Day 91: March 31

Homeschool co-op lit class

Day 90: March 30

These arrived today! Now to get them addressed.

Day 89: March 29

Iris and past prime azaleas on the side of our house

Iris and past prime azaleas on the side of our house.

Day 88: March 28

Snowball tree

I'm not sure what the official name for this small tree is, but my mother-in-law, who gave it to me calls them "snowball" trees, because when the bloom is fully out it looks like a big snowball from the distance. Our little tree is quite unattractive and hadn't bloomed until this year.  In fact, I'd just thought that we should chop it down this year when lo and behold... snowballs! I'm reconsidering the use of the axe.

Day 87: March 27

Crawfish boil

 So for those who've never been to a crawfish boil, here's how it's done. This is an outdoor event.  Crawfish, along  with the potatoes, onions, corn on the cob, mushrooms, and whole garlic they're boiled with are dumped on long tables covered in newspaper. We stand around the tables and feast. You break the tail off and peel it for the meat.

Some people suck them before peeling....

Day 86: March 26

I spent the day with my daughters shopping for a wedding dress for one of them!  We had SO MUCH FUN! I'm showing one that did not make the final cut. 

Day 85: March 25

We have been involved with a Chinese church for sixteen years. My husband has led an English speaking Bible study for grad students and visiting scholars that long! We've seen so many students come and go and this weekend the church celebrated their 25th anniversary. I am on the fringes of the congregation, but tasted some of their joy as we saw students who left and returned for the reunion. It's strange to sing in English alone amongst a sea of Chinese voices, but it's a totally joyful experience as well.  I snapped this while we were singing a song.

Day 84: March 24

Dappled things

I taught the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins today in literature class, among them "Pied Beauty":

Glory be to God for dappled things—
        For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
            For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
    Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
        Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
            And áll trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

    All things counter, original, spáre, strange;
        Whatever is fickle, frecklèd (who knows how?)
            With swíft, slów; sweet, sóur; adázzle, dím;
    He fathers-forth whose beauty is pást change:

                                                Práise hím.

Day 83: March 23

Chinese fast food

Juli and I paid a visit to the Asian market near us and came away with some of these... frozen dumplings. Just boil water, throw these in, cook a bit...and YUM!  For dipping them,  I mix together apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and some Chinese spicy sauce whose label I can't read, but which has become a staple in our kitchen.

Day 82: March 22

Yup! A new phone. Yippee!

Day 81: March 21

I'm attending a church ladies' retreat in a few weeks and had to find a photo of me as a toddler.  So I've been taking photos of photos once again.  Here is a much younger me - a bit over a year old.

Day 80: March 20

Wisteria

 Yes, more flowers! The fragrance of wisteria conjures up memories of visits to our grandparents in Texas where the scent of the blooms drifted into my room with the night breeze.  I used to play "fairies" behind the vine which grew near one end of the house,

Day 79: March 19

Gift tree

 Redbud trees have figured into quite a few photos lately!  Last week some friends gave me this tree, a gift to remind me of my mom.  Isn't that thoughtful? I planted it today (with the help of Karl and Juli). That is the view away from the house looking toward the spot I took the picture from yesterday.

Pleasures (#3) - Roxie

Our dog, Roxie, loves running in the woods.  She bounds up and down hills, over ravines, and splashes through the little creek. These woods are the ones in the distance in the top photo of today. They're just leafing out.

Day 78: March 18

Pleasures (#2)

 A few years ago we bought some land an hour away.  The small house on it came "as is." We've renovated it a bit and it's now comfortable.  Here's a view of the house and an old chimney, from which we've derived the name of our place: Chimney Hill.

Dewberry blossoms

It strikes me that dewberries are a bit representative of life.  Beauty and good fruit can be found among the briars.  I love dewberries and blackberries and we have both on Chimney Hill. I will be picking them in June and will have scratches on my arms and hands to prove it!

Day 77: March 17

Pleasures (#1)

I admit that I generally enjoy good beer more than good wine.  Not sure what that says about me... maybe it belies my German roots! This is one of my favorite beers.  From Texas, of course!

Day 76: March 16

We're planning a wedding!  Here's where it'll be, weather permitting. If no, there's a gorgeous place inside.

Day 75: March 15

Catching the sun... A few turtles took to the water before I could snap the photo.

Day 74: March 14

Yes, another azalea photo.  They are just coming into full bloom in our backyard. They bloom for such a short time and they bring me much joy, so I am compelled to post photo after photo!  So there!  :-) 

Day 73: March 13

I actually took some better photos today when I took Juli to LSU for an ACT prep class, but I want to use this one because it reminds me of the thoughtfulness of others.  Since I got home two families have brought us food, and another family brought this honeydew melon and the flowers.  I totally did not expect that and am humbled and grateful to God for His goodness displayed through His people. (I didn't take photos of all the food people brought us in Texas day after day, so this will help me remember that, too.  There were two dozen of us to feed!)

Day 72: March 12

Azaleas are getting ready to burst out in bloom!  Spring is here!

Day 71: March 11 - Almost Home!

Barges on the Mississippi River

Mississippi River bridge girders

Views below and above, less than two miles from home!  .

Day 70: March 10

Treasures from my mom.  These are notebooks she kept, full of spiritual nuggets.

Day 69: March 9

This is not the best photo, but is the only one I took today!  The house was full from Saturday - Monday, but on Tuesday grandchildren began to leave and today my husband and son left after breakfast. Paula, her husband (Art), our dad, and Juli and I had barbeque just before Art and Paula flew home.

Day 68: March 8

We took this photo out of the wedding album and framed it to put in the foyer of the church in front of some flowers sent us.  It's waiting to go home to the album, and did, soon after I took this!

Day 67: March 7

We drove an hour and a half to a cemetery where generations of our family have been buried.  There we had a small graveyard service before returning to College Station for the memorial service.  We took long stem roses and each of us wrote a note to Mommy and tied it to a rose. At the end of the service we each placed our rose with its note on her casket, which was a handmade birch box made by a carpenter after Mommy's death.

Funny story, that... they'd had the carpenter in their house to do work a few years ago and while he was there, Mommy asked him if he'd ever made a coffin.  He said that he'd never done it, but that it shouldn't be hard.  So Mom made arrangements with him to make hers (and our dad's someday)!  He said to let him know when one of them died and he'd drop everything to build the casket. Which he did.

Day 66: March 6

I took a moment to go to our parents' room for a photo of Mommy's chair with her Bible and devotional folder (filled with words to hymns and words of praise to God).  It's empty now, but this was her spot.  She made a folder like that for each daughter and granddaughter.

Day 65: March 5

Katie (my niece) with our checklist/writing thank you notes

Day 64: March 4

This was taken after the fact, but this is largely what Paula and I did on March 4.  We planned the memorial service with the wonderful help of the pastors and their assistants at our parents' church.

Day 63:March 3

Me (about 19 months), my dad, my mom, and my brother (about a month old)

My mom's death is the first that I've been intimately involved with.  I had no idea how much there is to do immediately following the death of someone.  Paula (my sister) and I  tried to work on our mom's obituary (which we eventually handed over to Paula's son) and the memorial service for her, while our dad and brother handled decisions with the funeral home.  We planned a slide show as part of the memorial service. I took some digital photos of old photographs to add to the slides and this is one of them.

Day 62: March 2 - No Photo Today

I took no photo today.  I spent the day with my brother, sister, dad, daughter, and future son-in-law at the bedside of my mom in ICU. She died at about 4 p.m.  It was a precious day. We sang hymns and read long passages from the Bible, and wept, and prayed with thanks and sorrow and joy.  Mommy died with a slight smile in the corner of her mouth.  I did write a "Note" for Facebook that morning just before leaving for the hospital (not knowing that it would be our last day with our mom) and in it I mention the photo I posted on March 1.  So here's the note, instead of a photo:

My mom's condition has worsened. She's now critical, but still stable. She's septic - not sure why.  She hasn't had her eyes open for us since my visit yesterday a.m. at 5:30.  She was breathing very rapidly (between ventilator breaths) and so they gave her anti-anxiety meds.  Her blood pressure plummeted a few times. When I walked in last evening at 8 it was 42/25 (or close to that).   They gave her fluids to help it go up and it did in the hour I was there (with Karl and Stephanie, who drove in just before our visit).

We sang hymns.  I sang Christian songs she'd taught us long ago, that we used to sing in the car together: " Jesus Loves Me" medley,  "Isn't He Wonderful?" medley, Paula's favorite as a child - "Love Lifted Me," my favorite as a child - "Can We Know That Jesus Loves Us?"  Then the three of us sang "Amazing Grace," "Great is Thy Faithfulness," "Nothing But the Blood,"  "To God Be the Glory"... and more.  I read some Bible passages: John 14-15, Isaiah 40, 2 Corinthians 4-5.

This morning at 5:30, Paula and Art visited. (We switch off for the last and first visits of the day so we get a bit more sleep.)  The nurse told Paula that Mom is septic.  

Our mom belongs to the LORD. She is His redeemed child. I read this passage this morning in my devotions -

In your unfailing love you will lead 

the people you have redeemed.

In your strength you will guide them 

to your holy dwelling.  

That's from Moses' song after crossing the Red Sea.

We don't know when Mommy (or for that matter, each of us) will get to God's dwelling, but what a wonderful promise of love and strength and guidance!

We are relying on God's love and power.  He is God; we aren't.  How thankful I am that we have someone MUCH greater than ourselves to trust in, to give us strength. I am so thankful for Jesus - God in the flesh - who suffered for us so that we can know the God who can measure the stars in a hand's breadth (and yes, that's poetry, but it's true!).

The Lord gave me a gift yesterday.  We've passed a redbud tree as we drive to and from the house and I walked to it to take a photo of it for my photo journal blog.  I have a point and shoot camera with no viewfinder and the sun was bright and I couldn't really see what I was doing.  The photo is exactly as I shot it.  When I looked at it after I downloaded it and saw the bee among the buds, I was reminded of my mom. Her desire for God's word is what I always think of with her.  She feasted on it. She got her nourishment from it and then she shared it with others... just like that bee. In other ways, she has always been like a bee  - busy about the Lord's work - laying up treasures in heaven (I read that today, too, in my devotions).  So I want to share the photo with you.  Time to go to the hospital again, so forgive errors....

Day 61: March 1

Redbud blossoms

Day 60: February 28

A tile mural on a wall at the hospital

Day 59: February 27

My mom's life verse, stitched on a quilt made for her by a lady in her Bible study