Before I Post about My Trip to Tallahassee, FL, I Have to Show You This

I came back from the deepest South, on Friday - because....well, for a lot of reasons, but there was a Flag Football Game going on, Saturday morning.  It sounded like something I did not want to miss.

A fundraiser for The Turning Point Pregnancy Center -

It was a lot of fun - so many groups of men who had formed teams to compete with one another - all in fun - yet a bit serious fun - they all wanted to win - until the morning wore on and it got hotter and hotter and they got more tired and more tired.

But about this post - Luke, my grandson, loved seeing these men, whom he knew as regular adults - and especially  his  daddy and his daddy's friends - he loved seeing them do that aggressive, competitive sport, football.  So - when Ann brought him and Ellie and Andrew over later in the afternoon for dinner - meeting Steve here - this is how Luke showed up - He had SPORTSITIS!!!!  A bad case of it.

He had all the sports going on.  Baseball Helmet, Football, Basketball Uniform, and, well, the flip flops are a nonsport - but, well - no matter.

I took him outside - thinking the grass would be a better place for the photo - 

So, outside, he wanted to play - but all he had was Mom and Near (me).

Charlie was grilling chicken and Steve had not yet arrived.

This is what he got.

Mom, (Ann), teaching him to "Hike?"

Near taking pictures.

Luke throwing and running and screaming to her to tackle him.

She did.

Andrew had to get in on the action .

Luke wanted more.

And then Ann was exhausted and we called it quits.

I'm in Evergreen

and I stay in Mom's room when I'm here......

her corner where everything was so within her reach.

and I'm here because

in the morning,

Mary Ann and I are picking up our aunt, Mary, and our cousin, Melissa,

to leave Evergreen at 6:00 am

in order to arrive in Tallahassee, Florida by 11:00 EST

to visit our aunt, Florence, who is living down there with her daughter, Rachel.

We'll also get to see our cousin, Rusty, Florence's son.

I'll be back in Scottsboro on Friday or Saturday.

I hope to get pictures tomorrow and write about the visit.

It Seems So Long Since My Last Post

This is Monday.

A lot happened in our family since Friday.  But I'll let Ann post about that on her blog .  She hasn't actually posted anything new, but just keep checking and she will.

Aside from that,

Ellie, Luke, and Andrew spent Friday night with Charlie and me.

I had found a project  - an art project - titled, Build Your Own Cupcake.  I've wanted to send the reader to this place, but it's not all working out.  I will just show pictures -

I found this through Laura Beth's blog - I think - but neither she nor I can figure out how I got there from her blog.  Anyway - the blog is, well, it starts with an etsy shop - go here  This shop owner has a blog on which she has freebies and on freebies she has kids projects and she lets you download this project as a pdf file, whatever that means, and it comes up on your computer and you print it out on cardstock - and you've got a fun art project for kids and adults.

Okay - let me just say that Luke appeared as excited about it as Ellie - but he couldn't carry it off - I mean - he made a cupcake, but it was in such "boy style" - hard to explain.  I don't know if it's because he is a boy or if it's that he doesn't have the art gene.  Ellie is eaten up with the art gene.  She did this project all afternoon and into the evening.  I was having to draw new decorations for it - extra cupcakes and cupcake liners.  More candles.  She LOVED it.  I had no idea it would be such a hit.  

For Luke's sake I fried chicken nuggets.  I had thawed two chicken breasts and cut the meat off and into cubes.  I fried those and frozen fries.  and made mac and cheese out of a box.  It was also for Andrew who doesn't have a huge appetite and the fam is trying to fatten him up.  He loves french fries.  I did those for him.  Ellie has a great appetite.  She'll eat almost anything.  All of that was plenty for Charlie to have nuggets and the two breast bones with meat still on them, fried.  Charlie loves, loves, love good fried chicken.  He was so excited.  So - there was our Friday night.

Woke up - had Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls - the refrigerator kind - for their breakfast.  Luke was practically twirling he was so excited about those.  Isn't it funny?  Grandmothers can do 100% junk food all along.  Fried dinner - boxed mac and cheese - white flour cinnamon rolls - the kids loved it.  That's why Grandmothers are so popular.  They can get away with this stuff and make the grandchildren so happy.  Moms have to maintain nutrition.  Don't they?  And it's so hard to do that and see happy faces.

Crow Mtn.  First trip on Saturday.  Ann, kids and I went.  It's Apple Season!  

Joy Baldwin, if you're reading this, you should travel down for a trip to Crow Mtn.  Meet your mom here.  We should get Yonea in on it.  She loved Crow Mtn.

And then Sunday, and now Monday.

Happy Monday.

When Your Child Leaves Home You Clean Out Her Closet

Kate's closet was way over due for "going through".  I've done it a million times - it seems like it -

but - it had gotten so out of control.

If you go to  her blog ever , you'll find that she is fascinated with fashion, weddings, ummm, well, Hollywood glamour - yep - she is - and she is not kidding and I am not kidding.

Good grief!  The magazines that were in that closet.  I did some major cleaning out - but don't panic, Kate, if you're reading this.  There's a lot of wedding mags I saved.  The good ones - the ones still in tact.  I kept albums you'd created - any fashion sketches I kept - but my dining room table is full of throw away stuff.

And to get it from her closet upstairs and to my table downstairs,

I had to make lots of trips up and down these

carrying as much as I could in my arms.

and it's  a narrow space between bed and closet,

so I was in the closet most of the time just sitting and reaching and pulling out stuff.

These girls wondered if they were gonna be cast offs or keepers.

I wondered, too.  I stared at them, stroked their hair,

remembered the look on Kate's face that Christmas when she opened up the dark one.

She'd seen it at Unclaimed Baggage - it was new, it was being sold in what used to be their furniture store.  She loved it.  I surprised her with it.  She thought Santa had surprised her.

and then the redhead joined the beautiful Indian girl another year - but soon Kate outgrew that interest and the two dolls.  They were just for display - not for playing.

Don't they look bewildered?  I could imagine that the Indian girl was whispering in the Redhead's ears,

"Is she gonna give us away?  Do you think she'll keep us?"  And it looks like the Redhead is whispering back, "I don't know.  I'm just trying not to think about it."

I kept them.

And this character?  What do I do with this?

It's a valentines box for receiving classroom cards.

Made out of an Oatmeal Box.

and this one...

I didn't have it  in me to toss out this part of Kate's childhood,

when she trusted me to "create" for her - oops!  I mean, with her.

See?  When the girls had a project like this....welllll....

I had a tendency to take over.  I got into the whole creativity thing and in elementary school, often, gawdy was better.  So I was able to express my inner gawdy/tacky side.  

And let me tell you something, people.

In a family of 5 women - we have the 10lb, 5lb, and 3 lb weights.

These are not all we have.  Kate took some with her to Wake.

Laura Beth has some in McDonough on the living room floor

right next to the diaper stash.

I have to step over some in the garage, gathering garage dust and debris, 

in order to make my trek to garbage cans,

walking around all the stuff we moved home from Auburn.

I'm telling you, we look like classic hoarders.

But it's getting better and we will be taking a load of stuff to New Orleans for Sarah.

So, after cleaning out the closet, I kept her bulletin board from high school,

the one that shows the 18 year old Kate - heart and soul.

I did stick up that little wooden ADPi thingy, just because,

my girls walk away from all that sorority stuff after they graduate from college,

but it was such a part of their college experience.

Good or Bad, it was.

And this wedding picture that has stood the test of time,

well,

it remains, defining Kate's style interest.

I think it does.  It was on her wall in high school.

Now it's on her closet wall .

Put there by mom, who might just be trying to hold on to a time when I had daughters living at home

under our care.

and this,

it's hanging on the opposite closet wall.

When each of the girls turned ten,

I made them a poster of the first ten years of their life.

This is Kate's.

And, finally, the clean closet, organized and not as packed.

Sarah's will be next.

I've done it before, but it needs it again.

I'm Peering Out from Under His Wings

Yesterday was Tuesday - I accompanied Ann and children to Huntsville.

We left in heavy flooding rain and drove home in sunshine.  Amazing.

Oh, those childbearing years.   The possibility of life inside your body - again - even more amazing.  Beyond amazing.  The image of that little bit on the ultrasound screen.  I thought it looked like a girl.  Ann laughs at me.

We have a small glitch in our thrill - our breathless anticipation of watching her/it grow.  Ann's calculations are that she's 8 weeks.  The baby measures 5 weeks 6 days.  Could be that Ann is off but she knows she isn't off 2 weeks.  She was too small to hear a heartbeat although the nurse pointed to it beating.

Ann will return next week to have another look - when hopefully the size will be more and we can have more assurance.

And this week John, in McDonough, 6 month old John, will return to the neurologist place for his eeg and bloodwork - just to make sure that his screaming fits/holding breath/seizures are just his temper and not brain related.  Has a 6 month old ever been to any anger management programs?  Awww, John, so cute - but you get so upset!

And then Andrew - seems he has some normal looking birthmarks which they call "cafe au lait" birthmarks.

Who knew?  and doctors pay close attention to them - and watch them - and in rare occasions they become Neurofibromastosis.  They count them and if there are several then they test a little bit more.

Good grief - just when all is smooth sailing, little glitches come up.

It just so happens that the pediatrician of Ann's children was the pediatrician of my children and is a personal friend of Charlie and me.  He's not worried about Andrew and doesn't expect the birthmarks to be anything but benign - still - have to watch.  

And Dr. Wheeler,  Ann's ob/gyn, was very relaxed about the size of Ann's baby - still no promises -

and don't we want promises?

Promise me no heartache, no disappointment, no pain.

Promise me comfortable and easy and smooth sailing.

Promise me no trials, no sadness, no sorrow.

Can't promise that.

Well, what promises can we have?

How about Psalm 91?

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will abide in the Shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust."

For He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler

and from deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with His pinions,

and under His wings you will find refuge; 

His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler.

There's more in this whole chapter.

Verse eleven reads:

For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

This is the day.

Sunshine, a repaired lawn mower, and time to cut grass.

Not a Day That Fits Me

I really had looked forward to this Monday

but it's not fitting me.

I can't find any momentum.

I had intended for it to be very productive.  I'd looked forward to it.

First I was going to clean upstairs really good.

Missed that.

I did work on some bible study stuff, but not as thoroughly as I intended.

I had expected some things in the mail.

Those didn't get here.

Our lawn mower was returned with it's expensive new starter

but I didn't get the grass cut as I thought I would - grass that is over a week high.

I ate things I didn't intend to eat - emotional eating.  Know what I mean?

I finally got a late bath - began to prepare dinner - and did strip some beds upstairs and decluttered just a bit - enough to have made a good dent - so I feel better -

It's like I started the day over at about 3:30 p.m.

I hate to feel like I might have wasted a day - but I might have at least wasted portions of it.

Well - begin again.

Grace and Redemption.

Today Is Double Post Day

Besides being Laura Beth's birthday, of which I've already posted below or here,

it is also the day my youngest, my 4th daughter, really flew out of the nest.  Sarah flew on Tuesday April 27.  I wrote maybe one paragraph about it, but I remember crying the whole day.  on and off.  very emotional.  I didn't even take pictures.  Weird.  My brief post was written on here on May 1st.

I did today.

Official Travel Mug, filled with coffee, of course.

and don't we want to stay hydrated on a trip?  Why, yes, certainly!

Load the purse.

Keys, Cell, Wallet

What's that lime green envelope on the counter?

oooohhhh.  a note for "Mom".

that's me.  I'll read that after she leaves.

Laughing at her mom for taking all these pictures

One last tightening of that bicyle.  Hope it stays on, all the way to Winston Salem

Her loaded front seat

and back seat - and the trunk is packed also, of course.

She's in the car

and closing the door

bye, bye Kate, be careful, be sweet, and call me.

I love you.

Now, the note.

wow.

And then I went in and started cleaning my house.  It's a wreck.

Thank You Lord, for taking care of my girls.  

Thank You that with each of them I had a few months of their living at home between college and leaving.  Just a bit of their being a part of my world again before they made their own world.

Thank You that they love You and desire to serve You and seek You.

Thank You, that You loved them first.

I pray Your protection over them.  Surround them , please, with Your Holy Spirit, giving them wisdom and discernment and direction.