Hearts in Service Blog

It's been cold and rainy the past few days here in the Northeast. Normally Memorial Day is the start of the summer season and a time for barbecues, picnics, parades and outdoor events. In fact, it's been so dreary that it even slipped my mind that it was a holiday weekend! I participated in our local farmer's market on Saturday and I was thankful it was indoors as it was a torential downpour when I first arrived. It was kind of a slow day there and I think the rain kept many people away. I haven't planted anything yet and really need to start thinking about making our yard look welcoming instead of bare and bleak. It's hard to be in the mood for flowers and gardening when it's cold and rainy. I have started some clippings indoors, but that's about it. I attended a memorial service along with my brother-in-law at the facility my father-in-law is living. It was to honor those who lost loved ones this past year and was a meaningful service. They planted a butte...

Today is Mother's Day and as I reflect on my own life, there have been a few women in my life whom stand out to me.... Each Sunday, my father would pick us up and take us to our grandmother's for Sunday dinner.  I remember each week she would prepare a huge meal down to the pies and cakes for her large brood.  The women would clean up the kitchen after the meal while the men were in various stages of talking or napping around the house. We children would run around the farm, climbing trees and generally getting into trouble.  My grandmother was a sweet, soft-spoken woman who willingly served her family this way. My mother worked long, long hours as a single mom but I do remember her always making a large Saturday morning breakfast.  Apple fritters were at the top of the list.  I also recall numerous Halloween costumes being sewn for me as a child. She read to us and instilled a desire for education in me. She taught us to be responsible and to follow through on ...

  Another Easter has come and gone and as I sit and reflect this morning I am happy because it really was a good day.  My sons went and picked up my father-in-law and brought him to church. Normally, I'm doing multiple things on a Sunday morning, but I didn't schedule anything and deliberately chose to sit and enjoy the service.  We had dinner together and then played a game and chatted. I kept dinner simple which made prep and clean-up easy.  After Dan left to take my father-in-law home, I was even able to get out for a walk. My daughter called me and I chatted with my sister by text. Overall, it was a fairly uneventful, but wonderful day.  I'm having lunch with someone today, but other than that, nothing else is on my schedule. Since the rest of the week is going to be very busy, I'm looking forward to a day of puttering around my house and doing my best to ignore my email which never goes away! Even yesterday, on Easter, I received emails asking que...

It's hard to believe that we are at the end of 2025. We are going out with a bang as we are in the middle of a lake effect snow event with anywhere from 1-3 feet expected. So our celebrating will take place at home, hunkered down.  Out with the Old This has been a difficult year in many ways with loss and change. My mother-in-law passed away and we moved my father-in-law into an assisted living facility. Their house and most of their things have been donated or sold. He is struggling to adjust to not being at home and not having his wife with him and he takes a lot of attention and time. My stepfather also passed away this year after struggling with Alzheimer's. He was such a sweet man and I grieve the loss of his influence in my life. I know loss is part of life, but it really is difficult for the ones left behind.  This past weekend we moved my daughter and son-in-law two hundred and fifty miles away and this is a good move for my son-in-law as he will be close to his family...

The gifts are all purchased and wrapped. Our different pre-Christmas events are over. The groceries have been purchased and our Christmas eve service has been put together and all the participants are ready to go. The only thing left to do is deliver some gifts to my father-in-law, put together a cookie platter for tonight, and to prepare a prop for my children's moment during tonight's service. But other than that we are ready to celebrate this meaningful event.  I want to wish all my blog readers a Merry Christmas! May you have a wonderful celebration.

There are 3 more sleeps before Christmas Day and it's been such a busy couple of weeks. I feel like I've crammed a year's worth of activities into three weeks.  I mentioned to Dan last night that I'm going into Christmas week tired. However, I also know celebrations are a lot of work and in some ways that's okay. I'm doing these things because I love to do them and not because it's required. It was a month of candy-making.  Cookie baking. List-making and secret keeping. Giving and receiving; blessing and being blessed. Reflection and evaluation. Smiles and giggles. Trying some new things (making cheese) Enjoying some old favorite recipes. Afternoon football games and relaxing. Some different activities such as helping my daughter pack and lunch with her and my son-in-law. Friday we are helping them move. Church activities, home activities, ministry activities and personal activities. Today I'm going to get some things prepared for our Christmas eve servi...

Thanksgiving ended up being a very nice day even though it was cold and blustery.  It was peaceful and relaxing and I even got to watch parts of the Macy's Day Thanksgiving parade which I haven't done in years. It was cozy and warm in the house while the lake effect snow machine churned outside. I braved the weather and went for a walk and the snow was beautiful. It went from coming down gently to whiteout conditions in less than a minute so it was the right decision not to go get my father-in-law and for my daughter and son-in-law to not come. It's still snowing and that is supposed to continue on and off until early tomorrow morning so it'll be another quiet day. Today I will be decorating the house for Christmas and Advent begins on Sunday. I love everything about the holidays and am looking forward to the next few weeks. Dan and I are sharing the messages at church through Christmas and as I've dug into the passages I'm speaking on it's been so good. No ...

My mother-in-law's graveside service was yesterday afternoon and as I reflected on it afterwards, it seemed to perfectly suit who she was. Her entire life centered around her family and each of the children, their spouses, and then any of the grandchildren who were comfortable doing so, got up and said a few words about how they impacted their life. Her youngest son and my son played songs they wrote. We sang one of her favorite hymns. It was a sweet time. The words used to describe her were joy-filled, patient, and kind. She brought art, music, books and beauty into her family's life. She loved them equally and unconditionally. She believed they could do anything. She instilled confidence in them. She loved and was loved, and that was expressed beautiful yesterday. Her family's love for her is her legacy. My nephew, who couldn't be there, wrote something and I thought it was a beautiful tribute and a fitting way to end this blog post as it expresses very eloquently wha...

Lent has always seemed a primarily Catholic or Orthodox celebration and the church I grew up in never practiced it, so it's not something I gave a lot of thought about. But in recent years, I've seen the beauty in this time of the year.  The origin of the word Lent comes from the “Old English word for springtime, spring” and “from West Germanic word meaning long-days or lengthening of the day.”  As we begin to enter into spring and nature starts to wake from its long winter sleep, it is a wonderful time to reflect on the renewal of all things spiritually as well. As we focus on Christ's sacrifice on the cross it should bring about renewed gratitude in our heart. Lent is meant to be a time of repentance of our sins and a reflection on the events leading up to Christ's death and resurrection. It's not a time of shame, but of thankfulness for Christ's sacrifice for us. And it's a time of our own sacrifice through fasting and giving up something for a 40-day per...