Our Yard is Actually Green!

When we came home from PNG, our yard was actually green--and mowed!

Enough green grass to mow--Wow!

Will wonders never cease?

And I did not have to be ashamed of our yard.

I'd bought some flowers before we left for PNG, and a couple shepherd's hooks, and these lovely flowers hang here--until the threat of a hailstorm.

The children's few raised beds were flourishing, and they had planted a flower here and there on the corners.

I'm so proud of my girls who keep on trying.

A rainbow one day.

Couldn't resist this lovely pansy.

Sometime or other Jonathan ordered this rustic salt and pepper shaker holder. 

I loved it together with a little bouquet from Jonathan's mother.

Pies the girls made.

I'm sure I should have some wondrous thought to share, but I've been too busy sorting through clothes in the basement to throw out or give to Goodwill or pull out for the growing children,

cleaning out the shed and garage, attending tent meeting, writing a newsletter, and trying to catch up.

Honey from the Hard Thing

A little over a week ago, Timmy got a huge batch of bees

out of a stone bench.

Wanting to replace the hive of bees he'd lost in the blizzard last winter,

he had advertised on Craig's List.

Then someone called who wanted bees removed from the front porch area of a house they were in charge of.

Jonathan and Timmy went to look at the situation and discovered that the bees had made a home in the hollow part of this stone bench. It would take a lot of work to get the stone seat off and get down to the bees, but Jonathan, Timmy, the owners and the couple in charge of selling the house
 worked out a plan.  Jonathan would take the bench apart and then put it back together in order for Timmy to remove the bees.

Timmy has studied a lot about bees, calls his uncle to ask questions, and has worked with bees a lot already with the hives we've had.

He has a smoker that he uses to calm the bees.

So here Sam is placing more pine needles in this smoker and dropping a match in to light them, and then it will smoke.

Then he pumps the little bellows and the smoke comes out and it kind of makes the bees sleepy so they don't get mad and sting.

After jacking up the stone seat and removing it, Jonathan sawed through the plywood.

Of course, there were thousands of bees, but what a surprise!

There was layer after layer of honey!

At least three tiers of honey--wild, delicious honey!

Jonathan sent home a text with a picture.

Timmy scooped and scooped hundreds and thousands of bees into his hive that day.

The rest of our family had to go to town for Aunt Irina's birthday that day and stopped by later where Timmy and Sam were working.

We all helped in one way or another as we tried to clean up and gather as many bees and as much honey as we could.

Of course, much of the honey just went back to the bees, as Timmy felt much of it was not that good for eating, but the bees would remake it into clean honey in their new hive. 

A few of us got stings, but we were careful and some of us stayed quite a ways back. 

Timmy has the only bee jacket we have, and it is his project, so he did the work.

You wouldn't have known there was all that honey under that stone bench.

All the owner and we knew was that there were a bunch of pesky bees that they did not want there.

And sometimes all we know is that there are all these pesky problems that we wish were not in our lives.

Ignoring problems does not usually make them go away, although I have to admit that sometimes ignoring them is the best answer when there is no other answer.

However, 

when you truly go to the trouble to resolve them,

you will often find honey there, too,

for your reward.

Ignored relationship issues are like these pesky bees greeting you every time you go in the front door.

Resolved issues--whether through reconciliation with offended others or wisely letting go of issues that are out of your control--are like a spoonful of honey on the bread of life.

Be strong, be courageous! For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Trust that some kind of honey will come from every hard thing you go through. 

Kangaroos Ahead--Drive With Care!

You never know what you will discover on the road ahead of you.

It might be an elephant, a skunk, or a kangaroo!
In Africa for Crystal and her cousins, it was an elephant.
A week ago on Saturday night, driving home from taking the children to do chores for a friend,
it was a skunk that I straddled, ending up bringing home a terrible stink just in time for Sunday!
You never know what is ahead.
But don't give up--there just might be a cheerful, hopping kangaroo ahead one of these days!

During our time in the Blue Mountains of Australia, two different people told us we might see a few real live wild kangaroos down in the grasslands in this valley 10 kilometers from Scenic World.
So we went in hopes of spying a kangaroo!

We were not disappointed!


Louise Holderbaum was especially excited to see these real kangaroos wild!
She would say, "Thank You Jesus!" right out loud because she was so thrilled.
She is not embarrassed about her life being all about Jesus,
even if right then her life included kangaroos!


We saw around 28 kangaroos as we drove about, and this one is grazing just like a deer.

Here was a whole group of them.
I wonder what they call a group of kangaroos--a herd? flock?

On our way home from PNG, spending a day in Brisbane that we weren't expecting to spend there,
we decided to visit a wildlife place where you could feed kangaroos from your hand!

That was so special!

We all took turns feeding different kangaroos.

At the gift shop in Scenic World, Jonathan and Samuel would have liked to buy hats made from kangaroo felt, but they were around $70, so we satisfied ourselves to just get a picture with kangaroo hats on!

In another gift shop, we found various kangaroo souvenirs.

Here were boomerangs, sheepskin boots, and more kangaroo hats.

 So cheer up friends, don't be blue!

Just ahead someday is a kangaroo!

When We Need a Higher Perspective--from Sydney, Australia

It's hard to believe it's been only one day short of a month since we waved goodbye to our six children at the Denver Airport on our way to the escalator that would take us to our train and airplane to Pheonix, AZ, then Los Angeles, then Sydney, Australia, and finally Papua New Guinea.

It's so different what things look like from down where we were, 

and from up where they were. 

We were each seeing exactly the opposite thing. 

They were seeing us, and we were seeing them--and how different could things get?

We saw a lot of sights from high spots in Sydney, Australia, where we spent Thursday and Friday before flying on to PNG.

The Holderbaums and we split the cost of renting a car which was far cheaper than taking taxi wherever we went. However, trying to make our way around this big city left us laughing a good deal about how many times we went over one bridge in particular.

Jonathan was the driver of a vehicle whose steering wheel was on the opposite side of the car than what he was used to, and he had to drive on the opposite side of the road than we were used to!

He did an excellent job, except for constantly turning on the windshield wipers when he meant to push the turn signal on !

"Woops!" he would say, as the wipers would start up.

"That means we want to turn!"

Here is a building with an Australian flag, I think a grammar school.

And I should have gotten a photo of this famous Sydney Tower from a distance instead of practically underneath it. 

This photo does not do it justice.

It is a very, very high tower with a restaurant and gift shop up in the top, as well as a balcony where you can look all around and see for miles.

Jonathan, Sam and the Holderbaums decided to go up the Tower, so here they are in line to get tickets.

I preferred to stay on solid ground and browse in the lovely gift shop.

Here was one shop near the entrance to the Tower, that had so many fresh fruits, including ready-peeled coconuts (all those white things). 

Something I noticed in Australia was all the fresh juicing stands and shops.

There seems to be a real emphasis on health and fresh food there. 

We could not get over all the glitz and glitter and richness in downtown Sydney.

I couldn't capture it all in photos, but here is one example of huge revolving glass doors near the Tower.

I had no idea Sydney was so upscale, although it is somewhat of a veneer, because in other ways (such as restrooms!) there are things that still seem rather antiquated. 

I thought these signs looked interesting.

On Friday, we drove 2 hours to a place called the Blue Mountains, which was an area of mountains with tropical rain forest.

There was a place called Scenic World, where for just $39 apiece, you can spend all day hiking in the rainforest and taking different interesting rides such as this glass-bottomed trolley that glides over a valley near more than one water fall!

So we made the trip on that trolley!

Down on the valley floor, we hiked around by waterfalls and an old coal mine and other interesting sights.

There in Australia, it was winter, and I was so thankful I'd grabbed my heavy jacket and scarf, because Jonathan and Sam both froze all morning!

And do you ever feel that sometimes you are getting onto the train of life

 that is just going to take you down a very steep track into a very dark tunnel...

 only to get worse and worse as you roar along wishing you could just get off somewhere?

 And then, you are just so dumb that you do it all over again?? !!!

 Only this time, you get the front row seat,

 and get to see the track ahead of you dipping into ever worsening steepness

while the people behind you are screaming for added benefit

 on this train of life that is the steepest downward incline in the whole world!

(And yes, that's the one you got on? Thank you very much!

Or maybe sometimes you just feel like you are on the top story of a double decker bus

that goes careening around corners and jerking to various starts and stops?

This little spot is called "Twin Sisters," and is named for the two rock formations here on the cliff.

There is a little bridge connecting the first twin rock to the cliff, and that is where Jonathan, Sam and I hiked.

Going down some very, very steep and rough steps to this bridge.

Sam took this photo of us from way back up those steps.

And this is sort of how we see things from where we are--

vague and far away.

It's only through the lens of God's Word and His truth that we can get a better view of life and facts and truth. Otherwise things can get very blurry and discouraging.

 Looking down, we can lose our balance and fall.

Looking around, we can get dizzy and discouraged.

Looking up, we see God's love, an everlasting canopy of protection and comfort.