BIG, BLUE EYES AND BRIGHT-WHITE HAIR

Missing my Daddy...
He died 21 years ago today, just shy of his 63rd birthday
...there are times when it feels like yesterday.
There are times when it feels like 'forever' ago.

I was not with him when he died, but my Mother was.
He had collapsed from dehydration in the middle of the night.
Mother and Granny transported him to the hospital to get fluids.

He did not want to go into the hospital again, even for fluids...
he died as they were entering the hospital.
He was always stubborn in his own way, hahahah!  He would laugh at that, too, if he were here.

Love you, Daddy...

"you're in my heart, your in my soul, you'll be my breath when I grow old..."

Your babygirls will love you forever and always cherish your love for us and what you taught us throughout our lives.

Y

20 YEARS...REALLY?

We’re about two weeks out from celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary and I’m finding myself in a very nostalgic mood. A mood not necessarily thinking about my husband, but thinking about the OTHER man in my life at that time, my Daddy.

You see, my Daddy certainly deserved having his name capitalized…even though I know in the proper form that is not correct. He was capitalized in my heart…my strong source…the source of teaching me about honesty in all things. He was a short little man who stood around 5’ 7” with the brightest blue eyes and sparkling silver hair (which he had been given earlier than most…he started graying before I was born).

His Daddy had passed along hard-work ethics to him, so his years of diligent work for Southern Bell as an outside plant man carried on his Daddy’s legacy. He retired after 30 years of dedication and union membership…he believed in making things right, staying aware of fairness and putting in a very hard day’s work…and he passed that to me. He never cut corners or tried to cheat ANYONE out of anything…ever!

Daddy died in 1990, six months after our wedding, and my last picture with him individually was just before we walked down the aisle together. I can still smell his ‘Skin Bracer’ by Mennen’s aftershave…you know, the green concoction in the kind of square glass bottle…I broke it one time, I know it was glass. Guess they still sell it in the same bottles.

Daddy NEVER left home without a handkerchief and CHAPSTICK in his pocket and he LOVED sports jokes and good sports casters. He always laughed at Dizzy Dean and Milo Hamilton. We enjoyed many years of Atlanta Braves baseball together, even before they went on their winning spree…We were at the old Atlanta Stadium the Sunday Hank Aaron hit his “715” homerun…and as Milo broadcasted: "He's sitting on 714. Here's the pitch by (Al) Downing ... swinging ... There's a drive into left-center field. That ball is gonna be ... outta here! It's gone! It's 715! There's a new home run champion of all time! And it's Henry Aaron!"

We were sitting out in left field…sure would have liked to have gotten THAT ball!

Daddy never saw the Braves win the World Series in 1995 though …I know he was chopping with us in 1991 as we were cheering them on (DD was in my belly and I always felt Daddy was watching over my shoulder from Heaven each time I ‘chopped’.

Daddy, I loved you while you were here and I continue to love you …as you help me raise dd through these high school years, even if it is from my heart, in my head, and sometimes in my dreams.

Maybe I’m missing you so much now because I’m readying myself for ‘missing’ DD after ‘life changes forever’ and she heads for college. It will never be the same and I'm praying already she’ll remember her family as lovingly as I do and have the promise in her heart that Jesus will never leave her or forsake her, just like her Daddy!

Thank you, Jesus, for blessing my life with my Daddy.

Isaiah 54:13 "All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace."

FILL-IN FRIDAY #124 & BEAUTIFUL LIFE

Joining Janet @ Friday Fill Ins She chose quotes having to do with spring...feel free to fill-in whatever you'd like!
I've filled in the blanks with red lettering...

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...and joining Melissa, seeing the beautiful life in simplicity

1. If we had no winter... the southern mosquitoes would never die, grow extremely large, pick us up and carry each of us away to an unknown wetland .

2. When I go to the planetarium and gaze at the constellations in the evening skies, I find myself in perpetual astonishment.










3. If I had my life to live over I would spend more time talking with my Daddy, letting him know I "did" need to listen to his opinion and experience.



4. Sitting at the Lord's feet daily seeing His myriad of colors and smelling His created fragrances, inside of four and twenty hours.

5. If you've never been thrilled
by squirrels playing in a tree or kitties chasing a bug, then come sit with me in the backyard.

6. To be interested in the changing seasons reminds me of God's providence in the past, present and future.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to finishing a graduation project, tomorrow my plans include planting two new angel trumpet bushes I was given and Sunday, I want to get a nap in before working with the youth group!

SHOW & TELL ...itty bitty steps...FASHION FRIDAY

(UPDATE: I've "fissed" the link to the sandals...thanks for keeping me straight!)

I must TELL you...what guides my understanding of truth and helps me decide right from wrong. When I’m faced with a decision to do something, participate in an activity, or even form an opinion…I have a yardstick of truth to help measure out my reasoning. Things I was taught years ago by my loving Mother. (My mother used little measures to remind me of right and wrong when I was a toddler--changes in her voice to alert me, picking me up and moving me to another part of the room, or little pops on the tops of my hands to catch my attention when I was independent and not wanting to listen…when I was veering off “her path” of expectation. She always KEPT AN EYE on me.)

What got me thinking of this topic was my newest project…my SHOW for this week. A day or so ago, I finished a pair of “baby, open-toe sandals”…just click on it to go to the crochet patten, thanks Chrystal! These are definitely the tiniest little shoes I've ever made, in fact, the only shoes I've ever made! You can fit both of these little sandals in the palm of your hand...itty bitty!

(Big MaMa is hosting the 59th Edition of FASHION FRIDAY...what preemie wouldn't want to be decked out in these??!!)

I must tell you also, these little shoes will one day be worn by a preemie baby I do not know…so pray over them with me then I'll send them on their path to be given out by the church staff when someone is in need. May His Spirit ride in the souls of these little shoes and bless the little one wearing them. May these little sandals touch the hearts of the mommy and baby to know they are Your children, Lord, and You will keep close as they travel life's path.

My Mom’s guidance down her path of expectations all those years ago during those “don’t touch” moments taught me to look to her, obey her…not in fear but in knowing she was ultimately protecting me from making mistakes, building a pattern in my little brain to know right. Her guidance then and throughout my life as she took us to and from church each week, talked with me about Jesus’ love gradually built a solid base for all of my future decisions to rest on as I started walking my own path.


My Lord’s love for me…the solid cornerstone--will not slip, slide or prove untrue...a true plumb line for hanging each of my decisions up against...causing “bad choices” to swing wide outside the path He has laid down preveniently ahead of me for the taking.



Choosing to seek Him new each day, He awakens His spirit anew, reminding me I am His little child--do not veer--listen when He is “catching my attention” or holding out that plumb line.

Recently our Sunday School class studied Paul Chilcote’s “Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit”, which has many soul-searching, John Wesley prayers as well as many of the hymns he and his brother, Charles, wrote many years ago as the Methodist Church was coming into existence. One of the hymns speaks so sweetly to this topic of “child-like faith”, from Collection 341, Verse 2:

Humble, teachable and mild,
O may I, as a little child.
My lowly Master’s steps pursue!
Be anger to my soul unknown,
Hate, envy, jealousy, be gone!
In love create thou all things new!

2 Samuel 7:11 "I'm keeping my eye on them!

And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid."

Go check out other SHOW & TELL'ers @ THERE's NO PLACE LIKE HOME...

just click on this: Kelli's

How do you keep to His straight path?

TWO "BUTCHES" OF A DIFFERENT KIND...

When i was a little girl watching my daddy work around the house, he'd let me be in tow (i would hand him his tools and sometimes he'd let me hammer or use the screwdriver).

While I was watching, he was busy teaching me REAL things...usable things that I remember to this day.

After he'd finish his work, wherever we were, he'd reach in his front shirt pocket for his Pall Malls...pull his stainless steel lighter out, clicking it open and watching him cover the cigarette from the wind as he lit it. There would be an engulfing puff of smoke as he lit up ... surrounding his head...his face would crinkle with a squint until he blew out that first puff, usually holding the cigarette in his teeth out the left side of his mouth and speaking with just the right side of his mouth!

Now, I know smoking is definitely NOT the thing to be doing...but it was a part of my Daddy I will never forget--it was uniquely him and I so rarely was around him without his "lighting up"...he's definitely the only "smoky" smelling person I ever wanted to hug...but nothing beat his hugs

....or, when I would get to sit on Daddy's shoulders while rubbing my hand back and forth over his flat top after he had just gotten it trimmed. It felt like a wonderfully SOFT boar's hair brush...I could play with it forever!

If you're not familiar with a flattop, it's very short--deliberately styled to stand up on top (typically no more than an inch or two) and is cut to be flat, resulting in a haircut that is square in shape. My daddy would work on it to achieve his flat surface--using "butch wax" to stiffen the front.

That "butch memory" made me think of another "Butch"...and wonderful memories...

I'm gonna miss Paul Newman who died yesterday, 9/26/2008. He and his wife, Joanne Woodward, are part of my family, too...at least they feel like it to us. When I was a kid we loved watching him on TV and on black and white movies...and nobody could have been better in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID!

And, his Hollywood years didn't hold a candle to his post-Hollywood years...race-car driving and the epitome of compassion and charity...Save me a place at the table, Paul...we'll miss you 'til then!

1 Timothy 4:12

Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.