Pressed Down, Shaken Together, & Running Over

 

It looks like a foot of snow outside this morning.

As a southerner, it still amazes me -

it's fresh and clean and quiet outside.

 

I looked out the front door and

what did I see out, but my man -

doing a drive-by with his camera phone.

Crazy man!

 

 

I was just about to go out myself

and shovel our drive.

 

But I ended up helping Clarice, from across the street.

She needed to get her car out of the garage,

 because she was on the schedule to work at the church bazaar.

She protested my help the whole time,

but we got it done in half the time.



 

I went back to work on my own drive,

and neighbor Brian came around the corner with his

big fancy snow thrower blower thingy.

Which proves the truth of Luke 6:38

 

 Give, and it will be given to you.

 A good measure,

pressed down,

 shaken together

 and running over...

(Red because Jesus said it)

 

When I came back into the house,

I heard a stanza of Amazing Grace coming through

my ipod:

...the earth will soon dissolve like snow...

and I thought to myself-

this stuff ain't dissolving for a loooong time.

 

Stay warm, my friends!

Election Day 2012

GOD BLESS AMERICA

 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, 

the people he chose for his inheritance.

(Psalm 33:12)

 

 

AMERICA,

BLESS GOD!

Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me,

bless His holy name!

(Psalm 103:1)

There's No Place Like Home!

I've been in Texas for a few weeks.

It's sure been good to be home.

 

I've loved on grand kids, visited and visited with daughter,

and talked non-stop over lunches with girlfriends.

 

Texas may be full of things that prick, stick, bite, and sting

but it's still a great place to live

and I do plan to live here again someday!

 

This trip back to West Texas, I found greener grass

(after a two year drought, it finally rained),

 

(Windmill Ranch Preserve)

 

a little more water

(the water supply lakes caught good rainfall),

 

(Unique windmill at the end of the road)

 

and more hopeful folks

(there's talk of an oil boom coming to our area).

 

(Curious cow across the road)

 



All things familiar have become more precious in being away.
Someone said it another way - absence makes the heart
grow fonder.

 

We have considered selling the old tractor,

so I was out with the rising sun for a few last shots

and I pondered for the first time,

the part that tractor had in feeding me as I grew up.

 

(Overlooking my growing up place and someone else's oil well)

 

It kept me in the cutest homemade clothes and new shoes,

 gave me piano lessons,

sent me to college,

and bought my first car.

 

 

Of course it was my daddy that jostled up and down the cotton rows,

plowing, planting and harvesting. 

My mama sewed those dresses.

And I was the ungrateful child. 

 

That tractor has become a symbol of things past.

 

And of course, I just can't get enough of the

wonderful West Texas sunsets.

 

(My Back Yard)

 

It's front row seats in the old spring yard chair

for the daily dusk light show.

 

I love West Texas.

 

(Windmill Ranch Preserve)

 

But now it's time to say goodbye again

 

 

and head back to my great North Dakota adventure

and my man.

 

 

My northern girlfriends are texting, emailing, and facebooking

wondering when I'll be back "home".

They are reminding me that we will be making lefse,

and practicing the Christmas cantata,

and going to the last Bible Study session. 

 

When I walk in the door, I know I'll say,

"It sure is good to be home."

 

Yep! There's no place like home!

 

so it must be true

Home is where your heart is

AND

Home is where you hang your hat.


Thanks for stopping by!

Chase Your Dreams

They can't stop me from dreaming

~ Cinderella

 

If you can dream it you can do it ~ Walt Disney 

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams ~ Eleanor Roosevelt       Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true ~Lyman Frank Baum                   The only thing that will keep you from fulfilling your dream is you ~ Tom Bradley     Dreams won’t come looking for you. That’s why you have to chase them. Pursue them until they become reality, then hold on tightly ~Unknown     You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream ~ C.S. Lewis       Chase Your Dreams!

10,000 Reasons

This blog just passed a milestone (at least to me) of 10,000 pageviews. That just means that there have been 10,000 looks at this blog.  This is you kind folks who actually go to Just Passin' Thru  - it doesn't count you who read my posts on your emails.  It also does not the count the ten thousand times I reread after posting to check again for misspelled words.

Now, I'm not a numbers person, but I'm absolutely amazed that I've had 10,000 reads.  Amazing.  I look at those numbers and wonder who I'm talking to, and what you think, and if you sometimes laugh, or roll your eyes, or delete, or wish I'd write better structured sentences.  (one blog expert actually recommends writing the way you talk, Y'all!)

The online educated guessers estimate that there are 181,000,000 bloggers out there in the big world wide web.  One hundred eighty one million bloggers at last estimate.  180,999,999 (is that right?) bloggers and little old me with 10,000 pageviews.

When I started this blog I had hardly even looked at a blog - much less written one - now I think in blog posts and photo opportunities.  My man says things to me like, "I see a blog a coming" and "this had better not show up in a blog".  Uh-oh!

I always have 3 or 4 posts sitting over in the drafty area that I am pondering over.  Some get pondered for a long time.  Some get rewritten 10,000 times and some never make the final cut.  As I write this post in draft there are actually only 9,994 pageviews for all time - not yet 10,000, but I'm writing in faith that there'll be 10,000 by.....maybe tomorrow.  I smiling.

She made her debut in June of 2010 when we went to North Dakota the first time.  That's really only about 11.83 pageviews per day for a total of 10,000 pageviews.  Not really that many pageviews - but it looks like a lot to me!

I don't advertise, sell anything, or really have any lofty goals for this blog - except to keep you updated on our where-abouts. And maybe give you a chuckle.  And maybe encourage you.  And maybe show you the amazing things going on in my life.  And maybe just to write.

I love all 10,000 of you (ok - 26 - but I love you all the same).   Thank you for telling me in the grocery store and post office that you read me. Thank you for overlooking my misspelled words and bad Texas grammar. Thank you for stopping by. Thank you. 

You are one of my 10,000 reasons..........to Bless the Lord.

Living in a Boomtown

 

It's hard to explain what's really going on in North Dakota with the Oil Boom,

But the article printed below, explains it pretty good. (And it's all true!)

 

The following article was copied from the Dickinson Press - Dickinson, ND.

With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy,

 You might be living in a boom town if:

Unemployment is an election issue in the other 49 states, and if you can’t find a job here, you don’t want one or can’t read.

Merchant signs now broadcast they need help instead of telling you how they can help you, and preference is given to prospective employees who brought housing with them.

Fast food workers and maids earn more than teachers.

 You can rent an apartment or motel room cheaper in the Big Apple, despite having more motels than churches.

Your neighbor’s house guest hasn’t moved his RV for three years, and your other neighbor has nine pickups parked in front of his two-bedroom house.

Subdivisions spring up overnight and folks are still living in their cars.

City and county zoning meetings require a dinner and supper break.

You can’t find a dry cleaner but coin-operated laundry mats stay busy 24/7.

Guns, bottled water and energy drinks don’t fly off the shelves because they don’t hang around long enough to make it to the shelves.

You get a U.S. geography lesson counting license plates while driving through the Walmart parking lot.

There is no such thing as fast food and ordering a cheeseburger would be easier with a translator.

New fine dining features award-winning BBQ and moves around on four wheels.

Three out of four vehicles on the road are white pickup trucks.

Scoria is a color as much as a road building material.

Driving on state highways require nerves of steel.

Auto horns are no longer used for greeting each other, and usually used in unison with a raised middle finger.

Police officers serve as mixed martial arts referees at closing time in bar and bowling alley parking lots.

Newcomers and long-term residents think each other talk funny.

Finally, star gazing has been replaced by counting gas flares more numerous than lakes in Minnesota.

Waiting at the Gate

The routine is always the same. 

 Get up at 3 a.m., leave the house at 3:30, get to the airport at 5,

hunt a parking place, go through security, wait, and depart at 6:20. 

 Then we snuggle onto what my crazy man calls a flying culvert

 with the big galoot society of the oil patch. 

We've done it at least a dozen times since we've been in North Dakota. 

 

 When we land at Denver International Airport,

(not my picture)

 we usually exit the culvert onto the tarmac -

  climbing down the ladder-steps hoping we don't fall,

(my picture)

in all kinds of weather including snow and ice.

 

  We enter at Gate B58, walk a long hall, climb stairs, grab a bite of breakfast

 and wait for our departure at Gate B95 at the very end of the terminal. 

 

Then one day our flight was moved, and moved and moved again

 

(my picture)

 

 until we were up an escalator and in a new-to-us place in the terminal.

So we waited for our flight to a much anticipated trip to Texas

in a new place.

 

Then another day, not too long ago, our flight was delayed and

with a little time on our hands,

we ventured out of our comfort zone,

down three moving walkways

 

(not my picture)

 

 into a great unknown beyond the last familiar gate.

 

And there in the open space were restaurants, coffee shops, candy stores 

and wonderful shopping. 

We found an artisans jewelry shop, a chic western wear shop,

and the most eclectic gift shop ever.

 

It was wonderful.

It was too wonderful for words

and apparently too wonderful for pictures.

 

We could have waited at our familiar gate from now on,

and missed all those fun places.

 

Isn't that how it is in life?

 

We just sit at our same old gate and wait...

 

because,

we don't know what's over there

we might get lost

we might miss our flight

we might not like it

and for heaven's sake...

WE'VE NEVER DONE IT THAT WAY BEFORE!

 

and we miss...

new places

new food

new friends

new opportunities

and great adventures

 

Likewise, when we enter the narrow gate of salvation

and just wait for our departure to everlasting life,

we miss the greatest adventures of all.

 

We miss

the glories of living

in heaven on earth.

 

We miss

answered prayers

coincidences that aren't

truths in the Bible that take our breath away

being in His presence

love

joy

peace

abundant life

and knowing his other precious children.

 

The Kingdom of God,

is

 here and now.

 

Don't miss the greatest of adventures!