Sunday, August 29, 2010

Happy Anniversary to my Parents

Happy Anniversary!

I want to take this...the occasion of your fiftieth wedding anniversary, to send a note to thank you for your example of constancy and longevity.

Having been married myself for 26 years I know that marriage is not always easy, but I also know that it's more than worth the struggles that it sometimes involves. Especially in a society such as today's, marriage is often thrown away for a "better" option. I want to thank you for demonstrating to me that longevity in marriage is the best option, as evidenced by your lives. You both have been an example to me over the years of enjoying each other, overcoming obstacles, staying committed to one another and loving one another for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; until death do you part.

What a joy it must be to be able to say you've been married for fifty years! What a privilege and joy it is to me to be able to say that my parents have been married for fifty years!

Congratulations!

Photo credit: 
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-5021407-couple-holding-hands-in-shadow.php

Saturday, August 21, 2010

I've gone visiting again!





I'm posting here today!

Photo credit: http://likethedew.com/2009/07/06/on-the-go-through-the-generations/

A Day in Pictures

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Does this mean that fall is coming? The bites taken out of this by ??? must mean it's not poisonous...but I'm not going to break out the garlic and butter to find out!

I know I haven't been posting much besides these little snippets of my daily life lately, but I will...next week. Promise! You can see just my "Day in Pictures" posts all together on that page...click on it on the upper right of my sidebar.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

A Day in Pictures

A snipped, a slice, a tiny piece of my everyday life...


My husband has a remote controlled helicopter. It was a gift from our son for Father's Day or his birthday or something...or both! He loves it! I can always tell when he's taking a break from studying because I hear the helicopter buzzing around the house. It doesn't always stay in the air though...
Tuesday, August 17, 2010

By the way, on this day, seventeen years ago, we arrived in England to pastor our first church! Wasn't that just last week? I looked away for a sec and seventeen years went by!

Monday, August 16, 2010

A Day in Pictures

A snippet, a slice, a tidbit of some tiny part of my day.

 I walked out the door to church yesterday evening with half a cup of coffee in my favorite mug. I finished the coffee before I went through the gate out to the driveway, and I parked the mug on the fence so I wouldn't have to take an empty cup in the car, then promptly forgot it was there until I went out early this morning before it was fully light. I already had this morning's coffee in hand but alas! I was not able to drink it out of my favorite mug! Now, however, it is clean, and awaiting tomorrow's coffee!
Monday, August 16, 2020

Friday, August 13, 2010

Heartwork

This weekend I'm taking part in an online writing course sponsored by the lovely Kate. I did the same workshop last month and discovered some "hidden treasure" in my heart that I wanted to record on paper. I had a hard time though, possibly because I'm not in the habit of writing regularly, not to mention really writing from my heart. This time around I'm working on getting my emotions (mostly about growing older) coherent in my mind so I can journal them. Though I guess that's all part of journaling...the coherent and the incoherent! Goodness knows that the emotions of a woman are sometimes the farthest thing from coherent!! Haha! Also, I'm cautious about what to share here, because this is such a public forum and I tend to be a private person about what's going on in the depths of my heart. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but it is what it is.

Anyway.

I'd like to share a quote by Dr. Susan Love (surgeon and proponent of breast cancer research) that has made me think deeply about this season of my life:

As women, we're lucky because we are reminded in a very physical way that this is mid-life, so we can re-evaluate what we are and where we are going...It's very healthy to view menopause as a chance to recharge and rebuild.


This pretty much sums up what I believe concerning mid-life as women. I think we have many reference-point opportunities throughout our life to evaluate and re-evaluate, but menopause has to be one of the if not the most poignant. What a wonderful opportunity! A challenge, to be sure, but an opportunity none the less.

For me, it's a time when my two of my three children have grown up and moved out on their own to pursue their own lives and destinies, and my youngest is grown, soon to be moving out as well. I've looked at myself with myriad emotions and finally come to the understanding that I am not defined by my children. I am not defined by my husband. I am not even defined by myself!

By the way, away with all women's magazines, articles, and popular thinking that declare the need for "Me time!" and "I need/must have/ have to"....fill in the blank. Today's society and culture are super duper geared toward women placing themselves first. "If I don't take care of myself I won't be able to take care of anyone else." Rubbish. Not that we let ourselves go and don't guard our hearts and minds and emotions, and take care of our bodies, but this is a big subject for another post. I do plan to explore it, but not right this minute.

So.

I am defined by who God created me to be. That He created me, first to have relationship with Him, and then to be instrumental in helping others into relationship with Him. It has been so easy, for the twenty five years I've been raising children, to hide in my role as a mother. Motherhood is a wonderful, God-given role, specifically designed by Him for women. Mothers are vital and instrumental in the lives of our children on infinite levels, but one must continually seek first the Kingdom of God though the years of raising children and beyond. Part of this seeking first is that when one's life roles change, one needs to roll with those changes and not freak out! Menopause is a very interesting time because one's body is experiencing hormonal changes second only to puberty and in this chick it translates to a very emotional time.

So, with all that as a preface, I am taking part in this weekend workshop and discovering some truths about myself, my motherhood, my role as a wife, growing older, and my relationship with God.

I'll record as much as I can with pen and paper and share some of that here as well.