More Bandon pics...

This is Deanna and Joanne walking around the huge rock upon which Linda found the "alive" tidepool. Yes, the tidepools have special significance!

I'm afraid you won't be able to enlarge these two pictures, as they were taken with Deanna's camera and I guess I don't know how to import them properly. I couldn't enlarge them anyway.

This one, however, is taken with my camera so you can look at most of us!

The beach in front of our beach house, where we searched for items to attach to our keepsake boxes. It was so beautiful and peaceful there. I truly did not want to leave.

Misc Pics from the Beach

Decorating boxes on Friday before dinner. Can you see what a beautiful house we were in? And what beautiful ladies went on the getaway?

Other side of the table.
Sunset out our sliding glass door. We were RIGHT on the beach.

A barren tidepool! Nothing alive that we could see!

Would you believe that Linda found a tidepool on the top of this enormous rock she climbed?! I guess bravery is rewarded. But amazing that the only tidepool we found with lots of living critters was in the most unlikely place!

Thanks, Meg, For the Encouragement to BLOG Already!

Okay, when we arrived at the beach house in Bandon, I gave an assignment right off the bat. Each lady was to go walk on the beach for an hour and pick up items with which she could decorate the small paper boxes I handed out. What a fantastic assortment and variety of decor we had at the end of the decorating time!

Our study was from Pamela Reeve's little Book Parables by the Sea. As we completed each lesson, each lady received a keepsake to place within her box to remind her of the lesson we had just learned. The first was The Parable of the Shell - God's infinite skill and creativity as He made individual patterns for each shell in the ocean and as He created each one of us, and the keepsake I handed out was...
...a baby sand dollar, no larger than a quarter.

The next morning's lesson was The Parable of the Tidepool, God's life filling us with life! No barren tidepool this, but filled with star fish, sea urchins, tiny fish and so much more. This lesson's keepsake for our little boxes was...

...a baby star fish, again smaller than a quarter.

Saturday evening's lesson was The Parable of the Waves, God's power moving in us to effect change in the lives of those around us. It isn't the water that erodes so much as the strength of the tides and currents moving the water. This was a bit more of a puzzler to figure a keepsake for but eventually Priscilla and I arrived at...

...the ocean in a glass vial. The water cannot move on its own, but is moved by an external force.

This is the inside of my own box. Obviously there is much more snuggled in here than the three keepsake reminders. But they are also here, and will always remind me that God has an individual pattern for my life, that the important thing is that His life lives in me, and that I can effect other's lives as I allow Him to move in me.

Going to the Coast!

If anyone isn't aware, I lead a couple of ladies small group/Bible studies. This year someone hung onto the idea of a group getaway long enough for it to stick! Long story short, we are taking off on Friday afternoon for a weekend at a rental house in Bandon. These are some pictures of a random trip to Bandon sometime within the past year or two. It was cloudy that day, and we're hoping for sun breaks this weekend!

The web page for our rental house is http://www.seascape-cottages.com/ if you want to see!
I plan to take plenty of pictures to share upon our return.
Please pray that it will be a meaningful time of quiet to listen to God individually
and learn together from His Word,

and really a hoot too!

Finally - A Picture of Both Boys, Having Fun!

Never a dull moment with these two around!

My Nice Son Tyler...

...holding gray bunny.

Our Rental House we're Trying to Sell

We sure worked our tails off on this house, but we're willing to cut our (large) losses just to sell.

Most of the kitchen is brand new, but we left the charming glass-fronted cabinets and built-ins.
One bedroom has a huge built in armoire and desk. I used to say you could sleep a Great Dane in those drawers!
There's a nice sunny living room.

The is one of the two bathrooms - the other one new and this one remodeled.

I like the house and really hope someone wants to buy it!

We're taking a big loss and only asking $150K!

Had to Catch a Hummingbird

Yesterday Priscilla discovered a hummingbird caught in the rafters of the greenhouse. The boys tried to catch it, but it took Todd's ingenuity to acomplish the task. He finally used two bamboo poles and a garbage bag to corner/pin the bird and Michael was able to gently capture it for release outside.

Before releasing it we wanted to capture on film (memory card?) the amazing head - it glowed like neon or fluorescence in bright fuchsia. It only really glows in the sunshine. As you can see in the top picture, where I got to hold and release it, pictured with the sun behind it, the head hardly looks colored.

A very cool experience. He took off in a few seconds, straight up about 25 feet, then off to the south and a tree perch. I hope there was nectar available somewhere close. I really should put up a feeder...

The Greenhouse (and peas) in April

These peas were planted last fall - I wanted to see how they would winter over. As you can see, even several snowfalls couldn't daunt these peas - they are verrry happy and covered with blooms. Peas will happen soon!

This is what the greenhouse was built for! Happy plants.
We collected seeds from two different wave petunias last year, planted them a couple of months ago. They are healthy and will be ready to plant out within a month.

The five kinds of tomatos are also thriving - aren't they beautiful?! And the leaves smell wonderful, Meg! Wish you could smell them for yourself!

The Sun is Here

Too bad I haven't the time to photograph it, much less bask in it. I feel like - who was it, the Rabbit? in Alice in Wonderland - I'm late for way too many things to accomplish! Listing them would be boring. I miss blogging and sharing pictures and cleaning my house, if you can believe that! Well, those who are self-employed had better make hay the whole time the - SUN SHINES! I get it! (Pausing to appreciate the totally unplanned pun.) Meanwhile I must not be the only one who is busy. Lots of blogs are pretty slow right now.

Wendell Berry - Found on My Own

S'true! I haven't seen what the fuss was about Mr. Berry (though I'm rather a fan of DAVE Barry!), but reading a very nice article in the Reader's Digest about a Viet Nam adoption, I followed down to the poem underneath and liked it. Then I read the author's name and chuckled. Okay. I officially get it. Here is the poem - see what you think!

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

I am reminded of Scriptures that might speak to Mr Berry's soul if he were of a mind to listen. There is Matthew 10:29-31 - "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

And there's the one Todd is fond of reminding me about when I fret, in Matthew 6:34 - "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I won't be all proud and say I always trust God and never fret - I don't, and I do! There are things in my life's circle and the greater world that are troubling, even distressing - sometimes very much so. If I can affect them I try to. But sometimes all I can do is pray and trust them to God, who truly can do that which should be done. The praying is the good stuff. The praying makes a difference.

It's been a while since I felt the despair described elequently above. It's better not to get to that point. But I still find peace where the wild things are.

Baby Smells

It is a point of fact that baby basil plants may equal baby tomato plants for smelling heavenly.

Sunny Day, Sweeping the Clouds Away...

Anybody else remember the old Sesame Street opening song?

What a beautiful day! The sun is shining, plants are bustin' out all over, the choir sang over the weekend and I am movin' on! (BTW, our Easter choir experience was WONDERFUL - our church does a community outreach service at the local HS on Easter Sunday, so Palm Sunday is our church family Easter service, and that's when we sang.)

The renters have moved out of Fairmount house, so we are trying, yet again, to sell. Boy, are we ever taking a financial beating on this place. Now we want to just sell really cheap and start over. As Dave Ramsey says, we are paying the stupid tax and learning from it! ANYhow, that means it needs to be staged again. Now, ordinarily that would sound like fun, right? Not this time, because all I want to do this week is garden! There's lots to do in the office, too, and a couple of ministry items that are clamoring for their piece of my attention. So, as wonderful and complete as my plan is for staging, the reality may be much more modest. Anybody want to have a staging party? Hmmm?

But the sun is shining, and it is Easter week, and I just can't stay under the load for very long - it keeps slipping off my shoulders! Four beautiful does meandered through the meadow this morning - so peaceful. As long as they're not eating my (newly-heightened and fortified-fenced) dogwood.

He is Risen!

Hi guys.

Once again we are celebrating the resurrection season

because Christ Jesus died on the cross to substitute His death for ours,

then He rose again from death and the grave to give us new life in Him!

Oh, how thankful I am, not only to anticipate eternity in Heaven,

but also for the peaceful, abundant life (not easy or perfect!)

that He offers to all who accept it.

He is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed!

The Buzzards are Back!

That is a pretty tiny picture, but it's "all I got"! (Which movie?)

I don't know if there's any way for you to tell, but this is a picture from yesterday morning of two buzzards sunning themselves in our old growth Douglas fir tree. It was a damp and chilly morning and they chose the highest perch available to spread their wings to catch some heat and Vitamin D. Wait - do animals require Vitamin D too? Hmmm... Anyway, Todd called us in to see them, and it was really fun to watch. (He took the picture and emailed it to me.) Since one of my favorite things about summer here is watching the buzzards ride the hot air currents, I am glad to see them return.

(And since my blogging literacy is limited at best, I can only refer you to a previous blog from Sunday, September 28, 2008, for my post about the buzzards migrating south.)