Giant Porkloins and Piggy's Reintroduction into the Wild

Hubby and I celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss earlier this month! This was the first time we actually couldn't be together on our anniversary as he was out of state for a meeting, but we had a lovely dinner together without the Things before he left (thanks, Mom, for babysitting). Nine years ago I never would have dreamed up living on the prairie with 3 boys underfoot, but I am truly blessed by God's plans for us. The same little forces of nature that make my life stressful, messy and interrupted are also the ones that make it the most satisfying. Nothing is better than all snuggling in bed together on a lazy Sat. morning, esp. if it is AFTER 7am! I'm so grateful to be married to my best friend, he is truly making all my dreams of "happily ever after" come true.

And it was almost as cold that day as it was 9 years ago!

It was great having my mom here for a visit, esp. with hubby gone on that trip for part of the time. I am still flabbergasted that I caught all three Things smiling and looking at the camera - I think there should be some sort of reward for that or something.

Here is a close up of Piggy playing in the sandbox with the Things.

Hubby built a nice big sandbox for our growing boys. I think they enjoyed watching him dig, going to the quarry to get the sand and "help" fill it up about as much as they like the actual finished product.

Alas, one other big event was the release of Piggy back into the wilds of our raspberry bushes. This is one last photo session with him before we said our goodbyes. Thing 2 tells everyone he has to go hibernate. I admit to feeling a tinge of guilt with Thing 1 said "I'll miss you and I love you" as he let him hop off. But I'm mostly relieved to not have to clean out that smelly tank all winter.

The other night I grabbed the camera to take a picture of Thing 3 who is starting to crawl about and I saw this picture of meat on the camera. I found it ironic that this is what hubby chooses to take photos of, large pieces of meat on our grill, whilst I prefer to capture Our youngest son accomplishing early milestones.

And here he is under a table (thanks Jeff and Karen, we still love it and use it) and quite proud to have gotten himself there.

Oh, and this is who the meat was for. Hubby invited 14 guys from his BS over for dinner the other night and wanted to make sure we had plenty to feed them. At least half of them came and we are eating lots of pork these days! A good time was had by all.

What is coming up, please keep us in your prayers.

FOR THE WOMEN: Come have an "Apple Bake Off" on Monday from 10 - 4. Jo's tree is full of apples and we need to use 'em up!! Bring "staples" (e.g. flour, sugar, butter, shortening), your favorite recipe and pans. Spices will be provided. Place: Event will be at Bethel Baptist Church in the Event Center kitchen.


Slavery Still Exists

Next week, October 12-16, we are having an outreach called "Slavery Still Exists". This outreach will be centered around the issue of human trafficking. The goal is two-fold: to create awareness about the issue and to see students come to Christ.

We are very excited to be working together with several campus ministries in this effort! Below is information about the week, as well as ways that you can get involved and make a difference on campus.

Saturday, Oct. 10: Invisible Children (7:00pm, Lewis and Clark Room in Student Union)

Monday, Oct 12: "Slavery Still Exists" Orientation, Training, and Prayer (8 to 9:30 p.m., Waldner Room (269) in Union)

Training will include:
*Biblical mandate for evangelism
*Conversation starters
*Conversation transitions to the Gospel
*Sharing the Gospel 101
*Practice
*Vision for believing God for divine opportunities to share during the event

Tuesday thru Friday: informational tables and displays in the Union, Larson, and Medary Commons
*You can sign up with your ministry staff to help with these tables during the week. Some of them will be information about human trafficking, causes, and solutions; others will be interactive displays where students can move from thinking about the issue to thinking about sin in their own lives and hear the gospel; come Monday night for training
*You will also have opportunities to share the gospel with friends or classmates throughout the week as you invite them to the Friday event or talk with them about how Christ can bring hope into issues like human trafficking; for more info, come to the orientation on Monday night

Tuesday, Oct 13: Prayer Summit (9:00pm, Dairy Micro 100)

Wednesday, Oct 14: Blood Diamond (8:00pm, Dairy Micro 100)

Thursday, Oct 15: Open Forum (5-7pm, Union Market)

Friday, Oct 16: Human Trafficking: Why We Should Care and What We Can Do ABout It (7:00pm, Rotunda D)
*Come and bring your friends! Mindy Kalee from World Hope's assessment center in Cambodia will speak about human trafficking and will give an invitation to respond to the gospel. She has frontline experience with victims of human trafficking and will bring a dynamic perspective on this issue and on how the gospel can change the world.

"Dedicated" Apple Pickers

Thing 3 wearing the sweater I finally finished...just in time to be almost too big for it! At least he got to wear it for his dedication today.

Things 1 and 2 wearing the sweaters Grandma made them...for some reason the Sunday school teacher told me she had a hard time telling them apart today. I have no idea why they are laying on the floor, I've given up trying to figure them out! Just the other day I found them each wearing at least 6 pairs of underwear at once...I decided they were all still clean and ordered them to put all but one pair away! Guess I need to be more specific when I send them downstairs to get dressed.

Our new Senior Pastor and T3.

Hubby said a prayer for T3 while the other 2 Things inspected the equipment on the stage in lieu of standing still.
T3’s Dedication Prayer

Our Heavenly Father,
We are thankful for the gift from You of our son. In your Word it says that ‘Sons are a heritage from you, and children are a reward. Help us to always treasure and value (T3) keeping this truth in mind. Your Word goes on to say, ‘Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.’ Sherry and I ask for your help, guidance and direction to know how to raise and train (T3), so that when he is grown he can join in advancing your Kingdom and your glory. To this end, help us to instill in him a vision and passion for you and your ways. Help us to model for him what it looks like to love and follow you. And we pray that you would safeguard the teaching and instruction he receives from us and from the church so that from an early age he would know you as his savior, he would grow in not just knowing about you, but knowing you, and that when he is grown he would be a man of God who loves you and leads others into your kingdom. Amen.


We went apple picking yesterday...the boys have been gorging on apples ever since. Hopefully I'll have some left to make apple crisp.

They take you out to the orchard in a horse and cart. It is pretty fun even if it is a bit of a rip-off to hubby who grew up with his own orchard! The memories are worth it though!





I accidentally had the camera on this strange setting, but the pics actually turned out kind of neat I think.

Green Pumpkins, Pancakes and Paintball

Today the boys got to explore firetrucks, etc. while hubby shopped in Lowes. Afterwards they even got to make their own firetrucks and take them home.

I decided to let the Things paint their pumpkins this year, this is all the farther I got decorating mine while keeping T2 well supplied with green paint...which he used to completely cover his with, apparantly pumpkins are supposed to be green, not orange if you are 3!

here are all my pumpkins with their pumpkins.

We had our annual Mug n Muffin last Sat. and about 45 women cramed into one room to chat, listen to a short devo I gave and discuss Servant-Love.

After T3 and I got home from the mug n muffin (I didn't dare go without him lest they not let me in) hubby took off for Meat and Paintball with 25 guys and staff. I sent him with the camera and not surprisingly it came back with zero pics of the men's event on it...so here is one of T1 eating a huge piece of meatloaf instead (I have a great recipe if you are looking for one...yummy sauce on top!).

T1 is enjoying soccer - if by "enjoying" you mean: the times during every game that he cries or lays down on the grass while everyone plays around him, innitiates a huge dogpile or picks grass and throws it on his teamates instead of paying attention. I was appalled at first by this behavior until I saw loads of other 5 year olds crying, picking grass, laying on the field and following his lead in the dogpile.


Two weekends ago we asked 30 of our student leaders to give up 3 hours of their Sat. to learn how to better lead their Bible studies, and guess what? They came!


We fed them breakfast first of course!

Much to my dismay, err, delight, Piggy our pet toad is still alive and well. He is living up to his name by consuming copious amounts of crickets (I can't seem to walk by one without picking it up now!) and stinking up the tank (ick!). I'm considering filling his tank to the brim with pea rocks (BTW ask me sometime what T2 thinks "pea rocks" means) and seeing if he will dig down and hibernate for the winter so I don't have to try and clean it (okay, okay, beg Hubby to clean it even though it wasn't his spontaneous idea to let them keep the toad) in the winter.

T3 is almost 6 months old! Sigh, it goes so fast. He is rolling all over the place now and just started on cereal this week. He is never bored as long as his brothers are around.

A few other random stories and thoughts of late:
T1 is learning about the 5 senses at PreK and one day his teacher was telling them about hearing. She said, "Did you know that some people cannot hear at all? Does anyone know what a person who can't hear is called?" T1 immediately raised his hand and very seriously answered, "Grandmas and Grandpas!"

I decided recently that a happy marraige is 50% figuring out what ticks the other off, and 50% not doing those things! Now if I could just remember what I did that ticked hubby off when I decided that! Hmm...having that third one really fries your brain!

The other day T2 was putting in a cd (the Things are REALLY into books on cd and tape from the library)...for some reason I just don't seem to have as much time to read to them these days...anyways, he apparantly decided to figure out what the switch on the side of the player did and after turning up the volume full blast switched it from cd to radio. He came running into the room crying after scaring himself. :)

Healing Tears

I really am supposed to be writing about something entirely different right now, but I have to process a bit about Heather again and get it out first. Hopefully then my mind will be clear and I can be a bit productive.
I've been thinking about tears lately. I never knew or at least took note of it until Heather's death how many different kinds of tears there are. And then one day a week or so ago in a quick note to Heather's mom I wrote that the tears that I shed upon receiving Peter Rabbit in the mail weren't the same as the ones I shed upon receiving the news from her pastor that she had been killed. I sat in the same place to cry...on the floor in my bedroom with my back against the hope chest at the end of our bed. And I cried all over again over her loss. But this time the tears weren't the gut wrenching sobs that you are just sure your heart now has a physical crack in it from crying tears. These tears that trickled down as I read the notes enclosed and lovingly touched the stitches she had so carefully woven were healing tears. And as I just now finished penning a thank you note to her friends who thoughtfully finished Peter off and sent him on to me, the tears that fell were just plain sad-missing-my-friend tears. Sometimes the tears are angry, like when I'm mad-sad that this is it and we can't ever get her back. Sometimes the tears are remorseful, trickling down when I think that I nearly called her the morning of the day she died but decided with the time difference it might be too early to call her. And some are happy-sad tears when I laugh over a funny memory of her with Hubby or a friend who knew her well, but can't help but cry a little with smile. Right now the tears are make-my-sinuses-hurt tears b/c I'm trying to hold them in and get through this note. I'm hoping as time passes that the tears that come will more and more be of the healing sort, esp. for those who loved her the longest and the best.

Fishing, Soakers and Banana Boats

Thing 1s first day of Pre-K - he goes 5 mornings a week and LOVES it. Hopefully he didn't make any of these faces at his teacher!

Thankfully the first day of school for T1 coincided with T2s first day back to gymnastics. T2 really enjoys having something just for him and does great at following the coach and waiting in line - most of the time. His favorite thing to do is "hang from the bar and drop into the fluffy pit".

Enjoying some sweet corn on our patio - a perfect end of summer dinner.

We enjoyed some much needed RnR this weekend after a busy few weeks of fall kick off events. Just a breather though, the fun starts up again tomorrow! We took the boys fishing today and the weather was just perfect, if not the fishing. Mostly they just threw rocks in the water - could explain the poor fishing!

I finally finished a knitting project for T3 before he grew out of it - just barely! I decided to make him some "soakers" even though we are not in a million years doing cloth diapers (sorry my Green friends - I do recycle though!). Perhaps the desire to knit soakers came from reading all those Lauraine Snelling books about Norwegians frontiering on the Dakotas...they knitted a lot of soakers back then! (great reads btw).

One of our annual kick off events in a big bonfire. This year about 60 students showed up to indulge in banana boats, smores and help work all the Things into a sugary exhausted dither. A good time was had by all. We were blessed to have a Nav alumni couple loan us the use of their 160 acre property...which allowed for a pretty big bonfire!




T3 also got his first haircut this weekend. He isn't sure what he thinks about haircuts and definitely doesn't like to sit still!

We also had our first Nav Nite of the school year last week. About 130 students attended. We are following up spiritual interest surveys this week and getting Bible studies organized.

Picking Up the Stitches

I knew it would be a hard gift to receive and I both looked forward to it and dreaded its arrival. Since leaving WI (and our wonderful living situation together) six years ago, Heather had taken up the wonderful craft of knitting. I knew that she was knitting something for Thing 3. I knew it wasn't something for him to wear but she wouldn't tell me for sure what it was...she liked to surprise about as much as she liked to give.

I have so many gifts in my home from her. One of the earliest was probably the mission style rocking chair that she and her husband gave us as a wedding present. It sits in our living room next to the one that she INSISTED I buy at the Walworth County antique swap meet. It was such a steal that I think she threatened bodily harm if I DIDN'T buy it. You see by then they had so many rockers of their own that they had a "moratorium" on rockers - so then the next best thing was to make her friends by them.

Other items from Heather aren't all so big - little red measuring cups and spoons she sent me one year to support my obsession with my new red Kitchen Aid mixer. And of course, knitted red wash clothes appeared in another box from her. Bib overalls for my first born and a red curious George blanket that she insisted would have to be his favorite blanket of all.

Heather was a giver through and through. Of her time, of her wisdom, of her heart. That is partly what made her such a wonderful friend and probably why she was able to be such a wonderful friend to so many of us. She made the time to make the people she loved know that even with thousands of miles between us, we were still a very present part of her life as she spent hours knitting away the next gift and making the time to send it.

Yesterday it arrived, an absolutely adorable Rabbit for Thing 3. She had become quite the accomplished knitter. Her weekly knitting group of friends lovingly finished "Peter" and even marked the place where Heather had left off and they picked up her stitches. I know she would want - no INSIST - that this become his most favorite toy.

It will be hard to see "Peter" get drooled on when I really want to put him up on a shelf to be safe and protected, this her last gift to me. But that would hardly reflect Heather's heart - she who never lived life "on the shelf" where she couldn't get dirty. She was a go getter from start to "end" and I'm sure she is still go-getting up in His Presence even now. Now it is my turn to "pick up the stitches" where she left off and carry on her legacy of giving. Her breadth and depth of friendships challenges me to reach out and give a little more than might come naturally to me. Whether it be of myself, my time, my talents...or purchasing AND sending some little item I saw that made me think of someone.

With the arrival of Peter Rabbit comes the end of her gifts to me. But it is not the end of her love for me or any of us. I'm so grateful for each little item in my home that reminds me of her generous and caring heart, one that I hope to emulate and honor the memory of by becoming more of a giver and living life to the fullest just like she did.

Life with The Things

Today Thing 1 prayed at lunch, "Dear God, thank you for this beautiful weather, thank you that my big poop came out, and thank you for our new pool."

We have an new member of the family - his name is "Piggy". T1 named him because he says he "looks like a pig". In all actuality he is a toad. We just happened to have an aquariam leftover from goldfish long departed months back. So I decided since they had been asking for more fish I'd take the easy way out and let them keep the toad they caught in our backyard. He now lives happily in the mud room with pea rocks, a log to sleep in and more crickets than he can shake his little amphibian legs at. I'm currently perfecting the art of stunning a fly without killing it. Apparantly toads only like live food.

The other day I laundered the shower curtain, captured an escapee grasshopper and returned him to his doom, located 34 library books due TODAY, discovered at library that T3 had pooped ALL OVER, happily found 4 wipes with non-pooped-on-hand, put poopy baby back into carseat and proceeded inside, found 3 books on toads, removed drowning fly from coffee and sent him to his doom. My life is a glamorous novel just waiting to be written.

Life

First - some pics from our recent visit with family in Wausau. It was so great to have everyone together again, if only for a few days.

Mom treated us to a nice lunch out, just the girls while we were in Wausau.

Showing off Thing 3's toosh to all the aunties. He was so good, didn't
pee on me once!

Hangin out with at Mom and Dad's with the fam.


Cousins!


Uncle T. the snake catcher and entertainer of the family.

So much of life happens between posts that I wish I had the time to share with you all. One significant thing that God did I already emailed to many of you but want to put down here for my own record and for any of you who I missed telling this story to. On the morning of July 30th a friend/co-worker stopped by and my kids were outside playing. When she was about to leave I decided to walk out with her b/c I hadn't heard my kids for awhile. I walked out front first with her and didn't see them or hear them. I started to walk to the backyard and happened to glance toward her car parked in our driveway. I could just barely see Ben, my 3 1/2 year old sitting on the ground playing by himself right behind her jeep. If I hadn't seen him she would have walked around the front of her car, gotten in and ran him over for sure. This still just makes me panic even now. I'm usually pretty good about knowing where my kids are playing but we do have a lot of people come and go and they usually don't think to look behind their cars before they leave. I'm praising God for protecting Ben and am reminded to always check before I pull out or if anyone else is leaving the house. I decided to have a sign made and put it up in our driveway just as a reminder for folks to walk behind their cars before the leave. Here is the link for the website that I designed it on - it was reallly easy:
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Some other highlights have been seeing some Navigator staff friends from our region at a quick get-together in the Dells. Though not all our kids are big on water slides, we did enjoy our time splashing around. Thing 3 took the "Lazy River" to heart and fell asleep on me as we floated through as a family. Speaking of family we took a quick jaunt up to Wausau from there to have the whole family together again which is a rare occurrence at best with us living on different continents!

Hubby blessed me last weekend with my first night away from all the Things. Though I missed them all, Thing 3 especially, it was really refreshing and healing for me to attend the Beth Moore conference. I nearly grabbed the baby a few seats down from me during one session just to hold him...but I thought better of it since the mother probably would not appreciate a stranger commandeering her baby. I really enjoyed my time with 2 other staff women and a whole group of women from our church who went up to Fargo to attend. The worship was incredible and I was caught off guard by how quickly the tears for Heather and thoughts of her came while we sang. What is it about music that you can't hide your heart from? It just draws it out - both joys and sorrows. Glad it was dark in there while we sang! :) The teaching was excellent as always and if you ever get a chance to hear her - go!

We have also squeezed in a few last and really fun times together as a family at the city pool. I'm sad that it is already closed for the season. And the two older Things cashed in about $2k in "library loot" for all the reading "they" (ahem) did this summer. They went hog wild buying all sorts of junk..err...toys at the library store. Those boys will listen to books until I go hoarse if I let them! We have been doing a lot of books on tape lately to meet their need for more stories!

That is all for now...we are off and running with planning our fall semester. Our staff team (up to 9 of us now- wooohooo!) all came for a day of planning yesterday. We ended the evening with dinner and games together. I'm blessed by each and every one of them. And though my main ministry these days is managing the Things, I do enjoy and appreciate the times I am blessed to minister alongside them outside our home.

For the next 3 days our staff and 30 of our student leaders will be meeting, planning, praying and a little playing of course! Please pray for God's hand to be leading them as we prepare for the school year ahead. We are all excited for things to get into full gear again!

In The Storm

You know I love to start off with disclaimers - so as not to disappoint - this isn't in any way supposed to be an accurate teaching on what God intended for us to take from this passage - it is just where my mind went with it for today - tomorrow may be different. With that said...

I don't know if God does this to you, but sometimes I think He gets my attention best by repeating Himself. In the last few weeks John 6 keeps popping up everywhere I look. The account of when Jesus walks on water, to be more specific. At first it was just in my daily reading through John, then when I randomly picked a sermon to listen to online(a great website with thousands of sermons to minister to our hearts), guess what passage she drew from? I know it came up at least one other place as well. For awhile I was confused, what is my storm? What are you trying to tell me through this, Lord? Yesterday I finally had a little revelation as I journaled and prayed through this passage once again.

I really liked some of the insights that Jill Briscoe brought so I'll list them here first ( when you have 20 minutes I encourage you to listen for yourself and hear the many other great truths she draws, the sermon is called, "Trusting" and is in the archives on July 28th):
- The disciples knew the storm was coming and didn't want to get into the boat - but Jesus insisted they get in without Him and start across the lake
- Even though it was very dark and they were three or four miles out, Jesus saw them
- Jesus came to them in the storm
- Once they invited Him into the boat they immediately got to shore

At first I was confused making the obvious connection of Heather's death to my current storm, "Lord, this isn't going to just pass like a storm will, I think it is going to last until I see her again." But then it hit me, when Jesus got into the boat and they immediately landed on shore, the storm was still blowing. They were on safer ground, but the storm didn't end, they just had a much better chance of surviving.

My grief is my storm and I know the only way I'll survive it, and the many other storms this fallen world will bring, is to ask Jesus into the boat. At first the disciples were afraid, not even recognizing Jesus, but then as soon as they invited Him into the boat they were brought to shore. It brings me comfort to know that they couldn't see Jesus through the storm, but Jesus saw them and He came to them in their storm. There are so many days I can't see Him in my grief, to see His plan in all this pain. But in the midst of the deluge He still sees me. And He doesn't just see me, He comes to me. And then He waits for me to invite Him into my boat.

Some days I do invite Him in and He carries me through the dangerous waters of despair where my faith seems so fragile and thin and I think my grief will overwhelm me. He climbs in and ushers me back to firm ground. Other days when I don't want to accept His will in this and I just want to ask "why" and be mad, I strain against the oars and protest even getting into (or in my case, being in) the boat like the disciples did. And there I remain in the middle of the lake until I allow Him to climb into the boat with me. When He does the ache is eased a bit as I fall into His embrace with the tears still streaming down my face. The storm is still blowing, but Jesus is with me.

I don't think that storms of grief ever completely end this side of heaven. But I do think with time comes healing and there will be days, and eventually weeks and months where the storm moves off a bit to the horizon. I'm sure it will spring up with sudden showers in unexpected places. Like the other day when I was helping my 5-yr-old put his clothes away. I suddenly remembered the day Heather and Phil gave us that dresser and I can clearly picture standing near the storage area in their basement with her. Oh, how I miss her! The pain squeezes my heart once again with those four little words and there I am again in the middle of the lake. Will I invite Jesus in, accepting His will in this, or keep straining against the oars?

As time passes, in these instances I'm able to more quickly come to the place of saying, "Lord, I don't understand why You asked us to go through this storm, but I want you in my boat anyways." Immediately I'm back on shore and He helps me take the next step onto firm ground. To smile at my 5-yr-old as he has moved on from putting his clothes away and is now explaining to me the way he likes to get dressed. He is completely oblivious to the squall that just blew across my heart and threatened to take me down once again. He doesn't know that Jesus is using him to help me take one step at a time back into every day life, storm or not, I have to keep living.

Right now for me it's still raining, but it is one of those strange showers where the light begins beam through onto the soaked ground below. And Jesus is with me in the boat, helping me step onto the shore.