The Lake Place Update...

Life in the country moves S L O W !!!!

The last time we shared about our adventure homesteading on the lake we were positively, definitely moving fast... at the slowest pace ever!

To bring you up to speed...we sold our farm last December (2013), *sigh*  then bought our lake place this past June (2014) *smile* and have been dreaming, planning and working hard every since, on country time that is... which I may have mentioned is S L O W...

But we have a driveway now... Yes!

 

 

I love how it curves thru the property...

And after all the dozer work, we are watching the pond refill...

 

It's one great, big, over-grown mudhole right now, but, oh, I see possibilities!

Just wait... this is the perfect "Before" shot.

One day, we will all Ooooo and Aaaahhh over the grand transformation!

And, then we found an off-the-wall storage container for all our "Stuff."

 

It's an actual rail-container.  Perfectly weather-tight and roomy enough for all the important stuff we had stored and scattered all over creation this past year.

 

It's incredibly comforting to have our things all back together again... 

Kind of like Christmas as we find long lost tools, books and assorted, but indispensable junk :-)

And then there have been the bonfires in the rain...

 

And the hikes along Brushy Creek in the winter sun...

 

And little gopher hills popping up all over the place!

 

but such, cute, furry little faces, makes me smile...

 

(Farmer Husband is not amused)

But, oh, so cute, just saying!

We welcomed friends to enjoy our country place...

After, of course, reminding them that we have no water, no potty,

nor even a home.

But they love us and came anyway!

 

 

And the most recent development is also the most exciting!  Just this week we began drilling our water well.  Such anticipation at the lake place!

 

 

 

We are anxiously awaiting to strike gold any day!  Clean, cold water is our prayer!

We will keep you posted on all developments...

And in the meantime, we continue to lift up all those enduring their own journey along the pancreatic cancer road.  Perhaps you might feel our love this day in a special way.  Your struggles are not forgotten and we storm heaven's gates daily for answers to the suffering of this life.

Praying you are swept up in Grace and held closely in Peace this night.

My Love Always, Jane

 

With Every Act of Love

Jason Gray's song "With Every Act of Love" speaks to my heart every time I hear it... Join me for a moment of happy joy as we lift each other up today?

Sitting at the stoplight

He can't be bothered by the heart cry

Written on the cardboard in her hands

Oh, but when she looks him in the eye

His heart is broken, open wide

And he feels the hand of God reach out through him

As heaven touches earth

Oh, we bring the kingdom come

Oh, with every act of love

Jesus, help us carry You

Alive in us, Your light shines through

With every act of love

We bring the kingdom come

There's silence at the table

He wants to talk but he's not able

For all the shame that's locked him deep inside

Oh, but her words are the medicine

When she says they can begin again

And forgiveness will set him free tonight

As heaven touches earth

Oh, we bring the kingdom come

Oh, with every act of love

Jesus, help us carry You

Alive in us, Your light shines through

With every act of love

We bring the kingdom come

God put a million, million doors in the world

For His love to walk through

One of those doors is you

I said, God put a million, million doors in the world

For His love to walk through

One of those doors is you

Oh, we bring the kingdom come

Oh, with every act of love

Jesus, help us carry You

Alive in us, Your light shines through

With every act of love

We bring the kingdom

Oh, we bring the kingdom come

Oh, with every act of love

Jesus, help us carry You

Alive in us, Your light shines through

With every act of love

We bring the kingdom come

With every act of love

We bring the kingdom come

With every act of love

We bring the kingdom come

 May we be the door for heaven to walk through this very day... Grace bring the kingdom come to everyone we meet...

Always, Jane

Seizing the Moment

Hello New Year...

2015 has just had to come knock me on the head and bring me back to the present. 

Not that the present is so bad, but, oh, 2014 was one of those years that we have relished... from treasure hunting our perfect piece of land to perfect family cruise memorials... I rather liked 2014.

And then I read an article on Seizing the Moment and it reminded me of a day on the beach (on the afore-mentioned cruise in 2014) that made me smile...

 

It's my favorite picture for Seizing the Day.... and not just because it's the cutest grand-daughter ever, no... it's because she ran right into that cold water and had a blast.  All the adults gingerly waded in, eyeing the overcast sky and curled our toes in that frigid water.  Ha!  We are such pansies, but, who would have thought that a beach in paradise would have been so cold?!

 

So, as a nod to 2015, I'd love to share the words that pushed me out of 2014 and has me opening my arms to whatever's ahead, risking even the brisk, cold waters for moments of such bliss with those I love...

"Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine. 


I got to thinking one day about all those people on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched ' Jeopardy ' on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said , 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain' And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches.. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get little Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy. 


Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to...not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?"

Welcome 2015... Ready for Grace to unfurl for the Journey ahead.  Praying that our hearts and minds might be opened to the treasures you have prepared just for us.  Lord, let me not miss even one cherished moment in the coming year...

Seizing the Days in Grace, Always,
                                                  Jane

A Different Kind of Christmas...

Sometimes a song says it all.

Cherish the message, may it minister to your heart...

Blessings this Christmas!

May Love and Laughter Ring Your Table

and Peace Reign in Your Life...

Grief and the Holidays...

Everyone that has lost a loved one knows the pain of journeying through the holidays... there is no easy answer to the grief that tears the heart.  Facing the empty place at each festive table, missing the cherished smile and laughter that accompanied each treasured tradition, hurting through a time that once was joyous but now only emphasizes the sorrow of our loss...

No easy answer.

And no right answer...

For our family, we have found that meshing new traditions with favored past-times has eased us through the grief that threatens to overwhelm at this most Holy time of year.

We miss mom every day, and so much more even, if that is possible, during this special season of Christmas.

Mom loved Christmas.  As a matter of fact, 3 years ago, as she faced her 1st Year Canciversary, she insisted on decorating the house before Thanksgiving ... which was early even by her standards!  She said she just wanted to enjoy the season as long as possible... I wonder if she knew down deep that her days were dwindling.

It puts an ache in my heart to remember walking back into their home the Sunday she passed away, December 4th, to see the Christmas lights twinkling and the ornaments hanging just the way she had placed them... for us.  I know that if she hadn't decorated that tree when she did, we would never have had the strength to do it... But each day of that first December, as we planned a funeral and wrote her obituary, and accepted flowers and food and sweet hugs, the house sparkled with her special touch.  It was small, but it was the nudge I believe she knew we would need...

Keep on Living, Don't Forget to Celebrate...Make. Every. Day. Count...

And so... that cruise we had planned to celebrate her 1st Year Canciversary... well, it never happened.  Bruised our spirits hard, it did.  She so wanted to go.  God had other plans.  And we grieved.  And walked through dark days.  And even in that grief, Dad talked about their cruise...  And we planned... And we went... in honor of mom.

 

And we found that the cruise gave us leave to celebrate what we thought we had lost...

Life and Love and Laughter.

And so cruising has become our new Christmas tradition.  One the whole family embraced this past week...

All 23 of us!  We filled up 10 cabins on the NCL Jewel.  Yes we did!   And had so much fun that it was almost illegal... We ate, we laughed, we swam, we relaxed, we loved, we lived... such Grace that brought us to this place.  Mom is surely smiling her approval... Words cannot express the treasure... perhaps a few pictures??

 Formal night... in Black and White!

 

 And Crazy Fun... in Belize and the Sun!

 

We ate...

And we played...

And played...

 

 And played... Scavenger Hunt, Cruise Style, Don't Ask!

 

Poppy got hugs! Lots of hugs!

 And learned all about selfies!

 

We played on the beaches of Honduras...

 

And chased the surf in Trujillo!

 

Cozumel Cliff-side Paradise...

 

to Rooftop Beach Bungalows...

the views were awesome!

But best of all, we were all together...

 

Poppy and all his grands and great-grands!

 

It just doesn't get much sweeter!

Mom would be so proud...

This past week has filled our hearts to overflowing,

and made this Christmas one to treasure.

New Christmas Traditions for our Family to Celebrate...

Might it be that God in His infinite wisdom has placed such a sweet desire in our hearts to draw us closer to family... and closer to Him.

So whether it's an Old Tradition that we do to preserve sacred memories,

or New Traditions that embrace a life so well lived...

we can allow Christmas to be the Gift it was always meant to be.

for Christmas is the Christ-child,

born to reunite the lost...

drawing us into family, to a deeper love

thru a Grace we can only begin to fathom...

Merry Christmas from our family to yours,

May the Blessings of this Holy Day fill your hearts all year long...

My Love Always,

                                                                                Jane

 

 

Happy to be Home!

So very, very happy to be home... It was an Amazing Cruise Memorial...

Sublimely exhausted!

Pictures tomorrow!

New Christmas Traditions!

Tomorrow we set sail on another Family Cruise!

It seems to have become our New Family Christmas Tradition... a tradition we'd sure like to continue!

Each year since mom has passed, we gather Dad together and find our way to the sea to celebrate her life and find ways to reconnect as a family and embrace our new normal.

The first cruise without her was so very, very hard... But it led us back to places of pure grace and joy.  Mom loved cruising and visiting distant ports of call...

We felt her blessing keenly through-out the healing journey and vowed to continue the cruising tradition...

And so it was that the following year, mom's memorial cruise became a way to move forward thru the grief and truly it was a time to slow down and honor her memory in the most perfect way possible.

Tomorrow, we gather the whole family together at the Port of Houston and begin a week-long celebration that has us too excited to sleep!

And so it is Bon Voyage until next week... There will surely be pictures a'plenty to share... and stories too... Always!

Praying for Grace to meet you where you are.

Whether it's fighting the fight or embracing the cherished memories,

Pancreatic Cancer has a way of wreaking havoc with

treasured traditions.

Might you find your heart eased into this holiday season,

wrapped in the holiness of His Gift.

My Love Always,

                    Jane