Sunday Wrapup--5/15/2011

I don't know how to fix the odd format of the previous post, so I guess I'll let it be. I keep forgetting that something like this usually happens when I cut and paste from another site.

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Still no rain. The forecast for tomorrow calls for patchy frost. A definite case of insult being added to injury if that threat materializes. Hiromi drained all the hoses in preparation for having to start sprinklers before sunrise tomorrow.

My older sister's birthday is on May 14. She just turned 60. Years ago my mother said that we've never had frost after that date. So, if it happens tonight, according to Mom's informal record, it will be a first-time-in-60-years event. The average frost-free date occurred on April 15.

I'm reminding myself that drought and frost are not as devastating as the flooding along the Mississippi River is--where many square miles of farmland and farm homes have been intentionally inundated in an effort to spare the cities downstream. All it would take to restore our area to normalcy is rainfall. In flooded areas, massive cleanup is required, and farmland can be permanently altered by deposits of silt and junk. We've also been spared tornado and hail damage.

The rain chances for mid week keep increasing slightly. We're now at 40% for Wednesday night.

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Shane went to PA this weekend to attend Cliff and Katrina's wedding. Dorcas planned to travel there from VA to meet him and attend the wedding together. He was to return to KS today, and will then drive to VA with Joe and Marilyn to be there for about a week before returning to KS again on about the 29th. Dorcas will return at that time, along with Craig and Rachel, who arrived there this past week from Thailand.

Joel and Hilda went to visit Hilda's brother Angelo and Anna this weekend. Angelo is in grad school--at Yale, I think. That's where he did his undergraduate work.

Grant and Clare are doing some registering for gifts at local stores this weekend. That's one getting-ready-for-a-wedding ritual I'm pleased to have been spared. I have enough trouble deciding what to buy for myself. How would I decide what other people should buy for me?

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Josh and Misty's baby, Angel Hope, was born this week and died shortly after birth. She was born very prematurely. Our church family prayed for this child--both together and privately, and we grieve with Josh and Misty in the loss of their first child.

I love the name they chose. No, she won't be an angel in heaven; she'll be a person transformed in whatever way other human residents of heaven are. But her name is a reminder that she had angels watching over her during all of her short life just as all children have attending angels who always behold the face of the Father. And it's a reminder that she is being cared for by beings whose mission is to be ministering spirits.

The name "Hope" is a reminder that the great loss of this child is not the end of all good things in life. Hope is the birthright of every Christian--a precious thing in a journey that involves the giving up of many other "rights."

Josh and Misty no doubt had their own reasons for choosing the name Angel Hope, and someday maybe I'll hear what they were. But I don't have to hear their reasons to approve of their choice.

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Oren and Jo and their family traveled to IN last week to attend the funeral of Mark Sweeney, who had lived in Jo's parents' home for 40 years. He arrived in their home at the age of 10, when he was placed there--by some social service agency, presumably. He had Down Syndrome, and lived in an institution prior to living in Laban and Agnes' family home.

A little over a year ago Mark had fallen--on ice, as I recall, and injured the spinal cord in his neck. He had a long recovery from that injury, and could not be at home during part of that time. He was at home again at the time of his death, apparently after a series of strokes.

Caring for Mark, of late, must have been quite a task for his over-80-year-old parents. He could not walk, but could support himself, at least partially, in moving from his bed to a wheelchair. This is probably the only time since their first child was born that his parents have been alone. For a number of years they also cared for their own parents. At least one of them lived past 100. What a service of care-giving they have offered to others, along with raising at least seven children born to them.

Jo told me today that Mark loved the job he was asked to do for the church after he became a member at Woodlawn. The offering was collected in envelopes in each individual Sunday School class, and it was Mark's job to collect all the envelopes. He could hardly wait till it was time to swing into action to get his job done.

Mark's baptism also occurred at the initiative of the bishop, who had prayed with Mark after he responded (yet again) after a public invitation. On that occasion, he repeatedly said, "I want Jesus," and Elmer felt that he was clearly making a decision to follow Christ.

Mark was different after his baptism, as many people attested to. He loved participating in communion, and seemed especially moved during his last communion service.

Jo said today that one of the things Mark taught her is that the things of God are understood with the spirit--not the intellect.

I'm blessed to see how Mark, with his limitations, could serve God. And I'm equally blessed to see how Mark thrived when Laban and Agnes offered him a Christian home, and Woodlawn offered him a church home. One "lost" child, one handicapped church member--not notable in any particular way, but having lived, made a difference for those who knew and loved him--and those of us who watched, and learned something about the grace of God as He extends it through His people.

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Last night I attended Mary Beth's high school graduation at their family home. Also in attendance were three sets of grandparents, including the parents of her birth mother and her mother now. Local grandparents are William and Elizabeth, and at least one of the other sets of grandparents came from New York. Mary Beth's first mother died when she was a toddler. Joanna had been the mother's co-teacher when both of them were single, and, after she married John, she helped finish raising her friend's children. Three more children were born to John and Joanna.

I heard last night that before they married, John asked Joanna if she would be willing to homeschool their children. She did not welcome the prospect at first. But she realized that as the children's second mother, she did not have the bonding advantage of caring for them from birth, and homeschooling would give her additional time to win their heart. She feels certain now that the investment was not wasted.

Both Mary Beth and her older brother Zack have taken a number of classes at our high school. That's why high school staff were invited to the graduation. Aunts, uncles, and cousins and church leaders and friends made up most of the crowd.

Mary Beth was a good student. She was in my typing, home environment, and composition classes. She was diligent and responsible, and as is the case with all the homeschooled students I've taught at the high school, she was exceptionally appreciative of a teacher's help and effort, and she took care to maximize the learning opportunities she was offered.

The graduation took place on the patio, with entrance doors into the Rhiel residence and into the Daudy house wing where William and Elizabeth live. The location was a perfect shelter from the chilly northwest wind, but jackets and coats felt warm and welcome. The occasion had a nice mix of formality and casualness. Zack led the singing, Mary Beth and her sisters each played a piano piece, James, from church, had a short address, and then both of Mary Beth's parents spoke, and Mary Beth's Grandpa Hostetler led in the dismissal prayer, after a few comments. I got the feeling that these grandparents saw in Mary Beth the daughter they had lost years ago. The grandfather spoke especially of the giving spirit they saw in both of them.

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On Wed. eve. we did work projects for the ministers and had an informal fellowship instead of having church. As it turned out, two minister's families could not be at home, and several other households received help as a result.

My parents at first thought that all that needed doing at their house was washing windows. But Linda and I worked with them to expand the list to include a number of other necessary tasks which weren't registering on their radar.

Cutting out seedling trees that had sprouted in the flower beds, and weeding and mulching in those areas, along with trimming honeysuckle vine where it was growing over the sidewalk all got done. Some of the ladies worked at cleaning out cupboards. Several others of us divided and re-potted Mom's big fern. By the way, there are still several unclaimed divisions of that fern. Call Linda, me, or Mom if you'd like one.

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Hiromi notices that quite a few shoppers purchase fresh cilantro at Wal-Mart, but very few buy parsley. He usually keeps us supplied with both at all times. "It's cheap," he says, and I find ways to include them in many foods. They both have a bright, fresh taste--most welcome when fresh vegetables are in short supply during the winter.

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Brandi is living here while Shane is gone. Lexi and her puppies went to Joseph's house where there were eager children waiting to play with the puppies. That sounded like a good arrangement all around.

I'm really impressed with the personality of Welsh Corgis. Grant is not so impressed with the droppings Brandi left in the driveway in front of the house. "Oh she's just marking the territory," I said.

"No, what she's doing is leaving piles of _____ for people to step in. Don't ask me for sympathy when you step in one of them."

I've been watching my step more carefully than usual out there. Thankfully the piles are flattened now by tires, and getting nicely dried out by the sun and wind. I knew this weather was good for something.

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Joey called the other day and told me he had just seen a flock of Bobolinks along the road by the alfalfa field south of the house. When he called, I was getting ready to hurry off to Charity's pinning ceremony, so I couldn't go out to look for them, and I never did see them. It was a shame, since I've never seen a Bobolink.

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At Charity's pinning, the student representative gave a list of some of the things that had transpired in the lives of the students during their years of nurse's training. The list included babies having been born to students--twins, in one case. Afterward, I saw two tiny babies in infant carriers parked next to the wall of the foyer where graduates were mingling with guests afterward.

I can't imagine trying to go to school while having twins.

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In that same nurse's graduating class I recognized Sandra, who I learned to know when we were both homeschool moms. She must have decided to go back to school after her children were through school.

Another person I wondered about because she had a familiar, but uncommon, last name was apparently the widow of Myron's classmate, Rocky, who died recently of a brain tumor. I learned that she's a good friend of Linda, from our church.

I know Charity's story best of all, and I'm proud of her perseverance in becoming a registered nurse. She plans to take her state boards, get a nursing job, and enroll in a bachelor's degree program right away--through Tabor College. It's an 18-month program that requires classes one night a week. Charity's dad told me in the refreshments line that they're happy about having a nurse in the family. I can imagine. Our family is happy to have a nurse in the family too--several, in fact, especially when there is a medical crisis. Bill and Lois are "our" nurses.

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I've gone to my last graduation of the season, and am looking forward to doing a lot of staying home this week. It's a great place to be.

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Monday Morning P.S. The predicted overnight low was 38 degrees. It went down to 35 by 5:00 AM. The windshield on the car does not seem frosty, but Hiromi is getting the sprinklers going anyway. The overnight low was to occur at 7:00 AM. Something seems strange though because at 6:00 the reading is 38 degrees. Maybe it's the desperate prayers ascending . . .

I'm not sure what all would be affected in the fields by a frost, but I know that about half of what we have in the garden would be toast. We have all our warm season stuff out--okra, peppers, tomatoes, melons, zinnias, etc., and nothing except some of the tomatoes are under cover.

On Thursday we now have a 50% chance for rain. On this matter, hope doesn't quite spring eternal, but it's something to look forward to.