There are so many things I’m thankful for!  I was sick for several days this week, so I’m just now getting this written.  Here’s top priority on my list:

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• God’s love, mercy & grace,  His Word (the Bible), and prayer
• My dear husband
• Our precious children (son-in-law included) & precious young grandchildren
• Relatives (many of whom I rarely or never get to see, but we stay in touch through email and phone calls)
• Technology which enables us to stay in touch with those we care about and love
• Loyal friends
• Our church family
• My job (even though it gets really stressful sometime with all the other work there is to do, the actual teaching part is wonderful.  I love my students and the people I work with!)
• Our country with the freedoms we enjoy
• Blogging and the friends I’ve made through blogging
• All of the material blessings such as a comfortable home that is so nice to be in when I’m sick
• A mini-van that gets me to and from work or where I need to go, and that is great for trips with the three of us
• My health (even with the minor ailments, it’s such a blessing to have good health and the stamina to work at a job like teaching school)

A couple of years ago, our son went on a trek up a mountain in Colorado with a group from church. They had two experienced guides with them which eased my mind about our youngest child (age 17 at the time) going up to the top of a huge mountain. I don’t know if any of them used Trekking Poles or not, but I know they wore cleated shoes to grip the mountain as they went up steep slopes.

The hikers spent the night in tents and ate campers food (the exact opposite of deli food).  Some parts of the mountain trek were extremely challenging (and sounded almost dangerous to me).  I must say that after hearing from some of the other trekkers, we were very proud of our son and how he carried the gear of weaker hikers who were about to collapse, even though that made his load twice as heavy.  That is a memory of his trek that I will always treasure!

Some friends of ours invited us to go to the Symphony with them last month. They had extra tickets and treated us to a great evening. It was on a Friday evening and people didn’t dress up as much as they do on Saturday evenings. I was glad because I wasn’t in the mood to dress up a lot.  There were probably people there with diamond earrings and necklaces, Black diamond earrings and nice jewelry, though, and some people did dress up more than others.
After the concert was over, we went to Starbucks and talked and visited for a while. We all share a love of various types of music which includes classical. My husband plays not only the guitar (which I’ve mentioned before) but also the violin. Our friend played the viola when she was younger. So it’s just natural that classical music would be enjoyable for us.

Most people will never forget what they were doing ten years ago today. Some of us watched in disbelief! It was surreal, like watching a horrible scene in a movie…only it wasn’t a movie! One thing that seemed so strange that day was that we did not see one plane in the sky, nor for many days to come.
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We took our son out of school (5th grade then) and drove a couple of hours to where our daughter was in college. My husband was planning to drive there anyway that day to take something to our daughter, so we all went. We didn’t talk much. I think we prayed silently most of the way there. When we got to our daughter’s apartment, we all hugged and were so thankful to all be alive and together. But there was a sadness, too, because we knew many, many families were hurting terribly.
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The scenes we saw on TV kept replaying through my mind like some nightmare, only I couldn’t wake up and say that it was only a dream.  I, like many others, feared another attack.  We all knew that our world had changed.  Although I grew up during a time when we had air raid drills in school and feared being bombed, since then our country had developed a false sense of safety and ease that we had grown accustomed to.  9-11 was a wake-up call!
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So how are our lives different now from ten years ago? Mine has changed! I don’t worry like I did back then. Today, I have a friend who married and moved to the states 20 years ago, and a couple of years ago converted from her Muslim faith to Christianity. Ten years ago, I would have been too scared to be around her. But God has helped me with my fears (and in many more ways than this)!
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I don’t know exactly why, but this song came to mind to share in this post. Back then, my prayers joined the thousands of prayers for God to ease the pain in the way that only He can! This song maybe sums up those prayers. It talks about peace, victory, overcoming, and no more sorrow or pain. Some day, we will all have a wake-up call when our life is over. Hopefully, everyone will have this peace and victory!
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(By the way, Chris Tomlin sang this song at the 2009 Dove Awards. The live version on YouTube is great, if you’re interested.)

For those of you who don’t know, our son has played in school band since he started sixth grade. He’s now a junior in college, so if you do the math then you’ll know that he’s been playing for nine years. He’s played percussion all nine of those years. In high school, he played mostly on the marimba and vibes. But since he’s been in college, he’s also been playing steel drums. In fact, this year he will be not be playing in marching band at all but will only be doing the Percussion Ensemble where he will be playing steel drums. He really enjoys doing that!
The only bad part is the vast majority of their concerts have been during the week, and as a school teacher, I really can’t afford to take off work a couple of days to travel and see their concerts. The next best thing is video tape which we love being able to watch. I’m hoping this year is different and that they will have a concert or two on the weekend where we can attend!

Retreats are great for revitalizing the spirit and connecting with others. Whether it’s a corporate retreat, a ladies’ retreat, a family reunion, a bridesmaids’ retreat, or whatever the occasion, atmosphere has a lot to do with allowing that revitalization and connecting to take place. After spending the night during this past summer and the previous summer at The Mansionat Elfindale in Springfield, Missouri, I highly recommend this B & B retreat destination. Although it was just our family staying there, my imagination could see how this would be an awesome place for a retreat!

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Isn’t it fun to get away with your girlfriends and talk “girl talk” until the wee hours of the morning?  A Ladies’ Retreat with a group of ladies from church has always been a lot of fun for me.  Getting away to a special place enhances the enjoyment of the trip, getting away from the hustle and bustle of the busy routine of life, getting to relax and share about things that are really important and things that are on our minds, and last but not least…just having fun together, sharing funny experiences and laughing so hard that we’re almost in tears.
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In order to have a ladies’ retreat, there needs to be ample places to congregate for chit chat, for sharing funny stories, and for serious discussion.  Having stayed at The Mansion, I can see how this Victorian style bed and breakfast would be an awesome place to stay.  The atmosphere of this European like castle is like taking a step back in time, yet keeping all the modern conveniences that we want to have.  The wide hallways provide many places to sit and congregate as seen in the picture below:

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This beautiful breakfast room can also be used for more than just breakfast at retreats:
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Many suites have sitting areas which are great for small group discussions. The Veranda Suite as seen in the picture below is one such room. Not only does this suite have a great sitting area inside but outside as well on the beautiful veranda seen in the second picture. By the way, this is the only suite with a veranda.
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The Rose Suite is the perfect name for this lovely suite as you can tell by the picture. It has an excellent area in the room for conversation and sharing thoughts.
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The Chapel Suite is where we enjoyed staying, and it can sleep four very comfortably. The suite is nice and spacious and also has a great sitting area, perfect for a small group meeting.
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I want to share one more of the 13 suites with you, and that is the tower suite. Note the tall tower on the right-hand side of The Mansion, the tower that reminds me of a castle:
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The Tower Suite contains two levels which makes it so charming and so much fun. There are actually four rooms to this suite being the bedroom, the bathroom, a sitting area in the tower, and then another sitting area up higher in the tower which is reached by a beautiful circular staircase. Below is the highest room in The Mansion. 

To see more photos, visit The Mansion at Elfindale on Facebook.
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HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

(picture taken a couple of years ago on July 4th)





The Star Spangled Banner – Note the 4th Verse

We have some relatives who are avid golfers.  Their whole family is, in fact.  And we have some friends who love to golf; well actually, he does and she goes with him.  I can imagine them giving gifts such as a gps golf watch which does sound cool. I’m curious as to how something like that would work, but I imagine any dedicated golfer would know.

Our two little grandsons had Western Day at their preschool recently.  They didn’t wear Stetson Hats, but their pictures were so cute with them dressed in jeans and boots.  There was even a horse for the children to ride, or at the very least to have their picture taken while sitting on it, and there were other activities for them to participate in.  I sure wish I could have been there for their Western Day!