Hope you have a wonderful birthday!
The M.O.B. Society (Mothers of Boys) is having a blog hop in order to get to know each other better.
Welcome! My name is Barbara H. and I am in my mid 50s. My husband Jim and I have been married for 32 1/2 years. My boys are almost 28, 25, and 19 (we’re in the middle of “birthday season” when the odometer rolls over for several in our family). I have one beautiful daughter-in-law, married to my middle son. Only my youngest lives at home and he just finished high school. He’ll be attending a local community college in the fall and still living at home, so our nest won’t be quite empty yet. My mother-in-law lives in a nearby assisted living facility but we bring her over often and go visit her almost daily.
This is our last Christmas photo:
Oh, wait, no, here it is:
🙂
After spending most of our married lives in SC, the Lord moved us to TN almost two years ago. It’s been a time of changes and adjustments, but then, that’s life, isn’t it? But I think we’re settling in now.
My blog is a hodgepodge. I love to write about books I have read, my family, thoughts from the Bible, encouragement to younger women, and anything else that captures my attention. I love to laugh as well and I think I have a fair share of humor sprinkled throughout my blog.
Some of my posts that might be of particular interest to younger moms are:
Encouragement for mothers of young children.
Motherhood advice.
Encouragement for homemakers.
A Quiet Spirit.
A mother’s nightly ritual– an original poem.
I Corinthians 13 for mothers.
Parenting teens.
Missing something? No, I don’t think so after all.
The ideal house.
Book Review: Raising Real Men.
Book Review: Boyhood and Beyond: Practical Wisdom for Becoming a Man.
The M.O.B. Society hosts asks us about our sons’ favorite games. In the past few years their favorites (or at least most often played with each other) are Settlers of Catan, Seafarers of Catan, Night of the Living Dead (I know, sounds horrible, and I wasn’t too sure about it at first, but it’s pretty fun), Galactic Emperor, Apples to Apples, Dutch Blitz (not to mention video games like Super Smash Brothers). When they were younger they played Candyland, Hi Ho Cherry-O, Memory, Payday, Guess Who, Battleship, and Spy Web.
I hope you enjoy your visit here, and I am looking forward to “meeting” you!
Annette at This Simple Home and Dorie at These Grace Filled Days have teamed up to create Together on Tuesdays as “a casual way to meet and connect with other women” over the summer. They’ve created a schedule of topics to discuss in order to get to know one another better, and the topic for this week is our favorites spots, either locally or a vacation spot.
Honestly, my very favorite spot is my own home. I’m not much of an adventurer and don’t travel well. I feel more at peace and rest at home than anywhere else. But it is necessary to get out of the house every now and then.
Many of our vacations have been to visit family, but we’ve had a few other outings over the years. Probably one of my all-time favorites was SeaWorld in FL. We had gone down when my oldest son was checking out colleges to see Clearwater Christian College (loved it, but they didn’t have the major he wanted at the time.) We were so near all the Orlando attractions, we took an extra day to do something fun. We had been to a similar place while visiting Jim’s brother in CA years before when Jesse was just a baby, and I had always wanted to take the family back to something like that when he was old enough to remember it, and this was our chance. I just loved the dolphin show.
I grew up near the beach, and didn’t realize how much I missed it until a family reunion when my older two were small. Unfortunately the standard of dress (or undress) has gotten so bad that we didn’t feel comfortable taking our guys out to the beach much, but some years back when our school’s spring break was a different week that the pubic school’s we took a few days and went to Charleston, SC, and stayed at a hotel right on Folly Beach. This photo was taken from a gazebo out at the end of a pier looking back at the hotel.
It was lovely. We had the beach mostly to ourselves. I loved hearing the sound of the ocean at night while going to sleep, and because we were right there we could go out on the beach at any time. Jim and Jesse liked going out in the early morning.
But we were also close enough to everything else in Charleston that it wasn’t far to drive into town and see a few things there. We took a buggy ride around the city and a harbor tour and took the guys to visit the Yorktown and Naval Museum. It was a perfect blend of sight-seeing and restfulness. I remember coming back and feeling more rested than at any other vacation return. We had been to Charleston as a young married couple before we had children, going with a tour group the local Christian radio station had gotten together, and then we revisited it on our 30th wedding anniversary. At that time Jim had enough hotel points that we got to stay at a hotel right on the heart of the downtown area. It was fun to be right there in the city (for a visit — I wouldn’t want to live where it is so busy!) with restaurants, museums, and tour homes within walking distance.
Another place we’ve enjoyed visiting is the Asheville, NC area. We’ve been to the Biltmore House a few times. On one anniversary — maybe our tenth? — we went there, stayed in a generic hotel, and ate one dinner at the Grove Park Inn. The food was wonderful, and at first we were concerned when we read there would be live music (we’re not prone to rocking out 🙂 ), but it was a lovely string quartet. I said I’d love to come back some time and actually stay in Grove Park Inn. We did on our 25th anniversary. Inside — it was pretty much just like any other hotel room, so I doubt I’d be inclined to do that again, but I love eating there. I don’t really like the outside of the building, either, but their fireplace in the lobby is gorgeous. One of the restaurants in the hotel (there are 5 total, I think), looks out over the mountains, and I always wanted to take my folks out there some autumn, but we never made it before my mom passed away. She loved the fall colors. When we went for our anniversary during December, there was a Gingerbread House contest, and it was fun to look at those (some of them are here).
When my kids were little, some of our favorite places were the library and the Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC, about an hour’s drive from where we lived at the time. We went camping a lot then, honestly not my favorite thing but Jim and the kids really enjoyed it, and we had a couple of favorite spots at Paris Mountain State Park.
A favorite activity at one was feeding the ducks at the lake. This is Jason at about age 2 or 3.
I think we only rented paddle boats there once or twice. They didn’t have them available all the time. This is Jeremy and I when he was maybe 5. Jim was on a different paddle boat with Jason (the back of whose head is in the foreground) and took the picture from there.
But mostly we did the usual camping stuff: slept in a tent, cooked over an open fire (including s’mores!) took walks, etc.
A couple of times Jim received an award or bonus or “thank you” from his work in the form of a trip, once to Chattanooga (we enjoyed the aquarium there) and once to Callaway Gardens in GA: the Butterfly Center and the little chapel were really nice.
Another favorite outing was to the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant in Sevierville, TN. We lived in SC at the time, and my mom loved to come visit in the fall because she didn’t have all the pretty fall colors in TX. It was a gorgeous autumn drive, and the food was superb. Plus they had some little shops connected to them, so we could do some of that kind of thing without getting into the more touristy parts of the area. My mom’s brother and sister-in-law lived close enough that they met us there. It was an all-around good time.
I’ve really enjoyed going back and revisiting these memories. Thanks, Annette and Dorie!
Subject: JOB DESCRIPTION
Position: DAD
Long-term team players needed for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in faraway cities. Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.
RESPONSIBILITIES
~ Must provide on-site training in basic life skills, such as nose blowing. Must have strong skills in negotiating, conflict resolution and crisis management. Ability to suture flesh wounds a plus.
~ Must be able to think out of the box but not lose track of the box, because you most likely will need it for a school project.
~ Must reconcile petty cash disbursements and be proficient in managing budgets and resources fairly, unless you want to hear, “He got more than me!” for the rest of your life.
~ Must be able to drive motor vehicles safely under loud and adverse conditions while simultaneously practicing above mentioned skills in conflict resolution.
~ Must be able to choose your battles wisely and then stick to your guns.
~ Must be able to withstand criticism, such as “You don’t know anything.”
~ Must be willing to be hated at least temporarily, until someone needs $5 to go skating.
~ Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
~ Must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat, in case this time the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf.
~ Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers.
~ Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys and battery-operated devices.
~ Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next.
~ Must have a highly energetic entrepreneurial spirit, because fund-raiser will be your middle name.
~ Must have a diverse knowledge base, so as to answer questions on the fly such as “What makes the wind move?” or “Why can’t we just stop all wars?”
~ Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
~ Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product.
~ Other responsibilities include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.
POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT AND PROMOTION
Virtually none. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you. One possible promotion is to “Grandpa,” but that’s really a totally different job.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
None required, unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.
WAGES AND COMPENSATION
You pay them, offering frequent raises and bonuses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.
BENEFITS
While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered, the job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and free hugs for life, if you play your cards right.
(Author Unknown)
Thanks to my father, step-father, and husband who took on the challenge!
Happy Father’s Day to them and all the dads out there!
…sometimes dinner has to wait for those once-every-hundred-years’ occurrences in the sky…
Or, when he sprays non-stick spray on the frying pan after turning the gas flame on underneath a little high, and some of the spray falls onto the flame and catches fire for just a second and then goes out, while my reaction was a loud gasp, his was, “That was cool!” (Kids, don’t try this at home!!!!)
I’ve been mostly missing from the computer over the last several days. Jesse’s graduation was Monday night (odd night for it, I know!), and Jeremy flew in from RI late Monday night and flew back again last night.
Jeremy’s flight in kept getting delayed and finally arrived — I forget exactly when, after 1 a.m., I think. Thankfully we had nothing scheduled on Saturday, so we could just enjoy a family day before all the busyness connected with graduation kicked. I was really mad that I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep! But we enjoyed the day overall. Jason and Mittu came over later in the afternoon, we all went out to celebrate Jesse’s graduation at Calhoun’s, a restaurant on the river on downtown Knoxville. We didn’t get a table at the window this time but we walked around down by the water and fed a few ducks afterward.
This restaurant is supposedly famous for its barbecued ribs, which I didn’t like the last time I was here, and I normally love ribs (they were too vinegary for me). But I tried their chicken teriyaki and had a few bites of Jim’s pork chops, and they were wonderful.
I think we played a game that night, Last Night on Earth. It’s kind of based on those old zombie movies from the 60s. I wasn’t quite sure about it, but a man from our church in SC introduced it to Jeremy and Jesse — they used to have regular game nights — and he is an ok guy. 🙂 And when you have boys, you end of playing games that might not normally appeal to you. 🙂 It’s kind of cheesy fun. Here is my character fending off a zombie attack:
And the humans won, for the first time since we all started playing, so that revived our interest.
Sunday morning we were very blessed to have the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team at our church. I had heard their CDs many times and knew people who knew them, but this is the first time I had seem them live and in person.
Sunday night was the Baccalaureate service at the church that Jesse’s school is associated with so we went there for that. Afterward we played another game, Galactic Emperor, which lasted way late. I think I got to bed by 2:30. But I won, so that was fun. 🙂
Monday morning, Graduation Day, I still woke up earlier than I wanted to, but had a lot to do so went ahead and got up. Jason and Mittu came over and prepared dinner at lunch time for us, a version of chicken cordon blue which was really good. That worked out extremely well both because the school was hosting a reception at 5:45 and I wasn’t sure how in the world we were going to do dinner and get ready for that, etc., and didn’t want to eat anything really heavy right before that, either. It was nice having the big meal at lunch time, then I just made up some various sandwiches for whoever wanted them before leaving for the reception, and the rest of those were available for afterward as well.
The reception was very nice.
And then we had graduation itself. Unfortunately none of my pictures of the stage turned out well — they were too dark and/or blurry. But the school is supposed to make the photos they took of each graduate receiving their diploma available at some point. It was a very nice ceremony. I love the video beforehand of all the students’ childhood photos and a little bit about each of them. I’m hoping they’ll make that available as well to the families as well.
So here is the happy graduate:
Oh, wait, that’s his K-5 grad picture. 😀
And here’s the happy graduate’s family:
And our celebration afterward:
I was surprised that I didn’t get nearly as emotional and sentimental as I thought I would having my youngest graduate, especially after getting sentimental just the week before about packing my last school lunch after 22 years of making them. Maybe it was sleep deprivation, maybe it was just all the busyness and excitement. Maybe it will hit me later.
Tuesday Jeremy had to leave in the afternoon, so we enjoyed a leisurely morning, met Jason and Mittu at the mall for lunch and a movie, then went to Jason and Mittu’s place just to hang out for a bit before heading out to the airport.
So it was a very busy but very exciting few days celebrating this milestone of my youngest son. It was so wonderful to have all the family here for a bit — normally we wouldn’t see Jeremy until August, so it was nice to have this visit before then and not to have such a long time without seeing him.
This morning — we’re talking about colleges, bank accounts, and other necessities of life!
Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.
It’s been yet another busy week, and a busy couple of weekends ahead, but after that things should get back to “normal.” Here are some highlights from this past week.
1. Mother’s Day. My family always makes makes this a great day. Jim grilled, Jason and Mittu prepared the rest of the meal and cleaned up the kitchen afterward, all were very generous in their gifts and sweet with their cards. We got to “facetime” via iPhone with Jeremy (Jim hooks it up to the TV so we can all see and talk to him), and after a couple of failed attempts at having Grandma talk with her oldest son in CA, we finally got to Facetime over the iPhone and TV with them. She wasn’t talking much at first — she gets confused by it all — but they did have a few connected bits of conversation.
2. Roses. Some of you know I’ve missed the roses from our old house. Jim, Jason and Mittu bought these for the new house!
3. Helps for Grandma. It’s hard sometimes to know what to get Jim’s mom. She doesn’t need or have room for more “stuff,” she doesn’t read much any more. Lately she’s been getting mixed up as to which great-grandkids go with which of her kids and what all their names are, etc., so Jim got an idea to make a wall display to go near her bed with everyone’s photos and their names in large print, and I got the idea to make a little booklet of all the families.
Of course we know that won’t “solve” the memory problems, but it gives her some ways to remind herself of them as often as she wants to.
4. Jesse’s Junior-Senior Banquet. This is The Big Event of the Year at his school, at least for the juniors and seniors, and from all he described he had a great time. I had a special mom-son moment helping him pick out the corsage (and his date and her mom both liked it!) Here he is all dressed up and ready to go:
By the way, the package I mentioned last week arriving when I had prayed for it to — that was the vest he’s wearing to match his date’s dress.
Aren’t they cute? 🙂
5. Time to veg in the midst of all the busyness. There were a couple of days when I was just super-tired, and I’d been wanting to watch the movies made from a couple of books I had listened to via audiobook, Ivanhoe and North and South, so I took some time to relax and do that. I shared my thoughts about them here.
6. Ebenezers. Do Not Depart was calling for some modern day Ebenezer stories, commemorating times of God’s help in our lives, and it was a blessing to think through and share some of those here.
Have a great weekend! We’re looking forward to Jeremy coming home this weekend!
A Mother’s Day Prayer
God our Creator, I pray:
For new mothers, coming to terms with new responsibility;
for expectant mothers, wondering and waiting;
for those who are tired, stressed, or depressed;
for those who struggle to balance the tasks of work and family;
for those who are unable to feed their children due to poverty;
for those whose children have physical, mental, or emotional disabilities;
for those who raise children on their own;
for those who have lost a child;
for those who care for the children of others;
for those whose children have left home;
and for those whose desire to be a mother has not been fulfilled.
Bless all mothers, that their love may be deep and tender,
and that they may lead their children to know and to do what is good,
living not for themselves alone, but for God and for others.
Amen
Author Unknown
Reprinted from the archives.
On days like this I miss my own Mom, who passed away a few years ago, but I will always hold her memory dear in my heart.
Old Woman Dozing by Nicolaes Maes (1656). Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels
My mother-in-law sleeps a lot these days. Usually when I go to see her, she’s dozing in her wheelchair and I have to wake her up to visit. She used to encourage me to wake her up because she could sleep any time, but she didn’t get many visitors and didn’t want to miss a visit because she was sleeping. Nowadays she is more inclined to sleep. Once when I woke her up to visit, she actually told me, “Next time, don’t wake me up.” Usually, though, she does her best to be pleasant, but even then, after just a few minutes, she starts yawning and rubbing her eyes, her head starts drooping, and if she has a pillow propping her up in her wheelchair, she’s nuzzling against it to get comfy again.
Sometimes I am tempted to wonder if it is worth a 40 minute drive round trip to wake her up for 5-10 minutes of groggy conversation that she likely won’t even remember.
Sometimes I can do something that makes me feel more useful: get her a pillow, change her hearing aid battery, wipe her hands and face after lunch if the staff hasn’t had a chance yet, advocate with the staff for her concerning some need or oversight, bring her mail.
But really, visiting her shouldn’t be about making me “feel useful.” It’s about letting her know she’s loved and not forgotten and ministering to her in whatever way she needs.
I think of moms going over the same issue for what seems like the hundredth time with their kids, missionaries toiling away in a foreign country with few visible results, men working faithfully the same jobs to pay the same bills, teachers trying to impart knowledge and wisdom to those who don’t seem to want it. Sure, there are times to evaluate methods, ministries, job situations, etc. to see if there is a better way to accomplish the goal and to evaluate whether some change is needed. But sometimes the only answer is to keep going even though we don’t seem to be accomplishing anything. If we’re where God wants us to be doing what He wants us to do, we can rest in the fact that we’re being faithful no matter what the results seem to be. If we do everything we do as unto Him and for His glory, we are indeed accomplishing something good.
Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.
Wow, I am running super late this morning, but here are some of my faves from the last week.
1. Spring break! A little earlier than I am used to, but I’ll gladly take it whenever it comes!
2. Eating out. This one is actually a “leftover” from last week when Jesse was on his senior trip. It wasn’t planned this way, but Jim and I ate out twice, we brought pizza in one night, and then I got take-out from Cracker Barrel for one lunch. Plus Jason and Mittu had us over for dinner Saturday night. It almost felt like vacation, not having to plan for meals, cook, or clean up. A bonus is that in most cases there were leftovers! It’s probably not healthy financially or physically to eat from restaurants that often regularly, but I felt very rested.
3. Jim’s belated birthday celebration. We ate out at a restaurant right on the Tennessee Riverand got a table right at the window.
By the way, the bottle in front of Mittu is root beer. 🙂
4. Cleaning the stove-top — the result, not so much the process.
Before:
During:
After:
5. The Settlers of Catan iPhone app. I resisted getting it for a long time because it is one of the more expensive apps, but then I reasoned that I paid more for the board game and we don’t get together to play it all that often. I figured the app would help me learn how to strategize better. Well….I may be getting a wee bit obsessed. It’s fun, and it has improved my game!
Bonuses: A good report at my first dental visit since we moved here, and NOT losing power in the storm last night. We knew it went off while we were out because the computer was off and all the clocks were blinking when we got home, but we were thankful it was on and stayed on the rest of the night. Our first year here the power seemed to go off a lot so that’s a concern in any bad weather.
That’s my week. How was yours?
Stray Thoughts 