The Jewels In My Mother's Crown #HappyMothersDay #AngelMother

Mother's Day is for me bittersweet as I lost my mother to lung cancer in February of 2014. My wounds are still raw and sore internally, as I continue thru the grieving process. Knowing that she is in heaven with my dad is such comfort to me and this poem I found tonight online was so touching to me. I wanted to share with others that might be grieving the loss of a loved one on the Mother's Day 2015 too.

A Mother’s Crown

Heaven lit up with a mighty presence,
as the Angels all looked down.
Today the Lord was placing the jewels
Into my mother’s crown.

He held up a golden crown,
as my darling mother looked on.
He said in His gentle voice,
‘I will now explain each one.’

‘The first gem,’ He said, ‘is a Ruby,
and it’s for endurance alone,
for all the nights you waited up
for your children to come home.’

‘For all the nights by their bedside,
you stayed till the fever went down.
For nursing every little wound,
I add this ruby to your crown.’

‘An emerald, I’ll place by the ruby,
for leading your child in the right way.
For teaching them the lessons,
That made them who they are today.’

‘For always being right there,
through all life’s important events.
I give you a sapphire stone,
for the time and love you spent.’

‘For untying the strings that held them,
when they grew up and left home.
I give you this one for courage.’
Then the Lord added a garnet stone.

‘I’ll place a stone of amethyst,’ He said.
‘For all the times you spent on your knees,
when you asked if I’d take care of your children,
and then for having faith in Me.’

‘I have a pearl for every little sacrifice
that you made without them knowing.
For all the times you went without,
to keep them happy, healthy and growing.’

‘And last of all I have a diamond,
the greatest one of all,
for sharing unconditional love
whether they were big or small.’

‘It was your love that helped them grow
Feeling safe and happy and proud
A love so strong and pure
It could shift the darkest cloud.’

After the Lord placed the last jewel in,
He said, ‘Your crown is now complete,
You've earned your place in Heaven
With your children at your feet.’

~~Unknown author

God can turn burden's into blessings, let him turn your life around today! 

Ask me about Essential Oils, gifts from the earth that have changed my life! email me for more information leslieblockrn@gmail.com ,Click HERE for ordering info

Finish Each Day and Be Done With It.....Learning How To Love You #love

 We are nearing February, the month of #Love, for me it will be the one year anniversary of my mother's death. The last year has been a challenge for me, as I already suffer from chronic depression problems. I am slowly learning to love myself again and have been struggling to accept my life as it is now and move on. Join me for several posts about depression and how I have dealt with the crippling grip it can have on your life.

Finish Every Day and Be Done With It
You have done what you could
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
Forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a New Day;
You Shall Begin It serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense

"Ralph Waldo Emerson" 

Have A Blessed Thanksgiving!

From our house to yours we wish you a safe and blessed Thanksgiving Day. Count your blessings, no matter how small, and praise our Father above for all the goodness he bestows upon us daily.

Happy Thanksgiving

I is for Inspiring... #atozchallenge

How Inspiring to others are you?

As a homeschooling mom that may or may not be a difficult question to answer. You are more inspiring than you think. I once thought that there was nothing inspirational about my life, as a young woman I will admit that my self esteem was low and I thought more of what others thought about me instead. Growing in Christ has helped me to overcome thru many trials and tribulations. Having a strong faith has kept me well planted in Gods word when times have been rough or almost impossible for me to bear. He has taught me that there is nothing I can not do without Him by my side. As the Bible promises, He will not put more on you than you can bear without his help.

Inspiring others is one thing I have learned to do with Gods help, he leads me to those he feels need a smile, that special touch of a nurses hand, or an inspiring blog post here or my other blogs. There is not a weekend that goes by that I don't work my busy weekender shift in the ER and someone comes across my path I know God has put there. It might be a patient that needs to talk or a family member who is scared.

How can you inspire others? First ask for God's guidance, pray about it. He will lead your path.

You are already inspiring your family, being a parent is an inspiration itself. Smile at others you meet, you never know what another person's walk is in life. Do what you do best, whether it be cooking, writing, crafting or talking, use those tools you have to help and inspire others.

Be an inspiration and pass it on, be contagious ....

Enjoy these Inspiring and Lifting Words! I love these.

Have a fabulous day!

Friendship~ sticking together no matter what!

This was so sweet and so true that I had to share, no matter what, your true friends
do stick together when times are tough, value those friends and treat them just
as they would treat you! Thank God daily for bringing friends and angels into your
life, he alone is responsible for pairing you up with those friends that will last the miles.
Enjoy the pictures below, a truly feel good post! I hope I made you smile and made
your day, inspiring you to pass on your joy to someone else. Pay it Forward!

Source: themetapicture.com via Marian on Pinterest

7 Secrets To Success......plus the best secret!

What do you consider success in life?

Just look around you and be amazed at what you might see.

And Pray, Trust God for your success in life always

The Best secret!

Saturday blessings

Hello weekend,glad you are here! Praising God for all blessings whether they be great or small.

 

Worry your Life Away.....what is the solution?

Do you worry, are you anxious? This is the only answer, open the book and start reading these verses, turn it all over to the One that can solve all your problems. Try it, it works! 

                                                               Source: unlockingthebible.org via Leslie on Pinterest

Prayers for My Mom today

Praying today for my mom who has landed herself back in the hospital due to a nasty infection that has been plaguing her for a while now. She has had this open abscess'd area on her abdomen that was the result of an internal abscess from a diverticulitis flare up. She had a drain for weeks, they took out the drain and since then she has still had this area that will not heal. Many doses of antibiotics and home health visits later, months now, they have finally decided today to surgically go in and fix this mess. Today she went to the doctors office and they told her to go to the hospital for admission, of course she was fussing that she had to much to do, lunches with friends,her work at the local humane society, her animals at home to feed etc. So funny the life of a widow grandmother living in the South. One day that will be me.....lol.
Please help me keep her in your prayers today and this week, she is my only mother of course and I am stuck here at home right now because I have to work this week and have had the shingles of all blasted things to get (caused by stress my doctor says, imagine that). We will keep in touch by phone, but at least I am half way to her when I am at work. She is not worried and we will trust God to get her through this as he is always Good.

An Attitude of Gratitude

 

A Dose of Positive Attitude

Shared from Godvine website ~

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood... or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim... or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining... or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Michael said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what Michael said. Soon thereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied. "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon to be born daughter," Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live... or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Michael continued... "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read "He's a dead man. I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. "Yes, I replied." The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, "Gravity." Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

"Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything. Matthew 6:34 states: Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

After all, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Enjoy each day, each breath and mostly... each and every friend.

And remember to start each day with an "attitude of gratitude!"

 

 

Nature, A Beautiful Force~

This is a touching video that shows you how wonderful our world really is and how much God is really in control. Nature is such a beautiful force and the ebbs and flows that work all in his timing is amazing. Take time today to notice the world around you and say thank you for what you have!

F.L.Y. and fly high

This speaks so loudly and echos in my mind

If you do not love yourself

take care of yourself

open your mind

and let God take over

your life

you will never get off the ground!

You will crash

You will burn

Give all your cares away to him, let your worry FLY so 

you can F.L.Y.

Have an awesome high flying day today

Life is too Short... Take the Chance

Oh how true this very statement is, why don't we heed this warning that our mother most likely sometime in our younger life said to us. I don't know about you, but as a young girl, I knew it all and my parents did not. Oh they have proved me so wrong since then, and I have had to eat much crow. Always know that your mother is a very smart chick, because she has been thru the fire and come out stronger for it. Yes we as moms make mistakes but we also grow from those mistakes and God sets us back on a path that is even and more clear.
Nobody said that it would be easy.... They just promised it would be worth it.....

~~ Leslie~~
aka: not a know it all mom ;)

Stay tuned for some fun field trip picture from our Friday, will try to post them this weekend.

Yes I am Invisible, and I am building cathedrals!

Invisible Mother. . . . This was not written by me, but was shared by a friend, and I thought it was worth sharing.

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?'

Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible.. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more! Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this??

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'

Some days I'm a crystal ball; 'Where's my other sock?, Where's my phone?, What's for dinner?' 

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history, music and literature -but now, they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!?

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating th return of a friend from England . She had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when she turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: 'With admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devoured - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: 1) No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. 2) These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. 3) They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. 4) The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything. 

A story of legend in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does.

No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, no Cub Scout meeting, no last minute errand is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.

The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for 3 hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a monument to myself.

I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, he'd say, 'You're gonna love it there...'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible mothers.

 Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did, it really made my day when I read it, blessings to you and your family today.
Leslie~~