I ran across this quote today...
The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea ~isak dinesen
on a blog entitled, One thing
Not even sure how I got to her blog...you know...surfing through the lists of blogs on the blogs of friends that I read regularly.
That quote spoke to me.

I love going to the beach and feeling the salty breeze blow away my fears, my heartaches, my pains. I like how I feel when I have worked around my house and say in my high little girl voice (the one I only use when I am completely satisfied with life) "I really like my house when it is clean." The exertion of that sweat can take me from the frustrations I have with my quaint and quirky 93 year old home to a place of adoration and contentment.
Today...though...I found healing in the tears. Just crying....crying out my frustrations...sobbing out my inadequacies...letting the loneliness run out...letting the fears fade as the tears dried up on my shirt. So today I began my day agitated with a headache...frustrated with my faults and failures...but I wept...I bawled, really if the truth be known. And now as day comes to end...I feel cleansed. In my eyes...if you know me well...I think you can still see the effects of those tears. But I feel purified. Rather than drowning in my frustrations, I let them seep out down my cheeks. It helped that my mom caught me in this act. She was here today to cook the meal for the Christmas celebration we were having with our Board of Directors tonight. I wasn't feeling much like celebrating. I had even contemplated trying to figure out how to leave the house while they were all here. But I was able to poor out the frustrations...the fears...the failures and reach for higher ground. I am so thankful she listened without judging...offered encouragement and even the suggestion of getting some counseling to help me process through all I am feeling and thinking. There is some physiological thing behind it along with lies from Satan and my own disobedience... Behind this wave that over takes me at times...that creates a melt down within me. There is much to be considered...more discussions to be had with the doctor and hubbie to figure out what meds we can afford...more structure in my life...most importantly time with God retraining my mind to think God's truth about me and not the world's lies. It is not something that will be conquered tomorrow or by next week. But for the moment I have felt healing and cleansing through the tears. And I feel the wave of tears coming on again..not as a release of pain this time but in a wave of thankfulness and contentment in the cleansing.

Great fun in Missourri

We spent two nights in Missourri at my grandfather's house on our 10 day trip. He cooked fresh from the chiken coop eggs and fresh bacon (seriously, he bought it where they come in pigs and go out bacon) for breakfast and made fresh homemade peanut brittle in the afternoon, per John's request! MMMMM!!! He had a blackberry cobbler, a pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cookies, and pineapple surprise cake all made when we got there. My mom gets it honestly people!!!!! My Grandpa is a great cook! Oh and homemade soup on the stove when we got there. It was so nice to sit by the fire and eat that first night. And it doesn't get any better than his homemade jellies - gooseberry, blackberry, and cinnamon apple butter. Needless to say I ate extremely well. It was fun to eat green beans and baked potatoes that were fruits of his garden early this year. I brought home a sweet potatoe from his garden so we can try and grow it here in the spring.

We didn't have enough gloves. Great Grandma Joanne saved the day.

Great Grandpa making peanut brittle. John can hardly wait for it to cool.

It was in the 20's the first morning. The kids all got bundled up and rolled down the hill in his back yard. I guess it created warmth? They got rides on his four wheeler and he pulled me, Spunky and Dimples in a wagon behind his tractor. We got to see the chickens...the only animals he still has on his farm. We went to my Uncle's to bottle feed his one month old calves. On our way there, Spunky had requested to hold the baby cow in her lap while feeding it. She had not counted on it being so much bigger than she was. The kids fed chickens at Uncle Buddy's farm and carried in fresh brown eggs.


Uncle Buddy and Dimples....Real farmers wear overalls! (and, apparently, red hats!! hee,hee!)

Somewhere in her mittens Spunky is holding an egg.

Be careful you might get seasick watching Dynamo feed the calf. I was trying to hold the baby and my little digital camera. The only thing missing is that not so fresh cow smell! John was only in the barn the length of this video and quickly escaped!

U....C.....F!!!!!! Go Knights!

The family on the UCF campus before the game today

OK... so Hubbie has been to every...YES, every UCF Football game this season, except 2...one in Tulsa, Oklahoma and one in Virginia this year. Yes, John and I went to one in Boston and the entire family when to one in Memphis, Tennessee last week (pictures from that when I update you on the trip where we visited 4 states in 10 days and covered just over 2800 miles according to the tripometer). He even went to the one in El Paso...he had a speaking engagement in New Mexico that weekend a few hours away. How convenient!

My husband graduated from UCF and the boy is extremely LOYAL!!! Brands, schools, you name it, he has a loyalty to one. Nike, Oakley, Ping, Duncan Hines...Seriously!
By the way...UCF stands for University of Central Florida. And UCF has not played so well this year for various reasons I would rather not go into right now but that does not take away from the fact that our family is devoted!!!

The kids spelling out the cheer...U...C....F !!!

OK...it was my idea to use my eye liner to decorate their faces.
Dimples didn't want to be left out!! Spunky however only wanted UCF written on her hand.

Training up

I think of those 5 kernels of corn. Was that really all those pilgrims had? And they really thanked God for it. I am amazed. I am in awe...I am utterly ashamed.
At first I think, "My children are so ungrateful." And then I realize I am only seeing a version of myself in them. I have trained them this way...not UP unto the Lord but down into themselves.
I must change myself if I am to see change in them. I must be thankful for HIM and express that HE is all we need. I must seek HIM every moment to do this. Because in and of myself I am utterly selfish.

Thanksgiving is a holiday!

I remember the first time we went to Walmart after Halloween and the Christmas decorations were already up. My children seemed personally offended for Thanksgiving. They said, "Mom, they forgot Thanksgiving." I know that Thanksgiving isn't like Christmas or Easter with Biblicial significance. But if we didn't have a reason to celebrate Thanksgiving maybe we wouldn't be allowed to celebrate Christmas or Easter in our country. Sometimes this day is just a day to get together, eat a lot and watch football. It is just the sign that Christmas is on its way.

Thanksgiving was always a great day for eating in my family's home, with all the old favorites, Turkey and dressing, giblet gravy, sweet potatoe casserole (either with brown sugar and pineapple or with brown sugar and marshmallows), mashed potatoes, home made rolls, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, creamed corn, and sometimes even Great Grand-maam's chicken and dumplings. Can you cram any more carbs into one meal...oh well, there are the pies and cakes and mmmmmm....I am getting hungry!

But my Mom always had us do some kind of Thankful activity. You know those ones where it starts out a bit awkward and quiet. Some years she would pass out 5 kernels of corn to each person and we had to say one thing we were thankful for with each kernal. I think one year we passed around a ceramic turkey and had to say something we were thankful for while we held it. Everyone was tempted to just say something easy like family, food, you know the drill. But we almost always ended the round of thanksgiving in sweet happy tears, squeezing hands of those near us. It was always so sweet! And what a prayer of Thanksgiving would follow!

This Thanksgiving, I was reminded of why the first Thanksgiving took place. The kids and I read a book, The First Thanksgiving, while riding from Tennesee to North Carolina. It talked about how the Pilgrims left England because the King had mandated that everyone become a part of the church of England. They escaped to Holland and eventually left for America in September on the Mayflower. They left with over 100 men along with their wives and children. At some point while they were staying on the boat in the winter because it had been too cold to get their homes built in the New World, they were rationed 5 kernels of corn a day. Did you read that right? FIVE KERNELS OF CORN a day. My mom was totally on to something. Hee, hee! The book talked about how even though things were so rough they still sang praises of thanksgiving to the Lord daily and had a weekly day of thanksgiving EVERY Thursday. By the time spring was in full swing the entire group had dwindled down to 47 people!!! I think it said 17 of those were children. And when the Mayflower headed back to England...NONE of those pilgrims even requested to go back. They stayed in this country enduring deaths of family and friends and harsh weather to have religious freedom. Wow!!! Praise God, Squanto taught them how to hunt and gather and grow their own food. Praise God that they took it upon themselves to seek a land and create a government that would support religious freedoms. I think I am going to start a new tradition when I host thanksgiving in my home and pass out 5 kernels of corn.

Blogging

I guess I have sort of fallen off the blogosphere. There just doesn't seem to be time for it lately. BUT my hubbie has taken up blogging. You can check his crazy random thoughts at www.johnrevans.com/blog.
So if you want to laugh or keep up with us you might have to start checking out his blog. I am hoping to get some pics up here at least once a week but other than that I am just not motivated anymore. Besides who needs two bloggers in the same family?

Fall Festivals