A Great Read

These two are always up for a good time...including walking through the woods when it is too windy on the beach.

I love listening to the wind blow through the trees...it reminds me that the Holy Spirit is always near.

I love listening to the waves pounding on the beach below. It reminds me that a force exists that is much more powerful than me.

  I really am grateful to be able to spend the summer in such a beautiful place....but today...I tuned that all out because I needed to finish "reading" a great book while I walked.

If you can, LISTEN to this book.  Reese Witherspoon rocks this read.

When I was young, I wanted to be Scout, and Atticus was my hero.

Remember this cover?

This is my favorite book of all time.

In "Go Set a Watchman", Harper Lee's secondary theme of a young woman (Scout) coming of age really hit close to home for me.   I have kids that are, as they should be, "coming of age", ...and it just might kill me.  But that is another post for another day....

Big Boys and Banana Bread

This sweet darlin' grew up way too fast.....

He has been studying all summer for his Med School Step 1. Yeesh.....

He studies, I pray.  

He studies, I text encouraging quotes like  Winston Churchill's "If you're going through hell, keep going."   Dory's "Just keep swimming." St Paul's "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me." and, of course, my original "I love you and am so proud of you. Hang in there."

He has one week left before he takes the test.... so I am pulling out the big gun now: 

This Banana Bread is foolproof... try it...you will see.

 beat together:

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

add and beat until combined:

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 

combine separately and then add, beating until combined:

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

add:

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 bananas)

1 12 oz bag chocolate chips (optional)

Spoon into two buttered and floured 8x4 inch loaf pans

Bake at 350F for one hour

I sent these to Nashville today, along with lots of prayers and good wishes.  Go T!!  So glad you are a child of mine.

Unchartered Waters

In 2013 my sister texted me this cairn on Lake Michigan's beach in front of our cabin on the Leelanau Peninsula.  For those of you who have not kept up with your Scottish Gaelic, a cairn is a trail marker.  I had many people showing me the way through chemo that summer...through chemo and radiation that fall, and through surgeries that winter.  Thanks to some amazing physicians and nurses at the University of Kansas Cancer Center in Kansas City and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, along with many more faithful friends and prayer warriors, I survived.  God is good. And our Lady of Guadalupe is my gal.

As I sit on my porch today, looking out over that same beach, I am now contemplating my life's next chapter...my baby is heading to college in less than a month...and I will be an empty nester.

 I am trying not to freak out. I didn't fight so hard two years ago to survive stage three colo-rectal cancer to not enjoy life now....right?  I am determined to fill my empty nest with joy...because, after all...I still have... 

 four kids (who really want me to stop focusing so much on them)

 a beautiful soon-to-be daughter in law

 this good man who has put up with me for 27 years

four sisters who are stuck with me (that is me in the middle)

and these two troublemakers.

It's all good.