Thoughts to begin a new day. Deut. 4: 2 "For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? (v. 29) you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. (v 35) To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. (v. 39) Know...that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other."
Pretty clear who's in control, huh? Great way to focus my thoughts for today. Off to public school, where to them, God is not "God in heaven above or on earth beneath". Sad. I'm glad for the scriptures and the grace of God that helps me to remember Who is Truth! Have a great day!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
The ark of the covenant
Yes, I know it looks like a cedar chest. It is, and a very old one. But I call it the "ark of the covenant." My grandmother, my dad's mom, got it from her parents when she got married way back around 1921 or so. She told me years ago that as a young mother she knelt and prayed at this cedar chest until she found her peace with God. To this day, it reminds me of the blessing of the covenant family. I relish those promises. I kneel here at times and pray for my children. I know there is no special "power", but I like to think that special power is God's promise to be a God to me and my children. That's a pretty powerful promise! I hope you're praying for God to fulfill His promise to you and your children, too!
God's arms
Last week I was writing a note to local friends whose son is on his third deployment to Iraq. This verse came to me, and it is so encouraging. I think I am going to post it on my refrigerator door. Such peace and security!
"The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Deuteronomy 33:27
"The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Deuteronomy 33:27
Friday, March 21, 2008
The Sun across the wall
I was going to write yesterday, and it was the observation of the Sun and the first day of spring that inspired me. However, you see THAT didn't happen. And today there's no sunshine. Well, as in streaming across the floor and up the wall. It IS daylight!!! Gloomy, though.
I love noticing how the Sun moves across the wall as the seasons change. Yesterday being the first day of spring, it came straight into the east window and shone brightly on the west wall. Right on the happy hibiscus bush, which is getting a bud by the way. In midwinter in shines way in the northwest corner of the room when it rises. I'm glad I live where the sunshine can come into the house and it's not blocked by buildings! Another harbinger of spring, the robin, has arrived. I saw my first ones on March 8th. The next day as I walked along the bike path I saw nine of them in the field. I love the way they sound. I left the sliding door slightly ajar the other morning during my devotions so I could listen to their chirping. I'm hearing red-winged blackbirds, too, but I couldn't see where it was. They have a lovely chirp, too. The SOUNDS of spring are just as uplifting as the WARMTH of spring. Now I just need to get some energy....
I love noticing how the Sun moves across the wall as the seasons change. Yesterday being the first day of spring, it came straight into the east window and shone brightly on the west wall. Right on the happy hibiscus bush, which is getting a bud by the way. In midwinter in shines way in the northwest corner of the room when it rises. I'm glad I live where the sunshine can come into the house and it's not blocked by buildings! Another harbinger of spring, the robin, has arrived. I saw my first ones on March 8th. The next day as I walked along the bike path I saw nine of them in the field. I love the way they sound. I left the sliding door slightly ajar the other morning during my devotions so I could listen to their chirping. I'm hearing red-winged blackbirds, too, but I couldn't see where it was. They have a lovely chirp, too. The SOUNDS of spring are just as uplifting as the WARMTH of spring. Now I just need to get some energy....
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
He's reading my blog!
Obama in his live speech this morning is reading the part of Dreams of My Father that I wrote about in my blog the other day! Cool! I knew it was a great part of that book.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Wedding Feast
Perry and Kelsey's wedding was beautiful. What a celebration. The music was great; the service was inspiring. Weddings are good for old married couples, too. They sort of recharge our batteries. Committed once again to love and to cherish till death do us part!
Go here for the slide show. It will take you to Flickr and then click on "slide show".
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Let the feast begin!
This is the weekend we've been counting down to, Perry and Kelsey's wedding. Perry is the "farmer boy" in those early photos I took on the combine. He feels like one of our kids even though we have known him only about five years. What a
comfortable person to be with! And his bride is just as sweet, although maybe more fiesty! *smile* And a lovely soprano with whom I LOVE to sing!I have the privilege of singing with a group of their friends and relatives during the wedding. Boy, I feel like I'm in the big league now. They are a bunch of very talented people! The two
songs we're singing alone-and a capella-are the Gloria Patri and Be Still My Soul.Last night we enjoyed the relaxed rehearsal dinner at Lake Manawa in Council Bluffs. It was fun to meet Perry's family and to catch up with
f
riends that we don't seem to sit down and talk to much, as well as get to know new people. I looked around and thought some people looked familiar, but then I thought maybe I just saw them at Ellen's wedding.We look forward to the big celebration today! Weddings are so fun!!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Relativism, the new virtue
I've been reading Boom! by Tom Brokaw. It is mainly a series of interviews that he does with several people from the Sixties. Some are very liberal, some are conservative. Some say the Sixties were great and we made progress, some recognize the beginning of a crumbling culture.
Shelby Steele, an African-American from the Midwest who went to Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (yeah!), is one of the critics. He says on p. 325, "Relativism became a virtue, and that's when the culture war began." Tom Brokaw describes Steele as one who, "has established himself as one of American's leading black critics of what he describes as the vacuum of moral authority generated by white ambivalence on race. That ambivalence....has led to what Steele describes as a cancer of moral relativism."
It's been interesting to read about other cultural conservatives who are not part of my "group" who feel the same way I do about the cultural decline. Another interesting person is Dorothy Rabinowitz who works for The Wall Street Journal. When he asks her about the Sixties she responds:
For an intellectual, the Sixties were the end of all standards, all history. The most infuriating part of it was the denigration of all that came before.
It was the seed of a culture of no authority.
Before the Sixties, parents had respect.
I had to listen to so much foolishness about women. I don't remember little girls being too intimidated in class to raise their hands. (p.503)
The rest of her interview is very interesting, too. Of course, there are many with differing views, but I think she hits the nail on the head.
I'm working half day today and all the rest of the week. Big wedding this weekend!! So it's a busy week.
Shelby Steele, an African-American from the Midwest who went to Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (yeah!), is one of the critics. He says on p. 325, "Relativism became a virtue, and that's when the culture war began." Tom Brokaw describes Steele as one who, "has established himself as one of American's leading black critics of what he describes as the vacuum of moral authority generated by white ambivalence on race. That ambivalence....has led to what Steele describes as a cancer of moral relativism."
It's been interesting to read about other cultural conservatives who are not part of my "group" who feel the same way I do about the cultural decline. Another interesting person is Dorothy Rabinowitz who works for The Wall Street Journal. When he asks her about the Sixties she responds:
For an intellectual, the Sixties were the end of all standards, all history. The most infuriating part of it was the denigration of all that came before.
It was the seed of a culture of no authority.
Before the Sixties, parents had respect.
I had to listen to so much foolishness about women. I don't remember little girls being too intimidated in class to raise their hands. (p.503)
The rest of her interview is very interesting, too. Of course, there are many with differing views, but I think she hits the nail on the head.
I'm working half day today and all the rest of the week. Big wedding this weekend!! So it's a busy week.
Patches
Last night after dinner-ah, in all that daylight!- I finally got down to fixing Andrew's jeans. He does not want to go out and buy new work jeans, so I patch and patch. First it was patches around the corner tabs of the back pockets. They get pulled and eventually they pull off the back. So I've patched those. Last night I had to zigzap all over those patches. Then I had to sew up the back bottom of the legs. They rip up once the seam in worn off by dragging on the ground. Finally, and this was the worst/hardest, I had to sew a patch over the knees. Now, someone tell me how this is possible. The pants are worn nearly paper thin and have torn already on one knee. But how do I get inside there without sewing the leg shut? So I stuffed the pant leg under the sewing needle and can do fairly well going from side to side since my machine can fit a pant leg under there, but how do I go up and down? I managed to get it, but I must've worked on that patch for an hour. Whew. The other leg I found some iron on stuff and just put that on. It doesn't last long at all, but it saved some blood (poked fingers), sweat and tears!
Really, this kid just needs to go shopping!
Really, this kid just needs to go shopping!
Friday, March 7, 2008
More biting cold
I know, blogging about the weather isn't too original, but I couldn't think of a clever title. Winter does have a grip on NE that won't let go and we're all getting pretty tired of it. It was 0 degrees F this morning with a half inch of fresh snow on the ground. You'd think it was January. It's always winter and never Christmas. Sometimes I think Christmas needs to come sometime around mid-February. That's about the time when we really need a holiday!
I feel like I've been very brain sluggish lately. I read and think about interesting stuff, but I make stupid mistakes or forget important things. Like paying the gas bill (forgot) and not adding up income tax correctly and sending it in (stupid mistakes). The income tax was Will's and I didn't catch the mistake until we sat down to do the state one. Now we have to figure out what to do. It won't make a difference to the end result, but it will look like we're really stupid. sigh. I attribute my deadness (a) the long winter (b) the cold (c)lack of exercise, a result of the long, cold winter. I keep dreaming about being back in Italy. I think I get "homesick" every March!
I should have gone to the commissary after school yesterday. It was a lovely 40 degrees and no wind, but I thought Will might want company or the car. So I went in the freezing cold this morning. Thankfully, I didn't have to haul them in alone, and we didn't have to leave the doors open too long. The north wind was blowing, too, to make it worse. However, I DID take a good walk yesterday afternoon giving me energy and a more cheerful disposition.
I'm thinking about walking the half-marathon when Den runs the whole thing next fall. Running sounds awful, but walking 13 miles might be rather fun. Now I just need a friend who would do it with me, and it could be a blast. I read about sisters training from different parts of the country and then calling each other.
A quick family note since I've talked so much about this, I don't want to make an issue of it, and several people know already, Andrew broke up with his girlfriend. I was surprised and sad, but it will be OK.
I feel like I've been very brain sluggish lately. I read and think about interesting stuff, but I make stupid mistakes or forget important things. Like paying the gas bill (forgot) and not adding up income tax correctly and sending it in (stupid mistakes). The income tax was Will's and I didn't catch the mistake until we sat down to do the state one. Now we have to figure out what to do. It won't make a difference to the end result, but it will look like we're really stupid. sigh. I attribute my deadness (a) the long winter (b) the cold (c)lack of exercise, a result of the long, cold winter. I keep dreaming about being back in Italy. I think I get "homesick" every March!
I should have gone to the commissary after school yesterday. It was a lovely 40 degrees and no wind, but I thought Will might want company or the car. So I went in the freezing cold this morning. Thankfully, I didn't have to haul them in alone, and we didn't have to leave the doors open too long. The north wind was blowing, too, to make it worse. However, I DID take a good walk yesterday afternoon giving me energy and a more cheerful disposition.
I'm thinking about walking the half-marathon when Den runs the whole thing next fall. Running sounds awful, but walking 13 miles might be rather fun. Now I just need a friend who would do it with me, and it could be a blast. I read about sisters training from different parts of the country and then calling each other.
A quick family note since I've talked so much about this, I don't want to make an issue of it, and several people know already, Andrew broke up with his girlfriend. I was surprised and sad, but it will be OK.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Winter blooms
Well, if winter is going to last six months this year, it's nice to have some cheery flowers here in the house! When I watered the poinsettia yesterday, there were these lovely little red flowers! I threw this out last summer, but when we got a ton of rain, they flourished in the heap, so I brought them back in. They're tucked in with the rosemary bush by the south window. And I never knew that this ivy bloomed! I had to hold it toward the camera to get the color right. Now I need to figure ou
t how to take flower photos with the right setting!
Primary night
This is about as exciting as it got. Pretty bad, huh? James and Arliss came over, that was the best part. Such energy here. I haven't seen Will yet today, but I'm sure he wasn't feeling too great by the time it was all over. We were hoping it would all be over last night. Ach, anyone but Hillary....
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Dad, will you wrestle with me?
Well, things have changed slightly since THOSE days. About 15 years ago. Will asked Andrew, "Are you still working out?" Response, "Yeah, I benched 310 last week." Response, "Well, if you weren't I'd go after ya. Hey, Dad, let's get him." This is what ensued. For about 2 minutes. Then Dad says, "Help, I'm too old for this!!!!"When the boys were little, after dinner they would run around and around the house. In Italy we could go out doors from every room and get to the balcony. So they could run ALL OVER THE PLACE! I thought that that feeling, whatever it is, had gone once they became men. But from the looks of this photo....I'm not so sure. This was immediately after dinner.
And I will add, it was a delightful meal of good food and discussion. I think we were at the table for an hour and a half. We were cleaning up the kitchen at 8pm! Of course, we had to get the wrestling match over first.
Primary party tonight!
Saturday, March 1, 2008
The ding-y microwave
After telling Chuck this story today, he thought I should blog about it. Here's the story:
That's not dingy, as in dirty, but ding-y, like ding, ding, ding. Yes, this microwave dings when it feels like it. Particularly, this thing does not like cold. And cold is below 65F. In the winter I turn the thermostat down at night to 60 or 61. Sometime in the night, it rebels and begins to ding. Sometimes once or twice, sometimes it sounds like an alarm clock. It can be very irritating if we're sleeping upstairs. Yet, Den has gotten up from our bedroom downstairs and come up and unplugged it because it was driving him nuts. It is crazy! It never does it when it's warm, though. Then in the morning I have to slide my fingers over all the numbers a few times (it must like a massage), then clear all the numbers before I can push the correct numbers. It's very frustrating if one doesn't know this trick. So Chuck thinks I need to give it a blankey and night.... Think that would work? If anyone has any clues as to why it does this, we'd really like to know!
That's not dingy, as in dirty, but ding-y, like ding, ding, ding. Yes, this microwave dings when it feels like it. Particularly, this thing does not like cold. And cold is below 65F. In the winter I turn the thermostat down at night to 60 or 61. Sometime in the night, it rebels and begins to ding. Sometimes once or twice, sometimes it sounds like an alarm clock. It can be very irritating if we're sleeping upstairs. Yet, Den has gotten up from our bedroom downstairs and come up and unplugged it because it was driving him nuts. It is crazy! It never does it when it's warm, though. Then in the morning I have to slide my fingers over all the numbers a few times (it must like a massage), then clear all the numbers before I can push the correct numbers. It's very frustrating if one doesn't know this trick. So Chuck thinks I need to give it a blankey and night.... Think that would work? If anyone has any clues as to why it does this, we'd really like to know!
Travel adventure
I never want to have an adventure when I travel. I want to get where I'm going when I plan and how I plan. I don't want any interruptions or surprises. Of course, it doesn't always work that way as you well know! But Will hasn't really had any major trauma in all his years of traveling,( well if you don't count walking around Bradford,(is that where it was?) England all night or spending a whole day getting to Scotland from there last Easter break....)
Last night was the CONUS (continental US) experience. He was scheduled to leave Chattanooga at 6:15. I had booked a flight that would fit getting through his Friday classes and still getting home "early" evening. I paid $30 extra to get the flight with a short layover in Chicago, so the trip would be smooth and short. THAT was the second mistake. The first one was to book it through O'Hare in the first place. Problems started in Chatta, though. He didn't leave there until 9-they sat on the plane the whole time waiting! About 9:30 CST he phoned from Chicago and said he made the connection because the plane that was supposed to leave Chicago at 8:30 wasn't leaving until 10:30. As it was, he didn't leave until after 11:30. BUT he phoned about 10:15 to say he was on the plane. We looked at the airport info, however, and it showed it coming in about 11:30. So because our lovely friends, Chuck and Judy were staying here, Chuck and Dennis took off for the airport while Judy and I stayed cozy here at home. At about 12:15 Den called and said there was no record of any more flights coming in that night. Neither one of us (me on the computer) could see any coming in to Eppley. So he said he was coming home. Then I thought I'd try "flight tracker" AND THERE IT WAS 7 minutes from Omaha!! So I quick called him back. Then later he phoned and said he couldn't find Will and didn't know what gate or anything. So I got on United's website, typed in the flight number, AND IT GAVE ME THE GATE! So they found Will *smile* senza baggage, however. (Maybe it was too late for people to unload the planes??) They delivered it today. By 1:15 am, we had our Willy home! That late night gave me a headache all day. We're sooo thankful that Chuck and Judy were here, because if they hadn't been here, both of us would have gone to the airport, given up, and gone home, only to have Will call and wonder why we weren't there! So God was in the working of that motor home (sorry guys!) and kept our friends at our house for the night. Of course, I didn't tell them ahead of time that Will was coming, for fear they wouldn't stay. Travel adventures DO make for good stories, though! AND AREN'T WE THANKFUL FOR CELL PHONES?!!!!!!
Last night was the CONUS (continental US) experience. He was scheduled to leave Chattanooga at 6:15. I had booked a flight that would fit getting through his Friday classes and still getting home "early" evening. I paid $30 extra to get the flight with a short layover in Chicago, so the trip would be smooth and short. THAT was the second mistake. The first one was to book it through O'Hare in the first place. Problems started in Chatta, though. He didn't leave there until 9-they sat on the plane the whole time waiting! About 9:30 CST he phoned from Chicago and said he made the connection because the plane that was supposed to leave Chicago at 8:30 wasn't leaving until 10:30. As it was, he didn't leave until after 11:30. BUT he phoned about 10:15 to say he was on the plane. We looked at the airport info, however, and it showed it coming in about 11:30. So because our lovely friends, Chuck and Judy were staying here, Chuck and Dennis took off for the airport while Judy and I stayed cozy here at home. At about 12:15 Den called and said there was no record of any more flights coming in that night. Neither one of us (me on the computer) could see any coming in to Eppley. So he said he was coming home. Then I thought I'd try "flight tracker" AND THERE IT WAS 7 minutes from Omaha!! So I quick called him back. Then later he phoned and said he couldn't find Will and didn't know what gate or anything. So I got on United's website, typed in the flight number, AND IT GAVE ME THE GATE! So they found Will *smile* senza baggage, however. (Maybe it was too late for people to unload the planes??) They delivered it today. By 1:15 am, we had our Willy home! That late night gave me a headache all day. We're sooo thankful that Chuck and Judy were here, because if they hadn't been here, both of us would have gone to the airport, given up, and gone home, only to have Will call and wonder why we weren't there! So God was in the working of that motor home (sorry guys!) and kept our friends at our house for the night. Of course, I didn't tell them ahead of time that Will was coming, for fear they wouldn't stay. Travel adventures DO make for good stories, though! AND AREN'T WE THANKFUL FOR CELL PHONES?!!!!!!
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