It has been an eventful summer! We've just returned from Colorado where our daughter was married on Saturday. We were able to travel with several dear family and dear friends! It was truly an amazing week and we were constantly reminded of how truly blessed we are!

The bride and groom just after we entered Colorado.

The Rockies!

The bride and groom overlooking Rocky Mountain National Park

View of the Flattop Mountains from Stillwater Reservoir

The moon coming up from atop a mountain!

Heading up to our favorite spot overlooking some glorious scenery!

Some of that scenery!


Some more of the view

A very friendly chipmunk!

Sheriff's Reservoir

Beautiful stream flowing down from the reservoir.

How can anyone deny there is a God!

Our lodge

The Colorado River

Relaxing in the lodge

Me and my dad!

More relaxing in the lodge night before the wedding.

The lodge

Wedding day!



Mom and Dad


Dad and daughter

Happy Mom and daughter!

What a beauty!!!

Two happy moms!

We were surrounded by those we love and those who love us! It was an amazing week, an amazing day, and an amazing wedding! We made memories to last a lifetime!

Just a few highlights from our bridal showers!

How well does she know her fiance? Marshmallows for wrong answers!

Perfect gift for my girl who loves to bake!

Grandma made her this awesome afghan!


Our favorite little one!


Three of our favorite girls in the whole world!

My new daughter-in-law sharing some insights from God's Word.


Rug woven by my mother-in-law.

Quilt by grandmother-in-law!

This time I got to answers questions, too!

Before the shower began, I dropped a table on my ankle. Lots of ice and trying to keep it up. I'm not able to spend too much time at the computer because it starts to ache. It's a nasty bruise! I've never had one quite like this before. Maybe I'll get caught up on my knitting now!

A whole month, gone! We're down to less than 4 weeks until my daughter's wedding! We actually only have 3 weeks left to get things done though! We've had two showers in the past week and have two this week for another friend getting married. We've got over 50 dozen cookies to get baked and frozen!

Not only has it been a physically demanding time, but we've been on emotional roller-coaster. God is faithful! He's getting us through! So many things we're looking forward to, yet so much sadness for a time of our life that's now ending. We are truly blessed and I can't be more grateful to God for taking two sinners and loving through them with His grace and mercy. I can't thank Him enough for giving us life and hope and joy and peace. For opening our eyes and letting us see Him. What an awesome God!

Summer always brings back so many memories, sensory memories, not just the memories of my mind.

My grandfather was an amazing baker. We lived on an acreage with strawberries, peaches, pears, apples, grapes and the most amazing patch of both red and black raspberries. The patch had been there long before we had moved onto the place and was easily tended. It was sandy soil and I would often crawl in among the brambles to play in the sand. I can remember the warm sand on my legs even now.

June was often the beginning of a very fruitful berry, fruit, and vegetable harvest. We would enjoy strawberry pie and Grandma would make jar after jar of strawberry jam. Many quarts were frozen for later use during our long Iowa winters.

Strawberries were wonderful, but I really loved the raspberries, especially the extra sweet black ones. We could pick on the patch almost all summer it seemed. Quart after quart went into the freezer, but many of the berries were used the same day they were picked. Grandpa would make the most amazing black raspberry cobbler! I can taste it even today. The warmth of the filling, the flakiness of the crust! He didn't do a traditional cobbler, but instead, made an extra thick pie crust for the top and bottom. For an added treat, we would often make homemade ice cream on the front steps while the cobbler baked and cooled a little. I can still hear the sounds of the birds quietly chirping to each other in the heat of the late afternoon. We lived amongst over 50 oak trees and the sound of the leaves rustling always seemed to calm my spirit.

I am often amazed at this time of the year just what will make my senses soar, memories come back to life. Time was so simple, summer was truly a time of relaxation and joy. Swimming, reading quietly under a tree, and eating black raspberry cobbler with freshly made homemade ice cream. Life was so good!

Love having more template options!

Learning how hard it really is to let go and move on. Getting a better understanding of God letting go of His Son!

Wow! Time is flying by so fast lately!! I've been wanting to blog, but just had no time. We've been in a whirlwind of activity! I'm going to let pictures tell most of the story.

Our first shower at M's church.

The next shower at her aunt's home.
The shower at our church.
Beginning the cleaning and decorating.
Putting together the arch.
Rehearsal
At the rehearsal dinner, my best friend gave me this beautiful knitted beaded bag pin. I can't begin to tell you how much that means to me! I've been making beaded bags for special brides and a couple of special moms for years, but this was the first time someone made one for me. Inside the bag, the word Havarah.
M opening the shawl I knit her for her wedding day.
The beaded bag which quickly filled with written blessings for the couple from their family and friends.
The knitted wedding cake I made them for a centerpiece.
Our family
The kids
Waiting for the bride
Just about time!
Giving her to J
Vows
The beginning of the kiss.


The kiss



The happy couple!


And, now, as of yesterday at 5:30, our daughter is officially engaged!!
So, now a new whirlwind begins! We are looking forward to the wedding later this summer and to truly being empty nesters! Thank you God for all the wonderful people you've put in our lives to support us and love us!!

I can't believe it's been six weeks since I last posted! So much has gone on. It has been a busy spring!

Sadly, another old friend suddenly passed away in early May. She suffered a massive stroke. She was such a fun and lively spirit, she will be greatly missed, but I'm sure Yeshua is giggling about now!

The main focus of most of April and May has been preparing for my son's wedding. We are 9 days away!! In the middle of preparation, he found out he needed to find a different place to live than first thought and so we had a new challenge. Thankfully, our friends who lost their daughter, our sweet Elaina, had just learned that they needed to rent out her house and were very nervous about getting the wrong person in there. Within a couple of days, my son showed up at the door and explained his dilemma. He moved in a week later. It is bittersweet, but we are thankful that he can do this for Elaina and her parents.

We moved him in the same day we had the last shower (of 4) for our new daughter-in-law. That made for a long day, but it was very productive. We had a nice shower and as a result of the generosity of so many wonderful family and friends, they've really got a good start for their first home together.

I'm looking forward to a fairly peaceful weekend. All of my projects for the wedding are finished except for one and that one I can do at my leisure. We've got my niece's graduation party and ceremony, a trip to the races, and the LOST finale planned, plus the promise of beautiful weather, should be a good pre-wedding weekend!!

Just because she's so beautiful!!!

It seems like so many of my posts have been about sad things or bad weather for the past few months, and they have, but there have been many blessings along the way, many things to be thankful to God for and I've neglected those things. So, tonight, the happy stuff!!

We are just under two months until my youngest marries his beautiful bride-to-be! Things are moving along and we are just thrilled.
In early February, A & E had their first baby. I introduced this great young couple, so I was tickled to share in their joy!

Just a few days after that a young man came into my daughter's life. He's just wonderful. We couldn't be more thrilled!
At the end of March, two days before her due date, my best friend's baby girl came into the world! She came quickly and surprised everyone. I was able to join them within a half-an-hour of her birth and was overjoyed to help everyone get situated. I can't begin to express what a blessing she and her mommy are to me!!

Less that one hour old

Her first full day outside of Mommy

One week old

10 days old

Such a perfect tiny hand with a wisp of beautiful baby fine hair caught in between her fingers

Two weeks old and perfect!

Up from the grave He arose!
With a mighty triumph o'er His foes!
He arose a victor from the dark domain
and He lives forever with His saints to reign!

He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah, Christ arose!!

Today is Good Friday and what does my brain dream about during the night, divided churches. My dream had us sitting through a church meeting in a Baptist church. The fighting was so intense. I don't remember what the fighting was about, but I remember seeing the faces of people that I love that attend that particular church (IRL) and they were crying. Weeping. Horrified to see what was happening to their church, knowing that the church no longer seemed to care why they were there, who they were supposed to be worshiping, serving. The sadness was overwhelming.

As we left this church in my dream, we walked past a park filled with statues and arches of some sort. At least 5o women were walking from across a little pond over to this area of the park. They were dressed in skirts and button-down blouses, but several of them wore habits. They walked as though they were zombies, straight-ahead, not looking around them at the beautiful spring scenery. Before long, several of the women were dancing in front of the statues and arches. My spirit felt sad.

Time to wake up. I wake up to the realization that my dream wasn't real, yet I know so many caught in churches that have lost their vision and so many others caught in idolatry. They go through each day believing that "church" is simply the building they go to on Sundays and that it's okay if their life isn't any different than their next door neighbors.

Today is the day we reflect on what it was Jesus did for us. Did He take it lightly? Did He do it so that we could just simply believe and never move beyond that? How does He want us to live our lives?

The past couple of weeks have been quite frustrating on many levels and yet, God still speaks!

Following Elaina's death, I had my first visit to a chiropractor. Thankfully, he's my pastor's son, so I wasn't too nervous. All the stress from her death and the subsequent funeral had settled in my neck and shoulders and I was miserable! He got that taken care of, although I need another visit. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my second appointment because of another more intimate health issue that arose. That one kept me down for four days! Before I was completely over that (well, I'm still on antibiotics), it was time for Women of Faith (more about that in a minute). During Women of Faith, we found out that my niece was being taken to the children's hospital for an infection/abscess. She'd been in the local hospital for 2 days and they were not getting results so they sent her to the big hospital. It was difficult to concentrate on Women of Faith after that so my mom and I left early and went over to the hospital. In the time that we were there, they saw four doctors, including the surgeon! We were all very impressed and excited that they were going to be able to bring relief to her quickly.

That evening brought more drama and disappointment into our life. I can't discuss what happened, but it wasn't pretty. It makes me so sad when believers place secular things over and above their Christianity.

The next day brought more difficult news, drama, and disappointment! I can't talk about that one either, but God is working it out.

Women of Faith was really quite good this year. March is my difficult month for dealing with my anxieties and fears. Almost every speaker spoke to those issues in one way or another.

Patsy Clairmont was awesome. I picked up her new book. She spoke about the tools to overcoming our anxieties and fears-many things I've learned through the years and just needed to be reminded about.

Andy Andrews, however, was my favorite. He spoke about many of the same things and talked about our having purpose. He spoke about seeking wisdom and putting the good things into our minds. Today I read this in his book The Traveler's Gift, "Successful people make their decisions quickly and change their minds slowly. Failures make their decisions slowly and change their minds quickly."

I've seen this in action. We've been surrounded by people who change their minds constantly, unable to stick with any decision and we've discovered how absolutely destructive it is to the person and to those around them, particularly their families. How sad it is.

It's taken me four days to find the strength to write this post. Today, we lay to rest another dear friend. This death came without any notice, incomprehensible, leaving us all in shock. This one wasn't supposed to happen.

Elaina was a beautiful, 33 -year-old woman with a heart of gold, hands of creativity and generosity, and a body committed to serving those around her. She was always filled with joy, enjoying life with a fervor beyond her years. She loved giving of herself to her family, her friends, and her community.

When I first met Elaina, I had just married hubby and she and her family were our closest neighbors (they still are, although her brother and his wife have built a home in between us). Elaina was 11. She was thrilled about our little girls and enjoyed spending time with them. As she got older, and we had our son, she spent more time babysitting for them. She taught my children so much over the years.

She was a wonderful baker, a beautiful quilt maker, an avid 4-H participant and then leader. For having such a short life, she touched more hearts than just about anyone else I've known.

This past Wednesday, February 24, I received a call from my mom. Life changed from that moment on. Elaina was gone. She had gone to bed the night before and had not woken up. Her older brother had been sent to check on her when she didn't show up for work. Her car was in the garage, she wouldn't answer her phone, and she wouldn't come to the door. The adrenaline starting pumping in his 6'4" body and he made quick work of her two back doors, breaking through them with a mighty kick. He found his precious sister gone. She was lying peacefully in bed with her kitty curled up under the covers beside her.

Shock. No other word can describe the feelings that went through her family and her friends as the news trickled out. Deep sadness, incomprehensible shock. This could not be happening we all seemed to be saying. Sadly, it's real.

Today, we say our final good-byes. My heart aches for her mom and dad, her two brothers and their wives (so very close to Elaina) and especially for her five young nieces and nephews. She adored them and they, her. My children were blessed to have known and grown up with her, they have good memories, it saddens me so to think that the youngest four are not going to be able to really remember her.

God, grant us all the strength to face this day. May you be glorified even as we struggle to understand.

Wow, I've practically missed the entire month of February! It's been more snow, more snow, more snow and more for this upcoming weekend. That will put us in the top 5 record snowfalls since they began keeping records. I'm quite tired of white!