Happy Mother's Day

We're missing both of our moms this year but we will always cherish their love.

Visits Here and There

 It's been a busy few weeks for us...

A Visit Here

Sometime in late March Sis. McGriffin contacted me to let me know that she and Pastor Mac would be flying to Los Angeles, then taking a cruise up the coast to Canada.  They were going to fly in a couple days early.  They had Thursday, April 28th, completely free so we invited them for a visit.  We all went to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and enjoyed a very delightful day. We took them to dinner at Santour Kabobery, one of our favorite restaurants here in Simi.  I did not take a single picture, but a good time was had by all!

A Visit There

For Mother's Day this year, Les wanted to go see his mom.  We flew to Nashville on Friday, May 6th.  We were suppose to get there around midnight Friday night, but a flight delay in Dallas had us arriving well after 2:00 Saturday morning.  We had already planned to spend the night in Nashville before driving to Cookeville on Saturday.

We spent Saturday evening with Bill and Dolly.  For those who were in our recent Adult Sunday School class, this is when the title for Les' lesson came about.  "The Baptist and the Bootlegger" came about as Les' dad was reminiscing about his parents and the way God changed their lives.

 

We attended First Church of Cookeville on Mother's Day.  The pastor's wife, Sis. Adrienne Hodum, did an excellent job talking about Mothers' hands.   We spent the rest of the day eating and visiting.

We met up with Les' sister, Lisa, and her husband, Rick, for breakfast on Monday morning.  Our visit extended to a trip to their house and a few hours of uninterrupted visiting.  None of their four kids were home at the time, something that I'm sure is going to be the new normal as their youngest will turn 18 this Fall.

We swung by Bill and Dolly's for one last visit before heading back the Nashville and flying home Monday afternoon.  Again, I didn't take a single picture, but a good time was had by all!

Another Visit Here

On May 17th, we had more visitors!  The Indy Macs - Les' brother, Lance, and his wife, Monica, along with their youngest daughter, Hannah, flew in from Indiana.  The guys did their typical male bonding on their bikes (four rides in four days) while we ladies did what I like to call "mall bonding."

While Les and Lance were cycling, we ladies spent Wednesday at the Los Angeles Fashion District.  I'm still calling it the Garment District, but I guess they're trying to sound a little more upscale.  We spent several hours wandering and chatting without doing any spending.  I finally bought a skirt, but the rest of our money stayed in our wallets.

 

On Thursday, while Les and Lance were cycling, Hannah wanted to go to a Zara store.  This led us to The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks.  Of course no self respecting shopper can go to a mall and just go to one store!  We spent a couple hours browsing and Hannah and Monica both found some goodies at H&M. 

Thursday evening we headed to the Santa Monica Pier.  It was a cool evening and we enjoyed wandering before settling in for a late dinner at Bubba Gumps.

 

On Friday, while Les and Lance were cycling, we found ourselves at Nordstrom Rack.  We also went to our local coffee shop, Dr. Conkey's.  Les and I have bought coffee there several times, but this time we also got some of their truffles.  We were not disappointed!

Friday evening was the first service of our Missions Conference.  It was also the Indy Mac's final night in town.  Hannah really wanted to go to the Griffith Park Observatory.  It is currently only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so Les and I went to church, while the Indy Macs enjoyed an evening in Hollywood and at Griffith Park.

Saturday afternoon it was time to say goodbye.  As you can see, we took lots of pictures and a good time was had by all!

Woman of the Week ~ A Mother in Israel

As I've done on Mother's Day for several years now, I took my Mom's Bible to church with me yesterday.  It's a small way of remembering her that brings me comfort.  There were a few items tucked in the front cover that I didn't want to lose, so I pulled them out.  I then flipped through her Bible and found a bookmark.  The page had verses marked and in Mom's beautiful handwriting, "women can make changes happen."  Well, that caught my attention!  I have studied, and blogged about, over 40 women but never this one!  She is one of the nameless women in the Bible, but she definitely made changes happen.  Look for her story on Friday.

Verses:  2 Samuel 20:16-22

Background – parents, husband, children, siblings

What is she most known for?

Victories? Defeats?

How can I be like her?

How can I avoid being like her?

Did she reach a place when she needed to reset?  If so, did she?  For good or evil?

Happy Mother's Day!

I wish I could hug all you moms today!  There are so many of you who mean so much to me.  I hope your day is wonderful!

Here's to the moms in my life:

Mom McElhaney

Grandma Luella

Grandma Ruby

Great Grandma Lancaster

 Grandma Loeffler

Grandma McElhaney

My sister, Kim

My sisters-in-law, Diana

Lisa

and Monica

Sis. White

Sis. McGriffin

Moms, you are loved and appreciated.  We celebrate you today and everyday!

Themes from Mom's Bible

It's nearly Mother's Day and I've been thinking about my Mom a lot.  More than 30 years ago she was diagnosed with cancer.  I have her Bible that she carried during that time.  I've written about it many, many times on this blog.  It was the third post I published, appropriately called "Mom's Bible."

There are so many incredible nuggets found in the pages of her Bible.  There are verses underlined with two or three words written in the margins.  Dozens of quotes, verses and sayings found on the pages in the front and back of her Bible.  They are a treasure to me.

In 2013 I posted "word clouds" created by Wordle.  The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.   I took all the sayings written in Mom's Bible and here's what I got:

I realize there are a lot of words and it might seem like there is no way to narrow them down into themes, but I think I've done it.  Of course, the longer I worked on this, the more I realized this was going to turn into a series of posts instead of a single post!  In the days ahead I'll be exploring these six themes from Mom's Bible:

Encourage Yourself
Have a Prayer Life
Guard Your Tongue
Be Content
Be Grateful
Have Faith/Trust in God

Before I get to those themes, I want to re-post a story:

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything,wrote in the sand:

"Today my best friend slapped me in the face."

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one, who had been slapped, got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After the friend recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

"Today my best friend saved my life."

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?"

The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

Learn to write your hurts in the sand, and to carve your benefits in stone.
~ Author Unknown

I consider Mom's Bible her stone.  She wrote her blessings, her faith, and her prayers.  It's a stone that I have learned so much from.