Dearer than our children are the children of our children... (Egyptian proverb)

We just spent a weekend with the set of grandchildren in Burney...what joy! Jonathan is such a good boy and always wants to help, notice him helping shovel dirt while we planted flowers for his mama. And little Emmy is a whirling dervish of activity--she loves to look at books, but dashes away in an instant if she thinks you might be taking it away. Notice the two pix of her walking away--usually that's the best you can do on pix because she's always moving! Over this weekend Jonathan graduated to a big boy twin bed and he announced to me after it was set up, "I stayed in my bed ALL night (yes, until 6:00 a.m., much to his Mama's chagrine!)!

I don't know who said, "happiness is being a grandparent," but I know it's true...

After our weekend at Annie's, Fred was planning on spending several days up in Oregon visiting a number of our old friends there (after I flew home from Redding Sunday night), but he hurried home after we found out that our dear friend Joe B. Love passed away while we were at Annie's. Joe is married to Marguerite (see former blog about my mentor). Tomorrow morning is his service and Freddy and I will go with Fred who is participating in Joe's service. How quickly life can change and we do pray for our beloved Marguerite who will miss her "Love."

P.S. Thanks Jonathan and Emmy for showing Grandpa and Grandma such a fun time! (Thank you to Annie and Dave too!)

Wood, Hay, and Stubble?

"We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us." --Winston Churchill



Yesterday as we were preparing to have new brick replace old brick on the front of the house and around the porch area, it was disovered that the house beams and boards along the front were eaten away by termites. The wood is rotted by both subterranean and wood termites. So my beautification project well underway is now temporarily halted. Underneath the beautiful flowers in the front was nothing but rot.

And the little landscaping project that started out small and ended up to be of gargantuan proportions, and that I was spending too much money on, and then re-evaluating my motivation to make the changes in the first place, is now halted by this incredible discovery while we try to figure out what to do about it!

But as always, there are lessons to be learned. Fred said it made him think of wood, hay, and stubble. It makes me realize that there is nothing, no thing, house, garden, walkway, siding, or new brick, that can begin to compare to treasures in Heaven.

At the Villa last Sunday with my siblings, we were all impressed by how much the ancients tried to bury their treasures on earth with themselves--thinking that it would somehow accompany them into the afterlife.

And so, the termites present a problem. Tent the house, kill the bugs, put up new wood, clean up the mess, essentially.

And while we're doing all of this, I am going to be content and be thankful once again, that the only thing I can possibly take into Eternity with me is my family. And thank GOD there will be no termites in Heaven!

Happy 4th of July

Photos from July 1 to celebrate the Wallace Kids' summer birthdays including Judy Wallace and Josie Wallace!

I love America. I love America. I love America. I can't help it. I am stirred always by the flag. I am stirred by the lives of those precious soldiers in Iraq. Their bravery, their skill, their sacrifice. I am stirred by the fact that there is evil in this world and that our country almost stands alone against it. There are not words sometimes to express it. I am filled with despair over the ignorance of the average American who does not understand what is at stake.

On a lighter note, I've reflected on 4th of Julys of my childhood...

On 4th of Julys in the '50s, often there was a family BBQ with relatives on my Dad's side who lived nearby. My parents would make homemade ice cream and then we would load up the station wagon and head to Orcutt park for fireworks. Then we would come home and have sparklers and "snakes" and the boys would light off cherry bombs. They got a LOT more out of the 4th than we girls did. One year, the next door neighbor boy Gregory McGillicuddy (or something like that!) blew the end of his finger off with a cherry bomb. The story goes that his finger was so grimy and dirty that the hospital sewed the end of it back on BACKwards! I remember the horror of it all. One 4th I had the flu and couldn't go with the family to the park. I was so sad. But my sweet Daddy cared and promised me something special when I got well. He followed through on his promise and took me out on a real date with he and I alone. I will never forget it. We went to a restaurant on Reseda Blvd and I had my first lobster tail that night. I had that lobster's shell in my treasure box until I headed for college! He bought me a corsage and I remember holding his strong hand as we walked along the boulevard and how filled my heart was with love for my Daddy.

But today, on the 4th, I'm a little lonely for my grandchildren, but glad my husband is home with me today, and I'm preferring to write or watercolor than to work! But Chuck Colson had a wonderful post on Breakpoint today. In his reflections on patriotism and the Christian he said,

"But the only place for expressing that allegiance is in the concrete loyalties God calls us to here on earth -- including loyalty to country. We can't love mankind in the abstract; we can only really love people in the particular, concrete relationships God has placed us in -- our family, our church, our community, our nation."

I am so thankful for this kind of allegiance--allegiance to the flag and our nation that I feel so strongly today of all days, and the allegiance I have to my faith in Christ, and my love for my wonderful family.

May I Have this Dance for the Rest of My Life...

I chose this photo to celebrate our anniversary because it's the hottest day of the year today and I wanted to remember the romance of snuggling together to get warm in sub zero weather!

One of my favorite songs in whole world is "May I have this dance?" I always loved to dance before I got married and became a Baptist! Dad liked to dance too before we got married. But I always associated dancing with romance and flowers and wooing and affection. Then when this song came out, it touched me deeply, because I realized that marriage was like a dance that lasts forever. There is the partner--choosing the right partner. There is the need to hold each other close whether there is cold weather or hot weather. There are the steps that one needs to learn to be able to glide gracefully across the floor. There is the correct posture and position and how that has to be just right for it to feel right. There is the one who leads, and the one who follows. When the follower tries to lead, the feet get tangled and they might even fall down. There is music--the rythm, the melody, the harmony, the lyrics. All of it flowing perfectly together so that the couple can know which dance to dance.

Have you ever watched older couples who have been dancing together for years? Like Grammy and Grampy--I wish you all could see how perfectly joined they were when they danced. The years fell away and he was such a handsome lead and she fit perfectly in his arms and it was as though they were made for the waltz. It's amazing. If one or the other tried to take a different partner, they would become immediately clumsy and wouldn't know what to do with the wrong partner!

Dad and I have been dancing our dance for 37 years. When we were going together and we were newly married he would often say to me when we were standing together, snuggling on the sofa, or just holding hands, "you fit just right." And I did. And I still do. And he has truly been the perfect partner for me. I realize it more and more as I grow older and life is so full and different than I ever imagined it would be--that this was God's plan for my married life, that I would learn in this dance that every blessing and every trial was ordained by Him and He meant for it to all work together to form a perfect minuet, bossanova, swing, or rumba. We know the steps, we know the rythym, we know our partner. And it is in his arms that I have found the perfect fit and the perfect dance partner.

Happy Anniversary Honey!