Busy Week Ahead

This is going to be a busy week for us. My mother is moving in with us. At 85, she is a life-time Texan who has never inteded to live anywhere else, especially not Oklahoma. But here she comes. Judy has been busy for weeks "re-arranging" the house to get ready for the move-in. I will be going down to Dallas with my daughter Kari to close my mother's apartment and move her belongings. Mother will be released from the hospital/rehab center the day before she flies up here.

I think that once the whirlwind is over and the move-in settles down we will be happy and life will go smoothly. Others may be dubious, but I choose to be positive.

Judy is my hero in all of this. This is my mother, not hers. Of course, I would be happy to have her with me. She has nurtured me from birth. But Judy has really led the charge on this one. She saw the real need for the move, and has been working overtime (literally night an day) to get the house ready and the move done. On top of all of that, Judy has created (again) the most beautiful garden in the front yard and has totally re-landscaped the back yard. She has relocated plants and bushes and trees, dug up horrendous river cane by the roots (ugh!) and re-fashioned the flower beds. My hat is permanently off to Judy; my life, my love, my strength, my encourager, and my pusher.

Oh, and did I say that she strongly and regularly supports me in our ministry with Victory Ground Ministries: designing and printing business cards, editing my new book, and singing and sharing in the preaching.

She has managed all this work by giving up sleeping and eating. (Not really.)

Ham, Cinnamon and Letters

It has been a fun summer, and I have had opportunity to try new things (for me) on my grill. We have purchased, at various times, brisket, pork roast, and hams. In order to keep the heat out of the kitchen, and to play with my grill, I have cooked these items on the grill. It has been a lot of fun, and a nice diversion from the norm. The outcome is unbelieveable. I cooked them on indirect heat, like an oven, and put some hickory chips in the fire for smoking, plus a special dry rub on the brisket and pork roast, and a "mop" (liquid) on the hams (cooked 2 10# hams - different times). Here I am cooking the second ham.

Back in July, we got to keep Jeff and Stephie's children overnight while they attended a high school reunion in Tulsa. Of course, it was absolutely heavenly. They are the sweetest kids. Brent, about 10 months, was all smiles and fun. Caitlyn wanted to "whing" all the time. She does love that. So does Brent. But the thing I keep remembering is the breakfast I cooked on Saturday morning. I made cinnamon toast to go with the meal. We ate outside, and Caitlyn (3 yrs old) ate very well, but wouldn't touch the toast (guess it looked bad to her). So I said, "Caitlyn, take one bite with me (holding mine up to my mouth)." She did, and before I knew it, she had scarffed the entire piece of toast down. I wished I could have captured the moment on film. It is a great memory.

This is a picture of the letter that Ava sent to me (Kari's youngest, 3 yrs old). She saw a program on the kids channel about sending letters, and she was all about sending a letter to Papa and Mimi. So Kari obliged. Ava "wrote" a letter, they put it in an envelope with a stamp and drove to the post office to mail it. When she got home, she had to call me and say that she had mailed me a letter. It came yesterday, so now I need to write her back.

This Papa stuff (granddad) is pretty cool, and just gets better.

Grandchildren are wonderful!

We have 4 lovely grandchildren to play with, and one to love at a far, far distance. Here is a cute story about one of them, Olivia, who is 4 years old. Kari's blog.

And one about Ava:
This morning I got a call from Kari. She announced they had had an accident. While helping her mother unload the dishwasher (a task she dearly loves), Ava accidentally put too much weight on the top tray, and it broke. Kari asked how to go about getting parts to fix it. I started to tell her what I would do, then realized that she didn't have time to do all that running and fixing when her girls needed her. So I said, "Jim makes good money, call a repairman." She did.

She put Ava on the phone to say hello. She is always so bright and happy when she says, "Hi, Papa!" Today, she sounded quiet and demure. "Hi, Papa!" "Hi, Ava. Did you have an accident." "Un-huh. I broke the dishwasher." (and she broke my heart) Kari said Ava knew she was in trouble. So I encouraged her not to punish Ava when she was so happy to help, but teach her not to put all her weight on the dishwasher.

I am sure I will soon have a cute story about Caitlyn to share with you. Brent...well he is till crawling and saying nothing - the silent type.

I can't believe it!

It has been over a week since I have blogged. I do pretty well for a while, then it is out to pasture. Ugh! I don't have any cute sayings to report (I think), and I don't have any pictures to show (I'm sure). It has been a busy time. My mother came to visit for a couple of weeks. And she returned home on Tuesday.

Good news. My mother is coming to live with us at the end of August. This is very needed and we are glad that she has been able to make the decision to come here. It was a tough one, I am sure. I can't imagine giving up my home and living with someone else. But this way, she can have a better life for longer.

On a sadder note. This is the last day of July - my birth month. I will have to wait until next July which is 11 months away! Oh well, this has been a good one. I have had special visitors and special gifts and special days and special meals and special phone calls and special emails. It is much better to celebrate the whole month than just one day. AND I do have one more gift coming to me - from my dear wife. It should arrive any day.

Still my bithday month!

I am still enjoying my birthday month, and am still getting presents. For those of you who celebrate only one day for your birthday, you are missing something great. That may be another post.


Last Saturday, my Texas kids were here for a short visit. Stephanie presented me with a birthday gift from Kari, Jim, Stephanie and Jeff. It was a gift card to Lowes. (and a nice sized one at that). So on Monday, Judy and I went buying. We spent it all but $3. We'll get that done later. Here is what we bought in pictures. First, 3 chairs and a table for the front porch. Now we can sit on the front side of our house and watch the world go by. We eventually want wicker chairs, but this is a nice gift, and we have already enjoyed them tremendously.





Then, the piece we have wanted for a long time - a fire pit for our patio. This allows us to enjoy the backyard further into the fall and earlier in the spring. We are eager to use it, although now is not the time for a fire. While putting it together, the base/fire pan lay out on the patio. In just a short time I reached to get it and join it to the frame per instructions. I almost burned my hands when I grabbed hold of it (it is all cast iron). So no need for a fire just yet. The thermometer registers just a tad over 100 at this time - that is enough. But come cooler weather...

nd here is another view (for my kids to see). It has screened doors that open on two sides to tend the fire. It is 25" across (on both sides) and 30" tall. We were looking for a round pit, which Lowes was out of at the moment. Then we saw this one (the one Stephanie liked, or Kari) and we fell in love with it. Thanks girls, you are so sweet - you too, Jim and Jeff. Come sit by the fire, or on the front porch.

Hold on! Time is rushing!

This is turning out to be a tough summer. Oh, not because I have reached the big 6-0. I can handle that. I even do well when I think that my daughters are the age they are, maybe because the grandchildren are so young. But here comes the biggy. My little nieces and nephews are growing up. I don't mean the ones that are my girls ages, but the ones that came after them. With Judy's big family, we have nieces and nephews of all ages, some still just babies.

In June, one of our nephews got married! He was the cutest little boy. I always loved being around him. He was so playful and happy. He truly isn't old enough to be married - not in my mind or memory.

This month, another nephew turns 20. TWENTY! It is just almost too much to handle. The only way they can get married, or turn 20, is for me to get older. Ugh! I am having some real adjustment issues.

Lord Jesus, if you are thinking about coming back any time soon, now would be a good time.

A Great Birthday

I celebrate my birth month of July - from the 1st to the 31st - every year. Why limit it to just one day? You get more, and every day there are special things that can happen. That is true for this year, in spades. Judy and I picked a gallon of blueberries and then were given a gallon by a very dear friend of ours. We harvested one of our apples trees and made an apple crisp pie with the apples. (Isn't God good to put us in a house where one of the apple trees - we have 2 - comes due in July around my birthday!) I have gotten cards and money and special dinners and meals out. Every year near my birthday they set off fireworks all around the USA! Wow! What a great blessing. So you see the value of celebrating the whole month. And I still have half the month to go. As I always say, life just keeps getting better.

Yesterday, the 16th, was my actual birthday, and it was great. I turned 60 - a milestone of some sort. My mother, who just turned 85 three weeks before, is here to share with us.

We started the day with a great breakfast of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, fresh tomato wedges, homemade bread/toast, and coffee (I got the breakfast I wanted because I made it myself, including the bread!) We ate on the back patio and lingered a long time enjoying Judy's beautiful landscaped backyard. Finally, around noon we came in and I spent some time studying for teaching Bible Study at Christian Chapel in the evening. (Again, it is so wonderful that my birthday fell on Wednesday, so I got to teach the Word of God!) Mother and Judy took me to IHOP for dinner before church - I love IHOP. At church we had 3 cakes for me and my mother and all the people who have July birthdays. It is what I wanted for my birthday, to have enough cake to share with everyone else. To me the whole thing about a birthday is doing something for others. And my Sunday School teacher made me a coconut pie that is absolutely out of this world. Oh, God is sooooooo good. (The pie I only shared with my mother and Judy!)

Here is a great picture. We have lots of cardinals around our place (and other birds, as well). I have learned the cardinal whistle, and am able to bring them down to the trees near our patio. But yesterday, on my 60th birthday, this cardinal came to the peak of the roof over the kitchen. We sat there for about 10 minutes, maybe more, singing back and forth to each other, face to face. Judy finally slipped into the kitchen through the sliding door (in picture) and went around to our bedroom, got her camera and went to our back door out of the bedroom and took this picture through the glass on the door. (You can click on the picture to make it larger.) Just after she finished the picture, the bird left. He was just waiting for her to get the shot. Again, life just keeps getting better.

A big shout of thanks to everyone who made my birthday so great, and still my birth month (for those of you who still want to bless me!). My girls each called me throughout the day to wish me happy birthday. And Kari blogged about me.

Mmm...mmm!

In the last few day, I have mentioned picking blueberries at a blueberry farm and picking apples from our apple tree. Gotta tell you, life just keeps getting better.

Judy made a fabulous apple crisp pie with the apples, which we finished last night. This morning we had some of those apples prepared in the freezer, but not enough for another pie. So I took some of them, added some blueberries, cinnamon and brown sugar, brought them to a boil in some water, then added them to our oatmeal. Oh, my! Now that was sommmme oatmeal!

Like I said, life just keeps getting better. Tomorrow, we are having some friends over. I am cooking a 6# brisket on the grill all day, then adding some corn on the cob. Is this just too good? And Judy is going to add some potato salad with it. Okay, pinch me, am I really alive? Yes!

I have such a good life, in every respect, and it's all because of Jesus.

P.S. You want to read a good, inspiring message from Bodie Thoene? Click here, it's short.

And more!

(Read my former blog, or this one will not make sense.)

Okay, I'm not through with the '5800 block' of the last blog. I keep wondering:

• do tall people and fat people have more squares than short and skinny people? Or are they just bigger?
• if someone loses weight, do they lose squares, or do they just shrink? Same with gaining weight, do they gain more squares?
• where is the original plat for the squares? How do we know if the count starts from the top or the bottom?
• I think I am assuming correctly to say that the 5800 block is somewhere near the heart. Obviously, if it were on the leg, someone wouldn't die -- unless they hit a big artery and bled to death.
• but is the 5800 block on the front or back of the body? Or maybe under the left arm on the side?

Okay, now I think I might be through. Unless someone wants to add something I have missed. That might get me going again.

A Little Fun

Loving English grammar the way I do, I am always taken back when I am reading and find some glaring grammar mistake. Sometimes I write them down, just for remembrances' sake. Here is one that is quite funny, to me. It involves a misplaced modifier.

"Dominque overheard the phrase and slased downward with his quirt, striking the man who had just come to his aid on the shoulder."

Now, in case you don't catch it, "on his shoulder" should come after "striking the man". Unless you really believe that he came to the man's aid standing/sitting/jumping on his shoulder. These are not uncommon in the newspaper, but in a published book? Where was the editor that day, that this error was allowed to get through? Oh, well, none of us are perfect.

I remember one day listening to the news on my way to my office at ORU. The newsman reported that a man had been killed on North Lewis Ave. during the night. Then he said, "He was shot in the fifty-eight hundred block." For the rest of my drive I was wondering if the man's body was divided evenly into numbered blocks, and exactly where was the 5800 block. Then I began to wonder if my body was blocked out, as well. I must say I feasted on that one for most of the day. Still strikes me as funny, but I don't know in which block it strikes me.

A Veritable Delight

Imagine my complete joy when I step out of the house of a morning on my daily walk to be greeted by such a lovely garden. Judy does such a beautiful job. All I have to do is keep the grass green and mowed -- much easier, to say the least. Seems like a different part of the garden is in bloom all the time. So every day becomes a real adventure to see what will greet me. Here is what I saw this morning.

These beautiful roses (don't even know what kind they are) and the hibiscus together were so inviting. You should know that the hibiscus are looking at me as I come down the porch steps. What a great reception I had. The rose bush is full, with more yet to bloom. Then they go away and in a couple of weeks, a whole new crop come back.

Here are the hibiscus up close. Unlike the roses, the bloom only lasts for a day or two, but then there are always more to take their place. They are so big. I am just amazed at their size. The house down the street has blood red ones. Imagine!

On another note, yesterday I picked the apples from one of our apple trees and Judy made an apple crisp pie for dessert last night. (Note for the ladies reading this: I peeled and cut them up, she didn't have to do it all!) I didn't spray our apple trees at all this year, so I had to share the apples with bugs, worms and birds. But I still got enough for the pie, and some left over. Yum! It was so good. This made me plan to spray next year! This was our first harvesting since we have lived here.

God is so good to us!

A Beautiful Family

Yesterday, our Texas kids passed through Muskogee on their way to a Juy 4th vacation with other family members. They wanted to have dinner with us, to meet us at a restaurant on their way. What fun to be with them. Everyone should feel good about their kids and their families. We certainly do ours. What a great time we had with them. Caitlyn and Brent are so well behaved. We enjoyed them very much. Caitlyn was asked by someone what her daddy does. She replied, "He goes to work to get me money." And just 3-years old, too!

Here is Brent with Mimi. He is 10-months old. He is so happy and peaceful, easy to take care of and be around. He is the mirror image of his dad.

And here he is with Papa. I am sure he would rather look at beautiful Mimi, but into every life a little rain must fall.

Caitlyn is 3, and very sure of herself. She can easily take control of any situation. I think she will be a great leader some day. She wanted to sit by Papa, she sure is a a good diplomat.

Here they are together. If you notice Brent's black eye, you gotta guess who gave it to him.

And here's Daddy Jeff. Does he ever love these two kids! He is such a good husband and dad. He really is all about leading his family. They are faithful in church, and the Lord really blesses them. I didn't mean to leave Stephanie out, but the only picture we got of her was not the best. I am sure she thanks me for making the right decision.

Bible Learning Lab

Judy's long awaited website is finally up and online. Wow! It is fantastic. Here is her description of this website: "Learn the basics of this amazing book! When you understand what is inside, you will soar higher than you can imagine!"

She has worked diligently on it for about 10 months. And in the months to come she will be adding new features to it. But for now, it is up and running with wonderful things to discover.

Check it out! Bible Learning Lab! (There is also a link to her site at the right of this page.)

The Pear Tree

We have a pear tree. This year, because of the rain, etc., it is loaded down with pears. Every limb has a pear every half inch up the limb. There are lots of clusters of pears, 4 or 5 in a cluster. In this bigger picture you can see how the limbs curve and bend down. The limbs that are close to the ground in the picture were actually touching the ground. This morning, Judy and I tackled the job of removing pears to save the tree. We must have taken 100-200 pears off the tree, and we have probably 300-400 still on the tree.

This picture is a close up of the pears. They are about golf ball size now. When ready for harvesting they will be like hard balls and larger (baseball hard balls). They are very hard and must be cooked to eat. But they make great pear honey, and we are looking forward to making some ourselves.

Another close up. In this picture, we took off as many as you see here, and maybe a few more. Judy was mowing the other day and moved a limb so she could mow under it. It came back at her and hit her. It really hurt, and she was concerned she might get a black eye. She didn't.

Day Lilies and Hummingbirds

Got some things to show you. We have two apple trees and one pear tree. At the base of the big apple tree are some irises and day lilies. The day lilies are just now blooming. They like a lot of sun on their flowers. Notice that these day lilies have put up extra long flower stems to get to some sun. They go way up into the apple tree. Here is a picture of Judy with the day lilies in the apple tree, and an apple just to the right of her hair. (Click on any picture to enlarge it.)

Here is a picture showing all of Judy so you can see how tall the flowers are from the ground up. Notice the apple above her head.

Here, just for fun, is one of our ripening apples.

This is the arbor we built to grow our kiwi fruit on. It is the smooth skin variety, no fuzzy stuff, and is sweeter than the regular kiwi. They look more like oversized grapes. It will be another year or so before these produce. Looking up through the arbor, you see a flowering crete myrtle at the back of the yard. To the left of the arbor are some zennias and four-o-clocks. In the foreground is our Dylan statue and a small white crete myrtle. Just behind it and the sawed-off pear tree (which is soon to be cut down, ice storm ruined) is the apple tree in the above pictures. Behind the apple tree is another smaller apple tree, then our pear tree (it is loaded, notice the limbs almost touching the ground). To the right of the apple tree you see the Rose of Sharon in bloom. This is what we see every morning as we sit on the patio and eat our breakfast, read scripture and pray.

In a former post, I wrote about our hummingbird feeder and the birds that finally are coming. Here is the best picture I can get of a hummingbird, so far. I will keep trying, of course.

We are so blessed here. We thank God every day for His goodness and kindness to us. Just Tuesday evening, Judy's parents came in from Albuquerque on their way home to Missouri from a trip to Colorado. They left early Wed. morning. On their way out to the car, they commented about how wonderful it is to stop here and be refreshed by our beautiful house and grounds. This is the Victory Ground Manor.

Finally!

Last year we had a couple, maybe 3, hummingbirds come to the feeder just outside our den window. It was so much fun to watch them feed. I learned from the Internet how to make their nectar myself. Just one problem. The feeder we had, though very stylish, kept getting air bubbles in it, so in order to feed the birds, we had to go out and work and work to get rid of the bubble -- sometimes multiple times a day. So all winter and early spring, we kept our eyes open for just the right feeder. Finally, design, price and style came together. I bought the feeder, made the nectar and...no birds -- for months, it seems. Judy's dad said they, too, had not had hummingbirds this season. For the past two or three weeks hummingbirds would fly by, come close, but not feed. Finally!! This week the birds are back, feeding multiple times in an hour's time. Hallelujah! They are such an addition to the beauty of Judy's front garden. I have tried to get a picture of them up close, but they haven't cooperated yet. I will soon, and I will post it.

Much to be thankful for

We have so much to be thankful for. Judy and I get to sit out on the back patio every morning for breakfast and view our lovely backyard and thank God for the gift to us. I usually fix a breakfast of eggs and toast, or oatmeal and cinnamin toast, or pancakes and sausage -- and coffee. Then we move out to the patio and eat and visit, read scripture and pray -- always enjoying the lovely yard and garden that the Lord has given us. Judy is such a wonderful landscape artist. We have Rose of Sharon, cannas, crete myrtles, four-o-clocks, day lilies, and roses blooming. We have a pear tree that is full and bending low, and two apple trees whose fruit is beginning to turn red. And that is in our back yard.

Then we have these wonderful wall-to-wall windows in every front room, so we can see our beautifully manicured front yard and gardens as we sit at our desks and work. We are so blessed. Just think, in one house the Lord has given ample room for offices, 4 bedrooms for guests, beautiful furnishings and a wonderful outside. It truly is a house of peace; it brings us peace and extends peace to those who visit (you are always welcome) and even to those who drive by. (You should see the cars that drive slowly by and turn around and drive by once more!)

We thank God for what He has done in our lives. He truly blesses us!

Some variety

Today, I have created a new blog just for ministry purposes: Victory Ground. The purpose is to separate my personal musings and everyday life elements from specific Bible encouragement to the reader. So if you want to be encouraged or challenged or exhorted or consoled, etc. see my other blog. It will eventually be a part of my new web page: victoryground.com. But it isn't ready to see just yet. Anyway, you can see the blog part now, at the above link.

What a joy to serve the Lord!

Judy and I are going to a church just outside Muskogee to preach this Sunday. We have been there before. We love the people and are eager to be with them again. They have a lovely church building, and have great people inside of it. We are just praying that we will be able to bless them powerfully. That is all we care about. So today and tomorrow (now that VBS is over at Christian Chapel), I am spending time looking to the Lord for His directions for what I am to preach. He has such creative ideas, and He certainly knows His people and knows what they need.

We had a good VBS. Judy taught, and I drove the bus before and after each day. Picked up a bunch of kids. I also helped in the snack-time dept. Mainly cleaning up. Any service you can do for the Lord is so rewarding. Just wiping down tables and chairs is such a joy when you know you are helping the Lord in His endeavors. I wiped with gusto, and left the place clean and ready for the next day's tornado. I even cleaned out the refrig on the last day. We had a kooaid jar that had a leaky valve. Ugh! But it was a lot of fun to take everything out and wipe and wash! Loved driving the bus and getting the kids back and forth. I always waited till I could hear the click of the seatbelt before I drove on. The kids quickly got the idea and responded beautifully.

Hey! My daughter Stephanie and her husband Jeff just returned from a week's vacation in Florida. Check out these great pictures and see my beautiful grandkids having the time of their life. Click here.

Angels Everywhere!

Livng by faith is not as easy as it sounds. It strips one of his own plans and purposes and pursuits, and throws him totally at the feet of Jesus IN everything and FOR everything. Having lived by faith for years, and certainly in the extreme for the past 8 months, I can tell you that no one in his "right" mind would stand in line for the opportunity. But in his redeemed mind, where Christ is Lord, he relishes the experience. It is fraught with fear and joy, anticipation and "disappointment", etc. Disappointment when one thinks that God should or would do something one way, but it doesn't happen. Only to discover that God has another way - and so many ways that He is not content to repeat past actions. All of His various ways of taking care of you are designed to show you how personally He cares for you.

At any rate, in my and Judy's faith walk, we have seen good, high, holy days, and days of despair and disappointment. The "trick" is (poor choice of words) to keep your eyes on Jesus and your heart continually stirred by His Word, which never fails. Things fail, people fail, God never does.

So this week I had come to a place that was either "giving up" because there was no hope of being able to pay ANY of our bills, or was total surrender to God and His will. (There is a fine line there.) I hope it was the latter. We have been busy helping in VBS at church, giving of ourselves to bless others. After dinner last night, we decided to walk in the neighbor. As we walked out of our front door, Judy noticed something stuck in the door behind the wreath. It was an envelope with $1000 in it -- all in bills, with no trace of writing. It was exactly enough to pay our bills, buy some much needed gasoline, and tithe on the gift.

Do you believe in angels? We do. We never tell anyone our needs, only God. So we can safely deduce that the money came from God, through the hands of one of his helpers.

And believe me, we are thankful. God is rarely early, but He is NEVER late, if we can be patient and trust Him. He is so faithful to us.