On the Border

Ever been to the border? Oh, I don’t mean a geographical border, although those can be fun to visit.  I am talking about the border between right and wrong, between good and best, between faith and feeling.  Those difficult places in which we are forced to face ourselves and make a choice that will alter our lives, sometimes irrevocably. 

I have been on the border many times.  Not too long ago, I stood on the border at Walmart (this is not a corny joke).  Here is the scenario:

I went to Walmart to pick up a few groceries using a gift card.  The gift card did not work, even though it had a balance that more than covered the amount of my purchases.  After numerous employees, managers, and personnel had come over to work their magic on the card, it still refused to scan.  Sigh.  I really would hate to be the person behind me in line.  They ended up keying in the card number and transferring the remaining balance to a new gift card, in hopes that it would work better.  Twenty minutes after scanning my card for the first time, I walked out of the store with my melting ice cream.

Several days later, in another far-off city, I again made some purchases at my less-than-favorite store.  The “new” gift card was pulled out, and the cashier told me that it probably would not scan on the customer side of the register, since the swiper/scanner thing had not been working for several months.  Then he tried to scan my card on the cashier side of the register.  Nada.  I groaned within myself as he swiped again and again, trying in vain to get the card to work.  Frantically swiping my card up and down repeatedly, he called for a manager.  My face felt hot as the people in line behind me began muttering and looking for another, faster-moving line.  After several more attempts, and even keying in the card number, it still didn’t register.  Solution:  let’s move to another register.  The manager transferred my purchases to another register, and told me to come with him.  Guess what?  He put me in front of several people who had moved to avoid being behind me in the previous lane.  {mortified}  They couldn’t believe their bad luck, either.

To make a long story short, I finally got out of the store after a very long check-out process.  I sat in the truck and glanced over my receipt, only to find that I hadn’t paid for one of my items!  Somehow, although they had picked it up and put it in the bag, it had never been scanned.  I checked the bag, to see if it really was in there, then looked at the receipt again.  Nope – definitely not there.  Rats.  I really did not want to go back into the store and go through the whole gift-card fiasco again.  I just wanted to go home!  I felt the nudging of the Holy Spirit telling me to go back and pay for the item.  That is the right thing to do.  “But I don’t want to go back in there,” I protested.  At this point, I was considering just throwing the item out the window into the parking lot and driving away.  Definitely standing on the border.  I decided to compromise.  I will call the store, tell them what happened, and see what they say.  I was hoping that they would just say something like,

“Oh, that’s okay – we overcharge people all the time, so you can just have that inexpensive item on the house.”  Really.  I was hoping that.   

It didn’t happen that way. They told me that I could just bring the item back – and pay for it.  Resignedly, I dragged myself out of the truck, grabbed the item, and went back into the store.  I was greatly relieved when the store entry sirens did not go off as I walked between them.  After another long hassle with the gift card, I walked out of the store with not only my twice-bought, once-paid-for item, but also a clean conscience.  

Sometimes the border is clearly defined, but other times it can be hard to discern through the mist of feelings that we can experience.  I have seen so many people stand on the border and make the wrong choice, and my heart aches for them.  Every choice we make helps determine our direction, and if you cross enough borders, eventually, you will end up somewhere you never intended to be.   The lesson I learned:  when faced with a choice, listen for the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Then follow that leading!  Don’t let your feelings dictate your choices.

Just Duet

Don’t you love a happy surprise?  It doesn’t even have to be a big surprise – just something small to brighten your day.  A flower, a note, a piece of chocolate, a new piano duet…  That’s what my wonderful husband gave me this week.  The duet, that is.  I’m still hoping for the chocolate… :)

Just for the record, my husband and I love Leroy Anderson’s music.  This is probably one of his better-known pieces – the one we all hear at Christmas!

One piano, four hands… That means we get to sit on the bench together!  :)

This one’s going to take a little practice, but I sure am looking forward to playing it!

And, yes, we have already started practicing!  We should have it ready to roll by Christmas!  I love having a thoughtful, musical husband.

What will he think of next?

Almost Heaven…

Surprisingly, I do not mean West Virginia, although that is their motto.  I’m spending the morning at the public library in Rapid City, SD.  And it really is lovely.  Books everywhere.  Only the subdued sound of pages turning, and the occasional low whisper.  Beautiful!

I brought my kids, too, since the library has an awesome children’s section, complete with a small aviary, computers, chess and checkers sets, and of course, a zillion books.

Ok, I’m not sure how or when my kids learned to play chess, because I sure didn’t teach them! :)

For the ones who don’t care to play chess, there are plenty of other things to do – like read!

What is your idea of almost heaven?

Sunday Morning Milestone

Every mother dreams of the day when her children are able to dress themselves to go to church on Sunday morning.  My three eldest children are quite capable of dressing themselves without supervision, although they still need a collar turned down here, and a sash tied there. 

I am pleased to announce that my youngest child is now able to put his church clothes on by himself.  Here he is – ready for Sunday School!

He is so pleased with himself!

Ahhh!  I have arrived!  Now I can spend an extra twenty minutes getting myself ready.  :)

Independence Celebration

I never know where or how we will celebrate our nation’s birth from year to year, and as a consequence, it varies a great deal.  This year was by no means an exception.  We ended up with some college friends in Colorado and they kind of took us in hand and included us in all their plans.  We left early in the morning to go to the Fourth of July parade in the next town over.  We had to get there a bit early to get seats on the sidewalk, and then, of course, all the shady spots were already taken.  It was a nice day, though, and it wasn’t too hot unless you were in the direct sunlight for a long time.

Here we all are, lined up in our chairs.

The lady who lived in the house behind where we were sitting was rather inconsiderate and kept asking us to move down, for what reason we never did figure out, since no one sat in the place we had vacated.  As the parade progressed, she kept spraying the parade participants with the garden hose, and drawing the return fire of the ones who had fire hoses and water guns.  By the end of the parade, we were all soaked, since we had been directly in the crossfire.  Oh, well. 

Here are the girls with Jack, the pastor’s new puppy – he really was so cute!

The guys – waiting for the parade to begin

The parade began with the flags and the firemen, carrying a banner honoring the 19 firemen who lost their lives earlier fighting the forest fires in Arizona.  It was a sobering reminder that people are still giving their lives for our safety.  There are nineteen families who are grieving a terrible loss this week.

Rural parades are so very different from the big city parades.  There tend to be a lot of old vehicles, farm tractors, and makeshift floats on wagons.  Definitely not the Macy’s parade, but very fun and appealing in a down-home sort of way.

The kids thought this bicycle was totally awesome.  The adults wondered among ourselves how one mounted and dismounted this vehicle without personal injury…

There were also horses – lots of horses.  This is the local rodeo royalty.

And you thought Santa lived at the North Pole!  :)

More horses and cowboys

Another cool truck – Josiah wants one of these

A huge tractor hauling a giant, flag-painted bale of hay

The local tractor dealership squadron

And of course, there was a lot of candy.  Most of ours got soaked, though, thanks to the exuberant hose-toting woman behind us.  Makes for a sticky mess.

Good place to keep your spare candy!

This is way too much sugar for my kids!

Don’t they look happy about it, though?

I love this picture.  In a way, it reminds me of one of those activity book pictures that says “Which one does not belong?”  Daniel didn’t have a red shirt, and he didn’t want to wear his hat.  Love the independence of this picture!

Later, at the rodeo grounds, my kids put on their own rodeo, complete with bucking broncos…

Look at that ornery face!

My cowgirl wanna-be. 

Ride that bronc!  I want to say here, that it is extremely difficult to take pictures of bronc riding and bull riding.  You have 8 seconds to get a shot of a wildly moving target – if they can stay on that long!  I was not able to get any of the bull riding for this reason – none of them was able to stay on for even 8 seconds!

Barrel racing – fastest time of the night was 17.78 seconds

And of course, after the rodeo was over, there was a pretty good fireworks display!

All in all, we had a wonderful time together, enjoying our freedom and celebrating the great nation that God has given us.  God Bless America!

Shed a Little Light…

It was some time ago that the lamp in the trailer bedroom fell and was squished in the slide-out.  The lamp itself was unharmed, but the lampshade was, well, let’s say, it had definitely seen better days. But, it was one of those things that I never really thought about unless I was turning on the lamp, or putting it in a safe place for travel (this lesson was quickly learned).  Never once in all my pre-shopping list-making did I think to put “lampshade”  on my lists.  For months, it was a live and let live situation.  As long as the shade was not in danger of catching fire, I let it be, cringing at it’s misshapen ugliness whenever I really looked at it.

The metal spokes of the frame had actually come apart, and poked out through the fabric in several places.  The day came when I finally decided to get a new shade.  I was tired of trying to make this one look presentable.

Off to my favorite store – Hobby Lobby – with  a 40% coupon in hand.  It was lampshade hunting day.

I was somewhat disappointed in the selection of shades.  If  you wanted a whole lamp, they had some gorgeous options, but my lamp was fine – I just wanted a shade.  I finally (to my husband’s great relief) decided on a design-your-own shade that could be covered with fabric.  I paid less than $5 for it, and I knew I had some fabric back home in the trailer.  So I came home and dug through my stash, finding a bright, cheery fabric scrap leftover from one of my favorite aprons. 

The shade was wrapped in a wax paper template, so cutting it out was quite simple.

I didn’t have my hot glue gun with me, so I had to make do with Elmer’s school glue.  Even then, it was really easy – no burnt fingers from boiling glue!  Yay!  :)  It went together quickly, and I was pleased with the speed of the project.

Ta-dah!  The new sassy lamp shade!  I could add some fringe-y stiff, but I didn’t have any in my stash.  Perhaps I will do that later.  I actually kind of like it just as it is. 

New vs. Old

The finished product – yes, it makes me smile.  :)

Guatemala–Part 4

I could go on and on about our trip, but I am going to make this the last post about the missions trip.  We had a wonderful, busy, and eventful week.  We saw several visitors attend the Sunday services as a direct result of our tract distribution, which was a blessing to both the team and the missionary family.  Praise the Lord!
Here are just some random pictures from the trip – things I want to share with you.

Soap plant – the Mayans use the berries from this plant to clean their clothing.  It grows all over the mountains.

Gas prices (divide by 7.7 to get the $ equivalent)

Mom and I after the volcano hike – still smiling, albeit wearily!

Public restroom – enter at your own risk…

Children getting out of school.  They have three shifts of school each day, so there are always children in school from early morning until evening.  Interesting concept.

Tuc-Tuc!  I didn’t get to ride in one of these while we were there, but next, time, look out!

Bagged – not bottled – water.

At the ruins of an old Catholic church in Antigua.

This place was originally built in 1545, but was destroyed by an earthquake, then rebuilt, then demolished again.  Pretty impressive architecture, still.

Scrubbing the church floor.

Mom, Misty, & Me (had to alliterate that) :)

The Wilder Family

Group photo at the ruins – getting this picture was quite hilarious!

The Najera family – missionaries to Bolivia.  This was a sweet and Godly family that we met while at the church.  Originally from Mexico, they are raising support to plant churches in Bolivia.

Misty and I – friends forever!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to make this trip, and, as always, it is great to see my cousin and friend.  I thoroughly enjoyed the other team members and the new friends we met in Guatemala.  I know better how to pray for these missionaries, and the particular struggles that they have in their ministry.  I cannot wait to go back!