Up the Sunbeam

My friends, I know I have been quiet a long while. All is well! School is demanding, exciting and rewarding! I miss you all, and thought I would peek back in and share an old post that expressed my heart on this day of remembrance. Now we have the events of Benghazi to add to the sorrows we remember on this date. My prayers are with my beloved country and all the people who sorrow personally for loved ones lost--our hearts are with you always! Some moments from September 11th, 2001 are etched in my memory like names on a tombstone. The first fuzzy awareness in the pre-dawn darkness that something was wrong--what was Hero Husband saying? Airplane? World Trade Center? Coming fully awake to look through my TV-window-on-the-world only to see the crystal clear New York City sky and realizing it could be no accident. Smoke pouring from the gaping hole in one tower . . . and then there were two! Instant knowing--terrorists! It had to be! Firemen, ambulances, police, reporters, terrified peo

-- Finishing 2012 with nothing but gratitude . . . as it should be. ________________________________ Joining Ann Voskamp in counting His graces for her Multitudes on Monday I hope you'll join in if you haven't already! The continuing JOY DARE:  #1948-2100 (November 11th through December 31st) 11. 3 gifts of remembrance Ancestors Founding Fathers Generations of soldiers who have fought to keep us free 12. 3 gifts at noon Hero Husband home for lunch She So Sweet getting up for breakfast Drummer Boy off to work 13. 3 gifts behind a door Sleeping kids A full pantry Freshly cleaned refrigerators 14. 3 gifts silent The wee hours of the morning Moonlight Things growing 15. 3 gifts golden The slanting rays of light in autumn Autumn leaves at the height of their falling glory The paper my business license is printed on 16. 3 gifts hard eucharisteo Feeling completely overwhelmed and having no choice but to rely on God

-- A little more than ten short months ago, I set out toward a cherished dream  to become a teacher, and today I reached the first major milestone on that road. I clicked the SUBMIT button to turn in my final assignment in the final class of my freshman year of college.  I love looking at the row of binders that hold all my textbooks from this year--each one represents a five-week chunk of my life that I spent on the way to achieving my big dream. Stacked up together, they feel solid, substantial, sacred. Not sacred because of their content (although every bit of truth they hold belongs to God), but sacred because this work is all an offering of love, given for God's glory. He is the reason I stay up late to finish papers. He is the reason I fuss over details. And He is the reason I step up to lead team projects with a commitment to excellence instead of letting someone else do it (or not do it) and just get by with minimum effort. Last year, just before I started, I

-- Hello, Friends! Anyone here? I've been gone so long I'm not sure I even belong here anymore. The demands of school and team assignments have prevented me from being here like I'd like to be, but my heart is still here even when my words are not. May I tiptoe back in and offer a little something? ~~~~~~~~~~ This is what California's Central Valley looked like in June 2010 when we took a family trip to Disneyland and points south. Green, lush, and every available acre growing crops to provide food for millions, maybe even for you. Tomatoes by the truckload were passing us down the length of I-5. As we ticked off the miles, we passed field after field of blackberries, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, asparagus, grapes, beans, strawberries, melons, lettuce, rice, peppers, spinach, corn, and cotton. Interspersed between the fields we saw orchard upon orchard of almonds, walnuts, pistachios, figs, olives, kiwi, lemons, plums, apples, cherries, peac