When you just want to be like them

I so wanted to be like them. I looked up to them.

They were older. 

They were pretty.

My cousins Angie and Lori.

We played together in their toy room

 and I took many a reluctant nap in their house. 

We had overnights.

We sang in Christmas Programs at church.

I'm sure we played Barbies.

They had bunny rabbits in a cage on the back of their garage.

They also had long stocking caps with pompoms on the tip.

I wanted one like theirs, I remember.

Why is it that we always want what we don't have?

I was so young, 3 and a half, and I coveted their stocking caps with pom poms!

Then, I finally got one of my own.

I don't remember begging my mom and dad for one.

But, maybe I did.

Somehow, this long stocking cap with fringe made me feel like them.

It made me feel older.

It made me feel pretty.

Having a long stocking cap with fringe made the cold Nebraska wintertime a lot more fun.

*************************************

How about you? Do you have a story of something you really wanted as a child, and then received?

A farmer finds warmth in winter

The winter ground in Nebraska farm country sits frozen and fallow, but my dad did not. Winter was the time to fix broken machine parts, supervise cornstalks covered in cattle and have a few more cups of coffee. And, sometimes move mountains of snow.

When the big snow storms would come, Dad would have to break away from whatever else he was doing to push the huge bus-sized mounds of snow away from our cars and out-buildings. 

Our driveway was all gravel, so regular snow shoveling wasn't going to do the trick. Only the front load tractor would do.We were absolutely paralyzed by big snow storms without Dad and his front loader tractor. 

The front loader was ancient, but it still did the job. It had no fancy cab. No radio. However, it had a big bucket on the front end that Dad could scoop snow up into and move it wherever he wanted it. 

Dad on his Front Loader

After moving snow, he would usually go into town for his "therapy".

In Nebraska, farmers have this secret support group. You can tell it when they meet each other on the gravel road. When their pick-ups get close enough so they can see each other, they lift one finger off the steering wheel and point a hello at the other farmer with a concurrent nod.  

This is like their secret handshake.

For this support group, they meet up in cafe's around town, and even neighboring towns and talk "farm", "corn", "the Dow Jones market" and what is currently going on at The Sale Barn. 

I'm not sure which one was his favorite. The Cozy Inn, The Frontier, The Zephyr Cafe and the local Sale Barn were all in my hometown. Did he have different farmer friends in each place? I don't remember.

No matter which cafe he entered, Dad seemed to have an uncanny way of knowing the names of all the other men wearing seed corn caps. Jack, Bill, Hurry-Up and Loren were all in the secret support group.

Winter in Nebraska farm country may have been frigid and there may have been mountains of snow. 

My dog Sammy on a drift of snow

But, in the cabs of pick ups and the booths of cafe's all over town, the warmth of friendship and common ground abounded.


How about you? Do you have a story of how the warmth of friendship thawed out the winter cold just a little?


Blessings,
Anne

How we met

This post is written for Five Minute Friday, where lots of writers gather at Lisa Jo Baker's blog and write unedited for five minutes straight. No edits. Just free flowing writing. Today the prompt is "together". Won't you come visit, and join in?

We were both just seventeen when we met on a trip to Apple River. 

Just babies really. 

And, I had my eye on one of the staff, not on him.

He jumped around in the middle of the motor home singing little bunny fu fu with a friend, and 

I couldn’t believe he was being so silly. 

Now, I realize he was just showing off. 

He and a friend, just letting it all go. 

No inhibitions. 

Funny.

Yes, I thought he was fun. 

And funny.

He asked for my phone number after that motor home trip.

He called and asked me to go to a Bible study that a mutual friend was starting.

So began our first summer.

Walking on my block at night.

Hanging out with campus life friends.

Softball.

Talking until we didn’t think we could talk anymore.

Then, I went back to another state for my last year in high school.

He didn’t think he’d ever see me again.

Kevin writing me from his dorm room, my Sr. pic on his desk

We wrote letters.

400 of them over the next 4 years.

Long distance,

 before email, texting, facebook, twitter.

And, we are still together.

Rough patches and all 

and even some times where we wanted to take different ways when the fork in the road came

 making us make decisions that were hard.

Making us grow up to who we are today.

(*29 years of marriage)

~Anne

Thanks for stopping by to visit! I believe God weaves a silver lining all through our stories.

Why silver linings?

One day, quite recently, a friend came to lunch at Panera with a huge grin on her face. She said, "I'm putting my life story on a blog now!" She immediately inspired me and got my wheels turning.

I have a boatload of photographs from my childhood. And other old photos of my family members who have gone on before me. I often look at these old photos, and emotions and thoughts and memories start to bubble up from the archives in my soul.

Most of them aren't profound. But, I have found that looking back, reflecting on, and uncovering "what was" (whatever it was), is very healing. It is a great starting point to understanding "what is".

Me, age 3 and Dutchess

I look back and not everything is peachy. There is the good and the not so good. But, all of it makes up my life and my history. And, through it all, God has had His hand on me. His goodness, love and protection is that silver lining that draws my attention upward. Up to grace. Up to healing. Up to goodness.

I'm looking forward to digging into that pile of photos I have. I hope you'll join me in exploring that silver lining.

We each have one.

I hope you will be inspired to start seeing the silver lining  in your own life.

You can read more of my thinking behind this blog up above under the "my story" tab. Thanks so much for stopping by!



P.S. My friend's life story blog is:Footprints of My Life.

P.P.S. My other blog: A Ready Listener, is where I pause to see God's beauty in the every day.