i know how job's wife felt. not that i've lost my children or any of my stuff...indeed, i have way too much stuff!
but sometimes i think about mrs. job and wonder about her motivation. just what made her say those awful words and seal her reputation forever? i think i know. (this is completely speculative and extra-biblical so don't take it as theology.) i think job's wife saw her husband devastated, afflicted, financially ruined, and all because of what? from all she could see, he'd lived his life as a Godly man, tried his best, and had set a good earthly example of a "Christian" in how he lived before her and his family. and not only did it all go terribly wrong, but to top it all off, he received NO solace from his friends and brothers in the Lord! no, instead, he received rebukes and accusations. i think THIS is what made job's wife despair. when her husband cried out to his own, they stabbed him in the back. why do i understand this to be the case? because i've seen it happen. and though she should have chosen her words FAR more carefully, i think she was just paralyzed because she had no words to comfort him when the men who should have bound his wounds and given him hope did neither. woe to those who do not bring comfort and kind words when it is within their power to do so! thank God for the few, the happy few, who are a blessing to their brothers and sisters in Christ and not a curse! it is hardest for a helpmate to see her spouse struggle with all the "shoulda-coulda-wouldas" and question himself to distraction when all along a kind word could be as gold in a setting of silver.
sometimes...i just want to go very far away from the ministry and wrap myself around a deserted isle.

raccoon with a phd

what's this, you ask? this is what we came home from vacation to. it is a suet feeder that had a lovely no-melt cake of suet in it one week ago. while we were away, some clever raccoon (i think) managed not only to open the latch, but was clever enough to hook the door onto the hook so that he (or she) might better enjoy the suet at its leisure! can you see the wire that it hangs from? it's on the hook beside the one the feeder is now connected to. it's going to be a long winter...
a pigeon. so what, you might remark. well, this is the first pigeon i've seen in our whole town since moving here five years ago! and it's all alone! he's been strutting around the back yard like he owns the joint and he is BIG !! i usually have to drive to worcester to see pigeons...i just don't get it! where did he come from? why is he here? i want answers and he's not even cooing!!! are there any pigeon behavior analysts out there?

instant vacation

i call this instant vacation b/c we decided on the spur of the moment to go...and off we went!this is where we tried to kiss the children. can you tell it's nap time?
jenn, jack, and zak
kaedra, kelsie, and don
jack all ready for church
kelsie when her hair has been tamed.

i have been out of town this week. drove south to see the children and grands b/c who knows when we'd get another chance? ate way too much while there but it's so rude to say no to kahlua trifle when you're the guest! we drove to friends' house in tennessee and next day headed to atlanta area to see kaedra, don, and kelsie. jenn, zak, and jack drove up from valdosta so we got to see as much family as possible. (dylan is still in england.) the trip sure made me wish i lived back in the good ol' south! ah me! maybe someday!

the ladies who lunch

here is a happy day indeed. jo-anna and jessica were here for a family reunion but i got to play innkeeper for their visit. they blessed me by sharing lunch with me instead of running wild with the rest of their family. what sweet fellowship! there's nothing so nice as cheese and wine and crackers and fruit and yummy butternut squash-crab bisque when eaten among friends! and chocolate for dessert of course!

good-bye lardo days

i have been a complete slug since the end of may but those days are just about over. i just accepted a position as 4th grade teacher in a small classical school called imago located in maynard, ma. i'm pretty excited about it. my brain has begun functioning again after what feels like a 2 year hibernation. mmmm-mmmm good!

dogggone dog gone

well, it's been a pretty rough couple of weeks. things between molly and zeke were getting worse instead of better and when zeke tried to bite mark and later me (twice!) we had to be realistic and conclude that this might not be the dog for us. you guessed it. we returned zeke to the russell rescue refuge and will probably never have a second dog. the good news is that, since we were supposed to dog-sit digger but opted out b/c of the doggy stress around here, this freed us up to do so. we brought digger home the next day and it's been peaceful doggy heaven around here! this tells me it wasn't all molly's fault. above is a picture of mark, digger and molly. a pose which would've been impossible w/ zeke! poor zeke! he really was a nice dog--just stressed to the max!

our flowers this year

the rhodos and irises are gone now but they were lovely for a while. the lilacs were terrible! maybe i should feed them something...

puppy treadmill

525,600 minutes

how do you measure a year? how do you measure a life? by moments? or milestones? you might could make a case that there is a creation mandate to measure it by both. after all, when we look at creation, it is measured by the infinitesimal and the infinite. when we gaze upon the heavens, the stars in their courses, considering that each one may hold an entire universe, does it not bewilder you? can there be that much stuff beyond our sphere of influence? and looking inward, at the cellular level, is it not more astounding to contemplate the workings of the human body? cells divide TO multiply!!! that goes against everything they teach us in math class! and a life? can one predict or plan the moments or the milestones? anticipate maybe, but predict? not so much. i'm not even sure one can look back and pinpoint them all. it may even be that you might THINK something was a milestone when something else, seemingly insignificant, turned out to be so. i mean, it's easy to consider weddings, birth-days, promotions, etc. as milestone days but it's possible that some off-the-cuff remark about life or faith had a lasting impact on you...or, better still, your comment had a lasting impact on others! so moments ARE milestones and milestones are moments. would that we could all have a george bailey experience! but alas, that is not ours to expect or demand of the Lord. we must remember that all things are of Him and come from Him and are for our good. that every moment is a milestone embryo. that we should fill our moments with prayer that we will be clay in the potter's hands ready to be milestone vessels. i've been struggling with that today. how have i used my minutes? they do not roll over in real life as they might for your cell phone. what potential milestones have i let slip by me because i was caught up in the moment? we are given 525,600 minutes each year. that's 31,536,000 seconds; 31,536,000 moments. how will you measure this year? this life?

poker on the fourth!

in this picture: my brother jay, my dad, my mom. this is a typical picture at our poker games. it's where mom is asking if it's her turn and how much should she bet.
in this picture: sil kris, sirl karen and niece katie.
in this picture: mark and bil jim. i think mark has a swedish fish in his mouth. how do you like the twizzler tree?
in this picture: the loser's lounge. karen was the first out and then jim, katie and i all went out in one hand. we all bet holding one queen. if the fourth queen had come up, we would have split the pot but it didn't so my mother won w/ a pair of threes!!!
zeke after molly attacked him. the dogs were a little stressed w/ all the people and excitement. they got into it a couple of times and molly actually drew blood!!
molly in time-out. they were clearly not ready for company since they were not even used to each other yet. they've just taken turns on the treadmill to try and get rid of pent up energy and anxiety. i'll take pictures of that tomorrow.

a rare moment of peace and quiet

molly

zeek

can't we all just get along?

AARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! can you sense the frustration in my voice? i thought the dogs would be sweet companions by now but everyone tells me it will take time. Yikes! what have i gotten us into? poor mark, i'm always coming up with some hair-brained scheme that i assure him will be wonderful....molly and zeek (that's how i'm spelling it. i like it better that way. just like i wish my name had an "e" on the end like anne of green gables) are jockeying for position and molly is relentless in her pursuit. although, i believe zeek will win the day. i'm rooting for him anyway. that girl needs to be put in her place and i'm just as happy to have zeek do it as anyone else! the fam is coming by tomorrow. let's see what a house full of peeps does to the dogs!

(sorry this is blurry. i'm not so good at motion and, to my credit, it was foggy that morning)

meet zeke

we've had a long, lovely day driving to upstate new york to adopt another jrt. it took about three hours but the weather was lovely,(not too hot which is good considering the volvo has no ac), and the scenery was beautiful. there wasn't much traffic along the taconic parkway which leads me to believe that people don't take the scenic route so much anymore. got to russell refuge around 11:00 and were met with a cacophony of barking. it's a big ol' farm run by a horse doctor (about 10 present) and his wife, who takes primary care of the jacks. when she saw molly, she was worried that they didn't have a suitable buddy for her. she kinda wanted us to take a pair that had to be placed together but mark dashed those hopes before she could even show them to us! anyway, behind the fence we went to the many kennels occupied by over 20 jrt's. they were barking and yapping and bouncing off the roofs of their dog houses. not so zeke. he stood on his hind legs and looked at us as if to say "get me outta here! the noise is driving me nuts!" so he and molly met in a little enclosure they have there and practically ignored each other. a very good sign. mark took them for a walk and found zeke to be quite responsive to commands; better than molly! the owner dale, says females are like that. (wonder if that's why they call them... but i digress!) well, after a little more bonding, we signed the paperwork and headed home. zeke seems very comfortable here, taking over molly's spot almost at once. they've had a tiff or two but they have not been aggressive. just a case of "don't touch me THERE, buddy!" he's six years old but looks older due to his whiskers. he's MUCH taller than molly but as sweet as could be. i love him already!

feel like a big girl now!

well! this is my first foray into blogging. i'm a little scared...here goes. sojourner's is because this is not my home. i'm just a tourist in a strange land, just trying to get by till the Lord lets me finish this race before me. and threads because these are just the little strings that i pull out of my brain and post here. remember when dumbledore used the pensive? that's what blogging seems like to me. my friend mary-kathryn lamented the lack of bloggers over 30 or 40 so i thought i'd jump into the fray. who am i? i'm a 50-something empty nester substitute teacher. those are my labels i guess. i'm on my second cup of tea this morning while mark's off playing golf. i'm supposed to be walking on the treadmill. then i'm supposed to be working on a little project. there's always later...procrastinator; another label.

tomorrow is a big day. we're driving to new york to adopt a second jack russell terrier from a rescue kennel. i'm pretty excited about it. i'll post pictures of the new pup (well, he's more like 2) when i get home.

here's molly. she's a little bigger now, but not by much. she's pretty cute, don't you think? she gets to go to new york with us to see which dog she gets along with best. it might be more about which dog mark gets along with..we'll soon find out! ttfn