Life with my sister

"Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness." 2 Corinthians 9:10 (NIV) "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9 (NIV) It is harvest at our house. Our little Daddy brought home some goodies for us yesterday from the bootheel of Missouri after a day of harvesting his crop. Watching him open the tailgate of his truck with no anticipation of anything but a cooler being in the back of it made me think about harvest...real harvest. It makes me think of how blessed we are both as a nation and as God's children. As we end our little emphasis on hunger this month, let's praise God for all the blessings we have in our lives. Harvest time is amongst us and it is great time to reflect on the bounty we have. Thank you for taking a look at the hunger epidemic with me. We wil...

Rudda Ward posted this on facebook today for mom's birthday. It was taken at Rudda's wedding in the late 60's. Today is our mom's birthday! We aren't with her today but we wish we were. Birthdays are meant to be spent with family. This isn't the first year she's had to celebrate alone. It makes me sad. But she doesn't make us sad. This woman makes us happy!! She is strong. She is loving. She is beautiful. She is full of life. She is a friend. She is a confidant. She is a loving grandmother. She is the Mother of all Mothers! We have been through a lot together. We have cried many tears together. She has listened to me as I poured out all the pieces of my broken heart out to her. She has been with me in my most joyous moments. She has been scared with me, happy with me, tearful with me, and excited with me. When I look at my days of mothering I see so many ways I wish I was more like her. She is a great example of a Mother. We love you Mom!! More than ...

I am loving this boy. I know you already know this, yet I just can't express it enough. I am just loving this stage. Every stage has its perks. This one makes me laugh...and we all know how I love to laugh. It also makes me tired in a whole new tired way. It is a good tired and not the "drunk" tired of the infant stage. This is a sleep good tired and I like it, even though I sometimes complain. I really shouldn't. Henry does and says the funniest things. He is a little character. I admit that he is my child. Beware! He is a little clown and I adore it. Henry will get into things and find things I did not know we even had. He found this water gun in the above photo in a random cabinet that I had for the Fab 4 a few years back. Never a dull moment. He had never played with a gun so his Daddy was demonstrating. I am not sure Henry thought it was all that fun...shooting his mother and all. I am really trying my hardest to cherish all these sweet and simple times because I...

Last week I posted about the ferris wheel at WestEnd in our hometown having orange lights this month for hunger awareness. Well, we rode it last weekend while we were home in support of the cause and had SO much fun! I thought this would be my little foodie pic for this week. We are so fortunate to be able to fill the Fab 5's little bellies without a struggle. Samuel cracks me up in the photo....he looked mad on purpose. That was his pose. To be 13 again....ahhh. This week I want to focus on my local food bank, since it is near and dear to my heart. I serve on the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas Development Council. It is rewarding to serve in this capacity and see the benefits of sharing the mission and passion of the food bank with the community. Our food bank serves 84 agencies in northeast Arkansas. An agency can be a church panty, a senior citizens home, shelter, etc. These agencies come and buy or are given cases of food. Where we can purchase a box of cereal for $3, they ca...

Mama had all her babies at her house this past weekend and she loved it. Jules and I took the trek west without our hubbies in tow. It was fun to have girl time and to have the kids play with each other for a few days...or should I say it was fun for Henry. The Fab 4 were so gracious to entertain that sweet boy of ours! This makes coming "home" even sweeter. Melissa is my BFF, if you are not familiar with her from previous posts. We have been friends since I was 4. Besides my sister, she is the friend I have had the longest in life, and she is my best friend. She had baby Luke 4 months after I had Henry and she has 2 other cute boys, Drew and Grant. Luke and Henry are going to be a pair! Henry calls him "Wookie" and all week he has said "Wookie house". Sweet little angel wants to go back. Melissa and I got to spend time together 3 times n 1 day. I loved it. Going downtown is always so much fun. We grew up in Fort Smith. If you do not know what makes Fort S...

We have been to four different churches in the last four weeks. It's been fun to visit other churches and I've made some observations. We have seen the offering taken up in beach buckets, paint buckets, and traditional offering plates. We have sat in chairs and pews. We have sung praise music, hymns, old songs and new songs and in one church we got to hear a southern gospel quartet. We've had music led by women and men, guitars and full orchestras. Piano's and organs. I guess because of the time of the year I have heard two "vision" sermons. They weren't really sermons, but the pastor's vision for the church. Oh, how I long for a sermon! I can't wait to sit in a pew on Sunday in my own church and hear my own pastor preach! I realized that people worship in all kinds of ways. I knew that already, I'm not a total dingbat! The subtleties in a couple of the worship services were just enough that neither church family could have changed churches and...

As you know by now, we are dedicating Food Friday in September as a platform for hunger awareness. It is Hunger Action Month and we live in the hungriest state in the nation. Working directly with the local food bank in various capacities, it has become a cause close to our hearts. Hunger is a problem 365 days a year, but for one month it is the focus of much attention. This is evidence of it. I loved, loved loved seeing this on the Hunger Action Month blog. It actually made me tear up a bit and smile from ear to ear. I love my hometown and seriously dig riding this ferris wheel with my family. "The lights of this Ft. Smith, AR Ferris wheel will remain orange all month long as part of River Valley Regional Food Bank’s Light Up Hunger food drive. The historic wheel, also known as Big Eli, is a San Diego World’s Fair relic. It can now officially add Hunger Action Month advocate to it’s colorful timeline." Like Eli, you too can get involved with hunger awareness and help 1...

Abby. She is such a joy to have in my life. She has always been a bundle of energy, full of life and fun. We are the complete opposite of each other in personality. I remember making her ask sales clerks questions for me when she was 8 & 9 years old. I was too embarrassed to, and she was more than happy to do it for me. I still ask her to be my voice at times. She does such a good job. She is my best friend. My confidante. My protector. My sister. I'm so glad God saw fit to put her in my life. Although I questioned Him at times, He knew just what I needed in a sister! HA! Happy Birthday Abby Jo. I love you so much. I hope today is fun and celebrates you. Love you!!!

These cuties have had a blast at the beach this week. Daniel (left) and David (right) will always get the "oh my gosh, are y'all twins?!" as long as they go any where together. Evidently they have heard it a lot this week while at the beach. Bless them for loving each other and the fun of being look- alikes . I am so glad Jules sent me this picture to post. Made my little aunt heart happy. Love my little D's! Abby

As you read last Food Friday, this is Hunger Action Month and we are dedicating our Food Friday's to highlight hunger and ways we can help. When most of us think of the hungry we picture children. Their little brains and bodies are growing at nano speed and proper nutrition is so important for them. It hurts any of us to think that there are children who are unable to eat because nothing is provided for them. Yet, what REALLY gets me these days is this statistic. We don't think about our parents and grandparents being hungry. When we first moved to J'Town 3+ years ago I got involved with the Food Bank by delivering senior packs. Every two weeks I would load my Maxima with 20+ boxes of food and take them to a senior apartment complex. I had a love/hate relationship with it. I loved helping and felt the need was great, yet I hated the sadness it left in my heart for days afterwards. I am not one of those people that helps and feels good about it. I still see the need and foc...

Mister Brother Stephen is 4-0! Happy day to you, bro man. Julia is having Internet issues at the beach and was not able to post successfully. I could not stand to think he would not have a post recognizing such an OLD milestone. So, here's to you, birthday boy. Enjoy a new decade of getting older and wiser. Your only sibling wishes she could shower you with singing via Skype...lucky you, your Internet is down! Abby

It was girls day at the beach. Julie and Anna sent this to me from their cell phone today. It made me smile. I just love those freckle faced girls more than anything! This is the princess of Gulf Shores this week. I am so glad they are all having a fun time now that Lee passed on by and they can get out and soak up some rays! Julie will be so glad I updated for her. She tried to post and lost her connection in her condo. Bless it. Abby

Every morning this sweet boy wakes up and asks for his "muk" and his "pop pop". He knows how to open the pantry to find his "pop pop" and tries his hardest to pull open the fridge door to get his own "muk". That milk and pop tart are essential to us in the mornings. We always have an extra gallon of "muk" in the fridge out in the garage and we always have a stash of pop tarts hidden in the pantry. We think nothing of it. We don't realize how blessed we are to not only have what we need to meet his immediate need, but we have enough supply to meet the need for days and even weeks. Sometimes I think about it. It breaks my heart to think about it. What if one morning he woke up and there was no "muk" or "pop pop". What would I say or do and how would he react? How would I fill his little belly? Yes, I would go to a food pantry or find government assistance, more than likely, but what if we did not have that avail...

Happy Birthday to our handsome, loving, smart, talented and jolly grandfather. We love you to the the moon and back, UD! We are SUPER excited about hugging your neck in a few weeks...it has been too long (This was our photo from last Summer and has been used too many times on our posts. It is time for a new one, but it is so happy, we love it!)