Five Times The LOVE

For this child I prayed and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him...I Samuel 1:27...and He did it FIVE times over.

FIVE: It all began with the 'collection' of five children. Then I decided to collect things with the number 5 on them. I see 5's and feel an immediate attraction. FIVE. Most days (even after all these years) I find it amazing, befuddling, wonderful, tiring, endless worrying, constant pride and eternal love when I see my children or talk to them. I am still in awe of the fact that we produced five beautiful children.

When I had five (FIVE!!!!!) children under the age of seven, I knew life could not get any harder than that. Just the constant one on one attention they needed and endless list of needs of five tiny children was enough to wear anyone out. I knew that was the hardest age.

When I had five (FIVE!!!) children finally in school all at once I knew life could not get any harder than that. Just the fact that I had five parent/teacher conferences, five Christmas parties, five classes worth of Valentines, and activities times five was enough to wear anyone out. I knew that was the hardest age.

When I had five (FIVE!!!) teenagers at once, I knew positively that life could not get any harder than that. Instead of worrying about mittens and ear infections and carseats and soccer practice and homework, I was suddenly worrying about peer pressure and parties, popularity, problems and passions! The hormones that were raging at our house were enough to wear anyone out. I knew that was the hardest age.

Now that I have five (FIVE!!!) children (on the verge) of being out of high school, going off in new directions, being on their own, taking care of their own lives, I KNOW life can not get any harder than this! It is hard to let go. It is hard to hold on. It is hard to know what to do. This has to be the hardest age.

Will I ever lose my love for the number 5? Absolutely NOT. Just the image of that number conjures up so many memories of so many of life's stages. .....Not to mention FIVE TIMES the love I have been given!

A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was (zero to negative), the sort of house I lived in (well worn and well used), or the kind of car I drove (big vans and high mileage) ..........But the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.

*picture borrowed for this post, but for the life of me, I can't find it again to give proper credit.

God's Answers Are Wiser Than Our Prayers...

We shape our lives not by what we carry with us, but by what we leave behind.

In this Great Move, it seems that for every decision we make, two more unfold waiting for answers. There is nothing easy about uprooting our family, leaving our jobs and the house and community in which our children have grown up. There are so many 'little' issues that must be dealt with like NOT taking everything, finding new banks and doctors and mechanics! We want all five children to be happy, but we also must look out for ourselves (Tim and me) as we are no spring chickens. We have to look beyond the Big Move into the future. We have to pack, haul, arrange, say good-byes and till-we-meet-agains. It is SO much more than moving five children, two adults, pets, seventeen years of material accumulations and packing a giant house. It is stuffing our hearts and minds full of minutes and memories of our friends. Remembering so many 'that's the last time we'll do that' each time it happens. It is putting snapshots in our mind and treasures in our heart. It is waking up each morning and asking God to help us make the right decisions and going to bed each night praying again, "Please God, help me to do what ever is right for our family. Amen."

A Whole New Perspective to "Losing Your Mind"....!

I finally got my head together....now my body is falling apart....

Isn't this a great picture? Timbo had come home from work and was laying his head down on the bar while he was waiting on supper to be ready. I was folding the clothes (also in the pic!) when I looked up and noticed that shot. I (stupidly) said, "Tim, don't move," while I reached for the camera. So he raises up and turns around to look at me. I made him put his head back down so I could take the picture. It looks like I finally bit his head off! AND I did this all without any Photoshop or anything else. Just tired 'ole Tim and a very good picture. Enjoy!

A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails..

Happy Birthday Sarah!!!

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, "WHAT, You too? I thought I was the only one!"...C.S.Lewis

To my very good friend Sarah, who understands the love of the sun and the craving of 90 degrees. Sarah shares the same summer addictions I do, and is willing to spend her summer afternoons soaking in the sunshine, reading good books, and of course a sharing a little gossip! I'll never find anyone else that truly understands the tan thing like you do! Thanks for being such a wonderful (and beautiful) friend.

p.s. I picked the title just for Sarah and her unbelievable voice. I love to stand by Sarah at ball games and lip sync "The Star Spangled Banner" and just hope that someone thinks that her voice is coming out of my mouth!! (true story)

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How did it get so late so soon?

It's night before it's afternoon.

December is here before it's June.

My goodness how the time how flown.

How did it get so late so soon?

--Dr. Seuss--

How did it get so late so soon? All of a sudden it is the last full week of April. I have four weeks of school left. In that time I have to clean out my classroom, pack it up for the new 'owner', pack what I am taking, plan a graduation party, plan a move, pack the house..................and it goes on and on. I feel time ticking away. I have so much to do! I realized it is the end of April and I have not even thought about, much less designed and had printed Luke's graduation announcements! Plus, I need to address the envelopes and get them sent. At the rate I am going, people will get them after the party. I need to figure out what we are having to eat, make arrangements for family who will be here to visit, order his name tags for the announcements, and the list goes on and on. Every day I add to the list far more than I scratch off. Time is ticking away! I have things I am writing that I want to get finished before I leave Kansas. I have so much to do that it is overwhelming me. Tim leaves for Oklahoma in less than five weeks. Does anyone else feel time ticking away? All this and none of it even touches on the fact that my baby, the last one of the brood is a senior in high school soon to graduate. Wasn't it only yesterday that he was toddling after all his brothers and sisters? How did it get so late so soon?

When You're Lucky Enough To Be Irish..........

I have written several times about my Grammie and Pop, my paternal grandparents. I was equally as lucky to have a maternal set of grandparents that were off the scales if one were measuring grandparents! With the spring weather we are enjoying (two days in a row now!) my thoughts turn to my Granddad Flanagan. Long before the weather was decent enough to go outside, he would have already been out getting everything ready so that when a beautiful day like today came along he was ready to plant. He was a wonderful gardener. I couldn't even begin to count the number of people that were on the receiving end of his garden's bounty. Perhaps it was because he was a full-blood Irishman, but my Granddad Flanagan was 'green' long,long before it was 'cool' to be green. My Granddad was the original 'recycle, reuse, reduce' man. We laughed at him about it. He took one mans junk and recycled it into something most of us never would have thought about. He made all kind of projects for his various gardens. He loved equally to garden fruit trees, vegetable gardens, herb gardens and flowers. If it could be grown he grew it. There was nothing that went to waste with my Granddad Flanagan. My Granddad gave practical gifts as presents. At the time, I never minded getting them, but I did not understand the importance of them until I got older. For instance, he gave Tim and me gifts such as a new wheelbarrow, a big gas can, trashcans complete with a handmade trashcan holder so dogs wouldn't get into the trash and an assortment of tools and motors. Believe me, all the gifts were handy and used all the time. It is only as I have gotten older that I realize the importance of what he was teaching me. One of his favorite gifts was to give us was a $100 grocery gift certificate. Wasn't that the best and most thoughtful? One gift he surprised me with, and totally out of character for his practical side, was a large painting of my three oldest children from a professional photographers. Every time I look at it still I not only "ooohahhh" over my three babies, but I think of Granddad and the fact that he knew I would love it, but never be able to afford it on my own. My Granddad was like that. He was also the most handsome man I have ever seen to this day. Period. No questions asked. When he was 80 he was still good looking (and not looking a day over 50!). He had the bluest eyes that were filled with mischief and kindness. His eyes looked like the ocean in the blue Caribbean. My Granddad never wasted time. He was always up and around doing something. He was a storyteller extraordinaire. He was a wordsmith with words. He was a man of many words and he knew how to use them well both written and verbally. My Granddad adored my Grandmother. She loved to wait on him and pamper him. Perhaps he was lucky, or maybe because he was such an outstanding gardener, but for whatever reason my Grandmother was a cook that cannot be matched. She could have made dirt taste good. She not only could cook anything and make it exceptional, but everything she cooked and presented to her family and friends to eat was like a picture. Her tables were beautiful and laden with fresh flowers and fresh food. When I see redbirds I know my grandparent Fergusons are around, but when I see gardens full of food and flowers I think of the Flanagans. As a couple it was unbelievable what they brought from the earth. I would love to hear them now if they could see this whole 'organic and green' movement. My Granddad, a true Irishman, talked often in Irish riddles and verses. One verse he repeated so often I can still hear him saying it, "If you're lucky enough to be Irish----You're Lucky enough." Just like the gifts that I learned in time were far more important than their surface value, I finally understand the depth of that verse. I was SO lucky to have them in my life........

Be Still And Know That I Am God.....

"Be still and know that I am God;

I will be exhalted among the nations,

I will be exhalted in the earth."----Psalms 46:10

When I was looking for something to write about today, my mind just kept thinking about what a wonderful day it was. The weather was beautiful, there was so much green, and I finally have a few flowers blooming in my yard. I just kept thinking about the beauty of the day. So when I went to write, I looked through the photos I have on my computer to put a picture with something about spring. Instead I came upon these photos I took in Colorado Springs back in September. We were taking the train to the top of the mountain and no matter which direction I looked all I could see was beauty. God's beauty. It was overwhelmingly beautiful. When we got to the top we were told the story about Katharine Bates, (also an English teacher!!!) who went to the top of Pike's Peak in 1893. She had driven through Kansas (also !!!) and then was to teach summer school in Colorado Springs. After getting to the top of Pike's Peak she immediately wrote the words to "America The Beautiful". The "purple mountains majesty" was beautiful beyond words as I looked out from the top of Pike's Peak myself. So today, I thought not only of the beauty of spring and the rebirth of everything around me, but I was also taken back to the top of that mountain and the beauty that just was really beyond words. ---Or so I thought. I knew the pictures would suffice because of their beauty, but then the Bible verse came to mind, "Be still and know that I am God." What better time to be still and reflect on God's amazing love than spring time? So, I got out my Bible and reread the verse, and then (because God works that way) I read the entire chapter and found that it SO applies to our nation and world today. Not just because of the beauty of the Lord, but because of the faith he instills in us all. "Indeed the present world be shaken with the nations raging and the kingdoms of men tottering. We will not fear, since we know that God is our present help in the time of trouble. Come behold the works of the Lord."---All this because I wanted to write about spring! Don't you love the way God works?