​Tommy and John boy wrote a musical about Noah and the Ark.  It's called The Flood Brothers.  They dress like the Blues Brothers.  And, of course, the music is Blues.  

One of the early performances was done in a church in Banner Elk, North Carolina.  The church asked if their choir could do back up for the show, so John thomas wrote choir arrangements.

The day of the performance came and the church was packed.  They had to bring more chairs in!  The choir entered in their choir robes and the show  began!

Oh My!  They raised the roof!  After the show I told them that they surpassed the Sister Act choir!  It was beyond amazing!

 John thomas asked them if they would be willing to do a cast recording and they said emphatically, YES!  So, John boy set a date and all was in place for him to go back and do the recording.

Then.....the hurricane and flood hit that area!  

We still have not been able to reschedule the recording, but have plans to do that soon.  In the meantime, we are praying that another flood doesn't hit!  

We wrote a play about a flood.  The Lord sent a flood.  You can't make up some things!

I have a poem that talks about leaving a house.  It talks about all the things you have to do when leaving...the last thing, of course, being to lock the door.  It also talks about the fact that if you aren't leaving a loved one behind, then it is all going to be ok.

I have felt that way every time we have moved, and that has happened a lot since Tommy and I married!  There is usually a bit of sadness in closing one chapter, but also excitement thinking of the next chapter.  While there is a certain amount of sadness in leaving what is comfortable and routine, I always know it is going to be ok because Tommy and John boy are with me.  As one person said, and said very well, "we take our home with us!"  


We have made a home in the desert of Mexico, so making one in the USA is a piece of cake, compared to Mexico!

It seems we may be moving yet again.  We aren't exactly sure where we will end up this time, but that's ok too.  The Lord knows, and He will let US know when the time is right.  I learned a long time ago that His timing is far different from ours!

So, I go about the normal business of packing and labeling and moving.  Like Abraham and Sarah of old...
​"By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home.  When he left he had no idea where he was going." (Hebrew 11:8)

ON LEAVING
Take down the curtains, lock the door
And give the key to someone new;

I'll see the jonquil bud once more
And turn my back and go with you.

For little gardens everywhere
Quicken to a loving hand,

And little houses just as fair
Hug the highways of the land.

But there is only one of you
To satisfy my spirit's need,

And home is anywhere we two
Shall find a house and plant a seed.
 
​- H.R. Roberts

My cousin, Marshall Taft, sent me a response to my last post.  Marshall states:

In our house, the saying is: "If it's not where it's supposed to be, it's somewhere it is NOT supposed to be. Have you checked the refrigerator?" My family always thought that was weird, but they did understand. If the shoes were supposed to be in the closet (or the box marked: shoes), and they weren't, then they must be somewhere they are not supposed to be. They are not supposed to be in the fridge, so check there. And, of course, check everywhere else you think they should not be. And often, the item will turn up, in some place it should not be.

In our family, that is a common saying....but only from Tommy.  John thomas and I aren't sure it will, so we keep searching.  I suspect that Jason Amos is more like his Daddy.

​When we are looking for something and can't find it,Tommy says the well known catch phrase and goes to bed.  He is asleep almost as soon as his head hits the pillow.

I lie awake and try to figure out where said object is.  John boy stays up half the night looking.

Invariably, we find it!   Not Tommy mind you, but either John boy or I ! 

Our grandson has some stuff stored in our basement.  He lives in California.  He wanted us to send him something out of one of the boxes.  We looked though every box and the item was not to be found.  Of course Tommy said "It'll show up!" ...and went to bed...and to sleep.

I went to bed, but not to sleep.  I stewed all night. 

At 6 a.m. I got up and headed for the basement, determined to go through every box again.

What?  One box was still taped???  Hm-mmmm...it says shoes, but I wonder.

I carefully slit the tape and wa-la!  The lost had been found!

So, the ending of this story is that Tommy was right....it DID show up...but I made it show up.  

And yes..I did pray and ask Jesus to help me...and He did!

Luke 15:8  "..Imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one.  Won't she light a lamp and scour the house looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it?  And when she finds it you can  be sure she'll call her friends and neighbors.  'Celebrate with me!  I found my lost coin!'  Count on it--that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God!"

P.S.  I realized when I read the scripture that I too, used a light.  The basement was dark and I took a flashlight down with me!

Since I don't know what I am going to write, I decided to just call this BLOG.
Usually Jason Amos gets onto me if I don't write, so in order to avoid the wrath of Amos, here goes.

Since we are having a few days of Spring what better subject could I write about.  Even though it has been a fairly warm winter and spring seemed to happen overnight, it never fails to give me a boost!  Last week underneath the bridge was probably one of the coldest, most miserable nights we have had down there!  This week, a sweatshirt will suffice.  We also won't have to take our light tower since the time has changed.

Part of the reason winter seemed to pass so quickly is that we spent almost the whole month of February in Florida.  We had a gig in West Palm Beach and the weather the whole time was just about perfect!  We walked every day and the places we walked were beautiful!  (Mostly wildlife preserves.)   There were also no other people on the trails.  It was if we had the whole reserve to ourselves!

This week the temperature is supposed to get up to the high seventies.  I'm not getting TOO excited though.  I know we still have blackberry winter and dogwood winter.  At any rate, I just decided how to end this blog....with a poem that I wrote when I was about 13 years old.  I was sitting in the tree house that my Daddy had built for me.  It was spring and I was excited.  It meant more days in my treehouse and also that my shoes could come off for the summer.

SPRING
Spring is in the air..
Birds are singing everywhere.
Butterflies and Bees...
Flowers and trees.
At night with the cool breezes blowing, and the bright starts glowing...
The moon waits for the sun to rise, as it brightly shines up in the skies.
Morning is come!
Hear the hummingbirds hum?
Dew is on the ground,
 Birds wake up from their nests made of down.
Can't you tell it?
Can't you smell it?
SPRING is in the air!

We came to Florida last year and got a year pass to Universal Studio, so we have been saving to come back this year and use the pass again before it expires.  We sent a little money to the owner of the house we always rent, all year long so as not to have such a big payment. The house was paid for when we got here!  So...the only expense we have while here is food and gas.  We also have a gig in West Palm Beach, so the expense is somewhat justified.

It has been a good time to slow down, reflect and look at our lives from a less busy perspective.  It isn't that we have just been loafing.  The guys have worked on projects and we have looked at the upcoming months and planned projects and activities for when we go back home.

We have not always been able to get away "to a quiet place"  so I am doubly thankful for this time to rest and reflect.  It makes me want to look for more opportunities in the busy, every day hustle and bustle of life.  

God can speak to a person in the hustle and bustle, but I am not sure I always HEAR Him during those times.  When He speaks in the quiet times, I actually listen and can see that His way is the right way and the only way.  When I try to figure out the best solution to the things I face every day, it usually ends in, if not disaster, then at least it is very convoluted.

When I go to bed at home, my mind won't shut off.  I have slept deeply and restfully here.  Partly because I know that all the stuff that clutters my mind,  is back in Tennessee!

Here is hoping for you a peaceful, uncluttered day, and for the Lord to speak to you so that you hear His voice above all other voices in your head. 

 Isaiah 32:17-18  "The fruit of righteousness will be peace.  The effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.  My people will live in peaceful dwelling places.  In secure homes.  In undisturbed places of rest."  

 Isiah 30:15  "This is what the sovereign  Lord, the Holy One of Israel says, 'In repentance and rest is your salvation.  In quietness and trust is your strength..."  

​This has been a week of "hardship".

We had a leak from our refrigerator last summer and it ran underneath the linoleum in our kitchen.  And...not just underneath the linoleum but also the sub flooring, causing a huge hump to rise up in our floor. 

 Our friend Scott, gave us enough laminate to cover the floor, so our son Jason and another friend, Tyler, laid the new flooring on Saturday.  Of course it wasn't as simple as laying flooring.  First they had to cut out the ruined sub flooring, replace it and put about 200 screws in the whole floor.  

About 2 weeks ago, during the first big cold spell (of course) our heat and air unit tore up.  It needed a new motor.  That was fixed a couple of days ago.

Yesterday a pipe broke in our shower.  A plumber is coming today, but until then we are carrying water from the warehouse next door.  

Sigh.  We have had it rough!

Thursday night we showed a Compassion International video to our boy's youth group.  It was about a beautiful little girl from one of the South American countries.  She was born with a problem with her legs and needed surgery.  She was still walking, but not very well.  She also had a heart problem.

 She lived in a hut with dirt floors.  She cooked (yes, it was her cooking) on an open fire outside her house.  The best part of her day was going to the Compassion Center where she was taught about Jesus and had a hot meal and was able to mix and mingle with her friends.  The water they used had to be carried quite a distance.  (and was not clean) I have no idea how they kept their food cold because obviously they had no refrigerator or electricity.

Need I say more?

doesn't have to be dreary!  Tommy read a line from a book by GK Chesterton to me this morning about Santa Claus.  "He is something that gives new meaning to the white world and the evergreens, so that snow itself seems to be warm rather than cold."

I LOVE that!  

For all of our married life I have decorated for the different seasons.  I think it started when I taught school and changed my bulletin boards to match the season.  Actually, I was known for my bulletin boards and the school supervisor for the county used to come in while I was teaching and sit in the back and copy them.  Of course she was probably grading my teaching ability as well!

That decorative spirit carried over into my married life.  Every time we have a season change we have a decorative change both indoors and outdoors, at the Oaks manse!

I have written before about coming home once after we had been gone several days, and when we drove up our tree lined driveway, I felt like I was getting a hug.  When I walked inside our home, I felt like I got another hug.

That's what it feels like every time I have been away and walked into whatever place we currently call home. 

Right now we have a huge painting of a snowman that is back lit with blue lights. Jason did it for an event at the place he was working at the time, and was going to throw it away.  I said absolutely not!  This painting stays in the back of a closet except for the cold snowy months, when it graces our living room wall.  It definitely makes our world "feel warm rather than cold!"

So, if this January is starting to get you down, and you feel you just might need a hug,  Step into my house,  Go room to room.  Each room will give you a hug.  So will I!!!!  

But the fire is so delightful....so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Well, the weatherman was right, believe it or not!  We got about 4 inches of snow yesterday and it's beautiful!  We have all been sick with something for about 2 weeks now and it doesn't seem to want to go away.  Since we don't go to Drs. we have to try and guess what is wrong.  I diagnosed mine as pneumonia, since my symptoms were a bit different from Tommy and John boy.  My friend (who is a surgeon) and another friend (who is a nurse) tended to agree with me.

We have an online pharmacy so I ordered a Z-Pack (which my two friends also recommended...after I had gotten it) so think I am now on the other side.

I am rarely sick, so I tend to whine a bit (to myself) when I DO get sick.  This time I started thinking about a recent sermon of Tommy's, which he preached in NC to a lot of the flood victims a week after the flood.  "In all things give thanks".  

Every time I started to feel sorry for myself, I gave thanks.  I thanked God that it wasn't worse.  I thanked Him that I wasn't bedfast.  I thanked him for medicine and that I didn't have to go to a Dr. to get it.

I also prayed for many, whom I know personally, who are going through situations much worse than what I am going through.  

I remember a movie we saw when we lived in NYC.  It came to a tiny little "artsy" theatre on Broadway....down around 70th, if I remember.  They only showed kind of weird, off the wall movies.   We went there to see a movie called "Life is Beautiful" about a man in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany who kept his son hidden in the camp throughout the war.  He made it seem like they were playing a game. 

Often, when I start to feel sorry for myself, I think about that man.  He never looked glum or depressed.  He always had a smile on his face.

The world may throw you a curve ball. It often does.  How we deal with that curve ball, is up to us.  We can say---oh, a curve ball.  I'll just let that one go over the plate.  Or, we can hit it out of the park...or, hit a few snowballs out of the park!

Hope you hit a few home runs today!  Happy Snow!!!!

​I think that most of us reflect on the past year, as well as look toward a new year when the end of an old year comes.  Today is January 1, 2025.  The first thing I thought was, that in 10 years I will be 95.  That is really hard for my brain to absorb!  In my mind I am in my 40's.  I have no idea why that age.  That's just where I go.

So much has happened in my lifetime.  Yes, I remember when tv was first introduced!  Only one family on our block got one and all of the kids in the neighborhood used to sit on the floor in front of it and watch it "snow".  Every now and then someone would yell, "I think I see something!"

I have seen a man walk on the moon, and seen computers and cell phones take over the world.  I wonder what the next 100 years will bring?  Deep down I hope it brings the Lord back to this planet.

The overwhelming thought I had this morning, though, was how quickly the past 84  years have gone, and how little time I have left on planet earth.  My next thought was, "I had better get busy!" 

 I know that God has kept me alive this long for a reason.  My only goal should be to keep in tune with His leading and not shirk.  Being old is no excuse.  Caleb took the hill country because he was "as strong now, as when I came into the promised land."  The hill country had giants in it, but Caleb knew he could conquer if God was with him.


He told Joshua that he was 40 when he came into the promised land and now he was 85!  Hm-m-m-mmm....sound familiar?  (this story found in Joshua 14)

Two more scriptures found in Joshua really ministered to me this morning.  One is Joshua 9:14..the last part of the verse..."they didn't ask God about it!" 

One last verse I will leave you with this year of our Lord 2025.  Joshua 1:16 "Everything You commanded us, we'll do.  Wherever You send us, we'll go."

My prayer for you this year is that you will be as strong at 85 as you were at 40.  That you will ask God about EVERYTHING.  And that wherever He sends you, you will go.

Have a wonderful 2025!