Labor Day - Just Another Holiday?

Every year on the first Monday of September, the nation celebrates Labor Day--a special day set aside to honor the workers of America--and is touted as the unofficial end of summer. In the "olden days", Labor Day was celebrated publicly with parades, speeches, picnics and other festivities. In small communities, shops were closed so that the owners could enjoy the festivities. Factories shut down to allow their workers time off.

In today's society, Labor Day is mostly observed by families gathering together for the last outdoor celebration of summer before the weather turns cold. Most (but not all) American workers get a day off and enjoy a 3-day weekend. People head to the mountains, lakes, rivers, streams, oceans, desert, campgrounds, boating marinas, shopping malls--just about everywhere to enjoy the last "hurrah".

So, how am I going to celebrate Labor Day Weekend?  I started by taking a vacation day on Friday in order to enjoy a 4-day weekend. And the rest of my itinerary goes like this:

• Sleep in late, which means sleeping in until any time after 5:00 a.m.  
• Do odd jobs around the house, like cleaning out under the kitchen sink--that huge cavity that stuff gets shoved into and is never seen again nor organized (bought cut-to-fit vinyl material to put on the bottom of the shelf)
• Go shopping
• Work on my children's story for church the following week
• Go shopping
• Help put up pegboard in the garage to re-organize the tools over the new location of the tool bench
• Go shopping
• Help put up storage racks and reorganize the garage storage configuration
• Go shopping
• Move stuff from the guest room closet out to the garage now that there is more storage room
• Go shopping
• Donate clothes and other items that haven't been used in the last two years
• Go shopping

Do you see a common theme in this itinerary? Of course, shopping does have its perks.  Believe it or not, this little box is filled with nearly one pound of chocolate (.98 pounds to be exact). This was our last purchase before heading home from the mall yesterday. We had a cooler in the car filled with ice packs to keep the chocolate from melting on the hour-long drive home. 

Did I mention that our Christmas shopping is almost done? 

Road Trip Memories

There's nothing like a good, old-fashioned road trip across the United States to open your eyes to the wonders of this great country and create memories that will last a lifetime. We recently undertook a 5,000-mile road trip that took us through 11 states in the mid- and southwest region. In addition to spending time with family, we took in numerous sites along the way. It was incredible!

The house on the left is in Illinois and was built by my dad in the mid-1950s for us to live in. The photo on the right is the site of the first elementary school I went to for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades. Yep, progress has turned it into a Target and a Starbucks!

 

You never know exactly what you will see at the next exit. The giant pink elephant was at a gas station and has been around for 70 years, although he has been moved around a few times. The rooster in the car was an advertisement for a restaurant.

Route 66 runs all the way from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California and was the main route to travel from the Midwest to the Pacific Coast prior to the 1970s. I remember traveling on it as a child in the backseat of a 1961 Chevrolet Biscayne with my brother. These photos were taken in Tucumcari, New Mexico.

The Route 66 slogan is, "Get Your Kicks on Route 66."  I would love to take a vacation and drive Route 66 all the way from the Southwest to the Midwest and all of the stops along the way!

 

And these are just a couple of extra photos for fun. Road trip memories--can't beat 'em!

My, Didn't it Rain?!

Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth.  You can read the history in the book of Genesis, chapters 6-9. Noah and his family boarded the ark and God shut the door. For 40 days, the waters rose upon the earth, flooding everything and causing the ark to rise higher and higher above the mountain tops. What must it have been like for Noah and his family to open the window in the ark and see nothing but water upon the earth.  No land, no houses, no trees, no flowers, no animals, no birds...nothing existed upon the earth except Noah, his family, and all of the animals that had been taken into the ark. I can't imagine what that would be like.

Since moving to the Southwest, we have been introduced to Monsoon Season, the period of time

from June through September when several inches of rain can be dropped on the earth in a very short period of time. Here in the desert, the water has nowhere to go--the ground does not absorb the water--it just runs everywhere. We have watched our street flood while trashcans float down the road; floodwaters rise halfway up our driveway and we wonder if it will ever stop. It's quite amazing and a bit scary at times.

When the earth flooded in Noah's time, God made a promise to Noah: "Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." (Genesis 9:11, New International Version) To solidify this promise, God set a rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant between God and Noah and all of the generations after Noah.  "I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth." (Genesis 9:13, NIV)

The recent flooding in Louisiana may cause us to question this promise, but we have to remember that God is still in control. Satan has the freedom to roam the earth until Jesus comes again, but God is our strength, and we can turn to Him for comfort in adversity. 

Embrace the Place

Home. The place where you live. The place where a person is born or where they grew up. Home means different things to different people. For me, home is where I am. 

I was reading through some of my old posts, particularly the one written in July of 2012 where I was complaining about how hot it was and, at the time, we were living in the Pacific Northwest. When I wrote that post, I had no idea that I would be living in the southwestern United States four years later, where the temperatures rarely drop below 100 degrees for weeks at a time. 

Life has a way of changing, and you never know where you will be going today, tomorrow, next year or in the next decade. The greatest challenge is accepting where God has planted you for today and "embrace the place". I am not particularly thrilled about where we are living right now, but I am learning to accept that, for now, this is home. 

There are some wonderful things about the Southwest--beautiful sunsets and sunrises, comfortable winters, beautiful cactus blossoms in the spring, and wide open spaces. Then there are those aspects that are not so great--snakes, dust storms, monsoon storms, and excessively high temperatures. From June through September, the temperatures soar above 100 degrees and rarely drop below 80 degrees at night. There are weeks when the temperature soars above 110 degrees for days, and it is unbearable.  

Back to my motto:  "Embrace the Place".  It's not my favorite place to be, but it is home.  God has provided a nice house to live in and a wonderful church family. I love my job and the people I work with. What more could I ask for?!

God is also preparing a home for me--a beautiful home in heaven--a mansion He calls it. Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you that you also may be where I am." (John 14:2, 3, New International Version) Jesus wants everyone to have the opportunity to live with Him in heaven. Imagine what it would be like to "embrace the place" in a mansion in heaven. Will you go with me?

Enjoying His Handiwork

Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, forever. He has caused his wonders to be remembered. Psalm 111:2-4, New International Version

Oriental Lily

Driving around the country, I am always amazed at the majesty and splendor of all of God's creation. Everywhere I look, I see His handiwork--in the fields and in the mountains, along shores and streams; even the flowers in my own garden possess a beauty that cannot be recreated by the human hand, although men have tried.

One of my favorite places on earth is Multnomah Falls, just a short drive east of Portland, Oregon in the Columbia River Gorge. It is one of many sites of natural beauty that can be found in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest and probably one of the most photographed by visitors from around the world. The falls are fed from an underground spring in Larch Mountain and run highest in winter and spring. The water cascades down the side of the mountain, dropping 542 feet to the first level and an additional 69 feet to the bottom, into a small pool, where the water continues to runoff into the Columbia River. The falls continue to drop year-round due to the underground spring, rainfall, and snow pack.

And God's most wondrous creation of all? Well, no words are needed for this one.

He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." Mark 9:36, 37 (New International Version)

Ugh! It's HOT!!!

Squirrel resting in a tree on a HOT day.

Summertime is in full force, creating scorching temperatures all across the nation.  Even in the city I live in, where the temperatures rarely exceed 100 degrees more than 3-4 days a year, we are experiencing excessively HOT temperatures and lacking the usual cool down temperatures at night.

We have already seen five straight days of temperatures over 100, topping out at 108 degrees. So far this month, we've had a total of 8 days of 100 degrees and higher, and we are only half-way through summer. Temperatures continue to stay in the upper 90s during the day, and rarely drop below 65 degrees at night. It's HOT...and I hate HOT!

The other day, I was sitting in my comfortable chair gazing out the window, when I realized there was a squirrel sprawled across the branch of a tree in our backyard. The temperature was 99 degrees, and it suddenly dawned on me that, just maybe, the squirrel was trying to stay cool on the tree branch. I don't know if he was successful or not, but I was very comfortable in my nice, air-conditioned house watching him through the window!

Big Wheels Keep on Turning

This really brings back memories--watching my grandchildren ride a Big Wheel ride-on toy. When my children were little, someone gave them a used Big Wheel, which they played with constantly. The front wheel was cracked and many of the decals were peeling, but they had more fun with it than they did with a bicycle. Oh, they loved their bicycles, too, but the Big Wheel was something they could all play with, regardless of their age. It was also more stable and less likely to tip over than their bicycles and tricycles. We had other ride-on toys as well, so they would mount up and ride around the neighborhood on their Big Wheel, tractor ride-on, wagon, Cozy Coupe, roller skates, skateboards, and whatever else they could find that had wheels.

Big Wheels have been around for nearly 50 years, although I don't remember seeing one until I had children of my own. I do remember how much fun they had, and the many hours they spent outdoors, enjoying the fresh air and playing with each other. 


Nowadays, most children spend their time in front of a computer or television screen, playing video games and watching videos. Those activities have an important role to play, especially in the development of hand-eye coordination. But they can't take the place of good, old-fashioned, outdoor activities. As parents and grandparents, we need to find the balance in the activities we find for our children and grandchildren. They only live once, and we can't go back and recreate the early years. We have to make them the best years of their lives. 


So, keep the Big Wheels rolling and encourage activity. We will all be healthier for it. 


The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there." Zechariah 8:5 (New International Version)