My Birthday! The double nickel

Wow! What a wonderful birthday. It has been packed full of birthday wishes from friends and family. I had Bible study this morning, they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me and gave me a card. Seven of us went to lunch and one of the ladies prayed for the food and God's blessing on me, on my birthday, and my life, what a blessing that was. One of my precious friends, Doris, bought my lunch and the other ladies night out friend, Jeanie, wanted to buy me dessert but we decided to wait for another time because I was so full from lunch. My friend Vicki brought me a sign that says "Life is God's novel, Let Him write it". Is that an awesome saying or what? I love it! I received many cards in the mail, a precious card from my husband that made me cry, thank you sweetheart for the card, it blessed my heart plus a shopping spree at Dillard's. Both of my precious boys wished me a special day. I am so thankful for the outpouring of love I have been shown today. Thank you Lord for showing me your love through the precious Christian friends and family you have blessed me with. Thank you also for my life, my health and your hand on my life. My prayer is that I can bring you honor and glory with the rest of my life however long or short that may be. What a blessed day.

Introducing our newest addition - Mac Andrew McLeod

On February 10, 2010 we all welcomed our newest addition to our family, little Mac Andrew McLeod. A precious baby boy weighing 8 lbs, 11 oz. He was actually about the same size and length as his big brother, but he seems so tiny. I am sure that is because we are used to looking at Ian. The Lord blessed us with an uncomplicated delivery even though it was a c-section, all went according to plan, baby and mom are doing well.

I look at these grandchildren and we can't possibly know what is in store for them as older children and adults, but we still hope for them that their lives will be full of joy and peace, that they will be fulfilled and their lives will be easy and life will be fun for them. I guess that is human nature to wish that for ourselves and for each child that has a place in our hearts, but it is rarely the case. The trials are what make us strong, we become who we are in the way we react to the chaos called life that surrounds us on a daily basis. I would like to be the grandmother that could stand back and entrust the Lord to bring to their lives whatever it takes to draw them ever closer to him and into a supernatural relationship with our Lord and Saviour, but I as much as I would love to do that, I am sure I will fret over the hardships and disappointments that come into their lives. My human side prays for the ease of their lives, for the joy of life and the absence of pain that makes them hurt. Today Lord, I pray for your protection on their lives, your guidance as they enter situations that are hurtful and wisdom as they grow, that not only will they grow physically strong, but strong in spiritual understanding and that their parents will possess the wisdom to lead them into these spiritual truths.

Thank you Lord for the addition of children to this family, that gives us hope for a generation to be raised up for you, and to love and serve you in a mighty way, because you are the only thing in life worth striving for. I give you all praise and honor for these blessings in our lives.

Us Four, No More

I went to see my son and his little family last night. It was the last time we would be together just the four of us before the new addition to the family comes on the scene tomorrow. Of course we are thrilled about the new baby but there is a sadness that never again will the four of us be together like we were last night, where Ian is the only grandbaby. That sounds silly I guess but as I am writing this tears are flowing down my cheeks. He still seems so little and I know because I have two children, that just because you have a second child (or 5 more children) that you never love the first one any less. I think it is just realizing that everything is changing once again. Of course change is the only constant. Ian has helped my heart thaw out from past hurts and disappointments but he is a blessing as only grandparents can know blessings from grandchildren, and the love you have for them is a completely different love than you have for your children. Somehow though, the love I have for him is inexplicably tied to the love I have for his parents. I have a closeness with my son that is rare for most mothers, and I know it is a great blessing and I am thankful for him. I am also blessed that I have a great and wonderful daughter-in-law that has always blended into our family as if she was there from the beginning. I know there are times that she thinks we are weird and she gets tired of hearing our old stories, but she lets us reminisce and doesn't rock our boat about it. She is very private and we are anything but that. I can't imagine how Mac will impact our lives, I know he will be a blessing too, but I want Ian to know when he gets older that he was a blessing to his Grammy at this particular time in my life and I love him with all my heart. Right now he is still too young to understand that, but I hope someday he will know how much I adored him.

Dear John

With the arrival of Ian's baby brother on Wednesday, I had to move my Bible Study group to Tuesday morning, and since I haven't seen the completed nursery yet, I am going to my son's home on Monday evening to check everything out (and maybe watch the batchelor with them), our regular girl's movie and a dinner night was moved to Sunday evening instead. We went to see Dear John and it was really good. The ending was almost exactly like the book but much better at the very end. We all loved it, then went to The Rail Head Restaurant in Willow Park to eat and talk. They closed at 9pm so we didn't stay as late as we usually do. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and sharing just like always and I always come away from that time of fun feeling so much better and more lighthearted. Thank you girls for being my friends.

I said in my last blog I had a bad day on Thursday, I did recover but pondered a lot of things over the last few days. I prayed and told the Lord I was sorry for my attitude on Thursday, I know he always knows my heart better than I do so I can't lie to him about my feelings. I am extremely analytical and always see things in black and white, so when it comes to spiritual matters although I know the jargon and the theology I still become frustrated when I know how I want to live and then I see how I really do live. I become extremely discouraged and down on myself. Wait a minute! He created me and knows I am made from dust and you know what He did for me this morning? The pastor preached a sermon just for me, that basically said, we are all imperfect people, here on this earth we will never achieve perfection and sinlessness, but we serve a perfect Lord and Saviour and therein lies our hope. So for today I have been a little less hard on myself and my imperfections. I have been able to rest in my God's goodness and blessing. Praise the Lord for his provision to speak to us personally in a corporate worship service. Thank you Heavenly Father! May you bring those words back to me when I need them the most this week.

Life is Exciting!

Do you ever have one of those days when you wake up and try to start the day off right, but it just goes downhill from the minute you wake up til sometime later in the day? I woke up in the wrong state of mind and it stayed with me most of the day. I talked to myself, started to call my oldest son and talk to him but thought no, that would just make his day bad so when he called me a little later in the day, I warned him, "you may not want to talk to me right now." He asked me why and I told him I thought I was certifiably crazy and he said, "I already knew that, what else is going on?" He is such a blessing! (We did have a great talk and I love him dearly).

It is Friday night and I am home alone AGAIN! No wonder I am going nuts! Even though I am wonderful company, (according to my dog), too much of anything gets old pretty quick. : ) My husband is hard at work but the weekends get long when he doesn't get to come home. I kept the girls Thursday night and my in-laws were here for the stock show so they got to visit with Mallory and Emily for a few hours. Of course I had two boys and getting to bed on a school night didn't seem as hard back then as it does now with these two girls, not sure what is up with all the drama and getting ready for bed except that it is girls instead of boys, then the mad rush of the morning and getting them to school and the babysitter's house is just insane rushing around. I guess if you did it all the time you would have a routine that you would get used to and it wouldn't seem so hard. Anyway, it was nice to have some other adults around last night and this morning to get it all done. Young mothers that get the job done properly and in order I salute you! My in-laws are back home in Comanche County, I thought they were staying until tomorrow but they left today so I was unprepared for this long Friday night.

I did find the new Nicholas Sparks book, "The Last Song". I started reading it about 5 and at 7:30 I was about half way through it. It is good but fairly predictable so far. I like to read the book before the movie comes out, but it seems that doesn't really mean much in today's world because they mess with the storyline and the ending so much sometimes it is hard to recognize the movie is about the book I read. : ) Oh well, and that is life as I see it today!

We seem to have lost the sun!

Time is flying! Here it is February 1st. We have not seen the sun here in a week. Very dreary weather. I guess it must be a hormonal thing because as women age they tend to need a lot of sunshine in their world. Every woman I know is wanting to see the sun. I have noticed though coming from a West Texas town that this area of Texas in particular, and I am not sure why, tends to be cloudy A LOT! I am going to research that as soon as I get off this blog and see how many days of actual sunshine we have had compared to other towns in Texas. It gets very depressing. I do not understand how anyone lives in Alaska where it gets dark and stays dark for months or in Seattle where it rains all the time! Yuck!!!!! I just couldn't do it. I am thinking I am not sure how much longer I can live here either. As Christians I know we are not to complain about the weather, so I am sorry, I guess this would be considered complaining but I really do love the sunshine and warm weather. When it does finally get warm and I hear some goofball say, "I am so ready for winter", I think I will have to slap them. Please let us see the sun soon, but not tomorrow morning on groundhog's day. We don't want him to see his shadow although I think we all know there WILL be 6 more weeks of winter whether he does see his shadow or not!