75th Birthday CARD Highlights...

I love to receive snail mail and, thanks to my daughter who invited my friends to send cards, I received 75+ cards for my 75th birthday this year. 

• Birthday paper cards are special and are filled with smiles, love and happy memories.
• A Stash “Christmas in Paris” tea bag was included in one card. I can share a cup of the senders favorite tea. 
• Enjoy the little things.
• Beautiful hand made cards are also patterns that I can later use.
• A hand delivered, hand made card was a wonderful surprise from a friend I hadn’t seen in years. It also included a real live hug! 
• I’m not getting old, I’m getting awesome.
• A Starbuck’s gift card included in the card when the sender is too far away to have coffee with.
• My times are in His hands - my early years, my middle years, and my later years. No time is better or greater than another, for all of my years work together in God’s marvelous plan for my life. (Roy Lessin)
• I’m older, so what? I only get better…at kicking time’s butt!
• God amazes me with His grace and sprinkles my days with miracles. 
• Cards filled with birthday wishes for days full of love, years full of joy and a heart full of happiness, laughter, lasting friendships, amazing memories, hope, peace, faith, happy surprises.
• I love the sparkly cards and the trail of sparkle they leave behind. 
• Personal notes filled with love, memories, encouraging words.
• 3/4 of a century looks better expressed as a DIAMOND MILESTONE.
• A shaker card filled with sequins reminds me to “Scatter Joy.”
• Don’t count the birthdays….treasure the memories.
• The more birthdays you have, the more memories you make. 
• Gift cards & fun stickers tucked inside cards.
• An acrostic of my name:  Kind, Authentic, Tender hearted, Helpul, Young at heart
• A year of new adventures.
• I’m not getting any older this year, heck, I was already old last year.  😂  
• If wisdom comes with AGE…I must be one heck of a smart ass by now! 🤣
• It’s a blessing being able to look back and count all the odds I’ve beaten, people I’ve loved, and joys I’ve experienced in my life so far.
• Appreciate how much living it took to arrive where I am today (#75).
• It warmed my heart to read: “Happy Birthday to a wonderful Aunt…who holds a special place in my heart.” 
• A list of 75 Truths I love about you (ways and reasons I’m grateful for you) from a dear friend, has been so fun and enlightening to read. 
• Age is nothing but a State of Mind.
• I’m not old…I’ve just been young for a very long time. 

Many thanks to all who sent cards, AND texts. 

I'm overwhelmed with your expressions of love.  

WE CELEBRATE SERBIAN CHRISTMAS

We celebrate Serbian Christmas in honor of my Mom. 

Her parents were both from Austria, Hungary: John Zakich came to America in 1904 on the Carpathia, where his name was changed to Zakit. Theresa Istene came to America with her father in 1906, leaving behind 3 sisters. John & Theresa were married January 8, 1911 in Bay City, Michigan and lived on a farm raising sugar beets. They later moved to Akron, Ohio where they raised eight children - my mother, Theresa Zakit Covey, being number five. 

Their family would celebrate Serbian Christmas every year on January 7th. As a child, I don’t ever remember celebrating it, but as Mom got older she started celebrating it again with our children and grandchildren. We would always get together for a meal at Mom and Dad’s house and she would pass on stories of her youth and there would always be a gift for the kids. 

After she passed away in 2008, we have continued to celebrate Serbian Christmas as a family.  

This year, because of a positive COVID test and a time of quarantine, we had to postpone our celebration until the 17th of January - but we still celebrated. I usually keep our Christmas tree and decorations up until after Serbian Christmas; however, this year because of the delay, all the Christmas decorations had been put away. Instead, we had streamers and my small Valentine tree for decorations. 

In the past, Mom told us that some years their Christmas stockings only had oranges, apples, nuts and an onion. In this year’s gift bag for the kids, I included an orange, apple, nuts, candy and a little cash, but no onion! When everyone opened their gift bags it was interesting that several cracked open and ate the walnuts and we (except for the grandkids) reminisced about the nut bowls filled with a variety of nuts along with a nut cracker around our homes at Christmas. Good memories.

It was a fun evening to be together, to celebrate our heritage and eat pizza.  

I don't know how much longer we'll keep this tradition going, but for now I think it  would make my Mom happy if she knew we were keeping her memory alive by celebrating Serbian Christmas. 

  

 

SUMMER IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR

Our temperatures are cooling down, we've had our first frost, it's actually getting dark at night, the leaves are turning and the geese are heading south. Yes, summer is in the rear view mirror. 

Here's some things I'll miss about summer. 

• Flowers  

             

    

• Eating, visiting, celebrating in the yard with family and friends.

• The long daylight hours

• Reading outside in the swing and hammock. (If you're interested, check out my summer reading list below). 

• Dinners on the back deck

• Less clothes (no jackets, boots and gloves)

• Bible reading and prayer in the sunshine on the front deck

• Driving with the windows down

• Daily walks outside

• Butterflies

• The smell of fresh mowed grass

• The fragrance of lilac lingering in the yard

• Ladybugs

• Barbecues 

• Digging in the dirt to plant flowers

• Flip-flops & visors

• The kids playing basketball in the driveway

• Ducks from the river visiting in our yard

• Green leaves and grass

• Open doors and windows

• Driving on dry roads  (no snow)

• Birds at the bird feeder outside our front window. (I'm wondering if they'll visit during the winter and hoping they will).

• Being outside

• Bare feet

Goodbye Summer, Happy Fall Y'all

 

Created by Nancy Welch

 

Summer Reading List: 

The Marriage Lie, William Krueger    

Cold Tangerines, Shauna Niequist 

Ordinary Grace  William Kent Krueger

When God Winks at You, Squire Rushnell 

The Color of Light, Karen White  

The Tender Land, William Kent Krueger
Chasing Vines, Beth Moore
The Devil’s Bed, William Kent Krueger
The Undoing of Saint Silvanus, Beth Moore  

Pay It Forward, Catherine Ryan Hyde 

Stay, Catherine Ryan Hyde
Sweet Magnolia Series, Sherryl Woods
The Rescue, Nickolas Sparks
The Book of Lost Friends, Lisa Wingate  
Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer
 

MOM'S PAINT BRUSHES

My Mom, Theresa Zakit Covey, was an artist so I grew up around paint brushes, oil paints, easels, paint palettes, murals, paintings, lettering, banners, signs, etc. She painted on canvas, walls, rocks, feathers, fungi, railroad spikes, power line insulators, boards and even a toilet lid. Dad would create things out of wood and then she would paint scenes on them. They were quite an artistic team.  

When she was a young girl, still at home, she and her siblings would sit around their kitchen table in the evenings and draw. While her siblings would all draw different things, Mom mostly drew scenery.

The artist gene (drawing and painting) was passed along to several of my cousins, but it definitely skipped me. When I was in school and needed an illustration or lettering for a project I would always have Mom do it for me. In fact, I used her skills for a lot of my projects even in my adult life. These days I ask my artistic and creative children to help me.  😊

My granddaughters and I often sit around our table doing arts and crafts. I know my Mom would have enjoyed drawing and painting with them like she did with my kids when they were young. 

After she died (2008) I kept a jar of her paint brushes. They just sit in my craft closet….unused, except for one brush.  

This summer we repainted our back deck and shed. There were areas which required a smaller brush so I went to the jar of Mom's brushes and pulled out my favorite. It was the perfect size. While Mom would create something beautiful with that brush I simply applied an even coat of paint to renew and refresh boards and trim. 

Mom’s paint brushes now lay idle, except for the one I use occasionally for mundane projects, but her art work lives-on all over the world. 

Sometimes I look at a sunrise or sunset (especially one with vivid colors) and wonder if the good Lord let Mom help paint that one. 

It’s not the magic of the paintbrush, 

but the talent of the one who holds the brush.

THIS OLE HOUSE

I recently received (from a 2nd cousin) this picture of the house in Virginia where I lived as a kid.  It's my wallpaper on my laptop and I find myself just looking at it and reminiscing back to when I was 7, 8 and 9 years old.

Dad built this house when he was working for the Church of God of Prophecy on the Virginia State Campground.

• The windows for the living room were on the left of the house.
• Behind the living room was the kitchen and dining area.  
• There was a back door off  the kitchen with a screen door. One summer I remember Dad made me open and shut that screen door 100 times. I never slammed that door ever again. 
• Mom and Dad's bedroom was on the right front of the house with my room behind it and a bathroom in between the kitchen and my room. 
• In the area around the bedrooms and bathroom was an under the floor furnace with forced air heat. I remember often in the wintertime coming home from school and finding Mom sitting on chair over the furnace floor grate crocheting. 

Behind the house Dad had built a huge shop.

• We always had cats and kittens that lived in the shop. They weren't allowed in the house. We never had a dog while we lived here....only cats. I would dress the cats in doll clothes and play with them and feed them milk from a doll bottle. They were more fun than dolls. 
• Dad always had left over pieces of lumber and wood laying around which I loved playing with.  A long remnant of lumber became my friend, Lolly, which I would carry all around the many acres of property on the campground. I never took her inside the house. She was only my outside friend, I guess. I also remember tying wooden wedges to my feet for high heel shoes. 

I got my first bike at this house.  We had visited my cousins in Ohio one summer and I was trying to learn how to ride a bike. Dad told me if I learned he would buy me one. I don't think he thought I could do it, but I did and when we got home he bought me a bike. 

On this property the church held annual conventions, youth camps and other activities. 

• There was a large tabernacle on the property where the conventions were held and there was also a church building where we attended church for a little while until a new church was built a couple miles down the road.   
• One of my cousins came and spent part of the summer with us. When there wasn't church activities going on, we would play "church" in the tabernacle. We would bang on the piano and sing and have church. We would take turns being the "preacher" and the "sinner."  I would preach and my cousin would be the sinner and come to the altar to be saved. The next time he would preach and I would be the sinner. We knew how to have church! Several years later (after we moved to Tennessee) I started taking piano lessons and eventually became the pianist for churches I later attended. 
• I attended my first Youth Camp here. I was too young to be an official camper but I was allowed to stay with the girls in the old church they used as a dormitory for camps. It was actually at the end of this youth camp that I gave my heart to the Lord and became a Christian.  

The last year we were in this house (before moving to Tennessee), my Mom got deathly sick. If I remember correctly, it was around the Christmas holiday from school.

• The doctor came to the house - back when they made house calls. She had the flu, pneumonia...several things going on at once. She was in bed and continually got worse - not better. I remember on numerous occasions laying at the foot of my bed, crying and afraid.
• After about two weeks of her being in bed the doctor told Dad that she was dying and there wasn't anything else they could do for her. He prescribed a couple sleeping pills for her so she would go out in her sleep. Dad gave her the sleeping pills, and he sent me home with the Pastor's family. He didn't want me at home when Mom died.  
• The sleeping pills had no effect on Mom, although the doctor said they were strong enough to put a horse out. She knew she was dying and had Dad help her get out of bed so she could kneel and praise God till the end. It was at that particular time that God chose to instantly, divinely heal her. She got up and didn't go back to bed. Dad called the doctor and the doctor thought Mom had passed away and Dad had lost it. Dad called a friend to go get me from the Pastor's house. Apparently the Pastor didn't have a phone. It just so happened that the friend who went to get me was the town mortician so the Pastor also thought Mom had died. We finally got to the house and found Mom alive and WELL, and not in bed. Later that day Mom made cherry pies and, if you knew my Mom, she didn't sit down much after that.  
• When I look at the picture of this house, I think how differently my life would have been if she had died there. Instead of losing her when I was 9 years old, I was able to enjoy her another 50 plus years. 

I love the line from the song "This Ole House" by Shakin' Stevens:

"This ole house was home and comfort 

as we fought the storms of life." 

This picture was taken during an annual Virginia State Convention.

My Dad's uncle, Willie Lowman, was the State Overseer and in this picture they were honoring him and his wife.

My Mom is in the front helping with this presentation.

My Dad is the one in the rear looking up.
 

THESE THINGS MAKE ME HAPPY

It was 52 degrees here in Fairbanks, Alaska today.  

As I was outside walking I was overwhelmed 

with a "happy" feeling that spring is here.  

There's other things that make me happy too...

• I got a haircut before things closed down
• We haven't run out of toilet paper
• Bella Grace magazines
• Zoom-with-the-family-celebration for Dave's birthday

• Handmade face masks

• $1.99 gasoline. We haven't seen gasoline this cheap here for probably a decade. 
• Daffodils

• Easter celebration, even though it was very different this year
• Visit with the family on Easter...with social distancing

• Drive-throughs and pick-ups for meals when I get tired of cooking, which is fairly often.
• FaceTime, Marco Polo and Zoom apps
• Connecting with the LifePoint Church family by Zoom
• Airline credits on trips we had to cancel
• Longer daylight hours
• Water boots for walking in melting snow.
• Sunshine and 50 degrees
• A snow-free driveway.
• Isolation Survival Kit (created by Jami)

• Connecting with the granddaughters

We can’t change how things are, but we can change how we will approach today. And yes, an attitude can spread. Begin with us.  Seth Godin

Thank You for Making a Difference in My Life❣️

It's been three weeks since my last radiation treatment. My skin, which looked like a terrible sunburn with peeling, is now back to normal. I never experienced the fatigue that usually goes along with radiation and I'm so thankful to be on this side of treatment. 

In my follow-up appointment this week with the oncologist, he prescribed the Anastrozole pill to try and prevent the reoccurrence of breast cancer. It decreases the amount of estrogen the body makes and helps to slow or reverse the growth of breast cancers. There's some possible crazy side effects - the worse two being bone pain and osteoporosis. The doc says my bones are perfect so I'm hoping they'll stay strong and healthy. I could possibly be on this pill for up to five years. I'm praying it will be effective with none of the side effects. I took my first pill yesterday.

Another follow-up appointment is scheduled in 3 months, but this should be my last blog on this subject. I'm happy about that and I know you are too. 😊  

I am so grateful for all the people God has put in my life....my family, friends and even the people I've met briefly during this season. Each person has added to my life.

❣️ Life is better with a friend like you.

❣️ Together we can get through anything.

❣️ You make my heart sing.

❣️ Thank you for making a difference in my life.

❣️ Thank you for your part in my journey. 

PS  I've survived cancer, now hopefully I can avoid the Coronavirus!