Friday, Saturday and Sunday - Our last January Weekend at the Ranch

I'm going to miss this place!

I have loved every minute of every day here in our Country Camper.

January in the country!

Campfires nearly every night. 

This was our Friday night fire.

We burn our paper trash along with the firewood.

I love looking in windows!

Especially when they are my own.....

Friday night Cheers!

Needlework, bubbly and journal writing.

Saturday I took my disappointing watermelon from HEB down to the chickens.

I didn't really believe I could get a good watermelon in January.

It was worth a try.

The chickens enjoyed it!

Louis Dean enjoyed our breakfast - served at lunch time - of fried potato pancakes, smoked sausages, biscuits and fried eggs!

It was a good day of reading and writing for me and working for Louis Dean.

I made a big pot of beans and a batch of cornbread muffins for supper.

The sliced sweet onions were a bonus.

We have been going to bed early and waking up late.

A perfect plan!

Sunday - today - was a good last full day here at the ranch.

We go home tomorrow.

Louis Dean worked on the utility room doing things 

I cannot even explain but that he was so pleased with accomplishing!

Something about inspection holes for the washing machine - which we don't have yet!

He has prepared the flooring for the utility room and various other things that I don't even comprehend! 

He is my hero!

This will be going in the bathroom - hopefully on our next visit.

 I love all things 'camper.'

I've had a good day of writing.

Moving on and writing new words after editing the first 12 chapters.

I am in 1963 and writing about giving birth to my first born daughter - my Summer Dee.

Memories are precious.

I have discovered we all have memory triggers.

It's pretty amazing.

It was October 25th, 1963 when I went into labor and I vaguely remember that Jesse and I watched a favorite TV show before I knew for certain I was, indeed, in labor. I Googled TV shows in 1963 and found the one we were watching that night! Burke's Law with Gene Barry.

It's a real adventure and experience to go back in time.

As I write, it is as though I am watching a movie. 

The best thing about it is I know I have a happy ending - even as I am recording some sad situations. I am so hoping I can share my story....and that it will be a good one.

Friends, we all have a story to tell and hopefully you are telling yours as you go along.

I didn't do that. I felt my story would be a burden to my children if they knew about it.

I have changed my mind.

We are who we are because of where we have been and what we have experienced.

Nothing is all good or all bad.

God's grace gives us the chance to make good out of the bad things that have happened to us.

I wish our mother would have shared more of her story with us.

My siblings are amazing people.

I want their children to know that.

I want that so much!

I want them to realize how special their parent was are and how much they have overcome.

My thought to you tonight is to share your life with your family.

You may have had such a beautiful, wonderful childhood. Share it! 

Make sure your children know the details. 

If it wasn't so wonderful - share that, as well.

Share it with grace and without condemnation, if possible.

Remember this - no one has had a perfect life.

My children and I had a dear lady in our lives. Her name was Mrs. Morrison. Hallie Morrison. All four of my children knew and loved her and she loved them. Mrs. Morrison was the most important and influential person in my life - more so even than my mother.

She shared with us how she had come to Dallas in a covered wagon and all the hardships she experienced and the life she had lived and the loved ones who had died along the way including her beloved three year old son. Most of all, she shared her faith and her love with us and we were made better people because of her.

I will add this update about my Sweet Summer Dee right here.

She has appointments next week which will HOPEFULLY give her a firm diagnosis and plan of action and/or treatment.

She and a good friend took a trip to the beach this weekend.

Summer was in need of some comfort and thankfully God has given her such a good friend as Karen.

They go way back and I remember a beach trip I took with them a few years ago.

Karen is an amazing lady and after retiring from the insurance industry, she has entered into the seminary. The world needs more people like Karen.

A beach is Summer's Happy Place.

They had a great time and made some good memories.

Summer always leaves a place better than she finds it.

She collected trash with her picker upper and I am thinking the sound of the waves and the seagulls restored her soul. God does that. He uses his creation to restore peace to our souls.

Back in the day - it was the mountains of Colorado for me.

The beach is always good and I do love the ranch.

I am finally and happily at the point in my life that I no longer have to search for a place.

I am in it. Wherever I am. I'm already there.

Okay! Enough of these deep thoughts of mine!

This is my Valentine Tree which will be here to greet me when we return!

Hopefully next month!

Our very last campfire of January 2018!

I do so love the sounds of the country!

So goodnight from me to you!

Sweet dreams!