Storm Clouds Touch My Heart
The other day the clouds were so beautiful we had to stop several times on the way home from town to look at them and take pictures. There is something about even the darkest of clouds that make me feel close to God.
Like this one makes me remember the song “Look for the Silver Lining” …
As sung by Judy Garland
Look for the silver lining
When e’er a cloud appears in the blue.
Remember somewhere, the sun is shining
And so the right thing to do is make it shine for you.
A heart, full of joy and gladness
Will always banish sadness and strife
So always look for the silver lining
And try to find the sunny side of life.
So always look for the silver lining
And try to find the sunny side of life.
From beneath this next cloud you would think there is nothing but blackness … but above the cloud … there is blue sky and hope!
And this big cloud is so magestic floating right above our little town. I felt like I could reach up and have a piece of it in my hand. It must have thought we were a good little town because it left us a thoughtful gift of moisture as it journeyed on its way to Blanding.
The lesson for me?
In spite of our problems there are things we can smile at.We need to remember to “Be of Good Cheer”. Good cheer permits us to rise above depressing or difficult circumstances. It is the sunshine when clouds block the light.
Cheering Up Mama
It is amazing what getting a nice hair style and highlighting will do for an old woman’s ego. I think half of the fun is visiting with KayDee Smith, the cute young girl who I go to. I had to go get it highlighted after one of the sisters at church asked me if I’d decided just to let my hair go gray. (GRAY?) Not in this lifetime! White I could tolerate, but gray?
For some reason … I guess because I got my hair fixed up today … I was remembering a time when Mom was my next door neighbor. She’d been feeling depressed and down so I took a day off work and suggested she go get a permanent and hair do to cheer her up. She did and she looked so pretty with her beautiful white hair and her make up done just so … but was still a little blue so we decided to go for a little ride around Ivins. I drove north on a section of roads that wasn’t paved yet and the wind had blown some sand drifts over parts of it. Wouldn’t you know, I got stuck. Mom (who was probably in her mid 70’s) insisted she would try to push the Volkswagon bus and I should try to move forward. She told me that if it started to move I shouldn’t slow down or stop until I was out of the sand. It did start moving very slowly so I ke
pt going forward until I reached the pavement, which was about a half a block in length. When I stopped and turned around … there was Mom … covered with sand and sweat because she’d stayed right behind the car pushing it all the way, in spite of the fact that the tires were spraying her with sand the entire time. It went all over her … down her shirt, in her nose and mouth, over the top of her head! My face must have been one of horror when I saw her standing there because she burst into laughter, which made me burst into laughter and we laughed so hard we both ended up sitting down on the road trying not to wet our pants while we laughed some more. Poor mama had to go home and take a shower and wash her pretty hair … and then we chatted and laughed some more while I curled it and fixed it as pretty as I could. She was quite the sport about it all and said that the whole experience had succeeded to cheer her up … but that next time she would rather do it in reverse so she didn’t waste the money she spent on her hair. So there you go. I guess what she really had needed was a day with me! (Anybody brave enough to try it?)
This ‘n That
We took the motor home into town yesterday to get the propane tank filled. Just climbing into my “shotgun” seat and buckling up my seatbelt got my adrenaline pumping and my heart yearning to hit the freeway for parts unknown! Honestly, I think I have uncovered a well of gypsy blood inside of me! Every time I see a home on wheels going down the road I am jealous. We had such an awesome, wonderful six months together exploring the Washington and Oregon coastlines!
It was funny … Lynn and I moved the motor home out of the back yard and left it running while we went into the house to get wallets and purse and when we came in the door our little doggy, Fresca, was almost beside herself for fear we were off to parts unknown without her. When I asked her if she wanted to go with us she almost did a backwards flip she was so relieved. When I opened the door she literally flew to the motor home, her little feet only touching the ground about every four or five feet.
They tell us on the news that we’re going to have four days of heavy rain and have warned about flooding. It doesn’t look like a storm out there yet but my body is telling me it’s on its way. The older I get the more accurate I am at predicting the weather. I remember the song I used to sing when it rained when I was a little girl: “Rheumatism, rheumatism, how it pains, how it pains. Up and down the system, up and down the system. When it rains, when it rains.” I didn’t know how true it was!
We finally got our Christmas decorations put away. Why is it so much more fun to decorate than un-decorate?
I love January sales. I love them so much I am going to have to ground myself before I go broke saving so much money. Lynn’s starting to look a little worried. It’s so hard to pass up a 50% off sale that has an additional 30% off. It seems to me that much of a savings should actually put cash back into your wallet! Lynn disagrees but what does he know?
24 started its season tonight and we recorded it … and it’s time to go start picking it apart. I think it’s our favorite show to mock. I mean how fast can a person recover from extreme torture after an after death experience to fight off eight or so bad guys while hanging from a helicopter with two broken knee caps? Ya gotta love it!
The Modern Miracle Called Blogs
I spent an afternoon catching up on my blog reading again and couldn’t help but marvel at all the talent floating about cyber-land. Personally, I think blogs have been as life changing as the invention of inside toilets! It has been a means of liberation to many of us who love to write and create and share and it has created such a unique means of making friends all around the world.
It’s kind of mind wobbling for me to think that I have people that I now feel very close to … who I would even dare to use the phrase (my close friend) in a sentence about them … and yet have never and possibly will never see them in person.
I went through knee replacement surgery with my pal who writes the blog, Going Like Sixty. He has quite a following of old timers like me … and has somehow manages to keep track of us well enough to send us personal notes and links that coincide with events happening in our lives. I don’t know how he does that other than he must have a big old fat notebook of facts … because he’s an old timer like the rest of us. Enough said.
Alice, at Wintersong, has probably had the most impact on me as “a close friend” that I have never met in real life. She has given me the right kind of encouragement to get me to actually write … as in BOOKS. She writes as if we are sitting down to chat and has just exactly the right kind of humor. I don’t know how it was that I stumbled on her blog in the first place but the first one I read absolutely cracked me up as she talked about Utah Mormons from a non-Mormon perspective.
Another blog I love to visit and thoroughly enjoy is Virginia’s First 50 Words. I love the quick writing challenges she gives out daily. It’s like finding the crossword puzzle in the Newspaper …. ya just gotta do it.
My heart went out to my friend, Sally, whose husband of 54 years passed away this past October. My heart twisted when I read of her loss and I wanted to be there to comfort her.
Krista is one of my younger friends and I love her blog because it is uplifting and spiritual as well as full of cute stories about her family. I am excited for the birth of her 2nd son in a little over two months … it’s fun to share those kinds of things with “close friends” via the Internet. I’m grateful that somehow our cyber vibes found each other.
I’ve recently made a new friend at Coffee & Varnish. Isn’t that just the strangest two words together? It is such fun to peek into the lives of talented people who share their every day lives with such flair. They are all such an inspiration to me.
Ronni Bennett has so many awesome links on her blog, Time Goes By, and links a lot of us seniors together in a good way. In fact, it is probably through her that I have met the most of my new friends.
My son in law, Brett, keeps me entertained with his perspective on fatherhood and tales like this one of his trip to Costco with three of his children in tow. My daughter, Kim, has a real knack for pinpointing important learning moments and a cute way of repeating the funny things her children do and say. I wish all of my children were as diligent in blogging! My daughter in law, Kim, does have an excellent blog titled, All About Food Storage, this an absolute must for young mothers who are trying to prepare nutritious on a frugal budget.
It’s all these bloggers plus the rest of them in my blog roll to the right who keep me encouraged and going on my own blog. Blogging is more than a hobby, more than just a way to keep a journal, more than just a venue for writing. It’s my personal
community of people I love!
Out with the Old, In With The New
Out with 2009 … During that year Lynn retired, we bought a used motor home, we had the most relaxing six months ever in the northwest.
In with 2010 … Lynn will be having his knees joints replaced in March and I will be de-cluttering our lives and hauling stuff to the Deseret Industries by the van full.
Out with the old laptop that had a mind of its own and its only desire in this world was to torment me
In with a new laptop from Lynn for my birthday … Now maybe I can get back to blogging and editing … thanks my dear!
Out with not seeing my siblings and relatives enough …
In with more visits and phone calls
Out with the left over Christmas candies and junk foods …
In with Weight Watcher’s … (slipped a bit on that during December)
Out with Facebook games …
In with Iphone games
Out with always being late sending birthday and Christmas cards …
In with setting up a little card center and making that ten minute walk to the post office a week early!
Out with not getting enough exercise
In with walking at least an hour a day
Out with grumbling ….
Oops … back in with grumbling … that one is too hard!
Out with diet coke … except for when I really need one or they come with a meal, or they don’t come with a meal but they carry them … or when I pass a place that sells them.
In with drinking water instead of diet coke (see above exceptions)
There, that ought to about do it for resolutions.
Roughly 200,000 Stitches later … we now return to our scheduled programming
I made it! I finished the last of the Christmas stockings (which was mine) at 1:00 am Christmas morning … just in time for the old man to fill it.
My children all knew the joy of having a crocheted Christmas stocking that stretches and stretches on Christmas Eve and it was fun to hear them tell their children the Christmas memories these new, super-sized stockings invoked.
I had been worrying the last ten days or so that I might not be able to get them all finished and could be found at any moment huddled over my crochet hook and yarn. My new slogan was “Don’t leave home without it.” I finished Lynn’s at about two in the morning on Christmas Eve and decided I didn’t want one bad enough to pick up the crochet hook one more time in the year 2009. About 2:00 Christmas Eve I changed my mind. So … I joyfully can report that I reached my goal! Counting the ones I helped Kim do for her family there were 40 Christmas stockings finished and delivered by Christmas Eve. (Patting myself on my own back.)
I apologize to all who didn’t receive a Christmas card from us (which is everyone we know). I apologize for not getting the tree up before the 21st of December (but I’m grateful it did get put up before Christmas). I apologize there was no home made fudge or peanut brittle (but I might have been tempted to eat it if it was).
We do extend our best wishes and a belated Merry Christmas to everyone. It has been a wonderful year for Lynn and I and we are grateful for our children, grandchildren, inlaws, outlaws, parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and each other. The people in our lives bring us our greatest joy. We are most grateful for our Savior and for the hope and purpose our lives have because of Him.
2010 … we’ll be blessed once again! Happy New Year everyone!
Stillllll Crocheting Christmas Socks
Since it is impossible to type and crochet at the same time my blog seems quite neglected the last couple of weeks. However, I have now finished 21 of the 40 Christmas stockings from my list (Yes it keeps increasing in number). Most of the others I have completed the fronts and backs and have to put the names on, sew them together, and do the cuffs …. whew! I know how Mrs. Clause must feel trying to meet her Christmas deadlines!
I’m just saying … I would like to be blogging but have to be crocheting …
It’s Time to Replace the "G B S"
I’m thinking it’s time to have a face to face talk with the British dude who is supposed to keep us from getting lost while driving around in strange cities! I think he’s been tipping the bottle if you know what I mean. What’s more, I think he gets his jollies out of getting us lost. I don’t know what his deal is.
He’s been telling us to turn too soon and then gloats while he directs us back to the road we were on. Sometimes I swear I can hear him sneer. I think he’s burned out, tired of his job, and bored out of his gourd … but why take it out on us? We hired him in good faith. Oh yeah, he also never apologizes.
I don’t know about you, but our car doesn’t measure yards. Give me a break! "After 800 yards turn right, then, after 200 yards, turn left." Why can’t he just speak my language and say, "Turn right at McDonald’s and make a left at Taco Time!" I have no clue how long it takes to drive a car 800 yards and it is even harder to figure out in a motor home.
I have to admit, it was much worse when Lynn decided to give Arnold Schwartzenegger a try. That lasted for less than an hour before I was begging the British guy to come back. I would have even settled for the not so smart but sexy female who conjures up a visual of Marilyn Monroe in a low cut evening gown.
Last night we were coming home from Sizzler’s and found ourselves behind a warehouse at the dead end of a dark, narrow street. This happened right after British man told us to, "Turn right and then keep on going straight." The guy must have secretly been given a contract to take us out! At a minimum he needs glasses!
When we were in Sacramento we needed to go to Costco, which we were told was less than four miles from where we were staying. First we had to stop at JoAnn’s for some yarn and that was maybe two miles in the opposite direction. Lynn put both addresses in the GBS. Okay, so we’re leaving JoAnn’s with the yarn and this annoying man starts taking us on strange streets, weaving in and out of traffic, off and on highways until finally we find ourselves on the Interstate headed off into the wild blue yonder.
I’m biting my tongue and crocheting faster and faster because we have already had several lengthy discussions (like Alice and her man) while driving around lost in various other cities and states. I’ve used up all the whiny words in my vocabulary over this fellow I’ve never even met.
"Wait a minute," says Lynn scratching his head. "This doesn’t say 4.1 miles, it says 401 miles."
I’m thinking the dude has somehow locked all the car doors and windows and we we are being hijacked, but my window still rolls down so I suggest that maybe he’s taking us to a Costco in … say … Mexico!
Maybe the guy’s got a personal grudge. If you drop a GBS (you can guess what the BS stands for) does it physically hurt the people inside?
Our new iphones have GPS’s in them but they are pretty small and you would have to hold it up close to your eyes with the right hand while the left hand takes over all of the driving. You’d have to divide your brain into two equal parts, too, and I don’t know about your brain but my brain doesn’t work well when I divide it in half.
I grudgingly admit we are far too chicken to make this kind of a journey without the faceless man. We used to get lost much more often and for far lengthier periods of time when one of us drove while the other gave useless directions using a map. At least this way it isn’t "our" fault when we get lost.
