Repentance

2 Corinthians 7:10

10For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; Amplified Bible

10Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. The Message paraphrase Bible

10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. New Living Translation

I humbly apologize to my oldest son. I regret the words I said that caused him pain. A horrible misunderstanding occured. An emotional miscommunication that was not accurate. He showed great wisdom and restraint. I apologized to him. We talked about and understand that we are in the last days before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Satan knows he has been defeated. Satan knows his fate. I am sorry if you do not believe that there is spiritual warfare going on right this very moment. It is a most horrific warfare and our enemy has no scruples what so ever. He wants to disarm, lie and destroy all he can. Jesus Christ is the target and we are the means. The more satan can cause people to fall away from a relationship with God, to sin, to give in to anger and to hurt one another, the more satan feels he has triumphed in his goal of "getting back" at God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ AND the establishment of God's church with power and salvation available for all...except for satan himself and his fallen angels. God is victorious! Satan IS defeated. I am joining my son in ferverent prayer to empower God's people to resist the devil and he will flee...
James 4: 6-8 6But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
The King James version of the Bible is very blunt at times...cleanse yourself you sinner... when you see the grime and sin and putrid attitudes on your hands, on your heart, in your mind ...cleanse yourself. Humble yourself and repent. God forgives. God cleanses. God strenthens and opens eyes to what is actually happening. Gird yourself with God's Word to avoid the traps satan lays for us all.
I was very wrong and I sincerely apologize. My son knows the exact details. And he has already told me he forgives me. As for the conflict we are in these last days. Keep praying. Stay close to God. Be honest and humble. Admit when you are wrong, seek forgiveness, trust God.

Mallow Delights

We were camping at Crystal Lake. Of course when you go camping you just HAVE to have a campfire. And when you have a campfire...marshmallows are a must! S'mores are a treat many enjoy. Jack and I find them way too sweet and a bit on the messy side. It is fun to be daring and adventurous when cooking. We didn't have chocolate or gram crackers. We did have peanut butter and banana. Cut banana into bite size pieces. Put a dab of peanut butter on top. Roast your marshmallow to just perfect, how you like it. Carefully spear the banana/peanut butter morsel on top of already cooked marshmallow. Enjoy. It really is quite tasty, and still just a little messy! But then that is some of the fun.

Parting With Books

Monday July 21. The day began with daunting task at hand. We cancelled other appointments and set our hearts toward doing the necessary. Jack, packing up his shop equipment and Julie, sorting and defining and packing and throwing away books. Michelle was on her way. We sat in silence.... drama. Actually, we cancelled some home showings and called our accountant for his thoughts on our situation, finances and new opportunities ahead of us. He spoke long and with "strong encouragement"...more about that in another blog. A call to our local library let us know they could not accept any of my beloved books.

Michelle arrived. Some brief cordials and down to the basement. A box for the flea market, a box for Barnes and Noble used books, a small pile for Michelle, a box for Ben, and a box for Julie. As Michelle helped me decide..."keep?"..."Barnes and Noble?".... "trash?".... other....being very strict about what and who and when "other" would be taken care of. Jack was dutifully and equally as sadly dismantling his shop and acetylene torch equipment he uses with his Band Instrument Repair. An acetylene torch to repair instruments you may ask!?!?.. having just previewed the above pictures! SUDDENLY, the carbon monoxide detector alarms! "warning, warning carbon monoxide" beep beep beep...rather BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...WARNING...You get the idea... seems some of the gases had leaked out in sufficient amounts to set off the CO detector. Michelle headed for the stairs...."shouldn't we get out of here if the alarm is going off?", she implored us to leave immediately, Jack and I were used to our alarms going off, which when one goes off all the others in our condo go off, blaring in unison that something is amiss. (usually because of cooking something a bit too crisp or long)Jack calls the Haun store where he bought the torch, could acetylene set off the CO alarm, or is it something else? Julie called the fire department non emergency number to ask the on duty guy to come over with his CO detector to get some readings "I can't smell anything..." she says, to which the very patient guy at the fire department tells me - "call 911 it is the right thing to do" - " I don't want to disturb anyone, can't you just come over with your meter?" - "if you don't call 911 I will," says the guy at the fire department. OK OK....I called 911 and as I did, I saw that the Fire Chief himself was across the street visiting with his mother! How opportune! As I was talking to the 911 operator, I walked across the street and asked our Fire Chief to just come and check it out. Long story short. The CO readings were higher than allowable for us to continue working. 70ppm...30 sets off the alarms 100 is not good at all... We were never in any danger, thank God for the alarm. And it took a long time of venting the house and the basement to get the basement back to normal. That is one of the reasons we are moving is to get a safer workshop area for Jack. Of course it had to rain like crazy, so we were all standing out in the rain...Our Fire Chief and Lieutenant checked everything out to make sure there was no hidden cause somewhere else. We had to wait anther 2 hours before returning to the basement with windows open and fans going. So off to Zachary's for lunch, at 3 in the afternoon. As you can see by the nearly empty book shelves we were able to accomplish much. The two firemen that came and were very professional and helpful. I was soundly scolded by my sons and next time any alarm goes off I will promptly call 911 and not try to smell anything. Now to get the books to the proper places and the ones I am keeping into storage. The last picture is of Don Turner, our Fire Chief manning the big fan (didn't get into the picture) at our back door. He is very patient and kind as was Steve Burke our lieutenant who came with truck and meter and fan. So there you have it. Drama in the parting with the books saga...provided by a little corner occupied by Jack and his shop. Thank God we are moving to provide a safer shop area for Jack.

So Hard To Part With A Book

The book dilemma was really bothering me. Why am I so ambivalent? What makes it so very hard to part with my books? Then I received an email from my older sister. Older sisters are wise and offer good insight and support. I love her! "Books become our friends", she said. How true! In my books are stories about people and places and times past. About friendships, and hardships, blessings and tribulations. Some are fact,some are fiction. They teach, entertain, cause me to laugh and cry and sigh and experience all of life's emotions and frustrations. I became intimate with my friends the books. That is why it is so hard. I do have a "flea market" box going, and it has more than books in it. Knick Knacks of all kinds that I've enjoyed. Honestly, I am not sure how much to keep and how much to throw away. I have no great desire for a big or little house. No great need for a special place to live. We have our travel trailer and it is just fine, although there is absolutely NO room in there for any kind of a book collection. So, tomorrow, with Michelle's expert help at weeding and tossing. I will whittle the collection down to 2 boxes. I must also add that our mother was a great example of a collector of books and just about everything else. She had an immense collection of her favorite author and story gendre.I wonder if she ever reread any of her vast collection. Every year I reread my favorite books, a compilation of the history and lives of the Isrealite nation and the story of Christ and the early church...the Bible. It is the best reading of all. Hmmm come to think about things, our little travel trailer just won't do in the Vermont winter. So before it gets too terribly cold, we will have to find something. And when we do, I will upack and relish again my friends the books!

Clymer Street Closing

I couldn't not blog about the closing. You've followed the progress of the sorting and sharing and tossing and tagging and all that has gone on with our Ancient Landmark. Did the closing go off without a hitch? No, not quite, but at the end of the day there was peace and satisfaction. Nancy and Holly came up for the weekend to help Peter with the final clean out and sweep out before the closing. They then took a day and went to a huge Quilt Show at the Champlain Valley Exposition. An annual event for them. I was at our Church Camp Meeting some 60 miles away helping with the Pre Camper Class. Monday noon closing time was fast approaching. Sunday night, as weather had it, a huge storm blew through town and Clymer St. Now, I have to mention here that a few weeks earlier, a storm blew through and a 30 foot limp from the large red maple in the front yard of the house camp toppling down onto our son's car. Fortunately the power and phone lines cushioned the fall. What could have been a major damage was not. Thankfully no one was hurt. Now, back to the storm at closing. When the buyer walked through the house, on the final walk through, Monday morning, a major leak had occurred in one of the downstairs bedrooms. There was a large puddle of water in the middle of the floor. Also, some items were mistakenly left behind to be cleaned up. I had driven to Williston from Lyndonville. Nancy, Peter, Holly and I met at a local Starbucks to wait for the closing time. Peter got a call on his cell phone, trouble at the ranch. Big leak. Meet the realtor 15 minutes early at the lawyer's office. Peter promptly went and we three sisters walked briskly behind him. The buyer of the house, Brian, is a reasonable guy and the matter was quickly settled with some funds going back to him for the clean up. Aside from some inappropriate visiting between a couple of the Realtors everything else went smoothly. At the end, a sense of relief and satisfaction. We all liked Brian, the new owner of 60 Clymer Street. Lunch at a local Mexican Restaurant and we were off on our separate ways. Moving on to new and wonderful adventures.

Packing

OK, it has been a long time...a month to be exact since I have blogged. Not that I haven't wanted to, nor that I haven't tried. Our computers went kerflunk and it has taken a bit to get them in sync and ticking together again. Plus, we put our condo on the market and it is now under contract with a closing date of August 15. That means we are packing. That is until I hit my book collection. I made a decision that this time, this move I really am going to weed out my books and get to a reasonable library size. Jack applauded my decision and promptly helped out by throwing away a bookcase (without books). He knew that if the books were on the shelves it would be just too much of a shock for me, so he figured, just throw out the bookcase and I will follow suit with the books. No place for books to go...get rid of the books. I packed them in boxes. Next, to the basement with the wall of shelves he built me when we moved in 6 years ago.
Deep breath. OK, I certainly can't reread or read for the first time those well intended to read books now, or in the near future or far future. Besides the town library is a place where books are intended to be stored and shared...hey...bright light...I'll just give my collection to the local library.... I think. So, determined to make the collection a mere fraction of what it is now, I set out to weed through, and pile into neat piles groups of keepers, throw aways, give aways, donate to the local library and lastly,undecided what to do with these. Well it is 4 hours later. I have retreated to the sanity of my computer in the upstairs bedroom. In the basement is my huge pile of "undecided" and smaller pile of 1 throw away, and a huge mess. I made the mistake of "just looking inside for a minute" more than a few books, which landed me in either nostalgic bliss, happy reminiscing, a couple "ah ha, this is where I read that..." moments and gee, I really would like to read this again, or for the first time.

I've made a terrible mess in the basement. Jack won't ever be able to get to his computer down there if I don't get back there and at least make a path for him to walk. Piles and piles of undecideds and a miserable failed attempt at organizing and parting with dear and wonderful books. I was going to wait until we decided on a house to buy. Silly me. We aren't buying right away and have to put everything in storage. We have the biggest storage unit in the place and I just can't fill the whole thing with my books! Oh, this is so hard. My daughter in law said she would come help. She is the best thrower outer in the whole wide world. That's because she and my son and their two sons live in a small apartment with no room for major collections of any kind.

I will see her in church tomorrow and ask for her help. Right now I am going to go to bed and get back to my lasted book. Three Cups of Tea. A good read, once I got through all the descriptions of rock and mountain. The guy loves rocks. I love the Rock of All Ages....OK. I have failed the packing books. But must get it done by Tuesday, because we have a time table to keep.