A Love Like Theirs

Isn’t this one of the sweetest pictures you’ve ever seen?  These precious hands belong to my aunt Macy and my uncle Dick.  They have been married for 67 years.  These two are the greatest role model of a loving, Christian marriage that I have ever known or even heard about.  Their devotion to each other is both exemplary and immeasurable.  Since Dick’s retirement several years ago, they have literally been almost inseparable.  When you see one, you see the other😊  In fact, my husband and I were talking recently about how Macy and Dick just never leave each other’s side for more than a few minutes and my husband said to me, “Honey, I love you with all my heart but I don’t think I could do that.”  (I totally understand!  I need my “me” time, too.)

Unfortunately they have both been dealing with health issues for awhile now, and then a few weeks ago Macy fell and broke her hip.  This was the first time in MANY years that they had to spend the night apart.  However, Dick would go visit her every single day while she was in the hospital and rehab.  He would even call her first thing in the morning before going to the hospital and again at night after he got home.  This picture was taken during Macy’s hospital stay.

Macy is my mama’s sister and the baby of 8 siblings.  There are only two left…Macy and Mama, the two youngest.  Because of such a large family I was blessed to have MANY wonderful uncles and aunts, and they were all very special to me.  However, Macy and Dick have always been my favorites.  In fact, my youngest memory is of time I spent with them when I was a toddler.  It seems they loved to babysit me, and they spoiled me silly.  I have to admit that I always “thought” I was their favorite too, but after growing up I came to realize that they somehow made all of us nieces and nephews feel we were their favorite. 

         This is me with my sweet aunt & uncle

Macy is the sweetest lady you will ever meet, soft spoken and quick to tell you that she loves you.  You never see her that she isn’t dressed to perfection and not one hair out of place.  In my eyes, she has always been the perfect wife and mother.  Most of her married life she was a stay-at-home mom with my cousins Timothy and Lori.  Sadly, they lost Timothy several years ago.  Dick has always been my knight in shining armor, so handsome, and one of the biggest teasers to anyone he loves and cares about.  When you are in his presence you can be sure that there will be lots of laughter.  They are such exemplary Christian people, always letting others see Jesus in the way they live their lives and in the way they love BIG. Dick has been a deacon in his small Baptist church (where I grew up) for as long as I can remember.  I love them both more than words can express.

Right now my heart is heavy because yesterday (after a slow & difficult but steady recovery), Macy had a brain bleed and as I write this she is awaiting decisions on how to proceed.  I’ve been awake most of the night worrying and praying.  I’m now sitting by the phone waiting to hear what is next.  She has had scoliosis for years and has suffered valiantly through a lot of daily pain, yet you will not hear her complain.  And furthermore since she and Dick still live in their home, she has taken care of her beloved husband without missing a beat.

If you are a praying person, may I ask that you send up a prayer (or two) for my aunt Macy, for peace, comfort, and total healing…and also for my uncle Dick, for wisdom and courage to know how to proceed as well as for his own health concerns.  Also for my cousin Lori who has willingly and lovingly stepped in to help them as much as she can, although she lives several hours away from them. 

If you could meet Macy and Dick, I promise you would immediately fall in love with them and they would make you feel as if you had known them all your life.  This old world sometimes gets me down when I see the evil that is broadcast on the daily news each day, but when I look into the faces of my aunt and uncle I am reminded that there are still some wonderful, loving, caring, gentle people out there; and I am so thankful to call both of them MINE.

I love you, Macy…please get well because you are such a special part of our family and because you have always been and always will be someone I look up to and love dearly. 

             Your niece, Cheri

WHAT’S THE WORD?

I’ve been mulling over whether or not I want to have a WORD OF THE YEAR.  Have you ever heard of that?  The idea is to choose a word to focus on, a word that can guide your actions or whatever you think you might want to embrace more of in the upcoming year.  According to Elizabeth Rider, a health coach, choosing a Word of the Year    “sets an intention for how you want your year to flow."  source

  I actually tried it last year and to an extent I was successful with it.  My word was JOY.  During the year I included that word in my journal writing, and I tried to focus more on finding joy in everyday things.  I tend to sometimes see the cup as half empty instead of half full, and I knew I needed to work on that.  By choosing the word joy, I think I focused on finding more of it.

This year I think I want my word to be:

I’m not an artist, musician, or writer of great novels, so why choose CREATE?  Good question…so I’ll “try” to explain.  I was thinking about various words, and then all of a sudden (literally) the word create popped in my head.  I "pondered" it for awhile, wondering why in the world that word came to mind.  And this is what I came up with.

This year I want to be more creative in the way I look at my life.  After all, there are other ways to create besides painting a picture or composing a sonnet.  This year I want to:

*be more creative with my meal preparations!  I am soooo tired of cooking the same things over & over.  I have literally  collected 100s of recipes, so why haven’t I used most of them?????  (Thankfully I have a very sweet husband who seems to love whatever I put in front of him😊)

*delve into using all those arts & crafts supplies I have stored up and create scrapbooks, journals, pocket letters, memory dex cards, ATCs, or whatever else I get interested in.  (I see lots of glue in my future!!!)

*continue writing my blog and try  to be more creative in my posts….in hopes to keep the readers I have and maybe even gain a few more.  I love to write but I need to up my game.

*be more creative in serving my Lord and helping others….after all, that’s what we are here for.

 *create more joy in my life by involving myself in experiences that I enjoy and care about with family, friends, and myself.  Not sure yet what all that encompasses but I hope some travel might be involved.

 I recently read this: 

               Being creative means solving a problem in a new way.  It means changing your perspective.  Being creative means taking risks and ignoring doubt and facing fears.  It means breaking with routine and doing something different for the sake of doing something different.  It means mapping out a thousand different routes to reach one destination.  It means challenging yourself every day.  Being creative means searching for inspiration in even the most mundane places.         source

I especially like that last part😊  Sometimes life can become so mundane, so “normal” that we fail to see what might be.  I hope to find myself at the end of 2019 having been creative in all of these ways and more.

So….what do you plan to CREATE this year????

RESOLUTIONS ARE NOT FOR ME!

 Happy New Year to my blogger friends!  I hope your 2019 has begun on a happy and positive note.  It’s hard to believe another Christmas has come and gone and another year has passed.  I’m (as usual) asking the proverbial question:  Where does the time go??? 

Way back in 2010 (was that really 9 years ago??), I wrote a blog post about how I don’t make NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS. (You can read that here .)   Well, I still don’t!  I never kept the ones I made, so why make them?  I did write in that post about some PLANS I had for the New Year.  I just read back over that post and am glad to see that I did accomplish many of those:)  I do have to admit though that I didn’t complete them all in that year!  But, hey!  Better late than never, right?

So I thought I would put pen to paper (rather fingers to keyboard) once again and come up with some new (and maybe some old) PLANS to try and accomplish this year. 

1)  CONTINUE TO DECLUTTER! 

I have done well with this over the past 2 years but there’s still more that I could do.  There are things in the attic that really need to go.  But WHAT DO YOU DO with the potty chair your mama used to potty train you or the crib in which yourself, your 3 siblings, and 2 cousins slept?  And what about all those softball and baseball trophies that belong to your husband and son from their glory days?  (I may just leave those behind for my son to deal with after I’m on my way to Heaven😊)

2)  USE UP MY STASH OF CRAFTING SUPPLIES

Do I really need all those pipe cleaners, jingle bells, and wiggly eyes?  And for some reason my stash of scrapbooking paper seems to be multiplying.  I’m thinking I see some projects on the horizon.

3)  SEND MORE CARDS, LETTERS & EMAILS & MAKE MORE PERSONAL VISITS

I have some friends and relatives that are going through hard times.  I’m fairly good at sending get-well & sympathy cards, but I know I could do better.  And I need to get out the cookie sheets and bake up some treats to take to those who could use some cheering up.

4)  CLEAN OUT MY PINTEREST FILES

I absolutely LOVE Pinterest, BUT!!!!  I have waaaayyyyy too many pins on most of my boards, and with some of them I need to use them or lose them.  I mean, I pin things but then forget about them.  This will be a major undertaking!

5)  TRY YOGA 

I’ve had this on my To Do List for quite awhile.  Maybe this will be the year I finally delve into it.  I’ve been going to the gym since last April and have been pleased with my progress, but the stretching would probably add a lot to my exercise routine.

6)  DO SOMETHING ABOUT ALL THOSE RECIPES I'M HOARDING!!!

Lawsy…I have 100s, not even including all the cookbooks.  I did pair down the cookbooks a few years back, but I have several photo albums turned recipe keepers that I need to sort through.  I don’t need 14 different recipes for Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

7)  BE MORE ADVENTUROUS

Our lives (hubby’s and mine) have really gotten into a rut.  We are sitting at home with him playing Candy Crush and me on my laptop much too much!  We need to find some new entertainment outlets!!!  Maybe we should go on that THRIFT STORE CIRCUIT in Alabama that my cousin recently told me about.  Looks like it might be fun.  (Of course, if I find a lot of stuff then I will have to go back to #1 on my list!)  You can read about it at this site

Well, there is lots more I need to put on my GET IT DONE LIST, but this is enough for starters.  It will be interesting to look back at the end of the year and see if I accomplished any of this!

So what are your PLANS for the New Year?  Let’s get motivated together!!!

To My Blogger Friends

Wishing all of you….

But let’s not forget….

See you in the New Year!

A Life Well Lived

Life can sure be filled with surprises…some good, some bad.  We never really know what is around the corner.  Sometimes we turn the corner, and we are confronted with something beautiful, something wonderful, something we are so happy to be a part of.  Other times we encounter something unpleasant, something frightening, something we wish we didn’t have to face.  Two weeks ago I turned that proverbial corner to be faced with the loss of a long-time friend.

Nancy and I began our friendship years ago when we taught together…I taught second grade and she taught third.  I was always so glad when she got some of my students the next year because I knew they would be in great and very capable hands.  Years later she became my asst. principal, principal, and finally superintendent.  She was a strong and formidable leader, one of the strongest women I’ve ever known.  Some people mistook that strength for aloofness and perhaps even hard-heartedness, but those of us who really knew her knew she had a very tender heart.

Nancy found out she had a very aggressive cancer only 5 or 6 weeks before we lost her.  At first I grieved over the fact that she went so quickly, but after thinking about it I knew that Nancy would never have wanted to linger and be without the strength she had always had.  She retired only three years ago and was so happy having much more time to spend with her son, daughter, and grandchildren.  She had been divorced for many years, and her family was her number one priority.

Another good friend and co-worker gave Nancy’s eulogy, and I just have to share this…partly because it’s such a funny story but mostly so I will have it written down where I won’t forget it.  One day Nancy and a co-worker from her office were driving down the interstate when they were flashed by a naked man riding in a bus of some sort.  He didn’t “moon” them…he flashed in full glory!!!  Nancy and her friend took down the tag number and called it in to the police.  The man was caught and Nancy was called in to “identify” the guy.  While being asked this in the police station, Nancy promptly told the detective, “I wasn’t really looking at his face but if you show me a full frontal view I can definitely pick it out!”  You would have to know Nancy to really get the full effect of this story, but take my word for it….you would have laughed really hard if you had been there!

So, to my friend, principal, and superintendent Nancy…you always made me want to be a better teacher.  You made me want to give 100% because you were always giving 110!  Thank you for the times you visited my room to watch me teach and then left me a little note patting me on the back…no other principal I ever had did that!  Thank you for caring about the children of our community and for working hard to be a good leader.  Rest in peace, dear Nancy…job well done!

 

And even though my heart has been sad over this loss, this week my heart was filled with joy because one of my former students who I still love dearly and am still close to became a daddy for the first time to TWIN BOYS.  After a rough pregnancy with a few scares, both boys were born strong and healthy.  God is good…all the time.