A Journey With Ruth

Some of my closest friends and I are getting ready to start a new Bible study.  It's been way too long since I've had a small group and I am SO excited!  I'm just getting ready to do the very first lesson so I can't say for sure that it's good but from just flipping through the book I'm pretty sure I won't be dissapointed.  Has anybody ever done this one?  I'll let you know later if I would reccommend it or not:)

We're Rollin' Now!

Well harvest is in full swing.  They called me on Tuesday to see if I could come in for awhile because they were starting to have a few farmers go.  (Can't remember if I mentioned it, but I'm working at the elevator again through harvest.)  So I went in around noon thinking I would be there for a few hours and it turned into a full 8 hour day.  But it's been good though.  Aside from trying to get used to an early schedule, that is.  I really don't mind getting up early as long as I get to bed on decent time.  And I love the job.  It's long hours and six days a week unless I ask off for something.  But it's a fun job and if all goes smoothe it will be over in two months or less.  So for that amount of time, I can handle long days.  And I love talking to the farmers and truckers that come in.  It's just fun!

Here is the place where I was going to put a cute little picture of a combine that I found online but it just doesn't seem to be working like I think it should.  So just use your imagination and maybe I'll get some real pictures of my own in the next few days.  Happy harvesting!

Freedoms

Tonight I feel somewhat compelled to share what I wrote in my journal.  I'm not a huge journaler.  If that's a word.  I typically only write when something is on my mind, when I'm going through a struggle or when I realize "Hey, it's been almost two months since I've written something..... maybe I should!"  I have friends who blaze through their journals like they're going out of style, but that's just not me.  Anyway, tonight freedom is on my mind.  Mostly spiritual freedom. 
Persecution is something we all know happens.  Most likely, many of us have done our fair share of praying for the persecuted church.  For some people, it may be just another thing on the prayer list.  For some, they feel very passionate about it.  Either way, it's probably not something that we desperately hope happens to us.  Some people want it for the sake of deepening their walks with Christ.  I am not one of those people.  I can't decide if that makes me feel guilty or not.  But anyway, onto what I wrote tonight.

Ten years ago marks a day when this nation was crying out to God.  We were unified as a contry and as a body of Christ.  Today we are so far from that place.  Yesterday, Marshall was threatened to be killed by a drug cartel.  Praise Jesus he boldly stood firm in his faith and trusted in the Lord.  Praise God that for now he is still okay.  But all this has made me think.  I am so thankful for my freedom to worship.  I praise God that I can worship without fear.  I lift up my brothers and sisters who don't have this freedom, and I plead with the Lord that it will never be taken away.  But I am not promised this freedom.  I am not promised that I will never be in that situation.  The Bible says not to fear what man can do to the body, but rather the soul.  But the truth is, I fear what he can do to the body.  Mostly because I fear that through that, he can get to my soul.  I don't fear death.  I fear torture.  I fear watching my loved ones suffer.  I fear that through those horrible things, I will cave.  And the only thing I can do about it is plead for faith to believe that in that situation, God will be there.  He will sustain.  Faith to believe that in that situation, I will feel the supernatural power of God.  I can only hope and pray that I will remain faithful to the end.

I'm not sure why I chose to put this out there tonight.  It really does nothing but make me feel vulnerable and exposed.  Maybe one of you secret readers (because I know most of you are secret readers) can connect with this.  Now, more than ever, we need each other as believers.  Please join me in praying for strength in the body of Christ.  Let's band together.  One analogy I have always remembered from a sermon is about uncooked spaghetti noodles.  If you take one or even just a few noodles, they are very easily broken.  But if you have a fistful, and they are all together, it's nearly impossible to break them.  And yes, I think of that every time I made spaghetti:)

A Splendid Weekend Indeed

A Splendid Friend Indeed is the name of a book I used to read to my kiddos.  It was a cute book and now sometimes when I'm thinking of a good friend that line runs through my head.  So, while I definitely had a splendid weekend indeed, I indeed also have some splendid friends to brag about.  Friday night we went to the Peoria Riverfront for my birthday and ate at Joe's Crabshack.  I rarely go down to the river so it was something fun for a change.  After supper we saw carriage rides and somebody suggested doing it.  So we did.  Making fun of the fact that we were taking a carriage ride through downtown Peoria, but it was a good time anyway.

Mclane, Jason and Dave

Lydia, me, Crystal, Katrina, LeaAnn, Emily and Leah

Seriously love this girl.  When I met her a few years ago I never knew how well I would get to know her and how much I would absolutely love her.  She's so Awesome!!

Group shot at the Ice Cream Shack

Those friends have blessed my life more than I ever knew they would.  I've probably talked about them all before but hey, why not again?  I knew a few before I moved to Athens but most of them I met while I was there.  While I was living there, MOST of my friends got married and moved on.  But as they did, God brought this group into my life which made my transition back to central IL that much easier.  They frequented Alabama due to a few family connections and thanks to those family connections I had a great group to come home to. 

Saturday was my birthday supper with my family.  I just like this picture because it took mom forever to find a camera that worked and everyone was singing while she was looking around.  So when she snapped this one, they were finally singing the last "you" of the song after dragging it out for about three whole minutes.  That's a long time for  the "Happy Birthday" song to last.  It was just funny when they finally got the last word out.

Sunday night cookout at LeaAnn's new cute farmhouse.  Same splendid friends, some splendid games, conversations and a VERY splendid grain bin singing.

Serious girls, serious.

Okay now smile!

Monday night supper with most of the family at Grandpa and Grandma Hodel's.  "Smile kids!!"  No reaction...  But they're still pretty cute.

Sweet little Bugs.  LOVE her!!!

So there you have it.  A Splendid Weekend Indeed.

Surviving Irene

Last summer you might remember that there was a big group of people from Rockville, CT that came to the preschool and spent a whole week completely rehauling the place.  New ceiling/lights, new paint, new carpet, new toilets.... the whole works.  They were an awesome group and my roommate at the time and I decided that going to visit them was completely necessary.  So, finally, a year later, we had the dates all picked out and we were excited and ready to go!  Then the news said there was going to be a hurricane hit CT when we were planning to be there.  There were a couple people who questioned if we should still go but there was never really any other option for us.  We were going.  So, last Friday, I drove out to her house in IN.  She was at work and was going to get home around 1:00 in the morning.  The original plan was to leave Saturday about 6 AM but long story short, we ended up leaving her house about 1:30 AM instead.  I had slept for an hour at her house and we decided to keep taking turns sleeping in the car rather than wait until 6 to leave.  Between the two of us there was about 5 1/2 hours of sleeping.  Including the hour I had earlier at her house.  But we made it in great time so I guess it was worth it.  Saturday night the hurricane hit and while there was a lot of branches and several trees down, the damage wasn't terrible.  Nobody had power though.  700,000 people out of 1 million in CT lost power.  But that was really the extent of it all.  Saturday night and Sunday were spent catching up with our friends from last summer.  I didn't get any pictures those two days but it was great seeing them all again.  Then Monday, the storm had passed, the weather was beautiful, and we headed up to spend the day in Boston. 

We had never been there before and it was so fun!!!  We weren't expecting such strong Brooklyn-like accents there so after our first encounter with a Boston native, we (okay mostly Cass) had a great time trying to copy them.  We decided to take this trolley that had 9 different stops throughout the city.  We could get off and on at whatever stops we wanted to all day long.

That's us on the trolley.  We saw a lot of cool things.  Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church where they hung the two lanterns.  You know.... one if by land, two if by sea?  I found myself repeating "Up you patriots!  Arise you minutemen!  The British are coming!  The British are coming!"  I think it probably sounded better when Paul said it.

We went inside the church where I discovered you could go up into the tower where the lanterns were hung.  With my new found interest in the Revolutionary War, I thought that would be the coolest thing ever.  So I asked the girl working there and she said the last group of the day had just left at 4:30.  It was 4:39.  I was sorely dissapointed. 

This place we ate at for lunch, the Quincy Market, had just about any kind of food you were in the mood for, a bunch of little shops, and street performers.  None of which we were overly impressed with.  And, you just never know who you might see while walking along the streets of Boston.  A Revolutionary War soldier perhaps?

We had been invited to spend Tuesday at the beach with a family we knew from last summer.  And much to my delight, the beach we were going to was in Rhode Island.  Ever since reading a book that was set in RI, I've wanted to go there.  The book just made it sound so nice and quaint.  It did not dissapoint.  We spent the day lounging, getting to know our friends better, skim boarding (not me), and finding all sorts of beach creatures.  And since the hurricane had just come through there were some pretty decent size waves for crashing in the ocean.  It was a great day:)

Once we got home from the beach we decided to go ahead and leave that night.  Which meant saying goodbye to our awesome hostesseseseses.  Seriously, these people are great.  We hated to leave them. 

We drove about 4 hours and stopped at a dumpy Knights Inn for some solid sleep this time.  We were wiped out from the beach and decided driving through the night probably wasn't the best idea this time around.  We got back to Cassie's about 5:30 so I decided to go to church with her and spend the night.  After supper, she all of a sudden dissapeared from the table.  I didn't think a whole lot of it because she's always doing something random.  But when she came back, she was holding a cake lit with candles and decorated with Snow White and the 7 dwarfs that she had found in a drawer.  We decided those little figurines had to be from the 80's.  Her mom just happened to have a cake for supper and since my birthday is Saturday, this was the result.  Complete with a party hat:)

I finally got home today around 2:30.  I have had one great summer but it is GOOD to be home and not think about leaving again soon.