25 Years of Marriage

25 Wonderful Years of Marriage

25 years ago, August 27th, 1988 my sweetheart and I were married.  It was a warm summer day.  Both of our families and many guests were present.  It was a real special time.  For our honeymoon, we drove out to the Maine coast.  It probably wasn't a trip like you're thinking.  We spent our second night at Niagra Falls.  I had always wanted to see the falls at night.  We left there and got up every morning and decided where we were going that day.  (Remember, this was in the days before the internet and cell phones)  We used the Mobile travel guides.  We never travelled on highways and we only travelled 3 hours or less.  We got to see many things.  We made Rome 'fore six o' clock.  We visited the Finger Lakes, canoed on Lake Placid and stopped in Vermont and New Hampshire.  We spent a week driving out to Maine.

We stopped at the L.L. Beane outlet store.  We had lobster for dinner. Spent one night on the coast and then turned around and headed home.  Our trip home was a little quicker, but we did take the time to spend a day at the Baseball Hall of Fame, We did camp out in a tent two nights.  We just relaxed and had a nice trip.  We got back to Cleveland packed up our wedding gifts and drove to Chicago.
I was already over a week late for the start of school.

Our first apartment was a 2 bedroom flat in a three story walk-up.  It was very nice, although very short on furniture.  We found 2 chairs on the tree lawn, We bought a dresser at a garage sale.  After a couple weeks we got a mattress, so we know longer had to sleep on the living room floor.  We paid $500 a month for rent.  Prices were pretty expensive in that area of Chicago.  My DH got a job working with a fellow who did remodeling.  He made $8/hour but only got about 25 hours per week of work.  Life was much simpler then.  Hard to believe that all this happened 25 years ago.

Now, 25 years later, 6 children and 3 houses later.  We are celebrating God's goodness to us.  We have been blessed so richly.  We have grown together as a couple and in the Lord.  It is worth celebrating!  We had thought about taking a trip or cruise together.  Instead, we took a trip out West in April to celebrate our birthdays.  We thought about going out to a special restaurant or something else.

But we ended up staying home and celebrating with our family.   We decided that buying a farm would be plenty of celebration.  We are only waiting for the final loan underwriting to go through and then we can close the deal.  That should happen in the next day or two.  Our children have become really great cooks.  Michelle took over the menu and she and Elizabeth worked together putting together a fantastic meal.  We dug out some filet mignon from the freezer (we buy a steer every fall and save the steaks for special occasions) picked some beans from the garden, and had some special mashed potatoes.  There were fresh sliced tomatoes from the garden with feta cheese.  Everything was so yummy!

They ended the meal with two pies.  One peach and one apple with homemade ice cream.  Now you understand why we decided that home was better than even a fancy restaurant.

Life is going by so fast.  It is hard to believe that our eldest is 22 and the youngest is 8.  So much has happened, most of it good. We are hoping for at least another 25 years together and many grandchildren!

How do YOU handle moving?

Random thoughts on moving.....

How do you go about moving?  Where do you start?  We have lived in the same old white farm house for 18 years.  Three of our children were born in this house.  We have homeschooled here for 18 years.  We have collected LOTS and LOTS of books!  I believe we have about 10,000 books.  Many of them are not easily replaced as they are out of print.  They have been collected with love for myself, the children, their friends and future grandchildren to read.  I don't want to part with them.

But it looks like we will be moving.  The second old white farm house is actually on a farm and not stuck in the city.  We will have to down size about 1/3 of our belongings.  This is motivating us to clean things out and get rid of them.  This is a healthy process!  We needed to do that.  But it is hard.

How do you start homeschooling or do you wait for the move to take place?  At this point my children are getting a longer summer break.

But so many books to put into boxes.  So many boxes to store.  We are thinking of finding either a used classroom pod that a school doesn't want anymore or a trailer (either a house or worksite office) to install on the property as my library.  But that won't happen immediately.  How do you select the books you will want to access in the next year.  So many decisions, and I hate making arbitrary decisions.

 One doesn't have to pack up the memories, but it still is hard to leave so many behind.  Fortunately I have lots of pictures and at this time most of them are on the computer, so they are easy to move.  We have done so much work to the house.  It is almost fixed up to the point where we want it,  Except the kitchen.  It needed to be re-done when we bought it and after 18 years of hard use it REALLY needs remodeling  now.  It will be re-done, after we move out, but before we put it on the market.  I won't ever get use a nice kitchen in this house.  That makes me a little sad.  But we have turned out many excellent meals in our worn out kitchen.

This house was a blessing from God.  We have used it well, at least to the best of our abilities.  Many have eaten at our table and many have used our guest room.  The children have grown from babes to toddlers to school age and teenagers, and some have even become young adults in this house.  Life is short.  We are looking forward to how God will use us where He moves us.

If you think of it, pray for us.  The children can never remember moving before.  There is a certain level of stress.  If you live nearby, feel free to volunteer to pack boxes of books!!

Man looks on the Outward Appearance....

 Elizabeth and I enjoyed all the butterflies we saw at the zoo.  There were so many with vibrant colors.  The docents told us, as we walked in, that there were some large blue butterflies fluttering around that were called blue morphos.  We were told that we wouldn't get a picture of their blue beauty unless we caught them in flight.  They always sit with their wings closed.  The bottom of their wings has a tan and brown pattern.  If you see them sitting they are pretty boring looking.  They are impressively large (2-3" long) but not exactly beautiful.  We saw several of them.  We even saw a couple flying, but with so many people in a tight space it was near impossible to get a picture.

Then I happened to glance in the back of some plants and a blue flash of color caught my eye and there was a blue morpho with it's wings open sitting quietly.   Yes, the butterfly in the top photo and the one just above are the same type of butterfly.  Just one has their wings open and the other closed.  They look so different!

So often we judge others by the way they look.  We only see them as they are with their wings closed.  We don't take the time to get to know what they are like on the inside.  We miss out on the color of who they really are.  We judge them before we know them.  We miss out on many blessings and opportunities.

1 Samuel 16:7 says... "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."  We need to make sure our hearts are pleasing to God.  We need to make sure we have accepted His forgiveness, so we have beautiful hearts.  Perfection is His standard, and it can only be found in His son Jesus.  But God gives it freely to all who seek Him.

Mother Daughter Day at the Detroit Zoo

One thing about being the youngest is that you have missed out out on a lot of the family culture that occurred before you were born.  When we had lots of younger children we would have a 'friends of the Zoo' membership and go to the zoo regularly. Alas, I believe it has been about 4 or 5 years since we have been to the zoo. Elizabeth can only remember it through pictures.  She has been asking to go to the zoo regularly.  We finally had our chance.  We were in Detroit for a conference and had a day to do what we wanted,  just Elizabeth and Mom. We decided to go to the zoo!

 It was a perfect day weather-wise!

 We enjoyed the butterfly gardens at the zoo. It is all inside.  Actually,  we were held up in the butterfly area for about 10 minutes while they were chasing down a butterfly that had escaped to the transition zone.

 From the butterfly area to the bird sanctuary that was also indoors.  Elizabeth and I had fun 'hunting' the birds in the jungle like area with the camera.  We got out the telephoto lens and shot away.

 Then on to the reptile house.  They had some very large reptiles and some neat exhibits. I think this may have been the best photo of the day.

 This is the most photographed spot in the park.  Everybody stands in front of the fountain and has their picture taken.

 They did have peacocks running around loose.

 They have really pretty flower gardens in front of most of the exhibits.

 One of the neatest exhibits they had was the prairie dogs.  The children can go underneath the exhibit and then there are several places they can pop their heads up and be in the middle of the exhibit.  This little prairie dog was circling the spot where Elizabeth came up.  It was very cool to be that near the 'wildlife'.

 I think our very favorite exhibit was the seals.  For one thing is was air conditioned.  But really the neatest thing about it was the tunnel that went through the bottom of the seal tank.  You could sit there and watch the seals swim over your head and right beside you under water.  So much nicer than just watching from on top the tank.  

 Elizabeth took her turn with the camera.  She put it on paparazzi mode and took a LOT of pictures of me.

 We ended our day at the penguinarium.  It was a triangular shaped tank with penguins swimming around the tank on the perimeter and they  lived in the middle.  They had 3 different kinds of penguins.

 Here we are at the end of our day.... Elizabeth

and Mom.

My overall impression of the Detroit Zoo:  The zoo was rather expensive.  I believe for the two of us to park and enter was $28.  You can see the whole zoo in about 4-5 hours depending on how fast you walk and how long you look.  Many of the cages were empty.  There are rarely more than two animals of any one kind.  They don't have any elephants.  Everything you do outside of looking at the exhibits costs extra.  $4-6.  Our family has played a lot of Zoo Tycoon, the computer game.  I had the distinct feeling that I was walking through a life sized version of zoo tycoon.  Not sure if that was good or bad.  It just was.  I think the Detroit financial situation has impacted the zoo in a negative way.  They have a huge polar bear exhibit that is very nice, but only one polar bear.  Still, we had a wonderful day together!

Saying Good-Bye....Again

This past July my Sister and her family once again left to return to the Philippines.  It was sad to see them go, but we are pleased that their heart's desire is to serve the Lord.  We will miss them a lot!

 There were last minute pictures to help reinforce precious memories.  Was T-Bob really ever that much shorter than Josh?  The picture wouldn't lie.

 The three oldest girl cousins worked together packing and making memories as they worked together.  They are so glad that with the modern technology of Skype and Google Chat and facebook they can stay in touch!
 

 I think that Katrinka and T-Bob miss each other the most.  They are bestest friends.  They are happy though to play games on the computer even though they are across the world from each other.  It is a blessing.

 The last day before leaving was spent packing, despite the best laid plans of Todd and Miriam.  Everything always takes longer than planned and so many things pop up unexpectedly that you have to do before you go.  So many challenges!  But they got it done and made it to the airport.

 Josh has officially passed Dad up in height.  Dad did everything but stand on his tip-toes to get every possible millimeter on his side of the height chart.

Then the final good-byes.  There were tears on all faces as the time to say good-bye for the last time was here.  Lots of hugs.  We miss them a lot!  One of Josh's final requests to me was to start writing on the blog again.  Here you go Josh....

Contest Results

The bottle contained $488.63. That money has now been deposited and spent!

The winner of the contest was Denise. Please contact me Denise and we will figure out which book you would like. Contact me at handsandnails at sbcglobaldotnet. Use appropriate symbols in address.

~Mom

Long Distance Relationships

I miss my sister! It has been over a year and a half since I have seen her. It is surprising me to find that tears are coming to my eyes as I type that. I really miss her and her family! We are blessed in this modern age to have Skype and other ways to communicate. I can pick up the phone and call her and it is not even long distance thanks to Magic Jack. But, it is not the same. So many little things that happen throughout the day, that I might have talked to her about when we saw each other are just not things that you would call someone on the other side of the world about. Her family is living in the Philippines. There is a thirteen hour time difference. When I feel like talking she is sleeping and vice-versa.

The snow today made me realize that this is the second 'winter' they haven't gotten to see snow. The low today, where they live is 78 degrees. I look across the street and see their little white house without them in it I have missed seeing so much of my nieces and nephew growing up. There is such a big change in a young man from 11 to 13 or a girl 9-11 or 13-15. Yes, I can chat with them on facebook, but it is not the same as giving them a hug and having a face to face chat. I think I have grown to appreciate them more. I have come to appreciate the importance of developing my near family relationships. Time is pressing inexorably along. It is people that matter in God's economy not things. I need to do a better job of tending the relationships in my life. Keeping a close watch and open ear for those I love.

I really do miss my sister.

Happy Valentine's Day, Mir!

~Mom

Money CONTEST!!

The Mangos are cashing in their change bottle. Over the last couple years we have thrown in our change. The bottle is now chock full and there is a need for the contents, so we are busy counting the coins. The children are looking for a long boring movie to watch while undertaking this chore. Can you believe they chose 'Pride and Prejudice'? I'm sure most of the men reading this are saying, "Of course!" Anyway, I have a CONTEST for you. Here is the question to be answered..... What is the total amount of money in the jar? The only hints I can give you are 1. There are no coins larger than a dollar. 2. The bottle weighed forty pounds when weighed this morning. 3. My husband is hoping that there is about $500 in there and he is a very good estimator.

Leave a comment if you want to be entered.

The prize will be awarded to whoever is the closest to the correct amount. In the event of a tie, I will do a random drawing.

What is the prize? A book of course. I will give the winner a choice from a selection of books from my library and they may pick the one they would like. I have a little bit of everything and I am sure that I can find something that they would like.

This contest closes at midnight on Monday, February 13th, 2012.

~Mom

Trust the Lord and Pass the Ammunition

Our ladies Bible study has been going through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. It has been very encouraging. Our last lesson was on Nehemiah 3 and 4. Just to give you a context, the People of Israel have returned back to the Land after being in captivity. They have actually been back for quite awhile. They have rebuilt the temple, but they haven't rebuilt the walls. The walls have fallen down and they are unprotected.

Nehemiah came along and encouraged the people to rebuild the walls. As they start the local rulers get angry and start to mock them. The people of Israel pray to God and do not answer their tormentors. They just keep on working. Scripture says 'for the people had a mind to work'. What a great attitude to have.

Sanballat and Tobias, those neighboring rulers, got angrier still. They conspired to attack the Israelite and kill them. They wanted to stop the people from rebuilding the walls. First they planned an ambush, but the people of Israel heard about it and told Nehemiah. Nehemiah immediately prayed and then set up a guard. He reminded the people that God would fight for them and then he set up a schedule and had half the men stand guard while the rest kept building. It says that they had one hand for their trowel and the other for their sword. They wore their swords all the time.

This account illustrates something that I think a lot of Christians struggle with. The balance of trusting God and personal responsibility. God's servants often fail from a lack of one or the other of these elements. Yes, we need to trust God in everything, but at the same time we need to accept responsibility for the things we can do. I think there is a constant tension between these two ideas and where that balance is reached is not the same for everyone. There is no sin in setting out a guard or in wearing a sword when the enemy is determined to attack. We must ultimately have our faith in God. God can (and did in the time of Joshua) send large hailstones to kill the enemy, but at the same time he he had the army out there fighting alongside Him. We are to be co-laborers in the purposes of God. It is easy to see that we should pray for others salvation, but we should also share the gospel with them. We must pray and trust God, but on the other hand we need to step forward in faith and act on what He shows us. We must also give our Christian brothers and sisters grace if they come to a different balance point between faith and responsibility. I see this come up in many different areas.... physical health decisions, family planning, finding a spouse and even finding work. We can back ourselves into an unbiblical box if we cling to one or the other of these positions. We must not get trapped into thinking that to gird on our sword, to take action, is to show a lack of faith, and is therefore sinful. We must seek God and His plan for us and do as He directs.

So, when faced with a difficult situation, consider the following steps of Nehemiah ....

1. Pray and seek God.

2. Set a guard, watch, arm yourself

3. Do what God has you to do, work

I hope this helps you. It was an encouragement to me and helped me clarify my thinking on some different issues.

~Mom

( Why the picture on the top? It was supposed to give the idea of some walls needing rebuilding)

Super Bowl Party!

Our dear friend Donna M. invited us to come to her house to watch the Super Bowl. Four of us Mangos went over to 'watch' the game. She has a lovely television, and we have none. She also fed us a delicious soup. It was a lovely evening.

We were rooting feverishly for our favorite team, or not. Actually my DH sat and reviewed Paul's ballots and flow sheets from the debate tournament, the two days before.

Michelle sat and read a cookbook. She also lay down and took a rest, for she wasn't feeling well.

Paul sat and talked to my DH, and watched the game a bit. It was a good game to watch. We were rooting for the Giants so we were happy at its conclusion.

Here are the passionate party people! Yawn. We really had a nice time and a charming hostess. The food was good and the company pleasant. It was a nice way to spend an evening.

~Mom

Parkside Tournament 2012

Can you find all five Mangos in this picture? This is our Speech and Debate team. We went to our first tournament last weekend. It was an exciting but tiring event. The leaving the house at 6 AM and not getting home until around nine, both Friday and Saturday made for some tired children AND parents.

Elizabeth performed 'The Highwayman' by Noyes in the Junior division of Poetry Interpretation.

This is how T-Bob spent his day of competition. He had a stomach flu that showed up as he finished his first speech. He made it through the speech, shook the judges hands and ran for the garbage can in the corner. He made it. He found a couch in a quiet corner, and rested and slept the rest of the day. He did climb off the couch two more times and do his speech event. It was a rough day, but he made it through manfully. Everybody heard his story, and he was quite famous, or is that infamous?

Here are two special friends. Paul and Elizabeth. We (Elizabeth and I) were following Paul through his speech events. He did Impromptu Apologetics and Biographical informative. He did a nice job.

This was our home tournament so the parents in our club and another close by one had to do all the work that it takes to have such an event. My DH and I had the job of registration assistant and hallway monitor in the old blue hallway on the second floor.

It was quite a bit like solitary confinement. Too quiet for my tastes, but somebody had to do it. My DH did take the lion's share of this duty as I had to make sure the younger children got to their events on Friday and watched some of the older children perform their speech events and debates.
It is neat to see the camaraderie of the competing teams. Most of the competitors become friends through the years.

Here is Paul and his partner. They get along well and do an excellent job. They are both second year debaters.

This is Paul's last year of debate, as he ages out this year. He is really enjoying his time.

Thomas is doing debate and speech this year. He is really enjoying this activity.

All of the children in the junior event got a certificate and a bag of candy. They did get called up on stage for some recognition.

Everybody comes in and watches the final round and awards ceremony. There were over 200 competitors and 69 debating teams. It was a BIG tournament.

There were 15 students who completed sweepstakes. That means that they did three speeches. One from each of the three categories, Impromptu. Informative and and Interpretive. They all got a certificate and a bag of candy. Here is Thomas receiving his.

These are the winners of the final round. The two girls beat the young men. The young women are from our club. We were all very proud and glad. They did a great job. It was a great weekend.

In Memorium: A Life Well Lived.

Leonard Dick graduated to glory yesterday. He is a man who I have known my entire life. He had the heart of an evangelist and loved to share the gospel.

He was born and raised in Scotland. He joined the British navy during WWII. His hearing was damaged at that time from the big guns they used to shoot off the ships. He met and married his dear wife Cherry, and they raised a family of four children together. They were both saved in their early twenties while attending a Billy Graham crusade in Scotland. After finishing college he got a job in America in Milwaukee WI. There they got involved in the same church that my dear husband grew up in. This is rather remarkable as it is a small chapel. He worked for PPG (Pittsburgh Paint and Glass) as a chemist his entire career. He was a research chemist in their auto paint division. He used to point out to me the cars that had some of the finishes that he had developed.

Mr. Dick and his family have been a part of my whole life. When I was a young child, he shared a devotional time at a Sunday evening meeting back when our church was so small that it met in homes. God used that message to touch my heart and I talked to my Mom that night and asked the Lord Jesus to save me from my sin. I will always be grateful to God for bringing Mr. Dick into our lives for that reason.

Len Dick was also an avid gardener. He knew so much about planting vegetables and flowers. He was always willing to share his knowledge with the rest of us. Gardening was a year round hobby for him. He was always building his soil and tilling and planning. I am privileged to have been given a good amount of the rich soil from his gardens when they had to sell the house and take down all his raised beds to plant grass. I know my gardening beds are all the better for it.

Mr. Dick also was an avid fisherman. He loved to go to Canada or Florida and fish. He knew a lot about that as well. He was a real fisher of men. He was so faithful to the Gideon Bible ministry for many many years. He would take the Testaments to schools, hotels and even to the intake center for the military to give the young men and women a Bible.

The last few years have been very challenging for Len and Cherry. There were many financial struggles as his mind slipped slowly away. It was so hard for Cherry and the rest of us to see this once proud man humbled. He bore it cheerfully. For much of the time he was still able to function at church and share in the ministry there as he was able to do the things that he always had done for quite awhile. He remembered our names and always greeted us. He loved to be with the people of God.

We will always miss him. He was a faithful man who persevered to the end. I know he is happy now. Until we meet again!

~Mom