A new walking route...

Since spring has sprung, sort of, I'm trying to get back to walking. That, and my chiropractor said I needed to keep moving instead of sitting here staring at a computer screen. I'm not sure what good it does in that respect, but I need to do it anyway! (I still have the pain in my neck. I went Thursday and have an appointment for Monday. This has been going on since Good Friday! Should I go to a "regular" doctor if it's not better soon? It usually doesn't last this long. Just asking for medical advice, that's all, lol.)

Anyway, Micah and I decided to measure the distance for walking purposes of the road that starts right across the county road from us. Does that make sense? It goes along for about a mile and then has a large loop at the end, and that's it. It must be the end of a peninsula and it has many driveways going off of it for lake homes. If I walk all the way to the end and around that loop and then walk home, it's 2.3 miles. A good distance. Today I walked a mile in the morning and another in the afternoon. I probably won't walk any extreme distances until my neck is better. But 1-2 miles is do-able. (Is that a word?)

Here I'm leaving my house...

We still look pretty wintery around here with our naked trees. Some rain is probably needed to green things up. See the road that continues straight ahead when I cross the county road? That's where I'm headed.

Yeah, no elk around these parts. But that's the road I'm going to be walking on. People often think our driveway is part of this road since this sign sits right at the end of our drive.

One of many deer prints I came across.

 While I was walking an SUV passed me going in the same direction, hit their brakes and then backed up. It turned out to be a lady I know from the Church of Christ. Remember last summer when I went to the Church of Christ and helped with vacation Bible school? This was one of my favorite ladies who I would really like to know better. She lives just a mile down the road from me! I had no idea! She invited me to stop in for coffee any time. I'll be walking right past her house when I do the whole route. That is one of those God-incidences!

This road has no shoulder! I'm not used to walking on roads, but people were pretty good about giving me space. And since it's a dead end, there isn't much traffic.

 At this point I had already turned around and headed back toward home.

Remember, shadows add ten pounds! Right? :)

The wind was whistling through the pines!

Most of the woods around here are actually pine plantations which were planted to replace all the natural woods that had been cut down for lumber. I really don't care for the rows of single species of trees. But I guess it's better than bare land.

There's the old home place. It will be green eventually!

And the field to the south of us.

I didn't take many pictures because I didn't want folks to think I was photographing their houses. We backwoods people value our privacy! 

When I got back from my walk Adam and Micah were packing the kids up to take them to their "other Grandma Lisa's" house. Yesterday was Micah and Adam's 10th anniversary, so Grammy and Grampy are taking the kids for the evening so M & A  can go to a movie and probably visit Menards for some house building supplies. Not a fancy evening, but it's what they want to do. (I'm not fancy, so it sounds like fun to me!) I snapped these pics of the kids being loaded into the van.

Sully was making a funny face. Neither of them look too impressed.

The girls were excited. :)

So, that was my day pretty much. Josh and family went to Bemidji for a good part of the day, so besides my walks I did spend a lot of time on the computer. There's not a lot I can do comfortably otherwise. (I did do some laundry and dishes!) I think my neck pain is improving. (Or maybe it's the two Advil I just took.) It's just irritating and I'm oversensitive to this sort of pain.

Maybe I'll fiddle around with some ATCs later. I hope you're all reveling in your summer-like weather!

Thanks for looking in on my little world and much shalom to everyone! :)

Some flowers and a pain in the neck...

Well, I haven't done so well on the yard work front. I raked some leaves, ignoring the fact that my neck was getting sore like I had a pinched nerve. So, I aggravated that. I finally went to the chiropractor today and have another appointment for Thursday. Hopefully it will feel better before that and I can skip that second visit.

Things have been quiet this afternoon and evening since I returned from getting the girls from school. Josh and family have been gone most of the day. I hope they're enjoying the beautiful day.

I finished up some cards for a swap called Sensational Summer Flowers. I just made some blobs of color on the cards and then drew flowers on top. The pictures didn't come out well. The colors were much more vibrant. But I've packed them up to mail, so I can't retake the pictures. Oh well, you get the idea.

I'm off to do some reading. Radical Hospitality has so many good bits in it, I'm tempted to keep posting excerpts, but there are too many!

God bless you all and have a shalom-filled week!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Have a blessed Easter!

I'm waiting for Josh, Jess and Nathan to bring me home some Thai takeout. I've never eaten Thai food...as far as I remember. (Update: It was really good! We got the Scandinavian, not-too-spicy version. This restaurant is located in a tiny town about 20 miles from here. The wife is Thai and her husband has been to Thailand. You get to choose how spicy you want your food.)

A  couple of photos I haven't shared yet.

Yesterday, on the way home from the hospital, Nathan and the family stopped off in the town of Detroit Lakes. He went hunting for shells on the beach and found some really big snail shells. There's still a lot of ice on that big lake.

Josh and Nathan visited our local Nevis lake beach today. If you look at the photo right about where Josh's hairline is, you'll see white stuff in the lake. Yup, that's ice. They waded around anyway! It was about 70 degrees today. Yay!

Adam's grandmother is making quilts for all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Micah got this photo of some of the kids trying out Hazel's new quilt. Hazel picked out one quilt square that was her particular favorite. I'm not sure which one it is.

And a few more of the pack...

Audrey is such a good big sister!

Can you tell they had been eating chocolate chip muffins?

Finally! A smile from Mr. Serious!

I actually went for a one mile walk today. The trail is finally all clear. Unfortunately, I tried to be macho and didn't wear socks. I ended up with bloody heels. I'll know better next time! But it's a start! (I would have walked farther if that hadn't happened. Really. I would have.)

I went to the thrift store yesterday and picked up some summery tops. I'm about ready to switch my closet over from winter to summer. Woo hoo!

God bless y'all for stopping by! Happy Easter and Happy Birthday, Glenn! :)
Shalom!

radical hospitality...

This is the perfect book for the journey I'm currently taking. I've begun this book a couple of times, but it's really speaking to me now. Something I need to read for my real life. :)

 Here are a couple of the first pages on my Kindle. You may have to click on them to make them big enough to read.

My little grandson, Nathan, has spent a couple of nights in the hospital in Fargo. He's experiencing a lot of sad feelings that he doesn't know how to cope with. I pray that the Lord will help me to learn how to die to myself, quit hanging onto "my life" and be willing to expend more time and energy to just spend time with this little boy. To listen to what he has to say and to let him know he's important. It's such a hard thing to do. It's so tempting to keep wanting life to get back to "normal". In other words, to be able to just do what I want all the time. That's not the example Jesus set for us, and I don't want to settle for that. Anyway, I'm hoping to find some encouragement through this book to help me follow this new road. I think it's going to be good! (Nathan's coming home tomorrow.)

We had a gorgeous moon this evening!

It's been a nice day. I may try doing some yardwork tomorrow if it doesn't decide to rain. Most of the snow is gone and my yard is kind of a mess.

It's getting late, so I'll say goodnight for now. Love you folks! Thanks for stopping by!
Shalom!

A little early with my header...

but since He really IS already risen, it's okay. Right? I have a habit of not posting very often lately, so I wanted to have my Easter header up just in case, lol.

Well, we picked up 6-8" of snow on Thursday and Friday. These pics were taken when the snow had just begun. I hopped in my car and went in to pick the girls up from school a little early before the roads got really bad, but it was already almost a white out and the road was hard to see. The school sent work home with the kids and school was closed on Friday. Our school doesn't often close due to weather.

I'm losing track of what happened when and I almost forgot to mention that Josh and Jess and the kids made a trip to Wisconsin where they met Jess's parents. They left on Wednesday and came back on Thursday, in the midst of that blizzard. The purpose of the trip was to send Starry back with the grandparents to Kentucky for a long visit. She may be there for a couple of months.  That will make things a little easier around here while Josh and Jess figure out the best arrangements for Nathan. He seems to be doing somewhat better, but with Starry here things sometimes get out of hand. They're still waiting to hear about a long term treatment arrangement for him. I'm not sure how this will all be resolved, but all we can do is trust the Lord one day at a time. True for everyone, I guess!

It's melting now, and at least we don't have the huge piles of plowed stuff to melt. Someone suggested we might get more later in the week.

Gretchen, I haven't read any of Neil Gaiman's novels and I probably won't. I've abandoned the book I was reading after about page 100 of 500. It was all essays and speeches he has given over the years, and they had begun to sound a little too similar. I wasn't going to waste time reading the whole thing.

So, I'm just doing a lot of reading, watching documentaries on Netflix and visiting with Josh after the rest of the household goes to bed. That's my favorite perk! I'm not feeling too creative, so you may not see much artwork for a while. My energies are going more toward staying positive and seeing beyond the obvious, mundane, slightly sad/depressing things my dear son and his family are coping with. I really need to spend more time in prayer and Bible reading, rather than entertaining myself. I feel such a difference when I do! The enemy wants me to just try to put a band-aid on things by watching movies and trying to "cheer myself up", but this is a battle in the heavenlies, and I need to be building my faith. We all need to keep our eyes on God and keep an eternal perspective. That's what really helps in times like these. And I know we're all experiencing stuff. If you aren't right now, you will be. That's life on this fallen planet. Hang in there, friends! End of sermonette! :)

That's about it for now. I'm off to see if Granny Marigold bought any more teacups and what the rest of you are up to! Thanks for your encouraging comments and your cheerful blogs!

Shalom!

A foggy evening...

Things are slowly warming up and we had a little rain today. It's helping to melt what little snow is left. Tonight things are misty.

I've added another book to my pile of current reads. So far I'm enjoying this book. It gives a lot of insight into the mind of this particular writer. I don't agree with all of his views, but he seems to be a decent sort of chap. I'm only about a sixth of the way through the book, so I hope I won't regret recommending it later, lol. I tend to jump the gun sometimes! It's a collection of short essays and speeches he's given over the years.

Here's a short excerpt. He's explaining why he doesn't think "escapism" is necessarily a bad thing when the term is applied to reading. He's not a Christian, (at least as far as I can tell) but he does seem to be a fan of C.S. Lewis, Tolkien and Chesterton. I like him!

I'm trying to spend more quiet time in my room, reading, watching videos and doing peaceful things to counteract some of the craziness with the kids. Josh and Jess are good with that. They said they don't expect me to deal with the kids, which is a relief for me to know. I'll be in a better frame of mind when I am with them if I have time to myself to regroup. With the spring weather we should be able to all spend more time outdoors as well, which will help. The Lord is helping us day-by-day. I'm going to go out and visit with Josh and Jess before I go to bed.

Thanks for looking in on me! Love you folks!
Shalom!

As in the days of Noah...

...we're finally seeing dry ground!

And when that alfalfa field in the background is clear of snow I may just strike out across it and take a walk! I hope I don't come across any bears coming out of hibernation, lol.

Things are much as they have been. Details change daily, so I won't bore you all with that.

Here are my two current reads.

Still dreaming of writing a book! This edition of Writing Picture Books is from 2009, but I think it still contains lots of good info on writing. Just started it and it looks promising.

I get daily C.S. Lewis quotes in my email. This was today's. If you've read the Screwtape Letters you know that "the Enemy" he refers to is God since it's a demon speaking. I've read this so many times, but it always blesses me.

 Screwtape reveals the Enemy’s intentions:

Now it may surprise you to learn that in His [the Enemy’s] efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else. The reason is this. To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.

From The Screwtape Letters
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

We've had a few flurries today, but then the sun breaks through again. It's just playing with us! I think our version of spring is here.

That's all for now. I'm off to read some more of your blogs. Thanks for visiting!
Shalom.