Category: Enjoying Little Things

Michigan/Wisconsin 2018 (Part 1) ~ Mackinaw City

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As a home educating family, our vacations were always extremely full adventures with lots of opportunity for learning along the way, no matter where we were headed.

Our children eventually attended public school and two of our three daughters are now working and entering their adult years.

In July my husband and I took our first vacation as a couple without any children as we traveled to Oshkosh WI to join our youngest daughter Becca at EAAAirventure 2018, a huge aviation convention. She traveled there on her own for the EAA Air Academy, an aviation camp for young people from all across the country.

Since we had the time, hubby and I decided to explore new territory. He had been wanting to see the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for quite some time so we planned a whole Michigan adventure for ourselves.

I will say that while our time to ourselves was wonderful, it was also bittersweet for me. As a home educator at heart, I had such a strong urge to teach and share everything that I was experiencing and learning with my girls, who weren’t there. That was the only stain on the whole trip, and it is the primary reason why I want to document it here, so our girls can share the experience and learn from it.

Otherwise, it was glorious!

Continue reading

DG: Letter To An Incomplete, Insecure Teenager

Desiring God PhotoI really enjoy DesiringGod.org and I thought this article by John Piper was a good one! It talks about focusing on others and delighting in them and all of God’s creation around you. By the way, that is a great way to overcome depression and endure health issues!

A few years ago a teenager in our church wrote to me for advice about life in general, and identity in particular. Here is what I wrote, with a big dose of autobiography for illustration.

Dear _____,

My experience of coming out of an introverted, insecure, guilty, lustful, self-absorbed adolescent life was more like the emergence of a frog from a tadpole than a butterfly from a larva.

Read the rest of the story here.

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Joy Ross ~ The Joy-Filled Blind Lady

My mother receives Arthritis Today magazine, which she shares with me. After I scan any articles I’m interested in I pass them on to a young man we’ve befriended at one of our local convenience stores. His name is Matthew and at the age of 24 he’s already been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and has had a hip replacement.

I’m currently working through some old issues I came across while cleaning out my stacks of magazines and I saw an article about Joy Ross and her two young daughters. Joy was diagnosed at age 3 with Rheumatoid Arthritis and later with Uveitis, which robbed her of her sight. She is now totally blind. Unbelievably both of her daughters have been diagnosed with RA and her youngest also has Uveitis.

Because the article was a few years old, I thought I’d check out the Internet and see if I could find any current information regarding their conditions and I discovered she has a YouTube channel! You can check it out here.

What an unbelievable inspiration this woman is! What a tremendous testimony to the power of positivity!

Below are two videos of Joy walking with her guide dog Antonia a few blocks to her local Starbucks. Just the thought of walking beside and crossing traffic while being completely blind frightens me to death! I think I’d just stay home and make my own coffee! But that’s the point. She’s striving to live life to the fullest in spite of her blindness and encouraging others to do the same.

These videos really inspire me to be thankful for all that I have and to not complain.

In this first video Joy and Antonia are alone during the daytime.

In the second video she is with her daughter, in the dark, walking on ice and snow.

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Making “Real Life” Christmas Cookies

I had to laugh last night while I was in the process of making Christmas cookies.

First of all, my kitchen (and my house) is small so it’s a challenge to move all the normal things on the kitchen counters off so you have room to do things like roll out and decorate cookies. Plus finding space to set up the cooling racks. I’m not complaining, but it really can be a bit nerve racking to find somewhere to go with everything, sometimes for a few days while you make mounds of cookies!

And this year we have the puppy so I can’t put the crock full of cooking utensils over in the corner on the floor, unless I want to find them all over the house with bite marks in them!

When I was growing up (and even now), my mother never decorated a cookie with icing like you see in the magazines. She grew up on a farm and there simply wasn’t money or time for such things. Plus, my mother is not really crafty so she had no interest in even trying.

My girls and I tried once or twice when they were little, but I found that not only did they never look like the store-bought ones or the ones in magazines, but once you stored them stacked in a container (even with waxed paper between), they just didn’t look the same and it was a big disappointment. Growing up we just simply used sprinkles and that’s the way I choose to make them too. Nice and simple.

So today I had rolled out, cut out, and decorated the cookies with sprinkles and I was so excited because I LOVE cut out sugar cookies, when I took a moment to survey my creations as I was putting them in the oven, and I had to chuckle.

Here were these simple cut-out cookies, made from my beloved grandmother’s sugar cookie recipe, sitting among the mess of excess sprinkles strewn all over my scratched up cookie sheets, in my little kitchen that was a wreck, and I couldn’t be happier or more excited! It didn’t matter that they didn’t look like the cookies on Pinterest, or that I’ve had my cookie sheets for years and they were scratched up. Who cares?!

I love my grandmother’s Christmas cookies, I love my little house, I love ALL our animals, I love ALL my family and I love Jesus!

And I am GRATEFUL and CONTENT!

During this busy holiday season, don’t forget to wish someone a Merry Christmas, and be grateful for ALL the little things you have!

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Christmas Cookies 1

Christmas Cookies 3

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Juanita’s Patio Garden In The Fall

My dear friend Juanita is a lover of Jesus and strives to create a Godly, peaceful home. She’s very natural and down-to-earth, and loves tea, coffee, herbs, essential oils, flowers, and her family.

I had the opportunity to visit her today and enjoy her patio garden. She prays over her arrangements as she plants and tends them, doing everything heartily as unto the Lord as Colossians 3:23-24 admonishes us to do.

Look at how many wonderful, little treasures I found to enjoy! Continue reading

No Words Needed

This photo I took on our front porch is so serene and peaceful and beautiful.

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The position of the praying mantis’s hands reminded my daughter of this video of a raccoon stealing cat food. Watch all the way to the end for a good laugh!

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Why Do You Have Rocks In Your Sink?!

I love my chiropractor, Tom, and his wife Jennifer! They are an amazing couple with a shared heart to help people get well and improve their quality of life while honoring God in all they do. And Jennifer is one of the most vivacious, uplifting, and positive people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing!

It seems every time I visit their office they are experimenting with some new technique or product ~ always striving to offer their customers the very best service. Continue reading

Coffee Shop Heart

My friend Erika was leaving One Good Woman, a local coffee/tea shop, today and she looked down and discovered that the wind had shaped the dead flower petals on the ground into a heart shape!

Erikas Heart Photo

If you’re ever in the Camp Hill, PA area, check out One Good Woman at 1845 Market Street, for a fabulous array of coffee beans and loose teas!

Some of my favorite coffee flavors are Chocolate Raspberry, English Toffee, Rainforest Caramel Crunch, and Eggnog Creme Brulee.

Some of my favorite teas are Hot Cinnamon Spice (tastes like red hots!), Root Beer Rooibos (my mother loves this one!), and Arctic Raspberry (who knew they had raspberries in the arctic with a short growing season?).

Erika’s favorite coffees are Spiced Coconut Pecan (at Christmas time this is labeled Frosty’s Favorite) and Hawaiian Hazelnut.

You can find One Good Woman on the web at www.onegoodwoman.com. As of this writing, their website is experiencing a major overhaul. If you have an interest in something, give them a call ~ they do ship products.

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