The Stowaway

This little guy joined us on our little fishing trip the other night. He didn't make his presence known until we were nearly back to the bank where we keep the canoe. I begged him to stay, that we weren't far from his home and possibly his family, but nothing doing. He jumped. I thought he was committing suicide, but Tom reassured me that mice are good swimmers. Sure enough we watched until he safely reached the bank. Do you think he'll have found his way back home? (It wasn't too far off from where he jumped and he swam to the right side of the creek.) Oh, I hope so.

Paddling Up the Creek

It's too late at night to blog. I'm just about to go swish through the pool and then head to bed...but for tomorrow's blog...A Lovely Evening on French Creek (and a stow-away guest in the canoe).

Ahhhh, Summer!

Campfires and swimming pools
Porch swings and  flowers
Bike rides and picnics

Weeding and lawn mowing

Bug bites and sweating

Drought and sunburn

Take the good with the bad and enjoy every single day of it!

Last year we intended to take a long canoe trip, but it didn't happen.

I better get it scheduled before summer gets away from us.

The end of the story

Continuations don't work all that well for me.  But someone asked so...

I was mowing in the tree nursery and Tom had moved on, out of sight to the next field. It was dusk. When I turned around at the end of the row and headed back toward the woods it was awfully dark up ahead. Dark enough that my mind started making up trouble. What if there's a bear in the woods? What if it's a mama bear? What if I get between her and the cubs? What if she thinks I'm getting too close with this noisy mower?

Oh brother. That's ridiculous. So I forge ahead cutting down the weeds, grateful to have reached the end of the row where I can turn around and see the daylight as I head back toward the road. But as I turn my back to the woods I imagine that ole mama bear charging out to swat me with her huge paw. My heart pounds. I run with the mower still roaring. I run right through a spider web that I never saw coming. The wispy strands cross my face and arms. I scream, let go of the lawn mower, frantically slap my arms, looking for the spider that was no doubt crawling on me right now, but I also have to whip around and make sure the bear isn't bearing down on me. Heart pounding, prickly hot, sweating... my panting slows, I breathe deeply, regain a modicum of composure -- not sure if I'm more embarrassed about the scream or the imagined bear and spider. I can still hear Tom's tractor in the distance. I can't see anyone walking the road; surely the noisy mower muffled my cry of distress. All's well with the world and this is a great stopping point (both for mowing and for story telling). The only problem is I'm still feeling a little jumpy and the car is parked up by the dark woods. I fish keys from my pocket, place my thumb on the panic button, try to whistle a happy tune and waltz surreptitiously to the van. Well, I beat it out of there without incident. No spider on my clothing. No bear scratch down my back.

Did I say working in the nursery is exhilarating? Oh yeah. It's challenging, exhausting, and an exercise in courage. I believe in a heavenly Father who cares for me. Everyday I pray that he'll use me in his service. But  I don't mean anything like use me for bear bait... Hmmm, God loves me unconditionally. My love in return has conditions... Like everything else in life, it's complicated.

2 Things

One -- it happened. I'm turning into my parents. We decided on Saturday morning that we could indeed make a trip to our old hometown for our nephew Tommy's graduation party. Bonus -- we'd get to see a couple of our kids and grandkids. But we had very limited time if we both went. Tom leads worship at our church so we couldn't leave before noon-thirty-ish (if I took him with me...and since he wanted to go and I didn't relish the thought of driving the distance alone...he was going with me). He also had to be back to prepare a breakfast at work on Monday morning. So zip-zip we decided to leave after church, drive 3 hours, stay 3 hours, and drive back 3 hours. My parents used to do those kind of crazy trips. And yes, I thought they were nuts. What does that make me? Nutty too. Wonderfully nutty, frivolously spontaneous -- Tom and I enjoy each other's company in the car (as do my mom and dad when they travel), we had the priviledge of congratulating my brother's youngest son on his graduation and acceptance to a fine art school (I don't know if it's a school of fine arts, I just know it's a prestigious art school), and we got to see our kids and have a serendipitous opportunity with the little ones. We're bonding through quality moments since we're lacking in quantity of face-to-face moments.

Two -- should I save this for tomorrow? Problem is in my vocab "tomorrow" means some other day when I get around to it, 2-3 days or 1-2 weeks ;-). So I'll mention it and expound later. I mowed in the nursery last evening while Tom ran the big tractor on the outer perimeter and nearby fields. It's absolutely exhilarating to me, mowing. I love the exercise. I love the look of the little Christmas trees all in a row. I love the reward of having rescued the littlest seedlings from weeds. When the field is terribly overgrown, which it wasn't last night, I sing an old hymn Rescue the Perishing while I mow.

Just about dusk, Tom moved out of sight and hearing distance with the tractor. That's when my imagination goes amok. It's dark in the surrounding woods...that's the part I'll save for "tomorrow".

An oasis

This is where Nathan lives. Isn't it something? Like, how did this little utopia survive the wrecking ball? Trees, garden, and a yard...an artists compound...in the center of a parking lot, cement, and factory complex. Incredible.

That's better!

I got over that illness pretty fast with the help of an antibiotic. The weather has remained absolutely beautiful -- well except for last Saturday (a week ago) it rained all day. Then Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and today -- gorgeous! Soon we'll be needing some rain, but how wonderful that we've had as much nice sunny warm weather as we have. Here's something I never thought I'd say, the pool is almost too warm. Unfortunate for Tom who is training for the swimming leg of a triathlon. He has to practice swimming in a wetsuit because the lake will be c-o-l-d. Or at least it was supposed to be cold, but considering this weather it's not going to be that cold. Oh well, new experience. But the pool water is awfully warm for vigorous swimming.

We thoroughly enjoyed having some of our kids for the weekend. The new baby (coming up on 3 months) is a big'un. As his daddy said, he's tipping the fat baby scales. And of course he's so sweet and cute. Big brother is 3 and chatty as can be, and good, and smart ;-) and wonderful. He sat with me in church today while his daddy was preaching and he had something important to ask his dad. So periodically he say in a really loud whisper, "hey, Dad? Daddy?" And I'd have to remind him that Daddy couldn't talk to him right now. So he waited, but he didn't forget what it was that he wanted to ask, and as soon as Daddy was finished he scooted up there and asked his question. It had to do with something his dad said at the beginning of the message. The kid doesn't miss much.

 It was a good weekend all around. I got to play with the kids. The guys and Mel got to go fishing, My daughter-in-law got to visit with her sister. We grilled out -- burgers, hot dogs, and the big fish that David caught. (Mel caught a fish too. Hmmmm what did they do with that fishy? I bet she didn't want us to eat it. Catch and release is my guess.)

A beautiful day in this part of the country

It's much too nice a day to be sick, but I am. The little girls I watch had colds last week...I think they shared. Oh well, that's life. My remedy: chicken soup, tea, orange juice and my trusty antioxidant, glutathione builder MA+, which apparently let me down, but will, I hope, pull me back up, pillow, blanket, couch, book and laptop. After a day and a half you may wonder, how's that working out for me? I feel better today, I think. I absolutely have to be better by Friday or I won't be handling my littlest grand-baby. We'll see.

I spent my sick days reading lovely stories celebrating moms in a book Adam sent me called MOM (a collection by storycorps) edited by Dave Isay, and read on NPR. Touching , moving, funny, poignant stories by children, siblings, friends, spouses -- about moms and being a mom. Some make me melancholy, wishing I had been a mom like that one or this one. Others make me laugh, "At least I never did that!" Still others make me think or sigh, or cry. And at the end of each story I feel like I've met new people and come to understand more about human nature -- and man, I could have been so much better at this whole mothering thing if I had just read this book way back then.

But you know what? It wouldn't have made much difference. I wouldn't have had the perspective on life that I have now. I wouldn't have heard or comprehended the depth of the messages, the wisdom, the truths that come with years of life experience. I wouldn't have known my need to know. I wouldn't have had the compassion to to take these lessons to heart. And that's the truth. As my dad likes to say, "too soon old, too late smart." It's silly, but it's true. A commercial for  L'Oreale hair color said...You're not getting older, you're getting better. I hope the commercial was at least half right. I certainly am getting older -- I hope I'm getting better.

Which brings me back to... I'm sick, but I'm working on getting better.

Jim Wallis on Social Justice

I think you can click on the title of this blog to read the article. I'll just add this bit from Jim to Glenn Beck on the important issue of Social Justice as it relates to people of faith. Glenn was not interested in a dialogue...
and I wonder why?

"...You are vigorously in favor of the new law. But I would suggest that the solution to the 12 million undocumented workers now in this country isn’t demanding identity papers and threatening deportation, but working to change the conditions that lead people to come here without papers in the first place. Decades of neglect and irresponsibility by both parties -- liberals and conservatives -- have created this inhumane and complicated problem. We have had two invisible signs on our southern border: “No Trespassing” and “Help Wanted.” Those conflicting messages have ensnared many vulnerable and sometimes desperate people. And now we need to fix that broken immigration system that is grinding up vulnerable families..."

Jesus said to love one another. He said that was the second greatest command after loving the Lord God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. As Christians each of us has to figure out how to best do that. I'm a fairly simple minded person. I think it means to be kind and to share. A children's song comes to mind, "Love, love, love makes people happy. Love, love, love makes people kind. Love makes people do the things they know they ought to do. Love is helping those who fall behind."

Yep, social justice makes good biblical sense to me.

Running out of daylight...

I remember when I wrote that last blog weeks and weeks ago, thinking I'd get right back and finish the story...in fact leaving it hanging would insure my getting right back to it. Yyyyeah, right. Since then the daffodils have gone, the tulips came and went, the lilacs are now in bloom and as fragrant as can be. Next come the dahlias. But not until I get them in the ground. My dahlias are the only flowers I fuss with, digging up the bulbs in the fall, replanting in the spring. Everything else is on its own, but I baby the dahlias. Not because I love them more, but because it saves me a ton of money on annuals. They'll flower from June through October and into November until the snow flies if I treat them right.

What does this have to do with Chasing Daylight (by Erwin McManus, not to be confused with Patrick McManus who I also really like as an author but -- worlds apart!) ? Just this, "The flower fades, but the word of our God lives forever." In S.S. we're still following Jonathan in his battle against the Philistines who were taunting the Israealites without mercy. So Jonathan and his armor bearer scaled the cliff to face those giants with their swords -- and the long story short is that God was indeed with them and they slew a bunch of bad guys who got all worked up, confused, discombobulated and started slaying one another. But then the book goes on a rabbit trail about Elijah in I Kings 19 -- related in this way -- Elijah trusted that God was with him too. He set up a wild and crazy plan to show Jezebel and the prophets of Baal that his God was GOD and their god was NOT. It's a great story but it'll lose a lot in the re-telling so I'll let you go read it for yourself. Happy ending? Yes and no. And that's what I'll blog about next time.

Like Jonathan, Elijah, Gideon and a bunch of other heroes like them, I've had times of trusting God, relying totally on His coming through for me, times when I just want to sing with the late Rich Mullins, Our God is an awesome God! Then again there are times when God has to come looking for me, asking, "Betsy, what are you doing here?" like he asked Elijah...but that's grist for the next blog-mill.

Dahlias from last year...a reminder that I need to get those bulbs set.