Happy Independence Day!

   I had a great day and feel incredibly blessed. I hope yours was good too!

   I feel blessed to live in a nation like the United States of America. A country that has a lot of flaws and problems but still was founded out strong principles and one where we still can celebrate more freedom than much of the world. I am grateful.

   There have been a couple of reminders to me today of how we get to choose our perspective and our reaction to the circumstances in our life.

  - One reminder was seeing/hearing various negative reactions on the condition of our country and how they didn't feel like celebrating. There are times for mourning to be sure and times to take a stand but I also think it is helpful to us if we look for the good in the situation and be grateful for the very many ways that we are blessed in this country. Just my thoughts on that. :-)

   - The other one was personal to me. For many years we have had 4th of July parties. I love hosting and it was something we worked together at as a family. And then the kids started going to Teen Bible Camp which is over the 4th usually and then Ken left. This year it was just me rattling around in this big house (Jonathan moved into his own apartment in April). Mara, Thomas and Malcolm had left on Saturday to spend the summer in Wyoming, Aaron and Megan had gone to camp and Jonathan was working most of the day. My first reaction was that I didn't feel like hosting a party on my own. But then I decided to go ahead. I was feeling  a bit blue about this day but God turned it into an awesome one!

Since Jonathan had to work most of the day I checked if he had any time available and he had some in the morning so we met up at 8:30 and biked around the lake. I really enjoyed getting to visit and spend that time with him. Lake Bemidji is around 16 miles around and we did it in 1 hour and 20 minutes. It was a lovely start to the day.

Next up on the agenda was time with these lovely ladies. I taught Barb her piano lesson at 10:30 and then we had Bible study followed by lunch. We usually do it at my place but we usually all contribute to have lovely lunches. It was a great time and everybody came dressed appropriately for the day which was fun.

 I decorated my table for the day which is something I love to do. I used my lovely Paul Revere Cream Pitcher for putting some of my garden flowers in. That made me think about all the lovely ladies that got that set of dishes for me this winter. I am very blessed!

  This evening a group of over 50 came to hang out at my place. Only a few of them did I invite before yesterday afternoon. It was pretty impromptu but people brought things to share - we had a lovely meal and some lovely times of fellowship.

SuSan did the majority of the dishes which was a blessing!

My friend on the left recently published a book and we enjoyed visiting with her about that. If you are looking for a new read which is the interesting story of her troubled childhood where she didn't know who her Dad was to finding hope in God the Father, I would encourage you to check out her book.

It was a lovely evening to sit outside and visit. The mosquitoes don't seem to be as bad as they were for a while this Spring.

This little car usually gets a lot of love when we had lots of little ones over.

The men's area. We do visit together sometimes but often end up a little segregated. :-)

The kids enjoyed using different wheels on our driveway.

Matthias had his own private chip snacking place on the steps. 

  This has been a wonderful day - I am so Thankful to God for it! I hope if you might be struggling with feeling blue or lonely or an any sort of a funk that you will make the choice to be thankful for the good things that you do have and start counting the ways that God has blessed you. Reach out to others and seek to encourage them. I believe you will be blessed!
 

So Thankful for Family!

Last weekend we went to a family reunion. Well to explain more accurately it is the Reunion of 3 families. 3 families that 70 some years ago met because of their mutual love of Jesus. They were all involved in sharing the gospel in a small town of Tilden, Nebraska and beyond. My grandparents lived there and the other 2 families came and went as the Dads preached in different churches. But these families liked to gather together every 4th of July and some very strong friendships were formed. And so we still like to meet together every 3 years (and many of us see each other and talk to each other much more often if we can). Our gatherings are filled with lots of visiting and laughter and tons of singing. Singing songs of praise to Jesus has tied our families together for several generations now and it continues to do so.

   The 3 pictures above are the oldest surviving children from the 3 families. My mom is on the right. She is number 4 in her family but the 3 oldest have gone to be with Jesus - 2 of them in the past year. Barbara and Lois are the other two in the picture and though they aren't truly my Aunts - they certainly seem like Aunts to me. I am blessed to not only have a large collection of biological aunts and uncles but also so many more that I also share a strong bond with.

Tom, Lois' brother who is my Mom's age joined in on this picture. It was fun to get to see Tom and make music together. We had enjoyed doing that a lot when I was in college in Southern Iowa and went to church where he also attended on Sunday nights.

On Saturday we enjoyed family olympics (though we did not divide up into family groups to play) led by my sister Anna. Our team (pictured above though missing my 4 year old nephew Mathias who was a part of our team too) ended up winning which was pretty fun.

We had to do various relay races, taking shirts that were frozen into solid chunks of ice and beat and pull them apart until somebody could get it on and other fun activities.

A contestant from each team also had to stuff their mouth with marshmallows and then sing the National Anthem.

It was rather entertaining.

He is the 4th generation (that made it to the reunion) from our family. Only Jonathan of my kids was able to make it this year but I did have quite a few nieces and nephews there.

Speaking of Nieces and Nephews - I had a fun time with these munchkins. I had sore muscles on Sunday after playing follow the leader going up and down stairs I have no idea how many times on Saturday night. 

Friday afternoon we had a tea party for the Ladies and girls. We were encouraged to bring a hat and a tea cup. Lois brought along a whole collection of old hats for anybody to use. So everybody was well outfitted.

June is the only surviving person from the first Generation. It was neat to see her again. When I got to visit with her she told me that she prays for me every night. I am so incredibly blessed to have so many in my life who care about me and know that God has the answer and the help for all of our problems. 

Vicky and Aunt Ellen along with Nancy have been organizing these reunions for quite a while now. They have done a great job and I am super thankful for them! They are retiring from it now so we in the 3rd generation are going to attempt to do it now.

There are some pretty tall guys at the reunion. This group is Jonathan (around 6'5") and Bobby and Harrison (who are around 6'6").

I didn't take many pictures there so this is a pretty incomplete snapshot of the reunion but it is at least a bit of it.

   Highlights for me were.....

-Dad and I leading a nature walk with a huge group good naturedly following along. Getting to visit a bit with Lois as we walked.

-Some times of real sharing and good conversations with several of my cousins. 

-Getting our NYR menu figured out with Sarah while we were there. We are taking the youth to a big youth rally out in Colorado in a few weeks and we need to feed them while we are there.

-Singing around the campfire.

-Singing and playing the Violin at the Hymn sing on Friday night. It was so fun to play the violin along with Suzanne (also on the Violin) and John (on the piano). It was also fun getting to play "Hold the Fort" on the piano from ear/memory for the group to sing as there wasn't any music and John didn't know it.

-Having some real bonding time with Theo and Netta.

-Traveling with my parents and Jonathan and getting to visit a bunch.

  Are you blessed with a supportive family who loves the Lord and encourages you in your walk? Even if you aren't - it can begin with you and your family and you can do like these 3 families did and become like family with others that also love the Lord. The family of God is pretty awesome!