PLAYING HOOKY

Well - did anybody miss me? It's been a while. Truthfully...it's the heat. I truly do NOT like to be hot and this summer has been the summer of record-breaking heat and exceptional drought. Sucked the life right out of me!!! So let's play catch-up.

Have been teaching my little heart out this summer. Led a group of precious women in a study of Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts at my house this summer. We had 20 ladies learning how to count it all as grace. We numbered our gifts and found great joy. What a delight those 6 weeks were!

Visited my sweet friends in Paris and my friend, Jan in Odessa. Made a new friend in Evelyn - a fellow sojourner in grief. Deepened my newer friendships in Rockwall.

My Life Group has grown like crazy this summer! I am so excited - we all are. They are the greatest group of ladies. They make everyone feel welcome, they are full of joy, they serve the Lord and our church in over 13 ministries and they love, love, love to learn God's Word. A teacher's dream. :D

Billy and I have traveled a lot and truly delight in this time of our lives. He is a great husband, friend and Dad! I adore him. He's training for the White Rock marathon right now. I think it's crazy but he is happy and so far his knees and hips are holding out! I'm on Weight Watchers. ugh Losing......o h......s o.......s...l...o...w...l...y! But I'm re-learning how to eat and gaining discipline. Not fun but it does eventually pay off. Or it better. I can handle delayed gratification but I want SOME.

Brandon and Kylie are getting closer to being parents again! C-section date is set for December 15 and our little grand-daughter is making her presence known by dancing all over her mother's tummy! Makes us all excited and happy. We're all still pretty shocked that the Kulwicki's are having a GIRL. Have a feeling that my three men are in for a major wrapping around one tiny little finger! Kylie and I are just tickled to add some estrogen to this mix!

Matt shaved his head! This might not matter to most people but considering he was so paranoid of LOSING it, for him to shave it surprised me. He still looks mighty cute to me. Has a perfect head - shape. Says his mother. Anyway...Matt plays on about six soccer teams in the Rockwall area so we get to watch him play a lot and it is so fun for us because we spent a heck of a lot of time doing that in the 90's. He is an awesome athlete!

We are in charge of the Ledger Reunion this year. Happens every nine years and is always a MAJOR PAIN but SO WORTH IT in the end. We have this huge family and this will be the 43rd reunion and our first (to be in charge of ) without our mom! She would be proud that we have persevered. Our theme is Candy Land (the board game) and I will be sure to post pics in a few weeks. That will make me blog sooner! :) We are up to 80 people registered so it should be a good year again.

This red hot summer has just been a reminder that life is all about seasons and this season has been one of rest for us. Just taking life as it comes and enjoying it to the fullest. Too hot to do much but stay in the cool and enjoy one another. Not a bad way to live!

Hope your summer has been a good one. I promise - I have a lot more to say when it's cooler. :D

San Francisco

Billy's company is nationwide so we get to take a lot of business trips to see this beautiful country we are blessed to live in. We recently returned from San Francisco. We had never been here before except for a layover for a plane trip so we tacked on a few days to our business and had a mini-vacation. It was a great decision because we had the most wonderful time. The weather was very windy and the temperature was in the 60's - which we were told is normal for this beautiful city on the bay.This is the Golden Gate bridge which is - orange. Has to be painted every year (and it takes a year to do which makes for good job security) and the orange is to make it very visible to planes and ships.

I actually rode one of these trolley cars - which was VERY crowded.

Here are the 7 Sisters. Seven victorian houses built by the same man. The house that is third from the left is the famous Full House television series house. The house on the far left was recently repainted at a cost of $200,000!!!
This is the entrance to Alcatraz. I found it fascinating. I had no clue about the history of this place. The views of Alcatraz and the views from it were so beautiful. I'm sure it was doubly punishing to be locked up within eye's view of the beauty of San Francisco.
This is Lombard street. Famous for its steepness! I actually walked down this hill. It was crazy because there are houses on either side of this street and they are sitting right on the street. And cars are just lining up to go down it and people are walking up and down the steps CONSTANTLY. I can't imagine living on that.

We also traveled up the mountain to Muir Woods to see the beautiful redwoods. It was almost like a sanctuary in those woods. The trees were like a canopy surrounding you and it made things very quiet and shaded. This is a picture of the sun trying to penetrate the trees. I found it so beautiful.

We returned home in time for Father's Day and this is my sweet husband and father of my precious boys. How I love him, thank God for him and just appreciate so much how he takes care of us. He is a gift. He deserves this wonderful job he has and I sure am grateful he takes me with him!!

Hope you had a wonderful Father's Day and take the time every day to see the wonders of the world we live in! You don't have to go away to do it.

The Rapture, the weather and other news

The rapture was to have occurred last Saturday. It was due while we were to be in church....that would have been cool. My sweet husband woke up that morning and as we were sitting up in bed with our hot coffee and Bibles having our quiet time, said to me, "Well babe, if today is the day, I want you to know it was a great ride with you and I wouldn't have traded it for anything!" How sweet is that? Just blessed my heart so much. I feel the exact same way about him. He is a gift.

But as the Lord would have it - that was the not the day. Didn't really think it would be since I have a feeling we won't have that kind of warning. The Bible is pretty clear that we have all the warning we are going to get. As if earthquakes, wars, riots, natural disasters of all kinds and Jesus Himself saying that no one knows, but to be ready are not enough. But we, being the flesh that we are - just like a little control - as in when, where, how. And God, being the Sovreign that He is, is firmly seated on the throne and He has said all that is to be said on the subject.

But it saddens me a little that I have heard more ridicule and anger directed towards the 'predictor' of the rapture from believers than from the secular world. And I wonder why? Why are we so mean-spirited? Why are we so opposed to someone confronting people with the truth - Jesus is going to return. Life is going to be over as they knew it. Judgement is coming. And for those who do not know Christ, it will be dreadful.

Oh, I know they think it makes us look stupid when it doesn't happen. So what? The cross looks stupid too - if you don't know. It just makes me sad that we are mean. It makes me angry that we can't just say - "No one knows but we need to be ready." Truth is, someone will probably by accident guess correctly! That doesn't take away from the truth of God's word. It doesn't mean they were smarter or more spiritual. It just means eventually it's going to happen.

I don't know. The weather has been VERY different. No country or hemisphere has been neglected. God is making it very clear that no one is exempt from trouble and that we are NOT in control of anything. Financial trouble is hitting the mightiest. Unemployment, inflation and disease are becoming old news. We - the children of God - need to be sensitive to the timing of events and to be pro-active in telling others about the source of our hope. The reason we are not afraid. The certainty that there is more than this life and this world.

If one man's prediction caused one person to ask if there was an escape plan, I am grateful. It was one bite of fruit that brought us to this place in history and God never once took His eye off of the end. We are destined for better than this. Jesus was our rescuer. He was the battle plan sent to redeem us - set us right, return us to a state of excellence. I am just so grateful. So thankful that bite didn't doom us forever.

So...turn your eyes upon Jesus. Be grateful. This world will pass away. We, who know Christ will meet Him in the air.....and so will begin happily ever after. And tell somebody. Perhaps the signs have softened hearts and they will turn. Ask God to help you love enough to tell.

The Sweetest News of All

This was in my Mother's Day gift! A birth announcement - I'm going to be a MiMi again!!! Lots of laughter and tears......lots of joy and fears.

Please pray for Brandon and Kylie and this precious gift from God! It would mean so much to us.

Little Sweet Pea is due on Christmas!!!

Bipolar Texas Weather

I saw this posted on facebook by someone this week and I laughed out loud - our Texas weather HAS truly been bipolar! And I had made a promise to myself that I would post at least once a month. Since April is almost gone, I figured I better get on here.

Truthfully. Spring is difficult for me. Still. I don't like admitting that. Who would have thought that six years later, I would still be bipolar myself in my grief? It makes me feel weak. It makes me feel like I'm somehow failing God or my calling or even Justin. And yet.....it is my reality.

I swing from faith to sorrow so easily in the spring. I KNOW - and yet my reality is this place called earth where my heart has a gaping hole that only heaven will fill. Spring attests to the reality that following the bleakness of winter there is life and it is abundant and beautiful and crisp and clean. I LOVE that. And yet....it also reminds me of a doorbell one Monday morning and a life forever changed.

The thunderstorms threaten. They are loud. They are dramatic. They leave a mess. And then....there is beauty. For they have watered the earth. They have shaken the weak and dead limbs to prune the landscape. And I see that God is doing that in me.

I have learned that it is out of the darkness and out of the dead that true beauty comes. The seed in the dark soil. The baby from the womb. The sun from the night sky. And a living Savior from a cemetery tomb.

So I apologize for being quiet for a while. The one thing I don't want to do is leave a swath of destruction in my wake like our Texas storms sometimes do! So I go into my quiet place where the one Who bandages my heart, calms my anxious spirit and stills my soul meets with me and reminds me that all is well. That if He knows each sparrow that falls - how much more does He know and minister to me.

It is the morning after the resurrection and I am choosing to live like it is. The joy of Easter extending to the days after.....and after....and after. Until our faith is made sight.

Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice for us. Thank you for defeating sin and death. Thank you for the promise that is ours because of YOU! Thank you that IN YOU all things are possible.

Asking For Too Little

I was taking a soak in my big bathtub one morning this past week and was just thinking of all kinds of things and talking to the Lord about them. He and I do that a lot. Most of the time I do most of the talking.

We had just come off a business trip in Orlando with a lot of Billy's constituents. I went on a shopping trip with some of the wives and it was a little (ok, a lot) unsettling to try on summer clothes after the winter hibernation. SO......as I was lying there soaking, I began telling the Lord what a great plan it would be for Him to take away my taste for food so that I could be slim. Almost immediately I heard His still, small voice say, "How about I take away your bent for sin so that you can be holy?"

GULP

Not exactly what I had on my mind that morning. As usual I was thinking a lot smaller than He does. His thoughts are definitely higher than my thoughts. I am interested in the here and now. I am interested in what makes me look better and feel better about myself. He is too - just in a LOT bigger way.

Holiness is beautiful.

Holiness is healthy.

Holiness benefits us.

Holiness is eternal.

I need to lose some weight. I need to do it though not for cuter clothes but for my long-term health. The method for losing it will be a discipline in paying attention to what I eat and practicing recording the 'what' and 'how much' food and exercise I daily engage in.

I need to gain holiness. I need to do that for long-term/eternal health. Gaining holiness requires much the same discipline as losing weight. I need to pay attention to what I put in my mind and heart and then begin practicing holy habits.

Both are difficult because in these days. We are accustomed to the quick fix. We drive by and pick up without thought to what we are actually doing. We want it now and we want it supersized or road rage. We have lost the patience required for long term change. Nothing worth having is easy or fast.

So I'm asking for more these days. More of Him. Less of me. If that comes along with a little weight loss - all the better.

"You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy."

WINTER

I just love winter. I justify my feelings because there is such pristine beauty in the snow flakes and how they cover the ground making everything beautiful - white. The picture it paints of purity and holiness. And then again, sometimes I think it's just because I'm so lazy! I love playing in the snow, curling up with a blanket by the fire with soups or stews simmering on the stove and a cup of hot coffee in my hand. I love how the city is forced to slow down because in Texas NO ONE can drive in this stuff. We aren't equipped. Isn't it funny how we complain about our schedules and then we complain more loudly when we are forced to be still? Winter reminds us that the sap runs down and the plants grow dormant. Nature knows there is a time to be still. To allow God to do His work in the secret.

Some of us aren't made to be lazy. My precious husband is a man's man. He loves to do. He has made my life better in a million ways because he is such a provider and do-er. Here he is shoveling off the walkway to our house (which no one used, by the way - because NO ONE, I repeat NO ONE was out in the weather). He felt good about it. I did too because I spent a lot of time going outside to look at the snow and take pictures and it helped me to notice that there were tire tracks across the walkway. I guess some poor soul mistook our front yard for the road. Which is why we don't need to be out and about.
Aren't these trees beautiful? They are standing strong and sturdy allowing the bitter cold to rest on them for a while until the warmth of the sun melts the cold away and new life will begin to stir the sap and before we know it there will be new growth. That's what I am praying for as spring begins to peek at us from around the corner. I want new life. Fresh growth. A mystery arising from my life that is a testimony of roots dug deep.
I am so glad that I took the time to stop on those cold days and record them in picture. To me they are precious reminders that God is on the throne. He is in control. He can stop a city. He can still a heart. He can bring life from death.
Spring is coming. I have some sprucing up to do before it gets here. Some dead things to rake away. Some fertilizer to apply. Some pruning of straggly and unruly ends. The Master Gardener is doing the same thing in me. I intend to cooperate and watch to see the beauty spring will produce.....out of the beauty of the winter.