Mews from Meowmix

Dear blog church and buddies:

I need to be away from blogging for an unspecified time.  The time and the creativity just isn’t there for me to do a daily or even three-times-a-week blog.  We have hospice taking care of sister Grace, and they are in and out of the house.  Family members are in and out.  Our church family is in and out, most of them bearing food (and that’s a good thing!), but it’s still traffic.  Even though hospice is responsible for her now, they are only here for an hour or two during the day to check on things.  (Later on, when the time is near, I understand they will be here around the clock.)  But for right now, the last two nights, Doris and I have been setting the alarm clock and getting up every four hours to give her medication.  This is due to her taking not one, not two, not three, but FOUR falls Saturday evening in the space of a couple of hours.  So we also have to be right with her unless she’s in bed, which is getting more often.  With the part-time work I (and we) do, it’s all I can “say grace” over.  I regret to take this blogging break, because I don’t know how long it will be.  But I know you understand, love us, and will not forget Meowmix.

As soon as I can be back, I will.  All of you will remain in my thoughts and prayers.  God bless.

The half moon visible in the southeastern sky in mid-afternoon.

Much nicer temperatures.  90 degrees felt wonderful after the sweltering temperatures of 106 with heat indexes of 116.

Realizing that fall is approaching.  It really is!

Getting some bedroom furniture moved around all by myself.

A mile-long walk.

The prayer in my Power for Today.  God WILL strengthen me in my circumstances, whatever they may be.

That’s it for me tonight.  And may God bless and keep you.

1. The old street person who was at church Wednesday night.
2. The kind notes from Teresa.
3. Hospice people are a lot of fun.
4. Making what I think is near-perfect gravy for breakfast.
5. The out-of-town company who has been here for over a week is GOING HOME TODAY!
6. Getting a  haircut this morning.
7. Our hairdresser gave Doris a free shampoo when she found out about our new daily life.  Said she needed some pampering.

See you Sunday night.  And may God bless.

Sorry I wasn’t able to post last night.  It was a both physically and emotionally exhausting day.  I worked a visitation last night that went all the way to nine o’clock.  Got home a few minutes til ten.  Earlier in the day, we met with Grace’s oncologist to get results of the latest CT scan.  News was not good – ballpark, less than 6 months.  This being the case, we were referred to hospice care.  People from there came yesterday and today getting the schedule set up, meeting Grace and us, seeing what the present needs are, and informing us of all that will take place.  Besides the hospice people, family (kids and grand kids, mostly) are in and out.

TODAY’S SMILES:

1. The new baby in the family, little Mackenzie Elizabeth, is 6-7 pounds of pure sweetness.
2. Telling Barney stories to the hospice people.
3. Going by Michael and Brigitt’s house last night on my way to work and getting hugs from Hailey and Emily.
4. Working with Nancy last night.

See you tomorrow evening.  And may God bless.

Friends, I must confess that it is difficult to blog without writing almost every night something about sister Grace and her fight for life that is going on at our house.  I apologize that I can’t share smooth sailing right now, but I believe in my heart of hearts that you understand.

Some five months ago, we brought her to live with us (her home life left much to be desire in regard to support and nurturing, and the one other person who might have taken her in just could not conceivably do it because of work schedules) because she had been diagnosed with inoperable breast cancer that had already spread outside the breast, was in her lymph nodes, was at Level 3 and Stage 4.  Aggressive……….and almost untreatable for her circumstances.  She did take a pill for some months and underwent about 3 treatments with a medication called Herceptin.  They referred to it as chemo but it was not, in fact, chemo as we know it.  Both began to make her sick and so her doctor stopped them 2-3 weeks ago, until she could do a CT scan and then “we’ll see.”  From the beginning, radiation and/or chemo was not an option. Pretty bleak picture.

We are seeing signs of her condition worsening, and tomorrow we have an appointment at 12:45 to get the results of the CT scan.  We may be pleasantly surprised, but none of us are expecting good news.  Would appreciate your prayers for Grace and the rest of us.

Preacher Phil’s sermon this evening had to do with “why righteousness,” and one of his points was appropriate to us.  With righteousness, we have comfort, solace, and peace from the great heart of the Master.  Strength for the tasks ahead, as well.  Why wouldn’t EVERYbody want that?  But that’s another story.

A couple of the songs we sang also spoke to my heart.  Verses from Tell it to Jesus:

Are you weary, are you heavy-hearted?  Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus.  Are you grieving over joys departed?  Tell it to Jesus alone.

Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden?  Tell it to Jesus.  Tell it to Jesus.  Have you sins that to man’s eyes are  hidden?  Tell it to Jesus alone.

DO YOU FEAR THE GATHERING CLOUDS OF SORROW? TELL IT TO JESUS.  TELL IT TO JESUS.  ARE YOU ANXIOUS WHAT WILL BE TO MORROW?  TELL IT TO JESUS ALONE.

We are often weary.  There is hardly a week that there aren’t doctor’s appointments, prescriptions to pick up, etc.  And when we start trying to fit in appointment of our own and for another sister whom we try to transport to doctors’ appointmnets, sometimes it feels like we are meeting ourselves coming back!  Add to that work, both at the funeral home and the housecleaning jobs we do, weary and heavyhearted often describe u s.

Since we have pretty much known from the outset what the final outcome would be, I do dread those gathering clouds of sorrow for all of the family.  I must tell Jesus.

Tonight we also sang I Am Thine, O Lord.  The final verse of it lifts my spirits when I think too long on a personal grief of my own that I can’t put into words herein.  But it reminds me that Someone knows and sees this grief and gives me hope and assurance that one day in heaven I will no longer have that grief.

There are depths of love that I cannot know til I cross the narrow sea.  There are heights of joy that I may not reach til I rest in peace with Thee.  Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord to the cross where Thou has died.  Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord to the precious bleeding side.

And the closing song of the evening ALWAYS speaks calm and peace to my soul.

Walking alone at eve and viewing the skies afar.  Bidding the darkness come to welcome each silver star.  I have a great delight in the wonderful scenes above.  God in His power and  might is showing His truth and love.

Sitting alone at eve and dreaming the hours away.  Watching the shadows falling now at the close of day.  God in His mercy comes with His word He is drawing near.  Spreading His love and trutrh around me and everywhere.

Closing my eyes at eve and thinking of heaven’s grace.  Longing to see my Lord, yes, meeting Him face to face.  Trusting Him as my all wheresoever my footsteps roam.  Pleading with Him to guide me on to the spirit’s home.

O for a home with God, a place in His courts to rest.  Sure in a safe abode with Jesus and the blest.  Rest for a weary soul once redeemed by the Savior’s love.  Where I’ll be pure and whole and live with my God above.

Thank you, favorite visiting songleader Fred, for choosing these songs tonight.  And thank YOU, my dear friends, for allowing me to share a day with you and for sharing part of the evening worship service with me…

I’ll see you tomorrow night.  Until then, may God bless.

TODAY’S SMILES:

1. Having the will power NOT to attend Brigitt’s At Home America party.
2. A visit from Beth, Jordan and Chase.
3. The visiting couple from Ohio does NOT plan to spend the night at our house!
4. Watermelons and cantaloupes.
5. A smile from a dear brother from across the auditorium.
6. Lydia’s accent (from Kenya).

Those relatives that seem to come out of the woodwork that I spoke of last night?  Two of them were sitting in our driveway this morning sometime between 6am-7am.  Didn’t really know they were coming.  Been here all day.  Cooked an elaborate breakfast, gave them sandwiches & fruit for lunch, and cooked supper.  Don’t know if they plan to spend the night, but we hope not, since they are not married!    Earlier they were heard to say they’d be here until the 16th!!!!

Ya’ll pray for this West Tennessee gal.  And have a good weekend and may God bless.

TODAY’S SMILES:

1. Again – air conditioning.  Heat index was close to 120 today.
2. Running errands and getting out of the house.
3. I left a message on Facebook about out-of-town company, which prompted Michael to call and ask who.
4. Sleepy kitty cats.
5. Being asked to pull a mapquest map for the trip back home!!!!!!!!!!

See you Sunday evening.

………….or as my nephew, Phillip, would put it – just mulling over some things.

Blogs are to encourage and uplift, amuse, and share what’s going on in one’s life.  Plenty going on around me to mull over.  I’ll share a few.

In our Wednesday night class on Hebrews, we are in a study guide written by Robert Harkrider.  We are currently studying Hebrews 5:11-14 through 6:1-8.  The last couple of years, this particular passage has come to make me perk up my ears.  “Therefore (meaning referto 5:11-14 where we see a comparison between milk and solid food) let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.  And God permitting, we will do so.”  6:1-3

The writer of said study guide then opines, “First principles are important; they must be taught.  But it is pathetic if one only desires this kind of food.  Furthermore, when this is the  main substance of one’s preaching, it shows spiritual immaturity in the preacher.”

Just mulling it over.

With pets, as with children, when we are spoiling them, we think it’s cute.  Then, after a while, like when you have a claw in your back by a spoiled kitty trying to get you off the computer and pay him attention……………….well, that claw stings a bit. 

Just mulling it over.

We are welcoming a new baby girl into our extended family as of today.  6 lbs. 1 oz.  Unnamed as yet.  Blond-red hair.  The parents are in the process of a divorce and, through some quirk of nature, Mom didn’t know she was pregnant for several months.  By then, divorce proceedings had started.  By the time Grandma and aunts and uncles found out about the pending blessed event, the delivery was two weeks away.  Dad was at the hospital when baby was born but hasn’t taken advantage of his visitation rights with the other two that Mom and Dad share in three weeks.  Mom not prepared with all the things, clothes, etc. that we usually prepare ahead of time.

Just mulling it over.

A niece asked for prayers for her husband and kids a couple of days ago over on Facebook.  When I questioned what was going on, I received one-word reply via FB message, “Divorce.”  So they are going to court tomorrow to finalize the divorce, a divorce the husband does not want, but she’s determined.  Same niece hauled away by a relative from a bar a few nights ago and taken to her sister’s house for the night, who then took her home in the morning.  There are two teen-age boys in this mess and a girl under 12.  I love my niece and pray for her every time I bow my head.  You know, I wondered why my sister was called home at what is looking like a younger age all the time – 74!  I remember thinking that God may have been protecting her from something in the future.  Maybe this was it.

Just mulling it over.

Sugar-free lemonade tastes great, all the time.  But I don’t drink it unless I’m out of Diet Cokes! 

Just mulling that over, too.

We made a trip to the ER with sister Grace last night.  We came home with a diagnosis of Kidney Retention – Acute.  Not good for anyone, certainly not for someone in a fight for her life from breast cancer.  We actually know what the outcome will be; just don’t know how long.  Many, many things to consider relative to this situation.  Difficult to watch someone be that sick, but I’ve done it several times before.  Difficult to watch Doris have to watch her sister be this sick.  But we’re doing it together.  Except for one of Grace’s “natural” children (different story altogether), we have not had much contact with any of her immediate family in years, since they were little tots, actually.  None of them have stepped forward to do much to help their mother during this time and, in fact, one and his wife have done quiet a lot of a detrimental nature.  But they are beginning to come out of the woodwork now.  Which brings up a crass question but a necessary one.  Will she live long enough to finish paying for her funeral service?  If she does, she will have paid for it twice!  How much pain is she going to be in?  What will the results of the CT scan from last week be when we meet with the doctor on Friday?  Lotsa questions……………but God is in control, and His will WILL be done.

Just mulling it all over.

What about a grown son, age 47, who will call and leave a cussin’ message on his mother’s phone because he hasn’t been able to talk to her because 1) she wasn’t at home when he called, 2) any number of other reasons, like he didn’t call the cell phone.  A mother who is actively involved in caring for a sick relative and not in the best of health herself.  Not the first time he’s done this, but it has been a while, and he’s always drinking when he does it.

Just mulling it over…………………..and resisting the urge to smack him in the face the next time I see him.

I guess that’s enough mulling for the evening.

I’ll see you tomorrow night.  And may God bless.

TODAY’S SMILES:

1. That passage in the study guide about the immature preacher!
2. My beautiful spoiled kitty cat.
3. A visit from Jean.
4. A fresh supply of birthday, get well, and sympathy cards.
5. A beautiful evening sky.
6. Air conditioning!  Temperature in our car as we headed to church was 106.  That’s degrees not heat index.  So………air conditioning.

Love to all.

1. Hailey, Emily, and Brigitt after their trip to register for school.  They came in with these huge bags of school supplies.
2. Oreo the kitty cat.
3. Mean Green cleaning liquid.
4. Bread and butter pickles.
5. Cheese.
6. Having a few days off from the funeral home…………….til Saturday.
7. The ER doctor tonight was CUTE!  Too bad he wasn’t 30 years older!!!!!  We were able to bring Grace home from our trip there.

See you tomorrow night.  And may God bless.

A busy day, just playing catch-up around the house.  Paid some bills.  Did some shopping at the dollar store.  Grilled hamburgers for our supper.  Pretty good, too, if I do say so myself.  Stripped beds and washed sheets, etc.  Got some paper work done I’d been needing to do.  Went for a 20-minute walk.  I have a key to the church building, so we go there instead of going to the mall to walk.  It’s much closer than the mall!  And it’s quiet and a great time for meditation and prayer.  This evening, though, the four elders were having a meeting.  When I walked by their door the first time, they threw up their hands and chatted a  minute.  Then the last elder got there, and they shut the door!  Shucks.  I might have overheard a bit of information I could use to blackmail them, huh!! 

Just before I sat down to blog, I got in the attic to change the filter on the air conditioning unit.  Now, today, when I backed out of the driveway to go to Fred’s, the temp in the car was 101!  You can imagine what the attic felt like.  In addition to HOT HOT HOT, the lighting is poor up there.  There’s this metal trap door thing-like that goes over where the filter slides in, and I fiddled with the little screws trying to get them in tiny dark holes and anchor the thing down.  Finally, I settled for getting ONE of them tight and came down out of the attic.  Sweat was pouring.

Then when I got down, the phone was ringing, and I found out that while I was in the attic, Grace had asked Doris to call her primary care doctor because she hadn’t been able to get her kidneys to act all day.  We’ve already heard a little about kidney failure, but this isn’t something you go around asking a person………you know, ‘have you gone to the bathroom today?’  So we didn’t know she was having so much trouble.  The doctor was about to send us to the ER when Grace yelled from the bathroom that the kidneys were acting!  I know, I know—–too much information.  But things like this make up part of our days right now.

I got a call from a close friend earlier in the day that her cousin, who is closer than a sister and kind of like a mother to her, got a very bad report from her doctor today.  Pancreatic cancer that has spread to the liver and lungs.  My friend is grief-stricken and there’s so little I can say to help her feel better.  But Doris and I both love you, Coleen, and  you are in our hearts and our prayers.  We are here for you, and we care.

And THEN—one of our members at Berclair called to see if I was going to be able to help Saturday with the Family Fun day being planned.  Had to say no because I found out today that I’ll be working Saturday.  Sounds like fun, and I would enjoy some fun but didn’t feel I could say no to the funeral home.

So how was YOUR day.  Life happens everywhere, doesn’t it?  But I hope your day was less stressful than mine.

However, there are always……………………

TODAY’S SMILES:

1. The opinion of some local newsworthy people who are  supposed to know about these things that the local politician I alluded to a week or so ago probably is NOT going to win his race this time!
2. The flowers Phil planted while still with us came back out very prettily after some rain a couple of days ago.
3. These 100+ temperatures CANNOT last forever.  Fall IS coming.
4. The Psalms.  Because they contain so much encouragement and examples to be open and honest in prayer.
5. Barney.  What would we do without  him?

See you tomorrow night.  And may God bless.

You may remember my mentioning a time or two that, of a worship service, the singing is almost my favorite part!  Two songs today, either referred to in the sermon or sung, encourage my heart.

If you’re like me, sometimes you look around and get kinda scared.  Spiritual and moral decline all around us.  How hard it is to pick up a good novel and enjoy it without graphic sexual language; same with movies.  The economy.  Bills.  Sickness.  Impending death of loved ones.  Loneliness.  Rejection.  And just getting along in the every-day world.  These are some of the “valley” moments we all experience.

But then we move our eyes from looking at the ground where we are trying to just put one foot in front of the other; we look up and see the sunshine, the blue skies and white puffy clouds, the flowers, trees swaying in the wind, the faces of loved ones, sweet and loving.  The words of these two songs just could not be more appropriate to encourage you and me to focus on our unchanging God Who holds the future in His hands, as well as the good things around us.

Time is filled with swift transition.  Naught of earth unmoved can stand.  Build your hopes on things eternal.  Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

Trust in Him who will not leave you whatsoever years may bring.  If by earthly friends forsaken.  Still more closely to Him clin.

Covet not this world’s vain riches that so rapidly decay.  Seek to gain the heavenly treasures.  They will never pass away.

When your journey is completed.  If to God you have been true.  Fair and bright the home in glory your enraptured soul will view.

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Dread not the things that are ahead.  The burdens great, the sinking sands.  The thorns that o’er that path are spread.  God holds the future in His hands.

We know not what tomorrow hids.  Of sun or storm, of good or ill.  We only know His dear hand guides.  And He will be our Father still.

His hand created earth and sky.  The zephyrs and the storms that rage.  And years to come and years gone by.  To Him are but an open page.

Live close to Him and trust His love.  Assured that while on earth we roam.  Whate’er may come, He bends above to guide His children safely home.

God holds the future in his hands.  And every heart He understands.  On Him depend; He is your friend.  God holds the future in His hands.

I hope by sharing the words of these songs (wish I could sing them to you and me) that I have encouraged YOUR heart if you are in a valley.

I’ll see you tomorrow night.  And may God bless.

WEEKEND SMILES:

1. Brigitt and Michael’s 17th anniversary; they chose to celebrate by having family and friends over for a swimming party/barbecue.  So sweet for them to include all of us.
2. Sharing courting stories and first-year-of-marriage stories about the couple in #1 from both sides of the families’ perspective.
3. The results of those 17 years of marriage – Hailey and Emily.  BIG smile.
4. Michael and Brigitt both giving me credit for the bean recipe!
5. The red-hatters in their beautiful purple dresses and red accessories at C’s funeral yesterday who was, herself, a red hatter and a very beautiful 80-something lady.