Companionship

I've been embarrassed at times over my lack of "a life" these past few years.

Seriously, I haven't even had the energy to put "a life" together and mostly end up resting on my bed or hanging around my house with my dogs.

And I do get bored, but not bored enough to pursue new interests and outings.

I have my Saturday night gang, church, and visits or outings with Mom during the week.

So, when my new housemate told me that she has loved how "available" I have been over these past years it made me happy. She reminded me how I once told her that I have prayed that this next generation could "stand on my shoulders" and it seems that sometimes this is what it looks like. Not very romantic or spectacular, but important.

Being available. Having a listening ear. Sharing my home and my space. Praying. Loving. Encouraging.

And now the fun of having a new housemate who likes to run errands with me occasionally, someone to go to church with, a Friday night movie partner to watch "UP" with... It's been so much fun. Almost unexpected. I know she is a busy student so there are times where she disappears for extended hours to study. She is young and hangs out with friends in town which is great. I don't have expectations so every time we hang out is a bonus. The visits from the son and his lovely girl are also a bonus. So I am grateful and content.

Oh, and about my housemate? Something truly amazing. We both share an occasional craving for McDonald's food. I like my sponge burger and she loves her big Mac. For real.

And I do believe that this fall will be busier. It just hasn't taken off yet which has been fine with me up until this point. I've had time to work on my online Dyslexia course and settle into life after a busy summer. Getting my "to do" lists checked off. Enjoy my puppies and the great outdoors. Being proactive in pursuing God through 40 days of Listening and being accountable to my housemate about my quiet time.

God has shown up again with skin on. Isn't He just so marvelous and creative?!

I really love Him and He really loves me.

He is my Companion. And He has provided companions with skin or fur to keep me company when I need someone tangible!

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Oh the joy of sunshine after clouds and rain!

I played outside with the dogs this morning. Happy to have their eager company giving me an excuse to sit in the sun for a long while, throwing the ball and enjoying the great expanse of beauty that is just outside any one of my doorsteps!

I feel immensely privileged to still be up on the orchard and I am grateful for the largeness of it all. So much room to breathe.

Big sky, big trees, many apples, close mountains, winding roads, long driveway, vineyards, so incredibly much space filled with so incredibly much beauty.

I can hardly believe how colorful He is, the textures he has wrapped his world in and the delightful variety. Funny animals dotting the landscape, making me smile.

My own garden of delights. The few seeds I managed to throw in this year producing monstrous sunflowers. The yellow against the blue is breathtaking.

My little pansies, still surviving despite almost constant neglect. The sage wild and wolly and completely out of control. Weeds gone crazy and petunias doing their beautiful thing. Virginia creeper going from green to glorious red.

The orange lanterns so healthy and vibrant and three dimensional - vivid orbs of amazingness!!

The sunshine bribed me to take my dear little mama and auntie out for a drive to admire vineyards along the lake. The grapes hung heavy, almost ready for harvest. Green and purple beauty. A picnic at the lakeside. Lilly pads and willows. Laughter and praises.

And home again. To admire all those delicious decorations that are hanging in unabashed beauty.

Apples, Apples, Apples!!

home alone

I know, it's kind of a pathetic little title, but that's the truth of the matter.

I'm home alone and I'm missing both of my kids.

The kind where my heart physically aches and my eyes get leaky.

The girl is blissful in California and I couldn't be happier about that.

She's hungry for truth and loving Jesus.

The boy is in love with a wonderful gal and they are off to visit her family this weekend.

My sweet housemate went along.

So, all in all it's not a bad thing. It's actually as good as it can get under the circumstances so I'll be happy with my aching heart and I know there will be better days.

In fact, it is so arranged, rather providentially, that I am busy almost all weekend.

Starting in about an hour with my Butterfly Club.

We're sharing an oriental dinner and there will be loads of stories, probably tears and lots of laughter. We haven't met in ever so long.

I'm bringing wine and thanking the precious Holy Spirit that He'll be providing the real stuff.

Oh the glory of meeting with these precious soul mates and having Jesus in our midst.

And tomorrow I get to spend the day basking in the presence of God on a whole different level. A Beth Moore simucast or something of that nature is being held at a nearby church so I get to worship and listen to God's word with loads of other womenfolk.

I'm hungry hungry HUNGRY for Jesus and some good teaching.

This will be followed by a huge birthday bash for a friend's daughter (who also happens to be my friend) at my place in the evening.

So, it is apparent that I won't be "home alone" much this weekend!

New Housemate

She made burritos for supper.

Deliciously cheesy with guacamole, homemade salsa and dip.

Oh my goodness the yumminess!!!

And she loves my puppies. She really enjoys them and thats a really good thing. Cause they are a fairly large and constant presence around this place. They lay in the most awkward places all over the kitchen floor or in walk ways so that you have to constantly get them moving as you pass through. She can handle all of this though.

In fact, she proved herself to me this afternoon to be a perfect housemate indeed.

Poor Moose had a few too many cling ons in his hinterland and Crystal was up to the challenge with me. She held that tail in the air while I clipped and wasn't worried about getting sprayed when I had to finish the job with the hose.

You know you've got a good housemate when...

And she's clean! And efficient.

Kind of like having a mother around. You only ask once and the deed is done.

I need vinegar.

It comes home in the next bag of groceries.

Bananas - voila!

Unique and delicious salads are whipped up and can be found in the refrigerator.

Kind of like a dream come true.

And she's just lovely to visit with. Cheerful, talkative and interesting.

Plus as I already mentioned she is able to heave my body off the ground and pop it into the wheelchair when necessary.

Which hopefully won't actually happen ever again, but just in case it's handy to have her around with those kind of skills.

God knew it was a big change for me to have BOTH of my precious kids move out within two weeks of each other, but He made the transition as easy on me as possible.

Oh yeah. He's so kind and meanwhile, for a side dish I get wonderful skyping visits with the dear beautiful daughter and lots of drop in visits with the handsome son who is often up here working.

The Garbage and I

Funny thing.

My friend and I had an amazing prayer time and visit on the back patio yesterday. We just shouted our praises to God and covered our loved ones with all sorts of faith filled declarations and prayers. It was heavenly! The sun was shining, the apples hanging thickly on the trees and the flowers and leaves waving around us in their lush fall fullness.

We told God that the last 10 years or so have been "seriously" hard, but we know that He is growing our character and He causes ALL THINGS to work for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. So we rejoiced in our sufferings and dared to ask for His Kingdom to come in some amazing ways in the lives of our loved ones.

I specifically prayed that God would continue to keep my mom and auntie upright - to keep them from falling. And then I quickly asked that He would also keep my friend and I from falling. I am aware that a fall from my chair is a dangerous thing.

Well, my friend went on to have a very rough day. No surprises there. And I went to bed feeling bloated and sick. (We had a little feast as we visited and I think I overdid the chips and some dated 7 layer dip...ugh)

At night I decided to put a last bag of trash outside as I am always excited about garbage day. Just love that feeling of freedom! For some reason I was on the angled part of the driveway and I manged to tip not only the garbage can over but I went flying backwards as well with a bag of garbage on my chest. I fought hard to get those wheels moving the other direction but gravity had taken over and my heavy backpack helped me to flip directly backwards and my head hit the pavement with a thunk. OUCH!!

I lay looking up at the cloudy dark sky. I took note of those gorgeous huge trees waving their leaves way above me. The dogs were a little useless at this point, but they did rally around me. I believe Moose brought me his ball and nudge me on my bottom to encourage some play time. It didn't happen.

I used my handed dandy cellphone to call my new housemate who came out with great haste to rescue me. Now she is quite short and I am quite tall. My legs were sprawled out crazily and I was finding it hard to get to a sitting position on that sloped portion of the driveway. Let me just say here that God really knew who to send here to live with me, because she somehow managed to lift my entire long, gangly body, very close to hers, and to place me back into the wheelchair.

I was amazed and very, very grateful.

Today I awoke with a sore neck and my head has felt rather awful all day. I do believe I suffered a concussion and I went to the chiropractor to get some help with alignment.

I think I will do some research to make sure that I am not missing something here. The last thing I need is a head injury when I'm having a heck of a time with my memory at the best of times!!

I've gotta wonder about my prayer though - specifically asking for protection from falling and then doing such an extravagant flip right onto my head. I was tempted to think that maybe I ought to curb my exuberant prayers. But I don't think that is the answer. Probably the enemy would want me to stop praying and I don't think I will. So I will now be praying for healing of my aching head...

So Far So Good

September is here. And it's cool and rainy.

How fitting.

Warm sweaters, hot cups of chai and heat bags are back on the menu.

Fall rushed in rather quickly with company arriving, the long weekend, a lovely 6oth Anniversary for my parents, my son moving out, the company leaving and my new housemate arriving.

Whew!!

And amazingly enough I feel so, so peaceful.

And thankful to God.

So, so thankful!!

Because I've really been dreading this.

First time neither of my kids live with me.

But the son visits.

And the daughter skypes.

And I'm OK!! Yippeee!

I look at my son's empty room and there is no sorrow.

God's grace for this new season.

What a relief that He really does give us the ticket when the train comes.

Not before.

So I clutch my ticket and I feel the train's movement. Forward.

Trusting and waiting for adventures to begin.

There is so much yet to unfold in my life.

It's not an ending, but a beginning.

SIXTY YEARS

This evening my parents celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary surrounded by family and friends.

Pretty cool - my parents and their marriage and commitment and all of that.

Hard to do it justice by singing songs and eating and giving awards and cards. But that's what we did and they were happy.

Happy to be surrounded by their kids, grandkids, greatgrandkids and good friends.

Happy to share a delicious hot meal. It was greek food which struck me as kind of funny considering my Mennonite heritage and what I grew up eating. But it was delicious and it was special to be with that particular group of people.

All gathering to love and honor my parents.

I looked out over the gathering and saw some sad faces.

A bittersweet evening with many "empty spots" so to speak.

At this age there has been much loss in the midst of living full lives and aging.

Aged wisdom, loneliness, resignation, contentment, joy.

They've seen alot, these faces. Most of them are now alone.

One in the group had Alzheimer's, but I saw her singing and enjoying herself regardless.

They sang and gave gifts and rejoiced with my parents who are still both coherent and upright, albeit blind and deaf!!

I made a joke that our family is truly a biblical one. We contain the lame the blind and the deaf all in one immediate family circle. A miracle just waiting to happen...

And yet we have so much joy and laughter.

My sweet mama is the source of so much of that laughter and joy. And of course her source and wellspring is Jesus.

Even though my Dad doesn't know Him yet, I took the liberty of speaking openly and often and freely of Jesus during the evening.

I don't know how to celebrate something that momentous without giving Him the glory and singing His praises.

It was good to sing together.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness, There is Beauty all around, When there's love at home...

The awards were humorous but full of truth.

Cheerful award goes to Oma.

Generosity award goes to Opa.

Pruning award to Opa, leading to a forgiveness award for Oma.

Pet eradication award to Opa, Best Borscht, Buns and Napoleon Torte award to Oma.

And on and on it went.

The great grandchildren happily delivering the awards to Oma and Opa who by now were wearing sparkly crowns and big smiles.

And my brother with his new lady friend, smiling with his own newfound love at the end of the table. One aged romance and one newly budding.

And so the story goes.

Two lives well lived. One eternally secure the other precariously hanging, not yet secure.

Creating a legacy of other lives.

We're praying for His Kingdom to come in all of them.

It's all that really matters in the end.