WHY NOT!

I found this popcorn at Sam's Club, and since it contained his name, I bought it! I think he likes it! :)

A Celebration!

First things first! One my dearest friends came by to help us celebrate! Everybody was so excited to see her. She has known our famiily for over 37 years!

Keith,Albina, Sebastian and soon to be Jacoby came to help us celebrate also! It was so good to see them!!

Our son Joseph and his new bride Eden came to visit from Florida. We were so happy to see them and have a fun get together with 6 out of 8 of the kids, and grandkids were here (not pictured) also! I'm sad to see them go back home tomorrow but I know they will be back! Apparently there is this great deal with Frontier. Pay a certain amount then fly as much as you want for 6 months for around 16.00 a ticket. Sounds like a great deal for us to look into. I'm thrilled for Joseph and Eden and pray that the Lord blesses this marraige. I was so impressed with how much Joseph and Eden are alike. :) I'm blessed with a new daughter in law.

Trying to Learn Piano, AGAIN!

I took piano lessons when I was 6 years old by a sweet woman named Mrs. House. After 2 lessons she told my mother she couldn't teach me, because I wasn't following the notes. It was so simple to just hear it and repeat what she was doing. So, that was the end of lessons for me. I have always wanted to play and have picked things out over the years, but what I'd really like to do is start with beginning piano theory and actually learn to play correctly!

SOOOO! Today I started! I am on PRE book A. I'm learning to keep my fingers in the correct place and read the notes on the treble cleft and then on the base cleft. Both thumbs share the middle C. :) So, I was able to play "I want and Ice Cream Cone" and "Old McDonald had a farm"... and then I broke out into the "Doxology" and "Fly Me to the Moon."
I think there is still hope for a willing participant! I made my self stop and go back to reading those little notes. But I admit, "Fly me to the moon" was a lot more fun! :)

The Books Continue

I wrote about MOM, DAD and ME books in this post, and a few others. :)


Do you know that we STILL write in them? Our girls are married and on thier own, but every now and then a book will show up with a very sweet note. :)
I love it! What a keepsake they can pass down to the next generation after them!

Infinitely More: a book review

Back in 2012 I spoke at an adoption conference called "Together for Them". Alex Krutov was the key note speaker. He shared his very raw testimony of his life growing up in the Russian orphanage system and how Missionaries that he met, sharing the Love of a Savior, Jesus Christ, caused a huge change in his life. At the conference we got a chance to talk and we formed a friendship that has lasted many years.

Today, Alex is a husband, father and leader of an amazing ministry called "The Harbor", that works with aged out orphans. Alex and Amy and the boys stop here periodically when in town and we host them at our home. It is always such a pleasure to see them.

If you want to read a riviting book and testimony about God's grace through perilous times, this is the book for you! It is available for purchase on Amazon.
Alex and Amy's ministry is very active and dependent upon donations. This is their website. The Harbor

FRESH WATERS POURING OVER MY SOUL

I don't know why but today has been a day of brain fog, and feeling kind of meh... I don't have these days very often and busied myself with other things, like looking back at old memories and re reading some old posts. Doing that didn't really help. Then, it was obvious that I needed to refresh myself with scripture. I needed the pure milk of the word to overflow me. And THEN....
This happened!
I never just "open my bible and see where it will fall open". But I sat down and opened it, and it DID fall open to a very familiar passage that has washed over my soul many times. The first time was when I was 25 years old. I was in a very difficult situation and a few months before had given birth to my fourth son. Things in my home were terribly difficult. My then husband had walked away from Christ and embraced a life I had never dreamed could happen. But it did. My Dabba, his mother was a wonderful mother to me and a fellow sister in Christ. She brought to me my VERY FIRST study bible. It was an Open Bible, NKJ version which I loved. As I poured over the pages of this bible and learned about each of the books, the time it was written, how it relates to Christ, or prophecy, who wrote it, etc. ; I was drawn to the book of Isaiah. And then drawn to Isaiah 55.

This has become one of my favorite passages in scripture. I remember reading it and tears welling up as I read and knew it was speaking to me.

Here is the Passage: Isaiah chapter 55.


Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. YES, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to ME and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me, Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David.
Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. Surely you shall call a nation you do not know and nations who do not know you shall run to you. Because of the Lord your God, and the Holy one of Israel. For He has glorified you.
Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heaavens are highter than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down adn the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth adn make it bring forth the bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my WORD be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void; but it shall accomplish what I please adn it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

For you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace, the mountains and the hills shall break for into singing before you. And all the trees of the fields will clap their hands. Instead of the thron shall come up the cypress tree and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree. And it shall be to the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
So here I am, 68 years old being refreshed in my soul once again by the scripture that calls me to come, eat, rest and be satisfied in Christ alone.

The Natural Longing for Change: An Observation

I have been longing for it to rain. It has been over a month since we had any rain. It has been over 100 degrees for a long time. It cools down at night into the upper 80's and then comes the 100's. My desire is that it will rain and then that the temperatures will cool down. We are in the last few weeks of summer and then comes FALL!

Fall is one of my favorite times of year and I am always longing for it to arrive. It is so exciting to see the leaves change color and begin to drop to the ground.

After Fall arrives, then we desire snow. Sometimes our desires are fulfilled, sometimes not and we just get ice!

The fall and winter can cause us to LONG for the warmer days of Spring and Summer and we start all over again with the seasons!

I have been working on trying to embrace each season fully. When I am satisfied with the season I am in, I can be content in the heat as well as the cold! The same goes for the seasons of life. We have been through many seasons in our lives. Learning to embrace the season we are in is a lesson in trusting the ONE who created them all. From Birth to the End, God knows our days! Just as we can count on the sun to rise and the morning without question, we can count on the fact that our Heavenly Father placed it there and He is in control of all seasons, both in Nature and in the seasons of life.
As we learn to embrace where we are, there are many treasures to be found. The wisdom God gives us as we grow cannot be traded for earlier times. The rich blessings of being satisfied in Christ cannot be traded for our younger lives. It is often asked, "If you could do it over again, would you go back to high school, or being in college?, etc." The answer is NO!!
I love how Mike and I are growing old together with each other and in the Lord. I love our morning coffee and bible study and discussion that can go on uninterruped until he looks up and sees he is late for work. (in the back yard) :)
I love how our kids have grown up and while it is fun to reminisce, it is even more enjoyable to see them all embracing life, walking with Christ, and raising families.
This season is longer than the 4 three month seasons that divide our year up. This season can be long or short; that is up to God, but it is a season where we continue to learn and grow. It is a season of blossom and pruning. It is a cup of finely aged wine. It is a cup of reflection, but also a cup of joy. God created the seasons for us to experience and lift up praise to Him. The scripture says that the Trees of the field will clap their hands! He created our seasons in life to do the same. We clap with thankfulness and joy and we give praise to HIM, the author and creator of our faith.

Me as a young baby, a teen, and then as a new mom