What's Good for the Hummers.....?

You've all hear the saying, "What's good for the goose, is good for the gander." Or more

commonly, we get in a place of, "If you can do it, so can I!" I've been thinking a lot about that lately in a reverse sort of way. Here's how it happened:

The boys were over for some yard work, because each of them is saving money for something special. I told them to come early, wear work clothes, and bring a change to go home in, in case they got wet. And, oh yes, they were to bring their bathing suits. All work and no fun......you know!

They climbed the slope, built steps by the fence so we could keep the morning glory from taking over absolutely everything, slid down the ground cover, got not only dirty, but green. At lunch I noticed that the hummingbird feeder was out of nectar, so I went outside to get it in preparation for filling it up.

My recipe is:

In a 2 cup measuring cup, fill it with 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar. Then fill to the 2 cup measure with water, add a drop of food coloring, place it in the feeder and hang it up. The hummingbirds love it and we have regular swarms. Sometimes all six spots on the feeder are busy. I have even begun to "talk" to them when I hang it up so they get used to me. I'm not sure they know what I'm doing, but it makes it more interesting for me.

Davis was watching as I slowly poured in the sugar. His eyes got bigger and bigger.

"That will have them bouncing off the walls!" he said.

I think I know where he might have heard that before. His mom watches the sugar intake of her boys carefully, and they are learning to know when they have had enough.

"But that's what they eat, Davis," I replied. "It's good for them." We all laughed, and I think even Davis caught the significance of what he had said.

I began to wonder how many times I judged someone for doing something that was not good for me but might be just fine for them. Doesn't the Word have a lot to say about our attitudes?!

In The Message, Romans 14 is listed as the chapter on Cultivating Good Relationships. "Forget about deciding what's right for each other. Here's what you need to be concerned about: that you don't get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. ...Don't eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love. Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others.

Continuing in chapter 15 - "May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we'll be a choir-not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"

I think I'll go sing with the hummingbirds.

Uncle Joe

It's 4:40 AM and I'm wide awake! As I laid in bed wondering why, I looked over at Don lying next to me and thanked God for one more day to love Don, and praise God together.

I looked at him with his silhouette barely visible against the light of his alarm clock (which he doesn't have to use very much anymore).

I listened to his breathing - barely audible - which usually is a roaring cacophony of wheezes, splurts, and sputters at this time in the morning.

I remembered that Uncle Joe died last week, and today would have been Joe and Dee's 53rd anniversary. That means ours is not far behind. Our wedding was the first thing they attended after coming home from their 2 week honeymoon. They were such good friends! I had known Dee since arriving in Whittier at the Brethren Church in 1945. That's a long time ago.

Since there were no boys at the church then, all of us girls had to go out and find husbands, -Joe and Dee met at Westmont - but when we all landed back in Whittier, we raised our kids like cousins. Five families - 20 kids. No one had less than 3. Beach days on Wednesday afternoons in the summer saw our cluster of kids playing in the sand, digging holes to jump in,romping in the waves,and later body surfing and skimboarding.

But Joe didn't swim. He watched. He dug. He ate. He carried things. He put up the windbreak so we could stay until long after dark and enjoy the firepit, and roast marshmallows. We hadn't heard of S'mores,yet. He was always there, and we loved the gentle giant. He was a big man, but gentle as they come. And he didn't say much. But we always listened when he spoke.

Then he got prostate cancer about 3 or 4 years ago. I can't remember exactly. But it was long after Don's diagnosis in 1989. He had surgery, just like Don. His PSA numbers began to climb, just like Don. Then we heard they were doing a bone scan, just like Don. Found a metastisis in his neck bones, just like Don. Had hormone therapy, just like Don. Then he took a turn for the worse a couple of Sundays ago, went to the hospital with a 911 call, and died last Thursday.

And I still have Don.

Only God knows why, but I thank him for each day!

Oh, sure I've been angry with him (Don, not God). We've been through a lot. But I'm beginning to know what the "to have and to hold" part of the wedding ceremony means, and what the "in sickness and in health" means. We've been doing sickness 20 years now. But I have yet to experience the "till death do us part."

And now Dee will be learning what that is all about. She will be in my prayers.

Regurarly.

I think I'll go back to bed and hold my husband of 53 (almost) years and thank God for this new day. Some of the best things in my life have come in small packages. Most gems do, you know.

It's time to try to get a little more sleep now. The sun's about to come up any time soon.

Single Digit Kid

We're down to only one single digit kid now, and it's going to last only one more year. Davis turned 9 on March 31 and I reminded him he had only one more year as a single digit kid. He's enjoyed his place as the youngest of the cousins, but I do think he's ready to be a double digit kid. Ethan will turn 11 next Thursday, so he's been at this double digit stuff awhile. Why do they want to grow up so fast? It's amazing how much faster the grandchildren grow up than their parents did. Maybe it's the daily thing, I don't know.

Anyway, when I was with the boys for lunch last Wednesday we got to talking about digits, and I asked if they thought we'd ever have any triple digit people in our family.

"Do you think I can live to be 100?" I asked.

"I think so," they both agreed.

"How old will you be when I turn 100? I'm 72 now."

In no time at all they added 28 to their ages, and gleefully came up with 37 and 39. Such smart boys - and always full of fun. I doubt that they will have time for lunch with their grandmother when they are 37 and 39. I wonder if Schlotsky's Deli will still be around. That's one of our traditions, you know. We have several.

I wonder if I'll still be around, or enjoying the presence of Jesus. Maybe we all will be. Their Dad used to think it would be such fun to go to heaven (when he was 3)because you would have your own lion and everything. Must have heard about the lion and the lamb thing in Sunday School. He said to me that day, "It's not a bad thing to die is it?" Oh, how I wondered if God was preparing me for something that day, and I just had to explain to him that being in the presence of Jesus is a wonderful thing, but the ones left behind miss the one who is gone so much.

"Maybe we could just hold hands and all go up together," he very seriously replied.

We all hung on that vision for a long time, and it's still one of our family's famous lines.

A long while later I asked him if he remembered wanting to go to heaven and he said, "I kind of want to grow up now."

Which he did, and now his sons are growing up. And, now, I'm trying to decide if I want to be a triple digit person. I'll take whatever God has in mind and thank Him for each day.

But I still think it would be fun to all hold hands and go up together. Maybe on Father's Day as we form a circle and hold hands around the chopping block to pray before our meal.

Oral History and Oreo Shakes

I guess you can take the teacher out of the classroom, but can you ever take the classroom out of the teacher?

Had a really unusual classroom a few months ago when Ethan, Davis, and Maddie were with us at the Jack-In-The-Box at the corner of Orangethorpe and Placentia Blvd. My motives were not totally pure, a little manipulative maybe, but than I love Oreo shakes, and I wanted to let my Grands know a little more about our family. We hopped in there, and not wanting to load them with too much sugar, we ordered one shake and three straws. And sat and talked about the family.



Not only was I teaching about the family history, - Don's grandmother, Mattie Judson, owned the property which was all orange groves - but I wanted to help them understand a little more about time.



Don's mother was born in 1900. Davis was born in 2000. That's 100 years. A century. I never knew Don's grandmother, but I want my Grands to rememeber me. So I sat there, feeling like a fulcrum, as I talked with the Grands about Grandma Judson, how she was widowed, but still a good business woman supporting herself and her small daughter, and watched the children drink a Cousin-Three-Straw-Oreo Shake.



I told them how Don's parents sold off the 9 and 1/2 acres for an automobile agency when they retired, and lived off the proceeds, but kept the corner piece for further development. I think Grandpa Earl was a good business man, too. He had a lot of foresight, but not enough to worry about oil prices, soil contamination and all of that. No one could have known all that.

So he first put a gas station on the corner.



Then 20 years later, we inherited the property, and had to deal with all the contamination from the old leaky tanks.



We dealt with:




The Environmental Protection Agency



The State Water Control Board



The Orange County Health Association



The City of Placentia



Finally, everything was in order, and the people at Foodmaker, Inc. (Jack-in-the-Box) said they were ready to build.



So now once a year, the city license comes, we take it down, give it to the manager, and sometimes get an "owner discount" on our lunch. We look at the area, think of it as orange trees, and no freeways, and the stress of what we went through hardly comes to mind.



I hope the Grands will take their children to "our" restaurant, and tell them about their family history. I'm so glad they won't have to go through all the horrors of cleanup, and maybe there will be a new favorite flavor of shakes by that time, too.



But I doubt it. I think Oreo Shakes are here to stay.

I wonder if they'll make their kids share?!

The Rock Concert

This is just unbelievable! I don't even like Rock music - most of it - and here I am in the middle of planning a Rock Concert! Here's how it happened:

Along the top of our latest newsletter about the school in Gorodishi, I wrote on a friend's letter, "Help me get the word out!" Got a telephone call within days of sending it.

"I know some Christian rock artists that have a real heart for Russian children. Let's do a benefit concert." It was Bob Noonan.

"Ooo-Kaaay," I responded slowly. "What do I do next? How do I get in touch with theses guys? What do we do first? A date? A venue?" I was full of questions.

"Let me call Darrell Mansfield and tell him to expect a call from you," Bob told me.

"Who?" I said. "Who's he?"

"You know. He's really big, and has won some Dove awards for his Christian recordings. If he can come, we really have a good deal on our hands."

Now, I trust Bob Noonan. He knows just about everybody. And he's just enough younger than we are to know a lot about the current Christian artists. But Don and I are not concert goers. We had never heard of Darrell Mansfield or Brian Duncan either. The last time we paid to go to a concert was before we were married when we went to the Greek Theater in Glendale to hear Harry Belafonte. (Remember, we couldn't go to movies?!) That was more than a half century ago, too.

I felt totally out of my element.

"Let's do it! Call me when you are able to reach Darrell, and I'll give him a call."

So he did, and I did, and we are - planning a Rock Concert, that is.

May 2, 2009, at Whittier Hills Baptist Church - 7 PM - all to benefit the school in Russia!

Who would ever have thought that God could use Rock Music to fund a project that we have felt was getting over our heads in terms of finances? God is not limited. Why should I worry, or fret? He is in control. And since this was never our idea in the first place, and we had never set out to have a Christian school in Russia, and did not feel we could raise the amount of money it was going to take to keep it growing like it is, we have just HAD to let go, and let God do His thing!

Unbelievable! Remarkable! Wonderful! Astounding!

Be sure to save the date! It's going to be good!

And I'm still shaking my head.

Date Night

Been thinking about our "Date Nights." When you've been married for 52 years, and dated two years before that, it adds up to a lot of Date Nights!
How they have progressed and changed. We've been through a lot of phases.

Dating before marriage usually consisted of dinner out, since I was not allowed to go to movies, and it was a top priority of mine to honor my parents. After all, that's the first commandment with a promise - "....that your days may be long on the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

(We were a King James family, too!)

Married, and on our honeymoon, I saw the first movie of my life. OKLAHOMA! It was great, and I was hooked.

Then Don went into the service, and one of his patients was the ticket taker at the movies. He let us in free, and in those days at the PX theater it was only twenty-five cents anyway. But one of the objections to movies that I heard all my life was that we were supporting a lifestyle that was anything but godly. So with a free movie, I didn't think I was supporting anything. Boy, how I wish my parents had taught me to make choices in entertainment. This was before the days of ratings, and even that can be deceiving.

Date night became dinner out and a free movie!

Once out of the service and with a young family, we began having date nights in the evening with a babysitter. This was the '50's and early '60's. It was always great to get away for a while, but we usually spent dinner talking about the children. I loved to tell Don all the warm and funny things they had done.

Date night was dinner out, a movie, and a babysitter!

Then we gave up date night for a long time (at least it seemed like it to me) because the children were growing older and we "wouldn't have them with us forever." Used the same excuse for vacations. "They'll probably not want to come with us when they get in high school, so we'd better be sure to have a nice family vacation now!" They still come with us now and then, and the last time we were all together on vacation was in Oceanside with 4 condo timeshare units. It was a great time to remember.

Date night was everybody all together, eight adults, eight grands. This stage was rare.

After that, we began to be too tired to go in the evenings anymore.

Date night became lunch and a matinee.

Now, with Don on a 24/7 oxygen tube, and even less energy and more pain we have entered into another phase. We've joined Netflix, and have a ton of choices at our fingertips. We love the historical fiction movies and have watched a wonderful series on the establishment of the Israeli nation. As soon as we return one DVD, another comes! Our queue stays about 20 ahead, so there are a lot of dates out there. The big flat screen TV in the bedroom is great for viewing and one of the few pleasures Don still has.

Date night is Take Out and a Netflix movie.

How thankful I am that I have a date! Phil. 4:11 has become a reality, and I am resting in it, and content in this state. It may not be the last, so I had better learn the concept well. What blessings we have - each other, and breath with which to Praise God - each day!

Singing your string

Been trying to teach my grandsons to sing in parts. I thought everyone could do it since it always seemed to come easy for me. Funny how that works. If you can do it you think everyone else must surely be able to do it, too. Not so. Especially in this singing thing.

When I got married I found out that some people can not even carry a tune, let alone hold their own parts while you sing the harmony. Oh, well. How tolerant and understanding we get as we grow older!

Every week, I take the boys out to lunch just to give Mom a break from homeschooling. The car is a wonderful place to have their complete attention. Like a cocoon.

We started out whistling in the car to a CD piano rendition of "The Rose." The piano held the tune steady, and the boys and I would whistle a third above in harmony, and the entire car would be filled with music. What fun! I looked up the words to the song on the internet, and decided we wouldn't need to sing, just whistle.

This week, I wanted to go the next step and start singing in parts. In my training as an elementary teacher, we had a segment on music in the classroom. Way back 50 years ago, the method was to learn a melody, then sing it as a round, graduating to 3 parts. I thought we could do that. The boys are very quick, and very musical. Later the harmonizing would come.

We (I) chose "Row, row, row your boat." As soon as we got home, I asked Ethan to get his guitar, and play it for us. He was all in to chord progressions, and wanted to get really fancy, but with rounds, you can't do that. It's all the same chord throughout the whole song. Next, Ethan sang it by himself, while Davis and I came in on the second part. That worked nicely, too.

Then the real test came when I dropped in to the third part and we were each singing our own part, and holding our own pretty well, if I do say so myself!

Now we wanted to get a little creative at the end when we all ended up singing "Life is but a DREAM." So we slowed it down, modulated up, with great pomp and circumstance, and held out "DREAM" as long and as loud as we could. The only trouble was, we tended to drift together.

"Sing your string, guys!" I told them. Ethan plucked out each string of the chord, and one by one we sang our string until we had a beautiful chord. We were singing our string. It worked! We did it with gusto! And tremelo! And lots of volume.

Then Kathleen came home, and we had to show her what we had been working on all afternoon. She thought we were pretty good, too, I think. And we sure did have a lot of fun singing our string!

Next step, two different melodies in counterpoint. Who knows where this will end? Sometimes the most fun is in the process.

A New Low

Today we reached a new low! Couldn't believe it! Don was asked to produce a picture ID for some business he had to attend to, and he didn't have any. I quickly called the writer of the letter - in Barbados, no less - and explained the situation to her.

"He doesn't drive anymore since he's on such heavy pain medication," I said.
"The passport we have on file is expired. Does he have a new one?"
"No," I replied. "We don't travel anymore either because he is on oxygen 24/7."
"Well, does he have any picture ID?" she inquired.
"Only his COSTCO card," I answered.
"That will do. Just get it notarized and send us a copy."

I thought, "You've got to be kidding! Use his COSTCO card as his picture ID for this offshore business?" I guess they were just updating their records and noticed his had all expired.

So, off we went to the Notary, feeling a little silly. Now this is a man whose last passport had to have added pages because he had used up all the ones that come with a passport. He had visa entry stamps from Mongolia, Russia, China, war-torn Kosovo, Ukraine, Japan, Greece, Italy, India, Pakistan, and a few dozen other countries. Now he was suffering the humility of using his COSTCO card for photo ID!

Wow! Getting older can be quite humiliating at times. On the way home he told me he thought he would like to get a DMV identification card which may be a little more generally accepted. So we will jump on that right after our naps. Or maybe tomorrow. Or maybe next week.

The Phantom

It still hurts. Not much. Not often. But it hurts. And it's not even there! My brain tells me that the second toe on my left foot hurts, or sometimes that it itches a little. When people ask me how my toe is, I always want to say, "I don't know. I haven't seen it in awhile."

I know it's been amputated. I know it could have caused me a lot of problems. The Dr. said that sort of infection could go to the heart valves, and I agreed that it had to be taken care of. After all, I have 10 toes, and only one heart. Two-thirds of a toe to protect my heart --not a bad trade, right? Right!

The path report came back clear, but the bone had turned to butter. We don't know why or when. They call it osteolysis. I've heard of Butterfingers. It's one of my favorite candy bars. But Buttertoes? That will never make it as a candy bar. It just sounds so gross.

Phantom pain is something I had heard of, but never experienced (maybe because I've never had anything amputated before.) My brain hasn't gotten the message that the toe is not there anymore, so it still sends those pain sensations. I couldn 't help but think of Christ's message in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. He tells us that if our eye causes us to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. If our hand, even our right hand causes us to sin, cut it off and throw it away. That's pretty drastic in dealing with sin. But James 1:15 tells us that when sin is finished it brings forth death. So I guess it does require drastic measures.

Now, I'm wondering - when we deal with sin in our lives, is there "Phantom Pain" involved? Does it take a while for our brain to get the message that we don't do that anymore? When it's truly amputated from our lives, what is the residual pain, if any? Does it itch? What are the chances of it coming back? I know my toe won't grow back, so maybe that's why Jesus used the example of a part of our body. It's not supposed to grow back. We need to be done with it!

The image of standing before Christ in the final judgment completely naked with all my sin revealed used to trouble me until I realized that I will be clothed in the righteous robes of Christ. That's what God will see. My sin is separated from me as far as the east is from the west.

Most mothers count their baby's toes when they are born. Do you think He will count my toes when I am born into eternal life? I think I will have them all, then! Until then, 9 1/3 isn't bad. Could be worse!

Little Piggy Problems

This little piggy has a problem. No, it's not the little piggy that went to market, not the little piggy that had roast beef - the one in between. Yes, that one! The little piggy that stayed home. On my left foot. It's been sore for quite a long time, but it's always easy to put it out of my mind because it's such a little thing. I thought I must have broken it and it was taking a long time to heal. Who spends a lot of time thinking about their little piggy toes? Not me!

When it was time to see a podiatrist after my recent diagnosis of pre-diabetes, I told him I thought I had broken it a while back, and it was still sore.

"I'd like to get an X-ray of that toe," he said. We were off to the X-ray room. It only took a minute to look at it, and he said it looked like osteomyelitis in the second digit. When he showed it to me, I could see the darkening - meaning the bone was eaten away - and easily agreed to an MRI. Now, I've had a lot of those things, and they usually portend something rather serious. And I'm used to going in head first. Imagine how silly I felt going to the radiation center, and just putting my left foot in. I felt totally upside down!

That's what it was, all right. Osteomyelitis of the distal and probably middle phalanx of the second digit, accompanied by mild soft tissue edema.

"What's that?" I asked.

"The bone in your toe is infected, and if your immune system would ever be compromised, that infection could go to your heart valves. We need to do surgery to open it up, scrape, then flush out as much of the infection as we can. Then you will be on antibiotics for a while."

I was sick all over! My whole body could be compromised because of infection in one little toe! Never before had my one little toe been so significant to me.

How I was reminded that it's the same way the body of Christ is all knit together, and in I Cor. 12:26, it says, "And when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it." Each member of the body of Christ - each Christian - is extremely important, and is needful of all the care the rest of the body can give it.

While relating this development to another Dr. who watches over us well, he looked at me and said, "Are they going to amputate?" Of course I assumed he was teasing, and replied, "I've always said, when it came to surgery, that anything I have two of, or am through with, they can have. And I have ten of those!"

Found out he wasn't teasing! Bone infections are very difficult to get rid of, and sometimes if the infection is really bad, they do amputate! Oh, my. I kinda like my little piggy that stayed home. I think I'll give it a little more respect after this.

In the same chapter of I Cor. 12, verse 23 says, "Yes, we are especially glad to have some parts that seem rather odd!" I thought back to the time, when our daughter, Julie, was all focused on a toe, and said what an odd thing a toe all by itself would be. I think she was in Jr. High, and strange thoughts came and went on a regular basis. "Wouldn't it be wierd, Mom, if you just saw a toe all by itself on the sidewalk when you were walking uptown?" It is odd to contemplate a loose toe all by itself, removed from the body. Only Julie could come up with a vision like that! You always sort of think of toes as connected to a foot!

So Paul summed it all up in verse 27: "Now here is what I am tring to say: all of you together are the one body of Christ and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it."

Sorta made my little piggy that stayed home pretty significant! And I feel sort of significant being connected to you all who are in the body of Christ. May we take good care of each other.

Been Scrappin'

When I was reminded that it had been a month since I had posted anything, I couldn't believe it! Getting totally engrossed is what I am doing at the cost of everything else has always been such a problem for me.
I have been out in the yard up to my elbows in dirt until 5 minutes before we were to be somewhere for dinner. The computer is another place where I can get lost. And I hate to think of the time I allowed the water to run in the pool until it overflowed! Oh, my! I am becoming a best buddy of my kitchen timer.

But lately, I've been scrappin'. In 2005 I decided to do a Creative Memories book for each of my children with thoughts I could remember, pictures and souveniers saved in a box in the drawer in a fairly unused desk. That year all the slides (we have an entire closet given to slide trays from day 1 of our marriage) were viewed and placed in envelopes. One was for Lori, one was for Julie, and one was for Tim, and the last was for all three.

Monte's must have had a record month because it took a lot to redeem all those slides when they made prints of them. Then they sat. All through 2005. In 2006, I began to talk about it. Hang the surprise! In 2007, I finally began, of course, with our oldest child. The dining room was a mess all year, as I finally told the kids what I was doing, and just left all the mess out. Got Lori's book done about August, and started in with Julie's. That girl was so active I had to buy several sets of extra pages. Her book was so thick, the backing had to be glued in, and time was getting short. About October, I gave up trying to do all three. I would just finish those two books, and Tim would have to wait another year for his.

How I loved presenting the books to the girls! It brought back so many memories! I remember the smell of their little heads, as I rocked them to sleep, their little dimpled hands, and the many hours of singing "Oh, How I Love Jesus" at bedtime. I remember...... but I wrote all that in their books!

Now, I've started on Tim's book, and I confess, I can just get lost in the process. We are up to his first haircut, and the preschool years, and it's only July! So if I don't post regularly, you will know I'm working on a project that requires a lot of remembering, pondering, sorting, sticking and journaling. I'll let you know if I make it by Christmas. From the look of all the momentoes, it may take 2 whole books!

The Window Guy

Our "window guy" was here today. It's always such a treat to have clean windows, but the greater treat is to fellowship with Mark in the cracks of time that occur throughout the day. We have a lot of history (and a lot of windows), this window guy and us.

His favorite window story happened right after we had some skylights installed, and he was on the roof washing the top side. As he stepped over the edge of the roof, his ladder slipped into the pool and he was stranded with his legs dangling. Thank goodness for cell phones, AND a good memory! We got a frantic call from him saying he was on the roof, and needed our help to fish his ladder out of the pool so he could get down. He said today that our number is the only one he knows by heart so now I think he will never forget it.

Mark was in the same class with our oldest daughter in high school, we loaned him a car to drive his girlfriend to the senior prom, I helped him with his wedding so long ago at Grace Brethren, he has followed all our kids, and grandkids, as they have passed through life, he has shared the many and diverse "detours" on his life's journey including the death of a son in an automobile accident. Sometimes I think I follow him around just because I enjoy the conversation, and there's always a LOT of conversation with Mark!

Today was no different. We first got to talking about the Russian school. I told him the proposed budget figure for the next school year was really stretching our thinking AND our faith. But it has been such a God thing all the way along, and now we were just going to have to learn a little more about trust.

As he moved into the computer room, he noticed all my Red Hat stuff on a shelf, including a painting that Levi, our son-in-law, had painted for the cover of a book I had written, so convinced that it would be such a best seller in the Red Hat Society venue that we would be able to support the school. Didn't happen. Don and I had gifted some appreciated property into a small Foundation in hopes that the income from the gift would support the school. Didn't happen. We finally had to go into the principle and that's almost gone now. Little by little, we have come to realize that we need to depend on God and God alone.

Some amazing funding miracles have taken place over the years, as we saw God supply needs over and over again for the purchase of a two story, eleven-classroom building, and the rehab of that old building which used to indoctrinate children in Communism. Now it houses about 100 students for kindergarten, and grades 2 and 3, plus after school activities including computers, Bible, Christian Ethics, martial arts, and has really become a community center for after school activities. Don't know how long the Russian govenrment will allow us to continue.

Mark wanted to see my book, so as he looked at it, I explained that ALL the funds go directly to Russia, and I often sold the books for $15 at Red Hat Society functions. He said he didn't have $15, but would leave $20 if he could have a book. So I signed the book, and praised the Lord! Now the Window Guy has a part in what is happening in Gorodishi, Russia.

Right after lunch, Don needed to rest, and loves it when I read to him. We always start our reading with the Bible, so we lay on the bed as I read from the One Year Chronological Bible. Mark was doing the master bedroom about this time, and I told him he would just have to listen! That was fine with him.

During the reading we came to this passage: June 13, II Chronicles 20:15 ff

"This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid! Don't be discouraged by this mighty army [huge budget need], for the battle is not yours, but God's. [I looked over at Don and he was sound asleep by this time.] But you will not even need to fight. Take your positions; then STAND STILL and watch the LORD's victory. [Emphasis mine.] He is with you, O people of Judah and Jerusalem [and Whittier]. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out there tomorrow, for the LORD is with you!"

My job was done. Don was sleeping peacefully. I left the room quietly, very moved by what God was saying to me.

The window guy was doing the family room doors when I passed by, and I shared with him what had just happened. Little did I know something was happening at another level, too.

Mark said, as he touched my arm, "I could hardly leave the room without crying as I saw you two there reading scripture on the bed. That was really special and will stay with me a long time!" Then he told me that about 4 visits ago, seeing Don's decline, he had purposed in his heart to tell Don what his example had meant in his own life, and how he had been impacted by knowing Don.

Mark kept saying, "And that was 4 visits ago!" He may have been unsure if Don would be here on his next visit. We don't know how much time we have. Only God knows that. Neither one of us could believe it had been 19 years since we had been given 24 - 32 months. Didn't we all think Tim Russert would be around a lot longer?

So God is at work on many levels, not wasting anything - good or bad - that comeas into our lives. What He is teaching us today is that He is in control, and He not only is in the battle, it's His battle. We just need to take our positions, STAND STILL and watch the LORD's victory.

Sure takes the stress out of things, doesn't it! And I think I'll read that passage again to Don when he is awake!

Busted

Busted! I got busted - at church no less! When will I learn? Every time I think I have something really learned, or a truth really appropriated, I get busted.


All my life I've heard "Pride goes before a fall." Spiritual pride has always been a struggle for me, especially since I was raised in a very externals oriented church where we thought we had things down just the way God intended. There was nothing wrong about the practices and ordinances of our church, but in me, it allowed for a lot of spiritual pride in thinking we had things figured out just a little bit better than everyone else.

Well, my friend and I were talking the other day about how much alike we are. We like a lot of the same things, we think alike, and we've decided that we must be sisters, and are just now figuring that out! We've only been good friends for about a year and a half, but never have I felt so bonded so quickly to a friend who started out as a casual acquaintance. It was when she lost her husband that I reached out to her, and the rest is history.

Recently she mentioned that she was a little rebellious - not in a horrible way, just not a goody-two-shoes type of person. I was always a "good girl" having my rebellious spirit spanked out of me at an early age. Well, not all that early! So I told her that was probably one way we were a little different. BIG MISTAKE!

You all know the verses, Prov. 8:13, 11:2, 16:18, 29:23. After all, PRIDE -that was Satan's sin - the worst of all.

Sunday, I was running just a little late to church, but opted to try for a parking space in the lot. After a slow drive through the aisles and not finding anything, I looked at my watch to see if there was time to ride the shuttle. Nope. Too late.

Then I spotted a pretty good 1/2 space with slash marks right across from the kiosk, out of everybody's way, and whipped in there, unbuckled my seat belt, slammed the door, and as I turned back to lock the car with the remote, I saw it:

Big sign: Park only in marked spaces.

Now what do I do? I'm not rebellious, right? I like to keep the rules, right?
I turned around and kept walking. Hoped no one would see me getting into my car after church.

The message was so good I didn't really think about it much during the service, but afterward, on my way out, I remembered.

The closer I got to my car the more worried I became when I saw three strong, young, BIG guys standing right by my front fender underneath the sign.

I threw up my hands, picked up my pace, and called out to them, "I'm busted! I know it! I shouldn't have done it!"

"What are you talking about?" they answered in unison, as I pointed out the sign to them.

"Oh, we weren't paying any attention to that! We were just talking!" I don't think they even knew it was there.

Again I was reminded that God is not finished with me yet. He's in the business of conforming me to the image of His Son, and it's hard. He's got a big job on His hands. It seems as if whenever I think I have something to be proud about, God taps me on the shoulder, and reminds me that He is still working on me. My trust is that someday I shall be like Him for I shall see Him face to face. Until then I need to cooperate with Him when He gives me those taps. To think that He cares and does that, makes me very humble!

Mother's Day Memories

Mother's Day is not in the too distant past, and I just can't believe how lingering its impressions are for me this year. Now, I've been a mother for almost 49 years, and there have been some memorable celebrations. I'll never forget the first one. Our Lori was born in October, so by May she was already a few months old. This was in the days when all kinds of awards were given at church on Sunday morning. The oldest mother, the mother with the most children, the youngest mother, the newest mother, and whatever else they could think up. Some ladies got the same awards year after year, and I don't think churches do that anymore. At least our doesn't.

Well, I got the award for the youngest mother. The thing that made it so memorable to me was my sister's reaction.
"You, Jean? You were the youngest mother?"
"Yes," I answered feeling a little unworthy because I was 23 after all, and that wasn't all that young for a first time mom in those days.

Then I remember the first Mother's Day without my mother. It seemed so strange not to buy her a card or plan dinner for her, but the baton was passed to my children and since then there has always been a lovely invitation each Mother's Day.

This year was different. Don did not intend to go to church with me, because he had had a very difficult night, and needed to rest for the dinner at Julie's house. That was a priority. I got up, showered, quietly checked on him, and since he was so soundly asleep, I decided to slip out to go to second service.

I got to the car and started the engine, when I heard my name.

"Jean!"

I looked back by the door, and there was Don. Serious bed head, undershirt peeking out underneath his pajama tops, barefoot, leaning on the doorjamb for support!

"I just didn't want you to get away without a "Happy Mother's Day" from me."

So here was this dear man who made me a mother in the first place, shared the next 49 years with me welcoming 2 more children, our dear Julie and precious Tim, wanting me to start my day with a good wish from him! How dear is that!

I've always believed that the primary relationship in life is husband and wife, and here we are. All the kids have left home, the dog died, and we still have each other! Each day now, when we wake up, I say to Don, "We have another day to praise the Lord, and love each other!" We're better friends now than when we had all that "stuff" to do, places to go, and people to see. We even have time for coffee on the patio any day we want. But sometimes we still have to plan it, and make it a priority or something else creeps in.

God is good, life is good, this is a special time in our lives. It was a very Happy Mother's Day!

The Little Piggies

The other little piggy invited this little piggy out to breakfast today. If there is one thing I love more than going out to lunch with my friends, it's going out to breakfast with my husband! This was a follow up appointment day with my radiology oncologist. I hate the word oncology! It reminds me of a lot of really bad things - like the fact that I had breast cancer. The operative word here is HAD. I really feel like it is gone, but these follow up appointments remind me of that shadow on my health resume.

Anyway, when we woke up with another day to praise the Lord, and love each other, Don asked what was on the schedule today. I mentioned this appointment, and said we could have breakfast when I got back.

"I have a better idea," he said. "Why don't I go with you and then we could go out to breakfast afterward?"
He knows he can always entice me with breakfast. So we sat at Ruby's, got the off-duty employee discount without asking (Thank you, Erica, and Ryan) and chattered away the whole time.
I just love these "little piggy dates." He waited patiently in the car while I did my thing, but by the time we got home, he was totally spent, and will probably spend the rest of the day until late afternoon in bed.
Oh, well. I have a lot of yard work to do, and the memory of two little piggy's sitting at Ruby's will carry me through the day. (And maybe tomorrow!)

Like I said, these are our "Memories Days."

Life's Little Circles

Had lunch with a friend today. She's a new friend, and comes to town once a year from Washington to stay with her son and daughter-in-law. I've always enjoyed her when we see the 3 of them, and determined to have a one-on-one with her before she left to go back up north. Today was the day. The first 2 places we tried were closed on Monday (how dare they!) so we kept driving and talking.

She lives in the small rural town of Linden, and since I really don't know much about her, she began to tell me her "story." Soon the name of Collingridge came up. Now I have an Uncle Ned Collingridge who is the last of that generation on my mom's side of the family, since her last sister died in March. Aunt Genevieve had been in the Navy during WWII and I always remember how spiffy she looked in her uniform. It was a full military funeral complete with flag draped coffin and taps. Some of my cousins asked if I knew the whereabouts of any of Uncle Ned's kids. I didn't, but told them the last I had heard from Uncle Ned, he said his wife, Aunt Gingy went to sleep a year ago October one night, and woke up in heaven! He was shocked, but happy for her. My cousins did not know that, so we talked quite a bit about the Collingridge family.

Well, when my friend used the name, I told her I had an uncle named Ned Collingridge, who was married to my mom's sister. She about fainted. It seems he gave her away at her wedding 45+ years ago. She spoke so warmly about him. Amazing. I had just been talking about him with my cousins.

Dropped my friend off at home, stopped at the mailbox when I arrived at home, and could not believe it when there was a letter from Uncle Ned in the mail! He was responding to my Christmas letter, and apologized for being so remiss. He will be 90 in September, still drives his car, teaches and preaches all the time, and lives alone in a mobile home park. Next he told all about his family, all serving the Lord, and some on the mission field.

Lastly, he signed it with not only his name, but his e-mail address! I think I'll stop now and send him an e-mail to see if he remembers my friend from Washington. Probably does!

Such a nice little life circle today - I can't stand it.

This Little Piggy

Found a yellow sticky on my desk that wasn't anymore. Sticky, that is. It's been around so long, but I just can't bear to throw it away! We've been on borrowed time so long, but a lot of great things have happened since the Dr. said to go home and get your affairs in order. Knowing that the prognosis for metastasized prostate cancer is 24 - 32 months, we took him seriously. But that was in 1989, and this is 2008. Unbelievable!

Life can get very - daily, you know. And the days do flow together with sometimes not much to distinguish one from another.

One day I needed to go to the market and usually left a note somewhere so Don could know where I was and when I would be back. Grabbed the closest sticky pad and feeling a little impish left him a note that said:
"This little piggy went to market."
signed it with a big smiley heart.
All through Vons, I wondered if he would find my note. Would he respond? How would it make him feel? Sometimes a cheerful heart too early in the morning, when you are in pain (as he is a lot) it's not very funny.

I needn't have worried. I found his response on the sticky when I got home.
"This little piggy loves the other little piggy BIG TIME."

Now each day when we wake up we say we have another day to praise the Lord, and another day to love each other. Our days are already numbered, and only He knows what the number is. But I'll take all the sticky notes like that that I can get along the way!

Tea with Lucy

Since we are out of babies at our house, finding some more out there was a tremendous gift to me. Lucy, age 3, and her little brother, Charlie, age one, are my newest grandchild friends. This week, I got a call from Lucy's mom that Lucy wanted me to come to tea, and they were wearing hats. My red hats are always handy, so I was set. Lucy not only wore her hat, she also had on a tutu, pink plastic heels, and a sequined blouse from her dress up clothes that had been given her as a gift. I could tell the blouse was a little itchy, but Lucy was undeterred as she poured tea in our little tin cups. We had two kinds of sandwiches, (Thank you, Mommy) cookies, and small colored marshmallows. Lucy always has a lot to say, but her conversation was mostly about the cookies that day. She daintily ate and with each bite her "Yummm" increased in intensity. She punctuated her cookie eating with "Want some more tea?" and kept us nicely supplied. No coercion would get Lucy to try a sandwich though. Then abruptly, she got up and announced that she wanted to invite her dolly to tea. There was one more place at the table, with chair, cup and everything, and we all enjoyed having the dolly with us. Lucy thought she needed to eat the dolly's cookie, though.

I was reminded that we are all invited to the celebration of the Lamb, and we will have full rights to partake of the feast. No one will have to eat our share for us. I can hardly wait to see Jesus at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Until then, our bread and cup at communion will remind us of what He has done to purchase our redemption, and seat at the celebration, and help us look forward to the day when we see Him face to face. I wonder what kind of cookies we will have.

How did this happen?

I just don't know how this happened! Just a few clicks, and drop down menus, and they tell me I have a blog? Now I suppose I'll have to spend time writing things. Anyway, it was almost more than I could stand when the drop down menu had dozens of things to characterize my life, and none of them fit! Retired wasn't one of the options! Neither was Grandmother! At this stage of my life, I just hang around being a child of God. That wasn't on the list either! When I first resigned my job as Reading Specialist at Whittier Christian School, I worried about what I would say when someone asked, "What do you do?" Then I thought of a real clever answer (or so I thought).



I would tell everyone I was in Management! I manage to get up in the morning. I manage to go out to lunch with my friends. I manage to get to the mall now and then, and the rest of the time, I manage to give my husband a whole lot of trouble.



But nobody asked! And so, I still just hang around being a child of God.



The exterminator came to the door the other day. It was the day for his regular service, and Mike is a really nice guy. He always asks about "the Mister" because he knows he's on oxygen 24/7 and I sense that he really is concerned. But this day, I told him we were really concerned about our oldest daughter who is battling a chiari malformation which causes major headaches.



Mike used the Lord's name as an expletive, and since he brought Him up, I responded, that yes, that is exactly who we needed. So I camped on the name of Jesus Christ saying that I could hardly wait to see Him. I asked Mike if he knew where he would go at the end of his life, and we were off on a major discussion of whether our goodness counts, or if it is the blood of Jesus. Mike says he is a good person, and I have no doubt he is. But there is only one way - Jesus. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Mike listened politely, but soon had to get to work.



I can't report any miraculous conversion or anything, but if God is calling Mike, maybe our conversation was a little water on the soil of his heart to soften it toward the gospel.



God knows about Mike, and maybe just that little encounter is what is meant by just hanging around being a child of God.