Six months comes around quickly.

And, this week it was time to take Pop and Alex to Birmingham to see their eye doctors.  Pop has macular degeneration in one eye, but by taking  series of shots (INTO THE EYE) every 6 weeks, he has been able to regain most of the sight in that eye.  He gets shots here in Dothan at 6 week intervals, but sees the specialist at The Eye Foundation every 6 months.

Alex has always had extremely poor eyesight due to the Cerebellar Atrophy.  But, Ian found a doctor in Birmingham who was able to give him better eyesight through a series of implants and laser surgery.  His also has nystagmus.  This means that his eyes are in a constant state of motion. Never stopping.  There is nothing to be done for this…it also comes as a result of the Cerebellar Atrophy.  But, now Alex also has macular degeneration.  In one of his eyes he only has a very small amount of peripheral vision.  It is permanent.  Unlike Pop’s…Alex will have to live with this forever.  Unless God decides to perform a miracle.  We see the specialist in Birmingham to keep close watch on his good eye to be sure it does not deteriorate as well.  After a year and a half, it seems to be holding steady.

This, then, is why we travel so often to the big city.  It is a perk for us that Ian lives there, because we get to spend a little time with him, as well.  I am sharing some pics that we took this weekend.

Taking a stroll through the Galleria…

Joy and Alex…

Best selfie we could get of us all…

At the Eye Foundation…not movie stars…dilated eyes!

Out to eat with Ian…Pop likes the alligator bites…me?  not so much…

You know, anytime you are together with family is a time to make sweet memories.  Even in cases of illness.  Our family has learned in our travels through life on this earth…things change quickly…you are not promised tomorrow…there is joy to be found in every situation…in great sadness, wonderful lessons can be learned…God is good-all the time.

PS…Oh, what a difference a good haircut will make!

This has been running back and forth through my mind lately and I know why.  It’s because the people involved were all women who had an influence on me.  A good one.  All ladies in my church. These were ladies I grew to know and love from the time I started at Southside Baptist Church.  I was in the 6th grade.  These were ladies who were already adults when I was a child and so they were my teachers and my leaders and my examples.

I trained several years while I was in college at Glorietta Baptist Assembly in Glorietta, NM.  I wouldn’t expect you to know about this place unless you were a Southern Baptist.  There was another one in Ridgecrest, NC.  In those years, people would travel for a week or two to one of these assemblies and stay on the grounds.  Then they would go to classes in their area of service during the day.  Every evening there were services with the visiting pastor for the week.  Each night was like a good ole Baptist Revival.  The best preachers were there…the best singers were there.  And, helping to run it all was college students from around the country.   Most were employed to clean cabins during the day, or work on the grounds, or serve in the kitchen…cooking and cleaning.  Some were used in the recreation for the visiting children.  And, a few…just 5 or 6…were selected to work in the preschool department.

I was one of those.  Now, I didn’t realize just how fortunate I was at first, but anything was better than cleaning and making beds or washing 600 dirty breakfast plates!  Thus began my training and subsequent love of preschool education in the church.  The leaders in each of these areas were the tops in their field.  These were the people who wrote the literature.  They wrote the books on how to teach.  The wrote study course books outlining how to set up a preschool department and why.  These people were amazing.  They wrote children’s books and children’s music.  They did it all.  And, for 2 summers, I was directly under their direction and leadership and teaching.

This is the way it worked.  We all got a crash course in teaching preschoolers.  We’d watch and learn.  We’d do something wrong and learn.  We’d read and learn.  And, soon enough, we would take the whole room of children and be responsible for them.  See, the parents who came to attend classes would bring their children.  We in turn would keep them and teach them…like a Sunday School department.  There were classrooms set up.  And, all around the outside of the room were dark screened rooms with chairs.  The leaders would hold classes elsewhere for those who were interested in preschool work and then sometime each day they would quietly enter those darkened screen rooms and observe what we EXPERTS were doing.  Believe me, if we did not not handle a situation right…it was used to talk about the right thing to do…and we were made well aware of the blunder! They would sit quietly for 30 or 40 minutes and then leave.  The children never knew they were there.  (I do remember one little boy coming up to me and saying that the “that wall has coughing in it!”)

I can’t even begin to tell you how soon I began to know just how blessed I was.  This method of teaching made perfect sense to me.  A department was set up with certain areas in it….art, home living, blocks, puzzles, books, etc.  These were a constant each week.  Then an activity was prepared for the child to do in each area.  An activity that went along with the lesson.  The children made the choices as to the areas they visited…but in each one they had the opportunity to hear the Bible Story of the day.  So, by the time they got to Large group time, they had heard the story at least 3 times already!  Then all the lessons followed a rotation system in the areas of God, Jesus, Natural World, Self, Others, Family, Home.  It changed either monthly or quarterly.

This system made such sense to me and it still does, though few follow it anymore.  I began to to work in a local church while I was in college.  And, I had already taken 2 years of Early Education courses at Samford University.  Don and I married and I taught in our church in Birmingham until we moved back to Dothan.  About that time, our home church began a major building project for a new education building and a preschool building was included in that.  I was able to give some input and insight into the building…and they used consultants from Baptist State Boards to make sure it met the requirements they had set forth.  How blessed to be able to teach in a building, and have the materials to teach, all according to the proper set up!  I started my work in preschool at Southside as Preschool Director.  I stayed in this position for some 20 years.  I then passed the job to capable hands and began teaching the kindergarten class each Sunday.  This was probably another 20 years.  I worked as Director again for a few years when we remodeled again, but now I am out of it altogether.  Age and family and health…you understand.   But, I miss it every single time I am at church!

One of the things I worked on in those years is getting trained teachers for all the classrooms…babies, toddlers, threes,fours,and fives.  And I was able to do that.   I taught classes for all ages.  One of my greatest success stories was the Threes!

I don’t remember exactly, but this is my recollection.  My Mom came to me and said that she and two of her friends wanted to teach the threes.  Well, this was just as I was looking for new workers.   I told her that would be great!  So the team of Mom (Eloise Townsend), Jeanette Glover, and Rudean Newton was formed for our three year old department.  They were willing and anxious to learn the ‘right ‘ way to do everything!  They knew how important it was to have training, and spent a week at an Alabama assembly that taught classes similar to the bigger assemblies.  This was Shocco Springs.  They learned and began the work with our threes.  What a wonderful job they did!  Oh, and how thrilled I was to see things done the right way…the way for optimum teaching of little ones.  They worked together for quite a few years.  I don’t remember exactly why, but Mrs. Rudean had to bow out….and was replaced by the wonderful Betty Swicord.  She fit right in and things went on just as smoothly as before.  I had forgotten this but Jeanette told me Sunday that when Mrs. Betty had to exit, another lady stepped in.  And, through all the years, when one or another of the ladies were unable to be in attendance, Shirley Hammond was the designated fill in person.  She was as talented as all the others and could move in with ease.

This post is a thank you to this group who saw the need for  preschool education.  They didn’t think threes were too young to teach.  They understood the principle that, starting with babies, you build a foundation that church is a happy place to be.  People love me at church.  People take care of me at church. We do fun things together at church.  This foundation carries on and is built upon as the child grows.  Soon he is able to learn more about why we come to church…eventually learning to love God and surrender their lives to Him.

The saints in this group are no longer all together.  Mom and Mrs. Rudean have moved to Heaven.

Mrs. Betty is dealing with serious health issues, Mrs. Jeanette has just undergone some serious health problems, as well.    In the midst of the illness of both of these ladies, they have been faithful and continue to serve the Lord.

Shirley Hammond is no longer a member at Southside, but is doing well and serving the Lord in many ways.  She is and will always be a part of us!

I want to honor these ladies and the example they are to me!  I have watched you all for many years.  I see what you do and how you act.  I see how you suffer and continue to smile.  I see you faith in our Lord shining through adversity.  I don’t think I can ever measure up to any of you, but you are my inspiration.

My mother was wise in many ways.  She was a friend to many.  These ladies were dear to her and loved her.  And, she loved and trusted them.  At times, in church, I get a little emotional, when something reminds me of Mom.  These are the ladies I want to hug…because they loved her, too.  And, I feel almost as if I can feel her though their hugs.

Mom, Rudean Newton, Jeanette Glover, Betty Swicord, Shirley Hammond…thank you.  You have a special place in my heart of hearts.

My mother loved to sing. She sang all the time.  She sang in the car.  She sang at the kitchen sink.  She sang while dusting and vacuuming.  She had music in her and it had to come out!  I think that’s a wonderful thing, because all she ever sang was hymns or other Christian music….but hymns mostly or songs they were working on in choir.

Our family was a church going family.  Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, every revival, every associational meeting, ever Week of Prayer (twice a year), every committee meeting, every choir meeting, every Sunbeams, GA’s, Acteens, Every social, every special missionary speaker,   every winter Bible study, every VBS early bird clinic, every association wide sing, every youth meeting on Saturday night,every circle meeting, every class meeting, every BYW, every children’s choir, every Mission Friends, every Sunday night after church fellowship, every dinner on the grounds after service on Sunday morning.  Every single thing that was made available to us, we were there and on the front row!  The only exception to this  rule was the one night a year that The Wizard of Oz came on TV.  That night Daddy and Joy and I were allowed to stay home and watch the movie.  Mother fixed us snacks and settled the three of us in front of the TV…before she went on to church.  And, we watched.  And, Joy cried at the same spot every year!  Ahhh! Those monkeys were not that scary!

Now, our church attendance was not a bad thing.  Actually, it was a good thing….though I didn’t realize it at the time.  Our life existed in learning about our Lord.  Our dearest friends were right there in those meetings with us.  This is what we put our time and talent into.  And, we were very happy.  My parents had wonderful friends, and their children were our friends.  They liked to get together when we weren’t at church, and so we got together with them.  And, so at almost all times of my life I was surrounded by people who thought like us, and talked like us and worshipped like us.  My parents friends became extended family to us.  (Ours all lived far away)  They were Aunt Katherine and Uncle Allison and Aunt Eunice and Uncle Robert…and others.

My Mom always sang in the choir and occasionally would sing solos.  My Aunt Eunice Williams was my piano teacher for 12 years (,,,I’m sorry Aunt Eunice, for not practicing more…)  She was also our church organist.  And, our Youth Choir director for a while!  I can still recall an anthem she taught us in choir some 45 years ago.  Joy and I can still do a pretty good rendition of it when we are together…in the car…by ourselves.

But, though my Mom was forever singing…I could not remember a song she taught me to sing.  Now she had a couple of fun songs she always liked to sing…like Shoo Fly Pie, Gonna Dance By the Light of the Moon.  And, she had a few poems she would recite…The Moo Cow Moo.   But, as far as a song she taught me the words and how to sing, I could not remember a single one.

What brought this up is I found a file of songs I have taught to Levi.  Some you would know and some came straight out this convoluted mind of mine…and only Levi and I would understand.  We’ve been making up our own songs since he was a baby!  All along he will ask me to sing the song about the chicken or the Hands Song, etc.

Because I am such a stickler for him listening to the right kind of music, I have several CDs and DVDs that we listen to in the car.  He knows them all by heart now!  But, I purchased a new one a few weeks ago and this week, we played on the way to school.  A song came on that was vaguely familiar to me.  I knew it was a song I had learned long ago…but the words were a little different.  They were alike enough that I knew it was the song.  After Levi got out of the car at school, I sat and listened to the song a few times…rewinding and listening again.  And, then I had the most beautiful remembrance.

It was a song my Mother had taught me.  I can see us sitting together and her singing a line, then me repeating it. Then changing up the words and singing it again.  You may even know it…with slightly different words.  But this is the way Mom taught me.

OUR HEAVENLY FATHER

Our heavenly Father made the BIRDS, He showed them what to do

If God so loves the little BIRDS, I know He loves me, too.

He loves me , too.  He loves me, too.   I know He loves me, too.

If God so loves the little BIRDS,   I know He loves me, too!

Wow!  what a sweet memory I had sitting in the car, in the cold, in the parking lot at FPP.  That’s the great thing about memories, isn’t it?  They pop up out of nowhere, but take you right back to a moment in time long ago.  I just wanted to be still and revel in it!  I was thinking of that as I drove home, and to my surprise, I remembered another song Mom taught me.  I have not heard this song in forever, but there it was seared into my memory bank.

WHO CAN MAKE A FLOWER?

O who can make a FLOWER?

I’m sure I can’t, can you?

O, who can make a FLOWER?

No one but God; It’s true!

Yes, there she was singing that song and teaching me the word and motions to it!  So sweet! So comforting!  I remember it vividly…now!

Don’t ever think that the things you teach your children are for naught.  What goes in this brain of ours, is there.  And, at some time, it’ll just rise to the surface.  Perhaps at a time when we need a lift.  Or maybe at a time God just wants to give us a little wink and say “Remember this?”

Oh the responsibility it is on us as parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles,teachers, friends.  Someone… sometime… somewhere… will recall a memory of us.  Will we be pleased with what they remember?  Will we be ashamed?  Will it be a memory that is worth sharing with others?

Well those decisions are all up to you.  But as for me…I am thrilled when I can share such happiness and remembrance with you!

I think those of you that know me well know how I feel about the way music is presented in the modern church.  I miss the hymns.  (Our present minister of music does a great mix of both).  I miss singing hymns and those familiar words that are seared in my memory from years of attending a Southern Baptist Church.

I love the theology of hymns.  So many times, the right hymn can be like a mini sermon.  It can say in a few lines and a chorus just what you need to hear.

Being  a preschool teacher for 40 years, and a preschool music teacher for 20 of them, I know that what we put into the minds of our little ones, is what they will pull up throughout their lives.  I see these videos on TV of kids dancing  to and singing ungodly songs, and people comment how cute it is.  To me it is sad that this is the kind of music they are exposed to.  How will these songs help them in later life?

Last night our family had a medical emergency.  The patient was 200 miles away, and in great distress.  We were helpless.  Trying to get him to the hospital and speaking to emergency personnel, making sure he was safe and getting proper care, we were up all night…worried as could be.  But, there was no time for us to get there and take care of things.  All we could do was pray.  We prayed separately.  We prayed on the phone.  We prayed together.  And, then we tried to lay back down and wait…and trust…and believe…that God would step in and do what He said He would.  As I lay in the dark…alternately praying and trying to figure out a way to get there NOW,  the sweetest words started flowing through my mind.

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,       

Just to take Him at His Word;

Just to rest upon His promise,    

And, to know, “Thus saith the Lord.”

*Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him      How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;

*Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus!      Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

Yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus,

Just from sin and self to cease;

Just from Jesus simply taking

Life and rest and joy and peace.

*Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!    How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;

*Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!      Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,

Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;

And, I know that Thou art with me,

Wilt be with me to the end.

*Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!     How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;

*Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!       Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

It was as if Jesus was speaking to me and saying, “That’s right, Tonja.  It IS sweet to trust in me.  You HAVE proved me many times.  Now, do it again…trust in Me.”  And, that’s when the peace came.  Whatever was going on with our loved one was being controlled by the one who loves him more than we ever could.  Friends, let me tell you an absolute truth…there is no peace like the peace God gives.  His peace is perfect, and it is always available!

How many times have I sung that song through the years?  It was a favorite as I grew up.  But, in all honesty, I can not remember the last time I sang it…or even thought about it.  But, there it was when I needed comfort and a gentle reminder.

(I must confess, I did not remember the second verse printed here.  But when I looked up the lyrics to be sure I got them right, I just had to share them with you, too.)  Isn’t that a beautiful thought…“Just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace.”

Well, all is well this morning.  4 kidney stones are nothing to breeze through…I know I’ve been there.  Actually, now that he’s been initiated into the club…we can all commiserate with one another…he’s the last of the family circle to experience this ailment.  I’m betting about now he’s wishing he’d never joined!

The first annual BOO-GA-LOO CAMP is history.  But, history that is bound to be relived and talked about for a while to come.  Because family is so important and I don’t get to spend as much time as I would like with mine…I decided that the big girls and the little boys would have a special few days together.  Why ‘Boogaloo’, you may ask?  Well, it had to have a name.  And, the Boogaloo (bugaloo) is a fast paced dance with wild, crazy movements…. and with these little guys around, we ‘re nothing if we are not fast, wild and crazy!  So Boogaloo it is.  I also changed the spelling to my liking…because I don’t want it called the ‘bug’aloo camp.  Cause bugs…not invited!

Joy and I arrived a day early to rest and reserve our strength for what we knew was going to be a wild weekend.  We were wise to do so!  However, I did have one small project for us to do.  We bought pavers and sorta/kinda laid a walkway between the house (The Sandcastle) and the trailer (The Flamingo).  We had to wait until it was almost dark for it to be cool enough for us to work outside.   And, late afternoon…prime mosquito time!   It wasn’t exactly perfect …but it worked well enough that the boys did not have to walk through the sand spurs to go back and forth.

The crew arrived and the first order of business was discussing all the activities that were to follow. Oh, yes!  Arts and crafts, swimming, sunning, bumper boats, story time, water fun, go carts, and donuts, of course!  We blew up a big pool for the boys to play with their new water squirters and boats and cars.  While we girls sat around and visited.

After a meal out, we turned in…praying for a sunny tomorrow…with NO rain!  The next day was our planned time on the beach.  And, wow! we could not have ordered a more gorgeous day.  Perfection!.

The boys and girls rode the waves, gathered shells, and floated in the glorious ocean under a blazing sun!  Joy and I sat in the shade of a giant umbrella and enjoyed the show!  Back at the Sandcastle, we got in a little art work.  Painting, stamping, building boats…puzzles, cars, and games.

Levi even got a lesson in Solitaire from Aunt Joy!

After a night’s rest, we were up and ready to go again…this time to the Water Park.  Oh, the boys love it here!  There are fountains popping up from the ground to run through and glorious misters to stand in.  The kid’s pool is only 2 feet deep and it is huge!  There’s 2 slides and all sorts of water fun.  There is also an olympic sized pool with obstacles to run.  And around it all are ledges for the older folks to rest…’cause the little boys don’t stop when they get there…until it’s time to eat.  Also lots of covered picnic tables to escape from the sun for a while.

After a little rest, we went to a wonderful place to eat…Boondocks.    After dinner came go-cart time!  This was our promise to Levi.  And, then we had to scout out some shells.   This was our promise to John Thomas….he has a shell collection…and there really aren’t many to be found on the beaches.  Found a great place, and the boys were going strong.  Joy and I, however, were fading fast.  So we switched up cars.  They went for ice cream and Joy and I went back to the Sandcastle.

Plans were to head to the beach for some crab hunting, but Levi came in the house in his Mother’s arms…already deep in dreamland.  So that’s on our list for next year!

The crew left out by noon on Sunday.  But Joy and I needed a day to recuperate.  They all left and by 2:00 we were both napping!  Revived, we did a little shopping, a little visiting, and a little eating.  We finished cleaning the next morning and were home early afternoon.

What an amazing few days together we had! Time focused just on family and fun.  And building memories for the boys.  I think both boys were sad their dads were not along.  It makes me happy that Will and Adam spend such quality time with their sons that they want them along wherever the fun is!  Such good daddies! But, this trip was for us girls!

We are so thankful that God granted us these days to laugh, and read and sing and dance and play and swim and rest at night!  God is good to us and His blessings can never be counted.  It is He who established the family.  And, it is He who blesses ours.