Blogger With a Cause

I found the following prompt on: The Daily Post.

"If your day to day responsibilities were taken care of and you could throw yourself completely behind a cause, what would it be?"


There are actually a few things that I would love to be able to do.

1. I would love to be able to meet the needs of underprivileged babies and take care of the funeral and burial expenses for those that are lost. When we lived in South Carolina, we operated a charity called Littlest Lambs, where we provided layette items for premature babies and needy newborns. Due to a variety of reasons, we were not able to continue that charity here in this area of Texas. Now, our local hospital doesn't even deliver babies. Can you imagine that? A hospital that doesn't deliver babies? I've never heard of such a thing! The women here have to drive about thirty miles (or more!) to get to a hospital that will deliver their baby.

2. I would also like to be able to provide grave markers for those that cannot afford them. It is very depressing to walk through cemeteries, only to come across unmarked graves, or graves where the county has announced the fact that *they* buried this person. I think that everyone deserves to be remembered, and remembered with dignity. Even the worst people on the planet deserve to have their graves marked.

Your turn! Pretend that everything you needed to do was taken care of and you had no money or time worries. You have the opportunity to get behind any cause near and dear to your heart. What would that cause be?



Blogger With a Cause

Sick Computer

My computer appears to be having some serious problems and may not be salvageable.  I am making this post from my phone, but that probably won't happen often. I need to figure out how to increase the text size on my phone so that I can see what I am typing!

David has generously offered me the use of his laptop computer, but it has the Windows 8 operating system and does not like me. The feeling is mutual.

Please be in prayer for the University of Houston community. A dorm student has committed suicide. Please also pray especially for this student's family.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

31 Days in the Moment - Uncle Bobby Joe, Part 2

27 October 2014

Uncle Bobby Joe served in the US Army in the early 1960s. He was stationed in the Mannheim, Germany area.
One day, my grandparents got a telegram that no parent wants to receive. It told them of the death of Uncle Bobby Joe. They were devastated and I do not believe that either one of them ever fully recovered from the loss of their firstborn.






Uncle Bobby Joe's captain wrote the following letter to my Papa Gunter:

Uncle Bobby Joe had been riding a streetcar and slipped off. He was dragged to death by the streetcar. The Statement of Casualty issued by the US Army describes injuries that, to me, must have caused him a tremendous amount of pain. I can only hope that it happened so fast that he didn't feel any of it or that shock prevented him feeling the pain of his injuries. Here is the description from the Statement of Casualty:

He was only twenty-four years old. To my knowledge, he never married nor had any children. I am awaiting verification on that information.

Now, he lies buried with his parents and his brother, my daddy.

31 Days in the Moment - Sunrise and Sparkles

20 October 2014

I was greeted this morning with an amazing sunrise! I wish that I could have pulled over to take a picture of it, but there were no clear shots of it. There were either trees or power lines in the way. It definitely would have been a wonderful big sky shot!

There were strips of clouds in the area where the sun was and the way it was reflecting on them, they were really sparkling. One of the first things that I thought after "wow!" was that I knew just what some "expert" photographers would say about it if I posted a picture of it. They would have said that I over sharpened it, even though I wouldn't have touched this photo up for anything. Well, not this time. Heavenly Father apparently likes the glitter gun some mornings, too.

I wish that power lines weren't always in the way of the beautiful sunrises and sunsets here!

31 Days in the Moment - A Tale of Two Emotions

13 October 2014

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times..." would describe this last week perfectly.

I have been so happy to have Davey home after four months of him being gone that I could explode. At the same time, each day has had tomorrow looming before it, the day he leaves us again for a very long, undetermined amount of time. I spent most days both laughing and crying, not wanting to sleep because I didn't want to miss a minute with him and not being able to keep my eyes open from the exhaustion of driving into the city quite a few days during this visit.

David, Sr. & David, Jr.

Then there's the dreams, freaky ones, scary ones, and downright goofy ones. I just wish the fact that he was leaving us again was a nightmare that I could wake up from and the reality be that he is still here with us, going to school, and being here where I can be sure his is safe instead of heading off into a future that I cannot protect him from because he is out protecting our country.

I am proud as can be of our son and he's absolutely beautiful in his uniform. But he was just as beautiful to me in his little baby curls and that sweet, sweet smile that they've erased from him. When he left, all of the air sucked out of this house and time stood still. The clock ticked while he was here this week.

Tomorrow, it stops again.

31 Days in the Moment - FaceTime and David, Jr.

6 October 2014

Today was Davey's first day back at the local college. He enjoyed visiting with a few of his former teachers and friends. Mags enjoyed having him there at the school.

His last four months have been so full of go-go-go that he wanted to just chill at the house today. After a quick trip to the Walmart for a few groceries, we came home where he played some of his computer games for awhile. At one time, he and Maggie were playing together from two separate computers. I don't know the name of the game that they were playing, but they seemed to be enjoying it.

Davey has always been our tech support and I definitely need his help with my cell phone. It is my first "smart" phone…and it is smarter than me, that's for sure! Davey has been good at this sort of thing since he was a toddler. I remember when Davey was three years old, David, Sr., was taking a computer class as part of his BBA degree program. Junior did a demonstration for this class of young (and middle aged!) adults, doing things they had no idea could be done on their computers! Anyway, he demonstrated FaceTime for me and also showed me and his daddy how to do a screen capture. I don't remember how he did it. This photo is from the screen capture.

I'm proud of my son, and of all of my children!

Please Help Patrice Win a Scholarship!

Hi folks! Let's do a favor for a friend today!

Please watch the following video and like it to help our friend Patrice, hostess of Chats on the Farmhouse Porch and blogger at Everyday Ruralty earn a scholarship for a Nutritional Psychology Coaching course.


She would appreciate the help and I would be most grateful to you for helping a really nice gal achieve her dreams!

Monday Morning Musings: Where is Suz?

I survived the 2014 April Blogging Challenge, then promptly turned invisible. I've posted at most three times so far in May. I got way behind in responding to comments, too. I want to apologize to all of you for being so absent.

The month of May has just been a blur for me. There are things going on that I can't discuss in a public forum, though I really want to and then there are things happening that are ripping my mama-heart to shreds. Our youngest son is leaving on June 1 for the Marines and I cannot fathom him being gone. I can't think; I can't focus. I feel such a huge sense of loss and I can't stand it. If I understood correctly, we won't be able to hear from him during boot camp and that is thirteen weeks long for the Marines. If I'm counting right, that will be sometime in September. Although all babies are miracles, he's my miracle given to me at a very hard time in my life. I had just lost his sister to stillbirth and Heavenly Father gave him to me. Now, twenty years later, I have to let him go. I'll end up in an asylum after this...

On a happier note, our oldest daughter graduated with an Associate degree on Friday. So many things are changing around here! My daddy wanted at least one of his children to graduate college as he'd never even graduated high school. Here she is with her daddy.

Well, Daddy...none of your kids have graduated college (yet!) that I know of, but your granddaughter has done it. :)

There were other invigorating moments at our house last week.

On Monday, we had a snake in our kitchen.

On Tuesday, we got our Zoomie stuck in the mud in the front yard. The car was in the mud up to its axels. Little as the car is, it took four of us to unstick it. This isn't an adventure that I'd like to repeat again any time soon!   I would rather deal with a snake!

What adventures have you all been having? Please share. I would love to hear about them!

A to Z April Challenge: X is for X Marks the Spot

When our folks came here from Europe in the late 1500s to the early 1600s, many settled in the northern part of the future United States of America and worked their way down to God's country in the South.

X marks the spot of the homes of our ancestors on this Sartine map from 1778.

Map Source:
By http://www.geographicus.com/mm5/cartographers/sartine.txt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

A to Z April Challenge: R is for Roses

I love most any kind of flower out there. In the past, I have been blessed to own some beautiful roses classified as antique roses, although I have since found out that some weren't as "antique" as I was led to believe they were.


Here are some roses that I have had the pleasure of photographing over the years.

©2014 Suzanne Gunter McClendon

What are your favorite flowers?

A to Z April Challenge: L is for Love

There are lots of Bible verses, poems, quotes and songs about love. I will share some with you today.









Bible verses about love (KJV unless otherwise marked):


For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  John 3:16

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  John 15:13

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.  Mark 12:31

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV

We love him, because he first loved us.  1 John 4:19

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2 NIV

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.  1 John 4:9-11  
***
Quotes about love:

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  Jesus Christ (John 13:34, KJV)
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.  Aristotle
The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.  Mother Teresa
Who, being loved, is poor?  Oscar Wilde
You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.  Robert Louis Stevenson
***
Song about love:


***
Love poem:

Sonnets from the Portuguese 

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

#43

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

***
What is the perfect expression of love in your opinion?

A to Z April Challenge: F is for Flowers

One of my passions is nature photography. I'm not particularly good at photography, thanks to shaky hands and blurry vision, but I still enjoy it. I love nature photography, most especially flower photography. When a little critter happens along with the flowers, well, that is even better! This part of Texas has a lot of both this time of year.

Here are some of my recent flower photographs:

Taken at Old Lane City Road.

Monday Morning Musings

I have been having fun over the last few weeks photographing the various wildflowers as they come into bloom. Please let me know in the comment section what you think of them.

Have a beautiful day!

Update on Braden and Zach

Zach was a trooper this morning as they removed bone marrow from him to transfuse into his little brother Braden. He is in recovery and smiling. YAYAY Zach!

Braden will receive his transfusion at 12:30pm Central Time. Deliece, their mother, is requesting that we all join together and "send Braden and Zach positive thoughts, prayers, hope, whatever your heart leads you to do?" (Deliece's words).



When we all pray together, miracles happen. Let's pray a miracle for these boys!

Here is the link to Braden's CaringBridge page: Braden Hofen

Thank you!

Monday Morning Musings: Soldier's Deck of Cards

Please be sure to click the button above and join Cathy for her Monday Morning Musings.

Our oldest daughter shared the following video with us recently. I know that there are as many different feelings about cards as there are card designs, but I think whatever it takes to help one remember that He is with us is a good thing.  I never would be able to keep track of the cards like this boy can!

The Colors of Gratitude

In an effort to rekindle that attitude of gratitude that is so important for us to have, I have been looking around today for things for which to be thankful. We should count our blessings. We should be thankful for what we have. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't want or ask for other things, just that we should be thankful for what we already have.

Things that I am thankful for today:

I am thankful for the pansies that bloom during the otherwise gloomy, cool days of winter (such as they are here in Texas).

I am thankful for purple, yellow, and red.

I am thankful for the momentary relief that has been given to us.

I am thankful for the creative spirit that He gave to me when He created me in His image.

I am thankful that David's foot is officially healed and thankful in advance that Heavenly Father will keep it that way.

"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Matthew 21:22

~~~
Credits: Source image: The Colored Pansy Flowers by Robert & Mihaela Vicol at publicphoto.org. Edited version by Suzanne G. McClendon

Even With No Eyeballs, I Can See You Scream

Have you ever had a nightmare that just wouldn't let go of you? That happened to me last night. It was a weird dream all along, but part of it was downright scary.

For whatever reason, David, three of the kids, and I were walking to the place to pay our power bill. It worked out that lots of people were walking to the power company, too. The masses, including David and two of our children, decided to take what they thought was a short cut crossing a huge ditch. It wasn't a shortcut. Once they got into that steep thing, they couldn't get back out. No one, not even me, thought about calling the fire department or rescue team to help all of these folks get out of the ditch.

I went back home with the other child that was with us, trying to figure out what to do, and being upset that David and the kids were going to have to spend all night long in that ditch in freezing cold weather. For whatever reason, there were children still in our home that hadn't made the trip out with us, and I mean little ones, a baby and a toddler. I never would have left children so young home alone!

I went to a room and was greeted by an undead girl with no eyeballs coming at me. I slammed the door and tried to hurry the older child along and gather up the little ones. The older child yelled to me "So-and-so's name is on the wall at the top of the stairs!" (I don't want to type out the name because this is the part of the dream that really, really upset me.)

I don't know if we escaped this eyeball-less undead girl or not. I don't know who she was or how she got there or what had happened to her. I don't know if David and the other two kids escaped the ditch or not or if the power bill ever got paid.

I woke up in a panic and scared to death that this means something bad is going to happen to "So-and-so".

Do you ever have nightmares? If so, tell us about the last one that you had.  Do you have any clue what might have prompted it?

Monday Morning Musings

I have been reading in a devotional book titled Known and Loved: 52 Devotions from the Psalms. It is devoted to mothers who sometimes feel a loss of identity and value as they live life as someone's mother or someone's wife. It shows us that we are still a person of value to the One that created us, even when we seem to be otherwise ignored or disregarded. He knows who we are and has a desire for us to know Him.

Each devotional is short; moms are busy folks! Each devotion has something to ponder as well as scripture references to further drive home the point of the devotion.


Do you read a daily devotional?

Please share the name of the one that you are using in the comment section. Maybe the one that you're reading is just the one another person out there needs to read to feel whole and closer to Him.

Monday Morning Musings

We have been a homeschooling family since 1997. Our oldest two children spent some time in the public school system. Our two youngest children were homeschooled from the start. I read an interesting article earlier today called Homeschool Myths Revealed. Here is the comment that I posted there:

The socialization question has always been a funny one to me. Generally, my children had just performed at a church and would be out conversing with various people (adults and children alike) in the congregation. Someone would bring up the question of schooling and socialization. My husband would challenge the person to find any one of our children that had not been out and about talking to the people. Some of my children are bold enough to initiate conversations without any prompting and one of them is like me, shy and reserved for the most part, but even he didn't shy away from talking to people of any age group that talked to him.

At one church, one of the state senators in South Carolina sought two of the children out to speak with them and was very impressed. The heart of the former mayor of Anderson, South Carolina was won over by our youngest child when she walked up to my husband at the podium during a presentation and carried on a conversation, then apologized to the people for interrupting and returned to her seat.

All of my children were home-school graduates, one in South Carolina and the rest here in Texas. The one that graduated in SC had no problems getting into the US Navy. We provided his transcript and he breezed right in. The other three had no problems getting accepted into the local college and a major university. All three have been on the Dean's List. The youngest graduated a year early, was the youngest student at the college when she entered, and is in the honor society called Phi Theta Kappa.

I think that, although many people think homeschooling limits their opportunities, the exact opposite is the case. It opens the world to them. They have developed the skills necessary to pursue what is important to them because we allowed them to study things that were of interest to them, not forcing them to study the same things in the same way as every other person in town.

Homeschooling helped them to better develop themselves as individuals.

I would love to hear about your thoughts and/or experiences concerning the way that you chose for your children to be educated, whether it is/was homeschooling, public schooling, or private schooling.

Monday Morning Musings: It Has Been a Year

Today marks the first anniversary of the day that I lost my daddy. I was in a nursing home a thousand miles away with my husband as he recovered from an amputation. I didn't get to say good-bye to my daddy. He died alone. Mama and my sister were out shopping and called to check on him because he'd been sick. He had just recently been in the hospital. They didn't get an answer to their call, so they went home. There, they found him dead of an apparent heart attack.

This whole year I've felt so disconnected from things. It seems that everywhere I turn, something is focusing on the loss of a father. The play our daughters were in at the local college just weeks after my daddy's death nearly sent me to an asylum. I missed the first part of the play because the first few moments were so intense. The girl had lost her father and was feeling guilty about things. Ultimately, I got through it, but I left the theater bawling my eyes out. It was too hard and too soon.

When do the tears stop? Some things that I've read say that if you're still sad and crying two weeks later, then you need to go to the doctor, that something is wrong with you. How can that be? How can you spend your entire life loving someone, lose them, and then be completely over it with no emotions left in only two weeks time? I'm thinking, the relationship with my daddy started with my birth and my feelings about him will last until my death (and maybe beyond). Who are they to tell me that I'm nuts because I can't turn off love and heartache with the snap of their fingers?

I would love to hear your thoughts on "proper" time frames for grief and, if you've lost a parent or a significant person in your life, how you got to a point that you weren't in tears every time someone mentioned that parent.