Tulip Girl

One thing my sister Michelle has been doing lately is blogging about what she is thankful for. I think I will do that right now. I am thankful to have Dan. He has such a happy spirit, is driven and organized. God knew exactly what I needed when he brought us together. I love him more every day. I am thankful for my family. Even though we are so far apart geographically, I can still count on them when I need them for encouraging words. Just the other day some of them called to give me loving supportive words. They love me for who I am. I just have my finishing touches to put on my fourth assignment for my writing class and then I can send it in today. I am accomplishing what I need to, to become a professional writer including working on the process of getting several articles submitted to different magazines, something I think I've been a little afraid of doing. I'm thankful for my faults because without them I would have nothing to overcome. I would not be able to str...

H andyman U nconditional love support and mercy when I get crazy S illy faces and play when nothing else can conquer the cranky monster B alance to an otherwise chaotic world A bsolute trust and assurance of love and commitment N o distance to far to bring relief, and a smile D aring to hold accountable, to challenge and to not give up Happy thirtieth Birthday Dan. I am so blessed to be your wife. I am so thankful to God He has made us partners in this life. I love you very much and pray He blesses this year with an abundance of wisdom and answers to our greatest prayers.

George Matheson wrote June 6, 1886: O love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee; I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer fuller be. Matheson was blind. Because of his blindness, his fiancee broke off their engagement. He never married. It was this experience that compelled him to ever push deeper into the love of his Heavenly Father. That is what I want to do. As my sister, Michelle wrote on her blog, I do struggle a lot with not just the loss of my precious Adam and Charis but the possibility that I could lose another child. This at times is incapacitating. Health Insurance will help pay for the diagnosis but not the treatment I have learned. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I have made an appointment with a doctor that has experience with infertility and at risk pregnancies. That will be I believe May 8. Through all this though, I know I do not want to become hardened by fear but rather, I want to press ev...

It is a very good thing we had such sunny days for the first few days of my mom's visit. The last few days have been rather rainy. Here is a picture of our creek behind our house swollen with rain. I can't tell you what a wonderful sound it is to listen to the rushing water. As soon as we get some good dry days, a tree guy is coming out and cutting down the trees in our back yard, then leaving the mulch. I will then make some good flower beds and in the fall we will be able to put grass in. I can't wait. I have really found that gardening is one of my most favorite things to do. It is a great way to untie the knots in my brain. Don't wear perfume in the garden - unless you want to be pollinated by bees. ~Anne Raver This week is the garden club tour for Virginia. Thursday is the day for the Windsor Farms Tour. I so wish I could go. This neighborhood is the one that has the Virginia House and Agecroft house. I love the gardens at the Virginia House. Anyhow...

My sister, Michelle, just found out yesterday that her husband, Joe will be going back to Holland with his work for seven months. He leaves in August. I can hardly believe it. I'm so sad we live so far from each other. I know it is going to be pretty hard for her. They are such a close team. Michelle depends so much on Joe with their two daughters and her masters program along with teaching. I want to be the best encouragement I can for her. Any way, I just found this out so I wanted to share it with you all.

Mom and I went to the Richmond Botanical Gardens this past week. I have posted several beautiful pictures from our visit not only to the Botanical Garden but to a couple homes we visited that are now museums as well as some new family pictures. I welcome you to look at them as well as look over the links between pictures. I have songs, articles, and other blogs that I hope you can find useful. I have kind of neglected the lists, but have hopefully added some good resources. I truly hope this blog can act as a place of both rest and encouragement for you. No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang

Recently, I found myself once again stressing or rather starting to "freak out" over a circumstance out of my control. Dan told me to realize "it is not happening to me, it is just happening." His words comforted me. No, they didn't change the circumstance, but my perspective changed. Dan likes to call that a paradigm shift. Well, words are one of my favorite things. In a way, I am a literalist. I like to dissect the meanings of words. I do this because in reality around 80% to 90% of arguments are based on misunderstandings (that and self importance as well as pride but that is another blog). A friend of mine refers to these as miscomunacatos, I think Spanish for miscommunicate. I recently read an article in the Catalyst monthly (see today's featured link for website) by Dan Kimball called "Sticks and Stones" . In his article he talks about the changing meanings of words in todays communication. He refers to the use of the words "wo...

This past weekend I went with my church to the Women of Joy Conference in Gatlinburg Tennessee. My friend, Erin, came along with us. What an awesome time! I was able to listen to Priscilla Shirer, Liz Curtis Higgs, and Kay Aurthur, all women that I greatly admire. There was a new lady there that at this moment I can't rightly remember her name but I think it is Sheila Harvey, I think maybe not...wait, its on the fridge still I'll go look.... Wow, I was way off, it was Sylvia Harney. Silly me. ;) Well, the speakers gave refreshing messages about the availability and attainability of God the Father. It is something we should know, but somehow is always important to be reminded. Our Heavenly Father is always with us no matter how far off the path we get. That is encouraging. The ladies in my church are so precious. I had the opportunity to see them outside of Sunday morning and have to say I like them more than ever. God is so good and so creative. He is a master crafts...

*Update* My mom just called and said that it is most likely that the medicine my dad is on right now caused his blood pressure lowering and fainting. He is doing better and the doctor will be able to fix his medicine so he should be good to go. Thank you for your prayers. I would love your prayers right now for my dad. Last night (Wed. night) his blood pressure dropped and he collapsed while out to eat with my mom. As of this morning (Thurs.) he is at the Mayo clinic hospital for testing. He has collapsed once before and the hospital was able to find blockage and get it fixed. Please pray it is easily fixed again. Also pray for strength for my mom. She is pretty tough and will keep up her resolve for Dad and everyone else so I pray God gives her his comfort as well. Thank you for your prayers.

All is well here. I have been diligently looking for a new position. I am also working hard on my writing as well. I have some goals set in place. I have a couple magazines to submit some articles to. I have a women's magazine as well as a children's magazine. We will see. I am really excited about a particular story I have written. I have quite fallen in love with the main character. Some of you might recall the lady bugs I wrote about. Well I think a series of children's books would be so cool. Those are my dreams. Right now since I have been home for a week, I would just like to say that my house is spotless. I have worked really hard on it including working myself to an early bedtime cleaning my patio and patio furniture as well as cleaning the house. I was way wicked tired by the end of that but it felt very good. Dan and I are ready to work on our back yard so we are going to get some of those tree gone back there as well as figure out the best way to get...