Praise Ministry Letter to the Homebound

Today I received a request to write a letter to the homebound in our church parish. This is a monthly ministry that the clergy and other parish leaders take turns doing. It's called the Praise Ministry. I was surprised to be asked but pleased as I do love to write. Below is my letter for the month of May.

Greetings in the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

I take great delight in getting to visit with you this month through this letter.

As we continue celebrating this Easter season we can ponder the love and joy we are witnesses in sharing with our beloved Lord. He is alive and He is with us! We do believe. It is through this belief, that we know our sufferings on earth are only temporary as the promise of new life is truth promised and proven to us.

. Looking out my window I delight in the spring blossoms on the trees and the tulips starting to bloom. It is again, that new hope, tangible at my own front door, reminding me that Jesus Christ has risen and is with us. No matter what darkness we have endured or fears we have, our Lord has shown us that we too shall come through it. He has walked the path before us and shows us the way.

A favorite scripture of mine always brings hope. It is from the Song of Songs and it's a poetic portrayal of praise of the mutual love of the Lord and his people. In Chapter 2, verses 10 to 13 we read:

My lover speaks; he says to me,

"Arise my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!

For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of pruning the vines has come,

and the song of the dove is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth its figs,

and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.

Arise my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!"

During the most holy season of the Church year, we have the wonderful opportunity to turn our eyes to the Mother of Jesus who stood by him in his pain, suffering and new life. Jesus gave his Mother to us from

the cross (John, chapter 19:25-27) and she is our Mother too. Her love and intercession for us is always with us. We are not orphan children of God but rather under the warm protective mantle of a Mother most holy. No matter where we are in our life journey, we have a welcoming Mother to comfort and care for us as she did for her son, Jesus. Our beautiful and humble Blessed Virgin Mary is honored this month of May along with our own mothers. Our lives are given to each of us by the nurturing care of a woman, who became a Mother. This is the most blessed honor to have a participation in the creation of new souls and lives given to earth by God our Father. Mothers come in all sizes, shapes, attitudes and personalities but each has accepted the gift of new life, their own Annunciation of saying "yes" to motherhood. Motherhood is under such attack in this day and age. Let us offer extra prayers this month for the many women who refuse motherhood and for the many women who say "yes" to bringing forth new life. It is spring time, let us rejoice in the season!

(also posted at http://randrtandt.blogspot.com/)

My bid for more time!

Why I need more than 24 hours in a day and more that 7 days in a week.

I sit here on the sofa in my living room surrounded by my "stuff" and things I hope to do.

I have my ukulele and it's stand and case and tuner, my uke song books and I'm hoping to practice some songs and strumming.

I also have my two computers with cords strung across the love seat. On one computer I'm writing my book, which btw is up to 42,244 words. The other computer has my pictures downloaded because the USB ports on my main laptop are not working...so I need a trip to Best Buy to the Geek Squad repair folks.

I also have the Healthy Edge notebook and papers from the program I'm doing with my Health & Wellness Coach. Each week I listen to new audio and video classes and I track my eating, exercise, water consumption, etc.

That last paragraph brings me to the hours of exercise I aim to do most days. I work at a fitness center so I can work out whenever I want. Problem is getting there. I love doing the elliptical and the weight machines and treadmill. I sometimes branch out and do other things in the stretching room. I do weight bars, exercise balls and Bosu balls, medicine balls, exercise bands and tubes. If I'm really tired I bike with a touring screen. It's all good for a healthy sweat....which leads to....

Showering, shampooing and continuing maintenance. I think as I get older it might be taking me a little longer. Maybe as much because I can more easily get side-tracked?

And watching Granddaughters while their parents work, my own work schedule, meals (whether eating out or in) are other hourly considerations.

If there is any down time, like sitting down on the full sofa, I do love to check email. My friends are very important to me so I like to write back! I also love to check out Facebook, Twitter and other people's blogs. When I am inspired, or mostly have time, I like to write on my own three blogs.

I also love to travel to fun places and do fun, adventurous things. Amid the hustle and bustle of my life I'm always pondering where and what can I do next. I didn't get to go to Winter Park dog sledding this winter or hot air ballooning yet so those are in my mind. Always I'm watching for

an opportunity to go sailing with friends again. This all takes time, as it starts in the planning stages.

Speaking of planning, I have the whole family and some of their family coming over for Easter dinner. I need to plan my menu, get the house in order, and balance out a Mass time so as to have time to actually do the cooking.

Did I mention my beloved, darling husband, Rex? He works and does deacon ministry so when he is free, I want to hang out with him. Some days that is harder than one would imagine. I've often accompanied him in the car when he has to go somewhere for a few hours just to be with him. I drop him off where he is teaching the deacons and I putter around until it's time to pick him back up. I usually bring my computer and find a Starbucks or Whole Foods Market to write while I wait. I do try to make good use of available time.

People often tell me they don't know how I keep going and doing all I do. I do manage to accomplish some things but all too many stay undone.

It's now midnight. It takes every minute of every day to squeeze in things. I do try to get in eight hours of solid sleep so it looks like I had better close my computer for the night and start counting sheep so tomorrow I can pick up where I left off today!

Good Eating

One of my favorite people who comes into the fitness center where I work told me about a

restaurant I needed to check out. Rex and I went there tonight. It was wonderful and we had the greatest experience.

Here is a web site to read about and see Dakota's Restaurant:http://www.restaurant.com/rdc/dakotas-restaurant-arvada-fusioneclectic-rid=405220

The owners, Susan and Michael, visited with the diners making everyone feel at home. The chef, Steve, came out of the kitchen to meet us and check on our meal. Before we left, we had a wonderful extended visit with Susan and Michael.

Susan plans to start having afternoon tea parties starting in May so I plan to check those out.

For my next visit, I have my breakfast picked out of the menu they sent home with us. I look forward to going back. I hope I get to go back soon.

(also posted at http://randrtandt.blogspot.com/)

Look What I Got in the Mail!

I was so surprised to find a package on the porch today addressed to me!

I didn't remember ordering anything.

Opening it I found this awesome First Alert Travel Carbon Monoxide Alarm. I was very excited. Inside the box was a paper that said: "Congratulations! Thank you for participating in the Midlife Road Trip give-away sponsored by First Alert." This alarm comes with a travel pouch and is perfect for traveling and staying in hotels, on sailboats :-) or anyplace your head rests that's not at home.

Thank you First Alert and Midlife Road Trip! I look forward to my safe travels!

(also posted at http://randrtandt.blogspot.com/)

1-11-11 I Have Met My Match

This date is so cool, I just had to do a post to use it!

Look at these two sweet, innocent little faces!

I wave my white flag in surrender. Yes, I have met my match!

Three or four afternoons a week I welcome these little granddaughters at my door for an afternoon with Grandma. Sometimes I have only one at a time but mostly I have both at once.

Abbi, the older one, is 2 1/2 years old. I have been watching her three afternoons a week since she was three months old. I don't know how she has gotten cuter everyday but she has! Her bright blue eyes and blond hair are just beautiful. Now that she is talking and showing wisdom beyond her years, she's a source of constant entertainment. Most days she wants to have a tea party.

I make up the "tea" using milk and chocolate syrup. Abbi sips it and shivers and declares "it's hot". We can sit for an hour sipping, pouring and nibbling our "crumpets". Abbi can run me ragged in record time all by herself most days. We go from tea party to Candyland, to playing hide and seek in the house, coloring, decorating gingerbread houses or making cupcakes, finding hidden pictures in the Highlights magazine for her age, putting on make-up and painting fingernails, eating applesauce with "pink" sprinkles on it, to playing in the princess castle that stands proudly in the corner of my living room.

Baby Mackayla (Abbi calls her Baby Kayla) is 1 1/2 years old. She is our little preemie, born at 1 lb 14 oz. When I first started watching her we used her feeding tube to give her formula every three hours. I got to be pretty good at keeping her entertained the 45 minutes it took to feed her while connected to the pump. Once she started eating on her own, I shifted gears and now keep a ready supply of Mac and Cheese, and other finger foods to have ready. She still has the feeding tube in her tummy but it's only used at night to give her the extra fluids she didn't take on her own during the day. We hope it can be removed sometime soon. When I have Mackayla by herself, she is an inquiring, sweet little toddler. She will sit on my lap and look at books, play happily with toys, explore the kitchen cabinets, push all the

buttons on the DVD player, stereo and laugh a lot. I look at her and remember her many months in NICU and how her dark eyes would look at me, melting me into a puddle. I still adore those dark eyes. She got them from her daddy, our middle son.

Now, add these two little sweetpeas together at Grandma's and Papa's house. Oh dear! My house turns into baby-central. Suddenly my floor is literally covered with toys, crackers, little girl shoes and carseats, diaper bags and pink coats and hats. (Abbi insists most things in her world are in the color Pink! The suddenly calm atmosphere when there is only one girl at a time becomes a whirlwind of squealing, running, demanding little girls. Abbi and Mackayla go into the pink princess castle/tent and I watch it shake as they rattle it with their hands and voices. They scurry in and out of the tent and the little princesses delight in having each other to play with. For my part, I have to intervene when Abbi decides all the toys are hers or when Mackayla loses her balance and falls over. And, of course, there is a potty chair I'm still trying to bribe Abbi to use (she tells me she just wants to play and uses the potty chair only at her house) and the diapers for Mackayla that she will only let me change if she is standing up! By the time my husband gets home from work and our grown kids come by to retrieve their precious little one's this Grandma is waving the white flag for the day. Dinner is often not even started and a path from the front door is walked only at one's own risk. I think I've even sat at the table propping my head up with my hands and staring off into space as the family starts to gather after their days at work. Yes, I have met my match with these little dolls! I raised five children but I was younger when I did that. Luckily enough I recover fast, getting a head start by falling asleep on the sofa sometimes. By the next day, I'm ever so anxious to watch out the

window for the arrival of the little girls again! Their little faces just make my day and delight me through and through. When the few days go by when I don't see them I go into withdrawl. What a blessing it is to be Grandma!

Thinking about my Bucket List

,Yup, that's me in Ketchican, Alaska on a zipline tour complete with three suspension bridges. What an adrenaline rush this was. I did this last summer, June 2010. I decided to post this picture tonight as I ponder the journey I am on. I love high adventure and I wonder what I can find to do in this new year? I have a Bucket List that I review every now and then. I want to add more to my "To Do" list , as soon as I think of some new things.

TO DO:

Hot air ballooning

Key West

New York

New England States

Jazz Fest, New Orleans

Mediterranean Cruise

New England Cruise

Victoria, B.C.

Make a sand angel on a beach

Have a book signing

Publish a book

Go to Hawaii

Raft down the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon

Niagra Falls Maid of the Mist Tour

See Aurora Borealis

Look through a really big/strong telescope (again)

Have a spa day

A week at Canyon Ranch Spa

Be on a rowing team

Play a song on my Ukelele

DONE:

Sail to Catalina and spend 7 nights on Boat

Ride in dinghy

Sailing

Canoeing

Rode on a segway

Visited Plantation homes

Explored Pacific Coast

Played in Pacific Ocean

Played in Atlantic Ocean

Played in Gulf of Mexico

Lake Louise/Banff/Roger’s Pass

Mardi Gras

Canyon Ranch Spa, Tucson, AZ

Flew in twin/ single prop plane

Drove Police Cars

Talked on Police radios

Police Victim Advocate

Quilt Museum Docent

1^st place/Best of Show Quilt

Been in a Parade (Red Hats, Parrot Heads)

Drove/Rode in Pontoon boats

Walked Bolder Boulder 10 K and Fairmont School's 3K

Helicopter ride & landed on glacier

Circled summit of Mt McKInley

ATVed

Dog Sledded

Whale watched

Salmon bake

Alaska Rail and Cruise

14 course meal on cruise

Champagne breakfast on ship balcony

Sang Karaoke

Snowmobiling

Fiesta Bowl

Cotton Bowl

Flew into Houston from B.R. to Astrodome for a Astro vs Atlanta Braves game

Hank Aaron hit a home run (Tenneco paid for our skybox)

School at Instituto IberAmericanos, Saltillo, Coah, for 6 weeks

Saw rings of Saturn in a large telescope

San Francisco; Ghiradelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Br.,etc

Los Angeles; lived there 3 yr

Met Dustin Hoffman, Buddy Hackett, Monty Hall, Stephanie Powers, "John" from TV show "Lost"

TP'd Grant Park from Conrad Hilton Hotel, Chicago, IL

Things I've Won:

A can of tennis balls (my first win and I was so excited I had tears in my eyes, even though I didn't even play tennis..it was around 1974)

SlimBodyCoach.com Cruise to Caribbean

Margaritaville Frozen Concoction maker

Byers Ice Cream party for 100 people

Werther's Chocolate, 60 pkg.

Joe's jeans and tote bag

Margarita Sensations CD

Swim Skinny CD

Brent Burns CD

$7500 furnace from Applewood PHE (Dec. 17, 2010)

Humble beginning of 2011

Gosh it's only into the 2nd week of January, 2011 and I've already been to a funeral this year. Additionally, within the same 24 hours I heard of 2 others I have known that also died within the day. I know deaths seem to increase in January as it's said people wait until after the holidays.

The funeral was a dear lady I knew from church, Marion. She was 85 years old. Her husband, John, has also been a delight for me to know. Marion and I were in the same Red Hat group at church. I used to pick her up and bring her since she wasn't driving and it was more fun for us to go together. To thank me, which wasn't at all necessary, we had lunch at one of her favorite Chinese restaurants one afternoon. Her husband is a retired fire chief. He used to come into the fitness center where I worked while Marion was having her hair done. I always loved seeing them whether it was at church or somewhere else. There were 13 of us Red Hat ladies sitting together at Marion's funeral Mass. Her grandson who gave the Eulogy even referred to her being a member and thanked us for coming to her funeral in our red hats. Her funeral was so sad. Her beloved husband kissed her repeatedly before he closed the casket, after the viewing and before Mass started. His tears brought tears to my eyes. Marion was dearly loved by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and many friends. I'm happy to know she rests in peace waiting for her adored husband.