The View from Here

Proud Nana

 

I am a proud and happy Nana this morning! Our granddaughter Taylor has been named 2011 American Red Cross Good Samaritan Youth Hero for her district. You may recall that she spent a year collecting baby blankets for a local mission. When she far exceeded her goal of 365 blankets, she gave the extras to the Red Cross and to a women’s center. One of the Red Cross volunteers submitted her name to the Youth Hero program and Taylor was chosen by a panel of members last week. She will be featured in the paper, on television, and at a breakfast. Yes, I’ve already asked for her autograph! It is heart-warming to know that she took on this project because she recognized a need in her community and she has now been rewarded for her efforts. We all know it doesn’t always work that way.  Also wonderful to know that there were one hundred other candidates for the award. That shows a good foundation of service-minded youth in her area!

I’m also happy that both of my granddaughters will be celebrating their birthdays on Mother’s Day this year! Taylor will be 13 and Hope will be 19. It is amazing how quickly the time has passed.

Back to Normal

 

What a stark contrast between Monday and Tuesday! I started off wearing my sweater yesterday morning to our field trip. By afternoon we were basking in warm sunshine and enjoying recess! Yeah!

 

 

I was also able to walk around the yard yesterday afternoon, even though it is a bit spongy after four inches of rain. I took some photos and was halfway up the hill when I realized I could hear a meadowlark singing. It has been so windy and noisy for the past few days that I have not heard the birds. Such a comforting sound- it made me wonder how many people have a few such calming moments in their day.

 

We received our “end of the year” checklist yesterday. It is a list of tasks and paperwork to be completed before the last day of school. Last day. How did we get here so quickly? I guess I say that every year, but this year is especially poignant for me because I think I will miss this class more than most. They have been challenging, entertaining, and enjoyable. If they are the future we are in good hands.

 

Not much to say this morning, so just enjoy the photos. And no, that is not a bluebird in the old bluebird house. The raccoons have raided it so many times that I had to put wire around it to make them stop. Now the bluebirds are nesting in two new houses and the wren has taken over the old one. That is a female bluebird in the photo.

 

Hope things are back to normal where you are!

Spring Surprise

Well, once again nature has reminded us that we are powerless to control anything. It rained all day yesterday and it was so cold that I actually wore my COAT to school. Yes, my coat…on May 2. There have been some years in the past when May 2nd meant sun block and popsicles on the playground!

I had to stop for gas on the way home- poor planning indeed- and the bank sign said 49 degrees. I went home and made coffee, turned on the bathroom heater, and put an extra blanket on the bed. I watched House last night with an afghan and a warm cat on my lap!

This is a prime example of “be careful what you wish for”. We have all prayed for an end to the drought. Gary and I have watched the pond level drop and drop and wondered if we would ever see the water lap over the dock again. I was already getting anxious about the next water bill (I imagined the secretary asking, “Did you get a pool?”) But our vision of ending the drought involved gentle spring showers over a period of weeks, NOT 4 inches of rain in two days! And certainly we didn’t order COLD!

That’s what we do. We pray for what we want, but we usually don’t imagine that God will answer in His way and time. We don’t dream that our problems could be solved in another way except the one that our little brains have conjured up. We don’t envision any answer except our own. I’ve always felt that there is no greater analogy to God than the weather. No greater reminder of our own insignificance than the wind. It can be a gentle comfort on a summer’s night, or the destroyer of whole communities.

Thursday is marked on my calendar as “National Day of Prayer”. I usually pray every day, sometimes several times a day, but I think it is important to set aside a day when we join together as a nation and pray for things that affect us as a united community. Certainly there are plenty of reasons to pray for our country this year! But as we pray I want you to think about praying for God’s solutions and His plans and His timing. Perhaps if we stop trying to “figure things out” with our limited brains and even more limited knowledge and stop visualizing the solutions before we pray, we might get some surprises. God’s solutions might involve more patience and more work on our part- they usually do- but they might also be more lasting and beneficial to more people. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked God help me reach a goal the way I’ve planned it and He has shown me an entirely different path that was far better. There must be a reason why the Lord’s Prayer says “Thy will be done…”

Today is our field trip. Praise God that several things we have done in the past just didn’t seem right this year or didn’t work out on our calendar! I can just imagine how a play day at the park would have turned out today! Instead we will be warm and dry and enjoy a morning of fun at a local kids’ playroom.

Have a wonderful day!

Crazy

 

Yesterday was a crazy day! I had barely answered a few emails when the storm front moved in and we lost the internet for the rest of the day. Also lost power a couple of times. It rained and blew and rained and blew from then on into late last night. At times the wind was reported at 60+mph. with some damage south of us. We had gotten three inches of rain by 4pm.

Of course to complicate matters I did something stupid the day before. I forgot to count my blood pressure pills, and of course that was my last refill, so I had to make an emergency call to the clinic on Saturday morning and ask for the doctor to call in an approval. The clinic called back at noon to let me known it had been done. The pharmacy said it would be ready Sunday afternoon…no problem.

Well, of course it was a problem! We tried to time our trip so that we only got rained on and not blown away. Got there safely, only to learn that the power had been out and the computers were down and Walgreen’s was taking “cash only”. Who carries cash anymore? Left, got some cash, went back and got the prescription, and barely made it home before the next round of wind and lightning began.

On the way home I thought about all the people in the recent tornadoes who were without medication the moment their house blew away. Forget photos or jewelry…maybe when the next tornado warning comes across the screen I had better grab my pills and put them in my pocket! Scary to think of how dependent we are on pharmaceuticals!

 

And I was NOT out and about with the camera yesterday! Wasn’t even interested in taking photos of the puddles or the river of water winding its way through the pasture. I barely managed to go out and feed the cat! The photos are from Saturday.

 

Hopefully it will be calmer today. We need to break the drought cycle…but not in one day.

Have a safe day!