Hike Hill Country

 

Understated Alex is like moss on a rock.  He has a solid base and is spirtually green and vibrant. 

 

Winsome Fritz.

 

Emily is motion and energy. 

 

Jane is my note writer and telephone answerer...she has a promising future as a secretary.

Dear girl, work for a bachelor, because a wife might be jealous.

 

 

Holding the hand of the great man she is named after.

 

 

Dappled in sunlight like his disposition.

 

Salute worthy.

 

My little Boop is a living cartoon.  Kisses and bops on the head in the matter of minutes.

 

 

My handsome mountain man pondering life.

 

 

The girl with the milk chocolate heart.  Be careful she could melt in a hot hand.

 

 

If only he follwed her home, she would have mothered him.

 

Rock chairs.

 

 

Rock hallways.

 

Rock beds.

West On the Wind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ladies in Navy

Navy sweaters and blue jeans.  They love to coordinate outfits.  Recently when we are out about town, my ladies are mistaken for twins, even though Jane is an index card shorter and two years younger than Emily. 

 

When she is 30, she'll have proof she once could do splits.

Dead Woman Walking

This last year, my mind has been stretched, my spirit humbled and my fears relieved by the fact I didn't choose God, but he chose me.   Such a basic tenet of the gospel I forgot and my emphasis was I chose and I respond.  That is a recipe for burnout and self-doubt.  We do nothing in our salvation.  A dead man can not raise himself.  An inanimate branch can not choose to be grafted into the living root.  A sheep can not choose his shepherd.  A priest can not be self-appointed.  A baby can not choose to be born nor can a man enter his mother's womb for a second time.  A lump of clay can not make itself into a pot.   A unregenerate stone heart can not soften itself into a heart of flesh. 

It is an impossible impossibility. 

Therefore, it takes my human effort out of the whole story and in comes Jesus.  Meet the man who raises the dead.

In comes our Root that sustains and nurtures the branches.  (John 15:5)

In comes our Good Shepherd who goes after the lost sheep and tucks it next to his chest in safety.  (John 10:14,15 and Psalm 100:3)

In comes our High Priest who has made us to be a kingdom of priests.  (Revelation 1:9)

In comes our Creator who knit us together and grants us birth and second birth.  (John 3:3,4)

In comes our Potter who shapes us how he sees fit and delights in our various uses.  (Isaiah 45:9, Jeremiah 18:5,6 and Romans 9:20,21)

In comes our Surgeon who removes the useless, pulse-less heart and gives us a heart which beats in time with his.  (Ezekiel 36:26)

I am so glad I am a dead woman walking, because now I can also be a dead woman testifying.  Like in Ezekiel 37,  God's breath has blown life into my dry withered bones.  Because of what he did I know He is Lord.  May his Spirit continue to raise up a walking graveyard. 

To Have and To Hold

Another Relocation

Leaf-hat Sisters

Kindlers of Emotion

I downloaded these kindle books free over the past few months.  Amazon has a rotating free collection.

 

 

This nonfiction story follows a Jew recruited into the Russian army in the early 1900s.  He becomes a Revolutionary under his deprivations serving the little father, Czar.  His tone is at times arrogant and self-righteous, but the story unfolds and still fascinates along the way.  105 years in the writing makes it a multi-generational accomplishment. 

This is the book to read when you are feeling entitled and depleted.  This is a keep-your-handkerchief-handy account of Stalin's ravaging troops and how it personally affects a Ukrainian family.  The book is tender and uncomplainingly written.  I stayed up till 4 in the morning finishing this one and woke up at 7 the same morning thankful to be living where I do. 

A sweet, true love story of an American man and an Ecuadorian girl.  As an American wife living in this era, I appreciated this spunky South American woman who let her husband be a man and was joyful being his helpmate.  There was no foolish feminism and roles were clearly understood and cherished.

10 Bunnies Leapt off the Cake

 

If you look closely, you might see the 11th bunny.  Goldie must have read my cook book and knew that all good bunny cakes call for 7 egg whites,  she laid her first egg on Fritz's birthday.  How thoughtful of her.  Today she laid her second egg. Maybe in a week we'll have enough for scrambled eggs.

 Expected in December, Goldie's egg was an early surprise.

 

Upside down or right side up I love this boy.

Welcome to the double digits.

It All Melts Away

Recently I saw these super magnified photos of snowflakes and was in pure awe.  God detailed them so complexly and exquisitely.  What artist creates something realizing it will just melt away?  Why did God "take time" on something with such a short life?  I think it is because he delights in beauty, in mystery and in human nonsense.  Generations past never got to see these snowflakes in ultra magnification, yet God still sent snow to fall on their heads.  How like him to hide the beauty till the right time.  As technology allows us to see the visible world expand and proof of a Creator amplified, why do people deny that which God has always revealed?   How generous that God still sends snow on a wayward people, a people without excuse.  How like him to not feel wasteful when those flakes vanish.  How like him to write meaning into snow's representation.  To those of the redeemed, our sins have been washed whiter than snow.  That is a dazzling thought.