It’s been over three years since I posted on this site.  It was shortly after my last post that events were set in motion that totally changed my life.  A visit to LA led to a change in jobs for Pete, led to a move to LA and life in a giant metropolis instead of on a peaceful farm.  Of course that is one single sentence which doesn’t begin to tell the story of the chaos and uprooting involved in such changes.  But that’s all behind us now.  

It was so easy to blog when we were on the farm.  There were always so many interesting things happening, so many evidences of God’s creativity in the beauty, peace and the natural world surrounding us.  In the last couple of years, in the absence of that intimate connection with nature, I’ve had to remind myself over and over “God made California, too!”  Of course there are all kinds of beautiful and amazing things in California.  It’s just that, crammed in with about 20 million other people in the LA basin, I feel so widely removed from the daily contact with nature.  I am continually confronted with noise, concrete, traffic and the sounds of other people living within a few feet of me.  Every time the neighbor sneezes, we hear it.  The neighbors moving in behind us today are separated from us by a thin wall of concrete and the sounds echo between the houses and penetrate into our open windows.  They speak a foreign language which is loud and tonal, creating a new and strange backdrop to my life.  

I’ve gone through many stages in adjusting to this new life.  Once again I’ve learned that every place you live has it’s good and bad sides and you can either focus on the bad things and be miserable or focus on the good things and be happy.  The people we’ve met and grown to love here have filled my life in a new way and I have been so enriched and blessed by them.  Not having animals or a yard or a garden means I spend a lot more time doing creative things inside the house like sewing.  I’ve learned and grown through contact with creative people, having time to experiment and create.  I’ve also cherished the fact that I’ve had immeasurably more time to study the Word of God.  

Looking back at my past posts made me homesick once again for the farm and our life there.  Our goal is to return there after retirement and end our days in that setting.  But for now I am thankful for the blessings of being with our kids and grandkids here in CA.  Life is full of surprising twists and turns and there are times I can’t believe that we are where we are.  I’m resolved to chronicle this chapter of life here on this site.  Perhaps one day looking back at these posts will make me homesick for California and the life we had here.  

There are 35 mph winds out
there and I’m so sick of snow I could croak.  No spring in
sight.  Chicago doesn’t believe in global warming.

Snow Day!  Yippee!  A real, old-fashioned blizzard out there…

Hot coffee and a good book in front of the fire.

It was -4.5 degrees this morning when we got up.  Now, just after
lunch, it has warmed up to 5.4 degrees.  I do remember years when
it got colder than this…as in -25 degrees one weekend when we had
just gotten new chickens.  That was waaaaay back.  But this
is cold enough for me.  The wind is howling across the flatlands,
too, making the windchill something insane.  Good thing the Super
Bowl isn’t in Chicago or Indianapolis.  

It takes us forever, it
seems, to get much done around the farm.  We’re so busy with other
things that projects on buildings get pushed off time and again. 
Therefore, since we have recently accomplished a major farm project I
thought I should at least announce it to the world:  we finally
got new windows put in the downstairs level of the sheep barn (which
currently houses two dogs, 5 cats and one horse – no sheep). 
Thanks to Pete’s carpentry skills and a couple of days of warm, dry
weather we were able to put in the new vinyl windows and paint the new
frames Pete built for them.  Here’s the result:

Yes, yes, I realize that we
also need new windows in the chicken house (left of photo) but they are
smaller than we can buy ready-made.  New problem we’ll have to
ponder over for a considerable time….



When we DO finally start a
major project, it often occurs quickly.  Suddenly one of us says,
“I think I’ll start on this”.  When we’ve finished the project up
one of us (usually me) will say, “Now if I’d known that we were going
to tackle this project today, I don’t think I’d have had the courage to
get out of bed this morning!” 

Tonight when I did the chores the rain was relentlessly beating on the
windows from the south.  I looked at those sturdy new windows and
thanked the Lord for them!  Warm, dry barn for all our beloved
animals – and lots of sunshine streaming in on good days.

Today was the last teaching
day of the semester – final exams begin on Monday.  My required
“Semester Exam Review and Help Sessions” were yesterday (for chemistry)
and today (for physical science).  That is an extra 2-hour session
tacked on at the end of the day during which I answer every question,
re-teach almost every main concept from the semester or otherwise
attempt to prepare my students for the harsh realities of “truth or
consequences” – the Semester Exam.  There was standing room only
for part of the time as fearful students hoped for miracles.  I
was in turn appalled (at what they didn’t know) and comforted (that a
few things had apparently sunk in).  In this afternoon’s session I
had a list of some 70 terms and concepts that are essential for them to
know.  In the two hours I got through the list twice – extracting
the information from them bit by bit.  Toward the end of the time
one (blonde) female student, overwhelmed at the amount of information,
apparently had an epiphany:  “I should have paid
attention!!!” 

Let’s hope she doesn’t forget that lesson….

The official phone call came
at 5:34 am….no school today!  It’s blowing like crazy outside
and although there isn’t a lot of snow yet I guess more is
coming.  A three day weekend.  Lovely.

The first winter storm of the
season is forecast for tonight.  The Winter Storm Warning says we
might get 6-12 inches of snow.  The temperature started dropping
today and by noon when I went out to get a few groceries it was really
cold.  I dropped my bags in the house after school, put on a warm
coverall, my chore coat and boots and headed out to the barn.  Fed
the horse and put her coat on her while she munched away (she’s put on
so much weight this past summer her coat barely fit her!).  More
water in the heated horse trough (enough for the dogs and cats,
too).  Fed the dogs, cats and chickens and gave them an extra
measure to bolster them against the cold.  Made sure all the
windows in barn and chicken house are closed and snugged up so the
winds can’t howl through there too badly.  Put the plywood
windbreaks around the beehives and filled the wild bird feeders. 
Pete got the tractor running and ready to plow snow and brought extra
bags of corn into the house for the heater.  As I was bringing the
snowshovel up to the house from the barn I met Pete on his way out to
the generator with the battery.  If this is a wet, heavy “heart
attack” snow like they are predicting we are bound to lose power and
the corn burner needs electricity to keep the house warm. 

One of my students left a message on my whiteboard today : 
“HOMEWORK:  Pray for a snowday!”  It would be nice to be
snowed in for a day or two.  There is soup in the crockpot and the
frig is stocked.  The house is warm and the animals should be snug
in the barn.  Toby and Gracie would be deliriously happy to have
snow to play in.  

Just checked…no flakes yet but I’ll keep hoping!  But I’d better
get my schoolwork done just in case the weatherman is wrong…

This was one of those days where I’m convinced you have to be really crazy to be a chemistry teacher.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. 

It’s been two months since my
last  blog – crazy.   Shortly after I wrote that last
one, my life got catapulted into warp drive and has been accelerating
ever since.  But today I was out driving around the countryside
with a couple friends and we  were taking water samples and doing
tests for World Water Monitoring Day.  That is fun stuff for me
but today it was an exceptional balm for my soul.  It’s a sunny
and warm  autumn day  with a softness to the air. 
Leaves were drifting down into the creek every place we were sampling
and the autumn trees hanging over the water were so lovely. The
sunshine made me want to just lie down in the grass and absorb the
peace and feel of fall.  After a rough week of teaching it was
unbelievably healing to be outside in the “real world”. 

What do you find healing for your soul?