The Good News, The So-So News

"Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save."   --- Isaiah 46:4

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Darn! I'm kinda stuck at feeling 90% of my former self and the missing 10 % is the inspiration part. It feels gone. Mostly.

Keep praying, ok?

Anyway! Some good news. Remember our cute little garage?

(Such an old photo, probably from 2013. It looks much more tired now.)

Well, each time Tom went anywhere, I'd open the garage door for him lest he harm his foot/back/body (which has happened) and you know? Lately I'd push that door up and I mean it, it got heavier each time! Old age and rust, both me and the door.  ツ

Tom could see my struggles with it so he began researching places which would come replace it with an electric one and guess what? Our retired neighbor, Sue's fiance, used to do that for a living. Wow.

And today it's nearly finished. Bill just needs to program the remote and stuff like that.

Whew. Watching the new door open all by itself will feel like a true miracle. You can imagine my already-gratitude.

This season in Tom's and my life? Preparing now for our later years. Thinking of ways to make tasks simpler. It's nearly become a part-time job (it seems), takes much head space, and I wonder, "Why aren't other people talking about this? Are our friends not there yet? Have they already done all this? Do they just not wish to speak of this out of embarrassment or ?"

But whatever, making my life easier is, like, my mission. Recognizing when Grace has gone from some areas, matters. In fact, an idea from this week?

To rip out my Herb and Etc. Garden. Well, all but the peonies and daylilies.

It's a cinch to water (just stand over the railing), but even that became too much during my boy-was-she-sick summer. Plus? I didn't even use the herbs, scallions,, etc. and I stopped caring about the cherry tomato plant. I got visions of a simple, carefree flower bed, like you'd see at an old lady's house and got excited.

More seasons ending. Watching myself turn into a different version of me.  It's happening.

And it requires a happy acceptance, a gratitude for great seasons I experienced and a belief that good seasons still wait ahead. They'll just be different ones. 

And with Jesus alongside me, everything will, eventually, be ok.

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The so-few books I read this summer and during September (this illustrates how bleh I felt. I normally aim for 8 books each month!) :

Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick

Mystery at Shadow Pond by Mary C. Jane

Yours, Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick

Death and Peaches by Nova Walsh

The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes

The Cider Shop Rules by Julie Anne Lindsey

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I found this fascinating, but very sad. Oh Honey, get yourself and your husband off that boat! You had lovely seasons on it, but it's become too much and it's time to move on while you still can.

How Retiring to a Tiny House Changed her Life for the Better.

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Happy Autumn!

Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15