Hearts in Service

I woke up this morning and realized that we are at the end of yet, another month, and autumn is right around the corner.  The air has a different feel and it's definitely been chilly here in the mornings. We are headed into my favorite season.  I'm looking forward to pumpkins, apple picking, scented candles, and the smell of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in dishes. But on this last day of August, my heart is full and I'm so very thankful for: ❣ The fact that Emily is doing well and enjoying every moment of college.   ❣ Tomorrow she comes home for the long weekend and I get to hug my girl again. ❣ A beautiful place to walk. ❣ The beauty of the moon. ❣ Stephen's school gave him a good scholarship and so his bill is a third of what it would have been. ❣ The knowledge of how to make wonderful-tasting dishes from a few simple ingredients. ❣ An upcoming retreat is coming together well. ❣ A friend gave me their treadmill they

"There is something profoundly satisfying about sharing a meal.  Eating together, breaking bread together, is one of the oldest and most fundamentally unifying of human experiences.  ~ Barbara Coloroso Hospitality is a wonderful thing.  It's the act of looking outside yourself, reaching out to others and making them feel loved, appreciated and wanted.  I have experienced this from others and I have tried to practice it myself. I love how other Christians have shared of their time, possessions and invested in not only myself, but my children.  When we first moved here, a friend opened up their home and allowed Stephen to stay with them for a semester while he finished out his community college.  And now different friends have generously opened up their home to him so he can finish out his four year degree this coming semester.  Their hospitality is saving us thousands of dollars so that Stephen won't have to pay for on-campus room and board, nor pay for extra c

Psalm 91 ~ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you say, "The LORD is my refuge," and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all

Many years ago when I was homeschooling, I had a friend who would tell me the importance of finishing strong.  What she meant by that was not to give up, fizzle out or become lethargic as we raised our children.  She was speaking within the context of homeschooling, but I understood that to mean my role as a mother. There are so many forces fighting against our children nowadays.  Peer pressure, social media, and a host of issues that weren't even present when we were growing up.  Yet, so many parents tend to drop the ball, throw up their hands and give up. Parenting is such a hard job and it really is easy to give in to laziness and just let the kids do whatever they want.  But, the reward that comes in the end when you persevere is wonderful.   We've had to talk our children through many situations and problems.  We've also had to learn to let them solve some of these things on their own.  I've had nights of despair, wondering what I could have done different

Summer is coming to an end and there are certain sights and smells that I love about this time of the year. ❤  Curtains blowing in the wind. ❤  The scent of fermenting berries on the vine. ❤  The first leaves starting to change. ❤  The sun is coming up later and going down earlier.  ❤  The flowers are still beautiful but the petals are falling off the bloom. ❤  Jar after jar of hard work in jewel tones. ❤  The buzzing of locusts in the air. ❤  Crickets chirping. ❤  Cool mornings and hazy, hot afternoons. ❤  The sweet taste of corn on the cob. ❤  Fresh baked pie. So often I complain about the fact that winter is coming, but there truly is so much about summer's end that brings me joy!  And it's followed by my favorite season - autumn!

My heart is full of thanksgiving this morning.  I love Multitude Monday so I can reflect back over the week and think about the blessings in my life. This week I'm thankful for blessings, 3085 - 3100. 3085.  The feeling of a cool breeze blowing on my face. 3086.  The sweet taste of fresh off the vine tomatoes. 3087.  Sitting on my deck in the dark of early morning and then hearing the sound of birds beginning their morning song as it gets lighter. 3088.  The bittersweet feeling of watching my daughter purchase school supplies and then the humor that comes as she fusses about the price of items.  lol  Welcome to adulthood, honey! 3089.  One last "all-of-us-together" family dinner yesterday.  Stephen went back to the camp he works and will be back late Wednesday night. We are taking Emily to college on Thursday morning.  So yesterday afternoon we took them all out to dinner together. 3090.  Warm loaves of bread, fresh out of the oven. 3091.

When I made the decision to come home and be a full-time mom, I had to be frugal in order to make ends meet.  But I do have to say there was a certain lightness and freedom that came with being my own boss.  I could do what I want, when I wanted to and how I wanted to do it.  As I learned to be frugal, and our expenses became less, that brought a different type of liberty.  The freedom of getting out of debt, which we were able to do for quite a while. Right now, we do carry some debt.  Some of it is because we are still paying off one of our cars.  Some of it is because we are paying on a loan we had to take out because of Stephen's school bill last year.  Some of it was because of unexpected expenses that we had to use the credit card for.  So we are once again working to get out of debt.   When you can cut your costs, stop purchasing and work at being frugal, it does bring freedom.  I've been on both sides of the coin and I have to say the debt-free side is so m

    I might as well warn you now that over the next few weeks, some of these posts are going to be more reflective.  With my youngest heading off in just 7 days, I have spent so much time in looking back at my life as a mother.   The summer months mean that I spend a lot of time both outdoors and in my kitchen, canning.  And that means I have a lot of time to reflect and think.  As I've been sitting on my deck in the early mornings reading and praying, and then working in my kitchen, pounding cabbage into sauerkraut and making umpteen jars of jam, I have been reflecting much about my children. When the doctor put that little body into my arms I never knew how much a child could change your life.  The love that overwhelmed me for each one is not something that can be described.  From the moment that I first looked in those beautiful eyes something changed within myself.  There was an immediate connection that could never be broken.   Every emotion,

Dan and I decided to go for a walk yesterday at one of our favorite new places. It's a state park with two lakes that have connecting trails that go around both lakes and other places in the park system.  Some of the trails are flat and easy and others are rougher.  Because my knee is still healing we chose the flat trails around the lakes, but did actually go around both of them for a total of 3 miles. I overdid it a bit because my knee was hurting and I was limping at the end, but it feels so good to be doing some sort of exercise and also being out in nature.  I have to say that I feel so frustrated at times because I know that losing weight will help my knees but the thing that I need to do in order to lose it, I can't do because of my knees.  UGH!!!  I'm trying to push through the pain a bit in order to at least start.  It's not the walking straight ahead motion that hurts, but any little variation of a side to side motion makes the liga

"God doesn't call the qualified."  "He qualifies the called." From a human standpoint, I am the least qualified to work in ministry.  I am full of anxiety and insecurity. I struggle with impatience and pride.  I wish I was less impulsive.  I often lie awake at night, in tears, as I replay every mistake I've made that day.  There are days that I think I made huge errors in judgment and wish I had made different choices as far as choosing a major and what I've actually done with my life.   Yet, I also know God doesn't always call those who are qualified.  As He works in a person's life, they begin to develop skills and qualities that qualify them for the task He has called them to do.   I am a work in progress and while I wish I were leaps and bounds ahead of where I actually am, I know that God will continue to work in me to change those things that are unlovely.  He will walk beside me as I walk along the path laid out for me.  He will

(Jordan River at flood stage) The river was raging, at its flood stage.  Ten to twelve feet deep, and rushing swiftly enough to knock a man off his feet and sweep him away.  Lungs would fill very quickly with dirty, muddy water and if drowning didn't occur, then very possibly death would occur because of the battering of his body against the stones. This was the condition of the Jordan River when God told the priests to step into it with the ark of the covenant.  He told Joshua, the new leader of the Israelites, that he would lead the people safely to the other side.  But God didn't dry up the river until the first man put his foot into the water.  How would you like to be that man? Could God have caused the river to dry up so the priests could see that they would be safe before they stepped in?  Absolutely.  But He wanted them to follow Him.  To step out in faith.  To believe that He would do what He said. The priests had to fully commit.  There was no halfway.  T

I've been reflecting back and trying to figure out when my love for simple things came about, but I can't remember a time when I wasn't like this.  I do remember working as a public relations director for a company where I had to go to these large conferences and attend black-tie affairs. I would go with a friend and purchase fancy dresses and jewelry and while I was at these events, I totally felt like a fish out of water.  It was so far out of my comfort zone that I didn't really enjoy myself. When we lived in the inner city, I gardened and hung my clothes to dry and made all my own breads and desserts and lived very simply.  I was always drawn to people who did the same.  I had a friend from Germany who lived in the city and we would have steaming cups of tea while our children played together and we chatted about household things.  My landlady at the time was from Yugoslavia and from her I learned things about gardening and housekeeping and baking. 

It's been a rollercoaster of a ride this week, and one where my emotions have been all over the place.  I went from thinking my life was headed in one direction to discovering that due to some unexpected things, it needed to go in a totally different direction.  And to be honest, it kind of threw me for a loop. However, i t's also been a good week.  A week of seeing some weaknesses that I need to focus on.  A week of getting some clarity and direction.  A week of wrestling with God and with myself. But, it's also been a week of normalcy.  Of berry picking and pie making.  A week of college shopping with Emily. It's been a week of summer flavors and scents. All my plans for the fall have been put on hold, but it's okay.  I'm recognizing that sometimes I run ahead of God and He uses circumstances beyond my control to rein me in.  I got pulled up short and I feel a bit bruised, but I also know it's for the best for now.  It also gave

I find myself in full out frugal mode lately since summers are always tight and I had to laugh when I sat down to write this post.  I was trying to think of ways that I saved money over the past week and I couldn't think of anything other than my normal activities because other than food, I just don't spend money in the stores. So this will be more of a cooking/baking/canning post than anything else.  It's become such a habit and lifestyle for us that I can't even imagine living any other way.   Here are some things I've done over the past week: $ We generally go to the Regional Farmer's Market on Saturday when the majority of vendors are there.  There are 5 buildings, plus the in between spaces filled with produce vendors as well as other types of goods.  The reason I like that one as opposed to the smaller, local ones is that given the sheer volume of produce and vendors, I'm more apt to get the best price.  I've found that most of the v

When my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were here for Emily's graduation they had planned on hitting a couple of sites on their way back home.  One of the places they told us about was Green Lakes.  It's only about 50 minutes away from here and I had no idea it existed.  The lakes are a beautiful blue-green meromictic lake—one in which layers of water do not mix. So Dan and I decided to go yesterday.  I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do much walking at all, but I know my knee is healing because it doesn't have that unsteady, wobbly feeling it had when I first tore my MCL. I ended up walking 2 miles with no problem and I was so happy!  There are eleven different trails there with varying levels of difficulty but we picked one of the easiest ones which went around the perimeter of Green lake.  The lake was gorgeous!   I have to be honest and say that I was an absolute crab yesterday morning and didn't want to go or do