Grateful....I am honestly one of the most fortunate people I know of. While I'm sure that there are others who were born into good, solid families, I hear of so many who weren't. I was raised by loving parents with their heads screwed on straight, with old-fashioned values, and the ability to correct a child without jeopardizing the respect they deserved. The phrase, "because I'm your Mother and I said so" was heard by my teenage ears many times over when I tried to wiggle out of a negative response to one of my requests. Don't get me wrong. There was a good reason for my parents saying 'no' to some of my wants. The word that most often fits that reason is "Protection." I had pretty smart parents. They knew that what I was asking to do, in my naive youth, could bring me trouble in some way.... so they protected me from that. There were times, when I was a bit older, that I was given permission, and an opportunity to prove that I knew right from wrong. As I made the right choices, I was given more priviledges to exercise my decisions. Rarely did I go against what I was taught. For that, I'm grateful.
Grandchildren....those little people born to my children. All of my life, my greatest goal was to become a wife and mother. Grandchildren are a bonus! I'm not sure that my goals even included a thought of grandchildren way back then, but once my children began to marry, I began to dream of new family members to hold and play with and spoil. We have reached eight grand-people now. It is our desire, and yet we hold little hope, that we will have more babies to add to our numbers. We have one more child who may bless us, eventually, with his offspring, but he seems to be in not-such-a-hurry to settle down. That is fine, but I hope we'll still have energy enough to play with them by the time he enters fatherhood. Meanwhile, we enjoy those precious grade schoolers to high schoolers, and miss the baby cuddling and enjoy the sweet, innocent things they say that make us laugh.
Giggles....seven year old Selah recently announced that she knows what she wants to be when she grows up.
When asked by her mother what that would be, Selah said, "a comic stripper." It sent her Mom into a fit of giggles, which her little girl didn't understand. Of course, Selah was thinking 'illustrator'....but the double intendre was not lost on her Mom!
Gardens...Thought it's more difficult these days to do what it takes to have a decent looking garden, I love to see my growing things. Most of what we plant is perennial blooming things, so there's only weeding and pruning to do. I have one more bed that I'd like to get planted, and that is a bit more work. The weeds need to be decimated, the borders set, the dirt dug (SC red cement-like clay!), and soil placed into the boundaries. Then and only then can we place the plants that patiently wait in their pots. Sometimes they've waited so long that they've sent out roots from the pots and attached themselves to the ground. Still I wonder how the little roots have the ability to penetrate that clay when even a jack hammer would have trouble!
God.... how good He is to give us such pleasures in life....giggles, gardens and grandchildren. For those and so many other things, my heart gives thanks!
