A Prayer of Remembrance

I have been doing so much reminiscing since I started writing this blog that the following prayer by Ken Gire in his book Windows of the Soul seemed appropriate. It’s called A Prayer for Remembrance.

Help me, O God

To understand that when objects in the rear-view mirror appear

larger than they are,
they appear that way not to intimidate me
but to get my attention.
Help me to understand that those images looming in my memory
are just trying to get me to stop, turn around, and go back to my past,
to pick up something that’s back there,
something that is essential for the journey I am on,
something I need if I am to go on any farther.
Help me to remember the love I have received along the way,
and to be remembered for the love I have given.
Help me to understand how short that journey is,
and slow me down so I don’t pass any of it by.
And if you grant me the grace of a long life,
grant me the greater grace
to always remember who I am
and who it is that loves me . . .

DANCING

No, it’s not dancing with the stars. It’s dancing with my cousin. (the same one holding the football in the picture in my last post.) He was 11 years old. I was 10 when these pictures were taken at one of our dance recitals. I did enjoy tap dancing but got tired of practicing and going to class so I quit shortly after these pictures were taken. Jerry continued with a new partner for awhile.

Tap dancing was a big thing back in the 40s. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers may have had something to do with that.

OK It’s back to dolls again. This is my Jeannie Walker doll, (a Madam Alexander doll) that I got for Christmas in 1942. This was never one of my favorites. I was partial to baby dolls. I do think it’s neat that I have a picture of me holding the doll right after I got it. I’m wondering why the Christmas tree was outside. Maybe to take pictures. They didn’t have flash bulbs. That’s my cousin Jerry holding the football. My mother always said this picture should win some kind of award. How many people have a picture of themselves at Christmas with their finger in their nose. But then again how many people would want a picture like that.

As I said, this was never one of my favorite dolls, I don’t know how it is that I ended up keeping it all these years. It even still has the original dress on. Anyway, I’m glad now that I kept it. Man, that doll is 65 years old. If it was a person it could be getting social security.

It’s funny the things I do remember. I remember that the outfit I had on in the picture my Mom ordered for me and when it arrived it was too small. I wore it anyway. I remember a lot of things that happened years ago. Now if I could just remember yesterday.

My Blue Pot

In yesterday’s blog, Ginger http://enchantingcottage.blogspot.com/ wrote about my blue Martha Stewart pot. So I decided today I would write about it.

Of course there’s a story behind it. Isn’t there always a story behind everything? Anyway, here’s the story about the blue pot.

I saw one on display at a Macy’s store – in fact I saw it on display at two different Macy’s stores. I thought they were really pretty and I had been wanting an enamel coated cast iron pot that size. So, I looked at them at both stores for a long time, and finally walked away without purchasing one. They were on sale for half price too. I thought, I’ve got a birthday coming up, maybe I’ll ask for one for my birthday.

So when my daughter asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told her I wanted a Martha Stewart blue pot. When she went to get one at Macy’s they told her they were all out of them. In fact, there weren’t any in any store in Arizona. I guess Martha Stewart had featured them on one of her TV shows, and every woman in Arizona had to have one. Well, I had already wanted the pot, but when I found out they were unavailable, I wanted it twice as bad. I thought, “Why didn’t I buy one when they were available which I almost did.”

Anyway, I got something else from my daughter for my birthday, a gift card from Sur la Table which I was very happy with. Sometime later, my dear husband, knowing how much I wanted the pot, called around to all of the Macy's stores in the area to see if they had one. Macy's is the only store that carries that line of Martha Stewart stuff. He finally found one at a distant store. We went there and purchased the pot. I'm glad he was with me to carry it to the car. It was quite heavy.

The blue pot that Ginger bought is really pretty. She got it at a great bargain price. If you haven’t read her story, click on http://enchantingcottage.blogspot.com/ to read it.

MARY

I venture into other areas of writing, but always seem to come back to dolls. I have so many dolls to write about, but this one isn’t about one of my dolls. It’s about a doll that belongs to my daughter.

Way back before I ever dreamed of making porcelain dolls, I made this doll for my daughter. I made it for her for Christmas when she was seven years old. She still has the doll and thinks it was one of the best Christmas presents she ever got. She named her Mary.

My Aunt Ruth made a life size rag doll for me when I was about 10 years old. It was beautiful. She made one like it for one of my cousins. Boy, I wish I still had that doll. I don’t remember what I did with it. I probably thought I had outgrown dolls and got rid of it. I didn’t realize that I never would truly outgrow dolls. My all time very favorite doll was a Sparkle Plenty doll that I got for Christmas one year. Actually it was the last doll I would receive for Christmas. Younger people than I will have no idea what a Sparkle Plenty doll was. It was all the rage back in 1947. It had what was called “magic skin” and yellow yarn hair. My parents and I drove all the way to Long Beach to a Bullocks store to buy it. After we brought it home, it was put up in the closet until Christmas. I talked my Mom into letting me look at it a couple of times before I got to have it for good. I did love that doll.

Books, Books and More Books

When I first started writing my blog, I mentioned that my doll room was one of my favorite rooms. This bookcase is in another one of my favorite rooms -- the room where we spend most of our time -- the family room.

My husband loves books. When we moved to our last church over 18 years ago, the preacher's office had beautiful bookcases, which would have probably been fine for most pastors, but there wasn't nearly enough room for his collection. So, the church built more bookcases for him. When we were thinking about retiring a big question was, "Where will we put all the books." So we had a bookcase built on one whole wall in our family room. A whole bunch more books are in our home office where I'm sitting right now. There are books everywhere. Guess what he got for Christmas? Among other things, he got about 5 more books. One thing for sure, we'll never run out of something to read.

Today I ponder – who will be our next president. I’ve been following the debates, news about candidates, etc. for weeks now. Who will I vote for. I have considered not voting at all since I’m really not thrilled with the choices we have. I think this would not be right though. When I think about who would be better on the war on terror, I say McCain without a doubt. I’m not sure the other side fully understands what we’re up against in this war with Islamic extremists. Can you sit down and make nice with people whose goal in life is to wipe you off the face of the earth? Do they hate us because they don’t understand us and we need to be nice and they will like us? NO. They hate us because they DO understand us. They think they are doing the will of God when they kill us.

Another big thing with me is who will appoint judges who will be on the side of keeping God out of our lives as much as they can. Liberal judges have already taken God out of the schools. In some schools the word prayer can’t even be mentioned. Not an actual prayer, but just the word prayer. If they could take the words that are engraved on the capital building off I’m sure they would do it. They are probably trying to figure out a way to do that already. Any day now they will take the words In God We Trust off of our currency. The liberals want to make this a completely secular country. They are succeeding at an alarming rate as far as I am concerned. I believe this will be the destruction of America if the trend isn’t reversed.

I don’t usually write a very long blog, because I think people’s attention span is short. Maybe I’m thinking of my attention span but I don’t think I’m too different in that respect from others. But I got carried away with writing today. This is such an important thing. The direction our country takes depends in large part upon how we vote. I believe every Christian should pray that God will show them who they should vote for. In the end, it is God’s choice that I want to see in the White House whether it's my choice or not.

A Prayer

The following prayer is from Ken Gire's book Windows of the Soul.

A Prayer for Understanding

Help me, God,

To realize it is in being crippled that I learn to cling, and in limping that I learn to lean,

that victory comes not in how courageously I struggle

but in how completely I surrender,

and that this is how I am to grow,

by being defeated,

decisively

by constantly greater things.

Help me to understand that Your power is perfected in weakness,

so that when I am rendered weak,

You are given the opportunity to be shown strong.

Help me to understand, too,

that "more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of,

for so the whole round earth is every way

bound in gold chains about the feet of God..."

Windows of the Soul

Nannykim left a comment on last Sunday’s blog where I talked about this wonderful book that I had discovered. It has been around for over a decade, but I just started reading it.

Nannykim’s comment was: “Well, what’s it about.”
It’s a book that is hard to describe what it’s about so I looked it up online. I got this picture there and the following description..

Are you straining to hear the still, small voice of God through the noise of your life? In this insightful book, Gire reminds us that God whispers to us through the ordinary experiences of our lives---music, laughter, the beauty of creation, even tears---to get our attention and to nourish our souls. 208 pages, hardcover from Zondervan.

This is a much better description of the book than I could give. I'm still reading it. There are a lot of inspirational stories in there.

Show & Tell

Valentines Day is over, but I’m still thinking hearts. Last week I talked about the pretty tins that Brighton jewelry comes in so today I decided to feature some jewelry. Here are two bracelets, two necklaces, two pair of earrings and a ring. (You can’t see it very well, but I have a Brighton belt on in the header picture.) I’ve been collecting Brighton jewelry for about ten years, maybe longer. I got Brighton for birthdays, Mother’s Days, anniversaries, Christmases, and other special occasions. I hardly ever wear any other kind of jewelry now. I have two Brighton necklaces with crosses. I guess they’re my favorites, but I like the hearts awfully well too. Maybe I should be a salesman for Brighton. I'm certainly sold on it. Of course, if gold jewelry is your thing, and not silver, you probably wouldn't like it.

Nannykim asked me what the book was about that I wrote about in last Sunday’s blog. Tomorrow I’ll answer that question.

My Valentine Sweetheart

This is my Valentine Sweetheart.

We will celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary in July.

Here we are in the “get away” car after the wedding.

We celebrated last Valentines Day at a resort in Sedona. We wanted to go somewhere special this year, but my knee still won't allow for much walking and anywhere you go there is quite a lot of walking involved. Maybe next year.

Another Horse

Yes, I sold the horse I won and bought a camera, but there would be another horse in my life.

This horse was a palomino that I named Pam. When I graduated from high school, we immediately moved to Colorado. My Dad had gone ahead and rented a house and bought me a horse. I really didn’t know anything about horses, but I thought it would be nice to have one and to learn to ride, which I never did. I think my Dad wanted the horse more than I did. I really wasn’t a horse person as you can probably tell by this picture. I’m not getting too close to it. We moved back to California in less than a year and my horse days were over. The horse stayed in Colorado.