Choosing Gratitude #3

From Nancy Leigh DeMoss...

When we choose the pathway of worship and giving thanks, especially in the midst of difficult circumstances,

there is a fragrance, a radiance that issues forth out of our lives

to bless the Lord and others.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, 

let us have grace, 

whereby we may serve God acceptably 

with reverence and godly fear...

Hebrews 12:28

Prague day 2

woot, woot, I got an email!  (sort of like getting this postcard with a handwritten message from my mister...)

And, lucky you, I'm going to share most of it with you (without much editing) ~

WEll it is 3 am and I cant sleep so I thought I should take advantage of the internet since all the reasonable people are in bed sleeping. This keyboard is weird there are buttons with 4 symbols on them, the numbers at the top have three symbols on them so it took me a while to figure out how to make an @ sign -control alt 2- . Sunday we had church at the hotel some people went to the Rettigs but there isnot room for everybody . In the afternoon we toured a castle and cathederal, the cathedral took 500 years to build - parts of the castle dated back to king wensceslas you know the christmas song guy.   Today we will head out to the streets to hand out john romans. Thursday we have a free day . Next wednesday is the special meeting so not much time to do any sight seeing so might have to come back with my sweetheart and see the rest.   Kate is doing great she is rooming with a 16 year old who came with her pastor from Colorado.  Tried to call you but cant figure out thehotel phone so might have to find a payphone somewhere.  should have brought a laptop tthere is wireless hotspots in the hotel.    The kids would like the breakfast buffet because they have hotdogs for breakfast.  Found an atm and was able to get some cash 2000 crown in 1 bill around 100 dollars  we are getting along we are enjoying our time but miss all you.

Prague day 1

I haven't heard from Tim or Kate directly since they left Chicago, but Mrs. Rettig sent a few pictures of their arrival at the airport in Prague  :-)

Looks like the greeting included some kolaches!

Look below for my girl in the lavender polo...

It's 10:30 pm now in Prague, so I trust that their very long Day 1 is over by now  ;-)

If you can read Czech

...you can read what's happening in Prague ~ soon!

If not, you can read about it in English here.

Photos from the Rettigs in Prague  :-) 

(sidenote: Do you see some familiar letters at the top of the first photo?)


In other preparations...

  We made some trail mix last night Tuesday night for Tim & Kate. 
Think it'll be enough??

~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~

No time to come back and finish this post properly... 

Because TOMORROW ~ as in, we need to be AT the airport in TWELVE HOURS ~ they will be OFF on their adventure!

♥ Thank you for praying!  ♥

Choosing Gratitude #2

More from Nancy Leigh DeMoss...

Perhaps it's hard to find much to be thankful for today. 

Perhaps all you can see is what's wrong, what hurts, and what others are doing to you.

But look above your circumstances, beyond your fears, and ask God to show you what He's doing in the midst of them.

In every thing give thanks: 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus 

concerning you.

I Thessalonians 5:18

busy (normal) days

~~~  Three days to get Tim & Kate packed for their travel to Prague.   ~~~

More pictures at Mrs. Rettig's blog here.

I'm letting everyone sleep in today, so I'll try to post some pictures before they need breakfast...

On Wednesday I took Miss Music Box to the orthodontist and then shoe shopping.  All.three.downtown. shoe.stores!  Where we found at least five different pairs of good shoes she liked.  We left them all there and bought groceries. 
Thursday morning the kids went with Tim and my dad to the Farm Progress Show ~ and came home with a P>I>L>E> of loot!  Blue spruce seedlings, hats abundant, kettle corn, and more!  and the Computer Geek won a fold-up lawn chair!
Thursday afternoon we returned to all.three.downtown.shoe.stores with Tim and the Computer Geek along to find shoes for them as well.

Miss MB settled on the Keen Kaci Lace from Brown's Shoe Fit. 

Tim liked the Clark Mover at Emerhoff's ~

and I talked him into buying a pair of Merrell's to replace his worn-out New Balance tennies.

And the Computer Geek found his new tennies at Lazy M ~ so we made purchases at all.three.downtown. shoe.stores!  :-)  Plus the coin shop for the CG.  whew.

 Back at home...
A nice young man (Ben) installed our garage doors on Friday...

On Saturday our friend James came again to help Tim with siding...

Meanwhile, the girls started baking on Friday... so that on Saturday they could sell goodies at my SIL's antique mall.  (and Miss Artist couldn't resist the camera...)  Four batches of bread, soft molasses cookies, these choc. chip cookies (Cookie Mama Cookies), pumpkin sheet cake (in the form of cupcakes), and cinnamon rolls.

On Sunday we celebrated Miss Music Box's birthday (early) with Grandma & Grandpa (sorry, the pics of them together didn't turn out since I had the camera set wrong)...

and our "adopted college student" Lora (in the middle below)  =)

And, the Cattleman was baptized Sunday evening!

...along with a friend J.  Here's a nice pic of them with Pastor after church...

We had a nice little fellowship with J.'s family and the B. family afterwards  :-)

The girls baked MORE food on Monday and returned to the antique mall...
2 batches of bread, Perfect Brownies, apple crisp, and more choc. chip cookies [which did not sell well  :-( ]

And the guys (including James) worked all day on siding! 

(for those of you in the Midwest, you know the wind ~ it was a-blowing)

Did I tell you that the Cattleman now has his very own drill?!

And check this out:  the last piece in the peak!

What you can't see is the rain cloud behind me... We scrambled to move boxes of siding from Tim's truck into the garage, and the bikes... as the rain began to fall!  (and thus, I didn't take time to get a full picture of the front of the house)

Today I hope to see our chiropractor  (I, um, primed half of the garage ceiling on Friday and gained a migraine) ~ and take Tim along since he put something out of whack yesterday morning at Menards loading siding ~ and win the battle with Mt. Washmore ~ and maybe even serve meals in a timely fashion...  Oh, already blew that one for the kids' breakfast, didn't I?

And what are you all up to on this fine day?

answers to prayer

O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: 

make known his deeds among the people.

Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.

Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD.

Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore. 

Psalm 105:1-4

• God has provided plane tickets for Tim & Kate to fly from Des Moines to Chicago to meet the Wisconsin team and travel on together to Prague. (with thanks to my mom & dad for sharing their mileage)
• Today's best news is that the Czech Bibles have arrived in Hamburg and will soon be trucked to Prague, Lord willing.
• Mrs. Rettig has given me a list of easy things that will be a blessing to bring to them.
• I "chatted" online with Kathleen O. at United.com about our baggage handling questions ~ with great answers that should help Tim & Kate's luggage to make the transfer quickly to a different airline in Chicago!  whew.
• I love my local bank (and its lovely faces who know my name inside or outside of the bank ~ and are SO helpful!)
• We haven't (ahem, I haven't) way-overused our Verizon minutes in August (like I did in July) ~ even after a 43 min phone call today from a friend.  Huge WHEW.  ...I could even call Iowa Telecom on my Verizon phone about when they might be thinking about trenching our landline in...

But I digress. 

God is Good!