My Guy!

Today is one unique day for the Burkholder Academy. One of our students is heading off to the Middle School. Geoff and I went to the Middle School on Friday to sign him up for two classes; Animation with Tammy Taylor and World History with Mr. Faro. Little did we know that when we would leave the building we would leave with papers that would enable him to walk back into the school completely enrolled on Monday.

My son, Chris, wonders how Geoffrey drugged me into letting him do this. Geoffrey and I know there were no drugs involved. Geoff decided in that office on Friday that he should just come. This was no easy decision as evidenced by the fact that in the Fall he backed out of that decision two weeks before school started. He had been processing this for a long time.

His older siblings went through this as well. They wanted to go to school for eighth grade. For some reason or other it was decided that home was the best option. Robyn owned her education after a seminar in eighth grade. She realized it was hers to direct and direct she did. She was the child who for instance would read every John Updike book and then answer questions on the internet about him.

Christopher focused on guitar at this age and spent hours practicing. Kathryn began spending more and more time doing art, quilting and what not. Geoff wanders. Geoff is in need of owning his education.

Some of the teachers he has are ones we already have a relationship with and this should make the transition easier. Geoff is one to talk, Geoff is one to wander, Geoff will face the music.

I bawled last night as the three watched me in amazement and howled with laughter at what they described as whale sounds. I will miss Geoffrey for the hours he is away. Geoffrey is a kind son to me. He gets me. We spend hours talking.

If I see one change in this kid's character, if his three older siblings see one change in this kid's character, we are forming a posse and pulling that kid out as quick as you can say Public Education.

However, I have a feeling Geoff is going to find the structure that his random mind needs. I have a feeling that his kindness will be put to good use. I have a feeling that the opportunities will expand his mind.I have a feeling he will learn how to listen in a classroom. I have a feeling he will need to depend on His God.

His God goes with him! And when that bell tolls for school to end, I will be there cause Geoff and I have a date!

Bit of an Interruption During My Pondering of Life

I have been thinking about the essence of life. Dear friends in the past two weeks have had to say a permanent goodbye to their loved ones or they have stood by the hospital bed listening to the doctor give a negative prognosis of their loved one.

Life just stinks. It is full of sickness, sadness, and heartache. We never know what tomorrow will hold.

However, I will enjoy the moments God has given me. I will be content where I am, right now. The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall not want. I will follow where He leads me, not where I want to go. I will assume where He leads me is a well thought out plan.

As I am writing, at this very moment, just after I penned the previous paragraph, my son, Geoff, has entered my bedroom with a tray full of breakfast food. These are the moments I will cherish. We are alive, we will eat breakfast, and we will catch a flic on my new netbook!

Just when I was thinking about the essence of life............life shows up!

And for my friends right now who are watching their loved ones suffer, I am asking God for peace, peace that will leave them clueless as to how in the world they could have peace at a time like this. Yet peace that comforts right to their very core!

These gals

These three women are treasures. When they breeze into town I never know what it will look like, I just know it will look like something. Either I have them over for dinner or tea or they have our family over for a bonfire, or should I say field fire!

I have watched them grow since their teenage days and the youngest since a toddler. I love them all and their mother I dearly love. This Monday I had the priviledge of having my dear friend and her three daughters over for tea.

They had just experienced a "sisters" weekend and I was so happy to be their last hoorah!For twenty two years I have known their mom and that is a story in and of itself. Suffice it to say it was God ordained to meet Linda two weeks before I gave birth to my first child.

I have never met a more intentional mother in all my life. These three sisters and their two brothers are fortunate. I had the extraordinary experience of hearing much of their mother's dealings with them as children. Oh, the mothering stuff I learned! To Linda I am forever grateful.

I do not take for granted my relationship to the entire family. Their Dad is the best. They even have two sister in laws that are so intriguing, I wish I had more time with them.

Relationships are so worth it!

John Wayne

Geoffrey, Jesse and myself have been enjoying John Wayne films. They are slow, corny humor at times, outdated methods of dying (they thrust forward when shot instead of falling back),but the themes they tackle give you food for thought!

They however are not politically correct and this for me is one of their finer points. Last night we watched McClintock and it was hilarious. Geoff and I think it is our favorite so far.

I am interested in learning more about John Wayne and what perhaps motivated him. For now it is fun to anticipate the next flic!

Let Your Domicile Persuade You to Be Real

"Homes are notoriously materialistic in that they only seduce human inhabitants as a means to acquire more furniture, cars, and jewelry. Submit to the whims of a persuasive domicile with today's Groupon....."

Well now, don't sugar coat it. That is an interesting way to get someone to come out of their house on a cold winter's day to indulge in some more materialism. I had to read it not just twice but four or five times. This was a Groupon advertisement that found its way to my email in box. Hopefully the advertiser has a better view of his home than he has expressed here.

However, homes do not have to be the catalyst for materialism. A home can be the catalyst for good conversations, good times together, laughs that ring through time, and darn good food.

I will never forget an auction I was at in a down pour. All the family's possessions were soaked on the lawn ready to be auctioned. All the spending to come to this end.

In our backyard there have been more celebrations and reasons for gathering than you could count on the fingers of both your hands. All you need is a blanket, a few rickety lawn chairs or maybe even a log?!

Our domicile persuades us to be real, not materialistic, to be creative not just boring consumers. Our domicile provides a sanctuary for our thoughts, our ways, our person-hood.

Edith Schaeffer has much to share on this topic, more from her later. I need to find her book and then I will share some of her needed insights.

For now, Groupon, I will be trying to stay warm in this cold breezy home filled with warm bodies and great couches acquired either from a yard sale or the generosity of a neighbor. I will wait till someone satisfies their material desire and acquires a home necessity and then loses interest in it and sells it for cheap, really cheap. That is when you will see me show up.

My domicile persuades us to be real.

The Mind

I live in my mind. I think too much. I need to be more active than I am, I need to just do sometimes. And most of all I need to get perspective!

My mind is a wonderful place. My mind is a scary place. My mind is a creative place. My mind is a destructive place. It is in my mind that within one second I can go from seeing the world as a gloomy place to seeing the world as a cheery place.

Lynn came in yesterday and relayed to me that he was fighting for perspective amongst the circumstances. It bothered me, it brought me down. I can be in turmoil but, please no one else. Everyone else must stand strong. If you do not feel strong, keep me happy and lie.

In that instant Lynn shared, my mind spiraled down. The circumstances all lined up sneering at me,laughing and mocking me. Until, until, I turned on the circumstances. Whose laughing now??

Circumstances are not dictators like they think they are. Circumstances are nothing like perspective, they are just circumstances. Circumstances can not lend me a hand, only perspective has that power.

Perspective lines up circumstances as fast as circumstances scrambles perspective. Perspective keeps circumstances under control with more force than circumstances can keep perspective from gaining control.

Our minds have the God given ability to allow perspective to take the upper hand with our circumstances. It is that God given ability I am ever grateful for, the big view, the arch, the umbrella that forces the rain to find another path.

Winter, I fear is the time most often that circumstances come to taunt. Reliance on the power of perspective is needed most on these days when fresh air, exercise, and clear skies,perspective's friends, are harder to find.

Super Woman!

I am and you are too! I am super woman. I successfully navigated through another Christmas season. I am high fiving all my friends, "We did it!" "Done!"
I hate the way we find ways to brag these days. Facebook allows us to do it and we think, discreetly! Sorry, not so, it still boils down to bragging.

Guess what, I am indiscreetly, unashamedly bragging! I am super woman! Here is why! I came through this holiday season with memories to last a lifetime, accomplishments that just keep giving and relationships in tack.

Do you know why I can brag???? Because it is all due to the strength and energy of Jesus Christ who chose to be vulnerable and die so that I might be strong and live! I am super woman because He made me so!

Amen to that! The victorious Christian Life! Are you living it? If not, ask yourself why!