2012 Ladies Retreat

It is always nice to get away and enjoy time with other ladies. This last weekend I was privileged to go on the Twin Peaks Bible Camp Ladies Retreat. The speaker was Kathy Ptazak from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was a very good time spending time with ladies from all over, especially ladies from my church. Here are a few pictures of our time.

Catching Aspen leaves as the wind blows them off.

 The cabin

Taking us up to the cabin so we call haul our stuff down in the gator.

As great as the retreat was for me, I had to take time and plan out meals for my family while I was gone and then when I am gone I wonder how things are going for Gil. He decided to keep a little journal of what was going on at home so here is what Gil wrote with a little editing and my comments in Italics:

Friday night:

Tirzah had started milking the goats before I got home and also helped Azariah and I get the eggs. However, Tirzah left the milk room without telling me what goats she had milked. She allowed a lot of flies into the milk room and failed to get Vanilla into the stall. After milking I come inside and 

Tirzah is listening to Lamplighter Theater while Tally, Tabby and Zuri are outside in the playhouse. The other two (Azariah and Zeb) have Legos all over the living room. There are also clothes all over the table. When I came in, no one knew where Zuri was. And my Wonderful Wife (WW) left no instructions for milk (meaning to save it or separate it), along with the above things, the carrots and potatoes in the chicken stew were still hard. (I didn't get them in the crock pot till about 2:30, I was hoping they would be done, but they weren't). WW did try to have supper made and ready,and i am very thankful for all the preparation my WW made. She is very thoughtful about taking care of me when she is gone. The children stopped playing and cleaned up and Zuri was still alive.

Once Zuri was found and the children started doing what they needed to do, I started separating the milk and turned the crock pot to high. The children, except Tirzah and Zuri, went outside to play. I finish separating the milk and am now washing the milk stuff.

My WW does not clean the sink or the rags in the way I do. Dirty scrubbies, and  wash cloths at the bottom of the sink not spread out and food in the strainers in the drain. I want to scream, but I carry on bravely amidst the messy sink and dirty scrubbies, watching my older boys and younger daughters play. Basically running around on the lawn yelling. All is fine for a while until I look up and see Tabby crying and Azariah on his knees yelling at the top of his lungs at himself. I am not sure what he is saying, something to the effect of "I am so stupid. Daddy is going to kill me. Why did I do that? I killed Tabby…" I watch and Tabby had stopped crying and she was standing up. She seemed ok, but Azariah is still carrying on and on. About this time I am washing the milk stuff, when Megan comes out to her car. She sees Azariah screaming and goes over to see why Azariah is yelling. She then sees that Tabby has an owwie. I can't see anything until she picks up tabby and brings her over, then as she gets closer I see the blood. Her hair on the left side is bloody and there is blood all over her neck and shoulder. So we have a head wound,( nothing new for our house).
( To add a little extra info from Aunt Megan, She was on her way to meet someone, and was already late, but she took the time to go see what was going on. She walked over and tried to console Azariah as he is screaming about being stupid and killing or hurting Tabby, she tried to tell him it was ok, but then Tabby turned and Megan saw the blood. So here is Megan dressed up and ready to go out, and she has this little bloody girl. Megan then carefully picks up Tabby to bring her in, but Tabby is all bloody and so Megan has to hold her carefully so as not to be covered in blood herself. Aunt Megan picks Tabby up so that she is holding her like she is sitting in a chair. Tabby starts to reach around to hold onto Aunt Megan's clothes (think blood on the hand) and Aunt Megan says "Here, hold my hand Tabby." Tabby complies with no problems. She then carries her carefully inside our house. Now Talitha our 4 year old, our empathetic little child, is trying to help. Megan is trying to see if Tabby has a concussion or not so she asks her what her name is, "What is your name?" she asks Tabby. However Tally answers for Tabby of course, "Tabby!" Megan says "Tally be quiet", and asks Tabby again "What is your name?" Tally then whispers, "Tabby". At this point, Megan gives up on getting Tally to not answer and Tabby to answer. Tally isn't very good at not talking. Thank you Aunt Megan for your help.)

I take Tabby and set her down in the sink and start to see just how much of a head wound she has.  First I take off her shirt and start to run it under cold water to try to get the blood out and Megan reminds me that hydrogen peroxide is good for that. (Thanks for that Megan, I had forgotten that) Tabby is perfectly quiet  and calm as I examine her. She had a deep split on her head, about ½ inch long, a pretty good cut. A fair amount of blood, but not profusely bleeding. Some pain but not so much that I can’t look at it and clean it. Megan asks if we have any paper towels. Talitha, the ever helpful child says "I'll go get one." She runs out to the barn, gets a paper towel and runs it back in to me. Megan saw that it was one little paper towel, this was rather comical as it was so small. As Megan was bringing Tabby in, Azariah finally gets up and I see he is swinging something around which I think is a chain dog leash. I am already guessing he was swinging that and whacked his little sis in the head. He runs off and doesn’t come in yet. Tally is in helping me with Tabby. After she went out to the milk room and got me a paper towel she then tries to be very helpful by suggesting a shower and special soap. I go out to the barn to get some bactine, and I tell Azariah and Zeb to come inside which they do. Megan has left by this time.

 Tabby's wound

I give Tabby a shower and ask Tirzah to help me, she had been asleep since I started washing the milk stuff. (What Gil didn't know was that I had asked Tirzah to start milking before Gil got home, but since she tends to sneeze and itch when she is in the barn around the goats, I told her to ask Gramgee for allergy medicine. That is why she had gone to sleep, but Gil didn't know that at the time.) I got upset with Tirzah because she was not helping with anything, I asked her to bring me some soap, and she just laid on the couch. She finally got up to help me by getting supper for everyone else. Azariah was taking care of Zuri for me. I finished washing Tabby and then I tried to find some thing to close up her cut, I couldn’t find anything and since it had stopped bleeding I just put medicine on it and a band aid and as far as Tabby was concerned she was as good as new. Tirzah got Zuri ready for bed and gave him a bottle. She then read proverbs and I prayed. Azariah, and Tally crashed on the couch, and Zeb and Tirzah went to bed.  They fell asleep fast. Tabby was up for another half hour or so. I finally finished washing the milk stuff and everything at 9:00 pm.

I thank the Lord that Tabby was not hit in her eye or face, and Azariah was not being mean or angry when he did it. It was just a careless mistake. I talked to him about needing to help Tabby and not feel sorry for himself, but I found out it was not a chain that he hit her with, no it was a rope which Megan told me, but seemed odd that just a rope would make the cut Tabby had. Well a rope will do that when it has a rock tied in a knot in the rope. Picture my hand to on my forehead here. This is my son…

Well some people thrive on stress, not me I have a very low stress tolerance level. When stuff goes wrong, I feel like the world is ending, so this evening I am tired and stressed but yet thankful for the Lords grace, and writing about my wife's different ways of doing things helps me to be less frustrated and puts them in perspective.

Saturday:

Basically a normal day. Chores, pancakes, mow the lawn. I thought I might try to do something with the kids, but Paige called and asked if I wanted to move a car for them, so I did from about 2 pm to 4 pm. Mike and I picked up the old nova at his dads place, we had to put the rear wheels on and air up the shocks and put some blocks in, but it worked. We took it to the guy Mike was trading it to for a jeep. Mike picked up the jeep and drove it home. Paige came over and watched the children for me.

Tirzah did very well with breakfast and lunch and supper.  All the children had a  good day. They were excited to have Paige, Parker and Sterling over. Thank you Lord for your help this day. And thank you Gramgee for your help with showers and baths for the children. Sorry Parker that you hurt your ankle on the trampoline, i hope that it heals well.

Sunday:
Ah here we go, Daddy trying to get 25 goats fed, chickens fed and watered, horses fed, dogs fed, and 14 goats milked and the milk saved and the milking pails cleaned. Of course I oversleep. What are the chances of getting us all to church on time? So thankfully WW has taught Tirzah how to cook some basic stuff. Tirzah does a great job this morning of cooking the muffins and helping with some basic things. But when I come in my children have already begun to allow the stuff to start to take over, clothes, toys, just clutter stuff is creeping everywhere, and not only clutter, but my flyswatters have been swallowed up in the devouring stuff somewhere, and I have what is probably an unreasonable hatred and need to kill flies, So Daddy suggests that if the children want to eat, than the house must be picked up, and my flyswatters must be found. Always seems like a simple basic thing to me, but what to Daddy is obvious clutter and mess, to children seems invisible. So after a few parental frustrated explanations of what has to happen, and tears, Azariah is finally able to figure out he needs to keep cleaning until Daddy says it is clean, and they have found one of my 2 swatters. Unfortunately Daddy is still missing a flyswatter and I am overly frustrated. So when Azariah whines at me asking me if he can eat, because he is on the brink of death I am sure, I refuse until he can ask without whining. Thankfully after a few more tries he regains his composure and is able to ask calmly without whining and have his muffins. Of course he sees that the one flyswatter has been right under my nose the whole time. Yes this Daddy over- reacts and makes mistakes, more often than I care to admit.

So everyone was told Saturday night to make sure that they have their shoes for Sunday. They are told again Sunday morning to make sure they have their shoes. Well 3 out of 5 isn't too bad i guess.
So by the time I finish washing the milk stuff and getting everyone ready, it is 8:55. I still need to take a shower and get myself ready. We managed to leave around 9:18, which is pretty good. We get to the church about 5 minute late or so, and of course Tally and Tabby don't have shoes, not the end of the world, but because I had so carefully told Tally to make sure she had them it was a little frustrating. Still, I don't care a lot if Talitha and Tabby don't have shoes, they take them off usually anyways. Tabby finds some (hideous) flip flops on the floor of the suburban and puts them on. Actually she finds one and doesn't want to get out of the car without the other one. Miracles still happen and I find the other flip flop and we are ready to go....or not, because now Talitha is distressed because these are "her flip flops". I get to explain in no uncertain terms that "no you will not get these flip flops because you did not obey and get your shoes earlier when I told you to." A few corrections  and many tears later we are finally on our way into the church. Sunday school was peaceful. I did have a sneaking suspicion that the loud noises and laughter from the 3 yr old- first grade room were from my children. Now the thrill of a wifeless Daddy braving church time with 4 children. What could possibly go wrong? Amazing how the privilege and pleasure of holding two children can turn a peaceful Father into a frustrated Father. I am trying to sing and praise the Lord in song and my two children that I am holding, decide that arm positions around Daddy's neck is a matter of life and death, and worthy of physical violence. There is nothing like having children who are yelling at each other and fighting in church, so I put them both down and then we just had crying and pouting. We are then sitting down and of course it is the law of the pew that the child on my left side must touch and annoy the child on the right side of me until the child on the right yells out. At least he stopped before his life was forfeited. After continuing noises and general child like pew unrest during the rest of the sermon, my oldest daughter needs to use the rest room. No big deal right? When she arrives back at our pew, she has the hiccups. This is not a child who is good at keeping noises quiet, no she just lets it out even magnifies them if possible. After looks and mouthing to her to try and be quiet which resulted in blank stares from her, I am ready for duct tape therapy. I survived, we made it through. I told my children that if they ever acted that way in church again that they would be in big trouble. Well it is good to know that even as frustrated as I was with them they were able to still say they believed I loved them.

Now we have nothing to worry about except lunch with Gramgee and Papa and then going to the Fruta fall festival. Thank you Gramgee and Papa. Of course i won't mention the lost blanket, the door lock that was flipped out of place so that the door wont shut on the Suburban, or the overreacting father who is going crazy. We did finally get us all to the fall festival and enjoy seeing WW again and being together as a family.

Gil held down the fort pretty well, but I know he missed having me around. I arrived home to find out that they were picking me up and we were headed to the Fall Festival with my parents. It was a good day too and it was fun to spend time with my family at the Fall Festival. 

Frugal Fun For Boys LEGO Challenge

Frugal Fun For Boys LEGO Fun Friday 

Azariah's Dinosaur Creation:

  

This is Freddy the dinosaur with his owner Bob. Bob is in his car with his tranquilizer gun. He needs to go hunting for rabbits to get more food for Freddy.

  

Bob is going hunting on his dinosaur with his tranquilizer gun. He is looking for more dinosaurs to tame.  

Zeb's Dinosaur Creation:

 

 This Jimmy the dinosaur. He was taking a nice nap in the forest.

 

Jim-Jim has a tranquiler gun. He is shooting Jimmy so he can take it back to the station.

Tirzah's Dinosaur Creation:

 Jill the dinosaur was taking a walk when Mady the animal rescuer came to tame her. She tranquilized Jill and took her home.

When Jill woke up she saw two horses,one Monkey, and a girl.

Jill was scared and started to cry, but Mady comforted Jill and everyone became good friends.

John about the Cows

WBCA Logo

I am excited to announce that Tirzah's logo design for the Western Colorado Beekeepers Association was voted to be the logo for them. Both of us came up with some designs. She handed me a piece of paper with her design and I recreated it for her in Illustrator. I would ask her, how is this and do you want it this way or that way. Finally I sent the logos in and everyone voted tonight on their three favorites.

Here is her winning logo:

Grandma Peg's Funeral Service Recording

This is a recording of Grandma Peg's Funeral Service. It does not start until about 4 1/2 minutes into the recording. The family shares about memories of Grandma about 30 minutes into the recording.

Grandma Peg's Funeral

Marguerite E. Barron
September 11, 1923 to February 9, 2012

Grandma at Peace

A Tribute from Megan and Kristy Gregg

To Grandma Peg,

We will never forget the way you laughed and the way you told stories about papa.

We will never forget catching grasshoppers on Margo Court and putting them in the yellow margarine containers, and playing on the swing at the red brick house.

We will never forget spending Christmas in Texas watching the Santa clause 2, and learning to play your violin.

We will never forget the way your house smelled, your welcoming arms and generosity.

We will never forget riding around on the green caterpillar, or drawing on the chalk board in the garage.

We will never forget you scraping your car on the mailbox and exclaiming "I heard a noise so I kept driving until the noise stopped"

We will never forget stepping from brick to brick, and picking the honeysuckle

We will never forget hamburgers on Saturday, and hummingbird feeders out back

Grandma we will always remember your love and laugh.

We love you,
Megan and Kristy

A Tribute from Mindy Coates

I feel so blessed to have grown up with loving, involved grandparents. We always loved hearing stories about them growing up. I remember spending time at Grandma and Papa’s house. Every Saturday we would always eat hamburgers, chips and drink Shasta Black Cherry soda. My younger sister and I would watch the Lawrence Welk Show every weekend we were over at their house. Then they would send us to bed, be we would sneak out and sit in the hall and watch “The Love Boat”. You could see the TV perfectly between Grandma and Papa’s chairs. They would come to our softball games and plays or whatever we were involved in.

After grandfather passed away, I saw how strong grandma was. We all tried to tell her to start dating, but she always said that she just wanted a man to live in her basement, that she could call when she needed repairs around the house and then he would return to the basement. Beside her Savior Jesus, she had one true love in her life and she was content with that.

She was a great role model for me as I thought about what I wanted to do with my life. Nursing seemed like a great profession and I loved hearing all her nursing stories. She was my inspiration and motivation. When I graduated from nursing school, she chose to come to my graduation rather than going to her own 50^th nursing reunion. That meant more to me than actually graduating.

As grandma got older she kept us on our toes and she was always good for some amusing stories. I remember once when she drove down to the car dealership and on her way home she pulled out and we waved at her. She drove around the car lot and then back into the parking space. We asked why she came back and she said that while driving past a truck (not my dad’s, but a customer’s) she heard a loud screeching sound and just kept going until it stopped. We went out and looked at the car and there was a long black strip down the entire length of her car where she had bumped up against the truck’s bumper. Thankfully, there was no damage to the customer’s truck and the black stripe buffed out easily. We always joked after that, that if you ever heard a loud screeching sound while driving, just keep going until it stops!!

About ten years ago, grandma came to Texas for Christmas with my parents and the twins. Taneil and Gil as well as George and I lived in Texas. We were all over at our house and it was a little loud and crazy. We were all watching a Christmas movie when the phone rang and grandma was frustrated that no one answered it. She grabbed the remote control to the TV, put it to her ear thinking it was the phone and said “Hello, hello.” When no one said anything on the “phone” she pushed the off button and said, “They must have hung up.” Then she looked at the TV and with a frustrated look said, “Who turned the TV off?” We all laughed so hard and Grandma had no idea what was so funny.

My Grandma was an extraordinary woman who loved God and loved people and I am so thankful for the time I had with her and memories I have of her.

A Tribute from Taneil Lawton

I always loved going to my Grandparents house. Grandma and Grandpa taught me how to play Pinnacle so that they would have a third person to play with them. Grandma would let me look through her china cabinet at all the little knickknacks in it. There was always a distinct smell to that cabinet. The cardinal rule in the house was that you do not touch the piano with anything other than your fingers. And then she would tell how a little boy had banged on the keys with a toy car and chipped a few of them.

I remember the way she would roll around on the floor doing her stretching exercises. she taught me how to sew and together we sewed a sleeping bag and three little pillow for my stuffed animals. When I would stay the night with them I would get up in the mornings, go into their room and crawl into bed with them. It was nice a warm.

I remember visiting Great-Grandma Rachel in her little apartment and the way Grandma would get things that she needed and help her with things.

I was there with Grandma the day that she and I came back from shopping in town and found my Grandfather in the chair after suffering his fatal heart attack. How glad I am that the Lord allowed me to be there with her. I count that as a special privilege in my life.

She moved from the brick house to Margo Court and I would stop on my way home from Texas to see her. Then we moved back to Colorado and my children and I would go with my mom to Montrose and mom would help her balance her check book, make sure she had what she needed and spend time with her. We would all go to Rib City to eat lunch on those days. My children enjoyed it.

Then it came time to move her to Grand Junction so we could take better care of her. First it was to a house near her sister-in-law, my Aunt Evelyn. She called me one time to tell me that her toilet wouldn’t stop running, so I told her to go into the bathroom and turn off both of the light switches. Sure enough that stopped the toilet from running. I permanently solved the problem later when I taped the bathroom fan switch down to the off position, her toilet never kept running again after that.

Later when she was no longer able to live by herself, I encouraged my mom to let Grandma live with her and Dad so that my own children would see the blessing of taking care of an elder. This was no easy task for my mom or me. We helped get her dressed, helped her bathe and made sure she was taking her medicines. Tirzah would sleep on the floor in Grandma’s room when my parents were out of town in case Grandma needed something in the night. It wasn’t easy, but it was a blessing to help her and show my own children what love looks like even when it isn’t easy. Grandma and Jasper the dog became close friends while she lived with my parents and Jasper continued to love her even when she didn’t remember who he was.

The next step came when we put her in an assisted living home. The children, Gil and I would go to visit her and we would pick her up and take her to church each week. Then came the time that she needed constant care and she went to Family Health West on the floor they call Main Street. I am told that she loved to dance when they had dances up on the floor and her nursing spirit would come out because she would try to make sure all the other patients were taking their medicines and eating their food. She was always trying to make sure the other residents were doing the right thing. Mom and I loved her nurse, Katie, who took excellent care of her and kept us informed about what was going on with her. The children and I would visit her and we would take her to church each Sunday. Then to my parent’s house were we would eat Sunday lunch. These lunches came with many laughs. One time she told Gil, my husband, that she would kick him if she ever saw him walking down the street. Other times she would extremely feisty if we tried to help her to eat. Her eye sight was amazing, because many times she couldn’t see something that was large and directly in front of her, but she could find the smallest little toy that one of my children had left on the floor. She was constantly picking up itty bitty things off the floor. When it was time for her to go back to the Nursing Home in the afternoon my three year old daughter, Talitha, took it as her special privilege to go with Gramgee to take Grandma Peg home. She would say “Wait for me Gramgee I am going with you.” She would gently grasp the hand of Grandma Peg and lead her to the car. Then once at the nursing home Talitha would lead Grandma back to her floor. It was so precious to see this little three year old take such an interest in her Great-Grandmother. Talitha loved her and cared for her in a very special way.

Last Thursday when Grandma passed into eternity, Talitha asked to go with mom and I one last time when we went to the nursing home to see Grandma that morning. I explained to her that the body she was looking at was not Grandma, it was only her body. Grandma, I explained was in heaven with Jesus. Katie, Grandma’s nurse told us that Grandma had a smile on her face when she passed away. Katie said “She must have known something that I don’t.”That is what I want to leave you with today. Grandma passed from this life into eternity. She understood that she was a sinner in need of a Savior. She understood that Jesus Christ died on the cross to save her from the wrath of God which her sins deserved. “For we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Grandma isn’t in eternity with God because of going to church or all the good things she did. She is there because of the trust she placed in Jesus Christ her savior for taking the wrath of God for her sin. And one day this body that is laying here will rise again and be glorified and be reunited with her Spirit which is already in heaven. What a glorious day that will be. Now Grandma and I did have a disagreement one day on this subject. We were talking about how Christ’s death on the cross could satisfy even the most wretched of sinners. I then said that if Uncle Art had trusted Christ as Savior he too would be in heaven. Grandma proceeded to tell me that there was no way that Uncle Art was in heaven because of all his lying, stealing and cheating he had done while alive. Now I don’t know the state of Uncle Art’s soul when he died, but I do know that even Uncle Art could have been saved from the wrath of God if he had trusted Christ as his savior. First Timothy says “This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” We are all sinners and we all need a Savior, will you place your trust in Jesus the son of God who died to save sinners.

I am so thankful that Grandma is home now, no more earthly body to be in pain and no more mind that doesn’t quite connect. She gave me many good memories, many good laughs and I count it a privilege to have been able to play a small part in her care during these last few years.

The Ladies from the church who provided lunch.

Talitha and Gramgee

Papa, Zeb and Tabby

Cousins
Stephanie Carroll, Taneil Lawton and Damien Barron

Susan Gregg, Sandee Stucky and Stephanie Carroll

Janet and Mike Yohn

Damien, Debbie and Dale Barron

Family

Family

Talitha with some of the flowers.

These are two banners that a lady in the church made when my Grandfather died 24 years ago. The lady stayed up until 2 AM to get them done in time for his funeral. She made sure that they were hung for Grandma's funeral too.