October in a nutshell

I haven't posted in a month and I have no excuse. I haven't been particularly busy. I haven't even worked in the last two months. My company put me on "prn" status, which means "as needed," which apparently means "not needed" in this case. So I am trying to be productive doing other things. I am finding I do not do well in an unstructured environment. More accurately, I do just fine, being intrinsically lazy, but I don't like the part where nothing gets accomplished. So I will pull myself up by my bootstraps and set some goals, or the coming winter will turn me into a big groggy blob.

The weekend of October 17 my brother and his family came for a visit. We gave them the whirlwind tour of the lower half of Door County. I had to include Cave Point County Park because it's a great place to see even if your time is limited. It was chilly but beautiful.

This is my brother Scott's lovely family. Jackie, the kids (Sabrina and Joshua) and I went to the Detroit game Sunday while Scott and Jack took advantage of the nice day and did a little golfing.

Today is another gorgeous fall day if you don't mind the cold. This is how my cats are spending their time. A fly found its way in out of the cold and is now regretting that decision. Great, an interactive toy. I haven't been able to find the laser pointer for a month so that works well. There's another goal for the list: Clean out the nooks and crannies I throw stuff into when I'm "fake cleaning."

What Happened in Vegas

We returned Sunday night from our trip to Las Vegas. I was a first-timer. My sister-in-law got a great deal for 6 of us at the Bellagio. I was glad to be there with people who knew where to go, and where not to go! We were so busy I didn't even knit! I had a good time sightseeing and enjoying temps in the 90's. The fountains at Bellagio were a highlight, as well as all the beautiful hotels. The flowers in the lobby of the Wynn were gorgeous.

One night we got a couple desserts to take up to the room. For once something this pretty tasted even better than it looked:

Unfortunately Jack got a cold which did not stay in Vegas. I'd go back again, but not right away. There are a lot more naturally beautiful places on my wish list. Maybe we'll go some winter when I really need to soak up that sun.

Peace

Today my nature walk came complete with the usual squirrels and chipmunks, two rabbits, three golf balls, a swimming muskrat and, oh yes, a snake. A new variety this time, a tiny gray snake who was just lying on the gravel, playing possum I suppose. I prodded it with a stick to get it to move off into the grass where I imagined it would be safer. Maybe the real desire of my heart is to be a herpetologist. But I doubt it. Thankfully this one was so little and slow-moving that I didn't jump.
Last month I asked whether hardship is really the path to peace. I looked up some things the Bible says about peace and my short answer is "No." My search was by no means exhaustive, but I got a review of a few truths I seemed to have forgotten. Peace is fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Jesus gives us His peace (John 14:27). He will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast (Isaiah 26:3). I kept getting the message that peace is a gift and it comes from God.
I did find some evidence of hardship bringing peace: The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him (Isaiah 53:5), and He made peace through His blood (Colossians 1:20). So He took the hardship upon Himself and makes the peace available to us as a gift.
As usual, I think I was asking the wrong question. We will all walk the path of hardship to some extent. But it won't bring peace of itself. Hardship will happen; peace is available. The only source is Jesus.

Delighting

I have been walking regularly at the UW-Green Bay arboretum the past couple weeks, and I enjoy it a great deal more than sidewalks. I highly recommend it unless you are afraid of snakes. I have seen three of them since last Monday. They are just garter snakes, minding their own business. I am not really afraid of snakes, but they always startle me at first glance. Then I am irritated with myself for being such a baby. Once I get over the initial shock, I like to watch them because they are pretty interesting. If I could just stop shrieking like a girl!

I attended the Beth Moore event last weekend. As usual, when God wants me to hear something He keeps repeating it. Before my walk today I picked a card out of one of those little Bible verse collections I have sitting on the kitchen counter. Sure enough, Psalm 37:4-5. "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this..." So I have been pondering that and was delighting myself in the Lord on my little nature walk. I even tried to be delighted about the snake. One of Beth's points was that behind the desire of our heart is the heart of our desire. All the things I desire are based on a deeper longing. I am still figuring out both the surface and the deep stuff, and the only way to get there is delighting in the Lord.

Milestones

We have been married 5 whole years! We celebrated last week by travelling to Iron Mountain, MI to golf at Timberstone. It's one of Jack's favorite places but I'd never been there. My game was not pretty but the course was gorgeous. It was a good mini vacation.

Our next venture was a bit more stressful. We traded in my dear baby truck that I love. I know I'm not supposed to love inanimate objects. It's unspiritual and immature. But there it is, I loved it. I owned it for 13 years and was always happy to see it waiting for me. But the poor thing needed something fixed almost monthly, and the most recent problems were promising to be quite expensive. So we felt it was time. Thankfully we were able to get enough for it, even with its problems, that we didn't have to make a "clunker" deal. We were able to find a nice used vehicle that we both like, and hopefully my old baby will live to drive another day with someone who knows how to care for the elderly.

On to less material thoughts. One of my dear friends has a print of the Serenity Prayer in her bathroom so whenever I'm in there I read it (it's just hanging in the right spot). There is a line that always jumps out at me: "accepting hardship as the pathway to peace." Not peace despite the hardship, or in the midst of it. Hardship is how you get there. Well, that's no fun at all. How inconvenient! I asked a couple friends about this and their responses can be summarized as, "well, of course." So now my job is to study what the Bible has to say about peace and see what I need to learn. Maybe I can find a loophole? Kidding. I usually have more questions than answers, but that is okay.

My Current Excuse

We have been finishing the basement in fits and starts since Christmas. We just got all the walls primed with a lot of help from family. This will be my sewing room someday, but it still needs a ceiling, lighting, shelves and some sort of floor. Meanwhile all my sewing stuff is stacked up both in and out of storage tubs. If I need to sew something, I dig around for what I need and bring it upstairs. It's not very efficient or inspiring, so I'm not doing a lot of sewing this year. And that is my current excuse.

I envision a bright, spacious room with all my machines ready to go. Everything is easy to find and put back home when I'm done. I can forget the scavenger hunt and enjoy the creating. I will be productive, artistic, unstoppable! Or at least I will have to come up with a new excuse.

Goaded into Action

This is my first post. This blog has been sitting here for a week or two while I have been paralyzed by laziness and uncertainty. But now I am sitting with three fellow writers who are goading me into action. I am hoping to journal here about my interests, working with my hands, my life in Christ and anything I am thinking about at the moment. I am working up something awesome about knitting socks...