Eggs and Goose Eggs

There are eggs...

 and then there are goose eggs!

 We took some trailer hitches to auction one Monday, and came home with a bag of goose eggs. We compared a goose egg to one of our chicken's eggs.

 Then we made a rice and egg casserole with eggs and a goose egg.

 While we feasted on eggs, the steers feasted on watermelon rinds.

 Every once in a while, I have Timmy listen to Danny's reading lesson instead of me.

 My sister Iva's family is here today while their newly lacquered wood floor is drying. While the older children studied their school quietly together in school room and kitchen, I had the little ones rinsing and bagging fresh raspberries we got on sale.

 Sarah, Evan and Hannah bagging the berries.

 Sometimes, you have to admit that life goes a bit topsy turvy--and you'd like to give it a good kick.

 That is when, instead, you take some moments to find a quiet spot to quiet your heart--

maybe the front porch swing, maybe a sunny window in your bedroom, maybe a spot on a path.

And maybe--in a home of seven children--you can't find a quiet spot, so....

 you just look out your window and remember the verse,

"I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth."

 And you choose to store away in a special spot of memory all the daffodil gardens of back east, and choose contentment with the single pink tulip that made it through the Colorado prairie frosts

when the daffodils never bloomed.

 And there are also these tulips, too, in the other flower bed.

Before the tulip bulbs could burst and bud,

they had to be buried.

We have a friend, Dale O'Maley, from our church, who is about to cross Jordan and enter Canaan. He's been fighting scirrosis of the liver. Perhaps I will copy and paste into this blog part of an edited letter I wrote to church folk whom we were keeping updated on his condition, as Jonathan and Dale became rather close in recent days. We'd been to visit Dale four times in the hospital over the weekend. Sunday our family sang several songs for him before and after Sunday service. Then Dale went into a coma on Monday at his home, under hospice care. He had not responded to anything for 32 hours. When Jonathan contacted a friend who was with the family, they asked if our family would come sing for Dale last evening.

Last night I wrote,

"What a precious evening! The Lord gave us special help as we gathered in the livingroom near Dale's hospital bed and sang song after song with the autoharp...First we sang "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" and "Lead Me Gently Home, Father." Nate [Dale's son] broke down, strode quickly from kitchen to livingroom where his dad was. He took his dad's hand and sat there with tears while we sang. Dale's daughter Enid was holding his other hand. We sang "Under His Wings," "Jesus Savior Pilot Me," and "My Jesus I love Thee." Then we lightened up a bit and practiced a cowboy song we've been learning for Crystal's graduation, "I'm Never Alone on the Lone Prairie," which I think everyone enjoyed, as it was actually very fitting. Barbara [Dale's wife] and Enid asked if we would sing "I'll Walk With God," which we had sung acappella in the hospital, and which Dale had kept talking about and saying how he liked it. So we tried to sing that for him, and that is when a special little miracle happened. Just as we finished the song, Enid and Nate, who were watching Dale closely, looked at each other.

"He smiled!" Enid gasped. Nate seconded it. Nate also said that his right eye fluttered a bit. That was heart-stopping. You can't imagine how touched we were! He hadn't responded in 32 hours, and suddenly, everyone could know that he was still hearing!

We kept singing, "Jesus What a Friend for Sinners," "No One Understands Like Jesus," "My Wonderful Lord," "He Hideth My Soul," and a couple about Jesus' name. Then they asked us to sing that "I'll Walk with God" again. It was a very, very special time. We are so glad we went. Jonathan prayed with him, and I told Dale, "You can let go of our hands, and take God's hand! He will be there!" Then out in the truck, Jonathan was crying softly. "His eyelid fluttered again, when I said goodbye," he choked to me. "He heard me! I know he did!" It seemed like Dale really connected to kind and gentle Jonathan in these last hard days. In the absence of a pastor, as ours just moved back to PA, we tried to be a support to Dale by sharing comforting Scriptures, praying with him, and singing. This is what means the most to someone who is about to trade the earthy for the eternal.

Dale seemed peaceful to me. A bunch of people were sitting around--they said 72 people have been in to see Dale.

We'd left the little boys home here with Iva's family who have come to stay a couple days since their wood floor is being lacquered, and took cousins Elisa and Krissy with the girls. The girls were so brave to go and sing. Little Hannah had fallen asleep on the way, so she was sleepy, and sat in Barbara's lap most of the time we were singing. Then when she thought it was time to go, she yelled, "C'mon, Ladies!" to the girls, which set us all laughing!

Gotta get to bed--we are worn out, but what a blessing! It's the first experience we've ever had quite like that.