Spring Break

My exciting recreation over spring break is scanning slides. We have oodles of them. I took hundreds during my year in Holland (1978-79). I started out scanning them but got side tracked with some from the early backpacking years of our marriage. We always liked to go check out the view from the highest points we could get to.

Will could no doubt tell you the exact location where he stands in this picture, but I am ashamed to admit I cannot. I'll fill it in when he comes back. He and Nick are camping. I'll join them toward the end of the week if I ever get my work done at the office, which, by the way, is freezing. Everyone knows it is not cost effective to heat a building just for a secretary and custodians. I wore my gloves at my desk today when I wasn't typing.

Yep, that's me back in 1984. Quite the beast of burden. I was having fun. Really. It was an amazing meadow filled with blooming lupine.

And of course, Will has always had a gift for finding great places to relax.

Treasures from Idaho

Will and I have been going through some boxes of McAnulty family treasures from Idaho. There are many pictures, photo albums, documents such as his parents' wedding invitation, his birth announcement, and both of his parents high school graduation announcements. I love all the pictures of Will and his immediate family, from a baby picture of his mother to his parent's wedding pictures, and childhood pictures of Will and his sister growing up. There were even pictures of our own precious little boys that I hadn't seen before!

After several boxes of pictures and papers, it was very exciting to open a box of carefully wrapped glass items, where I unearthed some very special treasure. I love china teacups. Imagine how much fun it was to unwrap one cup and saucer after another, matching them up until I had 11 cup and saucer sets!

Will's sister Sue says their mother worked in the china department at the Bonn in her youth, where she bought some of them, and others were passed down from their grandmother.

Sue has special memories of these, saying, "If you were feeling low, a cup of tea was the trick. :-) I don't remember too many times drinking out of the finer ones tho!" As far as I'm concerned, they are all very fine ones! When Sue comes to visit she can take what she wants, but in the meantime I will display some of them and enjoy their beauty.

Another treasure was some beautiful crystal vases with dusty old silk/dried flower arrangements. Apparently they were from something special but Will didn't know what. So I thought his mother would like for me to use the vases, but I took a picture to preserve whatever memories these might have. I threw away the flowers, and awhile later when I washed the vases I noticed the little sticker on the bottom that said "D&L McAnulty wedding". I felt horrible when I realized I had discarded flowers from his parents' wedding. But then again, a few years ago in a coldly unsentimental cleaning frenzy, I discarded all the flowers I had saved from my own wedding. It just seemed pointless to have them stored away.

So I'm glad I took the pictures, and we will have happy thoughts of his parents when we see the vases.

Pictures from Amsterdam

When your son is halfway across the world, it's hard to know which is more exciting, receiving a phone call or pictures. This week was a double blessing as we received a phone call Sunday and some pictures today. Here is Craig and his special friend Sarah in front of their Amsterdam home, the YWAM base. Do they look happy or what?Craig's 22nd birthday was last Tuesday, March 4, and he was very blessed to be taken out to dinner for a 1 kilo steak. (That's 2.2 pounds!) This was a very blissful event for him. (That's probably an understatement.) The boy loves steak. As do all McAnulty boys.
On Saturday, he and Sarah got to take a daytrip to the beach.

Aren't they so cute! Possibly a Dutch beach is even windier than an Oregon beach! It makes this mother very happy just to look at these pictures. I can't wait for their visit in July!
God is so amazingly good!

I'm Back!! But Will's not

Did anyone miss me? I haven't been gone or anything, it's just been awhile since I've been inspired to write anything here. I've been inspired to do many other things of course. It's not like I'm just sitting around doing nothing. Honest.

Will has to leave tomorrow for another trip to Idaho. His wonderful Aunt Hazel passed away last week, so sadly it's his turn to go to a funeral. Aunt Hazel always insisted we park our RV at her beautiful place when we visited Idaho, and she and her daughter always gave us fabulous meals and great hospitality. Will has very fond memories of his teen summers spent working on their ranch, eating Aunt Hazel's outstanding meals. Here's Will, Eric and Nick at our last family visit in 2006.
Their place on the Snake River has a gorgeous view and amazing wildlife viewing. On our trip in 2000 Eric was about fifth grade and loved raccoons, she set up their spotting scope on her picnic table, found the raccoon family on the island and made sure Eric got a good look at them.

So this reminded me of my own aunt and uncle I recently lost, and tonight I got out my digital recorder and got started transcribing some stories Aunt Jeannine told during our visit in 2006. She told me many things I hadn't know about my mother. I was so touched by the end of our recorded conversation about her. I'm going to share a little of it.

Jeannine said, "The Lord gives you strength just a day at a time, a step at a time. Your mother told me, "I asked the Lord to give me life just a little bit longer for Dougie until he goes to school" and then when he went to school she said "I told Him just however long yet that you will let me stay here with him because oh, she thought of Dougie, because he was her youngest." ("Dougie" was only three when Mom was diagnosed with cancer, and eight when she died.)

One day at a time. One step at a time. That's all we ever have to do. Some days are so much harder than the others, but I am so grateful that the Lord indeed gives the strength we need even during uncertain, difficult days.