Dedicating Babies

 there just are no words...

 to describe my love for my grandchildren...

 it seems like only yesterday that I was dedicating this lovely lady..my daughter...and now it is her turn....

to dedicate her own little daughter..MaryElla

three generations...my heritage.....

and now they have ALL been dedicated to the Lord....can't wait to see how their lives continue to unfold..

 BUSY!  that sums up my life...I don't know how all of you ladies do it..running your lives and blogging at the same time...

Naining and Naining

When my daughter was 2, my parents took her to Six Flags on a camping trip.  It started raining and they were stuck inside looking out at the monsoon.  With not much to entertain a 2 year old, my Mama used the tape recorder to record her granddaughters little voice..she described the weather to Mama in her baby words.the phrase she used over and over was this. It's just naining and naining.. it became one of our family's phrases...

So, today...that is a perfect description of our weather.....

It just has to get warmer soon, doesn't it?

I hope you are having a good weekend and staying warm and dry..

making the most of our time

We certainly have been cramming a very lot of living into the last few days..I realized if I don't get some of these pictures in my blog, they will be gone..season past and I will be on to the next season..so I am gathering up and editing (aren't you glad I left some of the pictures out?) and sharing a hodgepodge of the last few days....I started out last week in Atlanta with my daughter and her family..and the week just got busier..here are a few shots from my life...

Betsy couldn't wait to take me to this store..she thought I would love it and she was right....I only share a few of the pictures I took while inside..it was truly imaginative and creative..

look at that bed!!!!

everything is touchy, feely

this store was truly one of my favorites...such creativity.....

haha  this is what NORMAL is....

until you see this picture.....

and this one!!

my wonderful daughter and two of her boys....

We had such a good time at Lenox Square..it is a place where I shared Christmas with my own Mama and Grandmother many, many years ago..and now I am continuing the tradition.....

Atlanta at Christmas.....what a fun time...I love to visit the city....and then come home to the country....

I hope you are having a Merry Christmas season..thank you for stopping by this morning...see you soon...

My cup runs over.....

Grandchildren are the crowning glory of the aged;

I am so thankful for the blessing of grandchildren...these little lives..this daughter and son in law that pour their lives into making these little boys into great men..

I am thankful that they have developed a love of learning already at their young age..and their love of books and reading make this grandmother happy......I stressed the importance of reading at a very young age with my own children and they are amazing readers....and lovers of learning.....now, it brings me great joy to see the next generation embracing this too..  we recently spent the morning at our local library where we have a really good children's librarian and a good story hour....I only got a few pictures but I think you can see how much they were enjoying it.  I am proud of Betsy for making the effort to get them reading and loving books at an early age.....it will help them go far in this life....

eating breakfast to start the day..Marshall

children's section at library

Mac got a book as soon as we got there

Mac and Marshall

Will..thoroughly entertained

intent...

listening

here is who had their attention

It was a fun morning and I am thankful that I get to share in some of the day to day things that my grandsons do.....after all, it's the little things that mean the most......Thank you Betsy for making the huge effort to come and spend the night with us...we love every minute of your visits...

thank you for stopping by this morning......come again soon....

Living positively

 

 

Graham Cooke

‎"My preferred way of living is to see the God in everything; to see the good in everything and to believe the best. I will never allow my life to be defined by a negative. I will never allow my life to be defined by people who don't like me!"

 

sometimes a quote just seems to jump right off the page and speak to me...this is one of those quotes and I just wanted to share it with all of you especially for those of us who would like for everyone to like us and to be our friend.  that is just not realistic..it will never happen...we all have people that just will not like us no matter what...that is why this quote is so important to me right now......

 

I choose to focus on the positive and know that if I look, I will see God in everything and believe the best...

Today is my sweet daughter's birthday...my oldest baby..who is no longer a baby but has babies of her own......she has always been a very good thing in my life and makes it easy to believe the best and to see God in everything when I am around her.... I am very proud of her...being her Mama is one of my highest callings in this life....

 

Happy Birthday Betsy.....

 thank you for reading along today....Happy Fourth of July weekend....

strawberry fields forever.....birthing traditions..

Every spring my daughter and I go strawberry picking..it seems like every year or so , we add another little boy to the outing.....I love digital photos because they are so easy to sort through on the computer..here is what I found this morning....traditions are made just one thing at a time and before you know it ..it has become a tradition...I think that traditions are important..they give history to a family and something to make a memory and to pass it on to the next generation...
so, I thought I would show you how to get from this

to this

in about 4 years time...enjoy our trips to the strawberry farm..

 Here is Will from the time we started going until this year....

this is Mac's first trip..in the backpack...

and this year..he is loving the strawberries..

and we added another one this year...Marshall and well, you can see by the picture..he had fun....

so another family tradition is made... me, my daughter and three little boys..some buckets and some strawberries and a LOT of fun....a good time was had by all...

I am so glad you came along with us to pick strawberries...thank you for reading ...until next time...make your day a good one..

Mayday, Mayday....

There are times and seasons in life that the best part of them is this...they are OVER!  Today marks just one of those very long and barren seasons for us..we paid our very last child support payment today...this has been going on for 16 years...it has been so hard to finish....I can hardly believe the time has come for us to finish..we finished well..we paid it all even when the economy did what it did and we were without a steady paycheck..

my husband is the poster child for an UNdeadbeat Dad.....and this was all done in the face of very adverse circumstances...he has not seen his daughter in more than 4 years...we have a severe case of parental alienation.....she wanted her way..she wanted us to just pay her the money and go away...for 10 years we hung on and then we let her have her way..

I have so many thoughts about our unjust court system and lawyers and judges that do not think about what they are doing to tear apart a family...we have experienced our share...a mother should not be able to accept child support without allowing the father to participate in the child's life.....we did our part and she did NOT....and the courts could not care less.....we have an unjust court system when it comes to family law..

After today, we are DONE!!!!!!!  I mean DONE!!!!  our hope is that one day this child we supported with no feedback from her mother..will come around..maybe, just maybe..but she is now an adult and it is her choice whether she wants to know our side or not...it is a great travesty when a child is told and convinced that she does not need her father in her life..especially when he is a man of such good character.....

so after this is all said and done, we forgive and we remember the good times and we move on..and we are so very glad that we have gotten to the end of this thing that has been done against us..against our will.....but we persevered and we finished this part of our race.....

 Now the road is unending...the view is unobstructed...the future is bright...so bright that we need shades.....
I am thankful if you were able to stick it out and read this one..  say a prayer for us...we have had a hard row to hoe but now it is time for planting......the end is sometimes so very sweet......

Remembering Mama

Mama

Today is my beautiful Mama's birthday..she would have been 81 years old.....but I will always remember her as a much younger woman because she died young....she had  just turned 73 years old when she was killed in a tragic car accident that instantly took her life and left my Daddy virtually unharmed except for a few bruises. He literally walked away from the fatal wreck. I will always believe that she was stolen away from this life before it was her time to go. she still had a lot of life to live and a lot of life to pass on to us.....It was because of an accident that she is no longer here.....I don't know if I will ever get over this loss...the pain is not as acute as it used to be but it is still grief, just not the gripping, cannot get away from it kind.......I can think about her without tears now.....there are good memories to focus on.. But I still miss her terribly sometimes...hardly a day goes by that I do not think of her and sometimes I really, really would like to talk things over with her just one more time..I could talk to her about anybody and she would keep it to herself and still love me. :-)

There is not much else like a mama's love... she and I had a rough and rocky relationship for years and years but had come to a place of real understanding and acceptance about 2 years before her death. I am most thankful for those 2 years, as they erased most of the pain of the decades before then.....and as silly as it sounds the Lord used a movie to speak to me, loudly.....to help me see that she was a woman just like me...and I was a woman just like her..... that bond can never be broken and her love for me and who she was will be passed on to my grandchildren...

Will and Mac often point to a picture of her and I tell them over and over who that is...my Mama.. I certainly see her showing up already in my grandsons....they love the dirt..the oldest one is a sure gardener in the making...she would be proud....there is already someone who will continue to grow daylilies.....I know she is smiling about that......

This is just one of the lilies she hybridized and now it grows in my yard....she had a good eye for this....it is one of my treasures....and will be passed along to future generations...it's just what we do..pass along flowers..LOL

Well, you have heard a little of my story involving my Mama....and if you have a mama or you are a mama, your job is very important....your mama is human just like you are.....even if you don't get along now, there is still hope..because how can a mama reject her own child?  it will not always be....I am so very thankful for the last 2 years of Mama's life..we made amends and when she died, I had NO REGRETS...that is a wonderful gift she left me....Peace about our relationship....so never give up...don't lose who you are but also never close the door completely..there might be a miracle around the next bend...there was for me....

So I remember the good things and do not dwell on the bad..I do wish she had lived longer but she didn't and I have come to have peace about that....

Here is a clip from that life changing movie for me....if you are having ANY trouble in your mama relationship, please watch this clip.....it will speak to you..and then watch the movie....it has lots of healing in the story.......




one of my favorite lines in the movie is  Daddy, did you get loved enough?
and he says my question to you is Did YOU get loved enough?

after it was all said and done.....I think I got loved enough.........