Friday, June 4, 2021

Marriage is a Journey and God is our Guide

 Good morning out there! It's gonna be a great day! Today Jim and I celebrate 38 years of marriage! I wrote a post six years ago ago about God, peanut butter, and a good marriage. I've been thinking about that post/story this week. The message of the story is so simple and yet so true. I love being a wife and have always understood that marriage is a serious commitment and that the vows we said yes to were not to be taken lightly. I converted to Catholicism after we had been married almost four years. I have grown in my knowledge and love of the Catholic faith over the years. I look back and can see how God has always been with us and how our faith has lifted us up and held us together. We've been blessed with our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren; our gifts from God.

The following are a couple (three) of my favorite stories about being married - Through the years love, laughter, and tears! A wedding is a day and a marriage is a lifetime! 

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

God, Peanut Butter and a Good Marriage!

Good Morning Out There! I hope your Tuesday morning is starting off well!
It is cloudy and cool outside this morning. It rained sometime during the night,
and we have a pretty good chance for more rain this morning. I'm always thankful
for the rain!
Jim has already headed off to work. We are both thankful that he is still working,
and we are praying for those who have been let go. Life is full of ups and downs,
the good and the bad, the happy and the sad. The other day I was listening to the
local Catholic radio station as I was running errands and I heard the neatest thing.
I caught the end of the program, but is was about how to have a happy and long
marriage, you know, the death til you part kind of marriage. A married couple are
the hosts for this particular program and their guest was a priest. He gave one of
the best analogies I've ever heard about how a couple must have God in their lives.
He said that a husband and wife are like two pieces of bread, and if you just place
them together they will fall apart. But, if you put peanut butter on the bread and
then place them together, the two pieces of bread will stick together. God is the
peanut butter that holds the couple together! Don't you just love that? I laughed
and laughed, I couldn't wait to tell Jim. Well, he also thought it was a great way to
describe how we need God in our lives.
This morning I fixed Jim some peanut butter and jelly crackers. While I was in the
kitchen, Jim was in our room getting ready for work. As I put the peanut butter
on the crackers, I thought about what that priest said. I poured a cup of coffee for
Jim and carried it to our room. He was kneeling on our hard floor saying his morning
prayers. I sat the coffee down on the dresser, placed my hand on his shoulder and kissed
the top of his head. An overwhelming feeling came over me. I just felt so blessed that
in our marriage, we have God to help hold us together.
May your day be full of blessings.
                                                   Bye for now, Sharla

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

The "Cutest Little Percolator" I Received at My Bridal Shower, Many Years Ago

Good Morning out there! Wait, I have to go get a second cup of coffee before I
begin! I'm back, with a hot cup of coffee, a little cream, a little sugar! I was going
to write about something else, but I've decided to share a neat story instead.

I really enjoy drinking coffee in the morning, my husband does too. It all started
with a gift I received at my bridal shower many years ago!
When Jim and I got married, I was 19 and he was 27. I wanted to be the perfect little
house wife! I would get up and make breakfast every morning before Jim would head
off to work. He has always been a welder, so oatmeal or cereal just aren't a good
breakfast when you have a physically demanding job. I would fry up bacon and
eggs, and fix toast with butter and jelly. Well, I received the cutest little 4-6 cup
percolator as a gift at my bridal shower, so every morning I would make coffee.
I remember asking Jim what he took in his coffee, and he said "milk and sugar."
So it began, every morning, no matter what I cooked for breakfast, Jim and I had
one or two cups of coffee, we both added milk and sugar. As the years came and went,
so did the coffee makers! Large percolators, Mr. Coffees, the percolators were my
favorite because I liked the bubbly, gurgling noises they made! Jim stopped putting
milk in his coffee, you never know what I want in my coffee, sometimes cream,
sometimes not, always sugar (used to be Equal, and now Splenda). Anyway,
no matter what we ate for breakfast, we always had a cup or two, of coffee! We prepare
the coffee the night before and set the delayed brew button, that way, when we wake up
the coffee is ready. I always say it is like magic! I love waking up to the smell of a
fresh pot of coffee! We use Folgers, not the flavored foo foo kind!
About five years ago, Jim and I were taking a walk. We were talking about all kinds
of things, and we both stated that we were glad we didn't smoke cigarettes, and
he was glad he had stopped dipping many years ago, and such. Anyway, Jim said
the only thing we both had to have, was coffee in the morning. Then he said that it
was all my fault! I said "What do you mean all my fault?" Jim replied that I made
coffee every morning and set a cup for him on the table with his breakfast. So he
figured I must be a big coffee drinker, and he didn't want to hurt my feelings since
we had just gotten married, so he drank it! Well, I started laughing hard, you know,
the kind where you double over laughing. When I stopped laughing like a hyena,
and got my breath back, I told him that I just knew he drank coffee since he was
older than me. Both of  my parents drank coffee, my grandparents drank coffee,
his parents drank coffee. Besides all that, I got the cutest little percolator for a gift
at my bridal shower, and so that must mean that you drink coffee once you're
married! Well then Jim started laughing, not like a hyena, but pretty hard. So when
he stopped laughing, he said to me, "You mean all these years we've been drinking
coffee, it wasn't because you were already a coffee drinker, but because we received
a percolator as a wedding gift?" To which I laughingly replied, "Pretty much!"
I really enjoy my cup of coffee even more now, because I think back how Jim would
drink it, not because he was a coffee drinker, but because he thought I was.
I hope your day is filled with blessings, go and make some happy memories with
your loved ones!
I'm going to close with a couple of scriptures that I love.

Genesis 2:21-24
So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he
took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called 'woman,' for out of 'her man' this one has been taken."
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs,  it is not snobbish. Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries. Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth. There is no limit to love's forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure.
                                                 Bye for now, Sharla

Thursday, June 23, 2016

A Bouquet of Wild Flowers, A Covey of Quail, Two Roadrunners and A Jack Rabbit

Good Morning Out There! I worked in my home office all day long on Tuesday. I was
trying to get caught up. I was cranky from being inside all day. I needed to get up and
move around. Jim came home about 5:00 p.m. and was headed out south of town to
where our son was working. He asked if I would like to go with him. I knew I needed
a break even though I still had a lot to do. I grabbed some waters and off we went. I
was tired so I leaned the seat back and closed my eyes for about 15 minutes. Jim hit a
bump in the road and my eyes popped back open. We rode along for about 15 more
minutes and then we were there. We traveled down a bumpy ranch road with trees and
brush all around. Our son was clearing cedar for the land owner and we brought the
smaller trailer to pick up some of the extra implements. We checked on our son and
visited for just a little while. I waited in the truck while Jim loaded up the grubber. I
saw a covey of quail dart across the road. I smiled as I watched them scurry beneath the
brush. Another movement caught my eye and I looked up and saw a roadrunner running
by. He ran down the road for awhile and then turned and dashed into the brush. I could
almost hear him say "Beep-Beep" like the one in that old cartoon. Jim opened the door
to the truck. I turned to tell him what all he had missed but before I could speak he
handed me a bouquet of wild flowers. My heart grew and my smile did too. I thanked
him and told him that I would put them in a vase when we got home. I also told him
about the quail and the roadrunner. We were driving down the ranch road once more
when another covey of quail shot right across that road. Then we saw a Jack Rabbit with
huge ears quickly hop by. We made it to the main road and then I shouted out, "Look, it's
another roadrunner, it must be a sign!" Jim told me that the sign was that I needed to get out of the house more. I laughed and told him he was probably right!
I did need a break that day. I really enjoyed seeing all the wildlife and driving down that
bumpy road. When we got home I helped Jim feed all the animals and I gathered the
chicken eggs. We watered the plants and when we came inside I put my bouquet of wild-
flowers in a vase and filled it full of water. I placed the vase on our dresser by a picture
of Mother Mary so that she could enjoy the flowers too!
I have to get back to my book work now. I hope you have a wonderful day. Spend some
time outdoors and be blessed!
                                                                                         Bye for now, Sharla

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