Our Day at Four Mile Historic Park

When my mom was here, we took the kiddos up to Denver and visited Four Mile Park.

The day was cool and clear, and we had a lovely time walking around the grounds, and spending too much in the old-fashioned gift shop. My mom wasn't sure how far she would want to walk that day, but you know, those cute little Grandchildren have a way of getting her to do just about anything.  And so she walked.

 It really was a quiet, beautiful day, and we all enjoyed getting out before the temperature dropped.

Another small pleasure this side of Heaven.

The kids took turns teaching in the one-room schoolhouse

The girls loved these old-fashioned desks!

Miss Sarah at the blackboard

This was so neat- the Emancipation Proclamation written to make the face of Abraham Lincoln 

We got to play Indian inside this teepee

Grandma and the wagon train!

I love this picture...

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And what's a trip to Denver without a stop to Bonnie Brae's Ice Cream??!!

If Emma could live on ice cream, she would!

This mini-cone was the cutest thing.  

Mid-Life Ponderings

I love to learn from other people.  I am a watcher.  A soaker.  A gleaner. I love learning.  I love history, because I learn from people.  I love scripture, because I learn the ways of God and I see the paths we can choose from.  I love people's stories, testimonies, struggles, and triumphs.

And here I am, in mid-life, after 21 years of marriage, and 20+ years of raising children and building friendships and church life and homeschooling. I see where we get the term 'mid-life crisis'.  I think for me it's more of a mid-life assessment.I am looking around at people my age, looking at my own life, too.  Thinking and figuring from the past, and wondering about the future. And through it all I see some wonderfully relieving and life-giving things that I have learned and am learning.

I have learned that hating my weaknesses doesn't make me get past them. I really really wanted to be that lady in the book who just gets it, and tells everybody else how to do it well.  And yet I keep being me. And somehow after all these years I am loved more than ever.

I have learned that I am not that perfect-looking lady in the book, on Pinterest, behind the amazing blog.  And that if I focus on her, I will never become me.  And I won't become her, either.

I have learned that I really do love God.  That although He may have many things to teach me and much dross to purify me of, I do love Him very much, today, as I am.

I have learned that being a good supportive wife isn't about me.  It isn't about trying harder. It isn't about looking the greatest or being the best at something or just getting it right. It is about simply loving and respecting this man today.  And tomorrow.  And the next day.  

I am learning that clutter steals.  Be it junk piles around the house, overly complicated vacations, celebrations, and holidays, or noise from other people's or the internet's way-too-loud opinions, clutter is just that.  Not much of value, just noise and distraction.

I am learning that being simple is wonderful.  Mother Theresa once commented on how insecure Western parents are.  True. Trying to keep up with our own choice of Joneses, making sure we are not knocked off the band-wagon, desiring to keep ahead so we don't fall behind. It's wearying. Simple is awesome.  Reading to my children as the chimes ring happily outside is so very wonderful.  Feeding my young adults piles of home-cooked food - just Mom's cookin'- does so much more than fill their bellies. Slowing down and listening to people and taking more time to read my Bible and pray and smiling at these faces I get to be with for this time. Simple.

I am learning that the fumbly-bumbly two-steps forward one-step back way I do things isn't going to keep my family from succeeding.  That those wonderful people who tell me to follow their ways aren't always right.  They are convincing, and strong, and organized. But not always right.

I am learning to trust the One Who is worthy of my trust. Does He hear me? Yes. Is He holy and righteous? Yes. Does he know how to help me and my family and everything else I bring to Him? Yes. Does He comfort and heal in His time? Yes.

And I am learning, perhaps most importantly, what it means to have my Lord be the 'Author and Finisher' of my faith. It means that He writes my story. And yours. That all those times I was pulling my hair out because things were NOT going right, He was guiding, directing, allowing, molding. That my plan for this family isn't anything compared to His. It's so very hard to let go. So very hard. But I find no other path to Life than to trust my Author.
Loving this learning in mid-life...Sometimes hating it too. 
Looking forward to the next decades, Lord-willing, of watching and figuring and hoping and learning. 
And hopefully, along the way, teaching it too.

When the Weather outside was Frightful...

My Mom came to visit for two and a half weeks this month.  We switched bedrooms around, cleaned bathrooms, planned meals, and scrubbed kids for her arrival.
While she was here, she just really blended in.  She listened some mornings as we learned about missionaries in India, or memorized scripture, or figured out math problems. She shared nice meals with us and funny *creative* meals.  She shopped with us, went on a field trip with us, and enjoyed those very chilly, snowy days inside with us.
During the snow days, we had the whole family here, minus Joey. We made homemade hot chocolate, read books, worked a nice big puzzle with Danny, and painted ornaments and village houses.  The village houses are an ongoing project that I must have started just about a hundred years ago.  We are always buying new houses, finishing un-done ones from years past, and touching up those that we 'can't believe we painted that way'! Sammy and Hannah surprised me this year with a few new ones, and they are now quietly awaiting the rest of their paint for Christmas!

Emma's Masterpiece

The Snowflake Painters!
Still too young for the houses, they dressed up a stack of cardboard flakes for the windows.

Creative minds at work

Caramel Apple Pops

Easier-To-Eat and Funner-To-Make Caramel Apples

Quartered apples with craft sticks poked in, dunked in melted caramels and cream...
Bowls of toppings and chubby hands to 'woll dee apple in!'

Good Friends with Matching Hair

Pretty Older Sister with Little Brother smiling intensely at his apple pop

Ask, Seek, Knock

 Prayer-life, intercession, seeking the Lord; whatever we call it, it has always been a part of my walk. I suppose that is normal for a believer in Christ. But as I mature, it is becoming as vital to me as the air I breathe.  I know I have much to learn about reaching up to God, staying diligent with my petitions, being willing to wait or perhaps accept an answer I didn't request, giving credit where credit is due when comes that sweet, wonderful reply from this most wonderful God that I cannot see with my eyes, nor hear with my ears, yet I know He is.

I love my Blue Letter Bible App.  So yeah, not all technology is evil, I suppose. This app lets me search for passages, phrases, and words in any translation.  Many sleepless nights I sit holding my little iPhone, searching and soaking, marveling and being filled with hope once again. Because sometime life can get rough, even when it's still good.  And we need answers and comfort and direction.  And He is just so good to give it all to us generously.  I so love typing in a word like 'trust' or 'love' or 'salvation' and just having a host of wonderful scriptures fill my screen.  

Recently, I have been pondering the scriptures with 'prayer' in them.  This can be a tough world to live in sometimes.  And my list of people to pray for just keeps growing.  As I fill my days with meal plans and toilet cleaning and history lessons and science co-ops, I often wish I could do more for those 'out there'.  And I know someday I will do more, as my babies grow up.  But today, and hopefully all days, I can pray.  And I pray to One Who truly hears, Who truly has all wisdom and understanding, love and compassion, judgment and mercy. And there is really nothing in the world more precious to me than that knowledge that God is alive, and Almighty, and working His wonders in me as I look up to Him and ask Him for what we need.

Here are some sweet scriptures on prayer that have fed my soul in this season.

*Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;* Col. 4:2

*The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much* James 5:16

*When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple.* Jonah 2:7

*Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer* Romans 12:12

*The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.* Prov. 15:8

*Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me!* Ps. 66:20

And after the Lord's Prayer, Jesus talks of a man needing bread for a traveler.  He goes to his friend's home in the night and asks for the bread.  The friend is already in bed with his family and does not want to be troubled.  But he will give the bread because of his friend's persistence.  Then Jesus speaks the well-known words, "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

The highlighted words have got me thinking.  I remember going to the mall with my friends as a teenager.  In front of one store, there was a short wooden statue of Buddha, and you could rub his belly as you made a wish.  Do I also pray to God like that?  Quickly, as I am passing from one thing to the next? Hoping He answers me, but being okay if He doesn't, because I really just don't want to take the time to ask?

I know I am still green-ish in my understanding of God and prayer.  But these past few weeks, I have witnessed answer after answer as I have called out to Him, hoping in His goodness,  Sometimes it feels like labor, because I love the people I pray for so much! 

I do know this - He is alive and He will help us if we ask.  

Is there something in your life that is unresolved, troubling, painful?  Then ask, and seek, and knock.  And don't stop, because He never runs out of anything.  He is not offended at our need.  Like the woman at the well, He knows it all anyhow. He never tires of our asking.  Hard for an introverted mother of many to imagine not being tired of people asking!  I am always rationing things around here, and I might even lock my door for some quiet every once in a while...But hallelujah He does not tire! His door is always open!  He is ever-ready to receive His people and their requests.

*Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.* 1 Peter 5:7