Summer Days and Little Things

We're just about half way through summer.  Life carries on and so do we.  Nothing profound is going on in our part of the world. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, grown daughters, grandchildren, picnics at the river and beach, writing and a few creative projects…. they are all the everyday things that I am up to this summer.

I got my crocheting out again recently.  It has been a few years since I have worked on any kind of crocheting or knitting.  Marie,  Elizabeth and I found a large stash of yarn that I had stored.  We all got inspired and have been crocheting ever since. It has been very satisfying to crochet  in the spare moments.

The grandkids and I are going to paint rocks this week, and I bought a bushel of Georgia Peaches at a roadside stand the other day. I am thinking of making a Cream Peach Pie; these are ordinary uneventful little things  to be sure, but they are the substance of life.  I remember when I was growing up, how the summer seemed to stretch so long.  My best friend Judy and I would mull over what we wanted to do on each day, and would always end up riding our bikes, swimming, playing board games, hopscotch or four square. or walking to the little 7 eleven convenience store a couple of miles away.  Our biggest cares were the few chores that we had to do, and where we got the latest skinned knee.  There is something so sweet about those days, that were simple, and uneventful.  Some of the little mundane  have more value in them than we sometimes realize.

I don't think we should underestimate the value of the  ordinary and little things. Living a peaceful and quiet life in itself is a testimony.  A smile someone gives you when you are struggling with something painful in your life may seem small, to them, but it is really BIG to you. I know this first hand.  A little word of encouragement may go unnoticed by others; but to you it is huge and it does not go unnoticed by God. He sees the faithfulness in all of the little things that you do: getting up each day and providing for your family, the kindness you show to others, the help you offer, the noticing of someone that no one else notices, the eye contact you make with a smile or a nod or a kind word, the honor you give others, the words you speak, the sweet memories you create with your family, the work you do with diligence, the prayers you pray for loved ones and strangers alike, the forgiveness you extend, the love that flows from you, expressed in a touch or an action; cooking a meal or writing a note or making a little gift or even the giving of a cup of cold water, It is valuable, its like glue that holds our life together.

I hope you are all doing well.  Perhaps your days are filled with ordinary little things, but don't underestimate the value of those things, or be impatient that nothing seems to be happening.  So much goes on in the unseen world that we don't see at this moment.

Have a great week Everyone.

And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.” Matt. 10:42

Behind the Scenes of National Geographic

In the summer of 2011, I published a post about my boys.  In the post, was a picture that Nathan and his crew took while they were doing some scouting for a film they were working on.  I had mentioned in that post that there was a story behind this picture… and yes there was;  They took the picture and did a little "editing" to it as a joke; inspired by a "girlfriend" of one of the Guys. She was worried about the bears that they might encounter while scouting in the mountains of Colorado. Now I understand her worries…"bears happen" in Colorado, so we weren't laughing at her concerns, but were just full of fun and  there were many jokes about "those bears" that kept us all laughing; I'm sure we all remember the jokes about the "pepper spray" that was offered as a solution to that bear problem, but the final joke the guys came up with, was this picture.  I love the picture.  It is really fun isn't it?

Nathan put the picture on his Facebook, and I think the other guys probably did as well.  I snagged the picture from Nathan's Facebook and put it on my blog.  I also pinned it on Pinterest onto my "Funnies" board. Within a few months of that pin,  I started getting all kinds of traffic to that post from a travel blog in France. They had the picture with the caption in French, saying something like "you don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than your friend". Soon after that, the picture was all over the internet, with captions like the title of this post.  It got funnier and funnier to see it coming and going. The conversations about the pictures that evolved were a marvel. People would say "how foolish these guys were", and how "it couldn't be real because of this or that". It was never intended to go out as a "real" picture, but it seemed to gain momentum for the debate as to whether it was "real" or not  as it got passed around.  Nathan and Himilce recently posted this article on their Facebook pages; The article was pronouncing it a "Fake".  It is a good article written by Matt Novak on factually.gizmodo.com, and really added to the fun when it had to be debunked in this way.  Our friend Tim Sparks the redhead on the back right was able to set the record straight in an e-mail with Matt Novak for the article.

http://factually.gizmodo.com/behind-the-scenes-of-behind-the-scenes-at-national-geo-1679697812/+megneal

A great story don't you think?  The article tells you who is who, but let me just say this; Nathan is the guy in the right in front; He's my boy.  That gives me a little button popping privileges don't you think?  You can go back to that first post that I posted this on and read a few more of the details and see a few more of the pics from this story…. mostly from a "mother's" perspective about boys, life and the empty nest etc, then be sure to click on the link above and read about this "Fake".. and check out the Godzilla version, you'll love it.

            Have a great weekend everyone.

A joyful heart is good medicine,

but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22