A New Post!

WOW, I have not posted anything here since April????? That's pathetic. I'm not sure why I am finding it hard to do so. I wish I had a knack for writing like some of my friends and family members do. My thoughts zoom through my head quickly and the words don't get down. You are expected to read alot between the lines and that's when I am many times misunderstood. Just know that I love you guys and I am happy and busy and that God is good all the time!

PONYTAIL

It's my ponytail. It's small, ok? and I'm squinting in the sun. and blowing in the wind. hmmmm................. looking a little off-center, too. Oh, well. still qualifies, right?

SPRING BREAK

February went by without a single post and here it is the middle of March already. The world is spinning very fast these days! It is spring break here in Iowa City. . . . a really big deal. No school for a whole week. So no work for me for a whole week. I will be going up to the Wilderness Lodge Tuesday until Thursday. Not crazy about water, but crazy about my grandkids, so it will be fun. Don is going to Arizona to see his parents. He so deserves a good trip. He has been working so hard and has battled with bronchitis lately. Hopefully it will be therapeutic. I look forward to some quiet time when I return, to art and then art some more! Hoping for a creative thought to pop into my head - any time now - praying - waiting.

Hope for Haiti

I'm trying to figure out for the life of me why medical supplies are not getting off the runway and out into where they are needed. Ridiculous. So there is waiting . . . . and longing . . . . and praying . . . . and suffering that we can only imagine the scope of. Haiti keeps tugging at my heart . . . . the orphans keep calling to me . . . . there are even more now. God, what would you have me do? Your word says we are to take care of the widows and orphans. Give me and my family a direction as we pray and pray and pray some more.

I love Oswald

January 13th.
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ALONE WITH GOD?
"When He was alone the twelve . . . asked of Him . . ." Mark 4:10
His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone by affliction, heartbreak, or temptation, by disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted affection, by a broken friendship, or by a new friendship - when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are dumbfounded, and cannot ask one question, then He begins to expound. Watch Jesus Christ's training of the twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were perplexed. They constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly expounded things to them; but they only understood after they had received the Holy Spirit (see John 14:26).
If you are going on with God, the only thing that is clear to you, and the only thing God intends to be clear, is the way He deals with your own soul. Your brother's sorrows and perplexities are an absolute confusion to you. We imagine we understand where the other person is, until God gives us a dose of the plague of our own hearts. There are whole tracts of stubbornness and ignorance to be revealed by the Holy Spirit in each one of us, and it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God's service, fussy ideas about our bodies? Jesus can expound nothing until we get through all the noisy questions of the head and are alone with Him.

More Snow

"OK, now it's getting ridiculous!" (see my face in previous post yesterday)

Our Place Today

Baby, it's cold outside and beautiful outside!

Christmas Awakenings

I woke up this morning with yet another "epiphany" (one of several this season) so I thought wow, I better get up and blog about these awakenings.
1) It must have been very dirty and smelly where Jesus was born, Joseph must have helped deliver him, and what was Mary able to pack and bring along on the back of a donkey to meet her and Jesus' personal needs? (just getting down to the details! and it must have been crude)
2)How is it that our 3 anchor pieces went together so quickly, smoothly, and look so darn wonderful??? Well, there have been people praying for us, that's how. No other explanation!
3)This family is going to save a black baby's life by adopting it into our clan. Not sure who. I am wondering how I got to be so old so fast, and I know it can't be me, but I could definitely "grandmother it". Don asked if I was prophesizing and I told him I don't know what to call it, but anyway, I feel God laying it on me.
4)The girl who plays the Griswald daughter in Christmas Vacation is the same person who plays the pregnant gal in Mixed Nuts. I put that together all by myself!!! Maybe it's not as deep as my other awakenings, but exciting all the same.
Merry Christmas Eve - hopefully off to have a special time with my kids and grandkids, slip sliding all the way, no doubt!

How Great is our God

I would be very surprised if anyone visits my blog anymore, since I have neglected to post anything for 2 months! geesh. I am up in the middle of the night - once again - so here I am. Dangerous, vulnerable, very irrational and blogging. Bad combination. I am still on a high from yesterday. What a day God blessed me with! From sleeping in to a sweet time with my hubby to spending time with my mom and listening to Emily and choir sing. Wrapping up the evening with dinner with the family. Oh, yes, and IM'ing with a dear friend Billie. I can hardly take it all in. The best was my mom sitting alongside me singing a Chris Tomlin song with me and crying with me and holding my hand. Never in a million years would I dream something so wonderful. How great is our God?! The lost years have been redeemed and now it's just overflowing.

This post is for Emily

These photos are for you, Emily. By the time you come to Iowa, it won't be like this anymore. I didn't know if everything stays green in Austin. The big maple tree in our yard is so pretty. So yellow. It's so warm and pretty out today - I wish it would last longer.
Our tree looks so yellow, but on the ground I am finding varigated colored leaves with orange and red in them. hmmmm. Proof that they blow in from all over this court and we get to rake them up!!! I love it now, but once they dry up, they're a nuisance!

Lily on Share Day

Wednesday was Lily's sharing day. Here she is showing Mrs. Fink her new puppy that she got for being brave and getting her flu shot. She is pinching the ear to make the dog bark. So darn cute!
Here she is doing the "Freeze Dance" with a scarf. The music really rocks and when it stops, the kids have to freeze in position. It's so fun to watch. (more fun to join in, believe me!)

This is the felt board where she got to dress the girl for the day. Notice she has a bandaid on her arm - probably just got her flu shot!!!

Lily's Story

Yesterday Lily told me that she went to a "FIESTA" and that candy fell down from the sky! I love it!

I had FUN today!

I think these photos speak for themselves!

Some recent photos

Love this photo so much - here it is again! She's one of our "lily"s - get it?


Here is Big Daddy Weave (well, one of the weavers) warming up and doing sound checks before the concert.

And here are some Big Daddy fans hanging out - looking good - taking in the action and sounds. Of course it's me, and my two nieces Carrie and Gretchen.

WARNING!!!

What we have here is a bruised, rugburned, swollen knee. What happened is I fell out of bed last night. Although the new memory foam mattress sleeps well, it can also be dangerous!!!

Isn't She lovely?!

Today Lily traveled down the path through our flower garden. She was searching for the striped catepillar, but we could not find it. Instead a lovely monach butterfly flitted all around her as she sat on the little bench and watched in wonder. Oh my heart. It was a very nice moment. I could not get the butterfly in the picture, but he was there, wasn't he, Lily?

Isn't she lovely?!

"God's not finished with me yet!"

Quint Reunion

We had our Quint reunion Saturday and here is my dad and his sister - my aunt Mutz. They were reminiscing about things they did as kids, so we moved them up to the head table and gave them microphones! We all wanted to hear stories of what their childhood was like. What a special time. Mutz is over 90 and dad is 84. They look alike - they talk alike - they're 2 of a kind. Dad had not been doing too great physically, but had started a new drug the day before and he made it through the reunion, staying much longer than expected and I think he had a good time. Thank you, Lord, for the blessing it was for all of us.
Left to right is my sister Cindy, me, my cousin Deanna, and a cousin's wife Marcia. I am apparently telling some appalling tale - just look at my face - and they're all looking at me with various expressions that are hard to interpret. Who knows?! Cracks me up now, that's for sure!

Was this after the "Deanna/Judy talent" game??? Maybe I was retelling about my lap in the relay race!!!!!!!!!! It must have been dreadful, whatever it was. ha But all in all the reunion was a good time.

It's a mini-ME!!!!

Isn't she a "doll"!? It's ME!!!! They say that's when you know you've made it, is when there is a doll of you. So . . . . I made a doll of me! How come I don't feel like I'm "there"??? hmmm....... the face is from the past of course - I was 18 and skinny - this body looks more like today's body. Someday my girls will fight over it, I'm sure!

TALK ABOUT LAME!!!

I'm right there with Emily on this one. My blog has been boring and posts have been few and far between. I remember (barely) saying how I was going to share my profound thoughts with you daily. ya, right. If only I had thoughts of any kind on a daily basis!!! hmmmm, surely I DO! Lots of them just shouldn't be put down. But I was thinking colorful thoughts yesterday when we were working on a big project for the preschool. We are using lots of colors and I got to thinking that we need more different colors - like what, I don't know - and then wondering if there are colors in heaven that we haven't even seen yet and what would those look like? warm or cool? or some temperature we don't even know about yet?! maybe hues we did not know could exist. If some of you out there think I have alot of paints now, just wait til then, I'm maybe going to need another carousel caddy thingy, Don!!!