Autumn Thoughts

I am fortunate to still have parents who live independently and are able to come and visit a couple of times a year. They came for Thanksgiving and I had an opportunity to spend some time with my brother and them alone without a lot of extended family to distract me. It was very evident that they are slowing down and are not as active as they were even several months before. I was reminded of some thoughts that I had written down several years ago and although Autumn has passed us by (as the autumn of my parent's life has passed them by) and we enter the winter season, perhaps these thoughts are still timely.

Book Review

Several years ago I found myself moving from fiction to non-fiction and in the process I discovered the veracity of the old adage “Truth is stranger (and more amazing) than fiction”.

Grace for me is the most difficult of all Christian values. It is the simplest yet most confusing. It requires total humble, selfless faith and commitment to what Christ by example showed us as the way to live with his other children.

Grace calls me to put my money where my mouth is –

When I am in a rush, the frustration of finding a bag of cherries in my frig that has what appears to be more spoiled fruit than edible fruit is too much, I simply throw the whole bag away. I can justify this because

Six days ago my sixth grandchild Emma was born. My daughter-in-law had a difficult time

Although my children are all grown up whenever I am at the store in August and September, a strong magnet pulls me through 15 years to the school supplies.

My children are 33, 30, 27 and 26. I have 5 grandchildren with 2 new babies to be born soon. I am still trying to figure out what I want to be now that my kids have grown up.

During the Joyful Chaos of raising 4 children, I could never understand why my mom didn’t’ have all the kids over for a visit at one time. Now as a grandma, I can appreciate her wisdom.

When my 4 children were little, I was religious about spending an equal amount for each on birthdays, Christmas and other special occasions. In fact when they were really young, I made sure that they had the same NUMBER of gifts also.