Lost in the Woods

Today, for the first time ever (in Montana), I got lost in the woods. Let me tell you how it happened. Well, I was on an errand delivering a note to a neighbor lady from my friend Mist. I happened to see another neighbor lady "Howie". Howie is a really sweet lady. She happened to be doing something with a garden hose and generator that had to do with the water supply in her home. Since I'm one of the few here with everything that works like it should (to an extent), I am a little ignorant. Anyway, she thought it would be a great day for a hike too.
Excited, I hurriedly delivered the note and rushed back to her home. I felt almost giddy, doing something with another lady. I am friend challenged and I gotta take em where I can get em. Howie dawned her "Yaak Trax" and we headed off down the road. She didn't even make fun of my "mordic" or "nerdic" walking. We decided to cut through the woods to come to a familiar logging road that we both knew of. Since we entered the woods where I don't normally enter, I let her do the leading. I also let her lead because her "Yaak Tracks" fell off a few times and I intercepted them out of the snow for her so she wouldn't leave them behind.
The more we hiked, the surer we were that we had to be getting close. Only the lump on my back (better known as Moonbeam) had some reservations. On we continued. Soon the terrain became more hilly and we found ourselves walking on ridge upon ridge. We abandoned trails we thought lead to the road and tromped through the deep snow in the directions we thought would lead us there. She wanted to go further right while I wanted to follow the ridge. After a couple of hours I began to wonder if we should confess that we might be lost.
At one time I even thought I saw my house, but alas it was one of those mirages. She brought me back to my senses "that's not your house" she said as I looked at a snow bank. For the first couple of hours we remarked how great it was that we were out getting exercise, how beautiful the weather was and how much fun we were having. Then it dawned on us around the same time. We were not going to have an unlimited supply of daylight. Evening was just around the corner and with it would be our light.
We had come too far to turn around and be out before dark. Who knew if we'd even regain our trail with all the crusty animal tracks everywhere. I started to pray and ask for wisdom. Suddenly following Howie around in the woods didn't seem like so much fun. Scenes flashed in my mind of "lost women" going across the emergency radio channels. Literally almost EVERYONE in our valley would know!! People would raz us for years to come!!! Oh the horror of it! And to think I had a baby with me along in my crazy adventure. I could just imagine us huddling there with her in the dark. Then I wondered which direction to run if a wild animal attacked, or if one of us were injured. Oh the horror of it all. Not much longer after I prayed for angels to direct us the right way, Howie found the main road. We came out just a few miles from home. I was quite relieved. We laughed about what might have happened. We could both imagine our husbands giving us a good talking to!
Howie and I agreed to do some Kayaking and Swimming this summer. We will be keeping the details of this hike clouded amongst the neighbors.

Where to Throw Your Tax Refund Cash?

I'm far from a money guru, so you can stop reading if you want to hear from one. Recently, I've been challenged by a couple of books some girls in my accountability group gave me to read. In all honesty, I don't agree with everything I have read, but God has convicted me about some of the things I read that I believe to be true. It was like a divine set up. God starts convicting me to read this book and its just before we discuss how we will spend our tax refund. In the end, despite the practical things I felt we should do, I gave my husband complete liberty.

1. Give your money to God. If nothing else, tithe off your child tax credits and increase. Sow into orphanages, people adopting children from overseas, ministries, world hunger, the poor right here in America. Pray and hear God where to give, but determine in your heart to sow as God places in your heart. Do it ESPECIALLY if you are having financial problems! There's no better investment than in giving to God.

2. Make sure you are submitted in your investments, bill payments, credit reductions and mad money fun spending. If you don't agree with your spouse you'd better go back and pray again! You need to be in agreement and if your a woman then you should be submitted to your husband unless he is buying drugs! That means believing in and praying for the God influence in Him. He can make good decisions and we should be supportive.

3. Tonight Fox News talked about the run on Ammo. It is now doubling and tripling in value before our eyes. Lets face it, in the economy where not much is doing well Cabelas stocks are doing good (or at least that's what I've heard). You probably won't go wrong if you want to buy guns and ammo right now. At this point, its a solid investment in a shaky economy. As much as I would rather go to the mall (and I will be doing that), if your husband thinks he should invest in that stuff you really ought to let him.

4. My good friend "Much Mother" who has oodles of wisdom is buying grains, beans, etc.. She is laying up a supply for the year to come. Having a good supply of food on hand isn't going to hurt you. Its part of being that virtuous woman Proverbs 31 speaks of. Buying a good supply of bulk resources will save you money in the long run. You will NEVER be sorry you stocked up on the things your home uses. You WILL be sorry if you bought something stupid that is a waste 6 months from now. Ok, ok, I will be very frugal when I'm at the mall. I hope you will be too :-) Lets be wise so we will have plenty to share when the time comes.

These are just a few ideas I wanted to share with my readers. May God give you wisdom (and some mad money too)! I was shocked to find out that my husband had a whole lot more money planned for me than I expected. He believes in us sowing into each other as well. This really is a great cause of peace in our marriage.

Goodwill Garbage

Today, before I had to work, my husband had plans in town. Most of the children went with him. Just my 6 year old and baby came with me to shop. As we began my thrift store regime, I had Moonbeam dawned in my baby backpack and Catman in tow. Catman kept finding these crazy, half broken, dirty toys. Amongst them was an old ratty stuffed dinesaur. He insisted on buying it. Though I protested loudly, he won in the end. As we plodded out to the car, he informed that he had "been praying for one of these". Despite my disgust at paying $2 for it, I had to smile.

The Encounter

I love skiing through the forest in back of my house. It makes me feel alive. I find any excuse to be out there, especially on days as nice as these. Today after Moonbeam fell asleep, I took off with skis in my arms to hike back to the snowmobile trail. As I am skiing, frustrations fall off of me like the snow melting around me. The house I can't seem to keep up to my standards, the feeling like I am always barely treading water between work, home, home school, children, friends, etc..
Wonderful things have happened out there in the forest for me. Long meaningful hikes with my husband. We've had fun family hikes with my kids backpacking Moonbeam or pulling Karsten by sled. Our beloved German Shepherd, now deceased once ran through those woods, now buried there. Not long ago, a good friend was skiing with me back there. Out of the blue she started crying. She said that she knew she was missing something. She wanted the kind of relationship that I have with God. We prayed together out there for the Holy Spirit to do His work in her. Even part of my placenta from my miscarriage is buried out there next to our canine guardian, now returned to the earth. The forest is a peaceful place for me.
Deer stand in droves back there. I see scores of them as I ski. Many times they don't even bother running away. They're used to seeing me and know I don't pose them any threat. Some of them loiter around our yard even when the kids are out playing. When I don't see any deer, I suspect that something is off. That's when I get concerned.
Today like all days, I was challenging myself between skiing and hiking out there. Before I got my skis on, I practiced my quick draw (just in case). I grimaced at how painfully slow I was. On I went skiing peacefully. The snow pack had become slushy and it was melting all around me making boots almost impossible to maneuver in the hard packed trail now softening. After a few miles of hiking and skiing I headed back. As I got closer to my familiar path back home I started hearing things. First it was a bird flying over head. Then I noticed that I wasn't seeing any deer. I started to get edgy. I looked around several times. Just as I was about to continue on I heard a sound and saw fast moving brush. I went for my gun....... A second passed as I tried to distinguish with my eyes what the commotion was that I was seeing. My heart was racing. I looked in disgust as I saw a tree had been unearthed from the snow that had bound it. Well so much for that adventure. It was just an attacking, er, tree.

Dinner in a One Room Cabin

Yesterday, I had dinner at my friend "Mist's" house. She is an incredible woman. At 22 years old, Mist lives in a one room cabin in this vast wilderness. Mist has no electricity. The running water comes in the form of a creek next to her older A-frame cabin. Its maybe 10 or 20 feet away. Since its spring fed, they just step out their door and fill their cup. Mist cooks with some propane and with her wood stove. Their lighting is wired from a car battery.
Mist was accepted to a prestigious culinary school in Italy, but her scholarship didn't cover it, so she went to one in California instead. She had also lived part of her life there. When she was 16 she fell in love with her husband and after dating off and on, they married after she finished culinary school. It was always his dream to live in the rugged outdoors. She followed him, risking life as she knew it.
For our dinner, Mist baked 2 kinds of delicious bread in a cast iron skillet. She also made home made pasta from scratch. She made spaghetti sauce which she simmered all day long as well. In all the years I've been alive, I didn't think that making such exquisite food was possible without running water and electricity. It was simply amazing.
We all crowded into the one room cabin. We sat on the bed, on a couple of chairs and on the floor. We heard about many of their adventures together. My seventeen year old was really impressed. All my kids were. We had so much fun that we stayed for 5 hours. When my youngest kid was thirsty, Mist's husband stepped out the door and filled his cup again.
People like Mist inspire me. I wonder how she could pull a dinner like that off. She hadn't been to town in weeks. She didn't have any plans of going that week. She knows how to live simply, yet elegantly. I think about all of the people who demand high living standards. I think about my own selfishness and demands. I'm grateful for what I have. Really, I am. I am just humbled seeing my attitude over the years. I've been selfish, and I've demanded things that I really could have done without. I've felt sorry for myself when I should have been thanking God for His Provision. I'm planning to hang out with Mist more often. She knows how to do things I don't. She's been making it. Not just surviving. I've seen so many women. Some feel sorry for themselves in a house with food and water. They don't have what they think should be their standards of living while others like Mist can thrive on what I didn't think possible. Her cabin is clean, well organized and smells good. Its enjoyable to be there.
Let it be a lesson to you, my readers. Take note and learn from her. If Mist can make exquisite pasta and breads in a one room cabin, certainly you can make your hands produce whatever God has placed in them to do.
As we drove away that night, I said "She's amazing isn't she?". There was a loud chorus back in unison saying "She's amazing".

PMS

As many of you are well aware, My friend, Silver bell and I started a weight loss group that eventually became an accountability group. At the beginning, not many people showed interest. At our first meeting, one other lady showed up who really wasn't interested in losing weight, but wanted to visit. We later embraced Hazel, whose only obious falt is a perfect figure. Depite this obious, falt, we embraced her into our ranks. With the addition of Hazel, came a new found stability and hunger for more of God. Despite Hazels terrible fault, she is really well grounded in Christ and adds a wonderful flavor to our meetings. We now have another friend, whom I have deemed "Mist". Mist is a very sweet girl whose only obious faults are not only a perfect figure, but a good attitude as well. She smiles a lot, doesn't complain and the worst thing which I have saved for last is that she is a pretty blonde.
The trouble all started when I showed up at work last week. It began my "funk" if you will. A dizzy, blonde nurse walked up to me in the report room. She looked at me and cocked her head. Then she grabbed an appendage on my body shaking her head sadly. She said the word that every woman has grown to fear. Its a word that I almost didn't want to mention, but for the thrill of the story I will tell you if you promise not to gasp and examine my prior photos. This word sent me on a "funk" for a week and may have induced PMS that I am now experiencing. The word was, (dare i say it?!) ....... Clairol. Yes, she grabbed my hair and after examining it said nothing but "Clairol" and then walked away sadly. Needless to say my shift did not go well. Every time I entered a patients room, I had to stop and examine my hair in the mirrors. Patients began to wonder what I was doing. Every time somebody looked up at me, I saw that woman chanting the evil "Clairol" chant and laughing fiendishly in my head. My funk was in full swing.
Silver bell awoke from a deep slumber. She lives in a beautiful log home on a crystal river. She has 2 children who she ushered off to school. She showered, fixed her hair special and commensed to clean her home up. After working all morning to prepare for our "Accountability Group", Silver bell looked at her clock. Ten o'clock came and went with her wondering where we all were. After Ten fifteen and finally ten thirty, she decided we all must be mad at her for cancelling on us last week. She sat down on the couch feeling her own funk come on. It was not until much later that she discovered it was Wednesday and not Thursday, the day our meeting was actually scheduled for.
When I showed up on Thursday at accountability meeting "Clairol" was still screaming at me. The nurse had now become an evil villian cackling inside of my head. I felt as if every one must be thinking that I am much too old and grey to be a part of this group. Completely rediculous thoughts plagued my mind. What I didn't understand was that completely rediculous thoughts plague most womens minds much of the time. Now I am not saying that we are all rediculous. I am saying that we believe rediculous lies that happen to show up inside of our brains if we are not careful. PMS is part of the evil villain who may disguise himself as a fiendish nurse inside of your brain.
I complemented Silver bell on her hair do. Little did I know that she was thinking "I haven't even fixed my hair today!" We went on with the meeting and before long we were all chums and having a good "get in touch with your feelings" and "God" type meeting. We laughed, we cried, we ate some home made lasanga and we prayed together after reading from "The Prayer of Jabez" book.
Later as Silver bell and I were comparing notes, we discovered the plot of the fiendish nurse in my head. Actually, she had no idea. It was more my own personal discovery. I was thinking that since I shared this verse with other people that day maybe it applied to me. Here it is :

2 Corinthians 10:4-6 (King James Version)

⁴(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

⁵Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

⁶And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

My Monthly Miracle Memory

I've been trying to write at least "a miracle a month" and tell about some of the good things that God has done for our family over the years. I have a burden to encourage people in general with Gods great love, mercy and abundance that He wants to heap upon His children (if we will let Him). This month I'm going to tell you about how we started our business.

We came from quite meager beginnings. Two rebellious teenagers trying to get through community college classes with food stamps and financial aid with already a kid in tow. After that, we spent about 6 1/2 years traveling with a ministry and living by faith. Nothing about our beginning encouraged any type of financial surplus. The first house we bought was a small, unfinished repossession. We wanted house payments as cheap as possible because we had other priorities. That was years after we'd been married and lived in many cheap rentals. We battled credit card and student loan payments for many years. It really wasn't until the summer of miracles that our physical prosperity ever manifested.

It all started when I felt like the Lord was saying to me "I'm going to pay off all your credit cards". That would have taken years. Was it wishful thinking? I didn't think so. I was pretty sure it was God. I said "thank you". Not many months from then, by a series of miracles, our largest debt credit card was paid in full. I knew it had been an act of God.

The next spring, my husband began building some home made fire fighting equipment. It was done cheaply with some stuff he'd thrown together. When Forest fires broke out in Washington, Kevin and another man decided to go out and see if they could get their equipment hired. The forest service wouldn't even let them in the doors of the building. They literally laughed them out. After driving all that way, they decided they would at least stop by the fire camp and offer their services to the person in charge.

He took one look at my husbands equipment picture and said "these are a dime a dozen, I'm sorry, I can' t use them." Then he looked at the other mans picture. He said "I'll take up to five of them." He had tried to get them, but had been told they weren't available. The man had only one, but knew where another one was. He let my husband go after it, and go after it he did.

My husband called me up and said "I need ten thousand dollars by tomorrow." I knew he didn't have a gambling problem and that he wasn't insane either. The request, however, was crazy. Some years, ten thousand dollars was 6 months or a years income for us. Something about the conversation jumped inside my heart. I knew it was God. I could feel it on the inside of me. I called up everybody I knew (who thought I was crazy). Nobody wanted to loan (or had) that kind of money. I called up every credit card company we had and asked what our cash advances were.

Meanwhile my husband came back by train. He had one day to raise the money. He had already ordered the heavy equipment to be delivered to Washington by faith that the money would come through. He had already ordered a welding shop to begin construction on a massive water tank. He was a man on fire, feeling that he had heard Gods voice. His window of opportunity was now.

That day we visited every bank in the city. None of them would loan us the money. At the end of the day, we visited the last bank. A kind woman listened to our story. She told us that if we could match the loan ($5000), they would come up with the other half. I hurried across to the other bank to get the full amount of cash advances off of every credit card we had. They almost wouldn't give it to me because I had a late payment. I had to argue with the worker by phone and demand 3 times to speak with the manager. Just as the bank was closing, I was able to produce the money and secure the ten grand!

On the way home, we looked at each other wondering if we should stop this huge risk we were taking. We knew we couldn't, it was God. When we got home there was a message on the answering machine. It said "whatever you do, don't answer the phone. They are cancelling your heavy equipment order. If you acknowledge the cancel, your done. If you show up, they will have to pay you at least one days wages."

After my husband returned to Washington, he was horrified to discover that his water tank was only half built and the shop was closed. I called all over trying to find somebody to open it up. So did he. The machinery had to be at the fire that next morning in order to secure the order. I went out into my field by the river and prayed. Suddenly laughter overwhelmed me. Though I knew there was a spiritual fight, I knew God was in control and wouldn't let us down. Miraculously, a worker was found and opened the shop, welding late into the night. The shop even caught on fire from the welding and the fire had to be put out.

As dawn arose, the tank had been placed on the machinery and was being delivered to the location of the fire camp. My husband had never even operated this type of machinery. The summer before had been his first year ever of fighting fires and that was with a small fire truck. Amazingly, they kept him for the duration of the fire. That job paid for the machine and the next job paid for the tank that was built. He even received a commendation of safety for excellent operating skills. This is how our business was born.

You may think that how you live now determines your life in the future. If your poor, you'll always be poor. If you sick, you'll always be sick. Because you didn't get a good start in life, you'll never realize your dreams. But I'm here to tell you that it's a lie you have been believing. It isn't true. If you love God, and trust Him, crazy miracles can happen for you too. I don't encourage anybody to use credit cards or high interest loans to try and make money. Please don't misunderstand me. All I want you to understand is, is that there are no limits with God. If you give your life to Him wholly and trust Him, He will move Heaven and Earth to bless you, the child in whom He delights.