Some Things Learned in Life

SOME THINGS LEARNED IN LIFE

...that one of the most fun things you can do is take a walk with a grandkid and a dog.
...that the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

...that just one person saying "You've made my day" makes our day!

...that having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

...that being kind is more important than being right.

...that you should never say NO to a gift from a child.

...that sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

...that it's those small daily happenings, that make life spectacular.

...that even the Lord didn't do it all in one day. So what makes me think I can?

...that when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

...that a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

...that love, not time, heals all wounds.

I found those in a pamphlet that has ideas for church bulletin fillers and I put them in our church bulletin a couple of weeks ago. All but that first one. That's new, one I added as something I've learned on my own but I think most grandparents will agree with me. There's just something about seeing the world fresh through the eyes of a young child. 


What are some that you would add? Things you've learned over the years? How about that life is short and that you really should "stop to smell the roses" along your journey?  
Or that the weatherman is wrong as often as he is right. 
Or that a merry heart really does work good like a medicine just like it says in Proverbs.

Now it's your turn. What are some things you've learned in life?

Stories and Grandparents Go Together

• Grandparents are a family's greatest treasure, the founders of a loving legacy, The greatest storytellers, the keepers of traditions that linger on in cherished memory. Grandparents are the family's strong foundation. Their very special love sets them apart. Through happiness and sorrow, through their special love and caring, grandparents keep a family close at heart. ~author unknown

Thanks to all of you who have been sharing stories about your birthday memories. This is a picture of my aunt Bond who doubled as a grandma for my sisters and me. She made birthdays special the way some of you have been making birthdays special for your children and grandchildren. I'm having such fun reading through your stories and sharing a few of them forward. 

If you haven't entered my Christmas at Harmony Hill Celebration Giveaway yet, you still have plenty of time. Deadline for entering is September 30 at midnight EST. Lots of time to share birthday stories. I can see some of you out there frowning. You're wondering if I have Christmas and birthdays mixed up. Well, it's my birthday month, but my Shaker Christmas book is out, so we're talking birthdays for Christmas or is that Christmas for birthdays? Now I'm the one confused. LOL. 

But I'm not confused about how fun your stories are. Many of you have said your best birthday memory is when somebody surprised you with a birthday party. That's one of my birthday memories too. Also the age fifty has been mentioned often. Guess that's a milestone birthday. It's one of my favorite birthday memories too. I'm like a lot of you. Never really had a birthday party the way we think about parties when I was a kid. After I got married, we had family dinners or I went out to lunch with my mom and sisters, but no party party with guests and candles on cakes. But then the year I turned fifty, my church family threw a surprise party for me after a church service. And it was a surprise! They had a black cake and decorations and sang happy birthday. The whole bit. And it was such fun. Lots of laughter. And black teeth! That black icing on the cake turned everybody's lips and teeth black. All I can say is that it's good that was a few years before everybody started carrying phones around and putting photos out on Facebook at the click of a button. Black teeth aren't all that attractive, but I did so appreciate my church friends going to that trouble for me. 

Today is also Grandparents Day. Of course, most loving grandparents think it's Grandparents Day any time the grandkids can come over for a visit. So here are a couple of birthday stories that include the grandkids. 

First up is Jim telling about his grandson. 

My oldest Grandson (now 16!) was very excited about his birthday (3^rd I think). We were ready to light the candles and sing. He started blowing out the candles as fast as I could light them. I finally got them all lit at once and he blew them out and as soon as he could take a breath shouted again! Again! Again! So we lit them again and he blew them out. We repeated the light-blow-again, again, again thing several times. We ask if he didn’t want to cut the cake and eat it---No! again! Again! Again! So repeated it a few more times and this time asked if he wanted to open presents---No! again! Again! Again! We final had to tell him the stick lighter had run out of gas (a small fib since what had really run out was the skin on my thumb.  Now his little brother is 4. He doesn’t say again, again, again because all of us do it for him. He just bows out every candle he finds and then says light it! He also helps everyone else on their birthday whether they want help or not.

The idea that no one is perfect is a view commonly held by people with no grandchildren. ~Doug Larson

Gayle also shared her birthday memories with us - first one from when she was a kid and then another years later.

   My best birthday present came two days late when I turned 10. My brother was born, which was a double blessing because I had asked for a baby brother for my birthday. Little did I know the responsibility my Mom would heap on me as the big sister. As children we were never close--I was the oldest he was the youngest, but as adults we developed a very special bond. 

 
I think the most fun birthdays were when my grandchildren were younger. They were always so excited to give me my gift and sometimes didn't wait for me to open it before they were telling me what they had bought me. 

Grandparents are a delightful blend of laughter, caring deeds, wonderful stories and Love. ~author unknown

On the seventh day God rested. His grandchildren must have been out of town. ~ Gene Perret

Thanks for reading. Remember leave a comment with a way to contact you here on my blog to enter the contest or send me an e-mail from my website. Details about the contest prizes, etc. are on the News and Events Page on my website.

Roots of Love

Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members. ~Pearl S. Buck

We just celebrated Thanksgiving and counted our blessings. I had plenty to count. Now we’re heading toward the Christmas holidays. Maybe you were one of those out hunting bargains this weekend. Maybe you were one of those who stayed home because you would rather watch football players pile into one another on television than take the chance of being tackled yourself as shoppers stormed into the stores to get those deals.

   

If you were fortunate, you probably gathered with family or are planning to gather with family at Christmas. The holidays can be such fun for youngsters. They can be very busy for those youngsters’ parents. Grandparents get caught up in the fun too while the kids are little, but then sometimes when the grandparents become great-grandparents and the years have piled on, they can’t do the things they used to do at Christmas. They begin to feel unneeded. Perhaps unwanted. No longer is it their house the younger relatives gather at for the celebration of whatever holiday.

 

 

Not long ago I did a library book talk. After my talk, I spoke with a lovely older lady and asked her about her family. She had children and grandchildren close by, but she said they didn’t have much time for her these days. She didn’t want to be “excess baggage.” Her words were spoken with a certain set to her chin and a determined look in her eyes that didn’t quite hide the sadness.

 

 

I am sure her children and grandchildren love her, but life can get so busy. The grandkids probably don’t think to call just to say hello. They probably intend to drop by and see their grandmother, but the weeks slide past, become months, and they don’t find the time. Maybe grandmother doesn’t hear as well as she used to and can’t handle the noise of a rowdy household. Maybe nobody asks her how to fix a favorite recipe anymore because they’ve found their own favorite recipes. Maybe they think grandmother doesn’t feel like helping with the cooking or whatever and insist she merely sit and watch. No one takes the time to listen to her even though she has great stories to tell if only the right questions were asked. And now she’s feeling like “excess baggage.” No longer needed by her family.

 

But we do need our older relatives. We need the strong roots of their love. I hope this lady’s family proves her wrong over the holidays by including her often in their celebrations. And with joy. I hope they will treasure her while she keeps her health and her memories. I miss that so much with Mom. Her memories of our times together. Sometimes she doesn’t remember she has children. Sometimes she thinks those children are still young and playing out in the yard. When she asked for Ann last week and I claimed to be me, she frowned and said she wanted the “young Ann.” Oh, to be that young Ann for her. To be able to take her home to see her mother. To walk with her back through the years while she still remembered them.

 

I did talk with her about her growing up years quite a bit while her memory was working, but not enough. There’s so much to a person’s life that no one can ever know it all. I do hope I never made her feel like “excess baggage.” And I hope if you have an elderly relative who might be lonesome over the holidays and missing the way things used to be for them, that you’ll call her up or go by and spend some time with her.

 

Time – often the very best gift we can give. Thanks for spending a little time here with me.

 

What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. ~ Mother Theresa

 

 

Book Talks and Dub's in Trouble Again

Here I am with the Butler County Librarian, Kenna, after my booktalk yesterday in Morgantown. I appreciated those who were able to come and hope they enjoyed hearing about how I started writing and kept on writing. Sometimes the kept on part is harder than the start part. But perseverance generally pays off and it has for me since I now have books to talk about to readers.

-I love libraries. I owe a lot of my own reading education to my hometown library and then when I started writing there was a wonderful librarian here in Anderson County named Ann McWilliams who always went out of her way to help me find whatever research material I needed for my historical novels. She was the best and in large part because of her energy and drive we have the beautiful library we have today that is dedicated to her memory. I was in our library this afternoon to return an audio book and the place was hopping. Almost every computer was busy and there were even some people looking at books. At the Butler County Library, Kenna says the inspirational fiction is very popular and that the library patrons are reading my books, too. That's always music to a writer's ears.

-Well, poor Dub is in doggie jail again. Not the pound this time, thank goodness. This time the doggie jail is our basement. And he's there through no real fault of his own. He has itching problems and in trying to scratch his itch, he did something to his ear that made it swell up. The vet had to cut it open and drain it out. So now the poor old dog has on one of those Elizabethian (or as someone else said satellite dish) collars and he's not a happy puppy. He keeps looking at me as if to ask why I'm torturing him like this. And it's also torture for him to be confined. He's a farm dog. He's used to being out there smelling all the smells and watching the deer eat the apples off the tree. He doesn't bother the deer. He just watches and hopes they'll leave one of the apples for him. He's going to have a long three weeks.

-Next week is going to be very busy around here. I've got another book talk on Tuesday. They'll have to be polite and listen to me that day since it's my birthday. (And by the way, that's the day I'm drawing for the winner of my giveaway - two books to some lucky winner for my birthday. So you've got one more day to put your name in the drawing.) But we're also going to be at the National Quartet Convention in Louisville every day. If you're there come by the Patriots' booth and say hello. Their booth is in aisle ten or eleven. It's more fun if people stop and talk and I'll have my books there if anybody wants my autograph. Then next Sunday I'm hosting my family reunion. My daughter and her husband are coming in and maybe my son and his family so I might get to see the WV grandbabies.

-On top of all that, this is the week they announce the winners of the ACFW books of the year in Denver. I'm not going to be in Denver, but I'll be represented there by my agent just in case the unexpected happens and they announce Summer of Joy as winner of the long contemporary novel category. That would really be neat. But it's already neat that my book was a finalist. I did really enjoy writing my Hollyhill books and it's a blessing that readers have taken my Hollyhill characters to heart and enjoyed those stories as well as my Shaker stories.

- Oh yeah, and today is Grandparents Day. One of the kids at church asked what treat I'd bought to recognize the grandparents the way we do the Moms and Dads on Mother's Day and Father's Day. I told her grandparents didn't need a treat. They already had the best treat anybody could have - grandkids. I put this quote in the church bulletin today. "What a bargan grandchildren are! We give them our loose change, and they give us a million dollars worth of pleasure!" I don't know who said it, but I know a lot of grandparents who might have. Hope if you're a grandparent you have fun with your grandkids this week or maybe if you have a grandparent you had fun with them.