May endings

The evening we came home from Arkansas, I got news that my Aunt Wanda had passed away.  She and my uncle Wally (my mother's brother) were missionaries in Paris so we didn't see one another very much, but I remember getting letters from them!  We lived in Japan and my mother's sister lived in Mali, Africa.  Two other brothers lived in the States, but they all kept in touch by letters and a round robin tape-recording.

We would see eachother when our furloughs would correspond.  Like here in 1962-63.  In 1968, we finally were all together after 18 years.

We visited them in Paris when we took our children to Europe and Africa.

I visited them in Ohio a couple of years ago and relished the sweet fellowship with them!  I blogged about that.  Post here.

In these past 2 1/2 weeks, I know 8 people personally who have passed away!  It's uncanny.  That has never happened in all my years.  

A friend told me "Nobody ever dies until they have accomplished the purpose they were sent to earth for."  Christ made each of us for a purpose.  

Oh how He loves each one!  No matter what you have done or how you feel about yourself, Christ longs for you! 

"Your eyes saw my unformed body;

         all the days ordained for me were written in Your book

     before one of them came to be."

                          Psalm 139:16

Our last breath on earth,

                 our first in heaven.

Al's mother passed away 32 years ago.  She was 2 years younger than I am now.

Her birthday is in May!  How I miss her and I can't wait to see her once again!  Oh the joy!!

May also brought an end to normal year activities, like my young mom's Bible study.

We learned about putting on the armor of God.  Very fitting for these difficult times!

I teach the Awana Cubbies Bible stories each week.  And this year's Awana finsihed last week.  Some of the younger ones will be back but the older kids graduate to the Sparkies!

Closing ceremony - our kids recited Psalm 23 

 "yea though I walk through the valley..."

Our community life group from church meets every other week and we have had to miss the last two.  For the summer, we will not meet regularly, but will we have a few get togethers.  We went out with one of the couples after the National Night of Prayer at church.

My "old ladies" Bible study (my peers) finished our study "Finding I Am".  Group picture, missing a few women who had conflicts.  That was the case with the young mom's group too.

We will still meet for sewing and coffee during the summer.  

Of course Mother's Day is in May and my family and a special prayer warrior from church made me feel special.

Al took me out for dinner.  It ended up that this was 3 meals worth for us!

Thank You, Father, for Your leading all the time.  You are ever with us!

Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.

Adventuring on our trip to Arkansas

When we were in Arkansas, we attended our son's church.  He played the keys.   

Jude, who is from Haiti, sang part of a worship song in Creole.  They put the English words up so we knew what he was singing.  I LOVED it!  I enjoyed visiting with him after church.  

In 2016, my granddaughter and I went to Haiti to work with a children's ministry.

After church, the guys began working on the deck again and I had a shopping date with Emeri.  She took me to a "thrift" store where she tried on multiple clothing and purchased a few.  

As I was looking through some of the clothing, I saw these plaids.  I had the exact same plaids when I was in my 20's, in the 1970's!  I had a red/black plaid skirt and black plaid slacks!  (I looked to see if I had any pictures in my old albums, but we just didn't take pictures back in those days like we do now.)

We both love ice-cream so we hit up an ice-cream shop!

There was a hill that I spied from where we were eating.  I asked Emeri if she knew what was on that hill.  She didn't, so we decided to go on an adventure and check it out.

There was a beautiful neighborhood with crushed gravel roads!

We went to a couple more stores.  I cannot recall why we are in an aisle with potty chairs.  Hmm.

When we got home, Emeri gave a fashion show.

The Bible talks about clothing:  

In Matthew 6:31-33, it says "So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.  Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need." 

It was fun to shop for clothes, but of more importance, is that we "clothe yourselves..with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is so precious to God." 1 Peter 3:4 and "put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."  Colossians 3:12.  

Then from Eph 6 13-17:  "put on the complete armor of God, so that you will be able to [successfully] resist and stand your ground in the evil day [of danger], and having done everything [that the crisis demands], to stand firm [in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious]. So stand firm and hold your ground, having tightened the wide band of truth (personal integrity, moral courage) around your waist and having put on the breastplate of righteousness (an upright heart), and having strapped on your feet the gospel of peace in preparation [to face the enemy with firm-footed stability and the readiness produced by the good news]. Above all, lift up the [protective] shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."

These things are much more important, but it sure was fun to shop with my granddaughter!!  I wish we lived closer, but all our grandchildren live far away.

On Monday, Emeri had to go to school early so we gave her good-bye kisses the night before.   Before starting up on the deck again, the family played some basketball.

While Josh and Al worked on the deck, Eli and I played Sequence and Pente.  Then he needed to do his schoolwork.  They were going to go kayaaking after Emeri got off school.

We left after lunch, stopping in Rogers to see Uncle Bill.  I'm glad he lives right on the way to Josh's!

He showed us this old adding machine that Grandpa used in his shop and later at his home.  An old fashioned "calculator"!  

We found a new Starbucks.  However, we won't be using this road much longer as they are building the highway to by-pass this area.

We have driven this road for many years, and did not realize that Amish lived close to Parsons.  We drove around to explore.  

We have Amish roots way way way back in the 1700's.

We will need to go back soon to meet the new member of their family that they just adopted!  Reggie!!

Dogwoods and decks

 April is a good time to go to Northwest Arkansas.  The dogwoods were in bloom.

My mother loved dogwood trees.  She often remarked about the petals that formed the shape of a cross.  The pistil looks like the crown of thorns.  And the color at the edges represent the blood of Christ.   Mom would be thrilled to know Josh's have a dogwood tree in their yard.

Eli was outside playing basketball when we drove up to their drive.  Al had to show his stuff to Eli!  He was hot in highschool and still has skills, even at his "old" age!

We took a look at the tree house they built.

Josh had the insight and compassion to make the 

steps easier for us older grandparents to climb up

with the nice grip handles.  

We enjoyed a game of Life.  Emeri was gone for a sleepover; her first in over a year since Covid began.

The next morning, it was raining, so Al finsihed reading Sherlock Holmes to Eli that he had begun the night before.

One of the reasons we came (besides just to see the kids) was because Al came to help Josh with his deck.  This was a work weekend.  They needed to tear out the old wood that was rotting.

Josh drew up plans for the deck.  They will also be adding a lap pool later on.

Dismantling the deck.

Three generations at work.

If Jobi were a cat, he would have no problem getting across.

Eli took a couple of breaks.  He played the piano,

and played games with his Nana.

Since the guys are tearing apart and building and Eli and I were "building" Jenga, it reminded me of Eph. 4:29

Don't tear eachother down.

In the evening, we went out to eat.  Staci's parents joined us.  We stayed at their house...the Prier Hotel.  Each night after we left Josh's, we would talk with them until 11:30!  At home we usually go to bed at 9, but we have such fun with Dan and Lisa!!  Josh picked some pretty good in-laws!