We are leaving in the morning for Portland to spend time with our "Oregon kids"--that would be our son, his wife and their two very precious, precocious, active, intelligent sons. Of course, I'm not prejudiced!! I need to see them at least every 4-6 weeks to keep up with their growth and the latest "Nolanism" and "Kevinism". How great it is to watch our children raise their children and be a part of that. Our granddaughter lives right next door to us, so we see her every day, but we never tire of having her pop in to say hi. She is a pre-teen and quite a little horsewoman. I have great hopes for these children as they are being taught the principles and values that we taught their parents. It will not be easy for them to hold on to their values in this society, but I have great faith that He who has begun this work in them will see it finished.

A beautiful day today after one of those wild, spring Ellensburg days yesterday. Woke up to snow, then had sunshine, rain, wind and snow again. This is typical weather for here in the Spring, but it still beats tornadoes and floods, etc.

I am going to a women's retreat/conference in Canby, Oregon this weekend. Had a very hard time making up my mind to go because I always set my expectations too high on things like this and then am disappointed. Hopefully, I can let go of my expectations/needs and just accept whatever God has for me and be open to that. Maybe it will be SUPER! Oops.

Favorite Scripture

O.K., so I have been thinking of how to start and decided to begin by sharing my favorite scripture. However, that turned out to be a dilemna since I have several favorites. For today I think it will be Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing".

If you haven't already guessed, music (and especially singing) brings me great joy and comfort. One of my best memories is being in the car with my family, way before the days of video games and DVD players, and all of us singing. Even now I can hear my Dad's voice singing the bass part on "I'll Fly Away" or "We'll Understand It All Bye and Bye". In his later years, he loved "The Gaithers" and sang along with great gusto when watching their videos.

I sing alto, probably because I sat in church beside my grandmother growing up and she sang alto. I had the great privilege of singing with a Worship Team for about five years and loved every minute of it. I believe that was a gift from God.

Back to the scripture I quoted above, can you just imagine the God of heaven bending over you, quieting you with his love and singing over you? I just get goose-bumps thinking of that. What a beautiful picture!! He loves me that much! He loves you that much, too!

Blessings to you.

Starting Tentatively

My first blog post--not quite sure what to say that might be of interest to anyone else or that would show "me". So, for tonight, this is it. I will be thinking what of myself I want to share.