(Sorry wanted to add pictures but my computer is sick:) it goes in for a tune up on Thursday 🙂

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

3 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every matter under heaven—

² A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
⁶ A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.

A time for everything is kind of like a place for everything when everything is in it’s place. I am presently still finding those places.

VS 6 says a time to search and a time to quit searching. Those things that you packed so you will remember exactly where you put them, and they have yet to be discovered.

It also says a time to KEEP and a time to THROW. Now I am trying to decide what I need and what I don’t. What I want to find a place for because I will want it when Kaci and Wren move out. Tentatively 1 year. So am presently in VS 6 is figuring out what time it is.

Since this journey started, the Lord has impressed on me that this season of my life is about the people in my life, not the stuff. He gave us memories, so we don’t have to carry our stuff. He knew there were things (people) that we couldn’t keep no matter how hard we held on. So, He gave us memories to cherish.

Yesterday MOTHER”S DAY was a VS 4 day

A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.

It was of course Mother’s Day. My brother Dick wrote a beautiful song of tribute to our mother. The woman that raised 19 children, one passed away at home 8 days after her birth.
She did her best to feed, cloth and have us in church. My dad worked the 2nd shift so most of the school age parenting was up to her. We were clean and fed. We had hand me down clothes and received our weekly spit wash before going into church, if it was needed. It reminds me of a conversation I over heard between one of our foster kids with a new teenage arrival. The new boy said I don’t think I like the rules here, to which the seasoned foster son said “Well one thing about Hope’s house is the rules are going to be the same tomorrow.

I guess I kind of caught that from my parents. There weren’t many surprises. We got some pretty heavy (at times very harsh discipline) it may have been rough but it was never a surprise.

The Mother’s tribute recording was posted on our brother and sisters messenger page. My Mom would love our messenger pages. She always said “All you kids are good at coming home to see Daddy and I, but I wish you got along better with each other. I don’t know that it was that we didn’t get along as much as there was such age gaps. There was 25 years between my oldest brother and my youngest brother. The older ones lived in several places. I moved to our farm-ette when I was 4 and they were there until right after our youngest was born. That house burned down and my parents moved to town, where the younger kids lived there preteen and teen years. They changed churches, they could be involved in school activities and have a job. In those days there was 1 car in each driveway. When your dad worked second shift there were no after school activities.

Yesterday of course was my 1st Mother’s Day without Autumn. Fifty five years ago yesterday, May 11 I gave birth to my 1^st daughter. She only lived for 8 days.

But yesterday Kaci not only had her first Mother’s Day without her Mom, but we both enjoyed little Miss Wren Elizabeth that went from 2 teeth to 6 in the last month. She can keep us both pretty busy. She loves looking out the big sliding glass door at the birds and dandelions😊

One years ago yesterday I performed the ceremony for my oldest granddaughters wedding, which meant that yesterday was their anniversary.

So we had times to weep, and times to laugh. There was time to mourn and time to dance.

Wren does a lot of dancing. She loves music. It is funny I used to go to sleep with How great is our God, or All my life you have been faithful in my head.  Now its Jesus Loves Me and The Wheels on the Bus 😊

It was 1 month ago today that I left my home of 16 years. My stuff was headed up the highway in a U-Haul truck. Everything that said this house belongs to Hope Bennett was gone. But all the memories are packed gently, some very gently in my mind. The only car left in the drive was mine.

I remembered the day the last Uhaul truck, church group and family came and left. That was 16 years earlier. All my after (never enough) downsizing from a 5 bedroom with 4 outbuildings was staring at us waiting for us to find That place where each would call home (until it possibly didn’t servive the next purge) 😊

From there we fast forward 16 years later. There is no more US. It now is just me. Husband Jim’s remains are in a cemetery about 8 miles away, and daughter Autumn’s were placed near Sauk City, WI after her death from Cancer almost 9 months ago. Once again I am grateful for memories. They are the only parts I can take with me.

I will no longer see the front steps where Jim would lean as he did his almost daily reconnaissance of his surroundings. He sat at the sink and washed the dishes, or the corner filled with him and his recliner. I remember after his death that at times it was hard to be around all those reminders.  Once again that time for everything. Now I live my days in a place where there are no reminders. I am where he has/ they have never been.

As I pulled out of my driveway for the last time. I neither felt happy or sad. I just felt that peace that comes from knowing that you are absolutely walking out God’s pan for your life.

Each day I wake up knowing that NO MATTER WHAT THIS DAY BRINGS. None of it surprised God!!

Blessings! Thanks for Reading!