Beautifully Ornery

How can something so beautiful be so mischievous?  I watched as he enjoyed the sunflowers I put out for him and the birds and then he takes after my wood hauling bag and shreds the handle....Oh...such a rodent!!

Bella Chasing Bubbles

Thank you Bella for helping me see the importance of the simple things in life~ I love you!

California Dreamin'

A Letter to My Son

Dear Stewart,

It was so good to talk to you last night.  What a day Christmas turned out to be.  I cried all the way to work, thinking that Christmas was supposed to be spent with family.  But I continued on to work and asked God to either “use” me or “teach” me something and that I would come away from work a different person.  Well, as always God didn’t fail me. 

When I worked on Christmas Eve, I kept asking all the patients if there was any chance of them going home for Christmas and most of them said they thought it was going to work out for them to be at home!  I then entered the room of this lady in the Oncology (cancer) ward.  After greeting her and making small talk, I asked her as the others if she was going to be able to be home from Christmas….with a sweet smile, she looked at me and said “Oh, sweetie, I’m not able to ever leave here, that is until I leave to go home to Heaven!”  I froze in my tracks and didn’t know what to say next….but I smiled at her and said, “Awe my sweet lady, then can you do me a favor?” She said, “Sure!”  “Will you tell my brother I said hello and miss him, when you get there?” I asked.  She smiled so sweetly and said, “I would be honored!”  I patted her arm and said “Merry Christmas”, she held my hand and said, “Merry Christmas to you! “ I walked out and closed the door….stood for a second and then just cried.  I looked to Heaven and inside said to God….thank you, I have been taught!

Then Christmas day my first tray was to a room of a 17 year old boy that was in a car wreck in September and he’s been in the hospital for three long months and went from not thinking he would live to speaking with his eyes and hands.  He is now starting to take in fluids besides the tube feedings and I told the boy and his dad that I have prayed often for him because I have been keeping track of him while I delivered his tube feedings each week.  The father told me thank you.  I said, “God is so faithful”….and his dad said to his son, “Can you give her a thumbs up?”  The boy slowly raised his hand and made a perfect thumbs up!  I left the room so thankful I had the option to leave and go home, where the boy has no idea when he will be able to return home…..

the day went on and I was becoming tired and so ready to be home.  But my last tray of the day was taken to the ICU floor where I entered and delivered a tray to this nearly 80 year old woman. Her husband was sitting on the couch covered up with a blanket, watching his wife.  I left the room to get a second tray and the nurse standing there told me “thanks for bringing up this tray”…I smiled and asked why it was so special.  She then told me that the man wouldn’t leave his wife’s room because he had to stay near her, while she was ill.  He hadn’t eaten in a very long time.  So this nurse called in a dinner to be served to him.  When I walked into the room with his tray, I sat it next to him on the couch and said, “I think this is for you, sir.  It’s exactly what I was given for lunch today and it tastes fantastic!” He looked up and me and just started to cry.  I walked away and could hardly see the door due to the tears in my eyes. I just had seen what true love was all about.  When I left the room, the nurse was crying and I was wiping tears and she said…”that’s why I work on Christmas!”   I walked down the hall and cried like a baby.  I had been shown so many things this Christmas and I felt I had been blessed beyond belief. 

I will never forget this Christmas because I was taught so many things.  I know if I ask God for anything, he is so faithful in doing just as I ask….but very seldom in the way I think it’s going to be.  When will I learn that “His ways are not my way"? Isaiah 55:8  (“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.)   

Well, Stewart, I’m going to close for now, but I wanted to share this verse with you because I’m trying to pray this for you and for me….2 Corinthians 10:5  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. “ 

I love you Stewart, write when you can or call….. Mom :)

Happy Birthday Mom  ..... I love you!

My Little Piece of Heaven

My pink Christmas Tree which only belongs in my pink bed/reading room. 

A Prayer for my Grandchildren