November 20, 2010

• Give Thanks With a Grateful Heart

                 

  This is the week we, Americans, all start to contemplate the things we have and those things for which we are grateful.

  We weren’t able to go the the funeral of my mil’s mother.  We had clothes in piles, ready to be packed, and the washer ran constantly, trying to clean all of last week’s travel clothes.  Rissy and I had body aches and unexplained fevers this past week, and we rested in bed (in between loads of laundry and fixing simple meals) knowing we had to turn around and travel back to Amarillo, again. 

  We had already suffered a blow of a possible legal action being taken against us over the sale of a vehicle.  The other couple are Christians, but the wife was scary as she talked of going to court, etc.  We prayed.  Eventually, THEY prayed.  And, as it stands, there is a possible way out without a headache for ether family.  Something about a glitch in the vehicle’s title being free and clear. 
  
  I’m grateful for my Lord God who is ready to defend us and who looks at our hearts, instead of how issues look on the outside!
  
  Then, another change:  Rissy became ill while we shopped, Thursday, for Thanksgiving Day groceries.  We went into the store with her blowing a drippy nose and arrived home with her chest tight and a stubborn cough.  I grabbed the “breathing machine” and the medication – all of which expired in 2009!  I gave it to her anyway and prayed her lungs wouldn’t become worse.  As we ate dinner, Jesse looked at me and asked, “Do you think we should stay home?”  I knew the answer immediately, “Yes.”

          

  Immediately, I called my disappointed mother in law and told her we simply couldn’t come.  I had so wanted to be there for her.  She said she went to pick up my father in law’s ashes at the funeral home and her mother was laid out in the room across the hall for viewing.  Such a hard, hard time for her.  All of us are grieving, but my mother in law has lost her husband and her mother in less than a week.  Please, PLEASE pray for her.
  
  I’m grateful our God is a God of comfort.

  We got an appointment for Rissy at the doctor’s office (first thing Friday morning) and then Luci woke up congested and coughing that same morning.  I’m SO GLAD we didn’t go.  Rissy has a horrible infection in her right ear and has been started on antibiotics, as well as “up to date” medicine for the nebulizer machine.
  
  I’m grateful for modern medicine. 

  The house is a mess.  Very few rooms have been put back in order since the carpet installation, which seems like light years behind us, now.  So much has happened in our home in such a short amount of time!  The kitchen dining room table still looks like I’m preparing for a garage sale.

         

  My desk is a sea of papers and files that need to be cleaned up.  And, it’s the only place to put my teaching books for the girls school lessons!

  We continue to eat in the formal dining room and I’m grateful for a cotton WASHABLE tablecloth that covers the nice tablecloth.  We still have to be careful, but I don’t have to stress if a grain of rice hits the tablecloth: and, trust me, more than a grain of rice has hit the tablecloth in these past weeks!!!

             

  We have managed to keep the den neat, although it is so dusty!!!!  It’s a room where we can gather and relax without having to clear a spot to sit down.  Jesse and I watched two movies (or at least tried to follow bits and pieces) yesterday.  We NEVER watch movies.  I think we both needed some diversion from the burdens that have been heaped upon our family.

          

  I laughed last night at the carpeting by the ottoman.  Engraved in the high pile of the carpet’s fibers was the name, “RISSY” who had been lying on the floor!

  This morning, before I vacuumed the den, I wondered what the little punch hole spots were in the carpeting.  They were everywhere, like someone poked the fibers down randomly with something round.  That’s when I realized, it was the dog’s paw prints sinking into the carpet. 

  We ARE grateful for our new carpeting.
  

  At some point, between the two deaths in Amarillo and the trips we were planning, I managed to put a bookcase, that was formerly in our kitchen, into the den.

                                
                                        I like it, so does Jesse, and I think I”ll spray paint it black.
                                          (See the little depressed dog footprints in the carpet?)

  I feel so helpless amidst all of this tragedy and I think “fluffing my nest” is a way I can make myself and others feel cozy and protected.  In reality, only God can comfort us, put I still go through this ritualistic “thing” of mine.  Plumping a pillow here, wiping a speck of dust there.  All mindless acts, as I try to make sense of all the people I’ve lost in the past year.  My dad and brother (this time) last year, Jesse’s dad, and there’s the cancer diagnosis and other HUGE life changing turns our lives have taken.

  God has been with me, every step of the way and I’ve never faltered in my walk with Him.  In fact, I’ve drawn so close, there have been times I didn’t dare take another breath without contemplating His will for me, first.  Without my heavenly Father, I don’t know how I could have possibly survived the past few years.
  
  I’m thankful for a God who is real to me.

  I’ve added little fall touches here and there around the house.  I did most of it the day before we left for Amarillo LAST week.  Not much, but something to welcome us home after the funeral.

          

  We plan to keep Thanksgiving dinner low key.  Of course, my mother in law is invited, we aren’t sure she will be able to make the trip, and the meal is more simply than past meals.  In fact, since the majority of people don’t like turkey stuffing, I’m not making any.  What’s Thanksgiving without turkey or stuffing?  It’s *THANKS* giving and I’m fine with the simplicity I’ve planned. 

  Turkey with gravy, several fruit jello type salads and cranberry sauce, mashed white potatoes & caramel glaze over sweet potatoes, buttered green peas, rolls (that I only need to warm up), and pumpkin & pecan pies for dessert.  The appetizers are WAY scaled down, compared to what’s “normal” in our house  – a platter of a variety of pickles and olives.   That’s it.  THE END.  Most things made ahead of time and VERY simple for me to cook.

  Stephanie might bring the stuffing and a green bean casserole, but I’m not worrying about anything.  We still are having a nice meal compared to many who have no where to go for Thanksgiving (and that has happened to me in the past, too!). 
  
  I’m thankful for our home and family. 

  It would be nicer if Niki lived closer, but it isn’t so.

                     

  I’m thankful and so grateful for the love and prayers my Xanga friends have extended to me and our family.  Prayers are wonderful and as much as I enjoy praying for others, this has been a time when I’ve coveted the prayers of others FOR us.  My mil also said she felt the prayers of many and it has given her strength each day to take one step after the other.

  Thank you, ALL!!!!!!!!!!!
  

  So, it looks like we are home, to stay, this week.   Maybe things will slow down for us and we can put the remainder of the messy house back together.

  Jesse is outside chopping the last of the firewood.  We have (as I’m sure everyone else has) bad weather moving in for Thanksgiving.  I think it’s supposed to arrive here by Tuesday night.  Jesse said he doesn’t intend to buy firewood this year.  We will just set the furnace a bit higher than in years past and wear all of our new sweaters!  When we run out of wood, we run out of wood.  We have a generator, so it’s not like we are dependent on firewood – it’s just become our custom for the winter months.
  
  Ah!  Another blessing! 

  Stephanie just called and said she’d come over, in a little bit, to help put back the china cabinet things in exchange for a cup of coffee.  What a deal!

                 

  Yes, I’m blessed AND thankful!

  Be Blessed  ~

  • 2:53 pm
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