Reflections of Mom

Today marks twenty years since my mom went home to Jesus. You would think it would get easier after all this time, but the waves of grief do still come. They are just further apart. I still miss mom very much.

Mom lived a hard life. She knew nearly every sort of hardship: financial; loss of health; war; trust of a spouse; a child who got into drugs; a father who left his family in need; etc. Still, mom never lost hope or her faith in God. He saw her through all these and more. Mom was a great inspiration.

As I grow older, I look forward to my reunion with mom and all the other loved ones who will be waiting for me. No, I am not ready to go, but someday, most likely within the next twenty years, I will join mom again. In the mean time, I will try to carry on her legacy here on earth. That is the best way I can think of to honor her.  I love you Mom.

Eventful weekend

Saturday began with Richard bringing me coffee in bed, not an easy thing for for a man using a walker. It was wonderful to lay in bed and relax for awhile before getting up and starting the day. What a day it was. By mid morning I had received several phone calls, e-messages, cards and e-cards from family and friends. Dianna and Chris stopped by with a hand made gift and stayed to visit. Suddenly the sound of singing and a burst children through the door sent my heart a-whirl. Two more grandchildren and four great grandchildren had arrived bearing a huge vase of spring flowers. What a surprise. They had driven down from the Olympia area for the the weekend. Later in the day, Shelley and Eric brought dinner and cake. They stayed on to visit after the others had retreated to Dianna's for the night.

On Sunday afternoon, Dianna, Paul, Chris, Doug, Bridget and her four little ones brought Easter dinner and had fun hiding eggs in the back garden. They are such good kids, ages 10, 8, 6, and 17 months. They were all dressed in Easter finery.

Unfortunately there was a down side to the day. Dianna's beloved cat Cinder died on Easter morning. She was old, about 14. Dianna loved Cinder so very much. So there was also a feline funeral among the flowers in the yard yesterday. I am glad Dianna had so much support and so many caring shoulders to cry on. Cinder will be missed.

We have great news that Doug will be starting school (underwater welding/salvage) in Seattle on April 8. He has wanted to do this for a long time, even was certified as a diver while still in the military. The seven month school is paid for by the government and includes a pretty good living allowance. We are very happy for him.

Today all is quiet at the Moreno house. I went back to bed after breakfast for a short nap. Amazing how the unbounded energy of little ones can sap your own, even when you're not the one tracking them. Still, I will look forward to seeing all of them again soon.

has it been that long?

Wow, my last post related to my recovery from a stubborn virus. I have pretty much recovered, still not much energy though. Seems it is really taking forever to be able to work for more than a couple hours at a time without resting. I'm getting old, you say? OK, I concede. Tomorrow I will be 73. Is that old? Well, maybe, but I am relatively healthy and should the Lord will it, I fully expect to live a lot longer.

Having said that, I fell again on Wednesday. My foot slipped on some wet soil in the driveway and I went down, impacting with a sharp plastic support on the inside of a landscape cart I was moving. It cut a gash in my head, right at the hairline that required attention. I went into immediate care where they cleaned the wound, closed it with super glue reinforced with steri-strips. No big deal, until I had been home for awhile and the adrenaline in my system dissipated. Then I discovered that I had also tweaked my left knee and triggered an arthritic flareup. I have done this before, so I know to stay off it and just let it rest. So I iced it down, took some asprin, got a good night's sleep and waited till morning.

Early Thursday I called a friend that I had lent my wheelchair and had them bring it home. So now I am skooting around the house, doing chores from a sitting position that does not put weight on my knee. It is already starting to feel better. Should only take a few days to a week to heal. At least I didn't break anything this time. Thank you Jesus!

It is a busy week (at least the last part) around here.  Yesterday some guys from church came and removed a large old ice cream freezer from the basement as part of a metal drive to send the youth group to Jamaca on a missions trip this summer. They had quite a time getting it out of there. The old car in the driveway has been purchased and will be removed today so that a load of compost can be delivered to the driveway (a birthday gift). A friend is outside now, mowing my lawn. BTW, the electric mower I received as another gift works great.

Plans for the weekend include dinner prepared as a BD gift on Saturday and Dinner on Easter Sunday as another gift. Add to this the repacement of my compuer a couple weeks ago, and it has been a really red letter year. Thank you to family, friends, and others that I don't even know their names. You are all tremendous blessings.

Recovering

Monday following Thanksgiving, I came down with a cold, the worse cold I have suffered in about 10 years. It progressed to my chest and I was miserable for two 1/2 weeks. I am slowly recovering, still have some sinus drainage and a bit of a cough. But the most annoying part is the total lack of energy. I did manage to get the Christmas tree up. It took two days and both of us to do it and it is still only about 1/3 decorated.  Not much else will get done before the holiday. I just am void of stamina.

Our kids were here for a short visit last weekend. As always, it was great to see them, but under the circumstances it was nice that they spent only a short time. A friend came over on Thursday and took out the trash. She also helped me bake some gluten free cookies for Richard. Small blessings that mean so much.

Praise God that Richard has had only had a few sniffles. The last thing he needs is a full blown case of bronchitis.

Last night the power was off for about an hour. We lit the gas fireplace and an oil lamp, turned on the portable radio Rick had given his dad for Christmas to a station playing Christmas music, and just soaked in the peace of the moment, nice. We have so much to be thankful for. God has been very good to us. He has provided all we need; heat, light, shelter, food, love, and family.

 When you look at the world around us, it is not hard to be thankful. There is not a lot we can do to change others, but to pray. Only God can bring about the magnitude of change required for peace and love on a large scale and according to His word, peace may not be His long term plan. But we can hope for positive change in at least the short term. So pray and do your part. Don't forget to be thankful for Christ, who gave his life that we might live forever.

Merry Christmas.

A Quiet Thanksgiving

Shelley, Lissa and her girls came by for a short visit on Wednesday. We hadn't seen the little ones for several months and they have grown so much. What a nice gift of family.

Richard and I spent a very quiet Thanksgiving alone. Rick and his crew were scheduled to be here over night  and have breakfast, but he is sick. That meant his family was split up for the holiday and he spent it in bed. We are grateful he didn't try to make the long journey and that he has a few days to recover.

Both Rick and Amy called. We got updates on what all the grand kids are up to. "Things" are going well. We all have much to be thankful for.

I fixed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner using glutin free ingredients. Not exactly the same, but not too bad either.  Clean up was short, since there were just the two of us. We have lots of left overs for soup, turkey enchaladas, pot pie & ect.

Today I will also need to do laundry. There is a lot more of that than you would expect. I will also go to gleaners and start wrapping Christmas gifts. Christmas gifts will consist of family trees, dried fruit from our trees, and closet pillows made from a cedar we had removed. Most of it low cost (copy paper and ink are spendy) and on hand. But a lot of love and time put into it. More of what Christmas is supposed to be, I think.

Another month has come and gone. Not a whole lot happening around here that is new. We have been wrapping up the harvest (grape juice, dried apples, etc.) and I have been spending a lot of time working on geneology for Christmas gifts.

Since my tree is so dense, I am dividing it into two volumes of four sections each.  Two sections a year will be distributed to each of our children and to my three living siblings. Most of my family has been in America since the beginning. The last set of great grand parents arrived just after the Civil War. So this first 1/4 of Volume one (14 generations) is more than an inch thick. It will take about 8 years to put all of this one tree together.

In addition to a segment of my own family tree, I have completed a tree for one son-in-law and his parents, a segment of a tree for a granddaughter's husband, a tree for a daughter-in-law, a tree for one grandson (his mother's side), and a potion of trees for several other grandchildren. Yes, I have spent a lot of time at the computer doing research. It may pay off in an unexpected way.

Seems some of the grandkids may qualify for free or nearly free college due to their being of Indian heritage. It is something worth looking into, at least.

But I must put away my research for a bit now and prepare for the holidays. It will be good to see friends and family and to "catch up" face to face. Shelley spent several hours here yesterday. It is the first we had talked since she returned from her global travels. Rick and most of his crew will be here for a few days next week. We haven't seen him for since mid-September, his family since April.

Have a great Thanksgiving. Even though there have been some very real negetive aspects to 2012, it is no effort at all to count our blessings. May our God in heaven reign in your life throughout 2013.

are we there yet?

It has been a journey. There have been many twists and turns along the way, but we are "almost" there. Jack has been such a blessing. I just have to pinch myself to beleive a total stranger, a non-christian, would volunteer to do all this work for us. It has been about six weeks since my last post. Much has been done.

We hired a professional crew to take down a huge incence cedar and prune out our massive black walnut. Jack cut up and hauled away the larger pieces of wood to be used as fuel and to dry for lumber. Then he ran all the rest of the smallar stuff, along with the tree prunings piled up before, through a chipper and spread the chips where needed.

Rick and Doug came down and replaced the portion of the shop roof that was leaking and dug the fire pit bay the back patio. Rick also cleaned moss off the house roof, down moss prevention granules, and cleaned the gutters.

Eric and Shelley delivered a load of really nice compost for Richard's birthday, so I cleaned out the planting beds in the back garden and Jack turned the beds (Chris had previously turned one of them) and put new compost in them.

Jack also prepared the area around the back planting beds and a pathway to them from the front walkway and laid down about 3-4 inches of crushed stone so that Richard's wheelchair could have access.

Jack has also replaced the end posts for the rassberries and grapes, using the old well pipe that was laying along the back of the garden. I planted garlic, separated and cleaned up strawberry plants, then moved them to a larger bed. The old strawberry bed now holds three new blueberry bushes. I have pulled up tomato plants that were spent and put protective plastic around the rest. We may get several more nice tomatoes from them. The summer squash has about had it. A few green beans still are growing and a couple small cucumbers remain on the vines. I need to harvest and dry the herbs.

The rest of this week will see sucker starts from the base of our large fig moved to the back garden, the rest of the compost placed around existing flower beds, bricks around the fire pit reset in crushed stone, what's left of the apples picked (most have already been processed), and outdoor furniture (at least the cushions) stored for winter. Jack has alraedy stated that when the rain comes (due on Friday), he is done. I am amazed at what he has accomplished.

I also have been working on Harry's couch. The bottom of the legs have been cut off and will need to be replaced (spliced). I have filled and/or re-glued several areas. But since rain is imminent, I will mearly put a coat of protectiive paint on it now and finish the work next spring. Yes, it is worth saving.