​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!