Today

Today has been a day...86,400 seconds worth of a day (well, it's still continuing, but you get the idea), as Alistair Begg noted on the radio.  I miss hearing him at 9:00 p.m., but since Truth for Life has been moved to 12:30 p.m., I only hear him on week days that I'm home...which, during the school year, isn't often.  I've been home today due to a doctor's appointment that got rescheduled after a substitute was already secured, rendering the purpose of the day moot, at least in regards to a reason to take off school...until I awoke...after 9:00 a.m., exhausted, feeling lethargic and unwell and with a headache that has lasted 'til now (perhaps the Excedrin will kick in while I write).

As usual, I have so many thoughts swirling in my head...and don't get nearly enough of them on paper...or typed out as the case may be...to justify the time spent on them in my mind.  That brings me to one area in which God has been louder and more loudly speaking to me--the amount of time spent on things that don't matter for eternity...on things that just. don't. last.  To begin with, I'm restricting computer usage, well, *internet* usage...and will probably restrict more of it in the days ahead.  Ironically, that might cause me to write here more, in that one of the things that I don't do, but would like to do more, is to write...and because of other, more mindless, transient internet usage, I don't.  I am restricting the more aimless internet usage not because the internet is bad--it's a thing.  It's amoral.  But the way in which it is used is done for good or for evil, as the user does, and this user has far too many millions of seconds that are lost somewhere in a bejewelled cyberspace, never to be seen again.  I don't want to that to be the epigram of my life.

I have been dealing with the aftermath of a series of small decisions that led to a bigger issue (another major theme of late) here in the kitchen today.  Last fall, I 'didn't get around to' taking care of the garden hose outside from last summer.  At first, it 'wasn't that cold' (and really, it wasn't!).  Then, I can't tell you how many 60 degree days we had in this, our third? second? warmest winter on record.  Thirdly, we had NO Snow Days this year WHATSOEVER.  None.  I can't tell you the last time that happened, either.  Fourthly, to take care of the garden hose would have required the work of doing it, of getting 'filthy' and then, too, of doing something with my flea-ridden garage, thanks to some nasty creature that got locked in there for three weeks last summer, the fleas of which refused to die, even after four flea bombings.  So the garden hose stayed attached to the house spigot, the winter was winter and got cold, but never that cold, and after an 80 degree, warmest March ever on record, I arrived home from my warm and sunny! Minnesota Spring Break to find that it was scheduled to get down to 29 degrees that night and my bursting-out-in-Summertime-March strawberry plants were in danger of losing their happy white blossoms to the evil, killing frost.

No fear!  I read Farmer Boy as a girl and I know how to save the corn crop from an Upstate New York Fourth of July Eve killer frost!  And what will work for that will work for strawberries, I am certain!  All I need do is make sure that the strawberries are well-soaked with water before the sun hits them and then they will survive and I will be enjoying sweet, red deliciousness near the end of May!   So, thanking God for modern technology that would not have me out of bed hauling water in buckets from a well at 3:00 a.m., I attached the sprinkler to the garden hose and set about manipulating my contraption with the strawberry plants in the garden in the very chilly (36 degrees) dark of 10:30 p.m. after having driven in from Chicago that day, and from Minneapolis the day before.  Only the sprinkler wouldn't work.  There was just NO reasonable water pressure.  I messed with it for 10 or 15 minutes before finally concluding that weak water pressure was better than no water pressure and I would simply set my alarm for 7 o'clock the next morning to make sure the water was well enough distributed with about fifteen minutes to spare before the sun touched it's killing rays on my frost-fearful plants.  So I went inside.  And heard water running in my house.  Loudly.

Two steps down the basement stairs, I dashed back up them, out the back door and 'round to the side of the house to turn off the water, that wasn't coming out of the sprinkler very well because more than half of the water that should have been coming out of the house into the garden hose was being doused all over my basement.  From the pipe that had had a sizable hole in it because the hose (with water in it) was kept attached to the spigot last fall instead of removed, as one should take five minutes and do, and the water in the hose had frozen back into the house and when it went as far as it could freeze in the house, it burst the pipe.  I went back inside, had a moment or two of tears that tried to add to the overall water total, gave up on that drenchingly purposeless and further exhausting idea, gave thanks to God that this wasn't sewage water (perspective, how I love thee!), and then set about trying to salvage what I could of my boxes of 'momentos' that had been in the 'safe' corner of the basement during the previous sewage floods, and that were now inches deep in garden hose water.  I got to sleep some time after 3:00 a.m. and was back up before 7:00 a.m., attempting (and, thank You, God, apparently successfully) to save the strawberries.  And in the meantime, my kitchen/dining/bathroom/living room floors became covered with drying 'momentos'.

And this is where I've been for the past several years, most especially since my body went crazy on me four years ago.  Since April 5, I have had the remnants of that mini-saga about me, and have only made minimal, slow progress in dealing with all of it.  This time, it's this flood, but at seventy points past, it's been seventy other things.  Something out-of-the ordinary will happen, and while it is not an easy or convenient thing, it is certainly not a 'gigantic', life-stopping thing.  And yet, I will allow it to throw a two week/two month/two year wrench into my 'dealing with it', and I allow myself to become paralyzed with the ever-growing "I can't handle this!"-ness of it.  I never used to be this way.  I don't like living this way and it is certainly not how I believe God would have me to use His resources of time, home, energy, things or provisions.

I feel rather like the deeply seeded thistle weeds that are in my garden area, especially the kitchen garden and the back-of-the-garage garden, that continue coming up faster than my good plants and continue coming up no matter how many of them are pulled up by the roots.  Somewhere, somehow, at some time, they took hold deep in the dirt and while other weeds can/have been/are eradicated, those persist--painfully, plentifully, and regardless of all efforts to get rid of them, both at surface and root levels.  Somehow, in my life, I have gotten to the place that even 'small weeds' grow quickly and crazily into large, good-plant-killing weeds that take over my life, home and energy and far too often, I just give up and let the weeds win, rendering myself unfruitful in so many ways.  And yet, although I have had to learn to not freak out about things that I don't like (in this case, my house and by consequence, many areas of my life, being a mess) in order to not over-agitate my body,  there is no question that these life-sucking weeds of disorder, laziness, and overwhelm-ed-ness suck the nutrients from my soul (and certainly don't help my body, either!), keeping me from being fruitful and productive in the ways God would have me to be fruitful and productive, living in the freedom in which God calls us to live--not enslaved to anything, save our One, Good Master.

This must change.  God has been telling this to me for awhile...over a year, actually.  *sigh*  I'm a slower learner on some things than others.  But this must change.  One thing I have discovered that I use to drown out the 'I'm buried!  I must act!  But I don't know where to begin!  And I know I wont' finish!' voice is over-usage/wasteful usage of the internet.  When something is 'too big to tackle in the next 20 minutes', instead of getting 20 minutes further into the project, I much more easily, lazily and slothfully check facebook, read news articles, play a mindless (only 1 minute!) game, go searching for something interesting to read because I can't find any articles in the eight websites I just skimmed...anything to get out of 20 minutes of progress that, if applied three times daily, four times weekly, would have me out of my current mini-disaster, whatever it is, in just a few short days.  Out of my 86,400 seconds?  I shudder to think of how many are lost in the abyss of Time Wasted.

In the past three months in thought, in the past two weeks in action, thanks be to God for His great patience, this is bit by bit, decision-by-decision, action-by-action changing.  I am a long way off from where I know God wants me.  But I have begun walking in that direction, and by His mercy, grace and strength, I plan to continue walking that direction, and am working to run in that direction.

It will take continued time; it will take continued effort; it will take continued, consistent obedience and it will take repentance and re-continued obedience when I don't do it and then have to do it, again.  But I am making changes in the life and home He's given me, God wants me to continue to make changes in the life and home He's given me and faithful is He Who called me, Who also will do it!  My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest strain but wholly lean on Jesus' Name.  I have demonstrated time and again that I am weak and unwilling/unable to do all that I need to do on my own.  I must look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith, Who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorned its shame and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, considering Him Who did not grow weary and give up.

There is a great comfort and confidence in praying to a God Whom you *know* wants to AND will answer your prayer.  "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father Who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."  ...from Colossians 1.

I began this year wanting to make some changes and even posting about some changes I was making, particularly in the area of reading.  By God's grace, I've been successful in some of those...I am still making my way through the Old Testament (I Samuel 22, currently), and will post another time about the reading list updates.  Reading changes aren't the only things God has been working on in my life.  There are many, many.  Well-using His time so as to be a better stewardess of the life He's given me is another needed change, and a big one.  How utterly thankful I am to serve a merciful God Who is willing to step out of timeless eternity into, not only the 86,400 seconds per-day that He's ordained for us humans, but into the even-more-elongated, oh-so-often-so-slow pace of my personal growth in order to make me more like His Son and to perfect the work that He began.

In truth, I feel rather ridiculous that such is an area of needed growth at this point in my life.  I feel as though this should be in the 'my-parents-taught-me-this-when-I-was-four-and-it's-stuck-with-me-the-rest-of-my-life-and-I'm-so-grateful-to-them-for-this-essential-life-lesson' clear.  And to be clear, fair and truthful they did!  This massive failure of wise actions, as anyone who knows me can tell you, is something that has really come out in the past five years, for, probably, various reasons.  Regardless of the reasons for its arrival in my life, however, it is something that must change, and on which I am utterly dependent on God...because it's abundantly clear that I am not going to succeed on my own.  I am not worthy of God's faithful work in me, but I am so desperately, exceedingly thankful for it.  One Day, He will finish that work, may Jesus Christ be praised!  And in the meantime?  I must obey...one minute, one step, one decision, one action at a time.  "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."  Philippians 2:12-13

But we never can prove
  The delights of His love,
Until all on the altar we lay;
  For the favor He shows,
  And the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey,
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
  But to trust and obey.
~J.H. Samis

Oh...and those strawberries?  This is me giving thanks to their most gracious Creator for the delightfully delicious firstfruits...literally.

HAPPY Valentine's Day

Today was a day of challenges.  Not life-size challenges.  Not the challenges that will knock a person down.  Not even the challenges you might expect from a single girl on Valentine's Day.   Just the ordinary challenges that come with being a still-being-sanctified human being in a waiting-to-be-redeemed world.  Last night, I wrote in my journal about the dichotomy between the various aspects of my life--the big ups, the big downs, the smaller ups, the smaller downs, and the living in the life that is often traveling through all of them at the same time.

I have stacks of blessings to the clouds; I cried myself to work, after burning my wrist with hot tea in the front yard, telling God that I just. could. not. do. this. any. more.  I am too tired to even move, much less accomplish my requirements.

My sweet, darling, newest nephew Calvin seems to be doing much better after a bit of a health scare yesterday; I am taking down my Christmas tree tonight because a.) It's Valentine's Day and b.) I need my house to look good by Thursday (for another one of those ups and downs).

I got to come home today after school today, after having conferences last evening, conferences tomorrow evening and a wonderful visit with my Grandpa last night; I was all argumentative with my sister today, not even realizing that it was Valentine's Day and she was calling for a happy, I-love-you-I'm-glad-you're-my-sister chat.

And then, I got off the phone with her and sat in the kitchen and bawled, because so self-focused was I, that in the midst of these and other ordinary-to-life struggles, I had lost sight of what God calls me to do--to fix my eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of my faith, to the One Who, for the joy set before Him, endured the Cross, scorned its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Why am I to do that?  In part, so that I will not grow weary and lose heart.

And then, after the trainwreck had halted and before I completely gave up, I returned a phone call to my best friend, telling her of the most recent mess I'd made of things and then got frustrated when someone was knocking at my door while I was trying to talk with her, because I just wasn't up to one more thing.  And then I opened the door.  And she walked in.  With two bunches of what I call "red tiger lilies", but are really scarlet alstroemeria and have been one of my favorite flowers since I was a teenager.  For me.  For Valentine's Day.  And then I really cried.

This silly girl, who knows that God provides, God forgives, God does the impossible, God IS, and yet who gets herself SO distracted by all the Other Things, is the loved daughter of a kind and gracious Father Who showers her with undeserved gifts of sweetness from Himself, His Word and His people, and sometimes, in the beautiful gift of Scarlet Alstroemeria from a precious friend and her children--not because she's worthy, but because GOD is, and He gives to supply my needs (and even desires) according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

That, my friends, is infinite wealth.  And that, my friends, is our generous God.  How I praise Him!  NOT just because of His kindness to me in sending encouragement when I was discouraged, but the fact that in His boundless love and mercy, He the ransom freely gave.  He has taken care of my greatest need in saving my soul from eternal judgement through the shed blood of Jesus.  How will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?  Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

Sometimes, people are unaware of their bad habits until someone points them out.  At other times, they're fully aware of them but either like them and so continue in them, or don't know what to do about them and so don't do anything about them.

And then, at other times, they are aware of their bad habits and begin the process of forging new, better habits.

God, being God, and therefore gracious, good and patient (as well as righteous, pure, just and holy), has been working with me on my habits, on how I spend my His time and on making changes towards the right, good and better.  The need for change has been on my heart and mind a great deal over this past year.  A year ago, I was all-but-housebound, not even making it out the door to school many days, because of the insanity that was my skin situation.  I ended up missing nearly a month of school and then got stacked up on lots of steroids and have been living a much more normal-looking life since about the end of March/beginning of April, with the exception of lots of steroids, a sliding scale of 40 lbs. and an average of 2-3 doctors' visits per week.  But last year, I didn't sleep more than three hours at a time from November to February.  And many, many nights and days, I was awake, awake, awake.  And when you're awake, rocking and writhing in pain, when you're supposed to be asleep, and you've spent time in prayer, and you've spent time online and you've spent time in the dark and you're still awake, you have time to think and evaluate.  (You even have time before all that  but you for sure have time at that point.)

One central theme that came out of that time was on the use of the life God has given me and how it is or isn't being used for His glory.  That, as a subject in and of itself is still Very Large In My Mind.  I don't have all the answers I want and therefore, it feels frustrating, overwhelming, too huge and I-can't-handle-this-all-right-now.  However, the response to that in The New Life of Deborah (as opposed to pre-skin/adrenal/we-don't-know-what's-wrong-with-you situation) is "No!  You can't handle it all.  But you can handle something.  So start with something."  And that is what I am doing, and why I am planning to jot a few notes here, if for no other reason than for myself, to have record (and upkeep) of the Something that I am doing to better use the time and the life God has given me.

The area I'm writing about today will quite probably come across to the general reader (if so such reader exists) as frivolous.  And yet, for me, it's a small step towards greater purposefulness and easy to track.  Therefore, it is the first. 

One particular bad habit I have is of reading books that I love overandoverandoverandoverandoverandover.  I honestly, truly couldn't tell you how many times I've read certain favorite books--literally, into the hundreds of times, of that I am *quite* certain.  Some of them truly are of terrific quality and I am not sorry for the reading.  However, it is a very big world, there is a great deal of information out in it, and as this (former, when she could have ice cream) I-only-order-chocolate-chip-ice-cream-when-at-an-ice-cream-shoppe-because-while-I-might-like-another-flavor,-I-KNOW-I-love-chocolate-chip-and-I'm-not-guaranteed-to-like-another-flavor-as-well-as-I-like-chocolate-chip-so-since-I'm-spending-money-on-ice-cream-I'll-get-what-I-KNOW-I-like habitual girl needs to grow and expand, I've decided to simply make myself write down every book that I read this year.  No crazy, "I must read 50 new books this year!" goal...simply writing down every book I read.  Can I read old books?  Sure, but I'm looking for new and different books to read.  In writing them down, I'll have a better track of what I am doing, and Lord willing, by the end of the year, I'll have a new habit of reading new material in with the old, *and* I'll have the enrichment of the new books...for as Finnian Jones of Lamplighter Theatre so wisely quoted (apparently from Charles Tremendous Jones), "My boy, in five years, you'll be the same man as you were with the exception of the people you meet and the books you read."  And I need to read some new books.

I am also working on my finances...specifically, I am only permitting myself buying one book over the internet per month, which has already proven helpful for things that I feel I 'need'.  And, I've borrowed a book or two and reading online, and had one given to me for Christmas...so really, I've got several on which I'm working at once, *and* haven't been wasteful with money, either.  Hooray!   Without further ado, here is the 2012 list, in progress.

• Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCraig (gift from my Aunt Patty)  READING

This GWTW freak has been sneaking in a chapter here & there in stores & online ever since it came out...SO excited to read it. 

• Sleep  It Does a Family Good by Dr. Archibald Hart (internet book purchase of the month)  READING

Dr. Hart has written a great deal about adrenal issues, stress and the like and I became acquainted with his works over the past five years due to my situation, and they've all been excellent and helpful.  One day over Christmas Break, I heard the Mid-Day Connection girls discussing this book and knew I had to get it.  Sleep is another issue that I plan to write about on here I'll probably be reporting from this book, which I expect to be an important tool in changing some things.

• Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow (school library book)  READING

Yes.  I am reading it.  Yes.  I am enjoying it.  Yes.  I've been challenged by it.  Yes.  My kiddos are reading it, too.  Any other questions?  Hehhehe...seriously, I have been both blessed and challenged by a fellow sibling writing truth, and have really, really appreciated it, as well as love the opportunities for discussion with the kids so far as they, too, are reading it.

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis  (own)  READING

I'm reading it aloud to my Dad and my Grandma for entertainment on Winter Evenings.  They've not read it and wouldn't, just by themselves.  I love reading aloud to people.  We're having a blast.   (And yes, this is one of the books I've read into the hundreds of times.  I have large chunks of it memorized, without even trying.)

• Bloodlines by Dr. John Piper  READING

This book is available through a link here FOR FREE, online.  Get it.  Read it.  I know that I need to.  So do you.  And you will be blessed, I promise you.

• 2008 Rand McNally Road Atlas  READING

No, I'm not kidding.  It's AMAZING what you learn by looking at maps!  And no, I won't read every single letter that's on every single page.  But I pick it up two or three times per day (you can figure out where/when) and am making my way through it.  It's fascinating, as Atlases are. 

• The Bible  READING

This is yet-another bad habit confession, but I have never, to my knowledge, read through every single word in the Bible.  Perhaps I have, over years of study, etc., but never with full knowledge or intention.  This year, by God's grace, I am reading aloud five chapters each day, although, when I get into Psalm 119, Isaiah and Luke, I may end up with just three chapters per day, but either way, whether I finish 'on time' or not, my goal is to not miss a day of reading, and to read from start to finish.  "Thus far the LORD has helped us."  Ebenezer.  I Samuel 7:12

It is my intention to update this list both a.) when I add a new book and b.) when I finish a book.  So right there, are probably more updates on Xanga than were in the past two years, combined.   We'll see.

I have several other habits/patterns on which God is working with me, and as I mentioned, I want to keep those up & running, so I'll probably have a few more 'bigger-picture'-type posts.  I don't have THE Big Picture Answers all in place as well as I'd like, but any good puzzler will tell you, if you put the little pieces together, you'll get the big picture, sooner or later, and so I leave you today with these pieces of the whole, and my prayer that you, as well as I, will obey God in each little piece that He sets before us today.

Love,

Deborah

Thoughts Upon October...

The Last Day of Winter, 2010-2011

Today is Saturday, and I am seated in the brilliant sunshine of the back yard with my jeans rolled above my knees, my turtleneck sleeves pushed above my elbows, a box of kleenex at my side and a pot of Darjeeling (I think that is *such* a fun word to write and say) on a cart beside me.  I suppose you could call it the red-neck, Americanized verson of afternoon tea out-of-doors.  It's been awhile since I've been sick as in head-cold, sore throat, pounding headache type of sick, and without desiring to sound like a freak, it's nice to be sick in a my-body-isn't-inflamed-and-I'm-in-pain-everywhere-I-have-skin kind of way.  Don't get me wrong--I don't ENJOY feeling this way...I'm missing an incredible production of theatre, I've got stacks of papers to grade, a Library that looks more like an exploded print shop, cooking that awaits and about fifty other things that would be profitable to be doing this Saturday, especially in anticipation of being 745 miles away at this time next Saturday; however, feeling normal, even "normally sick" is such a blessed relief after the past couple of years that I am thankful and able to appreciate the normalcy of it, at least.

Last Saturday, I was blessed, immeasurably, by two friends--one, a girl who has gone to our church at several points during the last decade, the other, the Mom of my best-friend-growing-up, Jennifer.  They (never having previously met each other) showed up last Saturday morning and blessed me with a combined four hours work from each of them in tackling my house and beginning to return it to habitable.  Due to both how I've been over the past year and other recent events, it was moving towards the inhabitable stage.  Ginny and Lisa brought their indomitable energy and I now have a clean living room and a mostly clean kitchen.  I *c*a*n*n*o*t* tell you what a gigantic relief it was to have livable rooms return to my house.  I have continued to work and make small progresses and last night, we got to celebrate Kristin Leeanna's and ShillVester's birthdays here (Library not-withstanding), and even though there is much yet to go, I am beginning to have hope that perhaps one day, I can return to the world of fully taking care of my own responsibilities and reaching out to others through Fidelicharis House.

I don't know much else in regards to my skin situation.  I am still on the steroids (and it's showing in my face and body), but I am one-milligram-a-week-at-a-time weaning myself down.  I am to finally get in to see the Rheumatologist this Tuesday and we shall see what they say.  I've one doctor that thinks that I have nothing more than psychotic, out-of-control eczema and another who things that it might be something more problematic.  I don't fully know what to think.  On one hand, I've been dealing with the crazy eczema for all of my life, so it's familiar.  On the other hand, the last several 'cycles' through which its gone have gotten exponentially worse each time, have rendered me further and further immobile and have required higher and higher levels of steroids to treat it.  On one hand, having something more serious brings with it a whole new level of complication, but on the other hand, it at least provides a 'why' to all the nuts-o stuff that's happened that doesn't seem to make much sense.

Bottom-lining it, God is in control, which is exactly where He is going to stay, and I am called to continue to trust Him.  Whether that's with steroids and their side effects (which can get u g l y, and far beyond mere weight gain), or whether that's with something else all-together, I don't know.  And that's the point--I was reading this week (I have no idea where--another downside to the information overload known as the internet!) about the point where there is no need for faith anymore, no need to trust--at the point where faith becomes sight.  It came across as slightly odd when first I heard it, but the more I thought about it, the more anticipatory I became.  How *wonderful* to be at a place where there is no need for faith!  How fabulously odd to simply be able to see, to know the 'whats', the 'whys', the answers to the questions, and truly, the Answer to the questions.  Oh, how I long for that day!  Truly, not so much in the realm of feeling a need for answers today or anything, but just in the fact of finally, finally, finally being face to face with my Savior.  "It will be worth it all when see Jesus!  Life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ!  One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrows will erase, so bravely run the race 'til we see Christ!"

"Oh, we shall behold Him
Yes, we shall behold Him
Face to face, in all of His glory!
We shall behold Him
Yes, we shall behold Him
Face to face, our Savior and Lord!"

Then the angel showed me the River of the Water of Life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the Tree of Life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be any curse.  The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him.  They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.  There will be no more night.  They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.  And they will reign for ever and ever.  The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true.  The Lord, the God Who inspires the prophets, sent His angel to show His servants the things that must soon take place.”  “Look, I Am coming soon!  Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”  ~Revelation 22:1-7

P.S.  While we wait for that day, the crocaii are out and I sent a picture or two to Maxwell...and there is supposed to be a very bright full moon tonight...so I may post some pictures of this last Day of Winter, 2010-2011.