhood! Thank you for the influence of these wonderful women in my life that helped shape me into the woman I long to be in my life! Thank you God for my parents who saw to it that I had a relationship with my grandparents! Thank you God for the memories of these dynamic women! Thank you God!

Titus 2:4

Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

OOOhhhh that hurt!

I have to say that I have experienced many instances as a mother of 5 children hearing the devastating heart breaking wailing sounds from my children. Some are audible, some are silently loud! I hate those sounds, it goes to the very core of my soul and contorts into this indescribable pain. But you know if you have children around you what those sounds are. It could be the sound of your child falling as they are learning to walk. The sound of your crawling infant when the cat has had enough of tail-pulling games. The sound of your teenager that calls and says "Mom (you can hear his lip quivering and his heart pounding), I wrecked the truck. I'm ok." GULP!

We have graciously offered to babysit (maybe not the right term here) the pastor's snakes. There are only two, non poisonous snakes. A black rat snake and a corn snake. I'm fine with it because they are in their enclosure and really aren't much trouble at all. I lost my insane fear of snakes when Sarah was a toddler and would bring them in from outside, so as long as they are in something that I don't have to catch them, I'm good. She is in love with these creatures! Just beaming with joy every time she talks to them through the glass.

Our pastor is selling his house. Anywho....they were having to tote the enclosure up to the attic so as not to offend potential buyers. So, we offered to take them just for a time until they sell their house. That being said, they are happily housed on top of my sewing machine cabinet. Let me tell you, people don't run over to visit when you have snakes! So my son and my son's girlfriend, who loves snakes, and my oldest son and Sarah were admiring the reptilian wonders when Sarah decided to take the rocks off of the top for a closer inspection. To that, the oldest son chimed in, "you need to wait for dad to do that!" He was not willing to chase the snakes through the house! She waited for dad. Then she got a little to anxious and excited and started to pull it out of the enclosure. She didn't have hold of the snake at the right point, which led the snake to turn it's head and chomp down on her knuckle. Let me say, the sound she made was not one I'd heard in a while and it sent me to that place. It wasn't a sound of a painful wail as much as it was a sound of a broken heart. She was so upset. Upset that the snake wouldn't let her hold it and love on it, etc. Yes, there were teeth marks, followed by soapy hands and peroxide and an ice pack, but nothing worked on that heart, it was swollen with dispair. The only thing that made the pain subside was bigger gator tears. It was a HARD lesson to learn, a painful one, physically and emotionally. We're now on the other side of it and life is good.

But here is the sound that took me to that place and has left me there without a ride home....."Mom, something bad happened today, I'll tell you when I get home." What? You can't just say that and then not tell me what it was. First clue was that my son was on his brother's cell phone. Questionable. "Where is your phone?" "I'll tell you when I get home." "Did it get stolen?" "Yes, Mom. I'll tell you when I get home." Great. Then the next phone call came to inform me that his car won't start and can you bring jumper cables? This was now my younger son, the phone owner, who then proceeds to tell me that John is REALLY mad. Upon inquiry I got the younger son to confess the situation to me as he is locked in the car behind glass where his brother can't hear him. Sort of a cell phone to mom confession booth. It seems as though, John had left his jeans in the locker room with his friends belongings and went off to track practice. Sometime while he was running someone removed his cell phone and his wallet from his pockets. He had inadvertently had the money he had been saving for the summer mission trip with the church in his wallet. They took the money and put the wallet back folded backwards, sort of a signature "gotcha". Now at this point some of you may be saying, "why did he take that to school?" Yes, I know and so does he that this was not the best choice. However, he is the victim here, not the perpetrator and he is not completely at fault. It's almost like saying "she deserved to be raped because of her outfit." Not a great decision to wear it, but that doesn't make it right that it happened. That's a little bit of an extreme example, but ok....moving on. He has been building fences with a friend of ours, digging holes for posts and putting up panels and crawling under houses to cover crawl spaces with plastic. He isn't afraid of work and would rather raise the money himself than ask people to donate to the cause. He's always been that way. It's a trait I really admire. But sometimes the world makes it impossible. I don't know whose child stripped my son of his dignity and joy, but I'm in that place right now where I could spank someone else's child and feel really good about it. I don't care about the phone. I don't even really care about the money, because I know he will raise it somehow. He may have to ask for it. I care that his heart is broken because his fellow students stooped to the level like this. I don't like the sound of a broken heart. It must be similar to the sound that those dog whistles make that only dogs can hear. It is making my ears ring and my eyes well up with tears and my head to bow for forgiveness of my feelings and my heart to tear yet a little more. I have prayed for this individual, but out of my knowing I should, not out of wanting to. Don't worry, I will get there....when the noise subsides. Right now, all else is inaudible.

I know God will make it clear the purpose of each heart break. A learning moment, teaching moment, etc. I know that with pain comes healing and redemption. I know that my children are going to be just fine in spite of the world. I know that Jesus loves them more than I and knows what's best more than I do. I know that all is well eventhough it hurts. "Joy, in all things." Yes, God, in all things.

God Bless. God bless my children. God bless those who don't know you. God bless the heart breakers. God bless. God. Bless.

Hugs and Kisses, or just hugs.

Everyday of my life is a new day with my children. Just when I think I got 'em figured out, they gently remind me of my ignorance. I am always so proud of my children and the decisions they make and the way they go about their decision making.

Yesterday being Ash Wednesday the beginning of the Lenten Season marked a 40 day sacrifice for a lot of Christians. My son has been lamenting over what to give up for lent for about a week or so. He came home last weekend with an announcement. He and his GF have decided to give up kissing each other for lent. What? Seriously? Oh my gosh! You're kidding me? Did you hear that? I didn't even know you were kissing to begin with! LOL! Ha! I'm not quite that naive.

I am completely blown away at the way my son thinks. The way he takes his spiritual journey so seriously. The way God works in his life every minute. He is an amazing young man. His GF even brought him a chocolate kiss the first morning and he gave it away just in case that was breaking the rules.

It is humbling to watch him grow in God's will and be so open to the opportunities that God lays out for him everyday. How many 16 yo boys do you know who would consider giving that up for a day much less a 40 day period. I pray for my children each day and watching God work is quite entertaining.

Thank you God for John. Thanks for the way he loves you. Thank you for his respect of his GF. Thank you for his heart. Thank you for his presence in my life. How blessed we are to know him and love him. How awesome you are! Bless your name! Almighty Father, the blessings in my life leave me breathless. How merciful you are to us! Thank you God!

Everyone else in the family has gotten on board as well. We have all decided to give up kissing......John's girlfriend for lent. She was quite relieved! Does that count? Oh well, we'll keep trying!