Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Gracie Girls Birthday

Today would have been my precious Gracie's 3rd birthday. I know she's celebrating in Heaven, I just wish I could be there.

It's hard to believe it's been three years. They passed quickly and they didn't. It feels like a lifetime ago. It still hurts like yesterday.

In the words of Ben Folds...And life barrels on like a runaway train.

We had a quiet day. It's what I wanted.

My sweet husband had been asking what I wanted to do. We had originally planned to be out of town…Savannah or somewhere like that, but the date crept up on us and we hadn't made any plans.

Yesterday he asked me several times what I wanted to do today.

Stay in bed all day was my reply.

You can't do that he said.

And so I didn't.

We ate lunch at Bahama Breeze, and came home to find beautiful flowers on our doorstep.

Richard had ordered me a lovely bouquet of gerber daisies and roses, and my parents and sister sent a beautiful sunflower topiary arrangement.

We did the balloon thing, went for a walk, and had a quiet dinner at Longhorn.

Tomorrow is a new day.

I love this song. I love these lyrics. It was written by Angie Smith of Selah for her daughter Audrey. When I first heard this song I knew instantly that this woman had experienced the loss of a child. There was such an intimacy and a deepness there. She had summed up everything I was feeling and sang it beautifully.

There were photographs I wanted to take

Things I wanted to show you

Sing sweet lullabies wipe your teary eyes

Who could love you like this?

People say that I am brave but I'm not

Truth is I'm barely hanging on

But there's a greater story

Written long before me

Because He loves you like this

I will carry you

While your heart beats here

Long beyond the empty cradle

Through the coming years

I will carry you

All my life

I will praise the one who's chosen me

To carry you

Such a short time

Such a long road

All this madness

But I know

That the silence

Has brought me to His voice

And He says

I've shown her photographs of time beginning

Walked her through the parted seas

Angel lullabies no more teary eyes

Who could love her like this?

I will carry you

While your heart beats here

Long beyond the empty cradle

Through the coming years

I will carry you

All your life

And I will praise the one who's chosen me

To carry you

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Happy Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my friends, family and lurkers!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We are spending it down South with my family. As usual there were way too many wonderful things to eat and we stuffed ourselves.

I haven't blogged lately. For those who have missed me I am sorry. The holidays are especially difficult for us. It's hard to put aside that there should be a beautiful brown haired girl bouncing around, squealing in delight in the wonder and magic that is Christmas…but there isn't.

So you cope. You muddle through the best you can, and you remind yourself that she's safe and sound. I find myself daydreaming sometimes. What is Christmas like in Heaven? Indescribable. I know it must be amazing. I wish I could catch a glimpse, just one small glimpse of what she's doing this very moment.

For now I whisper Happy Christmas Gracie girl and I love you, and hold her in my heart.

Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,

Was singing without any presents at all!

He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!

Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,

Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?”

“It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!”

“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”

And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!

“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.”

“Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

Pretty Pumpkins

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Tasty Tuesday: Party Chicken

Several years ago someone made party chicken for us. It was so good. Ever since I've wanted to make it myself. It took a while, but I finally got around to it! Haha.

I found a recipe somewhere, can't remember where, and used that as a guideline.

If you follow my Tasty Tuesday, you know I love to mix it up and improve it.

My chicken breasts were pretty big so I doubled up on the dried beef and bacon. I also used only two breasts as that was all I had defrosted, so we had lots of gravy.

I also added paprika to the recipe.

What You'll Need:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

8 slices dried beef

8 slices bacon

1 cup sour cream

1 can cream of mushroom

Paprika

Preheat oven to 350.

Place 2 pieces of dried beef on each chicken breast, and wrap in bacon. Brown chicken in a skillet over medium heat until bacon is crisp.

Meanwhile, mix sour cream and mushroom soup. Sprinkle in paprika to taste.

Place browned chicken breasts in a baking dish and cover with soup mixture.

Cover and bake for about 30 minutes.

Serve with rice.

Enjoy!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Our Bird Friends

For the past month or so we've had some bird friends hanging around the lake. A lovely pair of Sandhill Cranes moved in and have been entertaining us. We love listening to them.

They usually keep their distance…especially with a certain hairy beast in the yard.

They appear to be having a chat.

This weekend they decided to venture into our yard for the first time. We were on our way to church, but the husband was able to snap a few pictures before he got too close for comfort. Thus the cranes made their exit.

Some fun facts for you. Mated pairs stay together. Also, they can live up to twenty years! That's a pretty long time! Hopefully our couple sticks around for a while!