From North to Naples

This is a panoramic photo (compliments of friend Lilly) of the first and fastest storm I've ever witnessed rolling in from the ocean.  It was a rather phenomenal sight - the temperature literally dropped by the minute and a ferocious wind kicked up enough sand to put an abrupt end to our picnic on the beach. 

Doesn't look so threatening does it?

But an hour later it's "mild" beginning... began.

Very soon after that panoramic shot we scurried back over the boardwalk in Delgor-Wiggins State Park to our vehicle and made haste, seeking refuge in Books-A-Million where the rain came down (monsoonal style) and thundered on the roof loud enough to interfere with normal conversation.  

I've been happily visiting this part of Florida for many years and have never seen the likes of it.

This is a new activity for us.  I must say, we could get quite used to it except that biking at home (anywhere) is not unlike risky behaviour, living on the edge, and downright dangerous.  

This, on the other hand, is not such a new activity for us.

Eeek!  The Ents have relocated!  And look at that prevailing stormy sky.  

It might chase one off the beach but there is NO way to intimidate the die-hard golfer 

(of the sort I am married to).

We are really enjoying our rental digs.  There's my funny boy.

Books A Million here in Naples has a giant banner draped outside announcing Store Closing. 

This is a sad thing. 

I confess I felt like a vulture descending on some woe-begotten prey.  But I did it anyway.  

 I exercised restraint mostly only because my beloved said I wasn't allowed to buy another 

suitcase to ship all the books back home.  

*sigh*  

The spoil-sport.  :) 

Naples in Florida is now synonymous with knitting as well.  This is crow eating admission for me, having heckled my family & having protestith overmuch at the notion not even 3 years ago.   

So I just want to say, in my effort to come clean and all, I started this all on my own 

and even watched several online videos last week to jog my memory on how to knit 

in a seamless round with two circular needles.

Grand-daughter Danielle picked out this skein of hot pink wool with candy coloured flecks 

in the hopes that I would make her a beret.  Well. It's done my little Dee.   

Tomorrow, I will attempt a few flowers to accessorize the hat in a manner that matches 

the fun & flair of your personality! 

To temper this dangerous amount of pride, I make special mention once again of my sister. 

Let's face it, without her extraordinary long-suffering mentoring I'd be nowhere on the knitting scene.  

And finally, I love spending this leisure time catching up on some reading, blogging and cooking, 

...with wine of course.  

Hey! Some recipes do call for it.

We enjoyed a birthday dinner with Lilly at The Bay House - famous in the area for its mind-boggling seafood menu.  We dined outside as the sun set and a nearby firepit substituted its warmth.  The waiter insisted we go inside to the crustacean bar to see the "beautiful" 8 pound crab available to a fearless diner.  Or was it 4pound beast suitable as appetizer for 8?  We can't seem to agree on the facts.  Another admirer put a 10 ounce glass in front of the shot for perspective.  CRUSTacean's are aptly named don't you think?

Abram, an unbeliever??

If you have ever felt unworthy or unqualified to believe that God will fulfill great purposes in your life, please allow me to introduce you to Abram. What you may not know about him is that at the time of his dramatic call from the Lord, he is living in idolatry. Abram is not yet worshiping the one true God; he is following many "little g" gods along with the rest of his family (see Joshua 24:2). He does not know the Creator of the universe, who is about to unleash his power into his destiny. In short, when our story begins, Abram is an unbeliever.

ACK!  What are you saying?

Believing God | Today's Christian Woman

I was first drawn to this article because of something that has occupied my thoughts for most of the summer.  I've been sifting through the things I'll call core values or beliefs and attempting to measure my commitment to them.  Weird stuff...and disturbing too.
Like Occupy Washington, this is no welcome squatter of my personal space.

Let's cut to the chase here.
Perhaps what I have identified as core values or beliefs could more accurately be called ideals or ideas.  Some (of which I used to apply as the irrevocable Law of the Medes & Persians) have since become utterly irrelevant.
Ouch.
Age, circumstance and children have a way of bringing these things to bear.
My beloved and I knew we'd be growing up with our kids but the degree to which it would be necessary (!) is still so shocking.

Back to the article:
Abram wasn't singled out for this privilege because of his greatness.  On the contrary.
He got a new name, a new identity, and a newly assigned life when God called him into covenant.
Abrahams claim to fame according to Hebrews Hall of Faithers in chapter eleven, is not that he believed in God but that he believed God.

Do you understand the difference?

The song that pops to mind (and you just know there is ALWAYS a song) is Trust and Obey~
"for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey".
I've been singing this song since I was a toddler for crying out loud.   I should have stayed that age.
Developing into responsible adulthood too often becomes code for:  I've got it figured out.  I can do this myself.

And here's the other thing I have to keep learning over and over again:
STOP MAKING HEROES OUT OF BIBLE FIGURES and evaluating their performance as if it were something to be measured by.   They are merely examples of God reaching down into messy lives with a mercy and grace and love that defies understanding.

It isn't about them or you or me.
It's about GOD the Creator who made us, shapes us, calls us and carries us.  24/7 without exception.

I have just discovered the newest release of Sally Lloyd Jones:   Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing
If I told you it was for my grandkids, it'd be a half-truth.  No.  I buy them by the boxload;  to help me get back to basics, to wrap my head around simple bible truths and to stop COMPLICATING things!
Faith 101 if you will.
Hit the link and browse through this masterpiece with me.  It truly does make your heart sing and your eyes brim over at the reality of belonging to Him and becoming more and more aware of His never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.
Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing Video

The Bible:  HIS story (with divine fingerprints tracing all the others of the Bible) combined with Sally's gift of storytelling, brings home a beauty barring none.

How I spent August

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Fathers & Sons

This is son Joey.  He is a great uncle who is now also a daddy!

This compact little bundle pictured below, so cozy and warm within, sure took his time emerging from the womb.  

But emerge he did.  As it so invariably happens.  When it was his time.

Beckett Alexander is the newest man-child in the family.

A beautiful first born son to our second born son and his wife.

Friends and Family swarmed in, delighted to hear the details of this life-altering experience.

And life altering it is.

We are all changed again, in ways yet to be measured and defined.

I watch my beloved with this bundle and remember a time long ago (was it truly so long ago?)
In my minds eye, I see this staid and stoic man dancing around a delivery room with his own man-child in arms.
A feeling monumental stirs inside me but resists words.
Ppft! Hate it when that happens.

Little Beckett Alexander with the big hands and feet? ~ ~ It is a great privilege to welcome you to our world.  You are here with us according to a grand plan and purpose of God.

As grandmother, I am now supposedly old and wise enough to wait patiently for this to unfold.
If I default in my penchant of ploughing headlong, may it be in the area of prayer.
In the stillness and beauty of this summer morning reflection, I earnestly desire that it may be so.

Maternal Musings

Today, in a sunlit spare room upstairs, I spent an extraordinary afternoon with the contents of small ordinary looking box.

In a corner of that room, lie two very large rubbermaid totes filled with memories of my mother.  

Totes filled with precious personal things too sacred to discard -- things that need to find a new home somewhere and which by some nebulous design, became the assignment of this first born daughter. 

Me.  

So ill-suited to the task.

I wondered if today would be the day.  

In one entire afternoon, I managed to rifle through just that one little shoebox sized container, discovering (among other treasures) this well-preserved professional portrait taken in the late 1940's in Rotterdam.  

That's my mother in the middle - parked between her parents and brothers.  

The lighting is perfect and the pixels so crisp I can almost see the colour green of her eyes.  

And then it struck me.  How surreal this moment was! 

....to finally begin the process of picking through my mom's things and 'randomly' start with a box that she had, as first born daughter, kept of her own mother's memories...

The newspaper obituary, the funeral service program, old family photos, hand-written letters & cards of condolence from her church family and abroad...  

All perfectly preserved and protected for the sake of posterity - for such a time as this? 

I am oddly without words sufficient to describe the feeling of this experience. 

At once tingling the spine & nourishing the soul.

What a Morning!

Thank You Lord Jesus.  You Alone are worthy to be praised!

Smileboxes. The niftiest thing...

Make your own free scrapbook design

The Princess and the Pea(nut Butter).

The basement Rec room is nearing completion.
Many have asked (and in truth, we have often revisited the conundrum ourselves)
"why exactly would a pair of empty nesters in a cavernous space think to add more square footage of surface to dust and vacuum?"
Indeed, this is a fair question.
There is a well-considered, long-winded answer and then ---
there is the more obvious and simple one rendered by photo:

 A sleepover exclusive to the junior grand-daughters.

A boom box still under grandmarmie's control :)
 

 A growing stock of Value Village dress-up clothes.

 The pseudo glass slippers.

And there you have it.
Our unapologetic 'do it again in a heartbeat' reason for the thing.
Frivolous
... and SO much fun!