Coffee? Tea? Serenity?

My 3 Ms are Manipulate, Modify, Maintain – necessities for continued progress. (More)

This morning, along with our alarm clock, the storms woke us.  Thunder in the distance.  Lightning flashes.  (More)

I created a new category.  I named it How's the Back?  When they first appeared, I placed my physical symptoms in God's hands.  He has helped me tremendously.  Over the past couple of months, my experiences and the information that I learned seems to get sloshed around in my head.  I often wish that I had a special place in my memory where I could record important things and they would just stay put.  No such luck.  A nurse practitioner once told me that our memory can be compared to that of a computer's memory.  We can only hold so much, then the new has to be saved over the old.  Sometimes the old is gone forever.  It seems that as I get older, the memory bank shrinks in size.  With that in mind, I will be using my blog to store information relating to the challenges with my back and how God helps me through them.  While I work on organizing the information, the settings will not permit those posts to show up as "new" ones.  When you reach my blog, you will have to click on the category to read those specific posts.   After all, much of what I am writing, at this time, is rather old news.  Once all is done and I reach a point of posting current information, I may change the settings.  To reach the new category, look to the right of this text, you will see a link to it.  Within that category, you will see posts of specific topics.

Prayers are powerful.  The more the better.  If you're reading this, I invite you to join me in praying that I can continue to find comfort in God's Hands and that I can listen when the Holy Spirit directs me in wisdom - in ALL areas of my life.

This is a recount of the doctors and diagnosis that was given by each. (More)

Sunday, Mother’s Day, our Pastor gave a lovely homily dedicated to mothers.  It was touching to hear of him speak of me, of my mom, of all mothers in such a holy way.  As he spoke, my thoughts hopped, skipped, and jumped amid the challenges that I face with my own child, those that my mother and mother-in-law faced, and those which my grandmothers faced.  I glanced over to my own teenage son - seated upon the altar – a faithful altar server – so grown – young man – where has time gone?  My heart grew.  The lump in my throat grew, too.  Mother is such an important role.  Have I done as God wanted me to?  With these thoughts, I became lost in memories.  It lasted only a few moments.  What happened next melted my heart, and the lump in my throat, into flowing tears.  The words that caught my attention were, “Lovely lady dressed in blue.”  Most Catholics would immediately think of Mary, the mother of Jesus, when hearing these, but not I.  My thoughts were on my Grandma Foreman….lovely lady dressed in blue.  She liked wearing the color blue.  As long as I can remember, she drove a blue car.  I wonder when she came to like blue so much.  Was it because her own mother died when she was such very young child?  Was it because she leaned on Jesus’ mother in prayer during the challenges in her own life?  Did she look to Mary as an example of how a mother should be?  Was it simply that she liked the color?  The tears flowed.  No tissue.  I made an attempt to gently channel them to the side of my face.  They flowed more.  I wondered if they made a puddle upon my shoulder for all to see.  It matters not.  When the tears ceased, I thanked God for blessing us with a Pastor who always seems to speak to my soul.  I only heard the first few lines of the poem that he read, so I promised myself to search for it.  This morning I did just that.   

Grandma Foreman, our family's lovely lady dressed in blue, I hope that Jesus is enjoying your stories as much as we did!

For the past couple of months, my mom has been saying, "Some good crabs!"  That repeated comment helped me to know exactly what Mom would appreciate for Mother's Day.  Mom was very excited when I told her my plans.  The restaurant was found.  The small trip was planned for Saturday evening. 

It was I who was the more surprised, though.  To sit and watch her enjoy those crabs was a delight.  There was no elegance in the restaurant we chose - good thing!  First we order drinks.  Next, we order our meals.  Then comes the appetizers.  Three of us had seafood gumbo.  I had salad.  One of us had no appetizer.  With this day being the day before Mother's Day, the place was full, filled with sounds of joy and children, and the wait was a little long.  We waited patiently.

The waitress approached our table to say that the crabs would be ready before the other foods ordered and she wanted to know if it would be alright if she brought those out first.  Well, of course!

Here come the crabs!  Mike ordered some and of course Mom did.  I could not eat them, though I did taste, do to a recent, mild allergic reaction to shrimp.  Dad, Scott, and myself chose to eat other choices - which could never compare to the taste of those crabs.  They were just yummy.

No one had to ask Mom if she was enjoying her order.  It was quite evident.  She tackled those critters with aggressive delight.  The shells were scattering everywhere.  I sat directly across the table from her.  I had shells landing in my lap.  She had shells in her hair.  Lord knows where the poor waitress found bits of crab shells as she cleared our table.  As Mom finished her last crab, she said, "OH, Cindy, that was very good!"  The family at the table near us looked our way with a sweet, understanding smile. 

Mike enjoyed his crabs, too.  At one time, he said that his fingers were too big and he could not work as quickly as he'd like to eat them.

As we were leaving the restaurant, Dad seemed a bit uncomfortable with the fact that Mike and I grabbed the tab for the entire meal.  That was my intention - as a gift to Mom.  When he mentioned the "bill", I said to him, "Dad, it was well worth every penny to see Mom and Mike enjoy those crabs."

The gift that I gave to Mom turned out to be a real treat for me as well - to watch her enjoy hers.

For some reason, I cannot view her posts.  I continue to get an error message.  Is anyone else experiencing the same?

This happened once before.  It was after the recent upgrading took place.  After a while, I was once again able to read her posts.

I have seen and read posts of other bloggers with the same template.  I have not run across any other blog that gives the same error message.  I wonder what the issue is.

If anyone has any helpful hints on what might be causing me to get this message, please share them with me in a comment.

Missing Carolyn's writings.......