Tuesday 4~ On Holiday

 

On Holiday

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4...
Summertime means travel time for many people.
Let's talk about travel and holidays.

1. Will you be traveling this summer at all?

Not that I am currently aware of.  We prefer to do our traveling in the fall, but I am not too sure that we will even be doing that this year.  Everything has gotten too expensive and we really don't feel like traveling that much anyway. However, I never say never.  If the opportunity arises, and it's something we really want to do, then I suppose we might just do something spontaneous. (But I'm not holding my breath on that idea)

2. Will there be day trips in store for you? visits to the beach, evenings out:?

We do plan to go meet up with my hubby's brother and wife (and kids? not sure) for lunch one day this month. Our "kids", Benton and Rose, will go with us, and we will travel about an hour or so south to meet them at a restaurant that we always enjoy.   Other than that, I don't know of anything else at this moment.

We don't do "evenings out" now that we are old retired people. If we go anywhere,it is normally in the day time, and preferably for lunch.  We already did a visit to the beach for my mother's day treat, and I don't foresee us going again anytime soon. Too hot and crowded. (and too much traffic between here and there). Let's face it, we are homebodies these days.  We may take short rides here and there just to get out of the house, but that's about it.
3. Do you eat out more in summer... do you go for ice cream or treats more?

I wouldn't say that we eat out any more in the summer than we do in the rest of the year. We may average going out to eat once or twice a month year round.  Re: ice cream...if we want ice cream we buy it at the store and bring it home to eat. We can't justify spending so much for an ice cream cone as a whole carton of ice cream! Sorry to be a kill-joy, but we are retired and on a fixed income! LOL!

4. What is your favorite place to visit and what is the most exotic place you've been to?

Well, our favorite place to visit would probably be the mountains..north Georgia in particular, and that would be in the fall if at all.  Most exotic place I've ever been?  I'm not sure I could classify any place we've been as exotic. We live in Florida...isn't that exotic enough? LOL.  Never been to an island or on a cruise, and don't have any plans to do so. When we were younger we would sometimes go spend a night or two at the beach in a nice hotel, just the two of us. That was pretty exotic to us. Sometimes we talk about doing that again. I'd love to go just to wake up and see the sunrise on the beach and take a walk on the beach early in the morning before the crowds arrive. That's my idea of paradise. LOL. 

Sorry I wasn't more exciting on this week's meme.  We just aren't travelers anymore, and we are on a tight budget, so we are careful about what we do. And to be honest, "there's no place like home."  You can make your home as exotic as you like. It can be your own little hideaway if you need it to be...and since we are retired and no one else lives here with us, that's pretty easy to do. 

Now on another note, Let'swalk around my "exotic" yard and see what we can see...Oh, this is the first yellow squash to get big enough to eat...

And because our "boys" were going to be here for Sunday dinner yesterday, I picked the squash and cut it up to put in our tossed salad...

It was perfect!  We did add tomatoes from our garden also, but I keep them separate and let everyone add their own tomatoes since not everyone wants them.  

We also had hamburgers cooked on the grill by son Scott. However I didn't take any pictures of that or of us eating. DIL Rose is still in Minnesota, so son Benton came over and brought the 'pups' with him. I've told him he can plan to eat supper with us all week while she is gone if he wants to.  I always cook too much food anyway, so he might as well come and help us eat it. And so he did come again tonight, and I expect he will come tomorrow, etc. as well. It's good for us and good for him too, as I know he really doesn't enjoy cooking and eating alone all that much.

Finally we also have a zucchini squash growing. I will probably pick it before it gets too big and we will most likely put it in a salad too.  There aren't enough squash yet to cook up at batch, so I'd just as soon eat them in a salad.

Some of my wildflowers are starting to bloom that I planted:

And my blueberry bush is really loaded with berries, and they are finally starting to ripen!

Who is that hiding under the bush in my shadow?

Ah Ha! Caught you Blackie!!  He was right there under my feet, and sniffing at the blueberries. I hope he doesn't decide that it's something he wants to eat!! I have other plans for those blueberries!!

Now, talk about "exotic"...or maybe just strange and unusual...

We kept noticing some buzzards landing on our still very dry "Still Waters Pond", and it appeared they were guarding something and also kind of fighting over something laying there on the surface of the dry pond. These pictures are kind of bright because it was a bright sunny day, and also because my photo editor program is not cooperating with me on pictures from my "real camera", and so I am not able to edit pictures very well right now. I've got to figure out what's wrong, but it's a frustrating process, so what you see is what you get for now...

I tried to zoom in on what they are looking at, and because it was at a great distance, and also because of the bright sun, I wasn't too sure, but it sure looked like a fish!  Now, where on earth would a fish come from on top of our very dry pond????

A little later my curiosity got the better of me, and the buzzards had flown away, so I decided to try and venture forth across the dry pond, and I actually made it! Thankfully this was only as far as the island, and not all the way across, but still, it was a journey frought with a bit of trepidation because I was afraid the crust of the pond would break through and I would be in the muck beneath. But apparently the ground is SO dry, that wasn't a problem.  Anyway...YES, it was a FISH!!!! Amazing!  The only thing we can figure out is that most likely a big bird like an Osprey or maybe even an Eagle could have been flying over with the fish in its mouth, flying from the bigger lake nearby, and the fish fell out of its mouth and landed here on the pond. That's the only explanation we can figure out.

Oh, and to answer a question from the comments on my last post, someone asked me how deep our pond was before, and the best answer I can give is that when I was able to paddle the kayak around the pond, I had a long walking stick that I took with me, and I stuck it down into the water as far as I could at one point, and I would say that it was about 3-4 feet deep. There may be some other deeper pockets here and there, but that would be the average depth out in the middle of the pond when it is full. It's hard to believe it now when we see how extremely dry it is. And I do wonder where all the fish, frogs,  and turtles went when the pon dried up...and will they come back whenever the pond is full again? Time will tell. Keep praying for rain. We are supposed to get some starting this Thursday through next week.  

Here'a another unusual sight: the clouds this morning at sunrise:

Now on a very sad note...I learned this morning that our dear sweet friend Maura had passed away. She was 87 years old. This picture was taken in April, and I wrote about it HERE.

When we last were together in April, Maura had just recently lost her husband of 70 years, "Woody". He was 91.  After 70 years of marriage, you can well imagine she was feeling very much alone, even though her granddaughter and great-grandson had moved in with her to help out. But sadly she became very ill recently, and one thing led to another and she was placed in Hospice care over the weekend, and passed away peacefully this morning. 

I am still in shock. Maura was always such a lively and happy person, so full of the joy of the Lord. I know she is rejoicing in the Lord's Presence tonight, and also I know she is so happy to see her precious Woody and their son Mark again. Mark had passed away a couple of years ago after a very long illness.  So she is with the ones she loves and her pain and sorrow is over.  

One of my favorite pictures of Maura, taken at our previous home, where we were "neighbors" and spent a lot of happy times together.

Maura and her husband Woody. This was taken at our son Benton and Rose's wedding in 2017.  Such a dear sweet couple.  May they both rest in peace and in the joy of the Lord.  

"Weeping may endure for a night,

But joy comes in the morning."

Psalm 30:5b

John 11:25-26

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 

26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die..."

John 14:1-3

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God,  believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

And with that I will close for the night.  Thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers .

Wednesday Treasures

 Greetings from Still Waters Pond...

This was the sunset a couple of nights ago. Not as spectacular as some we've had recently, but still a peaceful and beautiful way to end the day, and always worthy of note. God's artistry in the skies is always beautiful and no two sunsets or sunrises are ever the same.

My plans for today were altered a bit this morning when I woke up with some G.I. issues, which happens occasionally, and sometimes more often than not.  My intentions were to attend the "Women in Faith" meeting this morning, but that just wasn't feasible under the circumstances. 

So plan B...stay home and do whatever stuff I can manage to do without overtaxing myself.  We do have company coming on Friday...my sister and her hubby and our kids are all coming for lunch and to celebrate hubby's birthday, which is actually on Sunday, but neither Saturday nor Sunday were going to work out for everyone, so thankfully Friday was a day that everyone could come.  We will celebrate Valentine's Day, Hubby's birthday, and my sister and her hubby's 59th anniversary all in one! I am looking forward to seeing Doris and Art, as we haven't been able to get together since last October. Thankfully Doris is finally over her pneumonia and feeling much better! 

 The plan is to grill hamburgers, hot dogs, and maybe throw some boneless chicken thighs on the grill too, so there's something for everyone's likes.  I hope to make the cake  and potato salad tomorrow, and Rose is making the Deviled eggs.  These are all things hubby requested for his birthday meal...plus baked beans and probably some cole slaw as well, which can be done on Friday morning.

So today I started working on some house cleaning...bathrooms, dusting, and washing the bathroom rugs. Tomorrow we will sweep and mop the floors.  Hopefully hubby will help with the floors. He usually does. Since we got rid of the carpet in the majority of the house, we find ourselves sweeping a LOT more, due to sand and dust balls that accumulate. I'm sure they were all there when we had carpet too, but we just couldn't see them as well, so we didn't worry about them as much.  So if you are thinking about replacing your carpet with hard floors, be prepared to do a lot more swiffering and sweeping and mopping! Especially so for us because we don't have a paved driveway or sidewalks leading into our house, so a lot of sand gets tracked in regardless of where we drop our shoes! LOL.

While I was working inside the house this morning, hubby had his own projects going on outside.  Actually, he had a friend from church here helping him re-organize and clean the shed. This is a job that is LONG overdue, and we were both happy when this younger than us man said he would be glad to come and help him get it straightened up and organized better.  I didn't get a picture of our friend, but here's John after they had worked this morning for a few hours.  It is still a work in progress, and I guess the fellow is coming back on Saturday to do a bit more work, but he got a lot accomplished today and we are very pleased and thankful. 

I probably should have taken a before picture so you could better appreciate what was accomplished. 

This end of the shed is mostly my stuff, like all the Christmas and fall and spring decorations, etc, and just general storage of STUFF. Some things need to be gone through and see what we can eliminate, but that's another job for another day.  Like I said, it's still a work in progress.

Speaking of work in progress...the Bluebirds are still trying to decide when to start building their nest in the birdhouse I guess. They were back today, looking things over still, and not really doing anything else that I could tell.  

However, I'm wondering if there was something already in the birdhouse, because neither one of them went inside today, and they were fluttering their wings a lot and flying around the door.  I know I've seen a Chickadee poking his head inside the house a few times, but I don't think he's started building a nest as far as I can tell.  So who knows? Maybe Mr. Lizard is living in there. He likes to camp out in there usually in between nesting seasons.   Anyway, they were acting strange, so I don't know what will happen next. Stay tuned.

Mr. and Mrs. Sand Hill Crane were over on the other side of the pond today, foraging around on this marshy/grassy area, and I thought maybe they might decide to build their new nest there this time.

I am hoping so, because I can actually see this location from our yard as opposed to the other place I thought they were building their nest over around behind the island.

They spent a good while out there this afternoon, but then left and when they came back at sunset, they flew over behind the island as per their usual habit.

So I thought I would "outsmart them again", LOL, and run around the pond and see them there on that little scrap of marsh that I've showed you before.  

It was almost dark, so these pictures are hard to see, but guess what?!  The Cranes weren't there at all again, but guess who was??? The Canada Geese were standing there, pretty as you please, like they own the place! LOL.  So that really blew my mind...and there was NO SIGN of the Sand Hill Cranes again! Where did they go this time??? They keep outsmarting ME!  

I would be surprised if the geese build their nest on this little piece of marsh. They usually like to be up on the island in a more protected spot under the trees on the side of the bank. But, I'm beginning to think that all the wild pond birds are going to surprise me this year and do something totally out of character.  By this time last year, I know the Cranes had already laid one egg on February 12th, Abraham Lincoln's birthday, which is why I named one of the "colts" Abe.  They laid the other egg on George Washington's birthday, Feb. 22nd, so I named the other colt George. However, only one of the colts made it to adulthood, and I think it was Abe, the older and stronger one.   And the geese had a couple of eggs in their nest last year as far as I could see, but something happened and their eggs did not hatch.  

It could be that the Cranes already have a nest in a spot that I cannot see at all, and they are going to surprise me one of these days with new babies that I never knew were coming! Time will tell, so again, stay tuned for further developments.

Meanwhile, Mr. Great Blue Heron comes and goes as he pleases. I don't believe he has any plans for building a nest here on Still Waters Pond, at least not that I am aware of! LOL.

And Blackie the neighborhood kitty that I've been feeding over at the neighbor's house continues to make himself at home on our porches. I was surprised to find him on the front porch this afternoon, lounging on the lower shelf of the little wicker table. 

 I guess it's cooler on this side of the house in the afternoon, and today it really got quite warm on the sunny side  in the back (84!), so Blackie was keeping cool out front!  And yes, I'm still feeding him and the other yellow cat, "Sunshine", 2x a day.  Sunshine doesn't always show up on time for meals, and I am afraid that Blackie is eating all of the food before he gets any, but I can't keep running back and forth to check on him.  Eventually I will probably figure out how to get them to eat over here at our house, but only when my neighbor lets me know that she really can't do it anymore at all.  Even though she doesn't "claim" the cats as her own, I think she has enjoyed having them come to her house to be fed, and I don't want to take that away from her unless she lets me know she's truly done with feeding them.

Boo! I see you!

Over in "Gnome Land", there's another kind of "nesting" going on...

I just discovered there's another door on the side of the old tree stump!

OH, and Mr. Gnome has found himself a wife!!!  Looks like she's busily knitting a blanket or something...I wonder if there's going to be a baby Gnome someday! 

Well, I wouldn't call him exactly a "baby"...maybe a teen-ager gnome...

Or maybe he belongs to this Grandpa Gnome.  I don't know, but everytime I turn around, there's new Gnomes moving in!   You just never gnome what will happen next! LOL.

All this talk about nesting made me think about this passage in Matthew where Jesus responds to one who said he would follow Jesus wherever He would go...

Matthew 8:19-20

"19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

This passage has a little subtitle saying something about the "High Cost of Discipleship".  For those disciples who were following Jesus during His earthly ministry, they soon learned that the cost was very great.  They traveled from place to place on foot, or sometimes in a boat, but you never hear of them having any nice hotels or houses or resorts to rest in.  Their life was pretty much on the road, camping along the way perhaps.  It's interesting that God provides for the birds of the air and the foxes and other wildlife who have dens or burrows or places to rest, but His very own Son did not have a home once He began His ministry.  Perhaps that is to help us understand that this world is not our final home either...we are just passing through.  

Jesus promised us in John chapter 14:1-3 that He was going to go and prepare a place for us to dwell in...with HIM, in His Father's House...in Heaven...

1“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 

2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 

I have always found this passage very comforting, especially the more loved ones I have waiting for me already in heaven. This world is just temporary, and the "treasures" we have here are also only temporary, we can't take them with us.  

Again, another passage where Jesus explains that the only treasures that will last are those that we have "layed up for yourselves ...in heaven..."

Matthew 6:19-21

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 

20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And what are those treasures that we are laying up in heaven? Perhaps the good deeds that we do for others here...the dear ones we lead to Christ, or those we have set a Godly example for by our own life and the way we live. Those are our heavenly treasures. The things we do here for Christ's sake...those are the things that will last.

It makes me stop and think when I read that passage...I'm really not sure just what to expect in the way of "treasures" when I get to heaven, but the most important thing we can do here is to live for Christ and follow Him no matter where He leads us.

And so, those are my Wednesday Treasures for today. It's been a busy day, but a good one. I feel better tonight than I did this morning, and for that I am very thankful.  Now I am looking forward to a good visit with our family on Friday. I may not write again until after that, but we'll see what develops!

Good Night my friends!! 

A Place of Perfect Peace

 

The obituary of an untimely death...

"___ entered the Presence of the Lord on August ___, at the age of 24."

"___enjoyed too many things to list them all, but most notably were baseball, traveling, music, dogs, food, the shore, and fishing. Most of all, he enjoyed meeting people of different cultures, countries and backgrounds. He traveled through Europe, parts of Africa and different islands around the world. He was a person to “ride the river with”.

"__was a member of the US Army, and recently retired due to an injury attained in Afghanistan. He was based in Germany and Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was trained in infantry and cross trained for the Cobra Strike Team. He went on over 180 missions and received numerous medals and recognition for his service to our country." 

"__was attending Penn State at the time of his death. " 

"He was loyal, kind and generous, yet he was also a warrior and sheep dog through and through. He was a preacher’s kid who loved Jesus, but struggled with the church. One of the highlights of this year was when he was working with His Work, His Way, and he exclaimed, “if every town did this, our country would be turned around for the better”. 

It was with much angst that I read the above obituary recently. Although I did not know him personally, this young man was the son of an acquaintance of ours who was a former colleague in ministry. We knew his grandparents more so than his parents. They were also former colleagues, serving as the District Superintendent & wife for the religious denomination in which we served in the pastoral ministry for many years.  His great-grandparents were very well known in this particular denomination, having served first as missionaries and then in the highest position of leadership for the denomination. He came from a very loving Christian home, with his ancestry steeped in service to the Lord Jesus Christ.

What this obituary did not state was the fact that this wonderful young man, with such a strong Christian heritage and ancestry,  a stellar record in service to our country, and with the intelligence and ability to enroll in an excellent university to begin the next phase of his life's journey...what it didn't tell you was that he died tragically from an apparent drug overdose.

I am not aware if the overdose was on purpose or accidental...and at this point, I'm not sure that matters.  The fact remains that this young man, with such great potential and so much positive influence in his life had his life come to a screeching halt at the age of twenty-four.

My mind is reeling and my heart is breaking...for him, for his family, and for everyone who knew him.  Only God knows what happened that brought him to that point in his life...but I suspect it may have had something to do with the action and injury that he sustained in his service to our country in Afghanistan. I don't know that for a fact and I'm certainly not going to ask...but we see so much of this in the lives of our military when they come back home.  They are wounded in ways that medicine can't fix, and our country has failed in its efforts to rehabilitate and properly care for the countless thousands of men and women veterans who are in similar circumstances.

However, this is not intended to be a political message ...but it does give one pause to reflect on that particular subject, and say a prayer for those in service to our country.

The other part of his obituary that caused me to stop and take notice was this statement:

"He was a preacher’s kid who loved Jesus, but struggled with the church."

From one who knows about these struggles, having had three sons who are preacher's kids, I can so relate.  My kids (now adults--one in heaven) all loved Jesus, but they have also had struggles with "the church".  Not with God, not with Jesus, not with true Christianity, but with "the church".  Or perhaps the expectations of the members of "the church"...expectations that were placed on "the preacher's kids" that no one would dare place on their own kids.  (Something to think about, huh?)

Now, I am not going to bash the church because I love Christ's church, the Body of Christ.  However, all too often things are done and said in "the church" in the name of "the church", or religion, that are not totally representative of Christ and what He intended the church to be. Sadly, many times "the church" stands in judgment of people and forgets that we are to extend the LOVE of Jesus to all people.  Christ offers love and forgiveness to anyone who will come to Him and ask.

Jesus said in John 3:16~

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,

that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

But have you ever read the next verse, John 3:17?

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world through Him might be saved."

Remember what Jesus said regarding the woman taken in adultery in the Gospel of John, chapter 8...

Vs. 7:  "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."

And when one by one all the accusers dropped their stones and walked away, Jesus asked the woman 

in verse 10:

"Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"

She replied to Him, (vs. 11) "No one, Lord."  And Jesus said to her:

"Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

But this isn't exactly where I wanted to go with this either.  It concerns me that perhaps there are those who would cast stones at this young man because he very possibly took his own life due to the wrong choices he made.  Again, I really don't know the details or particulars of what led him to this point in his life.  But this one thing I do know, according to God's Word:

John 6:39:  

"This is the will of the Father who sent Me, (Jesus)  that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day."

Vs. 40:

"And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

Vs. 47:

"Most assuredly, I say to you,

he who believes in Me has everlasting life."

Our God is a God of great mercy...

"But God, who is rich in mercy, 

because of His great love with which He loved us,

even when we were dead in trespasses,

made us alive together with Christ 

(by grace you have been saved)

and raised us up together,

and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace

in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith,

and that not of yourselves;

it the the gift of God,

not of works, 

lest anyone should boast."

Ephesians 2:4-9

It is my prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ give the comfort that only He can give to this dear family and friends during their time of great grief. May they feel His Presence and know that their child is safe in the arms of Christ today... 

No more suffering...no more fears, but in a place of perfect peace forever. Amen.

"Let not your heart be troubled; 

you believe in God, believe also in Me.

In My Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. 

I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and receive you to Myself;

that where I am, 

there you may be also."  

John 14:1-3

"Peace I leave with you,

My peace I give to you;

not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

John 14:27

Amen.

(All photos are from a walk in the woods to a "Place of Peace")

Random Thoughts from a Grieving Heart

I feel like I need to write something. Normally the first weekend of the month is our "Random Journal Day", but for various reasons that has been postponed for this week.  So I feel like being rather "random" myself.  Nothing in particular on my mind, and then again, there are a few things.

Our grandson Noah on his 14th birthday last October, 2013

This time last year we were in Maine, celebrating our Grandson Noah's 14th birthday.  We have traditionally celebrated his birthday together almost every year of his life, with only a couple of exceptions.  We had a wonderful time with our family last year.  At the time we truly did not know that things would be so different this year.

Our visit with Noah, Matthew and Nicole last fall, 2013

But as I am sure most of my frequent readers know, our son Matthew, Noah's father, finally lost his four year battle with cancer in May of this year. So this is one of those exceptions to the norm. We, for various reasons, were not able to make our annual trip (from Florida) back up to Maine this fall to celebrate with Noah.  Tomorrow is his 15th birthday, and we aren't there.  

I guess I am feeling rather guilty about that now, wishing that we had gone ahead and tried a little harder to make it happen. However, what is done is done. Can't change it now. I am praying that my grandson understands.  I believe he does, as much as any 15 year old boy who has recently lost his daddy can understand things. Certainly we have not forgotten him. We sent him gifts, and we will call tomorrow and sing Happy Birthday to him. But I know it isn't the same.

How can anything ever be the same again? We have all been trying to work through this great loss in various ways. We keep busy. We do little things in memory of our son. We try to keep his name and face before us in as many ways as possible without becoming morbid. We remember the happy times together, the carefree silly days of his childhood and youth.  We laugh a lot. I cry a lot in private. Little things will trigger the tears and the great lump in my throat that can't quite swallow the sorrow of my thoughts.

They say it gets better with time. I'm sure it does. It has. One of my greatest fears is that time will dull our memories too much so that we can't see his face or hear his voice in our minds anymore. I don't want that to happen. I want to remember the sound of his voice and the way he'd say "I love you Ma, I love you Pa"...and the way he'd tell us on the phone in our daily phone calls that he was "Number Two"...(our second of three sons...who always called himself "Number Two").  I want to look at his silly faces in the multitude of pictures we have of him from babyhood through his last days with us on earth. Matthew had a way with making funny faces about most everything. He was just plain funny sometimes. I love remembering him that way.

Our son Matthew, as we sang happy birthday to him on his last birthday
with us, February 25, 2014

So these are some of my random thoughts tonight on this, the eve of our grandson's birthday. I'm feeling sad that we aren't there to help him celebrate, but more than that, I'm feeling sad that his daddy isn't there to help him celebrate. No one or nothing can fill that empty place.

I pray for Noah tonight. I pray that he will feel the presence of the Lord in his life, comforting him and filling that void like nothing else could do.  I pray that he will have sweet memories of his dad and all the wonderful things they did together. They were best buds for all of their days together. I pray that he will be strong in the Lord, and that he will continue to grow and mature into the fine young man that God intends him to be, and who would make his daddy very proud. 

Noah and Matt on the great Moose Hunt, 2011 Click on this
caption for the full story

Nicole, Matt, and Noah on their last vacation together, Feb. 2014

Matthew baptizing Noah

Noah and Matt at Tae Kwon Do together

Noah and Matt in their woods behind their house

Cancer Sucks...Yes it does.

Matthew showing Noah how to shave Click on
this for a story about the Shaving Lesson

After the shaving lesson is over.

I hate to end this on such a negative note. But the truth is, Cancer DOES suck, pardon the expression. It robs a teen-age boy of his Daddy way too soon.

It robs a wife of her hubby of 21 years way too soon.

It robs a Mother and Dad of their "number Two" son way too soon.

It robs brothers number 1 and 3 of their brother way too soon.

(Grandpa) Dad, # 1 son, #1 Grandson Noah, # 2 son, #3 son

Our family together for the last time, Feb., 2014

It robs all the extended family of someone really precious

Yes, I guess I had a few things on my mind. Sorry to pour all this on you tonight. I just don't want to let our son's memory fade. And I don't want our grandson to forget where he came from and the strong heritage he has from his father.  

The wonderful truth is this is not the end.  

Jesus told His disciples before He left this world for heaven the following, which is a promise for us as well:

"Let not your heart be troubled;

you believe in God, believe also in Me.

In My Father's house are many mansions;

if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I WILL come again and receive you to Myself;

that where I am, there you may be also."

John 14:1-3

This is the heritage our grandson has...faith in Christ, taught to him at an early age by his father and mother, and claimed as his own faith as a young child.  I pray that he will not forget this priceless gift.  Proverbs 22:6 tells us that if we:

"Train up a child in the way he should go,"

then "when he is old he will not depart from it."

That is my prayer tonight for my grandson Noah...that as he matures and grows up, that he will remember the teaching of his father, and that he will never depart from that great faith.  His father had a very strong faith even in the face of such a horrid disease. He never lost his love for his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know he is safe in the arms of Christ tonight. I know that we will see him again some day, so I comfort myself with that great hope.

So now we must continue on with the living. We must persevere in the face of grief, and be strong in the Lord for those who are still finding their way in this life.  I pray that God will give me the strength to do just that.  I hope that next year will find us celebrating our grandson's birthday together and not so many miles apart. Goodness! He will be turning sixteen next year...and possibly driving! Now that's  something to look forward to! (yikes!)

Thank you for listening to my random thoughts. I guess they weren't really so random after all. 

Hug your children and grandchildren. Make every day count. 

That's all folks. Good Night.