Enjoying Your Clothes!

Hi Jeannie!

I just wanted to pass on my thanks for you to sharing your clothes with me (via Gail and HOPE Co-op).

I have been enjoying 2 pairs of brown capris pants, a sweater, and 2 beautiful scarves! It was such fun looking through the clothes and finding some things that worked for me J.

May the Lord richly bless you in Alaska. I had an aunt who taught school in Anchorage for 25+ years starting from about 1950. She grew up in Florida and wanted an adventure...she got it and loved Alaska!!

Blessings on you and your family!!

Amy H.

________________________________________________

Thank you so much for letting me know this! I am going to post your email on my blog! It means so much to know that our “stuff” we left found a home.

We pretty much gave away everything. Some of the furniture we sold, we mailed our books, and a friend mailed our clothes. But everything else (even our cotton balls!) had to find a new home! Gail bailed me out. She let me pack her dining room with goodies to give away from kitchen supplies all the way to linens. She had the HUGE task of giving away our stuff! Some friends and neighbors took some things, but she got most of it. I don’t know what I would have done without her.

She has shared some stories – like the newborn twins who got our baby bed, and the lady who cried over getting my Christmas village and my niece who is setting up housekeeping with some of my kitchen stuff, and my adopted Chinese nieces who got my girls’ dress up trunk complete with Great-great-grandma’s hats! And the lady who was ecstatic to get my Greco-Roman paintings to decorate a bare bedroom.

It is such a blessing to know that our “stuff” is still blessing other families and filling a need.

Jeannie Revells

Ronni and Chris

We love to go to Pioneer Park with Ronni and Chris!

The Most Precious Day

Video made on July 24. The angels were rejoicing with us!

A Peek at Quiet Time around here...

The children during a quiet time...

Isabella Learning to Crawl

Isabella Maria is learning to crawl! How did that happen? She's supposed to be a newborn! This is a longer video for the G.G.'s and Nana's out there. By the way, she weighs over 19 pounds now and has the most wonderful squishy thighs! :)

I'm Still Here

I have so much to share, it will take me weeks to catch up! And meanwhile, history is in the making! I have so many videos and photos I am editing so you can "see" more of our life.

The Rucci's are HERE! We have enjoyed spending time catching up and just hanging out together. Tomorrow is Cole's birthday and we are surprising him with a small party here.

The weather is so interesting. Mostly beautiful warm weather. Not too hot. Just right! However, hundreds of forest fires are burning in AK. It is so dry. Right now, ash is falling like a light snow. The truck is covered in a dusting. It smells like a campfire and when the smoke rolls in, it hovers like a dark cloud.

But spiritually speaking, the Son is shining brightly! So much revelation and walking in His Presence.

Thanks for your love and prayers. And a special thanks for all the care packages. We feel so important to receive them.

So, anyway, more coming soon...

Busy...not in My Vocabulary

I really don't like that word - "busy"! It has such a negative connotation: slavery, weariness, no time, hectic, loss of control, mindless, crowds, traffic, stress, worry, being driven...

So I don't like using it! When pressed, I shall say, "No, I am not busy". I take each day as it comes and give out exactly what I have and call it, Good.

I have learned that many times it is my lower priorities that would drive me. However, I choose to be led by my gentle Shepherd. Not driven by a whip. My to-do list is gigantic. But I am learning to focus all my efforts on the ONE thing.

I love Alaska time. It agrees with my soul prospering. Rest and relax today.

So, I will not tell all of the wonderful events that have transpired until I have finished resting! Because I am NOT busy.

P.S. If you want to know more about strategic planning centered around God's will for YOUR life, call Chris!

P.P.S. I will adopt Amy's slogan for today: If only everyone thought this way...!

Reminiscing on a Very Hot Day!

I almost felt like I was back in the Southeast today! It was 92 degrees!!!!!! What is this?!

I'm supposed to be feeling the Arctic cool! Not today. Of course the air is much drier here, but I am still hot and sticky. Not many places here (that I have experienced) have A/C. Not our home, the church, nor the pizzeria we escaped to either!

Actually, I am not complaining. I know you suspected you found a weak spot, but really the heat can be cozy. We close the curtains and crank up the fans and take it easy sipping iced tea. That amazing delicacy called sweet tea! Reminds us of being at our grandmother's homes during the long Southern summer. Special times we've spent with each of our grandmothers. Oh, we love them sooo much!

Memama can whip up the most amazing spontaneous suppers. And her award-winning pound cake... Chris and Lee would brag on getting it for their birthdays. Her fried bananas are mouth-watering. Yumm...I think maybe I will add that to the menu for tomorrow. And she has beautiful fresh home-grown flowers decorating her tables. I bet there is a bouquet there right now!

Grandmother had one A/C unit in her living room down in Thomasville, GA, the Deep South! That place gets so hot and humid you can hardly breathe. But we would gather in the living room/kitchen and she would cook all day. As we warshed up supper dishes, we would laugh and accuse her of cleaning out her fridge. She would keep bringing us dishes to wash, the never-ending pile. Grandmother would serve us her famous ice-box fruitcake and we would dive in! Not a crumb would be left in a day or two.

My Grandma Robertson would spend hot summer afternoons with me playing cards. We would sit in her kitchen and play Rummi and Yatzee and watch TV. She had a wrap-around deck and a screen porch. We loved to run and play outside. I remember eating watermelons in her backyard where the sidewalk ended between the hedges. The family had all come over and set up tables under the pecan trees. I ate so much watermelon and spit so many seeds! And Mom and Dad would make homemade ice-cream - orange sherbert! How fun!

My Grandma Brown had a freezer in her bedroom in the old farmhouse. I had to take a nap there every afternoon! :( I would wake up groggy and she would snuggle me until I felt better and then she would ask me what I wanted to eat. I would lead her to the big freezer and we would select a square plastic container of her frozen strawberries to eat with her yellow cake and ice-cream. Now I was a little weird. I wanted to eat them in separate bowls. On the long summer days, we would break beans with Melinda in the kitchen. I still don't know how Melinda always broke hers in perfect little pieces. And later we would run in the freshly mowed and raked front yard catching light'ning bugs at dusk. And then swing on the front porch or the tree swing and talk. Or just listen to the whippoorwills and katydids.

What a heritage we have! We spent a lot of time in our growing years just being together as a family, talking and laughing, working and listening. Talking with us was very important to our grandparents. We felt very important. I want my children and grandchildren to remember times with Chris and I. Sitting together on long hot summer days. Maybe with a fan, maybe with a swing, maybe with a watermelon. Just being together.

Summer Youth Meetings

This is the BEST group of young people in the world. We are so blessed to Pastor here! Yes, I'm partial! I just love all of them!

Parks Highway

Chris drove down to Anchorage for youth camp and this is part of his drive. Oh, how majestic! We actually get to live in a place that people pay $$$1000s to visit. The real thing looks just like you always imagined.