I Am A Christian
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Bi is for Birhday
6 days ago
Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Sad News Indeed....
Well...one never knows how or where to start sometimes...so I am just going to start here. My dear MIL Ginny passed away from her brain cancer shortly after we rang in the New Year. This was my "Proverbs 31" example...how to be a wife and mother. She taught me all of the things that my own mother never taught me in life. How to cook, how to clean...how to make homemade noodles...what the value of family is...how to love someone even if you don't like what they do or how they act, etc...
She was the epitome' of the word "Mom". Heck!- even her co-workers at the last job she held at Carnival Foods Deli, called her either Mom or Grandma! If you called in and asked for the Deli, you had to say "Is Grandma there?" because if you asked for Ginny, they had to stop and think for a minute who you were calling for.
There were some funny moments that we shared over the years...some crazy moments..some sad and serious moments and all of those other "Mom-ism" moments that a daughter and her mother would share. And yes, she treated me just like Sue. Like I was her daughter, not her Daughter-in-Law. Sue and I would joke around over the years about who she liked best, just like two siblings would, and we both would always say that she liked "Donnie" best! (My husband and Sue's brother) :)
Once you had met Ginny, there was a unique bond of the heart that you shared and it seemed as if you had know each other your whole lives. I actually had the honor and privilege of having know Ginny for half of my life. I was 40 when she moved on to go live with Jesus; and Donnie and I had met just after I had turned 20. I turned 41 on February 8th, and I missed the card from Ginny that always told me she loved me this year :(
We would tease each other from time to time too and when she would get sassy she would point her index finger at me, and I would always say "Calm down, Virginia!"...then we would crack up laughing or smile and she would say "Oh, you!" :)
The grandkids all called her "G"...because really she was so special that she didn't even need a full name, kinda like when the music artist Prince decided to use a symbol for his name... the great-grandkids all started calling her "GG"...and That she was.. a "good gal"...GG :)
I am sure that there will be many moments when I will miss Ginny over the years to come, especially on holidays, birthdays (she was a firecraker baby- born on July 4th)... familt gatherings. I am just glad that during the last days of her life we were able to have those conversations that mean the most... the ones about life, love, family and our personal relationship with God/Jesus. I can rest confidently in the fact that she loved the Lord and has accepted Him into her life years ago and knew where she was going. I was able to re-assure her nefore she passed on, that NOTHING can EVER separate us from that LOVE and she died peacefully in her sleep.
I had to laugh (and felt bad about it at first)...as Donnie and I made it to Sue's before the guys from the funeral home showed up to take her. Ginny had told Sue that she wanted me to have the diamond earrings that she wore everyday because they were special to her and she wanted to pass them down to me as a gift. She used to tease me all the time about leaving them in her ears as her cancer progressed, and she told me that she was going to die with them in and when I went to reach down to take them out of her ears, she was going to reach up and point her index finger at me and say "Gotcha!"...we had more than just a few laughs over that one :) Well, Sue took them out a day or two before she passed away to keep to give to me. When Donnie and I got there and went into the bedroom to pay our respects, the dentures that she wore had shifted out of her mouth slightly and her head was tilted a bit. The minute I walked into the bedroom, a combination of tears ands laughter overcame my body at the same time. Tears for the loss of someone that I deeply love...and laughter because it looked like she was laying there, while somehow still saying "Gotcha!"
Virginia...you were truly a gem that will be missed dearly, everyday of our lives...make sure that you are helping Jesus to put our room next to yours in Heaven!
Love, Shannon (Donnie, Tiffany & Paige) <3
She was the epitome' of the word "Mom". Heck!- even her co-workers at the last job she held at Carnival Foods Deli, called her either Mom or Grandma! If you called in and asked for the Deli, you had to say "Is Grandma there?" because if you asked for Ginny, they had to stop and think for a minute who you were calling for.
There were some funny moments that we shared over the years...some crazy moments..some sad and serious moments and all of those other "Mom-ism" moments that a daughter and her mother would share. And yes, she treated me just like Sue. Like I was her daughter, not her Daughter-in-Law. Sue and I would joke around over the years about who she liked best, just like two siblings would, and we both would always say that she liked "Donnie" best! (My husband and Sue's brother) :)
Once you had met Ginny, there was a unique bond of the heart that you shared and it seemed as if you had know each other your whole lives. I actually had the honor and privilege of having know Ginny for half of my life. I was 40 when she moved on to go live with Jesus; and Donnie and I had met just after I had turned 20. I turned 41 on February 8th, and I missed the card from Ginny that always told me she loved me this year :(
We would tease each other from time to time too and when she would get sassy she would point her index finger at me, and I would always say "Calm down, Virginia!"...then we would crack up laughing or smile and she would say "Oh, you!" :)
The grandkids all called her "G"...because really she was so special that she didn't even need a full name, kinda like when the music artist Prince decided to use a symbol for his name... the great-grandkids all started calling her "GG"...and That she was.. a "good gal"...GG :)
I am sure that there will be many moments when I will miss Ginny over the years to come, especially on holidays, birthdays (she was a firecraker baby- born on July 4th)... familt gatherings. I am just glad that during the last days of her life we were able to have those conversations that mean the most... the ones about life, love, family and our personal relationship with God/Jesus. I can rest confidently in the fact that she loved the Lord and has accepted Him into her life years ago and knew where she was going. I was able to re-assure her nefore she passed on, that NOTHING can EVER separate us from that LOVE and she died peacefully in her sleep.
I had to laugh (and felt bad about it at first)...as Donnie and I made it to Sue's before the guys from the funeral home showed up to take her. Ginny had told Sue that she wanted me to have the diamond earrings that she wore everyday because they were special to her and she wanted to pass them down to me as a gift. She used to tease me all the time about leaving them in her ears as her cancer progressed, and she told me that she was going to die with them in and when I went to reach down to take them out of her ears, she was going to reach up and point her index finger at me and say "Gotcha!"...we had more than just a few laughs over that one :) Well, Sue took them out a day or two before she passed away to keep to give to me. When Donnie and I got there and went into the bedroom to pay our respects, the dentures that she wore had shifted out of her mouth slightly and her head was tilted a bit. The minute I walked into the bedroom, a combination of tears ands laughter overcame my body at the same time. Tears for the loss of someone that I deeply love...and laughter because it looked like she was laying there, while somehow still saying "Gotcha!"
Virginia...you were truly a gem that will be missed dearly, everyday of our lives...make sure that you are helping Jesus to put our room next to yours in Heaven!
Love, Shannon (Donnie, Tiffany & Paige) <3
Thursday, October 15, 2009
When it Rains ...it sometimes POURS!!!
Well...as a Christian who loves the Lord and believes that Jesus is her Savior, brother that she never had, and best friend...I sometimes struggle when people remind me that we are to THANK GOD FOR ALL THINGS. I know what this means, and in my heart I know that this statement is true and just. But sometimes it just mixes with the humanness of this side of Heaven and leaves my heart and head a bit heavy...like this week.
Donnie's mom, who was doing so good after her cancer treatments, is in the hospital currently with what they thought might be pneumonia. She was having trouble swallowing and they thought it might have been from her meds. They scoped her throat and did a CT Scan and nothing was wrong. So they decided to do an MRI of her entire throat and head. Donnie called me this morning, teary, to let me know that his sister and mom were waiting on her Oncologist to get there, because his sister, who is a nurse and the radiologist both stated that it look like she may have brain cancer. Donnie said that she had started to say things a few weeks ago that didn't go together and didn't make sense...I am waiting on a call back again now for further confirmation.
This comes on top of me, being off work due to sickness and having to take Paige to the doctor, who was not feeling well. (You can believe that she got the FluMist while we were there!)--- We are both on meds at this point. I had to go to the ER yesterday morning because I had a fever and couldn't breath... and wound up having to get a chest x-ray and a breathing treatment for Acute Bronchitis. They sent me home with an antibiotic (and I am allergic to just about every one out there!) and a steroid. After 2 doses of both, today, sitting at work, I break out into a full flushed face, neck, chest and throat, with a VERY red rash. I called my Doctor's office.....(3 1/2 hours ago...hellooo!!!????) and they said to quit taking both meds and they would send my info back to the doctor and call me back...would that be BEFORE or AFTER you close for the day???!!! God love 'em! I know they are busy, but you would think that an allergic reaction to medication would somehow seem important to someone else besides me.
I know that Paige and I will get well...and no matter what happens with Donnie's mom, that she will be brought to a place of wellness too...even if that means that she is soon to be made whole again and be staring into my brother's face and surrounded by his loving arms...it just gets so hard at times, especially times like this, when everyone is sick including yourself...to thank God for the deck that we have been handed as of late. (I wish I could find the owner, I would hand back the deck!) But I will once again trust in the promises that God has made very clear... that He will NEVER leave or forsake us... that His love is unconditional... that He is ALWAYS with us, even to the end...and that He WILL made us whole and new..in His perfect timing. For these things and much, much more...I am truly THANKFUL. Maybe it's just my job to cling to Him right now and crawl into His lap and let Him love on me...so that I can feel well enough to love on the rest of my family...
Donnie's mom, who was doing so good after her cancer treatments, is in the hospital currently with what they thought might be pneumonia. She was having trouble swallowing and they thought it might have been from her meds. They scoped her throat and did a CT Scan and nothing was wrong. So they decided to do an MRI of her entire throat and head. Donnie called me this morning, teary, to let me know that his sister and mom were waiting on her Oncologist to get there, because his sister, who is a nurse and the radiologist both stated that it look like she may have brain cancer. Donnie said that she had started to say things a few weeks ago that didn't go together and didn't make sense...I am waiting on a call back again now for further confirmation.
This comes on top of me, being off work due to sickness and having to take Paige to the doctor, who was not feeling well. (You can believe that she got the FluMist while we were there!)--- We are both on meds at this point. I had to go to the ER yesterday morning because I had a fever and couldn't breath... and wound up having to get a chest x-ray and a breathing treatment for Acute Bronchitis. They sent me home with an antibiotic (and I am allergic to just about every one out there!) and a steroid. After 2 doses of both, today, sitting at work, I break out into a full flushed face, neck, chest and throat, with a VERY red rash. I called my Doctor's office.....(3 1/2 hours ago...hellooo!!!????) and they said to quit taking both meds and they would send my info back to the doctor and call me back...would that be BEFORE or AFTER you close for the day???!!! God love 'em! I know they are busy, but you would think that an allergic reaction to medication would somehow seem important to someone else besides me.
I know that Paige and I will get well...and no matter what happens with Donnie's mom, that she will be brought to a place of wellness too...even if that means that she is soon to be made whole again and be staring into my brother's face and surrounded by his loving arms...it just gets so hard at times, especially times like this, when everyone is sick including yourself...to thank God for the deck that we have been handed as of late. (I wish I could find the owner, I would hand back the deck!) But I will once again trust in the promises that God has made very clear... that He will NEVER leave or forsake us... that His love is unconditional... that He is ALWAYS with us, even to the end...and that He WILL made us whole and new..in His perfect timing. For these things and much, much more...I am truly THANKFUL. Maybe it's just my job to cling to Him right now and crawl into His lap and let Him love on me...so that I can feel well enough to love on the rest of my family...
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Scrapbooking/Crafting Day!!!!
I just posted one of Julia Child's famous recipes to get you inspired over the weekend (those of you who will be home and can cook all day)...I can't tackle this one today, but do intend to make it when the snow flies and I'll let you know how it turns out. I am getting ready to make Gracie's Biscuits to take to my bi-monthly scrapbook and crafting day with my homegirls! :)
Gracie's real name is Nancy Wright and I had the pleasure of going to church with her, her husband John and daughter Stacey years ago at HPC. The church motto was "Love Grows Here" and it certainly did! Gracie and Bud (John) were elders in the church and had raised animals and horses on their farm their whole life. They were definately hard workers. Stacey and I shared a love for vintage things and she even had decorated her bathroom with really cool vintage clothing, etc...and the effect was spectacular (wish I would have thought back then to take a picture of it)...anywho, I was trusted enough as part of her adopted family to have her secret Buttermilk Biscuit recipe. And while I can't share the recipe because she asked me not to give it to anyone, I will post a picture later of how they look when they come out of the oven.
They smell soooo good baking and they are so light and fluffy (probably the combination of buttermilk and baking powder)...and I think of and remember fondly the fun times that we shared in Gracie's kitchen, as she taught me so many things in that farm house. I love them dearly and we run into each other every so often...but writing this post, I realize that I need to keep in touch with them better before they are no longer here...because as Gracie used to say "I ain't no spring chicken!"
So I dedicate these biscuits to you Gracie!...thanks for the memories! :)
**UPDATE:The recipe was such a secret that I couldn't find it and had to make biscuits with a different recipe. Everyone liked them, but I thought they sucked. I later found Gracie's recipe and will be making these in a few weeks the next time we meet...will post a pic then!
Gracie's real name is Nancy Wright and I had the pleasure of going to church with her, her husband John and daughter Stacey years ago at HPC. The church motto was "Love Grows Here" and it certainly did! Gracie and Bud (John) were elders in the church and had raised animals and horses on their farm their whole life. They were definately hard workers. Stacey and I shared a love for vintage things and she even had decorated her bathroom with really cool vintage clothing, etc...and the effect was spectacular (wish I would have thought back then to take a picture of it)...anywho, I was trusted enough as part of her adopted family to have her secret Buttermilk Biscuit recipe. And while I can't share the recipe because she asked me not to give it to anyone, I will post a picture later of how they look when they come out of the oven.
They smell soooo good baking and they are so light and fluffy (probably the combination of buttermilk and baking powder)...and I think of and remember fondly the fun times that we shared in Gracie's kitchen, as she taught me so many things in that farm house. I love them dearly and we run into each other every so often...but writing this post, I realize that I need to keep in touch with them better before they are no longer here...because as Gracie used to say "I ain't no spring chicken!"
So I dedicate these biscuits to you Gracie!...thanks for the memories! :)
**UPDATE:The recipe was such a secret that I couldn't find it and had to make biscuits with a different recipe. Everyone liked them, but I thought they sucked. I later found Gracie's recipe and will be making these in a few weeks the next time we meet...will post a pic then!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Cleaning Day!
faAt noon today, I am going to help my friend clean her humble abode. She was recently divorced because her louse of a husband who has cheated on her numerous times over the years walked in one day and told her that he didn't love her anymore. Really!?!...could you not have figured that out years ago, you crackhead!?...he isn't a crackhead, but that's the closest thing that I could think of at the moment, without going off on a man-bashing tyrade!
Anyhoo...she had to go from a multi-room house to a 3 room apartment, so as you can imagine, we have a LOT of purging, organizing and cleaning to do. She says that it's hard for her to have to let me see her "mess"...but I told her, "Hey! Think nothing of it, that's what friends are for." And I truly believe that she would drop everything in a heartbeat to come to my rescue if I needed her...so I get to reap the blessing in disguise of knowing that I am helping her to get the interior of her house shiny and new. And if you think about it, nobody likes anyone else to see their "messes"...if they did, the dishes would never get shoved in the oven or dishwasher, or the clothes in the closet that were on the floor...or the other things that people do when they get unexpected guests and friends drop by.
I have always likened the interior of one's soul to the condition of your home. What I mean by that is, to me at my house, I am always in a state of some sort or another of organization and "tidying up"...therefore it reflects an outward view to the world, who happens to "drop by"...what the inner condition of my spiritual life is like at that moment. (Which always fluxuates between spick and span and dusty)...just like my struggle this side of heaven to be like an alien in a foreign land.
For me, I am always in a constant state of "tidying up"...maybe I yelled at my kids or hubby that day...maybe I was so mad that I dropped the *F*Bomb...maybe I was so tired that the laundry just sat in the basket until it was all wrinkly and then I got mad all over again. Whatever the case may be, it's like that with my walk with God too. I get mad and I yell at Him "Now would be a GREAT time to come down here and take me home, God!"...(I have never dropped the *F*Bomb at Him)...but that laundry basket metaphor...now that's a good one...so if I am not in His Word or don't do what He tells me to do, then my soul becomes all shriveled up and wrinkly, just like those clothes!...and I do believe that God is my Father...so I talk to Him as I were His daughter and we have that "parent/child" dialog most of the time.
I am working on how to organize...(or get rid of)...all of the "stuff" that I have accumulated over my 40 years on this planet. Some of the stuff is clothes that I keep as I convince myself that I will someday be that size 6 that I once was...instead of the size 14-16 that I am now. You would think that as I struggle with an underactive thyroid that I would just get rid of them...which I am, but it has not been an easy road, I can tell you that. It's almost as if it is a personal mourning over what I once had, and in a way...who I once was.
I am getting ready to switch doctors because I feel that mine is not even keeping up on when I have to get my blood work done, as I always have to call him and then he says, "Oh yeah, you should have had that done last month."...DUH!??? Everyone keeps telling me to seek out an Endocronologist...a doc who deals with the thyroid and the immune system...so I am toying that idea around currently.
But just like my house and the inner condition of my soul...I must constantly search and seek out the "better things" and the "specialists" that God has set before me, in order to be walking down the narrow road. Boy, does that wide road get confusing at times!
So, for me....I get to be blessed today, knowing that I am helping a close friend "air out her dirty laundry" ...and free the fetters that have kept her soul locked up fo several months now...getting your hands dirty by helping out a fellow sister in Christ...it doesn't get much better than that! :)
Anyhoo...she had to go from a multi-room house to a 3 room apartment, so as you can imagine, we have a LOT of purging, organizing and cleaning to do. She says that it's hard for her to have to let me see her "mess"...but I told her, "Hey! Think nothing of it, that's what friends are for." And I truly believe that she would drop everything in a heartbeat to come to my rescue if I needed her...so I get to reap the blessing in disguise of knowing that I am helping her to get the interior of her house shiny and new. And if you think about it, nobody likes anyone else to see their "messes"...if they did, the dishes would never get shoved in the oven or dishwasher, or the clothes in the closet that were on the floor...or the other things that people do when they get unexpected guests and friends drop by.
I have always likened the interior of one's soul to the condition of your home. What I mean by that is, to me at my house, I am always in a state of some sort or another of organization and "tidying up"...therefore it reflects an outward view to the world, who happens to "drop by"...what the inner condition of my spiritual life is like at that moment. (Which always fluxuates between spick and span and dusty)...just like my struggle this side of heaven to be like an alien in a foreign land.
For me, I am always in a constant state of "tidying up"...maybe I yelled at my kids or hubby that day...maybe I was so mad that I dropped the *F*Bomb...maybe I was so tired that the laundry just sat in the basket until it was all wrinkly and then I got mad all over again. Whatever the case may be, it's like that with my walk with God too. I get mad and I yell at Him "Now would be a GREAT time to come down here and take me home, God!"...(I have never dropped the *F*Bomb at Him)...but that laundry basket metaphor...now that's a good one...so if I am not in His Word or don't do what He tells me to do, then my soul becomes all shriveled up and wrinkly, just like those clothes!...and I do believe that God is my Father...so I talk to Him as I were His daughter and we have that "parent/child" dialog most of the time.
I am working on how to organize...(or get rid of)...all of the "stuff" that I have accumulated over my 40 years on this planet. Some of the stuff is clothes that I keep as I convince myself that I will someday be that size 6 that I once was...instead of the size 14-16 that I am now. You would think that as I struggle with an underactive thyroid that I would just get rid of them...which I am, but it has not been an easy road, I can tell you that. It's almost as if it is a personal mourning over what I once had, and in a way...who I once was.
I am getting ready to switch doctors because I feel that mine is not even keeping up on when I have to get my blood work done, as I always have to call him and then he says, "Oh yeah, you should have had that done last month."...DUH!??? Everyone keeps telling me to seek out an Endocronologist...a doc who deals with the thyroid and the immune system...so I am toying that idea around currently.
But just like my house and the inner condition of my soul...I must constantly search and seek out the "better things" and the "specialists" that God has set before me, in order to be walking down the narrow road. Boy, does that wide road get confusing at times!
So, for me....I get to be blessed today, knowing that I am helping a close friend "air out her dirty laundry" ...and free the fetters that have kept her soul locked up fo several months now...getting your hands dirty by helping out a fellow sister in Christ...it doesn't get much better than that! :)
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