BOTT thoughts

I entered my BOTT blog post on our kq website.  If you have a minute, go to www.kingdomquestministries.com to post your thoughts and reactions to BOTT 09.

Hope everyone recovers with a minimum of effort....:-)

Diversification

Hmmmm.

Not really sure how it's all going to work.

I'm getting so confused.

Twitter, Facebook, blogging, maintaining a website....trying to climb out of one's shell is a long, arduous process and requires much effort! I'm trying, I'm trying.....

However....for my wonderful friends who do read my ramblings (sporadic though they may be!) I need to inform you that I am now diversifying. Sigh. Yes, afraid so.

Shock Life at The Homeplace will still be out here to share the sorrows and joys of family life in our crazy house. However, I now have a blog connected to our website (kingdomquestministries.com) upon which I will post the ministry news and views and happenings. So...come on over when you get a chance and say "hi."

And have patience with me. This is work!

mbs

Friends

Last night, a milestone birthday of a friend brought together a group of us who have known each other for years but whose roads have diverged and the paths now very seldom cross.  What a wonderful time it was.  Lots of laughter, lots of reflection and reminiscing, lots of thankfulness for our connection…

As the laughter rang around the table, we talked about good times and some of the times we would rather forget.  We talked about how confused we are over where the years have gone and a little of the fear of how fast time is passing.  We talked about all the elements that had made our lives sweet.  The group was as varied and diverse as the foliage in the forest, but the diversity wasn’t even considered as we mused about the past and laughed over the present and wondered about the future. 

We realized that what had drawn us together in the first place was being so often together at the same events throughout our youth and early adulthood.  But somewhere through the years we had shared this one’s worry over a child, or shared this one’s sorrow over a death, or shared this one’s sorrow over a family trial.  And we realized that somewhere along the way the commonality of the same events that had first drawn us together had given way to a deeper bond of love that time nor distance nor diverging paths would ever break.

At the head of the table, T F Tenney smiled as someone quoted what he often says:  “You can make old ‘new friends’, but you can’t make new ‘old friends’.”

Moms Just Know

What a wonderful day!  Rain pouring (I LOVE that), lots of "in the house" stuff to do, no company, the whole family home...a rare blessed day indeed.  

Terry was ending his fast today, so I decided that I would make some homemade chicken noodle soup.  It's a favorite of our whole family, especially on a day like today.  Kendra woke up (late!) and meandered downstairs and into the kitchen.  She came back to where I was in the den and was overjoyed that we were having homemade chicken noodle soup.  Our kitchen and den are totally separated~~you can't see from one room into the other~~and the exchange below is what followed:

Kendra (wandering back into the kitchen):  Mom, can I taste the soup?

Me:  No.

Kendra:  Why?

Me:  It isn't quite ready.  It needs about 20 more minutes.

Kendra:  Oh.  Okay.  (silence)

Me:  Kendra?  Are you into the soup?

Kendra:  No.  (silence for about 10 seconds)

Kendra: (giggling this time)  How in the world did you know?

Me:  Moms just know!

Kendra:  But how?

Me:  They have kids and it just happens.

So I send a message to all kids out there.  Moms just know.  They always know.  Don't ever doubt it and don't forget it.

2008 in Review

January 1, 2008 seems like many years ago and just yesterday.  Is it just me, or are the years getting shorter?  Don't answer...

October - December, 2007 was not the best of times at The Homeplace.  Mom had surgery at M D Anderson in Houston on October 30, then experienced some major complications on December 4 which kept her in the hospital a week.  Aunt Bonnie died the day before she got out.  Mollie, our 12-year-old schnauzer, died on November 30.  There was a lot of "stuff" in between, so by the time January 1 came, we were ready for 2007 to go.

~~~~~~~

2008 has been quite an eventful year.  But I think that after everything is shaken up and settled down in the 2008 snow globe, we're going to find that the overall picture is a very positive, encouraging and progressive one.  Thank God.

 ~~January.  We welcomed Roxy into Shock life at The Homeplace.  Born on November 25, 2007, we got her on January 14, 2008.  She is a black miniature schnauzer who is quite full of herself!  She has trained very well and is proving to be an obedient, quick learner.  (We won't talk about the fact that she managed to get pregnant in June by something unknown, eats puzzle pieces, and managed to scare me witless the other day by jumping on my legs while I was taking a nap and proceeding to chew on a DEAD MOUSE that she had brought in from the outside!)  But she's a darling and we all love her.

~~February. Mom, Gale Lucas (my first cousin) and I

went to Tampa, Florida for a week to visit with Ann Wolfe (another first cousin).  She was battling cancer and had lost her mom in December.  We had a wonderful time!  We laughed and cried and reminisced and 

prayed and shopped and went to the beach and ate at an outdoor cafe....we knew the time would prove to be priceless and it was.  

We lost her on November 15.  

~~March was amazing!  During spring break, Kendra went with her Senior Class to Disneyworld in Florida, while Terry, Bradyn, and I flew to Lodi, California and stayed a week with Mark and Farah Morton IN their house WITH their FAMILY!  Isn't that nuts?  Does anybody do that anymore, anywhere, EVER?  People visit, but they always get hotels or condos or something.  Nope.  We slept in Judson's room and drove to a different spot every day.  We had such a blast.  We did old town Sacramento, Yosemite, San Francisco, Napa Valley, old gold-mining towns, you name it.

Then, we drove down to Carmel and stayed in a house a couple of blocks from the beach called "Honey's Retreat."  It was the greatest.  The next day, we took the 17-mile-drive along the coast.  Forever memories, forever good times.  Thank God for forever friends...

~~April brought our visit to Stockholm, Sweden.  What an incredible trip!  The POA team paired with the church there to do a crusade.  We did an outdoor concert and 3 inside services, a lot of street evangelism, and got to do more touring than usual.  Out of all the places I have ever been, Stockholm is probably my favorite city in the world. It is clean, beautiful, and absolutely reeks with history.  Because our whole family got to go, we have had many conversations since in which we refer back to our time there. LOVED it!

~~I can't believe what happened in May.  Kendra graduated from high school!  Crazy.  First, I'm not supposed to be old enough to have a kid out of high school.  Second, SHE'S not old enough to be out of high school.  It's just crazy.  But we are so proud of her...she is an incredible girl and we're very blessed that she's our daughter.

Can you tell she was happy?  :-)

~~June brought summertime, youth camps, and more dogs!  I came within a hair of killing this little puppy a few blocks from our house.  Of course, I had to stop and pick it up.  After advertising and researching, we found out she was a black-faced cur dog, about 6 weeks old, which had probably been dropped off somewhere near.  

Bradyn named her Charlotte and we were beginning to be afraid that she was going to be Dog Number Four!  But Sean Free loved her and took her home with him and now she is thriving and ruling the Free household.  Terry breathed a sigh of relief over that one.

Oh.  And call me prejudiced, but I personally think NOBODY compared to Nellie at Kid's Kamp 08!

~~July.  Another heart-stopper.  Kendra turned 18 on July 10.  That's just not right.  

~~August.  Our missions trip to the Philippines.  There is not enough room here to write all that occurred in our lives, our heads, our hearts, our minds...this was a major life-changing trip.  From the places we visited, to the people we met, to the experiences we shared~~there are no adequate words to describe what transpired.  None of us will ever be the same again.

~~September.  Without question, the big event of September was Hurricane Gustav.  It barreled straight into Alexandria as a Category 1, but then stalled and sat right on top of us for 3 days.  The winds and amount of rain was more than the city could take in, so devastation was felt everywhere.  The Homeplace fared well.  We were without electricity for about 48 hours, the roof was damaged and a few limbs down, but after cleaning up the relatively small amount of water that came in (when houses only two blocks away had 3-4 feet of water inside), we breathed a grateful sigh of relief and set about helping our friends and church members. 

~~October.  POA Marriage Retreat, taxes, Branson with me, Mom, and the kids (where the crazy Expedition broke down and had us scared to death!) and POA Family Weekend.  Then, off the final week to Tampa again.  Our last visit with Ann.  We had a great time visiting and being together.  We will remember forever the fact that the last time she did "the outlet thing" was with us.  We spent an entire afternoon driving to outlets and wheeling her through stores.  She even bought some Christmas cards and was looking for a red Holiday top to wear to church.  Mom stayed an extra week with her.  Mom left Tampa on November 7, and Ann left us on November 15.  

The Shock 4 took a couple of days while we were there and drove the 50 minutes to Epcot and Universal Studios...it was a great time for us and the only time of the year that we got to spend together with just our four.  We love our times when it's just us...  It was Bradyn's first time for Epcot and Universal.  He had a blast!

~~November.  Another whirlwind month.  Terry and I were in Michigan with the McCool's when we received word that Ann had passed away.  Trying to get anywhere by air these days is a nightmare...it's especially so when you're really needing to do it on time.  We had several delays getting to Michigan and even more getting back to Alexandria.  We ended up spending the night in Memphis at a DUMP and finally arriving in Alexandria at 11:00 a.m.  We had to be back at the airport at 3:30 p.m. to leave for Tampa.  We made it, though...

Then Thanksgiving.  LOVE Thanksgiving!  We never have exactly the same people, but it's always a full house.  This year was no exception.  Everything was rushed and to the last minute, but it all worked perfectly.  Then, Thanksgiving morning, my back decided that enough was enough, so while Mom, Brenda, Debbie, Terry and Jeff finished the meal, I had to put the back to bed.  So aggravating!  It was nothing serious, though....just a pulled muscle....stress and fatigue are always going to manifest somewhere. I'm totally (almost!) back to normal already!  :-)

~~December.  December 7.  Bradyn turned 12.  Last year before the teen years.  I love this boy.

Merry Christmas to all...and may 2009 bring you 

the peace of knowing you're in His will...

Shock Blogging -- Do We Dare?

I'm sure the "we" will only be an "I"...so, yes, I dare.

The walls of our house are clear glass anyway, so why not?  If life gets too invasive, we can always put up sheets of plywood over the glass.  We're accustomed to hurricanes here...

2008 has been quite a year.  I'm not sure that I'm ready for the world to know my thoughts about it, but the events have been quite eventful and I'm cool with sharing that.  So, my next post will be a "Year in Review" post complete with pics.  (My word.  I must be crazy.  How much time is this going to take?!)

May your 2008 Holiday Season be merry...and may you not worry about the things that won't matter...and may this be the prayer of me, too.