Summer's Last Hurrah!

Fishin' in French Creek...

Sorry kitty, you're not invited along.


Isn't the creek gorgeous? We're so lucky to live here. It's a blessing we thank God for every day!

And...Here's the big one that didn't get away.

At the Zoo...

What does a giraffe say?

"Hello down there."

I have some terrific digital clips of our grandson swooshing down the little kiddy slide into our pool. And a few of a little gal who learned to swim in our pool last year. She went from non-swimmer to jumping off the diving board. It absolutely thrilled me, and I think she was pretty proud of herself too! I can't share those, but... if you come over you'll be treated to the latest greatest version of home video entertainment...spell that t-o-r-t-u-r-e. We can't help ourselves!

Promised Pix

One...


...And the other...
...And both with their mother!
Aren't they adorable? Non-look alike twins, each cuter than the other. What fun it was to have them in the pool. They went from timid in the water, to putting their faces in, to going under without holding on...hey I call that swimming. Next summer we'll work on getting somewhere while under water!

The Good, The Bad, and The Crazy

"So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34

All of the calamities of the last blog are under control, old news, last month's woes. This month on the other hand has trouble of its own. But the good news is that there's a lot more good, fun, wonderful stuff than bad, sad, unpleasant stuff.

September looks like this so far:

I've done an experimental stint working at the church 3 mornings a week. I like it. And, I'm back to babysitting -- only one day a week, two children. Audrey, who is 3, has a new baby sister. Two little sweeties to look after. It really makes for a perfect baby fix.

Tom survived another school opening with only minimal stress. SWEET!

Melanie came home from Connecticut to look for a wedding gown. I got to go along with her mom and 2 bridesmaids to the Bridal Elegance shop. Mel tried on all the dresses we could possibly bring to her -- and she made every single one of them look fabulous. But there was one, one special dress. One dress that brought tears to the eyes. Yep, that's the one! It's gorgeous, she's gorgeous in it...SWEET!

The next day we were invited to a family picnic at Mel's parents' house. And SURPRISE! David was there. SWEET! (He flew to Erie, spent the Labor Day weekend here and he and Melanie drove back.)

My dear friend Beth came to visit (haven't seen her in years) with her daughter and twin grandsons. Pix to follow, and they are... Really Sweet!

Aaron & Amy came to visit with our most adorable grandchild. We had a fabulous couple of days that included shopping (got some cute maternity clothes!), looking at little kid table and chair sets, lunching out, then a spin through the Erie Zoo. Pix to follow, and they are also... Really Sweet.

Meanwhile the guys had some good fishin' days. Aaron spent one day on French Creek with his buddy Matt. Then on Saturday he and Tom floated downstream and caught a five pound walleye and a big bass. (Pix to follow. Yeah, yeah, I'm really going to have to get those pictures downloaded.)

Isn't that a whole lotta good stuff? And after counting all those blessings, the bad stuff doesn't seem worth mentioning.

But for those who know...my bum knee is getting better everyday.

If it's not one thing...

it's ten others! That's what my sister Kathy said in response to the news that our brother had a mini-stroke last week. Oh dear. This is the same brother whose son shattered his wrist and broke his back several weeks ago. He fell off a cliff where there used to be a bridge. The bright side is he's going to be okay -- could have been so much worse! The dark side, he's 18, out of high school, but not enrolled in college yet. He's no longer covered under his parents' health insurance. Can you say, financial nightmare?

That's three calamities, which I could make into four or five by adding that my brother is a comedian -- Let's see...mini stroke? Couldn't that possibly affect his ability to pull the right word to the tip of his tongue at the right time? His livelihood depends on using words, firing them off, making people laugh. It's his talent, his gift, and he does it well. What will happen if he can't do that for a while, or ever again? (Okay, now I'm just borrowing trouble. Instead I'll make my list of 10 things and then put this season of trouble to rest.)

My mom had a scare from her latest CAT scan. The bright side -- it was just that, a scare, no cancer.

Dad is having a bout with kidney stones, and he's not seeing any bright side to that. But a scan that he had shows possible bladder tumors. If that turns out to be the case, the bright side is this: they found them and will most likely be able to treat them before anything is life threatening.

All this may keep Mom and Dad from coming north for Dad's 60th high school class reunion. It will be hugely disappointing for him to miss that. No bright side there.

Two of my nephews live in California. One of them can see smoke from the wild fires raging nearby. (Maybe they both can, but I've only heard from one.) The bright side is they don't live where the fires are.

My daughter-in-law is suffering from morning sickness. (I just sneaked that in to say...we're getting another grandchild in March!) But still, it isn't fun for her right now, the being sick part.

So, if it's not one thing it's ten others. That seems to be how life is. Does trouble come from God or from being part of a fallen, sin-filled world? I believe it's the latter. But even if it does come from God, the God who gives us so many wonderful things to enjoy, I hope I can always say, as Job did, "Shall we accept good things from God and not trouble?"

Accept it or not, it's a fact of life..."In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer," Jesus said, "I have overcome the world."

Men on a Hot Tin Roof

Okay, so I don't know if it's tin, but it's some kind of metal and it was HOT. All that cool weather we've been wishing away this summer stepped aside for a brief stint of crazy hot. It was unfortunate timing in light of a roofing project someone in our church organized. The day dawned bright and beautiful. We were so happy to have a gorgeous day...until the heat and humidity kept rising...until a couple of guys got feeling sick...until it became apparent that all that good food we brought wasn't going to get eaten. Oh well. The good news is that the house was securely under roof before everyone left that evening. Not so the porch. But it will all get done. I'm confident of that.

First, off with the old...or most of the old...
(Here's Tom climbing a ladder hours before the heat got to him and rendered him worthless.)

Then on with the new...(Hot? Ask this guy about it. He says it was like working over an oven the way the heat radiated.)

Here are some guys sweating it out on the ground. Somebody's got to clean up the old shingles. Volunteers? anyone? anyone? (I would have helped, but I was manning the camera.)

The women were working too, painting the porch and window trim. Oh, and, would that be me? In the white shirt off to the right, standing around talking? With my hands in my pockets? I must have been consulting, or supervising, or something important like that.It really was an impressive crew. The grateful homeowner was overwhelmed, and so appreciated everything that got done. The workers were equally blessed.

That was last weekend. This weekend Tom and I stayed home and worked in our tree fields...where it doesn't matter how hot it gets. We pace ourselves. An hour or two of work, a dip in the pool. It's a much more reasonable way to work. Next time we help with a roofing project, we'll pack up the pool and take it along. It might be the most valuable tool on the job site.

CONGRATULATIONS DAVE & MEL

Our Davey Boy asked Melanie to marry him and she said yes! We're happy as can be for them. And just as happy for us.

Failure and Success

I came across an interesting statement in the book Crazy Love, by Francis Chan. I've enjoyed and appreciated Chan's words of wisdom, but this quote isn't his, he is quoting Tim Kizziar, "Our greatest fear as individuals, and as a church, should not be fear of failure, but fear of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter."

I've been thinking about that all week. What in the world really matters? Well, what really matters isn't in this world. What really matters is eternity. But I live in this world here and now...passing through, so to speak...and there are a lot of things I need to take care of just because I'm here, now. I'll admit that I don't feel terribly successful. But add to that, while I'm doing the things I'm doing, now I have to wonder if those things matter. Am I afraid of failure? You betcha. But here's my new perspective, convoluted as it may be. It actually would be hugely successful to fail at things that don't matter. Just try...if it fails it probably didn't matter anyway.

I'm pretty sure that's nothing like what Tim Kizziar meant when he said, "Our greatest fear, as individuals or as a church, should not be fear of failure, but fear of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter."

Mondays swim count -- 16 guests. Tuesdays count -- 16 also, but not all at the same time, and only a few of the same people as Monday. Today it's cool but sunny, the water is sparkling and warm, I'm hoping for company.

AUGUST!

Summer is flying by. If you lived around here you'd be asking, "what summer?" It's been wet and cool with rarely two nice sunny, warm summer days in a row. Hot? Not at all. The one air conditioner unit we own never got out of the closet and the window fans are in the attic...unplugged...collecting dust.

But with all the rain the grass is lush, the garden (such as it is) is bountiful. We're especially thankful for the gift of a gas well so we can heat our pool and enjoy it even when Mr. Sun isn't doing the job of making the water warm. And some people enjoy the cooler weather. I'm happy for them.

We didn't travel this summer (so far) except to move David to Connecticut...from this cute little house that he lived in for five years. To this studio apartment...
We believe that a rainbow is a sign of God's promise...so we take this to mean all will be well for our youngest boy in his new grown up job in a grown up world.

Family, family, and more family

Earlier I posted about Ben and the work we got done while he was here...all that was in preparation for what we, on the Henning side of the family, call "the cousins reunion". Parts of the house that needed painted, got painted, along with shutters, trim, etc. Everything else got swept, washed, weeded, wiped down, shined up or trimmed back. All set for company. But before the Hennings arrived we had a quick visit from some of the Bruces: Oom and Pop, Kath and Audrey, Jerry, Lu and Rebecca, and the afore mentioned Ben (who isn't a Bruce, rather, he's the son of Kath's good Parisian friends Linda and Eric.) It was an enjoyable opportunity to see Ben one last time before he flew home to France, and a good time to have the far away contingent of my family come to our house.

Rebecca learning to swim
Rebecca totally tuckered






And a week later, when the other relatives arrived, there was all kinds of fun. Eating and tractor rides, eating and swimming, eating and games, eating and a birthday party...which included...eating...


















Happy 2nd Birthday to Matthew!





Our reunion was only two days before Jill's birthday, but she didn't get any attention at all. I guess it really is all about the kids! I hope she didn't mind too much.

Happy Belated Birthday, Jill!

Happy 4th of July

Along with celebrating our country's independence my family celebrates my sister's birthday. The story I recall hearing is that mom and dad were getting ready for a 4th of July picnic when -- Independence Day turned into labor day for mom, and then turned into a birthday for my sister Kathy.

To add to the fun, Kathy grew up and married a guy who has the same birthday. He's a native of France so the day doesn't have the same significance to him. But he's a good sport, and when they are in the states for his birthday, Bernard enjoys the fireworks and hoopla as much as the rest of us.

Speaking of hoopla -- Tom and I aren't hooping it up this year. I'm on the couch blogging, waiting for the TV version of fireworks. Tom is out on the tractor mowing in the tree field, but he'll surely be back soon, it's getting dark. Today he painted another side of the house while I painted shutters. My work was shorter than his so I had time to watch a friend's 4 squirts (ages 4-9) while she and a friend got a load of firewood not too far from our house. I volunteered to watch them...in the pool. So Barb and Doug are sweating it out cutting and loading wood, Tom's on a ladder painting for hours on end, and I'm in the pool playing with 4 little kids. Yeah, I know, it was big of me. After that we mowed lawn and weeded flower beds.

We turned our Independence Day into labor day. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Tom worked harder than I did, but I think he enjoyed it too. It's weird though, having no family around on a holiday. I wonder if this is something I'm going to have to get used to? We're moving David to Connecticut next week. He's actually on his round-about way already. Me? I'm feeling it already.

Oop, here's Tom... and the Macy's 4th of July fireworks show is on TV -- They're astounding! Gotta go watch. Happy Independence Day!!!