... Right now I am reading "Sojourner Truth's America" about the famous activist; cowboy poetry by Baxter Black; and "Women in Early America: Struggle, Survival and Freedom in a New World." That last is arranged alphabetically, almost like an encyclopedia.
Also started "Healing Grace" by writer friend Lisa Lickel. Set in Michigan. I like books set in places where I've been. So much easier to picture the setting.
Showing posts with label Christian life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian life. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Romance!
After I unloaded a hay wagon for DH, he put a hay bale down at the side door and gave me his hand to help me down.
How sweet is that!
How sweet is that!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Cowboy angels ...
DH called on the cell phone from the other farm. Never a good sign.
"Could you all come over here and give me a hand? The steers all got out. In the cow pasture. The bull's out there too. And one of the cows just had a calf."
Sounded like a rodeo to me. DS1 hopped on his bike and sped over there. I called Grandma and Grandpa and arranged to leave DS2 with Grandma and ride over there with Grandpa.
While we rode over there I was praying. The pastor talked about Peter and John healing the lame man at the Temple (you know, "Silver and gold have I none but such as I have I will give to thee ... in the name of Jesus rise and walk.") Pastor said they were going about their every day business, but prayed up and expected to receive an answer.
I was praying (an expecting) that the Lord would send cowboy angels to help us with separating the cattle and getting them all back in the right pen, and getting the new calf treated with no one getting hurt. The beef cows get pretty testy about anyone or anything messing with their calves.
I figured all the cowboys whoever lived must have had guardian angels so there must be some angels around that have worked cattle. If the Lord would send some of them along ...
When we got over to the other farm, DH and DS1 were just penning up the steers. The bull went into the other pasture and they locked him up, too. That left just the the cows and mama of the newborn calf to deal with. DH caught it and we tried to get the truck between the cow and calf. Grandpa banded it and gave it its shots quickly while the mama was standing by getting testy and snorty. I think she was within seconds of head-butting someone when they finished, but, you know, no harm, no foul. We just don't want anyone to get knocked down and stomped on.
DH said if he had known it was this easy he would not have called us. Wasn't easy, it was an answered prayer.
"Could you all come over here and give me a hand? The steers all got out. In the cow pasture. The bull's out there too. And one of the cows just had a calf."
Sounded like a rodeo to me. DS1 hopped on his bike and sped over there. I called Grandma and Grandpa and arranged to leave DS2 with Grandma and ride over there with Grandpa.
While we rode over there I was praying. The pastor talked about Peter and John healing the lame man at the Temple (you know, "Silver and gold have I none but such as I have I will give to thee ... in the name of Jesus rise and walk.") Pastor said they were going about their every day business, but prayed up and expected to receive an answer.
I was praying (an expecting) that the Lord would send cowboy angels to help us with separating the cattle and getting them all back in the right pen, and getting the new calf treated with no one getting hurt. The beef cows get pretty testy about anyone or anything messing with their calves.
I figured all the cowboys whoever lived must have had guardian angels so there must be some angels around that have worked cattle. If the Lord would send some of them along ...
When we got over to the other farm, DH and DS1 were just penning up the steers. The bull went into the other pasture and they locked him up, too. That left just the the cows and mama of the newborn calf to deal with. DH caught it and we tried to get the truck between the cow and calf. Grandpa banded it and gave it its shots quickly while the mama was standing by getting testy and snorty. I think she was within seconds of head-butting someone when they finished, but, you know, no harm, no foul. We just don't want anyone to get knocked down and stomped on.
DH said if he had known it was this easy he would not have called us. Wasn't easy, it was an answered prayer.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Before and after ...
This has nothing to do with farming.
We went on a family outing to a nearby indoor water park this weekend.
By the end of the day my purse contained:
Car keys
Cell phone
Two bill folds, one mine
Three pairs of glasses, none mine
A slinky
A whoopie cushion
Six plastic jumping frogs
Various wristbands
Crayons
A flyer about the water park
This in addition to the usual:
Car keys
Cell phone
One billfold
A first aid kit with bandaids, salve, Ibuprofen for adults and children
Crayons
Scrap paper
Six ink pens, none that work very well
Lip gloss
Library card
As the kids entrusted me with all their swag, I started to think about hiring a pack animal. But also, the Bible does tell us to bear one another's burdens. I guess that does include your 10-year-old's new Whoopie cushion.
We went on a family outing to a nearby indoor water park this weekend.
By the end of the day my purse contained:
Car keys
Cell phone
Two bill folds, one mine
Three pairs of glasses, none mine
A slinky
A whoopie cushion
Six plastic jumping frogs
Various wristbands
Crayons
A flyer about the water park
This in addition to the usual:
Car keys
Cell phone
One billfold
A first aid kit with bandaids, salve, Ibuprofen for adults and children
Crayons
Scrap paper
Six ink pens, none that work very well
Lip gloss
Library card
As the kids entrusted me with all their swag, I started to think about hiring a pack animal. But also, the Bible does tell us to bear one another's burdens. I guess that does include your 10-year-old's new Whoopie cushion.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
A new book ...
Our friend Lisa in Wisconsin sent us a copy of her new book, The Gold Standard, one the Heartsong Presents mystery series. Heartsong is an imprint of Barbour Publishing.
Here's the set-up: "Just how high a price does buried treasure command?"
DH got to it first. Since he reads a few pages at a time, I waited and waited for him to finish it. I thought he'd like it since it was set on a farm in rural Wisconsin.
After he finished, I asked for his impressions.
"It was good and interesting until the very last. Then they arrested --"
"Don't tell me -- I haven't read it yet!"
"Well, then, the last part was all mushy stuff. It was pretty good until then."
So there you have it -- a man's perspective.
Lisa said in an e-mail that the book need to be have a certain percent of romance, just like cattle feed has to have a certain percent of protein. With that perspective, maybe DH will overlook ruining a good story.
Here's a little something about the book: "School teacher Judy Winters sets out to solve the mystery surrounding her Aunt Louise's murder back on the family farm. Amid her sleuthing, Judy encounters Hart Wingate, a young man who rented the adjoining farm and helped Aunt Louise with farm chores. When Judy learns that her boyfriend, Graham, has secretly been visiting Louise, she decides to move away from him for the summer and think over the situation.
"As Judy explores her aunt's house, she finds and follows clues in Louise's mother's diary to unearth buried treasure. But was the treasure behind Louise's murder?"
I'm reading it right now.
Lisa is one of my buds from ACFW, American Christian Fiction Writers. So ... I guess I'm out now as a writer. We became acquainted via the group's e-mail loop. I can't say enough about ACFW's emphasis on encouraging and building up writers at all stages of their career.
As soon as I figure out how, I'll have to add a link to ACFW to the blog.
Here's the set-up: "Just how high a price does buried treasure command?"
DH got to it first. Since he reads a few pages at a time, I waited and waited for him to finish it. I thought he'd like it since it was set on a farm in rural Wisconsin.
After he finished, I asked for his impressions.
"It was good and interesting until the very last. Then they arrested --"
"Don't tell me -- I haven't read it yet!"
"Well, then, the last part was all mushy stuff. It was pretty good until then."
So there you have it -- a man's perspective.
Lisa said in an e-mail that the book need to be have a certain percent of romance, just like cattle feed has to have a certain percent of protein. With that perspective, maybe DH will overlook ruining a good story.
Here's a little something about the book: "School teacher Judy Winters sets out to solve the mystery surrounding her Aunt Louise's murder back on the family farm. Amid her sleuthing, Judy encounters Hart Wingate, a young man who rented the adjoining farm and helped Aunt Louise with farm chores. When Judy learns that her boyfriend, Graham, has secretly been visiting Louise, she decides to move away from him for the summer and think over the situation.
"As Judy explores her aunt's house, she finds and follows clues in Louise's mother's diary to unearth buried treasure. But was the treasure behind Louise's murder?"
I'm reading it right now.
Lisa is one of my buds from ACFW, American Christian Fiction Writers. So ... I guess I'm out now as a writer. We became acquainted via the group's e-mail loop. I can't say enough about ACFW's emphasis on encouraging and building up writers at all stages of their career.
As soon as I figure out how, I'll have to add a link to ACFW to the blog.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Whiter than snow ...
Since we've got a lot of it around here, I thought about making some notes to myself about snow. "Whiter than snow" is a Christian (um ... simile ...no, wait ... metaphor ... um ...) figure of speech for Jesus taking away our sins.
For instance, the old hymn "Jesus Paid It All" includes the lines,
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
Snow is rare in Israel and called refreshing. We traveled there in 1994 and our tour guide marveled that we could see Mount Hermon several mornings in a row from Tiberias. Usually the mountain is hidden by clouds, he said. Melting snow from Mount Hermon feeds the Jordan river. Against the hazy horizon, the white mountain top was beautiful and evoked another thrill that we were actually in Israel.
Here, snow is more mundane. But it does serve some wonderful purposes.
It covers up all the debris in the yard that I won't have to see for weeks. Dog-chewed tennis shoes, perhaps a misplaced Frisbee, weeds, brown grass, etc.
The snowpack makes a sunny winter day dazzling. Even the shadows are blue instead of dark.
Snow covers and protects crops that lie dormant over the winter including next summer's hay and wheat. When it melts, it recharges the soil moisture (this is a really good thing for crops) and adds to the Great Lakes, from whence much of our weather cometh.
When the wind sculpts in along the fence rows, it's easy to forget fish-tailing down the road and dodging potholes. It delights small, medium, large and overgrown children who are glad to have a day off school. Finally, how can we go sledding without snow?
One surprise is that the snow brightens dark winter nights, throwing a soft glow back into the black sky.
I'm reaching for a spiritual application here and ... wonder if snow can be a metaphor for purity and salvation. Sins covered like the kids' trail of debris in the yard; spirits refreshed and recharged; darkness brightened. I think I'll have to work on that last bit, but, for Jesus to make us whiter than snow is pretty amazing.
For instance, the old hymn "Jesus Paid It All" includes the lines,
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
Snow is rare in Israel and called refreshing. We traveled there in 1994 and our tour guide marveled that we could see Mount Hermon several mornings in a row from Tiberias. Usually the mountain is hidden by clouds, he said. Melting snow from Mount Hermon feeds the Jordan river. Against the hazy horizon, the white mountain top was beautiful and evoked another thrill that we were actually in Israel.
Here, snow is more mundane. But it does serve some wonderful purposes.
It covers up all the debris in the yard that I won't have to see for weeks. Dog-chewed tennis shoes, perhaps a misplaced Frisbee, weeds, brown grass, etc.
The snowpack makes a sunny winter day dazzling. Even the shadows are blue instead of dark.
Snow covers and protects crops that lie dormant over the winter including next summer's hay and wheat. When it melts, it recharges the soil moisture (this is a really good thing for crops) and adds to the Great Lakes, from whence much of our weather cometh.
When the wind sculpts in along the fence rows, it's easy to forget fish-tailing down the road and dodging potholes. It delights small, medium, large and overgrown children who are glad to have a day off school. Finally, how can we go sledding without snow?
One surprise is that the snow brightens dark winter nights, throwing a soft glow back into the black sky.
I'm reaching for a spiritual application here and ... wonder if snow can be a metaphor for purity and salvation. Sins covered like the kids' trail of debris in the yard; spirits refreshed and recharged; darkness brightened. I think I'll have to work on that last bit, but, for Jesus to make us whiter than snow is pretty amazing.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Parts run ... Eph. 4:16
BIL, who was a missionary in Russia for many years, preached about Ephesians 4:16 at church yesterday ... about all parts of Christ's body, the church, working together. I've always pictured that as body parts and had kind of an "eww" reaction.
But BIL recalled traveling with a Russian friend to a church conference. In their free time they visited a museum. His friend did a double-take when he saw an old-fashioned home movie projector. "I had forgotten -- how could I forget somethign like that?"
His friend explained that various cells of the underground church in Russia would each obtain one part of the projector. If any group ordered a whole projector, or even more than one part the state would become suspicious. At an appointed time, the groups would gather, assemble the projector and then they could watch a Christian movie for encouragement or teaching.
That really illustrated how all of us are parts of Christ's body. Perhaps I am only a cog or a lever or a wire ... but without every part working perfectly, the whole thing struggles.
But BIL recalled traveling with a Russian friend to a church conference. In their free time they visited a museum. His friend did a double-take when he saw an old-fashioned home movie projector. "I had forgotten -- how could I forget somethign like that?"
His friend explained that various cells of the underground church in Russia would each obtain one part of the projector. If any group ordered a whole projector, or even more than one part the state would become suspicious. At an appointed time, the groups would gather, assemble the projector and then they could watch a Christian movie for encouragement or teaching.
That really illustrated how all of us are parts of Christ's body. Perhaps I am only a cog or a lever or a wire ... but without every part working perfectly, the whole thing struggles.
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