Here is a good reason to go do that.  Explains a lot.  

1.  Fall planning in full swing here.  

Fall planning is making my head hurt.  I realize sports are inevitable and even likely have redeeming qualities as well. 

Probably. 

I am not relishing the prospect of filling our week up with "must be there by" times and places however. 

2. We have landscaping.  

This is new.  Try as we may have there was precious little of that on the raw prairie. What little there was got systematically beaten back by chickens and wind.  Here we have beds however, which I am endeavoring to weed and maintain. The first sweep through of the weeds was brutal.  They had a whiteknuckled grip on the soil and some we could only hope to cut at the root as deeply as we could dig.  We cleared the bed and I made a mental note to revisit it each week, only to wake up the next morning and find dozens of baby weeds sprouting. Dang. But the pleasant surprise was that these little upstarts had spindly little roots and came right up with gentle hoeing.  

I am sure there are myriad analogies here.  Does anyone else think of scripture while gardening?

3. Overheard this week:

"I am going into the wardrobe to see if I come out in Narnia!" We have ten wardrobes in lieu of closets.  Our boys have read a lot of books.  Enough said. ; )  Unless you want to hear about my awesome family closet.  I did it.  I love it. 

4. The bird watching has really ratcheted up several notches here, though not in the ways I expected. 

 Green and trees = birds.  That was a given.  Killer birds?  Bit of a surprise. 

It started with a walk on one of the miles of bike/foot trails.  When the girls and I came back to the village an American teen passed and mentioned that there had been several attacks on that trail by some very territorial birds of prey.  We took it with a grain of salt til I was chatting with my neighbor who had gone jogging on the same trail days later. Her husband was far ahead and something hit the back of his head, knocking him off his feet.  He turned to see a hawk-like bird coming back with talons outstretched. Had a bloody gouge out of the back of his head to prove it. : / 

When we moved to this village last week we ventured onto another trail.  This one has a sign which I am pretty sure says – Beware of Killer Bird. <g>  There is a large home in the village with a massive bronze sculpture of a prey bird mounted out front. I am sure there are some good stories here someplace.  Stay tuned!  

5. Mmmm, mmm, gouda.  

Happily rediscovering Dutch cheeses.  I am ruined for cheddar.  Which reminds me of our last stay here.  A friend of mine from Holland had come for a few days. I fed her cheddar.  She looked at the plate with a puzzled expression and said, "What is that?"  I said, "Cheese."  She says, "Why is it ORANGE??"  ah the fun that is cross cultural relationships lol. 

6.  Also rediscovered Gilad of Bodies in Motion.  Anyone else do cable fitness in the 90's?  The video shop on base has several of his dvds and I picked one up remembering watching the show back in the day.  I do not remember feeling this way the day after watching the show back in the day.  Owwwwww.  

7.  

"I'm looking for a miracle in my life
and if you could see
what it's done to me..."

– Moody Blues 

Look for them. They are there.  God bless!

My fairy princess at her first real castle….

One of my all-time favorite blogs, and one of the very few of which I have remained a faithful visitor over the years,  is closing down shop.  I don't know where there will be such a Pleasant View in blog world as this was.  If you have somehow missed this treasure the archives will be open for a bit yet.  

Stop by the Caravan and say hey to one of my favorite people on the planet. 

Welcome back, my friend.   You were missed. : ) 

    more daybooks at Peggy's

To my husband on my birthday,

It's been quite a year –  in many ways a year with valleys lower than I had ever wished to venture into. Thank you for the gift of walking them with me. 

It's been a year of hard work.  Thank you for believing I was equal to it. 

It's been a year of second chances.  Thank you for taking a chance at a whole new life together. Thank you for waiting til I could say yes. 

I had not imagined the end of 42 would bring me to this place in life, but I am grateful to be here, grateful for another year of…

holding hands

sharing hope

loving better

smiling long

trying harder

laughing loudly

and

whispering I love you – often above the din of clattering dishes and running bathwater and barking dogs

I am grateful I woke up this birthday morning to the gift of you, which has grown into the gift of them and the gift of us all together.  

Thank you.

"Often we struggle against aspects of life that are largely beyond our control – noise, confusion, comments we don'tapprove of, lost items, rudeness, imperfections, negativity, broken pipes, clogged drains, whatever. We fight, get angry, and annoyed, and wish things were different. We complain, fret, and commiserate.  Yet when you add up all this frustration, the end result is always the same. The things we are frustrated about remain as they are.  No amount of gritting our teeth and cleanching our fists makes the least bit of difference. In fact, kit only adds fuel to the fire. 

Calm surrender is not about giving up. Nor is it about being apathetic, lazy or not caring. Instead it is about appropriate acceptance, being willing to to let go of our insistence that the events in our lives be any certain way or different than they actually are. 

If you are willing to give this strategy a try you will be amazed at the results. The calmer you will become, the easier your life will be.  Rather than exacerbating negative events and bringing out the worst in other people you'll begin to stop negativity before it has a chance to spiral any further.  In time you'll begin to experience chaos in a whole new light.  There will be so much less drama in your life. 

So starting today, see if you can ease the chaos by experiencing calm surrender."

– Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family,  Richard Carlson PhD

Hat tip to Elizabeth for this one which is especially timely since my heart has been heavy observing this very thing and it's not pretty. Thank you, Kristen,  for reminding us that:

  "God uses people who mess up!"   

At least He does if we don't completely destroy them before He gets a chance. : /  

Here is the thing. We are all mess-up's.  Every last one of us. (Rom 3:23)  Dependent upon grace, unable to do good on our own strength. (2 Cor 3:5)  What do we know, really? He says not much because

"…man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Sam 16:7

…and we can't see in there. 

I'm thinking if someone is deemed to be especially messed-up, then we can pray for them.  And iff they are gosh-awfully, pheNOMenally messed up? ( you know, like your's truly over here, for instance…)   Pray harder yet. Certainly we have learned something by the alternative?  

Have mercy.   Be a buffalo. : )