Isaac is home!

Isaac is home from SMA training.  He had a wonderful week!  It is so good to have him home and hear about the things that he learned and the friends that he made while he was gone.

Before Isaac was born, I prayed for him.  I prayed that he would put his trust in the Lord Jesus as his Savior and Lord.  I prayed that he would love the Lord and serve Him all of his days.

When Isaac made the choice to serve the Lord this summer by teaching 5-Day Clubs, that was an answer to those prayers of the last fifteen years.

Thank you, Father, for allowing me to see my son serving you.  Please give him a heart for You for the rest of his life.  Amen.

My Garden is Planted

Finally!  My garden is all planted!  I'm so late this year.  Now we just need a good rain to get everything going well.  Or else I need to water everything.

Here is a list of what I planted:
tomatoes
beans
lettuce
beets
carrots
salsify (new to me, I've never even tasted it!)
red cabbage
regular cabbage
kale
radish
basil
parsley
cilantro
potatoes (not very many)
cucumbers
winter squash
zucchini
onions
and a whole package of Bountiful Gardens Seeds for Kids.

How shall I dispose of my clothes?

We are blessed with friends who give us their children's clothes when they outgrow them.  I appreciate this so much as I hardly ever have to buy clothes for my daughters, but sometimes there are just too many!  What to do with the excess?  For a while, I hung it on an extra clothes rod in the basement, but there really are only so many extra clothes that one needs to store.  

I've discovered that a couple in town collect used clothing and fabric and pack it up to send to Eastern European countries.  They retired from their business, so now they use the warehouse as storage.  My son and I had the opportunity a few months ago to go help on one of their loading days.  Isaac got to be part of the assembly line passing the filled boxes from one person to the next right up into the truck.  They filled a semi truck with banana boxes full of clothes.  There wasn't room for anything else in that truck when they finished.  While Isaac helped load boxed on the truck, I helped pack more boxes.  The clothing was sorted and packed according to type and size; winter girls, summer boys, adult coats, shoes....and on and on.  They have schools that can use fabric to teach sewing classes, so many boxes are filled with fabric or sheets or lace or whatever.  

It is so nice to be able to take extra clothes that we have and box them up to donate and know that they are going somewhere that they are truly needed and appreciated!  It is easier to give things away knowing that they are being used to help others.  When I think of the people who need things and I think of the excess that I am blessed with, it is so humbling! 

Check out the produce list

Every summer, I try to keep track of what I harvest from my yard and garden.  Usually I stop when the produce starts pouring in, but I've started a page on my blog that I update every day or two.  Hopefully, I can be consistent with it even when I'm bring in bucketfuls of tomatoes and zucchini.  It will be fun to see how much produce I actually get from the garden.  Be sure to check on it occasionally and see how my yard is doing!

Wings

As our children grow, we seek to do many things in their lives.  One is to help them sink their roots deeply into the love of Christ and our family; another is to give them wings to fly away.  My son flew away this morning.  Not really, but he took a first fledgling swoop out into the great beyond.

He actually will be at training for the next nine days at SMA.  He is training to teach 5-Day Clubs with CEF.  I'm so proud of him.  He has chosen to spend his summer ministering to children and telling them about the love of Jesus.

I'm also kind of sad.  After all, he is my first-born.  He has been my friend for 14 years.  And he is gone for a week and a half.  Last night was a little bit hard.  He came in and said, "Mom, I'm kinda nervous."  I said, "Yeah, that's normal." and we talked for a while.  I was afraid we'd let the roots grow too deep and clipped the wings in the process.  But this morning, he was ready to leave.

And now he is gone.  He will be back in nine days, but he will be gone teaching for most of the summer.  People have told me that I will have so much fun and I should be sure to enjoy this time with the girls while he is gone.  We will enjoy our girl time, to be sure.  But what I'm realizing is that my baby boy has grown up to become a good friend.  I miss him.  But I'm so happy for him to be spending this summer this way.  What a fine young man he is becoming.

Anyway, enough sentiment!  If you were wondering why I haven't blogged lately, the answer is that the last several days have been pretty busy getting him ready to go.  So I'm back again, but not for long.  My daughters are having a tea party, and if you'll excuse, I believe I'll go have a cup of tea.

Old Friends

We had a sweet visit today with old friends, friends of my grandparents from a long time ago.  My grandfather was a missionary with Child Evangelism Fellowship, and he talked his friend into also becoming a CEF missionary.  He went to Finland 50 years ago and up to last year was still traveling the rivers of Russian Siberia to tell village children the good news of salvation through Christ.  He is 88 years old.

Today, we got to enjoy two meals with this special couple and listen to him speak at our church.  Words can't adequately explain how we love visits from this dear godly man.  Our children each consider him a special friend.  He prays for us often.  He writes us letters and sends a package at Christmas.  But to see him and hug him and laugh with him around my dining table--priceless!  And having his wife come along on this trip was extra nice as she hasn't been here for a visit in 12 years.

He doesn't think he'll be traveling this way again.  It is getting to be too hard to travel.  He said he would see us at the great feast in Heaven.  I asked him to save me a seat near him.  I'm sure looking forward to the visiting we'll get to do when we get there!

Young Eagle Flights

Today at the little local airport they were giving Young Eagle Flights.  Have you heard of these?  I think they do them nationwide and if you have children, you should find out when they are offered.  Local small plane personal pilots take children ages 7 to 17 for a 10 minute airplane ride for free!  When I say small planes, I mean they hold one to three people besides the pilot.  They are small privately owned planes, and these pilots do a great job giving the children a wonderful ride.  My oldest three children got to go for a ride, and they were so excited!  My kids saw our house, our church, a couple of lakes, the hospital where daddy works, and lots of trees!  They didn't all recognize each of these geographical markers, but they all had a wonderful time!

Making memories doesn't have to cost a lot of money, and this was a great memory that the children will be talking about for weeks to come.

On the decluttering front: I went through my closet yesterday and eliminated six paper grocery bags full of clothes.  They all fit me, but I just didn't need them all.  I chose mostly plain tops and a mixture of plain and printed skirts that I could make many different combinations with.  I did keep a couple tops that only go with one skirt, but it is one of my most comfortable and lovely skirts.  My closet feels so much cleaner and is easier to find what I want.  I still have all my favorite clothes.  Because I had been considering doing this for quite a while, I had a good idea of what type clothes I wanted to keep and what I was willing to part with, so it took me about 1/2 an hour to go through all of my clothes and get rid of that many items.  That was a pretty rewarding return for a small time investment.

And now that I have gotten started in my bedroom, I'm looking forward to keeping on going.  For some reason, our bedroom is the hardest room for me to declutter.  I think it is because I use it to organize schoolwork, go through paperwork and finances, read books, and hide clutter when visitors come, so EVERYTHING collects there.  I know that shouldn't be the case, but it is nonetheless.  My husband is no less guilty of collecting bedroom clutter than I am, so our room gets full quickly.  Hopefully, I can keep going now that I have some momentum started.