Take the Time to Love!

Oldest grandson Nehemiah
all dressed up for
Valentine's Day! I
think that's a card
for Mommy?

Today being Valentine's Day there will be much love in the air. Couples may go out for dinner. A lot of homemade valentine cards will be given by children to mommy's. Roses, candy, special surprises, hugs and kisses will be plentiful.

In keeping with the theme of my blog, "lessons learned along life's journey" I began to reflect on love lessons.

In my life I have found that love doesn't always just happen. I need to have a flavor of love about my life. Love involves time, money, selflessness, patience, and forgiveness (That's why mommy's get all those homemade cards!) For me, getting up in the morning is not always easy; but once I roll out of bed, I try to flavor the day with love. The best advice on love comes rights from I Corinthians 13:4-7. I just saw it written on my cousin, Nancy's facebook page and copied and pasted it below. Nancy said insert your name wherever you see the word love!

 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

"Love does not give up. Love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love does not put itself up as being important. Love has no pride. Love does not do the wrong thing. Love never thinks of itself. Love does not get angry. Love does not remember the suffering that comes from being hurt by someone. Love is not happy with sin. Love is happy with the truth. Love takes everything that comes its way without giving up. Love believes all things. Love hopes for all things. Love endures all things."

Flavor your life with these things!

I am blessed with six grandsons ages 5, 4, 3, 2, 6 months and 3 months. For the next two weeks all six will be living with me! As a parent I learned many lessons from my children. Over the next couple of weeks I look forward to learning many life lessons from my grandsons.

Yesterday I was talking on the phone to my 3 year old Elijah. We had a few things to discuss like where he was going to sleep when he got to Mimi’s house and what he was going to pack. Then in a very matter of fact Elijah way he said, “that is all I have to say, now how do I get to Grampy?”

Elijah was not going to talk about the weather with me or go into detail about anything further. He said what he wanted to say and was ready to move on to his next agenda which was talking with Grampy.

Elijah’s conversation drew me to God’s Word where I discovered Proverbs 17:27, “A truly wise person uses few words: a person with understanding is even-tempered”. How important our words are but we need to choose them wisely!

Thanks Elijah for today’s lesson! Elijah provides much laughter each day. He jumped in our pool and said, “ I touched the bottom on my hippy toes”!

Lesson from a 4 year old

Last week I brought my two Albany grandsons to my house to spend the night. We pulled into the driveway and Andrew, my 4 year old, stepped out of the car and  said, “Mimi your yard is a beautiful garden”.  At first I wondered what he was talking about. Then I realized he was looking at all the yellow dandelions in the front yard.

I pondered his beautiful garden idea for a few minutes and found myself wondering why adults don’t look at dandelions the way a 4 year olds does. God has provided a beautiful spring garden in our yards and we try hard to get rid of those weeds.

When we talk about dandelions we use words like weeds and ugly. We associate dandelions with work and think of them as bothersome with no good purpose. I contemplated God's purpose for dandelions. Perhaps food, perhaps beauty, perhaps for little boys to pick for mommies.

Moving into greater reflection I wondered how many other things God provides for me that I try to get rid of, don’t appreciate, complain about or even choose to ignore. Things like interruptions in my day, bugs, problems, broken things, rain, people, etc. These things I tend to look at as weeds but God has placed them there for my growth.

Why wouldn’t we step out of the van, see a yard full of yellow flowers and say, “wow what a beautiful garden”! Why wouldn't we thank God for the things he brings into our lives each day!

My mom

Many lessons learned along life’s journey came from watching, learning and imitating my mom!

My mom always made my birthday a special event. A high school friend reminded me recently about a time when my mom took my friends and I to see the movie “Love story” on my birthday. Something I had forgotten until she shared her memory of that day. And then there were the yearly birthday sleepovers. I’m not sure how moms survive those “sleepovers” that girls love to have but my mom did.

My mom also spent countless hours at chorus concerts, hockey games, basketball games, lacrosse games and more chorus concerts. She let me try anything I showed an interest in from piano lessons to majorette lessons. Allowing me to test my organizational skills she let me plan a carnival in our backyard to raise money for muscular dystrophy.

My mom planned vacations for us including numerous camping trips. I always remember helping mom pack the camper with food and necessary items for a long road trip. She worked hard to make those trips fun.

As life continued my mom helped me mature and become a mom myself. She was always there when I needed her, helping an exhausted momma during those first weeks. She gave me much freedom to explore this new role and I knew she trusted me to me a great mom!

My mom prayed for me when life took on new adventures and took me miles away from her. Although I knew she did not like me being so far away she discovered ways to enjoy learning about new parts of the country by visiting us as often as she could.

My mom ironed our clothes (really) and invented new supper meals out of hamburg always able to provide a good meal on a modest budget.

As my mom  & I have traveled life’s journey together I have learned how to make life a little easier by creating fun times. I have learned to invest time, energy and money into others. She taught me to believe in myself and to try new things. My mom taught me to accept life’s trials and find the good even when life takes a turn you don’t like. Mom taught me to say yes as often as you can and don’t think something can’t be done but rather try to make it happen. My mom allowed me to play in the creeks not just look at them!

Thanks Mom, Happy Mother’s Day and I love you!

Kathy

Strawberry Mice

How do you spell relationship? I have learned that the real way to spell it is TIME!

Whether you are talking about your children, your grandchildren, your spouse or your friends. It is spelled the same way!

Sometimes I am tempted to want to get something else done and just let the kids play by themselves when I had planned to play with them. Or to be having lunch with someone and be checking my email or talking on the phone with someone else. I try to remember to be attentive to the people I am with and enjoy building that relationship.

Below is a fun activity to do with your children or grandchildren. My friend Bekah and I tested this activity recently with 4 children (5 and under). I thought they would make a strawberry mouse and  want to get down and do something else. To our surprise they wanted to keep making the strawberry mice and loved Bekah and I being a part of the activity alongside them.

This was a great activity to do together and was a healthy snack!

Strawberry Mice:
Any size strawberries
Almond slivers for ears
Black icing for eyes
Mini chocolate chips for nose
Red licorice for tail
cheese squares for the mice to eat

Make new friends but keep the old!

Just watch kids enter a room. If there is another little person in the room they will often say, will you be my friend? Or they just instantly become friends. Children easily make new friends but keep the old.

I have been blessed to enjoy many friends along life’s path. One of those friends I met in 5^th grade. Last month I had the joy of sitting down with her for a whole afternoon. We were in the same 5^th grade class in elementary school and spent many days and nights together through the growing up years. Life took us to different states, different families and different adventures It was so much fun to reunite after many years. We covered 37 years of life in about 4 or 5 hours on a rainy day in Tampa, Florida!

Can you imagine living on this earth without friends? I can't! God made us desiring a relationship with us and he gives us relationships on this earth through friends.

Life was not meant to be lived alone. Friends make the journey fun. Friends encourage us to try new things. Friends help carry us through tough days.

With friends we can celebrate life!

This is not normal!

As I write this it is before ten in the morning, the sun has been shining for hours, it is very warm outside and the temperature is to reach the high 80's. I am wearing my summer shorts and a light cotton short sleeve purple top. I am sitting outside by the pool as the pool man prepares the pool for the days activitiy. Why am I telling you all this?

Because this is not normal for me for the month of March. However, this is normal for the folks here in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

As I reflected on life and lessons learned along life's journey, I thought about the times when life just doesn’t seem normal. Often it is when I am facing an especially busy season or when I am going through some particularly trying times. I find  myself saying, "this is just not normal". Often during these times I also find myself thinking, "I will be glad when things return to normal".

The lesson I am trying to learn is to accept the not normal times as God's journey. He wants me to depend on him doing the normal and the not so normal days. The life journey God took most people in the Bible on was not normal according to most people's version of normal. Peter walked on water (not normal), Jonah found himself in the belly of a whale (not normal), David fought a giant (not normal), Moses crossed the sea on dry ground (not normal) and Lazarus came back to life (not normal).

Perhaps what is not normal to me is normal to God. He has a plan for each of my days and my attitude should be to accept what He brings my way each new day. Right now, I’m lovin this 80 degree day in sunny Florida!