THE CHICKEN IS JUMPING!!!

Today is the Day The Lord Has Made , I will Rejoice and Be Glad In It !!!!…….Psalm 118:24. Everyday in our lives will not be a peaches and cream kind of day ! Some days will be more challenging than others , that is called LIFE !!! Whether you are rich or poor , young or old, a professional with a full time job or a stay at home mom with a full time job, we are all walking down the same path, called life ! It is no respecter of persons, sometimes it is kind to us and other times it is not ! How we handle it and our minds set, is what makes the difference. Many times we blow our something so simple into something way bigger than what it really is!
I am reminded of a little incident, when my son was around 21/2 or 3 years of age .We had just finished a lovely chicken dinner and was sitting relaxing together as we so often did as a family. When little Trenty got a case of the hiccups!! His dad and I watched him as he recognized this thing happening in his chest!. I guess it was a new experience for him , I am sure he had had them in the past but hadn’t thought about what was happening. I could see the look of astonishment on his little face as his diaphragm would contract thus causing his little head to jerk back and forward from the amounting pressure of the abrupt rush of air into his heart … (smile)….. He jumps up from where he was playing and very loudly announces to us all ….” The chicken is jumping, the chicken is jumping !!!” Of course we laughed at his perception of the dreaded hiccups! (It’s a good thing he hadn’t eaten beef, he would have been sky rocketing over the moon from the cow jumping !!!!) Hahaha…I am so thankful God gave us the little boy , with such a huge imagination, what a joy !!!
We as adults today , are so like this at times. We get a hiccup in life, which is just a common everyday occurrence with a simple explanation, but we blow it all out of proportion in our minds .We are all guilty, and we just need to slow down and take a moment or two to think things out and put them into perspective. Problems are usually never as drastically as they may seem at first. We will all have a bout of hiccups every now and again but remember they normally only last for a short period of time and will generally resolve them self!!

YOU DON'T FIND HUGS IN A BOTTLE

Another beautiful morning , the sun is
shining brightly , coffee is steaming in my favorite mug , hmmmm…. life is good , doesn’t get much better than this !!!! I am sitting here with my recent best friends, my pen and paper, enjoying sweet thoughts that have begun strolling through my mind. Thinking of some of the cute things our children come up with and how they can make us smile at any given moment , just because they are so innocently and honestly real ! Children just say it like it is , or what they think it is in their overly imaginative pure minds! One time in particular my little Trent came home from school after a long tiring day in a grade 2 classroom ! I had started him on vitamins that morning and was having a chat with him before he went off to his bus ! I asked him to try hard to focus in class today and to concentrate on his work , he wanted to know what focus meant ! I proceeded to explain as simply as I could ,that it meant not to turn your head and look around but sit straight and listen and then I gave him his vitamin as I hugged him before he went off to his bus and said this will help my big boy !!!! At the end of the day, as he was coming through the front door he starts telling me a little sarcastically , that I needed to take them vitamins back to the store ! Confused, I asked him why he thought that I should do that! he excitedly began to explain as he dropped his backpack on the floor, how he sat in his seat straight ahead just like I told him to do and when he tried to turn his head , it never stopped turning , all day long his head turned anytime he wanted it to !!! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, he actually thought the vitamin was a pill that would not allow his head to turn!! Sweetie the hug was to help you focus I explained smiling as I pulled him on my lap , the vitamins are to just help you to grow strong !!! He then looked at me with a sheepish grin and says , “ well momma!! you better give me more than one hug, cause that didn’t work either!“
There are far more benefits from inside a mommas arms than any bottle of "One a Days" could ever give!!! Sometimes our children, think momma’s have the cure for everything , and at times we do just with a hug!!! My boy is a grown man today, facing all the challenges that comes with running a household and life in general, at times I still see the little boy that thought the vitamin was the answer to his problem! But he soon discovered, you don’t find hugs in a bottle you get them best from momma’s arms and sometimes it may take more than one !!!!

ANY LIL SPOT WILL DO

Sitting at my kitchen table gazing at the leaves as they playfully dance through the air to the tune of mother nature and her whistling wind song ! My eye catches the glimmer of a glistening auburn beauty as it takes its rest on my glass porch table . Each leaf finding its own little spot on the floor of my step or on my little table caused my mind to slip away to the old homestead where I grew up . I remember sitting on the floor in a corner just listening to the talking and laughter . Our house always seemed full of both family and friends, so a little spot on the floor is all you could find sometimes ! I can almost smell the freshly baked bread , molasses cookies ( a favorite of all us kids ) , apple pie , and sometimes cinnamon buns . O how blessed and spoiled we were . Thanks Giving was always welcomed at the Bustard residence with pride and joy and thankful hearts and GREAT FOOD !!!
A time to reminisce and be thankful for family and friends and to count our blessings both big and small . In our home it was a blessing just to get a seat at the table when the first round of food was served ! Musical chairs was a daily game in our home , because just as sure as you got up , someone was going to take your spot . So you learned at a young age to get everything taken care of before you sat down , because the kids always outnumbered the seats !! And if you didn’t make it in the first round of seating , then you prayed there would be enough dressing and gravy left by the time it was your turn to fill your plate!. That is where we first learned to pray and believe God over the simple things . We needed to have simple faith just to survive !! ( laughing ) Of course I am jesting. We never ran short , there was always plenty for all!
Daddy was a real believer in “ the family that prays together , stays together !” Blessing at our dinner table was never forgotten or neglected ! It was not just said at Thanks Giving , it was even said over crackers and cheese ,while driving on a trip . Many times when company came to visit us when my dad was alive , it ended up being a prayer meeting . If one of us were sick , daddy would pray for healing . I can still see him standing in our driveway on a Sunday evening just before church, holding my youngest brother Morton in his arms after just running over him with his big old Pontiac car . Looking up to the heavens and asking God to not let his little boy die . Mom frantically wanting to get to the hospital and he doing what he knew to do best , calling on God first . We later learned that Bro. McNair who was the pastor at the time had turned the Sunday Night service into a prayer meeting !! Of Course God came through again , nothing short of another miracle ! Morton is now a very healthy world wide evangelist preaching the Word Of God , O how proud his daddy would be to know that his little prayer prayed in the yard is now a preaching machine for the God he sooo loved !!!!!!
So our spot we found at the old homestead growing up, is now a big spot in our hearts today! One of the greatest of ALL Thanks Giving dinners , will be at The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb , when we reunite !!AND Guess what ??!!! There will be a chair for all of the kids at that table and no one will take “My LiL Spot!”

Life is a cycle !!!

Wow it seems like just yesterday I found my little Larissa hiding in my kitchen cupboard , a favorite place where she loved to play ! The beautiful little blue eyed angel has now grown into a lovely young lady with a little blue eyed prince of her very own ! This little prince loves to visit his Nanna and play in her cupboard just like his momma used to do !! Life certainly does prove out to be a cycle , with precious memories folded into every turn of the wheel ! Children will often mimic our many actions throughout life , thus making us their greatest teacher and leader.What we are and what we do , does affect our childrens lives whether we like to admit it or not . Where we take them and how they are spoken too will have an everlasting affect on them, whether good or bad . All we can do is keep this in mind and lead them to the best of our ability with LOVE , discipline and mostly with the help of the LORD ! Because LIFE is but a cycle and I pray that our heavenly Father will find us all in HIS kitchen cupboard in the end !!!! :):)

17 is a good number

Where has time gone? As I sit on my porch alone listening to the birds chirpping ,busying themselves in their own little world of nesting , feeding , protecting their little ones .I start to think back to when I first took on the number 17 ,february 19th 1959!Of course I can't recall the first few years when the stork dropped me on my head into that crowded nest of birds, we call the bustard clan !! :):) But I can recall many happy moments throughout life and one thing is for certain #17 was no doubt just as good as any other number.... ,of that I am certain ,unless you were maybe the fabullous #1! but that spot was already taken by the one and only" William Henry" . I doubt the limelight stayed on him for long tho. as each one of us little birds were delivered one by one into this tiny little nest, the attention soon would have faded.It wasn't until 19 little ones were delivered safely each one on our own special little dates we call birthdays, that God said: "it is finished, there is no more room in the nest"!! So I guess I like my special # , simply because it is mine and God gave it to me !!:)

Bible

• Seventeen people and nations are present at the Pentecost: Galilee, Parthians, Medes and Elamites, peoples from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round to Cyrene, residents of Rome, Jews and proselystes alike, Cretans and Arabs. (Ac 2,7-11)

• Joseph was seventeen years old when he was sold by his brothers and escorted in Egypt. (Gn 37,2)

• The seventeen Judges since the death of Josuah until Samuel: Othonial, Aod, Samgar, Jahel, Deborah, Barac, Gideon, Abimelech, Thola, Jair, Jepheth, Abezan, Ahialon, Abdon, Samson, Eli and Samuel.

• Rehoboam, son of Solomon, reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem. (1 K 14,21)

• Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, reigned seventeen years in Isarel to Samaria. (2 K 13,1)

• The Ten Commandments of God were given in 17 verses to the twentieth chapter of the book of the Exodus.

• Jacob lived seventeen years in the country of Egypt. (Gn 47,28)

• The Pentateuch contains 5852 or 17x7x7x7+7+7+7 verses. 1533 verses of the Genesis can be also expressed like 17x70+7x7x7 or 17x7+707+707. The book of the Exodus contains (17+17)x(17+17)+57 or 1213 verses. It is 17x7 shorter than 666+666.

• The 17th book of the NRSV is the shortest