Spring IS Coming

Look what I saw on my walk this morning! It may still feel like winter, but the sky is blue today and the daffodils are a certain promise that the cold won’t last forever.

Do you ever get stuck in the muck of life and feel like the way life is at this very moment is the way it will always be?

I’ll miss a fire in the fireplace, and I like a chilly morning walk around the neighborhood – only because I layer up like I’m headed for the ski slopes! But it will be fine with me if I can walk across the lawn for a while without getting cold slimy mud all over my shoes. And I am ready for Freshway Produce to open again, to buy Kimberly Queen ferns and red geraniums for the flower pots, and to see Bradford Pears in full bloom.

Oh, yes….and I think I will buy new Flip Flops!

MoMs

Marietta Pride, Me, and Dewayne Neil

Moms R Us…it’s a lifelong sentence filled with highs and lows for sure. I got to speak to the Jackson Academy Moms two weeks ago and the Jackson Prep moms today. I guess my Mom Tour is over, but it was fun to look at the faces of these really young moms and find out their anxieties are exactly like my anxieties were…and the hard part is well-meaning MOMS, no matter how devoted, cannot fix everything in their children’s lives. But everybody just wants their children at every age and stage to be “okay.” Whether they are 13 or 30 or 50…we want to fix everything. I have always been a fixer…and messed up a lot of stuff along the way of “fixing.”

These get togethers are something Young Life sponsors each school year. They invite moms to hear from other moms in February and dads to hear from other dads in March. All I can share are the things I learned through butting my head against a lot of walls and doing a lot of things very wrong! The amazing truth I have learned at this late date is God’s grace is sufficient, and it was never ALL up to me – and what an ego trip to have ever thought it was! I am more fallen than I realized originally!

My friend Shirley reminded me a few weeks ago that ultimately the Mom calling is to do all you can to get your children to the threshold of a relationship with Jesus. The real transaction is between the child and the Lord and you can’t push, pull, or kick them over. The hardest part is that God does not seem to be on Central Daylight time and even though His ways are higher than our ways…don’t you wish He’d give you a print out of His time table?

Snow Day!

I remember when we occasionally got snow when I was a little girl – I well remember a big snow around spring break in the 1960’s….(I was very young of course) Even when I saw the 100% chance of snow, I was skeptical. I mean…has the weather man ever been wrong or anything?

I got up early to let Daisy and Thurber out and could not believe it! LOTS of snow…inches of it! I also could not believe how much they loved it. Thurber does not venture out if it is sprinkling the slightest bit, but he was prancing through the snow….made me wish we had some sheep or something out there for these 2 Corgis to “herd.” They are forever trying to herd Charles and me.

I spent a few minutes debating whether I should go to the office. My mother NEVER and I mean NEVER let us stay home from school unless we had temperature over 100 degrees and were on the verge of being comatose. I still feel like a shirker if I am not working at something….What is that old proverb about Idle minds are the devil’s workshop or something? My mother ascribed to that wholeheartedly. Imagine how happy I was to see our neighbor’s tree across our driveway. All my guilt was erased. God’s grace was sufficient for me and I went back to bed. I really felt kind of sorry when the neighbor called a few hours later to tell us she had the crews on their way to remove the tree. I kind of liked being stranded.

The Day After

The day after Thanksgiving. This is the scene at Betsy’s.
Still, quiet, and other than an allergic rash from one of her meds, nothing major to report. Walker, the terminally ill Lab, does not seem to be suffering a loss of appetite. I think I noted that today alone, he ate heaping helpings of sweet potatoes, creamed spinach, chicken soup, chicken, dressing, lima beans, and a few handfuls of his own dog food. Every time I plop down in front of the television to munch, I have these two big black bear dogs with huge brown eyes begging me to share. And what do you think? Of course, I share. (Scout is the baby sister in the family – she, too, has a healthy appetite).
Betsy is in recuperating mode. A dose of Benadryl fixed the rash and also rendered her comatose most of the day. We are hoping to journey out tomorrow. She can’t drive because she can’t turn her head, but she can ride….unfortunately her mother’s driving makes her nervous. Who’s to say another little dose of Benadryl is not a great idea?
Back to Jackson on Sunday. Regular life begins again on Monday. I love my girl, and am thankful that after all these years, I still get to be MOM now and then. Life is moving close to the days when our roles reverse and she becomes the mom…I am praying for grace. I am not too excited about relinquishing control and handing over the baton. I understand my mother better all the time.
Anybody know what I mean?

Salvation Army Angel Tree

I was at Northpark Mall on Thursday the 19th of November to watch the Salvation Army kick off their Angel Tree Program. Amazing stuff the Salvation Army does. Christi, Kari, and I adopted an angel. So did my husband Charles.

The recession has left many working moms or dads laid off and unable to provide anything beyond the very basics for their families. And here it is Christmas when little children know only that Santa comes and leaves gifts. Consider adopting your own angel – or check out Charlotte Wingard’s website http://www.thewingardhome.org/ and adopt yourself a “lamb” instead. At any rate, despite your losses, give extravagantly. It’s easier than you think.

Moving Day

We just moved our office. Drama. I am so tired of drama. I am tired of change. I am tired of life-changing surprises. I just want normal and regular…boring looks better all the time. It seems that regular is something I left behind at 405 Heathman Avenue, Indianola. MS almost 40 years ago. I don’t think anything has been regular since then.

However, we love our new space. Wanted to share a little of it with you. If you are traveling down Highway 51 north in Ridgeland , come see us. Thanks to my sweet (and he hates it when I connect his name with “sweet.”) husband we have an office filled with “pretty.” So if you drop in…you will then want to go see him for rugs and stuff...Tinnin Imports.com….they do have the best stuff around.
We set aside this week to move, knowing no matter how great we did our homework, things would not go as planned. If I gave you a list of the corporate entities who completely misplaced our requests or lost us altogether, I would have a field day for all plaintiff attorneys who read us….which is close to ZERO in number.
We simply had more than one opportunity to learn patience. I just keep wondering…how much patience is enough?????

Oh – and I hope you notice the new song. Our friend and food editor Lydia lost her mother recently. This is the song her cousin Cherry sang at her funeral. I have downloaded it to my
i-pod, fallen completely in love with it, and want to hear it every day just to get me over the headlines and the news and help me focus on the things that will be here when nothing else is. In the middle of chaos…or in those peaceful moments when there is no chaos…give me Jesus every time. 24/7…Jesus.

So now we buckle down and think Christmas. Big prayer. May we think Christmas in the true sense of the word.

The Grove

My son Lem is in The Grove today. He has taken his four year old Allie to her first Ole Miss game. I can just imagine how excited she is since he has alternated Amazing Grace with the Ole Miss Fight Song as evening lullabies her entire life. She can raise her arms and cheer “Hotty Toddy,” and she will tell you that her favorite football team is the Ole Miss Rebels, but it has all been as real as Cinderella or Elmo until today. Today it becomes real.

I texted Lem while ago to please be sure to take notes and to just imagine this whole spectacle through her little four-year-old eyes. I am sure even Disney World would not excite her more at the moment. She is finally getting to see the place her dad so loves, meet his college friends, and see something that she has heard stories about her entire life (all four years of it J). She has lived in Washington, D.C. , Denver, Colorado, and racked up more frequent flyer miles than most adults I know, but this is her first trip to Oxford. So far, she shares her dad’s opinion that it is just the best place she has ever been.

There are a lot of times we look forward to something, or imagine something and really want something – and when we get it, it leaves us empty and disappointed. I don’t think Allie is going to be disappointed in anything today. Her father will make sure Oxford and Ole Miss and the Grove are everything he has told her they are. You get the point. We all have a Father like that. Sometimes we forget it.