Athens INK

We had our own little tattoo parlor going on over here last week...well, if you can call a Mama with a baby wipe in the backseat of a Suburban along with two overly excited little boys that bought themselves some tattoos from the trinket machine as we left the Chinese buffet.....  yes, indeed THAT was a real run on sentence for any of you that are keeping score..  LOL

Here are the results of that fine tatooing job by none other than Mama Betsy...

They were so proud of their art work on their arms......
but, by the last picture Mac had had enough and he was gone....  on to the next thing....

Isn't childhood grand?  have you let your inner child out to play lately?  I hope so.......

go get yourself a little tattoo..they only cost 50 cants and you can get one in the front of the Chinese restaurant...

all it takes is a baby wipe and a good Mama.....

I hope you smiled...these boys are wonderful and full of surprises..

thank you for stopping by today.. I hope to see you again soon..

Mona

Resisting divorce

This is going to be a post that has one reason behind it...that what I write and you read will cause any thoughts of divorce to leave your mind and not be entertained again...to cause you to make a committment to your marriage partner to never leave them....or to your future marriage partner...  I am going to be brutally real with you..to give you a glimpse behind the scenes to a place where only my husband knows what goes on...but I cannot shake the need to share this with you....to let you know what it is really like when divorce has happened in your life...it is not a cake walk...it is not easy and pleasant like so many have bought into...like we have told some of our children..no big deal...we can love you just the same if we are not married anymore...  remember, this is one woman's story...but I am sure there are probably millions more just like mine...and we are afraid to talk about it so the divorce rate continues to climb...it needs to stop..and be reversed..we need to speak out and reveal what it really feels like and what is the truth behind all of the facades...

I am from a family that is riddled with divorce....I got divorced, my brother is divorced, and my sister has been divorced 3 times ...my father in law just married his 5th wife....my son is divorced....everywhere I look, it seems we are accepting it as normal behavior to get divorced..

It is not normal..it is hurtful and long lasting to get divorced..there are wounds and broken hearts strewn across our country..not to mention the children and what is happening to their beliefs about marriage.....

So, here is my story...I am not sad as I write this...do NOT feel pity for me...and I hope you are not offended by my words..if you are, I am sorry......it is not my intention to hurt anybody. only to heal    ...but I have to speak out and do my part to tell what divorce REALLY feels like....

On Christmas Day, I spent the day with my husband....ALONE......
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My children and grandchildren were with my ex husband and his wife and her family...celebrating Christmas with him while I sat at home  and fought off all the feelings of being left out ...and mind you, there is no way I would have wanted to go to his house..we are not friends....it was just the overwhelming sense of my children and grandchildren celebrating on Christmas Day where I am not welcome.... not sharing with them.....I have to forgive AGAIN  and AGAIN. and fight through Christmas Day knowing that my grandsons are with another grandmother that is not me..

We had a Christmas Eve family dinner and it was so fun...everybody here......and.......

as Will was leaving my house on Christmas Eve, he asked Honey, why aren't you coming tomorrow?  I want to see you tomorrow.....   an innocent question by an innocent little boy.....and  a question that needs to be answered.....because I am not invited...neither do I want to be invited....it is the byproduct of divorce....a divided house....a family split in two....

I do not know what all I will tell him when the time comes..for now I am leaving it up to his parents to talk to him about it but the questions are getting more frequent as he gets older and he deserves to know the truth....but I cannot have bitterness or hatred toward his granddaddy when I answer him......as far as he knows, me and Bryan are his grandparents...and he doesn't know where to put my ex....not very long ago, I was talking about my daddy and he asked his mama who her daddy was??

What I am trying to tell you is this...do you see how complicated it becomes when we selfishly use divorce as the answer to our lack of committment?  it is so much easier and peaceful to have ONE set of grandparents on mama's side and ONE set on daddy's side....

my stepdaughter has about 4-5 sets of grandparents..I have lost count..she was totally confused as a little girl.and had to call them pappa...name..... to keep them all straight.

and divorce there has caused us to not even know where she spent Christmas...any of it....

I am telling you this.....please take d.i.v.o.r.c.e  out of your vocabulary.....it does not ever quit hurting those involved....no matter what anybody tells you...yes, you can have a life after divorce for those of you that have already experienced it...but this is mainly for those who have not done it yet..

.DON'T!!!!!!  DON'T!!!!!!!

It does not solve any problems..unless there is real abuse....but these are not who I am talking to.. 


Divorce creates many, many long lasting problems...the family is divided into two pieces forever.......and it is a lot of work to stay in forgiveness  and to let your heart be healed...
I used to think I knew about the pain of divorce until I went through one....now, I know..I had NO IDEA.......now it is part of my testimony....albeit a part that caught me by surprise and I never thought it would happen to me......but I am healed and whole now...but it does not mean that I am not caught at times by the need to relive and forgive AGAIN!    I do not know how to walk out this kind of life..I have to lean very heavily on my God to get me through..and He does..but He has to dry my tears first...

Stay married......and don't be fooled into thinking that being divorced can be just as good as a good marriage..BALONEY!  you cannot be divorced without suffering loss...it divides a house....a whole new set of problems on the other side.....

Pass this along if you know someone that is contemplating divorce...and pray for them to have a change of heart...

                                                until next time, thank you for reading along....

                                                                             Mona

Grandsons

What a joy are my 3 grandsons....they are so different but yet so much alike...They all came to spend the night this week and I was able to capture a little of their personalities with these pictures.....I hope you enjoy this picture....
they are such a delight......

Betsy does a wonderful job of helping them develop their individual temperaments.......truly raising them up in the way they should go....I am sure Mike has a lot to do with this too...they are good parents..these boys are amazing...watch out world!!!  they are going to CHANGE you!!!

thank you for sharing your time with us today.......

Happy FALL!!!!!   so glad to see you once again......I will really enjoy you this year.  I promise....

Random thoughts

Here is our official birthday picture for 2011...Bryan, Me, Mike...we have now all celebrated our birthdays with an awesome cake...and a fun get together...lots of children running around and eating many, many cupcakes.

Bryan, me, Mike

Spanish Lemon cake

After the planning from last week and the putting away of all the party things and cleaning up..I was a little tired but I love doing it and will do it again as soon as there is an occasion....or just a random day to get together....

That is like my mind this morning...just so very random that I can hardly keep up with myself....it is 10 a.m. and I have walked the yard with the dogs, planned a new bed for irises, checked on the garden, taken something from the freezer for supper..decided to pick the garden..lettuce and broccoli and have that for supper with grilled chicken....gone to the barn and counted the bags of potting soil...decided this is the day for planting seeds...checked to see if Roundup worked where I sprayed last week. found a box in the barn filled with pink melmac dishes that I bought several years ago for Bryan's daughter to play with..got the bowls..24 of them and little plates and brought them inside to wash and have a little tea party with them....random, I tell you....complete randomness today....then decided to just sit down and write a blog...about all of this running through my mind..maybe I will get my camera and take some new pictures and then get out the potting soil and pots and seeds and finally start them..then go to Thyme After Thyme and buy a tomato plant or two and plant them in the garden..there...how is that for a totally random day?? maybe tomorrow will be more organized, but I seriously doubt it...it is spring and there are a million things to do...and I will think about the farmers and their contribution to us all the while that I am doing this..
thank you for reading my ramblings this morning...

Joy comes in the morning.....

Sometimes there is a blog that I try my best to get out of writing but it just will not go away until I write these words down..today is a date like that...I have tried to turn this into a most joyous Christmas blog but the more I try to do that, the harder my heart pounds...and I KNOW I must write about this today. Having said that, this will be some sadness so if you do not need that..I understand...I will see you tomorrow....but if you have ever had a miscarriage or know someone that has had one, I am sharing my heart with and for you..
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Ten years ago on this date, Pearl Harbor Day..how could I ever forget it??? during a routine dr visit, I found out I was pregnant...WOW!

We were elated and shocked and so wanting this baby..the whole doctors office was excited....I was going to be a mama again at this late date in life....we had already had 2 miscarriages and given up on this possibility so what a great gift we were being given.....
I suffered with morning sickness all during the Christmas season that year.. :-) but I was so happy that it didn't matter....

then at the 10 week mark, the ultrasound was scheduled....and we found out that the baby had died...a miscarriage was inevitable....
so on Feb 7, 2001....we suffered through a miscarriage....the dream had died...



Just like the huge limb on this oak tree, something had been severed...we were changed...altered...and now we had to grieve through this and pick up the pieces and let God make us stronger in the broken places...so that is what we did....there is not a Dec 7 that goes by that I don't remember this little one that we never held..He is as real to me as my breath..this baby of mine...that one day I will hold in heaven..



So as a tribute to his tiny little short life I write this blog....his life was ended before he ever took a breath but he is not forgotten..the pain of grief has passed now but his memory lives on...All of you that have been through this, I understand and I know you do too...Life is precious and sometimes it is way too short.....Baby, baby..you would have been 10 years old this year ...you live in our hearts..and even though you were gone from our life just like this tremendous oak limb, the wound has healed.....but I still remember you....and wish you had lived.....
thank you dear readers......for joy really does come in the morning...just keep walking and don't give up.

Children

WOW!!! the time has flown by....I don't even feel old enought to have grown children but here they are...my heart right here on this page..
I am so very thankful that my children are my friends....I really didn't try to be their friend while they were growing up because they needed a Mama and they got one...but now that they are adults, we are friends..I would choose them as friends even if we were not kin to each other...that is our goal ladies....Raise them to be responsible, kind and loving adults...

I love these adult children friends with my very life.....they are awesome and the world is a better place because they are in it...
I am thankful for you all......