A New Friend

I really don't remember a time when we didn't have a pet kitty in the house.  But when something happened to the last one, I decided I wouldn't get another one.  I'd found out just how nice it was not having to worry about buying cat food or cleaning a litter box each day.  I had no intention of getting another one, in fact I never thought about it. 


Then one cold day last week, I got a call from my son Kyle.  He was just leaving the school where he teaches and asked if I would want a kitten to put out in our shop.  He said it looked cold and scared and he felt sorry for it.  I said sure, we can put it out there.  Fifteen minutes later, he walked in with a tiny little ball of fluff.  I said "Oh! No wonder you couldn't resist that!"  He said, "Yeah, I couldn't just leave it there."  The poor little thing was scared to death, skinny, and a little on the wild side.  I don't know what happened to separate him from his mamma, but it was obvious he wouldn't survive much longer without her.  Of course, I was hooked.  I made a little home for him in a shower stall we never use, fed him, and tried to tame him down.  Once, trying to pick him up, I scared him to death and he bit down on my little finger so hard it took me several seconds to get him to turn lose!  While cleaning the blood off my hand and applying a band-aide, it occurred to me that this was a stray kitten I knew nothing about.  After a few anxious moments worrying that I may get rabies, I realized I was being a little paranoid.  But I did jokingly tell my family, "If I start foaming at the mouth and growling at you, you better take me out and shoot me!"

Eddie sleeping by my computer as I work

It's been three days now, and he doesn't seem quite as skinny as he did, and he has a name.  Because of his coloring, I started calling him Tigger.  Then Mark said he thought I should call him Eddie because Kyle found him in front of the school where he is a special "ed" teacher.  I decided that was a better name for him, more original.

Eddie's starting to adjust to life away from the wild.  He's taken a liking to me and purrs continually whenever he's around me.  I can see the future holds buying cat food again, and cleaning a litter box each day, even though I had no intention of finding another cat.  I never counted on one finding me.

ABC's of Thankfulness

A - Autumn, so boring but so true!  I think Autumn is the most beautiful season of all but even more than that, especially after the hot, miserable summer we just had, Autumn is a sign to me from God that even after stressful miserable seasons in my life, I will live through it and I will see relief

B - Bryan, Brett, Bryce, Blake, Brandon, Burney and the soon to be two new Babies!

C - Caleb

D - Daughters in laws!  We could not have been given more wonderful daughters in laws.  Amanda and Dani are both beautiful, smart, sweet, and accept our crazy family ways.  But most important, they couldn't be a better fit for both of our sons

E - Elizabeth - My 97 year old mother who becomes more precious to me with each passing year

F - Friends - I have been blessed with some of the most amazing friends.  They are like me, they don't have a lot of time to hang out, they are too busy raising families and being a helpmate to their husbands, but they know, and I know, that if ever a need arises the others would be there with a shoulder to cry on, a hand to help, and a prayer to give

G - God!  My heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have lovingly guided me, gently rebuked me, been my guiding light, my unwavering support, and my everlasting hope

H -  Happiness - something I have been given an abundance of all of my life.  The only times I lacked it, was when I chose to feel sorry for myself rather than be happy

I - Immortality - Something we all have when we know Jesus.  Because this earth is not our permanent home, we can rest in the assurance that all will ultimately be well

J - Jamie and Josie!

K - Kristi, Karen, Kyle, Kyson, Kierstyn, Kollyn, and Kailyn!

L - Lexi - the one who made me a grandma, the one whom is becoming a young woman, who is so full of love and wisdom, but who is going through the usual Jr High problems that comes with that age and those new hormones.  The one whom I wish I could shelter from the hurt feelings that she will face, but who makes me realize that women of all times faced the same emotions, and she will get through them, just like I did, my mother did, and her mother did, and she will be stronger and smarter on the other side!

M -  Mark - He has been the biggest blessing God could have given me, to raise a family with him, to work with him, to play with him, to watch our children become wonderful adults with him, and to be a grandparent with him!

N -  Noise! - The noise of Mark working in the shop, and the trucks coming in and out of our drive, the noise of the vacuum running, the food frying, the noise of grandchildren squealing and playing, the noise of our children laughing and teasing one another, each and every noise represents something to be thankful for!

O- Onery little grandsons!  I love getting a call or a message on facebook telling of the latest things one of those little guys said or did!  They sure keep their mamma's on their toes!

P - Preston and Popcorn!

Q-Quart canning jars!  I have really gotten into canning this summer and I want to continue to do so this winter.  I love going down to my basement and see all the full, colorful jars greet me!

R - Ryan

S - Stacita and Shane, and all of my other son-in-laws, even though I've mentioned them all by name, I want to mention them again!  Just like our daughter in laws they would not be better if we'd handpicked them ourselves!  They are all hardworking men who provide well for their family's, love our grandchildren, and who make our daughters joyful and happy women!  What more could parents ask for!

T - Tyler

U - Underwear - I mean really who would want to go without them?  And to be perfectly honest - Granny Panties - they're comfortable and it's what I wear - so laugh all you want!

V-  Voluptuous Body - No, I am not using it as a complement, it sounds better than plump, or chubby, or worst of all that mean "F" word.  Truth is, I would love to be forty pounds lighter but I'm not.  My body still catches hubby's eye, but more importantly it is strong and healthy!  It easily gave birth to six children, nourished them their first two years of life, it can do lots of physical labor and at fifty five years of age, I don't feel much different than I did at twenty five!

W-  Work - It feels so good after a day of working hard and getting a lot done.  There have been many times at the end of the day, I thank God for the gift of work and tell him I sure hope there is work to be done in heaven!

X - Extraordinary Life -  When I see on TV the lives that so many people are living, I cannot help but believe if you have love that lasts a lifetime, children who love you and each other, and it is the simple things in life like family, cooking, and gardening, that bring you joy, you are living an extraordinary life!

Y - Yogurt - My own homemade yogurt.  It is so easy and so good!  The first time I made it, it became just like cucumbers, tomatoes, and melons - ever since I ate the homegrown kind, I never buy them at the store because it doesn't even taste like the same thing!

Z - Zipcode - No, not the actual thing, but the fact that I no longer am working for the institution that uses them.  Although I am grateful for the money I made and the experience, I am so glad to be back home.  I like being able to plan a day with Mark or the girls without having to ask for a day off weeks in advance, I like being Mark's "Beck and Call" girl again, I like having time to enjoy homemaking and my bookwork instead of it just being a rush to get it all done so I can get to work

Things I Have Learned

Microwaving socks to warm them up is not a good idea

Teenagers physically require more sleep


Nothing is accomplished by using bad language, especially for a woman


You may not be able to choose anything else, but you can choose your attitude


Self pity is one of Satan's most effective tools


If you don't make time for friends you will lose them


If you want to feel good when you get older you have to exercise and eat right

Marriage is even better after 50

The less you try to manipulate situations, the quicker they correct themselves

People will always, ALWAY'S disappoint you , but no more than you have disappointed them

There are people who are only happy if they have a crisis going on in there life and therefore they create them

Don't drink a half jar of honey because you have heard that honey helps boost your immune system and you have been exposed to the stomach flu or you will never touch the stuff again as long as you live

Most people that you say you don't like, you find out you really do once you get to know them

A habit does not form in 21 days, for 21 days you choose to do something and then if you wake up and choose not to do it, the habit is "over"

Nothing is more peaceful than having a baby fall asleep in your arms

No one thinks alike, not even members of the same family, and that's OK

The happiest people are those who don't let the small things bother them

Snot nose teenagers grow up to be your very best friends

Husband's become "cool guy" when they are around other men, and laughing about it with the other wives is the antidote, not to make them stop, but helps you still like them after you go home

You can hold on to hurtful things that people say to you, but why would you want to?

Kids sports can bring out the best in parents and the worst in parents

When you read that fennel seed helps with indigestion, you should check and see if the grocery store sells a small bottle before you order five pounds from the internet

Mother's become more precious with age

It's not what you do through the day that makes you tired, it's what you didn't do that you should have

If it won't matter six months from now, it don't matter

The things you dread the most usually turn out to be no big deal

A walk in the snow, especially a woodsy area, is well worth the effort - and take your camera

It takes many many years to learn who you are and even more to learn to be yourself

True heroes very seldom get any recognition

When your kids grow up, you will forget what all you did for them and only be able to remember the things you didn't do - and they will assure you they remember what all you did and don't remember what you didn't

"A son is a son until he takes a wife, but a daughter is a daughter for the rest of her life", is a stupid saying and one that scares mothers with only son's and is absolutely NOT TRUE!

You remember and celebrate all the little milestones of your grandchildren's lives even more than you did with your children because you have more time

You need to read the Old Testament in order to fully grasp the New Testament

Worrying about and trying to live according to what other people think is a sure fire way to be miserable

And finally, if you are surrounded by people who love you, no matter what else your circumstances, you have been given the biggest blessing that God could ever give

The Night a Preacher Got Me In BIG Trouble!

Every Halloween our four girls come home to take their kids trick-or-treating, one of them even driving 3 1/2 hours in order to know her little ones are receiving candy from people she has known all her life.  The logistics of taking thirteen children including eight who are four years old and under makes for some very happy little cousins but some awfully exhausted mommy's.  But last year it was soooo much better thanks to our bus.  MaMa and PaPa strung orange lights on the inside of the bus, blew up orange and black helium balloons to tie on the back of each seat, and a plastic pumpkin lit up with electric lights peaked out the back window, saying hello to anyone driving behind us.  I was the official driver leaving the mommy's to the task of helping little ones get their robot box back on, their princess dresses in order, their candy bags back in each hand and lead their little goblins down the steps and out the door.

After a couple hours we adults and the little ones were getting tired and ready to call it a night. My three and a half year old grandaughter, Maddie Mae had come to sit on my lap as we drove slowly around town, her little face snuggled into my neck.  We tell the big kids we will go around one more block.  Up ahead we see one of our town's ministers handing out candy from his front porch.  He has been a minster in this town for a couple decades, knows everyone, everyone knows him and everyone just calls him Tom.  We pull up to the curb in our lit up bus, Tom sees us and brings the candy bag out to us to see what/who on earth this is.  When he sees and recognizes us he greets us all in his usual enthusiastic friendly way.  In his "preacher who loves everyone way",  he reaches down and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek.  Maddie Mae's little head popped up and stared at me, then at Tom and back at me again.  He gives all the kids candy then heads back to his house, us hollering goodbye and thank you and him hollering goodbye and your welcome.

  As I pull the door shut Maddie Mae with the most concerned little voice asks me, "MaMa, why did that man kiss you?"  I assure her that he was just Tom, and he loves everyone so he just gave me a quick kiss to say hello.  She laid her head back down, but soon, lifts up her head and again asks, "MaMa, why did that man kiss you?'  I laughed and tried again, I said, "Honey he is a person who loves everyone, just like Jesus loves us and so he just gave me a kiss on my cheek to say hello".  Down laid the little head again, for about ten seconds than popped back up with the same question.  I laughed and hollered at her mamma that this was really bothering her so Karen came up to the front to explain the same thing to her, that it was just Tom and Tom kisses everybody on the cheek when he says hello.  Maddie Mae looked at her and then at me, and laid her head down again, but it was quite obvious that she wasn't buying it.  As we drove on, I thought maybe Mommy had finally convinced her, but when we were almost home, her little head raised one more time, but this time she didn't have a question, she made a statement!   She looked me right in the eye and in all seriousness told me, "MaMa, PaPa needs us!"  I thought, Oh my word!  What is going on in this little childs mind!  "Honey," I told her, "You don't have anything to worry about, I love PaPa, and Tom was just saying hello.  Tom has a wife and he loves her, he was only saying hello, ok?"  She said a meek little okay and didn't say anything else.

 In all the excitement of getting home and the kids piling out the door, rushing in to dump, look over and count their haul, I forgot all about it.  But when I walked in the door, there was Maddie Mae standing beside PaPa in his recliner telling him all about it.  He said she was the first one in the door, ran right up to him and cupped her little hand around his ear and said "PaPa some man kissed MaMa!"  To Maddie Mae that trumped all the candy in the world and she took her duty to tell PaPa what had taken place very seriously indeed!  PaPa acted dutifully shocked and Oh so glad that Maddie Mae had let him know what had taken place in town!  We all cracked up as Maddie kept looking at me with such an accusatory look on her face.  PaPa thanked her over and over again for letting him know and he would take care of it and make sure that it NEVER happened again!  That seemed to reassure her, she went and joined the other kids and we never heard about it again.  But you better believe, I know how closely I'm being watched and I better not ever try pulling anything off on PaPa!   He has his very own little private detective ready to report my every move and if I do ever step out of line, I'm going to be in very big trouble indeed!

Water Shedding Dust

About a year ago I read the first Psalm and was struck by these verses:

Blessed is the man who's delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Psalm 1: 2 & 3

I remembered how in the few days prior, I had let my garden plants go too long without water and they had wilted down, looking like they were done.  But I watered them anyway and to my surprise the next morning they looked great and went on to produce more veggies.  I realized how the Psalm speaks to this very thing, not about plants, but to our hearts.  When I neglect time with God, (which I seriously had for months and months on end), never opening his word, my faith, my relationships, my everyday life became a dry shriveled, lifeless shell.  But once I made it a priority in my life to read his word and spend time in prayer, I felt alive again, full of life, hope, and renewed energy.  Bible reading and prayer, except for a few exceptions over the past year have been a wonderful beginning to each morning.

But lately, I have felt a restlessness, a critical spirit in my heart towards Mark and others, a mini-pity party taking root in my heart.  My bible reading for the day again took me to Psalm 1. As always, I am left in awe of God's timing, and his gentle rebukes as he uses His word to guide me back to the right path. Again I saw a "garden analogy".  We have about two acres west of our house.  The first half acre we use for our garden, west of that is a sparsely wooded area with no vegetation on the ground, just bare dirt.  Back in the corner of this area is where our turkey pen was.  When Mark and I watered and fed them each day we watched as the hose would hit the powdery dust on the ground and just run off the top.  It amazed us how when the dirt had gone for so long without rain, it would literally shed the water instead of let it soak in.  As I read the psalmist words above, I saw how that is exactly what I was doing.  I was reading God's word, but instead of letting it soak into my heart, I was letting it shed off my back.  Thank you Lord Jesus!  For opening my eyes to the way I have wasted your precious words!  I have been using them for entertainment, as a "feel good tonic" instead of for the precious life-giving resource that they are!  My new prayer is:

Lord, help me not be like the dust that sheds water,

When I read your word, let it penetrate my heart.  Amen

I Had It All Along!

This year I can finally quit figuring and re-figuring a number in my head to see where we are at.  This month we will have lived at our current house longer than we lived at the farm, where we lived our first 18 1/2 years of married life.  A place that was so full of memories, a place we brought all six babies home to!  A place that for our oldest ones contained all of their childhood memories, for our youngest, it is just a place they hear us talk about with hardly any memories of their own. Our oldest moved to this house just one month before her high school graduation, our boys were just five and six years old.

Like just about everything else in life, there were good things and bad things about life on the farm, but over the years, the bad memories faded and they were replaced with idealized memories.  Forgotten was the living seven miles from town and all the driving that entailed when raising six kids.  No longer did I remember driving the tractor for hours on end while Mark was working in town trying to feed our eight hungry mouths!  All I remembered was the sunsets I could see from my west windows, the peace and quiet, watching it rain from the porch swing, and the countless rainbows we saw on that same swing. I remembered hearing the birds sing in the morning, the frogs croak at night, and the coyotes howling at the moon.  Heck I even missed the way our old farmhouse would shudder and rattle in the wind!  I would complain that this house was so tight you couldn't even tell what the weather was doing outside!  

I spent several years mourning the loss of those scenes and those sounds and that peace and quiet.  All I saw here was the countless trucks Mark worked on and all I heard was the traffic on the highway our house is close to.  I would daydream about how nice it would have been if we could have kept the farmhouse as a weekend getaway.  Mark always assured me that it would have been a disaster trying to keep another house, keep the grass mowed, keep it insured, keep people out of it during the week if no one lived there.  And I could see his logic, but Oh, how wonderful it would have been to get away from everything and everyone, from all the noise of this place, to just go out and sit and watch the sunset.  More and more years passed and every now and then Mark would ask if I still missed the old farm and I would answer "Yeah, I do, I miss living in the country and the peace and quiet out there."

Late in the summer, about five years ago, we got in the habit of sitting in a lawn chair as the day came to an end, visiting with each other and our son who was still at home.  I saw that I could see the sunset very well from where we were sitting, and the few trees in the way didn't take away from the view, in fact, it seemed to add to it!  Every evening we would take a glass of tea and watch the sky turn orange and pink until the big red ball dipped below the horizon.  I also loved hanging my clothes on the line outside and that summer the locust serenaded me as I hung every basket.  And then we found an old hammock at a yard sale and put it up in a couple close trees in the back yard.  Although I must admit it doesn't get laid on very often (who has time?) one Sunday morning, I laid down in it, and looking up through the pine tree above me, I watched a couple birds playing on the branches and listened to the wind gently blowing through it's needles.  The sound reminded me of what you hear when you are hiking in the Colorado mountains.  I realized I hadn't heard a single vehicle drive by all morning, all I had heard was the soft wind and the birds twittering.   "Wow Lord," I thought, "look at all the years I have wasted pining away for what was no more, when what I so desperately thought I missed was right here in front of me all along!"  

It was an eye opening moment - a "what an idiot I am" moment, and a moment that helped me see the ways I had wasted precious days of my life wishing for something different then what I already had, not seeing that God had already given me all I thought I wanted and then some.  My idealized longings of life on the farm faded into the place of realistic memories that they should have occupied all along.  And now, when Mark and I are out for a country drive, and he asks me if I still miss the farm, I can honestly answer, "Nope! Not at all!"  Now I don't see the trucks and the highway, now I see what I've got, five acres to plant a huge garden, a massive yard with big shade trees for the grandkids to play in, big enough for an impromptu football or softball game, a big clothes line to hang my clothes on, a place for my chickens and turkeys - I'd say that's just about as peaceful and quiet and country as one can get!

Four of a Kind was Just Fine!.....then Surprise!

Although I ended up with a family of four girls and two boys, I can still very much relate to the mother's of all the same sex.  For eleven years we were the parents of four daughters.  We thought our four little girls were wonderful, but I well remember the comments of others and expectation of family every time we were expecting.  I know people just didn't stop and think before they spoke, but some of the things that came out of people's mouths were downright cruel.  Here are some of the ones I remember the most:

"Oh, I'm sorry!  I bet you were trying for a boy"

"Oh Darn!  Mark needs a boy!"

"Oh, another girl?  Well, better luck next time."

"Oh, I bet Daddy was awfully disappointed"

"Another girl?  Well, maybe you guy's need to just give up."

"Poor Dad"

"I beat you, I got a boy the first time!"  (Mark just rolled his eyes at this bundle of intelligence!)

When people heard we were expecting again, they always assumed we were "trying for a boy".  Nope, we actually weren't trying for anything.  Only one baby was planned out of the six, the others just happened.  I especially remember two times.  I remember who it was, where I was at, and how we were standing.  One was in a restaurant when they looked at my precious little baby I so proudly was showing off and said, "Oh another girl, well better luck next time".  I tell you, it was like a knife in my heart!  I finally got my wits about me and said "We are very lucky this time!  The second one was in the grocery store when again, I was so proudly smiling down at my sweet baby girl, showing her off, when the person said, "I bet Daddy was awfully disappointed"  Taking a deep breath I managed to smile and say"No Daddy is awfully proud of her!"

When you have four little girls and are expecting again, you just assume that you will have another little girl.  The thought of it being something else even seems a little foreign to you.  So when #5 arrived and the doctor said, "It's a boy!", I remember having to lean up and check for myself!  And sure enough, something definitely looked different!  I had only packed a little pink dress to bring the baby home in, but the girls came to the rescue, going through our baby clothes at home and finding a little white sleeper that they cut the lace off of!  Of course we were excited to have a boy, but it was not the ultimate goal of our lives as so  many people thought.  Again, people would speak without thinking, right in front of the four big sisters.  Then we heard things like "Finally!  Now you can quit!"  or "Oh I bet your're so happy you finally got a boy!"  I was so proud that Mark always answered, "Yes we are, but no happier than we were when we had our girls!"  And man, it really blew everyone's mind when nine months later we were expecting again.  Then we heard, "Oh, Wow, I figured you guy's would be done once you finally got your boy!"

Well, that boy we got, the one that we brought home in a white sleeper with the lace cut off, and the one who along with his younger brother introduced us to a whole new set of hormones, toy guns, bows and arrows, endless ballgames, and living room wrestling matches, turns twenty five years old today.  And although he is no more special than his sisters, he still holds a special place in all of our hearts!  Happy Birthday Bryan Mark Ricke!