Friday, March 1
What better way to begin a new month than driving to Dallas to see the grandkids (and, of course, their parents...and a bonus surprise, Andy's sister, Heather).
With a full night ahead of us, we first drove to Rockwall to check in at the Hampton Inn and take a little nap before driving to Allen (and getting totally lost in their high school complex) to watch Alexander play in a soccer match.
We left after the first period to drive through the evening rush hour traffic (why do they call it "rush hour," when it is stalled bumper to bumper) to watch Abby play the lead role of Mary Poppins in her school's spring musical.
Just for the record, arts and athletics are really showing up in the young branches of the family tree!
When the play was over and pictures were taken, we drove back to Rockwall, stopped at Panda Express for some takeout, and returned to the Hampton Inn for a late dinner and a good night's sleep.
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Saturday, March 2
We took our time getting up and about this morning before packing the car and heading up I-30 through Greenville and Sulphur Springs, where we turned off on a back road to go to a little country church near Quitman for the memorial service for Richard Cervin. Richard's wife, Cherrie, is a good friend and one of the dearest friends of Aunt TJ. Richard passed away several weeks ago, but it took time to get all the family together for the service.
It was a beautiful service and we got to visit with Cherrie and Marge, another of TJ's best friends...all that was missing was TJ, but her kids weren't able to bring her back for the service.
When we were finished at the church,we drove home, unloaded the car, got a little rest, and then changed clothes and stepped into the Wayback Machine for a trip to the Fifties at the First Baptist Church of Yantis Spring Fling. Needless to say (even though we're going to say it anyway), a Fabulous Fifties time was had by all.
As part of the entertainment, I serenaded our friend Karen with an Elvis selection, Love Me Tender. Karen knows the lyrics to every Elvis song, and the lines to every Elvis film. She's definitely a 50's girl stuck in the 21st century.
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Sunday, March 3
This morning found us back at First Baptist Church of Yantis with a full slate of Sunday morning activities. Our Children's Church lesson today, "Free to Follow Jesus," came from John 8:31-47...
JIM:
When someone talks about how Jesus is the truth that sets us free from our sins
what does that really mean? You know that we all are sinners; but what sets us
apart from those who don’t believe in Jesus? For one thing, as Christians we
know that God sent Jesus to show us what a perfect life was and to be the
sacrifice for our sins. We also know that when we walk with Jesus, He doesn’t
take away our problems; but He does guide us and help us through those
difficult times, if we let him.
However,
we are slaves to sin when we continue to do things that God doesn’t want us to
do. Jesus came to free us from our
slavery to sin. When we accept Jesus as
our savior, we have the freedom to follow God.
BARBARA:
Have any of you had a brand-new pet like a puppy or kitten. When you get a pet,
you know how they act at first, don’t you? They may jump all over you, get on
the furniture, or dig holes in the flower bed.
They are so happy to be free from their former lives they think they can
do whatever they want. Pets must learn
that is wrong, and they must learn that they have a different kind of freedom
now. They can’t do that on their own…we must
teach them the right way to behave.
Christians
are kind of like that. You see, when we
are bound by guilt and sin and it’s sort of like being in a cage. Jesus bought our freedom from the cage…our slavery
to sin, when he died on the cross. But
just because we have freedom in Christ doesn’t mean we can go out and do
whatever we want. We must learn the
right way to behave, and the way we do that is to study the Bible, learn from
our Sunday school and Wednesday night lessons and older Christians, and listen
to Pastor Craig when he preaches the sermons on Sunday.
JIM:
That’s right, Mrs. Little. Just as we
pay the price for and free our pets to serve and live with us, we are to live
to serve God. When we listen to him, God
will teach us because we can’t learn on our own. Apart from him, we can do nothing!
What
do we have to remind the children that to follow Christ, we need to feed on the
Word to be more like him?
BARBARA:
Well, since we were talking about pets, Mr. Little, and how we must train them,
just like we need to be trained to follow Jesus, we made them some bags of
puppy chow (the human version, of course). And, as you eat this treat, remember
with Christ we are set free!
JIM:
“Dear
Jesus, thank you for paying the price and freeing us from our sin and
guilt. Please teach us how to live like
you want us to. In your name we pray,
Amen.”
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Monday, March 4
Remembering Barbara's father, W.T. Perry
Today was for getting back in the swing of things after the special events of the last three days. Barbara paid bills and I worked on taxes and other business.
With the Lake Country Symphonic Band coming up Sunday, we had a special rehearsal tonight to get in some extra preparation.
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Tuesday, March 5
Happy Pancake Day!!!
To celebrate this special day in the Liberal, Kansas way, I got up early this morning and fixed a breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and eggs.
When our leisurely breakfast was over and the dishes were done, we got dressed and drove to Lindale for a follow-up appointment with Dr. Markle, the dermatology surgeon who sliced and diced my left ear a couple of months ago. After a cursory examination, she declared me mostly healed and sent us on the way with a warning to keep my head, especially my scalp and my ears, covered when outside.
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Wednesday, March 6
This was just another day of taking care of business around the house. While Barbara tended to the cooking, washing, and cleaning, I tackled the mounds of tax-related paperwork on my desk. At the end of the day, everything was even messier. This could be a l-o-n-g tax preparation season for us!
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Thursday, March 7
This morning was pretty much a twin cousin to yesterday, but Barbara did get away for a couple of hours this afternoon to pamper herself with a pedi by Leslie at Naturally Nails.
Tonight was the final dress rehearsal for the Spring concert, and it went well into overtime.
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Friday, March 8
It was a beautiful morning, we had some packages that needed to go out today, we hadn't ridden Taz in awhile...everything just came together for a short bit of wind therapy and taking care of business...that's our story and we're sticking with it!
On our way back from the post office we stopped at Dollar Tree for a few things for our children's sermon, the returned home to get the script and treats ready for Sunday.
This evening we braved some "iffy" weather as we rode Taz out to Lake Fork for an evening with our special Kansas/Texas friends, Gene and Michelle. It has been a while since we last saw them, but we have a friendship that allows us to pick up where we left off, no matter how long it has been since the last meeting.
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Saturday, March 9
It was a lazy morning around our place. We had a late breakfast and then put the final touches on the children's sermon for tomorrow.
This afternoon we went to the Historic Select Theater in downtown Mineola for a special showing of Run the Race. We didn't know what to expect, but came away feeling good, if not a little teary. This was a great family movie! (My helmet hair can explain how we got to the theater!)
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Sunday, March 10
Our Children's sermon this morning at First Baptist Church of Yantis was challenging for us, but with prayer and some deep Bible reading, we came up with a script to go along with Pastor Craig's topic, Never Taste Death.
JIM:
This morning’s lesson is about challenging Jesus. Now, that doesn’t sound like a good idea when
we first say it, but Jesus wanted the people to challenge, or ask questions
about who he was, what he could do, and why he could do the things he was doing. Jesus didn’t mind being questioned, if the
people who asked the questions were serious about learning, and not just being
mean-spirited or trying to trick him.
When
Jesus was talking to the religious leaders, he told them that if anyone keeps
his word, they would never taste death.
The religious leaders got all upset and bent out of shape about that,
because they knew that everyone would die eventually, just as all their
ancestors had died.
What
Jesus was telling them, but they didn’t want to hear it, was that his father,
God, had already prepared a place in heaven and life eternal for all those who
heard, listened, and kept his word that Jesus had come to earth as a man to be
the example of a perfect life and show the way for all others to have the greatest
gift of all, eternal life in heaven.
BARBARA: This morning I have this beautiful gift bag. I love getting gifts, don’t you? Of course, you do. Everyone likes to get gifts. What if I told you to give me five dollars
and I would give you what is in this bag?
Well, it wouldn’t be a gift then, would it – not if you had to pay for
it. When someone offers you a gift, it
doesn’t cost you anything. All you need
to do is accept it.
Each
of you has your own idea about what would be a great gift, but today I want to
tell you about the greatest gift ever given.
What
is that gift? It’s exactly what we read
in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that
whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” The word “whosoever” means each one of us and
eternal life means living in Heaven with Jesus.
Eternal life – what a gift! And
all we need to do to receive it is to believe and accept Jesus as our lord and savior.
And now, Let’s pray. Dear Father, thank you for the greatest gift of all, eternal life, and thank you for Jesus, who loved us so much that he paid the price for our sins to give us that wonderful gift. It’s in the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
We had to leave the service early in order to get to Mineola to change clothes and get ready for the first concert of the season for the Lake Country Symphonic Band.
We had a full house and very receptive audience as we performed one of our most challenging programs ever.
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Monday, March 11
Leah and Kaiden came over from Fort Worth to visit for a couple of days. The weather was beautiful, so while Barbara and Leah went out and did their thing, Kaiden and I got in some serious work time outside.
Tuesday, March 12
Life is interesting in any number of ways around Casa de Little. This morning Barbara said she thought that Leah and I should square off in a culinary match and have a chili cookoff. So, we made the obligatory trip to Walmart, gathered our secret ingredients, and returned to the house to let the games begin.
Our kitchen wasn't built for two cooks at the same time, so we each picked a counter and shared the cook top as we went to work.
Barbara was the judge, and because our recipes were so different, we accepted (somewhat grudgingly) her decision to call the contest a tie.
The last time Leah and Kaiden visited we found that Kaiden has some amazing organizational skills, so while Leah and I were slugging it out in the kitchen, Barbara oversaw Kaiden cleaning and reorganizing our bathroom cabinets.
When we had cleaned up our messes, Kaiden and I took some time for an informal music lesson and jam session featuring him on euphonium and me on trumpet. Kaiden has made huge strides in band this year, and has developed a very nice tone quality on his instrument.
Tonight was the second presentation of the Spring Concert by the Lake Country Symphonic Band.
After a pre-concert family photo, we drove to the Historic Select Theater for an evening of exciting band music.
Wednesday, March 13 - Saturday, March 16
Leah and Kaiden had to return home this morning. After saying our goodbyes, we settled in to a routine of catching up on regular homeowner business and working on a children's sermon for Sunday, balanced with frequent periods of rest (okay, we took a lot of naps, but they were well-deserved).
Sunday, March 17
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!
Our children's sermon this morning at First Baptist Church Yantis came from John 9:1-12, and was titled, Mud Pie Medicine...
There's nothing like Taz time to reflect on the beauty of God's creation.
Wednesday, March 20
We've been thinking about a Taz Trip to celebrate our upcoming anniversary, but one of the keys to a successful trip like that is getting in some saddle time so we don't get so sore that we can't enjoy the ride. Today was another warm-up session as we took advantage of a beautiful (even if a little cool) sun-drenched afternoon to get another session of wind therapy.
Thursday, March 21
Our plan for a long Taz ride included taking gradually longer trips to build up our endurance. Today we went from Step 2 to about Step 5 when we took a day trip across East Texas to Jefferson, a quaint old railroad town nestled near Lake of the Pines. It was a great day for a ride and we enjoyed every aspect of the visit except for the long wait for lunch, but the food was so good and the portions so large that we forgave them for the wait🤣.
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Tuesday, March 12
Life is interesting in any number of ways around Casa de Little. This morning Barbara said she thought that Leah and I should square off in a culinary match and have a chili cookoff. So, we made the obligatory trip to Walmart, gathered our secret ingredients, and returned to the house to let the games begin.
Our kitchen wasn't built for two cooks at the same time, so we each picked a counter and shared the cook top as we went to work.
Barbara was the judge, and because our recipes were so different, we accepted (somewhat grudgingly) her decision to call the contest a tie.
The last time Leah and Kaiden visited we found that Kaiden has some amazing organizational skills, so while Leah and I were slugging it out in the kitchen, Barbara oversaw Kaiden cleaning and reorganizing our bathroom cabinets.
When we had cleaned up our messes, Kaiden and I took some time for an informal music lesson and jam session featuring him on euphonium and me on trumpet. Kaiden has made huge strides in band this year, and has developed a very nice tone quality on his instrument.
Tonight was the second presentation of the Spring Concert by the Lake Country Symphonic Band.
After a pre-concert family photo, we drove to the Historic Select Theater for an evening of exciting band music.
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Wednesday, March 13 - Saturday, March 16
Leah and Kaiden had to return home this morning. After saying our goodbyes, we settled in to a routine of catching up on regular homeowner business and working on a children's sermon for Sunday, balanced with frequent periods of rest (okay, we took a lot of naps, but they were well-deserved).
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Sunday, March 17
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!
Our children's sermon this morning at First Baptist Church Yantis came from John 9:1-12, and was titled, Mud Pie Medicine...
BARBARA: Good
Morning! How many of you have ever made
a mud pie? All you need to make one is
some dirt, water, and a little container.
You mix the dirt and water, put it in the container, and set it out to
dry so it looks like a pie. You can’t
eat it, of course. But it’s something that’s fun to do and doesn’t cost
anything but a little bit of your time.
This morning we will talk about a very
special mud pie. It was something that
changed a man’s life and even today it teaches important lessons about Jesus
and how we are supposed to act.
Back
in the days when Jesus lived on earth, many people thought that if someone was
sick, or blind, or were crippled, it was because they or their parents had
sinned. In fact, the religious leaders
taught that very thing. In our lesson
today, Jesus meets a man who had been born blind, and because of the religious
teaching, everyone, even some of Jesus’ disciples, thought he was a sinner; but
when you think about it, that doesn’t make much sense. They were saying he was a sinner even before
he was born.
JIM:
That’s right, Mrs. Little. One of the
disciples even asked Jesus, “Was this man born blind because his parents
sinned, or was he born blind because he sinned?” Jesus answered the question by saying the man
wasn’t born blind because anyone sinned.
He then said this happened so that the power of God could be seen in the
man’s life.
After telling the disciples this, Jesus did
the strangest thing. He bent down and
stirred up some mud…just like making a mud pie.
Then he put the mud on the blind man’s eyes and told him to go wash in a
certain pool of water. Well, the man did
just what Jesus told him to do and when he came back, he could see for the very
first time in his life. Don’t you know
that was an exciting time for him!
People around the man had all kinds of
questions. Some asked if he was the man
who had been begging all those years, and others said he was just someone who
looked like the blind beggar, but the man said, I am the man. The others hadn’t seen Jesus put the mud in
the blind man’s eyes, so they asked, “How were your eyes opened?” He told them that Jesus had done it.
BARBARA: Mr. Little, it seems that the important
lesson for us this morning is one that we have talked about before. In order for Jesus to help us, we must hear
him, listen to him, and then do what he tells us to do. We have to be like the
blind man in this story. Even though he
had been physically blind and could not see, he was willing to believe Jesus
and do what Jesus told him to do.
JIM: That’s right, Mrs. Little, that’s why this
morning we have a tasty version of a mud pie to remind each of you that Jesus
could use two of the simplest things in the world, water and dirt, along with
the man’s willingness to believe in his words, to heal the blind man so he
could see. On the wrapper of the “mud
pie” are these words, “Jesus gives light to blind eyes.”
Now
let’s bow our heads for prayer: Heavenly
Father, we are all here today in need of the touch of Jesus. We pray that our lives will be changed so
that your name will be glorified. It’s
in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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Monday, March 18
Some days are just days, and today was one of those. There wasn't anything exciting or important going on, other than the anticipation of an overnight visit with nephew Gary Dan Little, one of brother Jerry's sons. Gary Dan didn't get in until 10:30 pm, so we visited for a bit and then crashed for the night.
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Tuesday, March 19
Gary Dan had a long trip to Atlanta ahead of him, so we fixed a family breakfast, visited some more, and got him on the way home.
There was also some housecleaning and business to take care of, so we did what was necessary and then decided that some wind therapy was what we really needed. We saddled up Taz and struck out for a short ride around the Mineola area.
We noticed that Ladd and Angela were home, so we stopped to drop off some things they had left at our house. Ladd and Logan were building Angela a new chicken coop and needed help moving part of the old one, so I pitched in and helped while Barbara documented the occasion.
And then it was time to experience the fun of a ride and the beauty of the area around Mineola...
There's nothing like Taz time to reflect on the beauty of God's creation.
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Wednesday, March 20
We've been thinking about a Taz Trip to celebrate our upcoming anniversary, but one of the keys to a successful trip like that is getting in some saddle time so we don't get so sore that we can't enjoy the ride. Today was another warm-up session as we took advantage of a beautiful (even if a little cool) sun-drenched afternoon to get another session of wind therapy.
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Thursday, March 21
Our plan for a long Taz ride included taking gradually longer trips to build up our endurance. Today we went from Step 2 to about Step 5 when we took a day trip across East Texas to Jefferson, a quaint old railroad town nestled near Lake of the Pines. It was a great day for a ride and we enjoyed every aspect of the visit except for the long wait for lunch, but the food was so good and the portions so large that we forgave them for the wait🤣.
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Friday, March 22
This morning was a time of resting from yesterday's long ride. We took care of some yard and housekeeping chores, Barbara took photos of our newly blooming Texas Flame Tulips that we ordered on our anniversary last year, and then we rode Taz out to Yantis for the monthly Friday Night Game Night at our church.
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Saturday, March 23
The big event today was celebrating Cousin Logan's birthday. First came the preparation, then the presentation of our gift to Logan, and then a Taz ride to Tyler for a big family meal at a Japanese restaurant...lots of fun and good times!!!
Jarhett was more impressed by the high school girls who were enjoying their prom night dates than he was with our selection of food. And for the record, the girls were pretty impressed with Jarhett, too.
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Sunday, March 24 - Wednesday, March 27
This was revival week for First Baptist Church Yantis...four days chock full of great preaching, beautiful music, fantastic fellowship, and wonderful food! Whoever said that Baptists don't know how to have fun just needs to come check out our church!!!
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Thursday, March 28
Before we got underway this morning Barbara got this shot of one of our newly blooming Texas Flame Tulips..The blooms won't last long, but they sure are beautiful for awhile.
Not every day can be all fun, but at least we got the "non-fun" out of the way this morning when we drove to Tyler so Dr. Smith, our cardiologist, could run some tests. Earlier he had heard something in my right carotid artery that he thought sounded suspicious, so today was the day for the technician to work her magic. Then we dropped by Claudine's to make an impromptu visit.
I played hooky from band rehearsal tonight so we could join friends at a special screening of "Singing in the Rain," a fundraiser project for the Lake Country Playhouse.
We met Karen and Jeanetta for supper at Wingdingers here in Mineola and then headed for the movies at the Historic Select Theater, the oldest continuously operating theater in Texas.
The acting, singing, and dancing were first-rate and thoroughly entertaining. We came away convinced that today's so-called entertainers do not have the talent, physical stamina, and musicianship to begin to match what the actors, singers, and dancers of yesteryear could do.
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Friday, March 29
By today we had decided for sure that we would take a Taz ride to Natchitoches, Louisiana, for our anniversary trip. The weather forecast for the weekend was looking a little "iffy," but nothing was showing up that would put a damper on the trip...or so we thought.
Today was a day for preparing for the trip. While Barbara planned what we would need, I got Taz and the trailer prepared for travel. Then, we started packing. We are fortunate that Taz has a lot of storage space and the trailer also holds a lot, because it seems that whether we are going out for either three days or three weeks, we manage to fill all the available space!
When we had everything as ready as we could get it for the day, I went back to my desk to straighten some papers and finish (I thought) organizing our tax materials. While I was sitting there, I heard a loud noise that sounded like thunder. That wasn't particularly surprising, since the sky was turning dark and a storm was headed in our direction.
When I finally finished at the desk I stepped outside into the sun room to see if the clouds were headed toward us. It was cloudy, but there wasn't any lightning or thunder. Instead, what I saw was a large tree limb that had broken off the 20-year old Bradford pear tree in the middle of the backyard and hit the roof directly above my desk.
Luckily, most of the weight of the limb was toward the ground and there were only a lot of small leafy branches on the roof. I got the trusty extension ladder to climb up and cut away the smaller branches, wrestled the heavy part of the limb away from the house, and then pulled the smaller branches off the roof. Thank goodness for the ladder and the small chain saw!
With storms approaching tonight we just hoped for the best and continued planning for our trip.
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Saturday, March 30
The "marginal" weather got worse as the morning went along, but intrepid travelers that we are, we decided to go ahead with our plans to ride Taz, rather than take the car on the trip.
Our first stop was at Coke (yes, there is a Coke, Texas) to visit our friends the Hutchins, help celebrate Aubrey's birthday, and work in a duet practice session with Aubrey to prepare for the special music for next Sunday.
Then it was on to Longview. The temperature was still slowly dropping and the wind was kicking up and hitting us broadside, but we continued the journey with a rest and refueling stop in Gilmer. Aside from me breaking a tooth on a bite of Chex Mix, the trip was pretty much without incident other than the rain and cold. Boy, were we ever glad to get to the Hampton Inn in Longview and settle down in our cozy, warm room for the night!
As our bodies warmed, our spirits did also when we watched the Texas Tech men's basketball team win the NCAA National Tournament Final Four game and advance to the Finals.
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Sunday, March 31
We took our time getting away from the hotel this morning. Breakfast at the Hampton was a must, and then there was packing and loading to do. Other than a slight glitch when we drove off (the transmission was having trouble shifting up...something I attributed to the cold and wet) but it quickly started working as it should, so we rode across I-20 to the bypass highway around Shreveport and onto I-49 South toward Natchitoches. The skies started to clear, the temperature rose enough to be comfortable, and we finally had the wind at our backs...a good day for a ride!
We checked in at the Hampton Inn in Natchitoches, unloaded Taz and the trailer, unpacked, and settled down for a bit of a rest before going out to explore this quaint little town. We decided to eat at Maglieaux's, a little pricey, but very tasty food and friendly service. Then we just cruised around to get our bearings for some serious sightseeing tomorrow before returning to the hotel to settle in for the night and close out another month.
The bottom, center picture below is of the house used for the filming of Steel Magnolias.
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Closing out March with adventures in Natchitoches, (pronounced Natch-i-tock) Louisiana,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams/Gramsie
