relevance

our pastor sent this out last night for the beginning of advent. i find this so appropriate for me, my family -- right here, right now. i wanted to share it with you. God's truth is so evident here -- something i have read a hundred times before, piercing to the heart of matters so appropriately. God's word is relevant today, in my life.

2 Peter 1:1-11

¹Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

²May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. ⁵For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, ⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, ⁷and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. ⁸For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. ¹⁰Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. ¹¹For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

the day after...

today is the day after thanksgiving. we gave thanks to our God for good family, good friends, good health and a good life. God is truly good. mom and dad came over to celebrate with a lowkey -- but very delicious -- meal.

i was talking with a neighbor today about how people stand in line for hours waiting for the hour a store will open so that they can get the best deal. why do people do that?

i have a friend who goes out on this day @ 5am to do such things. i don't know... i kind of prefer the last minute because i will spend less and will be less likely to change my mind about the items i wish to give. i think this year though i will shop via internet. the theme continues... simplicity!

back home

we are back home now and hitting reality. i learned so much from being away and i am excited to apply what i have learned if only the "LA way" doesn't overcome me again. everyone is so busy and can be so uptight. in shasta they have a saying, "RELAX." i don't know if it's for the locals or those that come to visit but it's a good philosophy to live by -- we need the saying down here!

i am enjoying being with my girls and my son, raking in their youth and the specialness of them all. i realize now i was too busy before, holding it all together on my own. i need my Jesus and my family and friends, taking appropriate time for them all. i am off to bed now to RELAX and read a good book before peacefully sleeping in anticipation for thanksgiving. we are having my folks over for a simple meal. no hubbub or scurry. we are taking it easy!

funny...

last night, mckenna and avery came running upstairs.
avery: "mommy! there's a spider in the sink and it's this big!" [shows a 2" measure with her fingers]. mckenna: "it looks like it could hurt somebody."
avery: "really!"
mommy [after looking in the sink]: "it was big. i washed it down the sink."
mckenna: "can we brush our teeth now?"
mommy: "yes. it won't get you now."

castle lake

yesterday afternoon we went to castle lake, a beautiful crystal clear lake that is 120 feet at its deepest point formed by a glacier. we have gone there several times [upon Avery's request -- it's her favorite place] since we have been up here in Shasta... but on this visit it was exceptionally beautiful [probably because it was at its coldest at 37* and the water most still]. the pictures of God's beautiful creation will speak for themselves. truly magnificent and evident of the majesty of our Creator. i have many more but cannot post so many here!

the girls, baby boy and i hiked the castle shore trail and ended up at this sandy beach area, far from civilization. so amazingly beautiful and peaceful. probably one of the most beautiful spots in a mountain setting i have ever been. it was very cold but totally worth the hike along the water's edge. i wore Ian on my back...
what a little trooper! this little guy can hang with the weather and mom's often uneasy gait while hiking... after this shot, he had a little milk and went night,night... and by the way, we call that the "marshmallow suit"!
the girls and ian. we went to the end of the trail. we watched fish graze from the water's surface and threw rocks as far as we could toward the middle of the lake, both causing a ripple effect. [aren't those reflections amazing?]
we could see brian far in the distance from where we had come from and he found his favorite spot to fish... a little dock used by UCDavis for research. a peaceful setting, to say the least....and the fisherman on the family was victorious with a final catch count of 4 -- yes, 4! -- rainbow trout, caught all within the last 45 minutes of our time there. we were the last ones to leave the lake and it was dark and COLD. all of us had numb hands, feet and noses [except ian, of course, who was snug in his marshmallow suit!] but hey... anything for the fish!

thank you God for creating such a beautiful place to experience You and your handiwork. we will enjoy it for years to come.

day trip

today we ventured to klamath falls, or. we thought we would see falls... waterfalls... but there are none. there used to be some in the center of town (?) but the town got rid of them... kept the name. confusing. the city was different than i thought it would be though i don't exactly know what that was... just different. a lot more quaint, i guess.

anyway, we ventured to upper klamath lake and the girls played at moore park [a very cool playground there] but it was so windy and cold we had to leave.... mckenna was bummed because the park had 'spinners'! she loves to spin. avery didn't mind so much... she was rolling a small ball up and down the slide to her heart's content.

after this, we took hwy 140 to medford and did some grocery shopping for the weekend/week. nothing too exciting but we got to see lots of new places and things.

john muir

last night i investigated john muir. i figured since we are up here in this beautiful country that he explored and wrote about, i should find out about him and see what some of his writings were like.

we read his biography this morning and mckenna was in awe that this man walked 1,000 miles from indiana to the gulf of mexico [no car!] and travelled the world -- every continent. what a full and very exciting life!

well i must say that i was pleasantly surprised by his writings. here a few of the beautifully written quotes from his story about Stickeen [a recommended riveting read]:

Though capable of great idleness, he never failed to be ready for all sorts of adventures and excursions. One pitch-dark rainy night we landed about ten o'clock at the mouth of a salmon stream when the water was phosphorescent . The salmon were running , and the myriad fins of the onrushing multitude were churning all the stream into a silvery glow, wonderfully beautiful and impressive in the ebon darkness.

What a psalm the storm was singing, and how fresh the smell of the washed earth and leaves, and how sweet the still small voices of the storm! Detached wafts and swirls were coming through the woods, with music from the leaves and branches and furrowed boles, and even from the splintered rocks and ice-crags overhead, many of the tones soft and low and flute-like, as if each leaf and tree, crag and spire were a tuned reed.

At such times one's whole body is eye. and common skill and fortitude are replaced by power beyond our call or knowledge . Never before had I been so long under deadly strain. How I got up that cliff I never could tell. The thing seemed to have been done by somebody else. I never have held death in contempt, though in the course of my explorations I have oftentimes felt that to meet one's fate on a noble mountain, or in the heart of a glacier, would be blessed as compared with death from disease, or from some shabby lowland accident.

Never before or since have I seen anything like so passionate a revulsion from the depths of despair to exultant, triumphant, uncontrollable joy. He flashed and darted hither and thither as if fairly demented, screaming and shouting, swirling round and round in giddy loops and circles like a leaf in a whirlwind, lying down, and rolling over and over, sidewise and heels over head, and pouring forth a tumultuous flood of hysterical cries and sobs and gasping mutterings.

mckenna's chocolate chippers...

well, she did it! mckenna made an incredible batch of chocolate chip cookies on her own. we read over the recipe together, cleared a working space, gathered all the ingredients, discussed measurements and off she went!

concentration....

the dough is made...

cookies on the tray....

ready for the oven....

"hey, av! let's taste the dough and lick the utensils!"

out of the oven...

they're done!

it was so cool to see her excitement as she did this project herself. she even talked about making a batch to submit in the los angeles county fair contest!

hooray for you, mckenna! they're yummy!