Category Archives: Family & Friends

A Mother’s Heart

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Lori, from A Cowboy’s Wife, writes about “The Hole in My Heart,” and shares about a friend who just had a miscarriage and about her own four miscarriages.   It was an emotionally painful experience to lose a baby!

There are some things that always remain in a mother’s heart, and one of those things is the love she has for her child.  Whether losing an unborn baby, a young child, or an adult son or daughter, the love a mother has for her child is so strong and will never die.  (“Love never dies,”  1 Corinthians 13: 8, The Message version)

My mother had at least one miscarriage before I was born.  She passed away and I can’t ask her if she had more than one miscarriage, and her younger brother and sister don’t remember.  (My uncle said those were things you just didn’t talk about back then.)   I remember dreaming about having an older brother when I was young.  Oh, how I wished I had a brother or sister!

After my mother passed away and I was going through her purse, I found some papers in a zippered compartment.  One of those papers was a receipt for a D&C after a miscarriage seven years before I was born.  That was for her miscarriage of a child dear to her, and she must have carried that receipt with her, hidden in her purse, all the rest of her living days because her love for that unborn child never died!   I realized then that yes, I did have a brother or sister.  I believe that life starts at conception (go to Biblegateway.com, type in Psalm 139:13-18, choose your favorite version…maybe “The Message” or the “New International Version,” then “Search the Bible”) so I did have a sibling and maybe it was a brother.

I have several friends who have have lost adult children, and I can’t imagine the pain they have gone through.  But I do know that God is the God of all comfort, and He has comforted them in the way that only He can.  Their faith in God has gotten them through!

Maybe you’ve lost a baby or a child or someone close to you has experienced that loss.  If you have something you would like to share, please leave a comment.  Your experience might help someone who is going through a hard time right now.



Amish White Chocolate Candy

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My mother-in-law has been interested in Amish people, factual and fictional books about Amish people, and Amish cooking for many, many years.  She even has a beautiful quilt on her bed that she bought in an Amish store.  Knowing this, a friend of my mother-in-law’s sent her this Amish recipe.  I think it sounds delicious and thought I would share it.  Someone might want to make it for a New Year’s Eve party coming up in a couple of days.  (Our son-in-law really likes peanut butter!  C, do you think he would like this?)  

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 pounds white chocolate
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 2 cups peanuts
  • 2 cups marshmallows
  • 3 cups rice krispies

Using a double boiler or the microwave, melt white chocolate.  Stir in peanut butter until well mixed.  Stir in the remaining ingredients.  Pour into a 9×13 pan.   Wait until it has cooled completely and then cut into squares.

Black Friday

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This Friday is “Black Friday,” and we plan to go for the good buys and for the novelty of it.  (I wish they had a different name for it.  I understand why they name it that, but it seems like a name for something dismal.  Haha)   For many years, I never had any desire to go, but then I found out how much fun it was to just go and be with our daughter and friends.   This year, I plan to go with my husband and our son, so this will be interesting and fun as well.

On Friday, we’ll probably be so full from eating Thanksgiving dinner the day before that we won’t want any desserts and definitely not any Swisher Sweets (I didn’t know what those were).  Maybe all the walking around will help us burn off some calories!  However, there is a lot of waiting in long lines before the stores open, and that doesn’t burn off many calories.  Oh, well.  It will be a great time to visit and catch up on things with our son who will be home from college.

The Holidays Are Nearly Here!

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The holidays are so fun when the kids come home!  It’s nice to have time to relax from the busy work and school schedules and enjoy being together.  We might play some video games on the Wii or maybe some of our favorite board games.   Watching all three parts of the Lord of the Rings is definitely on our list.

We’re already planning to do some Christmas shopping on Black Friday after Thanksgiving which means getting up soooo early.  Our daughter got me hooked on that, and so this year our son (who will be home from college) wants to go and even my husband plans to go, too.   It’s fun shopping with those you love, doing something totally crazy and different like shopping at 5 AM, and finding those terrific bargains.   Then we’ll probably go eat breakfast at I-Hop, where I have a really good coupon, and then go home and crash!   After that, we plan to set up the Christmas tree.  Makes for nice family memories!

Fall Festival & Trick-or-treating

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We will be helping with the Fall Festival where we go to church.  It is open to the community, and we will dress up and hand out candy from the back of our decorated van.  I don’t know what I will wear for a costume, though.  I certainly will not be wearing any certified diamonds. I will have to put on my thinking cap and figure out what I can wear.

Are any of you going trick-or-treating?  I miss doing that with my kids when they were young.  I think one thing that made it so fun was their excitement.  It was contagious!  Now they’re grown and our grandbabies live too far away to go with them.  I will have to be content with seeing pictures of them in their costumes.

Organic Cotton Tea Towels

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Cotton towels do the best job drying dishes, or at least I think so.  I saw towels from Ecokitchen, and they reminded me of ones we had when I was growing up, only ours were a lot thinner.  I remember my grandmother had 100% cotton dish towels, homemade from flour sacks many years ago.  I had a couple of  store bought ones that were OK  but not quite as good as my grandmother’s. She had so many towels through the years that by the time I came along, she still had some left.   I wish I had some of them.  Her towels were awesome for drying dishes or maybe it’s just the memory that’s so awesome!

Remodeling Again

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Our daughter and son-in-law have done a lot of remodeling in their house and plan to put ceramic tiles in their hall bathroom for the backsplash. They got a good deal on the tiles, and they plan to install the tile themselves. Our son-in-law did an great job on the floor tile he laid when they first moved in, and no doubt they’ll do a great job installing the tile for the backsplash.   I know their bathroom will look awesome when they get everything finished.

Remodeling

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We went to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and two grandbabies a couple of weeks ago.  They are planning to do a little remodeling in one of their bathrooms by replacing the sink, faucet, and countertop.  I don’t know if they’re using a Kohler faucet or what brand exactly, but I know it will look sharp when they finish. They always do a great job on whatever remodeling project they do!

Patti Page Organic Pancake Mix & Syrup

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If my daddy were still alive, I would get this for him for Christmas. One of his favorite singers was Patti Page.   I remember as a little girl, I loved the song she sang called “How Much is That Doggy in the Window?”  Most of you probably have never heard of it, but from what I remember it’s a good song.

Whose Guitar?

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2nd-sd-card-tonys-guitar-2-17-09-001For those of you who don’t know, my husband plays the guitar.  In fact the first night I met him many years ago, he played the guitar for me and my roommate out on the grass on the college campus where we were all attending.   Since then, he has played the guitar and sung at various restaurants in the past, and he has played at weddings and other events.

Nowadays, he volunteers to play at a local nursing home once a month.  It’s so cute to see these precious elderly people tapping their feet or maybe tapping on their wheel chair to the music.  It’s a little bit of a bright spot in their day.

He’s still teaching guitar lessons, and I’m trying to encourage him to work on his own blog about playing the guitar.  We’ll see how that goes.  I’ll let you know if and when he gets his blog up and going.

End of Summer Party

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There’s still time for an end of summer party, and what better way to invite friends to your party than with cute party invitations that are creative and not your usual store bought invitations. I liked these casual invitations because of the colors, and the flip flops reveal the casual nature of the party.  I would imagine that most of the guests might even wear flip flops to the party.

My Mother-in-Law’s Clematis Vine

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moms-clematis-vine

This is a picture of my mother-in-law’s backyard taken several years ago.  She had this beautiful clematis vine, but someone trimmed it back too much and it never has been this full again.

I tried to grow a clematis vine here in Texas once, but it didn’t last long.  I think the direct sun and heat was too much for it.  If I ever decide to try growing one again, I think I’ll plant it in a mostly shady area.