57 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-7-13”

  2. Good morning! It’s the first day back to school. I will miss having them around today, though I’ve lots to do. Still need to finish putting away Christmas decorations.

    Kim: I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating your special day yesterday!

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  4. Hey Chas! How are you this morning? It’s nice here in Houston, about 55 degrees, slightly overcast. My nanny just called to say she’d be late today. Her nephew passed away yesterday from cancer. He had a nine year old son. Please pray for the little boy. The cancer was first discovered two months ago and it was too advanced for anything other than palliative care.

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  5. I continue to be amazed at AR’ s mother . She is due to have another baby girl soon . AT would have been 3 on Jan 18th so they had planned her Dora the Explorer birthday party for this Saturday . Friends baked cupcakes and went to the cemetery with the mother . She wrote that she was afraid to go through Saturday and she was afraid of the first trip back to the cemetery . I can’t tell you the people who have posted on theRE page Remembering Ann Reese, the faith these parents have shown and those who wish to be more faithful .

    Lest you think me too glum this morning remember it’ s not just my birthday it is my birth WEEK! Aren’t you glad?

    Middle Son is communicating with me again . He wanted to know how I met is dad. I had told him before that it was his father’ s story to tell but with Mr P’ s knowledge I wrote him back and told him . I am trying to understand his and his younger brother’ s perspective on this . They were raised by a single dad who always put them first and now Mr P is putting some woman they really don’t know first? I experienced just a little of this when daddy married Regina . Especially when he moved from around the corner to thirty miles away!

    I should have a busy day today . Have a great day!

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  6. Ricky, Yesterday’s 1005, I always had this thing for Ingrid Bergman. Overall she was the best. Sophia Loren was sexiest. Liz was probably the most beautiful of them all.
    Until she got middle age. She, I think, is the one who said, “When a woman reaches 55 she gets the face she deserves.”

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  8. Yesterday was such a lovely day. My neighbor lady has this precious little girl about 18 months old. She came over to see me and opened up her precious little arms for me to hold her. Of course, my heart just melted. I held her talking to her mom. Children are so precious. I guess since the Lord has not blessed me with grandchildren from my own children, He is blessing me with other babies I can adopt as a surrogate grandfather.

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  12. What a beautiful way to think, drivesguy! I think adoption is one of the most wonderful gifts! I had “adopted” grandparents who were the most genuinely loving people I knew as a child. THey lived on the neighboring ranch (we lived on a small ranch in the Texas Hill Country) and I would ride my bike or go-cart over to their house quite frequently. I was always met with scrumptious smells (She was an amazing cook), giant hugs and words of welcome. I spent many an hour talking with Big-Mama (how she got that name, I don’t know) at her kitchen table, getting reassurance of my worth, enveloped in the warmth of her love. She died when I was a sophomore in college. I mourned her passing, but knew she had been welcomed with great rejoicing in heaven, and I took comfort in that. She was a huge influence on my life and I thank God for her. You can be a defining relationship for an “adopted” grandchild. May God bless you through this.

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  13. Big-Mama and Daddy-Pop married when she was 14 and he was 18. They had known each other since she was 2, as their families were close friends. She had a sixth grade education, but was an avid reader. They were retired by the time I knew them, but still had a farm to run. Not a big farm, but one with gardens to tend and animals to feed. And yet, they always made time for me when I showed up, unannounced. They were a shining example of a good Christian marriage. They loved each other deeply. They still held hands everywhere they went. I never heard a cross word between them nor did they ever disparage the other to me. I’m sure they had their disagreements, but it was evident they were on the same team. I didn’t have that example at home, so it was such a blessing to see it somewhere. They didn’t have a lot of material things, but they were rich in other ways.

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  14. Drivesguy, being born to older parents, I had no grandparents (last one died ten years before I was born–my maternal grandfather would have turned 99 the month I was born), and I ended up “adopting” a few grandparents myself. One (Esther) was a very important part of my life.

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  15. My grandmother was a wonderful Scotswoman from the McIntosh clan. She was so much fun. I can remember spending summer vacations with her in the summertime in West Texas. We would dry Apricots from her apricot tree. She would make the best fried Apricot pies in the great state of Texas. There was no TV so the days were spent working in the garden, doing laundry and read the Bible. We would can fruits and vegetables then store them in the storm cellar. In the fall near late November, the pecan trees on her property would yield their fruit. Together we would shell pecans, then in December came the really fun part of time with my grandmother. We made pecan candies like pralines and pecan divinity. We would also make Martha Washington candy. The candies were Christmas gifts. As I get older, those memories become so vivid. I am looking forward to eternity when I can see my Godly grandmother again. I often thank God for my granny Kate. Like Timothy, my grandmother was a lot like Lois.

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  16. Annms, what a great story about your adopted grandparents. 🙂 They sound truly special.

    I remember Mrs. Braunbeck next door, a retired school teacher with no kids of her own but with such a kind heart and lively interest in us neighborhood kids. She helped teach us beginning Spanish (she was fluent, seems to me she may have served on the mission field in her younger years) and she was a wonderful piano player.

    I still have her hardbound copy of the New Testament around here somewhere, it went to my mom after she died (I was a teenager when Mrs. Braunbeck was found dead in her home, my mom & her brother became worried when no one had heard from her in a couple days. She traveled frequently, but she never failed to tell my mom she was leaving so we could look in on her cat).

    After she died, we took in her cat, Nancy, a thoroughly neurotic animal that provided us with many laughs through the years. Poor Nancy had much to adjust to when she came to live with us, including the acquisition of smallish dogs who liked to chase her through the backyard until she’d hit the fence, turn around and hiss & glare them down until they whimpered and obediently backed away. 🙂

    I have one more chapter to read for the 7th day in the Bible plan (I will probably do it tonight, it’s Acts 7), did all the others for the day this morning. The format I’m following has me starting out in Genesis, Matthew, Ezra and Acts with a chapter each day — it’s very easy to remember for now because the chapters all correspond with whatever the date is.

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  17. Drivesguy,

    We might be related! MacIntosh, that’s my clan. Somerville is my mother’s maiden name. She was from Michigan, her father from Nova Scotia.

    We also are adopted grandparents, Paco, Loretta and Julie. Paco wants to learn about “man things.” I get to teach him about tools, and that one thing that is manly but rarely talked about, just keep on plugging along until the job gets done.

    Last night we had a bunch of moving boxes to cut up so they could be burned. He got frustrated and quit. We got to go back to the front porch and cut them up together. He can get upset when things get hard. My job then is to work with him to finish.

    Last week I got to show him how to take the cables off the battery posts of his mother’s car, clean them and put them back on. His mother has no idea about that sort of thing. Man things!

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  18. Bob, my family comes from the McIntosh clan from John Mohr McIntosh Link: http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/r/o/Maeva-Troup/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0782.html. He was part of the Black Watch troupe brought to Georgia by Governor Oglethorpe. Most of my cousins settled in Eufala Oklahoma in McIntosh country during the Cherokee trail of tears. My great grandfather was Arthur Lee McIntosh. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=61820767. His father David fought in Civil War.

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  21. Joe, my Aunt Annie, was adopted by a young family in her church (the mother was Korean) they called her Grandma Annie and visited her in her residence and had her over to their home for suppers. The kids would always run up and greet and hug her at church and make cards and things for her. She was absolutely thrilled about it whenever she talked about them.

    Auntie Annie went to meet her Lord and Saviour this morning. She was 91.

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  23. Some of our children have “grandparents”, we wish more would. We have a church of older folk and they really enjoy the children, but not many have stepped forward to grandparent them. That is okay. But for those who have, it has been a blessing both ways.

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  24. I attended the funeral of a 91 year old man today. His life covered 38% of the existence of this country. Amazing to think about.
    The shriveled up little old man had fought on Iwo Jima, taught at Bluefield College and Va. Tech and worked for Exxon as a chemical engineer. He was a deacon and faithful member of our church. But I didn’t know him very well. He was in Elvera’s SS class.
    You never know what a person has been through.

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  26. KarenO: She’s not really a nanny anymore, now she comes one day a week to clean my (otherwise) messy house. But, when we met her (Connie) seven and a half years ago, my youngest was six months old. I had horrendous, almost daily migraines at the time and needed help. She came to work as our “nanny” until youngest started kindergarten. For awhile she came 5 days a week. As my health improved, she came less frequently. But, she’s become a member of the family now and has a very special relationship with youngest child as she practically raised her from 6 months to about three. Last week she came on her day off to hang out and play with youngest. She is truly a treasure and blessing in my life.

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  29. I always thought it would be wonderful to have help. But as I am such a disagreeable person, it would be nearly impossible to find any. Which probably explains why we haven’t…..

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  45. So sorry, Donna. I know it’s hard. Hubby, too, is discouraged and thinking of looking for other work. There are tiny glimmers of hope here and there in his situation, but he told me today how hard it is to work such long hours going to a job he now hates. 😦

    I’m praying for you.

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  47. Thanks 6 arrows. I’ve seen what was a good local newspaper spiral into something I no longer recognized — within about 2 months! 😦

    Praying for your husband, too. Hope he finds something different. It’s too late for me, I’m afraid. Just gotta stick it out until the bitter end …

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  52. A large number of Spanish-speaking people are next door (again), at the house for sale. I’ve seen them before.

    I think it will sell fairly soon.

    If my dogs don’t scare them off.

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  53. Donna is moving to Idaho to be a nanny? Well, more of a chauffeur. And reader. And paper corrector. And other stuff. Good. I will go get the room ready.

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