March 31, 2009, Retirement

Brian says he is retired for one month. He will then be a full time student, working on his masters degree in theology from Liberty University. Most of the work will be done on line. He will continue to pastor at First Baptist, Peacock. If you click on the picture below, you can read the article about Brian that was in the Haskell Star, which included this picture taken in his office.

Pink Saturday

Beverly at HowSweetTheSound is again hosting Pink Saturday. Hope you enoy the pink posts by going there for the list of participants. Here are my pink pictures.
The first is a set of 6 pretty cups. These were a gift from my good friend. They belonged to her mother who is now in Heaven. I really like them.


These are a few of the pinks I have in my yard.






I know this isn't pink, but isn't it a pretty blue?





It is 36 degrees this evening and I have covered up some of the plants. We will probably move my husband's party for his clients to a church activity center tomorrow. I wish we could be outside but maybe we'll have another party later.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mayberry RFD?

My favorite show, The Andy Griffith Show. I still enjoy watching it, though I seldom get a chance to sit down to see tv lately. They had their problems in Mayberry but Andy could usually find the solution and all would end happily ever after. It was just a show with writers who could create the dilemma and with the stroke of their pens, change hearts and minds and make it all better. What power. In our world of real hurts, real losses and tragedies, we go to the words penned by men as the Holy Spirit gave them. And there is awesome power. His Words are life.
I have had a very emotional weekend. I worshipped with friends at the wedding of one of my best friend's son. I grieved with another friend whose son and daughter-in-law lost a baby at the ninth week of pregnancy. I prayed earnestly for God to protect a dear young friend in need of divine direction. The struggles of the past days watching my mom come from really bad shape to an amazingly wonderful place as God has blessed plus all the emotions of giving up one way of life for another as my husband starts his last full week at work before retirement (or re-wirement) added to these very intense throbs of my heart and brought me "to a point". My heart felt like a dandelion when the wind puffs and a thousand pieces fly through the sky. Lots of emotion. Not grieving or sadness, deep emotion. And He ministered His Word to me. His Word speaks to the celebrating, the grieving, the concern, the future expectations. His sufficiency through all these situations is a little bit of Heaven on earth. It is His Kingdom ruling in our lives here and now.
I don't really know what I am trying to say. I guess just that I praise Him. I thank Him for His Word. I thank Him that He is sovereign, that He loves me and He loves those I love more than I can understand. And that in the events of the present He continues to prove Himself to us. And I know He will continue to do so in the future. He is so good, so good. He's so good to me.

Update on My Mom AND Purple shrub

My mother had some very difficult days but God has worked on her behalf and she is so much better. She wants out of bed and is ready to work on the therapy tomorrow. After too much morphine followed by days with no pain medicine and then a few days of confusion and hallucinations, she is now herself. We are so thankful. I appreciate you praying for her. Isn't it amazing that God lets us be a part of what He does as we pray? We pray the Word. We listen and pray as we are led. We praise and express the faith He has given. And He is faithful to provide for us what we need to walk through the day we are in. We appreciate these days to show our mother how much we love and appreciate her. God is so good.

Shrub With Purple Blooms

I planted this shrub a few years ago and it has grown so slowly. This is the first year it has had these pretty purple blooms. They are opening on this long white streamer. They are pretty.

Early Pink Saturday

I am staying with my mom in the hospital much of this week so I am posting early. This is the easiest thing I can do, also.
During my moments at home, I am working in the yard. the first picture is a pair of new gloves at about 8:00 this morning and the second picture is of the same gloves about 12:00, along with the toboggan I needed because it is COLD.




Be sure to visit HowSweetTheSound for more pinks.

My Mama

This is a picture of my wonderful mama and myself in 1957. She is now in the hospital after a hip replacement on Monday. She stepped off a stool in Aug '07 and cracked the hip and they repaired with screws. The hip ball has died and she has been in terrible pain. She did well in surgery but since then has been awful. She was given morphine and because of low blood count, it has been too potent. They were hardly able to rouse her last evening and early today could not even swallow. Today, she was given no pain meds, trying to allow the morphine to wear off before giving a different pain medicine. She has had a very difficult day as have all of us who have tried to help her. We just bend over her bed and try to hold her, telling her that we love her, that she must try to stop moving her legs (her back is hurting so badly now and she needs relief there), that she can't turn over, that she can't keep pulling off the monitor equipment, that this pain won't last, that she should try to relax, to please try to stop crying, that we really aren't trying to hurt her, that she is doing a good job... She sometimes will ease and then we just have to laugh at the things she says under the influence of the morphine - nothing mean, just out of character for her. They finally did let her have a Tylenol and I think that helped a little. My daughter is with her tonight and is prepared for a long night. I will go again tomorrow for probably a long stay. I am praying they will be able to ease her pain tomorrow with new med and that she will have her own judgement/self back. She will work hard to recover if so. Thank you for praying for her. She couldn't have been a better mother for her two little girls.
This picture of Daddy and Mama was taken in January. 85 and 83 years old

Pink Saturday

I am participating in Pink Saturday again. If you like pink and want to see lots of pink (I didn't know so many people had this passion for pink-I am not so weird after all:>), visit HowSweetTheSound Here are my pink pictures today...

Here sits a beautiful Aladdin lamp which Brian gave me on a birthday. I really like it.




I made this purse earlier. It has some pretty pink on it.

March 5, 2009

When I wake in the morning, the second hand is moving around the clock. The measurement of my time, rather the measurement of the snatching away of my time, has no mercy. It is tick, tick, ticking and I immediately start making decisions. Each decision plots a certain amount of time on the graph of my day. You know how hectic the floor of the stock exchange appears? Sometimes that is a good picture of the "needs" in my life, all raising their hands bidding, trading, yelling for me to plot them onto the day's plan. And at then end of the day, some are slumped over in their wrinkled suits, loosened ties, and disheveled hair because they never succeeded. My life is being split into many areas right now. We need to have gobs of "stuff" moved out of our office and ready for Tommy to begin his new career as the agent. Moved where? Into my house. We need to have all our business "moved" from one computer to another in our house. The apartment beside the office, which I have been using for storage, needs to be cleaned out and rearranged because Tommy wants to rent it for the family to use in the evenings or when some child needs a place between activities in town, rather than driving home so often. And the most humongous challenge; because we are having a retirement party in our back yard in three weeks, there is a particularly rude and impatient group of rowdy brokers demanding their slots of time. AND, my mom is having hip replacement surgery Monday!

It is overwhelming. But I know that the most important thing I do when I wake up is to immediately plot the time on my graph for reading Words of Life, when I go to Him with all these demands on my life, when I call out to Him concerning the hurts and needs of my friends and family. And most important, when I just praise and worship Him. "Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name forever." Ps 43. How can I magnify the one who created all that exists? Isn't He already bigger than I can even conceive? I think this means that I declare His works, that I make them big by praising Him, by telling others what He has done. This is magnifying Him. It is reminding myself how great He is. I feel that is the real need in my life. Especially now when I am being pulled by all these legitimate demands for my seconds. He is sufficient. He will provide the energy and the means.

Prayers for my mom's surgery will be appreciated.

Love,
Jennifer