And Then There Was Grandma Winnie

iPhone 161EMy grandmother, my last living grandparent in the world, went to be with Jesus today. Her husband of 64 years died in December 2012, which I wrote about in the post entitled Mourning.

She was a strong woman; very matter-of-fact. I remember after my grandfather’s funeral, we were sitting in the small house that she’d lived in forever, sitting at the table, just talking. And she abruptly said “Well, it’s 12 o’clock, time for lunch” and started preparing it. She raised seven children – two boys and five girls – in the tiny house. Her husband passed away quietly in the room right off the living room, where she had gathered her children for school.


I know that this passage speaks of wisdom, but oh how I had this clear visual of her. In one hand, her long life; in the other, the riches and honor that awaited her, along with her husband and her Savior. She was a tree of life, bearing seven children and raising them to be loving parents themselves. Once, when I was much younger, I asked her what made her decide to have seven children; she looked at me with a sort of shock on her face as she told me that “That wasn’t my decision, dear; that was God’s.”

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

Back to Zero

I’ve had writer’s block for almost two years now, which is why the site has been so quiet. I’ve had moments where something will break through, but it never really stays. I’ve been alive, though – raising kids, being a wife, working full time, and staying involved in our church.

And recently, I’ve taken up running. It doesn’t come easy, and I do not particularly enjoy it while doing it, despite genuinely looking forward to it. It’s hard work, and I have to work for every bit of it. I run the equivalent of a 5k on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and I love how lit up my Apple Watch is on those days. It shows how hard I’ve worked, even if I don’t feel it in my step.

The other day, I was lying in bed, and I checked the final counts to put it into one of my apps, and it was gone. Gone were the bright circles showing how hard I’d worked that day. It was blank.

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

This Life

Marriage.

Hubbin and I have been together for almost eleven years now. That seems so crazy; I feel myself torn between thinking about how long that sounds, and trying to remember a time without this man. I cannot, and that makes me smile.

I know there’s a lot of jokes about marriage and it being a trap, or how the wedding day is the best day of your life, but I feel like that could not be further from the truth. There are hard times, absolutely; it’s hard to live forever with any one person. Anything worth having takes work.

I was happy on our wedding day, but I would say that today, I am happier. The couple in this photograph have no idea what is in store for them.

weddingThey have no idea that they will face things that take so many marriages down. They don’t know that they’ll mourn the loss of a baby together, and in different ways that will seem to pull them apart. They’ll go through job changes and career changes, and she’ll lose herself for a period of time, but he’ll have faith that she’ll be back one day. They know they’ll probably have a child together, but they don’t know that they’ll have a Charlotte. He doesn’t know she’ll find Jesus, and she doesn’t know that he’ll teach her who He is by the way he loves her.

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

The Top Five Lessons I Learned From A Dead Plant

Today’s blog post is by my dear friend Brooke – I know you’ll be as moved by it as I was. 

I was just starting my first day of work and my boss was giving me a bit of a tour.  She pointed and said, “Well, here’s your new office.  As you can see, we have the usual: Desk, computer, printer, phone.    Also, there’s a dead plant over there in the corner.  You can go ahead and throw that away.”

Little did I know that twelve years later I would be sitting here thinking about all the lessons that dead plant has taught me.  As it turns out, it wasn’t dead.  It just required a little love and attention; and just a little bit of faith.

At first I was clueless about what to do with it.   I had never had a plant; or for that matter, been responsible for any living thing.  I was only in charge of taking care of myself and quite frankly, I wasn’t doing a great job of that either.  But, I figured in its current state, the bar had been set pretty low.  How much damage could I possibly do?

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Blah

usI have writer’s block! Get me out of the jail that is my brain.

I just banged out a political rant and it is so badly written and choppy that it got thrown in the incinerator.  Metaphorically. Possibly literally if this computer keeps annoying me.

So I have nothing in the form of entertainment or wit, but I do have this adorable picture of me and the man who lights all my fires and starts all my smiles. We took this on our recent vacation, which was lovely. I got to relax this vacation.

I got to relax.

RELAX.

And READ BOOKS.

My kids are old enough that they don’t need me every second of the day. And I got to LAY DOWN.

Also? I saw brown stuff smeared on my gym tag the other day and I wiped it off without thinking twice. It never occurred to me that it could be anything other than chocolate. Do you know what this means?

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I am sure.

Last summer, God spoke to me. It wasn’t really an answer so much as it was three simple words. Not even an actual sentence, although each word was a verb. “Love, learn, lead.” Those were the three words He dropped into my heart at a women’s Bible study I was part of. I wish I could say that when I heard them, or more accurately, felt them, I dropped what I was doing, ran to the coordinator and told her that I would lead the group. But I didn’t. I ruminated on them for the hour and a half of the gathering. I barely heard the teaching, but I was in the middle of a lesson. And Jesus was my teacher.

At the end of the gathering, I got up, palms sweating, went over to my friend who was leading the study and said, “God told me I have to lead something. I will start with a small group for this study.” She looked at me and sort of tilted her head and with kindness in her eyes said, “Are you sure?”

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!