Pearl Harbor, Day of Infamy. Dec. 7, 1941 The Greatest Generation

 

 Pearl Harbor, Today is a sobering day of remembrance.  The following are links to 2016 when our oldest daughter was so blessed to volunteer with our WWII Greatest Generation vets AT Pearl Harbor.  These beautiful men were THERE at Pearl Harbor.  I'll keep it short, but I cannot let this day go by without honoring our vets and keep a dialogue of that sobering day.  We have talked to these most beautiful people at the grocery store and other places, we honor them when we see them.  

One of the vets, Uncle Bob (in the links below) who Janie got to know pretty well, we would call him on his birthday, he said he could see the kamikaze's face swooping down at him as he manned his gun on deck.

The below links will have other links and one is talking to a vet at the grocery store, he broke down in tears that day.  It makes me cry to this day to think of that day talking with him and his wife.

 

The Greatest Generation 

 

More of the Greatest Generation 

 

Our daughter got to know these men who are on this video:

Pearl Harbor Video

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There are quite a few movies too,   'The Fighting Sullivans' is one of them.  An entire family of brothers there fighting and every one of those young men were lost.  A full exhibit of the Fighting Sullivans and the telegraph of their mother, pictures a reenactment of her calling the President is at The Pacific War museum in Fredericksburg, Texas.   I highly recommend that museum.

Other movies are Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Destination Tokyo and Best Years of Our Lives.

 

I'm worn out today after taking my mom to Dollar Tree yesterday, oh how happy it made her and I totally get that.  She's almost 94 now...Everyday is a journal page, what will we compose?   

 

Signing off, remembering Pearl Harbor and those mighty and brave men who fought for us.  God bless them.   May we lift our great country up in prayer.

 

God be with us all,    ~Amelia 

 

Of Christopher Robin and Batman...Liesl too. A Wonderful Movie, Most Appropriate for Holidays Coming Up.

 Sometimes...When I watch children play...I see what is right in the world...

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The world of two, four and a half year olds, cousins...We have Christopher Robin here, reminds me of a young Elmer Bernstein in the way he appreciates music and already composes in his own way, dancing around waving his arms to the music...Christopher Robin loves the theme to 'To Kill a Mockingbird' like Mimi. (by Elmer Bernstein).  We even had one of the beautiful scores entitled, Boo Who? from the movie, To 'Kill a Mockingbird' played at Batman's mommy and daddy's wedding.  It was played as I was walked down the aisle as mother of the bride, we even did congregational singing at the end with a famous hymn...it was surreal.   Batman is an extrovert, and has the ability to be an encourager.  Once Batman and Christopher were playing a game in the back on a holiday, Christopher Robin's mommy heard Batman say...You can do it Christopher!   I tell you, you can do it!    Little Batman was so funny this day...I so wish I could have gotten a shot of his feet, he had one rubber boot on one foot and a sandal on the other foot!   That is just what he wanted to wear this day our daughter tells me.  Little Batman is a hoot.  This day, he would have made the perfect children's book illustration, the both of them would have.  They cover their sweet little mouths and giggle, like two little cherubs.  Mimi had bought them Christmas sticker coloring books from Dollar Tree and it was so cute them holding the books facing each other and giggling covering their mouths...Just so innocent and sweet.

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Christopher Robin and Little Batman having the best time every blowing up balloons!   So fun.  It doesn't take much for children to have simple fun.

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 One recent day, Christopher Robin's daddy had to go to the emergency room with a possible broken ankle and we gladly took Christopher with us this Sunday as our daughter could only handle one of the toddlers at the er understandably.  We had just lost our Missy and I turned and looked at this sight in our car...And I saw what was good and right that Sunday.  A Blessing.

 

 

Sometimes when I see our fur angels, I also see what is good and right in the world...

 

This is sweet Liesl.  She is half Shepherd and half Lab and just a colossal ball of love.  Our daughter living at home caught this shot of her on the landing.  She was very upset because it had started to rain and Mimi and Popo were not home yet. 

 

She had been laying here for around an hour very upset with the situation I must say...But alas we were soon home.

 

Liesl now loves to ride in the cart with Popo (Jem).  For several years when we first had her she simply would not get into any moving anything.  I think she was afraid she would be abandoned again, poor thing.   The cart is fun, Jem bought it used from an elderly man who fixes them and resells them.   The man was so funny...He had a golf cart in his living room he was working on!  

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Sweet Liesl, when you look into her dark brown sweet eyes with those blond eyelashes, you see a beautiful soul, almost human like. 

 

 

I remember what was good and right in the world when I see this portrait of my parents in a happy time that hung in our living room when I was growing up.  The portrait looked lit up one afternoon as I was rather upset one day recently, after our fur angel had passed away and I looked up over the computer and saw this sight...It was as if God whispered a breath of Life shining on the portrait.  Very unusual because this normally did not catch this kind of light in the afternoon.  

 

When I see little Elbee, one of our little kitties laying in front of a music station on our television, I smile and appreciate this little fur angel's quiet spirit, it too reminds me of what is good and right in this world.  He has bright blue eyes and is a tiny little white cat.  Joycie rescued him as he toddled down a busy road one day back when she was single, it looked as if a hawk had dropped him, there were talon marks on his back.

Elbee makes his appearances in interesting places.

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Sweet Elbee.  I think he likes pretty vintage music and sometimes Bossa Nova jazz too.   

 

Walks outside are good for clearing our heads and hearts, talking to God.  Sometimes I say...I need to get out of my head.  This was taken on the day of the partial eclipse and we had just lost Muffie the day before.   Do you see the little crescent moon images on the ground?

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A distant shot of Gracie our precious hound dog.  I'll have to post more of her at a later time,  she's a very sensitive dog as well.

 

 

The Holiday and Christmas Season is approaching and this movie is just wonderful to keep things in check.

 

Meet John Doe (1941)  What is there not to love about Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck?    ...Who are the Heelots?   Watch the movie and find out.   This movie speaks multitudes of society, materialism and the beautiful common man.  Oh the messages in this movie!  There is one part that speaks of that Common Man, Jesus Christ two-thousand years ago...   It's interesting, you will see many of the same parallels we see today going on with corruption and power.  

Meet John Doe, directed  by Frank Capra, one of my all time favorite directors from Bisaquino, Sicily where my Grandpa was from.  This girl is half Italian and half German...Imagine that.

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The other day, Jem and I were riding in the car and this song came on...It really touched my heart.  In these days of elderly moms and everything else this just really touched my heart. 

 

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Time to go finish up supper, I hope all is well with you sweet Readers and Friends.

 

...Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my Life...   From my most read Psalm these days...Psalm 23.

 

Let me know how you all are too dear Friends.    Signing off from My Forest Cathedral....    ~Amelia 

 

God's Comfort for Grieving Pet Parents, Sharing Some Things That may Help (Edited)

Today is a beautiful day outside, I just witnessed Jem quietly (unannounced to me), taking down Muffie's little yard where Muffie would roam around safely.  Many thoughts in the theatre of my mind...

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God's Comfort for Grieving Pet Parents 

Losing a pet can be an incredibly painful experience. God created domestic animals to meet a purpose in our lives. Those who have never bonded with a pet, do not understand the depth of the connection. Sometimes a grieving pet parent is trivialized by other believers, making it even harder to process our pain. God cares about our animals and expresses it in Scripture. In fact, He cares about anything that causes us pain. He is the God of all comfort; it is an expression of His nature to comfort us in any type of pain. This video will provide you with some Biblical basis for looking to God in your time of grief and loss...  (partial description of video)

 

This video just popped up last Sunday on my screen, of course we know it didn't just "pop up"  it was God.

The above is a heartfelt message by Dr. Jim Richards, a pastor and operates a free clinic from what I understand.   He had just lost his beloved pet when he made this video and it's one of the best I've seen as Dr. Richards is clearly grieved and explains things so beautifully and God honoring, keep with him, there will be a video within the video after the first ten  minutes or so.   This video is good for anyone who has lost their beloved pet, or anyone or anything...

 

 

If you read the entry below from October, you will see that we lost our little Muffie, the third one of our fur babies in two months.  Yes, heartbreaking.

 

 

Last evening I passed by his wicker bed on my side of our bed and oh it tells such a sad story...Both Jem and I still go look at the wicker bed when passing through to check on our little guy.  Sadly, he's not here with us any longer, as Muffie has passed to Heaven.  The baby blue blankets are just as they were left on the morning of Oct. 13th as we had left for the vet's.

 

When our precious large dogs, Liesl and Gracie and our daughter's little dachshund, Atticus bark...I tend to wait for little Muffie to start barking too.  It wasn't even a few weeks ago that little Muffie would rise up to still bark when his fur angel siblings would bark at something suspicious.  Our little guy.

He would bark in his later years, sometimes I think since he was blind he was out of sorts... And I would pick him up holding him against my chest as he would stretch his little head back and then he would wiggle after ten minutes or so and I would gently place him in the living room dog bed by my feet, he knew even though blind that he was with me, he even loved laying on Jem or my shoes.

 

  

 

The video above explains quite a bit, many don't understand because they have never bonded with any of God's creatures, many have somewhat of an emotional deficit and it affects reactions and really affects lives and that can be a sad thing. 

 

 

I just bought this book for myself and one for each of our grandchildren:

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Piggy in Heaven

I purchased the books from Christianbook.com.  These are sweet little books that explain our pets going to Heaven, maybe you would like the book too?

 

EDIT 1.13.23   I just shared with our daughter, Zuzu a remembrance of little Muffie that is so cute.  I'll write here what it is:       

He would roll around on his back on a carpet rug and jerk all around on his back and then 'freeze' on his back still, perfectly still...and want us to look at him and give him pets...He could be such a little character... He would do this often in our room on my bedside and give out little growls playfully as if to say..."Look at me!" "See what I'm doing?" "Aren't I funny?"

Thoughts of Christmas and Thanksgiving...I even wrapped our grandchildren's Christmas gifts yesterday in the quiet and stillness...It felt strange but a good thing to do.  

Pasta gravy will be simmering soon.  

Just stopping in dear friends, wanted to share that timely video with you all.    

I cherish your heartfelt comments, they are a Gift.  

~Amelia

I Feel Such a Loss, Feeling Lost. Now we Have Lost Our Little Muffie, Such a Sweet Boy. Unbelievable.

 

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Our little Muffie, taken a few months ago.   He found us in 2007, election season when the debates were going.  He left this green earth for Heaven this past Friday late morning at the vet's office, October 13, 2023.

 

The day before I was cutting one of my soft cotton flannel plaid skirts I deemed unflattering, in two pieces, they were to be blankets for Muffie.  I had just ordered Muffie a package of white cotton baby onesies for the cool weather...Little did I know Muffie would be buried with one of the plaid 'blankets'....The new little package of infant onesies are one of many reminders now...

 

 

 

It wasn't that long ago that our older veterinarian, now retired had told me...When these dogs find your family, they've hit the jackpot.  That was one of the biggest compliments we could have received.

Another comforting thought was when I was holding our little Esther at our old vet's, our pudgie little black rolie-polie poodle when she was very ill...A lady with a cross necklace on who had brought her cat in for an allergy shot, came up to me and bent over to say so sweetly to me...I can tell you really care for your animal.

Those messages were Godsends to me.

 

It was 2007...Muffie was sitting in an intersection on a suburban road as our daughter, Joycie approached in her car, she drove past looking through her rearview mirror back then.  He had turned around and was watching her as if to say, You forgot about me, come back!  She noticed the little guy watching her and made a U-turn going back.  She opened her door and in hopped little Muffie!  She said he rolled on his back playfully on the floor of her car.  So adorable.  

She brings this little guy home, he was kind of like a mini Schitzu.  His fur was quite overgrown, and his collar was rusted shut.  A friend of ours, a Green Beret saw him on our blog back then and said..."Why he looks like a forlorned dustmop!"  He really did, he was so matted but was the lovely color of a golden muffin.

Someone was not caring for this little angel, leaving him outside in who knows what.  He looked like a little muffin!   Huckabee was running for president and Muffie's eyes looked like buttons.  Thus his name:   Muffin Buttons Huckabee.   Thus:   Muffie.

 

A little heartbeat at my feet...

 

He was horribly fearful of any rain at all because of being left out in the elements, you could literally see his little face shake from across a room, I would always try to place him on my lap in those times... 

 

Now may I say?

If you are looking for a happy blog post, maybe this will be a happy life for you to read about sure enough, but my Bible also tells me to weep with those who weep.  I do wish more Readers would understand that this blog is an honest blog about life and understand how very valued genuine empathy/symphathy is.  If you have shared in this holy kindness, just like the holy kindness of caring for God's Creatures, especially taking in those who have no home... You know who you are and you have blessed my heart with that most holy kindness and I appreciate that so very much, you have no idea.   Life isn't always happy and in this case....It has BROKEN MY HEART. 

 

 

I feel Muffie took a part of me with him now that things have hit.   Muffie was with us through the move to the country here, he was in our busy previous home that bustled with baking, cooking, homemaking and Bible lessons that many girls would attend, taught by our second born daughter, Joycie.  Hay rides in the neighborhood at Christmas time.  He was a little bit like our family mascot I guess you could say.

We have lost 3 of our fur babies in 2 months now, so yes, this chapter of my life is very difficult.  So please oblige and be Jesus with skin on.  I don't know about you but I think we need more Jesus with skin on. 

 

Everywhere I look, I see our little Muffie.  Our entire home was set up for little Muffie since he was blind.

 

The vet is our new vet, another youngish man, very handsome with the most gorgeous, wide, friendly smile we have seen in a while, longish hair, now days in a pony tail.  The first time we came in to this new animal hospital he was wearing a new white belted kimono wrap style vet coat.  Jem said later...Wow, I thought to myself...That's the coolest looking doctor I've ever seen.  The young vet is also a farm vet so has to visit many farms in the area in his truck. His scuffed hands tell a strong but gentle story, long gone is the white kimono wrap coat (I'm sure the senior vet owner required them all wear).

He knew what he was doing...Very kind.  I was relieved he was able to find a place for a catheter so things went smoothly and most peacefully, Muffie just went to sleep there like a little angel, our sweet boy. 

 

I looked at the vet after he looked at me and Jem and quietly said...He's passed.   I looked the vet in his blue eyes and with little-girl wonder, peacefully said...It was peaceful and he shook his head yes, yes, the 30 something  young vet was assuring the 60 something mom. He's getting to know me and knows I'm a sensitive and thinking one.   I was so relieved it was peaceful, just like little Muffie went to sleep, not even a flinch that the vet warned could happen.  He looked like a very small sleeping little puppy there, little fur angel.

There was no arguing about it...I had held him in the exam room waiting for the vet, he was uncomfortable even in my arms.  I carefully placed him in his little cozy bed from home we had  brought with us to the vet with that plaid blanket...  He was starting to have trouble breathing it seemed.  It was  breaking our hearts and Jem was tearing up this time.  Actually?  Jem broke down as I read this blog to him.  He jokes around and kids to stave off grief but I see he too is in a grieving process.

 

You see, it wasn't that long ago here that Muffie would sit next to Jem on the couch like a little boy...We would laugh so very hard because if we touched Muffie he would let out a gentle growl to let us know...No, I'm with my daddy.  Leave me alone.   It was so funny, it was like a push button toy that growled playfully when touched.  Sometimes Jem would talk to Muffie and Muffie would look up at him just as a child would!  His little button eyes and even his little mouth's expression said...Really?   I'm your buddy?!

Several years ago though, his little button eyes dimmed, and he became  blind.

He was a little sidekick and loved to be held but then would want in his little bed.   We had a beautiful wicker bed next to my side of the bed where he would be safe at night.   I remember buying the wicker dog bed at a resale shop in the burbs way back when.  Since sleeping next to my bedside, I would place two receiving blankets doubled; a pink one and white and gold stripe one doubled over his side of my lamp shade so my lamp wouldn't disturb him.  Yes, they are still there on my nightstand as well as his wicker bed on the floor by my bedside with blankets left just as they were that morning.

We had a little fenced area for him where he could walk around safely outside, and then he would climb up the little ramp Jem made to the doggy door.  I would place lavender oil on the ramp and the doggy door so he could find those places.  

 

EDIT  10.30.23     He would bark and want to be held...He would just lay his little head back and close his eyes relaxed...Very sweet that he knew to do that in my arms and felt so safe.

Lessons learned for me finally in this life on this green earth.  The night before I held him at the supper table  I knew he didn't look well at this point and was becoming extremely weak.  Jem would sit with him on the couch later...  That night at 2am he cried and we put little Muffie in bed with us...in that plaid blanket...  

It was apparent the next morning he was losing strength not able to stand and crying periodically.  We called the vet and got over there to see what could be done for our angel....The receptionist understood, she had just dug into her kleenex box for me a couple of weeks before when Missy passed, she has fur babies of her own.

I miss our little Muffie.

I think our big white Lab/Shepherd dog, precious and sweet, Liesl knows she needs to comfort me...She took a nap by my feet as I napped quietly that afternoon, she even pawed at the restroom door as if to say...Mom?   You okay?

Seasons of life come and go...We take each loss differently and things hit at different times.

 

I even took the time to gently clip some of his beautiful golden locks perhaps for a locket, maybe our daughters may like to have a lock too,  as he lay there so sweetly before Jem buried our little angel. 

I'll close now...I appreciate those wonderful Friends and Readers who type words of comfort and strength coupled with compassion.  

You see...You are Jesus with skin on.

 

Please oblige, I will not be able to respond to comments most likely for the next several days or so at least for I will be out of pocket.  So my customary replies may be a little late.  Thank you for understanding.  I appreciate you all so very much.

Ask the animals, and they will teach you.  ~Job  12:7

 

God be with us all.  I covet your prayers.

Signing off for now, until the next time from My Forest Cathedral     ~Amelia

 

 

Missy Christmas, Our Little Angel. You Will be Sooooo Missed, our little Angel Girl....

 

This is precious little Missy, last December in her new coat.  

 

I had just been watching Missy, just the cute way she would kind of walk around and flop down appearing to be looking around, though blind, it looked like she could see something, and oh it was so darling....Just so innocent.  She loved our daughter's dachshund and would just wag her tail when she was around him...It made me wonder if she wasn't used to another little dog around her like that.  She so wanted to be friends with Atticus and he was very sweet to her too.   

Edit 10.2.23 4:50pm.  Missy Christmas was dumped here on our street two days after Christmas in literally freezing weather for those who may not know.  It was so very sad but we were so blessed to have this little angel for the far-too short time we were so blessed to have had this heart-warming angel.

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We lost our little Missy last Friday.  I'm severely grieved in my spirit and heart and everything else.   It's very traumatic and heartbreaking for me.  

She was getting up, falling over and hitting her head on the floor.  She started curling her body over to the side.  We had already taken our elderly little Muffie in to the vet, Wednesday before that for similar symptoms and he became better quickly.  So I really expected for Missy too, to get better quickly.  

 

According to the vet, she had something going on that probably had to do with the way she was treated by her previous owners who dumped her in literally freezing cold weather two days after Christmas.  She had had a hernia on her side already, caused by a very hard kick or hit by a car.   I just don't know who the monsters were who had this little angel. 

 

I'm so disappointed with many things that have happened lately, just sick at heart.  I know I have  blessings and I know God is watching, He's even watching the sparrow but I'm just really sad at heart, I'm mourning and God understands that.   

 

It's easy to get cynical with people even.  almost everyone just starts looking like a fake to us at times...People say crazy things when we lose our pets, they'll even say crazy things using the Bible, can you imagine what God thinks of that?  His heart must break too.

 

Many times we are already wondering who is real anymore for God's sake?!   Who in God's name can sympathize and behave in a caring way instead of having their faces imbedded into their screens!    Who can we find who is not so busy going to church that they can't be the Church?  

 

Last Friday I looked around in the stores, Jem and I.   I was so upset inside the stores and restaurant waiting for the vet to call me the first time around.   I just looked at people, they seemed like zombies.   I tell people my dog is at the vet's not doing well...They don't even know how to respond!  What has become of this culture?!

 

 

We pick Missy up the first time and as we waited their was a youngish lady with very frightened German Shepherd, just precious, he was shaking after his rabies shot.   She had a tshirt on and on the  back of it, it said...Be Strong in the Lord.   I told her I liked her shirt and that I sure needed that message that day.   She acted sheepish and quiet about it although smiling to herself, obviously a nice person but seemed a little socially inept and not too terribly empathetic to maybe what was going on with me and my pet who we were waiting for?   ...And I'm just thinking...Now isn't that something?   She's wearing that shirt and can't even defend the message or give encouragement.  I'm just mentally shaking my head.  Later Jem shared, that yes, he noticed the girl was quiet on that.   

 

The whole world is crazy isn't it at times?   Although, of course there are right things in this world too that I thank the Lord for.

In this case we had to make the agonizing decision to euthanize our little angel, and I even have questions on that, she was suffering and it was Friday evening, we brought her home from the vet's office, he said it didn't look good.   We brought her home and she cried and cried...We brought her back to the vet's seeking help and wisdom.

 

The very young vet, a handsome, fresh-looking black young man, someone who looked like he should be an actor on pbs children's programming, was very sweet, he looked like he was about to cry too.  He had recommended euthanizing but I've learned to never take that advice without looking into things.  I've been told that twice in the past ten years and both times it was not needed, the animal wasn't suffering and both times the pet recovered fully! 

 

I told the young vet the story of the nursing home I used to volunteer at, a middle aged man who had been in a car wreck was there.  He had passed away and was brought back by the paramedics.  He said the first thing he saw in Heaven was all of his dogs from his life who had passed to the other side, there to greet him...  There was no reason for that man to tell me that either, and I've always remembered his testimony of that.   

 

I quietly told the vet through tear filled eyes....

And I believe that.

 

When they gave my angel the first shot to sedate her she jumped and flailed and I was horrified, I looked at the  vet tech with fear, horror and tears and asked Is this normal?   

 

I held my little angel and cried and told her Oh Missy, I'm so sorry we could not help you more... 

 

After they took her to the next room we waited on the bench in the far side of the lobby and I cried so hard, just so very hard.  I did not care who heard me either.

 Pet Loss Grief; the pain explained.  Sarah Hoggan DVM

 

 

I have many questions right now on how things happened.   The lady above is a trauma vet and she explains our feelings so, so, so, so well.  Just.   So.   Well.   

 

Please give the video a listen, it's only 16 minutes.

 

 

 

I must go now, please say a prayer for this gal.   ~Amelia

 

A Re-Post, Everytime I See Your Face. Photograph. Thoughts on When we Need Help!

I've been loading pics for a new post, and it is frustrating at times, our internet is not that great and I find the pics were never posted with the slow internet.  Oh well, such is life and maybe God has other plans this time?

 I ran across this post of mine from '18...Oh my heart.   It is entitled:  

 

Click Here to read my re-post:  Everytime I See Your Face.   

 

It's a recap of life on this green earth and my dad.  I hope it will touch your heart.   The Lord had put the post upon my heart that day in '18 as hubs and I were driving down the freeway home, and oh my, God's Spirit is oh so real if we can be still and listen and see.

When I read it and listened to the accompanying music by Ringo Starr, Photograph, and looked at the old photographs...My eyes teared.  I knew this would be an immediate re-post and to load my pics for another day soon.   God's timing is different than ours yes?

 

Sometimes we have troubles or uncertainties in life, things look like this pic I took the other day through my side mirror on the passenger side as we see a very bad storm is looming from behind coming toward us, chasing us so to speak down the freeway from the city that early afternoon.

 

With me? My uncertainty at this time is my mom at 93.  It causes great concern, the ups and downs, and sometimes?   I'll just light heartedly say to my Dad who has gone to Heaven...Oh Daddy what am I going to do?  HELP!

I feel like the part of Sergeant York played by Gary Cooper as he cries out to God on the mountain that he needs help, an answer?!!!

But mainly?   I cry out to God!  HELP!

We need wisdom.  Not as the world gives but as God gives.

...It is very unusual for there to be complete quiet in the soul, for God almost continually whispers to us.  And whenever the sounds of the world subside in our soul, we hear the whispering of God.  Yes, he continue to whisper to us, but we often do not hear Him because of the noise and distractions caused by the hurried pace of our life. 

~Frederick William Faber

From my devotional, Streams in the Desert.

I thought this song by Twila Paris was so fitting. 
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   When we see this, our grandchildren, our children, our neighbors, we know all in all,   all is well with our soul.  Nothing like innocent children doing their little dances in life, so beautiful as they play with such wreckless abandon in such a joyful and sweet, uninhibited way.  

How 'bout we do the same?   I've been doing dances in the kitchen, cooking, doing dances putting up clean clothes.  Life is a dance isn't it?   That's not to say sometimes I'm like Tevia in Fiddler on the Roof talking with the Lord when things are not going great.  Trust me! 

 

I hope you enjoy my re-post:

Photograph.   Everytime I see your face...

 

A real silver lining last week one evening...

 

 

And in closing, a couple of makes I have managed to load:

Doggies, doggies, who loves da doggies?  I do!  Skirts are modifications of Simplicity 4881 (out of print).  Both fabrics are cotton prints from Hobby Lobby.

Cute with bright colored or black/white tops.  

 

 

And here ya go...What's not to love about Peanuts?

This brings visions of the Peanuts gang dancing in that iconic memory of happiness! 

 

This isn't a "make" but it is a "wear".  I take this back-pack purse everywhere, it's rare I'm not carrying this bag, I receive many compliments on it.  It's big and it's whimsical and I can use it as a purse or backpack and it works.  I love the kitties on it.  I purchased this from the Animal Rescue site.  My trusty little bottle of rubbing alcohol on the strap.  It works and is functional like that.  

 

Take care all...Prayers for all, many have suffered loss this year.

God please be with each of us in special ways as we listen for You and rest our head on Your shoulder.  

 

  

Signing off for now from My Forest Cathedral...It's me, Amelia, that little gal with a Santa Claus on her head.   

Bearing the burden of crushing weight actually gives Christians wings. 
  
-Streams in the Desert daily devotional.  

 

 

 

Coffee Belle, Oh How we Will Miss Our Sweet Girl, Our Hearts Are So Heavy

Ten to eleven years ago our daughter, Joycie was showing a home, we have a family real estate business.  Out popped this energetic ball of black and brown with white to boot, running around here to there.  She was a pup with mange, clearly in need of a home.  The prospective renter said she deserved a home, and Joycie was it.  Joycie brought this girl home and we treated her and she was brought back to health.  

We named this little gal, Coffee Belle.   For she was just like a bolt or jolt of coffee...Not to mention her coloring was like coffee!   Do any of you remember the old Andy hardy movie,  Love Laughs at Andy Hardy?   A darling movie from yesteryear, a lovely girl in the movie is named Coffee Smith.  If you want to smile or laugh, I recommend this movie.

A loving and sweet dog, running and running and playing to and fro.  Jem said it would be good to have a bigger dog now.  Our others were more lap dogs at that time.  Jem said when he was little he had one much like Coffee but it was a boy named "Thunder". 

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 Coffee, when she first arrived.  Grace's feet.

 

 

Along came Buddy.   He was a huge colossal ball of love.  He dwarfed Coffee!   They were friends.  Buddy had been abused and was even scared of our kitties.  My son in law would pet him but couldn't look at him while he pet Buddy or Buddy would run away.  Oh if these fur angels could tell us what happened to them?  

Edit:  Buddy broke our hearts when he passed away suddenly in '16.

Buddy and Coffee. 

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We had a huge scare with Coffee a year and a half ago...We almost lost her then.  We were taking her to a vet who had prescribed her pain meds, making her bladder swell but she could not void.  Horrible.  Her eye is swollen here because it was determined she had glaucoma which we treated with drops.  Can you believe vets recommend sometimes to just remove the eye?  Would they say that to a human with glaucoma?  When daily drops can be used?  

The two above photos are of our Coffee when we got her home from a new vet we miraculously found that day rushing her from one vet to another viable one I miraculously found online right in our own backyard.  

She was so very happy to be home.  She is here even playing with the other fur angels after being very, very ill. 

 

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Here (above) is our happy go lucky Coffee Belle so happy just a few months ago, she and the other fur angels here were having such a happy time out in the yard as I took my walk.  This is Coffee, just so representative of her sweet personality.  Sometimes  I would call her my 'Sweet Po-tae-ta".   She was more than just plump, she was so cute, she would wobble... and would clop-clop-clop around the house when she walked...Just so adorable.  She loved to plop herself in on the edge of the pond and plop and plop herself down splashing like a little toddler in a baby pool.  You just had to smile watching this!

I didn't know these shots would be the last, and I didn't know my last three bottle order of eye drops would be her last, I was already fretting that I needed more.   

 

Week before last we noticed she was not doing that great but it was normal, just throwing up a little bit of clear matter, nothing out of the ordinary.  She became worse and Sunday before last went outside.  I knew we had a problem.  Jem and I would go pet her and she was so precious...She wasn't feeling good but would wag her tail when we stooped down to pet our Coffee...I noticed her going to the pond and lapping up water as usual so I was not sure if she was getting better.  We had to leave her with our youngest, Grace just for a little bit while we went out for an errand and I tell her  "We'll be right back Coffee!"  She smiled.

Later that afternoon, Grace called and said to get home, Coffee had followed her in and lay on her doggy bed progressively having a hard time breathing.  We were pulling up right then and ran into the house.   Our poor Coffee was having a hard time, I called the vet, to make a long story short, I did not want my baby suffering and Grace and Jem lifted her up in her bed, Grace finally losing it like a little girl (although a young woman) looking down at Coffee.  We got Coffee in the back seat floor board part of the truck on her bed.   We were exhausted but knew we had to get our pet to the vet in a farming community at least 45 minutes away.  Our normal vet from the sister clinic was sending patients there, they were closed on Sunday.  

 

The entire way there I just kept patting our Coffee, telling her You're a good, good dog, Coffee..  We love you Coffee...

Coffee Belle passed when we were almost there to the vet's office.  We drive up to a beautiful farming vet facility to the carport.  The young vet, a petite gal with a tshirt, jeans and cowboy boots came out, a stethescope was ran out to her we opened the door and you could tell Coffee had passed to the other side.  The sweet vet listened for a heartbeat and I will never forget these images.  She just said, I'm so sorry...she's passed.   I just stood there in disbelief.  All I could do was cry too like Grace and say...My baby.  

The vet and the tech looked like they wanted to cry too...I told the vet we would take Coffee back home....She is here buried on our property.  I miss her.   We all miss her...

Our oldest daughter's neighbor who I also know texted this, it had ministered to her so much when her pet had passed away, those are tear drop marks on the page of her devotional there:

 

It says:

"God's peace is not an escape from reality.  We are not transfixed or somehow mentally 'removed' from feeling pain or struggling...Rather, peace is an undergirding rock-solid foundation so that no matter the tears we cry or the sorrow we feel, deep down inside we know with an abiding assurance that God is with us.  God is in control, and the joy of the Lord is going to emerge far greater than any depth of agony we may be experiencing."

In the days that pass, my heart is heavy, and sometimes I do cry and miss our Coffee-girl but I know Coffee is with God, either here, there or both, she is here, she is There.  God's ways are not our ways...We don't totally understand the beauty of it all, but we know it's true.

When I volunteered at the nursing home there was a middle aged man who had died in an auto accident, when he got to Heaven, the first thing he saw was his pets from his life.  The paramedics brought him back as he is here on this green earth to tell his story.

 

In the days after Coffee's passing different things have ministered to me greatly, things from God above.    

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A pristine white feather in a historical district laying directly in my path as I walked.  I took the shot with my skirt I wore in honor of our precious Coffee. When our little Peanut passed several years ago, a white feather was found on Grace's black jacket in our home.  White feathers have special meanings when our pets pass.

 

 

This owl has visited me twice.  This is a close-up in the tree from this morning.

Once he swooped down and stood on the ground as we made eye contact for a while.

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Do you see God's Creature up in the tree?  This is the view from my kitchen window where I wash dishes.

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This beautiful white dove has visited me twice too, I opened the front door and he or she was standing in front of the door on the concrete looking up at me like he was coming to say Hello, I'm here. 

He is in the lilac tree not afraid of me at all in these shots. 

 

 

 

 

Some of our pets wonder...What happened to Coffee?  

 

Jem preparing a place for our Coffee.

 

I will close now...things are quiet here at The Forest Cathedral, I keep our routines and will tell you Dear Readers that the above verse from our friend from her devotional rings true.  

 

I can't deny we miss our Coffee Belle and her sweet smile, we hold on to the Father and trust.

 

So many things in life to trust the Father with yes?

 

Listening to:  Love is the Thing and More by Nat King Cole.  This music is some of the most beautiful and comforting music of all...Memories of life, pets, precious loved ones past and present.  For years, this album brings a peace and sweetness to our home here like not much else in the way of music.   

 

Take care Dear Readers, I appreciate you reading here so very much.

~Amelia