Deck Sitting

Mom and I are making good use of a beautiful day. After weeding and lunch we are settled on the deck. Mom is reading and I am writing.

I don’t know if she spends much time outdoors but she will while I am here. Sitting outside is on my top 10 list of things I enjoy doing. However…sitting outside in dry Colorado is very different than sitting outside in hot, humid Illinois.

Check back with me later in the summer to see how my deck sitting forays are going.

Colorado Christian Writers Conference

Sunday afternoon I arrived home from one of the most inspiring times of my life. I spent four days in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Estes Park at the Colorado Christian Writers Conference.

During those four days I became immersed, along with hundreds of other writers, into the presence of God. Each general session, and many of the workshops, opened with prayer. At the General Sessions we shook off everything as we entered the Throne Room of God during Praise and Worship.

Marlene Bagnull is excellent at what she does, I would recommend this conference to beginning, as well as advanced, writers. The theme was Write His Answer, but I felt a sub theme going on, Encourage One Another. From the workshop leaders, to fellow writers at the tables at meal time, I found nothing but encouragement. I occasionally had the opportunity to be the encourager, one of the giftings God has given me.

I departed the conference tired, but so full, ready to take what I had learned and put it into practice to become an excellent writer, writing for His Glory. I should have been prepared but I wasn’t, for the enemy attack. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. (John 10:10)

The last day of the conference was topped off with a hayride and cook-out, what a great way to decompress. Following the hayride my throat began to hurt. Sunday morning I awoke and did not feel well at all. I dreaded the three hour drive back to Colorado Springs but with pain relievers in my system and Kristen Heitzmann’s story Secrets playing in my CD player, I made it home. It is now Wednesday and I am still feeling sick, ugh. I haven’t felt like doing any writing, or reading any of the wonderful materials I received at the conference.

One of the women who is in my writing guild, Words For the Journey, also went to the conference and we roomed together. She left the conference on Saturday afternoon and during one of the stops on her drive home she left her wallet on the top of her car. At a stop to get a cup of coffee she realized she did not have her wallet. (The police found her wallet and it is being returned to her. PTL) She told me at our Words for the Journey meeting yesterday, "when I left the conference I was feeling so relaxed" and when she found her wallet missing all her peace went out the window. A light bulb went on in my mind. I recognized the strategy of the enemy. How many other women and men who attended that conference had the enemy come against them?

The thief was trying to steal what was planted in us. I recalled the scripture in Mark 4, the parable of the sower. (Mark 4:15) And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. KJV

Satan had come immediately, even before we got home, to take away the teachings sown in our hearts. But the thief has been found out and he will have to repay seven fold. (Proverbs 6:31)

I don’t know about you but when I wake up and realize that the thief has stolen from me I get fighting mad. He will repay. My heart is good soil for the seeds of the teachings sown into me at the conference and they will produce, thirty, sixty or one hundred fold. (Mark 4:20) I am going for the hundred fold. How about you?

Road Trip Part II

Yesterday I posted about the road trip I am on. I wrote about number one of the two reasons Marietta and I took this trip. Today is about the second reason.

Marietta and I both have children living in Kansas. Marietta’s son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter live in Paola, Kansas. My daughter and son-in-law live in Kansas City.

Our first stop was Paola to Kimberly and Tim’s recently opened coffee shop “The Country Bean.” What a great looking coffee shop. Tim built all the counters, and the furniture. He did such a great job on the furniture that people asked him to build furniture for them so he started a business from it, “The Country Bean Woodworking Co.” The coffee products and food that are served are top notch. The macaroni and cheese is to write home about. Their daughter Ella, who is less than three months old is part of the business, she goes to work daily with her mom and dad. Customers come in looking for her and even give them money for diapers for Ella. Their shop is located close to the high school and the students come in regularly and are very welcomed. The shop holds Wii tournaments on Friday nights to give the young people a place to go. For $5.00 they are entered into the tournament and they receive a small drink. The winner receives half the money taken in. They really have a heart for young people.

The next day my daughter Coleen and son-in-law Erik drove to Paola and all of us went out to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. We had a great meal and the young folks had a good time sharing business stories. My son-in-law and daughter also own their own successful business. We were having such a nice time together that we didn’t notice that we were the last people there and they were waiting for us to leave so that they could close. I said goodbye to Marietta as she returned to her son’s home and I headed to Kansas City to spend a few days with Coleen and Erik, their three cats and one very large dog, Otis, a black Great Dane.

My daughter gave me a wonderful Mother’s Day gift. We both had facials. Ah, that’s the life. After lunch at Panera Bread we went to their business, “Need More Discs” in Shawnee. I purchased five movies from their vast inventory of DVD’s and looked at the music CD’s but didn’t find any that I wanted this time. If my husband had been with me I know he would have found some, we always go home with a stack to add to our growing collection. I have never gone into their store and not purchased something, it is a good thing I don’t live closer.

My son-in-law is cooking stir-fry for dinner on Saturday and Sunday I am being taken out for Mother’s Day brunch. It has been a great visit with them. They always show me so much love and we have a special time together.

This has been a wonderful trip and Marietta and I talked today about planning another one. We may take a cross country train trip; I have never done that before.

Marietta will be driving back to Illinois on Monday or Tuesday. I catch a plane back to Colorado on Sunday evening from Kansas City. I am sure my husband will be glad to have me back and I will be delighted to see him.

Image: Ryan Kramer

Moments in Time

There are experiences in life when we would like to stop the world and suspend that moment in time, capture it in some way that we might be able to draw it back at a later time because right now the day is calling to us.

My husband and I had taken a walk and it was a day that the Colorado sky was that beautiful intense blue that I have only seen in the mountain air. I wanted the sky to stay just like that. I did not want to have to turn around on our walk and head back home, but it was time.

Time, in our minds, is what draws us away from those special moments; we are always hurrying on to the next thing on our list.

Embrace what is before you, take a picture in your mind, you may never come to that place again. We find that the simple things are the ones we most cherish.