Westwoods

So with little sleep and much travelling we arrived in the little town of Bahia de Los Angeles on December 19.  It was noon.  We fueled up the boat, ate lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, and then visited a mercado for the rest of our provisions. At the docks the air finally left our tire as we were filling the boat with gear and putting up the main.  The winds were high but we were hoping they would die down before launching.  Tourists draw other tourists, so at the docks we met a couple from California and a family from British Columbia.  The family from British Columbia had also pulled their boat all the way; theirs was a powerful, new motor boat. That was the guy God provided to help Bruce get the boat into the water at low tide and in windy conditions.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  The older couple from California was my God send.  She was a talker and told me her life's history while she helped carry the water and gear and lug...

As with any adventure, you can make all kinds of plans, have every detail in place, and think you are prepared but later find out you just have to go out there and do it.  Another big part of adventure is that it can never really be predicted and that is part of the fun of it, learning to flex with the circumstances. Our adventure began on Dec 17, 2016.  We had every plan we could think of in place, had read all the research we could find on our location of choice, and had wrapped up all out loose ends of school exams and the Christmas program. Pulling out of our driveway in the early morning hours with ice on the roads and brutal cold penetrating our bones as we finished packing the car was a kind of torture.  My heart was breaking from having given my kiddoes one last kiss and hug, one last inhale of their skin, one last touch of my comfortable reality. I was into this trip.  I wanted to do this celebration of 20 years with my husband, he wasn't forcing me in...

My sister April has been posting pictures on  Instagram that has inspired me this week.  She uses an extra lens on her phone that does a great job of capturing the tiniest details. I know that if God cares enough to give ice crystals shape, He has all the details in our lives figured out just fine without our help. We are still planning to leave in the morning for our big trip. We have now covered every detail we could think of and are packed as safely as possible.   We did make a lot of detailed plans of our own but I know we can trust the God of the snowflakes to guide and direct us as we go. If you are struggling with fear or discouragement, cry out to the God who made the snowflakes.  He has every detail covered. Believe it!  

Brrr Wooly! It's really hard to think that in a little more than a week, we will be in warm weather.  This mind game isn't just because of the weather.  All of us, in this house, are unspeakably busy trying to wrap up school and exams for Christmas vacation.   I'm too involved with grading tests and settling restless kids to even think of my suitcase.  And how do you pack for warmth when you are bone cold? I am not brave and calm about all the things that could go wrong.  But I am trying to be brave and calm and think instead of all the things that could go right. However, I spend sleepless hours at night unthinking all the thoughts that keep me awake, by replacing these nameless fears with facts. But as everyone knows, facts are hard to come by in the middle of the night.   Truthfully, I am worried about being stopped at the border with big officials and guns.  I don't know why I think things like this, I have no reason for feeling guilt. Jus...

Yes, indeed we do live up there in the panhandle of Idaho, about 30 minutes from Canada.  We are planning to leave Bonners Ferry early Saturday morning on the 17th of December.  Our route will be as straight a shot as we can do, pulling our 26 ft Macgregor sailboat, whom we lovingly have named "Shy Lady".  The sailboat we own gets a lot of flack for not being a "real sailboat" because it is trailorable and has a moveable keel.  We are OK with that.  It has been a fun boat to learn sailing.  We hope to enter Baja, through Mexicali on the 19th or 20th, depending on how the trip down goes. We plan to drive only about half way down Baja California and put the boat into the water at Bahia de Los Angeles, which is around the area where you see those first islands midway down the peninsula of Baja.  Depending on how the border crossing goes, we will possibly stay in the small town of Bahia that night to pack the boat with all our food and gas and gea...

I bet you were hoping I was ready to move on and speak no more of this subject...I will next time.  Next time I will speak of fear and  of faith and our plans to sail the Sea of Cortez... In a perfect world, a Christ follower in conflict with another Christ follower will both mutually recognize the need for love, humility, and submission for their issue and simultaneously give up their position 100% for the sake of peace and moving forward. However, we do not live in a perfect world...we all fight our battles on a very fleshy level...every single day.  Therefore, we will never have the ideal balance of who should first give in to the other.  If it is a point worthy of submission, it will need to be a dying to self, a surrender to God, and never easy. So don't try to tell me I am extra naughty because it is never easy for me. 😄  For example, Bruce can be ever so loving and kind to me about something he would like to see me change, but if I am not of the sa...

Sitting down to my morning read with a trusty cup of coffee, my Bible opened to 1Peter 2:11-25.  The title over this section says: Christian Submission...just like that...simple. Right?  And that got me to thinking.  Why is that a knee jerk reaction in my spirit when I read those words? The truth is, the word itself is hard.  I know nobody who says, "Wow, I really like submission."  Most people naturally would like to avoid the discussion and if I was very smart I probably wouldn't try to explain why it it is hard.   But stuff happens in life, in our churches, in our homes, even in our country, and I think it is important for us to stop avoiding the pain of submission and look at what the Bible says about it. First of all, submission to each other as Christians is going to be difficult as long as we are concerned with our "rights" as humans.  And we just are.  Two year old babies already have this sense of justice when a toy is taken from the...

Don't be sad, there is yet hope. You can listen to chaos or hear peace. Peace is still there you know, if you want it. And so is the dirt and gloom and despair Of haters and whiners and bad manners. But also you might find clean, sparkling truth. The power is in your ability to choose,  To see God at work.  To watch it prevail; because it is stronger.  Your faith in a Savior becomes personal, When focus on Him becomes your rest, The filth of today is only a film of dust To be blown away by the daily reading And empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Don't be sad; there is always Hope. Pray. 

Last week, Bruce turned forty.  I took a day off work and planned a party for him for the evening.  It was all that parties should be and he was very successfully celebrated.  The only thing I remembered to take a picture of was the cheese board I set up on the island and that didn't show the actual thing as nice as it really was.  But anyhow, he turned forty and now we can be forty together for a couple months. We didn't see each other very much this week.  Bruce is cramming for exams for this coming Monday.  I was cramming to finish up the school week and school sale projects.  On Friday we had the day off school to prepare for school sale.  PLUS we got sick.  I resisted the virus all week but it did indeed catch up with me especially this morning during the sale.  Thankfully, I was able to do my assigned job and help with the making of the apple butter for the first time before heading home and curling up on the couch. But I di...

I am so happy for you if this never happens to you.  And I am also so happy for you if you never worry and think of weird "what ifs" at four in the morning.  However, this post isn't about bravery and I will not be handing out awards for those who sleep soundly in their beds at night.  This post could be categorized under honesty and a little bit of candid humor.  At least that is what it is meant to be. It wasn't particularly a nightmare that woke me.  It was a thought I was having while I was sleeping.  I didn't even know this was possible, but last night I woke very fully awake with the thought that...  Bruce and I were on our sailing trip in the Sea of Cortez . While I slept he sailed the boat.  Sometime during the night he was thrown into the sea by the waves.  When I awoke he was not anywhere on the boat and I was alone, under full sail, and didn't know where to go to even try to retrieve him. It was a very real feeling of d...

      When grownup Christians act childish and petty...this breaks my heart.  And when mature Christians look inwardly too deeply and become judgmental of other Christians...this also breaks my heart. I think it breaks the heart of Jesus too.  He gave His life so we could be free of such things, instead we choose to be bound to our old man.      Did you know your local church could be destroyed overnight by one person throwing a baby fit about a trivial matter such as color of carpet or where someone sits in the Sunday morning service?  Pathetic isn't it?  People claiming the name of Jesus and acting like that.  Whatever happened to the grace of God in their lives?  Have they not been freed from sin or what?        If I could right all wrongs by trying to pacify a person with this bend, I would.  I would lay down my own life and die if it would save a brother or sister that is being childi...

We are winding down the first quarter of school.  While a few aspects of teaching are easier this year, many things are indeed harder.  I don't know why.  Possibly because now things are predictable; like the behavior of children.  Nine of my students are the same ones I had last year so their characters are still them but with a little older twist.   One boy, a very smart boy, could get straight A's if he would only apply himself.  He finds it easier to fly through his work and then need to make 49 corrections.  He hates following directions and tries every which way other than the directions given.  He thinks outside every box of "normal".  If he sees his grades dropping enough to lower his average he will hop to and get about three 100's to compensate so he can make it on the honor roll. I am teaching the kids "Silent Night" in sign language for the Christmas program.  Most of the fourteen kids like this...ONE absolutely hate...

    Being one who is often at war with her own personality, I ponder things like this...Is being discreet all goodness?      And I ponder because there are obviously those who are the soul of discretion, which makes those of us who aren't, look like blunt, obnoxious persons.  And we aren't.  Really we aren't.  We have good and square and kind thoughts.  We choose kindness more often than you know.  We often withhold bits of information we are sure would not benefit anyone.     But what makes the biggest difference between both personalities is that while one thinks they are being kind and tactful, the other feels more kindness from total frankness and the ability to call a rose a rose and a thorn a thorn.     The personality that insists on seeing only roses and never the thorns, is especially hard for that person that calls things like they are. Anyway...how can you possibly even deal with the thorns in your li...

 Oh, Brave One, with the shell so tough.  Why do  you pull your head inside?  Perhaps you are trying to cover what you really think, how you really feel. You do it because you have been put in your place so many times.  So many people have said you should feel a different way.   They said it wasn't true, the stuff you were thinking.  So you hide.  It's safer in there, inside your shell.   Why share your thoughts with those you thought were friends?   Friends don't judge, they listen.   Foes look for wrong; for faults...  poking and prodding to see if you will bite...  Or is it you?  What you are saying must not be what you meant.  Maybe you are biting at sticks without reason.  You know what you mean, a friend would know too. Until you know, you will protect yourself.  You will find out if they are safe, not betrayers. Better to keep still and w...

The truth is, I don't know very much about how to stop being busy but I have been thinking about it and here's what I am discovering... People that voice the complaint, "I'm too busy", including myself, are really just making the choice to feel that way about their work load.  When I choose to be thankful for the work God has given me to do, I no longer feel so busy or, as in my case, stressed about my job. Because being too busy is really an attitude and what we really mean is, "This work in front of me is causing me stress and discomfort", all we really need to do is learn to like our challenges. Which if you are like me, that can be pretty difficult.  I do  indeed like certain challenges.  I like a big fat book that must be read by Friday.  I like to hike a mountain trail...as long as it is a trail that is recognizable.  You see, even my challenges have limitations.  I truly like relationships with people...until they need to be worked at ...

In my search for ordinary, I have always found extra ordinary...   All I wanted when I was little was an ordinary life.  I wanted to be part of a family that got along without much effort. I use to wish we didn't have so many opinions around the supper table at night.  I also wanted to attend a church where there was no fighting or bickering.   I didn't want to be noticed in the way we were noticed when my dad was removed from the ministry for questionable actions.  I didn't want stickers and balloons and bubble gum when my parents were separated for a night or two while they worked out some issues in their marriage.  I didn't want that kind of care and loving actions shown by concerned aunts and uncles.  I didn't like people feeling sorry for us because our church split and our barn fell down on top of some of our  cows while we attended church one Sunday morning. I wanted to feel ordinary.  I wished the people would just pretend ...

Let me remind you, you are not Chicken Little and the sky is not falling...There.  Now that we have that nicely established I will tell you how I know this. Almost everything we read these days on the media is plastered with the equivalent of acorns hitting people's heads. And many are running around going from one important person to another demanding a voice; wishing to be heard and taken seriously. I am convinced that a Christ follower shouldn't join the hysteria.  A Christ follower is commanded to seek peace and pursue it.  We are told to be peacemakers while standing for the truth.  We are asked to lead honest lives free of deception.  We were warned by Jesus, the authority over the ways of the world, to expect persecution and the revilement of men. He even went so far as to say to rejoice and be exceedingly glad when we are persecuted. ( Matt 5:12)   So, when I hear Christian people talk about the injustices in our country as if tellin...