Writings on the Wall...or in this case, the dust ruffle

In making one my daughter's bed today after company left, I spotted this on the dust ruffle:

I found my mind traveling back 18 years...One of my best friends had disciplined her less-than-2-year-old for writing with markers all over their hallway wall.  That week, she lost her precious baby. She never cleaned the markings off the wall; and when she moved, her family carefully cut the sheetrock around the artistry, framed it, and displayed it prominently in their new home.  Sometimes, you just gotta see with a new perspective.

Now, I'm sure one of my grandaughters created this masterpiece..it doesn't really matter which one.  It sort of gives me this sense of their presence and comfort knowing that a part of them has been left with me in our home.

As a grandparent, I have a different perspective.  In fact, while I can smile at the thought of the secret that is hidden under a quilt, I can rest in the confidence that~~at some point~~each one of my granddaughters has left such masterpieces on some unorthodox canvas and probably were disciplined in a way that no longer left them with the desire to create further reminders of their presence.

I'm glad this happened before that time...because it sure does make my cup overflow!

A Place of Rest

My secret garden is the place I go each morning for my quiet time with Yeshua.  The thirst in my soul is quenched here...it is here I am emptied out and filled up ready to poured out. This is my time to be refreshed and renewed so that I might flourish in my day.

Being still before the Lord has never been one of my strengths, even though it is one of my strongest desires.  So it is amazing that this secret garden has provided me with a place that invites me in and beckons me to draw closer.
       
Right now i'm in Ezekiel. It's a harsh book. It feels repetitive. Yet there are new revelations and applications for me each time i'm brought back to its pages.

  

The readings I look forward to the most are a Psalm and a Proverb.  They open my eyes and my heart in worship and teaching.  Today, Proverbs 3 held a treasure chest full of reminders in every single verse...it overflowed with more than my brain could hold.  I could write a separate piece on that chapter!  Psalm 27 was my Psalm for today...I read it over and over and it was my praise for today. 
                                


In return for my praise, God shows me His majesty in my garden.  Mr. GoldFinch appeared up today introducing me to Mrs. GoldFinch, and it looks like Mr. and Mrs. Hummingbird (who showed up late in the season) have 2 new friends with whom they are allowing to share their feeder!  The garden teems with purple martins, chicadees, woodpeckers, mourning doves, sparrows, cardinals, mockingbirds, purple finches, squirrels and rabbits.

Bouquet after bouquet of flowers burst with color, filling the air with its soft scents, and bring vividness to the life that has been nurtured here. 

 

Though the thick moss will soon give way to new grass, I immerse myself in its softness, and the healing that the damp soil brings to my feet causes me to linger with each new step. 

Trees tower up into the sky with a protecting canopy that ushers in the soft summer breezes along with cooling shade, coloring the sky with differing hues of green.

In these days in which the realization that another season has passed and my parenting days are over, my secret garden offers me solace to focus on the One who gives me hope and assures me of my future and of a new season just as He promised in Isaiah 43:19:

Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.

All these reasons, and more, are why my cup overflows today.

Procrastination

I keep thinkin' i'll make time to catch up, but it seems I slip farther and farther behind on events, thoughts, etc.

This week, Rebeka and I traveled to Memphis to see my mom and dad, so our week has already been blown as far as completing any routine business...so what better way to keep the procrastination going than to find something else to do...!  Sooo...i just did an iphone dump and decided to share what's been going on in my life....

A few weeks ago, my Memphis friends were blowing up my phone at 6:30 a.m. knowing I have been sleeping in lately...this was their encouragement for an empty-nest momma...yep.  i love my friends!

 

Not long after that, Rebeka came home (i will blog in more detail about that later!), from her YWAM Zion DTS in NZ. 

 

 The next weekend, Jessica came to welcome Rebeka home (as well as Bert, Elizabeth and Caroline!) I LOVE my family!

Side Note: My youngest two love stealing my phone and altering information...and so do their friends.  Kari wasted no time in filling in for my missing Hannah (fyi: Kari is made from the same mold as Hannah, so when she is here, it's like Hannah is here, which brings me such joy!) with selfies...I love this girl! 

 

I also love our community group!  Just the drive there soothes our mind, body and soul!  Oftentimes, we have unexpected guests...

This is Fred...

This is Bo...

With Hannah still staffing at YWAM Zion in New Zealand, we often receive some interesting photos from she and fellow staffer, Joehelen...

 

feelin' the love here!

 

that is a tree root...yes.

Rebeka and her friends celebrated Kari's birthday in Nashville...they are beautiful...!

Our trip to Memphis provided some lovely photos as well...

Bwaha! My mom still has a caboodles!!! How cool is that!

3 pomegranates (and what seems like 3 hours later) the fruit of my labor!



snapchatting to include Hannah in our fun times!

     

Rebeka's new place of employment!  Awesome restaurant by the way...check it out!

   

This morning's paper featured a story on one of Hannah's friends, Mackenzie!

 

Typical Rebeka shananigan...unfortunately, I don't know how to fix this...!!

 

 So there you have it...a snapshot of my March...so far!  Now you know why my cup overflows!

 

 

 

Empty Nesting: Chapter 1. Revelation!

The day has finally arrived.  I am now an empty nester. My two youngest two daughters have left and are now settled in New Zealand...and I am left with a house full of quiet.

In case you are wondering, yes~~I am feeling the full effects of "empty nest syndrome."

During this first three months, however, I have discovered something:

In a house that has, at one time or another, boasted a 5:1 girl vs. boy ratio, our toilet paper consumption has decreased from 15 rolls a month to 3!  Now you might laugh at this; but until you have spent years with a houseful of females, you have NO idea!!!  (There was actually a point in time when Keith calculated that 3 sheets for #1 and 6 sheets for #2 were plenty per person per bathroom visit, but he couldn't figure how to enforce the new rule!  I. Am. Not. Kidding.) 

Add to that shampoo and other hair products, razor blades, baby lotion, cosmetics and~~BAM!!  We are meeting our budget for the first time in YEARS!

That is only the beginning...car insurance~~I can pay a whole year in one setting!...the grocery bill~~ohmygoodnessgraciousalive!~~we even have leftovers, and fruit and snacks don't disappear in one day!  Let's talk gasolin~~We filled up the truck the beginning of September and didn't return to the gas station until the middle of October...the fuel in the van lasts ALL week long!!!

BUT.

Dadgum, it's quiet.

And the space is huge whereve I walk.

And I discovered I don't know how to cook for just two.

And I realize that I actually ENJOY being chauffeured wherever I go and not have to actually drive myself. 

And there's no one with me to bribe into pumping gas.

There's no one to braid or updo my hair.

There's no one to look forward to walking through the door every night.

I walk into their rooms, and there is nobody there.

And that unchanging mountain of toilet paper in the bathroom basket...it looks like overkill.

Today, I came across Ecclesiastes 3:
   To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:

² A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
³ A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
⁴ A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;

"A time to mourn...

and a time to dance."

W.O.A.H.

How can mourning and dancing possibly exist in the same sentence?! 

Reflection.

Revelation.

A smile. God knows how to bring us back to where we need to be...and in that one small verse, I am reminded~~it's okay to mourn, but it's always followed by dancing. 

Maybe I can grab a few yards of toilet paper and use it for a ribbon dance...!!

Thank you Yeshua, for filling my cup to overflowing!

Tell Me How to Make Time Stand Still

How quickly time fades from our grasp to leave us standing on the edge of transition...the fading fog our only image of the past and a vast chasm the only image of our future.

Knowing how quickly time would vanish before my eyes, I clung to every moment as if it would be the last. 

Then August came.  Like a tape on replay~~just as I watched Hannah, I watched Rebeka pack up her life in two small suitcases (with much more success now that she had all the traveling tips and shortcuts) and boarded a plane to Paparoa, New Zealand, slowed only by layovers in Dallas, Texas, and Sydney, Australia. 

For three months, she will be in DTS as a student for YWAM (Youth With a Mission) before embarking on an outreach somewhere in the Pacific for another three months.

Her violin greets me each morning from the wall in the parlor...looking as useless as I feel.  The kitchen offers more hope~~her face greets me from behind a laminated piece of paper on which her warped face is printed in black and white ink!

  

Come February, she will return home a new creature to us.  In just six months, we will become acquainted with the freshness of a young lady who, though has been an "adult" for more than a year now, will have grown physically, spiritually, mentally and academically without our daily presence.

Until then, she is on an exciting adventure, with nothing to hold her back, to go and to be all that she is meant to become...and I long to hear all that God reveals to and teaches her. I long to hear her thoughts and ideas.

Most of all, I long to hear her voice and see her beautiful face!

 

In the meantime, I will be faced with the reality of her absence every time I pass by her clean room, face her empty chair at the dinner table...and walk by the violin on the wall..

Once again, I find myself reflecting just like I did with Hannah~~on the past years of infancy, toddlerhood, elementary and middle school, through these last years of high school, my cup runneth over with joy of having been privileged to watch her grow and blossom!