Your Highest Purpose

Your highest purpose is:
To know the GOD who formed you;
To yield to HIS ARMS that draw you;
To hear HIS VOICE that calls you;
To follow HIS WILL that guides you;
To trust HIS GRACE that keeps you;
To seek HIS HEART that loves you.

~meet me in the meadow

Laughter is the Best Medicine!!

Find someone to laugh with today! It does a body good!

Happy Birthday Dear Tia Betty!

Happy Birthday Dear Tia!

I hope it is a happy one. I am sure you are glad to be back home with your children and grandchildren after playing a "snow bird" for those winter months in Florida! Mom is not here to tell the story of how she "wished upon a star" for you and she got her wish and got a baby sister, you! Thanks for being a good sister to my sweet Mama and for being a good Auntie to all of us. We loved when you came to visit us when we were little and you always brought us something. I owe it to you for my early interest in nursing and now I am getting ready to celebrate 35 years since I graduated from St. Luke's. Hmmmm...how many years since you graduated from Hamline??? Happiest of Birthdays Dear Dear Tia!

Love you lots......your Sobrina Susana

Some thoughts on friendships......

"It is so nice to have a Handy Man around the house!"

What a nice day for me to have my Friends Jerry and Steve come for a visit. They sold their big Victorian house in Mpls. and sold many of the contents of the house. I picked 3 pictures out that I wanted and bless their hearts they delivered them to me and hung them up for me along with 2 other items I have wanted on the wall. Jerry and I are school Chums from the Class of 1971 in Deer River, so our friendship goes way back. The picture of the little girl at the piano was a photo from the late 1800's and it is framed in an old Victorian Frame. It is now hanging proudly in my bedroom and looks so nice. The Bluebird pictures ~1930-1940 era are hanging on that blank wall in the guest bedroom. The metal circle is hanging in the great room over the door way as you go into the hallway and in the kitchen is this copper sign that says "Give Thanks" and it hangs in the kitchen above the pass thru window! We had a nice visit over lunch. They even took my broken dining room chair home to fix for me! What sweet friends have I!

Our Redeemer Lives!

Thursday, April 9. 2009
I wrote this some years ago, but desired to share it with you for your reflection today. May God use it to draw our thoughts to the precious and powerful Christ......John Stumbo

Paradox Friday
Captured,
yet volunteering.
Arrested, yet yielding.
Sentenced, yet guiltless.
Nailed, yet embracing.
Mocked, beaten, spit upon and cursed.
Mourned, honored, wept upon and cherished.
Announcing forgiveness to those making no such request.
Welcoming into paradise a criminal gasping a brief prayer.
Wrapped, buried, entombed and grieved.
Worthy, blessed, enthroned and graced.
Crushed, yet conquering.
Sin-laden, yet sinless.
Wretched, yet royal.
Dead, yet undying.
Forever Pierced.
Forever Praised.
Our Redeemer,
Jesus.

~John Stumbo is my 2nd cousin who is the lead Pastor of a Church in Salem Oregon. He has been suffering from some disease that has almost taken his life. He is 50 years old and prior to this attack on his body he was very healthy, athletic and strong. He was in the ICU for many months and now at home in a wheelchair/ walker, being fed by a tube in his stomach because he is unable to swollow. He hads been writing a blog that is so encouraging spiritually as his body is weakening. To follow his blog http://salemalliance.org/home/index.php and then click on John Stumbo's blog. Please join me in prayer for him and for God's healing strength and grace for him and his family. Thanks~Susan

April 10th ~Happy Birthday Nurse Eckenberg!

Happy Birthday Barbara! I will not tell the world how old you are because you are a bit touchy about that, knowing you are older than I! Who would of ever thought that connecting in our Senior Year in "Private School" would bring a friendship that has lasted and grown for 35+ years? I will never forget that weekend we worked on 3West or was it 5 W (oh no I am starting to forget....) and you and I were the only nursing assistants assigned to all 50 bath cares on the floor. We started in room 301 and by the end of our shift everyone had either a bed bath, bedside bath, or shower and all had oral care, a back rub, linen change and their garbage emptied! We were big into Nursing 101! We were tired but we did it! Yea for St. Luke's School of Nursing!

I pray this will be a special year for you and those you love!!

The Cross and the Empty Tomb

The cross means that we can look back and be thankful;
the empty tomb means that we can look ahead and be hopeful.
The cross fills us with gratitude;
the empty tomb fills us with expectation.
The cross means that He died for us;
the empty tomb means that He lives for us.
The cross means that the old has passed away;
the empty tomb means that all things have become new.
The cross is the triumph of mercy;
the empty tomb is the triumph of righteousness.
The message of the cross is, “It is finished;”
the message of the empty tomb is, “I am alive forever more.”

~meet me in the meadow

My sister Cindy shared this with us today.....

Oh, it is easy to sing praises when the seas are calm and the boat is still, but the strength of our faith is justly measured in the midst of the raging storm. A job is lost -- a marriage is destroyed -- a child has strayed -- a dream has died. It is in those bleak, seemingly hopeless moments that the value and depth of our faith is computed.

Bowling for Mom and Son!

While the Ball was going on Linda and Alex went bowling. I am anxious to hear the details from both of the children tomorrow when I pick them up from school!

Ashley's First Father Daughter Ball @ School

They do such fun things @ the Wrenshall school, this being one of them. I don't know who had more fun Dad or Daughter?

Happy Birthday Bonnie Hernandez aka my seester!

Happiest of Birthdays Dear Bonnie! Here you are with your sweet family that God has been so gracious to give you! I love how Alyssa always has her arm around your neck and how you love being her Mama.....and now there is little Ashley to love. I know you enjoy these days and that is so fun to see, God is good! I miss you my friend!

April 4th 2009...Honest!

You would never believe it is April by the look of some of these pictures this weekend. I can't seem to get enough of the North Shore! Friends Toni, Cathy, Mary and I hung out for a girl's weekend and had a fun and interesting time! We loved the picture of the old man feeding apple slices to these deer at the Lighthouse in Two Harbors. Deer were every where. I like seeing them as long as they stay off the highways. We saw a huge eagle but were not able to photograph it. I liked this picture of the geese, I love how they stay with their mate for life......

Happy Birthday Karlyn Kanowitz Anderson!

Happy Birthday Dear Karlyn! What a blessing you have been to my life! I have loved you since the day you were wrapped in the flannel blanket I made for you when you where born and now you share your sweet little Levia with me, I am so pleased to be your Aunt by Affection and friend and Levia's GABA (great aunt by affection.....or the clever name your Dad has given me "Queen GABA"!). Enjoy your special day with your sweet husband Hadden and precious little one. May God's Blessings come like the spring rain and saturate your heart and your soul!