Tell me all about what your mama did that made her yours….

I struggled with school.  It wasn't fun and it wasn't easy.  Part of it was due to social stuff which I am, also, not good at.  Part of it was, I always choose the most difficult books to read.  I always choose the harder route. 
I would haul my backpack, packed with every book in my desk, back and forth every day.  I would study from the minute I got home until my mom declared it bedtime. 
I would end up in tears over not having it as easy as my brothers made it look.
My mom always encouraged.  And, was always happiest for me when the weekend came, or summer, or some other break from the struggles of studying.
She loved summer vacation!  She was not the mama who counted down the days till she could send her kids back to school.  She was not the mama who moaned and complained as we made messes, destroyed things, and created chaos.  She loved spending time with us.  She loved taking us to our grandparents' acreage on Friday nights for dinner of fish squares and mac and cheese.
She took us candy selling.  First, for me for Camp Fire.  Later, for all three of us as we earned our way to Camp Kitaki.  She encouraged, charted, and bribed (but in a good way, with the promise of hot chocolate) us to earn our way to camp and earn back the $50 deposit she had put down on each of our behalves.  Our money to spend as we wanted IF we earned it back.


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Beloved

 

"I am my beloveds and my beloveds is mine."  It is from the Song of Solomon.
Yesterday, I valenteered for Love On The Run.  A local shop puts on this fun activity every Valentine's Day for the last 6 or 7 years.
It all begins, well as far as us meager participants are concerned, this last weekend.  We showed up at the shop and ate goodies, sipped wine or punch, and typed notes on old fashion type writers to our someone special.  We had our pictures taken.  Rolled our love notes and put them in little glass bottles.  The bottles and pictures were put in little gift bags with information on delivery printed on the back.
THEN, yesterday, us valenteers invaded the store.  We picked up boxes of little gifts bags and began driving all over this town on 200,000+ people delivering little gift bags with notes typed on old fashion type writers.
One of those notes headed out to the airport.  When my husband got to work last night his boss sent him to the front desk where he was surprised by a little gift bag.
Another little gift bag headed to a small town where a friend surprised her husband.
And, MANY others, over 300 in all were delivered to doors to await returning lovers, to hands attached to shocked, surprised, excited faces.  I wish I could have seen more of those faces.  :-)  The few I was privileged to see were wonderful.  I look forward to Love On The Run next year.

Bare

I tried Mary Kay foundation recently.  My skin did not like it.
I'm a no make-up kind of gal.  I like to play with it on occasion, but I am not a regular purchaser or wearer.
But, I thought it would be fun and I had someone, not a good influence in my life, telling me I needed plastic surgery under my eyes.  So, I thought, I would give foundation a try.  After all, it is mineral based.
But, no, my face did not like it.  Just like it did not like Avon when I was in high school and my face broke out in, first period, history class and I got sent to the nurse's office.
So, I wear no make-up.  I am, thank God, blessed with good skin.  I have my Grandma Troutt's naturally rosy cheeks.  I have my Great-Grandma Kubes face.  (It is odd to me to go to Aksmit family reunions and have strangers come up to me and ask how I am related to her.)  I have dark circles, some days more obvious than other days, from being up to late or to early, as the case may be.  I occasionally get a blemish, but they are not, thankfully, regular occurrences.
I wish other women felt it okay to show their bare faces.  I think there are a lot of pretty faces out there under the eye liner, blush, foundation, blemish corrector, etc.  After all, God doesn't make junk.  So, there is no need to, "put my face on."  Be yourself the wonderful creation God made.  You are blessed and wonderful just the way you are.  I am blessed and wonderful, in-spite of the bad influence in my life that tells me I need plastic surgery to deal with the circles under my eyes.

Afraid

"If you let them sit in it, you have to let them fly it."
Words of wisdom from a pilots wife to a younger pilots wife with three little boys.  Sigh!
Although, this does not make me as afraid as yesterday.
Yesterday, I got a phone call from a friend saying her and her kids were in a car accident.  Not a huge surprise in the snow covered city.  However, the surprise was that the other driver was under the influence.  That makes me afraid.  Her and her kids are okay.  But, her youngest, who is 2, shook her head yes as I held her and asked if it was scary.
It would be so easy to become a recluse.  To say the world outside is to scary.  That I am afraid of drivers under the influence, of slick streets, of my boys growing up and flying military equipment into unsafe parts of the world, of my husband flying to another part of the U.S. and his wings icing up and not being able to safely land.
BUT, I don't.  Because, "When I am afraid I will trust in YOU!" (Psalm 56:3)  "You are my fortress, my shield, my banner in whom I trust." (roughly Psalm 18:2)  Because of these words and many others, I keep going.  I keep trusting that God will grab me and hold on tight if the things I fear happen.  I trust that He knows the best for those who love Him.