Man Can Not Live By Blackberry Alone

The timing of our new blackberries (nickname crackberries) could not have been more perfect. The day after we get them we come to Kristen and Bryce's and learn all we need to know or could ever know about these highly technical instruments. My head is swimming and I must say, for the most part Kristen has been very patient. Don has learned more than me and when I am ready I will ask him for more information. It is impossible to learn it all in one weekend. The blackberry is one of man's greatest invention (well to me). To think that this little hand-held box can email, take pictures and videos, connects to the internet, updates facebook, can text, has a gps, plays music, and who knows what else?! Oh, yes, Don and I can sync our calendars so we know what each other is doing by a touch of a button. Karen should love that feature. Now that we have only one car that should come in handy. It is fun to use in the car on trips; if you are NOT the driver. And Ryan and Cavan play a game on it called Brick Breaker. Ryan wants to show me how to play it. I keep telling him I am too tired. Now I hear Don asking Kristen about some radio station that is playing on his. I hear you can get some TV channels on it; for a price that is. Oh my goodness it is all too much. There is no end. Speaking of end.....doesn't it say somewhere in the Bible that in end times technology will increase? I know there are so many more things that are high tech, but this is all I can take for now.

Meals on Wheels

Whenever we travel we bring our own "special" food in a cooler and a bag of non-cooler items. Kristen was talking to her friend who's in-laws do the same thing; must be a old person's thing. Tonight Kristen called it "Meals on Wheels." With our "own" tea, nacho chips. pears, avocados, and other things we don't want to go to waste at home, we could live quite awhile if we ever got stranded on the road.
Meanwhile Blackberry lessons are coming along. Kristen is getting a little tired of explaining the same things over again; it's kind of hard teaching old dogs new tricks.
Speaking of dogs, Mae the miniature dachshund has taken a liking to me and likes to sit with me and bury her head in my sweater. Am I a dog lover? Not necessarily, but the small ones are kind of cute and cuddly and Mae doesn't bark and is pretty quiet around the house.
Speaking of house, I wasn't here much today. We all went to Borders this morning for a children's reading of Polar Express and refreshments. The kids liked it and we got some Christmas gifts. Then the kids went home with Papa and Bryce and Kristen and I shopped at an outside shopping center. We started at Archivers (not a good place for me to go) and I bought lots of 20% off embellishments. We had tea samples at TeaGshwender and I bought a few things there. Grocery shopping was last and a quick stop at Caribou to get Don some coffee and then we went home. The sun was out all day and it was beautiful. If only winter would stay like this!
We went to church tonight-good message on Revelation 3 and had dinner when we got home. All in all a very productive day. I hope Audrey and Kevin don't mind us showing up with our Meals On Wheals.

The Last Days of Fall

A little color left in the woods.

Calan's tree. Planted for him just before Michelle's shower

Pansies still blooming

Do you see some little girls faces?

Brady turned 10 months and loves being outside.

November sure was a nicer month than October. We enjoyed some lovely sunshine and mild weather. There was still some color left this past weekend. We are going to be taking off tomorrow for Chicago, Springfield Illinois, and finally St. Louis to have Thanksgiving dinner with Kevin and Audrey and the girls. Uncle Buck will be staying here as usual to help out with the mail and things. We are hoping the weather stays nice until we get back home. No snow or ice please!!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures. Up North

The sunsets were wonderful last week up north. The sun sets on the left side of the lake now; in the summer they are the on the right side.

Enjoying coffee and Donaldo's homemade apple muffins on a 60 plus degree day.

Sitting by the lake at the golf club

Spy apples that Donaldo is hopefully going to make applesauce out of

Frost on the grass and a mirrored lake

Picking pinecones at the Golf Club

One of our favorite places to eat in Boyne City

Downtown Main St.

The sun brought the shoppers out

Kilwins clock frozen in time

Our favorite place to eat or have coffee in downtown Petoskey

The lake was so calm this week. It looked like a mirror every day.

The huge home across the lake taken with my telephoto lense.

Skipping Christmas

It's that time of year again and I am feeling a little hmmm...claustrophobic about Christmas. It's time to read John Grisham's book "Skipping Christmas." In the end, the character ends up having Christmas and if I remember correctly, he does it for his family. And that's the thing...the good thing about Christmas, it is not about us. No matter who you spend Christmas with, you celebrate Christ's birth with others. What gets in the way of Christmas is all the "have to's" and "shoulds" and the time goes faster and faster as the big day approaches. No matter how I try to simplify Christmas, it basically remains the same every year. I do feel like getting on a slow boat to the Caribbean. I don't know if I would really like it as much as I think I would and I am not sure I could actually do it, but one can dream right?
I think we need to change the focus and do and buy and eat less....and expect less. Let the feeling of thankfulness for every blessing we have dominate our hearts and not the things we don't have rule our thinking. Maybe then we can enjoy the holiday and not dread it or wish to "skip" it.

Hush

Kind of quiet right here now. I am alone for a bit longer. Watching Dancing With The Stars and eating a dish of ice cream with chocolate, caramel, and a few crunchies. Didn't start my diet today. Just can't get motivated. Kristen and the kids are almost home; they left just before 5:00 p.m. Donaldo isn't home from BSF yet. I have lots of pictures to post, but too tired tonight. Made reservations at a B &B in Springfield Illinois for two days between visiting Kristen and family in Chicago and Kevin and family in St. Louis. We will visit the Lincoln Museum and Library. It will be the first Presidential Library we are visiting. I have a quest to visit all the Presidential Libraries. Well gotta go enjoy the rest of my alone time and NOT EAT anymore tonight.

Families

Everyone has one...a family. You have the family you grew up with; parents and siblings. You might have another family in your adult years....kids and then the grandkids come along; that is another family. By the time you are my age you might be dealing with all three. The family unit is supposed to be where you learn, grow and thrive. But sometimes things aren't all that they seem. Yet as a parent, I made mistakes which has made it easier for me to forgive the faults of my parents. And, hopefully, my children forgave me for my faults as a parent when they became parents.
We can talk about dysfunctional families. We can talk about healthy families but I would hazard a guess that most families are a combination of both. I love seeing families doing things together and parents nurturing their kids. I love watching my kids with their kids and am happy to know in my heart they are doing a much better job than I did.
I have thought in the past, before my mom died that we (me and my siblings) were pretty good as a family. But somehow, I realize she was the glue that held our family together. Somehow we are drifting apart a bit and there are a few wedges coming between us. It is sad to me that I feel this way as I always thought our family did pretty good despite ourselves :) But I have learned something about forgiveness. I am not always right and the other person is not always right. I have been reading Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. A few quotes from the book.
"Nothing clarifies boundaries more than forgiveness. To forgive someone means to let him off the hook, or to cancel a debt he owes you. When you refuse to forgive someone, you still want something from that person, and even if it is revenge that you want, it keeps you tied to him forever. Refusing to forgive a family member is one of the main reason people are stuck for years, unable to separate from their dysfunctional families. They still want something from them. It is much better to receive grace from God....This ends your suffering , because it ends the wish for repayment that is never forthcoming and makes your heart sick because your hope is deferred (Prov13:12)
If you do not forgive, you are demanding something your offender does not choose to forgive, even if it is only confession of what he did. This "ties" him to you and ruins boundaries. Let the dysfunctional family you came from go. Cut it loose, and you will be free."
It definitely makes sense to me.