The Week In Words

     Actually, the week started last Saturday instead of thinking in the usual way that it starts on Monday. Or that's just my way of notching my stick, I suppose. Anyway, it's Saturday again.
    Last Saturday at this time Elv and I four-wheeler-ed up to our lamp-lit cabin and clambered down the snowbank through the front door and found Lance's and Amy welcoming us with triumphant smiles. They'd cut the electric lights just in time and had all 16 lamps polished and glowing just for us. 
    Sunday, about noon Susan and I took the four-wheeler out through Joshua road's mud and ice to the car parked on high ground and headed toward Walker, Minnesota. We had 3 1/2 hours of driving and plenty of visiting to do so it was perfect. The only thing we really saw all the way over was a porcupine high up in an  aspen tree by the road. We actually stopped. Susan said Abram would want to see a picture of it. So.
    We found the little church where about 100 people were gathered to listen to Michael Card sing. It was the nicest concert I've ever attended. I am encouraged to discover that an artist turns out to be just people, too. About my own age and ordinary. It was fun to be able to sing along. I'm just that sappy. Oh well, I told Kristine the other evening that I hope to sing with Vestal Goodman someday in heaven. Everybody just laughs at me. I suppose we all have our bucket list for the heaven days. That's just one of mine. For once, we'll have time. 
    We drove back across the swamp and arrived home around midnight. It was worth it. Monday morning headed home to Wisconsin. 
     I worked Tuesday. Amy worked Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Wednesday evening she had me come look at her mysterious, spreading rash. What is that? She'd been feverish and tired over the weekend. Pushing through her days, now this rash. Who knows, but chicken pox came up. We still don't know. All better now. Just scabs. Who knows!
    Over in Thailand, Dru's attended a staff retreat this week. Some of us have a better idea what that means for their little family. Sewing dresses for the Havilah. Laundry with the iffy rationed water situation. Preparing and packing in 100 degree weather. That's just ordinary stuff for them. Then there's the future of Dru's work and visas and questions and plans. So we prayed for them. 
   The weather finally turned summer-y, suddenly. Not much green and the fire danger hiking higher every day. We need rain and green. But finally, it is warm. At work, we opened up the garage door and let the sunshine and warm breezes pour in. At home here the stoves stand black and silent. A lot less dirt and dust! The tulips and daffodils are up. Blooms to come soon. 
    Elv is coming home filthy every evening because it's the season to power wash the woods machines. And, absolutely beat and weary and sore. Road bans go off on Monday. Then the real work of summer logging shall begin. 
    Hopefully, despite the busy-ness of summer work we can find time to go canoeing and picnicking.  Francis called today to say that they are closing on their "new" country home next month. "You can all come and help me paint the kitchen, Mom."  We will do that about the second weekend in May.
     Elv and I stood in the most unfinished part of the basement under this old stone house and brainstormed a walk-in closet. It'll be a lot of icky, hard work. And the two of us always get to practice getting along well, when we're remodeling. When we're done, it should be a lot dryer and cleaner. With the addition of an egress window, it should be a lot sunnier down there, too. We hope. 
    The dog ran off twice this week. I think he's bored. And I think he misses Brad. But not as much as I do, I'll wager. 
     I'm reading Second Suns by the same author as Three Cups of Tea this week.  True story of the miracle of sight given to the blind in Tibet by the skilled hand of two ophthalmologists. Of course, it's a fat book with lots of other interesting tid-bits, too.  And this is not to be taken as a book report, because it isn't. The truth is, I have three of the thirty-two books on my to-read-this-summer list in my hands from the library right now. And It's going to be amazing if I get them read in time. 
    Because, most of any free time must be spent trying to make a viable speech out of my collection of scribblings and ideas and a long power point creation. I'm suppose to speak at a young ladies retreat this coming weekend. To say that I'm scared is an understatement. I'm sure everybody is sick and tired of hearing me ask for prayer by now. But I'm depending on those prayers and a lot of God's grace. I realize that I am not going to feel ready, ever! I just need to work on this my best and let God do the rest. Knowing that and trusting that are two entirely different animals! 
    I didn't tell you about the crazy days at work because people went traveling to PA for business and a wedding in Canada and birthday parties. And we finished the week off with a nicely busy Saturday of selling furniture right and left. 
    One day this week, I had Clark's children for a few hours here. We put shoes on the baby and let her play on the patio and the boys and I did some raking and picking up sticks. We piled the sticks in the fire pit and tried to burn them but they were still too damp. Angelie kept taking off her shoes and plumping down on her bottom on the wet ground and getting dirty. We sat down to hotdogs and carrot sticks and fresh, baked, still-warm cookies for lunch. Asher couldn't believe his good fortune when I told him, twice, that he did not have to eat his bread. He ate his meat and veges, happily. What more could a Marmee expect, I ask you! So he got cookies, to boot. 
    Clark's invited us for fajitas one night this week, too. He dug out his old LP player and we settled down for an LP party, but this old player kept not working without a lot of fiddling. I've decided that he needs a new one. We love listening to old records: Cathedrals, Lundstrums, Disney's Winnie the Pooh, and Gospel Echoes. We order up one song from each and he stands there and keeps changing them for us. It's fun. And the in-laws roll their eyes. And that's fun, too. We didn't even get to the Statler Brother's Christmas album.
    And nothing's been said here so far, about the fact that in two weeks I am to swallow a radioactive iodine pill to kill the overage of thyroid action I have going on. It's nuclear medicine and comes with precautions that I will be advised of when I get it. They'll likely roll a couple of pills out of the inside-est of two bottles one inside the other because it's radioactive, you know, into their gloved hand and hand it to me... my bare hand. I'll swallow that and be immediately dangerous to society in general. I am to stay at home, not share anything: my bed, my rest room, my plate, anything with anybody else for three days or so. They say this is a safe medicine. All I have to say is that it better work! 
    And those are my paltry offerings of life at the Grabers. While ordinary weeks like this are happening for us; others are being touched by eternity in more real ways with birth and death. I noticed that this week. We never know what the week ahead holds, do we?
     I asked Elv tonight what would he do if he knew he had only a year left to live. He said, "I'd probably concentrate more on my walk with the Lord, and my relationships."  I'm thinking that this is just the ticket for our days right now no matter how long we have left to live.

Sailing

  

    (I wrote this on a potential posting on FB and it wouldn't post. FB is such a loser!) Blogger! Yeah Blogger!

    Our fall picnic by the lake finally materialized yesterday. Almost! It was a windy day so while we loaded our food and paraphernalia( this word is such a lark...parafERnalia! Ha!) I advised Brad to load his canoe and contraption and try out for sailing if he still wanted to do so. He wanted to.
     He has BEEN wanting to for over a year. Nobody had time, ahem, to take him out last year.  There it sat in the leaves back by the canoes. The mast held out, but this summer while he was in Nebraska, I found the sail, rotted and yucky half buried, in the leaves. I burned it. Elv had a use for the mast. Brad came home undaunted by these things and made another set. This second set was much more impressive to me...neater lashings and such like.
      We left here with the picnic loaded into baskets: flowers, food, candles, dishes, props, etc. and the canoe strapped onto the van.  All the way to the lake the straps set up a hideous roar from the wind in the van. The canoe shifted once just a little to the side so that we pulled off at the end of Joe's lane to check. We were glad to arrive at the lake everything on board, intact.
     First we got acquainted with our lake shore. The water was too cold for wading. Nice weeds to pick, clean shore for sitting. And picture taking.
    Next, us girls arranged the table while Brad prepared to try his sail. The wind wasn't dying down, though.  So we were glad for real dishes as opposed to paper. Brad had his life jacket and canoe and contraption already to go only to discover he had forgotten to bring oars. So, he spent the next hour creating an oar. You can see it on the picture.
    Off he went. Our table was set so us girls sat on the beach to watch him rowing that silly canoe into the wind. His plan was to sail back from the other side. Good plan.  Only thing was that paddle. We sat and watched and played with the babies while he grew smaller and smaller rowing(more like tacking) into the distance. Suddenly, Amy noticed, "He's tipped."
    Now I didn't panic, mind you. I just hopped up and tried to remember that he had a life jacket, but the water is pretty cold in October, and all my wisdom about letting boys be boys and not be a chicken about it... Anyway, I told Frank to stay and watch which she promptly interpreted to mean to run frantically around the lake on the shore toward which a tipped and submerged canoe and a lonely little head were bobbing, way out there. Amy and I jumped in the van and drove on the road around trying to get to the same place.  Parked the van in some lake owners yard, ran past his van and outbuildings, through the woods, and down to the dock toward which he was still trolling his canoe. By now he was answering our calls. Thank you Jesus, so he wasn't drowning and didn't seem overly upset, either.  Frank and Amy arrived at the same time at a dock further down and he came to them. "I still have all my equipment." he announced.  They helped him empty his canoe and he soggily climbed back in and headed back to the picnic shore. Us girls got in the van and drove back still sort of shaky-like.
     His first words to me when he walked up afterward, "I STILL didn't get to try my sail."
     And our picnic was too windy for a fire OR the candles so we ate our cold supper in the glare of a pickup light and quickly gathered everything up, threw it back in the van, came home and ate our apple crisp and ice cream in the warm, dry and well lit living room.

The Story of the Lost Book and the Pink Notice

Once upon a time, in a land nearby, there lived a family who enjoyed reading books. The man of the house was a logger and sometimes the logging took his family with him to "the bush".  When the whole family went logging most of the people in the family had time to read books.  So they would find the local library and browse, bringing home arm loads of books at a time.

Sometimes because they also had a library at home they would end up with double arm loads of books on the coffee table and some books from some libraries would end up going "back" to the wrong libraries.  Libraries don't like this. Most libraries have computer systems that keep a running inventory on their books and they know just where they might find a wayward book by looking it up.

This past fall our family was pinned with a "wayward" book.  The Secret of Grandfather's Diary was not to be found.  They looked in all their personal bookshelves, and under the couches and behind the beds, but it was of no use. The library that owned the lost book was getting pretty owly about it and demanded to be paid 25 dollars or else.

The family chose the "or else" route and decided to buy a replacement of the book for the library.  The one librarian was dubious that this would suffice since the special number on the book had to be the same as the special number on the lost book.  But a different librarian said, "Pish, just order a good copy of the book and bring it back to me. It will be just fine."

So the family ordered a hardcover copy, a replacement of the old rag tag paperback book that was lost.  In a couple of weeks the book came to their house. The lady of house opened the package and out came a lovely, old, brown book that appeared to have never been opened, probably never had been read. It was a beautiful copy.

They went to the library the very next week and "returned" the book, paid the five dollar fine and scattered to browse. A few minutes later, the front desk librarian brought the same book to the lady of the house and handed it back to her. "This book is too old to have on our shelves anyway, so you may keep it as your own." She said.  All is well that ends well, right?

The very next day, there came in the mail a pink notice from the library that had been sent out a few days before saying, 'that unless said book is returned in said amount of time the situation would be turned over to the city police as stolen property and said patron would be charged with thievery...'.

What a sad policy for the community library to have in their use.  The lady of the house did call to the library and made commentary to that effect. "What if a little child has lost a book?"  One wonders if the police in that community have nothing else to do all day but to go about the locality collecting fines for "stolen" books for the local library.

A Chimney Fire @TheStoneHouse

             It all started with a lovely warm fire in our sitting room stove this morning. Of course, Elv and I had no idea that we were creating the setting for a fire call. Just a nice morning of coffee and quiet time by the fire.
             The plan for today was for the children and me to haul firewood from the woods.  Elv thought there would be around 4 loads and he would assist us in loading at the woods.  So Elv and Lance left for a short day of work with intent to help us later. Lance planned to be home to study for Sunday School teaching this afternoon.
            Everything was ticking along as planned.  Elv and Lance were off to work.  I had made a quick breakfast of pancakes for the children and stacked the dirty dishes in a sink of hot water.  The girls were getting ready to go out the door when we noticed an odd smell.
            I followed my nose downstairs to till I came to a stop leaning over the stove looking behind it at the chimney door behind the stove.  It is a cute little door with a pretty design all painted white with a little catch just right for keeping it closed.  The problem now was that it was all glowing red as if there was a fire in there.  Wait! The fire is supposed to be in the stove, not in the chimney.
           I quickly called Elv who advised me to call 911. I did that and dispatch seemed to know who I was and where I was calling from. Neatest thing since sliced bread. All I had to do was to say I had a pretty good chimney fire.
          But first I must back track a little. Last night at the supper table, Lance who is Lieutenant on the fire department, was bemoaning the fact that Bass Lake Fire Department could soon be without a chief and therefore no longer in existence. Well, I certainly couldn't see a problem with the department today.
        In about three shakes after dispatch paged the crew I had six guys milling around in our basement sitting room solving and throwing their potions on the fire.  Lance had the little hand held xray machine that gave him the temperature of the chimney walls in the house here. And they all decided that the fire was indeed at the bottom of the chimney and nowhere else in our house.
        Since the fire in the stove was almost out, the chimney fire seemed to be as well, we decided to go ahead and haul firewood as planned. After the first load I came in and checked the chimney wall again by laying my hand on it. OOH! Very hot yet. Hmmm.
       I think we put on 250 miles today hauling firewood.  Eight loads later the woodlot is quite full of it. While Elv finished up the last two loads, Lance and I cleaned out the bottom of the chimney.
      We pulled out buckets of black stuff and it was STILL quite warm. I saw a coal once as we worked.  We put the pans/buckets outside the door and left everything in the chimney/stove area open and airing for Elv to inspect when he got in. Then we could put the stove back and clean up  the mess.
       The mess was mostly a dirty white film all over everything in the room including me by the time we were done. But it cleaned up easily with the vacuum sweeper and mopping water.
       After supper Elv went outside for some something and noticed that one of the pans of creosote on the patio that we had taken out of the chimney after the fire was supposedly out, was now a mass of red hot coals burning away nicely in the open air.  Does anyone wonder why chimney/house fires are notorious for restarting?
      Elv says that if I need that much attention, I am just to let him know after this.  He even offered to stay home from work on Saturday morning if that's what it takes. :) I have always wondered what it would take to get him to not go to work on Saturdays. :)
     We're all grateful for God's loving care over us today, and for a quick response from BLFD.

Sickness

   There has been plenty of sickness at our house and among our church families this winter.  Looking back I realize that we had two bugs here in October.  That was the beginning of a winter of poor church attendance but doubtless more prayer for each other.
   Without sounding depressing I'll just state the facts as they happened.  Following the October illnesses; one of the men in our church began to suffer from dizziness.  We tried to figure out how long it had been exactly, but last Sunday was his first time of being in church since the first Sunday in January when he came only because a brother's meeting was scheduled.  Meanwhile a mom and her daughter are being treated for a long and lingering Lymes Disease illness.(A long odyssey of much prayer and waiting and antibiotics.)
   Then in February the viruses hit our church family.  One of our ladies said that she lost count of how many Sundays it has been since the whole family was in church together.  And each family has a similar story.
   In our house we are now on our third virus event since the end of February.  Elv is running a consistent low grade fever and has a rattle in his chest. I'd be hauling him off to our favorite Physician's Assistant first thing in the morning if Brad and two others from a different family didn't have exactly the same symptoms.  It still seems like it could be "secondary", but we'll wait and see for a couple days here yet.
   We're all praying that everyone heals up soon.  When we all get well and when the two traveling families return we could possibly all be in church together for the first time in months by the middle of May.  I'm praying that it is  Mother's Day.
  No, I don't have anything profound to offer as a lesson learned or what God's plan and purpose might be for all of this.  We're praying.  If you care to; we would really appreciate your prayers, too.

Saturday Scribbles

 

   It was hot hoecakes for breakfast this morning with either peanut butter and syrup or butter and gooseberry syrup.  Then Lance, Elv and I went down to Rice Lake to collect materials for a new closet in the boy's cabin, and 30 new bricks for the patio.

   We left three people home to mow the lawn and to clean the house with the carrot being fishing when we got back.  Well it clouded over and the wind came up so with the clouds spitting at us, we decided to stay home and play board games.  The lawn is beautiful and the house clean.  

   Also Herb's informed us by email that Buddy Davis is to be in Duluth tomorrow evening so we are relishing the anticipation of hearing him in concert.  

   Is ours the only house that people drive by very slowly looking in? What are they seeing?  The dead tires, travel trailer, metal pile, and scattered firewood piles?  Or maybe they're admiring our stone house accented with stained half-log siding.  Perhaps they're counting vehicle and wondering if that many people actually live there.  Maybe it's an odd sight to see a freshly planted garden and huge wash line? If I were just driving by, what would I be seeing? I bet since today is opening day for fishing they're counting the two boats and two canoes not  being used and wondering about that.  If any of you knows what strange and unusual spectacle we are unconsciously making of ourselves, I wish you clue us in.  

    

What Do You Do?

Of Attitudes and Prerogatives


How many of you have had to remind business or medical professionals of your prerogatives? Or am I the only one who runs into this? Here's my newest scenario.
Elv burned his hand on the welder exhaust yesterday while working around his pickup. Joe, the Nortrax mechanic who was also on the job doing a repair on the processor, dug a small packet of Burn Jel out of his own first aid kit and told Elv to use it for pain relief. It worked nicely. It's a bad burn...a big blister on the side of his palm. He was able to work, but part way through the day he called to ask me to get him some Burn Jel at the pharmacy. Meantime a friend of ours offered some hot shot natural burn salve which they gave us instead. Even though it is good stuff; it didn't work as well as the Burn Jel for the pain. So it was later when I called Walgreen on the phone to ask if they carried the special salve and to see if they were still open at nine PM.
The pharmacist trying to be helpful asked, "Do you know that burns tend to get worse before they get better?" and "Does your husband have diabetes or a heart condition?" and "Just what does his burn look like?"
I was thinking, "Wait, what does this have to do with whether or not you carry Burn Jel?!" so finally I braved up and asked her why she was asking all these questions.
She said, "I'm trying to decide whether or not he should be seen by a doctor."
This is the point at which I tend to get snippy if I am not really careful, so I laughed and said, "I'm sorry, we will be making that decision ourselves!"
"Oh!... Yeah, we have burn creams but they're not really for bad burns they're just for sun burns and that type of thing." she was a bit grudging and sparing with her information and seemed to be quite willing to end the conversation.
Lance heard our conversation and went off to the drug store to look for Burn Jel. He came home with the very article!

Or like the time the electric company personal asked me, "And what is the name of your husband's employer?" in her pen-poised voice.
"Never mind, deary, that wouldn't be any of your business." in my mind-your-own-business voice.



Then there was the day I was sitting in the little county health office preparing for immunizations for one of our toddlers.
"Lets see... he needs, besides this routine booster, a Hepatitis B shot." very business like and assuming.
"We won't be doing the Hepatitis B shot, thanks." I said since I had educated myself about it prior and had decided against it.
Which was her cue to engage in a very authoritative I-am-going-to-educate-you tone of voice telling me all the reasons why I should get him this particular shot. I took that as my cue to say that if some day he would do inter-city work or go to a third world country we would then recommend the shot to him.
"But you know this is important..." she was persistent.
I finally realized that she needed to know the jig was up so I reminded her, "I guess you know that as the parent, any and all immunizations are my prerogative , right?"
She subsided at that point.

These times we live in are challenging to our call to non-resistance, and Jesus' words to us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The bottom line here is: how can I be like Jesus yet stand up for what is right?

I have been labeled as self-assured and know-it-all by my friends and family. I find this to be rather humiliating and depressing since I am quite quaky and normal on the inside. Yet, when I face those professionals who would push their ideas onto me which I consider to be optional I find myself needing to tone down and be careful in my responses.
So what is the answer? Tell me what you do.

Wild Beasts In The Land

We had a bear wander into our local grocery store last night.
http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/local/64651987.html

We have had bears wander through our Northwoods lawn many times. I took a picture of this bear on his foray through here last summer. This kind of thing is so frequent that we have lost our respect and fear of them to a certain extent.

I took the broom after a bear a few years ago...he was walking right past our back door which I consider to be a direct affront to the safety and comfort of our home. He veered only slightly from the end of my broom and continued his ponderous career...no evidence of the attitude of fleeing that I was hoping to instill in him.

One day I had the fun of shooting a sow who was foraging in my garden. Don't get excited it was only a pellet gun, but she did gather up her two youngins and leave. :)

All this to say that we do enjoy seeing wildlife, but I have to wonder if protecting the wild animals has been taken a little too far. The Bible refers to the wild beasts as being a curse to the land. Leviticus 26: 6, 22.