Angel Armies and Prayer Warriors

Sending my daughter to San Antonio for Basic training all alone was so difficult.  Equally difficult is not being able to talk to her and help her through it.  It may appear that to some that she is all alone. It may even feel like that to her at times, but it is so not true.  As my youngest daughter so succinctly said "she has Jesus".  This Friend has an army of angels at His command to strengthen her when she is weak.  She has an army of prayer warriors lifting her name up in their talks with our Savior.  As I cry because I miss her so terribly, I know that God is in control and she is safer there than here because she has followed His plan and He has great things for her.

They ain't all bad

My life has been a whirlwind, sometimes I can't tell which way I should be going.  It seems I can't even go to Target without a melt down.  The word that describes my life right now is bittersweet.  I will start with the sweet.
 My girls are transitioning into wonderful godly women.  They are making great choices and I am very proud.  I just spent a week with a house of young people, friends of my daughters.  A more polite considerate group of kids you wouldn't meet.  They cooked, cleaned and fit comfortably in my home.  They are articulate and spiritually sound.  They have plans to carry the gospel all over the world.  I am blessed to have spent the week with these kids.
Briana will graduate with honors in May.  She is not sure what she will be doing after that.  Pray than she will find the job God has for her.  Andrea will finish next year.  Krista is finishing her junior tennis season and keeping us very busy in the process.
Joanna leaves next week for Basic Training.
Off they go and I look forward to seeing and hearing of all their accomplishments.

May your New Year be Filled with JOY

For nearly 20 years I have given out Christmas cards with our family's picture on it.  We usually take it at Thanksgiving.  Andrea had to work so she didn't come home for Thanksgiving.  I wasn't interested in giving out cards with one child missing.

I decided to do something different and send out Happy New Year Cards with a picture from Christmas when they were all home.

And home they were, our house was filled with lots and lots of noise and people.
This last year was a year of changes, but 2013 looks to be even more eventful.

Briana starts her last semester of college.  She will graduate from Liberty with a Business/Marketing degree.  Now comes the hard part, getting a real job.  She may finally move completely out, which will be a little strange.  Briana has always been very attached to home and family.  Pray for her as she seeks the Lord's will in the next stage of life.

Andrea is a Junior at Liberty.  She is studying Health Promotions/Nutrition.  She stays busy with school and working at J Crew.  She is our social child and brings many new people into our lives.  We visited her for her 21st birthday and met her friends at her birthday party.  She has certainly enriched her life with many great friends

Joanna graduated HS this year.  She also finished her AA at the community college.  She is joining the United States Air Force.  She swears in on Thursday.  She will be in a civil engineering unit.  It is what they call a Red Horse unit.  She will travel and build things.  That is a little simplistic.  She will be reserve and plans to attend Liberty when she is not deployed.  We are very excited for her.

Krista is a junior in HS.  She has worked hard at tennis this summer in hopes of moving to the next level.  This should be a great year for her as last year was not too bad.  There should be a trip to the state tournament in the very near future.

Not much has changed for Jimmy and I, except for the fact that we are getting (and feeling) much older.  Jimmy is still working and working and working for Sysco, we are grateful that he is healthy enough to work as hard as he does.  He is thankful for the ice pack, it seems he is icing different joints and muscles each week.  I am still running, Jan 1 completes my 5th year.  I have good days and bad days, but glad I can still hit the streets.

For those of you who have been friends forever, here are some pics of the extended family.  Mom (Esther) retired this year.  Dad (Jim) was supposed to but Winn Dixie or whatever it is called now had other plans and keep extending his time there.  Both are doing well.

Parents, sisters and husbands.  Margaret was not here this day

Most of the cousins...  All grown up

May Your New Year be Filled with Joy

From the Tyson Family

How not to become Road Kill

One of my favorite races to run is the Marine Corps Half Marathon.  This year will be my fourth time running it.  I have had, within seconds, the same time EVERY year.  The last three out of four years I have been injured or sick 2 weeks before the race.  This year is no exception.   Thursday night I woke up with a severe sore throat and by Friday afternoon, I could breathe.  I took Theraflu and went to bed.  I slept in and took it easy Saturday morning.  I felt very pressured to get out and run, the race is two weeks from today, so I did.  I have 13 miles on the schedule today and after last week's series of unfortunate events, I needed to get them in.  By mile 4 I was feeling light headed, so I started walking.  I was belittling myself for being so sorry, but there was something I had seen at mile 3 that got me to thinking about the whole situation.....

Since I started so late, the sun was out in full force.  I switched to the other side of the road as it looked that there was more shade.  There was, but there was something else too.  First I nearly stepped on a mostly scavenged armadillo.  GROSS.  A few hundred feet down the sidewalk was a dead cat, a huge dead cat with huge flies fly around it.  Both were on the sidewalk and smelling ripe.  So, when I began feeling dizzy at mile four, I decided that I really didn't want to become road kill, so I slowed it down, considerably.

Running is like that, I have these grandiose goals, but sometimes I have to do what I can so I can make it to the race healthy.  I can't compare myself to others.  I have to remember that this is only for fitness and I do have to get up and live my life tomorrow.  And I am getting old.  It is difficult for this body to fight two battles at once, whatever microbe invaded my body AND 13 miles.  I have no control over the battle in my body between the good and the bad.   So, I got over it.  I was ok with 4 miles and I live to run another day.

This is applicable spiritually as well.  The battles we fight can make us weary and sick.  Jesus tells us in Matt 11:28 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  He also tells us in I Peter 5:7 to cast all our cares on Him because He cares for us.  He does care for us more than we can understand, so much so that He died for us.  How wonderful is that.  Isn't it special that we can lean on the all powerful One?  So when our battles get tough, let's follow the Psalmist's advice in Psalm 4:8 "I will both lay me down and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.

Stay Calm and Call Mom

Lately, bittersweet is what describes my life.  Sad because my girls are moving on and I don't see them everyday.  Sweet, because they have grown into lovely young ladies, finding their place in the family of God.  They are out in the world, making decisions for themselves.  But there are tough days.  I am still glad that on those tough days, I am only a phone call away.  I am happy that they want to call me for advice.  But most of all I hope they know the One who has all the answers is only a prayer away.  I pray that they will continue serving and loving God.

What is good about an empty house?

For the whole month of June, my house has been mostly empty.  I guess that is kind of like "mostly dead".  I have been a little sad, so I decided to make a list of what is good about an empty house.  I couldn't come up with a top ten list, but here are the ones I came up with, not necessarily in any order.

• I can clean the house and it is still clean the next day, and maybe even the next.  Of course the doors to their rooms are closed because I haven't gotten the nerve to clean them yet.
• I don't have to plan meals, because Dad is much simpler in the food department.
• The electric and water bill is much lower even as hot as it has been.
• I can listen to what I want to, as loud as I want to without hearing "really, Mom, what is THAT?"
• No one knocks on the bedroom door as soon as I shut it.
• I can clean the refrigerator because the shelves are empty.
• I don't hear 5 different ipods all playing different music.
• I don't have to leave the room when it comes time to decide what movie "we" are watching.
• I get the whole couch to myself.
• I can leave the house without my wardrobe being criticized (at least by people that will say it out loud)
• The girls call for advice, actually listen and more often than not, take it.

I guess I did come up with more than 10.  There is one more.  Every birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day when the girls asked what I wanted, I told them "peace and harmony in the Tyson home".  I have a whole lot of that now but a scrap every now and then would be nice to spice things up a little

Now I have time

It is Sunday night and I am sitting in the living room with my husband and 2 of our dogs....no kids anywhere. As we sit exploring social media on our respective laptops, I think back to the day when I couldn't imagine being in the house with no children for one night, and definitely not a full week.  But I am....

I traveled over 1000 miles by car to get my oldest children to their summer destinations.  Briana is spending her summer in Somerset, PA.  This is very close to where the plane went down on 9/11, flight 93, I think it was.  It is a very remote city.  Beautiful farms.  Very few people.  She will be working with another intern to promote the camp.  For two weeks, it was just them and the families that run the camp year round.  It has been lonely but things are picking up as the counselors and eventually campers begin filling up the cabins.  They just had a new addition, a pony was born today.  Briana was the first to see the baby.   She has adjusted well to a very different life.  I am sure she will learn a lot

I left PA and met Andrea in Virginia.  She has a job there and was moving into her first apartment.  Actually it is an old Victorian house that is shared by several girls.  She is making her way in the adult world.  I am very proud of her.

 Pictures of my trip

Joanna is working at camp this summer.  I think she is very surprised at how difficult it is.  She has met some new friends and is enjoying working with old friends.  She is working with the daughter of an "old" friend of mine.  It is interesting that we spent many years at Trinity Youth Camp and her daughter traveled from Utah to work at camp.  Our daughters have become friends.

Baby Krista is in Michigan with the youth group.  It is her first big trip all alone.  We haven't heard from her much, which means she is working hard.

One very special thing about the beginning of summer is that I have been able to spend alone time with every member of our family.  This is not something that happens often.  I think it was a first with Joanna and Krista.  I spent 2 whole days each with them.

Now what to do with this time I have.....among other things, I think I will blog a little more.  I set this blog up when Briana left for Argentina to keep her updated.  I think with all the girls leaving, I need to post more to keep them posted in between all the texts we send to each other.