Puddledum with Roman

Update: this is a little something I wrote back when Roman and Caitlin were courting. I don't know why I never published it.

It was a lovely Saturday evening. Roman to dinner, sunny weather, a nice day...a walk was in order. So we all headed down to Swan River Nature Trail to work off our dinner of barbecued chicken, corn on the cob, stuffed mushrooms, and sourdough bread.
It was beautiful. Roman picked flowers for Caitlin, and we went down to the river, which is going fast right now:


We found a big rock in the sunlight. Happiness.

And then the pranks started.

The first one was pretty. Mother picked some little white flowers and told me to put them over Caitlin and Roman. I sprinkled them over. They looked lovely in her hair...not so much in his. So he picked them out and set them gently on Caitlin (don't worry, he did not touch her), and gave her a Romeo (I did not a misspell that!) look. All happy and tingly. I think everything else fell away.




With all the rain lately, there's been a lot of puddles. Roman started walking real close to Caitlin as we passed a puddle, forcing her towards it. She avoided it, but his evil grin said that there was more mischief in store.

Big puddle and courting couples spell danger. Roman jumped full in like a little boy, intending to splash Caitlin....and got me soaked. Oh, Caitlin got a little wet, but that's it. Caitlin jumped in a later puddle to get back at Roman, and got me wet again.

Once more, as the walk was almost over, the last puddle in sight, of course I jumped full in...and got my self soaked once more.

Moral: Stay a good 10-20 feet away from courting couples taking a walk. You never know what could happen.

In Christ,

Jillian

The story of Jonah as Told by the Cutest Little Girl

 Take  eight minutes out of your day to watch and listen to a little girl tell the story of Jonah as if she were reading it from a book...I wonder how old she must be. Not very old. She does this all from memory! It puts me to shame.
 Click HERE  to see it.
In Christ,
Jillian

This Day will Live in Infamy

Yesterday, December seventh, my dad asked me at the dinner table,
"Do you know what today is?"
I shrugged. "Uh, today is today", was my less than intelligent answer.
"Start listing off what today is"
"Tuesday"
"Yessss..."
"December seventh"
"And?"
" I dunno."
"What happened today?"
He let me sit there with my half eaten burrito, thinking hard about what happened. It was driving me nuts, so I cheated and looked at our calender, walked back to the dinner table, and announced:

"Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese bombers"

 

I was pretty ashamed that although doing a study in WW2 not to long ago,  I did not remember. In my defense, I can remember events, but I am terrible at dates. 

Later, my Father played a radio recording on his cellphone, from December eighth, 1941. It was Franklin Roosevelt's declaration of  war against Japan. Here is a bit of it:

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan... 
....In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.
Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island.
This morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island...
...As Commander in Chief of the army and navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense..."

It felt a little odd, listening to fuzzy radio waves in a modern home, on a modern device. I tried to imagine what it was like for the families that had a loved one in the Naval forces, or simply someone who lived in the United States, dreading this war and concerned greatly about how it would turn out. And it got me to thinking about the Atom bomb:

 

What if it had been completed sooner? Could thousands of American lives been saved?

What if it had taken longer to complete, or had never been invented? How many lives would have been lost? How much longer would the war have lasted

It all goes to show that God chose just the right time for it to be invented, completed, and dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why not sooner? Why not later? And a bigger question of: 

 why did God allow it to happen at all? ( click here to see my answer to that)

What do you think?

In Christ, 

Jillian

Thou Shalt Not Murder....?

I've done it. I've gone and killed something. And it was great fun, ladies and gents.

Ever since I took a hunters safety class back when I was 13, I have always wanted to hunt. And this year, both me and Hayley got to. My Dad took us out on a few occasions, and Roman took us out too(on a side note: I love having a big brother!) Anyway, a couple of days before hunting season was over, Hayley spotted a buck out on our property...we have five acres, by the way. I watched from the window as Hayley and my Dad tried to get it...they told me later the deer ran away. Later that day, I saw the same ignorant fellow in the exact same spot he had been sighted earlier. At first I just ignored it, and then thought...I'm gonna do it! So I grabbed my coat, boots, Dad, and a gun I had never used before. My Dad gave me a two minute crash course on how the gun worked. I ran out...and well, this picture tells you the rest...

 

click on image to enlarge

Its a four by four rack, its rather hard to tell from the picture. Roman came over and helped me gut and skin it...we got pictures but they aren't very pretty, so I think I'll just stick with this one. One thing I must confess: 

As we were skinning it my knife slipped and I gave Roman a really nasty cut on his finger...and whenever he gets asked what happened to his finger, he just says "I cut it skinning a deer..."  man, I got the best big brother ever....

 In Christ,

Jillian