you guys rock! my blog comments were down, (beats me why) and you emailed sweet stuffin’s to me to keep my spirits up and yesterday was a good day, although there were hiccups…

I told Angie her comment yesterday was blog post inspiring to me… mostly i had comments about her comments…

I was just marveling that I *HAVEN’T* cried this week. Well, except when I was in the bathroom with Caroline at the doctor’s office. But, that doesn’t count.

yes definitely she is my friend, we view this part of the world the same, certain types of crying don’t count and when stuck in a doctor’s office bathroom with a toddler refusing to pee in a cup … sort of like you don’t call breathing a respiratory problem, it is a natural body function… if crying was not intended for such moments, what’s it good for at all? I mean really?

I have basically heard the same thing about John Piper — great writer, very insightful, but kinda boring. (sheesh, I said it too!)

Angie is church professional… she is allowed to say things like this and she isn’t a Baptist in Thunder Bay where Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis is considered a mecca of sorts…  but hey I hail from the largest non-denominational denomination around (that would be Tony you hear in the background snorting and telling you the definition of a denomination and that certainly CC meets it in a three out of five point fashion,) anyway back to my non- denominational denomination we have our heroes too and you better not make comments about them or their Hawaiian shirts . But back to Angie, there are no sacred cows   with her and that is one more reason I love her to bits…

and I still love you even though you’re a democrat. : )

I confess… I almost *ALMOST* cried again… I was so touched. I believed her. And that made my day… I know how volatile everyone is feeling, we seem to feel like our very lives are at stake in this election (and I think they are some degree or fashion) and yet she loves me even though I am a democrat, born and bred and it is 2nd nature to me, like breathing and crying.

and so I have to throw in the fact that I loved Desley’s comments which came alter in the day… I am feeling rich that I have friends that see something in me worth relating to, or maybe they are just planning on changing me… (uh, ask Becky 15 years later I am still a meat eating democrat and she loves me too.)

and I log off/ sign off as I am meeting Steph at Timmies… hey pray for my girl and her math freakout… she is Mathematically brilliant and not feeling it today…

feeling out of control yesterday… it was a mini-meltdown… one of the kids said to a relative stranger about me , "she’s not usually like this."  in reference to my leaky eyes. I wasn’t sobbing, but tears kept leaking out… hormones, well, perhaps, I think it is more likely provoked by the multitude of boxes still unpacked, unsorted… and also they were caused by stuff popping up onto my "to-do" list and crowding out things I wanted to do…

but I did go and get a haircut… which was applauded by those around me… I tend to get haircuts when I feel either bored, restless, or out of control…

I did hear an amazing message yesterday… uh, I am not a big John Piper fan.. (I know I have just been knocked off a few blog rolls and I am getting the same reaction from my Thunder Bay Baptist friends as when I told my Miami CC friends that I was a democrat.) It is not that I disagree with him, although I do on a few points, it’s that he is dull to me… I love his writing and his poems… well, that is not the point) anyway, when Steph wrote and encouraged people to go to the Desiring God site and listen to some of the messages I went… I am a fairly complaint blog reader…

power of words… uh…. does it sound like a topic that would ring my bell? you bethca… and tucked in there was a message on the power of story…"This power is more pervasive than you may think and touches the heart of the gospel." check it out here, Angie when life settles down, I really think you want to hear this… you will be back to the book in no time. (and Steph, in case you missed it… your blog has power, keep on writing, girlfriend.)

and another antidote to yesterday, some creative play…

 
credits here seriously, you want to enlarge this one, click away

today will be better, with a smart haircut and there are new mercies every morning…

Saturday morning we had the Intro Session of the Beth Moore Bible Study: Jesus: the One and Only… Desley and Katherine have written about this and so completely re-charged me with the wonder I felt that day… they both wrote about things I had missed and that to me is one the beauties of an encounter with God… we were all there with God, hearing his word, and yet he spoke privately and intimately to each one of us there… but we all came away with the truth that God is always working even when we don’t see him working…

there was a famine of hearing of words from the Lord that made the people so ready to receive their king and Beth posed the question what other famines have there been in your life (sent by the Lord) that made you ready to "come home running?" A famine of friends? a famine of comfort? a famine of familiarity? yes, God used that in my life to drive me deeper to him… arriving in Canada, all the old familiar places, faces were gone, and we lost our comfort zone and God became all that to me…

I am being brief today… I have an appointment and I have some projects to finish and, oh yeah, boxes upon boxes left to unpack… but all the things that concern me, well the Lord looks after those, and it is marked on the calendar, the fullness of time..

lol, spoke to Becky this morning, and she told me Skip Heitzig had preached at CcK on Heaven and I said to her, "get me that teaching because I need to know all about it… I am going there…"  know what I mean?

at “see you at the pole” yesterday, that was what the kids kept asking of each other over and over… it was completely cool.  I was going to go with the IB kids on their retreat so after I hung with Joel until it began and then what-else??? (I hear Desley snickering) I took photos… one by one, the crowd grew… it was never massive… but in the midst of the praying… more kids came… I watched other kids walk by into the school watching and wondering, quizzical expressions on their faces, I watched kids approach chattering and become quiet as they passed… and after they finished praying, the kids stood in amazement at the people standing with them… “Where have you guys been?”  They had no idea there were other kids following Jesus at their school…

Katherine wrote a neat line about her friend Erik…. “then Lorraine and I found Erik and told him, and he just stood up and walked away from his friend and joined us.” reminded of the fishermen leaving their boats and their nets to follow Jesus… which does remind me of Erik’s spirit.

credits: Stand UP kit- gina miller, lisa whitney, audrey neal, gina marie huff, heidi williams, and gina carbera stamp and bracket template

and as for the IB retreat… what a blast and I got some super shots… I have a meeting now to get to, but a few photos…

this is one of my favorite photos… she is one of my favorite kids, and this was her countenance all day… yesterday… full of life… I saw her first at the See you at the Pole, and then we chatted a few times during the retreat… …

credits: gina miller appletini and ON Designs frame

a tug of war at the end… Grade 12 girls against Grade 9 girls… the Niners won this one…

Amanda and Katherine spent most of the day it seems, playing leap frog or rolling over each other…

replay that over and over again and you will have a complete picture of these two…

7 AM as I type and I have to get cracking… I will be at Old Fort William today… at the Churchill IB Retreat.. my last one for awhile. Katherine graduates and so next year and unless Emmy G goes into IB… this is it…   I have come to love this day… I hang with the kids, following them around, snapping photos , and making sure as Noel Jones says, “no extra-curricular romance takes place.” But because only the IB kids are there on-site, and because I am supposed to be roaming, I get time to myself in all that beauty and I daydream about those adventurers and the people they left behind and the lives they built…

Stephanie wrote about times of refreshment … last night at Bible Study Pastor Al challenged us that without love for the church family we need to look at where we are with God, and ask ourselves, “what have you done with His Son?” There was such refreshment for me last night…. I had to come home and write about it… love compels us…

And yes, Angie, in the discussion I mentioned Jenni…and some early experiences I had had in the church, being asked to worship separately… and several people last night were simply full of delight recounting conversations they had had with Jenni. Speaking of how she enriches their lives.

Glad to see you are still in my blogging world, Angie, but *ahem* I want details about your life (just kidding… Angie I know it is wild crazy for you these days, and I am praying for God to be your refreshment and strength.

Nicole, I am signing up for NaNoWriMo… I am looking forward to seeing you there…

well, I am going to get my coffee  , wake up some kids  and I will be back tomorrow with photos… but until them some photos from last year’s retreat…

 
saxon holt frames and slyvie wagner ribbons , enlarge this one baby, enlarge it

some of my favorite people in all the world… young women with big wild hearts…