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! 

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!

Random Acts Of Kindness

Next week at school is random acts of kindness week. When I noted it on the school calendar, it got me to thinking about a lot about kids and their ability to care about each other. Sometimes it just seems so natural. Like when a classmate falls and gets hurt at school and the group rushes to help. It also made me think about many unkind things that I see kids do to one another. On one of the morning shows this morning there was a segment about bullies and how to handle if your child is having issues with a bully or if your child has bully tendencies. All of this has really has me thinking about the future of our children and the world as well and our role as the adults in their lives. I read somewhere where the Dalai Lama said, if we could teach all of our kids in the world to meditate/think for an hour a day about what it means to be compassionate or kind, we could as a human race lay down all our weapons in the future. I know I may not have the quote verbatim. This really stuck with me.

Webster’s dictionary defines kindness as:

Kindness is the act or the state of being kind and marked by charitable behavior, marked by mild disposition, pleasantness, tenderness and concern for others.

I agree with this but I have have seen kids with less than a mild disposition still show acts of compassion when seeing a friend in need. This really gives me hope.

We see so many kids these days doing wonderful things and thinking of others when it hits the news on television. We also see things on the news when kids are hurting each other as well. Right now, I want to look at that which is inside of heart of a child to care like Ryan Hreljac, who learned of the great need for clean and safe water in developing countries. At age seven, Ryan's first well was built in 1999 at Angolo Primary School in a Northern Ugandan village. Since Ryan started this foundation, this has encouraged so many other kids to take action and do something good for others like the kids at the Wellesley Middle school in MA. Those kids decided to do a fund raiser and they started adding to the Ryan’s Well foundation with concerts and such in the community. That is so fantastic. I heard years ago, about the little girl who started getting family and neighbors to gather blankets for the homeless after driving through town on a cold afternoon with her mom and seeing homeless people on the street and thought they must be cold. That blanket foundation grew and the whole community was reminded by the heart string tugs of a little girl who cared about folks she didn't know. The community was reminded by this one little girl of the need of the homeless who were living amoung them in the cold. There were so many blankets, coats and food collected that year in that community for those who were in need. Bless this little child's heart. Her act of caring did so much to help.

All this makes me stop and try to look through the eyes of these children to see what they see and go a step further and look into my heart. As their hearts are touched to feel the compassion that they feel that draws them to respond, I too want to be reminded and awake to the needs of others just as children are. We all could stand to take some time to not let that which might seem hard to look at when there is so much need but to really see and to touch in to that part of ourselves where natural goodness resides in each of us and care about other living beings as much as we care about ourselves. Which brings me to questioning, how it seems that some children really seem to relate to what we may call “thoughtful” or “caring” while other kids don’t seem to display those feelings or take caring action and why. When we as adults think they should or might we might be confused why some kids seem disconnected to such a precious part of themselves that is pure goodness. I think it might be because, we as adults should be a better example more often. When their hearts are touched by the concern and need of another and display a loving act and feel called upon to do something, they need direction in how to respond. Are we as adults, when we are running through our busy days forgetting to care about others by cutting folks off in traffic or rushing ahead of someone in line at the store sending messages to our kids that says it is OK to override those feelings when we are busy and not paying attention to the needs of others?

Well, I do believe there is a call for us as adults to set better examples of caring for others for our children to witness. It is not enough just to love them, meet their needs but we need to wake up and help them to find their natural ability to care for other living beings and then act upon it and feel OK and good in doing so. Maybe you are like I, taught humility that those things which we do for others, goes unspoken. Which I do understand that we should not be spending time pointing out all we might do from a charitable heart to others but it might be a good idea to share some of those actions with your children and grandchildren. Such as, if you make a monthly contribution to a local charity or cause that when your writing out the check you sit your child down and tell them what you are doing and why your heart lead you to do that monthly. Maybe even ask your child at that point, would they too like to help and they could save allowances or donate toys. Or when you help some one at the grocery store let another go before you or put their things in their car and put their cart away for them. If your child is with you and sees this there is no need to explain. They will understand. Spend a little time looking for chances to help others and if you happen to be with a child, it's a great way to show them what compassion looks like.

I started thinking about what I could do to help my grand kids grow and feel more open about expressing their acts of compassion for others. I must admit I had not given it a lot of thought about it before. I have moved through my days and I do try and think of others but I think I am a lot like we all might be, just busy and don’t think a lot about messages I am sending to my grand kids. How can we ever have world peace if we can’t show love and compassion and a helping nature to those we love and strangers alike? If we can’t even pass on some change to a person digging through their pockets at a pay phone, how can we continue to pass up great chances to teach? How can we ever have world peace if we can't remember to teach our children to care through some of the opportunities to help another throughout our day?

I was ask to come in to help with a project at school on Friday. Our teacher is going to be out and I am sure I was ask because I have spent a lot of time with the kids. New subs get put through the ringer by those kindergartners. I thought it might be a nice chance to maybe help the kids make a kindness chart. I had been already giving thought to this for using here when I see one of the kids just do something nice for another family member without being ask and pointing out what a nice thing, adding a heart to their kindness chart. When the chart is full, then it is time for someone to do something very nice for them. Even if it seems like a reward system, if the chart is large enough it still will allow for a good amount of time for some good patterned behavior to happen and be recognized; however, I know there is no better replacement for a child to learn and act on kindness than with good examples shown to them. Which makes me think about finding some summer volunteer programs that I could do with my gal. We both would have so much to gain from it.

I guess what I am trying to say is, lets just find ways daily to be kind to others. Kindness spreads and kids, they will be forever changed by the adults in their lives that are kind just as kids with unkind adults in their lives are too changed.

What are your thoughts? If you have good suggestions on how to help kids connect and express kindness or even stories of kind acts done by a child, please share them here. I would love to hear them.

Well, this is one Mamaw that has some work to do…

Y’all take care and blessings and hugs to all!