A blessing…

I saw her art here…her words, her photography, her unusual creations, all of it art.

I commented that I love it…the song stone I called it.

This week it came, a blessing in the mail…

a song stone wrapped in a song.

Some weeks you just need someone to send you a song.

He knew and she listened and obeyed.

 

My continuing gratitude list #1004-#1019

-Monday morning

-spring blooms

-baby granddaughter now old enough to ask to come to Nana’s house

(so of course she got to come!)

-croak of frogs

-flock of geese

-waking up pain free after a day of muscle spasms and migraine

-prayer to a God who hears and answers

-song stone in the mail

-graham crackers and milk

-laughing together

-my grandson who is like watching a moving ping pong ball when we Skype

-beautiful sunny Saturday

-open hearted communication with my girl

-love so great that it hurts

-God calling us to a new level of surrender

-hearts that say yes to Him

 

Gratefully yours,

Elizabeth

Tightening up the belt of truth…

What difference would it have made in my life if, in late September of 2009, I hadn’t taken pen to journal page and written: 1)I am lavished with love, grace and favor by Jesus.  It was the first of what will, in the next few days, become 1000, and I am still counting.  I had no idea that in the time represented between that first entry and now, youngest daughter would move to the midwest, second daughter, son-in-law, oldest granddaughter and only grandson would move to the east coast, oldest daughter and her husband, who served as our assistants for 12 years, would start their own church birthed by our church with a core group of people dear to us, my Mama would die.  The changes have been soul shaking.  Yet through it all, each time I take pen to that same little journal and write 981…982…983…I am tightening up the belt of truth and remembering the truth that, no matter the circumstances and changes life brings, I am lavished with love, grace and favor by Him.  The signs are all around me everyday.

“Awaken in me a holy givenness that is not just periodic but perpetual. 

Move me into the place where I am looking for You,

finding signs of Your love in the everyday

and responding amidst ordinary activities with extraordinary love.” Dana Candler

my continuing gratitude list

#969-#984

-family dinner with oldest daughter, son-in-law and baby granddaughter

-baby granddaughter squeezing her eyes shut, raising her hands, and singing,

“Hoe-wee, Hoe-wee, Woard God Awmighty.”

-Hub’s warmth next to me

-flowers from friends

-brown eggs in porcelain cartons

-God singing over us and us singing back “My soul sings, My soul sings, My soul sings, how I love You.”

-grocery store full of choices

-the smell of dinner in the oven

-phone calls and Skype

-praying together

-egg with sunny yellow yolk and multi-grain toast to sop it up with

-the Hubs prayers for me and encouragement and help with chores when I wasn’t feeling well

-a walk with a friend and her encouragement

-this book

-home

-a visit from my sister –in –law

 

Gratefully yours,

Elizabeth

 

joining the gratitude gatherers here-

just some $4 flowers and a walk…

God created beauty to minister to the spirit of man.

I read this somewhere long ago and I wholeheartedly believe it.

 

I wake up with my spirit feeling a little frayed at the edges.

I have good intentions.  I know how to fight it.

Journal, read my Bible, pray.

I journal a bit and barely start reading scriptures that I have printed out on the topic of HOPE…my theme word for 2011, when the phone rings, and then more calls, emails, interruptions, concerns, prayer needs, appointments to calendar in.  I feel as though the enemy has a hold of those loose, frayed, threads and is pulling with all his might.

I go to Mama’s to check on her and meet with the hospice nurse.

On the way home I run into Safeway for a gallon of fat free milk

and come out with a $4 bunch of carnations too.

When I get home I plunk them in some shapely pitchers and jars,

here and there around the house.

I put on my runners, my coat and my knit cap and gloves

and catch the last hour of frosty, clear, cold daylight before sunset.

  I discover that the IPOD is not charged, so I softly sing my praise acappella as I walk.

I walk two loops around the neighborhood,

my fingers tingling with the cold in spite of the gloves.

The sun flirts with me through the trees before saying goodnight.

The beauty He created knits me back together.

 

Still following,

Elizabeth

 

Great gift…

She prayed, along with so many, many others, for my oldest daughter to have a baby.

She prayed  through the 8 plus years of my daughter’s,  her granddaughter’s,

waiting, and loss, and trying again.

Seeing my 85 year old mama with this little answer to prayer, her great granddaughter,

is truly a gift.

 

 

Still following,

Elizabeth

 

linking to Tuesday Unwrapped at

Chatting at the Sky

Puddle Splashin’…

 

I grew up only ten miles south of where we live now.

Life brought us full circle over a decade ago, the Hubs and I moved back here near my childhood home.

As a girl I loved the rainy Northwest.

Loved the sound of the rain on my roof at night.

Loved walking to the corner store with my little friend from down the street

us huddled under one umbrella while the rain poured down from gray Oregon skies.

At age 52, too much of the rain, and I get Palm Springs on my mind.

So I decided to get in touch with my inner child

and her puddle slashin’ ways.

I bought a pair of shiny, new, black, wellies

and a pair of long, warm, woolie socks

and I took them for their inaugural walk

on this rainy Oregon day…

this beautiful, rainy Oregon day.

 

 

Still following,

Elizabeth

linking to Tuesday Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky

Congratulations to Diana at To Everything a Season.

You are the winner of the giveaway of Beth Moore’s book!

Happy Nana…

I left Portland at 10:20p.m. Sunday night and flew non-stop to Charlotte, North Carolina. I slept about three hours on the plane.  I got to my daughter’s house in the wee hours of the morning and was able to wake up my oldest granddaughter and only grandson who did not know I was coming.  Oh, they were so surprised and so happy!  Of course I was overjoyed as well.   In spite of my lack of sleep, we had a full day of important business to attend to…

Exploring the “forest” behind their house…

And the pond where the geese gather…

Discovering that my grandson is now a proficient bike rider…

Cooking their special request for supper…beef stew and cornbread…

Watching “How to Train a Dragon” with them before bed…

Heading to bed with them camped out on the floor beside me…

I am a happy Nana.

Still following,

Elizabeth

 

Linking to Chatting at the Sky

for Tuesday Unwrapped.

 

Remember to click here to enter my giveaway

for Beth Moore’s book

Jesus~90 days with the One and Only

Tutus and llamas…

When autumn begins with gray skies and rain

and then suddenly a day comes when it’s all golden and sunny

and the sky is cornflower blue

 

 

sometimes on a day like that

the best thing to do is to don your favorite tutu

and wave bye-bye to the city

and run away to the country

with the llamas and the sheep and the goats

and the chickens and the turkeys

and do a little twirl in your tutu

there in the autumn sun

 

 

Still following,

Elizabeth

linking to

Tuesdays Unwrapped at chatting at the sky

Sunshine came to my house today…

 

Though the skies outside were cloudy, sunshine, (aka youngest granddaughter), came to my house today.

She played with the same little toys her mama and aunties used to play with

She is busy, busy, busy…but suddenly, she put her toys down and crawled up on my lap.

She rested her head on my shoulder and stroked my arm while I sang to her.

She sat there for less than five minutes before getting down to play some more.

But what a happy five minutes it was!

 

Still following,

Elizabeth

Linking to Tuesday Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky

An envelope full of love…

An envelope full of love came in the mail today…not an email, a facebook message, or a hastily written text…a genuine, sign, sealed, delivered, snail mail letter!

It was written on upside down notebook paper in what appears to be colored pencil.

This is what it said…

Der Nana,

I mes you Nana and Papa.  I mes you so mutsh.

Hay or you doeen?

OXOXOX

I love you Nana a Papa.

from (only grandson’s name here)

(oldest granddaughter’s name here) rot it

 

They make quite a literary team in my opinion.

Just in case you’re wondering,

Papa and I are doeen fine

but we sure mes those grandbabies so mutsh!

 

Still following,

Elizabeth

Linking to Tuesday Unwrapped @ chatting at the sky

The other Nana…

There’s no pain like seeing your child in pain and knowing there’s not a thing you can do to help.

I remember the sound of my daughter’s cries behind the closed door as she told her husband that the doctor had said she might not be able to have a baby. 

It was the unmistakable wail of mourning.  That sound coming from my firstborn baby still haunts me, causes my stomach to knot when I think about it.

I heard it too many more times as a hopeful conception was followed by a devastating miscarriage…three times.

Another mama heard her son’s cries.

We were two mama’s with kids that had owies much too big for us to bandage or kiss away.

We prayed. Everyone we know prayed.  People we didn’t know prayed.

The Lord responded, and today, two Nanas had a backyard barbecue, with a miracle.

 

The other Nana, with our youngest granddaughter, the little miracle…

Her son, my son in law…

 

Still following,

Elizabeth

Today I’m linking to

Tuesday Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky