All The Day Long

I started this letter early enough to send with our family pictures, which I had picked up from Costco the first week of December, but as I attempted to get it done in time to mail out before Christmas, it became obvious that it was not going to happen.  The envelopes were finally addressed two weeks after Christmas and pictures were mailed without the letter, which I decided would just become a blog post.... hopefully getting finished before the end of January. But February works, too.       December 19, 2019 I've been having a hard time figuring out how to recap our year... I was going to write The Letter on my flight home from Ontario last week, but I got lost on Memory Lane as I went through a year's worth of pictures on my phone to see what we did, and before I knew it I was in Eugene, Oregon! ... Now I'm sitting here at Beaver Sports Medicine, waiting for Justin to come out of surgery.  He hurt  his knee at a trampoline park ...

I was invited to share at a Mother Daughter Tea last Friday night.     It was a most lovely evening!   Beautiful and delicious appetizer centerpiece.    And such fun family guests!   Janae and Karise were so excited to have tea with sugar!     I did a "copy and paste" to share my notes here, but for some reason, the font size Will.Not.Change!!!My apologies, hopefully at some point it will get fixed!. Good evening to all of you beautiful ladies! It was after the choir program a couple weeks ago that I was asked to come share with you. My heart was full of song that night, and over the next day or two, as I thought about what to talk about, I thought about the words of MY song .... and the words of Your song.    We all know that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So doesn't it make sense that the words of our songs also become our heart focus?   S...

 I knew this big event required some kind of celebration, but what to do?  Neither of them really enjoy being the center of attention, but we had to have some kind of party!!   Brenda and Brian celebrating 60 years!  I thought about inviting all of their siblings and families, but since their birthday is in October, we could hardly take the party outside if the house got too full. If all the locals showed up it could be well over 50 people! But I did it anyway. We wanted a party after all! I sent out an email to all the siblings and told them to let their families know and we’d have fresh apple fritters and apple cider.     Party day arrived and before I even got out of bed I was tempted to think God had forgotten me. The pain, you know. And whatever was I thinking to invite so many people, I must be crazy! But then someone shared the verse from Psalm 31:24, "Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait on the Lord." An...

"I live by faith and not by sight Sometimes miracles take time." I didn’t even see it coming.... just walking out to the car after the game, when there I was, flat out on the pavement. I wasn’t watching my feet... I didn’t see the speed bump. And boy, did it ever hurt!!! My knees, my hands, my elbows, my chest, my lip, my nose, and ... my dignity?  I cried. What happened anyway?!!?? Besides the fact that I tripped over a speed bump and my weak triceps couldn't catch me, and a car sat there with its headlights on me, waiting until I got out of the way..... It was like reality hit me in the face again. The realization that I’m ... what, fragile maybe? (Oh no - I just looked up the definition of fragile, “easily broken, damaged or destroyed” - could that be me?!?!!)  I’m not sure what I would call it, but it’s not pleasant to think about.  It’s actually painful. It’s like I’m out there in the game, but something's not qui...

    Who are the weak? Who are the strong? I was meditating on this verse early one morning, thinking that even though my physical body has varying degrees of weakness, I am a strong person in a spiritual sense. And I want to be an encourager and a support to people who are struggling.  As I left for my exercise class, I was feeling confident about the strength I have because of Jesus. That exercise class. It wasn’t long until I was slammed with my weakness. I can’t even balance on one foot without hanging on to a chair! All those thoughts of weakness nearly overwhelmed me! After class, as I sat in my car I wondered, What just happened? How did I go from strong to weak in an hour?!! Lord, when I am overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. And He shows me His promises.   That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; Ephesians 3:16...

When you have a mother-daughter night at the coast with your youngest daughter, who has somehow reached the age of 21, and you suddenly realize that over the last thirty some years you have raised FIVE daughters to adulthood, (with the help of an amazing husband and a merciful, gracious,  heavenly Father),  it's time to stop and think about the way He leads.  Our oldest daughter turned 13 the year our youngest daughter was born.  That means for 20 years, we've had teenage daughters, AND I've been a 14-year-old girl's mom for five years!  There have been hard days and hard months and hard years.  And while I thank God for all those years, mostly I'm thankful for the present. Because having daughters isn't all tea parties and mall shopping and Instagram moments.  No. No, it isn't, There are hard days of sudden outbursts or sullen silences, of slamming doors and flying objects. Days when they would retreat to ...