Along the Road to Home

The heat of summer has settled upon us on the Oklahoma prairie. Every day the weather forecast looks much the same. Hot, hot, and more hot. It's been a long time that any kind of rain has fallen and the parched earth cries out for whatever the skies above can send us. I know that some cold January day this winter will find me yearning for the current temperatures, yet we must take what is given to us and the weather is no exception. Except for the early morning and the hours after 5:00 p.m., I try to stay inside and out of the heat of the day. There is plenty to do here at home, but one of the things I prefer to do the most is to write in my journals. I try to set aside time to record what has happened in the day and as in the case of the book shown above, the exciting things that have happened to me in my life. To be honest, I'm not sure how exciting that life has been but it has definitely turned out to be memorable. In the years to come, one of my kids will perhaps l...

You know, Mike and I never figured that we would retire in a town called Newkirk, Oklahoma. Not once was this spot in the great state of Oklahoma on our "radar" as one of the top 10 places to live in for older folks. Yet here we are, over 3 years after our arrival, settled down in Kay County, Oklahoma. It is our sincere intention to make this move our final one in life. As a teacher, it was the perfect spot for me. I have always felt there was something to be said about being an educator in the very town that you live in. There's nothing quite like working in your yard or taking a walk around town only to be greeted by the voices of children calling out to you as they go by, "Hey Mrs. Renfro! How are you doing?" The school is only a few blocks away from our home and I pass by it every single day it seems on my way out of town. Once my classroom was filled with things that I deemed necessary to use each day. By the time I walked out the door for...

I retired from teaching in May of this year. After 43 years, it seemed the right time to finally do it. My nearly 67-year old body was getting tired and even though my heart was still in it, I knew it was the right time to quit. This was the final picture that I took as a teacher in front of my old school, Newkirk Elementary here in Kay County, Oklahoma. The days that have already passed between that final day when I turned in my school keys and walked out the door for the last time have sped quickly by. Now more than 40 days into this new lifestyle of mine, I have had plenty of time to ponder what it is that I shall do next. For the record, I'm not sure what the answer to that is. A regular part of my day now has been to immerse myself in the printed word, either by my own journaling or reading the thought provoking devotionals that others have written. At present, I have 10 reading/writing activities going at one time and if I don't get to them all each day, I feel...