November 17, 2013

Sunny Sunday

November 17, 2013

It was another beautiful day in South Texas.  The sun was in and out of the clouds during the day.  I think today's high was about 86 degrees.  Wonderful, slightly windy weather.

At church, several of our Winter Texan friends had returned.  One of the men talked to me this morning and he has been keeping up with my progress by reading the blog.  It was nice to "hear" him.  When he left last Spring, I couldn't hear him.  He is one of the many people who have prayed for me this year.  Welcome back, Bert!

With the new sound processor, I tried the "focus" setting (if you recall, that setting didn't work on the previous unit).  I was able to hear the pastor better in the service.  On the noise setting I had been using I may have gotten 25% of what he said.  With the focus setting, I probably got closer to 70%.  It took total concentration to do that, but it beats 25%.  The music today included several I knew, but it was hard to be sure of the melody.

After church, we visited a while with family and friends and then brought our 3 middle grandchildren home with us: the two oldest girls and the third boy.  They were a joyful bunch.  As soon as we got to the house, they headed to the room where we keep the LEGOs.  They were content to keep playing and I had to call them away for lunch. 

It was good to be able to ask them questions about things that matter to them and to be able to hear their answers.  Even their soft, high pitched voices.  There were times I had to ask them to repeat, but they are used to that.  Most of the time, I understood them the first try.

I had Ron get out the Christmas tree that I use in my sewing room and our oldest granddaughter helped me set it up.  Then the three kids decorated it for me.  They did a wonderful job and had a lot of fun helping me out. 

 

 

 

What fun we had!  We watched birds, (the girls spotted a pair of Green Jays on the feeder), we went out in the yard and filled the ponds and enjoyed the flowers.  We looked at ideas for Christmas and Thanksgiving goodies.  The kids sang Christmas songs that I could hear.  The girls and I looked at fabric and talked about quilts.  It was a sunny day!  Their smiles were shining brightly!

 

It is great to be able to hear.  I love hearing my husband, our kids and their spouses, our grand children, all of the family, the sermons, the music, the birds, our friends, our customers.  But I can also hear things that I hate to hear, like the news about the terrible storms across the middle of the country this afternoon and evening and the recent news of the terrible storm that hit the Philippines.  Every day we hear a mixture of good things and bad things.  God helps us make sense of it all and comforts us when the news is bad.  He also speaks to us in a still small voice telling us when we need to help others through their difficult times.  I am thankful for those who listened to God when He told them to help me during my difficult times.