Mighty winds. We have had gales winds for the last four days. On Monday Rick came running in the house saying that the dock was giving way to the waves. Annie and I bundled up and went down to the dock to see what was happening. The waves had collapsed the dock corner between two slips. The fear was that the dock could completely collapse on the boat, pinning it in the slip and damaging the side. Annie and I watched as the men discussed how best to back out into the waves to move the Freitag to the ferry boat landing about 1500 feet north on the shore. My stomach sickened as I heard them discuss timing the waves so backing into a wave would not roll the boat. After much discussion it was decided that the trip to the dock in 10-12 foot waves was not worth the risk. Better to let the boat be banged then risk lives. I was relieved even though they were still talking moving it in the night if the winds stilled. The life of being married to a Commercial Fisherman! I can see little Ruby Weborg shaking her head at the guys when they would head out into the waves. She would shrug her shoulders and say that we need to pray for them. We did indeed pray! Wisest words a Commercial Fisherman’s wife could share.

Good friends. Fishermen came to check the boats and then gathered around Rick weighing out the issues with the dock and the risk of heading to the ferry dock. I am always blessed to see these guys work together, one heading over to tie a line while being beaten by a wave, four of them down on their knees working to brace the boat with wenches. They are so brave and calm at the same time, working quickly as a team instinctively knowing what ropes and chains to get to solve the problem. Quite the group these men are! Love them all.

This is breakfast at our house, food tea or coffee, Bibles out, filling our hearts with truth, journals for notes, recipe for supper out and a stalk of oregano to discuss that the plant parts can be used for. I forgot the ever present chore list! Always a little chaos, always learning. Love it!

Fall abundance. This is and will be a common site for the next few days, canning equipment on the stove! We have canned plums, plum jelly and juice, grape jelly and juice, tomato juice-soup-spaghetti sauce and stewed. This is good although very hard on a kitchen! My girls were fussing about their hands turning blue from the grapes and I told them it wears off……. in about a week! I always tease them about the skills they will have on their “wife-resume” form!

Fun nights at PC Junction. Kari, Robyn Weborg, Lyle, pedal-car racing in the dark! We had such a good time together.

These are the rewards I gave myself for being a good Mother-of-the-Bride! A new apron and a new dishtowel and pretty napkins. What fun!

Annie’s awesome garlic bread

To Everything there is a Season

One of the things I adore about northern Wisconsin is our change of seasons.  I welcome the changes of each season with it’s uniqueness.  My favorite season is upon me…. Fall through Winter.

Fall brings me back to what is dearest to my heart; being with my children more, the hope that the summer work is done, supper tables with candles lit, reading by the fire, digging into God’s Word consistently and canning the produce from our gardens and the gardens of those who love us.   I enjoy Fall sunsets which are more pink and blues than the summery orange and leave the sky in a pale yellow for some time after the sun actually sets.

I admire God’s artist supremacy as I drive down the roads comparing all of His reds and oranges or hunting in our acreage for the deepest colors to wax and keep as treasures, reminding me of this awesome Creator that I love.

I am humbled by the blessing of abundance as I can jars of tomato sauces and tomato soup, chopped tomatoes and juice.  I can beautiful pink plums and rose colored jelly from gifts given to my husband.  Fall brings out love and sharing as he came in the house last night, arms laden with squashes, organic eggs, deep purple plums.  All thank-you gifts for his generous blessings of fish given throughout the year.  It’s the continuous cycle of blessing….  one thing given out of love for another gift of love.   It is community at it’s finest.

There is another season of life going on as well.

It is again the season of loss,  these are the days of loss as I remember the loss of my dear friend Donna five years ago and the loss of my dear friends daughters 3 years ago and a few others as well.

It is also a season for my family where we are reckoning with the loss of our dearest Father as his health is declining rapidly.

I tasted this season last Spring, sitting beside his bed, praying with him and wondering how long.  This season is back and I am torn between tears of sadness for knowing I may not hear his voice for long and a satisfying happiness that my Dad will walk again, hip restored, muscles strong, nerves healed, body redeemed as well as his soul.   Our faith is always lined with that thread that keeps us tied to the eternal, the heavens, that place we do not know yet long for with all of our hearts.   A heart heavy with earthly things and yet hopeful for things I know of only through faith.

God, in His infinite wisdom will control when this season will be over, for He knows and loves best.   In God’s cycle of love He gave His Son which my Father received and in return lived his life to serve God out of his love for God.  Now my Father will receive again when he enters heaven to be with his Heavenly Father to enjoy Him for eternity.   God is so good and I praise His name.

I am blessed to have seasons in my life and I will enjoy them,

Joyce

Monday, only written on Tuesday!

I really did intend to write yesterday morning, but then life started to happen and did not stop until 9 last night in which I gave up the house-wife ghost and went to bed…

Yesterday was our first day of school, I know, freaks me out too!  I have never started this late as I have been an end of August starter for the last 20 years of our home-educating.  Life dictated differently for me this year and so here we are.

I spent the two whole days last week organizing books, finding books and frantically ordering books that I had probably given away or that the curriculum had changed.  If you remember pre-wedding, Melody had already arranged most of her books as she was ready to start school at the normal time, we are creatures of habit!

As I did this preparing I started to get REALLY excited.  Annie and Melly are both starting with Ancient History.  Annie is also studying history side-be-side with church history.  It should be good.  I just love educating our children and it has been the best choice for our family.

So, yesterday I woke, had coffee with Rick, did the lunch-pail thing,  started our laundry and made the mistake of going to get meat out of the big freezer.  Usually this is a good thing and a form of a miracle when I actually get the meat thawing before 10 or even noon!  But, upon opening the door I realized that the freezer was not working properly and really needed a de-frosting.  I must interject at this time that RARELY does my life run according to MY schedule…. anyway.   I thankfully had Rick’s huge cooler out on the lawn from all the entertaining with the wedding and with a quick run to the shed for another cooler I was able to empty the freezer.  In the process I found things that I needed to get rid of and quick.  I also found that I am good on freezer jam for the year and have enough ground beef to last until Christmas!

In the midst of this chaos we did start school.

We started our school year by listening to James McDonald preach as we did much of last year.  You may tune in to his sermons at http://www.harvestbible.org/   Pull down MEDIA menu and click on THIS WEEKS MESSAGE.

He has just started a series on Revelation and it was so good.

The day went not as planned with Annie’s little Gracie here and stuff happening.  It was 6 last night when I decided that we were done for the day.  Rick was running late and since he was bringing the supper home (fish), we were able to do this.

Today will be better.

We are going to pick the tomatoes and get them stewing to can later and then get right on to school.  It is supposed to be warm and so we may have to head to the beach to swim one last time.

First I have to go get my laundry moving because it is not my day and the girls have words with me when I use their days to do my laundry.  They stand their with their hand on their hip, finger wagging at me telling my that I made the chart and so I had better stick with it.   WHERE did they learn that behavior??????    

I will have a post about the wedding soon, I promise.  So many thoughts and memories still rolling around in my head…

Blessed so much,

Joyce

Love is Not a Fight

This is the song that we all keep spontaneously singing lines from through the day.  This is the song that Guy sang at the wedding.  The words are powerful and brought many to tears.  Guy changed the words to ” may God send angels to LOCK the door.”   He also used the last lines to question Jeni and Jason on whether they would fight for each other and they each in turn nodded yes.  Beautiful, profound and fearful.  God says that no man should separate what He has joined.  Let it be so!  It may seem odd to think of fighting for love, but in this day and age, anyone married for over 10 years can attest to the fact it is a fight and we must be VERY purposeful every day to keep our marriages good and strong and full of love.  It is a fight, but with God, the creator and sustainer, the all-powerful God, we, as His children CAN have the victory.  AMEN and AMEN

Love is not a place

to come and go as we please

It’s a house we enter in,

then commit to never leave

So lock the door behind you,

throw away the key

We’ll work it out together

Let it bring us to our knees

Love is a shelter in a raging storm

Love is peace in the middle of a war

And if we try to leave,

may God send angels to guard the door

No, love is not a fight

but it’s something worth fighting for

To some, love is a word

that they can fall into

But when they’re falling out

Keeping that word is hard to do

Love is a shelter in a raging storm

Love is peace in the middle of a war

And if we try to leave,

may God send angels to guard the door

No, love is not a fight

but it’s something worth fighting for

Love will come to save us,

if we’ll only call

He will ask nothing from us

But demand we give our all

I will fight for you,

Would you fight for me?

It’s worth fighting for

Sunset pictures

Memories…

Faces from our days

Family Fun

God is good!

Psalm 25:8 says; Good and upright is the Lord.  So TRUE!

I have lived by a principle for many years of stating what ever good thought come to my mind out loud.  God challenged me to this years ago as the power to bless is within the tongue.   So…… if I think something good about someone, I tell them, even a stranger.  And when I see God’s goodness in my life I will speak out loud “God is good.”    This is a fact, the Bible teaches us this.

After the last week of out life, I am able to say over and over again that GOD is GOOD.

Here is why:

God brought us dear friends and family to celebrate this wedding with us.

God provided the most beautiful weather for us over this week, and sunsets galore.

God provided wisdom for us to work with flowers and decorating the tent which was all done beautifully.

God provided the love for Jeni and jason

God provided our family times together where we could love and support one another

God helped me find things that were missing, keep track of very important things, have enough food in the pantry and fridge and trunks of cars ( very convenient place for storing liters of soda and canned items when you lack storage areas as I do! )

God provided a friend to take care of a need I had

God provided friends and family who helped, filled in the gaps, did what we could not do, stood with us to see this wedding to completetion

God provided patience for me with the bathroom only getting done on Friday, and the ability to NOT see the tools that were left in the living room and outside that bathroom…..    ggrrrrrrr.

I could go on and on.  I will in later posts, but I just have to praise Him right now and say that He is indeed good!

Blessed, so blessed

Joyce

The Wedding part 1, lots of reception pictures and Aunt and Uncle pictures with bride and groom

The Wedding….. God kissed our day, it was beautiful from start to finish!

Beach fun in Sister Bay. It was beautiful in every way.

Guy’s Concert. Floriano ran the computer, Rick ran the sound, the children ran the booth and watched the younger ones and Laurel and I cheered on the practice time and did interpretive dance!! Kind of kidding.

Wedding rehearsal, fishboil in the tent afterwards and then Jeff made us a campfire where we laughed and told stories and had a wonderful time. The last picture is of Angela and Rick hassling each other over boning fish for the fish chowder we were to have at the family dinner the next day. Love the laughter!

Wedding tent on the water and our outdoor eating area. God is so good as He provided beautiful weather for every meal that we ate outside together. I have to say that the outdoor furniture I bought at the beginning of the summer was quite the blessing!

Look Mom, Uncle Larry helped with decorating the tent. The Heikes gang were such a blessing! Don’t they look good!

Jeni telling Uncle Guy that he had better have that song down, no CD could compare to his voice!

The making of the bouquets, Friday morning. Cookie and Angie jumped right in and were such a blessing.

Jeni and the centerpieces, gerbera daisies and asparagus fern, just beautiful!

This is what the next three days look like for me, and this is not the ordinary life stuff that I have to accomplish too!! God is my strength!

Thursday:

Mason jars, boxes for carrying centerpieces,  vases for large bouquets, pails for watering all flowers to church

get candlabras and candles from Bethel to Shepherd and in side closet, runner to church as well

sound check at some point for Guy at Sister Bay — pick up missing things for wedding (hopefully none)

collect electrical cords and strips for tent

-Supervise tent arrival and set up

-Jeni and Jason arrive, around 4 or so (last chance to pick up anything from sturg)

-Get marriage license and pay for cake

Supper at 6ish

-Soak flowers overnight

-Fold bulletins

Friday:

collect greenery for centerpieces

make centerpieces

make bouquets for church

make bouquets for girls

hang icicle lights and check for lights out

hang tulle

rest of decorating for walkway

set up wood for bonfire at Jeff’s

wood brought for fishboil to shed

-pick up gift cards for mansons and voights

-Get fishboil stuff together

-peel potatoes and onions

-pick up coleslaw

-pick up pies

-clean out freezer truck and bring to Johnsons

4:30- get to church to be ready for a 5pm rehearsal start ** dad needs to be there because Lee will get there at 4:30 to start running through the sound system

Fish boil  6- 6:30 start ??

Fish boil clean up tables and chairs wiped down

Bon-fire

Saturday:

8:30 Women meet at tent to put table cloths set up, centerpieces and candles, out and food table decorated. Caroline will meet us there

10- Mandy, Kristi, Annie get hair done

11 Jeni and Mandy get their nails done

-Jeni Picks up corsages

-Jeni picks up snack food for bridal party

1PM food is delivered to Johnson home

-Jason confirms and pays for the rest of the hotel

1:00 Johnson/Clark/Penrod/Marchetti/Heikes dinner at Johnsons

*People need to be eating at 1, also Jessi and Adam will probably be there too

3pm bridal party (minus little kids) to Church to dress Bride and take dressing pictures

Little kids and Dave and Deb to church, dressed and ready to go by 3:45

3:45-4pm pictures start at Church, Once the Bridal party is at the Church they should plan on being there through the ceremony. Dave and Deb can leave once their picture is taken. Aunt Angie and Karee/Megan should be the only people that aren’t in the Bridal party that are there.

6-6:45 Snack break, make-up/hair touch ups, possible sunset pictures

*Everything should be cleaned up and packed up (my stuff needs to for sure get into Jason’s car) by ceremony time. I think that that lady from Church can put candles away and roll the runner, if we have to pay her $100 she can do a little physical work. But everything else should be cleaned up and put away.

7PM- ceremony STARTS!!

**Bridal party should be the last people to leave the Church

Head to reception —- Have Fun!

-Get copy of marriage license to take to mexico (maybe can do at whittingtons before leaving for airport)

Labor Day fishboil. Lots of fun with neighbors and summer friends. The view was beautiful and the sun warm. Jeff and Mark did the fish boil. I always enjoy seeing the guys hanging out together on the truck, and we all wonder what they are talking about and laughing at when we watch them! We brought a salad that was completely from our garden other then the fetta cheese as Rick won’t let me have milking animals………….. yet! Wonderful time!

My friend Susan came with me to our church kitchen where we baked Red Velvet cupcakes for the wedding reception. We had fun and we will never tell how it went! Don’t worry the cupcakes are delicious and we did not leave a spot of red in the all white kitchen!

Annie’s Day At The Beach. First we arrived and set up our chairs facing the late afternoon sun as all good tanners do! Then Annie set up camp and started to relax, listening to her new i-pod. Then I started the process of getting the girls to go in and swim. This story tells how it went! :)

You cannot bribe us mom, we will not go any deeper, we have trusted you before when you have said it is warm, and then we FROZE! No way, we know better. Melody is young and doesn’t know what we know!

This water is too cold. My ankles are numb.

Meanwhile, there goes Melody. Always the first to go in and the last to get out. What a good little Scandinavian girl!

OK, I said…. do not splash me, I do not want my dress wet, do you hear me??

You said WHAT? You don’t want to get splashed? You have got to be kidding, I am your older sister and I will splash you if I want to!!

That’s it, now my dress got splashed and my hair may have gotten wet, I am OUT of here. Besides, the water is freezing!

I will sit here and work on my tan, and take pictures while listening to my i-pod, it is your loss family! And it was. The End.

Melody and my drip castle. We made it too close to the water and even after shoring up the water side with rocks, the waves washed some of it away. Oh well! Lots of fun anyway.

Simple Sunday meal. Tomatoes and beans from the garden, some fresh cheese and roast.

This was the wedding shower for Anna, dear friend’s daughter. Anna has been blessed with a godly man and they will do great things for the kingdom of God. Anna and Coltin will marry in Oct.. Mandy is a bridesmaid. The shower was at the lovely beach-house of Anna’s grandparents and gives you a picture of the old Ephraim style of doing lake houses in the 30-40’s. The house and view are just beautiful.

Playing at the beach yesterday. I even went in and swam. Although cooler it was refreshing and fun.