Happy Birthday Baby!!!!

Well, She is my baby granddaughter. Today she is 8 years old. We have always celebrated her birthday with her but today she is going to go ice skating with a friend, her Mom and Sister. We will spend New Years day with her is the weather is good. Have a great day Popcorn, we love you.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my oldest daughter and wonderful son-in-law. Twenty Four years and still on your honeymoon. Quite an accomplishment in this day and age. We are so proud of you and we love you.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Christmas Day is coming, the day is drawing near
When Santa brings the toys, and we shout Christmas cheer
We've been busy making candy, and heading for the sales,
And we watch animated versions of Childrens Christmas tales.

We plan parties for the neighbors, and have an open house.
We are exhausted from our labors, and snappy with our spouse.
Mom watches Home and Garden Network, so she knows the proper way,
To deck the halls in GRAND style, and prepare a GREAT buffet.

The yard looks like a light show, for all the town to see.
This year we have a new theme to decorate the tree.
We spend time and too much money, Just preparing for this day,
But on the Day after Christmas--The Joy has gone away.

We awake in great depression and reality hits hard.
We have maxed out the Visa, for all that junk out in the yard.
And all of these decorations, don't have a place to store,
As the garage and attic are filled, with things from years before.

Whatever, were we thinking, What makes us go so wild?
When we really should just celebrate, the birth of the Christ Child.
It seems we get too busy to know true meaning of the day.
When God came as a baby, in a manger in the hay.

The time should not be hurried, it should be a time to share,
The love of God with others, and let them know we care.
And tell them of a Savior and how He came that night,
How the angels announced His coming, and the dark was filled with Light.

So let the Love of Jesus, be the light that shines this year,
As you prepare your Home for holidays--Let Him bring good cheer.
Make Him the "Reason for the Season", in all you do and say,
You won't be disappointed with what happens Christmas Day.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS EVERYONE.

The Real Joy of Christmas

As Christmas day nears, all of us have joy and frustratation. Children are all excited about Santa Claus and what he will bring them. They talk with their friends at school and watch TV and the list is endless for the things that are available for children today. Not only children but the entire family can benefit from all of the electronic, modern conveniences and nick-nacks that are on the market. But just what is all of this STUFF anyhow. Is it something that will be just as importantant to us next year or even next month, or will something else come along that will be better, and yadda, yadda, yah.

Glancing around my own home, I see things that are outdated, and things that I thought I wanted and never use anymore, and there are things that are perfectly good but someone has made something better to take its place. Think about the origional disc movie players--Big as a LP album and not so handy. Along came the VHS, great for us who hadn't bought the origional player and could now afford a VHS player. Soon we had to replace it with a VHS-DVD player because the DVD had came along. I'm stopping here but you can see that all things change from year to year and they improve and we are suppossed to get the new. What do we do with the old? Are we to continually cast things out, because something better has came along? Not me, and it is a good thing that I like old things. I still have a turn table and LP albums.

Last night I watched a wonderful movie on the Hallmark Channel about "Christmas in Canaan". It was a story about a Texas farm family that has fallen on hard times, about their love for each other and the neighbor family. It is something that everyone should watch and know that Christmas isn't just about the material things but about the love of a family, friends, and most of all for me, it is the gift of a Savior. In this story, the father wants to give his motherless children things but farm prices and other situations don't allow it. He cuts things from the catalog and wraps them beautifully and gives each one the gift that he would like to give them. They rejoice over it and are so excited that he would even think of giving them such wonderful things. Just watch the movie tonight (Sunday DEC 13th) and watch to see if it will be on another time and you will not be sorry.

I worry about what I buy my own children and grandchildren. They seem to have so much and their tastes are so much different than mine. What I do give to them is something I want them to have, Often I spend more money than I have but I want them to be happy. That is not always the case. I don't want to always give them money. I have friends that do that all of the time. Money, is not from the heart. I want them to know that I cared about them enough to search out something that I thought was right for them. I want it to be the RIGHT CHRISTMAS GIFT.

God gave us the Right Christmas Gift over 2000 years ago. It was His precious Son. He allowed Him to leave the glories of heaven and spend time on this Earth and Sacrifice Himself so that we could have the Ultimate Gift. It is free of charge, NO Cost --- We just have to ask for it. Even though Jesus came at the time we celebrate as Christmas, His gift is available to us 365 days of the year if we just ask Him into our hearts.

Even when, the markets falter, the crops aren't too great, we can still celebrate the Birth of our Savior and rejoice. Thank you Father for giving us THE RIGHT CHRISTMAS GIFT.

Happy Birthday Andrea

This day is almost over and I forgot to post a Happy Birthday to my youngest child. Today she is 34. It seems only a short time ago that we brought her home. Being the youngest and several years younger than her brother, I had more time with her as she was growing up. Well, that is after the others left home. She showed me how to be young again and was my best friend for many years.

We toured the state of Oklahome when she was involved in "Oklahoma Kids" and spent a lot of time talking while driving around. She always loved to talk and actually had a lot to say if we just took time to listen. She also loved to sing. She still sings today and I love to listen to her. God gave her a beautiful voice and she uses it to glorify Him as she sings in the church choir, community entertainment, to her children and sometimes to me. I thank God that he sent this child to as an afterthought. (that's what people used to say to us) God planned for us to have her all along. Wasn't that grand of Him. Happy Birthday Andi. We love you.

Baby it's Cold Outside

These past days are preparing us for Winter. We have had such a lovely fall. The temperatures in the month of November were actually above normal. December brings change though. I remember so many times over the years when the last of November or the first of December brought in snow and ice. One December we were blessed with such a storm that broke power lines and poles and shut our part of the country down for 6 days. NO ELECTRICITY meant no water to the house (electric pump), no lights, and no heat except for the fireplace. I could cook on the top of my gas range so we didn't go humgry.

The idea of not having water was almost a disaster as far as our teenagers were concerned. They could not wash their hair every day, much less take a bath. It was embarressing to go to school in town, where they still had electricity, with dirty hair. I reminded them that in my teen years, it was impossible to backcomb clean hair so we would not dream of washing it everyday. That just earned me a strange look, and how could I NOT wash my hair every day? We did have water that we hauled in buckets from the windmill a mile north of the house. We also went to a friends a few miles away who had electricity and took a bath, but not everyday. When did it happen that people thought they had to bathe at least once a day. I wonder how often Cleopatra took a bath? How about Queen Victoria, Marie Antionette, or even Martha Washington for that matter. Don't get me wrong, I am all for clean but going for a day or two did not kill anyone, especially in the dead of winter when there was ice on everything outside.

Well, anyhow, back to the lesson on survival-----Being the great Mom that I am, I carried snow into the house and melted it, and caught the water dripping from the roof and heated it so that my lovely daughters could have shinning hair. You know what, that was the softest water and their hair did feel lovely. At one time people did have rain barrels to catch water for such things. Maybe I should think about that.

It does not bother me to do some of the things my grandmother did but I do appreciate the electricity. We have become so dependent on it. We have freezers full of meat that I pray will keep and not thaw, and I like that warmth of the central heating system. I can get along without some of the things though. It is rather fun to read by the kerosene lamp for an evening or two and snuggle down in a bed heavy with comforters. Yes, it is fun once in awhile, but I guess that I really wouldn't want to do it everyday. I admit, I like my modern conveniences and I sort of like a bath everyday too. I pray when the storm comes in that is predicted, that there is just good old snow instead of ice. I know that the linemen with the electric companies are praying for that too.

Oh My Gosh!!!!!

I can't believe it!!! This thing is fast!!! I got my Christmas present from the Rancher today. High Speed Internet----Yea, No more waiting for 5 minutes for the next window to come up. Now I can even look at the things on Utube. Unless you have had dial up or now have it, you don't know the disadvantages of it. I am thankful for the young man that spent 3 hours at my house rewiring my phone system and fixing me up. He did a great job. Now maybe I can spend a little more time figuring things out. Probably not though as I am a slow learner.

I think I am just getting slow at everything, I notices that some of you have your Christmas up, Not me, I am waiting on the spirit to inspire me and that hasn't happened. I think I need some little kids around, I used to get more done when I had 4 children at home than I do with just the Rancher and myself. I just tend to put things off though.

Have a hapy week end and finish your Christmas shopping. Maybe I will put my tree up tomorrow, if I am not playing on the internet.