The Mercy That Covers Me

One of my all-time favorite songs is a song by Switchfoot, a contemporary Christian band.   Today the words are rolling around in my mind and are making this melancholy season of my life a little more meaningful. Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead Yesterday is a promise that you’ve broken Don’t close your eyes, don’t close your eyes This is your life and today is all you’ve got now Yeah and today is all you’ll ever have This is your life, are you who you want to be? This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be when the world was younger and you had everything to lose. There are many memories trapped in our heads.   Sometimes you’ll catch a scent of something and that smell with reach into the depths of your mind and grab a memory and bring it to the forefront of your thoughts.    For me it was walking into the foyer of a Japanese Steakhouse.   The combination of the cedar on the walls and cooking ...

Forgot to post this picture!

Our personal chef prepared cream cheese pancakes and bacon.  Yum!  While he was busy cooking, Papa went in the back of the cabin to try and get a picture of the cabin from that angle.  The grade is steep and he was watching his step so he didn't stumble.  At one point he looked up and saw a black bear!  He turned around and came into the house to announce that there was a bear visitor!  As you can imagine, we all filtered out the door to the front where the bear had followed Papa.  He was not afraid of us and seemed to be interested in begging for food.  His front left paw was injured, as he had a limp. Aunt B called the rental company and they said that a trap with food was put out two weeks ago in an attempt to capture and attend to his paw.  He wandered off after about 30 minutes but he was the talk of the rest of the vacation! We got the group together and took off for Dollywood.  Voted by our group to be the best amusement park, w...

In March of this year, our family made plans and a reservation to go to Gatlinburg, TN.  October 11 - 14, to be spent in a cabin on top of a mountain!  October finally got here and we drove from our perspective homes and converged on Gatlinburg.  Check in was at 3:00 PM. The NY Schmidts got their first.  Uncle Mike, Aunt Colleen and Oliver arrived around 1:00 PM.  They made time to drive around and check out our cabin.  LP and Tia arrived about the same time us other Florida Schmidts arrived.  Our truck had me, Papa, Grandmom, Uncle Jeff and Kati.  Shortly after we arrived, the Kentucky Schmidts made their appearance.  Kentunckie, Aunt B, Corny Lane and Lemon rounded out the group. First things first was room assignments.  This house has 4 levels with six bedrooms and five bathrooms.  Our chef, Kentunckie, started unpacking food and making preparations for our first meal.  We would grill out! The evenings were cool e...