Getting in the mood for Christmas

 I read the Harker Heights newspap. Liked the stories Kristi wrote.  Especially her column!!! I think the city will like the positive stories, she was telling us about how the Nolanville city council complained because they didn't get any favorable press! That is because the city government doesn't do anything to be proud of or be positive about...I am proud of the way she stood up to them at the City Council meeting one night. I especially liked the story she did about the young boy Daniel. Such a heartwarming story!

Tomorrow, Saturday, Floresville is having our Festival of Lights. The day will begin at 2 p.m. with activities and entertainment around the courthouse square, with vendor booths set up on the courthouse lawn. And the parade at 6:00 or 6:30.  (the pictures are ones I took a couple years ago here) We missed it last year, because we were in Round Rock "celebrating" at Round Rock Hospital!!

 We watched a new Hallmark movie last night..."A Christmas Wish"...I liked it and it had a good ending!!!  I can count on Halmark Movies to make me feel fine!!!I felt so good after watching it.

 But then we watched The Office, and I was so repulsed by some of it, I don' want to watch it any more. I am glad it is in it's last season!

And then we watched Nashville. and I sort of like it, especially the music, but some of it does not lift my spirits at all...I wish it were not such a "dark" drama!!!

I am going through my library to see if there is a book I can read over again, and give me a good feeling...I need something good and interesting to read!

Oh, the last two issues of Texas Monthly was very interesting. Both had the complete story of Michael Morton by Pamela Collof in Part one and Part two. "The Innocent Man". Wow it was so good I could not put it down. Because I knew how it ended. I knew this man served 25 years for a murder he did not do! And he is not bitter, angry, but is a changed man, because he found the Lord in prison. He had not seen his son in years, and they established a father son relationship now. I felt very good, when I finished this month's edition.

Then the last issue has a picture of Willie Nelson and an awesome story about him and his music, and songs writing...such a positive story. I loved it.

Then today I got my new issue of "Mysterious Ways, more than a coincidence" put out by Guideposts, and it made me feel soooo good, and built my faith even more. The stories in there are so great...true stories of God's mysterious ways and things that happened to where you just know there is a God. No explanation .....but God.

Some people probably don't like me writing about the LORD so much because you cannot tell anyone about God and they will believe you. You have to experience God to believe. If a person is not a believer it is hard to believe the things a believer tells you. I know, cause I was once there. I don't blame them for having a hard time listening to someone talk about God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. I was just like them once.

Well, I need to go see if Julie wants to watch TV with me, or watch it in her room. I probably will have to get really mad and make her get up. But lately she has become very sedentary and sleeps too much. She falls asleep watching TV with me, at every show we watch. I don't know what to do about that. Liz and she needs to do something where she has to walk a lot! I am getting worried about her. Well, I am worried about my life style too. ha. Like mother like daughter.

Tomorrow is going to be a good day. Just you wait and see!

Joy Comes in the Morning

So I am posting on Blogger today. LiveJournal keeps changing things so I don't know what to do or how to write. I have had Live Journal since around 2005 or 2006. I really liked writing on there, and my granddaughters and Kristi and some friends used to comment many times. You could comment as anonymous if you didn't belong to LJ. Nowadays, I guess it is hard for people to comment, because I don't get any feedback...except on Facebook. But i know people read my blogs, because I now know how to see my stats (hits) and see how many people went to my page, and hopefully read it. Maybe they just go there and then don't read it! But lately I have been encouraged because there has been lots of "hits" like 70 or 80.
So I will try Blogger again today.
If anyone has been reading my blogs, they know I have been going through  a really blah and depressing time....for the last month or two. I am not excited or look forward to anything these days. If you never have been like that, you don't know what I mean. If you have, you know how hard it is get out of it. Even if you have lots of faith, and pray, and read your bible, and try to think positively, it is like you are slogging through the mud and can't get anywhere. You make yourself get dressed and go somewhere, but you can't wait to get back home, and go into your cozy nest and hibernate some more.
That is not like me. I used to have so much energy, and vim and vigor and so many irons in the fire, the day was not long enough. I never was bored.  Cause I made something happen, if there was nothing happening. I had so many friends, and my kids had friends, and our house was always full of people.
Well these days  I just am tired. I am tired of making things happen. I have to force myself to plan something.
Yesterday, Kristi called me to see how I was. And we had a long conversation ...3-way..cause Julie was on the phone too! It is so good to talk to my daughters and we have a great conversation....we all talk ....and before we hung up, I was feeling so much better, we laughed and talked, about everything. Kristi suggested I go back on my Lexapro, the antidepressant I have taken for 10 years, since Eddie first had Alzheimers....I decided to stop taking it, about 2 or 3 months ago. Maybe that is why I am so darn blah and depressed. I started again last night to take it.
Last night Julie said I need prayer. So....she prayed for me. She prayed a great prayer. I told her to cast that spirit of depression out of me. So she did!
I am only going to watch inspirational and positive shows on the TV. I have stopped watching shows I usually like to watch...in the past...like The Good Wife, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, Dateline (mostly shows about wives murdering their husbands and husbands murdering their wives), and now I am going to stop watching Parenthood. So many unhappy depressing things going on there in the family. I am depressed when it is over!
We live in a depressing time for America and all over the world. I don't need any more heaped upon me. I started reading an Ann Tyler book this week...I was so depressed reading it, at what was happening with the family in the book, I put it on the shelf. I am not going to read things like that to make me depressed.
This morning  I was reading my bible. I always read the Psalm for today. Since today is the 30th, so it is Psalm 30...where it says "For His anger is but for a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime or in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."

That is my promise from God today. I pray the Lexapro starts working and the prayer Julie prayed works. After all, I choose life!

Police Departments, Policemen, and a 94-year old friend

 

Police Departments, Policemen and 94-year old friend

-The other day I went to Jim Miller's Photography in Floresville. I like Jim. I met him 4 years ago. He is a good photographer. He took the pictures out at my family reunion in 2008, at the Floresville City Park by the San Antonio River.

-Jim is running for city council in Floresville. We need something good to happen to our city government and we need it fast. The politics here are so terrible, and people have been slinging mud as they say, and the Internet makes it worse. But people need to be careful, because all your dirty laundry is out there for everyone to see. I think Jim Miller is one man who can change things for good. I had gone by to get a sign from Jim, to put in our yard. I hope he wins. He will be a great councilman.

- When I went it, I saw Jim in the back room and as soon I came in the door, he called out to me. "Hi Lois, come on in". I didn't even know he knew who I was. I asked him if I was interrupting something, because I saw three men with him.

-He said, "No we are just discussing crime in Floresville."

-I found out that there was the police chief, and two of his policemen in there. I joined them. I got to hear all about crime in Floresville, the statistics from the last few years. And where the most crime occurs and what most of the crime is. Well, of course it is drugs.

-I got to hear how the police department needs more policemen. They are short handed - especially since the Eagle Ford oil boom. Floresville is growing by leaps and bounds. I can attest to that. Traffic out on Hwy 181 is terrible.

-The only place I can drive in the "slow lane" these days are in the residential areas, like ours.

- When they finished I introduced myself, and finally met the police chief face to face and his men, and told them where we lived. They agreed with me, that we live in peaceful. And there hardly is any crime out here. Thank you Lord.

-Policemen and women have a hard job. They put their lives in dangerous situations all the time. I applauded the police chief and his men for the good jobs they are doing and I am so glad I got to meet them in person. And it was a positive situation!

-Brad Parker, my grandson is going to be a Ft. Worth Policeman next week. He is graduating from the Ft.Worth Police Academy next Friday. I will be there. Brad has already put his life on the line, having done two tours in Iraq and a Marine.  He knows what he is facing. He has a wife and Kendall and two little girls, Ava and Allie. I have never stopped praying for Brad and his little family, and I will continue to pray for them forever.

-I called Eleanora Talley this week to see if she would for us to take her out to lunch some day. She loved the idea. So when Julie and Liz get back from Jettie's, our hair stylist, we are going to go over and pick Eleanora up and take her to lunch. I think we are going to Laguna’s up on Hw 181. Eleanora is such a sweet little old lady. I can call her that, because she is even older than me!! She is 94. Her daughter lives with her. Sandra has been the one constant thing in Eleanora’s life since Troy, Eleanor’s husband died many years ago. I don’t know what she would have done without Sandra. She takes care of her mama. I got to know Eleanora when I did a story about her two years ago. I am so blessed to have her for my friend. She is so bright, chipper and has a fantastic memory! She has had quite an interesting life.

-As usual, if I want to have a life - I am the one that has to do it. So I am not bored as long has I have the sense to plan something. But it beats me why no one else plans things and invites us. Why doesn't anyone ever call us and ask "You want to go to lunch today?" or "I am going to eat lunch at Jack's Cafe or Delilah's  - so do you want to meet me there". Well, I have always been a leader or a go-getter, so I will do that till the day I die. But then I am the oldest of 8 kids, and some people think I am bossy. So be it. I have learned if you want something, go out and get it. Don’t wait around for things to come to you. And make things happen!

Laughing at myself

Laughing at myself

Most of the time, I sit at my computer and start writing. I don’t think about what I am going to write. Usually it works out okay. Because my thoughts are not like everyone else’s. Well, I don’t think anyone’s thoughts are like any one else’s.  So it is interesting to see where it will lead me.

Sometimes when I get to the end of a blog, or a story, or a status on Facebook, I read it and delete it! I think, “Where did that come from? No one wants to read that!”

But then sometimes I mull it over and think, “Well maybe someone will think this is funny, or quirky, but maybe they will think it is dumb and stupid, but it’s okay, cause I know what my feelings were when I wrote it.  People will know what I mean.I just don't want to be boring!

Well, then sometimes they don’t get it. Maybe that is because of what they are going through. They can’t relate. If I write about simple, funny things that happens to me, if they are in a hospital with a sick child, they may think it is petty and small and ridiculous. I should be sympathetic and empathetic. So, the writing goes on...I will not stop.

The other day I started writing my status on Facebook, and the words just flowed. I was not feeling anything but annoyance, and smiling to my self, at the ridiculousness of it all. I had to laugh at what I had written. It was the one where I had just gotten a tiny check from a publisher for my last book. That was about the 3^rd check like that I had received from them, in the 4 years that is has been published. That book has cost me a lot of money and I have not made a penny on it. But I knew God wanted me to write it. It was not written for me to make money.

That day as I left the house to go to Cooper’s Garden Center to buy some flowers to plant, I passed by the bank and decided to cash the tiny check. Well, that was a ridiculous day from start to finish. I had to laugh at myself, and glad I had a sense of humor, every time something happened that was so annoying and stupid, I smiled to myself and said,“I need to write about this”.

The first thing that happened was even though I was the only one in line in the drive-through after a few minutes, it took a long time to cash that little bitty check…cause they had to go to the back and look to see if I had an account there and see how much money I had in there, in case the check bounced. (It was so big. $1.35)

Finally after 20 minutes they gave me my money and I drove to Coopers. It is south of Floresville half way to Poth, down a country road. Usually it is a nice drive and I love browsing through the gardens. Well that day it was hot and dry, and the road was dusty  as I drove through a cloud of sand…and the gate was closed, as they were not open that day!

Well what to do? I asked God “Where do you want me to go?” He said, “Just drive”.

I went back to Floresville, spotted the Sonic and pulled in there to get a Root Beer float. Do you know Sonic uses real ice cream? They have several flavors too. I sat there and drowned my sorrows in that float and I felt very happy.

Then I kept driving and saw the Dollar General on the right. Ah ha, I needed some things from there. I love shopping at the Dollar Store …more than HEB or Walmart…they are too big for me.

When I left there, I started to go home, but decided to go by Walmart and see if they had and flowers. That was a mistake. I hate Walmart. I can’t find anything there and the people that work there sometimes don’t know where anything is. But surely if I went in the garden store I could buy some plants or flowers.

I would not have to walk miles to find something. Well, I went to the garden store, looked around and could not see any flowers. I finally found a man who worked there and he said they didn’t have any flowers!!! This was a Super Walmart!!!

  They expected a truck in later this week or next week. I just laughed to myself and said, “That figures! Story of my day!” So, I bought a couple of green plants to plant in my pots on the porch. I drove home and chalked it up to one more day of annoyances.

But I was so glad they were annoying things, and I could laugh at myself, and I could always find something that had happened that was good. That is my philosophy you know - look for a silver lining in the dark clouds – there is always one if you just look.

I am so grateful that I can still drive a car, walk (though with a limp), see to drive without glasses, type on the computer (though my hands are crippled with arthritis), read with a Kindle, go to the Girls High School Volleyball games in Poth, go to an awesome church, and the list goes on….I am so glad to be alive still…

So today I am also happy that the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys won last night, and I am going to have a nice quiet day reading my new book, by John Grisham, and this weekend it is going to rain and we will have a "norther" and the weather will be cooler. And I can sit on the porch and it will be cool! Even in the shade these days it is 100 degrees!

Family Reunions on the river past and present

We had our Zook/Wauson Family Reunion last weekend. We had in New Braunfels at Gruene Outpost Lodge. We checked in about 3:30.  A little while later my daughter Kristi and her husband Chuck arrived and checked in at their cabin, and Taylor, my granddaughter from Ft. Worth and Brett her husband and their kids arrived. A little while later we had a little sandstorm and then a thunder storm that didn't last long. The temperature went from 103 to about 83 in a matter of 30 minute. Then my granddaughter Jessica came with her son Ayden. I was excited and happy.

We went to Freddie's for supper.....did you ever hear of "Freddie's"? I found out they are all over the South.  I love that restaurant. I wish we had one in Floresville. They have the best hamburgers or should I say, "steakburgers"...they were Steak not hamburger. and milkshakes and icecream. So we sat there eating, talking, and visiting with all of them, including Tay's and Brett's Dylan and Zayne and Ayden.  Those kiddos are so darn cute, always smiling,never frowning, always laughing and talking...are so friendly, they don't know a stranger. And such fun! I loved being around them. Grandparents have so much fun!

As we left Freddies, the cool air brushed our faces with a cool breeze. The atmosphere had changed from hot and humid, most unbearable......to cool, moist, and smelling like it does after a rain. This felt like heaven!

We went back to the OUtpost Lodge. Then sat up our lawn chairs in front of our cabin facing the river. We sat there for several hours, in the cool night breeze, watched as the lightening bugs started lighting up - down by the trees by the river. Then they became more numerous and then there was like an army of fireflies flitting everywhere in the darkness.  Zayne and Dylan and Ayden began chasing fireflies with Jessica helping them. Then Jessica and Taylor and Brett played Red Light/Green Light with them and we watched and laughed at them and with them.

I began to think about all the family reunions we have had in the Zook family throughout the years..it was so pleasant just sitting out there in the cool night air, the smell of the river especially after the little shower and the sight of the fireflies and the occasional shooting star, made me remember former days  when our family sat all together on the river bank talking and laughing and loving each other. As old as I am, there have been many such nights, many! They first began in the 1940's at my Uncle Warren Zook's farm by the San Antonio River. His farm was part of the original farm land that my Grandfather Zook bought back about 1906. His son Gary still owns the farm. Those years it was a whole weekend down by the river. All my aunts and uncles came then. Uncle Everett from Houston and his wife, Alta, Aunt Maurine from Brownsiville and then Houston, Aunt Ola Dee from Houston, Aunt Gladys (a Catholic nun who changed her name to Sister Agatha Linn), Uncle Warren and Aunt Janie. I remember sitting up late in the night, listening to the "old folks" laughing and talking and my daddy and uncles telling "tall tales" and my aunts arguing with them that they had the story wrong. The same cool air was there, the same smells, and also the smell of the wood smoke from the fire drifted across us kid as we nodded and fell asleep on the pallets. All these memories were brought back to me Friday night down by the river. old picture below taken in the early 1940's. from left to right is Ola Dee, Warren, Aunt Gladys, Everett, Lawrence (daddy), Maurine and the Everett's dog Lassie.

Later my nephew, Scott and Karen and son Brandon came down there from their cabin,and sat with us chatting and then Jeff, Carmen, Brandon her son, and my sister, Margaret came awhile after they had gone to eat supper, as did my brother Sam and Rose.. But then most people left to go to the cabins, it was late - around midnight....and I was sitting out there alone...and was thinking "How come I was so lucky, or blessed to still experience this at my age?" I could have sat out there by the river all night, thinking I might need to go in and get a sweater or a blanket, it was that cool.

So I finally went to my cabin, where Jessica was putting Ayden to sleep on a pallet, then she went up to Brett and Taylor's cabin where they had put their kids to bed, and then they sat outside to await my grandson,Brad and Kendal and their two little girls who got there about 12:30 a.m.. I think they all sat up and talked for a long time after that. I remember those old days when I used to sit up and talk half the night with people. Oh for the good old days!  I knew I had to be rested for tomorrow because I had volunteered to babysit all the great-grandkiddos while Kristi and Chuck and all her kiddos went tubing on the Comal River.

After over 70 years of Zook Family reunions I was ready for one more day of memories. Saturday afternoon my daughter and her kiddos ready for tubing on the Comal River.

She's on the Upper Road

Well things are nice and wet this morning after the rain last night. I sat on the patio this morning, with my cup of coffee and enjoyed the peace and quiet of living in the country and praying the weather will continue this way all through the summer. I don’t think I can stand another dry hot summer like last year! If it were not for air conditioning I would have thought we were in hell.

I am having a good time studying the bible these days. I have to have a schedule to do that in order for me to get in a routine. So I am reading Psalm 119 throughout this month. It is the longest Psalm of them all. 176 verses!!! And I have prayed that God would speak to me every day through the verses. And yes, God will speak to anyone through reading the Bible. If they would really seek him wholeheartedly, he will. I will promise you that. I can give testimony after testimony of that!

So yesterday in verse 1, it says, “You’re blessed when you stay on course; walk steadily on the road revealed by God”. Okay, with that verse God said to me, “Take one step at a time, don’t worry what you’re going to do. He will show you as you go.” I wrote that down in my journal.

Well, then this morning before I read Ps. 119:2, I read the devotional in Streams in the Desert. I was shocked. It had the verse, “Wherever you go, your way will be opened up before you step by step” There it was a confirmation of what God was saying yesterday, and it continued on to today!

There was this poem too.

I’m going by the Upper Road

For that still holds the sun

I’m climbing through the night’s pastures

Where the starry rivers run

If you should think to seek me

In my old dark abode

You’ll find this writing on the door

“He’s on the Upper Road” (she's on the Upper Road - hmm with Jesus?)

                            (unknown)

Isn’t that beautiful? Well, you will find Lois on the Upper Road.

That’s all for today, folks. I must read more, This is very interesting

Rainy Days & Starry Nights and Floresville Opry

"Rainy Days and Starry Nights" started out over 10 years ago, when I started writing it for the Floresville Chronicle Journal here in Floresville. My daddy took the Chronicle Journal all his adult life, until he died in 1984. Then my mother continued to take it, until she died in 1994. They subscribed to the paper for over 62 years. After that I began to subscribe to it also. The Chronicle Journal was like a part of our family. My daddy always liked Sam Fore, I think mainly because he was a Democrat like my daddy! (read the chapter called "Daddy was a Democrat" in my book, Rainy Days and Starry Nights"-you can get it at the Wilson County News).
I began this story this way, because I was thinking of ceasing to write my column for the Wilson County News. I have written several hundred columns and was thinking I was running out of things and people to write about. I have written about my family, my husbands family, my daddy's family, my mother's family, and their ancestors and also about people in Wilson County, Floresville, Poth, Sutherland Springs, La Vernia, and San Antonio. I have written about buildings, dances, peanut thrashing time, the Peanut Festival, and Poth High School.
So I was thinking I had just about run out of things and people to write about. My heart just was not in it like it used to be. After my accident (falling down some steps and shattering my foot and knocking a big knot on my head and going through all that last December and January),  I am not able to get around like I used to. It would be easier for people to come to my house for my interviews. I had just about made up my mind one day to make the call that would tell the paper, I would not be writing my column any more. But I sent in one last story, not about a person, but about a crape myrtle bush in my back yard. I had written the story in one of my blogs. I love the story, but would anyone else like it? I didn't care, because I loved writing it.
The next day I was going to call Elaine, my publisher to tell her, I quit.
But something happened before I made that call. That morning I received an email from a reader that I think was sign of what I was to do.
This is what it said:
Hi,
My name is Cheryl Reeves and I live in Dilley, Texas. We take the Wilson County News and I always read your column.You bring memories to life and it's like you are telling people to slow down and enjoy everything around you for some day it won't be there.I'm 68 and my husband is 83.I have told my son, since they were little boys - to love and enjoy what you have and look and see all the beautiful things around you.Most people now a days are in too big a hurry. Life goes by fast enough, slow down.
I want to thank you so much for your column, it's a breath of fresh air and remembrances. I also want to say I do hope you are doing better. Be strong and believe and keep watching those crepe myrtle trees, for they are so beautiful.
 Thank you
Cheryl Reeves
Thank your Cheryl for those kind words!
Then the next thing happened was that I saw my brother Bob Zook later that day at my brother, Lawerence Zook's birthday party.
Bob took me aside and told me,"Hey I wanted to tell you that I sure liked your column in the paper this week about the crape myrtle tree. I sure could relate to what your were writing about, after what we have been through these last months".
Thanks you Bob!!! What was even more amazing about that, was that I know Bob likes to read my columns, even though Bob has given me more stories about him and his growing up days, than any of my relatives!!! And a lot of them are about him! He has taken a lot of ribbing from his friends about them. Bob hasn't told me often that he really liked my column in the paper. Especially if it was about him! So, for him to tell me that, was amazing because of the timing! Was this a sign from God too?
Two people in one day?
So, for now I am still writing. I will tell you all when I am through!
By the way, I will probably be at the Florsville Opry next week, on the 4th of July! It's going to be an awesome night of old time country music, dancing, and good time to see all your old friends, who you haven't seen in a long time. Last Opry, I found out my old friend, Elsie Buchanan was there and I didn't get to see her! Elsie is a good friend of Pat Johnson Fox of the band "PLAYING TO WIN".  This is the house band for the Opry.  I first met Elsie in 1949 when she and I worked for Rowles Sale Co. on Hoefgen St. in San Antonio. We were both young single girls fresh out of high school. We became friends after that, married, and had a bunch of kids each. Then we lost touch and finally reunited about 10 years ago. I hope she is there July 4th.