Recognizing and appreciating what I do have...

Family life is messy.  Sometimes we can forget that and have unrealistic expectations of family get togethers and celebrations.  On Mother's Day this year, instead of going out to eat we decided to invite the family over to our house.  There are a whole lot of things that went right.  On Saturday, my husband did the grocery shopping and made my recipe for shredded pork in verde sauce with a bit of coaching from moi. He had the whole meal organized, and both of us agreed that we would use paper plates and napkins and disposable cups and utensils so no one had to do dishes. I even had some cute flowery plates and napkins fitting for a Mother's Day get together. 

Sunday morning, I gave the morning message at church,  and everything seemed to go well.  Our oldest granddaughter came home with us after church and helped Papa make the guacamole and set out the fixings for the shredded pork burritos. The weather report for Mother's Day was a bit iffy, but the day turned out to be quite nice, so the grandkids could play outside.  I love having all five of our grandkids together!  The chips and salsa and guacamole were spot on and the shredded pork burritos were delicious. The make your own ice cream sundae bar for dessert, with a choice of vanilla bean or rocky road ice cream, and fresh strawberries, bananas, peanuts, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream to top the ice cream with was a big hit, especially with the grandkids.  I received gifts and flowers and sweet cards from my husband, daughters and grandkids.  It was a good day.

But, not everything was perfect.  A text and phone call from our youngest daughter, who had to work, wasn't quite the same as having her and her husband with us.  Youngest grandson had a bit of a melt down because he really needed a nap.  One unnamed grandchild had a bit of a potty accident, necessitating wiping down the bathroom and washing the bathroom rug.  The oldest grands were irritated that they had to stay outside and watch their little brother who was determined to escape out of our yard that isn't fully fenced in.  My daughters were weary, like most young mamas, and just wanted to be able to take a Mother's Day Sunday afternoon nap.  Yes, it was a good day, but it wasn't Hallmark movie perfect.  That's when you have to look past the messy imperfections to see the blessings.  You have to recognize and appreciate what you do have, even in the midst of temper tantrums, messes, weariness and all the other things that make up normal family life.  Life is not perfect.  Specifically, my life is not perfect, but I know beyond a doubt that I am a greatly blessed woman.  I'm so very grateful.

********************

Since 2009 I've been counting my blessings thanks to the prompting of Ann Voskamp.

 I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my journal.

(and capturing some of my blessings via my camera or iPhone)

#8364-#8395

5-2-16-

-two more gals joining our exercise group

-the book of Proverbs for devotions with She Reads Truth

-our girls renting a house on an island for our family vacation this August 

-the hubs getting a lot of yard work done after work today

-him encouraging me to rest while he worked since I wasn't feeling well

5-3-16-

-a sweet worship and prayer time in my little home office

-reading to my granddaughter from the same children's Bible I used with her mama

-painting for art time

-how much she loves our little neighborhood park

-finding some good deals on birthday gifts for our youngest grandson

5-4-16-

-writing about Mama that flows with memories and some tears

-my friend coming over and walking with me

-feeling better today 

5-5-16-

-my great niece's 10th birthday

-having my friend over for brunch

-our Thursday prayer and worship night at church

5-6-16-

-my daughter and youngest grandson coming over for breakfast

-going for a drive on Friday date day

-laughing at ourselves about the quirks we have that annoy one other

5-7-16-

-my husband doing the grocery shopping and making the pork for Mother's Day dinner

-such beautiful weather

-our oldest grandson helping Papa with more yard work

-God's presence at home as I listen to worship music and go over notes for Sunday

-God's help with my message

-a wonderful evening walk

-listening to my favorite podcasts

5-8-16-

-God with me as I gave the message at church

-people lingering long after church, 

many gathering round and visiting with a new couple and making them feel welcome

-our oldest granddaughter helping Papa make guacamole

-texts and a phone call from my girl who couldn't join us on Mother's Day

-all my grandkids together

-resting and watching Fixer Upper after everyone left

still following,

I call you Life Spring...

It's Mother's Day.  Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mamas out there!  I'm well aware that Mother's Day can be a mixed bag emotionally.  For those whose mother wasn't exactly a "greeting card" sort of mother, it can be an awkward day as you search for the right words to say to a mom that wasn't everything you needed.  There are those of you who have lost your mother recently.  This first Mother's Day without her is a difficult one, and every Mother's Day after you will still miss her.  You may be struggling with infertility, and Mother's Day is a painful reminder of your empty arms.  Maybe you're single, and wondering if you're ever going to meet the right one, if you'll ever have a family of your own.  Perhaps you are smack dab in the messy middle of motherhood and are feeling overwhelmed with the enormity of the responsibilities that you face each day.  Even the thought of your kiddos bringing you breakfast in bed comes with dread because you know the mess that awaits you in the kitchen afterwards. This Mother's Day you may have a prodigal son or daughter wandering far from God. Guilt haunts you as you wonder if there's something you should have, could have, done differently that would have made a difference as they made their decisions. Or maybe you've lost a child through miscarriage, still birth, sickness or tragedy.  Mother's Day reminds you of your horrible loss.   You might have had a great mother, and your heart and home may be full of family and celebration on Mother's Day.  No matter our differences on this Mother's Day, we all have something in common.  We are all daughters of Eve. 

By creation, and then by our new birth at salvation, we are daughters of God.  But in our humanity, we are Eve's kids.  As such, we come from a long line of brokenness.  Sometimes, the brokenness is all we can see. It overwhelms us.  If that's you, I want to cup your face in my hands, look in your eyes, and call you "Life Spring".  I want to remind you that if you believe in and have received Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, then His Life Giving Spirit lives in you.  The Holy Spirit fills your innermost being and personality.  In your innermost being flows a continual spring of life giving water.   You don't have to be a mother to be called Life Spring, all you have to do is to start letting that river of living water in you splash onto others.   (Join me for the rest of this post on Sunday, May 8th, at Woman to Woman Ministries where each Sunday I share a bit of Sunday Soul Food!)

still following,

Also happily linking up with the lovely

 Lisha Epperson 

Friday Faves...Designing and hanging up a gallery wall display, the easy way!

I have two gallery wall displays in my home, one in my living room using miscellaneous decor items,

and one in my dining room using bread boards.

Designing and hanging up a gallery wall is easy using this method...

 First, you will need a roll of wrapping paper, kraft paper or some similar product.

Cut it to the approximate length that you want your gallery display to be on the wall.

Cut a second piece of the same length and tape the two pieces together,( or even three, 

depending on how tall you want the display to be).

 Find a clear spot on the floor and lay out your paper, then lay out your objects on top of the paper, 

rearranging them until you are pleased with the results.

Something I like to keep in mind is to try to space the objects

 approximately the same distance apart from one another.  

This is not an exact science.

In my living room display I just spaced everything approximately two inches apart.

In my dining room bread board wall, the boards are spaced approximately five to six inches apart.

Once you have everything exactly the way you want it to be on the wall,

 on the paper trace around each item with a pencil.

Then, on the paper mark clearly where the hanger on each item is.

Using painters tape, tape the paper onto the wall, making sure it is centered in the space you want it to be,

and using a level make sure the paper is level on the wall.

Hammer nails into the wall through the places you marked on the paper indicating where the hangers were placed.

Remove the paper, and hang everything up, using the paper to remind you where each object belongs.

Step back and enjoy, you're done!

Well, it's almost Friday, friends.

Have a HAPPY, HAPPY Friday

and

a safe and BLESSED weekend!

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com

             

just not a "Hallmark" sort of mom...

It was a struggle to find just the right kind of Mother's day card for my mama each year.  You see, she wasn't exactly the Hallmark card kind of mother.  

Mama wasn't the sort of mother that rocked her babies to sleep, read them bedtime stories, or sang them lullabies.  She didn't verbalize her feelings very often, or smother us with kisses and hugs.  Mama said I love you in the best way she knew how, by working morning to night taking care of the seven of us.  She cooked us delicious meals and baked us treats.  She sewed our clothes and kept them clean and ironed and well mended. She cleaned the house and washed our bedding every Saturday. She bathed us and made sure we all looked our Sunday best come the Lord's day, hair curled or slicked down, depending on our gender, and clothes washed, starch and ironed.  She worked extra jobs on the side when the need arose to supplement our dad's manual labor job at the paper mill. When daddy left her when I was nine, she found a good job clear across town from where we lived, choosing to commute rather than to move us out of the only home we ever had known.  She put us kids first, above her own needs and desires, choosing not to complicate our lives by pursuing her own social life.  We never had to worry about where our mama was on a Friday night.  When mama wasn't working, she was home with us.  

There were times I wished God had given me a more greeting card type of mama.  I wish she'd have asked me how I felt or how I was doing after daddy left.  I suppose she was too busy treading water, just trying to keep herself afloat, after he walked away from her for another woman.  As I journeyed through puberty, I wish Mama had been more open and able to talk to me about the strange changes happening in my body, happening in my emotions, instead of strategically leaving me a book on the topic, hoping that would suffice.  I wish she'd asked me about the boys I liked, about the boys I dated.  I wish she'd interjected some advice, some wisdom, instead of leaving me to navigate that whole minefield on my own. A curfew of what time to be home was the only boundary she set for me.  By God's grace, He kept me relatively unscathed through those years, in spite of my own foolish naivety. To be fair, I don't think Mama had any confidence in her own judgement or wisdom, in her own ability to lead us, guide us, to teach us how to navigate through the ways of this world or to disciple us in the ways of Christ.  She faithfully took us to church with her, and I think she just hoped and prayed that what we were getting there was enough.

When I was a teenager, Mama attended a class in which she was encouraged to communicate her love and encouragement to us.  I remember the day she was dropping me off for a babysitting job and she asked me to sit there in the car with her for a minute.  She told me how special I was to her and how much she loved me.  It was a bit awkward, in the same way listening to someone try to communicate in a language that's foreign to them can be strained.  Yet, I remember that as one of the kindest things my mama did for me, her trying to talk to me in my love language, words of affirmation.

In high school, a woman in the church we attended sent me a little note.  She wrote words that, perhaps in a greeting card world, Mama should have told me a long time before.  Instead it was this woman from church who wrote me a note that opened a wide door in my spirit, a wide door of hope and possibility.  The note talked about God having a plan for my life, a calling on my life, perhaps a call that included ministry.  So, I set my sights on attending Bible college.  My ultra practical mama did not tell me we couldn't afford it, she did not tell me it was too far away from home, she did not ask me what I was going to learn in Bible college that would help me to make a living in the real world.  She also did not help me navigate college applications, scholarship applications or any of those other things that were totally foreign to her.  After all, she had just completed her own high school GED five years earlier, the year she turned forty five.  God, in His grace, was there to help me where mama didn't know how.  I managed to complete my first year of college with grants and scholarships and on campus jobs, with fifty dollars left in my checking account when I went home for the summer.  That's one thing Mama did teach me with confidence, balancing a check book and watching her pennies was her specialty.

My roommate in college did have a greeting card kind of mama.  The two of them were best friends.  The fact that she and her mama phoned each other frequently was foreign to me.  My mama had raised me with the notion that long distance phone calls were not to be made frivolously.  Mama and I communicated mostly by letter.  In letter I could venture in to deeper emotional waters with Mama than in face to face conversation or phone calls.  This is a tendency I still have, to write the things I feel deeply with more ease than I can say them.  I suppose, in some way, this is Mama's gift to me.

Mama died five years ago.  I miss her still. She definitely was not a greeting card kind of mama, but she was my mama.  She was the mama that God knew I needed to make me the person that I am today.  She, like every human mother from the beginning of time to the present, made parenting mistakes.  Yet, God's grace was there, covering her weakness. Really, isn't that the cry of most mothers?  "God, please cover our mistakes with your grace!" was certainly my most frequent prayer when we were raising our girls, accompanied by, "God, please give us your wisdom!"  The good news is, for all of the "not a Hallmark kind of mom" mothers out there, God really does have your back, He really will give you wisdom and cover your weaknesses and mistakes with His grace. He really does have His hand on your kids. I have a hunch that most kid's have, at one time or another, wished for a different kind of mom than the one God gave them.  I imagine my girls did as well.  But God, in His wisdom and sovereignty, gave my kids to me to parent and gave yours to you. We may not all be a Hallmark kind of mom, but we can be the mamas our children need, by God's grace and with His help.

still following,

  

Also joining THOUGHT PROVOKING THURSDAYS 

As welcome as the flowers in May...

After a beautiful wedding on Saturday, the bride told me to take some flowers home.

Today, I did a little photo shoot with one stem of these sweet purple flowers as the main subject.

 (edited with Kim Klassen's waterfront-1 texture, screen mode, 20% opacity)

(edited with Kim Klassen's just a touch texture, lighten, 20% opacity)

(edited with Kim Klassen's dream it texture, hard light, 30% opacity)

(song lyrics by Hank Snow)

(edited with my own preset)

still following,

 songography at "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out"

image-in-ing:Variations

life-n-reflection

buckaroomama

Recognizing the love of God in everything...

It's been a busy, full, good Sunday.  I woke up in the wee hours this morning and saw the sunrise through my kitchen window.  I love getting to sip and savor my coffee and slowly come to full awareness before getting ready for church. Worship was especially wonderful today.  When church was over we had lunch with our leadership team, a great meal with encouraging conversation and prayer together.  I came home with a happy heart, and ready for a little Sunday afternoon power nap.

Did I mention that the weather was summer like and 81 degrees today? This evening my husband called me out to the yard where two wild bunnies were hanging out. They posed long enough for me to grab my camera and get a photo. It was a day full of blessings, big and small.  I'm grateful.

********************

Since 2009 I've been counting my blessings thanks to the prompting of Ann Voskamp.

 I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my journal.

(and capturing some of my blessings via my camera or iPhone)

#8330-#8363

4-25-16-

-God's provision

-making homemade cinnamon rolls for our friend's birthday

-my daughter texting me that my granddaughter is looking forward to "Nana school" tomorrow

-a birthday dinner at a fun new to us restaurant 

4-26-16-

-morning quiet time

-a fun "Nana school" field trip to the lilac gardens

-doing school work outside at the park

-a beautiful day in every way

-our youngest granddaughter getting so tall

4-27-16-

-spending time with our two oldest and our youngest grandkid(s) while their parents are away for a night

-buying wedding presents for two young couples in our church

-Papa watching our grandson so I could go on my run

-spaghetti sauce simmering on the stovetop and homemade french bread baking in the oven

-writing time in the evening quiet after everyone's in bed

4-28-16-

-snuggles and hugs from my youngest grandson 

-a walk to the park

-getting stuff done while he naps

-he was so happy when his mama got home

-a sweet time of worship and prayer at church tonight

4-29-16-

-Friday date day

-delicious creamy tomato basil soup for lunch

-a fun find at the antique mall

-my husband and son-in-law performing a wedding together, 

so we got to see him, my daughter and our granddaughters at the rehearsal

-my hub's making a late night run to the store for me,

 when I got in the middle of making cookie dough and was out of one ingredient

4-30-16-

-Saturday morning cookie baking for the wedding reception

-a wonderful wedding

-our whole family together at the wedding

-dinner with my nephew and his family and our oldest daughter and her family afterwards

5-1-16-

-May day!

-Sunday morning sunrise

-amazing worship today

-an encouraging lunch with our elders

-a Sunday afternoon power nap

-wild bunnies in our yard

still following,