​This is the time of year when I Iike to open my windows and feel the air blow through the house.  

The last place we lived didn't have screens on any of the windows, so I never got to do that.

When I opened the windows, I saw something I hadn't seen all summer.  The windows and the sills were very dirty! 

So, Tommy and I jumped in and started cleaning!

It's amazing how much prettier the world is when seen out of clean windows!

If your world has grown dim, maybe you just need to clean your windows. Who knows what beauty is out there for you to see!!!

​It seems that in our married life we have spent more time "on the road" than we have at home.  I know that isn't true, but it just seems that way sometimes.

It also seems as if we have more to pack up than the average person who is on the road.  In fact, we were talking this past week that we are our own "roadies"!  

We were in Georgia this past week, and as we were packing up I made the statement that I didn't mind packing up to go home as much as I hated packing up to leave.  

Of course it's obvious why that is so.  Every time I start packing to leave, I am sure I will forget something and think about it when we are halfway to our destination!  I start making lists long before we have to leave.  I start little piles in different places that will be out of the way and we don't stumble on them before we start loading

When I pack up to come home, I start organizing it  about 2 days before.  As I pack up something I sit it by the door to load into the car.  It is very satisfying to me to see the pile grow.  When we get it into the car, and I sweep through to make sure we got everything, I can't tell you how good it makes me feel.

I'm going home!  What a great word....HOME.

I hate packing to leave, but love packing to go home.  Of course, then I have to face putting everything away once we get home!  THAT isn't so much fun!  But, the three of us jump in and it is usually done in record time.

While writing this, the thought came to me, that when I  go home to my final home, there will be no packing, nor will there be any unpacking!  What a day THAT will be!

​Our friend (and adopted son) Greg, came to spend the night with us a couple of nights ago.  He is one of those people who come to visit, whom you wish would never leave.  We don't see each other a lot, but we were in Georgia for a week and Greg lives about 2 hours from where we were staying. 

John thomas was recording an album for a friend, so we rented an Air B&B for the week.  We couldn't be that close and not see each other!

In the course of the short time he was with us, the four of us had lots of catching up to do and lots of good conversation.  One thing that Greg told has stuck with me, so I want to share it with you.

He said when he was in graduate school, he went to class one day thinking he had another day for a big exam that was coming up.  When he got there he found out it was that day.  He panicked.  A friend told him to just say he was sick and ask if he could take it another day. 

He turned around and left thinking that that was exactly what he would do.  He hadn't even read everything he was supposed to read before the test!

As he walked away, he started feeling really bad, so he turned around and went back to take the test.

When he walked in, he saw the TA sitting in the room.  He had heard the whole conversation and Greg hadn't even seen him sitting there!  The TA told him to go talk to the professor, so he did.

The professor told him to go ahead and take the test and just see what happened.

Greg scored the highest score in the class.

I love that story.  Not that Greg made the highest grade, but that he made one tiny little decision that made a huge difference.  Actually he made two little decisions.  First he decided to leave and lie about why he left.  Then he decided to go back and face the music.

It's like the old poem about 2 roads diverging in a yellow wood and the poet took the one less traveled and that made all the difference.

Greg took the one less traveled.  I would like to believe that everyone would have made the decision to go back, but I have seen enough people make bad decisions, that I just don't think that is true.

I have a friend I have written about before (Jami from W VA) who is constantly telling her kids and nieces and nephews and any other kid who is within listening distance, to "make good choices."  

Sometimes I think it is all the little choices we make in life that makes all the difference...like the road in the yellow wood.  

My dear friend, Roxann, recently sent me a handkerchief in the mail.  She loves handkerchiefs and thought I might like one too.

What she didn't know is that I carry one with me all the time, and have all my life.  I don't even know if you can buy those pretty ones that they had when I was growing up.  You can sometimes find them in antique stores or at yard sales.

I told her a story about going to the Saturday matinee at our local theatre and Mother tying a dime in the corner of my handkerchief for my admission feel  She knew I would lose it otherwise.

Roxann loved that story so much, that she she sent back the following letter:
 
"Dear Pat,
I am so glad that you're enjoying the handkerchief.  I was especially intrigued by the story you shared about the dime.  I feel bad that I did not send you money for the afternoon movie.  So to make up for it I am sending you two dimes, one for you and one so you can take a date (hopefully Tommy) to the Saturday movie.  I thought it might be nice if you shared a popcorn and each of you had a drink. Therefore, I am enclosing some mad money (three nickels) 
Be sure to tie them into your handkerchief so that they do not get lost.  Remember, only movies that are rated G.  You are not allowed anything else.  The two of you deserve a relaxing afternoon out together."

Tommy and I are so excited to go on a date.  Now we are just waiting for a G rated movie to show up.  Hopefully before we die.

​I was  recently talking to my friend Marsha and she asked how the barn was working out for us.  I told her it was fine...that I had been able to cook with a table top grill and a microwave and a crock pot, but eventually I hoped to build on a kitchen.

She said that reminded her of a missionary friend she had once, who said she would just like to have a "floor and a door."

Lord forgive me when I whine, I have a floor and a door....the world is mine.

After I wrote my last blog about making Christmas Carolers with Plaster of Paris, I realized that some people might say, "Well, what's wrong with wanting to mold something and have it turn out perfect"?  My answer is, "Nothing."   I think for some people, the mold they are put into, works and they don't have to keep being poured out to start all over again.  I think that  I am probably the exception to the rule.  Or maybe they are!

 I started thinking about an old hymn while I was pondering this subject.  "Have Thine own way Lord, have Thine own way.  Thou are the potter,I am the clay.  Mold me and make me, after Thy will;  While I am waiting, yielded and still."

It could be that often I have already "set up" and have to be broken to get out of the mold. Jeremiah 18:1-5  talks about clay that is marred and the potter has to re work it.

Whatever the case..even if I have to be broken in order for the potter to make me right, I am in the Potter's hands....and that's where I want to be.

Many years ago, I bought some Plaster of Paris molds to make  Carolers at Christmas.  If you have ever worked with Plaster of Paris, you know that you pour it into the mold and let it set for quite awhile before you turn it out.  When the time does come to turn it out, you have to be very careful not to break anything.  If you turn it out before it is set, of course it comes out easily.  You won't have what you started out to have but it DOES come out without much effort. 

Sometimes I feel like Plaster of Paris that was turned out of the mold early.  We have moved about 21 times in the 59 years we have been married.  People who stay in the same place their whole life are like the Plaster of Paris that has been allowed to stay in the mold.  It's hard to get them out!  Sometimes, when you finally do get them out, they crack or break. . 

If one is poured out early from the mold, they are sometimes more pliable and can be poured into another mold.  It may take several tries before you get the result you want, but if you keep trying, you WILL get results eventually.  Jeremiah 48:11  "Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on his dregs.  He has not been emptied from vessel to vessel"
 
There is an old song called "You Got to Move." ...You got to move, you got to move, you got to move, you got to move.  When the Lord gets ready, you got to move.

​As most of you know, we now live in a barn.  A nice barn, but a barn.  One of our favorite things to do is sit on our screened in porch and watch the birds and the butterflies.  

We have also discovered a pretty little tiny type of moth, called "Snowberry Clearwing" that  comes to our butterfly bush.

I love all the birds, but my favorites are  the yellow finch and the hummingbird.  They don't visit as much as some of the other birds so I really get excited when they do.

I am not much for thinking something is a coincidence, because I usually think that God had a reason and a purpose for those "coincidental" happenings.

Today while I was sitting on the porch waiting for a Goldfinch to pop in and eat at our feeder, my phone rang.  It was from the medical people who are doing Tommy and John boy's surgery in the morning.  The name of the medical center that was calling? 

GOLDFINCH.  

Coincidence?  I don't think so.

​Tommy told me I should continue the idea of learning to barn dance in our new digs.

Everything we go through in life is a learning experience.  Some things seem to be more difficult than others.  When I said in my last blog to stop by and we would teach you how to "barn dance", I meant it!  We are learning new steps every day.  Some days the steps are more difficult than others, but just like any dance, eventually you will become more and more proficient.  

For example, we have a tight squeeze coming down the stairs when we turn the corner beside the piano.  We have learned that unless you maneuver just right, (or do the correct dance step) you will run into the piano.  At first, when we were learning the steps, we hit the corner frequently.  Now, we seldom do!

When we go to wash our hands in the sink, the space is very narrow, so if someone else is there, you have to wait your turn.  If you decide to dance in their space, you will end up stepping on their toes.

As we go through this life, learning new dance steps every day, we will step on a lot of toes, and run into a lot of pianos.  However, if we keep dancing, the moves will come naturally.  We may stumble sometimes, even when we think we have the steps "down pat", but if we keep dancing, eventually we may even get to be on "Dancing with the Stars!"   (literally!)

No...but I live in one!  How many times have you heard that expression growing up?  Most of the time it had to do with a messy room or leaving a door open.

This past month I have been absent from Blogcity because we have been in the middle of a major move.  We moved from a huge house (Church parsonage) to a 20x16 barn.  It does have a second story but still...a much smaller space than we have been used to for the past 6 years.  It's a huge adjustment and gives new meaning to the scripture where Paul says he has learned both to be abased and to abound.

Of course, abase is a strange word.  If any of you have ever been to a third world country, that word takes on a whole new meaning.  What we are living in right now, would be considered a mansion to some people.

I think that the Lord is always teaching us, if we will but receive His teaching.  Right now He is teaching us how to perform very intricate dance steps as we try to stay out of each's others way in this barn where we now live.  We had a bathroom built under the staircase, but there isn't room for a kitchen.  I cook on the front porch on a table top grill.  I also have a crock pot and a microwave...something people in Mexico and Haiti do not have.

We have pull out beds that we sleep on..a luxury to someone who sleeps on a pad on the dirt floor.  We have a utility sink in the living area (that I got free when I saw it on the back of a Lost Sheep truck going to the dumpster!  It's amazing what a little clorox will do!)

We spend a lot of our free time (which isn't very much) on our screened in porch.  We usually start the day there with our coffee and end it watching the day slow down.  Another luxury that a lot of the world does not have.

So, my friend, if you are in the middle of a change in your life, embrace it.  Look and listen for what the Lord is trying to teach you.  Every day with Him is an adventure, if we will just open our eyes.  So many times I am so busy fretting at all the "stuff" I have to do, that I don't stop and pay attention to the blessings that are always there in a change.

Come and visit us at our barn.  You may have to learn to "barn dance" but that's ok.  You will catch on quickly.  From Prisha, Trixie, Pitty Pat at her barn!