Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

It was a beautiful morning, it really was. The sky, a brilliant blue, I had one dog, Izzy, snuggled up against my back, snoring. Another dog on the floor, blissfully sleeping, and a puppy, who really isn't a puppy anymore, pawing at my blankets, snuffling at my neck, encouraging me to get up because he had to pee. Typical morning. As is my routine, I began my morning thanking God for His protection through the night, His new mercies, and the Lord's Prayer...then I continued with my intercession for the day. Because I do not say 'amen' at the end of the Lord's Prayer, for me, it means that my prayers are ongoing throughout the day. I came to find out last week, that I am not the only one to do that...a man who is a wonderful music minister does so as well. As I continued my morning routine, let the dogs out, fed the cats and fish, and made my coffee, I continued in intercession, praying for a dear friend who is fighting to get well. She was in a horrific car accid...

In January, it will be thirty years since my life changed. No, there was no traffic accident that marred me for life; no personal disaster such as a crippling disease; no death of a parent or loved one that so impacted me; no crime committed against me. No, a baby was born. Not your ordinary baby, but one who had gained my love and attention during the forty weeks while she was formed. During that forty weeks, I was able, through the miracle of technology, to hear her heartbeat and see her suck her thumb. My husband and I witnessed a miracle that we never thought would happen. On January 15, 1983, at 11:45 p.m., Andrea Michelle Lane was born. What we thought was a miracle quickly turned into the biggest challenge of my life and forever altered any dreams that I had for her. She was diagnosed with Down Syndrome, and sixteen hours later, the genetic markers were identified and we were hit with the confirmation. The pediatrician who was on duty came in and calmly and clinically proclaimed...

OK, so maybe I'm a bit of a masochist here, but I am finding out that the universe doesn't like to be called out and have pointed out that it can't win. Yesterday after I wrote my blog, I found that little stuff was popping up. Mostly stuff to annoy me, but its the stuff that annoys me that usually gets me to forget my Walk and gets me to stray off of my goal of staying on Jesus' path. For instance: I was making desserts for my friend's auction yesterday. I saw what looked like an amazing recipe being made on Paula Deen's cooking show the day before so I decided that I would make it. You know, something different than basic cake and frosting, after all, if they're sitting there and "oohing and aahing" over this on the show it must be good, right? Well, after making the recipe and having a taste (I made cupcakes instead of the cake) I could imagine her taking a dishtowel to her tongue to get the taste out, it was that not good, and I followed the ...

So, here it is day four of being here helping out Beth with the kids after her surgery. For those of you who didn't know, she had to have a small gravel pit taken out, more commonly known as her gall bladder. Since this is a surgery, outpatient yes, but surgery nonetheless, she is not allowed to lift more than ten pounds.....both of the babies are over ten pounds. Plus for Grandma, minus for Mama. Anyway, what she didn't tell me on the phone is that I was going to experience my first Super Typhoon. I have to say, right now, after having experienced first Katrina and then Ike, I'm not impressed. For the moment there's just a lot of wind and rain, but I understand that in less than two hours the main nastiness of the typhoon will be hitting our corner of the Island. I have been watching this storm, which is at this point seven hundred miles wide and a category 4 storm, on the satellite. Its a slow moving storm that seems to have stayed steady the entire time its been mo...

...and quite frankly, I don't like them. There used to be a time that I could pack a 757 pit, tight, by myself. There used to be a time that I could pick up a 70 pound Great Dane and heft it into a bath tub, then dry it off...by myself. There used to be a time when I could change an alternator, a starter or even spark plugs, by myself...not anymore. Now there are days that I can't hold a fork or a glass of iced tea. I can't hold the hair dryer long enough to dry my hair and my daughter has to help me. There used to be so many things that I could do that I can't and quite honestly, I'm frustrated as all get out. I bought a truck in May, a 1973 Ford F100 with the knowledge that I could do some of the repair work by myself. I haven't worked on a vehicle since I owned my 67 Camaro and I missed it. The newer cars have computers and I was confounded whenever I went to work on my husband's Mustang because it would involve a computer somehow, so it got relegated t...

...but I know I have to. Do you ever get into one of those moods that you don't want to do anything? Nothing? Zip? Zilch? Nada? Not even go to bed? I'm beat and yet the last thing I want to do right now is go to bed. This week has been, well, Heck Week....the fibromyalgia has kicked into high gear and even laying down right now is uncomfortable. I need to sleep, but the thought of laying my whole body down and being uncomfortable is just not appealing. Its bad enough that the sleeves of my shirt are driving me buggy, but to add sheets on top of that, no thank you. Widget is even inquiring as to when I am going to decide to go to bed. His buggy little eyes are so sleepy right now, I know all he wants to do is go and make biscuits on the end of my bed and hunker down for the night...instead he's got his vulture mode going...you know the one...the one where they find the highest perch near you and then they just hang their heads and stare at you. You have to love cats.... ...

..I learned in the last month. The month of May has been, hands down, the most  difficult month that I think that I've ever experienced. Being away from home and hearth, health problems on both sides of the family and that great equalizer, death being a huge part of the month...yeah, I'm over it. The month of May was pretty much the wind down for me and my travelling the world. I was able to stay with my Mom while she had her back surgery and then some of the recovery time, which was a good thing. Dad was able to keep working so he didn't lose any time at all really. I was able to help Mom out with the things that she normally would be able to do for herself, and helped her to keep track of the medication that made her a bit loopy and a tad forgetful. This was a good thing, but a little bit stressful, so bring on a flare up. Nothing to write home about and pretty much controllable with Advil, but flareup nonetheless. The end of April and the beginning of May also brough...

Yup, close the blinds, pull the darkening curtains close the door and pull the covers over your head. That  is the kind of day I've had so far and its not even noon yet. Couldn't sleep well last night and at six this morning I woke up to one of those awesome short trips to the tropics, i.e., hot flash. It sucks that my metabolism goes on vacation without me and only sends me the heat from there. **sigh** Tossed and turned until about six thirty and gave it up. I have a lot to do today anyway. The plan was to get an early start on the laundry and start the dough for pirogis. So much for the best laid plans of mice and this Mama. The laundry I got started OK, but I had to take a break from getting it started to help mom who moved wrong. No biggie, three minutes out of the plan....I allowed for ten. Got the laundry going and started to plan the recipe for dinner. Sent a message to Chris to see if he had gone to the mechanic yet and found out that I should have probably let him c...