FOND FAREWELLS!

Bye, Bye, Beach!

Bye, Bye, "BIG WATER," as the older cousins first called it!

Whether by jet to NY, truck to NC or SUV to TX---all arrived safe and sound to sleep in their own homes. 

"NIte, I love you." as our family always says!

ABCs......(A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H)........ XYZs of the Beach!

ABCs of Liles' Family Beach vacation---aka "Big Water!"
Starting at the very beginning, a very good place to start!

A---Acceptance of long auto trips and airline cancellations

B---Birdwatching & broad jump event

From youngest to oldest, their strong broad/long jump attempts left a blur!

C---COUSINS (with cute "handmade" bracelets)

D---"Dip-tation"---we dip in the ocean, dip in the pool, we dip into the Pancho's cheese dip and into the Donut Hole boxes.

E---Eating and Eating and Eating some more!!(Peeling shrimp can be hard work)

F---Fish---Amberjack is pretty yummy when Uncle Josh & the boys grill it!

G---Grandparents

H---Hunting hermit Crabs

Righteous Food

Most of our recent beach vacation food was fish---natch!

But....we had one great non-fish mid-day treat at Preacher's Kitchen in Gulf Place on 30a. It's just 2 doors down from The Perfect Pig (a "praise the lard" type place)---which also has, familiar to the Liles, a Seagrove location---in Flip Flops former location. Both are owned by the same family.

We were drawn to Preacher's Kitchen because of the name. It's a counter service, build your own burger type place but we just got smoothies. Peach pina-colada was dynamo combo---delish.

"Righteous Food" sign above the counter had my mind whirring----"belly up" to the counter and get your fill. Satisfaction guaranteed!

The owner is also a preacher so I'm sure he, too, understood the spiritual implications.

We have access daily to "righteous food." We just need to open God's word and feast.

Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; (Jeremiah 15:16)

Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8) 

Truly satisfying righteous food.

Beach Warning ---30A Spring Break

Beach walks require sunscreen unless your wearing your "tennies."

Should have seen feet last night....before the aloe. 

In times past top of feet is always first place I slather with 50/SPF. A very scary memory lapse. Don't let it happen to you!

Today's walk was in tennis shoes........OUCH---when redness met the shoe/sock!

Methodist Memories

The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof ...(Psalm 24:) The sea is His for He made it ...(Psalm 95:5)---both from my feeble memory.

Blue Mountain Beach, FL---first view captured on iPhone--too blue to even look real, but it is!

Those verses and the lyrics and melodies from these old hymns flooded my thoughts today as I was surrounded by the beauty of His creation.

All Creatures Of Our God And King (Hymn #62)

All creatures of our God and King, Lift up your voice and with us sing

Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou burning sun with golden beam, Thou silver moon with softer gleam,

O praise Him, O praise Him, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

For The Beauty Of The Earth (Hymn # 92)

For the beauty of the earth, For the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth,Over and around us lies;

Lord of all, to Thee we raise, This our hymn of grateful praise.

This is My Father's World (Hymn #144)

This is my Father's world and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings, the music of the spheres. 
This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and sees; His hand the wonders wrought.

View from our table at the Vue on 30a where we had Sunday brunch. Restaurant had jazz musican but my heart kept humming the old familiar hymns.

commonali-TEA

The Lord is your keeper; .....The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 121:5, 7-8, ESV)

A commonali-TEA often shared by parents and grandparents is desiring God's best for their offspring, which they hope includes their longevity as well. But, too often, fears of the "what if" can creep in and rob them of their peace. 

Last week's large powerful waves at the beach and the accompanying rip tide had me on a constant "fearful alert." Knowing I had prayed for safety did not provide the unwavering confidence that "all would be fine." 

My heart's desire was that the Lord, who is my Keeper and my Protector, would keep us all safe. I certainly prayed for safety and had other prayer warriors praying as well. But God...keeps us. Safety, as being vigilant, was in my hands, both prayerfully and physically. But security was in God's hands. 

Regardless of circumstances, (even those that appear life-threatening)...He is our keeper for eternity. The crux of keeping is in soul keeping. 

"If our soul is kept, all is kept." (C. H.Spurgeon)

A cuppa fearful commonali-TEA needs to be exchanged for a cuppa securi-TEA, which only the Lord can provide.

"antic-TEA-pation"

   The sea is His, for it was He who made it,....(Psalm 95:5, NASB)

I know that's a stretch on a "tea" word play but I'm so excited and filled with anticipation about our upcoming trip to Seagrove, FL that I cut myself some slack. Only 1 more day 'til we ALL meet up beachside. We just have to start heading that way today---so everything is ready for tomorrow---the big day at "Big Water."

We're ALL going to be together at "Big Water" as Nathan dubbed the beach in 2003.
The emerald ocean and white sandy beach that stretches as far as the eye can see would certainly look like "BIG water" to an 18 month old.  

Almost choking on my cuppa of antic-TEA-pation this morning because it is so full!!

HOORAY! HOORAY! OUR FAMILY VACATION BEGINS TODAY!

Saying Good-by

7/26/09
Awash with emotion. It’s always this way with me when I give and receive goodbye hugs and kisses, especially those slobbery ones from the babies. When immediate family is spread from Tennessee to Texas and New York there are very few times when we’re all together at once. Maybe that’s why I struggle with this mixed bag of emotions. It’s a grieving of sorts that comes with separation from loved ones.

I’m sitting on the balcony of the beach house we rent each year the third week in July, knowing that even that scheduling regularity doesn’t always ensure 100% attendance. Sitting with me is my mixed bag of emotions----believe me, it’s pretty big! It’s especially big right now because two Suburbans full of Texans just left followed by the Memphis trio. NYC twosome and Larry are easing into their day with coffee and I’m out here feeling so sad and somewhat left behind. Just wait ‘til I put Josh & Megan on the plane---I get a lump in my throat just thinking about it. On a good year, Uncle Josh and Megan join us at the beach and then Larry and I will usually see him one other time. From a mom’s point of view, that’s not enough.

Then poor Larry is stuck with me for the 9 hour drive home where I try to deal with these feelings. Sometimes that means I try not to “feel” because it hurts----remember, I know how to do the avoiDANCE when it comes to feelings. Sometimes these repressed emotions seem to explode when other of life’s circumstances (often unrelated) bring these feelings to a head. Today I’m praying that the Lord will grant insight from these emotions.

Right now the clouds are rolling in and covering the beach. There’s even lightning on the horizon. Somehow that darkness and thunder that follows the lightning seems to reflect my mood---it’s covering me over with shadows of gloom. The lump in my throat is constricting and my eyes are filling with tears. It seems that we have so little time together and the week goes by so-o-o fast. There seems to be so much felt and so little said---just not enough time to say it all. Even at the beach the tyranny of the “urgent” (feeding, pottying, and napping) can rob us of time.

But God……this week showed me that those urgencies do not necessarily rob me of joy. All that cooking and bathing and reading to the boys was pure joy. That’s where my wandering thoughts began to go as my emotional roller coaster slowed enough to allow me to see the abundance of blessings I had received during the week. (In everything give thanks; I Thess. 5:18) Watching John Parker go from a few timid steps to walking from one room to the next, helping Noah use an old timey egg beater to make chocolate shakes for all the boys, hearing Caleb’s account of learning to snorkel with Pop-Pop, digitally capturing Nathan’s triathlon challenge with Uncle Josh and hearing Owen squeal with delight as he chased his cousins. It was just the ordinary stuff of families who share love. Without the love there wouldn’t be all this hurt. God has shown me that love and pain are not mutually exclusive. They can indeed occur at the same time.

Am I blessed? Yes!! Is my heart aching? Yes!!

My journal is now smudged with tears along with John Parker’s scribbles and when I take this home to type on the computer it will take longer than usual because he also rearranged my “shift” key. Will I be angry? No, but it will probably make me cry as I’m beginning to realize that it’s okay to love and hurt at the same time---that’s why it’s so hard to say good-by. 

So, I’ll just say, “Nite, I love you,” because that’s the Liles way to show love at the end of the day, even if we’re miles apart.