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The fish are locked under a thin sheet of ice in the urn this morning. I had assumed that there would be no frost for the time being, but it froze last night.

The new furnace is humming a coziness, but I still like to sit by my gas fire in the morning. These golden days before snow are fleeting, but they are some of the best of the year. I looked out at the hay fields this morning and they were glowing with white frost, lines of silver between the reds of trees and hedges of green.

It’s art.

Today Cherie (who does not have class on Fridays) and I will attempt to restore the library. I can’t lift after my surgery, for six weeks, so this weekend must be productive. I can’t lift much now, because of my growing cyst, but I can do some.

Order is important to productivity.

Having a clear surface to work is vital to the mind.

I love stuff, so my house is rather cluttered. Books are everywhere. Art supplies and yarn, sewing stuff, pet paraphernalia, all take up space.

Musical instruments and toys, games and puzzles, leftovers from decades of homeschooling; these things are hard for me to part with.

But I must be ruthless. Downsizing is normal at my age.

I have a collection of housekeeping books. They are fun to read, especially the one from the 1940’s. Oh how we have progressed! Still, principles of home management are pretty much the same.

Keep things clean and control clutter! Pay your bills in an orderly system. Watch your budget. These simple rules will order your entire life!

As a believer I add the disciplines of a faith walk: read your Bible and pray every morning. Go to church.

I repeat: GO TO CHURCH.

After Covid we all got into habits that go against Christ’s teaching. For some of us it seemed okay to tune in to the ubiquitous online services.

I’m not knocking these! It is a joy to watch a favorite preacher who lives in Hawaii, or California, or Ohio–and an old person or a sick person can feed on excellent spiritual teaching. Still, there is something missing when you don’t show up in person at church.

God commands it for a reason. We need to show up, to care for each other, to commune together.

A friend called to chat yesterday. She remarked that she sees a trend among young folk these days—staying single.

What an interesting trend. I see it too. Some say they are “called” to singleness, and the Apostle Paul would be approving. Some are waiting for the perfect person. Some are caught in their busy careers and their life choices for travel and entertainment.

Some are satisfied with a virtual life.

In a world of 8 billion people it really IS hard to find ONE that is right. The choices are statistically myriad, but the reality is that we are all pretty selfish beings and finding a special person to share life with is difficult.

There will never be a perfect person.

Virtual living ….I’m sorry, but there seems to be something demonic about it. I will just say it.

Career and amusements: one day your body will give out and you will be alone and helpless. You may plan for this, but the emptiness of having no family may be real.

I have had this on my mind as I’ve been medically sidelined from work these days. I need to get my health back so I can WORK!

I’m thinking that young people just don’t think long-term.

Get married! Have kids! Be a responsible citizen! Work hard!

Love someone, even if they don’t deserve it.

I told my friend that I felt sad for people who haven’t experienced one of life’s most wonderful relationships; marriage. It’s like they haven’t fully experienced life itself.

In a traditional world men pursued women as life partners. It’s hard to get out of that mold. Women tend to be passive in initiating relationships. There are always exceptions.

A word to men: you need to pursue, even if we are living in the 21st century. We women are still genetically programmed like Eve, (Adam’s significant other). Get off your computer and ask someone out!

I know several gorgeous young women who are single and fine. Very fine. Find them!

Girls, stop looking for that perfect guy. Marry that nerd. He’s not abusive, he makes a living, and he will probably be a good dad.

Start a family and serve God. Be faithful, to God and to each other.

A chord of three strands is not easily broken.

Brian and I had that printed on our wedding hand-out. Death broke that band for me, but I do not have any regrets for having had it for 30 years. I am grateful to God for my marriage.

I pray that you would find that bond too. It’s a very good thing.

God saw it was good.

MARANATHA!

I can only feel blessed to have “all the time in the world” to enjoy the colors of the season here around Corgi Hollows.

I am purposefully quiet, patient, waiting. I am not having friends over because I feel like I must entertain, (though I know they don’t want me to feel that way!) but I get a bit of a rise in emotions and blood pressure just knowing I SHOULD be hospitable.

So I am being quiet and alone.

I let the dogs out periodically, but they are little cozy companions mostly, all day.

I battle depression this time of year, so that is always an issue, but with the anticipation of surgery and becoming more well I have managed that pretty well.

I see God’s hand in everything.

I am so grateful to Him.

One more week until this procedure, and I am looking forward to a slow recovery afterwards.

Eight weeks without swimming is really too long, but I am doing okay.

I think God is really helping me.

In this world we will have trouble. God has overcome it.

With a thankful heart I say, come Lord Jesus!

MARANATHA!

{PS: The tile was laid in the basement signifying the end to my wet basement problems. I hope to have my children help me restore the library this weekend. Of the problems mentioned last week, your prayers are answered, and I am so glad. Margaret’s MIL is home from hospital, babies are doing well, things continue to hum along. I am managing pain, but I was warned, Supernaturally, last night, that I should be extra careful this week before surgery. I am heeding the warning. No activity. I am so grateful for my kids! Thank you, LORD!}

Dear friends, and I know there are several thousand of you friends that click on here, (including all the spam people) I ran into another trial.

They come in sets.

I had my surgery all scheduled with the new surgeon I’d found, whom I like.

I got a call yesterday that my insurance doesn’t cover the hospital where I’d have the surgery.

Rescheduling must occur. Different hospital.

As my condition worsens the time frame lengthens. Pain is real, even if it is still mild. Discomfort is really real.

What is God doing?

I hide when things don’t go well. I wonder why. What have I done?

I have these perfectly normal thoughts.

My mind assures me that all trouble is to be expected in this life. We live in a fallen world. I still get caught in that trap of seeing trouble as punishment from a sovereign God. What did I do to deserve this trial?

Of course we must examine our own behavior, confess and repent of sin, but that is not how God works. Theologically speaking, God is in control, we are sinners undeserving of any good.

God is merciful to us.

There are those days when I struggle with the hard stuff.

I wrote that last week, and there have been developments.

Corgi Hollows People need your prayers.

Margaret’s MIL is in the hospital. Margaret just had her second baby, so she is not in any shape to be of much help.

We are all very broken people right now.

I had another bad pain spell, ended up in bed for 24 hours.

I need to be extra quiet until surgery. I can’t be of much help.

It’s a confluence of bad events.

Cherie is busy with school, but Ed rose to the occasion and took the afternoon to help us out. My sweet niece is also helping us! I am so thankful for her!

Corgi Hollows People need your prayers. I thank you in advance! I thank you now.

God is our Helper, the one we can trust.

I do.

MARANATHA!

One kingdom is ruled by a benevolent monarch. He is perfect, just, and merciful. He is so great that he defines his subjects as perfect once they acknowledge his lordship.

The second kingdom is ruled by a cheater, a liar, an evil being. He promises to assuage the flesh, give control, and satisfy desire —-for the time being.

He will lose everything in the end. He was created for a different purpose, and he is also living proof of the first king’s mercy. He reigns for now, over a vast kingdom that we see as “the seed of Adam.”

We are the pawns in this conflict. We belong first to the evil being, born in sin, like the prophet said. Our nature follows evil naturally.

But the benevolent monarch wins. His mercy grants us the possibility to enjoy the beautiful kingdom forever.

There must be a transaction to gain entrance to this benevolent kingdom: being born again.

The spirit that once was dead becomes alive again. This is a spiritual transaction that only the king can initiate and perform. He signs the book.

Go to the benevolent king today. Now. Don’t wait.

The evil king is mighty, influential. He will do everything to keep you in his kingdom. The end is dismal and bleak, horrific and torturous. The satisfaction is temporal.

The benevolent king is coming to take his people to his kingdom soon. There he will prepare us for the final onslaught that defeats the evil kingdom.

This is not a fairy tale. This is truth.

Watchers see the signs of the next development in this battle.

Those who inhabit the far reaches of either kingdom may be surprised at the power centralized by the kings.

They live their lives in relative peace.

This will change, though! The kings have allowed their spiritual inactivity until now. Soon each king will claim his subjects.

The benevolent king rejoices in rewarding his people.

The evil king will show his true colors.

Those on the fringes of the kingdom will surely be surprised by their own king.

Choose this day whom you will serve! Be born again into the righteous kingdom. Make this transaction before it is too late. Have the perfect king write you into his book, his book of life.

Yes, the benevolent king created the beautiful kingdom now ruled by the evil king. He will recreate it again, fixing it, restart it.

Things will be placed back in order, as they should be, as any good story would end.

I am watching for this beautiful end.

Two kingdoms. No neutral territory. Are you in the benevolent one?

MARANATHA!

I have a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe that I’ve always loved. It’s simple. I added three things to it on Saturday and I can hardly stop eating them.

2 sticks butter, melted, 2 eggs beaten, a cup of white sugar, a cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 3 cups of flour, 1 package chocolate chips, 1 package milk chocolate stars, 1/3 cup Nutella (swirled in, not completely mixed), and 1 1/2 cups walnut halves.

Mix together. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. I use an ice cream baller/cookie baller to place on baking sheets, about 3 tablespoons dough per cookie.

Delicious warm, tasty cold.

Come for coffee.

The place next door, the other half of the original farm, is for sale. I am sad to lose our neighbors who moved in two years after we got back to the property.

Want to be the neighbor to Corgi Hollows? There is ample room for horses and chickens. Wetland, hay, and pasture.

Pray for my future neighbor, please.

They have no idea…. 🙂

The book I mentioned in an earlier post, by Stephanie Potts, is out this week. Please support her work. It is available different places, I purchased it on Amazon.

I’m planning to give a copy to my mom (she is a voracious reader) and my “woke” people.

“Becoming God Through Social Justice”

My fourth grandson was born a week ago! He is beautiful. I have held him and snuggled him.

My seventh grandchild is due in January.

How quickly our family multiplies!

Blessings.

Today is another high holy day in the Jewish tradition. Another day for the symbolism that Christ represents.

It is nippy in the air.

We have had an extended summer, with high temps and mild weather. No frost yet.

The houseplants are still outside for that last bit of sun before hibernating in the house all winter. I need to figure out what to do with my three goldfish. Cherie tells me to just move the entire pot into the house.

I am impatient.

My doctor’s appointment was canceled last week due to a hospital shortfall.

So I am a lady in waiting.

I will see another provider this week, and I will probably go with this new surgeon. I will hope to have five things removed by this surgery, four, for sure. My appendix is optional, but since pain has centered in that region I think it would be nice to have it all out while I’m under.

I am wary of medical professionals. I read too much.

All of the errors and mistakes that I have encountered are purely understandable, but I know that they occur, and I am somewhat skeptical of the whole industry. I need to have medical attention right now and I am grateful for that.

Life is a bit of a trial while I wait. How I wish I didn’t have to deal with this. God’s plans are certainly not my plans!

How convicting.

Here He has gifted me with a mild and beautiful September to feed my heart and mind. How can I not be grateful?

My life has slowed to a pace that I cannot ever recall experiencing before. I have watched the butterflies and the woolly bear caterpillars mosie around the yard and hay field. I listen to the geese calling in the darkness, flying overhead. Practice runs? Frogs are still active. Things are golden everywhere, even the light.

The blue Jays, always my favorite August heralds, have kept me company, and the little goldfinches and chickadees enjoy my two towering sunflowers that grace my kitchen garden.

There is so much to be done. My garden needs a strong man’s back to turn and prep the soil for the winter and next spring. I wonder about the things I haven’t the strength to accomplish. Any strong men out there willing to apply for the job? Since Brian left this place could use a handy guy.

A couple of years ago I struck up a friendship with a man from South Africa. He jokingly said he’d come and shovel my snow. I almost wish I’d taken up his offer.

Winter is coming.

I had to cancel my “History Day” again. My health thwarted that one.

I haven’t heard from the man who was supposed to fix my septic system this fall.

I also haven’t heard from the man who tiles my floor after the waterproofing finished.

So much to do. So many imperfections.

And yet I am waiting.

I turn down the subbing phone calls every morning. I am unable to teach right now.

But today the sun is shining. Birds are calling. Corwyn and Yuki are snuggled on the porch couch, keeping me company on this cool morning. I have my coffee and my Chromebook. I’m listening to beautiful Scripture Lullabies. These were so comforting to me on my worst days. (Hide them in your heart)

How can I complain?

God gifted me with quiet beauty, His creation and His timing to enjoy.

The world with all of its sorrow and frenzy can pass me by.

God is hiding me away. He hideth my soul.

He covers me there with His hand…

He covers me here with his hand.

Maranatha!

Ed turns 27 today. Cheri turns 23 tomorrow. My son-in-law turns 40, also tomorrow. My niece celebrates her birthday tomorrow, too, I think 29 years…

It’s birthday season at Corgi Hollows. Another niece has a birthday on the 28th, a nephew on the 27th!

But today is also a new year, (Rosh Hashanah) and a new season!

Welcome, Fall!

What a day. It is so significant. It’s also the Day we do not know the hour…idiomatic Hebrew/Aramaic.

If only it could be today, the day Jesus comes to snatch us out of this woeful earth.

But the beauty here at Corgi Hollows is evidence of God’s great love for us, the mist is coloring the tree lines soft sage.

The leaves have only just begun to turn brilliant. Really, only the sumac and the euonymus have turned red. I see some stressed trees with yellow tips, but overall the world is still green on this first day of fall in the Minneapolis area.

That’s unusual.

The other day I took Corwyn and Yuki out to the hay field and there were dozens and dozens of Monarch butterflies and myriad little pairs of yellow butterflies (they are common but I don’t know their name!) fluttering all over and sampling the clover. It was fairyland.

That’s unusual.

There are unusual things happening.

Good news: there was quite a downpour the other night, hail pelted the roof, BUT no water in the basement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just had to do that.

I’ve been waiting for this for years now….

I am so grateful.

The tile has still not come in at Menard’s, but I think that the floor will all be finished in due time and order restored out of the chaos.

A couple of weeks ago I almost had a tantrum…I am a pretty even-keeled person…but I just had this moment of despair about the stacks and stacks of books everywhere.

I did bring a whole truckload to the thrift store, and that was wonderful. I will be purging more as we set the room in order after the tile floor is done.

I am staying home from school for the most part. As my health situation progresses I am being careful. I know only part of the whole scenario, and I am being patient.

I am a patient.

Being quiet at this lovely time of year is actually a gift.

I’m trusting God for all my needs, and I know, that as this widow’s husband, He will provide for me.
I have worked hard these past years, as it has been a productive way to grieve and grow. Just sitting around and crying gives me headaches. It is better to be distracted by productive work.

My departure from the hotel is bittersweet. Many, many thoughts about that after 8 years there. I was unable to work my last weekend due to my health.

I will miss it!

Let me reminisce one story (and there are so many!). A few years back a Japanese man was staying at the hotel, and he carried a guitar. He seemed so sweet, and he was, of course, polite.

About a year later I saw from my social media algorithm that a Japanese guitarist was playing a concert in the Twin Cities. We had been to Japan by then, and I was interested. I went to the concert, played by Hiroya Tsukamoto.

I loved the concert, the Sunday afternoon peacefulness, October golden day, the quiet guitar.

It wasn’t long before I drew the connection; Mr. Tsukamoto had been the artist that played at a local venue and stayed at my hotel the previous year, the kind, polite musician. I had greeted him and welcomed him to the hotel.

I have been a fan of his work ever since.

Working at a hotel can be pretty interesting.

And I will miss it, but I need more time for my growing number of grandchildren. It will be nice to have weekends freer.

Substitute teaching for a sixty-plus year old is also pretty energy intensive, so I wanted to have more strength for that part of my life.

I also wanted to write and illustrate more. If I don’t do it now, it probably won’t happen.

My health needs more attention, too. Staying healthy takes time.

I remember a sign on our family doctor’s wall that said something like this: a work out a day keeps the doctor away… or to that point.

I should have more time for health.

What are your thoughts on Charlie Kirk lately?

I saw healing, spiritual healing, at his memorial service.

I probably don’t match him theologically. I am seeing all the criticisms of his leanings. I do not deny that he stood for Jesus Christ and was an evangelist in his own way.

I have no right to criticize. He embodied what matters: preach the Good News of Jesus Christ. He lived like the apostle Paul, debating the critics. If only we would all be so proactive!

We do walk a narrow path. There is a strait gate. Study to show thyself approved unto God! To whom much is given, much shall be required! Examine yourself! Test yourself to see if you are in the faith. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

Everyone of us should be careful of how we are growing in Christ.

How many people have made a decision for Jesus in these past days? Are we nurturing and helping people know Jesus? Are we shepherding these new believers? Discipling?

Too many baby believers get side-tracked and discouraged by multiple things, including the failures of those of us more mature Christians. What a responsibility.

We need to be in prayer constantly.

May the Holy Spirit comfort and keep.

Two big prayer requests: Yesterday a prominent Christian minister had a fall and he is paralyzed and in ICU. Pray for Christopher Yuan.

Another family lost their 11 year old son yesterday, rather abruptly, from health issues. He was diagnosed with a type of cancer several years ago as Ed was recovering from leukemia. My heart reached out to the mom, and I have been in contact with them since. Pray for comfort and peace. Devastating. This boy was so sweet and trusted Jesus so dearly. Pray for the Peck family.

We are all looking up!

MARANATHA!