A new page, a new year

I don't know about you but I love a new fresh page of paper, all clean, crisp, and just waiting for some marks to placed on it.
At work we have brand new med sheets with little boxes to fill in with our initials for each medication that is given and at what time it was given. These pages start out so clean with no smudges and my initials look so clear and bright. But just like a fresh clean piece of paper as soon as it is written on its not so clean any more.
That's what happens to the new year each time. We start out with big plans, (our) plans to loose weight, write more letters, visit our elderly family members more often, exercise more, get healthy, keep the budget on target. All sorts of things and we resolve to do it with all sincerity.
But, in reality our plans are not always what God has in store for us. His plans always trump ours... and His are the best plans to help us grow not fatter or thinner, His plans may not keep us within the budget either, or give us the extra time to do all the things we said we would do.
But, His plans just may draw us closer to those we really didn't want to be close to, or bring us out of our comfort zones with health concerns either for ourselves or our loved ones. His plans want us to focus on Him, spend more time reading the love book He left us so we can be closer to Him and be come more like Him. Maybe even quiet our busy schedules so we have to focus not on our agenda but His.
 Our slate has been wiped clean by the blood that was shed on the tree, just like the clean piece of paper, so instead of making new year resolutions I think I will just do my best to remember who I belong to and who I need to follow.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. Isaiah 55.8

5You hem me in—behind and before;

you have laid your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

Psalm 139:5-6

 

16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.

John 15:16

 

Great verses with so much meat to chew on, there are so many more wonderful passages, so much to learn from our heavenly Lord.

May your new year give you a clean slate and draw you nearer to the One who calls your name everyday to come and fellowship with HIM because He loves you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

Remember whose birthday it is

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

Thank you for coming...

You know sometimes the Lord takes us on a journey that we never thought we would travel. For the last month Sweetman and I have traveled to places many never want to visit

One afternoon we found ourselves in the emergency room with several wires, and tubes connected to my Sweetman monitoring every level of body function that you can imagine.
Just a few hours earlier in the day he had an unusual tingling feeling that ran down his left arm and what he described as an elephant sitting on his chest. So off we went to the hospital.
It didn't take them long to determine that he needed more attention than what our small hospital could give him so arrangement's for a transfer to a different hospital was made and off he went.
I have never had such a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as when I watched them load this vibrant energetic man into an ambulance, close the doors and leave me standing alone in the night air, as they drove him off to another hospital.
Yes I followed them the few miles to a bigger better equipped hospital. And after more tests, lab work, monitors, x-rays, and doctors we learned Sweetman needed a quadruple bypass. He had four blockages in his heart that would eventually cause a severe heart attack and possibly death.
Who would have thought this man was a walking time bomb?? We had no previous clues that he had a heart problem.
Oh, there may have been some signs that we could explain away, like feeling really tired, especially after a long day doing what he loves to do, selling stuff at the flea market. Or a slight little cough, that could be explained away as sinus post nasal drip that he has had for many years. But he has always worked circles around other men his age, never had high blood pressure, never had high cholesterol, diabetes or any other reason to make us think he had heart issues.
So the doctors gave us an option he could stay in the hospital and have the surgery the day before Thanksgiving or wait until after the holidays. But surgery was facing us no matter which way we looked at it. God gave us a wake up call with no heart damage at this point but something that could happen at any time. We choose surgery as soon as possible.
His bypass took from 7:30 am to 3:30pm, with a two and half day stay in the ICU, then several more days in the cardiac care unit with a total of 13 days in the hospital.

He's been home now for two weeks and is gaining strength daily, of course its not fast enough for him but this road of recovery will be a long one. They tell us six months to a year for full recovery. We have a our first doctors visit post Op on Thursday, his first cardiac therapy session and probably more tests. Were praying and hoping for good reports. Were also thankful for other miracles that happened during this whole process. We became great grandparents to a beautiful little girl and great aunt and uncle to two lovely twins. All doing very well. 
The picture above is the first time great grandpa had the chance to meet his new great grand daughter, Eilir. So precious, and we are so thank ful to God for His loving arms to have sustained us though all of this.

Election of most importance, Please vote

Who will I vote for?
I will vote for the most pro-life candidate, because God hates the shedding of innocent blood (Proverbs 6:16,17)
I will vote for the most pro-Israel candidate, because God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who don't (Genesis 12:3).
...

I will vote for the most pro-debt reduction candidate, because the borrower is servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7).
I will vote for the most pro-work candidate because God says if a man does not work, let him not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
I will vote for the most pro-marriage candidate, because God is for marriage as defined in Genesis 2:24.
I will vote for the candidate who most closely believes government's purpose is to reward the good and punish the evil (Romans 13).
I will vote based as close as I can on God's Word (2 Timothy 3:16), knowing that whoever gets elected, wisdom and power are God's, He sets up kings and deposes them; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness and light dwells with Him. (Daniel. 2:21).
As that late man of God, Dr. D. James Kennedy said, "Lord, give us the leader that we need, not the one we deserve

Father and son bonding time, so to speak

Here I am again with a sporadic post. I think I mentioned that we have an over abundance of leaves this year and for some reasons they seem to be extra large.  We have eight huge oak trees that line our drive way and most of the leaves come from them but we also have a small wooded area on the back of our property line.  With all the wind and rain we have had it hasn't been possible to get out there to clean them up, so they have continued to accumulate as you can see. This is a picture of part of our back yard and the rest of the yard looks the same or worse.

 

Sweetman enlisted the help of the youngest son to help clean up. Not that he was so eager to be enlisted for yard work but he was a big help. They started this morning about 10am and never quit until 3:45pm when the job was finally finished. Said leaves are now out in the road burning away to a small patch of ashes.

 

 All kinds of equipment was used to make the task somewhat less tedious, they had blowers, the tractor with the bags on but they filled up so fast it was almost more work to make only one trip across the yard and empty the bags each pass.

 So out came the big blower and the tarps.

 Of course rakes were needed, that was real manual labor. I like these pictures of Father and son bonding as I called it today.Working along side each other in cooperation.

 
 Fortunately the weather was pleasant with sun shining most of the day and not to much of a wind, but just enough of a breeze to keep the sweat off the brow.
While they were out slaving bonding with each other and nature, I was whipping up a batch of vegetable soup to take over to my daughters for lunch to share with my granddaughter and great grand son. We then took a ride over to the Post Family Farm to have a little fun at the petting farm, riding a horse and buying some of the best donuts on the face of the earth, (according to some) they are better than Krispy Kremes.

It was a pretty productive day and I think Sweetman is pretty worn out, as a matter of fact he is at present snoozing in his big chair as I write this. Bonding with nature can be exhausting.

Fall is for blustery days

 

Wow, we have sure had a windy fall so far, today the forecast was for fairly mild temperatures but very windy, in fact the waves on the big lake are supposed to be 15 footers!!!

 

 The leaves are falling by the bunch load, and swirling around my front porch stoop, my perfect little dog doesn't seem to mind, in fact he doesn't mind much of anything, he just sits there like a good dog.

I didn't have to work today and I was so glad I didn't because I wouldn't have had the chance to take a walk down my road and capture these pictures.

 This is a view I can see of the back side of the bayou just around the corner from my house, can you see the water behind the trees?? The water levels are down all over because of the dry summer we had but in past years there has been a much larger body of water in this area.

 This is another view of a dry stream bed, I remember the first year we lived here it was almost full up to the level of the road.

 Walking down the road the wind was blowing so hard, causing the tree tops and branches to sway so much they would creak and clack into each other making it sound like whips cracking above my head, all the while the leaves were swirling around my feet, and the smell of woods filling the air.

 Here's a glance of a bend in the road, as it dips and winds through the woods.

 I was thanking God for the season of this beauty as I walked, I'm not fond of the season that follows fall but I must admit this morning was quite pleasant even with the wind howling though the trees.

 Just look at the imprints the leaves have left in the road as the cars ride over them embedding them into the hard dirt.

 But look what I found out in the garden~~~~ isn't it delightful?? one lone lily still enduring the colder temps, rain and the wind.

Here's what I did with some of the hydrangea blooms that I saved from the tree I have in the yard., they make a great dried flower arrangement for in the house too.

Celebrating 96 years of life

 

Today many of the family gathered around this beloved lady who has made it to her 96th birthday. It actually isn't until Oct 9th but we are almost there. She has been blessed with good health for most of her life but recently has had a couple of set backs and we thought we might loose her but she is a tough one and bounced back to almost her old self.

 

 I had to work today so I couldn't be at the birthday celebrations the whole afternoon but as soon as I got out of work I did get to join the festivities and visit with a few of the family who were still there.

These are just a few of the pictures of family members who dropped by to wish this grand lady happy birthday.

There were kids, grand kids, great grand kids, friends and relatives of all kinds drop by for a little open house short of thing which started out in her apartment but found out it was much to small as more people arrived, so the party was moved down to the common meeting room which provided some breathing room for everyone. Just to think this little lady and her husband started this whole family years ago and if it wasn't for her none of these people would be here.

Making the 96 year marker and to be able to still live in your own apartment on your own is quite an accomplishmant don't you think???

These two ladies are my daughters in law and grand daughters to her, they are both so helpful in stopping by often to check in on her. She is loved by so many.

BABY SHOWERS ARE SO HAPPY!!!

Wedding showers, weddings, and baby showers are all on my really fun list to attend. I don't know about you but I'm not one for going to home parties of any kind, but today I got to attend a very fun baby shower for my niece.

This has been on of those occasions you really look forward to and anticipate all the cute little gifts that the long awaited baby will receive. But this one was really special because this couple didn't think they would have children. I know for a fact that I have prayed for them along time to get pregnant, and I have not been the only one praying.

The Lord answered our prayers for this couple and now they are expecting twins!!!! When the Lord answers a prayer or many for that matter He surely does it up big.

She is not due until December but the Dr's  have put her on pretty strict bed rest. The shower was originally going to be held at a hall but because of the change in her up time status we all converged on her at home so she could stay put in her zero gravity chair.

I think there were about 25-30 ladies there, maybe more, no one stayed put long enough to get an accurate head count but we all had fun chatting ( that's what ladies do). Eating a fantastic gourmet brunch that her sister, Aunts and Mom prepared, playing some fun games, and watching the opening of double the fun gifts.

Her sister made the cake, which was not only beautiful but absolutely delicious!!!!

I can't think of two people who deserve to have double the blessing of twins than this couple. They are calm, collected (which they will need to be) and fun loving, (which they will also need to be). Both love and serve the Lord in so many ways I know the babies will be raised to know who Jesus is from day one of life outside of the womb.

And there are grand parents, family and friends who will be there to assist them in times of trials which will come in pairs.

They have had several ultra sounds already but do not want to know the sex of the babies and the medical staff has honored that request, so many of us left our guesses on the chalk board. As you can see most think she will have one of each but a few feel they will be boys. Only one person said girls, and she said she choose that because no one else did.
Mom to be said she feels like maybe two boys or one of each but she doesn't feel like they will be girls at all. Time will tell and I will be sure to let you know when the big day arrives. For now we are all praying the babies stay put until fully cooked and ready to enter the outside world of wonder.