New Age Kids ?

This past weekend as we were hanging around the house, my son was watching a TV presentation by the church that they attend. In the middle of each production the church offers booklets to their viewers. There is no cost for these booklets and they are used by the members for bible study. Joseph decided that he wanted to request a couple of the booklets so he picked up the phone and begin to dial.....

I have to break right here to tell you how much this amazes me that my baby boy feels confident enough to pick up the phone, call a stranger, have a conversation and request something he wants.... Ok back to the story

Joseph is sitting there staring at the door holding the phone to his ear, while his Dad and I try our best not to be openly amused :)

Well he is sitting there for quite some time without speaking, so I said, are you on hold? Nope he responds. I said, "well is it ringing?" He looks at me and says " I guess so..... it is going. bumm, bumm, bumm really fast.

I couldn't help it I started laughing, I said "Joseph, that means the line is busy." He doesn't hang up.....he says " what does that mean?" WHAT!!!!! Has my child never heard a busy signal?

Then he looks over at me and says, "what do I do?." "Hang up Sweetie." I respond. " Well okay, when will they see the missed call and call me back?"..................Okay this is the point where I realize that my children have never dealt with the world that we lived in growing up and I felt really old!!!!!

I explained to him what a busy signal was, and that this was not a cellphone he was dealing with. I explained that he would actually call back until the line cleared and he would speak with someone. This was of course a foreign concept to my child. I realized he is entirely accustomed to to reaching whoever he wants as soon as he calls them, there are no busy signals, there is not a time when it is not okay to call. We have become such a society of open access that the ability to not connect who you want when you want is inconceivable!

Well I for one would not mind more busy signals and less open access. Constant contact isn't always the best thing!

New beginnings

This weekend one half of my immediate family gathered to celebrate the marriage of my Daddy after 26 years of batchelorhood. He met his new bride a few years ago, but earlier this year they connected in a new way and begin to talk on the phone a great deal. In May they went on their first "date" and within a week my Daddy had managed to bring her around to meet all three of his children and our families. WOW were we blown away, Daddy doesn't bring women to meet us until they have been dating for quite a while. I believe their dinners and lunches with us were dates 3,4 and 5 or something really close to it. So being the overprotective children that we are, alarm bells begin to go off. I knew right off that this was a serious move, and even felt after a couple of phone conversations that a marriage was on the horizon. I think that there are still some on both sides of the family who are a little wary of the suddeness of this union. But one look at them together and you can see very clearly that they love each other. I for one pray all God's blessing over this union. I wish them all the happiness, peace, and love that their hearts can hold.

3 months later, almost 3 months to the day of their first date they wed this past weekend. It was a beautiful, sweet ceremony. After the vows they played "From this moment" by Shania Twain and as the music played, they sang very quitely to each other. I think for them there was no one else in the church at the time.

They are now in TN for several days to have a honeymoon. Then they will travel back to GA and learn to live together.....Lisa you are in my prayers on that one.

Soon I will blog on the process of planning and executing the reception....right now I still have wedding hang over.

Camping in Smokemont

Well we are back from camping in Cherokee, NC and I survived it. I actually had a great time. I love the mountains; the lush green trees and rambling rivers bring me a degree of relaxation that I only find there. I love to look up at the trees where the sun flows down through the leaves and to listen to the music of the water lull me into a trance like state.

The weekend started with us driving to the campground early on Thursday, we arrived around 12:30 pm and located a perfect spot right by the parking area and river. Our overly large tent would not fit on a tent pad so we spread out under a tree and begin to unpack all of our things. It took about 2 hours to get everything set up with sleeping tent and shade tent and grills and such. As we were setting up others begin to arrive and go through the same rituals we had just endured. By early evening we were all settled in and begin to socialize. It was an early night as we were all a bit tired from the packing and unpacking and setting up. About 1 am the rain begin to come down in sheets and thunder and lightening joined in. Inside the tent it sounded as if a monsoon had arrived, it was the first time I had ever been rained on while camping and I was amazed at how loud it was.

Friday morning begin overcast but that did not stop the kids from playing in the river and floating the whitewater. My son had a particularly great time floating down these falls and did it over and over again, his lips blue and his body trembling from the ice cold water.

My daughter, Genevieve, spent the day playing in the shallow water and "river walking" on the rocks.

Friday night we attended a bible study under a large tent in the group camping area. It rained on us briefly but no harm done. After services we enjoyed the campfire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores. It was a late night and a cold one. One check of the thermometer registered 62 degrees, but with the breeze it was much colder. Since it was JULY, we didn't pack a lot of blankets, and by a lot I mean any..... so it was a very restless night trying to stay warm.

Saturday morning we awoke to a very chilly dawn, my son took off for his now daily ritual of bathing in the river. A bar of ivory soap and his swimsuit and he was off. He describes the experience as "better than a cup of expresso for waking you up". I have to agree. I had to bathe off there on Friday afternoon and it was very cold, but quite refreshing.

Sabbath services were at 2:00 pm so we cooked breakfast, prepared a salad for the fish fry that evening and got ourselves ready. A wonderful friend allowed Genevieve and I to bathe off in the shower of the camper that they brought. Such a sweet gesture that was really appreciated. The services went off without any rain and it was a informative bible study on the book of James. A nice fish fry was held after services and everyone ate well. The rest of the evening was spent talking, visiting, roasting marshmallows, playing ball, laughing and having a fabulous time. A super cold night again had all of us ready to head home the next day.

Sunday dawned damp and cold and we were up quickly to start breaking down the camp and getting ready to head home. The kids played in the center of the group area throwing balls and playing with frisbees. Saying their goodbyes and getting ready to head home.

In about 3 months they will all be back together again. Until then, it was a great weekend and we all had a wonderful time.

Overload

The sheer volume of questions in my day has me so overloaded today. I believe my brain has short circuited. I do believe this to be a real and serious problem. I am going to research it on WebMD and see if they have any information.

I said something today that I have hear my Mother say a thousand times : " if one more person call out the name Mama, I am leaving home".... I mean it!!!! All day long , Mama, Mama, Mama. Mama I need help, Mama can I have, Mama can you look at this, Hey Mama do you remember.

I am so blessed that I have two beautiful, wonderful kids who care what I think and want me to know everything that they are thinking. This is a blessing that I know will one day soon end. Soon, they will be smarter and cooler than me, they will not want to tell me anything or ask me anything and I will be lucky if they call me once a week. So even though I feel like my brain is going to explode I am happy.

I am so thankful for this life that I am now living. I am thankful for the time with my children, for the impromptu fishing trips and swimming in the afternoons, for frequent trips to see family, and camping trips. I am thankful for little moments like last night when my son and I stood on the porch and watched the lightening before the storm. Even though he was not crazy about being outside with the lightening, he admitted it was cool to watch. He had never watched a storm come in, or smelled the earthy wet air right before the big drops begin to fall.

All of the precious moments that were wasted on traffic and stress for the last 10 years of my life. I will never get those moments back! I made the choices that I felt were best for my family at the time. Yet I am ever grateful that God has called me to be in the home, where I should have been all along.

Camping????

I am not famous for my camping skills. Ha Ha, yes I can hear the laughter of my family and friends. I have camped, but I don't really like heat, bugs, lying on the ground, smelling like a campfire, and many of the other hazards of camping. For the last 3 years I have been actively involved in Cub Scouts, and I even managed to avoid camping in a big way there. My son and I have camped twice with the Scouts so far. Once at Cub Scout Camp when he was a WEBELOS II in order to earn his Arrow of Light, and again as a WEBELOS II at Scoutland during the WEBELOS Woods event. Neither was a horrible experience, however, for a girl who must bathe at least once a day, not exactly comfortable either.

Next week the church that my husband attends is hosting a weekend of camping in Cherokee NC. Okay that is in the mountains where the weather is cooler, but I don't think the bugs will take a vacation, and I have to travel to shower.

YET.... I am going into this with a very positive attitude, I am actually looking forward to spending time with my kids and no TV or DS games. I will enjoy my first opportunity to spend some extended time with new friends. I will let you know how it goes.

Things remembered, new events, and all the other stuff going on...

There are so many things going on with the various people in my life, that I can hardly keep up.

Lets see..Probably paramount on the mind right this second is my Daddy's second marriage. Yes I am 35 years old and I still call him Daddy. I don't know why, my brother and sister have both made the transition to calling him Dad, but I guess as the first girl he will always be my Daddy.

My parents divorced 26 years ago, my Mama remarried the same year the divorce was final and is still married to that wonderful man. Yet, alas, Daddy has not found that woman that he wanted to share his life with. There were two women with which he engaged in long term relationships. One of those ladies is the mother of my half sister. The other was a shrew of a woman who kept my brother and I seperated from my Daddy for a good number of years. She was mean, manipulative, and did everything she could to damage and hurt. We are all glad that she is no longer in his life. This new lady is a sweet and thoughtful person, willing to come to the home of my mother for my birthday dinner. She and my Daddy have only been dating each other for since May of this year. The wedding is set for August 15.... yes I know how quick that is, and trust me we have all had our little period of "concern". The concern is behind me! I thought for a while, what could this be... I know my Daddy and I know that he isn't a easy man to live with. He is a perfectionist, who has lived alone for 26 years.... that can't be good. I wish her all the best, and I hope she is patient. I look forward to getting to know her and spending time with her. I am also looking forward to the wedding, I found out last week that I getting to plan the recpetion! YAY! One of my secret desires would be to work in wedding planning. This is so much fun for me, and I am so excited. I feel that getting to be involved is a gift from God. See I love my family and I always want to help, however, I do realize that there are others who have a larger say in the process. So I am very thankful for this opportunity to serve and help those that I love. And.... if you have any cool ideas for the reception, pass them on.


There is another "thing" heavy on my heart, which will be a little elusive. I have a wonderful friend who I love so much, and is going through a horrible time right now. It has been a long road and it is a scary one. My prayers are for her constantly and I pray even now that she will just keep moving forward and taking the baby steps toward the light. It is there, even though it is a little dim from time to time.

Then there is the grandparents. I have one set of living grandparents, they have been married for 59 years this September. I will not tell you that it has been a fairy tale marriage, but they do love each other, of that I am sure. My GrandDaddy is 85 & my Nannie is 76. I love them both so much, which is what makes their aging so hard for me. Not that I don't expect them to age, not that I think they will live forever... but to watch the ones I love so dearly wither away is simple heart breaking. It takes my breath when I look at my GrandDaddy, the once strong virile man, who I watched in awe as a child. I tried to go as many places as I could with him, I met him at the barn every morning while I was there to see him milk the cows. I rode with him to the sale barn in the old orange truck with a huge cow penned in the back stomping big holes in the bed of the truck as we stopped for gas. I watched him sit each morning and late into the night reading his bible at the table, writing letters to his sisters and other relatives. These days I get to see him about once a month. I go over and sit and we catch up, how is he feeling, what do the doctors say, what is he doing differently to keep himself going. We talk about his garden and ours, we talk about the kids and what they are up to, we talk about family and friends and he tells me stories about things that happened years ago. His memory is good, sometimes seems better than mine, but his body is stooped, his legs and belly swell, he has little control over his movements and I see the end. Everytime I am there I kiss him and say, I want you to be here the next time I come... and I mean it. I wish that he would never leave me, that he would be sitting in the chair on the back "deck" or piddling in the garden for the rest of my life so that I don't ever have to say good bye.

For those of you who know me you know that I am crying right now. I am an emotional person, I always have been, I cry for the good, the bad, the sad and the hurt. Which means in this crazy world I do a lot of crying. Crying is okay, it cleanse the soul and removes some of the residual that makes you hazy. My birthday was this week and my son told my mother, "old women are very emotional, Mama cries everyday".... now I just turned 35 so I take offense to the "old women".... but one day he will see, like me that old isn't a number.

As you can probably tell, we spent the holiday weekend with family. My family and my sweet hubby's family all live within 15 miles of each other, with the large chunk living even closer. We attended the same church, our parents graduated high school together, even shared the same sitter for a little while. Our families have known each other for years, and through us we have been family for 16 years now. So it is so easy to go home because they are mostly all in one spot. We can make a 10 min drive down the road and be at somebody's house. We "camp" at my Mama's she and my Step-Dad built a new home 6 years ago right across the driveway from the mobile home I grew up in, last year put in a pool. It is where we all congregate, we pile in with all our stuff, strip off our clothes and slide into swimsuits, we dive and jump, we snack and feast. We make trips to the store to "pickup" stuff that we need. We hug and kiss and play games, we sing and dance, we pick on each other and prod out the information... we laugh and we love, we drink beer, wine, mudslides and sweet tea, we tell stories that we all know and still laugh at them. It is home and everyone feels loved and comfortable and happy, and if we don't we take a break. Nothing is expected... just be who you are.

Well I have rambled enough for tonight....

My Newest Project... Fabric Postcards

Fabric Postcards have become my obsession, I mean that literally. I have spent hours pouring over the internet watching tutorials and reading the instructions that lots of very generous people have posted online. All of them have been extremely helpful by the way.

I started them with much hesitation, you see since I have begin trying to sell my sewing I have discovered a very nasty secret about my self.... A trait that I get from my Father which I believed only my brother possessed. I am a perfectionist about my work. If it isn't perfect I won't sell it. I have lots ( I will not say how many) imperfect projects that are destined for the garbage. Thus the hours of pouring over the instructions to make sure I did it "right".

Another thing that I know about me, as does my husband but few others. I am a compulsive fabric buyer. I LOVE fabric. All colors, prints, weights, types... it must be soft and beautiful, but my definition of beauty is vast.....as is the ever growing piles of fabric that have taken over my sewing room.

Okay back to the post card. I started slowly, picking out fabric remnants that I already knew that I love paired together. I choose a buttery yellow & white polka dot that I made a dress with a couple of years ago and added a seersucker with bright beautiful flowers...

I cut the fabric to the 4 x 6 size required by the USPS sewed into place the pieces where needed, then cut a 4 x 6 piece of Peltex interfacing. Ironed the top or front fabric to the Peltex, then hand stitched around the design adding lettering and embelishing the design already on the fabric. Then I cut an old white T-shirt into 4 x 6 strips and attached with spray adhesive.

I finished the edges with a soft yellow satin stitch and marked the back with the words Postcard and named the card Sunshine & Flowers 1 and 2. I think they turned out really nice... if you are interested you can see them on my Etsy page or see the link to the right of this blog which will take you right to them.

And so I am now obsessed. I am constantly thinking of making the next ones. I sincerely hope that they are popular as they are so much fun!!!!!

www.jenjie.etsy.com

Here's to learning something new each day, and finding your joy!!!!