Family Pics from our trip.

Addison and Peyton, about 1 week old.








Awake!











My grandaughter, Amber Hewitt, who will turn 20 Nov 9. We were privileged to have her visiting with us while we were in Colorado. She was a big help and it was great to see her. The twins are her new little cousins.


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Rockingrama's Reflections: rockingrama (Paula) Updated 9/4/2006

Rockingrama's Reflections: rockingrama (Paula)
Hello netfriends! It's been a while. My husband and I have been traveling around the country, back and forth from Texas where we live to Florida, then Colorado, then Kansas and back home again. It was a fun time filled with family and new experiences, but we are both more than ready to be back and into our zone of familiar friends and routines. Funny how a person looks forward so much to vacation time but looks forward just as much to getting back to the routine they escaped. Is this a loop???, hmmm....maybe worth further consideration. Another time.

Our Florida trip was almost a month long and we combined many things we've been wanting to do with visits to Bill's family in Lakeland and mine in St. Augustine. Between Lakeland and St. Augustine we spent time at our timeshare in Orlando and participated in some of the local hoopla, including Kennedy Space Center and Water World. Mostly we just hung at the resort though because everything we wanted was really there. We had a great view of the lake from our screened in veranda and plenty of opportunities for fine (and not so fine) dining and viewing the beauty that is all around you in Central Florida. It's not my cup of tea for a place to live, but visiting is always nice.

We drove on both of our trips. They were planned well in advance of the gas hikes and we decided we would still be slightly ahead going by car. The trip across the southern states on I-10 was a grim reminder of the tragedy of Katrina. It appears that some progress is being made but I can't imagine a full healing of the affected area for years to come. I'm just praying that they are not hit again this hurricane season and that the levees and dams will be in full repair the next time an act of God brings a storm. My gosh...where are all of these people that were displaced? How are they doing now? The answers we get in the media just don't seem to suffice for the scope of human difficulties that must remain. Let's not forget this wonderful part of our country.

We were home from Florida only 3 weeks when we got the call from my daughter in Colorado that her twins were going to be delivered within a day. We had promised her a month to help them get settled with the twins and put her on the path to healing and we delivered as promised. It was a wonderful month, full of activity. My most significant contribution, I think, was just to get meals to the table and be there for moral support. Bill felt a little out of his element, but hung in like a champ and really enjoyed being around these new little lives. Both of us were exhausted and ready for home by the end of our month. By the same token, it was really hard to leave these grandparent duties and feelings behind for now. I'm having trouble posting the babies' pictures within the blog, so will post them independently...just can't resist!

Coming home brought new challenges...especially outside. The garden was so overgrown that I was surprised we didn't have a letter in our mailbox from the community association. It was time to change the filters on everthing in the house and two days into our return the compressor went out on our air conditioning and we had to have it replaced. In a record setting month for heat (24 days over 100 and an average temp of 100.7 overall), this is not a laughing matter. We got great service though and put the matter to rest in a day. So...we called our yard service and got some help with the yard, which is now mulched, trimmed, fertilized, fungus free and replanted for fall...more pictures to come...and went to work on the inside of the house to get ready for a visit from my son and his wife from Connecticut. Between all these obvious tasks we worked in doctor's appointments, started physical therapy for arthritis issues both of us are having and tried to renew our commitment to getting down to the fitness center for swimming sessions in the afternoon hours. We're still working on the last one.

Our cat (even though she has a loving petsitter) was mad as a hatter because we had been gone so long. This lasted about 5 minutes though and she was back into our normal routine of petting, feeding, snuggling, etc. I noticed that freefeeding her during our absence had put a little weight on her, then checked my own thunderous thighs for the changes that being on the road can bring. I think I won. Shoot!

Priorities now include catching up on my responsibilities as coordinator for the adult activities group at our church, trying to finish my Texas Real Estate License course I ordered from UT Arlington online educational services at the beginning of the summer, getting my blogs back on track from a long absence and trying to keep my health up to par. I am hoping to add at least one class from the Senior University at Texas Southwestern University here in Georgetown this winter.

The older daughter of my three often poses the question to me.."What are you doing Mom?" Her tone is one of disbelief that I am busy after retirement. I guess the answer is that I can't imagine what was getting missed when I was working because I am very satisfied just living life and having the freedom to choose what I do. That includes working again if I want to. For now, retirement is A OK. I feel blessed.

Next week our adult activities at church kick off with a luncheon at Southwestern, then we are off to Mo Ranch in Hunt, Texas near Kerrville mid-month for an annual all-church retreat. The fun begins!

See you again soon.

God bless and keep you till then.

Paula

rockingrama (Paula) 8/20/2006

About Time

Time has been on my mind lately. It’s not particularly unusual because I recently had a birthday and that always brings up the subject. What makes it more interesting is how a person’s view of time changes with age.

I used to view time as the enemy. There was never enough of it to pack in my musts, wants, needs and desires. It was too easy to waste, quick to slip away and a crafty thief of uninitiated dreams. It was also filled with predetermined expectations that often conflicted with my will.

Time was not my enemy, I was. The truth is that we have enough time for anything that we truly want.

Time is the universal gift that belongs to each of us regardless of circumstance, gender, race or abilities. Even a person who has limited time to live or who is restricted in their ability to move freely within the bounds of time has the unique freedom to use it to improve, to inform and to correct the direction of their own thought processes. Great literary works have been produced during incarceration, when the authors clearly had no control over circumstance but a lot of time on hand. Some examples are the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dostoyevsky and Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. Stephen Hawking is a paraplegic who suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and in defiance of this progressive condition that has robbed him of both physical abilities and his voice, he has married twice, raised a family and become one of the most respected cosmologist’s of all time. He defied the prison of his own body and used his mind to create the life he imagined.

I’m not suggesting that every person can become as significant in their accomplishments as these individuals. I am suggesting that approaching the use of time with the right attitude and a lot of respect can improve anyone’s life condition.

My observation is that time is really static (in a theoretical sense) and it is we that are moving through it. The markers are the solid bodies of the universe…planets, earth, stars. Somewhere in between these solid bodies, there is space to be filled. Time resides in the floes of space and that is where we live, in time. When we come into the world, time has been here before us and when we go out time remains. In this sense, even when the world ends, time will remain. It is only the places, things and events of our own creation that we can not revisit because they are a temporary condition of a very specific place in time that depends entirely on our support. When we move on, they cease to exist in the way that we knew them. Time remains constant and waits for the next tenant.
Scientifically, these thoughts are probably flawed. I am not qualified to say. Philosophically, it makes a lot of sense to me. When you think of all of the gifts that God gave us, certainly time is among them.

So the problem we face is how to be a good tenant in this moment, on this day so that we don’t need to look back and regret what can’t be recovered. Looking forward is one way to cope; making plans for the future, envisioning the things that make you happy and that you are willing to spend your time working to get. By things I mean literally everything that you can imagine…faith, love, relationships, education, money and possessions that mean something to your life. Remembering your past is one thing that can help you prepare for the future, but the trick is to remember it in a useful way as your history. Never limit your dreams for the future by what time holds in your past.

Daily use of a portion of your time to build a future is the only way to ensure a vision. If you would be a singer, sing. If you pursue excellence in your field, strive to perfect. There is no surer path to the goal. If you have obstacles to overcome, exercise your mind and your heart daily by practicing hope, faith and confidence until you climb the mountain, even if the climb is steep and rocky. God is always with you and the place that you are in at this very moment is the place you need to be to realize His purpose for you.

Now there is the moment; the very moment that we are living. What can be done to make it count? I have come to the realization that at least for me, all moments have equal weight in time. Some are filled with elation, some with sorrow, a few with regret, most with love and all with a lingering sense of not being a finished product. Each moment is important, each is a gift to be respected and spent in thoughtful consideration of its value.

Does this mean that every single breath I take must be dedicated to some higher purpose or all is lost? No. It means that I must deliberately determine how to bring value into the space that is mine. I can choose to sleep because it is a pleasurable experience that refreshes my mind and my body. I can choose to read or study, to do the dishes or mop the floors, to call a friend or help a neighbor. I can choose to express my love to the people who are the core of my life, to nurture my garden or to attend to my health. I can choose to relax and just take the time to look around at what my life is right now.

The point is that time is a commodity as solid as a bank account and it works much the same way. What you put in, you get out with interest. Like the bank account, what we can put in is limited by our own resources. The checks we write against our time account won’t bounce, but unwisely spent, they will sap our physical, mental and psychological reserves until they are a shadow of the potential that resides in us from birth.

As usual I have some advice, given with a light but very serious heart.

There is honor in all of the things that you do that are sightly before God and that support or enhance your happiness and well being in this life.

Take time to pray. Even if you don’t hear God’s voice, His will is with you.

Comparing or judging is a waste of precious time that you could use to love or encourage.

You can affect another person’s whole life by a simple word or smile at the right moment.

You should never shape your life to mirror someone else’s standard; creating your own standard is a life’s work. If your life looks too much like someone else’s, whose is it?

This moment does count and it can never be recovered if you change your mind or ignore it.

You are never a finished product and can always use work.

Forgive yourself and move on when you make a mistake.

Stop and smell those proverbial roses, even if it’s on your way to work.

Make the time for all people and things worth your time.

Be in the moment.