HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Mama as a little girl.

Mama was the oldest in a family of 6 children, there was almost 20 years between her and the youngest one.

Most of her life was spent being
raised by her mama deep in the country.
She was very poor growing up,
but always said they never realized it. 

When she was 10 years old her
daddy died.
She had to run through fields, and around the rural area to alert family and friends of his death. 

He was a junk dealer and ice man, and she loved him!
(See junkins' in my blood?)

 

Back then big blocks of ice
were sold door to door.
In Georgia that had to have been
one of the hottest, coolest jobs around.

Mama had a somewhat rocky
growing up, and start to her younger years.
She married a boy who lived down their dirt road,
but he went off to war.
She decided that the marriage was not for her...
it was a very, very short one. 

We saw her first husband once,
leaning against the door of the Piggly Wiggly.
I was probably 14 or 15.

She rushed me on and started laughing.

I think it was more of a nervous laugh
than a something funny laugh.
Mama spoke to  him, and he nodded.
I'm not sure he knew her that day. 

However, many years later, to Mama's disgust,
he showed up at our house. 
My daddy, bless his heart, was so innocent to it all.
He just continued working in the yard and left my Mama,
her sister and that old husband to visit.
Think my Aunt had pulled a fast one on my Mama.

Mama and Daddy were married 47 years,
so I guess by then their marriage was weighted by trust.
Daddy wasn't worried.

Mama met my daddy at a dance and he said right off
she was the one he'd marry.

She was and he did!

Mama lived to be 80 years old.
She had a severe stroke at 65 and came to live with us.
I cared for her, with Daddy's help, until his death.
Yes, she out lived him, by 8 years.
They said she would be a vegetable and not live very long,
but they didn't know Mama.
She lived the last 15 years of her life,
never touching food again.
She had a quick mind,
though there were times I wished,
doggone it,
she'd forget SOMETHING!

Mama always had it all together, though you sometimes had to look through a whirlwind.
She was creative, she loved to read and to cook.
She would line her kitchen counters with
cakes for family and friends.
The backdoor to our house was like a revolving door.
Most would show up around meal time.

She gave us all a childhood full of memories,
meant only for her babies.

Memories like having batteries explode in our oven
because she read that would recharge them.

Something for Pinterest,  I guess.
Boy, would she be a Pinterest addict with us!
My sweetest memories are of her rubbing
my back until I went to sleep.
She even showed up late one night
when I was so sick with her first grand boy.
She was scared of bad weather.
It always confused me that she would load us up,
right in the middle of the storm,
and head to my Granny's house.

Mama was more like Lucy, than Jackie O, I guess.
She loved us dearly though,
and would always say,

"I love you back."

I love you back too, Mama!

UUHHHHHHH...HAVE YOU MET SOPHIE?

 

   I'd like to introduce you to...

Sophie.

We adopted her from craigslist,
with a small re-homing fee...
of course.

The ad said
"Valentine's Yorkie!"

Well, yeah, the ad was a bit misleading...
there's Yorkie there,
but you have to be open minded about that.

The craigslist "dealer"
 would never tell us what she is mixed with,
and the photo sent of her Yorkie mother
was a little questionable.

However, when we rendezvoused
with the craigslist "dealer"
under the Publix parking lot lights...
we fell in love with Sophie.

It was dark and it seemed a bit shady,
so we handed over our fee and took off with her.   

FAST!!

 
She has tried to be a sweet girl...
a little lady, just like our Gypsy.

That said, she's still a little rough around the edges.

Course she is only a puppy, just 4 months old now.
Also, she has two Yorkies to compete with,
but she holds her own there.

She's very happy with her new family,
and she loves unconditionally...
even the cats, Duncan and Violet.
The Sophie verdict is still out with them, however.

Sophie's learning what's expected in our home,
and she really wants to please...once she remembers to get her stubbornness out of the way.


She is easily influenced by Jackson and Gypsy,
and none of them seem to realize that she doesn't have
the full Yorkie royal blood that they do.
Ha!

She worships Jackson like a child worships a teen.
She tries to do everything he does, and she thinks she can.
Her size prevents her sometimes, but as she becomes a bigger girl, she surprises even herself.
She strutted for days after getting big enough to steal Jackson's spot on the back of my chair.

She either grabbed his bandana by mistake or she is putting fear into him by showing what she'll do if he doesn't behave.

Jackson (another craigslist find) is an old man compared to her, and as active as he is,
she sometimes zaps his energy when they play.

She zaps my energy at times too,
but that's easy to do at the moment.

She's an odd looking girl, but as she grows into herself
she is turning into a pretty little thing.

 

Just a little info about the craigslist ad...
Valentine's Yorkie!
The night we brought her home I went back to read the ad. 

Someone had posted another ad saying...

BEWARE OF VALENTINE'S YORKIE AD!

 
This ad stated that they were being advertised as Yorkies,
BUT they are just mutts!!

 
OOPS! 

Oh well, we're a mixed family now,
AND that's how it was meant to be.

So what do you think she is a mix of?

We say a mini schnauzer...
we are calling her a...

 
Snorkie

Best,

Vicki

COUNT IT ALL JOY

HOLD EVERYTHING IN YOUR HANDS LIGHTLY, 

OTHERWISE IT HURTS, 

WHEN GOD PRIES YOUR FINGERS OPEN.    
CORRIE TEN BOOM

 Little Princess Artteachergirl,
you better hold your head high,
or that little crown of yours will fall off.

Fall off it did!!!

My crown turned out to be MY hair.



I always thought I held MY crown of hair lightly,
but I didn't...

I cried.

Not because it hurt when it came out, but...

  because being bald represented so much!

Losing MY hair symbolized changes.
Changes in MY plans for MY everyday life,
changes in MY future,
and changes in MY dreams.  

  All were changed in a blink by cancer,
and that was the reason for MY short lived tears.

You react by wanting to hold on tightly,
instead of lightly to your secure little comfortable life.


You struggle with it,
you question it and...
  you try to wrap your mind around it,

but there is no changing it.

It is not until you stop struggling, stop holding on and stop questioning that you find what you've known all along...
You have got to count it all joy!

 

God is not going to change your situation...
until He changes your heart,
and until everything fits according to HIS plan. 

Just because you don't see anything happening...
doesn't mean God is not doing anything.

 

When you begin to PRAY...
God begins the MIRACLE.

 

MY MIRACLE is happening NOW...
I see it in all of the prayers from my family, friends
and unknown angels.
I feel it in all the care and love I'm blessed with;
from the silliest of hats to the greatest of gifts.

I am sitting in the palm of God's hand,
with MY fingers open!

COUNT IT ALL JOY...JAMES 1

My little art students made this quilt for me to encourage and support me!
 This is where I go now instead of my teaching job. Their beautiful quilt reminds me I am being prayed for by many and missed. I miss them too!

I'm trying hard to get that crown of hair back, and take all the lessons I've learned from God through all this back into the world!
Especially MY little changed world.





BEST, VICKI