Words to LIVE by...

This tile trivet hangs in my kitchen near the sink, so I see it every day!

It was given to me by a co-worker almost 24 years ago!

I really do try to govern my life by

GREATFULNESS.

I also try to spread a little JOY and SUNSHINE every chance I get.

I have been blessed with a happy spirit - O, I can get down and depressed, but I just can't stay there. I will wallow for a moment only, and my heart just floats right back up to

HaPpY!

I have always been surrounded by people who love me, and things to give me comfort and ease and beauty! I recognize that I have more to be thankful for than not. Yes, I have had sorrows - many and deep - but, because of them I can appreciate the everyday little joys that come my way!

Thanks to my co-worker friend for giving me this beautiful tile, and to it's author, Amanda Bradley!

It gives me something to muse on...

To Those Who Served...

How blessed I am to know and love selfless, strong and brave men & women who served in the armed forces!

I am so very proud of my brother Jim the MARINE. I remember my heart swelling with pride seeing him in his Marine uniform. He was already good looking, but that uniform made him even more so! I think all my girlfriends had a crush on him! I loved hearing him tell stories about serving. The one I recall most is his telling of how proud he was being one-of-hundreds holding a huge gynormous United States flag from underneath and having tears in his eyes while telling it. Thank you Jim. I love you!

Thank you uncle Benny and my uncle Buster, my cousin Fred, and ex-cousin-in-law Terry for serving in the NAVY!

Thank you Aunt Nelda for your service in the AIR FORCE. I have always looked up to you!

Thank you Bill for your service in the AIR FORCE. It wasn't easy letting you go to Viet Nam and wonder if you would be coming back home to me. I know how very hard it was for you to witness the horrors you saw and try to make the world seem normal when you came back!

Thank you to my uncle Cotton and uncle Kenneth for your service in the Army. Thank you Ted for serving in the ARMY and for the sacrifice in pain that you experienced losing friends and being wounded in the jungle of Viet Nam. How tender must have been your feeling knowing that your child was being born when you were so far away. Thank you for taking time to write to me. I cherish those words. I loved you then and still.

Thank you my Grandad Cluff for your service in WWI. You will always be one of my heros!

HEROS ALL!!

Blast From The Past!

Almost daily I experience the warm memories of my childhood in our little white frame home - you know the one - with the white picket fence and fragrant colorful flowers lovingly tended by my mom's hands. More specifically I hear the voices of my siblings and my mother gathered round the kitchen table. That soothing background noise for all our meals. That table had some miraculous meals served on it. I am so amazed that Mom could feed herself and four kids with one can of tuna, or one can of soup. I remember fried okra - still a treat to me - salmon patties, scalloped potatoes, cakes, raisin filled cookies (sure could love one of those right now!) and even frog legs at least one time. But the dishes that some of those meals were served on grace my table today!
These are the only two left (pictured above) that I was blessed with out of I-don't know-how-many. I recall eating fried eggs off these plates and thinking how the white spots were egg left on the plate. Almost every morning I now eat eggs on one of these plates and think the same thing. Of course I love eating desert from them!
I wish I knew their history. Were they from a box of detergent? I do know mom got some dishes from detergent, green stamps, the service station and such. Did she pick them up from a family member, or were they a wedding gift? O, how I wish I had asked her! They are beautiful! Small plates with large simple brush strokes that form a beautiful flower... but more than that they bring a rush from the past of blissful childhood memories! I simply adore them!