Cathy’s Corner

In December of 2006  Gary, Caitlin and I had been living in a two bedroom apartment for the past six months waiting for our house in Lubbock to sell. Our daughter, Kiersten was moving up here with us and we decided to move into a rent house with three bedrooms. Mind you this was during a time that our house in Lubbock hadn’t sold for the past ten months, my Mother was terminally ill, our son J, was in Iraq for the second tour and Gary did not have a teaching job and was working nights driving a forklift, so to say our lives were a tad bit chaotic and stressful is an understatement.  

At one point I finally got most of the boxes unpacked and I had to tackle the garage where the washer and dryer were located. I was tired from moving, stressed out from worrying about my mother, Christmas a few weeks away and a son who not only wouldn’t be home for it, but was in danger on a daily basis. I finally had the garage looking really good. There were two wire shelves up above the washer and dryer which were 10 feet long. I had gone through everything and had it in its place. I had things on the shelves, some of Gary’s stuff on one end and the laundry stuff at the other. I was washing, drying and hanging up clothes. I walked into the house and as I closed the door I heard a crash and knew immediately what had happened. I turned around and went back out and sure enough the bottom shelf had broken and everything that I had spent the last few hours organizing and putting in place was on the floor. Now I’m not talking just the shelf broke. I’m talking the bolts came out of the wall and left big holes in the wall. Gary said the wall even pulled away and remember this was a rent house. The weight was more than the shelf could hold. Gary did have a small cabinet with all his nuts and bolts and nails and stuff in it and miraculously it was still hanging on the shelf by inches. It was bad enough having to clean up the mess but the thought of having spent the last few hours organizing everything and then was going to have to do it again was more than my tired stressed out body and mind could handle and of course Gary would have to repair the wall and the damage I’d done.

Isn’t that the way it goes? We think we get our lives all neat and tidy and things just the way we think they should be. It’s all organized and together or we have taken just about all we can take. Then just one little thing (like hanging the laundry up on the end of the shelf) causes it all to come falling down around us. Sometimes just one more thing can send us over the edge. There is a scripture in Proverbs. “Men plan and God laughs.” I was reminded once again God is in control and He knows the plans He has for us, plans for a hope and a future, and plans not to harm us but to prosper us. Even in all of the chaos going on around us He is still in the smallest details of our lives. Can you imagine trying to sort through all of those nuts and bolts and organize them? It was still up there leaning toward falling, but nothing spilled. In all of the mess there was still something that was intact. God still had His arms around me and was holding me safe and secure and He was doing that for our family as well. Things may have felt like they were falling down around us but He still had each of us in his arms. He had my mother wrapped lovingly in His arms. He held our son safe and secure in His arms. He held Gary and our girls safe and secure in his arms. There was never a time I felt like God was not there. I may have not understood how He was working but I knew He had a plan and He loved me. So this week if you feel like things are falling down around you; remember the nuts and bolts are still in tact on the shelf, God is in control and holds you safely in His arms.

Have a great day in the Lord

 

Cathy’s Corner

 

By the time you read this I will have spent part of my weekend celebrating my grandmother’s 100^th birthday. We’ve been planning it since January and there are about sixty people that have said they are coming and she is very excited about it. She can recall what happened yesterday and what happened a hundred years ago. When I talk to her she sounds weak but she knows the names of all our kids and their spouses and always asks about them. She gets up every day and puts on a dress, usually panty hose but no make up unless she’s going somewhere. She’s in relatively good health except for she has a hundred year old body. Can you imagine all of the things she has lived to see?

Leatrill Catherine Loard was born May 25, 1909. She was the oldest of three daughters and married Herb Lockhart in 1926 at the age of sixteen years and nine months. They had four children in eighteen years. My Aunt Evelyn was 18 years old when my grandmother has my Uncle Ted and the first place she took him was my aunt’s High School graduation. My aunt was mortified. My granddad died at the age of 95 in 1999.  My grandmother has outlived her sister, husband and two of her children, one of those being my mother. My Grandmother and aunt who is terminally ill live together with my uncle Ted and he takes care of them.

Theodore Roosevelt was president when my Grandmother was born and has seen eighteen presidents follow and outlived fourteen of those. She worked hard raising her children and they lived in Oklahoma, California, North Carolina and Texas. My grandparents owned their own grocery store from the time I can remember. The best times were going to stay with them in the summer and walking out of the front door of their house about twenty feet to the back door of the store and getting to pick out whatever we wanted for breakfast. That was when my brother, sister and I developed the love for eating Campbells Chicken noodle and vegetable beef soup for breakfast. My parents were appalled! We loved it. In the 70’s they bought a farm and my granddad raised cattle and peanuts until he was forced to semi-retire in the 90’s. He still had a couple of cows until he and my grandmother moved to Amarillo to live with my uncle in 1998. My grandmother has seen the discovery of penicillin the “miracle drug” and also seen the development of the aids epidemic. She’s lived through World War I, World War II, The Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf War and Iraqi Freedom. She saw the invention of radio and  television and that explode into VCR’s, Cassettes, DVDs, Blu Rays and HD. She can work a remote better than I can. She’s seen the invention of computers, the internet. Six years before she was born was when the Wright brothers invented the airplane but I don’t think she has ever flown on one. She has seen the best of mankind and the worst of mankind. She survived the Great Depression when everyone helped their neighbors and watched as people gained more and more “things” that they can live without.

She also was the spiritual backbone of our family. I remember going to church with them when I was very little. She raised her girls in a Christian home. This weekend my brother, his son, Caitlin our youngest daughter and myself will form a quartet and sing several of the old gospel songs my grandmother and my parents used to sing when I was growing up. My grandmother will love it. Thanks grandmother for laying a spiritual foundation for my mother and for me and my children.

Have a great day in the Lord.

 

Cathy’s Corner

A Red bird built her nest in our tree last yea r (actually it was a holly bush) and she returned this year and built one in another bush. I’m sure she was busy gathering the small twigs, dry weeds, vine bark and necessary items she needed to build her nest to make it sturdy enough to house her little brood. She tucked it away in the bush which is probably five or six feet high so they would be protected from predators. Of course Gary discovered the nest because as he says I never go outside. But he heard the chirping and looked in and there they were again. He told me about them and I was actually outside one day and I asked to see them. Of course Gary told me that was weeks ago and they had already flown away. But he showed me in our trees where they could be found at times. You can see the red bird fly through the yard every now and then and Gary has seen the babies as well. It happened so fast that I pretty much missed out on watching the little brood grow up and leave the nest. Can I tell you that is how I feel about being a Mother? I’ve been a Mother for thirty-one years now, given birth to four kids and have become “Mom” to many more at one time or another. It seems like yesterday we were bringing Cassandra home from the hospital, our first born, our first daughter our pride and joy and we knew nothing about being parents. She came with no instructions and so we were on our own learning as we went with wanted and unwanted advice from grandparents and friends. Then J was born, the second, the first boy, our pride and joy again with no instructions. But we had six years of practice with Cassandra and were a tad more confident in our parenting skills. Then within five years of having J we added Kiersten and Caitlin. Parenting skills went out the window, while they were our pride and joy as well we were totally outnumbered and it was survival of the fittest for the next twenty years. But I ask myself where the last twenty years went and how did they fly by so fast. Much like the red bird I busied myself gathering all the things I would need to take care of my children and I did everything I could to protect them and provide a secure and loving environment. We raised them in a Christian home, prayed for them, loved them, comforted them and hopefully prepared them to fly out of the nest and go out into the world on their own. It just went by so fast. While they have grown up so have Gary and I and we have all had to learn together and learn to be patient with one another, especially at the dinner table. We’ve learned to accept each other’s little oddities because God made each one of us unique. We’ve learned forgiveness for each other through God sending His Son to forgive us. We’ve learned that God is our provider and protector when one of us is in trouble whether it is of our own doing or because of illness or wrecks. We’ve learned that every day of life is precious and not to take each other for granted when one was on the other side of the world fighting a war and through the loss of a Mema. While I certainly didn’t deserve any of them, I am truly amazed that God chose me to be their Mother. I can only hope and pray as they begin their families that all the things that we instilled in them and all the things they have learned that they will pass on to their children. Kiersten is expecting and we will welcome a new grandbaby into the family in November or December. Our nest is almost empty and I know we didn’t do everything right and there are so many things they have yet to learn. I can only pray that as they grow as adults that they will learn those things God still wants to teach them and they will seek Him every day. Happy Mother’s Day to all of our wonderful Mothers.
Have a great day in the Lord.