Five Minutes Of Pattern

Linking up with Five Minute Friday today, and here's how that looks- 

Tell your inner critic to hush, then write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Then hop over to the Five Minute Friday link up hosted by Kate Motaung and add your blog to the list. Don't forget to leave a comment for the writer linking before you, because that's the neighborly thing to do.

Today's prompt-pattern

I remember being a little girl of about nine or ten, accompanying my mom to the fabric store. Back in the day there were lots of fabric stores and there was always an area set up with big conference style tables where you would start your hunt for just the right thing. 

There were enormous catalogs to peruse...McCalls...Simplicity...Butterick...these were my favorite, and we'd spend a lot of time trying to find something I loved that my mom would be able to sew. Choosing the fabric was my favorite part of the experience and sometimes I'd want a particular material, but my mom would explain it wouldn't work well with the pattern we'd chosen

We'd settle on something then go home to lay out the pattern and cut the pieces of material to fit. She'd pin and sew and I'd try on, and it was fun to watch it all come together. My mom loved buying fabric and had a couple of trunkfuls she never made into anything, but couldn't part with either. Sometimes when I think of my mom I picture her at her sewing machine. She didn't have a dedicated room but she made it work, sometimes in the dining room, sometimes in my brother's room after he went off to college. 

I learned to sew somewhere along the way, mostly by watching and my mom teaching, but also in Home Ec in junior high and high school. Is that still a thing? I learned to follow a pattern, but I didn't stick with it and don't own a machine anymore. 

I have a lot of friends who quilt so I know there are still fabric stores out there, but they seem few and far between now. Do you still choose a paper pattern or is everything somehow digital in the 21st century? Do you sit in a store in a too big chair and turn pages in a too big book until you find the dress that calls your name? 

Do you lean over your mama's shoulder and beg to press the pedal and guide the fabric through the machine? Does she lean over yours as she helps you hold it straight? 

Do you grow up and write a blog where a word sparks a memory? 

Five Minutes Of Determine

Trying my hand at Five Minute Friday today, a weekly link up hosted by Kate Motaung. She posts a one word prompt and we write for five minutes flat, no editing or overthinking, ahem. 

Today's prompt-determine

I was thinking about my dad this week, specifically about the year he died. Hubs and I were living about two hours north of my parents back then and our girls were toddlers. I was in a Bible Study that year, with a group of women from my church, and I had so many questions about the particular book we were using as one of our resources. 

My dad wasn't a big talker but I would call home every week and ask his take on the theology presented in whatever chapter had been discussed that Tuesday morning. Was it right or off base? Does it line up with what I've always believed and if not help me understand. Explain it to me. Tell me what you think it means. 

A small sweet memory that stays mostly tucked into the corner of my head and heart. 

My dad died young, only a few years older than I am right now. When I saw today's word I thought of the verse in Job (14:5) that says, -"A person's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed." 

Or as the Living Translation puts it-""You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer." 

God determines my days. He decides. A lot or a little. The amount doesn't always make sense to my human mind, but I know He doesn't make mistakes. That His ways are higher than mine. That while He's given me some number of days, I determine how they're filled. 

Nearly 30 years have come and gone since we last hung up the phone. The world has grown and groaned and turned into something he probably wouldn't recognize in 2022. I've grown too, partly due to the wisdom that comes with aging, but also in large part due to study. Years and years of reading and asking questions and holding everything up next to God's word to see if it fits. 

How I'd love an icy cold Birch Beer and a chat with my dad today, about the deep and mysterious workings of God. 

Five Minutes of Slow

Joining the Five Minute Friday crew this week and here's how that goes...tell your inner critic to hush, then write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Next hop over to Kate Motaung's blog and add your link to the list. Lastly, be sure to leave a comment for the blogger linking before you, because comments keep the blog world spinning. Here we go-

Today's word prompt-slow

Time is a mystery isn't it? It's either moving too fast or too slow for our liking, and it's rare we say the pace is just right. I think learning to make peace with the pace is what leads to contentment, and while I'm always craving blank space in the calendar, I know days and seasons of busy need to happen too.

I have not seen my grandsons in person in 20 months. Baby Max was three weeks old when he last laid his tiny head on my chest and now he's a running, talking, laughing toddler boy. The mancub too, has grown at least a foot and added a hundred million words and questions to his vocabulary, and just saying that makes me want to rewind the clock and replay all the seconds I've missed thanks to geography and a global pandemic. 

Time moves in one direction only though, so we tell it now to hurry. To bring those boys and their parents back to our side of the world pronto and once they're here to please then slow back down so we can savor all the minutes we'll have with them in the flesh instead of facetime. 

Of course time never really speeds up or slows down, but rather is marked by change. The clock ticks, the calendar turns, we grow up and older, and it's neither fast nor slow but rather steady and constant and completely outside of our control. The creator of the universe is the keeper of the clock and thankfully is always right on time. 

Never too late, never too soon, never running behind, never racing to catch up. Always seeing time in all its fullness and acting accordingly. Nudging me to get busy or quietly whispering slow down. Reminding me with the speed or slowness of a moment that while I don't control the clock I do control how I spend what I've been given, and to spend it well. 

"Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom." Psalm 90:12

Five Minutes of Ahead

Haven't participated in Five Minute Friday in a while, but here's the deal-write for five minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Link back to Five Minute Friday, and leave an encouraging comment for the person who linked before you. For the record overthinking is always the hardest part for me, but here we go-

Today's prompt-ahead

I looked back this week at my blog from a year ago to answer a question asked in the Wednesday Hodgepodge, a link-up I host on From This Side Of The Pond. In looking back I realized this time last year we were around the world meeting our newest grandson.

Who turned one year old just a few days ago. 

In the middle of a chaotic US election cycle, with everyone masked and scrubbed like we're all prepping for surgery. 

Raise your hand if you're glad we couldn't see what lay ahead. 

If you're glad God gives us life one day at a time. Grateful He grants grace for the day and instructs us not to worry about tomorrow. About what's ahead. 

He doesn't say do nothing but He does say do not worry. Over and over again we're reminded He alone knows the end from the beginning. Knows how this election will go and how tomorrow and all the days after will go too. Some call even saying that privilege and I'm going to disagree. God's love is irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity, and political party affiliation. It's for every single person on planet earth. 

I have to wonder how different our country would look today if Christians, particularly those with large platforms, had encouraged and prayed for our current president as hard as they've criticized and complained? 

Tomorrow is another day, and the very big problems of this world are likely with us still. 

New mercies too, because He promised.  

And so we forge ahead. 

Five Minutes of How

I have lots of thoughts about lots of things, but the world is so loud and so angry and so completely bonkers right now that I decided instead of launching into a rant I might regret I'd hop on the Five Minute Friday bandwagon. Happy Friday! Let's keep it that way, k? 

For those who are unfamiliar with how FMF works, here's the deal-

Tell your inner critic to hush then write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Then hop over to our hostesss with the mostest (Kate Motaung), and add your link to the party. Be sure and leave a comment for the writer who linked before you, because a little bit of kindness goes a long way. 

Today's prompt-how

When I saw today's prompt my first thought was something like how do I love thee...let me count the ways. For real. Let me count the ways. 

Hubs and I will celebrate another year of wedded mostly bliss on Tuesday, so one for every year feels about right. Also we've been married a long time so it's a long list and took more than five minutes to create. 

And now in no particular order here's the how-

  1. You're still funny, still make me laugh even when I don't want to laugh. 
  2. Especially when I don't want to laugh
  3. You vacuum. Should this have been in the #1 spot? Perhaps. 
  4. You grill a steak just the way I like it

  5. You read what I write and love it because I wrote it

  6. Still the best D.J. I know
  7. Still grab me for a dance around the kitchen 

  8. Still waterski like you're 25-ish
  9. Look at me like I'm 25-ish
10. Know a lot of useless but interesting random trivia

11. You love your girls
12. your grandboys
13. are the best Pawpaw I know
14. You push encourage me to try new things
15. Make friends everywhere you go
16. Love people
17. Love the great outdoors
18. Pull the covers back and stack my pillows just the way I like them every single night. 

19. Share my love of porch sittin'
20. Sunday naps
21. sunset cruises
22. You always have a to-do list
23. Actually check things off your to-do list 

24. Ask what's on my to-do list 
25. You love American history
26. all things space-sky-star related
27. your MG
28. a good haircut
29. me by your side
30. A dog is still your best friend
31. You obsess over every single blade of grass in the yard or a single stray leaf on the driveway
32. You cook a mean omelette

33, Are on board with a good road trip
34. Make sure there's chocolate-raspberry cake on my birthday
35. Let me sleep with the fan on in the dead of winter 

36. Are still the one

Happy Anniversary hubs...oh how the years roll by...

To Market To Market. Not So Fast....

Linking up with Five Minute Friday today, and here's how that looks-

Tell your inner critic to hush, then write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Then hop over to the Five Minute Friday link up hosted by Kate Motaung and add your blog to the list. Don't forget to leave a comment for the writer linking before you, because that's the neighborly thing to do.

Today's prompt-adjust

I went to the grocery store yesterday.
Sounds simple and in simpler times it was, but I think we can agree these are not simple times.

These days our every routine action requires thought, restraint, and self-control. The most mundane tasks needing to be accomplished on an ordinary weekday can't be done without taking into account people and distance and how to get from point a to point b with as little human contact as possible.

So I sat and I thought. I made a two week meal plan as opposed to my normal one week shop. I knew  it would have to be tweaked depending on what's available on this particular Thursday in my local market, but having a plan to work from helps.

We take so much for granted don't we?
Will there be any rice on the shelf? Garlic? Meat? Who knows?

I made a list. I always make a list, but this one was well organized to avoid backtracking once inside the store. Getting in and getting out is the name of the game now. No handling the avocados to find one with the exact degree of ripeness I need, no lingering at the deli trying to make up my mind. In fact bypass the deli and for once buy the prepacked safety sealed lunch meat.

Before leaving home I took my card out of my wallet and zipped it in my jacket pocket. I could leave my purse at home, meaning one less thing to wipe down. Same goes for my rings. I needed to buy gas before I shopped so I rememebered to put some plastic bags in the car to cover my hand when I grab the nozzle.

Wearing a bag on your hand to pump gas doesn't look at all crazy in 2020. I toss the bag and put a dollop of hand sanitizer in my palm. The sanitizer we've always kept in the car for emergency hand 'washing', although I honestly cannot recall ever experiencing a true hand sanitizing emergency.

Pumping gas now qualifies.

I came home and took care with where I laid the bags. One counter only so I could spray it down later. I opened boxes and dumped the contents into my own bags and took the boxes to the garage to be recycled one day.

One day someday when our recycling resumes. They sort by hand so not happening since nobody wants to touch anything, not even a brand new empty cracker box.

I washed every bit of produce and disinfected the counter where the bags sat and it made me tired and a little bit sad. It all feels so extreme.

Small adjustments to slow the curve.

Everyone is being asked to adjust to a new normal these days. For some the adjustment is enormous. Scary sickness. A new way of working or perhaps not working at all. Educating small children. Teachers learning too. College students suddenly home and at loose ends.

We're retired and our children grown so how we'll accomplish work each day or teach modern math to a nine year old isn't an issue. What we're facing is mostly inconvenience, minor irritations, and small disappointments.

Still we miss normal life. We miss meeting friends for dinner out, not thinking twice about getting on an airplane, visiting my mom, sharing a church pew with a stranger.

Most of all we miss making plans. We're wired to look forward to what's next, but in this upside down season I'm learning to adjust my line of sight and see blessings in the now.

To embrace flexibility. Grow my patience. Be grateful.

Five Minutes At The Table

Table? Huh?

We've hit the halfway point in the ten day writing challenge and today's word is a head scratcher. I mentioned our old kitchen table in yesterday's post which is unfortunate. Should have looked at the word for today before I hit publish.

Today's prompt-TABLE

When hubs and I built this house we had much discussion over whether or not there would be a formal dining room. Formal in the sense that it would be its own space with all the bells and whistles as opposed to us having one great big kitchen table where all meals would be eaten.

Hubs was inclined to nix the dining room from our blueprint, but I dug in my heels and was adamant there would be a dining room in this house. Where would our great big extended families sit when they came to visit?

Where would we eat Thanksgiving dinner? Store my china and all those rarely used but dearly loved serving pieces?

Celebrate a grandson turning two?

How would we solve all the problems of the world in a house without a dining room?

Because y'all. I'm pretty sure most of the world's problems could be solved if people ganged up less on social media and gathered more often around a dining room table with a plate of food and face to face conversation.



Of course a kitchen table works too, but meals eaten in the dining room take me back to childhood and a simpler time. My dad at the head of the table, carving knife in hand. My mom smoothing the last little wrinkle from her perfectly pressed cloth. My siblings and I using our very best manners because something about dinner in the dining room made you sit up a little straighter and listen a little more.

It gave me an extra oomph of love for these people who were mine.

Time spent at the dinner table can do that. It connects us to one another in a way very few things can, especially in this 21st century immediate-hustle-hurry up way we often live.

Don't we all need to tap the brakes and slow the pace once in a regular while?

Let's linger around the dining room table just a little bit more. Let the love we feel for the people gathered there flood our hearts and fill us till we're full.

Five Minutes of Today

My blog always needs a jumpstart this time of year, which is why I signed up for a ten day writing challenge beginning today. The challenge is hosted by Kate Motaung and you'll find details here.

In a nutshell...Kate emails participants a one word prompt every day for ten days, then we write for five solid minutes on the day's prompt. Or more than five solid minutes if that's what works for you. Personally I enjoy the five minute challenge because I tend to be an overthinker. Off we go-

Today's prompt is-TODAY

Starting with a toughie. What to write isn't obvious, at least not to me, and I usually like a theme to keep me on track. Will I figure out a theme? Stay tuned. I did glance back at some old calendars for inspiration and realized we are currently five years and a couple of days into retirement.

Five years and a couple of days out from the routine of work life.

Five years and a couple of days removed from job commitments and employer expectations.

In this current season 'today' quite often feels like a giant canvas crying out for paint. But how much paint? And what color? And which brush to use?

When you work full time or you're in the throes of raising children from toddler to teen you don't have a lot of blank canvas to fill. More like the back of a used envelope if you're lucky. Your todays are pretty well laid out for you, and if you do nothing but get a child fed, bathed, and tucked safely into bed at night you've managed a small masterpiece.

Retirement on the other hand means every day is Saturday and it's up to you to throw as much or as little paint on life's canvas as you wish. Dare. Dream.

In the year 2020 my todays nearly always start here.
I watch with awe as the world's best artist turns the charcoal night sky into watercolor day.

It's where I read and think and plan and pray.

Where I prep the canvas of a brand new today.

Leaping Into March

Wow. January was about 317 days long and February lasted only a minute. I have not written a single blog post in February, but fortunately we're in a leap year which means I'm not too late.

Someone I met last night asked me how I fill my time here at the lake and I had to scratch my head a little. I'm never actively looking for something to do because there's always something to do, but what have I been doing this month besides not blogging?

Well there's that darn Coronavirus and babies living in South Korea. I suppose I've spent a fair amount of time this month reading about it, praying about it, and FaceTiming my people with reminders to do/not do all the things they already know to do or not do, but it makes me feel better to remind them anyway. I'm a mom and that's what moms do, right?

Speaking of babies is he just the cutest ever?

His mama is pretty adorable too.

And this guy is just the light of our lives. He is hilarious and chatty and smart and busy. We love these darling boys as hard as we can from a million miles away.

I know it's only 7,000-something but it feels like a million.

So what else is happening round here? Uh, we've had some rain. SOME rain. Lots and lots and lots of rain. Ridiculous amounts in fact but I've decided that is 'winter' in the Palmetto State. Spring is coming and I've got daffodils blooming and we are so ready for blue skies and lake shenanigans.

I've been reading a lot, currently finishing up this month's book club selection-Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. It's one of those books you read with your stomach clenched because you know incredibly hard sad things have happened and more will be coming with every turn of the page.

I recently finished The Lost Man by Jane Harper and loved it. Set in the Australian Outback and a really good read. I also finished Slaves of Obsession which is a William Monk story for those of you who read Anne Perry, A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson which was good, but I think lost a little something in the translation from Swedish to English, and The Wives by Tarryn Fisher which I thought was a teensy bit crazy.

We're not people who binge watch much, but I got hooked on a Netflix program called Hinterland and had to see it through. Hubs said it was too depressing to watch more than one episode at a time, but I loved it. For one thing it's set in the Welsh countryside and the scenery is spectacular. Makes me long for a trip across the pond in the worst way. The storyline is excellent and while the episodes are long the series season is short.

When I think about it I guess it's just been everyday February life happening round here...exercising, Bible Studying, cooking, card playing, tax organizing, spending time with friends, and of course not blogging. That last bit is about to change because I signed up for a ten day writing challenge hosted by Kate Motaung (go here for details), which means ten blog posts in ten days using the word prompt she provides.

Starting Monday.

Yikes.

Hope you've had a quiet cozy February in your little corner of the world too.

Forward March!

Thirtysomething

More of the Write 31 Days Challenge....

Today's one word prompt-moment

Actually this was Fridays prompt but since I didn't get there I'm using it today.
I'm allowed.

So where were we?
My thirties. The second half. (You'll find Part 1 here).

We left North Jersey at the end of Daughter1's kindergarten year. Hubs was so ready to let go of the crazy insane commute he was making and the crazy insane interest rate we were paying on our mortgage (remember not everything about the early 90's was fabulous) and he was especially excited for a new work challenge. Plus Annapolis. Who wouldn't want to live there?

I had mixed feelings. That's how I roll when you say 'we're moving'. I do love a clean slate, fresh start but I also love warm and familiar. I was settled with my babies and my friends and my house without air conditioning. Moving means change and I always have to resist before I march headlong.

But I marched headlong because that's what you do, and I fell in love with the town beside the Bay.

With our new house and our little cul-de-sac with kids spilling out everywhere and hubs ten minute commute. With the sweet school nearby and our church down the road. Piano lessons every Tuesday and ballet class in Maryland Hall. Girl scouts, family camping, Disney World. The swingset out back and homework at the kitchen table. Blue crabs picked by tiny hands on a warm summer day.

New people, new places, new experiences.

No social media.
Real life in real time.

I went back to work part time in my thirties. My girls were in all day school then and the preschool Daughter2 had attended was looking for a teacher two days a week. The Director knew I had a background in education so she approached me about a job. I remember thinking, 'Work? Wait...what?? How in the world can I work? Am I capable of managing a room full of four year olds?'

I think this is sometimes a side effect of being a stay-at-home mom. You forget a few things about yourself. Never mind that once upon a time I had a caseload approaching 90...when it came to working outside the home I was rusty.

But I was also ready.

This little school and the people in it were so dear and the work hours meshed so well with my own girls school I said yes. My second year there I taught three days a week and the year after that half day kindergarten. The staff was wonderful and I enjoyed interacting with the parents too. Five is my absolute favorite age, the perfect mixture of curiosity, sweetness, and mischief, and getting back in the classroom reminded me I was good at this sort of work.

I think if I could pick any age to be forever it would be 35. That's the age where I really and truly got completely comfortable in my own skin. Where I fully acknowledged my strengths and abilities and put them to use. In motherhood. In the world of work. In the volunteer community that makes the world go round. If I had to choose one word to describe these years my word would be 'satisfying'.

So what are some take aways from this decade?

Change adds things to your life you didn't know were missing.

Treasure your parents.

Perfection is overrated so stop chasing it.

Say yes to things that feed your soul.

Save for retirement.

The value of a good night's sleep cannot be overstated.

Get the babysitter. Tag along on that work trip with your husband. Leave the grandparents in charge and get away with the one you married. One day in the not so distant future you'll be 'just us' again.

Make room in your day and life for seeing the small things.

You don't have to have it all figured out.

Pray. Seek wisdom. You are loved by the God who sees and you're not doing this thing--parenting, relationships, work, life, everything--alone.

Audience

You wouldn't know it to read here but I am still sortakinda participating in the October writing challenge called 31 Days To Telling Your Story. For the record, mine is less 31 Days and more something of an abridged version. Still calling it a win though, because even at less than 31 I've already blogged more this month than last.

Has anyone noticed how I spend the whole first paragraph of every single post explaining why I'm not on top of things here?

I printed out the list of prompts at the beginning of the month and have been picking and choosing as the mood strikes. Since I missed the last ten prompts (!?!) I have quite a few to choose from today-

pray-pause-search-who-audience-start-help-common

Today's one word prompt-audience

When you blog you're supposed to have a niche, if you want to be successful at it anyway. I've blogged in this space quite happily for over nine years now, but I've never really had a niche. Unless  you count blabbing on about everything under the sun in which case I'm a success-ha!

My blog is often all over the map in terms of content, but one thing that has remained constant is my target audience. Who are the people in my head when I put words to paper?

My girls.

c. 2009

My girls who were university students when I hit publish on that very first post and who are now adult women with lives of their own.

When I started blogging it surprised me to learn there were people I didn't know reading what I wrote. That something I said resonated and made them think differently or anew about their own story. One of the most frequent comments I've heard from readers through the years has been, 'What you said? Well I feel the same way."

While our stories are uniquely our own there are threads woven throughout that connect us to one another. I love that, and am so grateful for the many ways our lives intersect with each other. I think about those readers when I write, but my litmus test for hitting publish or save and think it over has always been my girls.

All my blog words are filtered through them. Not literally of course, but as I write I'm always hyper aware of the way my words will leap off the page and into their brains, their hearts, their memories. What do I want them to know about me? About my childhood? About how I see the world and my place in it? About the challenges of growing older? The world around me? About my faith, my fears, my failures?

I love being a mother and I don't care if I'm defined as such. It's been my greatest joy and privilege to adore and nurture these amazing women from the very first moments of their lives. Over time I've come to see blogging as a gift. A way to share parts of myself with my daughters as they reach the milestones I've left behind.

I also know that by telling my story here, by putting all the many moving parts of my life into words on a page I've opened a window for them into who I am apart from the word mom.

My audience has learned a lot about me in this space-

I've learned a lot about me too.
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Share

Back for more of the 31 Day Write Challenge using the Five Minute Friday prompts (found here). Since today is an actual Friday our prompt was a surprise. Also on Fridays we stick to the 'exactly five minutes of writing' rule, so here we go-

Today's prompt-share

I know the theme of this month's Five Minute Free Write is 31 Days to Telling Your Story, but when I read the word the first thing that came to mind was my sister. We're a year apart and she's the one who taught me to share. Forced me to share?

We shared a bedroom, clothes, friends, secrets, my mother's attention, and the third seat in the family station wagon. We giggled, we fought, we compromised. We gave and we took. We teased and consoled. We tormented and loved. We were different in a thousand ways, yet the same in a thousand more. We argued, we forgave, and we grew. Sharing is caring or so the saying goes, and I agree it is that. It's also hard, sacrificial, and quite often easier said than done.

Sometimes when I write here I become so aware of what I'm thankful for. Today it's my family. For parents who led by example. Who loved us and taught us to share.

For my siblings. My people. My real life ensemble cast.

The ones with the magic and memory of our shared childhood story written on their hearts the way it's written on mine.

Believe

Continuing with the Write 31 Days Challenge using prompts published over on the Five Minute Friday website. This month's theme is 31 Days To Telling Your Story.  Tough not to dive a little deep with this word today so here we go-

Today's prompt-believe

One reason I blog less these days is because the online world is so incredibly noisy. Deafening most days, and I don't want to add to the din. Social media started as something fun, a connector in so many wonderful and unexpected ways, but it's rare we see it as such in 2018.

My blog has never been a place of controversy and that's deliberate on my part. I want to invite people in with a smile and a cup of tea because that's who I am and I want my writing to reflect that. I know what I believe but I'm not about to hit you over the head with it because why?

I think knowing what we believe is important, knowing why we believe it equally so. In a world filled with too many opinions, controversy for the sake of controversy, fake news, exaggerated news, bandwagons that people pile on, name calling people who have piled on the other bandwagon, how do we know what to believe? Who is right and who is wrong and does it matter? Where does truth live? Is peace in the middle of the mess even possible?

I could write here about how belief in God makes sense to me. How I can look at the incredible order of the universe, the amazingly complex design of a single cell, or the way we humans know instinctively there is good and evil in this world and belief in God makes sense.

But for me it's more than that. What I hold dear, what I believe, has it's roots dug way down deep into my soul. Faith instilled in me as a small child, but claimed as my own through the years and the miles. With every change and challenge, every difficult situation and every ordinary day, in all the beauty and the goodness too, I've seen what I learned as a little girl about who God is and how He loves played out in the circumstances of my own life.




And I believe.

What's Your Story?

Well. It has been a long time since I've been here. Long time in the blog world, but I guess only two weeks in real time. For those of you who don't know, the blog world is like dog years where a single day equals something like a hundred. All that to say it feels like this little corner needs a good dusting, and since I'm feeling a lot out of sync with my words I'm going to jump back in with a 31-day writing party.

Go big or go home, right?

Every October there's something on the Internet called the Write 31 Days Challenge, where writers pick a topic and write one post on that topic every day of the month. (you'll find details here). In conjunction with that Kate Motaung (host of Five Minute Friday) will be posting 31 days of five minute free write prompts to help motivate and inspire us to stay the course. Her theme? 31 Days to Telling Your Story...because we all have one.

I'll just say right off the bat, mine will be more like a 20-day writing party because I know me and I know my calendar. Case in point it's October 2nd so I'm already a day behind. Or right on track if I aim for 20 so 20 it is. Some of my posts will be true five-minute entries, some will be more. I'm giving anyone who wants to try it permission to do the same.

Today's one word prompt-story

What's my story? I'm not so sure these days. This middle age thing is trickier to navigate than I had anticipated. Question-am I still middle aged?

I'm going to say yes. The first half of our lives are pretty well defined, or at least mine was. College-work-marriage-work-babies-work-volunteer-teenagers-volunteer-launch young adults out into the world-now what?

Yes, now what?

Technically we fall into the 'retired' category except we're young. Ish. Young to be retired anyway. Too young. Life is flying by and I just want to hit the pause button for a minute while we catch our breath and take stock of where we are and where we've been and where in the world we're going.

Have you ever read a book and somewhere in the middle lost sight of how the main character arrived in the place they are now? When you do it helps to go back and re-read earlier chapters in order to make sense of the present.

Stories are composed of five different elements-setting, character, plot, conflict, and theme. A good author weaves these elements together in ways the reader might not have anticipated. He keeps the story moving forward until the very last page. While I too often want to be the sole author of my own story I can read back through earlier chapters and find myself there.  Not as the author, but as the main character in a story not yet finished.

God is writing my story in ways I cannot predict but know I can trust. He has plunked me down in settings too numerous to mention, peopled the plot with characters and conflict and an overarching theme of His amazing grace.

With every turn of the page He is growing the main character into the person He created her to be.

Hodgepodge Au Revoir

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered this week's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger linking before you. That's the way we've always rolled here on Wednesday mornings.

  

1. What has been the highlight of your summer so far?

Our summer has been positively jam packed so it's hard to choose just one highlight. If I have to pick I'll go with celebrating my grandson turning one. 

He's just the sweetest y'all. 

2. What do you wish you'd done more of this summer? Less of?

More of? Tuesday nights with hubs. If you don't know what I'm talking about read this post. 

Less of? Carbs-ha! 

3. Something you're looking forward to on your September calendar?

Lots of fun things on our September calendar, including my birthday (and you know how I feel about my birthday), but I'll say the wedding of a friend's daughter. Our girls grew up together in a little Maryland cul-de-sac and I'm excited to celebrate this special day with them. 

4. Best/favorite book you've read this summer?

Again with the 'just one' kind of question? A few I really enjoyed were The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova, None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different From Us by Jen Wilkin and The Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power and Intrigue in an English Stately Home by Natalie Livingston

5. Share something positive, encouraging, or uplifting here.



6. Insert your own random thought here.

I've decided to retire the weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge. I've gone back and forth about it, but in the end feel the time has come. When I first started blogging weekly hops were a regular part of everyone's content, but now not so much. 

I will likely still do some Hodgepodge style posts from time to time, because let's be honest my whole blog is a bit of a hodgepodge, and I may add a link option to those type posts when I do. I'm kind of still figuring it all out, but I do know I'm ready to let go of the pressure to create, post, and manage weekly questions.  

I  have so enjoyed hosting this weekly link up and hope you'll continue to visit here and see what's new. Thank you for sharing your Wednesday mornings with me here on From This Side Of The Pond.

For anyone who may be interested Kate Motaung has posted 31-days of free write prompts for the month of October over on the Five Minute Friday blog. I'm planning to participate and hope to see some of you there.  

Five Minutes of Why

I'm linking up with Five Minute Friday today and here's the drill-Kate posts a one word prompt, you set your timer and write for five minutes flat, no editing or over thinking.

I'll be honest here and say these prompts lend themselves to deep thought and I often struggle to articulate deep thought in just five minutes. I need more like five hundred to make my point, but still I try. I like the way this exercise stretches me and often forces me to examine my faith and put what I see there into words. I especially love seeing all the many directions in which writers run with a single word.

Obviously I haven't started my timer yet-ha!

Today's prompt-why

When my girls were little instead of asking why they used to ask "how becomes?" I don't know exactly when and how this came to be, but instead of asking why it was always "Mommy how becomes I can't go outside and play?" or "How becomes Poppie lives in heaven instead of here with us?" or "How becomes your hair is brown and mine is different?"

I think maybe the phrase came about because when they asked a question I answered, and my answer almost always began with the word because. How becomes was an extension of that.

I remember the innocence of my children, their curiosity, their sense of feeling safe in the world. Bad things happened but they were mostly shielded from them. It's a different world in 2018 with everything on display all day every day. Fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, violence of the human kind...no place sacred, no place safe.

How becomes the world is such a mess?

Well that's a tough one. A question for the ages really because a messy world is nothing new. When my children were small and they'd ask a tough question quite often my answer was simply this-'Because Mommy says so'. Small children are most of the time more than okay with that answer. In fact it was the answer they were looking for. They don't need details, they just need to know someone bigger is in charge.

We're all small children when evil looms large in our newsfeeds and our school buildings, our churches and movie theatres and on and on it goes.

Someone bigger is in charge.

Every time something tragic occurs I'm reminded this earth is not my home. That I'm a traveler in an imperfect world, and that God has something infinitely better planned. That He knows the end from the beginning and we only see in part.

For those who don't acknowledge the existence of God that all sounds trite and convenient, like you're taking the easy way out. Except it's not easy. It's not easy to look at a world gone mad and say something better is coming.

So how becomes I believe it?

Because God has promised that very thing and He has never ever failed to keep His word.

Five Minutes of Accept

Joining with Five Minute Friday today. If you've got five minutes you can too-click here. 

Today's prompt-accept

When I was ten years old I stepped out of a church pew and made my way down the aisle. I accepted an invitation to make Jesus my Savior. I don't remember a bolt of lightning or drama of any sort really. Just me and my skinny legs walking forward to the pastor waiting up front.

I grew up going to church. Every single Sunday, and then some. My parents taught Sunday School classes of all ages and stages, worked in the nursery, carried covered dishes to many a pot luck supper, my mother started the church library, my dad was a deacon, and the list goes on. I loved that church and the people in it and the memories I have growing up there are so very tender still.

When I told the pastor I wanted to be baptized he gave me a little booklet to read that I've held on to-'What Saith The Scriptures?' No pictures, just words.

And Saith because it was 1970.

And then he drove to my house every Friday for a month and we sat in the fancy living room, the place reserved for special occasions, and my mama listened from the kitchen as we went through that booklet together, page by page.

Salvation
Repentance
Baptism
Communion

I think about that pastor from time to time. He and his family moved on from our church and I grew up and moved away too. I think about how my ten year old self had nothing to offer, yet he invested in me and made me feel important. Like this decision was no small thing and that while maybe there was no lightning bolt in 1970 there would be plenty as the years rolled by.

Roll by they have. In 2017 the world is in turmoil, and we feel powerless to fix it. Christianity has taken a beating in the media, rightfully so at times, but still I cringe a lot. I don't want to be lumped in with the loud mouths, the ranters and the haters, with a generalized point of view, or a particular political ideology lock, stock and barrel.

What I want is to know people. To hear your stories and invite you to accept an invitation from the One who tells the ocean where to stop. He extends to each one of us the very thing we seek-peace, purpose, hope. Nobody can reply for you, but think about it...how amazing is it that the creator of the world hung the stars in the heavens yet knows us by name, and invites us to know Him too? Not on social media. Not through blogs or podcasts or heated debate, but from the inside out.

In the quiet hidden places of our heart.

He invites
We accept
He meets us there

Five Minutes of Support

Joining with Five Minute Friday today, where the rules are simple- write for five minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Link back to Five Minute Friday, and leave an encouraging comment for the person who linked before you.

Today's prompt-support

While we were not in the eye of hurricane Irma she did make her presence known around here. More so than expected I think, or maybe with all the weather reporting we were getting our area forecast simply hit my brain as white noise.

Nevertheless she was here.

In the grand scheme of things we had very minor stuff to deal with, a messy yard littered with hundreds or maybe thousands of sticks and branches, and no power for a couple of days. We love our electricity and don't do very well without it, do we?

Our power went out Monday evening and on Tuesday morning a friend called saying they'd hooked a generator up and would I like to bring over my frozen food and leave it for the duration to avoid spoilage. Yes please.

The worst of the wind and rain left our area on Tuesday so hubs and I got busy picking up sticks and debris. A neighbor down the street stopped by to see how we had fared and our next door neighbor phoned later to see if we needed anything.

Hubs and I went one town over in search of power and landed in Starbucks (naturally). It was packed with students as the local university had cancelled classes, and there were quite a few folks like us in search of a free outlet to charge devices. Everyone scooted in and moved over and passed cords under chairs to get connected. We got to know the man stuck in the corner beside us who, as it  happens, live in a neighborhood very close to ours. We exchanged contact info and made plans to meet for dinner soon.

We went out for dinner with friends that evening, and as we left the house hubs pulled the garage shut manually. When the power's out you do things the old fashioned way. A couple of hours later we pulled back into the driveway in the pitch black of night and much to our surprise the garage door was locked. Somehow when hubs closed the door he must have pulled it down just hard enough for the locking mechanism to kick in.

Which wouldn't normally be a problem but neither one of us had house keys. Oops.

We phoned the friends we'd just left and they said come on over and sleep in their guest room. They didn't have power either, but they did have a small generator and promised us an actual cup of coffee in the morning. Besides that hot cup of coffee they gave us toothbrushes and loaned us pjs and t-shirts for sleeping and we were so grateful.

On Wednesday we mentioned to another friend we were locked out of the house and her hubs came over and attempted to pick the lock. Apparently that's in his skill set-ha!, but our locks were too much even for him so we resorted to calling a professional. On the bright side, nobody's going to be breaking in here.

And now it's Friday, the sun is shining, we've had hot showers at home, done laundry, restocked the frig and carried on with life. We're not in an area where the cleanup will take months, where homes are gone and businesses demolished. Our little piece of the storm was an interruption to our daily routine, a frustrating few days, aggravating but certainly not devastating, and still the kindness and support we felt meant so much.

It's nice to have people worry about you. To do practical things like give you space in their freezer and a toothbrush from their cabinet. And I think about how everybody is just doing the best they can. Making their way through life, managing one storm or another.

How from time to time we all need someone to ask, 'are you okay?'

Five Minutes of Expect

As per usual here of late I missed the boat on Five Minute Friday so am going with Five Minute Sunday instead. That's not really a thing, but I'm making it a thing. Go here to read what others had to say this week, and no it's definitely not too late to add an entry of your own. Here we go-

Today's prompt-expect

I like this word. I might just be the queen of expectation. I like a plan. I like to know what's on tap for today, next week, this summer, the retirement years-ha! As a mother and a teacher I was intentional in setting clear expectations for my daughters (and my students), because I think children typically do better if they know what's expected.

I guess I'm like a kid that way.

I like knowing what's next. I like making lists and checking them off. I can live quite comfortably with a full calendar and a busy schedule, with people coming and going and all sorts of travel and crazy, if I know to expect full-busy-and a-little-bit-crazy.

Recently we've had to make some significant changes to our summer calendar and plans due to unexpected family illness. We've preemptively canceled some of what we were expecting to happen in order to be present in what is actually happening. We need blank space in our lives right now that will allow us to come and go as needed, to rest and recharge, and to tend to whatever needs tending.

We're told to live one day at a time, but do we really do that? Don't we more often attempt to outrun unwanted change, avoid difficult circumstances, plan and plot so there are no interruptions or detours in the way we think life should go? How we expect it to go? Raising my hand here.

There's an old Yiddish proverb that says something like 'Man makes plans and God laughs', and while I don't think that's true, I do get the point. Perhaps a better way of saying it would be 'Man makes plans and God makes different and better plans because He knows us down to the very fiber of our being.' 

Our pastor in his message this morning (don't you love when that happens?!) reminded us that nothing is unexpected in God's eyes. Nothing surprises Him. He knows what was, and is, and is to come, and He is sovereign over every last bit of it.

I've set some new expectations for the next couple of weeks and they look something like this-

Trust Him. 
Take one day at a time.

I'm thinking it's a pretty good plan.

Five Minutes of Visit

If you're looking for this week's Hodgepodge questions, keep on scrollin'. 

Linking with Five Minute Friday on a Tuesday because I didn't have five minutes on Friday. We had a full house this weekend, which makes for the perfect segue into this week's prompt...

Friday's word prompt-visit

The idea of house guests sends some people running for the hills, but around here we make up beds, gas up the boat, fluff the porch cushions, and say come on over. Sidebar-I'm a bit of a control freak and it used to be when company was coming I'd exhaust myself trying to make every little thing just so.

Over the years I've learned that visitors don't care about just so. In fact sometimes just so stresses them out. They care about you, their host. They want to sit on the porch in their yoga pants and hear what's new with you. They want to play dominoes and listen to soft rain on the roof.

They want you to hand them a stack of plates and let them set the table.

They want to bring snacks for the boat or chicken salad for lunch or homemade Italian sausage for the grill.

They want to come upstairs in their pj's sans makeup and done hair and see you in your pj's sans makeup with undone hair too.

They might even do your hair if you ask nicely.

They don't judge unless you're so busy running around doing that you miss the point of a visit with friends, and then they might sigh and say they wish you'd just sit a spell.

I haven't completely let go of my need to make things comfortable but I do cook ahead, put on my glasses and my sweatpants with the coffee, and watch the sunrise over the lake with my guests. I'll wear a swim suit and breathe in the scent of sunscreen and the water right along with the view.

I will float in my pink flamingo.

And I will make time to visit. Time to remember the years roll by...

That moments make a memory and these are the times of our lives.
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