Amy's Visit

Do you think Joanna would like to have some of Chase's ice cream?

Amy came down on Saturday with Chase & Joanna and stayed till this afternoon. She went to our church on Sunday morning and was able to visit with some friends she hadn't seen in a very long time. Dawn had lunch with us before dashing off to her kids' musical/drama rehearsal. Amy and the kids took a nap. Andy took a bike ride. I made a batch of cookies so we would have treats for our small group that met at our house in the evening.

Amy and the kids joined our small group in the evening. Andy leads the discussion which is based on the morning's sermon. I will probably give my impressions of the message in a later blog. Joanna lay on the floor, Chase played with his cars and trucks and wandered in and out of the room. One time in the middle of the discussion, Chase came over to Andy, looked up at him and said, "PopPop talking." It was so funny. It broke everybody up.

On Monday Amy and I went to the zoo with Chase & Joanna. It was a perfect day for that kind of outing. The sky was overcast but the air was pretty warm - mid 60's. I hadn't been to the Philadelphia Zoo in a very long time and was impressed with the improvements that have been made over the years. The walkways are hardscaped with nice bushes and trees. The zoo wasn't at all crowded - it was a pleasant experience this time. It was fun to experience it with Chase.

We were all pretty tired when we got home, but it was a good tired.

Today Amy and I went to a children's resale store where she was able to buy all the clothes the kids needed for the coming winter - all for $56.00. It's a very nice store with good clothes and low prices.

Amy left around 2:00 pm, then I spent the rest of the day cleaning the bathrooms and vacuuming the house. Andy and I also went to vote.

Andy spent the morning just hanging around waiting for the inspector to come check the framing work on the front porch. He couldn't really do anything until the inspector said it was ok and he didn't get here till around 2:00 pm. He did pass us, so Andy can go ahead - on to the next step. He was hoping to get the openings in the eaves closed up. The longer they are opened up, the more likely we'll get critters up in the attic. But with the shortness of daylight hours now, he was unable to get much done today.

Building Bethlehem / Family Time

Andy was gone all day with the Nativity Workday at church. He had a crew of about 40 men and women helping. He said he was happy with all that was done.
Christian had some tree work to do here in Jersey, so the whole family came down on Friday night and stayed in the upstairs apartment overnight. Then they were here all day. Amy and her 2 kiddos came down on Saturday morning and spent the whole day, as well. So the cousins all had lots of time to play and be together. They all get along well.

I thought this picture was funny with Naomi dressed up in girly dress-up clothes and brandishing a gun!


Tommy & Dawn came over to join us all for dinner. I made chicken bar-b-q pizza with a Caesar's salad, and we had ice cream for dessert.
After dinner we planned details for Thanksgiving dinner and drew names for Christmas. I'm very grateful for the love we share and enjoy as a family. God has blessed us with beautiful grandchildren! Of course, I would be happy with them even if they weren't physically beautiful - that's just icing on the cake!

Progress

The guys we hired to frame up the front porch finished today. There really is a lot left before it's finished , but Andy can peck away at it as he has time.

The Kids / Our Front Porch

Christy asked if I could come up and watch Grace, Aiden and Naomi while she took Patrick and Asher to an appointment for Patrick at CHOP on Tuesday. She was going to have to leave her house by 9:00 am, and I didn't want to have to worry about getting there in time and fighting traffic on the Expressway, so I decided to go up Monday after dinner and spend the night. They have a spare bedroom that is quite comfortable for me. In my packing, though, I forgot to take my camera along. So there are no pictures of my time there.

I spent all day Tuesday with the kids. Christy was gone from 9:00 am till 5:00 pm. Fortunately, Christian went with her so she didn't have to deal with traffic, 2 children and 4 hours of specialists and their observations/diagnoses.

It rained and blustered all day, so the kids and I were stuck in the house. We read stories and played games all day, taking a break for lunch. I taught them a song I had learned in grade school from CEF club:
I am the resurrection and the life,
He that believeth in me though he were dead,
Yet shall he live, yet shall he live,
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me
Shall never, never, never, never die -
Shall never, never, never, never die.

Then Grace tried picking out the melody on the piano. While she was doing that, I French braided her hair. I just can't leave her hair alone. Every time I'm with her, I feel compelled to do it. Fortunately, she doesn't mind. But she doesn't mind most things. She's so easy and accommodating.

Around 3:00 Christy called to say they had just finished and were on their way home. She suggested I put the kids all down for a nap to give me a break. Actually, they were doing very well and I didn't feel like I needed a break until she suggested it. Then the idea sounded like a good one, so I tucked them all into bed. I didn't know if they would actually sleep, but all 3 of them did. There was no fussing or noise at all. They must have been really tired. I had to wake them up in an hour.

We had scheduled our construction friend to start the framing for our front porch on Tuesday, but because of the rain and wind, he put it off till today. This morning 3 guys came and worked all day, so progress is being made. Yeah!

They should be finished with the framing in another day, maybe a day and a half.

Not much to report...

I was glad we finally got rain yesterday. It had been so dry for so long. My rain gauge says we got .6 or .7. It's hard to tell for sure because a leaf is floating on top, and I'm trying to read it from inside the house.

Because of the dreariness of the day, though, I didn't have a lot of energy. I went grocery shopping first thing in the morning. That was a fairly pleasant experience because the stores and parking lots were not crowded. Either the hour was too early or the threat of rain kept people away.

When I got home, I was overcome with the tiredness and succumbed to a nap in bed! Gasp! I actually slept at 10:30 in the morning.

But because of my indomitable work ethic (nowadays known as obsessive/compulsive behavior), I was able to do some baking in the afternoon. I got 2 loaves of applesauce bread done and a batch of cookies. And I experimented with a new recipe for dinner. I was looking through my Whole Foods Cookbook and found a recipe that sounded good and good for you. It had tomatoes, spinach, kalamati olives and zucchini in it, along with feta cheese to give it some zing. It was pretty good, but not fantastic. I might make it again just because I have more of the ingredients left over that I needed for this first time.

After dinner I went to church with Andy for worship team practice. While the team rehearsed, I oversaw the guy who was doing the slides. He was a fairly new recruit and needed to be "trained." He loses his place easily, then panics. So hopefully, today will go better than the last time he did it.

I filled up 2 bird feeders a couple of days ago and they have been busy with lots of tufted titmice and chickadees and an occasional flicker, nuthatch, cardinal and downy woodpecker. Blue jays and turtledoves are ever present, too.

This coming week promises to be more exciting...stay tuned!

Field Trip

We always have a staff meeting on Wednesday afternoons at the church. These meetings include all the pastors, interns, woman counselor and myself. Usually they're intended for touching base, prayer, all of us getting on the same page, etc. But occasionally Pastor plans a field trip. Yesterday we all got into a church van and traveled to Camden. There's a ministry there that has been operating for a number of years ministering to ex-convicts and prostitutes. What a ministry! We were very excited to see firsthand what is happening in that city.

I confess I was not too comfortable being there. It's depressing to drive by all the boarded up homes and observe guys dealing drugs.

But there's hope in the hopelessness of that situation. Lives are being changed, people are being ministered to.

My Father's Hands and South Jersey Aftercare are currently being run by Bill who was a powerful big-wig attorney before he got involved in drugs, then mishandled funds in a trust in order to support his habit. He was caught, stripped of his license to practice law and served a 15 month jail term. God used that experience in his life to bring him to Himself. Then God also gave him a desire to serve others who were caught in the web of sin.

Bill's wife is with him in this ministry and recently began working with the prostitutes that walk the streets. She boldly walks up to them, begins a conversation with them and prays for them.

Bill was so encouraged by our being with him and caring about his ministry, but I think we were the ones who were blessed. God is at work - nothing is too hard for Him.

Hungering for God

I have discovered that doing mindless work doesn't have to be boring. So how do you spice up the job of cleaning bathrooms? Well, you really don't have to think much about that job, so you can let your mind drift in other directions. My mind was drifting in all kinds of rabbit trails today. It all started with remembering a message I heard once about hungering for God. It made such an impression on me that I even remembered when it had been preached. I searched through my journals for that particular day and found it. January 3, 1999. Pastor challenged us to fast one day a week - to lay aside one of God's gifts (food) to feast on God alone. Some things I wrote down:
1. Fasting is a voluntary trial.
2. The greatest obstacle to knowing God is His gifts.
3. We should not be preoccupied with God's gifts, but focus on the Giver.

Before that Sunday, Pastor had me order about 100 of A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God, that he then made available to everyone on Sunday. I picked up a copy and started reading. What a great thought-provoking book! It is chock full of deep spiritual truths and applications for our walk with God. Chapter 2 is especially challenging, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing. We tend to enthrone God's gifts and dethrone the Giver. God always intended that He Himself would be the greatest source of our pleasure. The gifts that God has given can be the source of the ruin of our souls. Tozer says: "There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the life. Because it is so natural, it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is. But its outworkings are tragic."

I guess I have to ask myself: Do I love God for Who He is or for what He does for me? In a way, it's both because everything I have is from Him. But what if everything is taken away, including my first born child that I was so eager to have? Is God still good? Is He still rich in love? Is He still my All in All? Is He more than enough? It's a great mystery to me how we can go through difficult and dark circumstances but experience the wonderful peace and joy of the Lord. How is that possible? Because He is a great God - He is good - all the time! And He is with us as we go through our valley of the shadow of death. There is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still.

So circumstances shouldn't matter if my joy is in the Lord. He is constant and His gifts are constant. He is the source of my joy, not my circumstances or His gifts.

And that is when God is most glorified in us - when we are most satisfied in Him!

It was another beautiful autumn day. The maples in our side yard are beginning to turn red. Every year I notice that they turn one branch at a time. Isn't it interesting how it looks like the tree is reaching it's arms toward heaven. That reminds me of the verse that says the trees of the field clap their hands.

"The whole earth is full of His glory!"

Andy had a load of lumber delivered today in preparation for framing up the front porch. He has scheduled a crew to come in next week to help him with the framing.

For dinner tonight I made a salmon quiche. Mmmm-mmmm!