J's New hat

 

After Birthday Party

 

Opening Birthday Gifts

 

J's 3rd Birthday Party

 

Just Sayin'

 

October 2020

 

Summer 2020

 

The Peace Carol

by John Denver and the Muppets

The garment of life, be it tattered and torn
the cloak of the soldier is withered and worn
But what child is this that was poverty-born
The peace of Christmas Day

The branch that bears the bright holly
The dove that rests in yonder tree
The light that shines for all to see
The peace of Christmas Day

The hope that has slumbered for 2000 years
the promise that silenced 1000 fears
A faith that can hobble an ocean of tears
The peace of Christmas Day

The branch that bears the bright holly
The dove that rests in yonder tree
The light that shines for all to see
The peace of Christmas Day

Add all the grief that people may bear
Total the strife, the troubles and care
Put them in columns and leave them right there
The peace of Christmas Day

The branch that bears the bright holly
The dove that rests in yonder tree
The light that shines for all to see
The peace of Christmas Day

The branch that bears the bright holly
The dove that rests in yonder tree
The light that shines for all to see
The peace of Christmas Day

Simmering Potpourri

I love this time of year. 

Easy Fall Simmering Potpourri

1 Apple, sliced
1 Orange Rind
1 Tbsp. Whole Cloves
4 Cinnamon sticks

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and fill with water. Simmer on stove top for several hours, adding water as needed. You do want to keep an eye on the pot so you don't let the water run out. So simple!

October First

“Double, double toil and trouble;

    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.”

– Macbeth, Shakespeare

There’s nothing like the spooky time that seems to hit as soon as October rolls around. The nights seem spookier. The shadows are a little scarier. Every little sound seems to make you jump. It’s the best time of year!

First Steps

Jadie's first steps...she was so proud of herself. She just kept doing this over and over.

Lake

Grandkids

The grandkids visited for a week, so love having them just wished they lived closer.

Oklahoma in August

My roses continues to bloom and my ferns still look pretty good, despite the heat. I, on the other hand, feel wilted. I used to love summer when I was a kid. But now, I prefer cooler temps.  About the only way to stay cool if your outside is dangling my feet in Jadie's pool when shes playing...lol. 

I'm ready for fall. For cooler weather, orange and red leaves, and sipping tea by the fire pit. So love the fall!! 

What does the Bible say about OMG?

I hear Christians do this all of the time. Many are wonderful people who obviously love the Lord. Is it because we just don’t hear this called sin anymore? Are we so hardened to the use of His name due to the company we keep and the entertainment we see, that we just didn’t notice when we started doing it, too? 

Exodus 20 is where we find the ten commandments. The third commandment is “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

We are not to use God’s name as a curse word. We are not to use His name lightly. God is holy, sovereign, faithful, patient, and merciful. The One who made a way for us to be reconciled to Him through His son, Jesus Christ.

Quite honestly, I have personally believed for a longtime, that I probably shouldn’t even say “Oh, my gosh!” It is obviously a sadly disguised copy of the original. And yet, I still struggle with it. You will still hear that come out of my mouth on occasion. Language is a hard thing to

change. When we grow angry or are surprised, we tend to forget our speech in the heat of the moment. We need to think about the words that come out of our mouths.

If we are a redeemed soul saved by grace, then all of life should be lived intentionally to please our heavenly Father. May we recognize that taking God’s name in vain in any form is offensive to the Holy God who saved us. And let’s start today anew using our tongues to glorify God’s name instead of curse it!

slowing down

Treat yourself well, and cherish others. As we get older we are smarter, and we slowly realize that the watch is worth $30 or $300 – both of which show the same time. Whether we carry a purse worth $30 or $300 – the amount of money in the wallets are the same. Whether we drive a car worth $150,000, or a car worth $30,000 – the road and distance are the same, we reach the same destination. If we drink a bottle worth $300 or wine worth $10 – the “stroller” will be the same. If the house we live in is 300 square meters, or 3000 square meters – the loneliness is the same.”

“Your true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world.  Whether you’re flying first class, or economy class – if the plane crashes, you crash with it.”

So, I hope you understand that when you have friends or someone to talk to – this is true happiness

 Five Undeniable Facts 

Do not educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy. – So when they grow up they will know the value of things, not the price.

 Eat your food as medicine, otherwise you will need to eat your medicine as food.

Whoever loves you will never leave you, even if he has 100 reasons to give up. He will always find one reason to hold on.

There is a big difference between being human and human being.

If you want to go fast – go alone! But if you want to go far – go together.

And in conclusion... 

The six best doctors in the world 

1️⃣ Sunlight
2️⃣ Rest
3️⃣ Exercise
4️⃣ Diet
5️⃣ Self-confidence
6️⃣ Friends

Keep them in all stages of life and enjoy a healthy life.

Whichever stage in life we are at right now, with time, we will face the day when the curtain comes down.

Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends...

Treat yourself well. Cherish others.

“Love the people God sent you, one day He’ll need them back.”  

17 Inches

Twenty years ago, in Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA's convention.

While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.”

Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there.

In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate.

Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy?

After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage. Then, finally …

“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility. “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.”

Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”

After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”, more of a question than answer.

“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth’s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?” Another long pause.

“Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.

“That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?” Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”

“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.

“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”

“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.

“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”............“Seventeen inches!”

“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues?

“Seventeen inches!”

“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello !” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.'”

Pause. “Coaches… what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice? or when our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate? "

The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold. He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something. When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows. “This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline.

We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We just widen the plate!”

Pause. Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag. “This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”

Silence. He replaced the flag with a Cross. “And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate for themselves! And we allow it.”

“And the same is true with our government. Our so-called representatives make rules for us that don’t apply to themselves. They take bribes from lobbyists and foreign countries. They no longer serve us. And we allow them to widen home plate! We see our country falling into a dark abyss while we just watch.”

I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curve balls and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable.

From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.

“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: "If we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools & churches & our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to …”

With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside, “…We have dark days ahead!.”

Note: Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine. Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches. He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach. His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players—no matter how good they are—your own children, your churches, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches."

And this my friends is what our country has become and what is wrong with it today, and now go out there and fix it!

"Don't widen the plate."

DF2019 Week 27-31

Stephanie Ackerman

The Focus word for this month is: OBEDIENCE. We must listen to what God says, not to what the world says. Obedience is the pathway to freedom but it takes practice over...and and over..and over again. Lord, Help me to trust You no matter what I am called upon to do. Give me the will to step out in faithful obedience on those occasions when I am called to say or do something that is outside of my comfort zone. Help me to step out in faith and not to fear that which I am called to do, knowing that we have not been given the spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind. Keep my heart open to Your promptings help to grow in my faith and obedience. Amen Week 27 6/30 – 7/6  But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9 Week 28 7/7-7/13 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1 Week 29 7/14 – 7/20  And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 2 John 1:6 Week 30 7/21 – 7/27  Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. Deut 5:33 Week 31 7/28 – 8/3 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19

Grandparents home

My Grandparents Buford and Elsie Harris's home in Gotebo, Oklahoma. We spent every weekend playing in this house and yard. 

DF2019 Week 26

This weeks verse is one I have memorized and repeated and replayed in my head over and over and over. It is what I believe to be true because He said it:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

We are all encouraged by a leader who stirs us to move ahead, someone who believed we can do the task he has given us and will be with us all of the way.

God is that kind of leader. He knows the future, his plans for us are good and full of hope.