awesome trip to Marshall

Marshall Michigan (thanks tom)...a bed & breakfast (quaint), shopping, Win Schulers(sprained ankle) art & craft fair(christmas gifts), turkeyville & dinner theatre, (I'll take you home, followed by laughin' so hard I nearly peed my pants)Southern Exposure Herb Farm (probably the coolest place ever), then Tea outdoors at Old MacDonalds Farm...

Thank You Sherry, Sid & Deb for a great time and all the gifts- Love you!!!

My Garden CLUB

I am going away this weekend on a mystery trip with my Garden Club.
I will spend a little bit of money & will be laughing alot...

These women love me unconditionally...They see my strengths & weaknessness.
They encourage me...They challenge me...They laugh with at me...
we laugh at each other and at ourselves.
We crab to each other..and either get comfort or chastisement but always support.
These amazing women will swoop in when life gives me lemons...
and then get busy in the kitchen making some awesome lemonade!

I really love these gals...and the best part is...God chose them for me
so they are perfect.

fruit flies

Are making my life miserable.....I have so many of them in my house I am ready to have a breakdown.....Please pray against pestilence for me. I have scrubbed, vacumed, put out traps...and still they persist.

MICHIGAN STATE FAIR

Bob & I took Nate & April, Sarah, Connor, Jordan & Kaeden to the fair yesterday...suppose to be the final fair for us.


We had a great time..oh the weather was wonderful...the sights & sounds & smells...splendid- well...not all the smells...lol
I am not an animal person- but I will tell you that the clydesdales...are among the most majestic & beautiful animals I have ever seen....the kids have the better pics of the day but I managed to snap a few....

Don't waste your Freedom

It was for Freedom...that Christ has set us Free...
therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

We have been set free from the law of sin & death....Living under Grace...a covering....or a safety net if you will...we stumble; we bumble...but we are not lost & forsaken for we have an advocate, a counselor, a redeemer to help us get back on track. We have a way out...a way back. He never leaves us...we turn around and there He is...arms open, accepting.

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

We have been set free from religious obligation. We are instructed to not allow anyone to judge us in regards to what we eat, what we drink, or what days we hold holy. We are free to choose those according to our faith, to live in the Spirit and simply obey what He speaks to our hearts. Just walk in Love with one another....

We are free in Christ to choose a church, to worship as He leads, to express ourselves as His spirit moves us...closer....deeper...loving us, changing us.

FREEDOM: Don't waste it. Guard it. Exercise it. Cherish it. Celebrate it!

Saturday....work day

Nathan blessed us with an afternoon of "help" in putting the kitchen back together...he moved back the pantry and then the island and secured them...he moved the table back, fixed the oven, then the frig...trimmed the door to fit and re-hung it...we simply could not have managed without his help...
THANK YOU NATE! MUWAH! WE LOVE YOU...


The twinados had to get involved and help him out...while Kaeden took a ride on Daddy's old rocking horse....then he decided to take his first steps...
YAHOO!

May I opine about healthcare

The healthcare debate is certainly getting heated...and rightly so. After all you are dealing with a person's most intimate. personal life decisions.

I am annoyed by the labels attached to my point of view. I am against this bill in it's current form. Am I selfish, misinformed, or an idiot....blindly following lies told to me by the special interest groups. Uh no.
I studied these sytems extensively while in college, and continued to keep myself informed. Back then, the issue was MRI's. My kid needed one, and we waited a week for an appointment. In Canada....they had only 2 for the entire country...the wait for an appointment there was more than a year.
I shudder to think what could have happened to my kid's injury.

I don't think it's a good idea to hand over to the government (whose track record is questionable) this part of life. Many experts also agree with me...and the people who have socilized healthcare (Canada, England, Russia)also think we are crazy to mess with our system- unanimously hailed as the best in the world. Can we improve it? sure. Let's work toward that, in a deliberate, rational manner...not under a self-imposed timeline...we have seen in the past few months that this mentality to rush thru a bill...usually ends in a bad result.
Let's consider these principals from a different point of view.

A Car & Car Insurance: everyone ought to have them. That is fair. You can't work, go to school,or do anything without a car. I'd like to help the folks who don't have one. So I think the government should provide a car and the insurance to every person who does not have it. Everyone who has a car (that they worked & saved for)should be charged an extra amount so that people who can't work, don't work, & won't work for whatever reason will have what they want. Some of these people have totaled several cars...and even driven while drunk...they decided to not carry insurance for it was costly, but they should still have the right to drive- at my expense?
Years ago, the law was changed to require everyone to carry their own insurance, for their own car, at their own expense.

See the pilgrims tried this "lets give everyone the same thing philosophy"...they held all things in common...the idea was that together they could meet everyone's needs easily....but human nature got in the way..and soon, a few, who did not plow, plant, harvest, preserve or prepare...wanted to sit at the table and eat their full too! They figured out that they could sit back and do nothing....and still be taken care of....so they did. Those settlers promptly changed the rules...if you did not work, then you did not eat.
If Anyone Will Not Work Neither Shall He Eat - 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11

So Let''s instead tell people that they must work for what they want...If they need temporary assistance...or emergency care-we'll help them. Let's go further and have a system that takes care of those who simply can't take care of themselves...that is kind. That is just. That is charitable.
But let's not tell the simple working man or woman to make more bricks with the same straw...pay for yourself to live & pay for your neighbors to have the same as you even though they do not work for it.

I have never felt that health insurance was a right to be possessed.
I have been without and been pregnant,
and I have been blessed with some good coverage.
I have never had completely free coverage. This is one reason my husband keeps a job...to pay for us to have coverage. We are responsible. We also see the need to help out those not as fortunate. That is Charity.


"Charity is voluntary. The giving of charitable help is to be done by individuals (and organizations they may form). Charity is not to be compelled by the State. Forced charity takes from one & gives to another." -David J. Bostrom