The Parade

Today she is trying to talk on the telephone. Sometimes when you are a busy mom you just don't get to talk much and you get lonesome for some adult conversation. "Hello, how are you, I have so much to tell you"

All of a sudden you can hear many children in the back ground - they need immediate attention as if an emergency has just taken place and the only paramedic in a 50 mile radius is "MOM!!!!!"
"just a minuet she says to the phone"

"Okay, I love the recorder music, however, that can only be played outside. A recorder is not an inside instrument. It is meant to be used in a parade.
Listen up my friends, this is going to be fun!
JaciAnna you will play the recorder,
Conner, here is a coffee can and a spoon, you will play the drums.
I need the rest of the kids to line up behind them, put your hands together, clap and sing. Here is a pail for each of you, fill them up with grass. You can throw it to all those people here on the side of the driveway, they are here to watch your parade.
One on the firetruck, one on the Dora bike, get out some play clothes...
yes,
there we go - you got it!!!
Have fun every one!"

"Okay, hello, I'm back, did you want to come over and watch a parade?"

BROCCOLI

He has seen many women today already, asking if they were Dr.'s or nurses, each woman has told him that they were a nurse. Then finally after some waiting, and a whole lot of nurses, in walks the Dr. and he is a man. You can tell by his face that he is thinking. How does this place work anyway? All these women, taking my blood pressure, listening to my heart, asking if I need shots... he can't hold his voice any longer... he must talk...
"Are you the Dr. in this place?"
"Why yes, I am the Dr."
"Well, can I ask your opinion on something?"
"You most certainly can"
"Well, do you think that women should be Dr.'s?"
The Dr.laughs to himself, "yes, my opinion is that women make very good Dr.'s"
With the little guys mind spinning now he really needs to know...
"My poop is really hard... in your opinion, if I were an alligator would my poop be softer"
The Dr. answers "no, alligators are not known to have soft poop either. The best thing to do is drink lots of water, and eat a lot of fruit and vegetables... like carrots and broccoli."

Well that must be exactly what Conner needed to hear. He turns to his mother and very matter a factually states...

"MOM, WE WILL NEED TO GET SOME BROCCOLI".

RIVER OF LIFE

As she walks him down the halls of the apartment building, I can't help but feel how much love there is between them. He holds her hand, somehow in his mind she is familiar. As his brain cells get hardened by time, there isn't a lot that can be done. He holds her hand and when she needs to go "out" she gets someone to stay with him.
I watch this for a couple of years, talking to them each time I see them. "How's the weather, did you have a good day, how is your family, man it is cold out there, don't go out today - it is just to warm". As the seasons pass us by one day I am able to really see her, really see him. I take this moment to tell her "you take such wonderful care of your husband" she smiles, "well, he took such wonderful care of me for so many years, and he is not problem, he is such a good man"
he smiles... he really has no idea what she just said but he knows from her voice that she is kind and that she loves him. She has loved him through many miles, many turns and probably even a few mountains! He knows he is safe, he has come full circle with his wife of 50 some years.
The diagnosis comes and she has cancer, actually, they have never seen anything like it and can't believe that she has no pain. She is not afraid. The love of her life is happy somewhere else now... finding comfort in the caregivers that they now pay to take care of him. And the greatest love of her life has her future planned for her... He has gone ahead and prepared a place for her, a place with many rooms and streets of gold.
She settles in to her new home also, him down the hall from her. She is weak and can not talk, he walks to her room and peaks in... you see, he can't talk either. And there is no need for words as their eyes show the fluid color of blue, connecting the rivers of time. She takes his hand and holds it in hers... she tells him she loves him without saying a word - he embraces her with his arms never moving. To see a more beautiful display of love her on earth...
I don't think I ever will.
The Lord Blessed me to know this couple. I have learned a new unconditional love, I have seen a deep faith, and a river of life is flowing as she begins her walk on the streets of gold.

55 alive

As I am driving down the road going 55 miles per hour, I am being eatin' alive.
I am being passed by every vehicle in site.
So, I speed up to 60.
They continue to eat me alive, passing on hills, swerving in front of me to miss the car that will soon meet them head on. I slow down so they can pull safely in front of me.
And I wonder as I wander...
Why is the speed limit 55 miles per hour?
No one drives that, the cops won't even pick you up until 62 miles per hour.
So again I ask...
Why is the speed limit 55 miles per hour?
My vote is slow these people down!
You have much better control of your car at 35 miles per hour. The bumps in the road don't seem as bad, you are safer...
and as he speeds past me going at least 70,
swerves in front of me to miss the on coming car,
there he sits one inch in front of me at the stop sign??

First steps

Tonight I watch her, smiling at me, pretending to be shy at first. Then she does it - she takes a step, and then two, and then
to the floor
She will try again in a little while...
to take some more steps and then
to the floor.
And my memory goes back to so many years ago - seeing those first steps, realizing that they are growing and learning so much in those first years. Now it seems those first years have turned into their own first years. They watch as their babies take their steps... I watch with the same amazement I did then. Wondering to myself how this can be? How can this little life have been entrusted to us down here on earth? This precious little soul, so innocent, so uninhibited by the world. Jesus will guide the steps of those who ask...
Lord,
I pray that you will guide the steps of my grandchildren. That you will lead them along the path of righteousness, teach them Your ways, and that they will be safe in this world with Your love. Be with their parents as they learn what their purpose in life is. As they learn to follow your steps...
I ask that you would leave big prints so they can not miss where they are headed!
Thank-you
Amen!

Flowers and peanut butter

Lindsey came home on Friday afternoon to work on flowers for Chrissy Dotolo's wedding.
She brought many beautiful flowers and did a beautiful job putting them together into arrangements that would express the brides personality to all her guests. While she was working she got to hear a few stories from our Conner D. It seems if you make him a piece of peanut butter toast, he has a song to sing for you...

I like peanut butter on my toast,
I like peanut butter on my underwear, (as he looks at you and smiles, thinking, wondering if you think underwear is a swear word or if he can keep going with these lyrics!)
I like peanut butter in my hair!

He makes her laugh and that is what he loves to do.
By the time I get home he is ready for another round of eats.
This time it will be grapes...
and he eats them silently, without a song, thinking.
He then heads into the living room and starts telling me how the flowers that Lindsey is working on have stickers. These stickers will poke you and you will bleed if you touch them. Well, that explains everything! No wonder the police car, tractor, hay wagon, firetruck, and helicopter are ready to go - pigs and cows lined up on the fire station waiting for market! You must always be ready when Lindsey is working, you never know who the next one to get poked by a sticker may be!

God's grace

On Thursday (May 19th, 2011) we went to Emily's to bring her a tub of clean laundry. Grams had carefully washed and ironed things, I put them in outfits. We added a few newly bought garage sale items, and yes, with Lila, grams and myself we had a car full!
When we got there everything was taken to its proper place and I headed down to the basement. For some reason I do love it down there - I feel what my grand children were doing even though I can't always be there. I see how hard my daughter and son in law work to make ends meet for their family...
and then they come home to raise their family...
it is all in a days hours that you loose track...
time seems to get away on us as we handle the daily life skills.
How can you work 40 plus hours, make supper, buy groceries, wash clothes, clean house, play with the kids, teach family values, take baths, get ready for the next day, and prepare your kids for a restful night sleep - then get 8 hours of sleep and wake up to start it all again? I believe it is only by God's Grace we can do all things through Him who gives us strength!

I think we will take Conner D home with us tonight when we leave. If he is willing to leave his family for a little time at gramma and papa's house. It will be a nice break from his two sisters. It will be a nice break for his mom and dad. It seems when you have three kids and one is gone you have had half the world lifted off your shoulders. You get that break that you need to get you through another couple of months. Oh, please hear me, it isn't that you don't love your family, each and every one, it is just that one being gone for a small amount of time makes a big difference on how you look at things when they come back!

The little guy is thinking about it. He just isn't to sure he wants to come if his dad isn't coming, and how about his mom? I don't have the heart to tell him that I don't want his dad and mom right now - I just want him. I want to listen to his stories, and see his smiling face. I want to hold his little body and read him a story. I want to give him a sponge bath in the sink, put his little feet in the water and gently wash them. I want to rock him and sing him a song until he falls asleep in my arms.

Wonderful! He has told his mom and dad the reason he doesn't want to come is that I drive to slow in my car. The white van always wins and he wants to be the winner! Well, his dad and I can take care of that one quick! Chris, move that grocery getter over - greenie is passing you by...
I will drive fast -
so that I can have him for a little while -
and the green car wins, we are on or way to Arlington with Conner D and Lila in the back seat. We have just eaten at Raunaby and it is 7:30.
Passing the white van, waving at mom and dad, they start in their back seat conversation. It is the funniest thing that on this 2 hour drive the two of them talk to each other continuously. I am not joking about this, there was not a 5 second pause! They weren't interrupting each other either... they were conversing continuously for 1 and 1/2 hours! I wanted so bad to remember everything I was hearing. I know they talked a lot about the plastic pig they had. This little piggie went to market, this little piggie went home, then I heard Conner telling Lila that God is right here in your heart, Lila saying - yes, yes, that's right my boy! There conversation was like music in the back seat...
you can hear the melody but your not sure what the words are!
I thanked my God again at this moment... realizing it is only by His Grace that I am here to savor this moment, and although I can't save it - I can blog it with hopes of one day reading it and saying "I remember!"

About 1/2 hour from home, Lester Prairie outskirts to be exact,Gradma Dorius says "How about if we can see who can be quiet the longest, starting right now...?"

By the time we get into Lester Prairie the two of them are sleeping! We get to Arlington and unload the little guy into bed with grandpa. He won't know until the next morning that he indeed got to sleep with papa!! I get Lila to bed, take the laundry basket down to gramma's and return home. And, there is the little guy in my bed yet, snuggled next to his papa. I breath in the scent of his hair and skin as I gently kiss his forehead and I head upstairs to bed.

Who would have ever thought that God's Grace would carry me this far?
Thank-you Jesus for little guys, car rides, and that little piggie that went wee wee wee all the way home!