This Is Ridiculous!

I have mentioned Manly's new bike - it doesn't have petals so he just pushes along with his feet. It is supposed to teach them their balance by coasting...and it really does work! When he first got it, he just stood up and walked with it. Now he sits on the seat and really coasts. He will pick up his feet and go down the little incline on our sidewalk. :) Every time he does it, I am sure that he is going to wipe out, but somehow he manages to hold on and steer.

Well, the other evening, Steve and I were enjoying some time outside after supper. Steve was looking at the bike when he suddenly burst out laughing. He showed me the sticker on the bike...

Yep! Since we always try to follow every letter of every sub law that was ever made by every level of government or industry (NOT! GAG!), we dutifully got out the instruction manual and let Manly peruse it at his leisure. :)

Little Things

"The little things in life are really the big things in life."

As far back as I can remember, I have been enamored with little things -

the tiny, perfect details in nature -

the things that busy, hurried people miss seeing.

Have you ever laid on your tummy in the grass and just looked at the perfect form of each blade with its tidy crease down the middle?

Have you ever marveled at the tiny, curly petals on a dandelion?

When studied closely, the commonest things in my life reveal to me the greatest intricacy of God's design.

Since The Rain... Things Look So Much Better

Does anyone else remember that song, "Since The Rain"? Back in my radio days, I liked it and if I remember correctly, Ian Tyson sang it. Anyway, once in a while I think of it on a fresh, sweet morning after a rain. We had a good heavy thunder shower yesterday evening so...
This morning was one of those mornings - full of sweet smells and sparkling beauty.

This next picture is what I call a "Tulip Kiss". Doesn't it look like it is puckering up?? ;)
I never used to be a morning person - in fact I was a confirmed night hawk. I have defected to the morning crowd over the past ten years.
Last night after Bible study, I saw so many people out walking and biking and I was tempted to join them. However, there were still some jobs to be done in the kitchen and I didn't want to get to bed late. I have to be in bed dozing by 11:00PM for me to be worth anything in the morning. I comforted myself that the morning would be mine. I had a whole hour of quiet morning sweetness of my very own.

It was worth waiting for...there weren't even any mosquitoes out!

My transportation for the morning was my new bike. :) It took me (or rather I took it) on a lovely 5 mile pedal, mostly out of town. You can see my handy basket that makes carrying my camera easy. :D I am so thankful for this lovely gift from my husband!

Priorities

"Always do the important before the urgent."

This is my new motto.

A few weeks ago I was feeling so discouraged with what I was not able to accomplish in my days.

I was feeling so dissatisfied with how many important things were being left in order to accomplish the urgent.

What do I classify as urgent?

Laundry

Dishes

Baking Bread (what will we have for lunch without it?)

The Phone Ringing

Cleaning

People's Expectations

My Own Unrealistic Expectations

What do I think of as important?

Teaching little girls to read.

Reading stories to children.

Phoning a friend to encourage her.

Painting a picture.

Listening to my teens.

Sitting on my Hubby's lap.

Watching a sunrise.

I know that sometimes the urgent thing is the most important thing for a moment... but not for every moment.

So I am asking myself throughout my days,

"What is the most important thing for me to do right now?"

In spite of what is urgent.

Spring Fever

We have all had a case of spring fever this last week.

The four walls of our little house seem to be marching in on us and we all have this itchy, got-to-go-somewhere feeling.

We have all dealt with it differently.

The way that I usually deal with it is to do something creative.

Sometimes that is using my camera.

Sometimes that is sewing.

Yesterday that was painting.

I just got a new set of watercolour pencils.

And a new book of paper. J

This meadowlark was my first project with the pencils.

I have enjoyed watercolours and acrylics in the past,

But the pencils were something new.

I thoroughly enjoyed them!

Here are some of past projects:

This is a copy of a painting I did of my Granddad and his horse.

This is in our living room: lighthouses.

Doodling around doing pictures of Steven and the children.

So, I have my new pencils and paper sitting on my dresser. When I feel the spring fever coming on, all I have to do is pick them up and create.

It seems to work as an instant cure for me.

J

More Morning Pictures

I thought I would share some of the pictures from my morning walks over the last week. There has been a mix of clear and misty mornings but all mild.

I probably have said all this before, but my morning walk is a very special time to me. It is some time by myself, time to organize my thoughts and ideas for the day, and time to enjoy the outdoors and get some exercise.

Last night, a heavy, freezing mist rolled in. It had cleared off by the time I went out in the morning, but it left these little ice bits all over the trees. As the day warmed up, they were all tinkling down.

This morning's sunrise was so lovely!

I just got to the top of the hill as the sun peeked above the horizon.

It was worshipful to stand there with my face to the rising sun...alone in the fields.

I really get my heart pumping by the time I have power-walked to the top of this long, gradual hill. It doesn't look steep, but it is 1/2 mile long.

Big sky.

This little field sparrow landed right beside me on the road - and then let me pull my camera out and snap a few pictures of it. :)

One of the misty, but almost clear mornings.

A hardy Manitoba Maple that seeded itself on the road allowance.

A very foggy morning - walking to my Dad's house.

I am so thankful for a safe, little town to walk in.

When I go out, I have my camera bag over my shoulder (because I know the morning that I leave it at home, I will see something exceptionally beautiful), my ipod in my pocket and a cell phone in the other (makes me feel safer).

I usually get up an hour before the rest of the family which gives me time to get a few miles in before breakfast.

:)

The Living Dead

Dear Mom,

This afternoon, I stopped by to visit you in your care home. I walked the mile from our house on this foggy, mild winter day. You would have liked this day.

As I walked into your ward and down the hall to your room, I heard a man yelling from one of the rooms, "HELP! WILL SOMEBODY HELP ME?" He was confused and scared and senile. I thought about how he once would have been a strong, young man who had a family and worked hard to provide for them. I know that if I were to go into his room, there would be pictures of him back when he was living, living instead of living, dead.

As I came to your room, the door was shut so I knew you would still be in bed from your nap. I pushed the door open and an alarm went off - to help the nurses keep track of you when you wander. I reached up and turned off the alarm and slipped in and shut the door behind me. The air in your room was heavy. I stifled a gag. You must need to be cleaned up, and the nurses will be in soon to get you up and wash you. I don't call them. The process would take up all my time to visit you.

I walk over to your bed. It is placed against the wall - more in bedroom fashion then hospital fashion. You are covered with a brightly colored flannel quilt and you clutch a Winnie the Pooh teddy bear in your arms. Your body is so thin and wasted and hardly makes a bump under the sheet. I sit on the bed and take your hand. You look at me - through me - with tiny, sunken eyes in a flat, expressionless face. My eyes fill with tears. Is this really my Mother? The living, gracious, graceful woman that raised me? You are but a living dead now Mother. Your face and eyes cannot relate any emotions or love. Your hands either are held with the fingers unnaturally strait or clutching. Those hands did so much - created so much. Now they just stroke, clutch, stroke at a child's teddy bear.

I watch you for some time - your head moves compulsively back and forth, back and forth on the pillow. Every once in a while (is it every four times?) you stop and kind of grimace - at first I thought you were smiling at me - but no, it was more like barring your teeth - an empty, hallow movement - nothing more.

I sit there by you. On the edge of the bed. Like a mother by a sick child, but without any hope this side of heaven. The tears stream down my face and I grieve.

I look around the room at the bulletin boards - covered with pictures of the living - your daughters, your son, your grandchildren, your sisters. We have all gone on living while you have gone on dying.

Oh, Lord, is it wrong to pray that the process of dying would be shortened for you? for Dad? for us all? Is it wrong to hope that you die, soon? I don't know. I just sit on the edge of your bed and groan - I know the Spirit will interpret my groans before the throne of God and I will trust it to Him.

When I leave you, I stroke your cheek and tell you that I love you and pray aloud that the Lord would be with you. You look up at me - is there a moment of recognition? I can't tell - and then you are back to the empty stare and your head moves back and forth, back and forth again on the pillow.

I walk home - tears streaming down my face - back to the land of the living.

Jenny

Watching A Prairie Sunrise

Saturday I got up in order to have more than an hour of walking time. I have been wanting to see what the new section of walking path North of town was like. I hadn't been out there yet since the beginning of the path is just over a mile from our house.
The path didn't go as far as I thought, but it afforded a nice view from the top of a little hill and gave me a lovely view of the sunrise...which always rewards my efforts to get out of my warm bed!

I look back at the houses, and think what everyone else is missing!

My Resolution On Resolutions

(Disclaimer: this is in no way an attack on anyone who makes New Year's resolutions! It is just my own experience with who I am and what works for me.)

After many years of making New Year's resolutions, I have resolved to stop.

Am I against evaluating my life and making changes? No! Not in least! But I am finished with yearly resolving. I have resolved changes in every area of my life at some point, but my resolutions have started and ended as resolutions.

Too often, I have left issues that I knew needed changed in my life until the New Year whereupon, I have made great and small resolves about the problem and then promptly continued as I was.

Oh, I have sometimes managed to carry some new pursuit into February or even March, but it never really became a part of my life.

Why the lack of success with resolutions?

1. I am not a very self-disciplined person (and I do not think I am alone). If left to myself, I would consume prodigious amounts of chocolate (Lindt Dark Chocolate, please); would never exercise; would spend most of my life with books and Internet; would be grumpy, short-tempered and intemperate; would hardly ever speak to other human beings; would in short be totally sensual: driven by my senses.

2. Jan. 1 is not a magic date. When I wait to January 1 to act on an issue that first came to my attention months before, the impetus of action is destroyed. By waiting for a better date to start, I declare my resolve not to be resolved. If I make a note in May that I need to lose weight, but spend the next eight months steeped in my old habits, January 1 will not suddenly endow me with self-control and constancy.

3. Resolving Unrealistically. When I sit down with only the resolution to resolve, I am predisposed to be unrealistic. I will come up with a list (at least 10 goals, no doubt) of the most impervious resolutions imaginable. I am always an optimist with a blank piece of paper.

So what to do about it? Am I going to just be content with my present state with never a hint at change? NO! (that was a yell from my family :)) This is what I have substituted New Year's resolutions with:

A daily openness to what God's Spirit has to say to me through his word, through my conscience and through my husband. I know when the Lord pricks my spirit because of my temper with the children, my time on the computer, my priority with hobbies or my self control with eating has crossed the line. Do I listen to the promptings every time? No. But one thing I resolve at any time of year, is to be obedient to these little promptings.

When I see a need in my life, I try to evaluate right away what changes need to be made. The action I take is then stimulated from the impetus of the need. It is fresh. It is in the "day" I heard of it. I will be able to respond with more wisdom and resolve because the need is fresh (even if it is August 5th and not January 1st). So, while the beginning of a new year is a great time to reflect and resolve, so is the beginning of every new day, hour and minute.

Ultimately, I have started to view my life as one driving a car, steering a ship or walking according to a compass. I need to be constantly correcting my course, always checking my compass to stay on track. Never would a woodsman check his compass once a day, let alone once a year! He would be checking every few minutes in thick timber, and in open country, he would check, set a landmark for a guide and check again when he get to that spot. The same works in my life. I find I must be checking daily, sometimes hourly my "compass" to stay on track. This keeps me motivated, realistic and resolved.

Jenny

:)

The Beauty of Simplicity

I reprinted this from my private blog, as I thought it was of general interest.

I love simplicity, though I don't adhere to it naturally. I am a recovering perfectionist and simplicity didn't fit in with my overdone, magnifying-glass approach to life. It was my dear husband who led me into simplicity.

He has always had a "travel light through life" philosophy, and it is has served us well. I have learned to love the sweetness of simplicity - there is no part of life that his not enhanced by the beauty of simplicity.

In Phil Callaway's book, Making Life Rich Without Any Money, he writes:

"Late in life, an anonymous friar in a Nebraska monastery wrote the following words. I can't help grinning as I read them.

If I had my life to live over again, I'd try to make more mistakes next time.

I would relax, I would limber up, I would be sillier than I have been on this trip.

I know of very few things I would take seriously.

I would take more trips. I would be crazier.

I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets.

I would do more walking and looking.

I would eat more ice cream and less beans.

I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones.

You see, I'm one of those people who lives life...sensibly hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them.

In fact, I'd try to have nothing else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead each day. I've been one of those people who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat, aspirin, and a parachute.

If I had it to do all over again, I would go places, do things, and travel lighter than I have.

If I had my live to live over, I would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.

I would play hooky more.

I wouldn't make such good grades, except by accident.

I would ride on more merry-go-rounds.

I'd pick more daisies."

He goes on to write some great things about what simplicity has meant to him... but you'll have to buy the book if you want to keep reading (it is very entertaining).

I am in the throes of my seasonal "simplify life" campaign. I am going through the whole house de-cluttering and throwing out anything that I can possibly feel free to. It feels good!

This time, I have a special reason to be very thorough. We are not moving (at least not to my knowledge), but we are getting new flooring (YEA, YEA, YEA!!!). It is going to be as much work as moving, though. I will gladly do the work as it will be WONDERFUL when it is finished! So, I am trying to get rid of as much stuff as I can to make the job simpler. I will post some before after pics once we get to that stage.

I wish all of my dear readers:

-a blessed New Year

-a deeper understanding and relationship with the Lord Jesus

-simplicity... which will free you up to enjoy the little things in life.

Jenny