Along the Road to Home

A long line of springtime storms woke us up a few hours back with thunder and lightning aplenty.  The rain poured down for the better part of half an hour as it soaked the earth with an abundance of moisture.  The forecast for the foreseeable future is much the same.  Later on this morning I will need to return to Grandfield in order to be back at school by tomorrow.  I'll be checking the weather throughout the hours before I leave and try to make a break for it whenever I can. I'm not a fan of driving through thunderstorms, but I will be fine.  The same God who is with me as I drive on sunny days with a light south breeze to my back is the same one who is there through the torrents of rain that fall down upon us as we make our way to our destinations.  That is true in respect to the weather as well as being true for all aspects of life. I've been in some of life's thunderstorms, and as you can imagine they are not fun.  The same I am sure can be ...

I made a quick trip north to Reno County yesterday.  It wasn't one of those times when I had a real need to go home for any specific purpose.  Mostly I just wanted to take a drive and so while Mike was at work, that's just what I did.  From our new home here in Kay County, Oklahoma it is only a short 5 minute journey to the Kansas line.  From there it's another hour and 45 minutes to make it to the part of the state where I come from.  While there, I did the usual things like drag Kansas Avenue in my hometown of Haven, Kansas.  I drove through Yoder, the small Amish community where I taught 15 years back in the early part of my career in education.  In Hutch I stopped at the ETC Shop, a wonderful thrift store that is run by the Mennonite churches of the area.  It's one of my favorite places to go when I am back there, and as usual I found some good buys that I couldn't pass up.  The time went quickly by and as the clock made it to the 4:45 ...

I made the journey from Grandfield to Newkirk yet another time today.  As soon as school was finished and the kids were safely where they should be, I headed north.  It seemed like trip number "gazillion" yet in reality it is only about the 8th one.  I made it safe and sound, miraculous when you consider the awful traffic that Oklahoma City has to offer during rush hour.  I praise God for it all and I know that my prayers are heard all along the way.  I wonder how many other drivers offer up a petition to the Heavens above that sound just like mine on any given day. "Please God, help me!  This traffic is horrible today." This never ending saga of not being able to call one place "home" yet for more than a couple of days at a time began in earnest on February 11th.  Mike and I moved into the tiny cabin at the local KOA in Burkburnett, Texas after our home in town sold less than 72 hours after it went on the market.  We lived there for a month,...

And life goes on~ I don't have anything profound to say this morning, surely nothing that will change the course of history or anything like that.  Yet on this Easter morning I am filled with gratitude for the life that I have been given.  It has been filled with everything I could have imagined and a whole lot more than I ever dreamed I would be blessed with or have to endure.  There have been plenty of surprises along the way, some heartache and pain, and many eye opening experiences that have told me I was on the right path to where I should be going. For everything I've been given and all that I have not, my heart is filled with gratitude. I've been able to be a part of so many different communities along the way, most recently the southwestern Oklahoma community of Grandfield.  Less than 1,000 people live there and it's the kind of place where everyone knows you and calls you by first name.  It's one of the reasons I went there to teach two years...

The road to get from Burkburnett, Texas to here in the far reaches of northern Oklahoma has been an interesting one.  The picture of how it would all go isn't exactly the one our minds painted back in September of last year.  Yet as it is in all things, our human made plans were not the same ones that God had in mind. One of the discussions we had early on as we chose a listing agent for our house sale in Burkburnett was what were we going to do if the house was still sitting on the market by the time school was getting ready to be out.  The fear was very real that perhaps the right buyer would not come along at first.  Maybe we would have to drop the price substantially or even become landlords and rent it when we moved away.  No matter what happened, we were sure that everything would be ok and in faith we went forward. 3 days after the house was listed, we had two different offers.  Only 72 hours had passed!  It seemed rather miraculous at first...

I made the trip home to Newkirk after school was out yesterday, a journey of nearly 4 hours and 242 miles of a drive.  Except for the last 25 miles or so, it is all interstate highway which is a blessing for sure.  The greatest obstacle to encounter is the time spent "white knuckling" it through Oklahoma City, something I dread like crazy each and every time.  But just like I had to climb over the more than 11,000 ft. pass at Monarch Mountain whenever I drove back and forth from Montrose to Hutchinson, I now must plow my way through OKC if I wish to get home each weekend. I got back safely at right before 7 last night, 3 hours and 45 minutes after leaving school.  Was it ever a great feeling to see the sign that announces I am now home! It is times like these when I sorely miss my sister Sherry.  She was a great driver in her day and driving through the city never seemed to bother her one bit.  Sherry just got behind the wheel and took off.  I...

Six years ago today back in the mountains of southwestern Colorado, I was that girl. It was six weeks before Mike and I were going to be married.  I was in Montrose for a short stay and while I was there I wanted to plant some Russian Mammoth sunflower seeds.  A gazillion of them went into the ground that April afternoon.  Less than a dozen of them arose from the rocky and clay soil.  At the time, I didn't realize that sunflowers were not the only things that might have trouble adjusting to life in a new land. I moved there to Colorado in late May of 2013, only a few days after we were married back home in Hutchinson, Kansas.  It didn't take long for me to get to homesick for the only life I had ever known.  It took the greatest share of that first summer to feel like I was going to ever make it.  Slowly I got used to things, but not before I must have uttered the phrase.... "I miss Kansas and I just want to go home!" perhaps a cou...

Bette Harris was my fourth grade teacher back home in Haven, Kansas.  She was a pretty woman of slender build with impeccable appearance each and every day.  Her hair was always neatly coiffed, lipstick applied just right, and cologne dabbed on before she walked out the door as she headed to school.  Her fingernails, long before the days of fake sets of nails, were always painted with a beautiful shade of bright red.  We kids never saw her dressed in pants or jeans for back in those days, teachers wore dresses and skirts to school.  I'm still amazed that she wore those pumps with about a 2-inch heel every school day.  She never let on that her feet hurt, but I'm sure they must have.  Come to think of it, she never let on that she took a bathroom break either because she was hardly ever out of our sight. She was a great woman and a tough act to follow. I think of Mrs. Harris every so often, especially when I'm at school and faced with a busy and cha...