Two days down……..

I have survived two days of broken toe.  Not quite the epic that Wounded Knee was, but close in my opinion!

Spent yesterday trying to be calm on the couch.  In a small community news spreads fast so there were visitors and phone calls.  The girls went with their Dad to church and received many questions on how it happened and were able to rectify the rumor that it was “just” a broken toe.  You know, the kind of broken toe that everyone has had and survived with hardly a moment on the couch and were off to work the next day.  We are stong Mid-westerners in this neck of the woods, Nothing gets us down!!!   The girls told the story and explained my toe is smashed, hence the blood and if toes had guts we would say guts as well!  So now I am receiving more adequate sympathy  :)!

A woman I have been mentoring is bringing supper tonight.  I am glad for that as it will give me a moment to talk with her, and the meal will help alleviate stress in what may be a very busy and confusing day as we figure how to do school from the couch and get chores done.  I am so thankful that we have had a really good chore schedule going so we are in a good routine with that, meals included.

Yesterday I was playing games on the couch with Melody and she mentioned that God allowed this to happen as I am too busy.  This will make me sit down and relax.  Melly is a fount of wisdom for her age.  I did tell her that work is not bad for us and most of my busyness is related to work.  It is not like I am out playing and having fun many time a week!!  Her musings of the situation were echoed by her father late last night as we talked before falling asleep.  Rick agrees that this will be a good time to slow me down and teach me to relax in my mind despite the situation I am in.  I know he is right but I tried to get him to understand that it is NOT easy to calm down mentally when I know the many jobs that need to get done in the next few weeks and the daily routine just to stay on top of our busy household.  This is going to be an exercise in faith, AGAIN!  

The pain is worse today but I know this is part of the healing.  It’s so spiritual isn’t it.  How often does my spiritual growth blossom out of the hardest situations?  Often!

Time to deal with pain.

Joyce

My toe, wrapped and protected in my dandy hospital shoe. At least it is blue which will match most of my wardrobe!

It’s all about a toe today!

This has been quite a week.

Three daughters became sick with bad colds, although the tinctures are helping.

Our son has not been well for a couple of weeks and is having to deal with that.

My precious Father ended up in the hospital on Thursday night and is fighting an infection.

I was feeling a little worn out from a canning marathon of three days, canning over 60 jars of various produce.

Then………… last night after supper I decided to get the canning in the garage organized and then bring in the latest boxes from this past week’s work.  Rick was gone to the football game and so I knew I could make the mess that often accompanies cleaning!   I was half way though the job when I went to pick up a box full of quart jars of spaghetti sauce.  The box was on top of our cast iron grill which covers two stove burners and weighs at least 15 pounds if not more.  

I lifted the box and did not realize that it was stuck to the grill, or that the grill was moving as I lifted the box.  You can imagine the rest of the story……..  the grill landed on my left big toe.  I will spare you the gruesome details and sum it up with saying that after much blood loss, calls to Rick who was at the football game, calls to first responders and my seeing that the whole toe-nail did not look good, it was decided that I should head to the emergency room.’

Kristi drove me to Sister Bay to meet Rick who then drove me the hour trip to our local ( relatively speaking)  hospital.  Once there we started the long process of evaluations, cleaning, and x-rays to determine that I had indeed broken the last bone on my large toe, and that the nail needed to be sewn back onto the toe.

The good news…  after three shots of something to deaden pain I did not feel a thing.  Mandy was there to help and she did not faint!  She has been our girl who freaked at the least amount of blood and last night she showed a beautiful maturity in her nurturing and caring for me.  We were so proud of her!  She also took photos via cell phone and sent them to her siblings……. gross.  Rick was thinking that we would be seen as really weird for doing this but the doctor confirmed that this is a common practice in this day and age of cell-phones with cameras and the thrill of reality TV!  At least the toe was cleaned up and looked a LOT better than when I arrived!

The girls were so precious in how they took are of me at home and despite the blood everywhere they held ice on my foot when I could not sit up.  They also cleaned up things.  They were brave and stayed calm even in their fear and concern.

Rick was more than wonderful, he was so kind and loving and supportive.  He just gets better and better!

When the doctor was going over the prescriptions he mentioned that I would be getting a narcotic for the pain.   The doctor warned me not to drive while on it, to be careful walking, not to sign any papers or make any decisions or promises…….  Rick started to chuckle and wondered aloud at one point if he could talk me into a new race car while under the “influence.”  Jeni’s boyfriend Jason called today and reminded Rick to get everything I agree to in writing!!!!   HA HA HA

So, I am on the couch, foot up, pain meds wearing off so I am gradually getting to the level of discomfort I was warned about.  My girls are so taking care of everything as I try to stay comfortable and keep my foot protected,   It will be a long week, and the doctor said it will be three weeks of pain.

I have to admit I am not so joyful, in fact I have been mad today a few times.  I have so much to do.  It is my favorite time of the year and we just started hiking and enjoying the beauty of fall.  I have little jobs I want to get done to get our house in order…….  they will have to wait a bit.

I guess I need a lesson in patience AGAIN!

So, today it is all about a TOE!

Blessed anyway!

Joyce

Grapes, how God provides!

The other day Melody and hiked to the area we have picked wild grapes at for many years.  There were very few grapes, in fact the whole wild mass of vines looked terrible.  My heart sank as we have had more difficulty each year finding vines with adequate amounts of fruit.  I see more and more vines along the highway but the organic side of me screams “don’t even be tempted!”  

So while visiting with a friend I mentioned that  I was looking for grapes.  She said that her SIL’s property has an abundance and that I should go pick there.  My friend had been told to pick and she is a gardner but not a canner.  

My favorite work-crew ( my beautiful girls) and I went up to scout out the situation and found the most beautiful grapes I have seen in years.  There were so many!  We picked and picked and came home with at least a bushel.   

There is something spiritual about making grape juice, maybe it is because the fruit of the vine is what Jesus used to represent His blood.  I do not know what it is, but when I squeeze the huge bag of cooked grapes and I watch the dark juice drip out into the pan and turn my hands red I think of the cross every time!  The color and the amount pouring over my hands does a small flip in my stomach.  To think of the the powerful blood of Jesus running down wood and mingling with the dirt and rocks at the foot of the cross moves me.   Jesus told us to be reminded of Him and His death when we drink the cup of communion.  I can see why He said that….

The squeezing and twisting of the bag, the thoughts pondered in my mind last for a few minutes, and then the job is finished, that experience stored away until next year’s grape harvest.

The juice and jelly turned out beautifully.  The juice will be for Christmas breakfast, birthdays and the Seder meal at Easter time.  We are having some juice this morning to celebrate the harvest!

I already have 6 jars of the jelly spoken for as some folks make their wishes known the minute they know I am canning some wild grape jelly.  

I also canned 6 qts. of our spaghetti sauce that Rick likes.  It turned out delicious, we all had to taste it of course and give opinions on what might be needed to be adjusted.  In the end we let it be and decided that the taste was just perfect.  God still does miracles!

So the harvest continues.  Today will be plums, green beans, and more spaghetti sauce.  I am making a turkey for supper so the house should smell wonderfully by the end of the day.

Wild grapes clusters, most beautiful grapes that I have seen in years!

Picking the grapes off of our friends old barn.

Beautiful bounty,

Stained hands from the work, sign of a productive day!

Monday’s meanderings

Good Morning!

I just spent some time in the Word, doing a Bible study on the book of Romans.  It is through the internet (Praise Jesus for the internet!) at a site called Oneplace.com.  They have Beth Moore’s sunday school class from her church in Texas for folks to listen to.  I have been doing Romans with her class for 6 months and we are coming to the end.  It has been GOOD!   Oh how I love to study God’s Word.  The other studying I am doing is 1-2 Timothy.  I just finished 1 Timothy and am now in 2 Tim the first chapter.  I have only worked through the first 8 verses as God has just revealed so much to me in those verses alone.  He is so good.  I have asked Him to speak to me more through His Word and He keeps showing me things in each verse the apply to my life and situations right NOW!  

Out weekend was wonderful.  Rick was at the races Friday and Saturday night.  He let his mechanic race the car as it was the end of the year race.  His mechanic, James, enjoyed himself and did all right as in no major bang-ups.  I asked Rick if he had fun and he said that he was bored!!!!   I laughed and said ” now you know how your pit crew feels when they are watching you!”  Actually, I do no think they get bored at all as they never know what’s going to happen when Rick races!

On Saturday I was busy running Annie to work over at the Christian camp on the bluff.  She enjoys working there on the weekends.  The campers try and guess who she is as all of our girls have worked there at one time or another.  She is known as the Johnson girl and the fisherman’s daughter.  She has turned into quite the worker and we are proud of her.

I gardened, did laundry and worked on lesson plans as I would like to have the whole year mapped out by the end of this week, and I am almost there.

Melody and I have been enjoying taking walks and so we did that over the weekend a couple of times.  She is such an interesting and independent child.  I enjoy her so much.

Church was good, Pastor preached on the Sabbath.  It was very interesting and made me think.  Kristi took notes which I will have her share off of for Bible this morning.

We all relaxed in the afternoon, my friend Kari came over for a cup of coffee and her children played while we visited.   This is a hard week as it is the anniversary of her daughter Amanda’s death two years ago.  Amanda died on her father’s birthday which makes it a doubly hard day.  I am trying to think of something that I can do to bless her that day and have asked God to show me what it is.  It may be just to go and be with her some of that day.  I will never forget that morning two years ago when she called very early telling me that her daughter and another dear friend’s daughter had been killed together in a car accident.  My crying out to God woke my children as I begged God to help me know what to do.  My heart just feels heavy remembering the horror of those days.

This week is also the anniversary of the death of my dearest sister in Christ, Donna.  She and I had walked through 23 years of life together and were deeply connected.  She became sick in the morning and was gone by midnight.  She left an 11 month old little boy named Sam who is a part of our lives and you see in the pictures here and there.  

The end of Sept. does have shadows due to these deaths.  There is still a sadness that creeps into the corner of my heart this time of year.  I cried last week just remembering Donna, who would have turned 50 this past month.  Time does heal and heaven seems more real than ever, but the missing of the person is so hard.  

Last night we went out to dinner at one of the fanciest establishments on the Peninsula.  It is called the Waterfront.  Clients took us out as a thank-you for all the work this past summer.  It was such a delicious treat, and the conversation was so fun and entertaining.  They are all lawyers and very intellectual so the discussions were educational as well.  Very interesting.  I love these folks and we know they love us as well.  I know they are watching our lives and wondering.  They do not know Jesus, and my greatest desire for this family is their salvation.  God had graciously given me many opportunities to speak to different ones this summer about Who He is.   Time will tell.

This week may be more busy than I had hoped.

The car’s speedometer quit working – which will be another post this week.

I may need to drive, very slowly, to Sturgeon Bay to get that checked out.

I am going to can plums, tomatoes and grapes.

School, wonderful school.  If I could just find my Latin curriculum I would be complete!

Cleaning

Entertaining friends on Friday

Clean up the yard

Watch some beautiful Fall sunsets on the Lake

Get everyone up on their music lessons

It should be good!

Blessed in it all

Joyce

Beautiful waters of Door County, on the ride home from W.I..

Pictures

You will notice a glut of pictures that I have put on our blog.  I am basically putting all of our summer pictures on today before it turns Fall tomorrow.  What fun we had looking though all of these pictures and remembering the fun we had.  It all went by so quickly.  

Our days have been filled with lots of school, and chores and getting into the schedule.  It has been good.  I can actually see my laundry room floor and the house has been generally picked up for 3 weeks straight!  WOW.

I will post more later as I have promised the girls some time together.

Blessed

Joyce

Our crazy girls having fun in their Sunday dresses!

Annie on the trampoline —

Gretel girl doing her flip

Trampoline fun with Mandy and Julie

Trampoline fun with Mandy and Julie

This sweet cardinal pair have been a joy to watch. The female chirps and squats and the male brings seeds from the ground and feeds her. What a lesson in sharing and caring from God’s creation.

Campfires in the backyard, and we haven’t burnt down a thing, yet!

Who needs the store when you can go right out to the garden to get what’s needed for supper? Ok, so I have to get a little meat from the freezer for the carnivores!

Beautiful Door County waters, on the way home from W.I..

Melody

Mandy on the job at Bergstrom.

Me and My beautiful girls at the Red Cup on W.I..

W.I. artwork on the beach

Who needs the Virgin Islands with water like this?

My favorite 10 year old who has posed for my pictures for ONLY 10 years and is wanting to quit! She’s still cute!

Some of my favorite girls! Washington Island

Annie with the Brave Jazmin, before she found out it was time to trim her nails!

Annual cram into the phone booth at the nature center on W.I..

Our hands traced with our favorite verses at the church on the Island.

More summer fun with friends

Summer fun with friends

Now see how brave, and slightly embarrassed she is!

Summer Flowers

Summer Flowers

I Choose Love

One of the most frequent taught lessons ( I wish I could say asked for!) that I speak to the children is that of choosing love.    I have learned many lessons about love and relationships through my many years, and there is a truth in that we sometimes have to choose to love.

I read a quote this morning about how God must of chosen us before birth because after He saw how we acted after birth He may never have chosen us at all….  I know that is not doctrinally sound, but it makes me think, especially in regard to how I love.

Living in a small, end of a peninsula, rarely any newcomers kind of place has challenged everything I thought I understood about loving others, and I have a ways to go by God’s grace. But BECAUSE of where I live I have HAD to learn HOW to love, and it is a constantly practiced unfinished lesson.

God is so good to give us lots of opportunity to practice what He is teaching us, doesn’t He?  He gave me lots of opportunities personal and up close this past year.  But, now that I look back at this year I realize that last winter’s time of teaching was only preparing me for harder times.  Those winter moments of loving in some tough times were practice times for later.  Not that those earlier relationships were less important than the tested relationships to come for indeed they are equally important.

So, when in a small community relationships get harder, things get said, truth gets twisted, lets just say, “it is imperative that love conquers!”  

I am not talking about a Santa Claus model of love, keeping everyone’s self-esteem at an all time high at the cost of truth.   I am talking about the love that becomes heavy in my heart, the love that longs for complete reconciliation even if the others involved don’t want that same end.  This love that I know is only in my heart because God is so big, and so generous, and gives in doses larger than asked for because He knows how well I underestimate my need for this great love when in crisis.  This God-love that makes me weep at the sadness of lives being altered and truth being scorned, of homes hurting and needing healing, of pride that raises it’s fist leaving myself and onlookers puzzled and taken back.  The love that gives me wisdom, keeps me from choosing sides, keeps me from seething in sinful anger as my blood runs cold at the words I hear from broken wounded, confused hearts.

And then love steps in.  After prayer, after seeking God’s Word, when gently speaking truth, when obeying what God tells me to say and do, it then boils down to consistent diligent love.  When things don’t  make sense and I  even feel the fear of man nipping at my heart, I choose love.

Can you relate?  

Oh, how I praise God for teaching me a new depth of love.  I praise Him for leading me to love with words and deeds that I know are not in me humanly speaking.  I praise Him for patient love that stays in action through His power, not giving up or caving in to fear or vain imaginations.

I praise Him MOST for all of these things acted out toward ME when I have been the one needing the loving, when I have sinned.  I know mercy and am grateful for it, from God first and then at the hand of my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Lessons learned cause me to to know and to realize that this body of Christ is SO important to my spiritual growth.  I am thankful for my patient heavenly Father Who uses life to cultivate in me a desire and hope for His way in my life, for Godly choices in the every day happenings of my life in this community He has put me in.

Because He chose me and chose to love me, I have chosen love, and will by God’s power choose to love in day’s to come.

Blessed through it all,

Joyce

Melody’s insect house. She had a Praying Mantis, large spider, Golden spider, Goldenrod soldier beetle, female cricket all on a goldenrod plant. She gets an A

Melody’s pet for the day.

Do you see the insect? We studied insects and the next day found one of these on Rick’s lunch pail, in the house! I really need to pay the maid more to do better cleaning, HA HA HA!

This is what school looked like for Annie last Friday. Sammy wanted to sit with her to work on his numbers. He looks SO innocent!