Precious Additions

This year our family has been blessed with a precious addition. This is our new grandson. Isn't he just adorable? We are all smitten.

It is such a blessing to see how our son, our daughter-in-law and the whole family have fallen completely in love with this little guy since his birth. Our family has been truly blessed. I am looking forward to spending more time with him and watching him grow. It is truly going to be a treat.

He has quite the personality already and keeps us all smiling. He will always give you a cheeky grin when he is called handsome.

I have not found my nickname for him yet. I thought I would call him Snickerdoodle but most of the time, when I get my hands on him, I call him Handsome. I am a sucker for his smiles.

He was born February 22nd and pretty much so, on schedule. It is amazing to see how strong he is for being only 9 weeks old.

Here's a photo of Handsome's mom and dad. You can see why he is so adorable. I love these guys. They are going to be wonderful parents. I am so proud of both of them both.

Here's a photo of a totally smitten Papaw. We have already heard the plans of fishing and camping trips to come. I see good times ahead for the guys.

Here's a photo of our other two precious grands. Can you believe how much they have grown just since I started this blog? I can't. Time flies and I warn every new parent and grandparent, don't blink. You do not want to miss a moment because it goes by way too fast.

Life is good and I love being a Mamaw! I thank God for all of our blessings.

Many blessings to you all!

Blessings

I am starting this blog post today, without a clue of a title for it. It has been a few weeks, since I have blogged anything. A lot has happened but where to start?

After the trying few months at the beginning of the year with illness, I am happy to report, everyone is doing fantastic. Papaw is back to his old self and so is his mom. They are doing great and feeling better since their surgeries. We all are so grateful to God for their health and speedy recovery. Papaw said, he understands that statement by, the Vietnamese monk Thich Naht Hahn that goes something like, “the only way to know that you appreciate what it feels like to NOT have a toothache, is to have had a toothache.” I know I didn’t quote that exact but hopefully you understand the meaning. Papaw says, now he really knows and appreciates knowing what it is like NOT to have kidney stones. I am just grateful they are feeling better.

 More good news…Well it is for Doodlebug and I. We have been wanting a dog for so very long. Papaw just kept saying no, that we didn’t need another animal to care for. Well, God had a different plan and we now have a dog. We had this sweet little guy show up at our house a couple of days ago. I had heard noises outside at night on the porch on several occasions. I would go out to look but would never see anything. Well, he had been hanging around here and hiding out during the day and eating Lucy, our cats’ food at night. 

The other day, Doodles and I were sitting on the sofa, working on school work. We spotted this little dog on the porch. I went out to take a look at him. I was in disbelief at what I saw. He was starving. He could hardly stand. How he managed to climb the 14 or so steps up on the porch was amazing. His legs were so shaky. He does appear to have something wrong with one of his back legs. It was easy to count his ribs because his stomach was sank in so. It was so sad.  I called Papaw and Joe Joe up from the barn to take a look at him. We fed him some food and gave him water. We tried to get him to let us touch him but it appears he must have been abused because he backs away from our hands. 

Over the past couple of days that he has been here, he is starting to trust a bit more. He has taken to feeling comfortable enough to sleeping on our porch now. Papaw has been going out on the porch and sitting on the floor and leaning over on his side to get down low. In him doing so, it seems to help the dog feel less intimidated. 

As soon as we can, we want to bath him and remove ticks from him. Right now we can’t really get a hold of him to take good care of him. We are in hopes that in time, we can give him the care he needs. We are feeding him small amounts 3 to 4 times a day, giving him water and lots of love. He did seem to be a bit lively this morning and his legs appear to be stronger.  I just love seeing him come to me, tail wagging. I know it is only because, I am holding food or a Milk Bone right now. Soon, maybe he will come to me just because he wants to be petted.  I am trying to rub him palms up and he still backs away. He doesn’t trust hands. That is why I do believe he has been abused. I have not had any experience with an abused animal but I do trust that in time and with God's help, we can help restore this little guy's trust in humans.

I do not have any idea what God has planned for us with this little guy. I guess we will keep our eyes open to see if he did have a loving family that misses him and wants him back. The way he behaves now, I feel it is hard to think he came from a loving family. We are going to check to see if he has been chipped and if not, he has a home now. Papaw even likes the little guy too. Yesterday, when we returned home from church, he went right out to the front porch with a Milk Bone and sat down on the steps to visit with Wishbone. Doodlebug has taken to calling him Wishbone. The rest of us want to call him Hobo. We will just have to wait and see what sticks. 

Hope you all are having a blessed start to your spring. We have to get busy trying to till our garden spot. I do wish we could catch a few dry days to be able to do so.

Many blessings!  Ah, I have a name now for this blog...

Devotion

The dictionary defines devotion as "profound dedication; consecration." 

The word "devotion" kept popping into my mind, over and over this past weekend, as I watched my husband's family, "my" family band together as his mom went through heart surgery. 

I wonder at times, how can some families come together in such stressful times with a love and concern; at the same time be so positive for each other, while silently holding their breaths because of the seriousness of the moment.  Being with the family over the weekend, gave me an opportunity to see the very best come out in most people. I know stress for some families can tear them apart. I am amazed at how some/most come together and the situation makes them grow even closer. I think this is where devotion and a deep abiding love for each other has a chance to shine.

When most of us think about the word devotion, immediately the word "love" pops in our minds. It does seem like the words just naturally flow together, love and devotion. I do not think either could exist without the other. Think about it, devotion without love? Or, love without devotion?
  

At church last Sunday, the pastor was speaking on marriage and he said, "when it comes to marriage, we all need to remember 1+1=1." It is so easy to see that equation in the lives of my husband's parents. We have been blessed over the years to witness love and devotion in their actions with one another. They are truly devoted to each other. After 31 years of marriage for Papaw and I too, we feel blessed that this equates to our marriage as well.

My mother-in-law is doing so very well. She is amazing. The doctors and nurses at the hospital said, they had never witnessed a quicker recovery for someone that had the procedures Grammie had. She is still continuing to do well and has not even needed pain medicine. We believe she will be coming home from the hospital this evening or tomorrow. Her success through this whole ordeal, I do believe can only be attributed to the grace of God and prayer and also through love, devotion and the support of her family. We give thanks to God for our answered prayers and for all that He has blessed our lives with. 

So, with Grammie's surgery behind us, we have Papaw's coming up on Friday. Please remember him in your prayers as well. He says, now that his mom has upstaged him, he won't be able to whine. I told him of course he could if he needed to and I don't mind. 

Thanks for your prayers for our family! Blessings to you all! 

A Bit Under The Weather...

I know it has been a bit since I have blogged. It seems I came down with quiet the cold along with the rest of the family. Then as it turns out, Papaw is a bit further under the weather than a cold. He is scheduled to have surgery next week. I won't go into details but we will be will be glad when this month is over. Papaw's mother is also scheduled for surgery tomorrow and a serious one. Please if you will, remember our family in prayer right now.

We are all keeping very positive thoughts and doing quiet well in spite of it all. I guess it seems like we have been blessed with a peaceful, calm feeling that all will be well soon. I am sure with all the signs of spring around us, I will have plenty to blog about before long.

Blessings to you all!

Holiday Thoughts...

With Thanksgiving coming up on Thursday, I have been thinking about what the makings of a perfect holiday must consist of for me. I have learned in my forty nine years here on earth that, a perfect holiday isn’t about the fixings. It isn’t about that recipe that has been tried, tested and family approved. Although, deviled eggs are a must at every holiday meal for our group and they like them just with the right amount of mao and mustard.

For me, it isn’t about setting the scene; however, I do love to decorate. I think the ingredients for the perfect holiday are, family coming together with an open heart, a willingness to share their hearts with family and friends and genuine love for one another. When those ingredients are present, love lends way to the most blessed of days, filled with smiles, words of appreciation for one another and laughter. Hearts can be restored through our kind words and loving attitudes on these blessed days.

I know I cannot control the attitudes of those who place their feet under our table and say grace with us each holiday but, I can pray each time that our holidays will consists of some of these ingredients. I also can make sure that my heart is open with a willingness to share, engage and be present in the moment, even if I over cook the turkey. I will have to fill you in on my orange Christmas ham sometime. I am still trying to live that down but that is a whole other story.

Many blessings and I hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Getting Into The Holiday Spirit

Our Christmas tree will be going up this weekend. Our outdoor lights will not be going up this year. Our decks and porches are being rebuilt and I don’t know if they will be done in time to make decorating worth it this year.

Most all of our Christmas shopping is done, yeah! I will not be out shopping on Black Friday, double yeah!!! I wish all of you that are going to be out there great success in finding what you are looking for. I also hope that folks remember to just be kind to one another. I think that would make shopping on Black Friday much more fun too. Remember, kindness spreads.

In the past few days, I have been glancing back at a few of our holiday photos from last year and thinking about how it would be possible to take different portrait photos of the family this year. It is pretty hard when I have no intention of changing anything about the tree this year. As you can see from some of the crazy photos, our family is a little nuts. I guess it doesn’t really matter what the set up is, just taking the photos with these clowns is memorable for me. Last year everyone was such a clown that it was almost hard to take the photos because I was laughing so hard. By far, these are in no way the funniest photos taken. These are just a few that I thought were cute and I would share. You can see more of the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tnmamaw/sets/72157622992635261/ You will get a better idea of what I am up against when I break out the camera.








I love this photo. I took so many photos the kids were seeing spots. I think this was my clue to stop.


The photo below is my favorite photo from last year. It is just so Luke, always keeping an eye on what his sister is doing.





I am still thinking I should change up some of the decorations on the tree but I have a style that is a simple, country look and haven’t thought about changing it in years. The other day Joe and I were in the store and he found Christmas lights that he and Joey would love to put on the tree. They were shot gun shell lights. I giggled and almost considered it but it just doesn’t seem right. I think they should put up a Christmas tree in their man cave/barn and decorate it. There is no telling what it would turn out like. Wow, I just totally got of track there.

In looking at the photos though, I would love to come up with another angle setup or something different and special for the 2010 photos. If you have any suggestions, I am open to hearing them. If we don’t change it up, it will still be lots of fun to take the photos. We always have fun doing them.

We are looking forward to spending time with the family for Thanksgiving. It will be nice to have a long weekend. This will be one of the first weekends in a while that Joe has not been working late on Fridays and on call for Saturdays in such a long time. I hope he will be able to kick back, relax and get some rest. He is battling a cold and hasn’t been resting well. Hopefully this weekend will give him some well needed rest.

I am looking forward to hanging out with the grandkids. Doodlebug is planning a family baseball game. It is suppose to rain this afternoon and tomorrow but hopefully it will be nice weather by Thursday to get a game going. I discussed this with Granny last night and she is willing to play too, if we can get a runner for her. I told her that wouldn’t be any problem we would put Doodles on her team. I think Doodlebug runs faster than anyone in the family so, I want to be on her team too.

Well, that’s all I have for this blog entry. I hope everyone has a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving day with all your loved ones.

Blessings and hugs to you all!