Laugh with the Luncheon Ladies...and Famished Fellers

So Fridays are for fun!

When I started thinking of what I'd share on this my first Fun Friday post at Stitches Thru Time, I thought, what do I do for fun? And while many things came to mind, there were none as enticing as my Clarksville Luncheon Ladies. I made this little postcard for my new hometown. This is a photo I took of our square. 

We ladies have gotten together for like six years now, once a month. After years, we chose the first Tuesday as our regular date for our covered dish themed lunches. In cold January, we have a Souper Supper, and in May, a Mexican Fiesta. :) I believe for ladies, getting together and laughing and visiting with lady friends is essential for good mental health!

May I please introduce these special ladies to you? 
     Their names may be a bit familiar from my first historical Christian Lone Star Romance VOW UNBROKEN. My first Luncheon Lady is Louise Koiner, and we e'met online over goats. I raised Nigerian Dwarf goats, and she wanted to add a pair of small dairy goats to her new 'country life'. 

     Little did I know when we first met for lunch that first time that she is a voracious reader, and a precious Christian who loves the Lord, and almost my neighbor back in the DFW Metroplex where we both moved to Red River County from!
     God is so like that. Bringing the likes of Louise and I together for mutual blessings. He loves us so much!
     And then she brought her best friend, Patricia Abbot to share with me since I knew next to no one in my new town. Tricia moved to Clarksville from my same hometown of Irving, Texas! Louise had lived in neighboring Tarrant County Arlington, and though she was first to buy land, the Abbotts moved here almost a year before the Koiners, knowing they were coming. I came a year later, so then we were three!

     I loved sweet Tricia from the start, and she got two goaties from me, also, naming them Elvis and Priscilla. Of the three of us, she's the only one who still has goats. And both these friends have dogs they got from me! We share the love of animals :) They went to church together at the Choctaw Baptist fellowship just across the Red up into Oklahoma.
     We go from one home to the next, but this started when I lived in the little town of Lydia maybe thirty minutes south of Clarksville and the Koiners and Abbotts liked fifteen and twenty minutes north of the county seat, so I took my turns at the hunting cabin on the 916 acre McAdoo Ranch (my husband's brother's place) which was only five miles south of town proper. 
     
When Ron and I were blessed to build our new home, The Peaceable, on thirty-four acres surrounded on three sides by the big ranch, I took my friends to see the site on the four-wheeler! Praise the Lord I didn't lose Louise off the front! :)

     And the last of our regular Luncheon Ladies was my Miss Faye, the oldest and greatly loved sweet lady God gave me for my first friend when I cried out to Him early on after moving here. I was so lonely then and not used to being friendless in my hometown--I'd been in Irving over fifty years!
     All of Miss Faye's children lived far away, so again, God's blessings were mutual as I became like her daughter here, carrying her to all her doctor's appointments and taking her to get groceries. The 80+ year old widow turned into a very special mother-friend to me, and Louise and Patricia loved her as much as I did. 
     She told so many wonderful stories, and we all laughed together and enjoyed our time together so much. She went to live with Jesus, the true love of her life, in March 2014, and we all miss her still.

     On occasion, we included our Famished Fellers join us and it's become the norm now. Louise's Richard (on the cabin steps), Tricia's John (standing), and my Ron (forefront) eat into our visitin' time since they don't have nearly as much to say as we do, but we love them! :) Note the little black and white doe tethered to a tree. Dairy goats are referred to as does and bucks, like deer while meat goats are nannies and billies. Learn something new every day, right? Nigerians are a wonderful small dairy breed. 
     We still meet, though since I've been so incredibly busy since the release of VOW UNBROKEN  March 2014 and eight more titles since then, we've been gathering at the best Mexican restaurant in town, Rio Verde's (the owner is behind the photo above of Louise and Tricia at our December Luncheon)
     Well, I've yammered on, and I could go on much longer, but I don't think blog posts are supposed to be not-so-long, so I'll stop here, hoping that all you ladies have your own special group and that you make the time to get together regularly! I promise, it's good for the soul!!  
  

At the Choctaw Baptist Church Mother & Daughter Tea, May 9, 2015
(L to R) Nncy Lawson, Louise Koiner, Caryl, and Patricia Abbott

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