My Father's World

I love to look at nature - at God's beautiful creation!

I just have to show off His glory!

"...For the world is Mine, and all its fullness"

Psalm 50:12b

The baby robins are wanting some food.

This is called Papyrus.

Do you suppose it is like the papyrus that

was used in ancient days to make "paper"?

I was told this is called "Bad Hair Day". Ha!

paddle plant

Hoping to keep slugs away this year!

Al got another pole - a stronger one.

The purple martins are happy.

Looking at the beauty of nature made me think of the song "This is My Father's World." I have a wonderful book, "Then Sings My Soul" by Robert J. Morgan. In this book, you can look up a hymn and along with the hymn, there is the story of the origins of how the hymn came to be. I looked up the above hymn.

It was written by a man named Maltbie Babcock (ok, young moms. How about that for a name??) Maltbie was from an aristocratic family and a brilliant scholar with a winning personality. He was handsome, an outstanding athlete, played several instruments and even directed the Syracuse University orchestra. He composed several compositions, enjoyed drawing and was a proficient vocalist. Although he could have been successful in any profession, God called him to the ministry. So he went to Auburn Theological Seminary and then became a pastor. His first pastorate was in Lockport, New York. It was a beautiful area, located not far away from Niagara Falls. Maltbie enjoyed hiking and running in those hills outside town. He would tell his secretary "I'm going out to see my Father's world." Sometime during those years, he wrote a sixteen stanza poem. Each verse began with the words "This is My Father's World". When he was 42, his church gave him a special gift - a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While enroute, however, at Naples, Italy he was seized with a deadly bacterial fever and died at the International Hospital in 1901. After his death, his wife compiled his writings and included was this hymn.

I had to include this picture of Sophia. She picked a dandelion and was so happy with it...until the yellow flower fell off. She tried in vain to make it stick back onto the stem. She was so sad.

Mother's Day weekend

On Mother's Day, before I was heading out for church, I noticed that our Mother robin and Daddy robin were a little busy with their nest. I went over to peek. You can't see it, but the last blue egg had a little hole in it and the last baby was hatching. I thought I had caught it on camera...sadly I didn't. But I didn't want to stay too long peeking as the parents were just a little upset I was so close. They don't understand that I am not a threat.The killdear were making a racket and I looked out my bedroom window at the lot next door. There was a Mommy and Daddy killdear with several little chicks. They were all taking a little walk. Then as I watched, 2 little baby killdear went up to their mommy and tucked themselves under her feathers. They literally disappeared under her wings. It was almost like a baby kangaroo that pops itself into the mother's pouch.

It reminded me of the verse from Psalm 91:4. "He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge."

At church we had child dedication.

Very sweet.

I cried.

Joel and Kendall's sweet Lily who is so precious to us.

Treaster's new darling, Brookelyn, after the loss of their baby girl to Trisomy 18.

Brynn, who arrived early and was in danger for awhile.

Sweet Payton who the Anderson's adopted.

Twins Hollis and Murphy.

The newest baby, Landrey.

Lane and Logan.

Caleb and Alyssa.

Alyssa has Down's and she has been such

a blessing to her parents.

So many parents choose to abort such a child.

These children are so dear to me.

I am so lucky to get to know these

children as they come to the nursery each week.

A reminder from Amanda and Jess about why we do this.

After afternoon naps, I went to Jill's to pick her and my mother up for a date to Wichita. We were giving ourselves a Mother's Day gift of time together. My mom had received a cookie bouquet from my sister-in-law, Linda Voran who lives in Kansas City. Mom brought it over to show the girls and to let them each pick one cookie to eat.

My mother, Lois Voran, and my daughter, Jill and myself went to Wichita and picked up my other daughter, Mindy. Mindy told us about a place called....

If you've never been....it is a classy place!

Located at Douglas and Oliver.

They are building another restaurant at Bradley Fair.

Loved the jazz music playing.

We treated ourselves to dessert. Yum!

I have to share about Saturday...

The Andersons had an adoption party for Payton.

Congratulations on your forever family, Payton!

In the evening, we went to Pretty Prairie to visit with Al's Dad.

Wayne Graber, who grew up with Al was performing with his group, Graber, Souter & Rupp at the Prairie Sunset Home where Al's Dad lives. This musical group lives in Dallas, Oregon (only 45 minutes away from Tony and Angela!) and since they sing country gospel music, they wanted to call themselves the Dallas Cowboys, but that name was taken already.

If you like country western music, you can find out more about them at waynegraber.com.
I have attached a video of them at the end.

As I pan the video about, you will see Al's brother, Sid and Al too.

Here is a picture of Al and his Dad.

Twinkies

Yesterday, Allen and I drove to Kansas City. Went to KU Med Center. Allen had spent many hours there during pharmacy school and the visit brought back many memories. We went to visit our friend, Rich Dewey. Rich is a great pianist and is on our worship team at church. He is a great friend and mentor to our son-in-law.

We got there actually before Rich arrived on the ambulance from Newton. When the EMTs wheeled Rich in, I think they were a little surprised to see Al there. They see him almost daily at Newton Med center and they probably wondered what Al was doing there.

Carolyn, Rich's wife arrived, along with Carolyn Bebermeyer and we spent some time together visiting. We left before they began to run tests and they will be doing a biopsy on Rich on Monday. We prayed together and then we left. Hope Rich can come home soon.

As we were in the parking garage, I looked across at the hospital and here was this doctor or resident in the window. He was texting someone. I just thought it was a cool shot.

We went to lunch across from this old McDonalds. I remember there used to be one of these in Wichita close to St. Francis hospital, but they tore it down.

And we saw this place. And no, we did not go there.

One of the reasons we went to KC was that for some time, Al has been looking for a "new" pick-up. He has been shopping on-line and finally found one. We always buy used vehicles. We have never had a car payment. Always pay cash. So, they are usually older with many miles on them. But that works for us.

Al had off yesterday so we drove up to get it. It is a Ford Explorer Sport Trac. Black with tan interior. Just like my black with tan interior Ford Limited 500. Him and Her vehicles! When I told our daughter, Mindy, she just laughed. "You're Twinkies! You have been marriage so long you are molding into one!" I think that is a compliment, right?

His, and Hers is beside it on the other side.

Today, Jill and I decided to go garage saling. Newton was having its first City-Wide garage sale. Jill was looking for a bike so that their family can all go biking together. Hannah has a bike, Adam has a bike and they have one of those things you can pull behind the bike for Sophie to ride in. Well, we found a bike at the very first garage sale. It is a funky purple color with pink lettering. But it didn't bother Jill at all. "They are Hannah colors!" And Hannah is tickled pink that her bike and her mommy's bike match!

The find of the day was when we pulled up to this one house on James Court. Just as we were pulling up, this guy was dragging a slide out of his back yard. Jill had just told me that they could use one as Hannah was out-growing the baby slide they had in their back yard. The guy sold it to us for $25!! We took it back to their house and Papa set it up.

When we got home, we sold our old pick-up (in the picture above) to the original owner, who was wanting to have it back whenever we wanted to sell it! We've had it for 6 years and it has been a great pick-up for us.

Kids say the darnest things

Children can say the funniest things. My daughter-in-law, Staci wrote this: Almost every night I sing several songs to Emeri (Jesus loves me, I love you Lord, and 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.) Although she sometimes sings along with Jesus loves me, I've never heard her sing along with 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. But today, Josh said she walked around the house singing "Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grapes to trust Him more". I guess she's a little too young to understand grace, but she certainly understands grapes! A few nights ago, the tornado sirens were going off. I blogged about that in an earlier post. This is what happened at Jill's house: Hannah said, "Mommy, do you know what we need to do in times like these? PANIC! Panic!" Then, running in circles with her arms above her head, she said, "Panic, panic, everyone panic! Sophia, you need to panic! PANIC!" Miss drama queen!



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Bible Study Outing

Today my Wednesday morning Bible study finished out our year going on an outing (an annual tradition). We were so sad that several could not go, including our dear sweet Carolyn Dewey whose husband is in the hospital. Praying for you, Carolyn and Rich!! We went to Wichita and our first stop was to Debbie Fry's home. Debbie had English tea and treats for us. Delicious!

Debbie is a quilter and has her own quilt room. Very fun!

Her house is filled with beautiful quilts!



We drove to Paramount Antique Mall on west Kellogg.

Wow!

We spent 2 hours there and didn't see the half of it.

After the antique mall, we were hungry so went to the Mongolian Grill on Ridge. That is an experience! You put raw meats, veggies of your choice and pick out your sauce and they grill it all for you. Very good and no matter how high you pile the food in your bowl, it is the same price. So might as well stack it high and take leftovers home for the next day. When we were all stuffed full, Debbie took us to Dennings Nursery on 21st street. Beautiful flowers! Unusual flowers! You have to go!

In the evening, Allen and I drove to Little River to attend the True Love Waits commitment ceremony for our niece, Susie Stephenson. Around 20 junior high kids made the commitment to purity and to honor their spouses after they marry by being devoted to their husband/wife. Proud of you, Susie!

Spring surprises

I love spring.

The lawn needed mowing today.

After I finished, I took some pictures.

See the bird feeder? Well, a robin decided to build a nest in that feeder.
You can sort of see her tail sticking out to the left.
She did not like me mowing so close and she would fly
to the flowering crab tree and scold me for getting so close to her nest.

You can see why.

Can't wait for the babies!

House Hit in Storm

Sunday morning I woke up before the alarm. I had a nightmare about some guy chasing me with a pencil, intent on killing me! I was running with Sophia in my arms - stopped at a gas station to change her diaper - then went biking to get away from this killer. It was awful.



It was so early in the morning. (I usually get up at 5:00 a.m. on Sundays so I can have some time in the Word and in prayer before going to church by 7:00.) I was so tired. I wanted more sleep so I argued with myself that I could skip my devotions. We live in an age of grace. It isn't like I wouldn't be listening to a sermon at church. But as I lay there, I couldn't go back to sleep, and anyway, I LOVE my time reading the Bible. I love how God's Word refreshes and renews my soul!



I got out of bed and decided to shower in the basement so as not to awaken Allen. I really love the shower down there. It has 2 heads and the water pressure is soooo good! I get it really hot and steamy. After my shower, I went upstairs to make a pot of coffee. My eye caught the clock on the kitchen wall. WHAT???? 4:15???? Good grief! I had done this one other time....when I set the alarm clock, I accidently hit the time and it went back one hour. Well, I was wide awake. I wasn't going to go back to bed at this point.


I had a sweet time reading, praying and also began my lesson on Daniel. I read Daniel 10, where Daniel encounters Christ. The description in verses 4-6 are so similar to Ezekial 1:25-28 and Revelation 1:12-16 and I could just envision "seeing" Him! And the most awesome thing is that our Lord, so majestic is the same Great High Priest who ever lives "to make intercession for you" Hebrews 7:25. I could not help but just worship Him and my heart was filled to full in wonder!



After church, we had a potluck luncheon with the Sunday School team. Wonderful food! I took some pictures of the great food we had but something is either wrong with my SD card or camera because even though it shows in my camera, sometimes some pictures won't download onto my computer. Do those SD cards go bad after a while? We had a whole table of desserts and the entire island in the kitchen filled with main dishes. Yummy! Here is a picture of Vicky Siebert's home made pizza!

Some of the GCC Sunday School team

After our potluck, we had a great time of sharing. We shared triumphs and struggles. Val told us that she had 3 children receive Christ into their lives!! One struggle I have each year is worrying about filling positions. I already know that I have 3 teachers I'll need to get for the summer. And only 2 teachers coming back next year as some are going to older grades, or becoming a one-on-one helper, or whatever. But God promises that He will meet all our needs. I know I have to trust Him, believe Him, but sometimes my guts just get upset thinking about it rather than realizing it isn't about me "getting" people to come work in the nursery. And really, it is exciting to see how He accomplishes this - always!!

I got home at 3:30, just as it was starting to storm. Oh my goodness the rain was horrific! At one point the winds were whipping up around 70-80 mph! Our front door couldn't even hold the rain back as the rain was smashing against our house. We had to put towels down in our "gen-kan" (Japanese for "front entryway"). Some of it leaked to the basement too.

Then we looked out in our back yard and it was so sad.....

Our purple martin house could not stand up against the storm and it fell down. Allen found 3 eggs inside the nests. Look at these sad little birds. We will need to find another pole - a stronger one.

Sophie has been wanting me to sing "The wiseman built his house upon the rock...."a lot this past week. (Matthew 7) This storm has reminded of that. To withstand the storms in our own lives, we need to have Christ as our foundation, or we'll just crash, just like that purple martin house.

Here is a picture of the flooding in the back yard. Luckily, it has never come up to our house, for which we are grateful.

My parents called to tell me that their bradford pear tree got hit by the storm. Half of it fell over onto their drive way. Here is the "before" picture and the "after" where the crew at Kidron Bethel is having to cut it down and mulch it.

Isn't it so sad? But we are grateful that no one was hurt. When the sirens went off last night, I was downstairs, but Allen doesn't do that. He goes outside or stands at the windows to watch the storm. Do your husbands go to the basement with you?