Counting Down to New Years

Hindsight is 2020, what sight is 2010? Looking back 2020 and looking forward 2010, we make our plans for the coming decade.
Our lives have changed so drastically, over this past decade. Changes of life have brought us into midlife challenges and we are striving to live for God's glory, when our hearts and minds get so weighted with cumbrances of time travel. Where have the years gone. We were just a couple of youngsters starting life together and here we are, planning our midlife years. I'll not say that they are upon us, I will say we are suffering the early tremors of midlife onset. We will fight it for all that we are worth. Running or walking daily will be a part of my new decade, {second decade of the Millenium}. I must lose this babyfat, LOL. I can't blame this on the babies anymore. I must get rid of it. Healthy regimens and now that I have tasted the best chocolate bars from my Jo. I will keep myself for only that treasure, when I am smaller than I am now. Only for a special treat. I will make a poster of my New Years resolution. Getting some of the morning sun everyday, either before work or for the 15 minute break. God give me grace to change my ways.

The discussion on who should complete the clean up of the kitchen.

I find myself giving speeches, now to this wave of teens. I won't call them lazy, just helpfully challenged. I want them to think and do, without having to be coaxed and prodded. Until then, I give short pleadings, can we clean the kitchen now? Can we pretend that your friends are coming over?
We enjoyed a delicious meal of Lasagna and spaghetti and chocolate brownies and soda and sparkling cider and everybody was still at home. The conversation and the presence of my children with me and my husband enjoying the holidays at home is more special than anything else. We are still playing with Christmas on Monday.
But straightening for the New Year is the priority!



to the Good Old Days!

Merry Christmas to All

I got my favorite Christmas present. 2 inches of snow fell, yesterday. I was so excited. Nobody carries shovels around and no one is ever ready for the snow down here. They said in the news that this was the first white Christmas since just after WWII. It cripples our fair city, everything is stopped at this time in the morning. We ought to brave the elements to go out to church, but, I don't think we will.
The beauty of the snow accentuates the Christmas lights. My yard is all one color, instead of several colors of brown grasses, with green patches. It is still snowing and we are enjoying the seats by the fire and the presence of one another. Loving eachother, in our family. Tis the day after Christmas.
The boys got a game for their Wii and they are plugged in, most time. But, on Sunday, we don't play Wii, so I have seen them this morning, in passing. Emily and Enoch got a camera, each and are photographing everything. Evelyn is enjoying ladylike fragrances that she received. I got a potholder and a vacuum and Ben got a Frank Lloyd Wright lamp. Elyse played Santa for everybody, this year. She is adorable. We are enjoying the family dynamic. Thank God for care and love for eachother and peace and unity in our home. God bless us, everyone.

Glory to God in the Highest.

What Day is it? We ask that question every Christmas Day. It is Christmas day is the answer. That is a line from A Christmas Carol. We all wake up with the remembrance that Bah Humbug is the thought of the unbelieving and grieving. Whatever our emotional status, we must shake up Christmas in our souls. Embracing the beauty of the redemption that was wrapped in the skin of our precious Savior. We are redeemed by grace, through faith in a Savior who came in a humble form.
We shared that story, ever new, in our house. This time, it was 7 year old Ezra reading the verses from the Scripture. We are shaken out of our self centeredness by the Scriptures and rejoicing in the wonder of salvation won for us, by the obedience and payment of our great Savior.
The gifts that we give and recieve are a reminder of the most eternal and important gift that we have received. We dressed up last night for a lady in the family photo op.
Thanks to the big sister in the family, 2 cameras came for Christmas today. We had no working cameras for the photo ops. We used Elyse's phone.
Loving that we are all here enjoying the family love and hugs and kisses were manifold. Today the playing of the new Wii accessories and my new "vacuum" virtual reality wii in a vacuum cleaner. Christmas is a time for love. We are loving eachother and we are enjoying the silly day and the precious season that we have every year.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day.---Merry Christmas

Their old familiar carols play...
Last year, our church had this song and I couldn't catch my breath for crying so hard in the Christmas concert. {It is a good thing that I am not in the choir} I always loved that song, but the dicotomy between the beauty of the children's voices and the hope of peace on earth, was more than I could bear. I imagined compiling the words on a wonderful Christmas card to send to all of the loved ones.
Longfellow wrote the words in the middle of the Civil War and the words drip with the transcendency of generations of hope and want for peace on earth. Can we reach for it together? He said, or seemed to say. Let's let that sentiment help us reach for peace, through the tumult of the lives and loves that we've inherited. I wish that I could be with you to give you a big, "Peace on Earth" Hug! God Rest you, merry gentlemen and women. Let the Christ of Christmas, first bring peace into your heart and then On earth...

And I love her?

I got permission to tell the secret. Ethan has an admiration. I don't remember any of my children being so forward on such things and it is so refreshing to see love blooming at age 11. She has a powerful left hook, was the confession that was the real reason why she is Christmas present worthy. We all love her now. The cat is out of the bag.

Love in a big family is a group hug. When can I ask her to be my girlfriend? When you are 20. When can we marry? When you are thirty. The answers are in place and the communication is open. I love that we can talk about such things with human and maternal-child abandon. I think that this perfect communication beats the nursing years by a longshot. I'll keep you posted on the response to the Christmas card and gift.

I love that Christmas gives us excuses to love people.

We are wrapping sundries for loved ones as we can find them. There are many we love for whom we can't wrap presents, but the new loves we must tell them. We love you! Do you know that we love you and we wrapped this and set it under the mistletoe, instead of a kiss or with a kiss as the case may be? Love in the Walker house comes from a long line.

Setting our souls in order

is more important than setting our house in order. As we clean and go over our affairs for the closing of the year, our hearts yearn for closer communion with our Father in Heaven. Our Blessed remembrance that Jesus came to save us, all the way from Heaven, gives us a launching pad to expect that God will not leave our souls destitute on the earth. Heaven and communion with the God of Glory is the inheritance of them that fear Him and live in the light of sins paid for by the blood of Jesus. Those who know communion with God enjoy this season most of all. Our greatest debt is paid for. Hope that the others can be negotiated or obliterated, keeps us going on. Those who live on earth a complete debtor to God, because of a hardened heart to the reality of the reason for the season, have a testimony all about them, in the Holidays. Even Santa's gifts are wrapped in the mercy of an everliving, ever interceding Savior. Even the beauty of the snow is touched with the remembrance that God has mercy and forgiveness for the greatest sins.
Christmas is coming. Halleluia.

Thank God!

Holiday seasons always have their own story. This year's story included meeting a precious new group of brethren in the Lord through AWANA. My Ethan and Ezra went every Wednesday for this semester and yesterday was the Christmas Service. What a delight. Southern simplicity and hospitality combined. How precious the presence of God with His people and to see my boys singing, like a choir of angels, was a tremendous blessing.
AWANA was the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of loving hearts is like to that above...

Every Birthday above the grave is a birthday! 49?

My Birthday card from Jo, with the best Chocolates since the school sales:)
I am grateful for:



Salvation of my soul,
My precious husband of nearly 28 years {what patience he must have? :)},
My wonderful children, {the ones on earth and the ones in heaven}
My Mom and brothers and sisters, great relationships with them,
My inlaws,
My Church and Pastor,
My job and provisions for our earthly needs,
The country that God has blessed us with,
My President and Vice President,
My local police and local firefighters,
My precious neighbors, especially the ones on our block,
The schools that my children are attending and their teachers and administrators,
Our home...

Birthday cards for 49!

Emily's greeting
Evelyn
Enoch
Ezra
Mu- omega- Mu-Ethan put my okra and some Greek on his card :)



Not to mention a whole package of "Ferrero Rocher" MMMMMMM! MY FAVORITE. 49!

Thank God For Grandma's Hands

I am remembering with fondness, my Grandma's birthday. I don't know how old she would be today. But my heart remembers being her birthday present and her being mine. I love that feeling and I miss her deeply.

Drama about unfinished business.

I have to read an article and write an essay about it. Ethan announces before Church in the evening. WHAT? This is a drama about how family tries to work together to get this fellow to do the right thing at the right time. The printer decides to run out of ink. The article is 20 pages long. The pencils are not sharpened for him. The entire family is upheaved, because of one person's: Ethan's dilemma. I do hope that we are able to impress upon him the importance of timeliness in the carrying out of his projects. This is destined to follow him as a poor character trait or a lesson learned, if not. Dilly-dallying on Saturday and Sunday and here we are on Monday morning having a conference on helping Ethan get to school with project, or not.

Precious Birthday Cards for the Big Sister.

We celebrated 24 years of blessing. The wall was full of Oriental letters and pictures of their sister, who diligently studies her Korean and teaches her baby brother the basic lessons in Korean. If they ever visit their or meet some people, they will have the basic skills for them. We celebrated the fact that we are still blessed with this woman of God living and serving in our home. We are very blessed.

We studied so hard to have our first baby.

24 years ago today we set out to embark on the parenting process. We took parenting classes. We took birthing classes. We studied what we would and would not do for and with our coming guest and stranger. As soon as the test came out positive, my Honey was handing out cigars. Then, the day came. I promised not to take any medications for the health of the baby. Oh, no, upon the very first pain, I was sure that I would die of this pledge. My husband stood by my pledge and assisted me in my commitment to the health of our child. Now, here we are 24 years later. Grateful to God for the instructions and instructors that assisted in helping us rear this, most helpful and precious woman of God. No one can know, who doesn't live with her, the assistance and the grace that it takes to live in a difficult and tumultuous household such as we have. God knows. I am grateful for the Holy Spirit having breathed upon our feeble efforts and given her to us, for His Glory. Have a wonderful birthday!

An Election Day Date

We made the time to vote and take time out to refocus our efforts on our marriage. Sometimes a cup of unscheduled coffee at a pretty little coffeehouse is just the thing. "We did" 27 years ago and somehow, every so often, we have to redirect our efforts to continue to "do". Its not automatic and these days, it isn't fueled by the youthful vigor of bygone days. A cup of choice coffee and a little jazz in the background dulls out the varied voices of responsibility for a minute and take us into intension land. We are envigored by the commitment that God has made to us which is eternal and unchanging. We see ourselves so small in the light of that great love commitment, but still we press on. When all else fails, we do pray together, we parent together and all of the other things that make up our marriage and we also vote and take time for a cup of coffee to look into eachothers eyes and talk. "Two are better than one..."

Minnie Mouse goes out with friends?

Everything came together for the Minnie Mouse costume. Artists can take a piece of material and glue and turn it into Minnie Mouse. A $5 costume to go to a friend's house was adorable. I simply had to blog about it.

Tacky Tourist day for the Teens! :)

They had the fun time, helping eachother find items to look like a tacky tourist. Teens are very hard to motivate, but they are and can be motivated. They look like they came from or went somewhere or a bunch of places. Enoch has on a Hawaiian shirt and Ev Loves NY T shirt. Since when is NY a tourist attraction? When you live in NC, NY is a tourist attraction. That is so interesting. You know that you are home sick when you are looking at the NYtimes and tears come to your eyes. I watched the old tv shows to see NY on the Youtube. I love seeing them have a good time,dressing out for school and I hope to become a tourist in NY soon. xoxoxox

Fretful is having a tantrum again. {Car troubles}

We woke to the anticipation of going to church. Our weekly crescendo, we put on our "Sunday-go-to-meeting", piled into the car, said our morning prayer and buzzz.
No transmission at all. Fall out, Walkers. AWWWWW, MAAAAAAN! After the sundry explitives were exchanged, we had a restful Lord's Day at home. It is really nice, sometimes to enjoy one another's company. Today, we will get the car fixed and get back on the road again. Thank God for the computer, where we can gather in our home and get the message, also.

This was the week of falls for us.

The temperatures weren't the only thing dropping around the Walker household. It started for me, right after the NASCAR. I fell, right in the street and hurt myself, something awful. Sunday, Elyse fell at church. I didn't see it, but I hear that it was quite a spectacle. And the piesta resistance, so to speak was my En'. En had the fall of a lifetime. Thank God, no broken bones. But at his height and weight there was no cushion to soften the blow. I was totally asleep and awakened by some kind of thud, thud all the way down each step. Not a yelp or a peep, just thud, thud, thud. I waited to hear the cry of who it was. Little fellows fall all the time and the jump up hollering, but there was silence, complete silence after this fall. I hollered. What was that?
Enoch was laying on the couch, just quietly nursing his wounds. "My bottom is out of place now", was his somewhat facetious response to the fall. How can a fellow be so droll? I was crying for him, inside, but I couldn't let him see my tears when he was being so brave.
He was convicted that he had treated his sister harshly and took the spanking like a man. None of us could tell him otherwise. I seem to think that the NASCAR was so loud that it affected all of our equilibriums. Whatever the case, my young man took two very well earned days off and won't be able to sit down for a month without the remembrance and painful impression of every single step on his bottom. We're out of tylenol for everybody's aches and pains.

The Walker Family Discovers Nascar!

The absolutely most occupying sport of Charlotte, is not Tennis. Although, they do have some of the most beautifully kept courts all over the place. It is Nascar. What is a Nascar? I used to say. Are you American? People go absolutely crazy for Nascar. I could not imagine what the fuss was about that would build, nearly our whole Charlotte economy on a bunch of people watching hotwheels around a track. We live 10 minutes from the track and would kick ourselves on the way to Walmart from time to time when we would forget it was Nascar season and get caught in the race traffic. That is what it meant to us before, we were blessed, amazingly with 8 tickets to the greatest event of our town, Nascar. NASCAR? Yep!
After we picked ourselves up from the floor, from fainting at the generosity of some mysterious person, we were afraid. We don't know how to act at a NASCAR event. At the opera there is a decorum. At the tennis events there is a decorum and, we knew that we didn't know the decorum of Nascar. We googled all of the apropriate Nascar affiliated sites to learn what to dress in and how to act. You must wear jeans and you must be as regular as you know how to be. That is very difficult for a bunch of "Sunday go to meeting Walkers". "This is how we act regular." By the time we got there we were well practiced and ready for Nascar.
We had the very best seats in the house. No matter how practiced at acting regular we were, there were 8 of us and we were, well, "Black". You don't know how black you are until you try to blend in at NASCAR. We were a spectacle, even to ourselves. It was fun, though. We parked near a trailer park group. They were so hospitable and friendly. Evvy said she preferred if we would have stayed with them at the trailers and watched it on tv. They were so fun, they could've made us drink beer. Ha, ha. The sweetest people on the face of the earth. Emily, who was the most against going to NASCAR, said if this was NY we would have had to pay 100 dollars for where we parked.
It is a sound polution pool. If you are squeamish in the subway don't go to NASCAR. It is as though the quiet of this southern lifestyle gets to people and they stick all of the noise into a box and shake it up and it comes out NASCAR. The subway homesickness that I had was abated by the beauty of how they appease their love of noise in one event for the year. I could dig that. It was loud as a year in the subeway. How many laps they started asking, after the first 100 laps? Breathtaking speeds and breathtaking noise and people who can sit, relatively stoicly amidst all of this. How private these people are? I wanted to get up and do the chicken dance, because the concentration became too much. Numbers and car colors and noises whizzing by. I was dizzy, but entertained. That is what I told the children, if you can sit and watch a show on a little box for hours, or participate in the Facebook, like you do, you can enjoy NASCAR. We did! Surprisingly so, all 8 of us, with no paint on our faces enjoyed one thing as a family, even Emily. We were like a big black line in the totally sold out show. It was spectacular and we were part of it, because of somebody being so generous.

When Baby Evvy was born...

My mother called the nurses to let them know that my insanity had a cause. "She just lost her brother, please be patient with her" We are trying, was the answer that the nurses returned to my mother. After they got off the phone they came in with that medical pity look. What did my mother say? She said that we should treat you kindly. Hours and hours of labor and perhaps false labor. on and off and on and off and then. She arrived. I call her the lady bug, because her father went right out to buy her a special outfit with lady bug buttons on it. I had carried undershirts and leggins. Nothing ornate, buttons and bows were "choking hazzards. I was always looking out for those choking hazzards. She can't choke if she can't grab it yet. I gave in to the ornate stuff, in spite of myself. Joanne gave a beautiful hat with a huge flower on it, that was Evvy's trademark throughout infancy. Just put the cap on her and let us go. Those years are much a blur. Sick parents and travelling back and forth to hospitals, with the terrible twosome of Ev and En always making themselves at home, wherever we were. One day Enoch got it into his head that he wanted Evvie to be a boy, so he cut one of her braids off. Ahhh! Grandma Ruth said thats alright, it will grow back. Where is the Grandma Ruth that I know. I wanted her to beat him. No, she hugged him and just grabbed the two of them and made a joke. I guess that is the progression of life. It was really funny, when you think about it.

My Baby Girl is 15 today!

The sisters surprised her with a trip to the mall and an eatout, birthday lunch, after church, yesterday. Oh, my, they had a great time. The sisters let her into their womanly club and she has passed their initiations to be one of them.{I think} Walker women have very high standards of looking and socializing. I could never have hoped to be their friend, if I weren't their mother. LOL.
I admire their relationship from a distance and love the parallels with the other Walker women that I have observed and admired over the decades of my knowing them. Happy Birthday, Evv.

Remembering the day that the sky came down to meet us.

We were taking our daily constitutional on the boardwalk, at the beach in NY. This was usually a very refreshing way to get the children ready for bed. Not on this memorable day.
From a distance, we could see the clouds gathering in the distance. Like a huddle of large football players calling out numbers, we saw them. Some of the little ones were gathering shells and I was screaming for them to gather so that we could go to the car, in the hopes of outrunning the obviously consuming cloud mass. They took their time. As I recall, Emily was the last to come to me, as I called, refusing to leave baby Ethan on the boardwalk to grab her insistently. She took advantage of my preoccupation, as usual. We did what we could to try to get to the car. We never made it to the car. The clouds rollercoastered over us when we got to a small trestle. We stood under there and couldn't see our hands in front of our faces for the clouds and the torrential downpour that we got stuck in. We will have to wait it out, I told them. The children all thought that we would be stuck there through the night, but, I could tell that this was a swift moving storm mass that had just gathered and we would be able to go behind it down the highway to pick up our daddy, as planned. It seemed as dark as night, but it was just that these "fullback" clouds were trampling our region.
We don't get to the beach anymore, as was our habit, in the old days. But we remembered that day with fondness recently. The day we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces, much less get to the car in time. It was fun in retrospect, but ominous at the time, especially for the fretful mommy.

Fretful Carriage was the subject of the weekend!

Every once in a while, somebody in the family has a distress. This weekend, it was "Fretful". She does her job of carrying us hither and yon, usually, without glitch. Not this weekend, she just couldn't hold her water. Leaks and squeaks and sputters and splanks everywhere we went, she was the subject. We bought her some needed radiator sealant and filled her and filled her with antifreeze and we made it through the weekend, but she made it an adventure. We had to pull off the highway in various and sundry places. New brakes and a new connection for her fan and we are back to motions.

The sunshine has brought us a small taste of Autumn.

It is still a bit hot, for my taste, 78 degrees and sunshine, is really absolutely delightful weather. My little okra patch is winding down its season. This little vegetable that was introduced to me by my father in law, grew on me this season. What a very hardy plant it is. I needs no tending at all. You can't let it grow too big, or it will get too tough to eat. You must pick them when they are about the size of your pinky. I have ten or so pickling in my fridge and the rest have gone into soups and stews. The children count them yucky, I have convinced the little fellows that they have no taste and they agree with me. The older ones, I waited too long to introduce them. This weeks vegetable, turkey soup and homemade bread has been my enjoyment. I couldn't push it on the little ones for anything. I think they each ate about a tablespoon or a small bowl. It has okra in it, doesn't it. Well, don't blame me for your sicknesses when they come. The healing was in the brew, I say. I enjoyed it immensely. It is nearly gone and so is my vertigo, nearly gone.


Yesterday, an evening storm seemed to make the cows, around the corner prance with glee. They gave me such a giggle, running like horses. :} They do look funny. The clouds in the sky were so dark purple with perfectly white thick trim, as though someone had sewn a thick stream of white bias cloth right next to the purplish blue. I think that those clouds carry the hail. Everytime I see them, it has hailed. Yesterday, we didn't get any, though. Someone else must have gotten the pretty hail. Then parting between the clouds there was one huge ray of sunshine in the sunset of the day and the beams flew up as if somebody had used a huge eraser to carry the beams in perfect lines. We ooohed and aahhhed at the spectacle and then, I went to bed. One must know when they have had enough beauty for one day. It is breathtaking, some days down here.

2 Whole Days of Rain were glorious.

We were sitting in Church on a sunny Sunday morning. I dropped my one little fellow to his second grade Sunday school class and the bluejay was chirping that a storm was approaching. We couldn't see the clouds on the horizon. While in class the windows grew darker and darker and then, the downpour. Surprising, but not really. We knew that there were dark clouds coming, but, they were bringing the much needed torrents more swiftly than we are used to down here.
It took some getting used to to enjoy the sparse showers that were our weather pattern when we moved down here. A shower in this or that place and then the sun would come back to burn us. After that there was a drought and we had to pray for even a drop of rain because the reservoirs were getting dryer and dryer. I prayed and everyone did.
Lord, I want rain and I want cooler weather, if I am going to have to be here, without my family, at least send me more rain. I remembered my prayer, in my Sunday school class, as the clouds loomed lower and lower and then burst on the ground with a thud. At first, it was scary. Then, I remembered that God is my friend and my redeemer. When we got out of Sunday school the first downpour had stopped and God gave us a small glimmer, so that I could get to the car, without an umbrella and not get my purple dress wet. But, before the teenagers got to the car, the rains came again. They like getting wet. Enoch said, we are going to get pneumonia. No, you are stronger than that. A small downpour is not going to give you pneumonia. My peartree didn't like the downpour and she may not make it through the winter, by the looks of her. My weeping cherry tree, that I call Diva is accomodating my neglect and loved the rain and my brown eyed susans popped back to life from the wonderful 2 days of rain that enveloped our region. My pretty purple dress stayed in tact and didn't get a drop on it, but my teenagers were soaked{just like I like them}. Go figure?

I had a delightful lunch with my second grader.

The excitement of 2 teeth missing and a recent birthday and whether or not its okay to have girlfriends in the second grade. The blessing of looking into the eyes of the future and knowing that he has everything ahead of him. The stressers of a bully on the bus, and or the naughtiness that creeps into his mind that he acts on, like tying his shoes together in AIG class. All of these interests and concerns of his are mine at this age. I linger at the table because this is the last time that my child will be interested in 2nd grade interests. It is a delight for me to enter into that thought for just a moment. I carried a piece of fruit to mark the occasion. He would not eat it.
I had forgotten to introduce fruit to this dearest of second graders to me. Now it is a hard task to get him to bite the peach. I don't like hairy stuff in my mouth, he said. I got 2 or 3 bites into him. I am going to miss being six years old and seven. "Now we must grow up"

Whose Birthday is it?

7 years ago, the baby, baby was born. We celebrated in style and all of the sisters and brothers participated in the beauty of joy and comradery. It was a beautiful sight to see. Sweet baby Ezra is 7 years old!

The eyes of my children, a new generation are on us...

It is time to wake up, smell the coffee and turn our children's eyes upon Jesus. Jesus is able to take us into the new generation with direction and hope. Direction to do and be good and hope to expect great things from God. Our griefs are past and remembered with the sympathies of our loving Saviour, but, now it is time to work while it is day.

Children, indeed are a heritage of the Lord...

They give us purpose and direction in our lives.