After the rug was pulled out from under my life, I have been working diligently to get back on my feet again. I have spent many hours looking for a job, answering the same questions over and over, ruefully aware of my varied work history and my advancing age. Still, I am determined to get on with my life to the best of my ability.
There have been some good things along the way. My son and daughter-in-law have allowed me to take little Ivy to church with me on Sundays. We were all a bit apprehensive because she has gone through some behavioral changes because of my constant presence, but she jumped in, feet first. Each Sunday morning, I get there a little early because I make copies of the prayer requests for the Sunday school class, sometimes help with making coffee and some other small tasks. Ivy follows me around chatting with the others, but she really expects me to hurry up with my tasks so she can go play in the nursery. I have her follow me at first because I’m there too early for anyone to be working in the nursery at first. By the time I’m done, someone is there and she says a quick good-bye to me and gets right to happily playing with toys and the other kids. Now, each week, she is up and ready to go with me every Sunday morning. She even stays with me after church to help me in choir practice. We both love it.
I posted Sharks and Other Creatures on Grandma’s Homestead channel. I am not getting a lot of views on this particular video…except all the times Ivy wants to see it. Over and over. This video was taken at the Jenks Aquarium we had visited a few days before and can be seen here.
Poor little Ivy did end up coming down with the type A flu and was pretty sick for over a week. My son Tony wasn’t feeling well for a couple of days either. She’s fully recovered now and as lively as ever.
I have been so very grateful for the wonderful people who have been there for me these past few weeks. After class at the gym one day, some of the ladies took me out to lunch. We spent and hour talking about past lives and loves. After church one Sunday, two more beautiful ladies took me to lunch and I so much enjoyed our time together. I cannot express enough how much I have appreciated those who have loved on and prayed for me. Thank you so much. I did do a podcast that touched on recent events. Episode 75: When Life Throws You a Curve Ball can be listened to on your favorite podcast network or you can watch it here.
Although I have been working diligently to get a job and back on my feet, I was invited to a “dance party” at a nearby gym and I jumped at the chance to go. I was by far the oldest one there, but I was determined to show that I was not the weakest. Everyone wore neon colors and glow-in-the-dark paints, and glow sticks were passed around. Then, they closed the curtains and turned off the lights, turning on black lights. The music was cranked up and we had an hour of a high energy dance aerobics session that was so much fun. I was exhausted by the time I got home. I took some ibuprofen and went straight to bed. I was so glad I went though.
Determined to get my Are You Ready for the Next Great Depression series back on track, I posted Episode 76: Homesteading Combined with Prepping on the audio only podcast networks and on both my This Grandma’s Life podcast channel and on Grandma’s Homestead channel. The version with more editing and visuals in it can be seen here.
I also got Episode 23: Riptide, posted on my Books Highlighted podcast.
My daughter-in-law has been so very gracious and sweet, to both Kinzie and me. She found a twin mattress for Kinzie to sleep on but it was on the floor. We certainly realize that Kinzie is young and can get up and down from a bed lying on the floor easily enough, but she bought a bed frame for it. The least I could do was put it together for her. I had to cut out most of the footage of my three year old granddaughter “helping” me assemble it. She crawled all over me and put bolts in holes for me. Because she realized that my camera was on, she kept going up to it, saying “cheese!” The whole process was slow-going but I really had a lot of fun. Assembling a Twin Bed Frame… With a “Little” Help can be seen here.
Now that Kinzie is eighteen years old, it was time for me to terminate my custody of her. I know it needed to be done, but signing those documents at the courthouse was actually very difficult to me. I know she is grown and is a beautiful, hard-working young woman, but she is my girl. I love her dearly. I know she’ll be around and will always by my special granddaughter, but the termination was difficult for me to digest, especially with all the other things I have lost lately. Life goes on… ready or not.
One morning I woke up to several fire weather warnings. The sun was not really up yet, but I could see that visibility was very low. It turns out that the wind had not yet arrived and heavy fog blanketed the area. Soon, the wind hit and the fires started. We had a few wild fires here, but down by Oklahoma City and West of of Tulsa go hit pretty hard with multiple fires. This went on for a few days. I think we were all relieved when the wind finally died down. One crazy thing about it though. As the warm gale was on its last breath, a cold front blew through, spattering the ground was large wet flakes of snow, bits of sleet and misty rain. The ground was too warm for it to stick around and I am grateful for that.
I am so very far behind on my videos for the Kinzie Lackey Sports YouTube channel, but I did finally get another softball game posted. Quapaw at NEO can be seen here.
I like to volunteer my time at the Helping Hands clothing ministry through our church. We get huge amounts of donations that we sort and hang for people in the community to “shop” for free. We’re open to the public two times a month, but are always available to meet someone down there in cases of emergency, like foster care situations and house fires. Our volume is enough that we can actually be picky about what we hang up. A huge percentage of my clothing, including church clothes have come from there. I’d even say as much as 95 percent. The ministry is bustling enough that our book with all the customers’ names in it is getting too thick for one of our ladies to navigate in it easily. I have been working on building a spread sheet with all the current customers’ names, culling out forms from people who haven’t been there in more than three years. It’s a long process, but I’m enjoying that work too. I think it’ll be nice to use when checking customers in. Time will tell.
As I work to pivot my content that is truly no longer around my homestead and animals, I am actually excited to continue with my Are You Ready for the Next Great Depression series, including doing lots of cooking videos focused on depression food and cooking from the pantry. I’ve been researching videos and recipes in preparation for putting together a wide variety of recipes to video and produce. As my son starts the work to prepare his house to sell, I may get to help with some of his projects, too. One way or another, life goes on and I am preparing to embrace my new life with a smile on my face.
I have in the past, written skits and short plays for us to perform for various events at church, mainly Resurrection Sunday and for ladies meetings. I am in the process of finding some of those skits and writing new ones to post on my Etsy shop. My most recent posting was Harm Intended for Good. It is a short skit depicting two ladies discussing some of the good and bad things they have endured in their lives and how, even when things seem to be intended for harm, turned out to be good, showing that God truly is in control. This skit and a couple of others can be found at scriptureskits.etsy.com.
The drama in my life is far from over, but I am feeling stronger everyday and I am even beginning to look forward to the life God has in mind for me. I pray that you hang around and enjoy the journey with me. See you next time!