I’m in Texas once again – second time in three weeks – for another family visit.  This time, I wised up and flew out to Dallas instead of driving nearly 600 miles one way.

Things are going as well as can be expected, I suppose, although things are tough right now for some family members, including me, truth be known.  But, God provides and He rules above all, so we are winners always as His beloved children.

Right now, I’m with my mom and while we aren’t in Austin, the state capital does it’s grand share of celebrating July 4th with family gatherings, this year worship tomorrow on Sunday, and fireworks.

Hope each of you have a very wonderful and blessed July 4th weekend, ya hear?  I’ll be back in a couple of days to talk more about the latest and ongoing Finding Direction Summer 2010 Photo Contest.  Haven’t received any entries, yet, and I know y’all are busy with the holiday weekend, but be thinking about it, taking photos all weekend in your activities and climb on board for some fun!!

Love, Dee

For today, I have one of our latest photos for this season from Tom’s office dinner & party.  We are family, this year, with my beautiful daughter, Rebecca, joining us.   We were very happy to have her with us for a few days because we rarely have out-of-town family around near Christmas any more.  They all live so far away and are caught up in active young families of their own, while Tom has to always be here to work through Christmas, seeing as how newspapers keep coming to your door day after day, even on holidays.

So, Rebecca’s visit was a great blessing in our lives – and we hope, in her’s.

Cheers, today!  And many blessings to you as you navigate these last few days until Christmas!  Stop to remember God’s gift to all of us – the most important ever!!

Dee

Romans 8:38-39

The New International Version

You guys are so patient, I’m tellin’ ya.  Waiting for my next installment of the “Arkansas Memories Tour of 2009 – Day 2:  Gassville (GASS-vul) & Cotter” to be posted.

But, due to circumstances WAY beyond my control (as if I ever had any in this complicated world of ours to begin with), I have been unable to write one as yet.  And, due to the total incompetence of the phlebotomists who last drew my blood for several different blood tests my endocrinologist needed today (but as it turned out, not enough blood) when I went for my three month check up, I have to drive 20 miles south on the interstate from here tomorrow to see her once again.  After having more blood drawn today in her office.

I said a bad word when I found out my trip to her office today was wasted.

The good news is that God is working mightily in my life and in the lives of those dearest to me for His good.  I am thrilled beyond measure.

No matter how hard satan tries to bring us down, if we turn to God and Jesus Christ in prayer, seeking His will in all things, He will hold us close and give us the victory in all things, in His name.

Thanks be to God for His love for us beyond our comprehension or understanding.

Be back as soon as possible with more Arkansas trip adventures . . . and there are many more to come, believe me.

Here’s a peek at what comes next and a question for each of you.  What do you think this building below in Gassville, Arkansas was when the Andrews boys were little kids growing up there and what significance do you think it would have had in their lives – all three of them – with identical problems?

Think about it and give me your best answer below in comment, okay?!  That’s your task for today.

Love ya!  Dee

]]> http://deeandrews.net/2009/12/08/for-i-am-convinced/feed/ 0 http://deeandrews.net/2009/11/17/who-am-i/ http://deeandrews.net/2009/11/17/who-am-i/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:34:36 +0000 Dee Andrews http://deeandrews.net/?p=1951 Casting Crowns

Click here to view the embedded video.

Being in the middle generation between an elderly parent and grown children with young families many times – as has been lately – brings about all kinds of family crises.  Add to the mix siblings, nieces and nephews, even a grown grandchild with a little girl of her own and life can become a whirlwind.

It has been thus now for the past several months, more so now than ever, and I begin to wonder who I really am, you know?  I have to shift gears so often and quickly that I forget whether I am a mom talking to a grown son or an aging daughter talking with her own mom and sometimes the lines become blurred.

I find myself wanting to just dictate to those around what they should be doing, how to do it, when to do it and let’s just be done with it.  I grow impatient with all of them and think that somehow they should just be me, so as to act accordingly.

How foolish I am in thinking those things, but I think human.  I don’t even have a clear path before me some days, much less for anyone else.  I flounder and fail.

It is hard these days to even find a moment in which to reflect on the deeper values in my life – being God’s bewildered child, striving to do to all, but not even taking very good care of myself in the process.

My pinched nerve in my neck from last spring/summer began flaring up again Sunday.  Not terribly painful – yet – and not at all, I hope, so I started sitting in traction again this morning.  I tried to do so all day yesterday, but urgent family matters intervened.

I could not even get out of traction this morning before new ones arose.

Upon getting a couple of those “sorta” settled, I decided to watch the video above by Casting Crowns and to remember who I really am and how things really are with me.

I hope you will join me today in praising God and thanking Him for all we have in our lives – even the troubled times – because He is always here with us and will help us and lead us in all we do if we will turn to Him.

Many blessings to each of you today!  Dee

P. S.  Hope to be back next time with more of our Arkansas Memories Tour.

This photo of a big spring flowing into the White River below Bull Shoals, Arkansas shows one of the most beautiful places we were in last week on the “Andrews Memories Tour” family reunion/vacation trip.

It does not quite accurately depict what my title above says, which is what I see our my window here (scudding clouds across the sky), but my thoughts are similar.

The remnants of tropical storm Ida for us are mostly wind.  Wind is blowing the dark clouds of the past two days away and God’s sun keeps peeking through.  It is cool this morning and I look out at a scene much like you see across the river here in this photo.

It is calming for me today.  My heart has been troubled with cares of family the past several days and I seek solace and God’s comforting presence to energize me with His grace, wisdom and strength to carry on.  I feel the heavy weights of being in the “middle” generation, trying to help my mom, my siblings, my children, my grandchildren . . . even a sweet little great-granddaughter, Kiley.

Sometimes it seems that crisis and chaos reign.  Even though I know better than that from my many years of experiences as God’s child, my heart still hurts.   I cried many tears last night after I lay in bed for those troubled and hurting around me.  I brought my supplications before my Father and he graced me with a good night’s sleep.

Today shines brighter with both the sun outside and renewal in my strength for this another day that the Lord has made.  I will rejoice and be glad in it.  He will lead me where I need to go and have me do the things I need to do, all with His Spirit within me.

Father, shine Your light on each and every one who reads these words and may they each be blessed.

Love you guys!  Dee

One of the biggest blessings came yesterday about noon when Rebecca called me to tell me she’d had a CT scan early yesterday morning, that the abscess in her right kidney was completely gone and the radiologist took the drain tube out of her kidney that came out on her back, with a tube down her side that had been draining pus for a week and a half.

We all rejoice in this good news for her.

Yet, she has a long way to go, being still on antibiotic and having to take iron tablets three times a day because she is very anemic and they have not yet determined the cause.  She tires very easily and must rest a lot.

Also, there are a couple of major rifts in our family right now that are beyond my comprehension or understanding.  Tom struggles to understand, as well, as he holds me close as I grieve and cry out to God for wisdom to know how best to be His servant to everyone around me, beginning with my children.

Yet, I am strengthened and uplifted  – rested now – by your ongoing prayers for us.  God is the source of my peace as I have spent the past two days here at home alone in silence in a beautiful place of meditation on this earth.

I sat here at my desk yesterday afternoon looking out my long window, open to the cool breezes coming from our front porch and the woods across the road (to the east).  A small nearly black bird with dark gray breast – a kind I have never seen before – came and perched on the edge of the porch just outside my window and sat for the longest time.

He chirped loudly and clearly and I watched him until he flew away, thanking God for sending him to me to consider.  God’s small winged bird that He watches over just as He watches over me.  I felt an overwhelming sense of wonder that God loves me so.

So, I leave you with another song today – and video.  It is Chris Tomlin singing “Amazing Grace,” but with beautiful lyrics and music of his own added that make it even more inspiring.

May God richly bless you each with His peace today in all things, even in times of greatest hardship, as He has me.

Dee

Click here to view the embedded video.

I am home (last night at dark) from an eight day, 575  mile (one way) trip alone to go stay with and care for my dear daughter, Rebecca, last week out near Dallas.  She spent nine days in the hospital with a severe kidney infection and belatedly discovered abscess in her right kidney.  She nearly died during the night a week ago Thursday in the hospital.

She is doing enough better physically that I was able to come home yesterday (in a grueling 10 hour trip, during which I was heavily fatigued – and still am, for that matter).

Tom had all of the lantern lights on across our front porch as I drove up and I began weeping and could not stop for about three hours, I was so happy to be home, to see him and have him hold me in his arms once again.

I had a good night’s sleep last night and have spent the day at home, alone, in complete silence until about 2 p.m., fasting most of the day and in prayer.  My family is deeply troubled and I continue to seek your prayers with me and for me, Tom and my family, beginning with Rebecca.

I cannot say more here.  But, I do leave you with this deeply meaningful song, that has been in my heart, mind and soul for the past several days.  May God strengthen me as He always has in my life so that I may be His servant and have the special graces I so desperately need in this time of crisis to offer wise counsel and help to those in my family who so need His love, grace, help and peace.

Click here to view the embedded video.

May God richly bless each and every one of you who reads this.

Dee

It’s hard for me to believe this long time famous Texas artist is the same little kid I used to sit by both on the school bus for two hours a day, going and coming from school, and in each class at school.  I spent all of my time studying and taking notes; he spent all of his – from a very early age – drawing pictures of airplanes, cars, anything and everything.

What the rest of us thought was just Bill doodling around turned out to be the beginning images of a very gifted artist, now renowned for his southern/southwestern flavored paintings of old homes, old buildings, pickup trucks, cotton fields, on and on.  (Please DO take a look at his website and some of the many gorgeous works he has done!)

The small print hanging to the right in the above photo is “Old Blue,” an ancient pickup truck in front of an old Texas plains farmhouse, our first Barrick acquisition, many years ago.  Laura saw it.  She loved it.  Unbeknownest to Mom or me, she wanted one.  It made her think of riding around our cotton farm out from Abernathy, Texas in such an old pickup with our “Daddy,” she mused.

See here (not a good image, but adequate):

It wasn’t until after July 4th when Laura was up at Abernathy at the town’s huge Centennial celebration/all school classes reunion and talked with Bill that we found out.  He told me afterward, but thought she wanted a copy of our painting – “Full Bloom” – which he did not make into prints.  I found out what she really wanted and decided to get her one, but then forgot all about it.

Fast forward to my Sept. 1-9 trip to Abilene.  Laura spoke of it, again, so secretly we conspired to get it for her.  I called Bill, set it all up and ordered it, matted and framed, at an excellent price.  (I mean – hey – we’re “family,” you know?  He & his wife were both classmates from the time I was 10 and now very close friends with Tom & me.)

He mailed it to Mom on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend.  I was leaving the next Wednesday morning and wanted it to get there so badly before I left, I couldn’t stand it.  It arrived in the mail after 5 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon.  I ran yelping to the front door when the doorbell rang, knowing it had to be the delivery.

Laura had been over all afternoon and we kept thinking it would get there, but finally she had to go home.  Then, we talked her into coming back over to spend the night with us and have a “slumber party,” since it was my last night.

Here’s what happened when she got there & we finally convinced her there was a mysterious package that had come to Mom’s for her.  Pictures speak louder than words, sometimes.

You think she’s surprised and excited, or what?!  And Bill, who is a gifted writer, as well as artist, wrote the perfect inscription on the back of it in his large, sprawling handwriting, above his signature:

“For Laura

Memories of a country girl “windshield farming” with Dad -

With Love from your Mom”

Best Wishes, B B Barrick

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

Many blessings to each of you today.

And please keep my sweet daughter, Rebecca, in your prayers.  She has been in the hospital with a severe kidney infection since Saturday afternoon.  She’s been diabetic since 13, was not diagnosed for over a week, by which time she’d been terribly nauseated and throwing up for days, was dehydrated, lost several pounds, was running fever of 102+ and was in horrible pain for days, so severe they had to start her on morphine Saturday.

President Herbert Hoover,
of Carrie Jacobs-Bond

[Note:  I sure hope someone appreciates this post.  I've spent about 6 hours total putting this together, including over 4 1/2 hours today!  Sheesh!  Sometimes I just can't help myself, wanting to do quality, well-crafted work on interesting topics.  I even (just now) edited this note, for goodness sakes!]

Imagine being a young woman trying to build a music career in a time when there was no such thing as music videos, CDs, iPods, iPhones, internet, YouTube, world wide instant communication – not even radios!  Radio broadcasts would not begin commercially (the first in Philadelphia) for another 30+ years, and then, only for those close enough who had electricity and enough money to buy them.

This was the world of Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946), who began as a struggling young widow of 26 in the early 1890s in Janesville, Wisconsin,* then Chicago, trying to make enough for she and her young son to live on with her talents as an accomplished singer, pianist and writer.

In a time long ago and radically different from our own, Bond scored three greatest hits** known far across our land and Europe, one becoming an “anthem“# of American troops in both World War I and World War II – “A Perfect Day.”  (See last post.)   She traveled extensively across the U. S. and Europe in World War I , performing many concerts for the troops, singing and playing “A Perfect Day,” herself.

While she had only three “hits,” she wrote and published nearly 200 pieces of popular music  in her lifetime and ended up a multimillionaire, the first made by the time her most popular song, “A Perfect Day” (for which 25 million copies of the sheet music were sold), was published in 1910, when she was 48.  She was known as a singer’s songwriter and countless artists sang and recorded her top three songs.

This fact is amazing, considering the hard times she endured, beginning as a young child when her father died.  By 26 she was widowed, and she and her little son survived on one meal a day, living in one room with no furniture.  Further, she had no formal training as either a singer or pianist (other than a few childhood piano lessons, long after she, a prodigy at age four, could play and perfectly mimic others’ songs).

We think of these times being the times of firsts in many areas for women, yet Bond had many “firsts” of her own.  She was the most successful composer of her time, became the first woman in the U. S. to own her own sheet music publishing company (formed in 1896, when male-dominated publishers in Chicago refused to publish her work) , to earn over $1 million dollars in music royalties and the only woman to own full rights rights to every song, word and piece of sheet music she created, plus all royalties.

While Bond enjoyed many successes, she endured much tragedy and suffering in her 84 years.  She suffered from debilitating rheumatism for years, which for a professional pianist must have been exceptionally difficult. The warm climate was one reason she was at Mission Inn (an exquisite inn/hotel still) in Riverside, California in 1909 when she wrote “A Perfect Day.”

She wrote the lyrics after watching the sun set over Mount Rubidoux from her 4th floor room,  and the tune three months later while touring the Mojave Desert.   Within a year, 8 million copies of the sheet music were sold and 5 million recordings of the song.  The carillon of Mission Inn, home of a vast collection of bells, rang out with “A Perfect Day” at the end of each day for many years. Mission Inn has even named a 4th floor suite in her name.

In what must have been the saddest event in her life, Carrie Jacobs-Bond’s son committed suicide in 1932, at 53, while “A Perfect Day” was playing on the phonograph in his room.

So, it must have been for her, in the end, as well as all who’ve ever heard and loved her “perfect” song, the most meaningful and poignant song of all.  We can only imagine her memories at age 84 of her son and of the thousands upon thousands of young soldiers in two World Wars for whom her song was their anthem.  Those who loved and were lost, those who remained with memories of perfect days together in the past to keep them going on.

I leave you with the renowned Paul Robeson singing “A Perfect Day,” which he recorded just before World War II, no doubt partly for the troops to come in the vast war being thrust upon them.  Take the time to listen and remember.  You’ll be glad you did.

Click here to view the embedded video.

*Read her fascinating story here in Wisconsin Hometown Stories.

**The three were “A Perfect Day,” her most popular song, published in 1910, and her most enduring song, “I Love You Truly,” and “Just Awearyin’ for You,” both published in 1901.

#Read and listen to a recent (August 29, 2009) Weekend Edition of her life on NPR, which shares many of the details of her storied life and career, especially during the two world wars.