Rock Solid Family

It would be a mistake to not give credit to some of the great examples of commitment in my life.

It’s hard to write just one post on both sets of my grandparents. My paternal grandparents, Clyde and Juanita Clark were married in November of 1946.  We called them Mamaw and Papaw.

Papaw was the oldest of 8 siblings and Mamaw was second oldest of 7. Together they had 5 children of their own.

I have some very fond memories of Mamaw and Papaw. They were a very good example of a husband and wife partnership in marriage.

Papaw was a Baptist Preacher. He pastored a few churches in Texas before moving his family of 7 to Ayre, Massachusetts as a Missionary. Their family built the building that the church met in.

Papaw was a very good electrician and carpenter. He loved to make whirly gigs, windmills, and other yard decorations by hand. I remember watching him work in his shop and looking at all the wonderful things he would make.

Mamaw was a great seamstress and artist. She won awards in quilting shows. All her quilts were quilted by hand.

The wonderful thing about their relationship was how they worked together and were interested in each other’s hobbies.

When Mamaw painted, Papaw built frames for her paintings.

One year Papaw built all their granddaughters doll cradles for Christmas. Mamaw crocheted blankets to go in the cradles. That same year for the grandsons he built wooden chairs shaped like animals. Mamaw painted them.

They worked in their garden together.

When they moved into an apartment, Papaw couldn’t bring his tools with him. Mamaw taught him how to crochet and quilt. I remember how proud he was to show us the blanket he made.

If there was a problem anywhere else they seemed to always be in agreement with each other. I don’t remember ever seeing Mamaw and Papaw fight.

Papaw passed away in 2008. They were committed to each other throughout their 63 years of marriage. One day they will be reunited as fellow saints singing praises together in heaven. I wonder if God has a harmonica for my Papaw. If there are crowns up there surely they could make a harmonica. 🙂

How about you? Do you have any ancestors that modeled commitment and partnership in marriage? What do you think it was that made their marriage  so strong back then? As always please share in the comments.

This was Day 2 in my 31 Days Building Commitment series. Tomorrow, I will share my memories of my maternal grandparents’ marriage commitment.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived! My book is finally ready to give away.

If you have already been receiving my email updates then you are already a member. Thank you! You should have received a special email from us with a link to your copy of Don’t Quit: Build a Legacy of Commitment.

If you didn’t get it, don’t worry. I’ve decided to make my book available to everyone. You can click get it here.

In order to become a Rock Solid Family member please enter your email address in any form on this sight.

If you like what you read here at Rock Solid Family, you can join our family by following us through your email in order to not miss a post.

I pray you find strength and encouragement for your family here in our Rock Solid Family’s home. 

In October I will be posting short posts for “31 Days Building Commitment“. I have a special page dedicated for those posts. 

I chose “Building Commitment” as a compliment to my book. Once the 31 days are over, I will resume posting once or twice a week.

Let me know what you think of my book! 

~♥~ Anastacia ~♥~

“Everyone get a friend and one long sheet of paper.”

Our fifth grade art class did as we were bid. We took turns. I laid down on my paper and my friend traced my outline on it.  Once done, our teacher gave us an assignment.

“I want each of you to take your paper and draw yourself dressed as what you want to be when you grow up.”

It only took me a second to decide what that was going to be. I colored my pants blue and my shirt red. I drew tennis shoes on my feet and a smile on my face.

I then drew the accessories that would make my future occupation stand out.

In the right hand I drew a pencil. 

I drew a square for my name tag. On it I wrote, “Anastacia Clark, Writter”

Yes, I really did spell it “Writter.”

I loved books and at that time my favorites were Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, and Little Women. I was fascinated by the fact the heroines of all those books were writers. Someone wrote those books that I enjoyed escaping to.

My previous dream of being a librarian turned into a greater dream of being a writer.

On the last day of 6th grade, my homeroom teacher told us we could write or draw anything we wanted. I wrote a story. My teacher liked it so much that she wanted to keep it as an example for her future classes. I was so proud that I agreed. But later wished I had at least kept a copy of it for my mom. 

I wrote many poems and stories throughout my lifetime. In Junior High, I started writing a book in a notepad. I lost it. I was so disappointed that I didn’t start over. My great writing dreams soon turned into just a hobby I enjoyed. I didn’t take it as seriously anymore.

I no longer thought of my writing as a viable career choice. I guess I listened to the external voices that led me to believe that writing wasn’t a good career choice.

If I had just followed my dream while I was making that critical decision, I might have not dropped out of college. I should have pursued journalism and creative writing. At the time, I didn’t even think of that as an option.

I married my wonderful husband, Scott, in November of 1996. He has always been my biggest fan. He encouraged me to write articles for our church. I also continued to write poems.

My husband worried about me when I became discouraged and let my writing fall by the wayside. Scott kept asking me, “You’re not giving up on writing, are you?”

Then last year I joined Tribe Writers and my whole writing attitude changed. That is when I realized that I am a writer and have always been one.

No longer am I dreaming. It is now my reality.

I went to a writers’ conference this year and received my own name tag. This time I spelled all the words correctly. “Anastacia Maness, Writer.”

Are you living your dream? When did you realize it?  Please share with me in the comments.

I’ve written my story here as an entry in the You Are a Writer Contest at PositiveWriter.com.

If you enjoy writing, you should check out Bryan Hutchinson’s blog. He writes encouraging posts geared towards writers. Friday, August 30th is the last day for contest entries. Let me know if you’ve entered. I would love to read your story.

I have been a stay at home mom for 15 years. In that time, I can only think of a few times I have actually been away for more than a few hours from my children. 

A picture of one of the speakers at the Declare Conference. I took this picture of Jeff Goins for my fellow Tribe Writer friends.

Last weekend I stepped out of my comfort zone and I am so glad I did. I went to the Declare Conference in Dallas, Tx. It is a conference for Christian Women bloggers.

I stepped out of my comfort zone and contacted a complete stranger that turned out to be a new friend named Margo. I found her on the conference’s Facebook page. We were both looking to share a room. I found her blog and realized she lived in the Houston area too. We decided to carpool to the conference. 

That may not seem like a big deal to most people but for me it was. I had butterflies in my stomach over whether I’d have anything to say or if we would have a personality conflict. It turned out that Margo was was very friendly and I enjoyed visiting with her as we traveled. 

We arrived at the conference in time to register before dinner. There were great speakers in all the sessions. The hardest thing to do was decide which classes to attend during the breakout sessions. 

I got to hear Mary DeMuth‘s presentation “Blessed is the Blogger”. I have one of her books that I’ll be talking about in a future post.

A “Meet and Greet” time turned into an impromptu question and answer session with a literary agent, Jessica Kirkland. I learned a lot. Probably one of the biggest things I took away from that session was to put my email address on my contact page. For my fellow writers this is a big deal.

Jessica told how she blog hops. There have been times that she has found a story on a blog that would make a good book and if the author of the post doesn’t have their email anywhere on their site she doesn’t contact them. What I learn from this is to make yourself available. Don’t be so afraid of spammers that you hide from opportunities that might be one simple comment or one click away. 

I learned so much from so many speakers during this conference. I won’t list them all here right now. I may bring them up later as I put some of the things they’ve taught me into practice. 

I want to tell you about one other stepping-out-of-my-comfort-zone moment during the conference. I didn’t take very many pictures of the meeting but I did take one picture for my fellow Tribe Writers. I had to be brave and shake Jeff Goins’ hand. 🙂 It’s not everyday that you get to meet a celebrity. 

I started following Jeff Goins’ blog before he launched the Tribe Writers course. It was his free book The Writer’s Manifesto that struck a chord with me.

I saw how he had come from just a normal everyday guy to having influence over the writing world in a very short time. And it was doable. He started where I’m at now. He was once a beginner too. Now he is writing books and being asked to speak at conferences. Will I be asked to speak at a conference one day? That would be stepping out of my comfort zone. 

I don’t think I’d ever be asked to speak at a writing conference but what about a family conference or a women’s conference? I’m not that big a deal yet but one day one of you may be thinking, “Wow, I knew her when…”

Right now, you, my faithful blog followers are seeing me at the beginning. I’m just about to finish the rough draft of my book Don’t Quit: Build a Legacy of Commitment. 

Ah, you thought I’d forgotten about that didn’t you? No. I hadn’t forgotten and the launch date is still August 30th. My book is about commitment and will be for everyone in all walks of life. My husband has already had a sneak peak and he said that it’s good. 

I’m a little nervous and excited at the same time. It’s hard stepping out and doing something different but the results are tremendous and I know it will be well worth the journey. 

How about you? What are you doing to step out of your comfort zone? Please tell me about it in the comments. 

*The Tribe Writer’s link above is an affiliate link. I get a portion of the profits made from anyone that signs up under my link. I am a member and highly recommend this course.

July 17, 2000, our second child, Ruth Ann, was born. We named her Ruth after one of my favorite women in the Bible. We chose the middle name Ann because we had several family members that had Ann as their middle name and my name starts with “An.” I call her “Ruthie Annie” for short. All of her siblings at some point in their lives have called her “Woofie.”

Ruth was born two days past her due date. We lived near McAllen, Tx at the time. My parents had driven all the way to visit us before she was born. Since we didn’t know how many days it would be, they left and took Joshua with them. Just a couple of days later, Ruth was born. She was my smallest baby at 8 lbs. even.

My water had broken on a Sunday night and 4 hours later on a Monday morning Ruth was born. She was a calmer baby than her big brother. She cried when she was born but as soon as she heard her daddy’s voice talking to her she stopped and just looked around at what was going on.

When she was about 4 years old she told me that she wanted to be a princess when she grew up. She wanted me to check out a real princess book from the library at the time. I named off some real princesses like the Princess Diana, or the Princess Anastasia. She said, “No! A real princess like Cinderella!”

Ruth also loves animals. As a little girl she was shy around people but never seemed to be afraid of animals.

I love this picture of Ruth sitting on a horse wearing a tiara.

I remember when Ruth was about 3. I would hold her in my arms and ask her, “Will you always be my baby?” She would enthusiastically agree.

Then the day came when I asked her that question. “I’m not a baby! I’m a big girl.”

But even though she is now 13, Ruth is still my little princess.

Okay, she may roll her eyes about the “little” part. It won’t be long and she’ll be as tall as I am.

In our home for several years now we have called Ruth “the second mommy”. If anyone needs holding while I’m busy helping someone else, Ruth is right there willing to cuddle a baby or give a little brother a piggy back ride.

Both Elijah and Elisabeth wanted Ruth to hold them. Who else can protect them from the dogs?

She is the big sister that can give advice on clothing, read books to siblings, comfort a crying child, or help conquer their fears.

Whenever she gets overwhelmed with attention, I try to give her plenty of breaks. It’s a tough job being so popular in a big family.

In fact on her 13th birthday, Ruth and Joshua were away at teen camp. It was definitely different not having them around to help corral children. The rest of us had a renewed appreciation for all that Ruth and Joshua do in the family.

Ruth is still my beautiful princess. I’m glad that where we are right now, she is able to ride horses and reach for her dreams.

She plans to own at least three or four horses when she grows up, so I can come over and ride with her one day.

She’s such a sweet girl!

Right now, as she is growing up. I want to encourage her to reach for her dreams. Yes, someday if she still wants them she can have horses. Someday she’ll be able to teach her children how to take care of animals. It’s not impossible. 

I show her the current obstacles that might stand in her way of her dreams but then I encourage her to find ways to overcome those obstacles.  

Her birthday presents this year consisted of a new phone, stuffed horse, a cowgirl hat, boots, jeans, t-shirt with a horse and a thermal mug.

Ruth will soon have pictures in a new riding helmet that we are getting her for a late present.

Were you ever encouraged to follow your dreams? Do you encourage your children to fulfill theirs? Please tell me about it in the comments.

And for my Ruth:

“The LORD recompense thy work, 

and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel,

under whose wings thou art come to trust.” ~Ruth 2:12

You are still my beautiful princess, Ruth.  I love you!

Love,

~♥~ Mommy ~♥~