We had another family wedding recently, the third time for this family, and it was wonderful.
My sweet son, the child who made me a mother and taught me of the fierceness of love that my young (20) heart and mind could hardly comprehend and understand. I always look back at my first mothering with him in wonder that the God of the universe entrusted me with this precious life as I was young, but God gives best and so He gave us Matthew.

As a side note, my fishermen and I married when I was 19 (he was 23) after being told that I would probably never get pregnant and that we would be lucky if I ever did….. but God! We married May 23, 1981 after knowing each other for 10 months. On July 5, 1981 I took a pregnancy test and much to our surprise and great delight, we found out we were pregnant. Matthew David was born the following March.

Matthew was the happiest child, always smiling, creative, fun, musical, deep thinking and hard working. Matthew’s favorite time was when the whole family would be involved in something whether fun or work related, but doing it together. He always wanted a brother, but God gave him sisters and he has managed well as and older brother them!

A few years ago he brought home to visit a sweet young lady named Emily. Emily was familiar to our family because Mandy and Emily met in college and became good friends. I kid you not, on the day of their graduation, as I was taking a picture of Mandy and her friends, God spoke to my heart that this Emily would be Matthew’s girl! I instantly felt a great love for her. So, when he brought her north to visit quite a few years later it was the completion of that moment from their graduation. We loved Emily from the start!

It took our son some time to make a commitment to marrying Emily due to some health issues and his desire to make sure she was the one. And she was! So we gathered in Green Bay for their April wedding and rejoiced in God’s goodness and faithfulness to our family. The wedding was beautiful and meaningful with God’s Word being read and the precious vows of marriage being spoken. The reception was full of joy and great dancing! Emily and her family and friends have long practiced ball-room dancing and they were fun to watch! I told my fisherman that if we start practicing now, we may look that good by the time we have another family wedding!

We rejoice in all the good that the Lord has done and is doing in our family!   We are delighted to have Emily as our daughter and believe that she is exactly God’s best blessing as a wife for our son.

So blessed,

Joyce

 

 

Conversations with my 5 yr. old.

Sunday afternoon, and we are just relaxing and hanging out together.   I was making shapes for her to cut out as she now feels she has mastered the art of cutting and would like to use MY scissors —  good luck with that!   In the middle of cutting at the school table, 4 feet from me, she comes over to me real fast with that look of expectancy……  then she announces –

“Mommy, did you know that a few weeks ago, I can’t remember when, but Annie told me that now that I am 5, I can start to drink soda? Or, maybe it was Mountain Dew!”

Yes indeed, because Mountain Dew is on another level of soda in our home.  If the girls want an A&W Root Beer it is all good, but when they want a Mountain Dew I know they are wanting the buzz of caffeine and the late night that comes with it, and the talk will accelerate and the laughter will ensue!  Mountain Dew brings fun to the mix, every time!

Me- “Did she really say that?”  It just didn’t seem like something Annie would say–

EJ – “Yes mommy, she really, really did and I am not joking”

Me- “So, do you want a sip of soda? It is Sunday and the day we are most likely going to have that treat.”

EJ – “No, but I am thinking about it, now that I am 5!”

 

 

 

 

For the last few months God has impressed upon me that it is time to blog again, to go back to recording our family history to share with our extended family, but also for the sake of putting into words the thoughts surrounding our life here on this earth.  Thoughts that have no pictures attached, just the convictions and encouragements that are place in my heart from God above.  He is so good, He is so gracious.

This time and season of needing to be still and focus on trusting God in ways that life demanded, so different than anything I have experienced in life so far, is lifting.  God has healed and restored and done beautiful things in my life.  As so often the case, a mother’s pain is the effect of another’s action, be it family or other close relationships,  and often is not her story to share but to be a burden bearer, a prayer warrior and the servant of Jesus as she walks with those she loves.   And in other times, pain is caused by a mother’s own mistakes, and I have made plenty, and I will continue to share that, freely,  so that my daughters and anyone else that reads this blog may learn.

     Psalm 98

He has made known His salvation

He has revealed His righteousness

He has remembered His steadfast love and faithfulness

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God!

Psalm 146:9

5Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,

Whose hope is in the Lord his God,

6Who made heaven and earth,

The sea, and all that is in them;

Who keeps truth forever,

7Who executes justice for the oppressed,

Who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.

8The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;

The Lord raises those who are bowed down;

The Lord loves the righteous.

9The Lord watches over the strangers;

He relieves the fatherless and widow;

But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.

I love this passage.

I love the mandate that can be read through the lines of this Scripture, balanced with the New Testament passages that tell us to GO – DO -SERVE-LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE-

PICK UP YOUR CROSS.

Because, God alone can, and does all of these things —

but sometimes He uses us,

through His power,

to accomplish His will —

AND HE GETS ALL THE GLORY!!

And WE get all the fun,

the stretching

the learning and growing

the faith building

the joy!

One of the best parts of foster care for us has been the wonderful spiritual growth that

has happened in us as we learn to minister and bless those children and the parents of those children who are involved with Social Services.

They are the ones who need help.

They are the ones who are oppressed, and yes, often from their own actions but sometimes not.

They are hungry and they are prisoners.

They are blind to many truths, especially that they are created in the image of God and valuable!

Many are bowed down and can’t see any hope for themselves or their children.

They are the strangers, often new to communities as they live transient lives,

moving from place to place.

They are the fatherless, motherless and widows.  Victims of  divorce or partners moving on

to the next hook-up or affair.  Children who have no parent alive or possible one

alive while the other is incarcerated.

They are needy — and through the years I have come to see…..

they look a lot like me.

It is the wonder of what God has done in my life and the changes that He has wrought in my stubborn mind and will that make me love those who are needy.  I see ALL the potential of who they can be and the glorious lives that they can have, if they follow Jesus as their Savior.

It has made my husband and I take risks —

Follow after God and obey Him even when it looks crazy–

And we are entering one of those seasons of caring for the needy, and their children

The house is full, to the brim!

The prayers are stepped up a notch and we are asking for lots of faith to fill us up.

And we are already experiencing the joy in the middle of the chaos-

And seeing God connect us with folks, and families who just need a Savior–

Just like me!

 

Parenting is always an exciting adventure–

Some days it is more so than not, and I do mean that in the most positive way!

Today was one of those days–

A certain one of our daughters who has been loving on a friend for the last 6 months, helping her, encouraging her,

supporting her and praying for her.

Today this daughter who does not really care to see others in pain or talk about personal things, who does not like the sight of blood and would rather not be in a hospital if it can be avoided….

Today this daughter went to a 6 hour long birthing class.  To help this friend, to extend herself beyond her comfort zone to bless one who is very alone, who has some hard times coming down the road and will need a hand to help her over the bumps and to stay on the road safely.

All in the name of Jesus and for the sake of the Gospel —

This was an exciting day in parenting — And I am blessed to see a daughter sacrifice some of her life for the love of another —

p.s. — She texted me from the class saying that a woman was going on about how she birthed THREE children all naturally…….. and then Annie added, “Don’t worry. I am not impressed!”   HA HA — she was thinking of me, having birthed six children, two at home —  but she forgot that when I tell about my birth stories I always say that just when it was time to push our babies out I was ALWAYS asking my husband if I should take some drugs!  I guess you could say I was just one step away each time from un-natural births!  🙂  It’s all good!

 

The above pictures represent a big part of our life with children which goes beyond the children we have given birth to.  In the upper picture is a picture of Miss S and Mr A,  Miss S trying to love both him and her doll as her nurturing spirit runs deep and overflows daily.  Precious, precious children.  The second picture is one of our favorites and one that our Social Workers would love to use as a poster for Foster Care.  Our family fondly calls it “The Princess and the Fisherman”.   That little Miss S, who loves to be either a princess, a ballerina, or recently a doctor but ALWAYS a mommy has wound her way into that fisherman’s heart, and it is a beautiful site to behold!  She was a princess on the day that picture was taken.   🙂

 

 

Another reason that I took off the last year from blogging would be that we had another daughter become engaged and married.  This is Thanksgiving night at our home, where the house is filled with lots of people, family or friends.  Was we prepared to pray we all were in a circle taking turns saying what we were thankful for.  When it was Justin’s turn he spoke about Mandy and then dropped to his knee and proposed.  I was stunned but the Fisherman knew what  was coming and wanted me to be surprised.  This engagement was the response to lots of prayers and a testimony to God working in both of their lives.  We are thankful.  The wedding plans began immediately as they set the date for April.  our family is not one to have long engagements as we feel if you feel led to get married…. then GET married!

 

 

This is a picture of Jeni a few months later — you can kind of see that she is pregnant!

Thanksgiving weekend we had a family dinner and at the end Jeni said that she needed to share something with the family.  After a couple of years of desiring a baby and knowing it had been a rough fall I listened with a  heavy heart — she started by saying that they were going in for an ultrasound but they would be trying something different ( as opposed to the other ultrasounds that they had been doing )  because they were pregnant!!  My heart burst with joy and I sobbed as I heard the news that I had been praying so hard for.  What a delight to know that God had shown His love once again upon our family and honored us with a new life.  Please know that our family believes in the complete sovereignty of God and if there had been no baby we would rejoice in life as God has willed and would also choose to look into adoption.  These years were a time spent in me re-learning my doctrine on God’s sovereignty and find that He is beautiful and good in it all.

Wedding fun —  I hope sometime to have some wedding pictures but for now I do not have any on my computer —

It was a glorious weekend celebrating the marriage of Justin and Mandy and adding Justin and his son Tanner to our family.

March and April were busy with wedding plans and parties and celebrating — It took us a week to recover from it all!

God is good, and He is kind and we are thankful,

Joyce

 

 

After much time away for various reasons, all of which I will write about in the near future, I am slowly making my way back to blogging again.  It seems there are some folks whom I love dearly who really do read and follow our lives here at Joyfulhouse……. sweet things!   I also am using this blog to document our life so in light of that and the fact that I would not want it to seem we all disappeared for a year, we are foster parents and that could raise questions, I will resume —  🙂

Coming back to this blog will also have to be a slow re-entry as WordPress has changes in the last year.  How unfair to me that they would change everything in such a short matter of time.  I will learn what all these new and fancy buttons are for over time and hopefully not delete with a push of a button all of my work — been known to happen —

2013 — August —

Let’s just sum up the summer of 2013 as fun, and lots of hard work.  I live in Door County remember and although we live in a tourist area, we work so that the tourists can enjoy their stay, and then we squeeze in some fun when we are able.

As foster parents we are always ready for THAT CALL, the one that says we are needed to take in another child, it is a phone call that we await as our hearts are drawn to this ministry of caring for children as the Lord brings them.  Sometimes they are the unexpected, as was the one that we received last August.  We knew there was a baby soon to be born in the fall but because we still had our Miss S we were sure we would not get the call for that baby as well.  But, we did.  We prayed and knew it was a yes to take this little guy, Mr. A, born 6 weeks early with some special needs.  He was 2.5 hours away in a NICU by himself so we drove as often as we could to see him and bond with him the first few days.  Soon we realized  that he was being given some very strong meds and the nurses explains that  he would need to be on them for 30 days for sure which was protocol for these babies.  That was too much for my heart to bare as I held this little 4 lb. bundle who was suffering physically and sequestered away in a private dark room for many reasons.  I prayed for healing, I asked my family to pray  for him, I asked friends and our church to pray and literally 2 days later as I called to check on him, the nurses said, in a surprised tone, that his numbers were coming down and that they had never seen this before.  Oh do I love when God works quickly!  Remember, at this time we had been told that he would not be coming home to our home until October, maybe the first 2 weeks.  This was Sept. 2, he was a week old and it was Monday.  I went to see him and the nurses taught me to tube feed him and start on the bottle feeding and they again mentioned how surprised they were that he was doing so well — I was blessed with the opportunity to tell another nurse about God and how He answers prayers –.  On Wednesday they called and said he was coming off the strong meds because he didn’t need them anymore!  They had been slowly removing him from the meds as he quickly healed but it was progressing so fast that at this point the NICU doctor was astounded — and I got to tell her about prayer!  On that Thursday they also told us to be ready to take him on Saturday!  The problem was that we had been praying but not acting as in getting ready!  Thank the Lord for daughters who helped me transform our bedroom nook into a nursery, buy a crib and all the items necessary for a baby, and a tiny baby at that!  On Sunday Rick and I drove down to pick up our Mr. A.  He was so tiny that the little car seat seemed huge compared to his little body.  I remember The Fisherman and I looking at each other and I started to laugh — what was God doing?  Did He not know we are in our 50’s?  As we drove out we prayed, and felt the complete assurance from God that this was indeed what we were to be doing, and that yes, it would be hard in many ways but that our Big God would supply all of our needs.

He did! — He gave me the ability to feed Mr. A every 3 hours around the clock — 2 oz. at a time for the first 3 weeks.  It would take him about 30-40 minutes to do the 2 oz. I would get back to sleep for 2 hours then need to get back up and feed him again.  But such a joy!  It became my delight, on most nights —  to pray over him and bless him with God’s Words for his life.  God met every need for us as a family to take care of this little man and boy did we fall in love, and Miss S did as well!

Mr. A is one of the reasons that I did not blog for a while — my life became very consumed with the needs of getting a tiny baby healthy and caring for him, Miss S and our family —   And it was all good!.  God is so awesome and this journey is so exciting and real — Oh how I love what He brings and how He takes us through the good and the very hard things, and it has been a year of culmination in my life — all for good as I will share.

That was last fall —

It is that time of year again but we do not have Mr. A anymore.  He is in a very good place with family which is a true blessing and another answer to prayers.  We miss him.  It was last April when we said our goodbyes as we met with the family member, a beautiful kind woman, and passed him to her along with all of his belongings and special gifts from us.  As we sat in the hotel room, Mi-mi, A, The Fisherman and myself, we gathered around him to lay hands on him and pray.  We knew there was a good chance that we would never see him again on this earth.  We prayed over his life, lifting him before the throne of God.  As my big fisherman husband prayed he choked back sobs, joining the tears of our two beautiful daughters which broke my heart, his love and their love for this little boy pouring out in words over his life.  We hugged him and said our goodbyes.  As we were heading out of the hotel room I asked Mimi and A if this was too much for them, too hard to give up the foster children, even if it was to a very good place.  I will never forget A turning to me with more than a little fire in her eyes and saying “Oh sure mom, make it easier on us and leave children without a good safe home to go to??”  I knew then that even though we were all a wreck it would be ok eventually, God does heal hearts, He would help us through missing this precious little life in which we had seen miracles and experienced such joy.

He did help us, because He is faithful and He is kind.

Foster care is a wild ride — wouldn’t want life to be boring!

Thankful for the opportunity to love a little man, bless his life, teach him about Jesus and pray over him, change his diapers and spend time in the night with him showing him what love looks like!

 

 

Blessed as always because of Jesus

Joyce

Yesterday was Melody’s birthday and we celebrated all day long —  We actually started the celebration on Tuesday with a trip to Green Bay and dinner with Uncle Randy.  We Johnsons love to celebrate and birthdays celebrations are often a week or more — seems kind of Biblical as God like to celebrate in weeks to!

Turning 15 is a big deal in our home and my husband allows the girls to wear make-up starting on this birthday.  So…. off to Appleton we went to go to the Clinique counter and have a make-up stylist do her make-up and purchase her skin-care routine.  Then, off to Sephora and Ulta to buy mascara and eyeshadows and some lip glosses.  Those stores blow my mind with all the different kinds of makeups and brands and assortment of fixes for all of our “facial problems”.  It was a bit overwhelming to see it all and I was heavily aware that the message being sent to us as women is that we are indeed not “perfect” and that we don’t need to worry, “they” have something to fix everything.

My problem with that message is that my husband and I see our girls as beautiful, delightfully so, completely so.  That is one of the reasons Rick does not want his girls wearing make-up until they are fifteen.  He wants them to be sure and confident of their beauty without make-up before they start the make-up routine.  Even when they start using cosmetics he wants them to remain natural looking and not heavily made-up —  easier said then done sometimes.  As we gift Melody we want to make sure that she understands once again that her real beauty is in how God created her and her allowing Him to give her beauty from the inside out.  Beautiful Spirit filled heart = beautiful joyful countenance.   Every growing, maturing, changing as God does His work in her, in each one of us!

I remember when our first daughter was about 10 and she was sitting at the table for mealtime when the sun crossed her face and I could see that she was wearing my foundation.  Being just a child it was streaked across her cheek and down her chin and I stood amazed that she had tried to apply make-up on at such a young age.  She was innocently exploring what she saw me do when I was going to town or church and wanted to see how that would look on her.  My amazement, unfortunately turned to anger and I told her to get a towel and wipe it all off of her face.  I was upset because my daughter, thinking she was adding to her beauty as she had seen me do, was to me marring her precious face, a face which to me did not need anything to  be more perfect.  Her long blond hair and big blue eyes, creamy white complexion and her sweet innocence did not need one bit of help to be more beautiful to my eyes and that is what stirred up such strong emotion in my heart.  I wish I would have handled it better but I reacted and did not take the time to use this experience to teach the deep lesson of beauty to one so tender.  She was my first experience with a daughter and God graciously allowed us four more!  These beautiful daughters amaze their father and I, over and over again, as they go through the teen years and into full womanhood and their beauty grows each year.  What a joy!

Make-up is fun and they all enjoy wearing it — but their natural beauty is most precious as it comes from their hearts!

So here we are with our baby — wearing make-up, and pre-paring to start drivers ed next — fifteen and fabulous!

Blessed to be a mother of daughters

Blessed to be married to a strong man who is a good father to his five daughters!

Joyce

 

 

 

This is our beautiful 15 year old.

How time flies when you are having fun and she has been a fun and wonderful daughter.

This has been a great year for Melody as she has excelled in school, her friendships, helping with foster children, working for our rental business, her violin and most importantly her walk with God.

We love her laugh and her humor, her way of thinking and often taking things to a deeper level in school and other daily discussions.  She is a young lady and growing in all of her beauty and we are delighted that God gave her to us!

Christ Arose Christ the LOrd is risen today 216-17

We decided to celebrate my mother’s birthday on Thursday before we had to leave for home.  We made it a girls only time — for various reasons!   My mom loves to antique with us but unfortunately the place we wanted to go to together was closed and not opening until the following week — so, we headed up into Spring Hill to a fun store where we found lots of neat things after digging well.  When we were leaving a squad car came wheeling into the parking lot with window rolling down and the officer started to question my mother!   I jumped out of the car to see what was up but he sped away before I got to the car.  Mom said that she was asked if she had been outside the store and around the premises observing anything unusual going on..  evidently they were searching for someone!.  The proprietor of the store told my sister that things are stolen all the time.  Spring Hill is evidently not as classy as we would like to believe.

After thrifting for a while we headed out to lunch with mom at Olive Garden.  The boys felt a little excluded from this and it did not help that Kristi kept texting pictures of the dinners to Tyler and this is his favorite place to eat.

Making memories with Grandma Clark.  This was her 75th birthday and she looked lovely as always.

No trip to Spring Hill is complete without a trip to sweet Ci-Ci’s.   What a fun place!  We all enjoyed a treat and I had a moment to take some beautiful pictures of these lovely women.

“I do love me some fro-yo!  And the flavor burst from those little nuggets of fruit juice just thrills my taste-buds!”

“Hey boys!  Guess what you are missing now!”

My mom — what can I say?  There are not enough words to describe the beauty of this godly woman.  She has modeled Christ before me all my life and has showed sacrificial love and devotion in her marriage to my dad until his dying day.  She is forever optimistic to a fault  🙂  .   A few weeks ago my husband and I were arguing and his retort to me was ” yeah… well you are just like your mom — saying everything is going to be just fine, it will all work out-blah blah blah!”  That is my mom’s spirit, and she helps us all to see the brighter side of every situation.  We are blessed to have our mother and all she stands for in her life.  Thank you Lord for my mother!

Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at time to come.  She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue — Her children rise up and call her blessed —   Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.  Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised!  Proverbs 31  

You mom are that woman and we praise you!  

Blesses, so blessed,

and may the generations of women who come from this women also fear the Lord and be worthy of praise!  

Joyce

As always, there was some serious game time!

 

My Beautiful sister Angela in her schoolhouse.  This is where she teaches her children academics, the Bible, music and life lessons — it is one of my favorite places in TN.

Mandy with her Aunt Angela.

Mandy has a long way to go if she plans on catching up to her younger cousin in height!

 

This was one of the most precious memories of the trip.  Here, Chelsea shared her testimony with Mandy of how she came to know the Lord and then Angela shared hers as well.  Sweet, sweet fellowship among sisters in the Lord.

Cookout fun — swinging, sitting by the fire, playing Ninja, and a picture of the whole gang minus most adults — I must add that this was one awesome group of Christian young adults.  Beautiful women and men who are passionate about life with God and it showed.   So encouraging for my heart and it gave me hope for our church that we will have  this evident in our church as well.

Angela sharing a great story by the fire.

My mother and I by the fire —

More game time — but before the game time this sweet nephew of mine, Joe, was lovingly captured between our tow daughters Annie and Melody and they had a talk about life plans and goals.  I do love it that we can have lots of fun together and at the same time grab moments to talk about what is really important in life and encourage one another on in life…   that is Christian love!

Sometimes we Clark girls have a hard time keeping our mouths shut!   HA HA!   Kristi looks like she can’t believe a thing she is hearing!  This was during a game time as well.

 

Mandy in the game time!

Thankful for the good memories from TN.

Joyce

 

 

We left Wednesday in the early morning…. suburban full, but not to the brim as when we traveled with six children.  This time we have our two youngest daughters and the car seat with Miss S.  and baby paraphernalia filling the seat beside her car seat.  We made it off at a decent time for our annual trip to visit family in TN.  It was a few hours into the trip that Miss S coughed in a way that triggered concern to me right away.  She had been healthy for a couple of weeks, much to my delight… and I was hoping for good health for this trip so that my nights would not be consumed with being up with her more than our normal one or two middle of the night get-togethers.

We arrived on Wed. night late and took Miss S to the pediatrician on Thurs. morning.  Things did not improve as we had prayed and hoped and last night we spent hours praying over her as her fever rose higher and higher even with the tylenol.  As I sat rocking her in the night I was pursued by the thoughts of dismay that she had to get so sick, that this is our only vacation and here I am spending it with a very sick little girl and with very little rest or sleep.  I prayed and asked God to explain how this was His best for me this week.  I wish I could say that I received beautiful words of prose from my Heavenly Father, but that did not happen.  I did receive peace that He is with me and that rocking this little girl, praying over her immediate needs and for her future life were indeed His best plans for my life the last few nights.  In fact, that I was able to hear His voice in my tired mind at 1:00 in the morning was in itself a beautiful blessing.  This is not my way or desire of how to spend my vacation but God has a plan.  I may miss church tomorrow and I so love attending other churches, especially this one here in TN, but I will worship Jesus tomorrow here at the gram’s house with a sick little one wiping her little nose and telling her how much God loves her and has plans for her life as well.  It does not seem much like vacation at this time but God knows.

The words of this hymn have blessed me tonight —

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea—
Come, Friend of sinners, and thus bide with me.

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

On vacation — being blessed!

Joyce

The fish docks — looking pretty barren these days, and COLD!

Beautiful snowy Door County backroad.

                                                        Annie and Mandy at our birthday dinner celebration.

We were able to drive down last weekend to Appleton and celebrate Mandy’s birthday.  I love how little S just gets into the girl mode so easily….. here she is applying powder to her face and hair!  So cute.

Jeni, made a beautiful bundt cake for Mandy’s birthday — unfortunately the parking lot by Mandy’s was sheer ice and  the cake did a very impressive flip!   It still tasted delicious!

Me and the birthday girl  —  our beautiful daughter Mandy.  Mandy has had a great year with lots of changes in her life in many areas and answers in prayer for her with her VERY stressful job and with her church.  Yeah God!

Miss S has been getting up early — on top of not sleeping through the night.  This was one morning this week where she refused to let Rick leave for work until he had read her a book!  This was around 6:30 in the morning and she was very pleased with getting some time with her Mister before he left for work.  🙂

Melody took a cake decoration class last month for her home-ec class.  The cake was beautiful and SO delicious!

Foster Care Reality!   Some days 13 month olds, like Miss S, just do not want to be put down and sometimes I am the only one who she wants to be with even though she loves all of our family!  This was the other day where within an hour of being up I knew it was going to be a back-pack type of day —  so here we are brushing our teeth together!  It was a bonding moment for Miss S and her NaNa!   🙂

Matthew came up yesterday with his girlfriend Emily.  We had dinner together and visited and then we went out for pictures and after that nice one my son tried to throw Emily into the snow bank but she held on and ended up taking him down with her….  it was hilarious!   He was so surprised that he didn’t know what to say!  Ha.  I was so glad that he could come up and snowmobile after not being well for almost the last month.  I prayed all last week for more snow and decent weather for him to get to snowmobile and God answered my prayers.  We had such a wonderful day!

Blessed —

Joyce

It has been quite the week here in Gills Rock, and quite the week of faith.

Our son Matthew had a flare up with a terrible illness he is fighting.  It ended up making him lose a lot of weight and the become weak in his strength.  It is an awful thing to watch one’s precious son suffer, or child for that matter.  This bout has lasted three weeks and last Wednesday it became apparent that it was time for the family to step in and help.  Rick, Annie, Melody and I all sat in the living room and joined in prayer for Matthew as we asked God to intervene on his behalf.  The whole family hardly slept on Wednesday as we prayed through the night for Matthew’s health.  Thursday morning I made his favorite soup, ham and potato and put homemade apple sauce and other foods together and packed the girls all up and we headed out to Green Bay.  The timing was perfect as we were trying to make the drive in-between snow storms.  We came into the second storm about 30 minutes from Matthew’s home and had to drive slowly on the icy snow covered roads and saw cars in the ditch as we drove.  I was so glad to get there and again was thanking the Lord for our old suburban which hauls through this northern weather, and also that my husband did not listen to me when I thought we should trade it in when we bought the Ford Edge in Dec..  He was correct in saying that all-wheel-drive is no match to the suburban and that trip down and the last few days of driving have proved it!  It also has room for all of our stuff and the baby paraphernalia that come along with a 13 month old!

 

On Friday, Mandy came up from Appleton and Uncle Randy came over and we had a wonderful time visiting with Matthew and encouraging him and getting him to smile.  Mandy is always good for that!  We cooked food and cleaned up and just practiced “being-with” which was what Matthew needed most of all.  God really spoke to me a lesson about helping those who are alone — there is a real need to go and “be-with” single folks when they are hurting or suffering so that they are not alone during those times.  I realized last week that God is showing me another way to love and mentor the single folks that He has put in our lives.  No need to come with an agenda, just some simple food and my bag of knitting or books to read and then just sit there and “be-with”.  Matthew has lovingly expressed to us all that this blessed him most.

 

Friday night Emily, Matthew’s girlfriend, came up and since we were there she spent the night so we could have more time together.  She was a blessing and as always our time of sharing together was sweet and wonderful.

 

We spent Thurs. and Fri. there with him and then headed north on Saturday to get little miss S to her visit with her parents.  As we left that morning, we gathered around Matthew and I laid hands on him and prayed over him and as I did little Miss S reached out her little hand and put it on Matthew’s shoulder — so precious!   She is learning to pray!

 

While there, Annie was picked up, along with dear friends Jean and Heather as they headed out to Honduras to work in an orphanage there.  

I asked God to give me extra faith for this time as I was praying for Matthew’s well being and then Annie’s as well.  God is good and He gave me such a gift of faith and peace to go with it.  Isn’t He just wonderful?  He always, always, gives me more than I asked for!  🙂

We had a snow day last week and it was during the time when we had taken in a little boy who was abandoned.  He was three years old and such a precious little boy.  We are thankful that they found a family member to take him in and care for him as a safe family member is always better than foster care.  The other boy in the picture is also in foster care and lives with my good friend Heather.  We loved the snow and the fun and being snowbound for the day!

Visiting at Matthew’s house.    I have to cover little Miss S’s face to keep her identity hidden per foster care rules.

Annie and Heather heading out!

Back at home, I started working on taxes in the office.  Little Miss S loves to help but she has also discovered our terrier is a fun toy and as she is walking better all the time she is starting to track the poor dog down and grab at Jazmin — which does not make Jazmin happy!   I discovered that the gate makes them the best of friends!

Little Miss S baking Valentine’s Day cookies with Melody!

Every Valentine’s Day Rick buys all of his girls (who are not married) flowers.  Of course I get a beautiful bouquet of roses as well!  These were Kristi’s flowers .  He is such a sweetheart-   The apple did not fall far from the tree as Matthew sent a beautiful big bouquet of roses to Emily as well!  I made Rick steak and shrimp, baked potatoes, salad and garlic bread for supper as my treat to him.  he enjoyed it very much.  He had worked all day at construction and then went and plowed for four hours so he was tired and the warm meal made him so happy.

Today — I have already prayed for Matthew and Annie.  Matthew called last night and said that he is doing a bit better and we are so thankful.  Annie called and although she got sick on Wednesday, she is doing better.  She is having a wonderful time!   I will spend the better part of  today in the office working on taxes and getting accounts in line.  I also need to wrap up the music for Sunday, iron some shirts for my husband and when then baby naps, work on some drawing and water color art with Melody for school.  I also hope to get the Christmas tree down!  I KNOW, this is a record.  We went to take it down last week but the door to our outside metal barn, where we store the Christmas stuff, was totally iced shut and even Rick could not get it open..   Maybe today!  Rick just doesn’t want me lighting up the tree so the neighbors driving by see that the tree is still up!!   What a riot!

Faith — beautiful gift from God according to His Word — it is what keeps a mother’s heart from breaking, over and over again, as we cry out to our God to work on behalf of our children.  There are many things that I am asking God to give me faith for right now and I am thankful beyond words that I can trust Him during this time, knowing that in His perfect timing all will be accomplished.  He is loving, kind, and always GOOD!

Blessed with faith today!

Joyce

I can’t believe that it has been so long since I last posted.  Time does fly, whether you are having fun or not!  🙂  So much has happened and I will try to sum it up in this post. First off — God answered prayers in bringing in fish at the end of the season in Oct..  We are very grateful as the last year had been concerning.  It was wonderful to play catch-up on the bill pile and purchase much needed items for our home and business.  God is always faithful in His own timing and it is good to trust Him more and more.

 

In November, after the season had settled down, Rick and I took the opportunity to get away for a few days and go to Lake Superior.  There is a fishery located there that Rick had not been to in years and since his friend John was working there for the fall season it was the perfect time to go visit.  As we drove into the northwoods my heart was delighted to see the rolling hills and tall pine trees of northern Wisconsin.  I was raised in these north woods on the western part of the state and I just love the look of those stately trees.  We stayed in a little town known for the fishing and had so much fun looking at old fish-boats and appreciating this industry that God has us being a part of for our living.   We stayed at a little condo on Lake Superior and it was just perfect.  I mostly loved just being with my husband, relaxing and enjoying hiking and being together.

We ate a couple meals at a local, and very busy restaurant that was unique in every way.  The food was excellent and I adored the ambiance, especially the colored lights draping all over the ceiling from one end to another.  My husband has a “thing” about lights and loves to shut them off while I, on the other hand, love to turn them on — especially pretty lights.  I thought Rick might have a hard time relaxing with all these lights shining all  over the ceiling (and all that electricity being wasted!) but he kept his eye on me and he managed to enjoy the meals without needing to go and unplug a string of lights here or there.  🙂

 A few days after Thanksgiving we received a call that every Foster Care family knows is a possibility.  This one was for us to get to the court house and take over the care of a precious little 10 month old.  Her name is Sunshine and she has rocked our world ( mostly our nights!) and delighted our days.  She came very sick and due to spending lots of time loving on her, I picked up all of her germs which laid me out for the last month  😦   She eventually got better and has since blossomed with lots of physical and emotional growth.  She has gained three pounds, cut four teeth, learned to walk, says a few words and has started the process of learning to attach, which is very important for her over-all well being in the future.  We, on the other hand, have learned to deal with toys all over the living room and the rearrangement of furniture to keep her blocked into certain areas to play, baby food and bottles on the counter in the kitchen, learning to keep on top of buying diapers and formula, keeping an eye at all times on this little life.  We have fallen in love with this little bundle and are again reminded how precious and vulnerable these little ones are.  We have prayed over her daily and rejoice in every good choice her parents make on this journey to reunification.

 

Christmas brought ALL of our children home, Kristi from Liberty, Matthew and his girlfriend Emily, Jeni and Jason from Oak Creek and Mandy from Appleton.  It was so wonderful to have them around the table and sleeping in every available bed space.  Precious to my mother’s heart and my husband’s as well.

 We also had our annual New Years Eve party which was so much fun and our pyromaniacs did a great job with the fireworks~ I will add more post soon pertaining to home-schooling and other aspects of our life-Blessed — over and over again  

Joyce

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was our life last weekend.  We had our little friend M here to visit, or Little Putts as my husband calls him.  Big Putts would be M’s uncle, who Rick is good friend’s with.  Our house was strewn with legos and toy cars and uno cards and it was wonderful.  We roasted marshmallows, and went apple picking on Saturday.  It is always a little bit of a jolt to go back to having a younger child for the weekend but we are getting used to it and so it he!   Lots of fun on this road of willingness.  🙂

Blessed to be trusted with another one’s child,

Joyce

Fall into winter is my favorite time of the year.  Cooler temps and vivid colors displayed out every window of our home and down every road I drive brings me great joy!

This tree is in the front corner of our front yard.  It is the tree where for the last six weeks tourist after tourist has stopped and taken pictures of themselves, families, couples  and solo pictures with the leaves from our tree for the backdrop.  We have had the same family Indian family, from India, take their family picture there for as many years as we can remember.  They all piled out of various mini-vans with three generations of family members and arranged themselves into various groups for a picture. The women are beautiful in their sarees of gorgeous colors and the children are so lovely with their beautiful dark eyes. We have often said that we would be wealthy if we had charged folks a dollar for every photo they took………. but that would not be fun!  It is so much nicer to watch and enjoy.  Last weekend a group stopped  by and a sweet husband kept setting his wife into the blazing orange leaves then running across the road to snap the picture, repeating the action over and over until the perfect picture was taken and he was satisfied!

This is our back four acres where our rental cottage, the Summer House is located.  The color and diversity in trees on that property make every season a delight and fall is the primo season of all.  So beautiful and peaceful.  Every day I try and walk back there to see the changes and take in the beauty.

This is the opposite side of the tree in our front yard, taken as we were heading somewhere in the evening and in seeing the sun filtering through, I had to take a picture.  My family waited patiently while I quickly grabbed  a few shots of our tree in all it’s glory!

Back to joy….  As a mother there have been many many times of my heart aching for my children, knowing that they are in need and there is nothing I can do but pray.  So I have prayed, my husband and I have prayed, others who love our children have prayed, and then we have learned to wait.  My husband is so much better at hearing from the Lord when it comes to being told to wait!  I praise the Lord for the man God gave me who helps me to be patient and keep praying….. and to wait.

We have had one specific prayer that we have prayed for quite some time, one among many that we pray daily over our children, but this one was big.  This one has come and gone through the last few years as sometimes things seemed better in this situation and then it would not be so.

In the process of this time, God taught me much about crying out to Him, trusting Him, having faith and finding my joy in Him and praising Him despite the circumstances.  As I am a worship leader, it is rather important that I praise with  a pure heart and God in His mercy taught me, again, about leading with a heart that is aching and also when to not lead and how acceptable it is to step down and worship in the congregation SO THAT I would be free to worship Him in all of the brokenness that I was experiencing.    Lest you think this was the first time of praying hard for something and going through this kind of season, let me tell you it was not but it is a chapter in our life which we are closing and so I rejoice today with GREAT joy at how God has answered our prayers.  It is so good to see prayers answered in one area so that our faith is encouraged to stay strong for the other areas which are still in need of prayer and waiting for the answers.

He has delivered, set free, is healing and restoring pieces of our lives in ways that are amazing.

He is great and greatly to be praised.

 

Today we rejoice with joy in the beauty of God, who He is and all that He has created.

Joy for His unfailing love and faithfulness.
Joy over His sovereignty in our lives today and in our future.

Joy for all the good things He has done and given.

O send out Your light and Your Truth and let them lead me.  Let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle.  Then I will go to the altar of God,    to God my exceeding joy  and on the harp (or piano!)  I will praise You.  O God My God!

Psalm 43:3-4

Blessed,

Joyce

 

 

 

 

Hot pink sunsets are often seen in the fall here in Gills Rock and this one from the other night was brilliant in all of it’s color.  Wow, does our God like to use pinks!

I am sitting by the wood stove with my toes as close as I can get for warmth.  As Thursdays are our very busy day away from home, the fire was neglected and went out.  I was focused more on the VP debates last night when I finally made it hone from Bible study so the first thing on my list this morning following Rick’s leaving, was to get a fire going.

Often I will beg my sweet husband to make the fire for me, but rarely is there time on these Oct. mornings, but he does give me his recipe for starting a fire, it goes like this–  Take two pieces of newspaper, crumple them up, lay 3-4 pieces of kindling on the newspaper and two pieces of wood.  Use ONE match (he always emphasizes that for my benefit!) to light the paper then shut the doors and you will have a roaring fire within a few minutes.  Have I mentioned that my man went to boy scouts and  when he received his little patch for fire starting – if indeed there is such a badge– he was also given a  more than normal ability to start fires.  And, he proves his ability over and over again.  He really can start a roaring blaze with one match!  Not me!  I am getting better  but still use more than two pieces of news papers, more than a few kindling sticks and the one match idea….. I bought myself a butane lighter!

School — going well.  Melody’s good friend, Hannah, is doing Veritas Press with us which includes theology, history and British Lit. as well as geography and English Composition.  We meet Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for three hours, studying, drinking tea and reading together.  It has gone quite well and we are all enjoying it.  I am not doing so well with correcting but am learning to catch up on that. The best part in being fellow comrades in this schooling is the sweet fellowship and enjoying the discussion and ideas that each of our subjects bring up.  It has been wonderful.  We are reading Pride and Prejudice at this time and I was getting the giggles watching them sitting by the fire, reading aloud the chapter in which Darcy proposes for the first time…. these beautiful fourteen year olds were just delightful as they commented about how romantic this book is and then bemoaning the fact that there are not any young men around our area who are like Darcy in any way.  So fun!  I am thankful for the wonderful literature that gives the girls and I the chance to discuss relationships and civility in our culture, or the lack there of.  That, and the ability to expand our vocabulary makes this book a bonus to read aloud and enjoy together.

Canning– We will be soon done with canning, and I am ready.  When I purchased our honey for the next six months, I talked to the bee keeper, also and avid gardener, and she said that she also had found no wild grapes and few plums.  What a strange year, very strange.  We have never been without grape jelly in 30 years, but we will be lacking this year, and plum jelly as well.  Such a bummer!  Today I plan to sort the canning area in our furnace room and find out exactly where I am at with my canning.  This may be a year where jellies are not given in our Christmas gifts to friends…

Fishing —  WILD — as in the winds.  The winds have been blowing so hard and yesterday they tried to go out but had to turn around, and thankfully they did!  The fish count has not been real great yet but the lift on Tuesday was a little more promising.  We will see.  There was an incident last week where in setting the nets one of the guys got caught in the lines and went over the side.  Another fishermen caught him and was holding him from going under when in the pain of being kept up by his shoulders the sinking fisherman yelled to be let go.  Thankfully the fishermen on boat did not let go and the overboard fisherman was pulled on deck.  Had the fishermen let go the net would have dragged our friend under the water to certain death.  Commercial Fishing is dangerous, especially this time of the year and so we pray every morning for the safety of the guys.  I am so thankful that this life was spared.

I will put pictures up tomorrow as the colors are just gorgeous this year — stunningly so.

Today I am going to work on school and can sauerkraut, clean up canning, clean bathrooms, do bookwork and stack some wood.  I also need to get to a cleaning job and spend a couple of hours working on cleaning there and getting on top of the chore list for that house.  I am looking forward to this evening as it will be our first evening home all week.  I want to crochet and relax with the girls and Rick and just be with my precious family.

The fire has warmed my feet and even my legs are starting to feel nice and toasty.  The flames are beautiful and as the sky is now lightened I feel ready to start the work day.  It is going to be a good day!

Blessed,

Joyce

 

 

 

Early morning sunrise at one of my cleaning jobs!   Quite the view for work as the house has 70 feet of windows facing the water!  What a beautiful setting to work in~

I am sitting here in a quiet, and my I add, COLD house.   The fire went out yesterday while I was away for the day grocery shopping in the big city — the REALLY big city, Green Bay.  We got home in time to wrap meat for the freezer, put away some of the groceries, throw some burgers on the grill for supper, deal with our local teen-techy as he re-did our wireless router and then head out the door for Bible study.

The wind is howling this morning and the forecast says that it is supposed to get worse over the next 48 hours.  My sweet fisherman said that this could be wind in the direction that brings the fish in to North Bay.  The way he said it, with a slight uncertainty, speaks volumes to the place we are in as fishermen here in Door County.  We are hoping, but wondering, what the fall fishing will be like and if the winds will bring the fish or if the fish are just too far out, and the lake too low to bring the fish.    We will pray, and we will see!

I shuddered as I kissed my fisherman goodbye as he headed out to the truck in the dark and the cold, to work on the boat in the waves and in the danger.  I pray for him, and the other precious men I love who are out there and then stand in faith that they will all be safe.

As for my day, I am torn between all the work that there is to do, as to where to start.  Some days are like that aren’t they?  I know that I need to do some bookwork, clean and prepare a bedroom for a weekend visitor, clean my floors and do some laundry.  I also need to finnish preparing our cottage for a week long rental, and spend a couple of hours cleaning one of my cleaning jobs.  The wind and expected cooler temps are also making me highly aware that I should go and scavenge the last of the tomatoes and make one more batch of tomato soup and get the last of the cucumbers out of the garden and trim the broccoli back so it will produce for a few more weeks.  I need to bake bread and prepare something fun for the home-ec class that we are doing here, tonight at seven.  It will be a full day!

I am thankful– for the awareness of being thankful!  I am thankful for all the strength that God gives for the work load.  For His gentle reminding me of what needs to get done when I have overlooked things in my daily juggling of the multiple hats that I wear.

I am thankful that my husbands back is much better than it was on Monday, for the ability to stock up on groceries for the months ahead.  I am thankful for children who love each other and give each other opportunity to pray for and support each other in life’s harder times.  I am thankful for friends who care about my heart and what is dear to me.  Most of all, for the ever present love of my Lord who leads me and guides me and will help me figure out how to accomplish this day and get it all done, with grace and love.

Blessed,

Joyce

 

 

 

I went to the eye doctor last week for what I thought would be my yearly appointment.  I actually knew that it was more than a year, but was surprised to find that it had been THREE years.  Wow, time flies!  Many changes had taken place in my life in three yearsm the biggest would be that of turning 50.  My optometrist noticed that little change right off the bat and told me that I would need to have my eyes dilated.  Good thing I brought along Annie was all I thought when she announced what was going to happen.  She also said that she could give me drops to un-dilate my eyes faster as we had errands to run of which I needed to be seeing clearly.  The appointment went fine and my eyes had changed as far as my nearsightedness in one eye but she informed me that my farsightedness was better than most of her patients my age and older…..  I think she was trying to encourage me.  🙂   That was when I asked about getting contacts, not for every day but for when I am outside in the heat working in the garden, or in the winter working outside or on a date with my sweet husband.  She gave me all the information about contacts regarding bi-focal mono vision contacts and although it did make me wonder, I decided to try them since the price was only $20 to try.  After one week of wearing them off and on, I am not sure.  I have trouble seeing distance and at my follow-up appointment next week we will see what is up with that.  Otherwise, they are wonderful as far as no discomfort and ease of getting them in and out.  My biggest struggle is piano playing and some computer work so they may not be for me in the long haul and my optometrist will let me know.

As far as the rest of the appointment, I got a slight headache from the dilating and my eyes did not become un-dilated for two hours.  The girls took me to s couple of stores that we needed to stop at, held up objects for me and told me prices as everything was more than double to my eyes.  Annie drove me and Melody paid for our purchases because I could not discern the numbers..  It was a family affair to get the shopping done and head home!  It might have been a little for-telling of the girls future with me when I am older.  I suppose it won’t be too bad for them…… as long as I am the one with the cash!

This sense of blurriness does make me think about our need to see things clearly in life and how precious clarity is to our sight in every way.  I am thankful to live in America with the privilege of seeing an optometrist and being able to afford the needed glasses even though they are not cheap.  We have so much to be thankful for, so VERY much.

Blessed with eyes that see…

Joyce

And let us not grow weary of doing good,

for in due season we will reap IF we do not give up.

So then, as we have opportunity

let us do good to everyone

but especially those who are of the household of FAITH!

Galatians 6:9-10

        This was my reading this morning and it blessed me so much.  This verse has been given to me in the form of words from friends and strangers!  I have received cards and letters with this verse enclosed and even a mug and a Precious Moments figurine with this scripture on it —  I could take all of these gifts as a hint that I appear, well, WEARY!

         But, I know that this is not the case.  Although I can, and do at times, look tired and worn out and even discouraged, these Scriptures given to me are to remind me to keep going and to not get weary which is often the precursor to relinquishing the work and the battle at hand.  As many who read this blog are serving the Lord as wives and mothers, and also those who serve the Lord single at this time, we together must remember that we are ALL called to serve and do battle and fight for the good works that God has ordained for us to walk in.   This is where the weariness can get into our thoughts and minds.  Why?  Because most of the time the good works which we do reap the fruit after much time has gone by.  There are the moments of opportunity which come and go and are done in the moment, and then there are the good works God leads us to which are for the long haul, the l-o-n-g haul, and truthfully, some of which we will not know the fruit of until heaven.  Those are the works which can drag us down if we start to think of all the physical, emotional, and  financial sacrifices, let alone the  precious hours of time we have given to them.  I have been there so many times, and am there even now as I write this.

        So what is the secret to not giving up?   I think it is hope.  That beautiful place of knowing that God is Sovereign over us, that He is faithful and cares and that we can trust HE IS DOING A GOOD WORK IN US EVEN AS WE TARRY in the works we do.  We do good works because we LOVE Him so much, believing His promises that He will see to completion what He has started and that His heart is big and good and kind.  We have hope that fills our hearts with expectation and excites us for the next turn in the road, the next hill He is going to take us over and we LEARN to be thrilled at the unknown, knowing that it will all be good in God’s economy.  That these good works have purpose!

       As we do good works out of our love and worship of God, we are reminded that  in the process we are not only blessing other’s lives but God is also performing a work in our own hearts and reaping good fruit in our lives.  It delights me so to look back on where I was ten years ago and then see where God has put me, more like, who He has put me with, and then acknowledge that He indeed has worked out some new, good fruit in my life.   He, my loving God has not grown weary of me, and by human thought He would have every right to be weary of me—-  years ago!  His example makes me desire to carry on, knowing He will give the strength, wisdom, joy and patience to continue in the good works.

       I find it interesting that Paul writes — especially to those who are in the household of faith.  Wouldn’t you think that doing good works to our fellow Christians would be the easiest, and a no-brainer?  Evidently not!  One of the downfalls of my heart is putting expectations on others because I assume they “get it” when it comes to the Bible.  Sadly, due to lack of discipling in the Church there are many who do not understand God’s Word and are babes in the Lord.  My greatest good work that I can show toward them is grace, and then the willingness to walk alongside them in love and mentor them to maturity in the Lord.  Kindness to the family of God.  Wouldn’t the World take notice, or at least our communities if we were known for good works towards each other?  What if we were  blessing each other with words of kindness, help when needed, meals and caring for each others family members, loaning each other items as needed, giving to each other the material items as needed, and the list goes on?  I want to see the fruit of that kind of doing good works — with purpose– for the Gospel and God’s Kingdom!

Do not grow weary —

Keep hoping —

We will reap–

Do not give up–

DO  good works!

Blessed this morning-

Joyce

 

Jeni and Jason with my mother —

 

Canning time —  Beans, beans, and more beans —  for which we are very thankful!

 

 

 

My beautiful mother in my front garden —  I owe my love of gardening to this woman although I will always with I had received more than a finger tip of her “green thumb” abilities!   🙂

 

 

 

 

Mandy and my mom

 

Saying goodbye to my mom.  We spent the night in Green Bay at Matthew’s house, went to church in the morning and then Mom flew out in the afternoon.  So much fun to be together and I am once again thankful that our son bought such a roomy home which enables us to be with him overnight without the least bit of feeling crowded!   Good job Matthew!

 

 

 

 

Picking beans in our wild garden!   Our college girl – as well as her sisters have a dreaded fear of snakes– hence the tall boots!

 

Beautiful girls!

 

Saying goodbye to Kristi the morning we headed out for VA.

 

What a precious picture — my husband loves his children so much and although it is hard to have his daughter Kristi so far from home, he has adjusted well!  They keep in touch via texting, especially during Packer games!

 

Dinner for four once again — except for the meat, all of the meal is from our garden — soooo  good.

 

 

August brought our dear friends from VA to visit — We all fell in love with Aaron, especially my sweet husband.

 

Did I mention that Aaron loved us too!

 

 

We love this family so much, they are precious and baby Aaron will be raised for the glory of the Lord and to know God for which we are very thankful.!

Did I mention we have been VERY busy!  August is crunch time — Work, College, getting our school plans up and running, enjoying guests, gardening and canning —   and to some degree trying to survive Door County at the height of it’s busy season well, let’s just say it has been very stressful.  But, as always, God enabled us to get through and to be honest, this was the hardest summer season we have ever had.  The fishing has been lean for a year but the restaurants need just as much as ever if not more for their orders.  The combination has been difficult for all the Commercial Fishermen in Door County.  Thankfully we have all worked together and bought from each other and shared the stress!  It had truly been a season of bearing each other’s burdens as Galatians tells us to do.

I am thankful that God has lead us and strengthened us and taught us to be diligent in our prayers and seeking Him.  There have not been great tides of overwhelming faith in this for us, but there has been an ever increasing step by step, sometimes crawling 🙂 walk of faith when it comes to our fishery.  It is not over as we head into our fall season when fishing is supposed to be at it’s peak, but as we know from last year can also be a season of failure.  And yet God provides — through other work and jobs and the gift of faith.  He is so good and we thank Him for meeting our needs.

I have more to tell and will in days to come —

School is started and the canning is still keeping me busy every week along with my cleaning jobs but there is much share.

Blessed today!

Joyce

 

 

 

Zechariah 4:6

This is the Word of the Lord to Zerubbabel.  “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord of hosts.  Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain.  And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of Grace, grace to it!”

I will be using this verse tonight in our study on prayer.  As I was looking at it and meditating on it I was struck by a phrase-  the Lord of hosts…. the LORD of HOSTS.  That phrase means the Lord ( our Lord) of hosts– many, many beings under the authority of one.   So, here is our Lord, envision Him with me surrounded by millions of angels, ministering, warrior ready angels.  They are all beside Him and behind Him for as far as the eye can see, pretty cool picture if you ask me!

But, His word is this — not by might (angels or my own might), not by power (angels or my own strength) but by My Spirit.  I am not suggesting that angels are useless and highly overrated forms of help to us, because God does use them in our lives probably more often than we even know.  But, what He is saying in this verse is that there are times and situations where it is completely by the POWER of the Holy Spirit that things get done, I would dare to say that it is ALWAYS by the power of the Holy Spirit and sometimes accompanied by the assistance of hosts!  But often in our daily lives it is relying on the Holy Spirit alone to empower us to do what we are called to do daily as daughters of God.  Power for integrity, patience, love, wisdom, a word for someone, an encouragement for another, to obey that specific calling that God has put in our hearts and on our lives ….. all from the Holy Spirit. We can try in our own strength and might but we will fail (been there, done that) because it is too hard.  Life is hard folks, in case you did not notice.  🙂  God is His love for us knew we could not do this on our own and gave us the Holy Spirit to rely on and to teach us, lead and guide us, to strengthen us and empower us.

We are told in Eph. to be filled with the Holy Spirit, in essence, ask every day for the filling of the Holy Spirit so that we are prepared for the day and all that God allows to pass through His hands.  When the day is closing and the last hour of labor is done we can look back on a Spirit filled day and say- Grace, grace to it.  What a beautiful response to a day of walking in the power of the Spirit.

And, at times, when the battle is huge and He sees us struggling and hears us calling out to Him…..

He send the hosts!

He gets the glory!

Blessed to serve the Lord of hosts who gives me power for my days!

Joyce

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July has been crazy,  lots of fun and times with family and friends.  The kind of fun that keeps you busy and away from the reality of life as in book-work and weeding the garden!  I am now playing catch-up in those areas and hope to be back in the saddle by the end of the week.

This is our son Matthew with my dad’s brother, Bruce, his wife Marcia, daughter Lindsey and her husband Ray.  This was the first time to be with Ray who was born and raised in Ireland.  He was gracious to sit and visit with me while I asked him my various assortment of questions pertaining to life in Ireland.  He is a kind and wonderful man and we are glad that he is part of the family.

 

 

My sister arrived with her family and we went on a beautiful Sunday afternoon boat ride, over and back to Washington Island.

 

Sitting with my niece, as in singular, and my nephews, as in plural!   Lacey is sitting on the end in the “big sunglasses” section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our beautiful girls!

 

We celebrated the 4th of July with our Gills Rock boat regatta.  You can see some of the cousins up on top of the fish tug.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a picnic at our local park and watched the sunset.

 

 

 

My beautiful older daughters!

 

                                                                       Brother sister love between Mandy and Jason.

 

Jason and Jeni looking adorable!

Photo bombed!

 

 

Bruce, Marcia and my mother.

 

Mandy, my sister Angela, me, my mother and Jeni.  Three generations of women who love God!

 

 

 

                                    They are crazy, every last one of them, well maybe except a few, but I will leave you guessing as to who is sane!

 

Beautiful women, and a photo bomb by one young man.  Photo bombing became the theme of the week as you will see in other posts.  🙂

 

This is our beautiful and godly daughter Annie.  The latest graduate from our Homeschool, Johnson Academy.

We are so thankful for all of God’s leading in her life.  He has done wondrous things on her behalf and grown her into a multi-talented young woman who delights in serving others and being a blessing to her friends and family.  She is a joy and that huge smile on her face is symbolic of her life as she chooses joy to be her foundation.  She has the Johnson wit, ohhhhh does she have the Johnson wit!   She is so funny but as there is an ongoing competition in this family to be known as funniest, I won’t say more than that!   She speaks the WORD!  She has really come into a place in her spiritual maturity that she can bring the one and only TRUTH to those she is in conversation with, and God is glorified.  She has conquered fears.  She loves to worship and she is a joy to watch worshiping.  🙂   She loves children and children love her.   She is a faithful sister to her siblings and feels their pain deeply, she is a prayer warrior for those in need.  She sacrifices her time and finances for the needy locally and around the world. She is an animal lover……. a balanced animal lover!   She brings us joy, what more can we say?   We are proud of her and all that she has accomplished in eighteen years on planet earth.  She will do much for the Kingdom of God.  Watch out world!  She is a Prov. 31 young  woman, a mighty warrior woman of God.

With Dad and Mom.

Our family so far~

I want to thank all of these wonderful family members who hauled chairs and tables and decorated and served food and blessed and blessed and blessed.  Team Johnson always comes through and we could not have made this day so special for Annie without all of you.  You are loved.

The other graduate we were celebrating that day was Gretel.  Here she is with her mother Karen, my dear friend.

The sister serving crew…… this picture sums up our life….. someone is usually laughing!   This picture brings me so much delight as Mandy has the best laugh going here.  I love sisters being sisters.  🙂

Beautiful young women and a few photo-b0mbing young men!

It gets better with more photo bombing!

This is the cottage wall, the most popular place to sit and chat and watch people.  🙂

Annie was off busy greeting folks so Jeni (her look alike in  many ways) stepped up to her table to greet people and tell of Annie’s future plans!   She did confuse a few folks.  🙂

                                                            Annie and Gretel, dear friends and sisters in Christ.

                                                                                              Celebrating!

My dear husband Rick served water and pink lemonade to all the guests, rarely leaving his work station.  Here he is with his best friend Paul H., not to be confused with his other best friend Paul L.!   Honestly, I did not coach them on how to stand, I just asked to take their picture, then begged a little when they said I was ruining their fun moment together…. then they agreed and look how they posed identically!  Left arm over right, lean a little!   🙂   I really like this picture!  Two wonderful men.

There is only one thing that can gather young women like this……… if you look by my daughters left shoulder you will see a little newborn hand!   Our good friends brought their newborn baby girl and she was adored by all.

Did I mention that it rained in the middle of the party?  Here in Door County the storms come up quick and can be violent.  We went from sunshine to dark clouds within a few minutes and thankfully it rained for just a few moments.

Porch crowd having fun while it rained.

This is the kind of friends that we have…. they grab extra plastic tablecloths and make tents ( those VERY tall nephews of mine came in real handy for this) and visit under the covering.  My mother commented that she got to meet some nice people while she waited out the rain under one of these canopies!

                                                                                                                                               The baby.

After the rain left we served more folks and then gathered to pray over these beautiful girls.  Karen shared and Rick shared ( and humored us) and then we asked others to join us in prayer over our daughters Gretel, Annie and their friend Karee.  It was a beautiful and solemn time of lifting them up to the Lord and asking for their well being in the years to come.  Awesome!

No Johnson party is complete without gathering in the living room to laugh and visit and sometimes, as there was this night, a couple rounds of mafia.  Beautiful young people, beautiful joy as we celebrated together God’s goodness on our family.

Blessed to see God lead in our Annie’s life, blessed to know He cares for all of our children as well as every one pictured in these pictures.  We serve a loving, caring, faithful God.

Joyce

My front garden in full bloom….. way to early!  Usually this is what it looks like in July!

This morning I was blessed by a wonderful, well known scripture.  Prov. 31:25

The ESV says it this way:

Strength and honor are her clothing, she shall rejoice in times to come.

The NASB says it this way:

Strength and dignity are her clothing, she smiles at the future

I have to admit when I read it this morning, I scoffed at myself.  I did not feel this truth at that moment.  But then, God wooed me to remember that this is His Holy Word, His Love Letter to me and this is truth for me.  I thought and meditated on this verse and slowly my heart softened and I felt the Spirit lift my head and bring me back to the place of knowing my strength is in Him, my Hope is in Him.  In Christ, I DO stand with strength and dignity, and IN CHRIST I can smile, and will be laughing at the future. Smiling now, rejoicing soon…….

Just keepin’ it real!

All day I went to this verse and believed it and let it settle deep in me, in those places where I am prone to wonder, not wander as the beautiful hymn of old says, but to wonder…..  And soon my wondering turned to awe as I rested in this great God who knows all that I do not know, has everything that I need ready and Who is good in ALL seasons of life.

He has not changed and will not change.

This I rejoice in….

Blessed with strength and dignity

Joyce

I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help?

My help cometh from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth

He will not allow my foot to be moved

He that keepeth me will not slumber

Behold, He who keepeth Israel shall never slumber or sleep

The Lord is my keeper and the shade at my right hand

The sun shall not smite me by day nor the moon by night

The Lord shall preserve me from all evil

He shall preserve my soul

The Lord shall preserve my going in and my going out from this day forward and forevermore!

Psalm 121 – written in first person

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is good news to:

our family as we wait for fish to arrive – and gives me hope as I drive to Two Rivers today, again, to buy fish to make orders

to a young man lying in Milwaukee at Children’s Hospital fighting to survive Leukemia

to our friends who may lose their home

to my friend who’s children have all walked away from God

to those who wait in hope for God to answer the dearest of prayers for miracles on their behalf

to those stuck in a situation in life that is hard but must wait for their deliverance to come

to our hired man who sits each night in jail, pondering who this God is and how to trust in Him

for single dads who just want to spend time with their children so that their children will know that they love them

for those of us with insecurities that leave us perplexed and a bit bristly….

for the wife who waits for her husband to choose to love her and come home

for the person who is struggling to be thankful fro all things in life and may feel a bit abandoned by God

for the lonely who long for friendship and love in human form

for all of us who walk this planet earth as aliens, clearly knowing we do not fit in and that this is not our home

~~~~~~~

I am resting in Psalm 121  today

Blessed to know where my hope is found~

Joyce

The Gospel is all about relationship — God, doing all and giving His very best, so that we can have relationship with Him through His Son Jesus. The Word is full of examples of Believers serving each other and we are told in Galatians 5:13 to serve one another in love.  Yes, this does mean day to day using our homes and our talents and our money to serve others in the family as well as our neighbors and folks in our community, but, it also means in our local church within the ministries that God has led your church to be a part of.  Whether you attend a home-church or a traditional church with a building etc.. (which needs a LOT of helpers to maintain!) we are al needed to serve one another where we are.  We never lose by doing what God says.. if He says serve one another then there is glory to be given to the Father when we do, and we receive a blessing ourselves in the process.  The blessing comes in many ways, peace and joy in our hearts, knowing that others are helped to worship God or by our work are more comfortable as they worship or have what they need, all of which expresses love for each other.  And when we are thanked we have the opportunity to express our love for that person and reflect the praise to where it belongs…. to our Heavenly Father!  I know this makes serving sound so fun, and it really is, even when it is hard and sweaty work, even when folks are grumpy.  Maybe that doesn’t happen in other churches  🙂     Believe me, we know serving can be down right difficult at times but because this serving one another gives God glory — that alone is the reason to carry on–  in love!

Word to parents — in this consumer driven age we live in it is urgent that we teach our children not to be takers and  consumers of the church.  The greatest way to avoid this is to model being servers ourselves and always incorporating our children with our work.  Well, maybe not if your a deacon– 🙂  it might not be appropriate to bring your children to a deacon/elder meeting  🙂   Have your children help when you pick the flowers for the altar, mow the church lawn, wash the church windows, teach the littles in Sunday school, paint the walls (we will be doing this in the coming week as a family with others from church)….. the list goes on and one — all serving.

This doesn’t touch on the Spiritual gifts that we each bring to the body, but with physically serving first the natural flow is to then seek for the Holy Spirit to reveal to all of us our unique giftings and offices that we are given for the glory of the Lord and to benefit one another.  It is all so exciting and good when we are all working/serving one another in love.

I can hear someone asking….”what if life is too hard to do that right now?”   God’s loving Word addresses that as well- 1 Cor. 12 speaks to covering one another as needed.   I have had times when I could not play piano due to just having had a baby or struggling with something in my life where I just needed to focus on God so much that it would not have been pure to be at the piano with large questions and issues exploding in my heart.  I have had sorrow when I just needed to not teach for a couple of weeks so I could grieve and heal…  There are seasons that God takes us through in our lives where it is a time to be still, and be served….. and it brings such joy to experience that as well… to receive the love and ministry.   And when I am ready God puts me right on track stronger and better able to serve having rested in His presence and having been loved by the body.

The pictures below are just goofy pictures others have taken or we have that are not to brag about our family  (that would be gross) and steal God’s glory, they are just to show fun ways our family looks for and grabs the chance to serve– in love.

I am at the piano and Melody our youngest is on stage singing with the worship team — this was at our wednesday night practice.

Here we are again… All of our girls have sung on the worship team as well as Annie and Melody have worked doing the computer and tech stuff for church and creating power point slides and keynote presentations.

Having parties to celebrate being the family of God…….. who just happens to love the Packers!  I mean… we at Bethel love the Packers…. maybe God cheers for them as well!

…..” I wonder how I can get that blonde on the piano to settle down and to quit making mistakes when she plays”…..

or

…..”I wonder if the pianist even notices I have turned her piano mic off!”….

Our daughter Melody snapped this one morning after mic checks as she could get away with it better than me!

This is where Rick always is for every service as he is the sound man for our church and does a great job.  We have rarely (in thirty-one years of marriage) been able to sit together.  So rarely, that when we do, I consider it a date!  That is not sacrilegious….. God whole-heartedly approves husbands and wives enjoying sitting together in His house.  🙂

This is Rick at the latest annual meeting for our church.  Annie had made all the screens for the presentation and this was the first time her father went high tech and ran the programs from Annie’s Ipod.  He did very well!

How about serving the body by grabbing all the faceless male teens and beautiful young women in your church and taking them to a great youth conference — trusting God for strength and sleep!  🙂  …. or just having them over for pizza and games!

Other ideas—

bringing treats to someone shut in or recovering from illness and singing a few hymns with them!

being willing to be in the nursery!

I am so excited because our new nursery schedule has changed and now the nursery is going to be only available after the music, this is so that the children learn to behave in the worship and to join in– babies too!   This also means that I can now serve in the nursery and I am on a week from Sunday.  I can’t wait to bless some parents by rocking their babies and telling their little ones about Jesus and how much He loves them.  We are a pretty family friendly church so we most often have the children in the service all the way through but I hope I get to bless someone!   🙂

Look around — pray for an opportunity

and serve one another in love!

Blessed to serve and to be served!

Joyce

As always, being a Commercial Fishing family has kept us on our knees and asking for faith.  I wrote last fall about the lack of fish in our fall season, the season that basically keeps us afloat for the year.  Spring fishing which usually starts around the first of April can also be a boost for us after a three month stint with no income but taxes to pay instead!  We hope and prayed starting in February for a good spring.  It was not to be, due to winds which kept the guys from lifting more than 2-3 times a week in a good week.  The winds, combined with lots of slime in the nets have a made for  a dismal spring season as well.

Last year we started buying fish from fishermen who fish a zone in southern Lake Michigan in the month of July and sadly, we started to buy fish from them again last week.  This is not how fishing has ever been before and it is making us all wonder what is happening.  The guys in the south are catching and are having no problem so that says the fish are still plenty in the Lake, just not in the northern zone.  That is good for our friends in the south but not so good for we northern fishermen.  The greatest stress is that here in Door County, whitefish is on every menu in every restaurant in Door County and many serve the famous Door County Fish-boil.  We serve to three restaurants which are well-known and go through a large amount of fish either filleted or chunked for the fish boils.  One is the Old Post Office restaurant and they serve only a fish boil.  So, that brings my husband some stress as he knows our fish are needed to meet their needs.  The law of supply and demand is wonderful when the supply is bountiful but not so much when the supply is low, or non-existent, or being bought at a price which makes our earnings minimal.

 

So, we practice faith in our wonderful God who supplies all of our needs, over and over again.  Our God that gives us peace when we cannot see how it will all come together~   And He is faithful, and He always is.  This week Rick has been out every day so far, the first time in 11 weeks of fishing and we are thankful for every fish he has caught.

A few weeks ago I was rounding the bend in Gills rock and saw Rick’s boat way out in the fog.  In thirty-one years of being married to a fisherman I have never caught a picture of him coming out of the fog and thankfully my camera was with me so I headed straight to the dock with the intent of capturing the beauty of a fish tug coming out of the haze and into sight..

The guys made it to shore and I caught some fun pictures of them working together, Rick, Andy and Matt, our new hand.

 

 

Someone likes to play tough guy with the camera!

 

The boss!   Notice the one box of fish–  not too good– but we are grateful.  The pink fleshed fish on top are called Lawyers and are a delicious fish despite being considered a “junk” fish.  I got all excited thinking we could have them for supper as we had not eaten any for months, but Mr. shy guy up above had already called them for himself and had done the hard work of skinning and boning them so I did not say anything.  He is a sweet guy and I know that if I had mentioned anything about wanting the fish he would have given them to me —  see…..  fishermen are not all as tough as they like to act.  In fact, there are some really sweet ones especially my husband!

 

This is an amazing moment because all of the guys actually cooperated with my taking this picture and looked somewhat cheerful!  These are great guys and Matt, in the middle, is really coming along with learning the ropes of fishing and all that it entails.  Andy, on the end is our part time hired man and such a great guy, we enjoy him so much and he smiles ALL the time!

So that is fishing as of right now– praying for better lifts to come— thankful for every fish we catch and every safe day out on the Great Lake Michigan.

Blessed because we TRUST in GOD not fish!

Joyce

 

 

 

 

This is the beautiful cross from the Chapel at the Fort Wayne hospital where Cassidy works.  The Chapel was so peaceful and lovely and this cross was stunning.  The colors spoke to my heart from the peacefulness and the tranquility of the blues, the joy of the yellows and reminder of royalty in the purples to the fiery power of the reds…. all emotions that are evoked in me when I see the cross.   Had there been time I would have loved to sit there in the calmness of that room to meditate on God’s Word and speak to Him.

Matthew 10:38  “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.

I Cor. 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

The cross— looking at a beautiful cross whether made of wood or stained glass, (neither of which represent well  the cross of Calvary anymore than the sapphire  and diamond cross hanging from my neck as a true representation would be marred from nails and blood if we are to be at all honest) reminds me, deep in my soul, that this is the symbol that speaks of what christianity is all about — love- promises kept, power and forgiveness and sacrifice– lots of sacrifice…..

The verses above from Matthew and 1 Cor. have always encouraged me in the mentoring part of my life because mentoring takes sacrifice which may seem hard at first and while in the midst of some seasons but, when looking back it it pure glory to God. What may seem foolish to the world, and those I mentor, is still POWER to me oh praise the Lord.

Some times of mentoring leave me wondering why I am investing in these folks who do not respond to this power or respond with little sparks which are blown out quickly by the world and satan, over and over again.   But then I am reminded that it is not by me or through me, it is simply the cross—-  and then I relish in days like yesterday as my sweet young friend came for prayer and Bible study, who, after years of mentoring is in a crisis that has brought her to the cross in such a way that it is literally changing her every week when we join together, this cross is not foolish this time and she is not  embracing it half-heartedly keeping the world’s views right beside the Word of God.   She is experiencing the power as it sheds her heart of her own sin and tenderizes her heart to embrace the beautiful ways of God and as we cry and laugh and share what this mysterious power is doing in our lives and ….. we embrace the cross.  Actually, I think we cling to the cross recognizing that it alone and the God who orchestrated the cross and our Salvation is our highest need.   Laying down our sins and choosing to follow and obey God, we experience the hope of the cross and it fills us with the knowledge that we are royalty as daughters of the King of kings and we rest in peace, and we have joy overwhelming our hearts and we rise up as women with power — women of VALOR as Prov. 31 speaks.  Women of the cross!

Mentoring is much about “we”.

— when I started mentoring I perceived mentoring to be  where I was always “above”, the more knowledgable one and wiser.  In some ways this is  true to some degree — but so many more times I have found that mentoring is like being yoked with someone where we walk together in life but because I have walked with God longer it is I who knows the road and helps to keep the other on track and moving forward.  Being close to someone in mentoring brings (more often than not) times where God  speaks to my heart and challenges me and I learn alongside and grow equally as much because I must know what I believe and be strong to stand against the enemy as he hates mentoring that is done for God’s glory and centered on the cross.  Mentoring, although sacrificial  ALWAYS produces good in my life and it will in yours as well.  It is not so much about “me”….. but about “we”.

Blessed by the cross today,

That changed me and continues to change me

That I am loved by God so that

I can love others…..

Joyce

 

Since we live in Wisconsin it is impossible to head East without having to go through Chicago. If there was a way to avoid it my husband would have discovered it as he and Chicago have a 30 year feud going on and most of the time Chicago wins.  Now it is a different story for me.  Chicago, sans the Bears, and I get along just fine.  Case in point — I arrived at the Ill. border and had Annie text her father to let him know where we were.  Rick responded “good luck” as he always grimaces and starts to mutter under his breath as we cross the state line.  We cruised through just fine on that Friday afternoon, using the Whittington I-Pass and one hour and 40 minutes later we were crossing into Indiana.  Annie texted her father back to let him know we were heading into Indiana.  His response?  “You are one lucky woman!”  My response?  “Don’t I know, I married you!”

Friday night we stayed at Cassidy’s house, our “dark-haired-daughter” as we lovingly call her.  It was so fun to see her home and tour the hospital where she works in Fort Wayne, and the hospital was beautiful in every way.  We sat up taking and catching up on life and enjoying being together.

Cassidy and the girls!

 

Bruce and Marcia taught us a really fun game which Annie did not do too bad in the playing of!

 

This is my dad’s brother then his son, me, Claudia then my brother Bill, then Marcia.  We had so much fun at their house with a delicious dinner and playing games and visiting.  It was so good to be with them again in their home.

 

It was such a beautiful day that we took off to do some hiking at a beautiful park near their home.

 

After our hike we went to the quaint old town of Chagrin Falls where my brother lives.  When I was sixteen I went to work near here at a Christian camp and being back in the area of towns with a town square and amish near by warmed my heart.  I just enjoy the Amish so much as well as historical old buildings which Chagrin Falls has plenty of.  Here are the Chagrin Falls behind my lovely daughters.

In one of those old stately buildings was a very gourmet ice-cream shop with lovely brick walls and wood floors and the widest variety of ice=cream flavors I have ever seen.  Chocolate/cayenne anyone?   I had salty caramel and it was delicious.

 

 

Jeni’s splendid Ice Cream was the name of the shop and here is my brother with the girls outside of the building.

 

Saying good-bye to my brother was hard as I see him so rarely.  He works hard and I wish he lived closer so I could help him out with some hot meals now and then as well as helping him care for his place.

It was precious to be back in this neck of the woods and to spend time with family that we live so far away from.  Getting to meet my cousin and his sweet girl friend was a bonus as well as Claudia who is dating my brother.  Connections are so important in this day and age of living far from one another and I am thankful for the opportunity to visit and get to know these two women.

Blessed in Ohio,

Joyce

 

 

 

 

Kristi and her dear friends.  We missed seeing her roommates as they had already left by the time we got there.   I was so happy to meet these sweet girls and see the kind of young women that Kristi had become close to while at college.  God is good!

As we waited for our table to be ready at the local diner, Kristi and friends took in a game of Ninja, very entertaining to say the least!

Here is Kristi “gloating” a bit in that smile as she just bested her cousin Tyler who is grounded beside her!

After a wonderful dinner with all of Kristi’s good friends, I believe there were fourteen young men and women around the table, we headed out to Walmart to get a few groceries.  Tyler had to ride in the back as all seats were taken.  I told the girls to let Tyler out of the back of the car but soon discovered that when a guy is trapped or needing something from a female, it is the “Liberty Way” to have the guy tell the girls, or girls in this case, that they are a princess!   That is one way for females to gain compliments!  🙂

On Tuesday morning we had a visit from our dear friends J and M, and baby A just a few weeks from being born!   We had a delicious breakfast together, shared life and had a precious time of prayer together before they needed to head on their way home. What a treasure to be entwined in life with such a precious brother and sister in the Lord.   They delight my heart and give me great joy!

Lacey got to practice her camera skills while taking this picture of my sister Angela and my mother and me as we stood in front of Liberty Mountain. Angela was picking up her son Tyler from college and we were able to enjoy a 24 hour family get-together in between loading our student’s life’s possessions and praying that it would all fit!

My mother and I.

The boys took in a game of basketball in the gymnasium on the campus.  There were a bunch of guys playing and the girls ligned up along side the court to watch —  the guys were pretty involved with the game but after the girls started cheering for their cousins it became apparent to those on the floor that there were watchers.  🙂

The cousins in action

Annie and her Aunt Angela

It was all hands on deck when it came to loading—

And we have never been opposed to child labor— never!   Our motto is teach them young to enjoy working and being a helper!   Lacey was all of that and enjoyed being a part of the big girls!

And here is the proof that she, Lacey, loved it!  It is more than precious to see my daughters loving on their little niece and it delighted my heart to see Lacey and Annie holding hands and skipping down the side-walk together at Liberty.  I just had to laugh as I wrote this as sidewalks are a novelty to us as well, the nearest sidewalk for us is two towns down the peninsula!

Kristi took us to her favorite place on campus for meals which had a covered outdoor eating area.  We had so much fun eating delicious flat-bread meals and being entertained by our children telling stories.

These cousins never seem to tire of being together and making each other laugh —  rich, wonderful memories!

If there is a frozen yogurt within a mile of my sister, she will find it!   She loves these yogurts places with tons of toppings to put on your dessert.  We enjoyed our treats and then headed back to the motel.  Of course the cousins had not had enough cousin time so they went to Walmart together and took in a game of Mission Impossible which they like to play —  the fun just never ends with this bunch!

After breakfast together in the morning we headed on our way having packed as much as we could into the last 24 hours and also praising God that we could get everything to fit in the car along with the cooler for meals.   Amazing!

So….. on the way home, as we were driving down a four lane highway, Annie saw a spider hanging off the back of the passenger’s seat which she was sitting directly behind.   You cannot see Annie in this picture because she thought if she hid behind her pillow that the spider would not see HER!   Thankfully Annie had a sister who was not so afraid of spiders who ridded the vehicle of this seemingly dangerous creature.

Here she is recalling the story —

The story of how a spider was in the car but it was no big deal!    HA HA HA

We do not usually travel with a rolled up rug dividing the vehicle although it did wonders for keeping everyone’s things confined to their designated area of the suburban!

 

Here we are having a first time experience of eating lunch at a plaza in Chicago.  Our cooler was down to veggies so we needed to get a quick Subway sandwich.  It was fun to eat over the traffic and the girls enjoyed playing smack on each other when they saw jeeps, convertibles, VW bugs etc..   I did not stay too long at the window as it made me feel a little dizzy  ~

We dropped Annie and Melody off in Wheaton to join our church group which was spending Saturday at the Pacific Garden Mission and then Kristi and I traveled on to Milwaukee where we spent the night at our favorite Milwaukee hang-out, the Whittington INN!

Jeni cooked a delicious meal as always, tallopia (?), rice pilaf and a salad and of course Jason’s delicious popcorn for dessert.

I cannot say enough about the joy of being with our adult children in their homes and the feeling of satisfaction to see our children enjoying their place in the world where God has placed them.

We pulled in the driveway around 4:30, emptied a few things then I headed out to a cleaning job as the folks were arriving the next day, such is the life of a care-taker.   It was SO good to have Kristi back in the house and to have wonderful conversation with her on the way home where she told me all of her thoughts about the future and what God had been leading her through in her life~~~   so delightful~

Blessed with safety over all the miles, blessed to see family and bring family home!

God is so gracious and kind, merciful and protective,

Joyce

We celebrated Annie’s birthday before, the day of, after, and there is still one more celebration to come!

This was the family gathering with dear families from church who have loved Annie since she was a baby, or who have had influence in her life and blessed her.  For some reason I did not take a picture of the adults, but here are a few of the young adults.

This was THE special gift of the day for Annie.

Here she is opening the gifts from our friends with the help of a special friend.

We have a family tradition that started when our oldest daughter was turning 18 and we wanted to make it a special mile-stone in her life. Rick and I discussed our ideas about purity rings and he liked the idea of being the first to give his girls a diamond and treat them like a lady, setting the standard for the men they would meet in the future.   What started as a simple promise ring evolved into a ring with three stones and significant meaning.

Each of our daughters has been given a different style three diamond ring and this is Annie’s.  Why three stones?  They are to remind her that her purity is a a gift and that these three stones represent  three reminders of purity:

First stone — A reminder to obey God Who loves her the most and desires the best for her life which is why He tells us in His Word all about sexual purity and the beauty of waiting until marriage.

Second Stone — A reminder that her father has been her protector and that he will continue to be that for her until she marries and that she will receive blessings for honoring him.

Third stone — A reminder of the man whom God has for her to marry some day in God’s perfect time, and this stone is to reminder her to pray for him and for his purity and a reminder to stay pure for him.

There are no powers in this ring, it is just a symbol ring given in love to our beautiful girls so that they will have a constant reminder of truths when temptation comes their way, and it will.

Our son and daughters have all been taught God’ way of looking at marriage and intimacy and they understand His ways and the consequences of not obeying God…… and His grace and forgiveness as well.   They have been taught that sex is a very good thing and a great blessing to a husband and wife and it is FUN!   This is what we have wanted out children to see in us so that they will see this gift as honorable and worthy of being respected.   Rick and I do not hide our affection for each other and sometimes the children will plug their ears and cover their eyes in mock-disapprovale of us, but always with laughter and joy.  It is written in numerous family training books that two parents in love and showing it, gives the children in the family great security, and our children are very secure in our love, imperfect as we are.  It really amazed me how God’s grace and His Truth enables Rick and I to parent these blessings….  God is SO good!

What a joy it was to share this special time with friends and to see our beautiful 18 yr. old with her gorgeous ring on her hand!  She is growing up so fast and though my heart struggles to keep up with my precious daughters becoming such lovely ladies, I do have great anticipation for all that God is going to do with these young women.  They belong to Him first and we are privileged to be allowed to have them for such a short time under our roof….. Praise the Lord for this!

Blessed to have an Annie in our lives, gift from God!

Joyce

We celebrated Melody’s birthday the Sunday before her birthday, the day of her birthday and the two following days after her birthday…. yep, that’s the way the Johnsons like to celebrate!  Here we are on the actual day of her birthday when we took a trip to go shopping in Green Bay,  Her friend Hannah came along and we had a great time.

 

 

We met Mandy at the mall and shopped and shopped.  Those older sisters are such a blessing to me as I am not a shopper and prefer to go in and get what I came for and get out as fast as possible.  It still puzzles me as to where these daughters of ours developed such a love of shopping!

 

 

Mandy is always ready to share, thankfully Annie was too!

Melody invited three friends over for supper along with their families, then the friends spent the night and had breakfast the next morning.

Melody is such a blessing to us.  She is musically talented, a poet, artist, cook, lover of God’s Word and she serves the Kingdom of God well.  We are so glad that she continues to grow in the Lord and to become more mature each year, she is a delight!

Yesterday I drove to Sturgeon Bay, an hour away, to get the tires changed on our suburban in preparation for our trip to Virginia on Friday.    I cleaned out the suburban and in the process found an old sermon series called the If’s of the Bible by Kimber Kauffman who was the head preacher at College Park Church in Indianapolis.  

As I headed down the road I popped in the cassette, I know…. that is almost  a word of antiquity these days, and actually had to remember how to fast forward and rewind, and finally got the sermon going.  I listened again, to a teaching that reminded me of how important it is to know the WHOLE Bible and to take into consideration all that is written versus the parts that fit a particular wish or desire.  The Gospel is a simple message and we are given in Jesus all we need to live out our lives with Him as Lord, but we must know what the Word as a whole teaches.  There are many ifs in the Bible and I have a habit of circling them because they alway show a choice that I must make, to act one way or another and often there is a consequence stated along side.  Beautiful Truths!

The teaching made me think…. and I like that, but it also challenged me to listen carefully to what I take in from the abundance of teachers that are available to be heard from a single Google Search.  Rick and I have our favorite preachers, solid in their Biblical teaching but recently I have heard friends mention new teachers that they are listening too and wanting to discuss what they are hearing with me.  After checking into some of them and listening to a fair amount of the teaching as one sermon is not enough to go on, I am concerned about the lack of solid teaching that is becoming popular.  Very one-sided teaching where the balance of God’s Word is not presented in a whole.  I am most concerned because Jesus said there is a cost in following Him which He speaks to in Luke 14:25-33.  I am concerned that the Truth is not being shared fully leading folks to a half-truth way of trying to live a Christian life.  That is not fair and not loving.

 I am not going to name names but I am going to pray harder that I continue to have a passion for knowing ALL of God’s holy Word and that I always speak the full Truth.   In my studying this morning I was reading in Eph. 4  and I came across the beautiful verse in which Paul is talking to Christians and challenging their life-styles because they were forgetting the Truth that they had put on the NEW MAN and with that HAD to be a change in their behavior.  He says in verse 21  Assuming you have heard about Him, and were taught in Him as THE TRUTH IS IN JESUS!

I am going to meditate on that today — The TRUTH is in JESUS!  I want truth and I will find it in Jesus and since He is the Word, I will find it in His Word!

Simply Blessed today

Joyce

Our time for hiking down this path is now on hold for a couple of weeks due to may-flies.  They have arrived in abundance and breathing them and having them caught in our hair and covering our clothing diminished our desire to go back until the flies have left.  We will now do more hiking in-land and away from the water.  I have heard it said that this mild winter may bring more bugs than normal and if the clouds of winged pests we saw were any indication, I believe it to be true!

Commercial Fishing —

Since we returned from Tennessee Rick has tried to fish.  That sounds odd but the winds have been directly opposed to his getting  on the water.  It has blown strong winds more days than not.  So, he has been fishing but not for the last week and then only a couple days a week in the weeks previous.  Yes, this is a little stressful as it has been quite awhile since we have seen a paycheck, but such is the life of a fisherman.  I am blessed to have a husband who is so multi-talented and when he is not fishing he is doing carpentry.  Thankfully, he and very good friend Paul Hass, (not to be confused with his other best friend Paul Linden) got side jobs this winter doing two bathrooms in a summer house.  They are just finishing the work and they have done a wonderful job.  The owners showed up last weekend to see the work and were very pleased.  So pleased, that they asked Rick if he would consider doing their kitchen remodel next.  My husband, always honest, responded “I do not want to see your house for at least six months!”  He has spent many hours there, after his winter construction job and almost every day that he has not been fishing so he is a little over spending more time there at the present.  Makes me glad that he never gets tired of coming home to our home and me!!!   As that job is finished we are praying that the winds die down and that the fishing starts full time!

Care-taking —

Our care-taking jobs are up and running with almost daily emails from folk asking us for little side jobs to get done, house repairs, letting us know when they are arriving and when they want their homes turned on and cleaned.  It is a busy time of the year which combined with school for the girls and other family activities keeps us hopping.   We were taken out to dinner last weekend by a couple from California who at the end of the meal asked us to consider taking them on as clients in our business.  Their home is under construction and is one of four homes built each year in Wisconsin that is green to the very highest standard.   Rick is excited about taking on a home like this with all it’s special treatment.  I am thankful that the owners are kind and friendly people and it will be a joy to work with them.     THat business continues to grow as the Lord brings us people that He wants us to be with.  We never advertise and yet we have steady growth at the perfect rate for our family to be able to manage.

 

Speaking of Commercial Fishing, this is our new hired man.  His name is Matt and he is the same age as our son Matthew.  We met him last year in another of those God-ordained meetings and we have come to love this young man.  Matt just became a Christian about three weeks ago and is seeking the Lord and wanting to grow.  Matt is a very typical man for our area with the common struggles that affect almost every young adult man that I know in Door County.  The difference is that God in His mercy caught Matt and has put him in a place where he has had to deal with his stuff.  And God has put us, along with another family to walk alongside him and help him to grow in the Lord and lead him to truth.  It is an awesome thing to be able to use our mistakes to help another one to walk.  Matt was without a job and has a 1 1/2 year old daughter to support and so we prayed.  We  knew last week that our present hired man would be leaving and we were needing someone and as the days went by Rick felt led to talk to Matt about fishing.  He was more than pleased to say yes and although he has never done any work like this before, he is starting it on Monday.  THe best part is that he loves my husband and wants to be mentored by Rick so we believe that God is going to be doing great things with this relationship, fish or no fish!

 

I am so thankful for daughters that are willing to take a hike with their mom, hang out with me and enjoy being together!  They are so wonderful and I love them so much!

We are counting down the weeks, not days, until school is done and it is getting closer.  We are enjoying our classes so much and are doing very well with getting the books done in due time.  Even with leaving for VA next week to go get Kristi from college, we will have just a few subjects to bring along for the car-ride.  I am so pleased with how this year has gone.

As I look upon the last few weeks I am thankful for :

daughters and birthdays and celebrations of life

talents of our daughters as they follow God’s leading in their lives and as they learn their giftings from the Holy Spirit as well

opportunities to minister and bless young moms and little children in stressful situations where they just need a break

worship at home and with the family of God — new songs that move my heart to praise Him, the only one worthy of my soul’s praise and exhultation

for a pantry that continues to feed us and unexpected blessings of a farmer friends bringing us a cooler of beef and pork!

for a God who is in the details and knows just the right time to bring things into our lives whether it is beef or relationships or work to do

for a husband who faithfully uses his life and our home to bless others, who is allowing the God of the universe to rock his world and change his life

for a God who is patient with me and loving and gentle, changing me and drawing me closer to His side

I am blessed

Joyce

 You’re all I want in heaven! 
      You’re all I want on earth! 
   When my skin sags and my bones get brittle, 
      God is rock-firm and faithful. 
   Look! Those who left you are falling apart! 
      Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again. 
   But I’m in the very presence of God— 
      oh, how refreshing it is! 
   I’ve made Lord God my home. 
      God, I’m telling the world what you do!

Psalm 73:25-28  From the Message Bible

Oh how wonderful it is to serve a God that is described as rock-firm, rock-solid!

I need that kind of God and I have often told people that if I can use a certain lingo, or recite the correct verses back to God or follow some formula to make God do what I want Him to do…… well then, He is really not God.

God the Almighty, All-powerful, All-knowing, Sovereign God!

That’s the only God that I can call God! I want a God who controls me

Knows me and knows what’s best for me!

That’s my kind of God.

No santa in the sky, but One who loves me dearly and sees me precious

and walks with me through life lifting me over the raging waters and leading me through dark times when I can’t see and disciplining me as needed because He CARES for me and LOVES me.

Protector

Provider

King of my Heart

Steadfast and Strong

MY ROCK!

Blessed to know the only God who is Rock-firm and Faithful

Joyce

In normal life most people like to celebrate their birthDAY, special dinner, presents and maybe some friends over.  Not in the Johnson house!  Our girls like to celebrate big and so they have birthWEEKS!   ONe day is just not enough of a party for our girls.  This started with Jeni, our oldest daughter and has carried on down through the sisters.  Annie would prefer a birthMONTH but my sweet husband has put his foot down on that much celebration!  Life is worth celebrating but the budget does not allow for it!

Last weekend Jeni and Jason came up for three nights and so the celebration began.

We had such a lovely time with them and did some fun shopping at the second hand stores and visiting around the woodstove in the morning with coffee….   just being a family together.

On one of our hikes we took Sammy along.  He loved playing leader and protector of the women!   His imagination and vocabulary never cease to amaze me.

Our two lovely ladies.  I love this picture as it shows them so natural with their smile and happy faces.

Jeni and Sammy joined the two!

The men as they sat watching the present opening time.  It is obvious that the school table never got cleared for the weekend.  Sometimes that happens!

Eating dessert in the living room, only Jason would look up, my Scandinavians are still a little camera shy after all these years!

We said goodbye on Monday morning after homemade cinnamon rolls and watching an Elephant Room dvd and then sitting around discussing our thoughts.

We are so thankful that Jeni married such a wonderful man and that he fits in so well with our family!

Blessed by Family

Joyce