I believe Sundays, for the most part, should be restful, thoughtful, grateful days, enjoying and spending time with family.

That is what I did yesterday.

Over the years I have kept so many wonderful photos of my family, old and new, stored away in a box on a shelf, in my closet.

Yesterday, I pulled out my photo box, and the many frames I have accumulated over the years.

My afternoon journey began.

Choosing special photos for framing was so difficult, my favorites, my loved ones, those with me now, and those beautiful ones in heaven, how do I choose?

Such an emotional afternoon, laughs, smiles, tears, regrets!

I framed several older ones of my Mom and Dad, and favorites of me and my sister, shown above.

During the holidays I love displaying photos taken during that bright, magical time of the year.

Sweet Easter ones of my brother and sister, just really cute!

As the afternoon passed, many were framed and found places around my home.

Especially love this old one of my Grandma holding my sister in her arms.  This photo was taken in front of our family’s grocery, years and years ago.  I loved looking at all the old products, and product signs, 7up, Pepsi, Kraft, and Wonder Bread.

My desk was the perfect spot for these mini frames holding the cutest photo of me with my son at Kings Island Amusement Park, and this dear one of me and my Mom.  Love these so!

I worked for hours sorting, choosing, and framing.

So many left to do!

Those of my dear son, at all ages of his life, our sweet pets, who have given us such joy over the years, and just so many others.

As I grow older, it is important, a longing, to have my family around me.

The days in our lives bring so many laughs, smiles, good times, tears. As time passes these become memories we cherish.

Love to all.

I love color, anything colorful makes me happy, makes me smile!

All of my life I have loved crayons.  As a child, drawing and coloring would always brighten a lonely day.

I keep a large jar of crayons in my craft area, not only as a fun, colorful, display piece, but for the memory it brings to mind every time I see it!

My father was from New Jersey, so for many years we would take our family vacations there, we loved the ocean and the boardwalk. Fun times for us!

One year we went to visit one of my father’s cousins, she had a daughter my age.

Her room had everything a little girl could ever want.  The most beautiful dolls everywhere, but the something that I focused on, was a very large box of crayons, larger than a shoe box, every color, and just so many of them!

She noticed my interest in the box, grabbed it from my hands, and threw the box aside spilling and breaking many.

Did she have so much of everything, that they meant nothing?  I think so!

Have you ever noticed that the sweetest, nicest, most grateful folks, are those whose lives aren’t filled with everything they could possibly want.  The folks that need to work hard to get extra things.  Giving them a gift brings the giver joy knowing that they are truly thankful.

I try to remember this, “something for nothing, means nothing”.

Have a bright, colorful, thankful weekend.

My oh my, it is so very hard for me to believe it is February 14th, 2017.

I somehow got lost in 2016, emotional issues and sudden emotional outbursts brought sad times to my life.

Unfortunate happenings to those I love also filled my mind and days.

So many missed memory making days gone and overwhelming disappointment took over.

Can we love too much?  Love so much that we hurt ourselves?  That’s me!

People, even those who you love so very much, disappoint and can unknowingly hurt.

Over the months, with lots of prayer and soul searching, I’m better, not sad most days, I’m OK.

I realized so many troubling things about myself… that not all folks love the same way no matter how many good things you have tried to do for them.

We are all different, I could not ever think about disappointing anyone I love, that would kill me, but maybe I did.  Maybe not being there for them during troubled years in my life, when it was all I could do to survive myself, hurt them!

Why do I desperately want to be included, doing anything I can for their acceptance. I see now that this comes from being isolated, not always able to get out, due to my husband’s disability.  He cannot travel and do things others can, he does his best and has never asked me not to go and enjoy myself.

Aware that my life is passing so quickly!  It can’t be stopped, realizing I have wasted so many days.

Too much time on my hands since I stopped working, not having that daily interaction with people is huge.

So thankful to God for loving me and giving me another day, month, and hopefully many more years to love.

We must all live our lives fully engaged and that’s what I am working on!

Enjoying my new found passion for finding thrift store items, giving them new life.  Exercising everyday, taking an online fun lettering course, reconnecting with old co-workers, all these help me stay busy.

I know that I am loved no matter how crazy I have been, and I am so thankful to have folks in my life to love.

Love to all today, and never forget to live your life fully engaged!

I have attached an old song (1960) recorded by the Everly Brothers years ago, ‘Love Hurts”

I have always loved the Bee Gees, especially Robin Gibb.  When he passed I was so very sad.

The lyrics in a song he sang comes to my mind as I think of events in my life over the last few lost months.

On my last post I wrote of losing both of our beloved pets, but I did not know at the time that there would be more “rain” to fall.

With Christmas approaching, I had to pick myself up and try to make our home festive for the holidays, although my heart was not there.  My family was coming for Christmas Eve so with the help of my son we worked on painting and carpeting our finished basement, which we had not used in years. When completed it was so very nice.

Two days after Christmas, the “rain” did come literally.  On the morning of December 27th, I discovered that our newly finished basement was flooded.  Our hard work for so many weeks was ruined.  It was such a mess!

With a calmness I can’t believe, and again with the help of my son, we cleaned once again, dried up everything, and moved on looking forward to a new year.

The weather turned very cold and on January 5th, we decided to warm up with a fire in our wood burning fireplace.  After about an hour we suddenly started to hear a noise which I can only describe as pounding coming from our fireplace.  My son ran outside and when I got to the door he met me saying, “Mom, we are in trouble, call 911”.  Flames were coming from our chimney!

The “rain” had once again fallen on our lives.

Thankful to the Fire and Rescue folks, and so very thankful the fire did not spread into our home and to others homes around us, and we were all safe.

Smoke and a black soot rested on many rooms in our home, but again with a calmness from God, we picked ourselves up, brushed off the soot, and started again with our lives.

I really do believe God does not give us more than we can handle.

In the song the lyrics continue to say, “and the sun will shine, it will shine on you”,  and I am happy to report, the sun is shining once more on us.

Hope your lives find calmness when the “rain” falls on you.

Many times I have talked about the large amount of magazines I have accumulated over the years.  Some are very old and it is hard for me to trash without going through each one to clip out articles of interest, recipes, DIY projects, etc.

Found this photo when searching through one on garden ideas.

Instead of focusing on the lovely variety of flowers, my mind immediately went to the red wagon and a memory from my past.

I was in high school when my parents divorced after years of hell, both for my mother and for me, my older sister, and younger brother.

The divorce left us without a home, which my father had lost to foreclosure, due to his spending and wasting money on alcohol and having a good time with others.  It also left us without any means of transportation.  This might seem like a small thing, but not having a car was a really big deal to teenagers, we had to rely on others for rides everywhere!

Even the smallest task of bringing food into our new apartment was a big deal.  In steps the red wagon, if we wanted to eat we had to walk blocks to our local grocery store pulling the red wagon behind us.

Mom made sure we all went along on these grocery trips.  As teenagers we felt somewhat humiliated pulling a child’s wagon filled with bags of food back to our new “home”.  Especially humiliating for me, the prissy child, caring to a fault what others thought of us.  I remember just praying that no one I knew saw us, saw our family parade with the red wagon.

We were poor, and after the divorce, I hoped things would get better for our family. The arguments were gone, horrible ones between my mother and father, but the hurt and sadness, especially for my mother, lingered for some time. Mom did her best to make this apartment a home, and eventually we settled into our new lives.

My sister saved us when she landed her first job and was able to buy a new car.

God never gives us anything we cannot handle, including pulling a red wagon.

Love to all of you today, with a special hug to my sister for that big black new car she brought home over 50 years ago.

Blessings.