Snow in June and Tornado Warning Nearby!

In early June, we had a snowfall!

Thankfully, it did not freeze hard, just froze some of our green beans.

But our lettuce and beets and carrots seem to be still okay.

You'd think June would be more of a time to be watering flowers...

Instead, we were starting fires!

And having cozy moments indoors.

And having storm after storm.

I loved the sight one of the children told us about--a goldfinch finding refuge in our fir tree near our front door while the rain poured--just like we can fly to our Refuge when the storm arrives,

and safely wait it out until the rain stops and the sky is blue again.

Timmy and Rose worked at screwing up more hail screens over one of our gardens, and hope to put up more over the other gardens.
Because day after day, storms have passed through the area.
Yesterday there was a tornado warning only several miles away, and we kept watching the storm cloud, wondering if a funnel would drop.
Jonathan on the phone said that a storm was coming our way with half-dollar size hail.

But it didn't arrive, even though Sam, on his way home, saw several storm watchers out along the road with their cameras.
It hailed massively not far away, leaving piles of hail that were still there around the Big R store next morning, and leaving the seasonal pond there still overflowing. 

Hang in there!

A few days ago, the children announced that the kitty was in the aspen tree!

Grabbing the camera, I thought maybe there would be a cute picture for my blog.

Well, by the time I got out there, the kitty had already decided that the aspen was not where it wanted to be!

And just as I was snapping the picture, the kitty let go and landed safely--as cats do--on the firm ground not far below.

I thought how often, when we feel we can't hang on any longer, 

the best thing to do is let go.

We will discover that the firm ground of God's grace is only a short fall away--

and He will bear us up

along with all our problems and troubles.

Here is an excellent post by a fellow blogger Christy Fitzwater.

              https://christyfitzwater.com/coming-out-of-quarantine/

"One Faith-One Family" Album for Father's Day

My sister Joella and her daughter came up with an idea for Mother's Day that we decided to split into two for Mother's Day and Father's Day. The cousins made an album for my mother of all the favorite hymns of each one in the immediate and extended family (at least as many as possible!), and for Dad we made an album of each one's favorite Bible verses plus special memories.
Here are Crystal and Danny working on some of our family's pages.

The cousins decided to title the Bible verse and memory album thus.

Here are the opening pages. I made one of them, and someone came up with the good one on the left!

My children helped me copy Bible verses and decorate pages for several of the clan.

Mom thoroughly enjoyed her "favorite hymns or songs" album, including the favorite chorus of a great-granddaughter which was, "The Devil is a Sly Old Fox." My favorite was "His Eye is on the Sparrow," and someone else's favorite was "The Holy City." If the song was too big to fit on a page, the cousins just copied the lyrics rather than the whole piece of music. Then they decorated each page with scrapbooking decorations. 

For Dad's, we did some of thepages a little differently, finding pictures to illustrate the verse if possible.

Evan's favorite Bible verse was a whole parable--about the rich man who decided to build bigger barns instead of sharing his goods, with the reminder to lay up treasure in heaven and be rich toward God rather than toward our bank account.

Some of the verses we decorated with photos that Danny or Hannah had taken themselves,

such as this picture of eggs in a nest, for Psalm 91:1,

and I tried to have the children note who had copied the verse.

My dad was thrilled with this gift, and it was really fun making it.

We knew he and Mom would rather have a collection of what means the most to them--

God's Word and how it has been affecting their children and grandchildren--rather than more knick-knacks to clutter their house!

Some of us siblings wrote, typed, emailed, or otherwise sent in memories of when we got our first Bibles. Dorcas and I were given small, zippered children's Bibles when we were small. Mine was for learning to read at age 6, and I loved taking that pretty black Bible to church. It had shiny full-color pictures in it of some of the best known Bible characters in it. Others of my siblings got their first Bibles when my parents found several student Bibles at a yard sale as we probably could not afford brand new Bibles.

You can click on this picture to make it bigger. 

The above page of memories tells about this church (I got a picture of it off of google) where our family attended several years and where four of my siblings went forward to pray in one revival service with the Bloom sisters.

There were other memories, too, about the little prizes my dad would get us children as incentives for memorizing Psalm 34 or other Scripture portions when we were still quite young and living in South Dakota.

One sister remembered how there were many peaches to can right during campmeeting time in PA.

My dad sent the rest of us to camp while he stayed home and canned 70 quarts of peaches all by himself.

I can hardly wait to visit my folks again so I can see the finished product. It was a really special way to share with grandparents some of the things that have mattered the most to them and us--

Scriptures to guide us and songs to encourage and comfort us,

and memories that continue to bless us. 

My sister Joella said, "So often people wait until death to give their flowers to loved ones.

Why don't we give our parents 'flowers' while they are still alive?"

I agree. 

My parents aren't wanting a fancy funeral.

But it would mean the world to them if all of their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren make it to heaven

and love God's Word 

and continue the tradition of making beautiful music while still here on earth!

A Father-Son Moment on Father's Day

Some Father's Day moments can be captured on camera...
like this one where Jonathan is reading to the family on Father's Day evening;

but others are preserved in memories only,

like the moment between father and son Sunday afternoon when Jonathan's parents arrived at the park where we had arranged to meet for a picnic dinner.

We had driven in from our respective churches, and Jonathan's mom and dad got out of their vehicle,

bringing salad fixings to the picnic table.

 As our family moved down the little hill from the table to go greet the grandparents, Jonathan's dad seemed to have one person in mind--his son. 

And Jonathan seemed to have one person in mind--his dad.

Before even setting down what he was carrying, Jonathan's dad was reaching out an arm,

and Jonathan reached out at the same time.

That wordless moment between father and son as they wished each other a happy Father's Day was one that I wished I could have caught on camera,

but it was best preserved in memory only 

there by the picnic table under the Colorado blue sky.

We had a crock pot of elk meat with veggies (not this one, this one is a pork roast from another time!)

 and Grandma brought a luscious tossed salad, complete with wedges of tomato and leaves of kale.
"Bonnie at church," Grandma said, "said that her hair has grown back in so much thicker since she started eating kale."
Grandma is losing her hair, she said, so she adds kale to salad!
"Probably because kale is full of iron, isn't it?" Crystal remembered.
Actually I looked it up, and the mineral in kale that helps hair is sulphur.
Nevertheless, we enjoyed the salad, as well as the wonderful watermelon we brought,
and finished off with peanut butter pies I had made the night before.
We talked about the campmeeting over in western Colorado where Grandma said she well remembered a preacher preaching on the subject of grudges.
She said, "The preacher said that some people are not going to get to heaven because of grudges."

I was sure we could all sit there and think of grudges we could carry toward each other. There have been hurts on all sides.
Instead, we were eating together and hugging one another and visiting happily because
we had all chosen to let go of grudges.
That was a wonderful Father's Day memory.
*******
Here is a card Hannah gave her dad.

Here is the inside.

Gifts for Jonathan that evening included new bandanas for handkerchiefs, new socks, salsa,

Pringles, his favorite sweetener stevia, and his favorite shampoo which he was out of. 

Lying on the dresser when we went to bed was a letter from a son which really touched Jonathan.

I hung it up on the mirror to remind Jonathan how much his son thinks of him. 

And now I backtrack to a few months ago to photos we took this winter when Jonathan's brother Dave and wife Ruth, were here, with Bryan and Emily.

They had a good time playing games after supper.

And showing the brand new puppies.

We had made one of our favorite fresh green bean dishes--sauteed with onion and bacon, and Rose made fresh rolls.

I think we must have had fruit pizzas for dessert, for that is the picture I have.

Two brothers--now dads of adults, visiting and perusing the atlas while talking about travels and trips!

When the Wind Destroys a Windmill

Two Sundays ago, there was a surprise in our front yard.

Timmy had bought this beautiful windmill for a belated Mother's Day gift, he said,

and had assembled it Saturday evening.

I have wanted a windmill for years!

But while we were gone to church, the winds of the west decided to kick up their heels,

and when we returned home, the windmill was on its side,

 some of the blades and attachment parts bent.

How can I attempt to describe how I felt?

Out here on the windy prairie, everything has to be anchored because of the high winds,

and the occasional gusts that literally blow whole sheds over.

We've seen it with our own eyes-our neighbor's loafing shed catapaulted right over by a huge gust of wind.

It has happened more than once.
And now--our brand new windmill that Timmy had just bought at full price for his mother
was lying smashed on the ground.

Timmy took the windmill head off and stowed it in the garage for a couple days till he worked up the nerve to see if he could hammer the blades and their bent parts back out at all to where they should be.

Amazingly, he was able to repair it and get it working as good as new!

To be sure, when he set it up again in the place that he and I decided it should be,

he first anchored the four corners!

And when the day yesterday proved to be extra blustery, he took the windmill head off

just to be sure!

We really did not want the wind to destroy our windmill!

Sometimes the winds of life are mere breezes, softly blowing about us as we walk together through life, like the day Jonathan and I walked together on the ocean shore down in the Bahamas looking for pretty sea shells after a hot day of working on the church and apartment roofs.

But some days, the wind simply destroys.

One mighty gust is all it takes to leave us bent and broken, especially if we have forgotten to anchor our heart in Christ.

Lord, sometimes our hearts feel like the blown-over windmill.

We are overwhelmed with what has just happened, and are left flat on the ground.

Our blades are bent and ruined in the dust.

And we wonder if there is any way to find repair.

Maybe even right now our heart is stowed quietly in a garage somewhere, feeling hopeless

and helpless about our circumstances,

trying to work up the nerve to seek repair.

 

Will You, Lord, pick up the pieces just like Timmy picked up that windmill head one day,

and pound the bent parts back into place somehow?

If a young boy can repair a bent windmill blade,

You can do so much more!

Repair what is bent and broken, and make it like new again!

And then remind us that so often, if we take the time to anchor our hearts in You,

we wouldn't blow over so quickly in the first place.

Hidden Fawn--and God's Hidden Place

We have been learning Psalm 27 recently after lunch.

"In the secret place of His tabernacle shall He hide me."

When we were back in PA for Crystal's graduation, a couple of the younger boy cousins were exploring around a pond near my brother's house and discovered 

this hidden fawn!

Its mother had hidden it well in the grasses.

And then, just outside the front door of my brother's house were some more 

little hidden things--baby birds.

The boy cousins had all pitched in that morning to help my brother with mowing, weed-eating, and

cleanup around their place in preparation to move.

Both my brothers Elon and Fain and their families are now living in Missouri near my parents.

It will be different only having one relative now in Pennyslvania, 

my brother Gabriel and family.

Here is a blooming apple tree we saw on our way back.

And more beauty near Elon and Anita's porch--smiling pansies, one of my favorite flowers,

hiding in the shade.

 

And I found this cute scene recently, a puppy having found a little hidden spot to nap!

 Lord, we are trusting You to keep us hidden in Your care

and in the secret place of Your presence

when all around us is a storm.

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide

under the shadow of the Almighty."

Back Home in Colorado

When we arrived back home in Colorado a few weeks ago after Crystal's graduation, this was the scene on the kitchen table.

Back to filling up egg cartons and milk jars and vases!

The yard badly needed to be mowed, 

sooo---

this is how we mowed it!

Our rhubard is doing great again this year!

Rose and I cut it up to freeze and make desserts.

A scene along the road nearby one day.

A couple cows had gotten out, and people on horses were herding them along the road.

A real western scene!

Our little garden is doing okay.

Rose watering the flowers on the front porch.