October...

 

 

Rain than Sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

Hardy-board and Paint scrappers.

 

 

 

 

 

Calk-guns, paint brushes, and rollers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puppy eyes, teeth and tails,

 

and one 'forever' escapee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golden and red leaves,

 

and the more common brown, plowed field,

 

or standing stubble.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too many orange vested dots on fields, that make me frown.

 

And the less frequent but more upsetting sound of shots far too close. 

 

The road home is dotted with city trucks.

 

(could you guess where I stand as for as hunting goes?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

White mane and tail against the crimson sumac,

 

or moonlight on his forelock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several frosty mornings and frozen ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squash by the 1/4 ton. Literally.

 

Potatoes not yet weighed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little faces, crayons, and popsicle sticks with the kid's program

at the Revelation meetings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then there is family here with Grandma ......

 

 

 

 

 



For some reason the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, read at night are more beautiful.

  "It was to redeem us that Jesus lived and suffered and died. He became "a Man of Sorrows," that we might be made partakers of everlasting joy. God permitted His beloved Son, full of grace and truth, to come from a world of indescribable glory, to a world marred and blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the curse. He permitted Him to leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of the angels, to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death. "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5. Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane, upon the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden of sin. He who had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes between God and man. This wrung from His lips the anguished cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Matthew 27:46. It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from God--it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God.  
     But this great sacrifice was not made in order to create in the Father's heart a love for man, not to make Him willing to save. No, no! "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." John 3:16. The Father loves us, not because of the great propitiation, but He provided the propitiation because He loves us. Christ was the medium through which He could pour out His infinite love upon a fallen world. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Corinthians 5:19. God suffered with His Son. In the agony of Gethsemane, the death of Calvary, the heart of Infinite Love paid the price of our redemption.  
     Jesus said, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again." John 10:17. That is, "My Father has so loved you that He even loves Me more for giving My life to redeem you. In becoming your Substitute and Surety, by surrendering My life, by taking your liabilities, your transgressions, I am endeared to My Father; for by My sacrifice, God can be just, and yet the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." "  {Steps to Christ 13.1 - 14.1} 

Another Night Post - keeping myself awake

I am so tiered...

First I couldn't go to sleep when I wanted to. Then was falling asleep when I  needed to get up and watch puppies. If I wasn't coughing some little one would make enough noise to prevent sleep...

So it's 4:00am and to my knowledge I've slept only 2 hours the entire night. sigh...

"Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah."

Psalm 61:1-4

The Night Watches

It is peaceful once more in the laundry room.

The last puppy finished her 1:00-1:40 am meal.
 

"My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice."

Psalm 63:5-7

For those who know, those who don't know, or for those who are curious.

 

 

"The Angel of the LORD..."

 

So they say it was dead a long time... 

But with the other YFJ'ers I too believe that just before it struck
the Angel of he Lord slew it.

I also am pretty sure that Emily, standing in chest deep water, wasn't smiling like this when she,
thinking that she felt some drift wood, reached into the cloudy water and picked it up.


But anyway whether it was dead before or not I still know that:
"The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them."

Psalm 34:7

A Thousand Friends

"I'm going to miss you, sister!" the five words coming from the other side of the room, spoken in heartfelt sincerity, made my stomach hurt. "Me too!" I answered.

Only a few hours later, I was in the same spot as I was last year.

I had tried to avoid thinking too much about my lonely summer, but most everybody, including myself at times, didn't help much. Every few days Emily would do the math and come up with however many days were left, until YFJ.

 

Now as I'm sitting here missing my sisters, I think again of a friends words when he saw this hanging the kitchen wall:

"No wonder you were so lonely!"


'A sister is worth a thousand friends.'

Through the Storm

This was edited from a journal post written June 28, 2013.

---------------------------------------------------------

I  quickly rolled over in my sleeping bag. The flash of lighting that had woken me was followed by a boom and rumble. I turned and looked at my sister raised up on her elbow. We looked at each other and although it was too dark to see her face as I raised my eyebrows  and smiled, I felt her expression was the same. "Wow."

I watched through the screen past the rain fly to the outline of tree tops. I've always liked thunderstorms, or at least as long as I can remember. It was always a cozy feeling to be safe inside but still watch. I can also remember scampering-a lot more like running several miles-to escape a thunderstorm that stuck the top of Mt. Washburn while we were there. Now this felt a little different, especially since the thunder sounded a lot closer to the flashes.

It began to pour. Sometimes the thunder was so loud you could feel the ground shake underneath you. It rained and thundered for awhile, then it all rolled away. Daddy's voice hailed us from the other tent, "You girls all OK?" "Yes" our three voices answered.

 

We all went back to sleep. The next thing I knew a extremely bright light woke me again, only a few seconds later a loud crack. I lay next to my sister all stiff, eyes wide open. Then there was an even brighter flash, and I couldn't see anything. Only two seconds later a violent crack broke out. It rumbled so loud the ground shook. This was a little much. I started wondering about the medal poles in the tent and were there roots under us, and....

 

Then a bible verse came to mind and a bible story became so vivid.

Jesus in the boat in the storm. Daddy could always animate that story so well with all the sound effects, the waves tossed us in the boat, and so on. And even though we knew what was coming he always manage to scare us at least a little.

 

But the disciples with Jesus, they were about to die. And they would have. Except that...

 But can you imagine, tossed by the incredible violence of a storm bigger than you had ever seen, and you grew up on this lake.

 

And Jesus was sleeping. Yes sleeping through it. I can't imagine how he could have if the lighting was as bright and the thunder as loud as it was last night. Except for the fact that He trusted His Father perfectly. Because He knew that nothing outside of His Father's will would happen. And He knew His Father's will was best.

 

I rolled over and rested through the rest of the storm.





There's plenty of storms in life. Most are not physical thunder and lightning storms.

But the storms in the heart can be far more fearful then any storm on earth.

And Jesus asks us to trust. When He's in the storm with us there's nothing to fear.

Like Him we can perfectly trust. Because nothing outside of our Fathers will, will happen.

And our Fathers will is best, always best for us.

Not in vain - in the Lord

It really started yesterday with a fruitless search for a crying fawn, but any way...

This morning I woke to the sound of someone kicking the front door. For whatever reason I was sure it was Emily. I slowly rolled out of bead. "Why does she have to make so much noise?" I wondered  not like she normally does, but I was still annoyed. I opened the front door and I'll never forget that sight. Draped over her arms two limp fawns. One was dead. The other almost. "I found them by that tree where I  wanted to look last night", was the explanation. The one wasn't breathing though it's heart was beating. We all set to work. Thinking there was fluid in the lungs we tried to suction them. Then compressing them. Every few minutes he would gasp for air so we were encouraged. Hot and Cold to keep the circulation going. We got some air movement but finally after a good 30 minutes, when we thought of it, we started all out CPR-ish style mouth to nose. It must have been an hour and a half since we had started that he began to twitch and move his legs, even more encouraged and often praying we continued. For a while his movement increased he began to throw his head around and it seemed he was trying to breath on his own. We often glanced at his brother lying still on the entryway floor  hoping against hope that this one would live. We watched, at this rate he should be breathing shortly. But slowly the reactions became fainter, until...
 no more twitching, no gasping for air, nothing.
At least two and a half to three hours had gone by. And I strained to feel his heart beat, nothing. We stopped everything hoping that we just had missed it. But no. Reluctantly Emily stopped breathing into him.
He had slipped away.

Helpless as we are helpless.

Weak as we are weak.

Sweat, tears, and prayers mingle together towards one goal...

life.

one little life.


God bends over this world. This dying world.-And what a new perspective I have on that word.
He poured out His sweat and tears together,

No He did more.

He poured Himself out towards one goal...


Life.


Our lives.




















Sleep still little babies.

"O death, where is thy sting?

O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. "

                                                                                                                1 Corinthians 15:55-58

 

To Treasure His Love

This was meant to be posted three weeks ago.

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“Thank you for the bread,” He Smiled. “You’re welcome.” We replied, opened the door and left.

Out on the sidewalk an affluent looking woman greeted us “Hello Ladies” she smiled. We were a little surprised but returned the greeting. Rounding the corner of the building Emily turned to me and said “Funny how people respect you when you come out of the investment office.” “Yes,” I laughed “like you’re something out of the ordinary.” I guess some people think so when you dress like a lady.

Then on to our next appointment we went, another bread delivery.

Several people occupied the waiting room of the doctor’s office. We approached the front desk.

After a few minutes of conversation at the front desk and a little bit of waiting Dr. E. entered the room and we exchanged our goods.

It just sent me thinking...

Funny how people look at you when you can get a hold of the Investment Manager or the Dr. comes out of his patient’s room to get some bread, I mean they are friends/neighbors. But it makes me wonder why we don’t realize what it is for the Infinite to stoop and listen to one stumbling, stammering tongue and in love to answer! Why don’t I more often realize that God is MY Friend and wants to know from my heart just how I feel? That He’s more than willing, He is dying to spend time with me, even when for all I’ve done I deserve for Him to turn His back and walk away. And yet so often I’d just rather get fifteen more minutes sleep, or there’s something “better” for me to spend my time on.

What?

Does that sound out of proportion or what!

What will it take for us to realize and treasure His love?

Memories...

In so many ways, it seems like just yesterday I was...



Standing there with my little, second cousin's arms wrapped around me.
Sobs shaking her small frame.
I look down. Long wet eyelashes framing her sad eyes.
She looks up, biting her lips to restrain the sobs.
What can I say... tears in my own eyes, I can only rest my head on hers,
squeeze tighter, and say "Aren't you glad we can look forward to the Resurrection?"
She nods. But it still hurts.

Grandpa.
What a precious example, a wonderful husband for 77 years to
my great grandmother, father, grandpa, and great grandpa.

 

 

And as he so often prayed, "...and LORD let us all be united
in Heaven, an unbroken family."
My prayer too.

 

Summer in Pictures part 9

All happy days with family, on this earth will end.

A visit to the mill before we leave.
 

Love and miss you  Uncle Stacey and Aunt Amy!

 

After we left we had a good cry. :(

 

Then settled down to sleep away some of the hours
of our long drive home.

 

A glimpse of our Mountains.
(not very much of mountains to speak of.)



Harvest Season.

Calves at the country fair. 

Reunion of friends.

HOME!


 

Summer in Pictures part 8

Emily and I slept here. It was quite comfortable as long as we
kept the door and window open.



One fun thing we got to do was four wheeling.

 

 

Beautiful.

 

Our whole family.

 

 

 

I wanted to ride through this meadow so bad.

 

 

Waiting for the slower four wheelers.

 

Of course there was the barn too.

 

Ground work. Never go without it!

 

 

Funny boy. Let me put the hat on him.

 

 

Dad and Mom.

 

 

Summer in Pictures part 7

We enjoyed our last day at Grandma & Grandpa's home.

 

Also an excursion to the aspen grove.

 

Sisters.

Then we traveled to Uncle Stacey & Aunt Amy's.

Sampson.

The next day Dad had fun working with Stacey at the wood mill.

We enjoyed the Barn. :)

Sabbath was a bit busy with two last minute special
music songs. After Church the rest of our family joined us
for the rest of the day and we had a wonderful time.

Sabbath afternoon, before lunch some of us crashed
for a little while.