Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 118

God's Perfect Timing

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,    whose confidence is in him.They will be like a tree planted by the water    that sends out its roots by the stream.It does not fear when heat comes;    its leaves are always green.It has no worries in a year of drought    and never fails to bear fruit.” 
Jeremiah 17:7-8 (New International Version) A year ago this week, I got to meet this beautiful little girl. In remembrance of my visit, we planted this tree, which in just three or four years will be large enough to produce fruit. In the last letter I received from my girl, she shared with me that the tree was still alive and growing. Only a few more years and the little tree will be fruitful.
In my impatience, I wish the tree could have started being productive right away. Supply this poor family with that little bit of fruit in their diets. Why wait so many years?
So many years? Three or four? That is not really a lifetime. In God’s time, that isn’t even a millisecond. In God’s time all things will bear fruit.
In God’s time, the dream job will materialize. In God’s time, the lonely family of two will become a family of three. In God’s time, sickness and sadness will be eradicated.
And in our time, we need to keep the faith and trust in God alone.
Lord, God, Heavenly Father, thank you for your perfect timing, for knowing when to answer our prayers and how to answer our prayers in the way that is best for all. Amen.

If the time is right in your life, please consider sponsoring a boy or girl through Compassion International and change the life of a child like my Mueni. 

What's in your front yard?

  When I started blogging here on Tuesday of this week, I had planned on posting the following story, but went down the rabbit hole of our wedding anniversary. Let’s see if I can focus tonight.
  I do not know the entire history of our house or the four acre spot it sits on. I know the previous two owners and who built it. I’ve even been told that there was a fire in the house at one time which explains the charred walls in the old garage and I suspect some of the peculiarities of the house.    I do not know, however, who it was who felt compelled many, many years ago to use the swamp in front of my house for a garbage dump. 
  When my kids were little and more adventurous, they loved exploring the swamp and extracting from it all sorts of glasses bottles. (This was long enough ago that the Zika virus was not a concern or really any mosquito-borne illnesses.) When they were old enough and big enough, they started dragging the tires out of the swamp. I’ve lost track, but the number was over a dozen when the kids were still in school. I don’t know how many the hubby took to the landfill or how much it cost him. 
  This past summer, as more tires rose to the surface of the muck, I asked the boy-child to pull them out. I had a plan for these. 
  For a few years, I’ve been cultivating trails through my meager woods and running along them when I can. I thought – ah, ha – I could add some obstacles. The first one could be the tire obstacle. 
  Okay, for all my work on this earlier in the week, I fell down running through it the first time. It’s not as easy as it looks. I will need to work on this and perfect it before I add a rope swing. 
    Wish me luck.

Another Anniversary

I still can’t believe it is October. And the way the weather was on Monday, I really couldn’t believe it. So warm and sunny. Which reminds me that 19 years ago today the weather was just as beautiful.
Umm, let me get a picture for you.   Oh, my goodness.
 This could take some time. These pictures look like they were taken 40 years ago. Was photography really that bad before we went digital? And has this picture really been displayed on my piano for 18 years and 11 months?  I really was planning on blogging about something else today, but now that I went down this rabbit hole – here are the rest.

My kids are so little! Val was seven and Nick was eleven, I think.   Julie Bruyette, who introduced us, was my bridesmaid, and Himey’s brother John was his best man. Nick gave me away while Val and Himey’s niece Ann were our flower girls. Not that we needed flower girls, but we wanted to include them. My mom made their dresses and I ordered mine online for $69. 
 With Himey’s mom and dad. 
 With my mom. Please, nobody tell my mom that I posted a picture of her on my blog. She will kill me! You gotta know her to love her. 
 With all that ceremony stuff over with, Himey is still confused, I’m excited to cut the cake and Val wants to make sure her piece is the biggest. 
 But we all had a good time. I love you Himey and can’t wait to see what the next 19 years - and beyond - brings.  

A New Hairdo

 She watches over the affairs of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed;    her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things,    but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs 31:27-30 (NIV)
Let me ruminate a little bit here. I’ve been growing out my hair since around the first of the year. It’s gotten to be a ridiculous mess which needs to be secured in some way or another to keep it from swirling out from the sides of my head in ways which rival Effie’s hair from the Hunger Games.
Yesterday, my daughter talked me into getting a trim and a style from a beautician she knows. It turned out okay. The two of them claimed it will be very low maintenance, but when they insisted I buy a bottle of mousse to tame it every morning, I thought, whoa, that sounds like work. I’m ready to get it buzzed short again.
Am I just lazy? Or am I too uncoordinated to maneuver a hair dryer and a comb at the same time? Or am I too dense to understand why I should put “product” in my hair right after I washed it, because to me it would be easier to just not wash it for a couple days and let it get sticky all on its own? Or do I just not have the time to do anything with my hair in the morning more than running a comb through it? My ultimate goal was for it to grow long enough to brush it every morning and tie it in a big ol’ pony tail and not have to worry about it.  
What is the lesson to be learned from this? And will I be able to maintain this high maintenance hairdo?
Maybe I am a little lazy. Maybe I should take the time to care about my looks a little bit more. I wish I could say I was the good wife in Proverbs 31, who has her priorities straight, who always puts her family before herself. I bet she doesn’t have time to fix her hair!
 I think it’s all about balance and what you are comfortable with. For you women who still swear by Aqua-net, who am I to criticize? In the meantime, I’m just going to try to go with it and thank God that I have the hair that I do.  In 2011 June of 2015 A couple weeks ago. The hair had been beaten into submission that day.  Yikes! The new do, yesterday. I wasn't planning on taking a picture, much lest posting it here, so this is the scary face. And also, I do own clothes in colors other than blue. 

The Only Walk This Summer

Was it two years ago that I came up with this great idea of walking every street in my hometown? I was pretty faithful that first year, but petered out by the second. And here we are rolling into the Autumn of 2016 and I haven't shared any walks here this year. Or at least I don't remember doing so. 
Last spring and summer I was battling bursitis in my right hip and tendinitis in my left Achilles. The bursitis seems to be cured, but that Achilles is still killing me. Yes, I work at a doctor's office, but you know that health care workers make the worst patients. And speaking of the day job, I've been working a lot of long days and leaving work with no remaining energy. 
In any event, last Friday, with the car in the shop for two hours, I had some time to kill and the weather was perfect. I was reminded of how blessed I am to live in such a beautiful place.   
This little park-ette is just past the public library, along the Wisconsin River. It was a Girl Scout Gold Project from ten years ago.


The Wisconsin River - amazing any time of year.


The fire pit behind the library, in honor of the Lintereurs.


Parting words of wisdom.

The View from the Backyard

As promised last week, here's the view of my house from my backyard. Just as the front has, the back has had its share of changes as well.  September 22, 1990, the day we moved in.  Nine years later, September 22, 1990. That spring we had turned the garage into the living room. Note the patio doors which don't open unto a patio. Also, the lovely, though practical, clothes line.  In the spring of 2003, we were ready to add the deck. The attractive plastic on the patio door was to keep the outdoor cats from climbing the screen.   Making way for the deck. The deck in progress. My brother-in-law put it up for us. Thanks, Claude.  Starting to look more like a deck.  And it's almost finished.  Ok, December 20, 2011, the deck has been done for a long time and is fading nicely. This is my token winter scene. Oh, and we have a new clothes line, too. I do have pictures of that going up, but that is even more boring than the deck.  July 7, 20012 August 26, 2012. Can you tell the difference between this picture and the previous one? We had a new roof put on.  September 9, 2014, my most recent backyard picture. I know, you are surprised that I didn't actually take one every single year. 

Getting Lost and Being Found

Amazing grace! How sweet the soundThat saved a wretch like me!I once was lost, but now am found;Was blind, but now I see. (John Newton) 
Yesterday I experienced my first trip through a corn maze. Prior to entering, we received a generalized picture of the maze with the locations of the eight stops where we could punch our card. After wondering aimlessly for a while and having found none of the stations, we decided, in a near panic, that we just wanted to get out. We finally stumbled across one of the stations and I found it on the map. I was able to get my bearings and thought, ah, ha, maybe we can find the rest of the spots if I just keep us on course. We found the next station, but about that time the 17-year-old girl I was supposed to be guiding decided she had had enough. “Can we just try to find our way out?”
Have you ever been lost and just wanted to find your way out? Has life bombarded you with situations that you just wanted to get out of? Did you feel you had nowhere to turn for guidance?
We all know where to turn when we are lost in the maze called life. Jesus is called our Savior for a reason.

Lord, Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son to save us when we are lost and to guide us Home. Amen. 

A 26th anniversary celebration

One year ago today, I had hoped to begin a week or two of celebrating a 25th anniversary with you. I guess it will be a 26th anniversary instead. 
26 years ago, I moved into this house. It has changed a bit over the years and if I can get a bunch of pictures scanned, I'll share those changes with you here, starting with the front of the exterior.  Moving day. September 22, 1990
 Closing up the garage to turn it into the family room, spring 1999. I also had a new roof put on, I think around 1994, way before I went crazy taking pictures with the digital camera.
 Living room window moved to the old garage and new windows put in what will become our bedroom. The garage service door has been replaced and has become our main entry door.
Exterior walls done, just need a coat of paint  The finished remodel, August 1999 (it didn't take that long to finish, just that long for me to get a picture, as digital photography was still not yet in my hands).
 Ah, I had to add a winter picture. December 20, 2011
August 26, 2012, following the completion of the second roof I've had put on this house.

Come next time to see the back of the house.

Silver and Gold, Copper and Iron

 There is a mine for silver    and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth,    and copper is smelted from ore. Job 28:1-2 (New International Version)
In my daily Bible reading, I have been plowing through the book of Job. Not a very upbeat book, is it? But I finally finished reading it last night and the last few chapters are much more upbeat.  
As I read the above verses a few weeks ago, I was once again amazed at how everything about this world is in the Bible. The precious metals that Job referred to were most likely somewhere in the Middle East, or at least somewhere in the settled world of that time.
However, since I still have Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on my brain, I can only picture iron and copper ore lying under those grounds and nowhere else.
But when Job was lamenting about the life he had been handed, God knew that there was copper in the ground in that peninsula that jutted out into Lake Superior. He knew there was iron in the ground a hundred miles south of there. He knew it, because He put it there.
He knew the Indians would find it and mine it. He knew that white settlers would find it as well and rush to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to try to get rich off of it. But He only put so much of it there and He made sure that it wasn’t easy to get to. He had everything planned from the beginning of time.
With all that Knowledge, you would think that God would get bored. What would it be like to Know everything? The thing is God can handle it and we can’t.  There’s a lot we can’t handle, which is why we need to put our trust in God.

Heavenly Father, thank You for all that You have given us, the beautiful and necessary as well as the hardships which are part of life. Thank You for knowing that everything will turn out as it was meant to. Amen.  

A New State Park

I know that earlier this week I finished telling you about our camping trip to  Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula (and I can spell Keweenaw with no problem, but can never spell Peninsula correctly the first time!). I couldn’t resist adding this teaser, though.
A few weeks after we returned from that trip, I talked the hubby into taking a drive up to another Michigan state park. I had gotten him so hooked at camping at McLain State Park that I was afraid he would never go anywhere else. I had to prove to him that there are other campgrounds he could try out.
First though we had to stop at the first roadside park.  Not too much farther down the road, we came to Bewabic State Park, between Crystal Falls and Iron River. My sister Pat and I had camped here a couple times back in the early eighties. It was just as I remembered.
 I didn’t take any pictures of the campsites, but when Hubby saw that they have pull-through sites – no backing up the camper, Honey – he was sold.




 And when we leave the campground, we can explore the Iron County Courthouse in Crystal Falls.
 Or the Paint River.
Cannot wait for next summer!