Big Things ... Little Things

January has been both restful and eventful.
The extremely frigid weather has kept us inside most of the time.
We even had a couple of snows.

Late December and early January were spent with our dear friends,
Alice and Fred, who were visiting from Florida.
So many wonderful times we had with them.
DH and Fred love working together outside on lots of different projects,
fixing things in the garage, working on the motorcycles,
making trips to Home Depot, guy kinds of things.
Fred is such a blessing because DH has ideas and
Fred gets the ideas up and running, so to speak.
Alice and I loooove just spending time together
catching up on our families, sharing what the Lord has done in our lives,
talking about the Lord, Bible studies, what He's saying to us.
You get the idea. And all of that over many cups of coffee.
We were sorry to bid them adieu as they left for their home
in Florida the first week of January.

Then DH and I spent lots of time at home recovering from
that nasty flu bug. Yuck. So thankful to say now the
key word is recovery. We have recovered and life has gotten back to normal.
"Normal" is going here and there, Bible studies,
getting to have the grandkids over, fellowship with our life group.
(The grands are FUN in ALL CAPS. ;-)
(One of DH's favorite things to do during the month of January
is make several daily trips to the mailbox
to see whether it holds any goodies for the tax return
that isn't due until April. It is one of the fun things he enjoys doing,
and boy, am I glad it is fun for him because it isn't for me.)

I've had my annual visit with the doctor, and while I'm in really good health,
was disappointed to hear that I have to begin medication for severe osteopenia.
I fell off the wagon in exercising and getting all the calcium needed to stave
that problem off a little longer.
My good news though from the optometrist was that
my mono vision is still working as it is supposed to work.
So I love it that there is no need for eyeglasses of any kind,
I can see to read, and great distances, as well.
That has been a huge blessing resulting from the decision
in 2000 to have lasik surgery.
All in all, I'm feeling very fortunate and
very thankful to be in good health in light
of some of the health issues other friends are currently experiencing.

Bible Study Fellowship (studying Genesis)
and Ladies of Grace (studying the Gospel of Mark) resumed on January 8,
and our Life Group is about to conclude the Tony Evans' study on Ephesians 6.
Whew!
Our Life Group also meets every two weeks on Friday nights
to discuss the Tony Evans' study -
we take turns hosting that.

And this week was the week that my sweet friend and "daughter" Liz,
whose story I have told before on this blog here,
got still yet another MIRACLE,
an answer to the prayer for her surgery!

Her life in the past seven years has been
an amazing testimony to everyone around her
of God's outstretched hand to bring his kids back
and love on them in many unexpected ways.
Two weeks ago, her 3 Moms had lunch
with her at Babe's Chicken House to celebrate her birthday
and the upcoming surgery.
I love this girl and her optimistic outlook and her great faith!
She may be confined to a wheelchair for these past six years,
but that isn't stopping her from running the race
and having faith to believe that yes, she will one day walk!

Liz had asked her Mom (her birth mom - haha)
to have all of our Ladies of Grace group
send Scripture to her for encouragement in the upcoming surgery.
One of the things I had the privilege to do was to present to Liz a blanket
upon which we all had written our favorite Bible verses.
She loved it!

Some of the funnies from our kids:
I ask Kate if she can speak up when I'm driving 70 mph and
she is in the back seat trying to tell me something.
She has the sweetest little voice.
One day she was very frustrated with me.
"Nonnie, I need --------------- and
voice fades out."
What?
"I need ------------ voice fades out."
"Nonnie, I'm trying to tell you -------"
After four times, I stopped the car to hear what
that sweetie is trying to tell me.
"Nonnie, I need my hood up."
LOL
(We're in the car with windows all up and she needs her hood up.)

So now, I have explained to her, Nonnie and Grandpa
don't hear very well.
We are going to have to work this one out because she now
talks to me as one would with a really deaf person.

 

Little Toot giving the Stink Eye

Fun times with Grandpa

 And Jack!

This is the little guy I love so much and who is usually so happy to see me.
My feelings were somewhat hurt the other day when I dropped in unexpectedly.
Jack came to the door with his Mama, very excited.
He then looks at me, looks past me out the door,
holds up his little hands and shrugs and says,
"Where Papa?"
What???
Then he goes over to the window to look outside and asks
again, "Where Papa?"
Well!!! As Jack Benny used to say!!
He friendlied up to me later, but still ...
(Grandpa loves this story, by the way.)

Brady and Noah.
They are so very funny.
We get to talk with them on Face Time and
they are quite the show-offs.

They play, laugh, wrestle, hit each other.
It gets a little scary.
Makes us tired watching them.
This has slowed down somewhat the last two FT calls
because Mama threatens they won't get to watch their movie
after the phone call if they get too rowdy.

They use their iPad to call us

The other night they called and had lots of
Knock-Knock jokes for us.

Brady is reading and writing very well now
and he has written several notes and thank you letters,
and to each Noah adds his Print-a-ture.

I'm not kidding you.
Brady, six years old has spelled every word in his note correctly,
which is more than I can say for many adults.

And Noah, four years old, here are a few of the things he said during
our last visit to their house at Christmas.
How I cherish these comments.

"I want to sleep with you, Nonnie. I love you."
(Part of the appeal here is that I sleep on an Airbed when we visit!)

 

"Are you staying two nights?"

"That's 48 hours because there's 24 hours in a day.

so yay, you're staying two nights."

 

When they hear we are coming for a visit, Mama tells us they are very excited and tell her things such as,

 "I can't wait for Nonnie and Papa to get here."

"I can't wait for Nonnie and Papa to see me open my present and see my hamster.

I know I'm getting a hamster for Christmas."

(He got so many other things he wanted, he didn't seem too disappointed

that there was no hamster waiting for him under the Christmas tree.)

 

 

(Sadness and frowns to hear we have to leave because they don't want us to go.)

 

"I wish you could live here with us.

I wish you could live in the house across the street and we could see you every day."

 

Big things ... little things.

They all add up to make life great!

It will be interesting to see what February brings.