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Gr8Grace
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Country: United States
State: Texas
Metro: San Marcos
Birthday: 3/29/1948
Gender: Female
Interests: Watching young people come to a place of success, Bible Study, Music, Prayer
Expertise: Knitting, Cooking, Reading, Teaching, Loving, Living
Occupation: Education/training
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
9/11/2005
 Lifetime
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| Fall is here and with it comes rain, finally! We were truly parched! Now we have to crank up the lawn mower again. I am certainly not complaining. I miss the sunshine, but not the heat.
In June my doctor told me to go on a six-month diet. He said it was to give my pancreas a rest and reset my metabolism. At my daughter's suggestion I set July 1st as the start-up date. This means I'll be on it for another three months until January 1st. So the diet goes like this: No sugar, no grains, which means no bread or anything made with grain, no starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn, peas, beans, sweet potatoes, no grain-fed beef or pork, no milk, no artificial sweeteners, and no fruit. I am allowed chicken, fish, venison, eggs, cheese and nuts. I can eat any vegetable other than the starchy ones and I can eat berries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries. For some reason berries don't activate the pancreas like other fruit does. I can also have black coffee and unsweetened tea. I've stuck to this for 3 months now and have lost 20 pounds. Honestly, I didn't think it was possible at my age! I'm excited at the results!
I'm also going to several classes at a Bible College at our church. They are challenging and are requiring me to re-evaluate my self-discipline. I am finding it woefully lacking. A good challenge is invigorating though, and I plan to put extra effort in being all I should be. I sometimes feel like a Rubik's cube. One side gets in order and all the others get messed up.
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| I've been spending some time on Facebook. Again, my kids got me involved. They were the ones to get me started on Xanga and Myspace too. The interesting thing about Facebook for me is connecting with friends from different eras of my life. I found the head of our commune in Denver in 1970. He is now a wildlife conservationist living in Wyoming. I found some high school friends from San Antonio. One now lives in Canada. I found out that several friends have died so I quit looking for them. Others come from the time in Breckenridge when we lived in mining cabins and panned for gold in ice cold creeks. I found friends from our church in Telluride and those who have moved away from our church here. People I knew as children are now mothers and fathers with children of their own. Sometimes the children look just like their parents did when I remember them best.
I found that some people I thought I would be close to have faded from my life. Children I was sure I would be like a grandmother to are in high school now and hardly know me. I'm not saddened, only a bit surprised at how it has all turned out.
One of my favorite things on Facebook is to connect people to each other. Each time I find a new friend, I think of who they might know and "suggest friends." It is delightful to watch old friends connect and to connect with them myself.
I love Xanga too. I faithfully read all my subs and sometimes comment. I think that Facebook is a more like a casual acquaintance, but here I feel a greater potential to form actual friendships. Thanks to all of you who write so faithfully. I am not the writer that so many of you are, but I appreciate your words and pictures more than you know!
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| I collect yarn and beaches. My yarn is in plastic storage bins and on shelves. Some skeins are in baskets or knitting bags on half-finished projects. My beaches are in small square plastic boxes. They fill several shelves in a bookcase by the front door. I have beaches from all over the world that friends have brought back and a few I have collected myself. When I feel trapped and wish I could travel, I'll take out a beach and think about where it came from, the Strait of Magellan or the Thames River in London. I love them!
My husband, on the other hand, collects dead vehicles. They don't store as easily as a ball of yarn. I cannot imagine that they could give him the pleasure of far-away places. I cannot fathom why he even wants them. I could tell you stories of each one, but I could do that without having them in our yard. For years he has promised to get rid of them. Only one has left in the past 10 years: the one that he promised would never end up here. It was the only one that I had no story for. He had bought it to salvage the motor, nothing more. So it sat for only 2 years with no motor before he finally got it towed away. So today, he drove his old dump truck out to the back of the yard. I have spent the day feeling edgy and frustrated. Then I finally realized why. He has added another piece to his collection. He canceled the insurance several months ago because he wasn't using it enough to warrant paying for insurance. I should have seen the warning signs. I don't know what I could have done though. He is very determined to keep them all for whatever reasons he has.
I can't help but wonder, is this penance for something? I must have done something really bad to be saddled with this! I want to draw up a Death with Dignity contract for his cars, trucks and vans. No heroic measures, no prolonged years in limbo. Let them die and bury them properly in some junk yard, but please, not in the yard anymore!
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| After our grandson's burns last fall, he simply quit trying to talk. He was already delayed because he was born with his tongue tied. It was one of those things that grandmothers notice, and nurses don't. They thought it was not a big deal and could be clipped later. What a mistake! He was almost one year old before it was clipped and he could finally move his tongue past his teeth. So he was late learning many sounds.
He was working on it though and had a few words he used when he got burned. Afterwards he had none. He simply quit. Oh, he babbled, but nothing that we could understand. Rather than keep him in a place of frustration, we began teaching him sign language. Being a very physical guy, he loved talking with his hands. He has developed a good vocabulary in signing and still babbles. He also learned a few words: no (What two year old doesn't get the power of that syllable?) wow, whoa, mama. That's been about it, except his mom decided to teach him phonic sounds since he wasn't using words. He loves the letter A. He can find capital A anywhere and says it with great affection!
This week, at two and a half, he learned his first multi-syllable word: HAPPY! He loves the sound and always smiles. What a perfect beginning! I am sure more will come.
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| We just returned from the viewing for our friend's daughter. Tomorrow morning will be her funeral. I watched her group of friends gather around and comfort each other. Most of them graduated from our small Christian school between '82 and '85. They had gone through elementary school, junior high and high school as best friends. They are closer than most cousins. I envy them for their life-long friendships in this sadly transient world.
Thank you all for your prayers. Tomorrow at the funeral her seven best friends will sing with the teacher who coached them all those years ago. I wonder if they realize what a testimony to faithfulness and friendship they are. I hope Kiana gets to listen from heaven.
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