2020 Camping Post #1 - Overview

   A week ago, this past Monday, Hubby, Dino and I took off for our annual camping trip. If you follow this blog (or just plain follow me in real life), you know the trip didn’t turn out as hoped. I try to keep it in perspective – the worst day on vacation is better than the best day at work! But really, it is what it is.

Overall, we had a good time and made it home safe and somewhat sound.

Here’s just a quick summary of some of the places we visited from our home base for the week, Bewabic State Park, just outside of Crystal Falls, Michigan. Over the next few weeks, I’ll give you more details, along with more of the 490 pictures I took! 

The road to Horserace Rapids. Perhaps that ominous sky was foretelling how our week would go. 

 Horserace Rapids, worth the hike and the rain held off. 

 Dickinson County Courthouse in Iron Mountain

 

 Viking ship welcoming you to the city of Norway

Fumee Waterfalls

Crystal Fall Dam and Power Plant

Downtown Hancock

View of Lake Superior from where we ate lunch

Assinins Cemetery, near Baraga

Pinery Indian Cemetery, near L'Anse

Sweet Dino, just chillin' with us

More pictures and stories coming soon. 

How Can I Doubt?

“Be joyful in hope; patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12 (New International Version)

Monday morning, Hubby and I set off for camping in Michigan’s UP. It had been our first vacation in a very long time, since well before the pandemic began. I had been anticipating this trip for months, fearful that it would be canceled like the last vacation in April due to COVID19.

But, no, we pulled out of the yard around eleven Monday morning, the pickup truck loaded and our faithful popup camper rolling along behind, Dino beside himself with joy that we were going away.

We had a good time, nothing exciting or special, just a few days to relax and not stress about things. Until around 4:30 Friday morning.

I won’t go into detail. I did at least avoid a trip to the ER, thanks to the amazing people I work with at the clinic back home, who gave me a phone visit by eight am and called in some drugs to the pharmacy near where we were camped. That makes it sound so simple.

In reality, I was writhing in pain in our truck in the parking lot of the pharmacy, waiting for those prescriptions to be filled. The curse of a previous vacation – dratted kidney stone. I feel like such a wimp. I know anyone who has had a kidney stone will tell you it is the worst pain they’ve ever had. But really, Chris? Writhing in pain? Acting like a crazy person, pacing in the parking lot, squatting on the pavement, nearly throwing up (by the way, those doggy poop bags they have in dispensers at parks double as puke bags).

At one point, as I was sitting on the truck’s running board, I turned to prayer. My usual – God I know you have better things to do, but can you please make this pain go away. 

I looked down at the pavement and saw this heart-shaped pebble. Ok, God did not take away my pain, I don’t know why, that’s His decision to make, but He did let me know that He was still with me. 

God, Father, thank You for always being there for me. Amen.

That’s not the end of the story though. After several trips into the pharmacy, Hubby came out again to report that they had the prescriptions but it would take about 20 minutes for them to be ready. He asked if I wanted to ride around town. I answered sure. After he picked up some juice for me at a gas station, I directed him to pull into a church parking lot. We’d driven past that church before and I thought it was so pretty. I wanted a picture. I didn’t take a picture though. Instead, it was more pacing and squatting and dry-heaving.

Until I saw a bunch of loose pebbles on the blacktop. I scooped them up and told Hubby that I would take them home and tell people that they were my kidney stones. This all was before I even took a narcotic pain pill!

I don’t know. To me, it is proof again that God answers our every prayer, maybe not how we would like it. But He always has an answer. And if His answer is to bless me with a weird sense of humor, who am I to doubt Him.

In Need of Some Rest

   He gives strength to those who are tired and more power to those who are weak.

   Even children become tired and need to rest, and young people trip and fall.

   But the people who trust the Lord will become strong again.

They will rise up as an eagle in the sky; they will run and not need rest;

 they will walk and not become tired.

Isaiah 40:29-31 (New Century Version)

Over the last four weeks or so, I was running a marathon – a race to get my latest novel published on Amazon, in both electronic and print versions. I gave myself the deadline of July 4 to get that done. I only half succeeded; the e-book was available by the end of June, but the paper version only this past Thursday. I honestly was trusting in the Lord through this process, but I was still pretty weary. Not so much physically, but mentally.

I thought the whole process was going to go a bit more smoothly. But if you’ve been following me, you may recall that the problems ran the gamut from a laptop which suddenly became terminally ill to my brain not comprehending how to format the manuscript to be as seamless a book as it was on my computer.

It’s done though. The book is out there and I hope that I have served God well with the message the story tells.

And now it’s time for this chick to rest, to take a break.

I had the verses above in mind when I was thinking about what I wanted to write today. And wouldn’t you know? God had it figured out already once again.

Six and a half months ago, I chose the word “strength” for my word of the year. I think about it occasionally, but apparently not enough. That line above? It’s sitting right on my desk here in my office, staring at me every day. And I totally forget about it.

Lord, God, all I can say is that I am so very thankful that You are so much smarter than I am. You always have Your act together. Help me to not forget that at least. Amen.

Summer in My Yard

   I’ve had so much going on, between work and publishing my novel, that I’ve neglected sharing many pictures of the world just outside my door. It’s been a beautiful summer here in the Northwoods, and as much as I like to wander – both around the world and in my head – I need to remember to appreciate what is right here in my own backyard. 

 My doe munching on some tree leaves in the back yard. 

 My doe munching on more leaves in the front yard. 

 My doe resting in the shade in the front yard, out of the bugs that are thick in the woods.

 Woke one morning last month to this fella walking through, past the bear which inhabits my yard year-round. 

 Have even had a few turkeys visiting. 

No summer is complete without pansies. 

These flowers off my deck are more like weeds in there ability to grow and spread. 

Put in new garden beds this spring. 

Along with a new garden shed. 

All is doing well out in the garden. 

   After you’ve had a chance to also enjoy the outdoors, don’t forget to relax this summer with a good book. “The Truth Beyond the River” is now available as both an e-book and on paper. Click this link to get your copy. And don’t forget to post a review on Amazon after you’ve finished reading it.

Never Without a Friend

   We are often troubled, but not crushed; sometimes in doubt, but never in despair; there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend; and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Good News Translation)

Two and a half years ago, I started reading through the Bible for the second time. I had hopes to finish it before 2020 began. Hmm? Didn’t come close.

But the other day, as I was reading 2 Corinthians (which by the way is 93% through the Bible, so maybe I have a shot at finishing soon), I came across these lines. I wondered to myself why I had never run across these verses before, like on a plaque hanging in someone’s office or at least on their Facebook page.

This was one of those times where I so liked the lines that I looked them up in other versions of the Bible.

 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Living Bible)

I like the last line in the Living Bible translation. “We get up again and keep going”. Kind of sounds like every day for the last five months or so, huh? But the previous line is what gets us up and going. “God never abandons us”.

Lord Jesus, thank You for always being there for us. No one ever said life would be easy. In fact, You said that “in this world we would have trouble”, but we can take heart in knowing that we don’t have to get through it alone. Amen.  

Flashback Friday and 75 years

   This past Monday, the 6^th, would have been my parents’ 75^th wedding anniversary. So very hard to believe, isn’t it?

Dad was thirty. Mom had just turned 18 and just graduated from high school. 

He had been her school bus driver, and one night, he had heard her and the other girls talking about going to the basketball game. Mom couldn’t go because she lived so far from school. In fact, her’s was the last house on his route.

The story goes that he turned to her and said, “I have a horse.” I don’t know if she ever told me what exactly her response was to that, but in the end, she always said that when they got to her stop, she ran in and asked her pa if she could go to the game. When he said he supposed so, she got back on the bus and rode back to school with Dad.

The rest, they say, is history. 

Their wedding portrait from July 6, 1945

Don't know what year this was, but Mom always said this was her favorite picture of them. 

Certainly, Mom's least favorite picture. She will kill me when I next meet up with her in heaven.
Oh, yea, I'll already be dead. 

One of my favorite pictures of them. At my first wedding in 1985. Dad had pulled one of his usual goof-ball moves - I can't remember what - and Mom started cracking up. (Maybe he said, "I have a horse.")

Why I Believe

   Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. 1 Peter 3:15 (New Living Translation)

As often happens when I sit down to write my Sunday inspirational post, I already have a thought in mind of what I want to say. At the top of the file where I write these devotions, I have a few random Bible verses which I have run across somewhere and liked and thought I could share some time. That’s where I got the verse above and it seemed so appropriate right now.

A few months ago, as you certainly already know, I had decided to completely self-publish my latest novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”, via Amazon. Everyone said it would be easy. I’d already published a novella as an e-book back in March and that went smoothly.

Oh, this time around, not so much. I won’t bore you with the details, all the hours I spent trying to get the manuscript formatted so it looked right, all the times in the last week when tears of frustration were puddling in my eyes, when I was ready to throw in the towel.

Yesterday afternoon, I had one more thought to make this work and as I started going through the book again, I sent up a prayer. “God, if this doesn’t work this time, I will take it as a sign that You don’t want this book in print. I’m sorry if I have failed You, but I am willing to accept Your will.”

When I do things like that, in total sincerity, I still feel like God has really got better things to do. But I remember that He is with us no matter how big or small our dilemma.

So I don’t have to tell you that the file worked and the book looks amazing – on-line at least. But here’s the super weird thing, or maybe God-thing.

As I was reading through the book on-line, trying not to cry, because even though I found a few more mistakes which I knew were fixable, I knew that God was taking care of me and my little problems. I was in my living room, with the patio doors only ten feet away, and my husband walked in and said, “look at that rain”. It was pouring rain outside. I never noticed.

The last time I’d looked out it was hot and sunny, not a cloud in the sky and none in the forecast, surely no rain in the forecast. And I was not looking forward to having to go out to water the garden again.  

So when you ask me about my hope as a believer, these are the kinds of stories I am going to tell you. Because that is how God shows me beyond a shadow of my doubt, that He’s with me.

Thank You, LORD, thank You for everything. My heart cries out to You in thanks and praise. Amen.

Spend the Fourth of July on the River

   For people working Monday through Friday, today is considered the Fourth of July holiday. In more ways than that – celebrating the 4^th on the 3^rd – this year’s Independence Day is like no other. No parades or fireworks or large groups of strangers just congregating in the heat because we all like to be crammed into small spaces with sweaty strangers. Besides the coronavirus pandemic, our country has been dealing with another chaos in the last month. A type of chaos which seems to be rattling us to our core, to the beliefs and lifestyles of our Founding Fathers. We thought that this whole election year has already divided us into Liberals and Conservatives, and now this. I’m not going any further into it than that.

But, oh, boy, this is what we all need – some time along a river. I may have shared some of these pictures already, from our camping trip a few weeks ago, but I reiterate – you can’t spend too much time along a river.

 The pictures above are of Foster Falls, between Saxon and Upson, on the Potato River, I believe.
Below is Lake of the Falls, on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage near Mercer. Places you have to visit.

And of course, then there is this river, "The Truth Beyond the River".