Westwoods

Because there is always the Word of God to fall back on when life throws you flat on your face... Stability when my world is shaken and words of my own aren't enough... I find no comfort in me...but lots n lots with God... Peace and Joy are found in the gardens too... And in the creations of little children...

This week disappeared!  Monday was a special day for this ole mum.  I took my kids shopping, out to eat at Olive Garden, and them dropped the two oldest at the airport.  The ticket agent was sweet as could be.  I tried to appear as calm and cool as a cucumber but alas, the wrinkle lines in my forehead told on me.  Anyway, she printed out passes for Shaunti and I both to go through security with Laife and Toria.  We sat with them till they boarded their plane.  Thank-you Alaska airline lady!  On Tuesday, Shaunti and I went back to the school and finished cleaning out the classroom and also filed away all the permanent records.  April came with her babies and she did all the taking down of posters and decorations, while I did the book work at my desk.  Shaunti and her cousins played.  It was a good sister time.  And it was awesome to leave with the desk smacked against the wall and floor gleaming till August sometime. ...

Tomorrow I will spend the day shopping with my three almost grown kids.  I will drop the two oldest at the airport into the bowels of flying alone. I will stay calm and grown up about it, I shall. How does it happen?  You give your body to be used in every way in birthing, breastfeeding, and constant feeding of littles and changing of their diapers.  That seems to last an eternity.  In the midst of those years you wonder if it will ever end, if you will ever again be free of arms and hands pummeling you and touching you.  You crawl into bed those years with someones dried tears on your cheek and the smell of grass and bugs from their little hands as they kissed you goodnight. And then you ramble through the years of skinned knees, dentists visits, and school work. Those years feel like two months, they go so quickly.  They are packed with conversations about manners, etiquette, boy crushes, girl crushes, puppies and bikes. They are a pain, they are a bl...

I wish I had taken the time to write a daily journal of the last two weeks.  They were probably the fullest weeks that I have ever lived.  Today was our last day of school.  It is so easy to say.  It sounds like no big deal.  But it truly was a detailed countdown building up to this day.   I found out kids get restless by April 15 or so.  It's then they start to worry about finishing their work on time.  The sunshine calls to them as they try to figure their math lessons and they are even more easily distracted than they already were. The last two weeks of school are as grueling as the first two weeks of school.  There is a class trip to arrange and actually do.  There is the constant flow of tests to be scored, report cards to fill out, awards to write up, book orders to place, and the permanent records to file away.   The last two weeks of school, fresh flowers of lupine and columbine and early roses scented t...

You never know what a day will hold.  This is true for everyone.  Being married to Bruce though, makes it especially true. Thursday morning, I left for work and he left for his first day out with the sail boat.  Thank God he took a sailing buddy with him.   The day was filled with obstacles for him.  Learning curves are like that as we know.  Long story short, putting up the main mast was more difficult than he anticipated so half way through the day he made the decision to rent a slip for the boat at Bayview, a marina at the other end of Pend Oreille Lake.   Late in the afternoon I call to find out how things are going.  He tells me all that has transpired and asks me if I could leave right after school and meet him at the boat dock in Bayview.  He bribes me with dinner out at the docks.  What woman in her right mind would turn that down?  Visual reminders of dirty dishes, piles of laundry, and sticky floors...

                                                                                                         It rained today inside and out.                                                 I heard a little whining.                                                 There was also complaining                                                 And yawning and frowns.   ...

Westwoods: What Makes A Mom :                                  Happy Mothers Day All,   Instead of a new post this weekend I decided to re share a post I wrote pro...

                                      While I have no qualms with saying I am a part of the Mennonite and Anabaptist faith; that is simply not my thrust.  It doesn't define who I am as a "saved by grace" Christian. I believe we miss the most important part of salvation when we look at our denomination like this...  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/blind_men_and_an_elephant .  Yes, even Christians forget what to focus on.   And possibly more so people of the Anabaptist faith.  We are very concerned to hang on to all the principles we believe to be taught in the Bible.  So we fritter away many hours for focusing on the things that are super important to us, like dressing modestly, and the application of wearing the head covering as taught in 1 Corinthians 11.      I believe my stand on modesty and the head covering is Biblical.  But when...