TRIALS AND BLESSINGS

A TRIAL…

I may have mentioned before…My dad and his continual losses...

Over all of the years that he has been in business, he has had thousands…No…hundreds of thousands of dollars taken from him…

Embezzled from…Stolen from…Robbed from…Taken by both insiders and customers.

Once, they crashed a stolen van into his store to gain access the goods…

Yet…For the most part, he maintains a happy face and doesn’t complain…

Friday morning was a particularly upsetting start for me and coincidentally…For Mom…And, as we would later find out, for Dad as well…

Mom was depressed about all that seems to continually go on…Money losses, attorney dealings and the like...I was frustrated by more politics at work…And so we commiserated…

Later in the day, in lunching with Dad, he told me of the latest, someone ELSE that is suing him over something ridiculous…Unbeknownst to us, and possibly even as we were dining…he was being assailed yet once again…

A group of at least four people, two or three to cause disruption, and the other two to pull it off, got off with $15,000 worth of jewelry…They were on camera, and some pretty good pictures of the thieves were available and given to the police, but no finger prints were taken…Blows my mind…They were on the jewelry glass counter AND the gun glass counter…The police only committed to posting the picture in the “bull room”, whatever that is.

It just makes me so enraged…So sad for my dad. He is one of the most generous men there are…

With some visual-enhancement computer program, I think that the police could zoom into the car plate and get the number. Since they don’t seem to be overly concerned, one of the employees has taken it upon himself to work on that.



DH and I drove around for quite awhile today, in the area of town that we believe the thieves come from (the wrong side of the tracks, if you will) and hunted for the vehicle.



I don’t even KNOW of all of the times that Dad has been ripped off, because he doesn’t always voice it, but of the ones that I do know, rarely, if ever, has he been reimbursed.

I pointed to a painting that he painted years ago…one of David and Goliath…hung above his desk…"Dad, you’re not as big as the bad guys, but you’ll win in the end. I love you."

GOALS…

My goals for this year (I know, it’s a bit early for the final assessment, but that’s okay) were not 100% achieved…But, I did work hard on my organization skills, keeping up on the house, and trying to feed myself in a more healthy way…

I would have liked to have gotten a bit further along but will continue to work on them.

I think that for the upcoming year, my goal will be to try to be content with where I am at…Or something like that...

My dream is to be a homemaker…It matters not that I do not have children at home anymore (as someone stated the other day…in other words, "You don’t have a NEED to stay home anymore"), I DO still have a home…

AND…I do still thrive on making a warm, cozy, and comfortable abode…

I feel the Spirit so much more when I concentrate on making my home clean and lovely…My husband, although he doesn’t say it, enjoys when I am home, baking up yummy smells and having the candles lit and a nice, warm, scented home to walk into after coming in from work. He DOES comment on those niceties but doesn’t say that he likes it when I stay home, is what I meant. He needs me to work.

So…As that dream will not be, in January, I am returning to school. I am excited, I am stressed, and I am depressed. Ha ha—Can one be all of those things at the same time?



So…I’ll work (an undetermined amount—as yet undecided) and I’ll go to school…And, I will get a job that brings in more money…And, I will work the rest of my healthy years…Sigh.

I shouldn’t be so morose about it all…But the fact of the matter is…Well…I am.

There should be another way, but there isn’t…So, this coming year, I need to work VERY VERY HARD on making the best of it…Trying not to stress as much as I have been (have had health issues because of it in the past few months) and look at it as an exercise in developing a go-with-the-flow attitude…

Or something like that…

I need to come up with a positive before January 1...A real positive…To sell to my self…That continuing to work and not being able to stay at home, until I am too feeble for it to matter…Is actually a GOOD thing…

Well (wink) you can tell that I’m a ways away from that still!

I’ll get there, though-:0)

SIDE NOTE…Just looked at the thermometer…It’s 1…Ha ha…We got a foot of snow between midnight and 6:00 p.m. yesterday as well.



(This is not our home...I just thought it to be beautiful)

BLESSING…

I didn’t do anything to deserve it, but last week, for three days in a row, I received such blessings at work…

They all came from patients…Patients who were so very sick but yet had a smile and such love in their hearts…

One day, I had a particular man, who because of a severe reaction to drugs given in surgery, had great mental disorientation and distress. This poor man had not been allowed out of bed for days, to even sit up. He hurt, he wasn’t allowed any pain meds., and he didn’t know what was going on…

The tubes and lines in him were a constant irritation…For hours on end…Days on end…He tossed and turned, and tried to get up. We had to keep him down. It came to mind, after some time, to do what my grandma would have done…I rubbed his back…

That’s all…

A small thing…But that was the only thing, including medication (the little that he was allowed to have) that worked. It didn’t work for a real long time, but he was at least able to get a few short minutes of rest as I rubbed his back. I felt such a blessing in being able to do that, and it brings tears to my eyes as I speak.



My FAMILY means so much to me…They have each taught me GREAT things. This particular gramma, now passed, taught me to love the Lord and to love others.

I have a great love in my heart…Not of my own…But as a gift from my Father in Heaven…Each day that I go to work, I pray that I will be able to bless someone’s life. The Lord answers my prayers, and often I am the one who ends up getting blessed as much or more than they…







An aunt, my dad’s sister…This painting was commissioned by a beau of hers…Painted in Germany...

Aunt Joann passed years ago from MS… Her husband, who divorced her, (they were closer after that then before) drowned in the river; she passed on; and then the youngest of her four sons was stabbed to death.

You would never know, if you were not looking at Aunt Joann, that she had this wicked disease. Her sense of humor preceded her wherever she went! I think that she taught us all to look on the bright side.





My own dear parents…Their wedding picture…They were 18 years and two days and 18 years and four days old respectively.





My honey and I…My, but we look young!

BLESSING…

I got up the other morning; my husband took me by the hand and lead me to the window…”Look”, he said, pointing out the window into the snow-laden streets…

“Elliott?” “Elliott?!”

He then took me to our son’s bedroom, opened the door, and there lay my BOY!!!

Oh, my goodness! He had come home early to surprise me! I hugged him and hugged him…



Oh, it is so wonderful when he comes home…He brings laughter, his unique and special wonderful laughter…And, he brings my other boy, Derek—a friend from his grade school years, whom I love very much.

I think I’m glad that I didn’t know he was coming after hearing his tale…He drove in the worst of storms, at times going only 30 miles per hour, behind snow-blowers and passed by many semi-trucks…



It was so bad that what is normally a five-hour trip took him nine…In looking back over it, he said, “I don’t know how I made it alive.” “You must have prayed before you left”, I said. “Yes, and when I got here, I said a prayer (of thanks)…[and then was instantly exhausted].

The stress had been great, and he then just wanted to sleep...

I am thankful to my Father in Heaven that he brought my boy home safely.



Dear mothers of grown children yet to be…

Some day…

Some day…You will be thankful for a messy bedroom floor…



And the unmade bed…



For it means that he is home.

Some day…You will be thankful for the church clothes yet unhung…



And the posters on the walls…

For it shows of the signs of the morals that you taught…





And the strong man that you raised.



Oh, dear mothers of grown children yet to be…



Cherish them…



Love them…



TAKE TIME TO BE WITH THEM…



Take it from this mother, whose heart so aches when they are gone, but who is so thankful that she did the very best that she could…

You raise them up to what they will be…So give them the best YOU that you can be!