The First Vacation in 10 Years

We work hard every day, take care of our families, and some of us cannot afford to travel. It’s not that we don’t want to go because there is sometimes I would like nothing more than to put my family in our car and drive far, far away. But Jim being a teacher, we don’t always have extra money. We can’t take the money that’s meant for food, utilities, car payments, etc. to go on a vacation.

We had not, as a family, been back to see our family in Idaho for exactly 10 years this summer. 10 years!

But this summer – Ah, yes, this summer was different for our family!

Our oldest son got married last week in Idaho, and we decided that we were going. The drive from Texas was about 1700 miles… a long drive, for sure, but it was so worth it. And my bosses let me off for the week with short notice. What a blessing!

Our oldest kids couldn’t go with us, so it was just us and the younger three.

The first day, we drove to Farmington, New Mexico and stayed in the Holiday Inn Express there. It was a very nice hotel, great pool, and an interesting restaurant called Blake’s Lotaburger was located in the parking lot. We were eating hamburgers at 10:00 mountain time, 11:00pm central time, our normal time zone. Of course, vacation time is different than our “normal” time.

 

 

It seems every time we leave Texas, my allergies kick up, and this time was no different. I think I took Excedrin Migraine almost every day we were gone.

 

Our second day, we drove through the scenic areas of NM, CO, UT and ID. The mountains were crazy-cool, the Indian Reservation areas were – well, there are no words. 

We made it to Jim’s brother’s house around 10:30pm. When we drove into the wrong driveway, he was sitting outside laughing at us. It was so funny!

My mother-in-law has Alzheimer’s, and she is in a very nice home. Seeing her was our first mission on our first day in Idaho. 

 

And we also had to visit Taco Time. If you haven’t been there before, make sure you do it!

I won’t go through and tell every single thing we did, but I will say this: We had a wonderful time! The family took time out of their normal schedules to hang out with us and make sure that we had a good time.

We have some friends we met when we lived in Oklahoma, 20+ years ago. How strange is it that of all the cities in all the states - they would move to the same town Jim's family lives in? It was awesome to see them, too!

 

 

We were able to spend time with Connor and Krista at their house, too. It was great meeting her for the first time and getting to know her. She's our daughter-in-love now!

Connor and Krista were married on Saturday in a field in rural Idaho. It was simple and beautiful, and Jim was asked to do part of the ceremony. We hated to leave, but we knew we had to get home.

 

 

It was hard to say goodbye to these people we love. We are hoping that 10 years doesn't have to pass for us to see them again.

 

So, we drove straight through to Texas this time.

I am the usual driver because I get carsickness. When it came to a point where I just couldn’t go any longer, Jim took over. There wasn’t really a time where both of us couldn’t go on, so that was great. And we went home straight freeway – Boise to Salt Lake City to Cheyenne to Denver to Wichita. And that’s where we met up with my parents and sister for lunch. We spent a couple of hours with them, and then we started the drive home back to north Texas. When we were getting close to the border, it seemed it was taking FOREVER. But then we were in our house, and when we hit our bed… Ahhhh… You never know how much you appreciate your bed until you try to sleep in a car and only manage a couple of hours of sleep in 36 hours.

I slept almost 11 hours straight and hardly moved at all.

And then it was over.

I have to say, though, it was just marvelous. My desire to get in the car and drive away is gone, and we have these fantastic memories to last forever.

The whole trip cost about $1,000. I thought it would be so much more than that, but when you take food in your car, and you can make PB&J sandwiches driving down the highway instead of eating out constantly, it can really save you money.

I’ve had a new attitude this week, although I was exhausted the first few days. The word “grateful” describes how I feel.

I'm Finally Back!

I’m almost giddy that I can get back into my blogger account!

My laptop died several months ago, and I haven’t been able to purchase another. At least the guys at the Geek Squad were able to retrieve everything from my hard drive, so I didn’t lose anything except the machine itself.

I’ve missed writing on my blog. So many things happen in life, and it’s good to be able to sit down and think about it. Today, I’m thinking about the great encouragement I receive from this passage:

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm—
    he will watch over your life; 

the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.

I don’t really know where I would be in my life without the gracious and far-reaching love that Jesus Christ has for me.

While the world may seem to turn upside down, the truth is God is still on His throne. He is not surprised at what happens to us, around us, for us. And although times can be somewhat difficult, and oh, have they been difficult over the past few years, I can so clearly see the strand of Love woven throughout it all.

And He does it for everyone who calls His name. He makes us new. He makes us Flawless.

It's Hard to Ask for Help Sometimes

I’ve been fighting a battle.

Granted, it’s not near the magnitude of the battles that some people fight… cancer, death, divorce, the very serious situations.

I’ve been at battle with an infected sebaceous cyst, and it has lasted for six weeks.

I think the thing that has bothered me the most is that I needed help. I couldn’t really function as normal. My husband has been a trooper, and when he was out of town, my kids stepped in to help me. I’m the wife and mom! I’m supposed to be helping them.

Not the other way around.

And even a coworker volunteered to help me so Jim wouldn’t have to come over to my office on his lunch hour. Every. Single. Day.

Asking for help when you need it humbles you.

It’s easy to go along as a self-sufficient person until something happens to change that. And it also reminds you that you need other people.

When you are taking care of yourself and don’t feel the need to rely on anyone else, it can make you feel empowered. However, it is very isolating, too.

There really is no shame is leaning on someone you trust and letting them in to take care of you if you need it. Chances are - it will happen.

And chances are you will be the helper, too.

Real Love and Valentine's Day

I love you, Mom. You won’t be my last Valentine, but you will always be my first.

Valentine’s Day.

You either love it, or you hate it.

Growing up, I was never the girl with a boyfriend on Valentine’s Day. In fact, the first year I had a boyfriend on Valentine’s Day, I was 18. And that isn’t a good example.

The first year Jim and I were married, 1992, Valentine’s Day was a DISASTER.

There have been good ones thrown in there every now and then, though. And I have met friends with birthdays on V-Day, so I think of them and hope they have a great birthday/Valentine’s Day.

However, for those of us who can’t afford the gifts of jewelry, fine dining, $100/dozen roses, and overpriced chocolate gifts, we do the best with what we have. We make beautiful dinners at home with our kids and spouses, we laugh and watch movies together, knowing these days won’t last forever.

Now I’m not saying that those who give expensive gifts don’t do these things. What I am saying is this: I’m glad my love language is not receiving gifts because if it was, I would feel very unloved. And it wouldn’t be because my husband wouldn’t buy me gifts because he would if we could afford it. But we can’t, and we know it.

I don’t feel unloved at all.

My love language is acts of service. A great show of love to me is my husband making dinner, changing my bandages over this last couple of weeks, and praying over me.

While I think those who receive gifts are not bragging or trying to hurt anyone by talking about their gifts and showing pictures on Facebook or other social media, I think about those who don’t have a significant other, or those who are single parents, or those who are heartbroken. For those people, V-Day can just be a reminder of what has never been found, or what has been lost.

In all honesty, people should show their love more than one day a year anyway! That’s what real love is. It isn’t a part in a play; it’s REAL LIFE.

When Isaac hugged me last night before bed, we were joking around, and I said, “Okay, repeat after me.”

Mom… You won’t be my last Valentine, but you’ll always be my first.

He laughed. But then he said it.

And he smiled.

Prodigal Magazine is Going Away Soon

My first article in an online magazine. It was in 2013, and it was so exciting!

The magazine is closing down, and the content is going away. If you want to read some very inspiring stories, go to their website and check it out before it's gone.

My story is at http://www.prodigalmagazine.com/more-than-i-knew-i-needed/.

I've shared it here before, but I'm reclaiming since the website is going away.


The fact we already had three young sons was a miracle. After the diagnosis of Endometriosis, we didn’t know if we would ever have any biological children.
But here I was, pregnant for the fourth and last time. And we just found out we were having twins!

As we drove home that Monday morning, I was at a loss for words.
In fact, at this “routine” 20-week ultrasound appointment in my doctor’s office, all my husband could do was laugh when Dr. Glover zoomed in on the two heads in the picture. Twins! Wow…

Jim said he knew it all along, though there appeared to be only one heartbeat each time we went to the doctor.

Dr. Glover couldn’t tell us the gender of our precious little ones who were growing inside me. She said she would schedule an ultrasound at the hospital so the babies could be measured and looked at more closely.
I was in a higher risk category because of carrying multiples.
We left there in a fog. All we could do was laugh.
Noah was 4, and Jonah was 3, so they could understand that Mommy had two babies in her tummy. But Caleb was only 16 months, so he had no clue. I don’t remember much about the drive home except we were just in shock.
As soon as we got home, I started calling everyone I could think of. The conversations went something like this:
Me: Well, they couldn’t see if I’m having a boy or girl.
Them: Oh, really? Why?
Me: Because there’s two of them!
Them: What? Twins?
And then we’d take turns laughing, and some of them would ask what we were going to do… All we knew is that we would love them.

My head was spinning in all directions as I lay in bed that Sunday night.

Our appointment for the more in-depth ultrasound was the next day, and we were anxious to learn more about them. We also wondered how we were going to care financially for these five children, when taking care of three on a teacher’s salary was proving to be difficult.
Our biggest need was beds. I needed to get out of the waterbed we were sleeping in. I wasn’t comfortable at all. Noah and Jonah were sleeping in our “other” bed, and we needed to buy bunk beds for them.
We knew five kids in a three-bedroom place would be crowded, but doable.

My prayer was simple.

“Please, Lord, help us. We don’t have money for new beds for the kids, but I know you will provide what we need. And I trust You.”
I didn’t tell anyone about my prayer that night, including my husband. In fact, I actually had peace after praying, and I had no anxiety when I woke up the next morning.
Our boys stayed with a sitter, Rachael, that afternoon while Jim and I went to the hospital.
Excitement and disbelief rushed over us again and again as we heard the words. “’Baby A’ is a boy! And ‘Baby B’ is a boy!” It was just so crazy! We had them named Jesse and Isaac before the ultrasound was finished.
When we arrived at home, Rachael’s parents were waiting there to pick her up. We told them the news, and we all laughed and praised God. I could hardly contain myself! Then, Rachael said there was a package for us that had come in the mail, and it was on the table.

I was standing next to it the whole time I had been home and hadn’t even seen it.

It was a square package of about 7 inches. The postmark was Guthrie, Oklahoma. We didn’t know anyone in Guthrie, so I couldn’t really imagine what it could be.
When I opened the box, there was a letter inside.
“Dearest Hammer Family,
This is a gift for your family that the Lord knows you need and wants you to have. It is sent to you with great love anonymously because our Heavenly Father deserves all the glory, and it is never to be repaid.
The Lord has touched many lives for eternity through your love, faithfulness and witness in Christ.”

The letter held seven crisp $100 bills.

Only God and I knew I had prayed the night before for beds for our children. And God had already answered my prayer before I prayed. You see, the package was mailed Friday, December 3, 1999.
This day was Monday, December 6th.
Jesse, Isaac and I went through some preterm labor and nights in the hospital before they were born three weeks early. They were tiny boys at birth weighing 5 pounds 14 ounces and 5 pounds 5 ounces, but they were healthy. And they were beautiful.

Our family is no different than any other. We laugh, and we cry.
We endure painful trials at times. And if I hear the murmurs of the enemy, the lies hissing God doesn’t care about me or my family, and if I am ever tempted to believe it, my mind automatically goes back to the winter of 1999, and the miracle of God answering my prayer… before it was ever whispered.

Reading my story again only strengthens my resolve that God is in control of the major and seemingly minor events of our lives. What a life I've been given!

I'm Getting Old!

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re losing who you are?

2014 was a very interesting year for our family. There were sweet times, and there were very hard times. And every now and then, I feel like I’m walking through quicksand. For a whole year to go by in the blink of an eye, well, I don’t know what to say about that.

Maybe it’s because later this year, I will be 50 years old.

50!

Last Thanksgiving was the first holiday our family was split. Noah and Jonah had to work, so they weren’t able to go to the family get-together. It was tough leaving them here without us. I knew we would be together at Christmas, though.

And we had a great time! We watched both of The Hobbit movies on Christmas Eve, and then we saw the third movie at the theatre on Christmas afternoon. All of us together. 

 

I don’t know if the time I spend with them will ever be enough.

I guess as the kids get older, as they get married and start having kids, our holidays together might be fewer and far between.

I’ve also realize how rude it was of me to act like I did to my own parents when I moved out and didn’t talk to them for weeks at a time. I knew they didn’t agree with my choices, and so I made the decision to not talk to them to avoid the confrontation. I didn’t understand the love of a parent then.

Noah turned 20 last week, too. I can't believe that 20 years have gone by since the day I became a mother.

Is it the fact getting older that is so hard?

Is it the fact my kids are going to be moving out and starting their own lives that is so hard?

I think it’s probably both.