I'll Get There Eventually...

My trip to visit with my youngest and his wife was a week ago, and I'm just now writing about it. It's been a crazy week.

The trip west went well. The flight out of XNA in NWA to DFW was good; I actually arrived early. I had Chick-fil-A for lunch! Great news since we don't have one in the small town I now live in. After that, the flight to Houston was uneventful (as we like for flights to be). I arrived there on time; around 5 pm last Wednesday.

We had a great visit. We went to museums, took walks in the neighborhood, and visited quaint little bookshops. They took me to a great little shop called British Isles where everything in the store was from the UK. What a treat it was to go there! Everyone knows that I am completely enamored with the UK and it's at the top of my bucket list.

I got to see their Houston: the places they like to go. It was wonderful! We had lunch in a couple of places, but my fave was Picnic. Great soups and sandwiches, and the atmosphere was so relaxing. I didn't get a picture of everything, but I got a few.

I got to see the play that Jeff was in TWICE! It was so good! I hadn't seen him acting in over a decade. On Saturday night, while he was in the final show, Alli and I went to a play in a different section of the city. We saw The Play that Goes Wrong, and it was hilarious!

They kept me entertained and fed, and they even got me the cutest and most delicious cookie cake for Mother's Day. We had lots of time to just talk and be together. We always have a great time when we get to be together. We even got to play a couple of board games.

Then sadly, it was time for me to embark on the trip home. Last Sunday morning, I woke up to stormy skies and a message from my airline that my flight was delayed...

This went on all day. I had my son and daughter-in-law to take me to the airport when we thought my flight was leaving at 2:30 (instead of 10:53). By the time I was walking into the airport to print my boarding pass, it had changed to 3:15. 

I finally got to fly out of Houston at 6:36pm, almost 8 hours behind schedule. Then in Dallas I was on 2 standby lists for flights to XNA at 8:30 and 10:30pm, because I had missed my connecting flight and had been put on an 8:45am flight on MONDAY!!! The airline does not pay for lodging in the case of weather delays, so I was faced with having to possibly get a hotel in Dallas for the night and come back to the airport by 6:30am to check in. I did NOT want to do that.

I was starting to feel abandoned, forsaken, and alone. So I did what I always do in these cases: I prayed. I texted friends and family to pray with me that I would get on one of the standby flights. I remembered a scripture as I prayed:

"I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread." Psalm 37:25 NASB.

So I prayed this and stood on it.

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I didn't get on the first flight but praise the Lord! I got on the one at 10:30pm. I was finally headed back home. The flight was good and another uneventful one, with one exception: as we started our descent into the airport, I suddenly had searing pain in my head, behind my left eye. I seriously thought I might be having a stroke. It was so scary! However, the lower we got, the less painful it was. By the time we were on the ground, my head had stopped hurting.

It was after midnight by this time, and I was exhausted. I checked myself for indications of a stroke and found none, so I made my way to the hotel, checked in, got to my room, and collapsed on my bed. Then I googled about pain behind the eyes during flight descent for the next 30 minutes or so.

You probably already guessed; it was sinus related. I read about uneven cabin pressure and its effect on swollen sinus passages. Everything I read seemed to point to that. It didn't help that it was a smaller plane; the others I had been on this trip had been larger, in the 747 category. I would imagine the cabin pressure was distributed better on a larger plane, but I don't really know. Upon my return home, I saw a doctor and was diagnosed with a sinus infection due to a lot of fluid behind my left ear. This would account for the pain I was told.

But the story doesn't end there. Turns out I'm allergic to the antibiotic I was prescribed! I ended up in the ER with a rash and swollen, red mouth and eyes (because, of course, the symptoms started several hours after the 4th dose and just after the walk-in clinic closed at 8pm).

I can't make this stuff up. LOL!

I was told it was non-anaphylactic allergy, thank God, and sent home to take Benadryl. The next morning, I looked even worse. The skin around and under my eyes was really red and my eyes were swollen almost shut. It has taken 4 days for those 4 doses to get out of my system, but I'm currently almost "normal" again. I'm thankful I didn't take more than that!

I still love to travel, and I even love to fly. I'll just make sure I have taken allergy meds before I fly next time.

Thanks for reading my ramblings, friends. I don't travel often, so it's "big news," LOL. 

Someone Else Will

I'm new to the whole birdfeeder-in-the-backyard thing. After all, I've been retired less than 2 years. I'm learning about the bird population in my area and what they like to eat, but word has spread in the bird community lately, and there are more birds coming to my backyard this spring than there were last year.

I realized I hadn't been keeping up with the feeder as well and I meant to when I noticed it was empty again.

"I let the birdfeeder get empty again, and the birds are going hungry," I thought to myself.

Now, the Lord doesn't speak to me audibly, but I sometimes I just get a sense of what He's saying. In my spirit I felt Him say:

"I won't let them starve. I use many different means to feed the birds."

Ok. There are two of the things I know I'm called to do. First, all Christians are called to the Great Commission of sharing the Good News about Jesus with the lost. The second one, encouraging others, is one of my spiritual gifts. I realized this early in my walk with Christ, and it's still one of the things I'm called to do. It's one of the reasons I write this blog.

So I'm standing in my kitchen, looking out into my backyard. The thought occurred suddenly to me that sometimes we rationalize this way about sharing the Gospel and encouraging others.

Well, if I don't do it someone else will.

Yes, someone else will, because God desires for all to come to Him and be saved. He is "not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9 NASB

But...someone else will get the reward for that lost soul being saved.

Someone else will be rewarded in heaven for encouraging that person that was on my heart, but I couldn't be bothered to reach out to them when I felt the tug on my heart to do so.

This revelation was earth-shattering to me.

Something inside me broke. I was convicted of my actions, or lack thereof:

I'm guilty of not sharing Jesus every time I feel like I'm supposed to.

There are times I know I need to write a note of encouragement to someone and I don't do it.

There are times when I really, truly know I'm supposed to write a blog post about something for some person to see someday, probably someone I don't even know. I'll write it in the morning, I tell myself.

In the morning, I can't recall what I was going to write about. IF I even remember it at all.

Someone else could do it, but I'm committed afresh to not let someone else do what God asked me to do.

Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing.1 Thessalonians 5:11 NASB

A Note About Spring

I've mentioned before that I didn't like Spring. In fact, I believe I said I hated it. Granted, I mostly hated it because of tornadoes, but I also didn't like the pollen that torments allergy sufferers.

Anyway, there are some new developments on that topic.

Spring is...growing on me. (I promise there's no pun intended here, seriously). It might have started with something my granddaughter said to me recently. I had mentioned that I was sad Winter was leaving, and she said Spring was her favorite season because that's when Jesus died for our sins and then rose on the third day.

I started to argue that we didn't know the exact time of year, like for instance, Christmas probably isn't the time of year He was born. But then, I quickly remembered, concerning His resurrection, yes it is. Yes, Jesus' death and resurrection was in the Spring. It was at passover. So I had this little argument in my head, thankfully, and never said a word about it out loud. 

A while back I was having a little prayer time while walking in the park, and I felt convicted about my stance on Spring. The Lord reminded me that Spring is a joyous time of new growth, and, as my granddaughter had mentioned, it was when He redeemed all mankind. 

As I walked, I was noticing the daffodils blooming in large bunches all over. Daffodils are very special to me (see Just a Daffodil, Feb. 25, 2018 in my older blog posts), but I've actually started to enjoy other things about spring as well.

I enjoy hearing the birds singing. I love to see the birds at my birdfeeder in my backyard. I also really enjoy a day when I can raise the windows and let the fresh, Spring air flow through the house. 

So I guess the Lord is changing my heart. If He can work in the heart of an old curmudgeon like me, He can work in anyone!

On a related note, I haven't posted the sunrises much lately, but I took a picture this morning. The first picture is January 27. The second one is this morning, March 15. Look how much farther toward the northeast it is rising now! 

I love this part of science. It's fascinating to me!

Also, notice the birds at my backyard birdfeeder. I love to watch them. 

Be blessed! 

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118.24 ESV

Weathering Storms

For southerners the weather in the spring is very volatile. It can turn "on a dime" and produce a tornado in seconds. This is the main reason I don't like spring. I've spent a lot of spring and summer days, evenings, and nights hunkered down, since I was a child, mind you, in the lowest point in my home, away from windows, praying for the weather to play nice, if you please. It "doesn't please" sometimes, though. It barrels on through on its mission to terrify and destroy.

Yes, I "may possibly" have PTSD due to tornadic storms.

Even though I don't technically live in fear, because I know that God takes care of me, the triggers have been in place for most of my life. It's something I have struggled with for years and feel I have come a long way towards overcoming the traumatic experiences that caused me to react the way I do.

We had one of those middle of the night severe weather events last week, and I feel like I need to share what I realized that night. First, I need to give a little background, listing 2 times before that I know for a fact that I survived a documented tornado.

In 1996, my family and I survived a F-3 tornado that evidently and miraculously lifted up off the ground as it got near us. Inside the house (we had no time to go anywhere, and nowhere to go), I felt the pressure drop, and fear gripped me in the form of a sickening feeling. Later, when we went outside, we found our outbuildings picked up and scattered and our trees either gone or lying on the ground. Our house, however, a 14 x 70 mobile home, was to our astonishment completely untouched except for one row of shingles at the bottom edge of the roof, all across the back of the house. It was both terrifying and exhilarating to see how God had protected us.

Fast-forward to 2021. There had been multiple severe weather scares over the years, but never anything like 1996. In May of 2021, though, a tornado touched down mere blocks from me. I was in my small, 900 square foot little wood frame house in Van Buren, hiding in my bedroom closet; the only place in my house without an outside wall. As the wind and thunder roared outside, I was keeping track of the tornado's whereabouts on the TV in the bedroom. It was definitely headed in my direction, but I didn't find out until it was too late to run to the tornado shelter at the school a block away. I heard and felt heavy objects hitting the house as I cowered in my closet, praying for God to protect me. The power went out, but the storm raged. Shaking, from inside the closet I pulled up the TV station on my phone. I watched the storm's track on the radar until the noise outside started to diminish somewhat. 

I learned later that this was an EF-1 tornado. It did quite a bit of damage in my area; mostly uprooting trees and tossing them about. The loud heavy objects I heard and felt hitting my house were large branches of a tree in my backyard. One of them took down my powerline to the electrical pole behind my house.

A dear friend of mine called, then came by to see if I was ok and offered to take me to her house. I was shaken, but extremely thankful to be unhurt. There was no visible damage to my house or car from what I could tell in the dark. I accepted her offer of hospitality and left with her to stay in her guest room that night. Air conditioning is important in May in the south! Even though technically I would have been ok in my house, with no AC and no ceiling fan there would be no sleep. I opted not to stay there that night, since I was quite rattled from the storm I'd been through. 

So as you can see, I've lived through some trauma in the past. Unlike the 1996 tornado when I huddled in my living with my family under the couch we had turned over for protection, for the last 25 years I have ridden out the storms alone; at least, with no friend or family member with me. God was always with me, though.

Last week, I was awakened at 2:30 am by the tornado siren. I jumped out of bed, and muttering "great!" under my breath, I grabbed my phone and took shelter in my bathroom. Pulling up a "local" (Springfield, MO) TV station thanks to an app on my phone, I was hoping to see that the actual storm was in another area of the county (the sirens blow in the county where I live now regardless of where in the county the storm cloud is). However, to my dismay, I discovered there was a rotating cloud just west of my neighborhood, headed right over me. Once again, I was hiding from a storm and praying for protection. Praise the Lord, it stayed in the air and passed over me without causing any harm. I went back to bed as soon as it had passed, but it took a while for me to go back to sleep.

As I was attempting to go back to sleep at 3:30 am last Thursday morning, I was thanking God for keeping me safe. It then occurred to me that He has always kept me safe, regardless of the severity of damage that happened outwardly. From the bad storm of '96 to the smaller but still damaging storm 2 years ago and all the way back to my childhood, HE has been with me in every single storm.

I do have a point to make. Not all storms are weather storms. We all have storms of various kinds in life that we go through. God never promised we wouldn't have storms, but He did promise He would protect us in those storms. I am thankful for His protecting hand on me in all the storms of life. That is the point of this long post today. 

If you haven't already, please put your trust in Jesus and you will never weather a storm alone.

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. Psalm 57:1 ESV

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Happy New(ish) Year and Assorted Other Stuff

Well, here it is February, and I haven't posted in my blog. There's a reason for this. I thought I would spend a little time catching you up on my blog-posting saga.

A few months ago, I became very discouraged because it seemed no one wanted to read my blog anymore. I noticed that lots of people read my Facebook posts, though. So I'm not sure what the disconnect is concerning my blog. I used to post a link to it on my Facebook page and people clicked on the link and read it. Then people quit doing that but they were reading my FB posts. I was confused.

I decided to post on FB first, then copy and paste it to my blog, just so I could keep it. Facebook has changed so much over the years, and I was concerned that I would lose those posts. Posting them to my blog seemed the logical choice. 

This worked for a while, then in the busyness of the Holiday season (this is my excuse, and I'm sticking with it!) I kept forgetting to post my FB posts to my blog.

So here we are in February 2023, as I stated earlier. I am back to the drawing board. I've decided I'm going to be posting on my blog so I can keep the posts for material for my book writing, and I will also post the same content to Facebook.

This content, starting with New Year's Day, will be below. This post may be a little long, but I'm reasonably sure no one is going to read this since I've already posted this to my FB. This is just so it's on the blog.

Christmas 2022 with Family

December 10-12 (even though the 12th was a Monday): 

Over the weekend I went to see friends and family in my hometown. It was a good visit, but too short. I spent some time with BFFs. We had dinner at a restaurant downtown, then we watched the Christmas Parade.

I also got to spend time with my firstborn, who lives out of state. I hadn’t seen him in too long. I blame the pandemic. We had a nice visit with our cousin and her husband (but forgot to get pictures).

My son and I watched movies, talked and got caught up, got coffee and walked around in the beautiful downtown area, and the last night I was there we drove through the park to enjoy the Christmas lights. It was a great visit.

We didn’t take many pictures, but the quality time is more important than the documentation anyway. We did take a picture of eating biscuits and gravy at our hometown's Braums. Neither of us have one where we live now. I have posted pictures at the bottom of this post.

December 25, Christmas Day with Family.

My daughter posted the following: It started calm. It ended wild. But, that is always the case when Rhett is involved. Absolutely wonderful Christmas!! We even sang Happy Birthday to Jesus! Merry Christmas!!!!

My youngest and his wife drove in to spend Christmas with us. So we had a great time hanging out.

...Christmas with family, continues…

Christmas night after dinner at my daughter's, we came back to my house. My son, his wife, and I opened our gifts to each other. We had our traditional Christmas crackers and even remembered to take a picture.

After a late breakfast we went for a walk. The pond was still mostly frozen because is the extreme cold temperatures we’ve been having. We had to take pictures because we southerners don’t often encounter frozen ponds.

We wanted to go to the library, but they were closed. Hopefully we can go there before they head back home.

December 27...

We went to the library and looked around. My son and his wife had never seen my library here, where I spend a lot of time. It's a fabulous place to be.

Afterwards, they got in their car and headed back to the far away city where they live. It was a great visit, but I was lonely the rest of the day.

I love spending time with my family. Over the course of 2 weeks, I got to see all three of my grown children, and my grandchildren (they live across town from me).

I hope all my readers had a fantastic and Merry Christmas! Blessings to you in 2023!!!

* My apologies for the haphazard way the photos are installed. The options for moving them around have been taken away. So this is what we are left with. *

Winter Solstice

8:00 am on winter solstice; the sun rising as far south as it will. Now the days will start being longer and the sun will rise earlier and farther east every day. I wish it could stay like this, late sunrises, but it won’t. I like winter (within reason—not looking forward to the extreme cold we’re going to get). I like being indoors, warm and cozy. I like doing winter things, like reading, working on picture albums, etc.

It’s actually just now really winter. Spring will be here in a couple of months and I dread the heat, the bugs, and the expectation that I need to get outdoors.

I don’t want to. I like indoors.

So for now, I’m still enjoying winter, even if its days are numbered. Drinking my coffee, listening to Christmas music, and preparing for Christmas. 

Have a great day! It will be a heat wave compared to tomorrow. 😀