Aftermath or Has Anybody Seen the Cat?

No room in the fridge or freezer
Towels and sheets need to be washed

Garbage cans are overflowing
The DVR remote is lost

Kids are sleeping by the TV
Pets are nowhere to be found


Every dish in the washer
Toys and videos scattered round

We all gathered round the table
To give thanks, remember, laugh


Our time together is all too short
But always worth the aftermath

The Lights In Her Eyes

 

The anniversaries of two events that changed my life forever happened between November 23^rd and Christmas of the same year.  My daughter was born the day before Thanksgiving and not quite three weeks later my husband, her father, passed away in a tragic accident. 

I don’t really remember much about the 6 or 7 days following the accident except my wonderful family dropping everything to be at my side for the memorial service.  I didn’t want to travel with the baby so my best friend flew out to stay with me and my sisters and Mom returned to celebrate the holiday with their young children.  Christmas Eve night came and went with the presents still wrapped and under the tree. Christmas night promised to be just as uneventful but as we sat in the living room talking, the Christmas tree and window lights suddenly popped on.  They were on a timer and someone else must have been turning them off for me each night because I never even saw them.  My friend jumped up to turn them off but I told her to stop when I saw my daughter smiling and looking at the tree.  The lights reflected in her wondering eyes and just for a moment it was Christmas.

We have come a long way since then and this season always brings with it, the memories, both joyous and sorrowful.   We will be celebrating her birthday on Thanksgiving Day this year and, as always, I will thank God for her and all He has brought us through.


Happy Birthday, My Girl.  May God always give you something to wonder at that will bring a light to your eyes and smile to your face even through the hardest times.

Tried and Truth

T is for the timing that was all wrong
U is for the undercooked green beans
R is for the runny homemade gravy
K is for the knife that won’t carve meat
E is for the eggnog I forgot to buy
Y is for the yams that turned to mush
I sure glad that all that really matters
Is thanking God for all He’s done for us

Unforgettable Love

My Mom is a great cook, which she would probably deny, but it’s the truth.  That is why it is so odd that one of our family’s holiday traditions is to tease her about burning the rolls.

Her holiday meals always looked and tasted fantastic.  One Thanksgiving she was putting the last dish on the table when someone said that they smelled something burning.  It was the rolls.  She had put them in the oven while she put the finishing touches on the serving platters and forgot about them.  That can happen to anyone and you might think us cruel to never let her forget one simple mistake.  The problem was that for a few years in row she repeated the same mistake which became just too tempting to ignore and the teasing became a holiday tradition.

Knowing it was done in love she took it with grace and patience.  She could afford to be patient, as all parents can, knowing that eventually her children would be the ones serving the holiday meal and that great moment would dawn when they would appreciate all the effort and love that went into it.  I won’t name names but I can remember a few holiday meals that included mistakes by other members of the family that rivaled hers. If they had been repeated I am sure the burnt rolls would have been forgotten.

How gracious and patient our Heavenly Father is to wait for us recognize our sins.  It doesn’t matter what we’ve done or even that we have made the same mistakes over and over again.  He waits for us to ask His forgiveness and accept the effort and love that went into the sacrifice of His Son Jesus, so that we will always know we are loved even when we burn the rolls.

Striking it Real

When I went to Colorado to work on a guest ranch there was one other thing that I wanted to do out West more than anything else.  I wanted to visit a ghost town.  Not a tourist trap with gunfight reenactments, and souvenir hats but a real ghost town with deserted buildings, tumbleweeds rolling down the streets and at least one battered wooden sign swinging from a hook and creaking in the wind. You know, a real ghost town just like the ones on TV and in the movies.

I bought a book about how to find some of the few historic towns that remained untouched.  The closest one to the ranch was a town that grew up around silver mines high in the mountains.  According to the book, at one time the town had 5 restaurants and 3 saloons accommodating the miners and their families.  I followed the map to the location and knew I had found it when I saw the picturesque head frame of the mine shaft that was still standing and a historical marker describing the silver strike as one of the richest ever made.

The only other structure that could be seen was a small shack a short distance from the mine.  I hiked up to it and carefully stepped through the open door and onto the broken and rotting floor boards.  The sun pierced through the scattered holes in the roof as the dust I disturbed floated through its shafts.  There were tattered pieces of wall paper clinging to what remained of the walls.   A small wooden table stood at one end but other than that it was empty. Imagining anyone living, and working in this remote place was difficult if not impossible. None of the re-creations I had seen even came close to what living in such isolated and harsh conditions must have been like.

I wasn’t disappointed by what I found.  It might not have lived up to my expectations but it was real and it was the kind of reality that matured my thoughts and made me want to seek the truth instead of chasing fantasies.

 

Guess Who Came To Dinner

As a newlywed I was very excited about hosting our first barbeque.  Our property at the base of the foothills had just as much cactus as it did grass so we set up on the cement patio between the house and the garage.  We had just framed out an addition to the garage so I tried to disguise the stacked lumber with flower pots.

 Everything was going great until I happened to glance up.  The largest snake I had ever seen in my life was stretched out across a large beam about eight feet high and practically above the heads of the guests.  Within seconds many things raced through my mind, not the least of which was how it got up there and would it come down to join the party.  Although the markings were similar I was pretty sure that it wasn’t a rattlesnake because of its size.  It was as large as some boa constrictors I had seen so I didn’t even know if it was native or an escaped pet. 

The only word that I managed to speak, or rather squeak, was snake!  Within seconds everyone had scanned the ground around their feet and stood to prepare for a quick exit since rattlesnakes were not rare in that area.  I pointed, still lacking the appropriate words to tactfully introduce the uninvited guest.  My husband immediately climbed up the stacked lumber, grabbed the snake and pulled it down right in front of everyone.  Apparently, I was the only one in a state of near panic because after a short discussion about what a big Bull snake it was my husband took it behind the house and the party continued.  Not wanting to appear cowardly I did my best to remain composed.

 Later I asked what he had done with the body, assuming that he had killed it as he would a rattlesnake on the property.  He explained that Bull snakes were beneficial and kept the rodent population down so he let it go out back.  Somehow, for me anyway, that did not make up for the fact that it was 6 feet long and could climb up the side of a building.  I was grateful that our guests were locals because I couldn’t even imagine the panic that would have ensued if the folks from back home would have been there.  Sensing my uneasiness he suggested I give it a name and treat it like a pet.  I secretly named it after him because I wasn’t sure at that moment which one was going to be sent to live in the backyard if it showed up at one of our barbeques again.on