It's Friday

Twenty-seven years ago, yesterday.  We celebrated by going to a restaurant we reserve for very special occasions.  While we savored dessert, the waitress brought dessert to a "little, old couple" in the corner behind us.  Their dessert had candles, and the waitress wished them a happy anniversary.   We left together and when asked how many years they were celebrating, the husband said 40 to go till the 100th!  I wish we had been able to talk with them a little more, but maybe we'll see them next May 26th!

Hubby was grateful to the music teacher at our tiny elementary school for these flowers given to me the evening before our anniversary.  For seventeen years, I have had the privilege of accompanying the students here twice a year ~ a Holiday Concert in December, and then the Spring Concert in May.  Accompanying is something I love to do, to be underneath and supporting, to anticipate and adjust, to jump quickly when a director inadvertently skips a few measures,  and hopefully make it all sound like it's supposed to be that way.

Our granddaughter is sick again.  Pneumonia in both lungs.  I am trying to choose joy and praise.  I want to shake my fist and holler at the top of my lungs, especially when her pediatrician tells her young parents that it will probably be pneumonia that gets her.  Of course they know that.  The DNR/DNI paperwork is in the diaper bag.  A roller-coaster ride on a balance beam ~ trying to comprehend "there's nothing more we can really do" and balance it out with wanting to do whatever we can do to help her breathe.  For the moment it is another round of antibiotics and a visit with the pulmonologist in Boston today.  For a grandmother, it is a moment to CAST and not vent.  In the Psalms, David was casting all his cares upon God, not venting.  Casting has a hope and a purpose.  I know God is God and He knit Amber together in this way.  Her life will be as long as He has already set and it will be a full life for His honor and glory.   A verse we chose for our marriage: 

   Habakuk 3:17-19  Though the fig tree does not bud,  and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails
   and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
   and no cattle in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
   I will be joyful in God my Savior.
 ¹⁹ The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
   he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
   he enables me to tread on the heights.
   For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.

Something About May...Part II

The thrush alone declares the immortal wealth and vigor that is in the forest.
Whenever a man hears it, he is young, and Nature is in her spring.
Wherever he hears it, it is a new world and a free country, 
and the gates of heaven are not shut against him.  ~Henry David Thoreau


The Wood Thrush.  His song floats through the woods between the house and swamp, yet I can never pinpoint his location.
 An amazing week of cool and damp and wet....keeping black flies away!!  While others wish for sun and warmer temperatures, I am grateful for a week without the annoying pests to get some yard work done,

grateful for damp earth revealing tracks of deer which share the path through the woods,

...... grateful for the intensity of the shades of green!

Something About May

Something about May.......let's see, some THINGS I do NOT like about May....


1. Black flies that arrive the last week of April and extend into the middle of June. Little annoying things that swarm you the minute you step out your door.  Long sleeves, pants tucked into socks, protective head gear and bug spray are a must, and don't forget gloves.  Barring that, the best defense is to admit defeat and just stay inside!!  There is a third option; pray for cool and wet weather!!!  The warmer it gets, the thicker they swarm and their bite is nasty!!  This week we are in for cool and wet so yard projects are being tackled.  Now, to look on the positive side, they do not last long (too long if you ask me) and they must be a source of food to some birds.  This article indicates some other benefits as well.  I still do not care for them one bit!!


2.  Hospital visits!  Last May my dear granddaughter was admitted to the hospital for the first time with a respiratory infection.  

This May began with another hospitalization, this time just one overnight after a frightful evening in the ER.  Looking at my grandbaby, you wouldn't have a clue it was a frightful evening!!   You can read more about that weekend here.  It was quite the emotional ordeal, thinking our time with her was coming to an end.  

3.  Saying Goodbye.  Well, this I can't blame on every May, just this May.  The month began saying goodbye to a sweet little girl in Hungary, Kinsco.  My heart breaks for her family and for all the families with I-Cell babies who daily live knowing their precious little ones will not have very long lives.  This past week my church family had to say an unexpected goodbye to an amazing man who was 78.  For me, he was a constant.  For the past 45 years, give or take, he was always in the back of the church, quiet, strong, solid, wise.  He always spoke to you by name.  Our pastor referred to him as "Barnabus ~ son of Encouragement" and he was.  You can read a very special tribute to him here.  I was not as fortunate to have that kind of relationship with him, but he felt like a dad ....consistently constant....and there is a giant hole without him.  

View Through The Window

My daughter's cats, her pictures, my window.