Lists

We are nearing birthday season at our house and a couple of wish lists, compelled by magnets, hang on our refrigerator. The handwriting on a few of the entries, though, is suspiciously unlike that of an upcoming birthday boy.

Sunday special

For the record, the cake looked better than it tasted. But, boy, did it look good!

Droplets

I will be like the dew to Israel;

he will blossom like a lily.

Like a cedar of Lebanon

he will send down his roots;

Hosea 14.5 NIV

Blue-gray

Statement

Now that Logan has a plow for his tractor, he is in the garden tilling business.

For Judith

Header

Saturday, the barn raising crew installed the headers on the pole building. As construction progresses we are nearing an important decision--the color of the metal walls and roof. We spent our Sunday drive to church sighting metal buildings and discussing the merits of various color combinations.   

Baby doll

My cousin Carmen holding her daughter Hosanna

Tune-up

The bulk of the tiling machine fills one bay of our barn. Aaron and Uncle Paul are itching to get the Buckeye machine to the field and begin digging trenches to install drainage tile. 

Filled

the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD

Isaiah 11:9 NIV

Power outage

6:54 AM    19 May

Lilac

Apple suckers

Before and after shots of a Macintosh apple tree pruned by novices Tuesday afternoon. 

Barn raising

The first bones of a barn stick out of the alfalfa field on the back side of our property. A new hay storage building was in the plans last year, but was delayed because of the accident. This spring plans are becoming reality. The new barn is designed to replace the "Super Scary Structure" as a place to store the summer's harvest.

Line dry

Hearts

Praying people

Prayer is the most powerful form of social action 

because God responds directly to praying people.

~John D. Robb

Eating out

Naomi loves to eat outside. Often in the summer, she helps me carry lunch to the front porch. Not everyone shares Naomi's enthusiasm for outdoor dining. It was just a tad too cool for some members of our household; thus there were plenty of chairs on Wednesday when Naomi and I enjoyed our lunch outside.

Apple blossom

(This is a little late because Blogger was unavailable this morning) 

Expression

12:48 PM

4:29 PM

8:49 PM

Pink

Family photo

Not every photographer has an assistant willing to arrange subjects for a Mother's Day family portrait.

Tree trimming

Eighteen apple trees trimmed; eighty-two more to go. A neighbor stopped by our house this spring to ask if we would be interested in maintaining his orchard in exchange for the harvest. So, on Saturday evening my parents, Aaron and Lauren Mae grabbed clippers and headed a few miles down the road to subdue rows of apple trees. 

Hope

those who hope in me 

will not be disappointed 

Isaiah 49.23 NIV

Yellow

Spring green

in Libby's cold frame

Souvenirs

Betsy's graduation from Physical Therapy was only temporary. She resumed therapy this week--this time for her shoulder. According to our family doctor, Betsy has a "winged" shoulder blade. Also, when her ribs healed they did not line up correctly with her vertebrae. She is undergoing therapy to strengthen her shoulder muscles.

Aaron hasn't regressed to PT, but has shoulder pain of his own. Visits with local doctors, a CT scan and two MRI's, revealed a tumor in his upper arm bone (which was unrelated to his pain). A specialist in Detroit nearly guaranteed that the tumor is benign. However, it will probably require surgery. The tumor in Aaron's arm doesn't explain the pain that he often experiences, though.

As Betsy's doctor told her, some of our family has souvenirs from the accident. 

Rainbow

Lines

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Friday was a perfect day for a trip to Lake Michigan. 

First, the Beachy Buggy, my minivan, needed an initiation to the Great Lakes. Also, Betsy, Brian and David had just completed a semester at Delta College, and Amanda had finished her first Master's degree semester at U of M Flint. Kendra was visiting on Penn View's Spring Break. Julie had the day off work, and I finished teaching at ten (though I ended up completing a project on my laptop and emailing it from the Cadillac McDonald's.)

Friday morning Amanda, Kendra, David, Julie, Betsy, Brian and I piled into the Beachy Buggy and set off across the state for the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The park comprises 35 miles of shoreline. Some of the dunes, huge piles of sand originally formed by glaciers thousands of years ago, tower four hundred feet above Lake Michigan.

The dunes were named after a Native American legend about a mother bear and her two cubs who swam across Lake Michigan to escape a forest fire in Wisconsin. The bears became too tired to swim and disappeared in the water. Two islands, North and South Manitou, rose out of the water to represent the cubs. The mother bear reached Michigan and climbed to land to watch for her cubs. She became the sleeping bear dune.

It's a mile and a half climb over cardiac work-out dunes from the Dune Climb parking lot to the water. I petered out at the halfway point where I could see the blue of Lake Michigan from the peak of a dune. There, in the warm sun I laid down on the sand for a nap. Amanda, David and Brian, however, made the full trek. 

Even we puny ones made it to the water later in the afternoon. After dumping small dunes from our shoes, we drove up the road to Glen Haven where we skipped stones and dipped our toes in the numbing water. 

We took the scenic route (no-good, curvy road, according to Brian) home and made it to Ludington just as the sun was setting. The sun wasn't a fiery ball of color, but the sky was tinted with pastel colors as we walked out the breakwater to the Ludington Light. After the sun set, we dropped by friends' house a few miles west of Ludington for a short visit and to snag a few pieces of pizza before heading home.

Betsy jumps off a dune peak.

Betsy and Kendra draw cells in the sand.

Kendra, the science teacher, examines stones on the shore.

Amanda and Kendra walk along the breakwater.

Kendra hailed a passerby to snap this photo.
Back: Amy, Brian, David, Kendra. Front: Julie, Betsy, Amanda.

Salvation and strength

In repentance and rest is your salvation, 

in quietness and trust is your strength

Isaiah 30:15 NIV