Today's blessings

Two and a half years ago the Lord blessed me by giving me a car. It belongs to both Jack and I but it was given especially from my Heavenly Father to me as a blessing from Him. Yesterday I was driving home from my Bible Study in Kitchener and was thinking how wonderful it is to be able to drive to the Bible Study.

About 5 weeks ago Jack had an accident in our van and totaled it. Thankfully he wasn't hurt. We were down to one vehicle. The first couple of weeks after the accident we had a rented vehicle. Then we juggled using the car until the Lord provided us with another car. Yes, the Lord once again gave me a car for my use.

Using the car I go to the post office to pick up our mail, to the bank for various reasons, to the grocery store to get groceries, and go to appointments at the optomotrist, dentist, doctor, etc. Occasionally I meet friends for lunch, here in St. Marys and other towns. It gives me a wonderful freedom.

One tremendous blessing from having this car is it allows me to go visit Alysa, Lenn, and my family. I am always so encouraged to do this traveling. It seems to brighten my life and renew my strength.

My heavenly Father keeps showing me in so many ways how much He loves me. My love for Him keeps growing. At times I can feel His arms around me, loving me and telling me to keep trusting Him.

Lunch with Friends

We have a new restaurant here in St. Marys. It is called Darjeeling Tea Room. I met two friends, Eve and Kathy, from Stratford there yesterday for lunch. The restaurant serves almost any kind of tea that you would be interested in drinking. There are jars with the various teas in them on shelves along one side of the room.

This Tea Room is mainly for women. Men wouldn't be interested in having lunch where beautiful china cups are used instead of mugs. There are tables of various sizes, along with an area with several comfortable chairs with a small coffee table in the middle of the chairs.

It's a great place to come and have a leisurely lunch with your friends. The menu gives you choices of soups and sandwiches. We had a soup that was called "chicken pot pie soup". It was delicious. Their sandwiches include tuna, egg, cucumber and cheese and several other choices. I chose the tuna sandwich and it was very good.

Spending time with friends has always been a blessing to me and I'm thankful the Lord has given me friends like Eve and Kathy to be with and who enrich my life.

I'm Back

It has been about 9 months since I've blogged. The last week in February I headed south. My final destination was Dallas, but I had plans to stop in Memphis and then Ft. Smith before going to Dallas. I have needed a family fix and the Lord heard my cry and said I could gas up the car and turn the car toward the southern states.

I had planned to drive part way to Memphis, but the day was going so well, that I kept going. By 6:00 p.m. I had gone through Nashville and decided to call Patsy and see if she wanted me Thursday night instead of Friday. She wasn't home from work yet, but John said to come on. So, three hours later I was in Memphis. About 30 minutes before I got there I started getting pretty tired.

We had a great weekend and on Monday I headed to Shirley's. Sunday evening, before leaving Monday morning, we got a phone call from a first cousin on the Long's side. My cousin, Tolice, wanted to know if I was interested in stopping in Arkansas for breakfast. It worked out that she and another cousin, Virginia, would meet me at the Palestine exit on I-40. To my surprise, my sister, Peggy Ann, drove from Helena to meet me there also. We had a great time catching up on the past 50 years. This was a wonderful blessing from the Lord.

My time at Shirley's was spent putting a quilt together, good shopping for bargains, time in Alma with Joy and Shirley at a great store called A-Z, time with some of Shirley's friends on Wednesday evening, and just being together. I'm always refreshed after being with Shirley. She does put a zest into life that is good for all those that have the privilege of spending time with her.

Then I headed to Dallas to be with Lenn, Sarah and the boys. I do love spending time with them. We went to Angela's for supper the night that I got there. She is a lot of fun and is a good cook. The boys do love being with her. The next morning, Saturday, we went to Chuck E Cheese for a birthday party. Talk about a lot of energy. It was fun watching them play the games.

Sunday afternoon we went to a park for their friend, Tonia, to take family pictures of them. It was hard for them to be still, but I think Tonia got a number of good pictures.


Sarah and I found material for some curtains for Andrew and Matthew's room, as well as Robbie's room. I had brought my sewing machine down so I could sew them. They turned out quite nice and Sarah was pleased with them.

Wednesday afternoon we took the boys skating. I didn't skate (I didn't want any broken bones). Lenn took off from work early so he could skate too. Robbie seemed to enjoy just running around the rink in his socks better than having the skates on.
It was hard to say good-bye. Our next time to be together is at Rock Lake, near the Soo. I can hardly wait.

I spent the night in Ripley, Tenn. on the way back home. It was so good to see Kitty and Scott, and spend an evening with them. I do wish that we were close to all of our family. I do miss them.

Thank you Lord for the blessing of being with so many of my family.