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Hey Y’all!! Remember me? Oh goodness, I know I’ve been gone way too long!! Do you remember that old Morton Salt tagline…”When it rains, it pours”?  Well, we’ve had our share of  “when it rains it pours” kind of days this summer. But we’ve had some happy sunshine too! Our family has been through a lot in the last few months. We’ve experienced things that have been heartwarming, heartbreaking and challenging. I’m sure you can relate.  There were so many times I wanted to get on the computer to let y’all know what was going on but guess what?? I didn’t have a computer! It had been in the repair shop for  4 weeks!! And when I got it back finally, I couldn’t figure things out. It was updated to a new operating system and a lot of things had changed. So I’m relearning stuff. Oh lawdy! But, here I am now to catch y’all up…

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THE HEARTWARMING:

Let me start with the heartwarming part of my summer season…Introducing to you my 6th grand-baby and grand-daughter #2, Olive Rose! She was born 4 1/2 weeks early on May 29th. Her Mama and Papa, Tiffany and my son J.J. are over- the-moon in love with her like all of us of course! You might remember the story I shared of their engagement here and their wedding here. How fun to see their little family growing! As I mentioned, due to some complications, little Olive was born premature and was in NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for 11 days. Thank the good Lord, she is home and doing wonderful! Praise Jesus!! Tiffany and JJ are such wonderful, loving parents! It warms my heart to see them as mama and papa!

TIFF AND OLIVE

Without going into a lot of detail, let me just say that my darling, daughter-in-love has been a real trooper with all that she went through to insure that sweet Olive would be born healthy. And of course caring for a premie comes with it’s own set of concerns. We are just rejoicing in the Lord at how much little Olive has grown and that she’s as healthy as can be!

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Can I tell you what it does to my mama-heart to see my son love and cherish his little baby girl? To see him give his sweet daughter such gentle, loving care is such a blessing. I think baby Olive already has her daddy wrapped around her little finger!

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Grandpa (my hubby), Summer and I  could not wait to hold our precious Sweet Pea! She was so tiny in the NICU. She was only a week old when we got to travel to California to hold her.

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Sweet Olive Rose has grown so much in two months! She is a ray of sunshine! A blessing from heaven! I can’t wait to hold her again!

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THE HEARTBREAKING: My Mama-in-love, Ruth, had a heart attack.  On the same day Tiffany was in labor and giving birth to Olive Rose we were told by the doctor in the hospital that her severe heart issues were not repairable and that she may not have much time left. He stated that she needed to be under hospice care. Our hearts sank and tears were shed. Coming to grips with this news has been difficult. We don’t know how long we will have her with us but we are thankful for each day the Lord keeps her here. Thank goodness for the comfort of the Lord at times like these.

You may recall, in earlier blog posts,  HERE and HERE  where I shared about Ruth’s life growing up on a farm in Southern Oklahoma. She has been the best Mama-in-love a girl could ask for! Always so cheerful, humorous, helpful, full of wisdom, and such a wonderful and amazing homemaker, cook and mother. I’ve learned so much from her and through the years I’ve tried to emulate the way she loved on her family in creating the most cozy, happy, loving home.

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My gift to Mama Ruth is to bless her as often as I can with a homemade pie or a bowl of sun-warmed tomatoes from my garden. We sit and chat over a slice of pie and I cherish each conversation. I absolutely love hearing her stories of back-in-the-day in Oklahoma and the way her Mama, Jennie Mae, churned her own butter and cooked every meal with biscuits and cornbread in her cast iron skillets.

Thus far, Ruth has had some good days and some not so good days.  Thankfully she’s in the comfort of her own home with the best of care provided by her daughter Linda, my niece Brianne and my daughter Ashley and Hospice professionals. I would so appreciate your prayers for Ruth and the entire family during this time.

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THE CHALLENGING: Shortly after the events mentioned above, my hubby had an accident and broke his ankle (like I said “when it rains it pours” :D ) . Thankfully he did not need surgery and is healing nicely.

The hard part for Gary is since he broke his right ankle he can’t drive. That doesn’t work well if you’re in the Real Estate business! That’s our bread and butter. So guess who’s become his personal chauffeur? Yes, that would be me! (And he really likes it that way. Lol!) On most days we are on the road showing property to clients from morning till night. I open the homes, turn the lights on and give house tours to the buyers (If the house has more than two steps he can’t go in so I go for him).  I have to say that I appreciate his job so much more now! It’s quite exhausting especially when we’re showing up to 8 houses in a day!

The challenging part for me was that in the back of my mind I kept thinking about all the things back home that were being neglected…all the things I needed to to…wanted to do. I was getting stressed about my ever-growing to-do list that wouldn’t get done for quite some time ( like writing this blog post). But then I had to have a little talk with myself. ‘Simmer down’…I said to myself…’This is time to completely pamper your beloved hubby…you remember…”love,  honor and cherish in sickness and in health”…so what if there’s a pile of leftover stuff in the mudroom from cleaning out the laundry/craft room and every time you walk by it you cringe…so what if  your garden is full of weeds because you aren’t home to tend to it, so what if you were planning a new project to launch this summer but now you can’t…it’s okay that those things on that long to-do list won’t happen right now…it’s okay. You’ll get to it eventually.  Right now Gary is #1 priority. Put all of those other things on the back burner and relax! RELAX! Take advantage of the time you get to spend with him every day.’ In the words of my dear friend…”Have fun with it!” Sometimes we just have to give ourselves a pep talk or a kick in the pants…Lol! Sometimes we have to give ourselves some grace!

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THE SUNSHINE:

We were blessed to have family come visit from the east and west coast for a couple weeks. We’ve enjoyed BBQ’s, set off fireworks, watched fireflies, had fun conversations around the table and played with giggling grand-babies.

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We’ve had our share of summer storms too…which are always magnificent to watch from our back porch.

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About a two weeks ago this huge tree fell, after one of our summer storms, blocking the entrance on our road.

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Life is full of ups and downs…of storms and sunshine. The good news is that storms do not come to stay, the clouds will blow away and the sun will shine again. Thankfully, the Lord works everything out for our good (Romans 8:28).

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Well, I’m still driving and showing homes for Gary, at least for the next few weeks. His cast was just taken off a couple days ago, but he’s walking very slowly and trying to get mobility back. Thank you Sugar Pies so much for being patient and for sticking with me! So far this summer has been a doozie! It’s been a roller-coaster ride of emotions that’s for sure! Hey, it’s just part of life! “This too shall pass” and “the best is yet to come”! (My two favorite quotes!) If you are going through some rocky storms, hang on! Hang on to The Lord, he will calm the wind and waves. It’s going to be okay!!

Keep counting your blessings,

Sending you warm hugs,

God bless your darlin’ heart!

Aunt Ruthie

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