Wednesday Update

This is just a post to actually have something new up here. I have Blogger's Block - :-) I wanted to do a really nice post about Mother and her birthday, which was Sunday September 6. She was born in 1919 and would have been 90. I did begin one but only got as far as downloading a picture of her as a baby. This photo looks to be less than one year, certainly no more than that - so this photo would have been taken in 1920 probably. That is her Daddy standing behind her and he looks to be carving sugar cane.

Now there's something I like to remember. I don't know where everybody got it but I distinctly remember the adults in my life having sugar cane - I know Ella had it and would carve me a "chew". I loved chewing on the fibers and getting that sweet juice out of it. yum.

I really do miss Mom - I wish she could see my grandchildren and how cute they are. She really loved babies and was so good with them. She also liked Fall and afternoon coffee. I've been using my stove top percolator and having afternoon coffee by myself and thinking it would be nice to hand her a cup and hear her say, "ooohh, this coffee's so good!". She often said that. She was a great nest builder. Her home. She wasn't a big spender - nothing was designer stuff and matchy match - but it was in good taste and a nice look - comfortable and tastefully done. I really liked her style. Mother was a stickler for detail. I learned that from her. Clutter happened in her home, but then she would attack it and be so pleased once it was dealt with.

Well, I could go on and on......

Tomorrow is Luke's birthday and he'll be 3. I know Ann will write all about it on her blog - but I'm playing a grandmother role in all of it today. Ann's so busy "doing" the birthday thing today plus having to be packed for the big beach trip which really begins tomorrow. I'm helping her get as far as Evergreen - then I'll return on Saturday. Steve will join them on Saturday and they'll all go to their destination spot.

I've acted as her "assistant" of sorts today - just whatever she needs me to do - Presents will be opened here this afternoon and then the birthday meal and cake will be at the "Wednesday Night Youth and Children's meal" at church. Right now Andrew is sleeping upstairs. I've wrapped what I can and have a minute to post this before the hoopla begins. Then all the traveling tomorrow.

I'll close this post with a little poem that is copied down in Mother's handwriting. She must have found it and liked it. It's on some cutsey notepaper that has little drawings at the bottom and a printed quote at that top which reads - The Most Precious Things in Life Aren't Things. On the back of the small little notepad paper is a todo list and a bill paying list, in her handwriting. Because of the items on the list I can tell this was scribbled down while she was living in Scottsboro during those last 2 years of Daddy's life - when they moved here for me to help Mother with Daddy due to his Alzheimer's disease. Anyway - what a lonely time for Mother and such a dying to self and dying to the demanding of her own way - She lived yielded to HIM, her Redeemer, Savior, Lord - and as usual I didn't get it - what she was living out - the extent of it - until much later - I mean...I thought I did .... I wasn't super young - I was 40 when they moved up here and I had my own "yielding and dying to self" to do... but hers was harder and I didn't get that fully - anyway - during that time the following is the little poem she copied down on this notepad piece of paper.

"There's a house whose rooms I know by heart - Where dreams were dreamed and memories made - Where children grew up, Where life was lived - A house where I belong."

But the reality is that Mother is truly home now, where she belongs.

In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.

Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:1-6

Mom knew the way and that's how she was able to get to her true home -