I have many delightful, wonderful aunts.  3 on my Dad's side and 4 on my Mom's (only one "blood" uncle-no wonder the women in these families are so strong willed!).  But my aunt Maxine, in particular, is a nut!  She is so funny and whimsical and we love her to death and today I realized that the "apple don't fall far" from the proverbial family tree!

My good friend Tootie says that especially now, in autumn, as she looks out her window, across the barren fields, she can picture Laura Ingalls comin' across home.  So this morning I put on my apron and my bonnet and drove down there and snuck out back and "came across her field"!  She threw open the window giggling and said-"why howdy Laura!  Come on inside!" and I went inside and we had coffee and chatted and didn't do housework!

And I realized-I am a nut too.  And I crack myself up!  And I might be becoming my Aunt Maxine!  And that is a very good thing!

Missing...

So my lovely daughter found out that she has the lead in the school play which is really quite awesome    and what I really wanted to do more than anything was pick up the phone and call my momma to tell her.  But I couldn't.  And it is times like this that I have to say that I really miss my mom.  I don't dwell on it.  I'm not the kind of person who is stuck on the "why me's" of life, and I didn't "why me" today either....I just wished I could call her and tell her  cause she would be so incredibly proud of her and she would say such wonderful things to her and call her sweetie pudgin' and love her up so much and I'm sorry she is missing out on that.  The upside is that I called my super wonderful mother in law who is 2nd only to my momma and I called my Mungie momma and they both were super excited and incredibly proud of her and they will say wonderful things to her and they will love her up so she is a pretty lucky gal in the end.  But I guess I will have to call her sweetie pudgin'.   Miss you mom.

end of summer reflections......

Sigh......

Summer is done-well it will be in a few hours.  Labor Day will be over, officially, and it will be the first day of school.  Ethan will be a 7th grader and Wil will be a freshman.   Hannah will be a Senior.  No more "going to be".  "Is".  Ouch.  Where did that time go????

Anyways....thinking about what  great summer it has been and just saying a 'thank you Lord" for all of the blessings.....

Recap

*A fabulous VBS-such a blessing for me.  Our volunteers...such wonderful spirits.  Wonderful kids.  Just saw one today "hi Miss Kim.  your VBS was the best.  i can't wait for next year.  i am coming every day!!!"  Me too!
(Oh and my right hand man-Dan the Man -already scored a sweeet prop for us for next year!!!!  He rocks and his wife is pretty special too!!!)
Did I say that one day I had 13 kids here after VBS for the afternoon.  In the pool.  I smiled.
(When we were growing up we had a pond.  In the winter, our pond  would be lit with lights, pickups parked everywhere and 15-20 guys playing hockey at night.  My mom must have been smiling.)
Sorry i digress.....

*A summer filled with family and friends and lots of pool time!  Thank you for the pool but thanks even more for the ac mom and Fred!!!!

*A fabulous family reunion-love, love, love culminating with church on the farm.  super, duper love!
(Plus got a lot of honey do jobs done in preperation! )

*Welcoming a wonderful new Pastor and his wife to Hope.  So excited to be in ministry with them!

*Another reunion and celebration for my sweet Aunt Esther's bday

*A wonderful, restful 2 weeks at Arsenic City.

Now a part of me is welcoming the fall and the opportunity to be back on a schedule, but..... not.

Sigh......

Lawrence Welk rocks

One last thing.... I am finishing the night watching Lawrence Welk on PBS. I love LW. I am instantly relaxed and transported back to Max and Ethel's (grandpa and grandma's) davenport. I love that word. I have just decided to use that word exclusively... No more couches for me! Ps..... I wish I could buy a dress or two like the one I just saw. And matching shoes. Sigh. Retro. Heaven right here on PBS.

spent.......

I have no joyful tears left i have expended so many in the past 24 hours.

First-my family gathering.  The waterworks were held in check (barely) throughout most of the day.  I love my family.  Just being in their presence is love defined.  Accepted and loved despite myself.  I told my cousin Molly "I'm not going to say goodbye, I'm just going to say that I have to run out to the truck." OK she says but then when the time came and I said "Hey Mol, I'm just running out to the truck" she grabbed hold of me and we both let it go....and that was just the first cousin.  20 relatives or so later Jim said "I should just build an ark-we'd get home faster there is so much water around here!"  Later he said "I just sat there watching you all.  It was a good thing."

Second-stopped briefly at my 30 year class reunion.  Hugs and laughter-no tears.  :)

Lastly-a most blessed, holy, joyful day for my church family.  Pastor Rolf was ordained and installed while 200+ watched.  Simply beautiful and moving.  Many, many joyful tears.  Looking so forward to ministry with he and Cheryl.

And now-off to my 2 week retirement to rest and reflect and recharge.

Help me not just to serve you Lord, but to serve you well and let the love in my heart pour out into ministry.  Amen.  Amen.  Amen.

Sharing the U.P.

So....several friends are coming to the U.P. while we are there-including some who have never been to the U.P. (how could that be????)  So hard to decide where to take them!   So much of God's incredible creation to share with them!!!!!  Can't wait!!!!

can you feel the love.....

I can...my heart and my stomach seem to know that my far flung family is closing in on our fair Michigan.....I want to know when they are arriving and when they are leaving so I can spend every waking moment basking in the love......

A heartfull.....

So.....looking forward to 3 major events this Weekend. 

First, on Saturday is the 80th birthday party for my Aunt Esther in Marlette-up in Michigan's beautiful thumb.  Aunt Esther is the second sister in my Dad's family.  She is the elegant, world traveler sister.  Always on the go.  Ever faithful to her Lord.  And she wrinkles her nose when she laughs and I could just cry thinking about that right now.  Most of my dad's family will be there.  My heart hurts in anticipation.  I will be lucky to make it 10 minutes without dissolving.  (Note to self-bring makeup to reapply.)  We like to say when one gets cut, we all bleed in this family and it has been FAR TOO LONG since we gatherered (especially for a joyful reason).  I hope I can even begin to tear myself from them when the time comes to go.

Later that evening is my 30th class reunion.  Yikes.  I'm sure you are all thinking "how could you be THAT old".  I'm sure I will be thinking "who are all of these old people?!"  I just spoke w my longest, dearest friend Ruth who is one of the extraordinary planners of said reunion.  She gave me a rundown of the rsvp list so I could look them up in the yearbook.  Yikes again!  Did I really graduate w/ these folks?  Some of them wrote such lovely things in my yearbook that it moves me to tears and yet I seem to have no recollection of some of them.  Oh well.  It will be a lovely time to recall and reconnect.

Finally, on Sunday, our new pastor, Jim Rolf, will be installed and ordained.  What an exciting new chapter for my church family.

Whew-good thing Arsenic City is only a day or so after this weekend.  I think I will need to decompress and bask in the love that is family and friends.  I hope your summer is as heart full.

Summer....

So a big chunk of summer has come and gone.  Had a wildly successful VBS at church thanks to the efforts of sooo many.  I used my God given talent of bossiness (its my spiritual gift!) to lead the masses!  Halleluiah!!!

Through that and for much of the spring/summer we have been preparing for the Beasley Family Reunion which we hosted here last weekend.  What fun!  What joy!  Had a wonderful time reconnecting with our family.  The highlight for me was Church on the Farm on Sunday morning.  Wporshipping, Praising, Praying, Crying together as a family-the Beasley family and the family of God.  Truly a special time!

Now I am looking forward to my annual trek/get away to Arsenic City-to regroup/rest/prepare for the coming year...school, church, sports, etc....

God is good.  all the time!

So baby brother and I took a quick trip back to our hometown to go, sadly, to the funeral home and pay our respects to an old neighbor friend.  He was always "old" to us so I suspected that he was 127 when he died but he was 85 and now that I am on the home stretch to 50, that doesn't seem that old.....anyways he is one of the last of the original neighbors-most having died or moved away.  What I remember most about him  was that he was always the guy who came and collected money from the neighbors for flowers when someone passed away.  His dear wife was there and some other neighbors but not many others that we knew.   The sweetest thing there was a framed picture with wonderful, dear words from the "kids" that had been their neighbors on both sides of them.  All about what wonderful character he had and how, just by being an upstanding Christian man who dearly loved his wife and was just simply a good neighbor, they had learned how to live a good life.  Quite a testament to a life well lived.   Well done thou good and faithful servant.  RIP Lee.  Attica is better because of you.  

Soooo....the downside was my  truck had to spend the day at the Ford Garage with his F150 friends getting a windshield repaired....the upside was I had no truck so I got to be outside and weed to my hearts content....got loads done and hated to have to leave it at the end of the day!  And my own Mr. Greenjeans or honey do hubby as I fondly call him, came and weed wacked which I don't really like to do because it is too loud and it makes my arm tired!  But the best part was when my sweet, dear friend (honey do hubby's dad) called to tell me he is going to be  baptized (hooray!) and wants Jim and I to stand up with him-praise God-a perfectly wonderful ending to a perfectly wonderful day!  Oh and p.s.-you want to know what the best way to be a Christian and witness is?????  Love like Christ.

Spent most of the afternoon in my garden tending to my currant bushes.  I love currants.  They are the nectar of the Gods in my opinion.  Plus they take me right back to my childhood so that is an added bonus.  Here is a currant factoid for you>>>>


Currants are a type of berry used to make jellies and jams. Currants were once a common agricultural item in the United States. Cornell University points out that in the 1920s, the U.S. cultivated approximately 2,700 acres of currants. However, a disease outbreak led to a federal ban on the planting of currants. While the ban lifted in 1966, currants have never bounced back as a widely-grown crop.

Read more: Facts on Currant Fruit | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_7242498_currant-fruit.html#ixzz1tU5eTEMz

Anyways, mine were looking very unruly and had a lot of weeds around their feet but now they are pruned of all of their dead stuff and all the weeds have been pulled and they have a comfy, tasty layer of composted manure around their feet and they are very happy-and so am I.  

Getting ready to repaint the living room before new carpet comes....just cleaned the baseboards....GROSS...until you get down on your hands and knees you don't realize what a pigsty you live in.....kids and dogs and dirt and dust....life is messy sometimes.....my mother would say live with the dirt (to a point) and enjoy life-the people you love are gone far too soon.

OH-and I just realised that my brothers are, at this very moment, at arsenic city and i am insanely jealous.

Soooo....I feel like I have accomplished not much this week on the yard front.  Spent time testing kids on recorders at the local elementary, working on the HS musical set and running the dog to the vet.  I told hubby o mine that I get nothing done between kids and dogs.  He reminded me that I am loved.  I guess he is right but I can't help wondering if that little 4th grader will mention me in her album notes when she one day becomes a famous saxaphonist.....hmmmmmm