Grateful for the blessings of 52 years.

It does seem but 52 weeks, 52 years does when it is past. Much grace and mercy spent by God on my behalf and I am eternally grateful. I am blessed. I am trusting in God's mercy for the future and I am redeemed by the blood of Jesus. I am a wife and a joyful mother of children. I am standing on the promises of Christ my Savior. I am blessed with family and friends and brethren in Christ who am more often than not, palpably aware of their continued prayer on my behalf. I am sure that when I get to Heaven the prayers for me will be what I will be pillowed on, for their magnitude. And I am all the more sure that crushing will be the load of them eternally, should I not be there, in that day. May God continue to keep me, I do pray. In Jesus' strong and mighty name. Amen

Walk in the Light of Christ at Christmastime...

Now, Thank We All Our God! Happy Thanksgiving Week.

To My Mommy

Absolutely the best mother's Day song I've heard yet. I hope you like it. Love Jayne

God is good, even in September.

Ezra is ten years old and gives us a reason to rejoice in this otherwise sad month. I miss my city, but it is probably a mercy that I am so distant from the sadness that September brings to my city. The hole in the skyline that still oozes our tears, when we remember that sad day. God bless and grow my city, comfort us in our September tears. Thank God, for October tomorrow.

It's a rainy day!!!

There will be showers of blessings? Not to miss the showers of blessings that are in the rainy days. Wet enjoyment, a chance to wear our galloshes, cute rain-gear and such as well as the opportunity to have real water on our heads, straight from the clouds. I guess I am a duck!:}

Naveem is the image of my baby sister Jackie...

We had the bassinet for her right next to dad's chair. A lot of the time there were people looking in at the baby. It seemed like forever that Jack was in the bassinet. Ms. Neusom was with us and all I can remember is being smacked for trying to touch the baby. I thought I was so grown up at 3. But my favorite memory of that little face was how she was so picky about people looking in at her in the bassinet. She cried at certain people and not at others. I did so want to spank her myself, at 3 for being so cranky. The ones like Fr. Jerry and Uncle Barry that looked in at the baby and got cried at, I felt bad for. We loved Jackie so much that we wanted to play with her. It just seemed to take too much time for her to get to be played with. When she did get big enough to play with us, she whomped us all. The most competitive of the bunch of us was clear when she ditched crocheting with us to run around Flushing Meadow with Dad, one day. I just want to smooch that little face for the good times that we had and now I would be allowed to hold her and I was smacked for trying to hold her the last time that sweet face came around. ;)

Look at Stoney-Boy's Face!

He is looking like Paul, these days. What an adorable little rascal he looks to be? Why is Addy-Grace in the middle of the picture, or he didn't like whatever they fed him in that picture? He is not the center of attention anymore. It is Camille's turn and she obviously has the new special guest star who's the next coming attraction. What a beautiful billboard her nice belly is for the coming one! I am so excited to see the beauty. Addy and Stoney are stepping aside for the new crew. I remember when Jo was in the tummy and Mom looked like Camille{just, a little shorter} and Mu said, is this the last one, Camille? We, just kept coming and do keep coming. Is this the last one, Camille? Mu is still asking. I don't think so. What an adorable New York crew there was at that party. Was it Ton-Ton's birthday party? We were there in spirit and I can't wait to see that Addy, in person who takes me back to my 18 month old self, by looking like my first baby sister.

The little clip of Baby Addison reminds me of my first baby sister. It can take me back to my 18 month old self and today, I am remembering our cuckoo clock...

That baby couldn't look more like her grandmother and I do wish I could pinch her sweet fat cheeks. I was telling the story of the .dynamic duo, before baby Jackie came from the stork to our house. First thing was the cuckoo clock and me. I remember the chain of the cuckoo clock and the little bird that used to come out on the hours at our house. We had shiney wood floors at 113 and me and my mommy and my daddy lived there before Ju.

I was so happy to have a baby sister, when she came home, I wanted to pick her up. I do remember pulling the chains on the cuckoo clock and I guess that I am the one who broke it, even though I didn't know that it was broken. It just stopped cuckooing, one day.

When baby Ju came, we became great friends. I remember playtimes, under the table and how huge dad's chair seemed to us. We sat, one on one side of the chair and one on the other side of the chair and swang the arm of the chair to each other. We played catch like that, many times. Until...it hit both of us in the teeth and we had a brown front tooth, the both of us, from that play session.

We stood on our heads at the landing of the steps and rolled down those steps many, many times. We really did think that we were grown children and they would shut the lights off downstairs to keep us from going downstairs when unsupervised. When mom was expecting baby Jackie, we decided to get some orange juice from the fridge, by ourselves. We didn't want to bother mommy for such a thing.

I remember opening the fridge and grabbing the juice bottle and hearing mommy's voice, screaming, I dropped the glass all over the kitchen floor. Poor mommy, fell down the steps and slid into the kitchen, like a baseball player. We were quite a pair. Talk about little rascals.

I am sure that nobody had more of a wrestling with curiosity of children than our mom. If the chains of the cuckoo clock would have held us we would have played a type of jump and pull, with the chains. Jumping and bumping our heads on the clock and then the other going up when we fell to the floor on our bottom. We laid on the bottom steps with our feet on the wall and calculated, what mischief we would get into next. When we were outside, we slid down the brick steps as though the slide was high and tall. It is amazing to imagine how little we were.

I remember the tears in Uncle Paulies' eyes when we went to Georgia, for what seemed like such a long, long time. We felt like we would never see him again. Maybe it was a few days, maybe it was a week when we were gone. To us and our grown uncle Paulie, it seemed an eternity.

I do wish that somebody would send me a picture of Elijah's baby, because she is probably the picture of baby Jackie and it is like a puzzle in my mind that comes together when I see these replica's of my baby sister dollies. I loved them to pieces and still do.

Fourth of July festivities, included a visit from a little fat froggy-pooh, {Go figure?}

Ruth's Quips, "Here's Your Hat"...etc

Since Gramma Ruth passed, nearly 13 years now, I have thought of compiling her terse sayings together into a book for my children. Oh, how I remember, though not often with fondness the sayings rolling off of her lips, over and over and over again. For Ezra, who is my only child who never met, "Ruthy" {as Dad would call her} I did a before school series of discussions on the sayings of Ruth. We talked about the way she pulled her sword out of sheeth and she had specific intentions for each word. ie "Youth is wasted on the young"

She got these sayings from her travels and she didn't intend a one of her offspring to die without their inheritance. These sayings were the inheritance and what they meant were for the lot of us to dig out in our own experience.

I must say that at the time I was not disposed to respect her reusing other people's sayings the way that she did. I was more inclined to respect the contemporary muses of my day and poo-pooed the likes of "a stitch in time saves time" crowd. I know now that she and I were kindred spirits, weaving words into the minds of our youth, hopefully, for their profit. I was privy to her early efforts, before she calmly learned how to skillfully enter the admiration of youngsters. She used to just slam us with sayings.

Toward the end of her life, we had made peace with eachother, which was confirmed by her saying to me, "remember when you wouldn't come into my house?" I do remember Gram. I do remember. Now, I see her everyday. When I look into the mirror, when I see the terse way that I handle my younguns. I am thankful that she taught me to love her, over time.

She wove word usage into my psyche the hardest way possible and taught me to wrestle the word usage into my unwordy children as well as my wordy children. For that, I am truly grateful. I came to her house one day and she was playing the memory game with Muffy. What is up, Ruth? I thought to myself, where is your sword? This is my sword and yesterday, I learned the memory game with her, for the profit of my own children who say the same to me, when I am a softy. Where is your sword? {tongue} I do want to hold your hand, Ruth and weave words into the minds of my kids...

Today, I'm the 'fool on the hill", admiring the nationalism of rooting for Andy Murray.

What a pretty picture of nationalism is Andy Murray! The whole country is rallying for him to win Wimbledon. Not, you can do it, but we can do it! It is for all of us that you win. What a unifying factor is winning. We all want to do it and we all want to enter into the thrill of victory for our nation. I look at this in the shadow of our Independence Day. We celebrate together our victory over "dependence". We are no longer "dependent" we are "independent". But, will we ever get to the point of our forbearers in interdependence, as expressed in the UK through Andy Murray? It's a victory for our country, if our fellow wins our national tourney? Maybe. We had days of Jimmy Connors and John MacEnroe and Arthur Ashe and now the winners of the Williams, etc. But does it form a cohesive bond? It doesn't seem to. There is room to grow in our independence or interdependence as we strive toward God's intention for the image of God, as it shows itself in our nationalism. Not pride but unified striving. Moral support that is more than that. Something that gives us a reason to win. I do hope Andy wins it for them.

We woke up, a little late for Spring Cleaning!

It is Summertime! Jobs are scarce, but not around this house. The past couple of days, the cleaning bug has hit the young people in my house. I am very grateful. I am usually behind them, picking up and they are doing the major part of the cleaning these past few days. I thought it would pass. I didn't expect the thoroughness that they are exhibiting. It is delightful that the conflicts, although they are not fewer are about tossing stuff, instead of hoarding. They are going through the toy closet and the desks. Wow! Many hands make light work. But a lot of people can collect alot of stuff. It is true! Teamwork is delightful to see, also.

Congrats to Grandma Jackie, another successful delivery, under belt!

Elijah is a daddy? I wish I could see that sweet baby. I know the sweetiepie, probably looks just like my sister. Addison looks like Juju to me and I can just imagine the sweet baby that came from Elijah's new family. I keep reminiscing when baby Jackie was a newborn like this baby. I was 3 years old and thought that I could hold the baby. Miss Newsome was our nanny. She kept smacking our hands, mine and Ju. "Don't touch the baby!" seemed like the only thing we heard in those days. We were a couple of troublemakers, for sure. And, if given the opportunity we certainly would have played catch with her. We were not allowed to touch her. I remember asking what is so special about her that she can't be touched? Little minds with much love for baby and lots of fun to enjoy in those days. I do hope that baby Elija"mina" is a sweetiepie and the love of her grandma's life. A new love, always enjoying the loves of children and the earlier grands. Congrats and happy felicitations for the great treasure of having another grandbaby. Love, Jayne

Here come the sunflowers!*************

In my garden, today I found one sunflower blooming. I have been anticipating this highly auspicious occasion for days now. I have been looking at this unplanted garden of sunflowers that cropped up, unsolicited and planted by the birds, tossing the sunflowers out of the birdfeeder and up popped these 5 sunflowers. Today one came to full bloom. What a delightful providence and the enjoyment of my young boys at home is even more delightful. The almost high-schooler and the almost 5th grader are mom's right and left sweeteners. I just love the interaction of these fellows with each-other.

We've had rain, nearly everyday, for quite awhile, here in Charlotte!

Rain, covering us like the grace of God.

I am so grateful for the greening of Summer. For a couple of years, we had drought conditions. This year the beauty of the constant drenching is a beautiful thing to me. Now, we are praying that the timing of the rain would be convenient for us. I have one grapevine coming up and four strawberry plants in the garden. They are delighted at the plentiful waters and watering.

My bird feeder, though empty, because of not buying the seeds for my dear friends in the neighborhood, sprouted 5 sunflowers from the birds dropping those seeds into the soil, instead of eating them. This morning, Mrs. Bluejay had a good-morning song for me as soon as I opened the door to look out at the beautiful morning sky. The clouds hadn't quite decided what they would do, yet. The sun was bright and promising of a sunshiny day. Now, it seems that Mrs. Bluejay, was warning me, get outside, now, she warned, there are some clouds forming outside of your view. I saw them on my way over here and I here there will be rain today. Really, I queried? She darted off to discuss the matters with my neighbor, through her opened window. I wasn't offended, because I have learned that is the bluejay way. They give a quick newscast and hardly have time to discuss any questions. They leave socializing to the sparrows.

Right now, though it isn't raining, the sun is covered by the gathering clouds and seem to be threatening to keep the day overcast, for a while. We will see.

Summer, in NC is full of wild and life and challenging weather patterns. I enjoy it. So many stories are on my tongue and on my computer, having gotten to know my animal friends in the neighborhood. Kissed my honey good bye and a good day and then prepared for the young people to come downstairs for the day.

fictional blog link, stories. False Alarm, the sun came back out! It looks like a lovely day, now.9:39am.

**********Happy Father's Day**********

Serving your family and your church, we are grateful for your kind and merciful provisions for us. Love and hope the best for your Father's Day!.

Thankful to God for 30 years of His Blessing

Enoch's Graduation, Halleluia!