Blogger sisters

Here are the three of us, now all bloggers. (We have three more who haven't joined us yet!) My sister on the right joined us yesterday; she's "What's for dinner?" What fun it will be to read her thoughts, see her photos and stay in touch with what's going on with her family. She's a wonderful woman! Has the sweetest husband and children, and I'm glad I'm going to be able to hear what she has to say. She lives in Delaware and her husband is a PCA church planter. Her children go to a classical school where Em works some. She is great with women's ministry. Other tidbits about this sister....I was her teacher for 5th and 6th grade during the first year and a half of which I still lived at home!!! She couldn't get away with much! She also went to CIU where I went and met her husband there just like I did. After graduation she taught at Ben Lippen while her husband went to seminary.

So I'm introducing my sister. Enjoy reading her blogs....she's enjoying reading yours. *smile*

"Put no confidence in princes..."

We are very much into politics in this house. It can be very, what shall I say, volatile? emotional? passionate? Anyway, I think in recent times, our country has become more and more dependant on the State. We think our problems can be solved by the State, that our comfort depends on the State, that any difficulty in our lives is the fault of the State. A pretty sad state of affairs! (pun intended!)

One of the advantages of growing up in a Christian home and going to church all the time is that the hymns I grew up with are all in my head. Sometimes the words come to me out of the blue. However, the title of this blog came from the hymn we sang just last Sunday. I love it when the words come back to me all through the week. This line comes from the third line of the first verse. The second verse continues the theme.

Put no confidence in princes, nor for help on man depend;
he shall die, to dust returning and his purposes shall end.

Happy is the man who chooses Israel's God to be his aid,
He is blessed, whose hope of blessing on the Lord his God is stayed.
Heaven and earth, the Lord created, seas and all that they contain,
he delivers from oppression, righteousness He will maintain.

Psalm 121:1 "My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's the card I woke up to this morning! How did they know??? The inside says, "Well, at least that's the way WE remember it!

Score!

Andrew had his 20th birthday on May 8th. We were all home (except Linnea) which, for Andrew's birthday, is amazing. While Andrew was growing up, the ship usually was underway or Den was TAD. When he was out of the Navy, he was on a business trip. Will missed about 3 while he was in college, so it was great to have us all there.
Also, we found a birthday present. Now that he's a working man and buying tools for his work as well as to work on his car, we figured he'd like a place to put them. He was pretty happy. Good choice, whew!

Graduation 2008

Here we are, another year, another graduation. Amazing to me how fast the time goes. Can he possibly be that old? Has he finished college already? Didn't we just do this for high school? We had a great time celebrating Will's achievement. Friday evening was a banquet for the seniors. We had assigned seats. The family we sat with was one Will had spent spring break with in St. Augustine a few years back. It was interesting to learn a little about them and hear some of what went on that spring break! Some of Will's friends were at the table, too. A faculty member gave a charge to the seniors at the end. Two things he reminded them of that I thought were great: God is sovereign and His love is steadfast. Great things to remember when faced with uncertainty after college graduation.

Graduation at Covenant has a Scottish flavor. They don't march in to "Pomp and Circumstance", they march in to bagpipes and drums. (Sorry I know those aren't parallel ideas, but you understand.) I don't know what the slow piece was that they marched in to, but they practically RUN out to "Scotland the Brave" after it's all over! I think it was cool that he could celebrate his Scottish "heritage" at his college graduation. (Notice Justin Richards in the background.)

After graduation we met up with our extended family and went to a Mexican Restaurant for lunch. We were going to go to Olive Garden, but everyone at Covenant must've decided the same thing. The wait for lunch was an hour and a half! We had to scout out several other restaurants in the area before finding a non-chain restaurant that had NO WAIT!

Den was getting a cold by the time the trip was ending so he decided to drive all the way back to Omaha on Sunday. We left Chattanooga at 7am and arrived home by 9:15pm. That includes time change and going via Iowa City instead of Kansas City. We figured it added about 70 miles.
Back to work tomorrow...only Will's going to do the teaching this time. :)

Home at last

I'm just writing a quick note to say we arrived home on Sunday evening. We drove straight through from Chattanooga via Iowa City to drop off a former Cono student who also goes to Covenant. It only added about an hour to the trip. What a gorgeous day to drive, too! Fantastic scenery, lovely mountains, fields, sky. Nice to get home to Andrew again. I'll write more later; I'm off to get groceries!

Got Georgia on my mind

Here we are enjoying lots of warm sunshine and extended family time. After days in the car, we finally arrived here on Tuesday about 4:30. Den and I got to visit with his mom for awhile before driving a few miles into the country to his sister's. We're staying out here in the middle of the southern forest. Pine trees all around. Stars are bright, birds are loud and things other than that are quiet. It's great. Very relaxing and peaceful.

We had a lovely Sunday at Sycamore with Mom and our friends there. The pastor was beginning a series on the history of reformation at Sycamore. Max Belz and Bill Calhoun figured significantly in this week's lesson. I was even mentioned as one of their first teachers. Nice Sunday to be there. It's always nice to catch up with friends there. Several of their church young people are at Covenant, too. Too bad Harvest doesn't push that school like it should!

Monday we drove to Liberty, Kentucky to Celeste's. We had several showers, but overall a lovely drive. Arrived there about 5 ready for a good dinner! We don't feel too hungry while we drive so Rachael's blood sugar gets a little low by the end of the trip.....need I say more. However, after a most wonderful lasagna dinner and lots of laughter, thanks to Denny, I was feeling lots better. We had a super evening talking and laughing. Mom can't handle Denny after awhile, so she went to bed. Well, she was probably exhausted after our nine hour drive, too! The Peterson family appreciates Den's humor, though. Tuesday morning I practically had to drag him out of there. As long as people laugh, he keeps the stories coming!!!

What a beautiful drive on Tuesday through the Smoky Mountains! Through Kentucky, Tennessee and down into central Georgia. We're just outside Vidalia.

Pictures coming once I get home and can upload them! We go up to Covenant tomorrow for the big celebration. Will just called to say he got an "A" on his SIP! Yippeee!