Hello Friends!
We slipped into the New Year with extreme activity, no other way to put it!
The last month has been incredible.
Shadows
Grief
Angst
Hectic
Push
Pray
Clean
Decorate
Study
Cook
Bake
Wash
Help
Entertain
Church
Christmas
Gifts
New Year's
Sylvester
Bowling
Hamburgers
Work
Fix
Fellowship
Feed
Slip
Snow
Travel
Wait
Speak
Germany
Minnesota
Amtrak
Cathedral
Iowa
Shop
Duluth
Hotel
Finals
Visitors
Raclette
Airport
Mall of America
Eating
Weather
Sissi
Colds
Music
Sing
Live
Breathe
Think
Conviction
I don't know about you and your holidays, but this past month of December has been one for the ages for me and my husband. Add to the list above car failures---you've got quite the time.
And we all survived, I think!
First and foremost our dear friends from Munich came to us on the 19th of December. They celebrated the holidays with us and a pretty strenuous schedule! I had planned the agenda for people in their 30's, not late 50's. By the end of the two weeks (they left on January 4) we were all exhausted!!
We are forever young in our minds and hearts! Our bodies aren't able to keep up.
We tried to show them our little world here in Minnesota. The weather cooperated and we had many days of travel and sightseeing. We shopped, too. Lots of shopping. They had to buy another suitcase/trunk to take everything home!
Duluth, Iowa, and Wisconsin were all included. Our family and friends helped to entertain them, and we are so glad for the memories made.
Our friend, Paul, asked for train things to see. We got them to Duluth, to the train museum there, with a bonus seeing the light show they have up there during this Christmas season. They rode the Amtrak from St. Paul to Winona, and a bonus light rail trip from the airport to the Mall of America. Trains were a recurring theme for the two weeks!
In Iowa we celebrated a second Christmas with my husband's family. Delicious food and good company.
We stopped at the St. Paul Cathedral, the Mill City Museum, and we drove around both St. Paul and Minneapolis. Shopping took time, both for all the groceries we needed to make Schnitzel, Roulladen, and a healthy Czech soup to fight the germs---plus all of the items to take with them back to Germany: Vikings paraphernalia, clothes, gifts. I cannot even remember all of the things we did! Everyday was a new adventure.
My last final was due on the day our friends arrived. I had no time to clean the house, but we all managed. Heidi is a super organizer. She has a very important job with a very important car company in Germany, and she used her supervisor skills to get our house in ship-shape pretty quickly. I hated to see her go...She has the energy of 10 women!!
I did okay on two of my classes. The other one not so much. I'm registered for spring semester, and I think I can manage better. That is the plan. Barring grief, overwork, and a zillion other life twists and turns I'm hoping for more balance.
I'm looking forward to stepping out in to the new year, the twenties, with the knowledge that Christ sustains and holds us. In Him we live and breathe.
Have you noticed that you really have absolutely NO CONTROL over anything in your life, not even the next second? You had no control over your last second either. You breathe because God let you.
God is love.
As we watch the hoards of humanity, billions, seek to survive this existence on planet earth, in Australia, in Europe, in Africa, in South America---I am always struck by the immensity of God's love for each and every creation He fashioned.
He knows you. He loves you. He loves me, and the crazy days just behind us were all in His hands.
My brother and his wife are in His hands. I can't help but think about the sad events that touched our family in 2019. I know God has them under control too.
Right now I am keeping two very close friends in my heart and prayer. They are both losing family members to brain cancer. The end is very near. I attended a lovely funeral for a very beloved older man that was distantly related to me yesterday. Loss is inevitable and ever-present. How do we face it? We get up in the morning and thank the Lord for each new day, waiting on Him and His presence as we work through the motions and annoyances of each hour.
This morning I sang again at the nursing home. "There's a Sweet Sweet Spirit in this Place." I told the old folk that my last months were held together supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. It was evident everyday that God's love enabled the spirit to be sweet and loving, giving energy and power to do what needed to be done.
This is what it is to follow Christ. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light.
Pray for those who do not know Jesus. Christ, resurrected from the dead, is the only answer to the world's suffering.
There is no other way.
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me."
Hello, 2020! What will the twenties bring? Hope. Blessed Hope, I hope. (Titus 2:13)
Come Lord Jesus! Maranatha!
We slipped into the New Year with extreme activity, no other way to put it!
The last month has been incredible.
Shadows
Grief
Angst
Hectic
Push
Pray
Clean
Decorate
Study
Cook
Bake
Wash
Help
Entertain
Church
Christmas
Gifts
New Year's
Sylvester
Bowling
Hamburgers
Work
Fix
Fellowship
Feed
Slip
Snow
Travel
Wait
Speak
Germany
Minnesota
Amtrak
Cathedral
Iowa
Shop
Duluth
Hotel
Finals
Visitors
Raclette
Airport
Mall of America
Eating
Weather
Sissi
Colds
Music
Sing
Live
Breathe
Think
Conviction
I don't know about you and your holidays, but this past month of December has been one for the ages for me and my husband. Add to the list above car failures---you've got quite the time.
And we all survived, I think!
First and foremost our dear friends from Munich came to us on the 19th of December. They celebrated the holidays with us and a pretty strenuous schedule! I had planned the agenda for people in their 30's, not late 50's. By the end of the two weeks (they left on January 4) we were all exhausted!!
We are forever young in our minds and hearts! Our bodies aren't able to keep up.
We tried to show them our little world here in Minnesota. The weather cooperated and we had many days of travel and sightseeing. We shopped, too. Lots of shopping. They had to buy another suitcase/trunk to take everything home!
Duluth, Iowa, and Wisconsin were all included. Our family and friends helped to entertain them, and we are so glad for the memories made.
Our friend, Paul, asked for train things to see. We got them to Duluth, to the train museum there, with a bonus seeing the light show they have up there during this Christmas season. They rode the Amtrak from St. Paul to Winona, and a bonus light rail trip from the airport to the Mall of America. Trains were a recurring theme for the two weeks!
In Iowa we celebrated a second Christmas with my husband's family. Delicious food and good company.
We stopped at the St. Paul Cathedral, the Mill City Museum, and we drove around both St. Paul and Minneapolis. Shopping took time, both for all the groceries we needed to make Schnitzel, Roulladen, and a healthy Czech soup to fight the germs---plus all of the items to take with them back to Germany: Vikings paraphernalia, clothes, gifts. I cannot even remember all of the things we did! Everyday was a new adventure.
My last final was due on the day our friends arrived. I had no time to clean the house, but we all managed. Heidi is a super organizer. She has a very important job with a very important car company in Germany, and she used her supervisor skills to get our house in ship-shape pretty quickly. I hated to see her go...She has the energy of 10 women!!
I did okay on two of my classes. The other one not so much. I'm registered for spring semester, and I think I can manage better. That is the plan. Barring grief, overwork, and a zillion other life twists and turns I'm hoping for more balance.
I'm looking forward to stepping out in to the new year, the twenties, with the knowledge that Christ sustains and holds us. In Him we live and breathe.
Have you noticed that you really have absolutely NO CONTROL over anything in your life, not even the next second? You had no control over your last second either. You breathe because God let you.
God is love.
As we watch the hoards of humanity, billions, seek to survive this existence on planet earth, in Australia, in Europe, in Africa, in South America---I am always struck by the immensity of God's love for each and every creation He fashioned.
He knows you. He loves you. He loves me, and the crazy days just behind us were all in His hands.
My brother and his wife are in His hands. I can't help but think about the sad events that touched our family in 2019. I know God has them under control too.
Right now I am keeping two very close friends in my heart and prayer. They are both losing family members to brain cancer. The end is very near. I attended a lovely funeral for a very beloved older man that was distantly related to me yesterday. Loss is inevitable and ever-present. How do we face it? We get up in the morning and thank the Lord for each new day, waiting on Him and His presence as we work through the motions and annoyances of each hour.
This morning I sang again at the nursing home. "There's a Sweet Sweet Spirit in this Place." I told the old folk that my last months were held together supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. It was evident everyday that God's love enabled the spirit to be sweet and loving, giving energy and power to do what needed to be done.
This is what it is to follow Christ. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light.
Pray for those who do not know Jesus. Christ, resurrected from the dead, is the only answer to the world's suffering.
There is no other way.
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me."
Hello, 2020! What will the twenties bring? Hope. Blessed Hope, I hope. (Titus 2:13)
Come Lord Jesus! Maranatha!
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