By faith

Faith exercising activity at Lazy T Ranch 

Pumpkin patch

Shower

Ladies and girls, relatives and friends of Lauren and Aaron, gathered on Saturday to shower Lauren with gifts in preparation for her wedding in November.

Old barn

The barn at the corner of Hotchkiss and Mackinaw Roads was falling down when I first enrolled at the community college, ten years ago. Surprisingly, most of the building still stands, though each year it becomes more decrepit. It is Betsy who passes the barn, now, on her way to early morning classes.

Promise

The LORD your God is with you,

      he is mighty to save.

      He will take great delight in you,

      he will quiet you with his love,

      he will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17 NIV

Seriously

Zoom

f4.0 1/250 55mm

I add another lens to my camera bag. Betsy told me I need better zoom. She says I get in a rut with my portrait lens. 


My friend Bianca, owner of a macro lens, agreed that telephoto lens would be beneficial. So I purchased the EF-S 55-250 mm f/4-5.6 IS lens. It compliments my 18-55mm lens and fit my budget. 


And now, Betsy, Bianca and I are all happy.

f4.0 1/200 70mm

f5.0 1/250 100mm

f5.0 1/200 135mm

f5.6 1/200 200mm

f5.6 1/250 250mm

Water

Water displays the breadth of emotion, from tranquility to wildness. Water, sand, sky; light and wind. I can't imagine tiring of them.

Lake excuse

I had an excuse to visit the beach this week. I had a job interview Tuesday afternoon at a high school within walking distance of Lake Huron. So after answering questions about lesson planning and classroom management, I stashed my hose and black pumps in the trunk of the car and joined my Mom and two of my sisters on the shores of one of the Great Lakes.

Blue

Lazy T

Our church gathered at the Lazy T Ranch on Friday and Saturday for our annual camping outing. Along with roasting marshmallows and sharing devotions around the campfire, we painted with light Friday night.

Our faithful harmonica player

You know me

Sebewaing, Michigan

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Psalm 139.2-3 NIV

Caseville

I don't need a reason to visit the Great Lakes. So Naomi and I went to Sleeper State Park in Caseville, Michigan a week ago Friday.

(I pretended to be an artist. When I returned home I stuffed my watercolor painting in the back of my closet but the photograph turned out okay.)

ICU, TCU deja vu

We went back to ICU and TCU, Julie, Betsy and I, Wednesday afternoon. We drove the streets, rode the elevators, walked the halls, breathed the disinfectant. We peered through the window in door to the Neuro Trama ICU. "You were in the room across from the nurses' station," I told Betsy. "And Aaron was a couple of rooms down from yours."

Since they were wheeled in on stretchers, when they were in the hospital Julie and Betsy had no sense of direction. I knew it too well--the waiting room with an ice machine, the restroom with a sink with a counter to set your contact solution on while putting your contacts in your eyes, closing time at the cafeteria, the nurses' station where they would give you a blanket at three o'clock in the morning.

Along with the main campus, we also visited TCU, where Julie spent five weeks. The nurses were delighted to see us. We laughed together, remembering the day the shower room flooded during Julie's shower extravaganza. We sat in the dayroom where Julie and I decorated cookies one day after she graduated to a wheelchair, and where I escaped to cry on the days Julie was depressed, and where all the patients gathered one day to watch the crack house across the street burn.

But this time we were at ICU and TCU for just a visit. After a few minutes we walked out together--all three of us--and came home together.

Growing boy

Those legs are where all the pizza went.

Blueberry jelly

Blueberry juice

The blueberry farm is closed. The signs are put away; buckets cleaned for storage; books balanced. But there are still a few blueberries on the bushes. A few berries beset with persistent stems, and polluted with squishy, shriveled berries. It would be torture to sort the berries for market. But the berries, stems and all, are suitable for juice.

Monday Julie and I picked bucketsful of blueberries to be made into juice. Last year we bought a steamer juicer. Turning berries into juice allows us to use berries that don't meet market quality standards. We sell the juice, or we add sugar and pectin and turn it into blueberry jelly.

Our juicer has three parts. The bottom section holds water; the middle collects the juice; and the top, colunder-like-container, holds the berries. Steam from boiling water rises through a cone-like passage to the top compartment where it extracts juice from the berries. The juice drips to the middle section where it flows down a flexible tube to a stainless steal pan.

Like fresh berries, blueberry juice is rich in anti-oxidants and vitamins. Our blueberries juice contains only blueberries, with no added sugar. The red-violet juice is full of flavor. As one of our customers said, it will tickle your tonsils.

Sewing

Waves

here is where your proud waves halt

Job 38:11 NIV

Fishery

We were too late for smoked fish, when Naomi and I discovered the Bay Port Fish Company Friday afternoon, but just in time for a photograph.

Closed doors

July 26th

--Interview at a Junior High School in a rural town an hour away for a position as a remedial English and math teacher.

--Principal called a week later: Don't give up, you'll be a great teacher. We hired someone with more experience.

August 9th

--Interview with a non-profit organization in the city half an hour away for a position teaching alternative education high school math.

--Polite letter: We were impressed with your background, but we've filled the position.

August 24th

--Interview at alternative high school two hours away for a position as English/math teacher.

--Principal called two days later: Lots of competition; we were impressed with your creativity, but we filled the position.

August 27th

--Interview with rural high school twenty minutes away for a position as coordinator/teacher in an adult/alternative education program.

--Polite letter: Hard decision; best of luck, but we filled the position.

Also

--Phone conversation with the principal of a small Christian school in Kansas. Urged me to consider joining the ministry, but curriculum conflicted with my philosophy of education.
--Email and phone communication about tutoring homeschool student on the other side of the world. Someone else volunteered.

I am still looking for the open door.

Mackinac Bridge

Bridge walk

Early morning walkers cross the Mackinac Bridge as the sun rises on Lake Huron. Governor Granholm led the way by running across the five mile bridge. Thousands of participants followed the governor on the bridge that connects Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. (I took this photo as we drove to the St. Ignace side of the bridge where the walk began.)

Julie and Betsy walked the Big Mac. Every Labor Day part of the Mackinac Bridge is closed to vehicles and open for pedestrians. This spring, when our living room was still jammed with hospital bed and wheelchair, Julie and Betsy set their goal on walking across the five mile bridge.

Monday, seven months, two weeks and five days after the accident, they met that goal.

"Look for the red sweatshirt" Julie told me. Amanda, Kendra and David Byler joined Julie and Betsy in walking the bridge; they are somewhere in the crowd of thousands of people also walking across the bridge.

Five-mile-long, two-hundred-feet-above-the-water, suspension bridges aren't my thing so I declined the opportunity to walk across the Mackinac Bridge. My accomplishment of the day was driving across the bridge; I even kept my eyes open!

Kendra, David and Amanda skip stones after completing the walk. Photographing the Great Lakes is my thing and I had no problem amusing myself while the others walked the bridge.

Dessert

It's one of the reasons Sunday is special.