A Week of Giving Thanks - Sunday

I am so blessed!
I have so much to be thankful for!

So, on this Thanksgiving week, I am going to write on this blog each day concentrating on one specific area that I am thankful for. Now, as you can tell from past posts, I don’t write weekly, much less daily! So this might be a challenge for me.

There are so many things that can distract us from being thankful. I’ve often heard the phrase “have an attitude of gratitude”. I tend to think that I’m not one who complains a lot – maybe I’m wrong, but this week I’m going to make sure that I’m one who is thankful a lot!
Here goes…

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all of your work….But He (God) rested on the seventh day.” Ex. 20:8,9,11

I am so thankful that in God’s infinite wisdom He set aside a day for us to rest and to worship with others. I love going to church on Sundays. That’s where most of my other family is, my brothers and sisters in Christ – people I serve with, teens I meet with weekly, friends who also are striving to live Godly lives in difficult times.
I love to stand in the back at the start of worship and just watch. I see my “family” as they greet each other with smiles and hugs. I see them as they introduce themselves to new friends. I hear them as they get updates on each other’s lives. I see “family” who love being there as much as I do.

I love to worship through music.
I love music and starting the service with it. Music has a way of drawing me into the presence of Almighty God unlike just the spoken word. There are times when I don’t sing. I close my eyes and let the words and music speak to my heart, allowing God’s Spirit move this clumsy believer from my self-centeredness to my awareness of my being a sinner, quiet before my God.
I’m thankful for our pastors and families and how they minister to this body of believers and beyond. I’m so thankful that we are a mission minded church and support many families around the world.
I’m so thankful for my friends who I get the privilege of serving alongside of in Youth Ministries. We are a group of like-minded people who love youth and love each other. We have fun serving God while working with the most amazing group of teens.

We are a group of sinners, saved by grace. Even as I write that, it sounds so simple, “saved by grace”.

I love the old hymn “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”

Grace, grace, God’s grace.
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
Grace, grace, God’s grace.
Grace that is greater than all our sin!


I am most thankful for my God!!

Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth? Psalm 47:1-2

Montana Moments

We recently flew to Montana to spend some time with Lauren, Josh and our only grandbaby, Ruth. It was so good to see them again. We hadn’t seen them since Zach & Christina’s wedding in July. We arrived late on a Wednesday night. We knew that they had about 8” of snow on the ground so we had packed our boots and winter gear.
We all went out hiking one of the afternoons and drove to Yellowstone National Park on another day. It was rather cold, but it was beautiful. We arrived at “Old Faithful” just minutes before it erupted. We were glad for that timing, because we really didn’t want to stand out in the cold for too long to see it.
But, most of all, we enjoyed just spending time together, getting to know little Ruth and see how much she’s grown in 3 months. We really didn’t have much planned so it was a relaxing time.
It is a joy to see Josh and Lauren in their roles as “mom & dad”. They are doing such a wonderful job and it is fun to watch them interact and play with Ruth. She is such a fun little girl. It didn’t take long for her to warm up to us, so we enjoyed being able to play with her as well.

Saturday night Seth & Cathy, from Yellowstone Alliance Adventures camp, came for pumpkin carving. Ruth was having a blast just playing with the seeds and pumpkin goo. Later, we got to know some more of their friends as several more came over for a game of Settlers of Catan. There were 10 of us around a table playing a double game.
I love getting to know who their friends are. And even though we were the “parents”, we felt very much a part of the group.

I knew that heading home would be difficult. I had my emotions under complete control – that is until I heard Ruth cry out as she was waking up Sunday morning. So much for my control! From then on tears were close at hand and there was that continual lump in the throat. You probably know what I’m talking about.
How did they do it years ago when there weren’t phones and computers with skype and e-mail?
When you didn’t know if you would ever see your family again?
I can understand why grandparents move to where their adult children live.

We love being a part of their lives and having them in ours. I love and cherish the time that we have together.

We are so blessed.

We are so thankful.

Fruit of the Vine

In September the wild grapes that grow on our west property line start to ripen and turn a dark purple. Some years there aren’t very many. But this year, apparently, was a good year for grapes.
One afternoon Dale picked 4, 5-gallon buckets of them. Then he spent many hours stripping the grapes off of the stems and into a bowl. I was helping with that for only a few of those hours. From there, they get cooked and mashed for a short time to open up the skins and let the juices out. Then they are strained through cloth, put into pitchers and refrigerated to let the sediment drop to the bottom. Then it is strained again. Now it is ready to be made into frozen grape jelly and juice.
A few days later after Dale picked more grapes, I canned wild grape jelly instead of freezing it. Canned jelly is easier than frozen to give to someone.

Dale is also trying grape wine for the first time. We’ll see how well that turns out.

Working with wild grapes is an awful lot of work. The grapes are quite small compared to regular grapes and also quite tart. It takes a lot of time to get them off the stems and have them ready to work with.
But, as with many things in life, it takes hard work and diligence to complete a project or see something through to the end.
Whether it’s cleaning the garage, canning jelly or salsa, or just struggling through life in my attempt to become more like my Maker, it is worth it.

I have a clean garage to enjoy each time I open up the door.

I have home-made canned goods to share.

I have a life that prayerfully reflects the image of my God whom I serve.

Things

The hands of the Amish auctioneer workers silently beckoned spectators to become involved in the bidding. Their eyes moved quickly across the crowd of people as they watched for interested bidders. “Yup!” they would yell and raise up their fist as someone nodded for their bid. The quick, rhythmic chant of the auctioneer continued as they tried to get the best price for the item that was being shown.
There were just over 300, mostly Amish made quilts, beautiful furniture sets and many craft items such as rag rugs, woven baskets and small wooden items to be auctioned off. For quite a bit of the day there were 3 auctioneers calling at one time at different parts of the property. It made for a day of auditory overload.

We got there early. We were there to unload some of our things for the consignment auction of tools, misc. furniture and collectibles. Dale also had brought a rocking chair to sell that he had made last winter.
We’ve done this a few times before. Get there early, unload our things to sell, put up our chairs under the tent where the quilts are sold, eat some of the delicious Amish doughnuts, and then enjoy the action. There were at least 1000 people there this time. It was the year of the buyer. Prices were down compared to other years. Beautiful quilts were going for around $150 - $250 on average. I only heard 2 that went for about $500. That’s low for the quilts.

I moved back and forth from the big tent where the quilts and furniture were to the little tent which just had the crafts and small quilted items, then outside where Dale was most of the day watching and waiting for our things to go up for auction.

We’ve now decided that it’s best if we’re not there to watch our items being sold. There are things that Dale thought we should have gotten more for. He thought about buying back a few things so that he could sell them somewhere else - glad he didn't. Then there were things that went for more than we thought that they would.

But, they are just things.
Our garage has become less crowded as we’ve gotten rid of things that we had duplicates of or just didn’t really need anymore. But, as we go through things, the thought enters the mind, “I might need that some day.”
But, they are just things and we have too many of them.
It was our day to get rid of things.
We only bought 2 hot pads and a wooden clamp, for all of $12.

Things have a tendency to hold us back. If we didn’t have all of our things, how much easier would it be to serve God in a different way, in a different place? I don’t believe that God ever intended us to have so much in the way of earthly possessions. Jesus and His disciples didn’t have much. Yes, that was a different time – different world. But, what they did have, they quickly let go of and “followed” Him. I would like to think that I could and would do the same thing. But, I know that it would be hard for me.

There’s a song out by Matthew West called “The Motions”.
I love the words.

“I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

I don’t want things to keep me just "going through the motions". I don’t want to be held back from what God wants in my life because I’m held captive by things that fill my house and my life.
I want God’s all consuming passion to fill me and move.
To help me see as He sees.
To take my eyes off of things and onto the people that He loves.

A New Season

This morning I sat on my screen porch swing clutching my warm cup of coffee. It was just over 50 degrees, so I also had a fleece blanket close at hand in case I needed it. I love this time of the day. I had just been for my last walk of the summer with my mom and was ready now for time with my Maker - Creator God. I was a little more contemplative today as this is the last weekday morning before going back to work tomorrow. So even though it was rather cool, I was determined to be out on the porch.
This is the seasonal change that I like the least. There are too many changes at this time of the year. I’m one who likes things to stay the same. Status quo - don’t rock the boat – that type of thing.
I opened my prayer notebook and read the prayer requests that I had written since the beginning of summer. I was overwhelmed as I reread all that had been on my heart the last 2 ½ months.

*A young girl’s complication from brain surgery
*An unborn child’s heartbreaking diagnosis
*The death of a dear friend’s dad
*The flooding of a friend’s basement and the loss of almost everything that was in it
*A cousin diagnosed with cancer
*Mom-in-law’s broken leg and surgery
*Job loss for some we know
*Another friend’s dad passing away
*Praying for God to be honored in all things
*The start of a new marriage
*Direction for those seeking God’s guidance
*A teen's life-changing choices
*Students who I’ve had the privilege of knowing and loving heading to college
*Changes for families that we know

But, there were also many “thanks” recorded.

*The celebration of Zach & Christina’s wedding
*Being in Holland, MI early to help with last minute details of the wedding
*Time with family all together
*Getting to know little Ruth - our granddaughter
*For a dear friend making all of the delicious food for the WI reception
*For “my girls” who helped serve that day
*For rain
*For sunshine
*For time with God
*For worshipping with others on a Sunday
*Healing physically in those we love
*For time camping with family

Dale and I have recently sat and talked about this new season. Not about it being Fall, but about our new “season”. We are officially empty nesters. Where do we go from here? What do we do now that we are at this point? In what direction do we sense God leading us? And how do we best accomplish what He lays on our hearts?
One of my requests from the summer was that we “not run aimlessly” but to be deliberate in how and where we serve.

None of us knows what the next season holds. But, my prayer will always be that in all things, God would be honored ~ in how I respond, in how I live, in how I serve the One who gave His all.

"I say, Governor!" *

Yes, but it was Governor Dodge this year for our camping outing with family. We, along with Mom & Dad and my brother, Terry and wife, Sandy spent 5 days at the state park. It had been quite a few years since we’d been there. The last time we were there the kids were all along and we had an uninvited guest during the night. We left a van window open and a 4 legged masked bandit got in and proceeded to open a bag of garbage that we were going to be taking out in the morning. Unfortunately the garbage had fish guts in it from a successful fishing outing. The van was a mess and later in the heat of the day it was also rather fragrant - in a not so nice way.
But, this year there were no visitors of that kind.
My brother, Kim and wife, Missy came 2 times for supper and bonfire. They live close by. Saturday we had supper at their house.
My niece, Eva and friend, Jason joined us for supper on Wednesday night.

None of them were masked and we didn’t have fish.

We each take turns making supper for the group. That is so nice. I only have to plan one supper.
The men golfed while we shopped on Thursday. The Land’s End store is headquartered nearby and they had their annual sale. Who knew?!? There were some great deals on their outlet prices.
We also hit a local winery. Well, we didn’t hit it, just drove up and walked in. It took us a while to find it winding through the hills.
After supper we usually played the game, Jocker. It’s a board game- sort of, with cards & pegs you move around. It’s Men vs. Women. We can get rather competitive. I do believe that the women ruled! ;)

It rained some of the time which limited Dale’s fishing. Actually he didn’t fish at all, hindered at first by the fact that he forgot his fly-rods. Oops!
Was it me that had taken them out of the truck a week before and didn’t put them with the rest of his fishing gear?
It wasn’t until he stopped at a bait shop and found rods that his hopes were again alive. But then it rained 2 inches during the night and the streams would have been too muddy for successful fishing.
So thankfully his fly-rod selection has not expanded – again.

The terrain is beautiful with many rolling hills. It’s called the Driftless Area. Apparently the glaciers weren’t that far south which meant they left no “drift” behind. (that’s the rocks, sand etc… they push along to fill in the valleys)
Mineral Point is one of the state’s oldest towns and is known for the mining of lead and zinc oxide.
It’s now home to many artists who you can observe creating in their shops. They also offer many different types of classes for people to take to learn a new craft.
There also was a great place where we enjoyed a pizza from a wood fired oven. The sculpture around the oven in the picture was created by one of the artists that we talked to who was originally from our area.












*From the Christmas Carol

Wedding Memories

Click on the small pictures underneath to go faster or to return to a different photo.

With This Ring...

I sat staring at the ring on Zach’s finger while Pastor Jon continued with the ceremony. In an instant I was back in the delivery room twenty-three years ago. Then it was as if someone pushed the fast forward button while the memories skipped through my mind. From a blond haired little boy with a quick smile to the brown haired young man staring into the eyes of his bride - I wondered, where has the time gone? When did I take such a long blink that I could possibly now be sitting in this little chapel at his wedding day?

It is a day of celebration as we watch them become man and wife. A day with family and friends new and old. A day of seeing the answer to prayers. It is a day of sunshine when rain was in the forecast. A day of smiles, pictures and great food.

And now, just finishing with the Wisconsin reception, I am again so aware of being blessed by those same things.

This is some of what Zach and Christina wrote in their wedding program.

“Our parents began praying for us far before we were born, and continue to pray for us today. Mom and Dad, we are eternally grateful for your endless support, encouragement, and advice. Words cannot express our love for you.

Each one of our family members and friends have played significant roles in the seasons of our lives. We are truly blessed by your presence here today and always. Thank you for celebrating with us; it wouldn’t be the same without you.

And finally, how deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure! It is His love that we desire to exemplify as we embark on our marriage adventure together. We pray that you see His patience, faithfulness, and selflessness through us. To God be the glory.
Thank you for being part of this truly incredible day.”






First 2 Photos by Nick DeMaster. Thanks for sharing, Nick.