Uh-oh Daisy!

Grace's phrase for when something falls over or when she falls down, etc.

Nothing much to say about it except it is very, very cute!

Just thinking

In the last 4 years, I have learned a couple of things that have changed my life. And like most lessons that stick, I had to go about learning them the
VERY hard way. I really hope (and I've prayed) that God would really sear this knowledge into my heart, because there are just some lessons I'd like to not have to re-learn that same old very hard way. (And yes, if I had been one of the Israelites called out of Egypt, I would have gotten to wander in the desert for 40 years. That's the kind of hard-headed, stubborn, ignorant, small-picture girl that I am.)

Ok, here are some of the things that I have learned:

Praying (and praying, and praying) in the midst of heartache and struggle don't usually make me feel any better than before I began my prayer. I know this isn't true for everybody, but this is true for me. I usually don't feel any better at all. Sometimes, I feel worse. But when I pray, I know that God knows how sick at heart I am, and that is what has made the difference.

Against a thousand doubts, there is hope. It sometimes is smaller than a grain of sand in the midst of a huge ocean of fear. Emily Dickinson says, "Hope is a thing with feathers, that perches on the soul . . ." and sings its song, even without knowing the way. I am regularly astonished how even the tiniest particle of hope can eclipse the darkness that threatens, how little this thing is to which I sometimes cling.

Forgiveness is very, very daily. I will never accomplish this thing called forgiving. I won't ever be able to wipe it from my mental to-do list. I will have to take this practice of forgiveness, and extend it to myself and to others every single day for the rest of my life. And then I will have to forgive some more.

A lot of things aren't going to be fair or every really work themselves out on this side of heaven. This is a huge one for me to swallow, because I thrive on getting things "worked out" and on making sure that things happen in a fair way. But on this side of heaven, the principles of fairness are going to be forever swinging on an unbalanced pendulum, and there won't be one single thing that I can do about it. Things will only be worked out in eternity, where I will live in the eternal gratitude of knowing that I didn't get what I deserved, either. Maybe then I will finally understand the real definition of mercy.

There is an old Jewish story that is told of a rabbi. He is sitting at the top of a hill, surrounded by his students. As they look down below, a group of murderous men ransack the city below, destroying homes and destroying people. In anguish the rabbi cries, "I wish I were God!" A student asks, "What would you do dif ferently if you were God?" The rabbi replies, "I wouldn't do anything differently. But if I were God, I would understand." And that's the last lesson for this post: I've learned that there is a great deal that I just don't understand. But maybe what looks like chaos from below perhaps is a beautiful pattern if looked at from above, if only I had the eyes to see it right. I have to trust that I serve a God who loves, and be content to live in the mystery that is not knowing--that someday, I will understand.

That's some of what I've learned. More to come.

(I know. You're praying that Rob will return with some news about windmills and aeroplanes and lighten this place up. He will, and I find his enthusiasm for the world around us very, very endearing. Love you, dear.)

Jana

The Football Strikes Again

I was originally going to entitle this "Number Three," but was told as I began to post that Luke's third tooth came out with the help of a little too friendly football. Apparently he got hit in the face (I didn't do it this time!!) at school and knocked his other front tooth pretty good -- blood and all. He had an appointment with the dentist this afternoon, who told him that it probably would come out during dinner. She missed it by a couple of hours. It waited until bedtime.


The scrape under his mouth and to the right of his chin was actually my fault. We were playing catch in the backyard and I threw a post pattern when he was actually running a curl route. He made a valiant effort to catch the ball, somehow managing to duck under the planter we have hanging from the fence. Unfortunately, that meant he hit the fence with his chin leading the way. He probably scraped along four or five pickets before hitting the ground. I felt like a heel, but was awful proud of the way he kept after the ball. (Truthfully, it was one of those sickening moments, watching him crash like that. I am praying we don't have too many of them.)

Invited to Post to a Group

If you have looked around flickr, you discover that there are groups, which are collections of photographs that have common subjects, topics or themes. There is a group called Windmills: The Old Fashioned Kind, which invited me to post these two windmill pictures to their group.

I recognize this does not make me a published photographer or famous or anything else like that, but it is sort of cool to know someone saw a picture or two and thought they were nice enough to be included, especially since I was just snapping away that day and not trying to produce any works of art. You can check out the entire group here.

Hunh?

I had saved this screen capture to post, but forgot about it. I was cleaning up my very cluttered desktop (funny, that matches my very cluttered desk) and found it again.

You don't often worry about snow on the days it is 74!

Silence and comfort

from Frederick Buechner:

What deadens us most to God's presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continually engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought. I suspect that there is nothing more crucial to true spiritual comfort, than being able from time to time to stop the chatter, including the chatter of spoken prayer. If we choose to seek the silence of the holy place, or to open ourselves to its seeking, I think there is no surer way than by keeping silent.

from Psalm 131:
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
Like a child is quieted at its mother's breast,
like a child that is quieted is my soul.
O, Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and for evermore.

Jana

Spring is Almost Here

I rolled the dice and planted some things last weekend, even though the average last freeze date is April 15 round these parts. Noticed that is supposed to get down to 32 tomorrow night. I will be the one out with a campfire and blankets in the middle of my flower garden!

Here is just a reminder that growing things are beginning to bloom!

Windmills

Dad has blogged about our trip to the American Wind Power Center and Museum and has occasionally enlightened us about the capacity of windmill generation in various principalities and states throughout the US. I really do not have anything to add to what he has said (especially about capacity - I don't have time to look all of that stuff up!!) except to say "Amen!"

I did, however, add the pictures we took of the day to flickr. You can find those here, if you are so inclined.

Another Great Day at Lubbock Aero

Today I look at the Lubbock Avalanche Journal online and discover this article. We have already blogged about our wonderful adventures at Lubbock Aero, such as here (with pictures) and here. This is also the airport Nannie flew out of. So in keeping with our plane theme, I decide to pick up Luke from school and head on out to the Lubbock Aero (Just in case you ever want to visit them. They seem to be very friendly people.)

The planes are owned by The Collings Foundation, which if you look at their web site, you will discover they own lots of planes and cars. They are basically a flying museum, heading out to about 125 locations a year and offering plane rides for people to help support their upkeep and flying costs. Not just any plane ride, mind you. Planes like these...


This is a good thing and a bad thing. It is good because I am sure there are plenty of people in the world who love flying on these planes. (There were plenty of people in Lubbock who enjoyed a ride on one of these planes!) This is a bad thing because Luke will not be one of them. At the time, I thought is cost $3,000 a person for a flight. That is actually the cost for an hour lesson in the P-51. We could have gotten by with just $425 per person. That's still too much. (Although I won't say I wouldn't have considered it for a half-second!)

I have a collection of pictures here on Flickr, but here are a couple to enjoy now.


This is the Ball Turret on the B-17, "Nine-O-Nine." You have to be very, very small to ride in this thing. And very, very stupid (As evidenced here.) Here is a link about the Nine-O-Nine and another here. The original "Nine-O-Nine" was scrapped, but appeared in the painting "Full House - Aces High."


I believe this is officially called the Waist Gunner on the B-24, "Witchcraft". Pretty cool wall of honor -- it's on the side of the plane to Luke's left. It actually takes up the entire side. The paint schemes are not from the original planes, but are done to honor previous planes. Here is an article from the the Collings Foundation about renaming the B-24 "Witchcraft" and a link about the original plane.


This is the nose of the B-25, "Tondelayo." Notice there are no close-ups of the nose art of this aircraft. There is a reason for that (link appropriate for work and other locations and to be viewed by most everyone).

All in all, it was a fun time. We came home, started the grill, and Luke was bumming about not getting to ride or watch the planes fly off, when lo-and-behold, the B-24 flew by overhead. We later saw the B-17. Not what you usually expect to see flying around Lubbock, Texas.

Finally picked the right one!

While there are many little boys in Kansas loving life, there is also one here who was thrilled to get to watch the last few minutes and overtime. His selection process was very simple. Root against Memphis since they beat Texas. This choice was confirmed by selection process number two, which is root for whoever is winning at halftime. I was not here for the start of the game, but apparently he wavered a bit when all of the commentators picked Memphis. He stuck it out, though. He went to bed at half-time, but I managed to wake him up about 4:00 minutes left in the game (but just barely) and he sort of napped until Kansas hit the shot to tie it. He was wide awake then!

I always thought watching big sporting events with my parents was fun. Sorry guys, as good as it is, it doesn't compare to watching with your seven-year-old.

Until next year - go Jayhawks.

Wednesday News

My Dad read Monday's blog; his response? "Well, I guess she's getting ready to write my eulogy."

THAT is so my Dad, and just proves my point that this is one guy who can't take a compliment! :-) Love you, Dad!

Exciting times around here. Luke and Rob were playing catch with the football last night, and Luke got accidentally knocked in the mouth with the football. This was a good thing, because it finally dislodged the front tooth that has been HANGING ON for weeks now; in fact, it the new teeth had already emerged. Here's the pic to prove it:


The tooth fairy wasn't prepared for this surprise exit, so let's just say we owe one to Grace, whose piggy bank is minus one dollar!

This time of the year seems busier than just about any other, besides Christmas. I haven't gotten enough uninterrupted ZZZ's lately, and so tonight in my Bible class, in a front and center row, I fell completely asleep. The waking up was worse: that awful jarring when your head snaps back up and the dawning realization that you might have been drooling.

And finally:

My Easter darlings in all their glory.




As I have said before, I don't deserve these children, but oh, how thankful I am that God in his merciful kindness sent them to us. We didn't participate in an exciting Easter meal (we ate at Subway, for pete's sake), and because it was VERY COLD, we also missed out on the backyard hunt(which I've promised to make up to them.) We did spend the day together, and I hope we honored God's gift of Jesus by honoring our earthly gifts.

Happy Wednesday, friends!