The Making of a Good Dog

Dogs.  It's hard to take anything too seriously when talking dogs.  This is why dog training has become one of my favorite new metaphors for life.  It is hard work, to train a dog.  There can be success, but you can seriously mess it up by becoming way too... well,  serious about it.

Life is like that.  There is a fine line between squandering it away and hyper-focusing on it to death.  I tend towards the hyper-focusing.  In fact, I think it's the more socially acceptable way to err.  I mean how many people throw tomatoes at someone for working too hard, right?  Truth is, hyper-focus is just as detrimental and destructive (and if we are talking sin, sinful) as squandering.   Public perception aside, they both lead to decay and eventual death.
OK.  Enough of the heavy.  Let's get back to dogs.  How do you get a good dog?

1.  Don't write him off as damaged goods.

2.  Give medical care when necessary.

3.  Make sure he has everything he needs for his living conditions.

4.  A warm, comfy bed is a must.

5.  Cleanliness is next to godliness.

6.  Don't be stingy with your furniture.

7.  Introduce him to friends.

8.  Avoid friends that look like dainty morsels.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

9.  Expose him to lots of good books.

10.  And don't forget good music.

10.  Exercise, exercise, exercise!

11.  Teach him hand signals.... it looks cool.

12.  PLAY is a key ingredient.

13.  Make sure he feels like part of the family.

14.  Love him.... and show it!

Eventually, if you do these things, you should end up with a good dog.  Of course there are no guarantees but, like most things, you get what you put into it.  

Oh, I forgot the most important tip:

15.  Relax, don't worry, be happy,  he's not complicated, he's a dog!

The gifts #780-799

With time and energy to just count....

summer's arrival

a clean house.... just 1/3 left to go!

promises kept

the making of habits

my three-day meal planning (because this I can do)

fresh flowers in vases

fresh paint

new rugs

summer air

a puppy sunning himself by the window

kids playing outside

showers each night

sunsets after nine

sleeping late

a boy and his book

a new baby growing (not mine)

a rosemary tree

the good humor of the mail carrier

figuring out what I like, and

being happy with that

For God's Sake

Last week I was sitting in the coffee shop waiting, with other homeschooling mamas, for our sons and daughters to finish their required testing.   Our conversations ranged from curriculum to culture wars.  Culture wars.   We talked about how we were raising our children intentionally, how our very lives are so...
counter-cultural.

Riding in the car yesterday with friends.  The husband softly lamenting about something hard for him to put in words.  He thinks Christians should live differently from the rest of the world, stand for our beliefs.  I say something about how, isn't that a universal problem?  A universal truth?  I say it quietly, more a musing to myself than a statement of conviction.  Maybe I'm a coward too.

Today Ann shares her list of thanks.  She mentions filing away her family's personal thanks, their history from last month, into the ongoing "diary" of their lives.

And I think about Ann and her family's diary.  I wonder at what that will look like a thousand years from now to people exploring, excavating to find out what it was like to live in 2011.   What will they think of the documents bearing the Voskamp family history?

The discovery will undoubtedly be that there were many different cultures on the earth in those times.  Within greater cultures there were smaller cultures... even down to the culture of one family.  Rugged individualism.
But what will it say about us,  really?  Was Ann's family different, just to be different?  What about you?  Did you take a stand for what you believed in?  If so, why?  Is it because you thought you needed to or should rebel against the greater culture of your time?
If anyone digs up evidence from my life a thousand years from now, will he find clues that we,  my family and I, lived not only differently, but more importantly.... purposefully.  Will the experts be able to determine what that purpose was,...... or will they think we were just soldiers in the culture war of our time?

I want them to know we did it for Him.... for God's sake.

Counting the gifts  #761-779

car pooling adults

fellowship of the saints

funny stories

many hands lovingly serving each other

a morning without rain

hot tea

probiotics in a bottle

that they were already in her pantry

prayer

Him hearing

adventurous learning

finally being ready for the leap

doing what I believe

dust cloths, vacuums, cleaners, elbow grease, trash bags

order restored

sweet children grappling with growing

friendships mended

family history

a chance to make it about Him

The Blessings #738-760

longer days

the wrapping up of one school year

the anticipation of the next

my man mending fences

the pup playing on the right side of those fences

if only for a day...  71 degrees

messes to clean up

a body that can bend to do the work

a sound mind

a call out to my Sweet T

the stories I'll hear from her end

the stories I'll tell from mine

Awana celebrations

my kids walking to church

Spring Choir Concert

summer plans

a happy son and his friend

my daddy's picture

sofas and mugs

my beloved:

a wise and tender daddy

a good man

me, a fortunate and happy wife

California Adventures Part III

Coronado!


Let the pictures paint the words.....

Point Loma:

Cabrillo Monument at Point Loma

Fun in the sun:

Samuel with Morgan and Travis Dwan

Sarah Grace with Michaela Dwan

Hotel Del Coronado

San Diego

The Dragon Tree

So much to see and do in the San Diego area, but we decided to spend our time in Coronado and enjoy our incredible upgraded ocean-front accommodations.  We did venture over to Point Loma one day and explored the area discovered by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo of Portugal long ago.  


The weather was perfect and afforded us lots of time to swim and play in the sand.  
The city of San Diego, as viewed from across the bay at Coronado, was stunning.  Truly, it is a beautiful city by the sea.  I really fell in love with the place where the sunshine burns through the misty fog and salty air.  Where just off the shore, on a clear sunny morning you can watch dolphins breach high and away from the water.  And at night the bright lights from Mexico, just a shore away, shine into the darkness.  Where American Navy and their Seals run up and down the beach building their strength and resolve, and where their ships anchor off the coast, not resting, but protecting.  It's a place where their fighter jets slice through the atmosphere at any given hour.   And where, when all their earthly service is done, they rest in white-markered graves on the hills of Point Loma.   


It's a beautiful place.




And because it's Monday, I count blessings....


# 718-737


smiles
salty air
warm sand
devotions
fires on the beach
stars in the sky
palm trees
SUN
old hotels
fish tacos
flip flops
touch, smell, sight, taste
roller coasters
people in dress-up
monkeys
cousins
flowers
kisses
friends that help
a pup that forgives