Be Still and Know...Then and Now

Our last full day in New York began with mixed feelings. It has been ten years since that unimaginable day in September of 2001. Visiting the 9/11 Memorial was very different from what I expected. If you are heading to NY and want to visit the 9/11 Memorial you will need to get a ticket which can be done on the website ahead of time. It is a free pass but you MUST have one to gain admittance to the memorial. Also do not expect to just walk up to the memorial, there were endless pathways of turning corners and snaking through security lines to get to the actual memorial. The Hubs and I discusses the need for security however I found the process of getting in to be very very difficult. There is still quite a bit of construction going on in the immediate vacuity so there was a lot of construction noise as well.   The South Tower pool. Once inside the memorial area there were many, many people. It was at times difficult to get up close to the edge of the fountains. It was an ebb...

Why is it that our holiday memories are so tied to the smells and taste we experience. Smell has a huge impact on memory. A smell will waft by in the breeze and I will be instantly taken back to what ever memory is sparked by that olfactory sensation. I remember the way my grandmothers kitchen smelled. I remember the way she smelled. I have to wonder sometimes what Muffinhead will remember about time spent at my house. Yesterday the DD and I spent time in the kitchen. I was supervising in the yearly macaroni and cheese making (oven timer………back in a minute)   Cookies cooling on the counter…….. So where was I…….right back to the mac and cheese, which is the DD favorite, she was rather distressed when she found this item lacking on the Christmas dinner menu. I had decided to make scalloped potatoes instead. She said “But if you don’t make it now I'll have to wait until Campmeeting to get it again!” Well I did a bit of menu shuffling and she is now a happy camper. However I did ...

I woke up thinking about Aubrey today.   One afternoon I went out in the back yard to check on the both of them and there they sat looking like this! Oh the mind of a child…”Let’s fill our t-shirts up with as much sand as they will hold…that will be so much fun.” The were both having so much fun and laughing, giggling and having the time of there lives. The damage had already been done so I just let them keep going. Afterwards I made them strip off their shirts and gave them a good rinse with the hose! Here they are nice and clean sitting side by side in the same folding chair! When we loose people we care deeply about it seems almost impossible to think that a year has gone by without them being in the world. Logan was born in 1995 and Aubrey was born in 1996 so I am sure that Logan does not have a childhood memory that does not include Aubrey in it. They grew up together and they played with each other almost every day. I remember working away in my kitchen and I ...

I was checking my FB page this morning and I spent a short few minutes watching a video that had been posted by one of my oldest and dearest friends. She has a new grandbaby and they were bringing in the big sister for the big moment of meeting her new little brother. It was such a precious moment watching her little face as she got her first glimpse of her new baby brother. I love the way the mind works. One thing sparks another and then this wonderful memory played before me in my mind. I ran to the shelf with all my photograph albums on it and began pulling them out until I found the exact one I was looking for. I remember watching him walk in the room. We got him settled in the chair and carefully laid his little sister in is arms and he leaned his head in and whispered in her ear “I’m your big brother and I love you!” Blessings R

How can you not remember! It seems like such a long time ago but then it also feels like it was just yesterday. I remember having feelings and thoughts about how life would never ever be the same. In some aspects that statement was very true. Our lives were changed forever. We lost something very dear to us. We lost the sense of safety and assurance that we had. The task of air travel was forever changed, our view of the world was tainted. For as much as I try to remain open minded I confess that I let my bigotry run rampant when the topic of Islam is broached. It is hard to be objective, yet it is so very easy to be judgmental. With all the controversy of late about the proposed mosque in New York and a small church in Florida it seems that the world has slipped into a vacuum and everything feels like it is spinning out of control. So on this day of remembrance where no doubt we will be revisited with images that we tried so hard to push out of our heads I share with you somethi...

I have to tell y’all that I love this weeks prompt from Mocha with Linda ! What sort of sayings, colloquialisms, or proverbs did your family say when you were growing up? My grandmother, y’all I miss her so much sometimes!!!!! She had one expression that stands out in my my mind. I may have even shared it with all of y’all before, but it is worthy of repetition. I can just hear her now “ You want what you want when you want it!  When you get what you want, you don’t want what you want, but you want what you want when you want it!” Now Grandma was by far indulgent, the practice of going out and picking my own switch off the tree on more than a few occasion will attest to her firm hand. She also was wonderfully generous in her own special way. I remember her sliding the random slice my way as she peeled peaches for our desert after supper. I remember there was always a cold green glass bottle of seven-up in the refrigerator, vanilla ice cream in the freezer, a tootsie pop...

We've talked about families, so it seems only natural that we should talk about the friends we had when we were growing up! Who was your first friend? One of the first friends I can remember was a girl named Donna. She and her mom and brother lived in the apartment below us. They were in a very similar situation to ours. Donna and I were the same age and we both had younger siblings. We were both growing up in homes with no fathers present. Our rooms were directly under each other and in the summer time we would leave our windows open, we had an elaborate system of passing notes and other thing back and forth. We had constructed a small basket made out of popsicle sticks and tied a string to the handle. We would lowered this basket back and forth between the windows. We would lay in our beds and carry one long dreamy handwritten conversation long after the lights were turned off over what our wedding would be like. What our apartments would one day look like. Wh...

Sometimes when a moment happens it just hits you right out of the blue. You know those moments that will be a part of your memories forever more. It was simple enough, we were sitting at the table eating dinner Saturday night. If you visited here on Sunday and read my 365 post you will see further pictures about the Birthday dinner. The birthday celebration was memorable, but I think what I will remember most is this. I was watching my granddaughter exuberantly enjoying her corn and this memory flashed into my mind of 20 odd years ago. A nearly carbon copy of the exact same moment was being played out before me. We were camping and there was a sweet blue eyed, blonde haired corn covers baby perched at the end of the table. The high chairs were even nearly identical! I watch my granddaughter and remembered my son and enjoyed my little trip down memory lane in a mothers heart! Then ~ 1990 Now ~ 2010 Blessings Y’all R

We all had so much fun talking or talking trash about siblings that Linda wants to take it a step further this week! Tell about any grandparents, cousins, or other extended family that was special to you growing up. This picture, probably one of the last one I have of her that really capture her before she went to that place all elderly people go in that slow journey home, it was taken the year before she died! My Grandmother has been a familiar topic on my blog from the beginning. She was such a pivotal and important figure in my life. She passed away in 2003, in fact on the 28 of this month she will have been at home with Jesus for seven years. On of the greatest blessing of my life was having the privilege of being at her side when she drew her last breath. It was just the two of us. She shared so much with me over the course of my life and I feel that it was so appropriate that I got to be there for her at one of the most important moments of her life. Her entry into ...

How old were you when you got your first (paying) job? I had a lot of babysitting clients through out my high school years. It was good money and kept me in mascara and blue eye shadow. Did you work during the school year? In addition to baby sitting I worked for a while at several different food establishment. It’s all sort of fuzzy as we moved around quite a bit in my childhood years. I worked at a Waffle House , a Wendy’s and I worked at a steak house as a hostess, one summer I worked at Stone Mountain Park, that was lots of fun! The most fun was working the concession stand down at the beach area. I dated a cute lifeguard named…wow I can’t believe I can’t remember his name, Bruce…maybe that was it???  He was going to dental school. Sadly the relationship did not last and I rapidly found out that there were many things about this relationship that were not compatible, but I digress. What stipulations, if any, did your parents put on spending, saving, etc.? Who can re...

The more things change the more they stay the same! This statements is so very simple but also very true! A picture is worth a thousand words and twice as many memories and smiles! 1990 ~ The Son 1996 ~ The Daughter 2010 ~ The Granddaughter Blessings Y’all! Robin

The DD told me today that she needed a bigger three ring binder for school. No problem…I went in search of one in the spare closet. I have many old large three ring binders from my time on various church functions. I rummages around in the box of notebooks looking for one that could be emptied out. Sure enough I came up on one that I no longer used. Look what I found tucked in the front cover! Back then the contents of my purse and my make up bag were a treasure chest of forbidden fruit! She had great fun until I came into the playroom and found her looking like this! Mt sweet little girl is fifteen today and now she has her own lip gloss and mascara but she still will raid my make up drawer from time to time. And if I want to find my tweezers, well I always know where to look for them, in her bathroom!. So today I am thankful for a beautiful daughter on her birthday. Happy Birthday to me sweet girl child. For more Thankful Thursday head over to Greg’s General Store for more....

In all the reminiscing yesterday got me to thinking of all Easter egg hunts my children participated in. One picture kept comming to mind. Why is it that it was in the last photograph album I pulled off the shelf. Another reason to label the spines with specific dates I'd say. Anywhoo here it is. Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt 1996! She is about to turn one year old! My son (about 8 years old) never wasted any time getting his basket full to the brim!    Blessings and Happy Easter y’all! Robin

I am going to skip to the end and go straight for the last two questions. You might also share how your Easter today is similar or different to your childhood? If you are a regular visitor here you are familiar with what I am about to share. Coming from a home broken by divorce I do not have a lot of warm fuzziest about my childhood years. So for me looking back is sometimes not a happy thing for me. With that being said what I can claim with a joyous shout is that things for me now are triumphantly different. I can look back at my children's past with many warm fuzzes and many happy memories. How many pastel colored eggs did I fill with little slips of paper with Easter scriptures tucked inside along with a piece of candy? Too many to count! How many Easter egg hunts out at the campground did I take my children too? Lots and lots! How many Easter morning did my little ones race down stares before church to scour the  house in search of the eggs that the Easter bunny ha...

Mocha with Linda has a great idea for a new meme. Today is the very first Flashback Friday.   So lest get to reminiscing shall we!!!!!!   How and when did you learn to drive? If memory serves I was 16 when I got my drivers license. Back in the day they actually had Drivers Education classes in high school that were a required course. Our high school had several cars that we would all take turns driving around with the instructor in the front seat. I remember once I made a left turn and there was an oncoming car and apparently my judgment as to the safety of the distance between the oncoming car and the instructors judgment were vastly different as he about came out of his seat. Once he had recovered for his distress he gave me a very stern lecture of exactly ho to appropriately gauging a safe distance of an oncoming car. Do you have any particular memories associated with getting your driver license? Nope, I must have passed…were talking 30 plus years ago, who...

It happens very unexpectedly. I was cleaning out an old bible case and I come across this…   Every mom has them, those precious photos that have been tucked away in the pages of your bible, memories that you want to keep close to you as you pray or just a sweet face that you want to hold close to your heart. These pictures had been long hidden, tucked away in that old bible case for a very very,very,very long time. Skoots1mom and I were enjoying an ice coffee after our workout this morning. I pulled these photograph out to show her. We sat and looked at the sweet faces of my babies who are now 20 and 14. Y’all my children are no longer babies. This precious face, he was four years old. I remember this day. He was enjoying himself at a birthday party of one of his friends from church. Y’all just look at those curls and that sweet smile! My son commented to me some time ago that he had read my blog from time to time. Well if you are reading this one my sweetness, ...

Several days ago Linda over at 2nd Cup of Coffee wrote a wonderfuly witty post on the ill suited jobs many of us held in our past. She then challenged us to post about the experiance we commented about. At the time I was deep in the haze of a Nyquil induced fog. I am glad to share with you that my nasty cold is much improved and I am feeling much better. Sadly I can no longer blame my short term memory loss on the cold medication or my hot flashes on a sudden spike in fever (drat, but I am thankful that I am no longer attempting to cough up a lung for medical research and my brain is back to some semblance of what can be considered normal). As I thought about how I would describe my time behind the counter at the Waffle House all those years ago, I tried to think of all the experiences I had there and try to really determine why it was such a negative experience for me. The thought of dinning at a Waffle House does not send me running to the therapist but it does however hold some not ...

Over the last few days I have been taken on a trip down memory lane. The reminiscent memories of childhood things. This for me is a bittersweet journey. There were many happy moments during my youthful years but the majority of them were tainted with brokenness and struggle. Single mothers do the very best they can, but poverty, generational dysfunction and the burdens of life took its toll on our daily existence. As I thought about trying to filter out the sad or the difficult and hone in on the more pleasant things I am challenged, my natural tendency is to focus on all that we did not have, or could no do, but the treasured memories that I have read about in some of my blogging friends do not involve anything beyond a simple trip to the grocery store or a daily trip to the beach with their Mom. As I thought about my treasured memories, of the days when things were good I'm brought back to something very simple as well. When I was a little girl my grandparents lived in Columbus O...