Adventuring Close at Hand

Adventuring Close at Hand

Sometimes the most innocent of trips develops into an adventure. I remember when we first brought our girls, Mariatu and Sia, here from Sierra Leone, West Africa, we discovered there were a couple of African stores in downtown Kansas City. That, of course, necessitated a trip or two there. So, we’d pile into my car and head for the big city. (We lived in Raymore, MO, at that time.) Prior to these jaunts, my trips to the big city usually meant to Bannister or Oak Park Malls.

This was prior to everyone carrying a cell phone, or cars equipped with GPS. I just looked it up in the phone book and off we went!  As we drove (and drove, and drove), one of the ladies would sweetly ask, “Mom, are we lost?” To which I would respond with a smile pasted on my face, “NO! WE’RE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!!!”

Now let me digress, momentarily, to state a few facts.

1) We were originally from down in the Ozark mountains.

2) The town we lived nearest had a population of 386.

3) Despite the fact that our military travels led us to Colorado Springs, Phoenix, St. Louis, etc., I never spent a lot of time “in the city”.  

4) When girls were ready to shop for African food, I wasn’t supposed to waste time adventuring.

Back to present time.

Life is vastly different now. Everybody has a cell phone. Cars come with GPS. And I’m 20+ years older and feebler.  Now Maria has four brilliant, talented, and beautiful children (1 graduating this year), and she gets around like nobody’s business and, if she doesn’t feel like it, her husband, Jeff, can. Sia has a lively, bright, opinionated 7-year-old daughter and not much gets past either of them.  They are such free spirits that they just get up and go wherever they set their minds to go. 

I had a fun ride with Sia recently. She and Malika had come up to visit for a couple of days.  As they were preparing to leave, I rode down to the closest filling station to top off their tank and enjoyed laughing and talking with them.

All at once, history repeated itself. From the back seat, Malika asked, “Mom? Are we lost?” Sia plastered the biggest smile on her face and answered, “Are we lost? No, my dear, we’re going on an adventure!” Like mother like daughter?

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Hope all your adventures are happy ones, and that you enjoy spoiling your favorite Mother in the world!

Happy Spring! And Happy Mother’s Day!

Spring Cleaning - Dontchaloveit!!!

Spring Cleaning – Dontchaloveit!!!

Actually, this title is probably more than a little deceiving. Now everyone thinks my house is getting super clean. Actually, I am cleaning out my desk and credenza drawers: a job and a half.

I did not have a blog for the month of March, as I took a bit of a fall resulting in a bruise on the left side of my had, a brain bleed, three broken ribs, and a broken sternum. The critical care team did their best and I'm recovering. 

My recent MRI showed I have torn muscles in my back left shoulder: the same one I had surgery on for a torn rotator cuff a couple of years ago. Was this a waste of time? No. All the time spent in KUMC and LMH allowed me to think.

 I’d never had a fall like this before. Not even last spring when I tripped over the garden hose. It had been one of those slow motion things which, praise God, did not allow me to land on my knees, which is a no-no for those with artificial knees. 

I now get my 10 – 12 hours of sleep at night, plus a nap in the afternoon, I am finally able to do some deep thinking. For more fun, I decided to deep clean instead. Tackling the mess on my desk and credenza didn't cause my shoulder, chest, or ribs to hurt.

Have you found when you begin throwing old stuff away, you find pictures you can’t part with: quotes, jokes, or heavy thoughts which you might want to write on someday? So everything didn't get thrown out and the whole afternoon was wasted. Sigh. I missed my afternoon nap but the time wasn't wasted. Here's a photo showing the results.

The desk of L. K. Houk - found!

Another thing is I have a love/hate relationship with my brain now. Being from a family of people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, I realize how serious a knock on the head is. Weeks later, I still forget names of dear, dear friends, who are right in front of me, and words that used to be mine, and dates, or days of the week. While I don’t find these serious ailments at all funny, I have to laugh at myself, because if I don’t, I might cry.

People are so nice about it though. One of my elderly (cough, cough) friends reassured me, “Just remember when you’re over the hill, you begin to pick up speed.” Or my Aunt Thelma, dearly loved and missed, would say, “Well, old age isn’t for sissies!”

As we look toward a beautiful Easter season, I hope you are well and able to stay up on two feet. Life somehow works better right side up.

Happy Spring!

Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash

Words! Words! Words!

Sometimes they are good and sometimes they are bad. Sometimes useful and sometimes not so much. Sometimes kind and caring, but others are hurtful and unkind. I have been thinking about words a lot lately. Can you tell? 😊

My Sister, Rae Jean, who lives with us, just dearly loves to have me read to her. Sure, she can read, and books are always available, but she always prefers for me to read aloud. She almost always says, “I remember when Mother used to sit down and read to Geniece (another sister) and me when we were really little. I love to be read to!” So, we have been doing a lot of reading these past 15 months.

We’ve read all the Nancy Drew mysteries. (“Remember when we would walk from school to the Bentonville City Library and check out stacks of books every week?” [Actually, no, that, too, was Geniece. I was too young.] We’ve read, I believe, all the “Murder, She Wrote” books. Of course, Reader’s Digest magazine. Dear Friend/Sister Sharron saves her daily papers for us, since Rae Jean was used to having her daily paper to read.

I’d gotten rid of numbers of books when we moved from the ranch over across the lake to our retirement home. But recently I found one on my shelf I didn’t recollect. I pulled it down and offered to read to her. Though I remember reading Marjorie Holmes’ books, poetry, magazine columns, etc., I didn’t recall this particular book. I decided we’d read it, thinking perhaps it was one book that was left here in this house when we moved in.

Talk about a surprise! I opened up You and I and Yesterday and found the following inscription:

“Christmas 1974

Dear Nana,

      We hope you enjoy this book. Marjorie Holmes is one of my favorite writers. Have a Merry Christmas and many, many more!

Love,

Lonny and Katy”

— (found treasure)

This was a book I had given to my Nana (grandmother) almost 50 years ago! I didn’t even know I had it! I think that when Rae Jean and Aunt Tez were selling Nana and Aunt Thelma’s home after they were gone, Rae Jean must have sent it in one of the number of boxes designated to go to us. Somehow it had missed the chopping block on our last move!

Funny thing. I don’t think I had ever read that book. Funnier yet, I’d totally forgotten about Marjorie Holmes. And so here we are now, about the age that Nana was when she received this book, reading about life in the “Good Old Days” when Marjorie was a child growing up in the small town of Storm Lake, Iowa, in the 1920s.

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 That reminds me: this is 2024.

I’ve often talked about my great leap forward with the old New Year’s Resolutions conundrum. For many years, I, as do so many others, had assiduously sat down at the first of the year with the task of setting forth my New Year’s Resolutions. (Fanfare, please.) The problem, I realized some time ago, was that what I was actually doing was setting myself up for failure. Let’s face it, it’s going to take more than ink on a sheet of paper to perform all the resolutions that are on that list year after year after year….

 So several years ago I chose some scripture verses and used them as my touchstones of encouragement for the new year. My memory improved as I read them, usually, every morning and every night, and I am sure I am better for it. But THIS YEAR, this year, 2024, I have another plan. As I told our Ladies’ Bible Study group, I am taking one specific admonishment from the Bible, and I am using it as a framework to build my year on. Are you ready for this? I think you’ll love it a lot.

Speak the Truth in Love

  (It’s from Ephesians wherein our Ladies’ Bible Study is studying now. If you’d like to join us, we meet on a conference call Tuesday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00. We’ll be happy to send you the number.)   

 So many people are delighted to unload their take on world events, churches, other people… whatever. But they seldom have the truth, much less are they speaking in love. Those who are trying to browbeat other believers with their brilliance and erudition need a clearer understanding of Love. 

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 I wish you a bright and happy New Year.

You’re invited to join me in my new motto, and “Speak the Truth in Love”.

(Or don’t speak at all.)

Home for the Holidays

Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash

Home

Home. What a wonderful word. Just mentioning it brings thoughts of warm apple pies, a cheery fire in the winter, or maybe a family game of bocce ball in the summer. Just saying it feels good, doesn’t it?  

I have a friend who once said, “Home is where the mattress fits!” And I think we can just about all agree with that…there’s just no place like home! Especially on the holidays! Of course, we all know that there are places where people live together as families that don’t have that “homey” feeling. Where harsh words and abuse are the norm, rather than hugs and support. But what does the Bible tell us our homes are meant to be?

I would submit to you that the home is the first institution mentioned in the Bible. I think God did that on purpose to let us know that the home is the most important institution in His Creation. He didn’t create Adam and Eve and then give them the institution of the church, or the government, or even the Ten Commandments. He instituted the home. And in Deuteronomy, He gave us this admonition:

“Thou shalt teach them (God’s commands) diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in the house; and when thou walkest in the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up…And thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates.”

— Deuteronomy

Maybe that’s why the home is so important to God, because it is the very center of learning about God. It is our job to teach God personally, intimately, and continuously to our children, and not just to our children (or grandchildren) but to ourselves.

Perhaps this is something we should especially consider during the wonderful Advent Season and Christmas. I’m very pleased that our son’s family celebrates a Shepherd’s Supper on Christmas Eve, reading the true Christmas story, eating the foods that the shepherds might have eaten, sitting in their bathrobes in front of the fireplace with no electric lights. I think that is wonderful and meaningful. Do you have a family tradition to share with others? There must be a meaningfulness in the things we do, be it lighting the advent candles and reading the Bible, or softly singing Christmas carols. We can make this time rich, special, and memorable. We can make it homey.

I pray this Christmas will be a joy-filled, meaningful season in your life and in the lives of those you touch — neighbors, friends, relatives, or unknown folks in the stores or in the street. Let the joy of the season fill you to overflowing and then spill out to those around you.

Merry Christmas and a meaningful, happy new year to one and all!

Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash

Lura K. Houk (Katy)