days in the life of a
Previous POSTS
May 2010
click here to read older May 2010 posts....
May 26, 2010
AWESOME KIDS
I love our little country church! The folks there are like a big extended family, where everyone knows everybody else and we all try to take care of each other the best we can.
But we have one great asset that many small rural congregations don't have...lots of young people and lots of kids!
And, I would guess, an unusual amount of musical talent.
While we have many adults, college students, and older teens who can play and sing amazingly, we also have some younger talent that is just beginning to surface.
One of the funnest (is that a word?) events we have in our church is the annual youth-sponsored talent show. It's a casual, fun opportunity for anyone in the church to share.
We had many great performances, but most precious to me are the ones from our younger kids, many of whom this is their first time to sing in public.
Here are 4 videos of the younger performers that will make your heart smile!
Enjoy!!!
These sisters are seasoned performers, but I never cease to be amazed at the talent and poise they have at such tender ages. Ivy is a freshman in high school and Sophie is in middle school. They have a real, live, bona fide band named "Ivy Dean and the Twilights" and, besides performing all over the state and elsewhere, they have recently been doing several shows in Nashville!
When they make it big, we will say we knew them when...
Pure country gospel out of the mouths of two of the sweetest girls you will ever meet!
Little Sadie will be 5 years old this summer. What an adorable child and smart as a whip too! I thought she did great for her first time singing solo in our church!
These two 6-year-old best friends, Hannah and Abby, are especially dear to me! They are so cute singing the Hannah Montana song, "The Climb."
Love it! And love these two sweeties!!!
And last...but certainly not least...3-year-old Anna even got in on the act with her own rendition of "Away in a Manger."
AMEN!
May 27, 2010
PRETTY PEONIES AND A POLL
May in Indiana means the peonies are blooming!
Some with big, beautiful blossoms almost too heavy for their stems to hold...
...and others more delicate, with the petals unfolding to show off a lovely center.
I have discovered that Hoosiers have three different pronunciations for this flower.
Some call them "pineys" (with a long "i", as in "pine")...
...some say "pennies"...
...and others call them "pe-o-nies", with 3 syllables.
And then there are those who don't know or care what the heck type of flower they are, but they know them as a "pretty flower!"
So here's your chance to make your earth-shaking impact on the world!
Submit your anonymous vote below...results will be announced on Saturday...hope you can wait that long!
May 28, 2010
DISTANT COUSINS
Not long ago, I got an email from a cousin with some photos attached...one of this beautiful bride.
I've never seen her before in my life.
And this nice-looking fellow, the bride's brother, who plays college baseball.
Never met him before either.
The two of them have another sibling, a sister, that I also don't know.
Speaking of nice-looking fellows, isn't he a cutie?
I saw him once when he was about 3 years old.
Never met his younger sister.
She sure does have gorgeous brown eyes!
The last time I saw her, she was just a cute little girl.
Now she's a gorgeous young woman, and you can just feel her sweet spirit shining
through even in this photo.
But I don't know her at all, nor she me.
I remember her as a toddler playing on my Grandma's porch steps while there was a whole lotta guitar-pickin' and grinnin' goin' on.
Look at her now! BEAUTIFUL!!!
Who do these wonderful faces belong to?
They are all my cousins.
Not second-, or third-, or fourth-cousin-twice-removed, or step-cousin, or half-cousin...
They are all my FIRST COUSINS!!!
Now you may think it strange that I don't know them. After all, most people are close to or at least familiar with their first cousins.
It's no one's fault and it's not because our family is estranged or splintered or feuding or anything of the sort.
The simple reason I don't know these first cousins of mine is purely DISTANCE...both geographically and age-wise.
My daughter-in-law Dana asked me at Christmas how many cousins I have and it got me thinking and adding them up. I have 37 first cousins (although 2 have sadly passed away now)...37!!!
I pretty much grew up with all 15 of my Indiana cousins and knew 11 of my North Carolina first cousins fairly well, with great memories of some very fun times with both.
But of the other 11 in NC...well, I've met 6 of them when they were little children, but there are 5 of my first cousins that I've yet to even meet!
You see, my mama was the third oldest of 10 surviving children in her family, whose births were spread out over about 30 years. When Mama married and left home, she still had very young siblings and, in fact, when she was pregnant with me her own mama was also expecting a baby. So I have an uncle who is actually a month younger than I am!
And while I played with my older cousins on our regular visits to North Carolina, I was never really around the younger cousins much at all. And some of the very youngest ones, I've never even met.
Lately I've been thinking more and more about these people who I am so closely related to but don't even know at all. I've been able to connect with some through the magic of Facebook (where I borrowed the above photos), but still that doesn't take the place of a personal, face-to-face connection.
I think it's way past time for a Cousins' Reunion! Maybe they don't care if they ever get to know their Hoosier first cousins, but I'd at least like the opportunity to meet these branches of my family tree and learn just a little bit about them.
They look like a fun group...smart and ambitious and contributing citizens to our society. And I know they come from great genes!!!
I would really like to get to know them...I wish they weren't such distant cousins!
May 30, 2010
A STRANGE REQUEST
It's not the first time I've made a strange request.
And I doubt it will be the last time.
But asking for a small section of snow fence in May when the temperatures are soaring near 90 degrees? Well...the sales people in Lowe's and Menards (and, heaven forbid, I may even have to try the dreaded Rural King) are giving me very strange looks!
You know the stuff I'm talking about...fencing made out of plastic that people sometimes put up to control snow drifts. Or to fence off a construction project.
Oh, I've found it alright, but the smallest amount I can buy is a 50-foot roll. I only need about 5 feet or so, and with no immediate (or future, for that matter!) plans to control snow or build anything it seems foolish to buy 50 feet.
Why, you may ask, am I desperately searching for a length of snow fence? It's for our church Bible School, which is starting in 2 weeks. One of the stories is about Peter being handcuffed in prison, and the instructions suggest making plastic "handcuffs" out of the plastic gridding for the children to wear during their story time.
It's a clever idea...if one can find appropriate snow fence!
Did you even know there's appropriate snow fence and inappropriate snow fence?! Well, yes there is!
Kyler tracked down a section of snow fence from the park where he's working this summer, but the type he found is too stiff and rough for what I need (which is certainly not a slew of children coming home from Bible School with cuts on their wrists...that would surely not be cool!).
So here's the deal...I'm wondering if any of you faithful local readers have access to a small section of soft plastic mesh snow fence that you would be willing to donate to the cause? It will be cut apart, so you won't get it back but it'll be put to good use, I promise.
If you do, use the link at the bottom of this page to email me or leave a comment and I'll be eternally grateful and your friend for life.
Or maybe a simple "thank you" will suffice...
If not, I can always resort to Plan B.
Kyler's girlfriend Kara had the brilliant (?) solution of sneaking around a construction site after dark and snitching a section. Isn't she just the most creative problem-solver?
I'm so hoping it doesn't come to that...
May 31, 2010
KNOWN BUT TO GOD
"Here rests in honored glory,
an American soldier known but to God."
Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknowns.
It's one of my favorite places to visit in the Washington, DC area.
Standing atop that quiet hill overlooking acres and acres of crosses marking graves of so many soldiers and sailors and seamen and Marines who died to protect our country, I always feel so small and undeserving and oh, so very thankful.
I have watched with tears in my eyes as my children have laid wreaths at this very place, knowing that those unknown heroes they were honoring have made possible the very quality of lives they are living today.
And in the somber moments, when the only sound to be heard is the breeze rustling the leaves and the steady tap of military shoes as the guards incessantly march back and forth in front of the monument, I get just a tiny sense of the tremendous heartbreak of those thousands of families that those crosses represent. It was an unimaginable sacrifice.
But at least they knew the truth. At least they got to say "good-bye."
The unknown families of the unknown American heroes who lie in this grave never even got to do that.
I can only imagine that their entire lives these families were wracked with uncertainty and clinging to the tiniest glimmer of hope that someday, somehow, somewhere their son would miraculously return alive and well. Perhaps some of them are still alive, still hoping against hope that he will walk through their door and back into their lives.
They never knew. They never got to say "good-bye."
Today is Memorial Day.
The official start of summer...a day off work...the end of another school year.
A fun time for families and cook-outs, a celebration of feeling free and happy.
It is for all those things that our American heroes gave their lives, and I know they would want us to enjoy and appreciate all those blessings they died to protect.
But take time out of your celebrating to pause for a moment and thank God for the great privilege of living in America.
And, give a quiet salute to all those who sacrificed to make America strong...
...including those known but to God!
photo from google.com
