Good morning to each of you! I just received a call from my daughter, Jodi. When I asked her what she was up to this morning, she told me, “chasing Caleb (her one year old, who began walking at 10 months) around” She told me that she was just waiting for his next nap so she could get something done. She said, “in fact mom, some people live from pay check to pay check, I live from Caleb’s  nap to Caleb nap.” Then she yelled, “gotta go, he just broke a glass lid”j. I am loving this, she is getting paid back every single thing she ever did to us. And…….Caleb is only one, next month. God is Good……..

Now, I need to tell you about last night. We did have chicken fried steak and I think it was the best we have ever had (not to toot my own horn) but I made the Paula Dean recipe and it was just amazing. Will post it this afternoon, but gotta go celebrate a friends birthday. Have a wonderful Friday!

During my Bible study this morning, I read a portion of Isaiah which talked about all of our “if only’s”. I began to give God excuses of why I had not completed a task which I know He has asked me to do and that is to finish the cookbook. I have used every excuse known to man (or woman), “if only I had a quiet place to work”, “if only, I knew what I was doing”, “if only I had more days  not committed to this or to that”, “if only I was more organized”, “if only I didn’t have people in and out of the house all the time”, “if only I could have more time to concentrate” or had more energy” . Well, you get the idea. We have all felt and known that we were called upon to do something, then gives God excuses why we cannot do what He has asked. Gideon’s story of how God called Him to tell Israel of their future reminded me once again, that God doesn’t call the “equipped”, He calls us, then “equips” us. Will you please pray that I will finish what God has asked of me. It is certainly a challenge for me to sit and write this cookbook. I want this book to be a story of what God has not only done in my life, but show that during each season of my life, God has given me different challenges, different assignments and different desires. That combined with the idea that one of the best places to share our stories of what God is doing, is around the  dinner table, where we tend to be ourselves more than anywhere else. We are relaxed, we are breaking bread together and enjoying the company of family and friends. Save God a place at your table tonight and invite Him into your conversation. It will bless everyone seated there.

After 10 long days of not writing, it is so good to be back at the computer and writing. Our air has been broken and it was just too hot to sit in at the computer to write. So any email I did was from my phone sitting in the den. Well, we have had grandchildren from Austin the past week and I guess I have to admit that I am not as spiffy as I thought I was. The last few years, I considered myself, “cool and with it”, but after being with girls, ages 10 and 13, it was a realization that I am truly just another old grandma. I didn’t realize that when you have them in the car with you that  they would be listening to their ipods and not hearing a word you say, when you thought they were sitting there soaking in all the wisdom Iwas trying to share. Little did I know that the music was turned up so loud in their ears, that even I could hear what they were listening to. Also, they don’t want to go to the movies to see Maraduke, way to “childish”. I had bought all 5 grandchildren matching tshirts with the AmericanFlag on them, thinking that they would love to have their picture made and that we would all go and have a picnic wearing our shirts (yes, I got one for Randy and I also)….well, the minute the picture was snapped, the shirts came off, that apparentlly was not cool, being seen in matching t-shirts of your grandparents. So instead of us passing on wisdom to them, Randy and I got a taste of alittle of the “new generational wisdom”. Even when you are sitting in the room with them, they will text you instead of talking to you. It doens’t matter what radio station we want to listen to (well, that is a pluc) because they are listening to their own music with their own ipods. We asked our daughter, Jodi to take them to the movies since we didn’t want to see Twilight. Just thinking about kissing a werewold seems a little weird to me….so the week is behind us, we had moments of craziness, choas, and clashing personalities, but in the midst of it all was a deep abiding knowledge that this is our family… The one God has given to us. We take pride in it. We cherish the moments which the grandchildren ask us to tell them about their parents, (our children) and recognize the fact that even sitting down to nothing but hot dogs and chips can be a cherished memory. As they left our house before heading home, we realized something………God knew what He was doing when He gave us children while still young…..our energy level is just not what it used to be. God bless you young parents. You are in a special and blessed time of your lives. Enjoy the memories you are making with your children. You will be old one day, like us and wonder why the grandchilden dont want to go with you to Luby’s at 5:00 p.m.  After all, it’s just not hip! We love you, Meghan, Ashlyn, Jaden, Sevy and Caleb! You are each a blessing to our lives!

Happy Birthday Swettie Pie! It is just wonderful to be able to celebrate yet another year with the love of my life. I have baked him a old fashion German Chocolate Cake today, his favorite, and made a lemon ice box pie and a chocolate almond ice box pie for our party tomorrow when the kids and grandkids will all be here to swim and swarm him with presents. Tonight we will go out to eat and just enjoy a celebration of the life which we feel is so very blessed. We are so fortunate to have family and friends and great health so, thank you Lord for another year of life in which I can share with Randy.  After we swim and eat hotdogs tomorrow, we are going to watch fireworks with the grandkids. That is absolutely one of my favorite things to do. No matter how many years we have done this, I still cry when they play Lee Greenwoods “I’m Proud to Be An American” at the end of the fireworks show. It just always makes me so proud to be standing there watching the most gorgeous show light up the sky, with the grandkids (and RC and I) going “ooh, ahh) with each new firework. We always talk about which color was our favorite on the way home. So thank you, God and thank you military friends who have sacrificed so we are able to stand and still sing, “I Am So Very Proud to Be an American” Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Gotta go, am mixing up ice cream for our cake tomorrow…….Happy Fourth of July to All of You!

So then, after tomorrow, we can concentrate on MY BIRTHDAY! YEAH! 9 days and counting. Randy will not tell me anything he has planned so it will all be a surprise to me.