Christmas in the Holmes Fire Circle.

Later this evening I will be beginning my thoughts about Christmas time this year.  Im not quite sure where it will go, but they say when you have writers block.. just write, even if its just a grocery list. 
So, based on that thought.. whats going to come out of my brain is just as much a surprise to me as it will be to you. 

Month of Gratefulness Recap

I started this with a thanks to an internet friend of mine last year.  I think I made it 5 or 6 actual days last year.  This year I actually made it to the middle of the month before busyness took over and I got too far behind to catch up.  That is better and I am thankful for that. 

I know that the whole thing annoys some people out in cyber space for sure, and I can certainly understand that.  HOWEVER,  I really am not doing it for anyone else's entertainment, but because of any desire to remember what is truly important. 

So I believe that my decision at the end of this month is,  I truly need to sit down once a week thought out this upcoming year to recap each week. 

This week, I am thankful for the ability to have been a stay at home mom for a big part of my kids lives.  I did not enjoy much of it at the time, but now as they are all grown or almost grown, I can see things in them that probably would not have been there if I hadn't been there for them.  I am also grateful that our life style has always been "Out of the Norm" of life, as I think I have equipped my children to more effectively roll with the punches that may come their way.   

I am grateful that I was taught through various means that everything we are presented with in life involves choices that we make.  The individual situation we are place in may not be by our choice, but our reactions to those situations, our ways of dealing with those situations, how we continue to live our lives on a daily basis after being placed in that circumstance, is our choice. 

Several days of Gratefulness all rolled in to a Saturday

Saturday November 16 brings forth several things to catch up on.   So we will be counting this post for several days.  

First thing in the morning.  Its a toss up. I'm not sure which was the best part of waking up.  Waking up next to THIS amazingly handsome man or a cup of THIS being served in a jug from Disney land with the seagulls on it saying Mine Mine Mine Mine... hehehe  Or maybe it was the kiss that came as he handed me my morning cup of coffee in bed.  I am thankful for the abundance of Love that my husband and I share for each other. I am thankful for simple things like him introducing me to a wonderful flavor of coffee just because he thought I would like it and now he makes sure I have it in the house. 

 

 

From there we move to item of the day number two.  A MASSIVE Garage Sale.  It had een planned for yesterday but due to weather, we have actually postponed it till next weekend.  This is a good thing because we went on with allowing people who came in to go a head and shop and then the other people who are planning to sell things also will be there next weekend, weather permitting. 

So, what am I thankful for here?  Abundance.  This si a yard sale involving things that are still around from my grandparents that I honestly thought went to others who needed them about 7 years ago, there is the stuff we hauled down here from the mountain when we moved back down the valley way too many years ago for it to still be there.  There are items from my daughter and her husband that have sat in storage also for several years, unused.  My 2nd daughter and her husband brought items that were sitting unused in their house.  My niece has items that she is unable to use at the moment as she is living in a very simple situation and those things are taking up space she does not have.  Add to all of that are some items that we were left with from a previous customer.   This has been the most amazing thing to look at all of these things, think of the history behind each item and then realize that someone else needs to use these things, but what I am most grateful for is that we have been so blessed as to have all of these items when we needed them.  

 

 

Move on through my day past the yard sale and we have to race up to the pick up station for my Bountiful Basket delivery.  I know that we are having a large group of family for Thanksgiving week so I knew I needed to stock up.  It turned out to be more than I really expected but it will be used and appreciated by all who eat it.

 Do you see the ginger hidden in on the table? 

Today will be a very busy day taking care of all of this as well as the things I already have in the fridge waiting to be taken care of as well.  After church, here I go. 

I am grateful for the abundance I have to provide for my family and make our times together "filling" in more ways than one. 

 

That leaves us with our 2nd Amendment Right which also brings fun and family time in with the training and practice that is required in my mind if you are going to participate. 

I don't have any photos of me shooting My new pistol because, ummmmm yeah, I'm not very good at it YET!!!  But I will be shortly.  I have a great teacher who will make sure I know what I need to know. 

 

My abundance is overwhelming.    

 

November 9th Quizzing

 

 

 

November 11 Veterans Day

My gratitude knows no bounds.  

November 8th of gratitude

That I can Read. 

thank you to the Robert Brewer .org for these facts.  I would imagine that they are true.  I began to realize how some people felt about reading when I was a young public school teacher and found out how many of my fellow elementary school teachers HATED reading and never picked up a book to read for enjoyment and barely read their teachers manuals that they were "teaching" children to read from.  I was stunned. 

When I got to the square on this chart that says the more a child reads, the likelier they are able to understand the emotions of others began to make me think and to really look around at people.  I believe that this statement is a true one as well. 

Therefore, the last one  Reading one hour per day I your chosen field will make you an international expert in 7 years.  Wow!!  This is an amazing statement and truly challenges me to choose a subject.
See you this time next year to see where my journey is taking me.

November7th Gods Provision

Yes, last year this is what I wrote on my gratefulness for Gods Provision.  I was grateful that I had a bed, roof, food and clothing.  While I am still thankful for those things as those are the things necessary to life, I can also say I am abundantly blessed. 

We have begun to really look around us and see that we have so many things that should be in the hands of other people who actually need them.  My task is to get those many things into the hands of those who need them more than I. 

I also know that I will not have peace about me until those things are gone.  Clutter is very unpeaceful if you didn't know.  I know that decluttering for me is going to take months.  The changes we have started here at the store have just gone to show me how much I have "hung on to" that I need to let go of but it is still going to take a lot of time!!!  Maybe I will update as I go. 

November 6. Opposites Attract

I am grateful that opposites attract.
When couples get together many times its because of some traits in the other person that seems fun and quirky.   After a period of time, those same quirks may become irksome as they are DIFFERENT...  yes, ma'am those were the things that attracted you in the first place... don't forget that. 
So today, after more than 20 years of marriage its still good to remember the early days.
Last night we had enchiladas and peach cobbler for dinner.  If I had had any idea that this was going to happen I would have taken pictures. 
Let us start by explaining that I am much more of a "food not touching" kind of person.  I don't like a lot of additions to my food such as sauces and such.  Been a "thing" our whole marriage.  So, when my loving husband was torn by the question, "do I want more enchiladas, or am I ready for peach cobbler?" I should have seen it coming.  hahahaha

Before I knew it he had his bowl of peach cobbler and was spooning Old El Paso Mild Red Enchilada Sauce over it.   The look of excitement on his face as he ate it was like a kid in a candy store. 

My question is,  does that count as an extra helping of dinner, or is it still dessert?  

November 5th The Ability To Read

Do you ever wonder about how things we take for granted came to be?  Honestly, who came up with putting symbols together in ways that mean words that you don't have to be in the same room with a person to hear and understand?   And then, they took other symbols and put THEM together to be able to count things, and adding and subtracting was born.  I know people who choose not to read, unless it is mandatory in some way.  I cant imagine. 

When I was teaching school, that was one of the biggest things I tried to impress upon my students who struggled with learning.  The key to life is learning to read. If you cant read you have to rely on other people to be conveniently close to help you learn new tasks or remember old ones.  BUT!!! if you can read, and want to learn something new at 2 am,  you can teach it to yourself.  You don't have to wake someone in the house up. 

Reading is one of the best things in life as far as I am concerned and I am grateful that I function on that side of my brain. 

Grateful for the federal government the other end.

Yes, I am still a year later grateful to the federal government.  Yes, go back and read this one and you will begin to understand why.

However, a lot has changed in the last year. Last year, I was writing about the beginning of my husband's career... and this year,  I am writing about the end of that same career.  And the funny thing is, we had been considering when he should retire.  Should it be September.. which would make it a full 25 years, or January when it would be better financially... but in the end, due to an opportunity that came our way at just the right moment, it was August.  this was the retirement party.  The blanket ad flowers were presented to ME.. yes

Happy Retirement to US!!!!! 

More on that later.

 

Gratitude catch up day 3

Just a short gratitude at this point, still thinking on this one.  Yes, I am still grateful that God planted me here in sunny Southern NM.  But, mostly I do still love where I live.  I love that we live in a place where we can operate our new business and see it as a very growing possibility. 

And every day, I get to see this..... How wonderful is that? 

 

Gratitude Catch up. Day 2

The weekend was pretty hectic, ( as usual I know)  This is kind of funny to me, but I find myself debating how to do this task this year.  Do I just go through all of the things I really truly AM thankful for?  Or do I go through my previous lists and make sure  dot repeat myself.  I am still unclear of what to think here. 

But in the mean time,  I will just continue.  Looking back at last years blog, on day two I was thankful for my family of origin.  I went back and reread that post and can say I am STILL thankful for my family of origin.  But this year I want especially to say that I am thankful for my two grandmothers specifically.    I am grateful for the legacy each of them very unknowingly passed down to not only me, but to my daughters. 
My paternal grandmother,  Myrtle,  was born in Tennessee in the late 1800s  Lets see, lets work this through, my dad was born in 1933 when she was 40.  So if you do the subtraction, she was born around 1893.   She was a school teacher in one of the local community schools when she was just a young woman.  The legacy that she passed down through her children lead to many school teachers in her descendants, including myself, and both of my daughters,  My younger daughter finished her teaching degree in May and got her first official job as a 4th grade teacher.  She has worked with children most of her teen years and to this point.  Her older sister has also worked with children for most of her adult life.  She now has 2 children that she is very diligently teaching them every day as well as continuing her own education. 

My maternal Grandmother, Bessie, is the grandmother I THOUGHT I knew best, as I grew up near her, but in the last couple of years I have found out how much no one really realized about her. She was born in a very small mountain community in Southern New Mexico in 1912. She was an athlete during an era that most women were not.  She played basketball on her high school team and "lettered" 5 years in a row and was team captain for either 3 or 4 years.   She was the consummate "home maker"  a job that she took much more seriously than I had any idea. I have found out since that she was "taught"  Home Economics as a science, not as something to do in your spare time. 
Her siblings called her Dr. Tiny.  She studied and took care of her families medical needs during the early part of the previous century in an area of the country that medical care was sparse at best.   She was a spiritual woman.  She passed her faith on to both of her children and to all of their children and now it is falling on her great grands.    Through her lineage I see the grace and beauty in my daughters.  I see daughters who are dedicating themselves to being the best they can be for their families.  I can only begin to see where my oldest daughter is going to land in her time at the seminary, where she has the opportunity to learn the Art  AND SCIENCE of homemaking as her great grandmother knew. 

I end with the thought that I am grateful for the women in my life. 

New 30 days of gratitude. 2013

Starting off a day late as usual in my 30 days of Gratitude.  That doesn't mean that I am less grateful.  Sometimes it just means that I am too busy and should slow down and think.  In the last 12 months we have had some major changes. Our roller coaster ride began by being around for the birth of   two more nephews into the world in January and February, each named after his grandfather. Coasting a while brought us to May where on the same day we were there when another of the kiddos perservered through and got her college degree, and the very same day, saw the next in line graduate from high school.  Went to California again with the youngest to compete in his Bible Quizzing and watched him preach for reals at 16 years of age.  Still not sure where he is going in all of this but it is going to be an amazing ride. So, after those twists and drops,  we coasted again as  we began thinking about Jonathans retirement plans  What to do, what to do. September would give him 25 years in the Border Patrol, but financially January made more sense tax wise, we were told.  So, after all the thought over those two options, beginning of August,  we decided that  the obvious thing to do was make his retirement date should be August 10th so we could "retire" in the standard and much done way of purchasing a trucking company of our own, to do something we neither one knew absolutely anything about doing.  Hauling fuel.  And over the top of the big drop and loop d loop we have gone since we actually signed the papers to make it officially ours on September 21, 2013.  It was the beginning of HS&D Transport Services.   Since that day, things have been very busy,but the point of my whole story here is that I want to start my 30 days of gratitude with the biggest thing I am thankful for.  I could not have gotten through the last year, the last 3 years, the last 10 years or any other day of my life with out God.  I honestly don't know how people who don't have that get out of bed in the morning.  I am so very grateful to know that there is something bigger than me watching over me and guiding me.  

Time to let the secret out of the bag

I haven't posted anything here in a while and there are people who, I am sure have their feelings kind of hurt from my lack of information in the recent past.  Today, however, I will answer those questions.  Keep in mind that things are still hectic enough that this is STILL the VERY short version of the last few months. 

There are those who will complain that I talk a lot in this life about nonsense,  you know who you are.  But what those same people do not know about me, because there are very, very few who do know this,  I DONT talk about hopes and dreams that ARE very important to me. I have learned two things in this life.  1)  I don't have a lot of things others would consider to be "hopes and dreams"  What happens, happens, and what does not does not. 2) The things that ARE important enough to me to fall in to that "hopes and dreams" category, tend to get ripped out of my hands at the last moment if I DO let others in on them.   

Yes, there are those around me who will find that last paragraph to be sad, but I don't see it that way.  I do, however, work as hard as I possibly can to help those around me achieve their own "hopes and dreams".  

That being said, its time to finally talk about what has been going on around here for the last few months.  It started with finally making the decision that the Feed Store had served its purpose over the last 50 something years and it was time for that to go away for the most part.  So, we began downsizing it.  We are still in the process of selling off inventory to finish paying the bills we have outstanding and my creditors are being very patient with me as that merchandise is not running out the doors very fast.  

Max just began a job at a different store, after a struggle this summer to get a job and take care of his family.   This has also turned out to be a great thing as he is loving his job and there is a great potential for growth for him there I believe. 

We are still maintaining the water trucking business and are hoping to do some growing there as well.  We have brought on board UHaul.  My mother is taking much more of the reins there than she has before and is enjoying it, but she has also been freed up to go spend a month with her brother and sister in law, caring for her sister in law, post surgery. 

Now for the BIGGEST part of the news.  The end of July, ALL of our plans changed.  For those of you who knew that Jonathan was considering retirement sometime the end of this year, yeah, well...... His last day at work for an almost 25 year career in the Border Patrol was August 10, 2013.   He went in the beginning of August and told them, The end of the pay period is my last day.  
The reason for the sudden change of direction has nothing to do with his health.  Well, that may not be totally true either, but know that his health is very good at this moment and was NOT the cause of his decision. 

The decision came because we were offered the opportunity to purchase the equipment from a local trucking company who's primary business has been hauling different kinds of fuel to and from El Paso.   We opened out business checking account, and gave the owner the check for the amount required so now we own 3 semi trucks, 3 flatbed trailers, 2 gasoline tankers, and an asphalt tanker.  The name of our new business is H S & D Transport Services, LLC.   I will post pictures as the transformation takes place to move everything out to OUR yard.   

So now you know why I have been quiet. 

If you have any questions or comments, you know where I am. 

Acupuncture visit #2.

They called on Monday to tell me they had a cancellation for this week.  Actually, they had 4 cancellations for me to choose from.  I made my choice and hustled off to Cruces this afternoon. 
I managed to get there with just 10 minutes to spare and was escorted to the exam room.  It took the Doctor a while to get to me as he was diligently working with another patient.  I could hear them talking and while I couldn't understand most of it, I knew they were working on medical things. 
When he got to my room, we talked about how the last treatment made me feel, what helped, what didn't.  He asked a number of further questions and explained that several of the issues that I have are coming actually from the mess that my neck is.  That is manifesting itself in many issues that take place on my left side.  He asked questions about digestive issues. (TMI wont go into detail)  I answered and he explained again that those things take place on my left side.. again back to my neck.  We discussed the issues with my left knee as my ankle has stopped swelling and is feeling somewhat better (some new shoes will help that as well)  and he tested out my knee.  Then we got to the actual session of acupuncture.  It amazes me that he can push and poke HERE and I tell him YIKES THAT hurts... ...... and then inserts needles over THERE.. then when he goes back to push and poke HERE.. it feels absolutely wonderful. 

Today, after inserting the needles, he put the heat lamp again on my shoulder, one over my stomach, and my feet in a warming box and left me to it for over 30 mintues.  With in minutes I was "floating"  What a wonderful feeling.  Just enough warmth all around me to make me feel like I was on a cloud, my mind drifted away on the sea of beautiful music playing and I floated in and out of napping. 
When he finally came back in and asked if I had had any discomfort, I told him it was wonderful and I felt as if I was floating.  He said "ahhhh then it is working the way it is supposed to" 

This trip I also left with a handful of "pills"  What are actually better known as supplements, called Relaxed Wanderer to take 2 times a day till I return on the 7th of August.  We will then discuss how this has or has not helped my "digestive  issues" 

I would honestly do this every day I believe.  I cant wait now to go to bed and see how I feel in the morning and see how well I sleep. 

More updates to come.

Acupuncture treatment in the sunny South West

     Yes, today I went in to a new doctor.  I went to the Chinese Medical Clinic in Las Cruces to see Dr Nakano.  I originally scheduled the after getting back from our trip to California where my feet and legs were so swollen that I couldn't get my shoes back on for days.  I went immediately to my family doctor who gave me a prescription of Lasix to pull the fluid off.  I took it for about 5 days of the 2 weeks but it mace me feel so awful, I quit.  The prescription was really not doing that much for me anyway. 

It took me a month to get in to Dr. Nakano as he is apparently very busy.  By the time today rolled around and I was filling out the "Why are you here" paperwork I included the pain I have in my left shoulder as well as the on going swelling in my left leg. 

When I was called to the exam room, I waited about 10 minutes until the doctor came in.  He went over my chart, asked me a few questions and then had me lay on my left side, where he started putting pressure on different spots of my neck and shoulder and around my shoulder blade.

He then started in the middle of my head and in my neck. and various other places He, then, rechecked some of the areas that I had showed pain from before.  Already, the pain was much, much less that it had been. 

He put a heat lamp on my shoulder for about 20 minutes and I just laid there in peace and soothing music.  I was so sorry to wake up and sit back up to rejoin my day. 

When we retested the tender spots,  there were almost NONE!!!!!  Well, not on that side anyway.  I can also say that my feet and ankles already don't hurt the way they did yesterday. 

I will go back to see him a few more times as acupuncture is definitely not a quick fix as many of us in America expect to get out of a pill or surgery or such from our western medical doctors.  This will be more like pealing an onion, to get past the symptoms and down to the honest to goodness ROOT of the problem.  Now, I plan to head for bed to see if a good nights sleep might just be in order!!!

For anyone else who wants to follow me on this journey, let me know, and I will post further episodes of my acupuncture adventure. 

Meet My Family Part 1

     I started this blog a while ago and named it "Keeping the Holmes Fires Burning"  to be a reflection of my family and the things that are important to us.  As I have gone back and looked at some of my previous posts and some things that I have in my draft file, I realize that I just jumped in to the blog and never actually introduced us to you. 
     Today I want to begin again with those introductions. 

This is my husband Jonathan

 Well, at least this was him as a small boy.  The rest of the photos are much more recent and show different facets of his life. There are photos here of ventures of our family life, the part of his work life that we do together, and his leisure time activities.  There is one part of his career that I don't show for safety reasons, but know that I am proud of that part of his career as well.  There are photos of a serious nature, and of him being the goofy self that makes me laugh.   Some of these are of his raport with our community. 

To end, Jonathan.  Part 1.  I pose the question, can you tell me what is important to this man? 

My Newsy Christmas Letter in June......

     It was brought to my attention today that I have the tendency to forget to let people know what is going on, on this side of the Holmes Fireplace.  I have so many people swimming with me in this portion of the "river of life" that I think everyone should know what the important events in our family's life are.  This person was absolutely right to point this out to me and want to know what is going on, so I decided that I needed to catch up.  There are so many things that are happening that even IF I wrote a Newsy Christmas Letter to send out, if I wait till Christmas, it will be a VOLUME, not a letter, so here goes!!!

I don't tend to use actual names on my blog, for safety sake, but those who know us know what the initials mean.  

     Lets start out with L, her husband D and my 2 sweet grand babies!!!  Well, D has finished his 2nd semester at Seminary and is working full time this summer and preparing for the Fall Semester.  E. has gotten her enrollment done to start HER masters program at the Seminary as well, plus she is the Publicity Officer for the women's organization on campus.  They work in family ministry at a small church in the D/FW area as well.  My handsome C.  Just turned 3 and is becoming quite a little man.  His mommy is working with him on all of his preschool items as well as taking care of sweet little RL who just became a whole year old.  It is just amazing to me that a year ago I was there for her birth into this world!!!!  She is trying to walk, negotiates the stairs in their townhouse quite well and both of the kids LOVE to play outside in the courtyard with their friends.  They have had some car trouble in the recent times s we are trying to help them out with that situation, but at the moment they have our pickup truck to get them by till we have time to make a wise decision on a vehicle for that blessed little family.  C knows which is the go petal and which is the stop petal  in Grandma's white truck and the go one should have been painted green while the stop ones should be red.  Yep, he is one smart little man!!!  L and D are wonderful parents. 


     A1 and her husband A2. are out for the summer.  A just graduated with her bachelors in Elementary Ed and has passed all her state tests to get her license in this state.  She has had one interview on the western side of the state but we are hoping for somewhere closer to where they are currently living as A2 still has a couple years of school to go before he graduates.  Each summer he has an internship with the Dept of Game and Fish and thank God this summer he is working where they live.  This week A, has been over here helping me at work and generally hanging out with me.
A2 still struggles with his days in the Air Force and his 2 deployments in Afghanistan, but things get better every day. 

     This brings me to kiddo 3.  S is finished for this semester as well.  He is working toward his EMT Basic certificate.  He is also working with the volunteer fire dept here locally.  He is on a job search to start paying some of his own bills while he continues his path to become an emt and maybe enter the Navy in about a year.  He is definitely his Dad's son as he is finding his niche in caring for others in need.  He is going to be a wonderful emt or medic in the navy, which ever he ends up choosing.  He also helps me out when I need it. S is a real surprise to most people as the surface that he projects is what he THINKS the world expects and wants to see, but there is a much deeper, more compassionate, and very very smart person hiding behind some uncertainties about what is really expected to be a man in this world.   

     Last of the kiddos is M.   He is a pretty amazing human being.  It takes awhile to get to know him, but once you do, it is well worth the effort.  In the last few months he has become a licensed local minister in our local Church of the Nazarene.  Now along with his general high school classes, he is taking the first of his seminary classes as well.  He meets with the pastor once a week for instruction and homework assignments.  He also attends the church board meetings, as well as the communities Ministerial Alliance meetings once a month.  He is also still on the competitive Bible Quizzing team and his Dad and I had the privilege of going with him to Point Loma again this year to watch him compete in the Regional Meet as part of the huge annual Regional Youth event for the Nazarene church. As well as these activities, he donates several hours a week of his time working at our local museum dedicated to the investigation of the Shroud of Turin.  He has impressed several of the scientists who have done research on the Shroud with his knowledge of the history, the research methods and equipment used.   Several of his closest friends and mentors besides Pastor Rob include one of the local Lutheran ministers, and  the priest and deacon from one of the local Catholic Churches  These quite honestly are just the highlights of this kids life.  It is really hard to remember most days that he is 16.  

     The last part of our newsy update is Jonathan and myself.  Twenty two years ago he decided to jump into this great, big, fat adventure that I call my life and helped me bring about everything you see above.  Some days I still cant believe he decided to take a chance on what many others thought was a very risky investment, but here we are.  He has been there to help me walk through the loss of my grandparents.  Its hard to explain to people that because of being only a toddler when my sister came down with leukemia and subsequently died, my grandparents were more like an extra set of parents to me than most peoples grandparents.  Then, he was there to help me walk through the loss of my younger brother.  Little did we know that not too long after that we would face the loss of my dad, to whom we, both. were very close, and then only a few months later and very unexpectedly, he was there with me for the loss of my older brother and (next to Jonathan) my very best friend in the world.  Well, all of that is old news, to most who know me, but it brings me to say that in a few months Jonathan is now looking at retirement from the career that brought him to me from a place far, far away.  Retirement is something very new to me so I have begun a chart of all the things that are opening up to us.  We are looking at a number of new ventures that will benefit us, the community around us and take us further toward the goal that God has for us individually as well as together.  We have no idea right now just what our next big adventure is going to be, with you can bet your boots that with God in the lead, and us holding tight to each other, it will be just as amazing as life has been up to this point.   If we judge the future by our past, you can also be pretty sure that our future will be something that many people consider very unconventional and even down right ODD. 

I hope this helps to catch everyone up on the major highlights of our family circle, too bad Family Circus was already taken!! 

A can of dog food

     I will never be rich in terms of money.  I don't really want to be.  This thought confuses many people around me, it seems, but there it is.  I, however, will always be rich in terms of the Gifts I have been given by those who have gone before me.     
      My mother saw a snapshot of that this week.  She felt like she should point this out to me. 
     It started out with some people who had a sick dog.   The story was very simple.  I gave them a can of dog food. I knew this specific dog food would make a difference to this sick dog.   I didn't charge them as they had bought some other things but also had told me that the husband had lately been laid off from his job.  Then, as we talked, I realized that I had met this man one time before almost a year ago in a place about 10 hours from here. 
     We were at an exhibit of The Dead Sea Scrolls in Fort Worth, which was very, very heavily guarded.  We were not allowed to take my grand daughters stroller with us and we did not realize until later that we had left her bottle in the diaper bag in the stroller as well.  When she began to get hungry, we were told that if anyone left the exhibit to go back down the stairs to get her bottle, that person would not be allowed to come back into the exhibit, with out paying again and starting from the beginning, for security reasons.  We continued on with an increasingly fussy baby until my son-in-law decided that we had no choice but to give up and one of us take the baby back down the stairs to get her bottle and wait for the rest of us to get finished.  As he was getting ready to start through the crowd to head for the stairs, a guard came up to us and said that he was willing to escort someone down to get the bottle then bring them back.  Because of htat mans kindness and understanding, and willingness to help the rules along, everyone was able to continue through this amazing exhibit. 
     With out a conversation asking these people what brings them to our back of beyond, neck of the woods, I would never have figured this out.  I would not have found out that this family, in recent months, had moved here to take another job that almost immediately upon arriving was ended due to the sequester. 
     Finding out stories like this, I consider to be some of the biggest blessings of my life.  I can't say I was ever given verbal instructions in this way of life, but I was definitely given instructions by just watching my father and listening to the stories that have been told to me about both of my grandfathers.  This was the point my mother wanted to make.  I don't know how to do anything else.   Maybe, that is just part of the way I feel the vibrations of the world around me. 
    

Disney Land