Nonnie's Random Thoughts

Friday, October 17, 2014

That "thing"

Have you ever longed for something you wanted so badly you could almost taste it?

or tried to hold on to something that slipped through your fingers

no matter how tightly you held on to it?

Photo Credit

That thing you have tried to grasp, but has always eluded you?

In pondering some circumstances I've experienced in my life,

or some "thing" that is missing which has greatly disappointed me,

or some "thing" others have which I don't have.

That "thing" may be the very "thing" that God will use to strengthen me

by His grace to conform me to His image.

I can't see it, but He can.

See the lack ...

see the disappointment ...

as maybe a gift instead of a withholding from God.

Photo Credit

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

More good questions from Joyce. Here are my answers to the questions for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back over to Joyce at From This Side of the Pond to share answers and add your link to the party...see you there!

1. What's your favorite time of day? Why?

5:00 to 7:30 am. Waking up to a new day! That first cup of coffee! The morning is peaceful and undisturbed (well ... at least the majority of the time.) It has been my dedicated time for many years to devotions, Bible study, making plans for the day, and then on to breakfast time with my favorite husband!

2. Waffle iron, toaster, coffee maker, mixer, blender...which small appliance would you say most needs replacing in your house?

"Everything's up to date in Kansas City." :-) (You know I'm really not in Kansas City - I just always thought that was a fun song to sing!)

My Oster blender is old, but still works better than any of the new ones I tried to replace it with, only to return because they aren't as good.
The Belgian waffle maker makes the best waffles, the toaster is in good shape, Keurig is wonderful, BUT I guess maybe if somebody were to surprise me with a really nice mixer, I wouldn't turn it away. I'm just not ready to spring for a big mixer. My hand mixer is sufficient for what I do.

3. It's National Grouch Day (October 15)...what's something that makes you feel grouchy?

I'm not one to be grouchy, but when I have something in my eye, it seems to require my full attention and the longer it irritates, the grouchier I become. It was especially troublesome during the years I wore contact lenses.

4. Ever been to Canada? Is that a country you'd like to visit? According to Trip Advisor, the top ten best destinations in Canada are-Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Victoria, Calgary, Niagara on the Lake, Niagara Falls, Whistler, and Halifax. Which city would you most like to see?

We've been to Vancouver, Toronto, Victoria, Halifax and Niagara Falls. Victoria and Niagara Falls were my favorites ... both beautiful places to visit. I've heard good things about Quebec and the architecture there, so I might like to visit someday, but since Calgary is on the tour for the Royal Canadian Railroad and visiting Lake Louise, I think that would be my first choice. That trip is on our bucket list, for sure.

With my sister and DH in front of
(I'm guessing) the river from Niagara Falls.

5. What was your favorite food (or one of your favorites) when you were a child? Is that still a favorite?

Pinto beans and cornbread, covered with cottage cheese and ketchup and fried potatoes on the side. It is still one of my favorite comfort foods with the addition of fresh tomatoes. (I hope the description of this favorite for me didn't gross anybody out! I realize it sounds a little strange.)

6. Do you cry easily?

Not as much as I used to. I've hardened my heart to things I recognize are purposely designed to manipulate me to tears - some overly gushy, sentimental types of movies for instance. I cry easily when someone is sharing an especially moving story, or at someone else's hurt, and I've cried over mistakes I've made. I cry sometimes when I'm reading the Bible in front of a group or to my husband.

When I was 13 years old, my family was at the funeral services of a beloved friend. As the minister was telling us about the deceased's last moments, it wrenched my heart and I began sobbing over his vision of seeing and hearing angels waiting for him. Unfortunately, as I looked down at my handkerchief and the front of my lovely white blouse, I realized my nose was gushing with blood and had to leave. I decided then and there with strong resolve that I would avoid crying in public forever!

7. Have you started your (gasp!) Christmas shopping? If so when, and how much? If not, when will you even begin thinking about it?

No! No! No! I am thinking about it now, but the first action I take will be sometime around the middle of November. Panic will set in around the first of December, and then by mid-December, I will be frantic and in the process of spending way too much money, defending all of the spending with husband, and feeling regret that I didn't start shopping in August.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

My random thought at this moment is to say thank you, Joyce, for the Hodgepodge questions. I enjoy reading everyone else's thoughts. I especially appreciate you Joyce for stimulating good conversation across the miles from different - yet similar - backgrounds and memories.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Nonnie Shirt

It's always a treat to find a handwritten note card in the mailbox!

But even more fun is finding an unexpected package addressed to me!

Last Wednesday night I came home from church,

checked the mailbox

and found a package with my name on it!

What a surprise to find inside a tee-shirt with

my Grandma name on front of it!

Thank you, Susan, my sweet sis-in-law for thinking of me!

Sentimental Sunday

In the kitchen on a recent Sunday morning baking up a treat for my Dear Heart

musing on Sundays from the past.

Getting ready for church

(singing softly to myself because DH is still sleeping)

stirred up a few pictures in my mind of times past.

My sweet Mama getting a roast in the oven to cook while we're in church ...

The happy sounds of gospel music .. quartets, Happy Goodman Family ... floated throughout our small house from the Gospel Jubilee on TV

... those are precious memories.

(Interesting I can find no pictures of Mom so busy at work in the kitchen since she spent so much time there. We just didn't take many pictures back then.)

My Dad in his chair. Us in the kitchen the night before munching on cookies - no snacks in our living room! My hair in those awful pink sponge curlers!

I can almost hear the sounds as we rushed around taking turns in our one bathroom.
Life wasn't perfect, but there was love and peace in our home.

Sunday School was always a pleasure to me, and I thank God for every teacher
who gave her time, talents and treasure to invest in us.
I worked hard on the lesson in the "quarterly" the week before.

Coming home to the smells of Sunday dinner ...

All of us around the table.

Reading the story that afternoon from the lesson.

Sunday naps.

Life is good in the present.

I don't want to go back there.

A Sunday afternoon visit would be nice.
But for now the memories will suffice.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Memory Monday

Being somewhat sentimental, I think I am going to enjoy

sharing a few memories with Retired not tired Memory Monday.

Come join in with your own memories each week to encourage

the writing of them, then link your memories to share with everyone.

Today's first is My First Home.

However, having just got in on this, I have decided to include the first memory as well.

My First Memory

Only yesterday my sister and I were discussing this. My first memory is from the street where we lived when I was almost 3. I remember the inside of our house, but don't remember the colors. I remember the day they brought my baby sister home that I cried and threw a hissy fit. Oh, color me sad that day. :-) (I love my sister very much.) Whether I had missed my Mom while she was at the hospital or whether jealousy provoked the tears, I'm not sure. Also my memories from this street were trips to the little store on the corner with my Mom, and sitting on the counter while the young lady in the store painted my toenails. One last memory was that of a toddler on the street carrying a very heavy, smelly load in his diaper and walking around oblivious to it! Strange memory. :-)

I don't have any pics of that house of my first memory, but I do have a pic of my Mom, my sister and me in front of the car in front of the house.

My First Home

I recently posted a couple of photos of my first home. Because of my husband's new job, we were moving from San Antonio to the Dallas area, and had only a couple of weekends in early October to find a new home. After trekking through many houses, and confusion reigning from different floor plans and house styles, we just happened to walk into a newly built house where the builder was sitting inside. We struck up a conversation with him and learned that he was a retired engineer from Texas Instruments and this was the first home he had undertaken to build. Henry Lane had put great care into the building of the home for another couple, but the deal had just fallen through for them. I was soooooo very excited that this might be the one for us, even though the price range was a little more than we had planned on spending.

It was 1973 and the colors were warm yellows and orange, the thick shag carpet was pale yellow and tan. The family room with a wood burning fireplace was huge (to me) with its cathedral ceiling and beams, portrait paneling and French doors. The wonderful kitchen with copper tone appliances and walnut cabinets just felt like home, even empty. When he told us he would put in a fence for us, we made a deal.

Looks like I'm getting ready to bake something in my nice yellow kitchen!! :-)

Isn't it funny how desirable colors evolve over the years?

I would not want a yellow and orange kitchen now!

Having grown up in very small houses, I had never dreamed I would live in such a spacious house. To think of two people living in a house just under 2,000 square feet was unbelievable. It was home for 30 years and I could go on and on about the sweet memories made there. I was so thankful to be able to keep this home after my husband passed away. When I later remarried, it was a relief to me that DH was fine with living there until I was ready to move on.

After we did move away, I cried and cried for months and I still have a sentimental attachment to that house. I'm very happy and content where we live now, but there is just something about that first house that feels as though it still belongs to me. So every now and again, I have to drive by when I'm in the neighborhood to "see how it's getting along" and if the present owners are taking care of it.

See the little house with the chimney and the rock building beside it? The rock building is a garage with a tiny apartment above it. That is where I was born, so TECHNICALLY, that is my first home! And the little wooden house there was where my Granny and Grandad lived. Someday I will have to tell the very sad story about the end of this little house and how grateful I am for the way God works in our lives.

With my Aunt Nancy and her dog

My Dad, Mom and me.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Wednesday Hodgepodge Volume 193

1. Do you manage your own money or do you have a financial planner who helps in some way? Do those kinds of conversations stress you out? A lot or a little?

We saw a financial planner when we first decided to retire. Since then, my husband handles it all and he's doing a great job. Finances stress me out, so he reassures me probably a couple times a month. Only problem with that is he chooses to do so in our conversations just before we go to sleep! That is stressful! :-)

The very first time I consulted a financial planner was after my first husband passed away and I needed to make some important decisions. One of the investments the guy recommended went bankrupt and I lost my investment and the income. Boo-hiss!! I guess that happens!

2. The second week of October is Pet Peeve Week. Off the top of your head, share TWO of your current pet peeves.

Clothes hangers!!! Cabinet doors left open. Dishes left on furniture. Conversations with people who interrupt or won't stop talking to give someone else a chance to talk. Oh!! You said only two.

3. What is one thing you'd like to learn right now, this very week if you could?

I would love to learn to play the piano really well, so I could play and sing.

4. How concerned are you about the recent health related news concerning Ebola? How about Enterovirus D68?

I'm concerned about the virus as it seems to be so widespread and for our grandchildren. The Ebola. I'm hopeful it will be contained. And I'm trusting God on both of them.

5. Garfield, Nemo, or Tigger-your favorite orange cartoon character?

Are we talking Nemo as in Finding Nemo? That would be the one for me!

6. I'm going to see Gone Girl with my neighborhood book club this week. So often books made into film are disappointing. What's a book turned film you thought was well done, in that the casting was 'like you pictured' when you read the book, and the film plot remained mostly true to the book plot?

I was very satisfied with Gone with the Wind. You can see by this statement that we don't go to see many movies!! Does Lonesome Dove count? I'm trying to remember a more recent movie that did the same. Looking forward to seeing Unbroken because that was an incredible book. I was disappointed to read that Angelina Jolie did not include what I considered the most important part of the book - the redemption of Louis Zamperelli and his life after the war. :-(

7. What is one story your family always tells about you?

How I almost drowned them all in the Gulf of Mexico at South Padre Island when an undercurrent swept me away!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

The State Fair of Texas is in process right now. When my husband was with the fire department, we went every year to assist the adult clients from the state school. It was so much fun experiencing the fair through their eyes. They were like children in their joy and excitement to greet us each year as their old friends who escorted them around the fair and ride the rides with them.

All the food. Well, I guess I really don't need any of those strange fried foods right now. Maybe next year.