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Gr8Grace
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Location: San Marcos, Texas, United States
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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| Dropping back in to say we just returned from the most wonderful and I mean, MOST wonderful vacation. We spent three weeks in Germany, Austria and Ukraine. The best part of all was it was all with our son who arranged and planned everything. Every day was full! I'm still recovering from jet lag, but soon, I will post pictures and tell of the adventures. It was a dream I never thought we would realize! Ahh!
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| How this year has slipped by! Mostly it has been a time of healing for me. Like many healings, once the pain is gone, it is easily forgotten and you feel like yourself again. For a bumped shin or bruised finger, it is only a few days. What does it mean when you find yourself connecting to 25 years ago and realizing that you've been healed of something? I'll tell you; it is amazing! There is no real explanation except to say that something that was broken is no more. Many old hurts are just memories. What an experience it has been!
So last weekend our youngest daughter got married in a picture book wedding. We had a wonderful time with her friends from Seattle who had come here to Texas to be part of the celebrations. I miss the excitement of it all; that's for sure. This week the house feels more empty than before. I know I'll get used to it again, but for now there's a bit of sadness.
For the past few months, every evening I'd check my emails to see if there was something I needed to do in preparation. Boxes came almost every day for the last couple of weeks. We got votive candles, candle holders, crystal beads, chair ties, napkins and table cloths, and lots more. Then the people came and put it all together. We truly had a wonderful time. I love my new son-in-law and his family too. But oh, how I miss my girl, all over again!
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| Twice this weekend I was awed by beauty. Both times I was doing something I really did not want to do. The first time was late one freezing night. Nick had gone to bed early so I was stuck with taking the dogs out. I really wasn't excited about going out, but when I walked outside, I was greeted with a beautiful full moon. The night was so bright that there were shadows under the dogs. And it was silent! So rarely do we have silence here. When we lived in the mountains, I came to appreciate quiet. I stood there listening intently to the silence and letting it fill my noisy soul. Oh, I slept good that night.
The next time was the night that we were going to have a hard freeze. Here in Texas, we are not prepared for 20 degree weather. I realized, again late at night, that there were cans of paint in an outside storage building. I dreaded going out to get them, but since I was the only one up again, I had to. As I walked across the yard, my flashlight caught a wonderland of ice diamonds on every blade of grass. I felt like I was walking through a field of jewels. It took my breath away. I had to stop, freezing toes and all, to just drink it in.
Surely there is something to learn. You just never know when something beautiful is hiding behind a dreaded chore!
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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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