A Dragonfrye Beginning

It has been over a year and I decided to resurrect my blog.

I actually closed my old blog down and am SO glad I took the time to save everything and that blogger has the export/import option. Even though I am starting up a brand new blog, I imported all my old blog posts. 

My blog and my life have had many revamps and changes since I started in 2008. The old stuff still might be helpful or at least comical to others. So if you venture back in the depths of my blog, enjoy! Laughing and eye rolling are allowed! I have been looking over some posts and did a few eye rolls, I mumbled a few "jeepers, did I really write that!". In-between all that, there is the adorableness of those Frye kids ,like here,  and our journey from my little perched view.

My main reason in restarting my blog is to talk...to myself. Ha-ha. It is a small voice talking about mostly unimportant things, but things that please me. Nothing that will change the course of history but that is ok. I have been posting on Facebook more which I enjoy, but not everything I want to ramble on about is Facebook interesting. And I love pictures! Pictures of my life, of my days. My view of this little spot in the world, right here where I sit. All my random goofy things that make me...well...me. 

My life has changed a little since I ended my blog in 2014. The kids have grown, some Frye drama, a few kids have left the nest. I have grayed (a lot), but also lost a few pounds. Yep indeed, I did. Still looking pudgy but better than before. Good trade off, though. A few gray for a few pounds. I will just start blogging like I never left and every once in a while fill in the gaps of this past year. Some of my new posts might mirror what I have posted on Facebook but eventually not so much.

I think I picked out a pretty good title for my blog. A Dragonfrye Beginning. It pretty much describes my spot in life right now. I could have called it A Dragonfrye Unsettling. That would have even more fitting. I am not fond of this point in my life. It really is unsettling but that is why it is a beginning for me. I have been through many unsettling points in my life but none like this. This is just different. Not sure how to even describe it, maybe it's just middle age. Not sure...  

Awesome  quote that pretty much fits where I am at right now,

“Beginnings are usually scary, endings are usually sad, but it's what's in the middle that counts. So when you find yourself at the beginning, just give hope a chance to float up. And it will.”

~ from the movie Hope Floats


Now it was a big deal to decide what my very first picture would be on my very first post in over a year. It seriously was. I decided to go ahead and add the picture I was thinking of putting on Facebook. The lunch I made for the kids yesterday. Homemade biscuits and sausage gravy from scratch on my favorite plate.

Why this picture? I'm not sure. It is kind of a homey, cozy meal. A blog fitting meal. It is on my special, happy plate. I like my plate. Crazy, but my plate is almost like an old friend. Ok, yes, that does sound a tad crazy. A "jeepers, did I really write that!" kind of crazy.

Now, I know that this is the perfect picture choice! A perfect re-introduction to me and my blog!!

Welcome back!!! 

Warmly,
   Me

We are Fishermen

Our part is the trusting; it is His to accomplish the results. And when we do our part, He never fails to do His, for no one ever trusted in the Lord and was confounded. Do not be afraid, then, that, if you trust, or tell others to trust, the matter will end there. Trust is the beginning and the continuing foundation; but when we trust, the Lord works, and His work is the important part of the whole matter. And this explains that apparent paradox which puzzles so many. They that say, "In one breath you tell us to do nothing but trust, and in the next you tell us to do impossible things. How can you reconcile such contradictory statements?" They are to be reconciled, just as we reconcile the statements concerning a saw in a carpenter's shop when we say, at one moment, that the saw has sawn asunder a log, and the next moment declare that the carpenter has done it. The saw is the instrument used; the power that uses it is the carpenter's. And so we, yielding ourselves unto God, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto Him, find that He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, and we can say with Paul, "I labored; yet not I, but the Grace of God which was in me."

~ Hannah Whitall Smith


I know my life is not my own.

And I was bought with a price.

But I find stepping out in faith is so very scary.

Casting my net over the side of the boat almost all the time seems more that difficult.

But I will do it.

I love my Lord.

And he will not forsake me.

So I am casting my net.


Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

Pressing On

I know most times my blog posts do not have a lot of 'substance' but I hope that that is ok with you all.

I like not feeling the pressure to produce meaningful, earth shattering thoughts every time I blog.

Ok, I couldn't even if I tried. I lean towards the Pooh Bear side of thinking.

But by no means is my blog shallow and superficial.

If you see it that way you might just be reading it wrong.

We all have our ups and downs.

Our trials and victories.

Our times of sorrows and times of joy.

Our moments of stress and moments of calm.

It is easy to appreciate our lives when things are going well.

It is harder to grasp a thankful heart when the clouds are gray.

My blog makes me smile. It helps me move past the difficult messy parts of my days and on to the things that count. The things I want to remember about my days.

It is not about looking perfect and put together for the world to see.

It is about pressing on in our lives,moving forward even when the day just stunk.

So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD
His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain,
Like the spring rain watering the earth.

Hosea 6:3

Ha ha. It is like my own little personal brainwashing system and you my readers are along for the ride.







Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Ticking Time

Jeff brought me home some very pretty flowers this evening.

Aren't they pretty.

I was trying to be all artsy with my photography.



On to some rambling!

Want to hear a truth that you might not hear many others talk about?

I am afraid to get old. Very afraid. I have to be honest and say that since I hit 40(I'm 42 now) it has been something I think about quite often. Not in the 'I can't get out of bed because I'm so afraid' type of thing but I do think about it often. Ok maybe there was a day or two that I highly considered pulling the covers over my head for a bit longer.

Some days I think I can actually hear time as it fly by.

Maybe it is having a 16 year old as well as a two year old.

Maybe it is knowing my body is heading into a different season of life. A season I feel so ill prepared for and afraid to face.

Maybe it is because I remember my parents very clearly at the age I am now. My mom was 40 when I graduated from high school and my dad was just 43.

It could be that because I have a toddler I rub shoulders with mothers 10-15 years younger than I am who are just starting their families. They have so many fresh dreams and ideals that I have had but somewhere along the line set aside for things more realistic.

Maybe it was because my two oldest are closer to adulthood than I want them to be. Of course, we will not be empty-nesters for 18+ years but still...

I often wonder why I do not run across many Christ following wives and mothers who talk about what it is like to face their 40's. I have heard that the 40's are the new 30's but gee being in my 40's is like...being in my 40's. It does not resemble being in my 30's at all.

Don't get me wrong.

I desire nothing other to be right where I am in my life. That is not the issue. I do not wish I had less children or that I could be 'free to be who I was meant to be'. Even if I was in my 20's and God laid out a slew of lives I could choose to live I would still choose this one.

I love having my teens around me. I love watching them grow in maturity and make adult decisions. I love having my toddler around. I could stare at her for hours just watching her do her little toddler things. I do that to my teens as well but Elena says it bothers her. I love all the different stages my children are in right now.

What I dwell on is the fear of the unknown. The fear of letting go of what is familiar so God can move me forward to what lies ahead. Make sense?

Hmm...I guess my post here is not really going anywhere. Just my own blah blah rambling. I do have two verses that I have been thinking about in regards to my 'Help Lord,I'm getting old!' issue.


But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
and they never stop producing fruit.

Jeremiah 17:7-8


So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.

Hebrews 6:18-19


So what I am thinking is that aging is just one more thing that I need to walk through by faith. Faith that God knows so much more than I do about what lies ahead.I have been through many moments in my life where I thought I could not see my hand in front of my face but I walked forward holding onto the one thing I know for sure was there: God's loving hand. I can do that...I think I can anyway.


Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

The Hope

I find a lot of times life especially the difficulties I experience can cloud my passions, dreams,expectations,and my hopes of/for the future.

Some days I want to stand on the roof tops holding my breath not even wanting to blink as I look off into the future waiting for it to come. I want to get the first glimpse of the fulfilment of my hopes and dreams even though they are so far off they are still a tiny speck on the horizon.

Then there are days when my now reality, my sins and failings are such a heavy weight I can not do anything other than mourn what might never be. There are no passions,no dreams,no expectations,and no hopes for the future. I can not look off to the horizon. My heart can not bare to see the horizon void and empty and so far away.

Pretty dramatic,I know. I'm just like that. To be honest I really do not even know what I hope the future will bring. My only hope should be in Christ alone,but a lot of times it is not.It is in the things I think he has planned for me, or the things he can do for me.

Well,I hope these next few months as we pray and ask God to lead us in whatever it is he has in mind,that we will not loose heart.

That we will not loose heart as God digs deeper into the things hidden and lets our weaknesses and shortcomings be exposed. The digging and pruning is needed...required by the Gardner to produce in us more of him less of us.

That we would not loose heart if his revealed plan is something very different than what we would have hoped or thought we desired.

Or maybe that it is exactly what we desired but up close it looks like a mountain beyond our capability to climb.

Or even yet,his plan would be one of waiting...

Let us stand firm and rest in the fact that God's will whatever it may be is perfect and in that perfect will we will find a place that we wanted to be all along.

~~~~~~

I wanted to include these two quotes that motivate me a great deal as I look to the future in hope...


“Every child born into the world is a new thought of God, an ever fresh and radiant possibility” ~Kate D. Wiggins


A servant of God must stand so very much alone that he never realizes he is alone. In the early stages of the Christian life, disappointments will come— people who used to be lights will flicker out, and those who used to stand with us will turn away. We have to get so used to it that we will not even realize we are standing alone. Paul said, “. . . no one stood with me, but all forsook me . . . . But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me . . .” (2 Timothy 4:16-17 ). We must build our faith not on fading lights but on the Light that never fails. When “important” individuals go away we are sad, until we see that they are meant to go, so that only one thing is left for us to do— to look into the face of God for ourselves.

~Oswald Chambers