Two Nieces' Graduate from Nursing School

On December 14th, two of my nieces, Natasha and Amaris (Fain's and Elon's daughters) graduated from two years of nursing school. 

There were 16 in the class, and the graduation was at a Lutheran 

Church in Sunbury, PA.

Our four oldest children (Crystal, Sam, Carrie and Rose) managed to pull off a huge surprise by flying back to PA the day before, where my brother Fain picked them up.

The cousins were so shocked when our children walked into the house behind Fain that all they could do was stare!

It was a fabulous surprise! My sister Iva's family had also driven down from Michigan, and they got surprised, too!
It had been two years of hard work and heavy tuition expenses which Natasha and Amaris had paid themselves.

Here is the invitation we received.

So five of my siblings' families plus our four children were together that very busy weekend.

Here is Natasha with her family (Fain and Regina).

Here is Amaris's family, (my brother Elon and Anita), including her youngest brother Jed

who is married now to Rosalie (back left) and who drove up for the occasion.

This lady (behind whom you can see Natasha on the left and Amaris on the right) was the student speaker, and you can see her holding a Florence Nightingale lamp.

 Crystal plans to share more pictures on her blog, so you can check that out at
http://crystaloftheprairie.blogspot.com.
 I won't write more except to say that our children spent several days back there, attending this graduation and several Christmas programs that the church youth were involved in, as well as going Christmas caroling in the Penn View area with a group of about 26 young people.

Then our children drove back here in Crystal's PA van, via Missouri where they spent a little time with my folks.

They stopped for a couple days in Nebraska to spend time with friends there.

The rest of our family joined them there for a day.
That day we were able to visit the trailer manufacturing plant where the Russell's oldest son works. Jonathan has wanted to visit this manufacturing plant for a long time, especially since we met the owner in North Carolina a year ago who owns different trailer manufacturing plants across the nation
and is known for giving generously to his church and God's work from the profits. 

Sorry the sun's rays are so bright in this picture below. The man to the left, Matt, took our two families for a tour. We saw the big paint room where the trailers and parts are painted, and areas where everything goes on from welding to screwing to finishing.


 This is the area indoors where Isaac works with the installation of the hydraulics. He pulled a new one out of a box and showed us how he pulls this off and adds that on and then fills the pump with 10 qts. of hydraulic fluid.

Here we are outside looking at the different kinds of trailers.

They  manufacture, if I remember correctly, about three whole new trailers every day.
Isaac is showing us various aspects of this double decker hauler (don't ask me the name of it).
The owner of the company treats his workers very kindly. He could have gotten machinery
and robots to do a lot of the work, but his desire was to provide work for men who need to support families, and the owner has the head boss at the facility keep tabs on who works well and has good attitudes, because bonuses at the end of the year are given based on these kinds of things.

This is great motivation for the workers.

 Before our children left for this long trip across the US,
we celebrated Crystal's 22nd birthday early as she was going to be gone.

 Here she is opening her presents.

This gift was a homemade candle in a jar, from Rose.

I thought it was totally charming--with pine cones, kinnikinnick, cinnamon sticks, and olive oil with a little wick.

Well, that is all for now!

Even Our Animals Get a Christmas Gift!

 Even our animals received a special Christmas treat this year!

On our way home from church at Denver, going through Black Forest, we spied a twisted bale of hay lying by the side of the road. 

 It was one of those rare Sundays when the back of our van was not packed with picnic basket, crockpot, cooler, clothes, and other paraphernalia.

Just bells and music stands and a tall stool.

So one of the children jumped out while I opened the back door, and we got that hay in the van.

And when we got home, later Timmy got it out, a whole bale--a Christmas Eve treat for our animals for free!

That was a sweet blessing from the Lord!

Saturday morning before heading to Grandma and pa's for Christmas dinner two days early,

the children helped Jonathan side the horse's and steer's loafing shed...

...while Danny and Hannah played in the hay with our neighbor kids.

God provided hay for our horse and goats,

hay for the kids to play in

and hay for the manger for Baby Jesus.

He provides grass for the deer that recently have been coming from the bluffs all the way down by our place sometimes.

If God so watches over the deer and the goats and the horse and the steer,

if He provides food and shelter for them,

why do we worry, oh we of little faith?

How good You have been, Lord, to provide our needs!

May we share what we have with those who need, and hear a little Christmas prayer.

Remember those who are hungry and hurting today. 

Remember those who live not by bread alone today, but by faith in You, even when the path is difficult and the day is cloudy and they do not understand. 

We pray that You will give them the Bread of Heaven, and satisfy them with Your presence.

For in Your presence is fulness of joy!

Ladies' Christmas Tea--and When Jesus Sits Down With Us

A couple weeks ago, I accepted the invitation to attend a Ladies' Christmas Tea!

It was at a home only a few minutes away, and especially when Jonathan urged me to go ahead and go, I went!

It was just delightful!

Each lady and girl was supposed to bring a teacup with a story behind it to share, and you can see the teacups on the counter above and a few on the table below (this picture was taken after most of the ladies had gotten their tea.)

I took along a teacup from the tea set Jonathan had purchased for me in Ukraine one time when he was taking a Mission Helps crew shopping and one of the crew told him to pick out a tea set for his wife!
I've carefully kept this lovely set.

The hostess of this delightful party gave each lady and girl who attended a little teacup spoon.

There were delightful treats laid out.

Each guest put together her own Christmas tree ornament from these wires and various colors of beads.
I made a very pretty one of blue, clear, and silver beads.

It was a delight to get to fellowship with other ladies who are practically neighbors, country folk,
and other homeschoolers. 
And then on Christmas Eve, when I opened this gift from Jonathan, I was totally delighted!
It was Ashbys Twelve Teas of Christmas!
And a beautiful mug from Rose.

And Carrie made these beautiful, luscious, cinnamonny sweet rolls for Christmas breakfast!

I loved all that. To be invited and accepted by new friends and loved by my family was such a blessing to me.
But the sweetest thing of all this Christmas season was on Christmas Day when the day was over, and our company had gone home,
and I was trying to wind down.
It was hard to focus. I remembered I hadn't spent much time with my Bible or prayer time, so I ended up going to my room and sitting on the edge of the bed.

After all, Christmas was supposed to be about Jesus.
I wasn't sure what to do or how to enter into God's presence when I felt so tired and distracted and when it seemed like devotions at this point of day felt more like a duty and obligation than a joy and a relationship. (Woops, I just admitted a crime--not fulfilling your whole devotional time early in the morning like pastors, single people, and ultra-energetic missionaries do.)
But that is when something special happened.

Jesus sat down next to me!
He just suddenly came and sat beside me there on the bed.
He didn't say anything, but I was quite sure His arm went around a weary mother.
And we just sat there together, He and I. 

He didn't scold me for not spending more time in devotions, for not reading more chapters in my Bible that Christmas Day, for not praying through that day's prayer list. He didn't frown because I didn't know how to worship Him acceptably now that the busy day was over and I couldn't focus because I was so tired.

He just sat there silently with me, He and I, on the edge of a bed cluttered with Christmas wrappings and bows and gifts and stuff that got dumped there before company showed up.

He came in the silence and sat with me.
No words, 
just silence,
and peace 
and rest.
And that was what made this year's Christmas special to me!

Paper Plates for Christmas--and Five Star Service

Yeah, we just had paper plates for Christmas dinner instead of fine china for company. (I don't even HAVE china!)

We were trying to focus on company who need Christ rather than focusing on china.

I hope that was okay with Jesus.

We spent hours cleaning up and doing dishes and trying to make our poor little ranch house halfway presentable for our Malaysian/Indian friends, and I'm not sure it was even halfway presentable.

Do you suppose a motley Christmas, with homemade chocolate fudge served on aluminum foil 

and cherry pie served in a boughten crust in a foil pan,

was okay with Jesus?

We didn't have that great a gifts for our company, just what we were able to find at the last minute, as I had very little time to go shopping, and I hadn't expected them to bring much for us. (Boy, did we get surprised!)
The girls had run into Dollar Tree and purchased coloring book, crayons, bubbles, etc. since this little girl has to spend many hours amusing herself at the restaurant where they work.)
It wasn't gold, frankincense and myrrh by any stretch.
It just made a little girls' eyes light up with delight.

Do you suppose it was okay with Jesus?
We didn't do any preaching, just visiting and singing and discussing and giving horseback rides
 (our horse is anything but a divinely appointed donkey that carried the virgin mother)
 and talking about their lives in wrestling and traveling and working at a 5-star hotel.

Mr. Tapio explained how that after spending years working in a 5-Star hotel where such great people as the US President and other high-up government officials stay, he finds it interesting to go into a McDonalds, for example, and notice how their service may be anything but 5-Star.

There are a lot of cultural differences between people and places and circumstances and expectations about how to celebrate Christmas, for example.
I, a homeschooling mom, am always trying to think of how to reconcile love represented in giving generously at Christmas time
with the need for simplicity so we don't go crazy!

I suggested doing a family name exchange this year to give some organization and maintain fairness while simplifying the gift giving.
Nobody I suggested that to wanted to do that. The girls and some of the others wanted to make or buy something for each person.
They were having so much fun doing that.

I suppose there were about 10 gifts per person. (Not much in dollar value, but lots of love and fun with handmade or built items, and things purchased at Dollar Tree, goodwills, and discount shelves!)
That was about 90-100 gifts around our tree this year. 
I had to give up simplicity and "fairness" and give room for generosity and spontaneity.
Do you suppose that was okay with Jesus?

We had our friends going around our motley ranchette taking pictures and saying how this is what they are dreaming of having someday--
a place in the country to raise their girls (a second one is on the way!)
"Love gives far more than thoughtful, beautifully wrapped gifts," writes Jon Bloom of DesiringGod.

"Love gives the gift of patience when Christmas celebrations don’t go as planned. Love gives the gift of kindness when holiday tempers flare, insensitive comments are spoken, and expectations are disappointed.


"Love gives the gift of not envying those whose Christmases seem happier,  
not boasting over social media with a picture-perfect (and misleading) holiday moment,
 not seeking its own way in a group decision over a holiday leisure activity,  
not being irritable with adrenalized children or crabby relatives,
 and not carrying resentment over past or present relational offenses..."


"It doesn’t matter what our past motivations have been, or what our motivations have been so far this year. It’s not too late to lay aside the motivations of fear, obligation, and selfish expectations, and to make love our aim in all our gifts. It is not too late to view each person as a priceless soul God has made, and to pursue the pleasure love experiences in pursuing their joy."
Thoughts from Jon Bloom at Desiring God

And sometimes love has to understand that while we may meet one person's expectations at  Christmas, we cannot meet the other's.
We cannot please everyone at Christmas. If we give 5-star service to one or a few, other people automatically receive less
because we are human and not divine.
We are finite and not omnipotent; we can only be one place at once and not omnipresent.
Honesty requires that we have to let go of a lot of other people's expectations in order to share our Christmas with people who haven't heard much about Jesus.
We may have pleased no one else at all, yet sought to please Christ. 
All we could do this Christmas was keep our hearts open to the open door of opportunity that God set beautifully in front of us
and give it our best. If one-star service of paper plates and horseback rides in the pasture was the best we could do, but we did it with 5-star desire to please Christ from our heart,
do you suppose Jesus was okay with that?