Then I Thought of Home

Be willing to forgive. I think one of the biggest lessons we can learn from the Duck Dynasty craze that is sweeping our nation is how important forgiveness is. If Miss. Kay had not been willing to forgive and make no mistake about it, it was an act of the will forgiveness always is, she and her family  would have missed out on untold blessings. When I watched the episode when they renewed their vows and saw Miss. Kay walk down the aisle  I wanted to cry. None of what was going on would have been happening if she would have had an unforgiving heart. Or if she had played the victim. Or if she would have said she forgave but really made Phil pay everyday for his past. If it wasn't real her children would have known it, our kids always know the truth about us. They saw genuine forgiveness, grace and mercy in their home and it called to them. Not everyone who offers forgiveness will become a millionaire and have a Duck Dynasty but they will sure have a dynast...

It's common now days to hear people say, "No one has any manners anymore." Sometimes that seems true doesn't it? Manners are harder to teach our children than they are to show our children. I have the perfect example, once when the kids where small I was talking to them about manners, Lucas said, "Mom, I know what good manners are,"  I said "Okay, what are they?"  He said, "You should never wipe your hands on another guys  pants you should wipe them on your own pants?"  See, not one time did Lucas ever see his mother wipe her hands on anyones pants and so he didn't do it either.  But really, do we show manners in the home?  Do we say please and thank you to our children? Do they stand beside us in the store or sit with us in the car at the drive-thru and hear us tell the people waiting on us those words. Do they see us stand to give our seat to the elderly? Do our sons watch as their dad holds the door f...

Someone asked a question today on my blog facebook newsfeed about how you feel when visitors to your home go into your bedroom or basically enter into rooms they weren't invited into or maybe you even have the door closed to. I was going to leave a comment but something happened and I had to leave and then I couldn't find it again and can't remember which page had posted the question. It hit with me though because it's a conversation I've recently had. When mom and dad sold the farm and we moved to town or what we felt like was town since there was a house on the side of us one across the road and one behind us, anyway one day when we were moving in a boy walked across our front porch. My brothers and I were simply stunned. To think that someone would walk not only through your yard but up on to and across your porch on the way to the next house was to much for us. It was like "of all the nerve." We had been brought up you didn't go walki...

I'm so glad Lawrita agreed to be our guest blogger. As I've said before Lawrita is the mother of Olivia's boyfriend Tim. Actually she is the mother of nine children. She and her husband Byron have seven sons and two daughters. She homeschools the seven children still at home and is a Doula. You can check out her page at https://www.facebook.com/EmpoweredBirthworx   I hope you will enjoy hearing a word of encouragement from her. "Who Are You" Let me introduce myself. My name is Lawrita. I'm actually the  mother to Tim, Olivia's boyfriend. Like our good friend, Kelly, I am passionate about God, my husband, my kids and my home. I love doing what I "do," but I am learning that my identity is not in what I DO, but who I AM. You know the drill. We get up and make sure our husbands are fed and out the door. We make sure our children are up and we homeschoolers either educate them (all while fearing we're totally messing them up) or send t...

I guess with all that's been going on I'm feeling a little melancholy. I thought about my grandparents on my dad's side.  Grandpa passed away first and Grandma a few years later. Mark's Uncle Glen preached both of the funerals. I can still see Uncle Glen standing there by the casket looking at my dad, uncles and my aunt and telling them how the home place wouldn't be the same anymore. He went on to say once Dad and Mom are gone things change. I thought of that today as Heidi and I took a few minutes to sit on the porch at the little house over at Lost River. Two charter buses bringing the Amish in for the funeral went by along with lines of buggies. Mark told me he had been talking to Mary's sons about losing their mother, and what she meant to them. You know how I am about home, it seems to be where my mind always is and so I naturally started to think about what it means to a home or farm when it loses it's father. When I say hom...

I've grown up looking for certain signs of the fall. I see brown woolly worms, leaves of brilliant color, crops turned to brown or gold awaiting the harvest. I see persimmons on the ground and the branches of Apple trees bending low to the ground with the weight of  their fruit. I see dust flying above the rows of corn as the combine semi's and wagons roll through the fields. I look for women driving into fields to deliver meals to waiting men. I know to listen for the wind rustling the leaves of the drying corn. I know it's fall when the bonfires and wiener roasts begin. There's the clue of changing things as I step outside and hear the buzz of chainsaws off in the distance.  Or I see pickups pass the house loaded down with wood and a chainsaw or two along with a gas jug wedged in  on top of the wood just right so it will ride safely and still be there when they get home. I hear women talking about getting the last of the garden laid by before Old Jack ...

I'm so thankful for blogs and facebook. You see I am so not a house person. It never occurs to me to take people through my house or to go through other people's house. I might walk into your house and think it looks nice but I could never go tell anyone else just how it looked. Now my mother could. She would be able to describe your window treatment pattern perfectly. She would give the details about what you had on your mantel or cabinet top and explain down to the last bloom the flower print of your dishes setting on your table. Me, I couldn't tell that but I would tell someone whatever that was you were cooking sure smelled good. I want my house to look nice. I want you to feel comfortable when you come but I'm not overly into décor. So I know I have some things that need to be done. It's just part of upkeep and I know a lot of you love this type of thing. I'm excited to hear your ideas. I look forward to you helping me do what I can't...

I've been thinking a lot about the Amish. It seems there are two main ways the average person sees them. One is they think they are saints. They admire their simple lifestyles and think they would never do wrong. Then there are those who don't like them at all.  They see them as old fashioned and repressive. They think they are uneducated and take advantage of the blessings of this country without giving back in military service or votes or even that they might be taxed differently or in some cases not at all. I don't hold to either one of those ways of thinking. I have seen an Amish steal at an auction, my grandparents auction. I've seen one drunk and heard them curse. I have also seen them be there to help at a moments notice. I've seen them give all they have. I've watched as they take care of one another and those who aren't theirs. I've talked to ones that love their way of life and I've heard a few say if they could leave they wou...

Sometimes you just need to stay out of it. Have you ever attempted to intervene in a family squabble only to have everyone end up mad at you? Maybe you have tried to help a couple that was having a rough time in their marriage. You try to be there for them, you are understanding and then, they get it worked out and wonder what the deal was with you anyway? Sometimes you just need to stay out of it. Sometimes the best of intentions go south and things get worse. Take Heidi and I for example. When we were on vacation we left the condo and passed the pool on the way to the beach. We saw a crab in the  pool and knew he couldn't survive there, so of course we thought we would rescue him and return him to the ocean. He was so lucky we came along when we did.....or so we thought. We got the big net down off the gate so we could catch him.  It wasn't easy as it sounds.  We accidentally knocked one of his big eyeballs off. Y...

I don't know why but I can't sleep tonight. So instead of sleeping I'm up blogging about the things on my mind and the things on my mind are things I remember about the night. I remember staying all night with my grandparents on dad's side and sleeping in a feather bed; or listening to the ticking of the clock while I laid in bed at my mom's folks. I remember how it sounded when their furnace kicked on and off too. I remember kissing my mom and dad goodnight every night until the day I married. Before dad sold the farm I remember how cold that big old house was in the winter. We didn't have any heat upstairs except for what just worked it's way up the stairs. I think that's why to this day I'm not as hardwood floor crazy as some are.  I know what it is to get up on a freezing cold floor and scoot around on the throw rug so your feet don't freeze. When it was really cold mom would close off some of the rooms by hanging a blanket over th...