ART UPDATE

Just a quick update to let you know, those of you who live close by and may be interested, I am presently working on a show that I'll have a booth in (a 10'x10' space).
It's the 1st Annual Harrisburg Street Festival on Saturday, July 14 th, two weeks from today, and is going to be a real family affair, (put on by Christians apparently) with live music by a nationally known Christian band called Sonic Flood. It should be fun for the entire family at Harrisburg's Historic Riverfront. There will be games, tons of food etc, and I'm told that art will be the only thing on sale.
I'm trying to decide how many of my originals I should take, and how many prints I should frame. They're expecting between 10,000 and 20,000 people, but not necessarily people looking for fine art. We'll see, but it sure sounds like a lot of good clean family fun.

Last Weekend's Camping Trip

(Andrew at the lake about to cast. This was the last pic of this post and it got deleted by mistake so I put it on the top =)

We picked up our oldest grandson, Tim, and were off for a special Birthday weekend with him. This was our first trip camping with our RV since we got it, although we did sleep in it three times before. We had glorious weather for the weekend, and Will and Dana came up later on Saturday, and we camped side by side. It was so much fun camping together, and so easy with the RV. All we had to do was roll out our awning and the rug beneath it - an amazing difference from the last time we went camping, when we got soaked taking down our tent and packing up the car. Then the following week, laying it all our to sun, in between rain showers.
What a blessing this is! I couldn't help giggling and thanking God (and Al) on the drive there. Even Tim said that he was having "the time of his life".
I look forward to many wonderful times ahead, (even possibly going out West to Oklahoma and then to California to see our children and grandchildren).

And we're off! Grandmum, Tim and Granddad


Inside the RV, taken from the bathroom (there's an accordion door for privacy).
Above the cab is a double bunk bed which now has Sean's things for CA, so we slept on the pull -out sofa, which also is a double bed (it sleeps 5), and Tim slept on the "dinette" single bed.

Taken from up on the double bunk above the cab. This was early in the morning, and I was able to have some quiet time with the Lord here, (while Al fished with Tim, and the others were out to breakfast). I cannot begin to express how very blessed I felt. I just LOVE it. It is so beautiful, comfy and cozy. (Maybe it's the dolls house I always wanted =)

You can see the bunk mattress and my leg on the left.

Dana, our daughter, and Mary Kate with their camper in the background (it is huge inside!)

Al relaxing, reading his Bible in the morning sun. I took this from the RV

Everyone enjoying the six acre lake.
Will and Dana on the bench relaxing together. What a sweet couple they are - and great parents too!

Granddad helping Tim with his rod. He's such a good grandfather, and the children adore him.

Tim on the right, fishing with a friend. He make lots of friends very quickly. He's so friendly, and sociable.

Megan and Owen. Everyone had such a good time enjoying the lake, swimming in the pool and catching crayfish in the creek (one of Tim's favorite pass-times, if you don't already know. Crayfish may soon be on the endangered species list because of him =).

We all had such a good time at Paradise Stream Campground, only minutes from where Will and Dana live. At the end of the time we all agreed it felt like we had been away for a long time, instead of only two days. We felt rested and revived.

Some Thoughts Worth Sharing

For the last few days I've been thinking about something I heard, and would like to share it.
We heard a really good sermon on Sunday, Father's Day, about God's design and plan for the family, esp. the father's important role.
Luke 3:22b says, "And the Holy Spirit descended upon Him (Jesus) in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, saying, You are My Son, My Beloved! In You I am well pleased and find delight!
Then a little further Luke 4:14 and 15 says (and stay with me, 'cause it's good) ,
"Then Jesus went back full of and under the power of the (Holy) Spirit into Galilee, and the fame of Him spread through the whole region round about.
And He Himself conducted teaching in their synagogues, being recognized and honored and praised by all."
And this is the point: THE FATHER'S APPROVAL CAME BEFORE HIS PERFORMANCE.
(The approval comes first to empower us to perform)
This approval should come from our fathers first, but so often fathers approval of their children comes only if they perform to their liking - instead of just the opposite. We get our meaning and significance from Daddy, beginning when we're very young. Fathers give messages, even without words, heart messages, either that we're "somebody" or "nobody". (We should never pressure people to perform to get our approval). Now I know there are no perfect parents, and we all need to forgive and receive forgiveness.....BUT, and here's the great news, the approval of the Father empowered the Son.
As children of God, co-heirs with Christ, our Heavenly Father's authority is greater than our human fathers, and He approves of us, and says that we're "somebody". We are His children, and He does not love Jesus any more than He loves us. He approves of us and delights in us, and understanding this deep down, empowers us to perform the works He has for each of us. This is very different from striving and performing for approval. This is freedom to do what He created us to do without striving to please others, because we have the approval of the Father who really matters.

Granddad and his ducklings

"FAM-LEE"

For Father's Day our grandchildren gave Al eight little day old ducklings, since we have a little stream on our land. When our children were young and we lived in the country we had ducks and they were so much fun. They even came whenever we called "cheep cheep". You'd hear them squawking from way upstream, coming for food as fast as their little wings and legs could carry them. We even had a little baby we called Genesis, Genny for short.
Anyway, here's Al with his little ducklings, each representing a grandchild, (even the grandchildren in Oklahoma got in on it ), and then there's one for Sean (that's not prophetic=).
Megan could hardly keep her hands off them - they really are so very cute (Thanks guys, it's a sweet gift, and we're both enjoying them so much) Megan and Granddad with the chicks

HANDS ON! Everybody wanted to hold them - so soft and cuddly

Down to the stream they went, and boy, could they swim!

Look at that face - CHICK DELIGHT!

Now they think Al is their mom & follow him around.


They even followed him early this morning all the way down the lane to put out the trash =)

For contrast I just had to throw this in. Last night late I encountered this huge spider near the front door inches away from my feet, and I had flip-flops on, so I covered him with a glass bowl to get a better look in the morning. The joys of living in the country again.

I would not trade it for anything right now, even though we lost our phone service and Internet for a few days because of a bad storm, and the Comcast repair man was scared to death of snakes. As you can tell it's back up and running, and so is the Comcast repair man from the city=)

Then around 5:30 pm today we had another really bad storm and water was pouring through a 5" pipe, apparently from the well, into our basement, while the new septic system alarm was almost deafening, meaning our septic tank was filling up with water. Al had just left to pick up something for the drains at Lowes, leaving his cell phone behind. When I saw the water spouting out like a busted hydrant, I ran out barefoot in the rain behind him, trying to get his attention to no avail. I was soaked through & through!

Thank God the sump pump worked, but with the alarm going off, and all the noise of the water spouting out from the wall about 3 feet up, I could not hear it. All I could do is pray that the rain would stop, and finally just as fast as it started, it stopped spouting out of the pipe.

I guess, according to Al, we still have a lot of work left to do on the cottage before we even think of the outside, like get that pipe plugged, the well checked, and the septic people back to fix it.
I'm just glad I did not go out painting after all today, to get caught in that storm, (plus it was in the 90's), but hopefully tomorrow will be cooler because of it, and our new grass a little greener.

JURY DUTY

Philip Yancy in his book "The Jesus I Never Knew" (which I highly recommend by the way) said, "Ironically, our respect in the world declines in proportion to how vigorously we attempt to force others to adopt our point of view".
Well, yesterday after two days of being in the courtroom, we spent over 4 hours deliberating. We were a hung jury, each with our opinions of the truth, and could not come to a decision concerning the percentage of negligence of both parties, in this civil accident suit. Then I believe the Lord gave wisdom. We took the average of all our different percentages, and came up with a percentage that represented the panel of jurors. Then we took a vote again, and still did not get the ten majority needed in a civil suit.
All along we had all given our opinions and filled out our forms individually, but had to come up with one form that represented the majority (10) votes, which the Foreman would read when asked for the verdict of the jury. We still did not have a vote to go with the average, each person holding out for their beliefs.
I really tried to respect others opinions, not trying to force them to adopt my point of view, and yet being bold to state the facts as I heard them, as well as the law - which is all we are responsible for in making a judgement and coming to a conclusion. At times it got very heated as you can imagine, and we could not come to a conclusion.
Then I felt the Lord spoke to me to speak to the jurors. I told them I was willing to vote for the average percentage even though I was probably the one furthest from the average, not believing the plaintiff to be at fault at all (100/0%), because we were on a panel and this was the figure that actually represented the entire group, and would they reconsider their votes.
We took a vote again and it was 11 to 1. We had a verdict.
I praise God, that He reminded me of P. Yancey's quote before the deliberations, and is dealing with me about this very thing in my life. I believe I considered others' opinions and why they believed what they did, and was open to change. I hope no one felt that I tried to force them to adopt my beliefs throughout the process, and hopefully earned a measure of respect, that I was able because of it to help bring the deliberations to a satisfactory conclusion. I thank God for His wisdom and believe that even though I did not agree with the verdict, that I did make a difference. I believe in our court system and have seen it work firsthand. Justice may not always be served "for all" at all times, but God's justice will be served ultimately, and now I can rest in that.
I am grateful for this opportunity to have served my country in this small way, and learned so much in the process. It was a good experience even though I came home with a headache, and had to give the Lord the frustration I felt. I am very grateful to be living in America.

Quote of the day

"Discipleship" says Clifford Williams, "simply means the life which springs from grace."

"What God wants is not performance, but my heart. I do 'good works' for my wife" says Philip Yancy, " not in order to earn credit but to express my love for her. Likewise, God wants me to serve ' in the new way of the Spirit': not out of compulsion but out of desire" - out of love in response to His love for me.

I have jury duty, and today we are going to be deliberating, so gotta run. Have a great day knowing you are loved by the God of all creation.