Remembering Dad

I'm just going to begin this today. I went to WalMart and scanned the few pictures I could find of Dad. Guess we just didn't take too many when he was around. And we were out of the country for 11 years.... Here's the funniest one I have taken in 2000 after our first Johnson family reunion. There are four more on Flickr. I cropped them, but Flickr took the originals off the CD, rats. The quality isn't too good, but you'll get the idea!
More about Dad later. I'm wanting to finish painting that room before I leave!!

I finished the room, now I'll write a little more. If you've already started reading this, I guess you'll have to come back and check to see if I've updated it.

One picture I asked my sister to find is one of us two oldest, maybe Melinda is in it too, but we're at Lake Michigan on the beach and Dad is walking in front, and we are following behind trying to walk only in his footsteps. Not only is it a good photo, but it is a good lesson. Following in his steps.

I think we older siblings have different memories, and really a different Dad from the younger ones. He was only 20 when I was born and 26 when the youngest was born. He was athletic and musical. He was our active parent in sports. He took us swimming, ice skating, sledding, roller skating, and played in the water with us at the beach. He didn't just watch us do these things either. Usually he was chasing us, playing games, swimming underwater to grab our legs, teaching us to do figure 8 on the ice or skate backwards either ice skating or roller skating. He also taught us how to sing. "Breathe with the diaphragm; don't let the candle flame flicker; use your natural voice; don't yell". My sister probably remembers a lot more about that. We sang harmony from very early on. I don't remember ever having to learn it. Our mom always harmonized when we all sang, so I suppose we heard her, too. We sang three parts in the car, while washing dishes and just whenever we felt like it and had people to sing. I think Dad never wanted us to get a dishwasher because he would miss his after dinner concert from the kitchen!! He'd go take a nap in the living room while we cleaned up. He had a recording business of sorts, as a hobby mostly, so we had microphones and reel to reel tape recorders around. One time when we were very young, he set it all up at the bottom of the stairs while we were supposed to be taking our Sunday afternoon naps. That must've been fun to listen to; too bad the tape never got saved!

He slipped the surly bonds of earth...

To touch the face of God. I think that's a beautiful picture. Ron called last night about 9:30 and said, "Dad's with Jesus." Jenny called a few minutes later and said, "He's been delivered." What peaceful and joyful ways to express the passing of a parent. "Death is ended..death is swallowed up in victory!"

Thanksgiving 2007

This year we went to my brother Ron's for Thanksgiving. It was fun to be with family, and especially Ron since there is never a dull moment when he's around! We left Thursday morning and went up to get Stephanie who was able to come with us. It had snowed about 4 inches in Des Moines on Wednesday, so we loaded up boots, gloves, hats and coats. Ron cooked his turkey in the deep fat fryer out in the garage while we women worked on dinner in the kitchen. It was a cloudy snowy day all day, so it was cozy to be in the house. Meredith kept giving me a hard time about not working...or not wanting to work. Huh. Ron and Dennis were in rare form during dinner....or is it rare anymore? Anyway, I never laughed so much. Neither did Den. Ron's plate was totally clean and Den's was still full. Denny is still trying to figure out how Ron can eat and keep everyone laughing all at the same time. I bet Stephanie has never had a stranger Thanksgiving!

We played Pictionary and Spoons in the evening. I think the Minich family won the Pictionary game. *smile* Thanks to the Thompson help. (How COULD she tell that was a hammerhead shark????) Stephanie fit right in and didn't seem a bit uncomfortable with this crazy family. Ron got out the gator and we hooked up the dogs' plastic swimming pool behind it. Then we sat in the pool and he pulled us around on the snow. It was so cool!! Like tubing only in the snow. Of course he'd whip the thing around so it spun fast and the snow flew up and over the pool, covering the rider in snow! Friday Andrew and Stephanie made a snow bunny, I guess since there really wasn't enough snow for a snow man. It was cold, but beautiful. Friday was clear and sunny. Den and Ron got a big burn pile started after the disastrous Nebraska football game. Maybe they were wanting to put someone's effigy on the bonfire?

Meredith picked up one of her photos that had been made into a huge poster. It is of a lavender aster taken in England. You can even see drops of water on it. Gorgeous!

We got home on Friday night about 7:30. We felt like we got to know Stephanie much better. And we have great memories of a family get together.

Christ in you, the hope of glory

I thought I'd share some of Mom's thoughts as we wait to see what will happen with Dad. Yesterday the doctor told her four to seven days. These are her thoughts this morning. What a joy and privilege to know God's peace.

Thanks to your prayers I am jubilant this morning, the song ,Victory in Jesus, came to my mind so I tried to remember the words , I think I have it , at least the chorus: 'Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever, He sought me, He bought me with His redeeming blood, He loved me 'ere I I knew Him and all my love is due Him, He plunged to victory in His redeeming blood.'
I am going thru the Proverbs, I thought what will I receive from them in my current state: chp 11:6a, 8a, 30, talking about the blessings of the righteous, 1Cor 2:5, our faith is in he power of God, 9' Eye hath not seen nor ear heard...the things God has prepared for those....' 12.. we have received the Spirit which is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God'. Knowledge gives me great hope in believing.
This funeral will be like my Mom's, full of rejoicing along with the tears.I am so full of joy....

rejoicing because of Jesus

May this encourage you in your walk with God today. It does me. I am so thankful for my godly heritage! And so humbled.

How do we pray?

Yesterday's sermon was on prayer and the gospel. The text was the Lord's Prayer. The message helped us gain perspective on prayer. God is not a vending machine. The prayer begins, "Father" we have a close relationship with God. Then He asks that God's name be holy and His will would be done on earth. God's will is the big plan. We only see our little threads in the tapestry, and sometimes those aren't very clear, either. So we pray that what we ask would be part of His big plan.

In August I wrote about my dad and his leadership in our family. Last Friday he was taken to the hospital with another stroke, they think. Right now they are feeding him through a tube or IV and he just sleeps, Mom says. They are going to do an EEG this morning to determine if he is having more strokes. He hadn't been eating the day before.

It is difficult to watch your dad slowing slip away. One wants things to move quickly one direction or another. How do we pray? What does God want? The difficulty for me is not the slipping away, but the slowness of it. Do we hang on and hope for a miracle? How does a Christian face these moral dilemmas differently than those who would say, "Just get it over with?" God uses Mom in the lives of all those she contacts during this time as well. So my prayers are for her. For peace, strength and wisdom. A loving Father is caring for her and Dad and will give what we ask. As we pray, God works through His Spirit in us, too. For His glory.

The bells bells bells bells bells

I know my friend could is also going to post about this, but many of you don't read hers as well, so I'll write about it, too. Hers will be far wittier, anyway! (Maybe you should read hers. *smile* )

Our church homeschool group borrowed some bells from a local university for their children's choir. Yesterday a few of us got together to test our sight reading, wrist snapping ability. We are playing "Infant Lowly, Infant Holy" which is a nice even piece and not too complicated. But it's funny when we get lost in the piece or we keep trying to get that thing to ring. For some reason, my right arm/wrist works far better than the left. It was so much fun, and so rewarding to get it right that we kept playing and playing.
I've loved the bells ever since I first heard them my senior year in high school. And even though the only people I've ever seen play them ever since are groups of old ladies, I am thrilled to be able to try it out for myself.
Maybe I'm the old lady now anyway. (According to Andrew, he doesn't want me telling all my "old lady friends" what's going on in his life! So maybe I'M an old lady, too!)

More work in progress....

The work center. This is the reason I haven't been blogging. I've been working on this room or else substituting. I've been at a school three days out of the week for the last three weeks. That's good, but when it rains, it pours. I scramble from one job to the next.

In our frenzied attempts to rid our house of the mouse infestation that seemed to be taking over our lives, we ripped out a closet in the bedroom that used to be a garage. Not only did we just take down the frame of the closet, but we ripped out the walls, too, thinking we'd find the mouse nest. No such luck, but we haven't seen any more mice in there. Hence, the room is now getting a much needed makeover.
It used to be Andrew's bedroom. Then Den bought a TV that I didn't want up in the living room, so he put it down there. Andrew moved up to Linnea's old room and the room became the media room. It had never been redone since we moved in 8 years ago, and it's been stuck in the 80's ever since. Oh, except we ripped out the navy blue/rose wall paper that was on the wall, and primed the walls. So, as you see, the rose-colored carpet is now gone. The walls were so badly marked up from darts, holes punched in the wall, irregular wallboard seams (before our time) that we decided to wallpaper it with paintable textured wallpaper. I'm nearly finished. As you can see, though, we have a few wallpaper problems, too. Hopefully by the time the gang comes over for Christmas they will enjoy the new media room-fit with new sound system as well. Looking forward to it!

The true philosopher's stone

I've been reading All Things for Good by Thomas Watson this afternoon. It is a book that expounds Romans 8:28. After discussing the fact that every seeming evil that befalls us, God always turns for our good, he says:

See then what encouragement here is to become the godly. All things shall work for good. Oh, that this may induce the world to fall in love with religion! Can there be a greater lodestone to piety? Can anything more prevail with us to be good, than this; all things shall work for our good? Religion is the true philosopher's stone that turns everything into gold. Take the sourest part of religion, the suffering part, and there is comfort in it. God sweetens suffering with joy; He candies our wormwood with sugar. Oh, how may this bribe us to godliness!

How sweet it is.

We've come a long way....!

From the old covenant's way of sacrifices to remove our sin!!

I've been reading through Hebrews this month. Wow, it is fantastic in its logical arguments for Christ being the end of the old covenant and its way of doing things. It's hard some days to stop reading at the end of the day's reading because the logic is taking me on and on. Today's reading repeats this phrase "for all time" or a variation like "once for all" three times. The author is telling us that the old sacrifices were only shadows. They could not do anything to take away sins or to clear my conscience. When Christ came, His sacrifice was the sacrifice to end it all.

"He abolishes the first [old covenant sacrifices] in order to establish the second. And that by that will [the Father's will] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"( Heb. 10:9-10) "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, HE SAT DOWN at the right hand of God"(v. 12) "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." (v. 14)

Then the author inserts the passage from Isaiah about God writing the laws on our hearts and minds. So not only does Christ's sacrifice now cleanse our conscience, which the old law could not, but He writes it on our hearts and minds. The chapter closes with "NO MORE". "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

I need these reminders. I think that God sometimes is only rather tersely pleased with me. It's hard to feel that He doesn't even remember what I've done. So as an act of the will and with the help of the Holy Spirit, I can come to God knowing (what is true and not my feelings) that God accepted Christ's sacrifice and I am perfected. And I am being sanctified....it's a process.

Ending with the last verse of today's Psalm, (108:13) "With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes."

Man, it's all about God, isn't it??

Katherine K. Davis

I was reminded of K.K.Davis, an old friend of ours, this morning when a friend from Scotland wrote to ask how she could get a copy of a song we sang together. Well, KK Davis is sort of a friend. When we were in high school our girls' septet sang several classical music pieces arranged by her for three women's parts. We had a lot of fun with it. The Green Hills Book became a staple at school reunions and family get-togethers. I bought one and continued to sing those arrangements with my five sisters. We even made a very informal recording of some of them! Then when I moved to Scotland I took the book and some of us women sang an arrangement of Psalm 23 called "The King of Love". It is an arrangement of an Irish tune. The book doesn't give me any more information than that, so if one of you friends or family can tell me the name of the tune, friends in Scotland want to sing it again!

I would love to sing some of these songs with women again. We just have to find the right women who sing the right parts. When we sang these in high school and with my sisters, I never guessed how precious those musical times were.

If you want to know more about her, here is the link.
She died in 1980.
Back to housecleaning....thanks for the break, Mairead! *smile*!

Great ideas from friends.

I've gotten the idea for this post and the links for the last post from friends' posts. Boy is it nice to stay connected! I learn so many cool things! This is from my friend from the Heartland. This is from the movie Les Choristes. We've seen it twice and it's fantastic! These boys sing like angels! Go to "Notes from the Heartland" for the movie trailer. And then go check out the movie. You will cry from the beauty of both music and story. Caveat, if you're watching with your kids. Some vulgarity, like one scene and some violence. It's PG-13.

Montana Cougars

The homeschool volleyball tournament was here in Omaha this weekend. I wouldn't have paid much attention to it if it hadn't been for my old high school friend, Al, and his daughter Victoria who arrived here late Wednesday evening with their team from Montana. Our local news station even covered the event. It was fun to watch these fired-up girls play ball. They ended up in second place in their division, an excellent feat since they had never come to the national tournament before AND had the added disadvantage of playing together only for an hour and a half before coming! Their team was a combination of the Bozeman and the Billings homeschool volleyball teams. Our family enjoyed catching up with Al and Victoria as well as getting to meet some of their friends. We had a relaxing evening of visiting and eating at China Buffet on Thursday night. Although our visit was short and sporadic, mostly late at night, it was good to have an old friend in our home. And this friendship goes back nearly 40 years....if you can believe that!!! The Eagles new album came out on Thursday, so our visit will be remembered every time we listen to that music. Wow, they have fantastic harmony. And Al can do it too! *smile*

Return to Capitol Steps

Here's the link to the "American Pie" song on globalization, mostly about China. It IS funny!

Green and Gold. Good smells. Home smells.

Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? I subbed today in Bellevue. It was one of those "need a warm body" days in a resource room. (Do we wonder why the public school system needs so much money??) This is the same class where I subbed a few years ago and read, O Pioneers all day. That day I got the book finished. Maybe I was a little more diligent than today. But today I got just over half-way through A Swiftly Tilting Planet. For some reason, I'm in to Madeleine L'Engle lately. I was hoping it was on Linnea's shelf when I got home, but alas, I'll have to go get it from the library. The title of the blog entry is a line from that book. I thought it described me and my house. Andrew thinks I paint everything green and yellow. Well..... And I used to write letters to friends in the summer and talk about Iowa's green and golden evenings...ah. Green and golden. Good smells. Home smells.