The Price of an Education

It is hard to juggle the responsibilities of life, church, work and school. Many things fall by the wayside, like time to socialize, vacations, a super clean house and even time with family.

As each semester ends, it takes about three days of sleep to sort of recover. Then must jump immediately into cleaning up the house and catching up on all the paperwork, filing, purging junk, managing affairs and seeing as many friends as possible before the new semester begins.

Each semester has a rythm to it. It takes a couple of weeks to figure out the schedule, but when you do, you can almost have a life. Can maybe even slip in a hour for some good poetry and a cup of tea.

Meet Walker

Recently my daughter Maria went to Tulsa for a youth convention. She sat next to an interesting fellow named Walker. I'm glad the Lord put them together in the same row, because she has the patience for such and experience. On her blog is an adorable entry and video clip of her experience. Watching Walker makes me wonder if he was a victim of a vaccine reaction.

Enjoy the adventure!

Good People

God is Good!

To everything there is a season. It has been several years since I've been able to fellowship with Nancy. She is very happily married to a gentle man named Jim. He treats her very well.

I know this picture has them off in the distance a bit, but I wanted to capture the flourishing flowers that line the base of their house.

They live on two acres and have put lots of time and effort into creating a little haven of rest. Jim is a tree trimmer and is very thoughtful of the surrounding wildlife. Here is a picture of a tree that he has prepared for some resident vultures.



Apparently there are two vultures that frequent the tree. If you look close you can see two raw spots at the top branch where the bark has been taken off. As we drew closer the bird flew away.


Nancy has a special touch for creating beauty. I really liked this spot next to their wood shed. She even has a place for the birds to enjoy themselves!


If you click the pictures they should enlarge so you can see the beauty of Nancy's handywork.

Internet Fast

Recently our pastor called us to an internet fast.

I thought that it was for a month, when it was only for a week. Thank the Lord it was only for a week! I was having a rough time. I didn't realize how much of a time consumer internet entertainment is.

I really enjoy the news. It was challenging not to click the link to learn about the 1900 year old chariot from the Bulgaria Thracian Kingdom that was discovered recently.

Almost went to Slang o’ The day.com to find out what the latest slang means. I learned about this sight by way of assignments given at college. The instructor was directing students to not use slang, but to step up their English skills to proper English. I discontinued the daily e-mails. It just didn't seem interesting any more.

And received an e-mail about a young preacher.

In all I did pretty good on the internet fast.

Skyler did all right too. The Lord has a way of replacing what we give up. We discovered Webkins. It is a cute site for children to hang out in and play. A special friend gave Skyler a stuffed animal with a webkey to the site. There is lots to do in the site. You can even work to earn money for food and other essentials. You can find out more at Skyler's Blog.

Hot August Days

Thousands of Chinese people in a swimming pool. The thoughts of being in this water with that many people makes me ill. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to get out and use the restroom?!?

Finals

This picture is much better looking than my desk after finals this summer. I took an online English class!!! Very daring to take a critical writing class and have only one meeting with the instructor.

On campus we have special services for struggling students like me. One is call RAD. It stands for Reading Across the Disciplines. The other is WAC. This stands for Writing Across the Curriculum. I am so glad I signed up for these two helps because the English class was very challenging. I had at three appointments a week to get help with homework.

I learned about Oedipus. Apparently his father, Laius, made some very bad choices that created the curse of unchangeable fate for Oedipus and his children. The Greek gods can be so unmerciful. They really like ruling people with fear and fate.

I'm so thankful to be living for God. That his mercy and grace curses the curse as long as we obey his word and worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Foriegn Exchange Student

I was blessed to have sponsored a precious Chinese boy for about a week this summer. His American name is David. He ended up going to stay with another host family because he was extremely lonely. We tried to communicate on the computer at worldlingo.com, but the web site did not have his dialect. The Lord impressed upon me to make sure he saw his friends on the weekend. As things progressed, I discovered that he lives at school during the week, and goes home on the week ends. When he is home his parents are too busy for him. His first bond is to his school friends. Interesting lifestyle I must add.

Well the group of 30 students stayed in the area for a total of two weeks. Every week day was filled with activities. The students had a wonderful time. They went to San Fransisco and walked to the Quoit Tower and down Lombardo street. Rode the Vallejo ferry, visited the Railroad Museum, shopped at Old Sacrament, and toured the fish hatchery at the Nimbus Damn. This list is only a few of the places they traveled to.

Their next stop is Washington DC to tour the White House and other memorials there.

We grew close as a group and will miss them. I know the children will never forget the church services and the spirit of God. He touched all the children and I am sure he will continue to deal with their hearts as they return home and continue to grow up.