Legacy



The other day I came upon a letter.

 



 

It is a handwritten letter to my Pop from his mom, presumably for his 28th birthday, as the postmark reads February 1948.  (I never knew Pop lived on PCH!)

 

There is treasure inside.  I can't tell you how much it delighted me to read these words.

 

My great grandmother's writing is a little hard to read, and scanning would be a challenge anyway, so I'll transpose the letter for you here.  I hope one day I leave such a legacy to my children.

 

...

 

Feb. 11 1920

 

On this day after long days of misery a large little boy came to live with me.  How much this baby meant to us, and how hard I tried to do what was necessary for him.

 

And as he grew older what a good baby,

 

And as you grew older how I grieved every time you needed something I couldn't give you.

 

But you will never know the comfort I took when I felt I could trust you and when you stood out against the forces of evil and would come and ask if you were right.

 

Now you have your small son and until he is grown and you realize just what temptations he will come up against can you know the sleepless nights and the days of prayer through wihch I went.

 

You won't be as much alone and I trust finance won't figure so much with you as it did with me, when I was so helpless in that line.

 

You gave to me a great deal of pleasure and I was so very proud of you.

 

I still am.  But remember always as a man soweth so shall he reap and also God is a very present help in the times of trouble, and there are so many good promises for his people.

 

If I never ask another thing of you, please don't forget to pray and be humble before your God.  We have to face many things that we often don't know what to do, but if we can have faith to lay this before our God and trust him, then we will come out all right.

 

And remember as a parent your way of living, of talking will get better results than all the preaching, Sunday schools or anything else. So again live the life that you think is best and please God we will meet in the great beyond, when we have gone home to God. And I love you more than life.

 

Mother

 



The continuing adventures of Team Wiggy

Today while geocaching we found:

 



~ evidence of BigFoot

(really a disturbingly large fresh cougar track)

~ new construction:  a teepee

 

 

~ an unexpected bridge

with a strange, yet compelling, instruction

 

{um, ok}

... yes, we followed

to find two more, and then...

many!

so weird!

and then, sort of, an explanation.

{yes, it comes naturally to us to do things backward}

 

Team Wiggy over and out.

On Halloween

So.
A couple of weeks ago we were knee-deep in Halloween season.

I am not a fan.

Although I grew up trick-or-treating and going to haunted houses and such, as an adult I've felt a personal conviction that it's not something that's beneficial for my family.  This is difficult, challenging.  Halloween has become a BIG holiday, if you haven't noticed.  And it's easier for adults to ignore than kids.

(Repeat - this is my personal conviction and I have no opinion or judgment of others who choose to celebrate it.)

Over the years we began to do some things on Halloween.  Often we would let the kids dress up in non-scary costumes and attend harvest festivals and alternative-type events at local churches.  I have some great memories of those - Joshua won best costume once for a homemade Thomas the Train costume.  Another time I dressed Joshua up as a frog and Christianne was a princess.  And, a few years back, when I was trying to get my unspecified business endeavor off the ground, I had Christianne dress up in my apron and hand out mini catalogs and business cards to anyone who would take them.

Two years ago while I was studying BSF in Isaiah, I was again convicted that this isn't what God wants for my family, that I am not to compromise myself with the world for the sake of not letting my kids miss out on fun.

Well.  This conviction of mine is easier on me than it is on my kids.  The older kids understand and don't seem to be bothered by it too much, but this year it was really a challenge for Grace to not participate in a lot of the activities, including the Halloween Party and haunted house put on by her taekwondo studio.  She understands the why behind it, but of course wants to participate in the fun.  Shortly before the upcoming party that she would be missing, it came down to this: I have to obey what Jesus asks of me, even if it means that I miss out on certain things.  Disobeying Jesus would not make Him happy.  And sometimes, believers simply must not do everything the world does.

So, most of the time now on Halloween, we take the kids out so they're not here while people are knocking on our door asking for candy.  Sometimes we go out to eat; last year and this year we headed to the movie theater.

Since we had time to kill and since I am also pretty poor, we decided to hit WalMart to purchase candy for the movie.  Mind you, I usually respect the theater's rule to not bring outside food into the theater, but as I had just updated the checkbook, I knew the money was tight and a trip to WalMart to satisfy my brood's hunger only made sense.

We arrived and headed down the candy aisle.  As the older kids chose their candy and I had a box of Red Vines in my hand, I noticed Grace was standing back with a frown on her face.

"I don't think we should bring candy into the movies, Mommy."

"I know, Grace.  Usually we don't, but today we're going to just sneak it in because I don't have enough money to buy a ton of candy at the theater."

"I don't think we should," she said, and wandered down to the end of the aisle to where Memaw was standing.  I glanced around to find the kids and headed over to Grace as she said, "I don't think this would make Jesus happy."

She was right.  Breaking the rules for my own convenience is disrespectful and selfish.  And to stand up to your mother, two older siblings, and grandmother to express your conviction is simply... wow.

She gets it.  At six years old she gets it.  She gets what it means to stand up for what Jesus wants even when it's unpopular.  She gets that it's more important to please Jesus than yourself.  Oh, my amazing child!

That would be enough if it were the end of the story, but there's a little bit more.  When we got to the theater the kids took off and I paid for our tickets.  I have a rewards card... and I had to grin when I found that I had earned $10 off our concession purchase.  Just a little bit of icing on top of the proverbial cake. 

Adventures in geocaching

A few weeks ago I had one of those moments where I couldn't go back to sleep once I'd woken up in the middle of the night.  Normally that happens when I've got something obsessing my mind - something that needs to be done, written down, prayed about... whatever.  But this time, it was about geocaching.  I got a hair up my derriere to go caching. 

 

We haven't gone geocaching in almost a year and a half!  We have made some great family memories caching the desert where we're from and lots of other places besides.  We haven't done a whole lot since we've moved to Colorado, and nothing at all in the last 17 months.

 

Finally the planets aligned - the weather was right, none of the kids were home sick, and I had time - so Memaw and I set out last week to find some caches.  We've found about 15 in the last several days.  Today we took advantage of the last promised day of beautiful weather and found a new spot for us - the Big Thompson River trail.

 

Caching this trail might have been the highlight of my week.  A beautiful, sunny day; gorgeous views; a hidden mural we didn't expect to find; exercise; time with my mom; scoring 3 cache finds:  It all melded together to lift my mood, ease my tensions, and simply make my heart happy and light.

 



This beautiful relief mural was hidden under a bridge I've driven over thousands of times in the last 5 years.  It's got some awesome effects and I'm looking forward to taking Ro and the kids back there soon.

 

A view from the trail.  Are we really downtown?

 

Loved seeing this beauty!  Wouldn't this make a beautiful jigsaw puzzle?

 

A neat spot for a potential future hide - Terabithia theme?

 

WHAT are these?

Team Wiggy over and out.