For weeks I've been apologizing to everyone who comes over for the MESS in the middle of my living room floor. I've been navigating my way around 54 years worth of pictures and other treasures spread out all over the floor as I go through each memory. It's been an ongoing project, and not something I wanted to rush through. Some days I've gone through only ten photos, stopping to call someone and say hello who I've not talked with in years. Other photos I've taken snapshots of and sent to friends or family, and shared another good laugh with. Still others I've sat back and shed some private tears over, remembering some of life's hurts. Each of the photos captured a nugget of wisdom that perhaps 54 years later would remind me of things that are good, and worth remembering - even if ... View Post
Early Morning Mercies
I can be just a wee bit stubborn. (Everyone who knows me well is laughing right now). A recent change to the day shift, having a normal sleeping pattern, friends that speak the brutal truth to me (who I often stubbornly ignore), early mornings in silence alone with God, and very, very long walks in my favorite place....... What did I expect? Well, I expected that God would confirm for me all of the things that I wanted to believe. I expected He would answer me about the things that I thought I wanted to do, and give me HIS reasons why I ought to do the things that I wanted to do! And to be honest, I figured He would show me that some of my biggest concerns were all in my imagination. It's been a month now. I'm sleeping eight hours, my back feels amazingly much better, I'm back to ... View Post
Edna’s “Oo La La” Baked Oatmeal
6 cups oatmeal (not instant, I use Old Fashioned Oats) 4 ½ tsp. baking powder 3 cups milk 6 eggs ¾ cup oil 1 ½ cup brown sugar Optional: 1 cup chopped apple, cranberries, raisins, nuts or other fruit Mix above ingredients and pour into a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Bake in preheated oven @ 325 degrees for 45 minutes or until set. Serve with vanilla flavored yogurt and sliced fresh fruit. < p class="p1">Enjoy! ... View Post
A Genuine Visit
This afternoon, I visited the cemetery with Colleen. Her mom was my close friend of many years. Colleen and I sat on the grass in front of Michele's grave stone and talked about some of the deep things in life, and we had a few giggles as well as recalling old times. Very few evenings passed that her mom and I didn't have coffee together at the kitchen table. Today Colleen lives just around the corner and visits often, which I enjoy. She sometimes curls up on my couch and wraps herself up in a blanket. Sometimes, I catch a glance of her falling asleep when we talk. But I don't mind. It makes me feel good that she feels at home. I am missing my friend Michele greatly tonight, but I am so grateful that her daughter is comfortable enough to plop herself on my couch and feel right ... View Post
Reconciling Two Worlds
That's what I feel like I've been doing for the past three weeks - reconciling differences between two worlds. I spent a few hours the other night writing all of my memories from a short tour in Honduras in 1984. Not long after my return to the U.S., all of my photos were left in the glove box of a friend's car, which was then put in storage while she went to Korea for two years. I never got those photos back, but my memory of good times, good people, hard work, and "unique" experiences are as crisp in my memory as if they took place yesterday. Thank God for the ability to remember people and places! I have managed to save digital copies of the photos from my recent trip to Brazil - my first of hopefully a few more overseas mission trips. I had left anticipating that I'd ... View Post
Happy Nurses’ Week!
It's that time of year again - Nurse's Week! And each year at this particular time, I can't help but remember my Dad. It was his cancer diagnosis, hospice admission, and a kind young African nurse with a British accent who winked at my Dad, removed his fear, and changed the course of my life. Three days after we buried Dad in July 2004, I applied to nursing school, and never again opened my court reporting machine that I had been busy studying on in pursuit of a new career. I shut it, sold it on E-Bay a week later, and signed up for the next Anatomy & Physiology course at the local college. I never looked back. Three years later, I graduated from nursing school. So often, but especially during Nurse's Week, I still wish I could talk to Dad, and say, "Guess what, Dad! I'm ... View Post
Don’t Waste Your Circumstances
Circumstances - Everyone's got some. Those situations in life when you feel like no one else quite understands how difficult things are (for you). And when you find someone with similar circumstances, you actually believe you will find comfort in discussing them over coffee (ad nauseam) until you are even further convinced not only how wrong you've been done and how much more difficult your situation is than anyone else's. Oh! But also how no one who hasn't been through the very same set of circumstances would ever, ever understand the extent to which you've suffered. Am I right? My circumstances included being a single Mama, and all of the challenges that came along with that role. I'd love to admit here (and have often verbalized) that I was NOT a whiner, and that I NEVER ... View Post
Valuing My Time
Pulling the handle down on the old-fashioned paper cutter, I laughed out loud as the little recipe card fell into the stack of others just like it. I was visiting my old friend and roommate of two years while stationed in Korea in the Army. Here we were at her kitchen table in Dallas, preparing the recipe cards to be stuffed into the envelopes containing bridal shower invitations for her daughter. I laughed because there was no way 32 years prior to that, I could have seen this day coming. I don't think either of us ever really gave any thought to the possibility that we would go from the young 20-something-year-old girls we were - to the mothers, mothers-in-law, and grandmothers we would become! Or that when we did, we would still be friends! I hadn't seen Donna since I left Korea in ... View Post