Spring Showers Us With Blessings...

April Showers Bring May Flowers...

Rain...Again!  I am sure that May should be super flowery!
It is kind of nice to sit around on a rainy day and just read a book or watch a movie, every now and then.
So many things have happened since I last wrote, I have been pretty slack.

One of the April events I have taken part in for the last 15 plus years, is a mutual birthday celebration lunch.  This year, it was just me.  Our trio...is UNO.  A few years ago, Mrs H went home..this year, my dearest friend, Charlene followed her.  In January, I had one last visit with her.  She had just come home from the hospital, after she and family decided to enter Hospice. No more treatments for Mets. Breast cancer.  She had had the original cancer 10 years prior, I remember it was on one of our lunches that she shared she had a mass and had been for a mammogram.  She came home for a visit 2012 and learned it was back.  Spring 2013 was full of travel, and treatments.  I didn't have as many visits as I would have liked.  We did have Tuesdays for Radiation.  The scans had showed brain involvement, and she couldn't drive herself.  We'd drive to Raleigh,get radiated for a few minutes and go out to lunch.  Boy, could she eat!  She was upset that she was upsetting her family.  She and I had some really good talks about life and how to live it.

After a fitful weekend and some family time, I was able to visit.  She had been medicated and was sleeping. I stepped into her room, the window showing the evening light as the sun set.  Her daughter, singing Breathe on Me, Breath of Life....and she was still and covered lightly with a sheet. Her hat, askew, and her arm behind her head.  I kissed her cheek and spoke to her of all the things we usually talked about. Her husband, her kids and most of all Our Lord. I told her how I would miss her and would try to continue to be a friend to someone else, like she had been to me....one last touch.
The next morning, she was gone.

So, April is almost gone..her birthday yesterday.  No lunch.  I missed it a lot.


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The Desperate Moms class went well and had good attendance.  I learned a lot about what it is like to be a new(er) mom in these times.  Some things just don't change.  The pressure of being the best mom, compared to being a Godly mom still is present.  Some of the moms that have have their first children later in life..30's have different challenges than those in their 20's.  But God is good, and He is teaching all of us to be conformed to His image and to be more compassionate and patient with one another.

Over the past 6 months or so, I have had the privilege of baby sitting for E, while she works.  My daughter has done a marvelous job in so many ways.  She has grown and that is always a wonderful thing for a mom to see!  Watching and playing with the girls have been so much fun and I feel like it is something to be treasured.  I never thought I would have this opportunity to have them so close to me!  I really thought that they would be living far off in another state or even country, had L stayed in the USMC.

C has grown and has really started to blossom.  This little squirt of a girl, who had failure to thrive on top of an early arrival, has started to make great strides.  She finally started to crawl and is pulling up, she is putting stuff in her mouth..finally. She was a bit like a baby bird there for a while!  She has 2 teeth and is pretty much content, unless big sister comes by and gives her a nicely placed hug that is either too tight or just happens to knock her over!

S is really quite funny and spunky.  She is in a state of constant movement, but has finally settled into reading books and we can actually almost read a whole book.  She is very astute and observant.  Her language skills are finally coming together, and soon I think others will be able to understand her as well!
She loves the outdoors.

We recently met up with P at the Outerbanks.  He was training at a new store there, and we arranged to spend Easter with him.  We spent the day at the Aquarium.  It was a cold, windy and dreary day.  Really windy...25mph winds and the gusts were higher than that.  Temps in the high 40's!  It was fun to watch him take S around to look at the fish and sharks

V and I went to AZ in November, for a wedding.  We stopped at the Grand Canyon.  I wasn't prepared for the beauty of it!  We visited San Diego and our nephew. He has been in the Brig and hadn't been treated or evaluated for TBI and PTSD.  His mom, is a determined and zealous woman.  She has moved mountains and is getting him help. In the meanwhile, she is helping so many others to help our military men and women, who have served valiantly, and been mistreated by higher ups. She has encouraged me so much.



We went to Florida in March to see the folks.  The seem well and are contemplating their "what next?" for their 80's.  It was a nice getaway and we enjoyed visiting with family.

M is finishing up her first year at college...!!!! WHAT???  It hasn't even been a year since she graduated High School yet!!  She has managed to do quite well and adapted to dorm life.  She even ended up having a room to her self the second semester and enjoyed having her own room.  She is back to sharing for the summer, here at home.

I think that the summer is going to be hot, humid..and that is only because we have 7 adults and 2 kids living under one roof! I haven't even really started to think about the temps and the fact that the Heat pump might be dead!

It is good to be together and we are all learning the art of cooperation and compromise.  I do pray that we can have good memories and have a few summer adventures as well.