Bloom Where You Are Planted

I love sunflowers. We try to plant some every year. The last couple of summers the grasshoppers have eaten them before they could flower. But this year they are beautiful.

I went out the other day to take pictures of them and had the nicest surprise. Somehow, a marigold seed had gotten in with the sunflower seeds, and at the base of a huge, very tall sunflower a tiny little marigold is blooming. It is growing next to a towering sunflower. It is so pretty. Of course, I took a picture of it, too.

Several years ago we had a pastor who had a poster that said "Bloom Where You Are Planted". If I remember correctly, it had a picture of a flower coming up in the crack of a sidewalk. I have thought about that many times through the years when I have had questions about things that have come in my life. I have wondered, what am I doing here; is this really where I'm supposed to be; what am I supposed to do now? And then I think of that poster. Bloom Where You Are Planted.

Before Jesus was crucified, He gave His disciples a final talk. In John 15:16, He told them they had not chosen Him, but He had chosen them and appointed them to bear fruit. The Amplified Version of the Bible also says, "I have planted you" for "I have appointed you". As Christians, we believe nothing happens without God's approval. Even if it is bad (bad things do happen to Christians), it had to go through God before it came to us. Wherever we are or whatever our circumstances, we are to bear fruit. A plant has to bloom before it can bear fruit. Therefore, we are to bloom where we are planted.

The little marigold will bear seed so that future plants will grow. It is not intimidated by the gigantic plants growing all around it. It is doing exactly what it was created to do.  It is blooming where it was planted.

God gave me an object lesson that day. Bloom Where I Am Planted.

The Christmas Rocket

All of my family, except my oldest grandson, went to Houston for Christmas. (He had to stay home and work.) There were 17 of us at my oldest daughter's home.

One of my grandsons, who lives in a semi-rural area of Oklahoma, got a rocket for Christmas. Of course, he took it to Houston with him. It was decided to take the rocket to a large church parking lot and launch it. This parking lot is next to a very busy four-lane street. All 17 of us climbed in three vehicles and headed for the parking lot.

The weather was cold, cloudy and a light mist was falling. There was some assembly required with the rocket. We sat in our vehicles waiting for the rocket to be prepared for take-off. Finally, the big moment came. Everyone counted down from ten and the rocket was sent in to the sky. It went high, the parachute opened, and it floated back down to the parking lot; just like it was supposed to do. It was fun, but you must remember we are in the large city of Houston.

Shortly after the rocket returned to earth, we hear police sirens. As everyone tried to act normal (We are in a church parking lot with three cars, 17 people, and it's cold and rainy. What's not normal about that?), we watched the police car go on by to a a real emergency, I'm sure.

Then my son-in-law decides the rocket needs more power so that it will go higher. By this time, I'm thinking this does not sound like a good idea. But they put a larger whatever it is you use on the rocket. About the time we all start the count-down, another police car is coming, but this time with no sirens. We all start to act "normal" again. (It may have helped that the kids were on skate boards.) The police car went by. The count-down started. And the rocket was launched.

It went across the four-lane street and so high in the clouds we could not see it. And then it emerged from the clouds headed straight down to the street. I can honestly say I thought I was going to see a tragedy and my whole family would be thrown in jail for causing it. From that moment on, everything happened in slow motion.

About the time it looked like the rocket would fall all the way to the ground, the parachute popped open, a slight breeze caught it and the rocket slowly landed in the parking lot. My son-in-law and grandson hurriedly picked up all the pieces and parts that were scattered, we all jumped in the three vehicles and went to the house as quickly as possible.

At the house, there was much discussion about the rocket launch. The kids thought it was the greatest! The adults knew God was very good to us that day.

In case you need to know, rockets are not supposed to be launched in big cities. But our family now has a whole new meaning for the name "Houston Rockets".

The Privilege of Voting

I got this email from my daughter. 

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So I put the girls on the school bus and head off to be a responsible American and vote. I’m so happy to see no waiting. The 80+-year-old lady at the door smiles, reminds me it is a beautiful day outside and asks to see my ID. I forgot to look for my voter ID card, but hand her my driver’s license.

She says, “Do you have some other form of picture ID?”

“No, why?”

“Because this license is expired.”

“So I can’t vote?”

“Sure you can vote! Right after you go to the tag office and get a valid driver’s license.”

My good friend walks in. I tell her I’m suddenly not having such good day. She thinks it’s funny. The old lady tells me it is still a good day. She is still smiling. I am not.

My voting place is on the other side of town from the tag agency. Not a real big deal. Just two sets of train tracks away. And yes, I wait for a train at both sets of railroad tracks. Gives me plenty of time to notice in the mirror that I am having a really bad hair day – not the kind of hair I want to look at for the next four years.

So I get to the tag agency. I am the third car in the parking lot and park right in front of the door. I see why all the people are still in their cars. The tag agency doesn’t open until 8:30. Deep breath…it’s only 10 minutes away. Other cars pull up. At exactly 8:30 people start racing for the door to be first in line. This catches me by surprise. I assumed we would all file in by the order that we arrived. Caught off-guard, I scramble, but I am now about 5th in line.

I get up to the counter and the lady snaps, “Please step back away from the counter.” Because I was texting and not paying attention, I didn’t notice that she was only taking the picture of the person in front of me. They are coming back. It is not yet my turn. Very humiliating.

Finally my turn. I step up and explain that I just noticed my license had expired when I went to vote. She takes one look at it, hands it back and says, “This has been expired more than 30 days. I’ll need your birth certificate.” Then she finally makes eye contact with me, smiles and says, “Looks like I’ll be seeing you again later.” Ugh!! I am not smiling.

I drive home across town – and yes, two sets of train tracks and yes, more trains! Get the birth certificate – it was right there beside my voter’s registration card! I go back to the tag agency and get back in line – about 5th again – not too bad. This time I don’t step up too early. When it’s my turn to sit and have my picture taken, the woman behind me steps up to the counter too soon. I am a little pleased when she is scolded.

I sit down to wait on the picture with an old man who tells me he let his license expire one time. Back in 1933! I’m stunned he remembered that!

Finally, she tells me it’s ready, hands me the license and laughingly says, “Now you can go get in line to vote!” I am not smiling.

I drive back across town – actually avoided trains – and present my fresh-off-the-press license. The 80+-year-old lady is very pleased with me. The line is very short and as I finish and start to place my ballot in the scanner, another 80+-year-old lady tells me if I haven’t filled out the whole ballot, it will reject it. I don’t think this is right, but am too weary to question it. I get back in line and this time answer “yes” to all the judges that I have never heard of. I scan my ballot and proudly put my “I Voted” sticker on my shirt. Now I am smiling!!

Hummingbirds and Grasshoppers

This has been a really hot and dry summer. The grasshoppers have eaten all vegetation except what tomatoes and okra we can keep watered. It is so frustrating to not be able to walk across the yard without them jumping on me. I swear sometimes I think we must be living in Egypyt. I keep thinking Moses is going to appear and lead us to a greener land. But the good thing about this summer is that we have more hummingbirds than we have ever had before. We always a few, but this year there are many. I have counted nine at one time, and there are probably more. We have two feeders and have to fill both of them daiy. I love to watch them. What is it about watching hummingbirds and fish in an acquarium that is so relaxing? This is another proof that you can find something good in everything. Even the hottest,driest summer on record can't keep the hummingbirds away. The scripture says we are not to worry about anything because if God takes care of the birds, He will take care of us. I watch the hummingbirds and know He is taking care of them, so He will take care of me. Now, if He would just help the hummingbirds eat grasshoppers, life would be really good!

Mother's Day

My mother was a wonderful woman. She died in March of 1983, and I still miss her. I was blessed to have her in my life. She didn't have a college education, in fact, she never graduated from high school. She had a hard life living with an alcoholic dad who moved their family from place to place looking for work. Work consisted of all the family working in the fields. Since she was the second of five children and the only girl, she had the duties of working the fields, working in the home and helping with the other children. Her mother died when she was in her early twenties, and when she and my daddy got married, they took two of her younger brothers to live with them. By that time, her oldest brother was gone from the home and the other brother stayed with his dad.

Taking care of her brothers, raising three boys and me (the baby) was not easy, but easier than she had ever had before. She had a calm spirit and could handle crises easily. Well, there was the time I fell and hit my forehead on the edge of the concrete porch and split it open. I guess yelling, "Her brains are falling out!" probably wasn't the calmest thing she could have said. When they took me to the doctor, I ask him if I still had my brains. He was horrified and asked why I thought that. After the story was told, he proceeded to tell my mother that wasn't exactly what she should have said. (I said it much nicer than he did.) Now, I know my brains didn't fall out, but my brothers have used that against me my whole life.

My mother was always good to all her neighbors. Except maybe for the time she knocked our next-door neighbor out the back door. It wasn't a case of self-defense, it was a case of grandchild-defense. Don't mess with a woman's children or grandchildren. The neighbor came to complain how my nephew was running through her yard. Actually, all the grandkids were there that day, and they were playing with the lady's four children. But when she came to talk to my mother, she didn't mention the fact that ALL the kids had been running back and forth between houses.

Anyway, there were three steps up to our back door which led into the kitchen. The neighbor was standing in the door ranting. Mama told her to shut up and go home and gave her a big push. The woman lost her balance and fell out the back door. She immediately went home and told her husband who came over laughing so hard he could hardly talk and ask Mama if she was okay. When the news of that incident went through the neighborhood, my mother was the Heroine of 84th Street. I think everyone had had trouble with that neighbor at one time or another.

But my mother never mentioned it again. The people didn't live there much longer, but Mama never treated her any differently after that than she did before. As far as she was concerned, it was over.

She had heart trouble for many years and died of a massive heart attack. Daddy, two of my brothers, her baby brother, and I were at her bedside when she died. She was able to talk to all of us up until just a couple of hours before she died. She told us she had said her prayers and was ready to meet Jesus, and I know that's exactly what happened. My youngest brother looked up when she died, because he heard angel wings. I will never forget the flat line on the heart monitor screen and the sound it made.

Only one small lady in the world. No one famous or well-known. There was no TV coverage. Just a small obituary in the local newspaper along with the births, divorces, etc. Life went on. Time never skipped a second. But my world changed forever.

I missed her immensely at first. But as time went on, it got easier and easier. I missed her at the high school graduation of two of my daughters. (One had already graduated.) I missed her at all their college graduations. I missed her at all their weddings, but I missed her most when my grandchildren were born. I wanted so badly for her to be able to be there to share those experiences with me. I wanted to pick up the phone to tell her about every one of them and how they were growing and what they were doing. She would have loved it. But I couldn't.

Sometimes I think I was cheated. But I wasn't really. There are millions of women in this world who would give anything to have had the experiences with the mother I had. She was truly a woman of God; quiet-spoken, mischievous (she loved to tease my husband), a devoted wife and mother, and a good friend.

I believe there are some things people in heaven know about us here on earth. I believe she was at my daughter's graduations. I believe she was at their weddings. I believe she sees my grandchildren. I believe she is proud of my family. But most of all I believe when I get to heaven, after Jesus gives me a big hug and welcomes me home, He is going to take me to see my mama and daddy. It will be a glorious reunion with my Savior and my family. Some days I think I can't wait.

Happy Mother's Day, Mama. I'll see you later.

The Pioneer Woman

My sisters and I went to The Pioneer Woman's book signing. We decided to make a day of it and go shopping first. We traveled to Utica Square, ate lunch and shopped a little before going to the event. Utica Square still has real phone booths. We asked an unsuspecting stranger to take our picture, which she did. It was interesting trying to get in the booth and for the photographer to get the right angle to take our picture. But there were a lot of laughs, and we gave a lady from Dallas something to talk about when she got home. You know people from Texas think people from Oklahoma and Arkansas aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer anyway.

After the Utica Square adventure, we made our way on to Cain's Ballroom for the book signing. ( I won't mention how the GPS malfunctioned and we wandered around downtown until we saw a sign pointing to Cain's Ballroom.) Anyway, the doors were to open at 5:00 pm. We got there about 4:30. The line was already down the street and there was no place to park. There was a parking lot right across the street, but it wasn't open. Hmmm. We finally found a place to park about three blocks away.

Right at 5:00 the doors opened and so did the parking lot across the street. Seriously. When we went in, they gave everyone a slip of paper with a letter on it; A, B, C, etc. There were 100 of each of the letters. That determined when you would get your book signed. We got the letter B which meant we would be in the second group.

Once we got inside, they had a place to buy drinks and they were giving away samples of food from her cookbook. I loved the chocolate whatever it was. The cookies were good. The meatballs were okay. The sandwiches were horrible. I threw mine away. The meat was very fatty and barely cooked. I like my meat rare, but not rare rare. There was also a live band performing. However, there was only a few chairs and some bleachers. We sat on the bleachers.

The program was supposed to start at 6:00. It started about 6:20. She spoke for about 20-30 minutes. At 7:00, she started signing books. We each had two of her cookbooks to sign. There were people there with a LOT of books for her to sign, and I mean a LOT!  The lady behind us had a stroller full of them. Really! My sister made sure she was behind us.

We  got almost to the table (4 people in front of us) and Ree, The Pioneer Woman, decided she needed to take a break. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Hey, I know she needed a break, but take it in front of the lady with a stroller full of books. Not now!! But she did, and actually she wasn't gone long.

It was about 8:40 when we finally got through which meant we had stood in line for almost two hours. This, of course, was after standing in line outside waiting to get in. Then it was the walk back to the car in downtown Tulsa after dark. Interesting. I got home about 11:00 and was pooped!

I will say Ree Drummond is a very humble and gracious lady. She was probably still there at midnight signing books. I would estimate there were 400-500 people there. One person even had a dog.  (I'll pass up the chance to say everyone and his dog was there.) She was the same to everyone and made everyone feel like she was so glad to see them. Her husband, Ladd, and Cowboy Josh were there. They were signing books and taking pictures with people, too. They all seemed so pleased to be there and were trying to make it a great time for everyone.

The next morning at work I asked my sister if she was doing okay. She said she had a good time and made a lot of memories, but she never wanted to do it again. Ditto!

The Pioneer Woman

The Marlboro Man

Computer Ads

I have two email addresses. One is for normal email. The other is used when I sign up for things and know I'm going to get mail from a million other places I didn't sign up with. Today I was browsing the other email to see what free stuff I had missed (since I don't check it everyday) and how much money I lost because I didn't respond within 24 hours. Then I saw this ad scroll down the side that said a woman had lost 12 pounds in 24 days and now this 57 year old woman looks 27 years old. 

I don't have a college education, but I'm thinking it is going to take more than losing 12 pounds to make you look 30 years younger. However, even if it does, who would want to do that? Think about it a minute. Your husband takes you to dinner and a movie for your anniversary. Before you get home, cell phones all over town are going crazy with people talking about seeing your husband with a younger woman ON YOUR ANNIVERSARY. She looked familiar, but they can't quite place her. 

Or, say, you take your car in for a check-up. A month later the check engine light comes on. You take it back to the same place. Before you know it, the police are there wanting to know where you got the car. You must have stolen it, because this is not the woman who brought it in a month ago. But you do look familiar.

And then, of course, you try to use your credit card. The picture on your ID looks like a woman 30 years older than you are (of course, that is assuming anyone ever looks at the ID). The store manager is called, and you guessed it, he calls the police, even though he thinks you do have a resemblance to the photo.

So, I'm saying it's just not worth it to lose 12 pounds. I guess that's why while I was reading the ad I had a cake in the oven. I just can't take the chance of my husband being gossiped about or me having to go before a judge and try to explain that only 24 days ago I looked 30 years older than I do now. Nope. It's just not worth it!