Backyard Blessings

Even though I see it often, I feel blessed each time I view the sun setting over the majestic mountains in my backyard. Life at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, is indeed a DAILY BLESSING!

May you have a weekend filled with beautiful sunsets and daily blessings!

10 Things

I have been tagged by Chris to give you 10 things you probably do not know about me. So here goes... I hope this is insightful.

1. I am allergic to cats but had as many as 22 at a time when I was small... maybe that is why! 2. I do not like the color green, but I love nature and all of it's green glory. 3. As a child, I loved to sit high up in a mimosa tree and watch the world go round. 4. I loved climbing trees as a child and fell one time... requirring 8 stitches to my leg. 5. I love children's literature and reading aloud to children. 6. I have a gold pin with 12 bars on it for 12 years of perfect attendance in Sunday School. 7. I was a member of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority while in college. 8. I love the sun but must use lots of sunscreen due to skin cancer requirring skin grafts. 9. I love ICED TEA, year round... very sweet like all good southern girls. 10. I read two daily newspapers from cover to cover along with several online news sites. I hope you were able to learn something new about me today. You have BLESSED me with your great blogs and I am thankful for that. If you would like to do this meme... consider yourself TAGGED!

Therapy Dog Training

Elmo has been such a precious pet and I am excited to share her love with others. In May, we will attend 4, two hour sessions of Dog Therapy Training: sponsored by our local Hospice. After the training, we will be able to make weekly visits to patients that are under Hospice care. Our goal is to share our love with the patients and let them know we care. Sharing Elmo's unconditional love with others... now that is a BLESSING indeed!

Wind Chimes

I love wind chimes, especially this one given to me on mother's day several years ago. It is a constant reminder of my daughter and my son and the love that we share. Neither of them live close enough to see daily but a day does not go by without constant reminders of them and the many ways that they have blessed my life. It is like the wind that blows my chimes... you can't see it but you know it is there by the constant reminders that surround you! They are touching my life from a distance and that is a BLESSING indeed.

Hiking the Trail

When my son graduated from North Carolina State University, we dropped him off at Mount Katahdin, Maine and five months later we picked him up at Springer Mountain, Georgia. Amazingly, he hiked the entire Appalachian Trail which is a total of 2,174 miles. Leaving him on that cool, brisk sunny day in May was one of the hardest things that I have ever done. It was something that he desperately wanted to do and I had to put my faith and trust in God that He would look over my son and protect him, but if this was not God's will and something went wrong; my faith and trust allowed me to believe that God would give me the strength that I needed to survive. My son made it and along the way spent a lot of time with God, enjoyed the beauty of God's creation, made lasting friendships, but struggled each day with the strenuous effort that it took to survive walking for 20 or so miles most days. He persevered and learned many life lessons along the way. I was BLESSED as I watched my son continue on his quest. I prayed continuously, hiked some of the trail with him, mailed him packages to the mail drops along the trail, and waited patiently on the precious and few phone calls that he could make along the way. It is hard to describe the feeling of pride and love that I felt as I saw him walking toward me at the end of that trail. I hugged that dirty, smelly, son of mine and thanked God for all of the BLESSINGS along the way!

Flowers

Last week we had a chance to take this photo to the florist, hoping she would have similar vases for flower arrangements on the reception tables at the wedding. We needed something tall like this because the reception hall opens to a second floor balcony area and the open space is almost too stark, without a tall vase on each table to draw your eye downward. The florist had this same kind of vase and will be able to duplicate the flowers. Now that was a great big check off of our list and a BLESSING in that we came away with complete confidence in the florist. Isn't it neat when you meet someone, talk details for awhile, and then feel like they understood exactly what you wanted? The real test will be the actual flowers on the tables but for the time being I feel BLESSED that the "worry" factor is out of the picture!

MIA for a Good Cause

WOW, what a week! I have been MIA (missing in action) for a good cause and it has been such a BLESSING! My daughter had the week off from teaching kindergarten so mother-daughter had a wedding planning blitz... full speed ahead. Our "to do" list has check, check, and double check beside every single item and we walked away; exhausted, excited, thrilled, still loving each other, and BLESSED beyond measure to spend this precious time together. We had our "Bridezilla" moments but with "T minus 105 days" and counting, I have to be the luckiest Mom in the world to have been BLESSED with the most precious daughter that God could create. Stay tuned this is only the beginning.