"Walk With Me"  by Gwen Flowers   

Come, walk with me, my friend,
I'll hold your hand.
This journey is not one to understand.

There is no sorting out
Chaff from the wheat.
We have to take the bitter with the sweet.

Come, walk with me,
Along the trail of tears.
We'll share our heartbreak, and our hopes and fears.

This trail is not designed
To walk alone.
But we will make discoveries of our own.

Come, walk with me, my friend,
We'll share the load
Up every hill and down the rugged road.

No map to show the route
Or tell how far.
No compass points the way, or guiding star.

Come, walk with me,
And I will walk with you.
Perhaps we two will find a better view.

Perhaps the trail,
Though thorny on the feet,
Wll widen for two sorrowed hearts to meet.

Come, walk with me
Through brambled vine and thorn.
Step over stones that leave hearts ripped and torn.

The walk is never easy,
That is true.
But you will walk with me, and I with you.

Faith Keepers

Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze Outing

Several months ago I stepped out of my comfort zone and began a small group for friends who were widowed or single.  Besides our status, we all share a common faith and exist to love and support one another.

Many of you already know I'm about as introverted as they come; yet I felt I had a little strength in organizing activities, and just tried to experiment with seeing how much interest there might be in our community.  We have done several things over the last few months, but the outing above was one of my favorites.  We actually navigated through a corn maze fairly successfully, on account of our fantastic scout...Brooke!  Following the corn maze, we took a hayride down by the river, and then followed that up that afternoon with lunch at Logan's in Conway.  It was a great time and the friendship has been such a blessing to me  personally.

Our next activity is coming up in a week or two and we'll get the chance to embarrass ourselves by playing Gestures (a type of charades)...but I think the food and dessert will make that all seem worthwhile.  And if that isn't enough fun...a few of us may even attempt our latest venture...learning to line dance.  A few of us have practiced and can get to going in different directions, which should be entertaining for those on the sidelines. It should prove to be another great time together.  Friends, Don't Forget!  The date is Saturday, December 4th...6 p.m.!

Our family celebrated Thanksgiving this year on Wednesday due to my son working on Thanksgiving day this year.  There were about 14 of us...including babies. 

Our first activity was a celebration of Mike's life and the year anniversary of his homegoing with Jesus.  We had helium balloons and tied metal tags to them, with a note written, "In loving memory of Mike....husband, father, Papaw, and brother".  On the back we included the date and my phone number, just in case they blew away, and were found by someone.  Drew and Ethan were ecstatic about sending balloons to Papaw/Grandpa, in heaven.  Drew was even speculating they might end up in California or Washington state, and with the kind of weather we had that day...who knows were they might have ended up!

In the picture above..."Nama/Grandma", Drew and Ethan put together our traditional Thanksgiving puzzle.  We've backed off from our days of trying to do 1000 piece puzzles and especially because the little ones like to join in now, we decided to size down.  The one above was more my speed....25 pieces!  It was a Happy Birthday, Jesus puzzle!

My dinner guest and friend, Glenn, actually got on the floor with the boys to do a floor puzzle of 48 pieces of an ocean background.  Glenn was amazed how bright the little ones were as they worked away on it. 

Glenn lost his wife last winter, so it was nice to be able to include him in our family gathering.

The art of puzzle assembly was followed by a yummy Thanksgiving dinner!

What a blessing to have us all together!

Glenn and I volunteered to sit at the children's table, which gave us plenty of mealtime entertainment.

And then following the gathering...Glenn and I came back to my house to do a more "impressive" size puzzle....a 300 piece size. Are you impressed?!! :-)  We had it all done in about 3 hours.  Not too shabby being it was a library scene and every piece of it looked like a library book on a shelf! 

Praise the Lord!  Our family tradition is still intact! We've had to scale back the size of the puzzles, considering toddlers, babies in momma's arms, and stamina...but....the three puzzles were accomplished in a day...instead of the typical month in the past.  What better fun, than to be seeing stars with your loved ones, after staring aimlessly at puzzle pieces, looking like duplicates of the same thing?

Thanks, Jill and Matt, for hosting such a beautiful day together!  You are all such a blessing to me!