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I love my home...
I thought I would share a little of our family room with you this morning...My Daddy told me once that it reminded him of my Grandmother's sun room/family room...it reminds me of it too...
I have always liked bare windows and things that catch the sunlight so this window has evolved over the years and it is one of my favorite places in the whole house..especially in the morning when the sunlight dances all over the ceiling and the floor reflecting from all the glass and mirrors hanging in the window...hope you enjoy these..it is kinda hard to catch the feeling of this room but I will try......it is a wonderful room and where we spend most of our time...at night we turn on the Christmas lights that we leave up all year on the window edges.....

My Grandmother's vase

sunbeams

Gathering

If I could just gather up all the pieces of my mind and put them in one place I would be a force to be reckoned with....
But.......a lifelong struggle.....focus, focus, focus...ON WHAT???????

I have a bushel of apples calling my name.....
an ironing board full of cloth  turning into embroidered napkins for Thanksgiving..
a new book by Francine Rivers that NEEDS to be read...
a garden that has many peppers wanting to be made into pepper sauce  and poblanos into chile rellenos..
and then there is the swing in my backyard that longs to be swung...
and dogs that need walking....
and a Savior that is worth more than all of this and I need to just sit and gaze into His eyes....
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so I am looking for all of the pieces so that I can put them all in one place and let out a collective
SIGH~~~~~~~~
and change this story of my life..too many interests in too many directions...ALL AT ONCE...and

SIMPLY.....
.let it all go and sit down for a while....

Fall Fun

As promised here are a few of the pictures I took of our trip to Washington Farms pumpkin patch.  it is really a fun, wholesome thing to do in the fall..  there is a hayride

and there are animals...Mac is so absolutely an animal person...he gets down and dirty with them...

Will lead us through the corn maze and didn't even make a wrong turn....he definitely has a great sense of direction.

and we all got wet when there was a rain shower....not hard rain, just enough to feel like a kid again..at least it was a warm rain...and then it was back to select a pumpkin and go home...after a trip to McDonald's, of course.

These boys teach me every time I am around them..I never knew that I had this kind of unconditional love in me..They are such gorgeous boys..inside and out..I am most blessed.
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I learn about how we each have our strengths and weaknesses...it is so obvious to me when I watch their little lives begin to unfold..they could not be more different and yet they are so much alike....even in their appearance..one is dark brunette and dark brown eyes..the other blond hair and blue eyes..and baby Marshall looks like he is coming up with red hair....but they are all from the same parents...diversity..yes, indeed..their is diversity in this family of boys.....one is a leader and he will already tell you that...the other is content to follow (for now).....one is so aware of all that is around him..especially words and things...the other is so connected to people..very bondable..and will get into our dogs faces and lay on them without any fear at all...even picking up live bugs...a true animal lover..the other one can give you every fact about said animal that was ever discovered.....yes, they teach me to celebrate diversity...the same, yet so very different...
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Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if we celebrated each others differences instead of being intimidated by them?  if we helped each other to be different from each other.if we each took our rightful place and we can't have the SAME place....if we were glad to have our place and be who we are and not try to take someone else's place...

If from our heart we really, really said   IT IS GREAT TO BE ME.....and then live like we mean it.....

DEEP

Sometimes it seems like my mind is running TOO DEEP.....I need to come up for air..  LOL  I like deep thoughts but today I will have a little diversion..I am going to the pumpkin patch with my favorite boys....my three grandsons.....so tomorrow I will have pictures if I don't get too involved with them and forget to take them..that has happened a lot lately....so for today....no deep thoughts, just FUN!

Refreshment

My grandmother whom I called Mamama was always saying she needed a little refreshment..that is what she called something like this picture.....

This morning I find myself in need of a little refreshment but of a different kind.....I need one that involves time to meditate and pray..to reflect on life and the meaning of it...to ponder purpose and why I am  here....to think about being instead of doing....to remember who I am and whose I am too...that I was bought with a price and I have absolute value just like I am...that He knows where I am and loves me unconditionally.

It seems we are in a world of such seemingly 'perfect' people that have everything together...and I am a misfit in that world, I do not have it all together and I am not perfect..I am a work in progress and always will be...there is more I need to learn and more transformation I need to go through.
Put your best foot forward and saving face are 2 sayings that need to go away from my life...I don't want to project an image...I want to be REAL....living and breathing and touchable.  I want people to be able to relate to me and not be pushed away by seeming perfection.  I think it is time for us to be real with one another so there can be real relationships built and real love experienced..no more fakeness...no more only showing the good side of who we are...we all long to be loved for who we are especially in the hard places....so no more saving face..LOL   As I tell my story, I want you to be able to see yourself somewhere in the truth of my life and know that we are not alone..there is real connection...which cannot happen when we try to pretend we are something that we are not...
Being who I am and you being who you are is the only way to have a little refreshment..

It would be a lot easier to just drink a Cheerwine and be done with it but that would not make a lasting refreshment for my spirit...I am in need of a refreshment that lasts.......let's be REAL..no more FAKE!   YUK.
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Mums the word.....

I work all year on my mums so they will  be beautiful for a few weeks in the fall....they are doing what they do best right now in our yard.....BLOOMING!...I took some pictures this afternoon and thought I would share some of the beauty with you...Enjoy...we surely do....

Observing

Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin.......
for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things..........
So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.
taken from Matthew 6

What's In An Acorn??

I thought I would take you on a little tour of our home this morning.  We have a theme going on that means a whole lot to us but it might be overlooked if you don't know the story behind it....
I inherited this light fixture from my Grandmother Lewis' house.  I carried it around in a box for 35 years and it finally found a home here at Winterpast in Winterville..it hangs over our dining room table...as you can see there is an acorn .....My Daddy was born at home under this chandelier....legacy there my friends..

I heard a sermon a while back and then again yesterday about the acorn.....Inside of every acorn there is an oak tree..and since this is a theme of our home, I thought I would think out loud about it....and that is what this is...my blog, my ideas, my opinions, and my insights given to you in hopes of helping you to live life more fully...to help you to avoid some of the mistakes I have made and to mainly share with you from the heart of an older woman...

These are my Thanksgiving dishes....they are absolutely beautiful and feature acorns around the edges of the plates...I grew up eating on china just like this..My Mama gave my brother the set of china and I longed for them and the memories of them for many years..One year Bryan said to me..find those dishes and buy you a set...WOW! so that is what I did...they even came with their own little story...I bought them from a woman that was showing her antiques at Brimfield Antique Show the very weekend that I contacted her..theses dishes were already on display but she assured me that she would pack them up and ship them the next week....In the meantime, they were displayed in her booth...Barbra Streisand came by and picked up my plates and wanted to buy them...they were already SOLD to me...so the dealer was so excited to tell me about this..  I look so forward to getting them out and using them in our family celebration of Thanksgiving....and will gladly pass them on to the next generation so the legacy can continue...and the story of the famous dishes..  :-)

Here is a little random picture....

and a gift from my daughter.....

and these little acorns were found in  a Christmas display..I bought one and the lady then gave me the rest........a little encouragement that acorns are indeed our story.

 

Our house is surrounded by HUGE oak trees...Three of them..so I am reminded any time I want to pay attention, that a mighty oak tree is contained in that little seed of an acorn ....

How many times do we overlook something as small as an acorn in our life , not realizing it can become as enormous as an oak tree?

I am starting this week off pondering...at all the tiny seeds or small beginnings that are in my life...the potential to become something great is contained in these little things that I mostly overlook...I am making a choice to be more aware..to turn aside and appreciate and think about..what is there that looks really small and insignificant but will probably grow into something as large and as significant as a full grown oak tree?

We all have our own acorns...what will we do with them?  hang them on the wall?  put them in a bowl? make a light fixture out of them?  just admire them?  or will you do as I am doing today?  plant them in good soil and watch them grow into something significant?   

PLANT YOUR ACORNS!!!

you will be glad you did..

as always, thank you for being here..and believing in me....

Mountain Mama

I am going to try to make sense of what is rumbling around in my head this morning..maybe by writing it down, it will make more sense...maybe not.  LOL

We drove up to the NC mountains yesterday near Waynesville....it is a place I am very familiar with since I have been going there as far back as I can remember.I don't even know how all of this came about but it did..it is the truth about my life.and my parents.......Every year about May, they packed up their camper and headed north from their home in FL...they would park somewhere in western North Carolina and spend the summer there into Oct and then head back south....they always stopped and visited with us in Oct on their way back home.....most years we visited with them while they were living in the mountains somewhere near ASheville, Hendersonville, Waynesville...that general area...I grew to LOVE those mountains and the people there and going to see my parents in the camper...eating food Mama had prepared in the little camper kitchen and sometimes spending the night in the motel next door to the campground....

But here is  the part that I am going over and over about...I was always the ONLY child while they lived here...it was me and my children that knew these mountain parents..this mama that LOVED the Blue Ridge Mountains and the parkway and Asheville and taught me to love them too..and took me and my children on trips there from the time my children were about 3 and 4..I don't remember my brother ever visiting them there and my sister went only one time and that is when I took her to see them the last year Mama was living...

Here is the thing I have going on...their home in FL is so foreign to me..I have not made the transition well..maybe not at all.....My parents lives in NC stopped abruptly when she died....my Daddy never went back....the loss has been pushed down somewhat in me..who am I going to talk to about it?  who would understand??  My parents lived in NC...my siblings parents lived in FL.....and we didn't hardly mix it up....I stayed north and they stayed south...I really miss this whole thing....them living in NC, my visiting them there, them coming thru Athens on the way home every fall....and not sharing this part of our family with my siblings at all...they did not participate...they haven't understood why I am not on the road all the time to FL to visit Daddy....first, it is a long way and a hard thing to change, my parents lived in NC not FL...yes, I have been to FL some..it just seems weird..it is TOO HOT and everybody is OLD!

One memory that is priceless...When Jon and Betsy were little, we bought a peck of apples and put them in the back of the truck that had a camper top on it...(it was not illegal to ride back there and we spent a lot of time in the mountains riding in the back of that truck)....I had gotten into the cab of the truck and left children in the back along with the apples...When we got to our destination, the campground and opened the back to let them out..the apples were rolling around everywhere.....with tiny little bites taken out of all the apples...LOLOLOL  they had been playing store and sampling all of the apples......My Mama was NOT AMUSED!   it was hilarious...and a small price to pay for all the times we have laughed about this story.

I am still trying to reconcile the two lives my parents lived..I participated in one and my brother and sister participated in another..no wonder there is such division in our family...and I don't know how to fix it..
but I do know I have a grief that they don't know about and don't share.....I wish they had bought the home in NC that they talked about for years...maybe we will fulfill that and the dream won't be dead...  I just needed to vent this morning and try to work this out...thank you for hanging with me....and I would love any of your insights or comments to heal me see this clearer...
Yesterday's trip to NC mountains was absolutely wonderful even if a ride to downtown Waynesville just wasn't happening for me because of another layer of grief and healing....

OPPORTUNITIES

7:48

7:51

7:53
These pictures were taken within a 5 minute span of time.
It made me think about the opportunities we have in life....Many people seem to think that we have endless opportunities to do whatever it is we have put off doing or decide to do later.....
What if that later doesn't happen? This sunrise on this morning happened within these particular 5 minutes. it will never happen again..it was THE SUNRISE for 10-13-10..
Less than a minute after I took these pictures, it was drizzling rain and cloudy....

I think we have these moments in our lives but we have become dull to making the most of our opportunities...maybe becoming complacent..thinking there will always be another chance. I am not talking about being busy just for the sake of being busy...there are opportunities that come across our path and we have to decide right then to pursue them or let it slide... Maybe it is about becoming more aware that there are times when we need to really pay attention and make the decision to act on something....RIGHT THEN!

If we are watching, like I was watching this morning, there will be the sudden breaking forth of the LIGHT that makes sense...the sure appearance of that breakthrough that we are watching for..we can grab the moment because we are alert and ready ( I had my camera in my hand)...These moments soon make up a lifetime..let's allow our life to be filled with making the most of our opportunities....and to be content with life everyday knowing that these opportunities WILL come into our life and that we WILL be prepared and ready to say YES!
I hope you catch your sunrises..
thank you for coming along with me.
you mean a lot to me..

My legacy and Barbie

Sometimes I get a thought or a memory and I am very surprised by it.....this morning I woke up as usual and it was pretty normal...as I was drinking my coffee, the memories of Atlanta and Rich's and Henry Grady Hotel when I was a little girl started flooding my mind...hmmmm.what is this all about?? then one of the most treasured memories of all my life came back to me....The very first time I ever laid eyes on a Barbie doll display in the toy department of Rich's in Atlanta...it had to be either 1959 or 1960...I know, I know...but it was a magical moment in my life..LOL  all I had ever seen were baby dolls and I dearly loved them..well, maybe Miss Revlon doll and Madame Alexander  but that is beside the point...Barbie was DIFFERENT.....they were all lined up on top of a glass display case and I was mesmerized..!!!  hang on, I am going somewhere with this....LOL  her clothes were amazing to me..and the accessories...wow..

Here is my real Barbie and her friend Midge....I guess I wore out the blonde haired Barbie and the Ken too...I have had this one put away in a trunk for about ..well, a LONG time....she is from the 60's...

As I was pondering this morning, I decided to get down the Barbie case and look to see what was there....As I looked through all of the clothes, it hit me...this doll caused me to learn to sew....so THERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!  her case is full of clothes that I sewed for her...I don't guess I have ever thought about it like this...my daughter never cared about playing with her so she is in really good shape and the clothes are great...I have some that I bought but MANY that I sewed myself...I remember spending hundreds of hours designing and making her clothing..RIGHT THERE..that is where my love of sewing began...and I still have some of my handiwork..

Ok, so legacy...it is a stretch, isn't it????  well, here is the commonality here.....my Mama was a clothes horse..she loved fashion and she was a beautiful seamstress...I can remember her in her mink stole and dangly rhinestone earrings dabbing Chanel No.5 behind her ears..this was passed down to me or maybe sparked in me because it was there from birth...it was in her and she gave it to me..it was in me.....and Barbie brought it to the surface for me..maybe this doll was the opportunity I needed to start living out part of my legacy..that is why the first sight of this doll is etched in my memory so deeply..it wasn't about Barbie at all..it was about ME!  and the igniting of a gifting in me that is active to this day....even more so now because I have many years of experience of using this gift...

So here it is.....LEGACY.....what I will leave to future generations....part of it is my love of fabric and sewing...my daughter is a really good seamstress and my son's career is..you guessed it...FABRIC...he runs a company that laminates it...even Will has sat with me at the sewing machine and watched while we made embroidery....
Every one of us has a 'Barbie moment'...in our life....think about it...what has sparked a passion in your life?  what is your passion and what are you doing about it?  not trying to copy someone else's because that will never work..We can never be as passionate about someone else's gifting as about our own...
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Take some time and ponder....what have I always loved to do and how does that fit into the legacy of my life? 
I hope you have enjoyed remembering Barbie with me..it has been eye opening for me this morning...glad I stayed with this crazy memory until I 'got it'..thank you for reading my blog......

This land

I am so grateful to have found this land to live on....there is always a photo op. I feel like I am living in a park..Sometimes I forget to just go outside and enjoy the place where we live.
It's always peaceful and beautiful.

Even under the deck, the light of the sun makes it almost surreal..a wonderful place for little boys to play and dogs to sleep in the shade.

Yes, I have a very thankful heart...I have been given way more than I ever deserved but isn't that what a gift is all about? not because we earned it but because someone loved us enough to want to see us happy.
Living on the land named Winterpast has changed our lives..it is a good place to live..