Family Ties That Bind

So, here I am again, three weeks since I last posted. If you receive my blogs via email, one thing you definitely cannot say is that I am wearing out your inbox! 😉

Do you know the hymn, Blest Be the Tie that Binds? Here are the lyrics:

1. Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; 
the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. 
2. Before our Father’s throne we pour our ardent prayers; 
our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, our comforts and our cares. 
3. We share our mutual woes, our mutual burdens bear, 
and often for each other flows the sympathizing tear. 
4. When we are called to part, it gives us inward pain; 
but we shall still be joined in heart, and hope to meet again. 
5. This glorious hope revives our courage by the way; 
while each in expectation lives and waits to see the day. 
6. From sorrow, toil, and pain, and sin, we shall be free; 
and perfect love and friendship reign through all eternity.

When I thought of my family and our recent gathering, I thought of some of the lyrics in this song. Verse 1 states how Christians are bound together in love and we have a special fellowship one with another through our shared relationship with Christ. Likewise, our family is bound together in love. I am so thankful for that familial love. Some families do not share the same love as our family shares. We love our times together and can’t wait for the times we get to share together. And, thank the Lord, not only do we share a blood relationship, most (if not all) share a spiritual relationship – the best relationship of all…..knowing Christ as our Savior!

Verses 2 and 3 remind me of how we, as a family, share our burdens, our joys, our problems, our hopes and our dreams with one another through our family text group. I love that we can share our immediate concerns with one another, as well as the friendly bantering that goes back and forth from time to time! What better prayer partners could we have?!

I know verses 4 and 5 are referring to a Christian’s departing from earth to heaven, but it does pain me when we have to part ways after a family weekend of spending time together! But, as we go our separate ways, there is great hope and anticipation for the next reunion! And, especially knowing that, if it be that the Lord calls one of us home before the next gathering, oh! the hope and anticipation of our heavenly reunion with our Lord is almost too much for my heart to think about!

Verse 6 says it all…..one of these days our earthly sorrows will all be over and our family will be together forever in the presence of the Lord! Thank You, LORD, for so great salvation! I pray especially for any of my family members that do not know You in a personal relationship that You will draw them to Yourself! Do whatever it takes, Lord, to make that happen!

Family Time

Normally, we would gather annually on the weekend before Memorial Day because the holiday gave everyone an extra day for travel. The problem with that being that Nathanael and his family could not join us because their jobs are in retail and they are not allowed to take the holidays off (same problem for our annual Christmas gathering). So we are letting Nathanael choose the dates of our gatherings because we want him and his family to gather with us! For the most part, everyone else’s schedules are flexible enough to still be able to make the trip. Jessica and her family make the trip from Ohio. Michael and his family make the trip from Alabama. Nathanael and his family come from West Virginia. Elisabeth and her family live not too far from us. She and Brad share their home with all of the cousins through the weekend. Normally Nathanael would have stayed with Mark and me, but my sister, Kim, always comes from Florida to spend Memorial Day week with me, arriving for the weekend so everyone can visit with her, too. This year she moved her trip back a week to coincide with our family gathering…the weekend following Memorial Day. (This summer gathering was actually started many years ago so the family would get to see her while she was visiting. It just continued from then on, and I’m glad it did!)

Friday, May 31st

Nathanael, Sam and Adalina arrived around 12:30 PM. Michael arrived around 3:30 (Jessica was moving Kara to MD where she will be going to college, so they could not come). Jennifer and Sue arrived around 6:00. Elisabeth, Brad, Hannah, Ryan, and Abigail arrived around 6:15. Jessica, Terry, Chance, Thad, and Araya arrived around 6:30. We ordered pizza for supper. The weather was beautiful, so we could spread out around the house and the deck and the yard. The kids spent the evening riding the 4-wheelers, etc. down in our woods and ate about half what we expected! Thank You, LORD, for the beautiful weather we enjoyed the whole weekend! Everyone left around 10 PM or so. Michael, Jennifer and Sue went to their hotels. Jessica, Terry, Nathanael, Sam and Adalina were spending the night with my dear friend, Ilene. The kids went home with Elisabeth and Brad. As tired as we were, Mark and I had to stay up because we were picking Kim up from the PTI airport and her flight was due to land at 12:17 a.m. She has a bad back, so she sleeps in our bed because the foot and head raise into the position she needs. Mark and I sleep in the guest room.

Aunt Jennifer’s friend, Sue, has been adopted into the family as “Aunt” Sue!

Sue brought foam wands with colored lights and the girls all did the YMCA song, spelling it out with their wands.

Saturday, June 1st

Everyone began arriving around 10 AM (maybe earlier for some). I had baked beans in the oven, hot dog chili in the crockpot, brownies cooling, pretzel salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, hummus, hot dogs and condiments were waiting in the fridge. Buns, chips and crackers, water ready to go. Jennifer brought ice and 2-liters and chips. We got everything loaded into the back of my Equinox and headed to the woods to get ready to eat. The tablecloths were spread on clean tables. The grill was started for the hot dogs and brats. The food was spread out in the cabin along with the drinks (I just happened to think that I didn’t get any pictures of the spread! Oh well!). By 12:30-1:00 we were ready to gather around for the blessing. Once again, the kids didn’t eat half as much as I expected because they were too busy having fun on the 4-wheelers, etc!

What a beautiful day it was! The sun was warm, but the humidity was low! Perfect weather! Thank You, LORD!

The best picture I got this weekend was the group photo before we left the woods to go to Elisabeth and Brads for a taco supper.

The kids spent most of the afternoon playing pickle ball at Elisabeth and Brad’s, along with some of the adults. They had fun and there were no broken bones!

And the second best photo I took was the group picture at Elisabeth and Brad’s. Mark and I stopped and picked up Ilene on the way over.

And there were some great photos of the loves of my life…..my children, shown in order, oldest in the back to youngest in the front. Beautiful people! Thank You, LORD, first of all, for making them Yours…..and for making me their mom!

And there was a bit of Tom-foolery going on, too!

Someone kept touching Michael, but I’ll never tell!…..

Finally…..

Michael left for home after the photo shoot. He was traveling half way home (Nashville, TN), spending the night, leaving early enough to stop by the house to feed the dogs before heading on to church. The rest of the gang spent another night and went to church with Mark and me.

Sunday, June 2nd

I think we tripled the attendance today!

Everyone parted ways after the service, photos and changing into comfy clothes. Until next time, my loves!

Kim and I went to Ruby Tuesday for supper.

Monday, June 3rd

Kim and I walked at the park in the morning and then I took her over to the shop where Mark works to introduce her to Mark’s bosses, Zach and his wife Juanita. We talked to them for about 30 minutes. Then we went back to the house for a little while until it was time to leave to pick up Mark and Noah for lunch at Mama Mia’s. The rest of the day we just basically piddled around.

Tuesday, June 4th

We went to Elisabeth’s. She made egg, bacon and cheese sandwiches and hash brown casserole for breakfast. YUM!

We played games of Kings in the Corner, Qwirkle, and UNO, No Mercy.

After playing games we went to Second Glance consignment shop, Crazy Joe’s and Pierced Ministries thrift. We went home after that. We went to Ruby Tuesday for supper.

Wednesday, June 5th

Kim and I went to the park to walk. We took our time and didn’t push it. We stopped and took pictures, found out what kind of trees were at the park.

After we walked we picked Ilene up to go to Randy’s for lunch. She treated us. Then we went back to the house to play Qwirkle.

Thursday, June 6th

We originally wanted to go to visit Carolyn with Ilene but Jo said she had a bad night and asked us not to come. Please pray for her.

After Mark got off work we went to Ranch-O’s restaurant for supper. I loved the clouds along the way.

Friday, June 7th

Mark went to Jaxon and Kayden’s graduations. Kim and I stayed home and played games.

Kim trimmed my hair.

I fixed chicken for supper

Saturday, June 8th

I fixed scrambled eggs for breakfast before we had to leave to take Kim to the airport. We had a great week together.

Mark and I stopped at Chick-fil-A on the way home from the airport. Mark ate out on the deck since the humidity was low and it was very comfortable.

Mark spent the afternoon down in the woods working and I got caught up on our laundry and washing the bed linens and remade both beds.

We went to Ilene’s to visit with William and Debbie before they took Ilene back to WV with them tomorrow.

And that was how our busy week went! I hope I remembered everything correctly! Kim will let me know if I messed up! 😉

Hope you all have a blessed Lord’s Day tomorrow!