Trekking with Me

Praise Him for His  mighty deeds;   Praise Him according to His excellent  greatness.  Psalm 150:2 What a Year!  2012 has been one of the fullest years I have ever experienced.  It's been a year of going deep with God, Him peeling back layer upon layer, and with each layer, bringing insight, healing, growth, renewal, joy and hope.   From the very beginning to this day, PEACE has been felt on the soles of my feet.  "  ...S hod   YOUR FEET   WITH   THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF   PEACE..." This has been HIS work, His preparation: He help me grasp and practice what it means to put on peace, to follow peace... to Let Peace rule .  It's a wonderful, wonderful place to live!  Early in the year, Matthew 6:33 was spoken to me through my sister in love, Melanie.  "Seek first the Kingdom..." It's a piece of Scripture I have known since my youth, a familiar song sung around many a campfires.  Th...

Friday! I am itching to blog.  Trouble is, I have not had one of those wonderful "bubbles" float through my schedule this week.  So, here I sit, in an empty classroom, awaiting the arrival of students to pour through my door.  I have enjoyed an empty classroom for the first part of this day.  This morning my brain was in a fog; my arms and legs felt like they had bowling balls tied to them as I woke up.  Symptoms it's been a full week, and I have a full weekend ahead, which is a blessing yet no bubbles.   Last night I had a ton'o fun attending a painting class!  My masterpiece was a copy of Monet's Field of Poppies.  Seriously an experience I want to repeat.  Yet my creative painting friend nearly had to hold me up when I realized it was 9:10PM, and I was still painting... no wonder my paintbrush was so heavy! The night before, I had a friend over, the night before my wonderful community group, the night before another ...

I enjoy substituting more than I thought I would.  I like the variety, the flexibility and of course, the multitude of people I meet every single day.  I feel like a sponge at times too, because when you walk into a good teacher's classroom, it is the best education you can get as a teacher.  I pick up all sorts of ideas, insights, and more often than not, inspiration to be that good!   For example, after visiting elementary classes, I am inspired to get more organized, use lots of bright color and add simple structure to my life.  Elementary classrooms are full of these things!  I love the bright colors, the simple lessons, the little chairs and tables and the "town hall meeting" areas: specific areas of the room to gather together, designated by a cool rug, usually a rocking chair is off one corner and the rug has fantastic themes and colors all over it.  Personally, I envision creating a room or place in my home for the little people in my wor...

I am noticing a trend.  Every few days or so, my schedule has a bubble: a sweet surprise of open time and space to float around.  It's unpredictable, so I usually take care of obvious needs - cook something big to provide warm-overs for a few days, clean something, check to see if my laundry is overflowing... and then maybe find time to curl up on the couch for a catnap, some time to listen, process, journal, and maybe blog! Recently I reflected upon the fact that I have not posted anything too heavy or deep.  I commented to a friend that my thoughts can indeed be weighty, yet they are floating down like the autumn leaves.  They need time to land.  And of late, there are so many of them that I am rather bewildered as how to pull them all together into a palatable, conceptual presentation.  They are all loosely connected, falling from the same tree. God is leading me into wonderful new and yes, old, places and lighting me up with understanding. It's a ...

Oh Fall, how I love you.... It's God gift to me to live in South Carolina.  I never thought I would love living somewhere so much.  Sure, people make a place wonderful and God has definitely blessed me with a sweet community of friends.  And, yet, He has also blessed me with delight in the place. Growing up in Florida was great.  I went barefoot most of the time, wore shorts and tanks or my swimming suit 90% of the time and liked it.  But I have to say, experiencing a change in seasons, the sweet smell of spring, or brightly colored leaves falling as you enjoy a walk through the woods or the smell of a wood burning fire wafting through the neighborhood and sometimes a snowfall, is serious joy to my heart.   My wardrobe is definitely growing to meet the need, though I could do with some more warm layers. This Fall was even more accented with a Pumpkin party I co-hosted.  I was inspired by my sister in love in Florida, a native Colorado gal....

Care to join me for a Sunday evening chat with a delightful cup of hot tea?  It's the perfect evening for it.  I recently bought a "Night Time Tea Herbal Blend" tea and discovered it is my new favorite!  It's very smooth, mildly spicy and softly cozy.  Perfect treat as you snuggle down for a quiet moment before bed. Loving Fall, as it has come in it's fullness this last week or so here in Columbia, South Carolina.  It's Fall when you use the blower instead of the mower to do yard work!   I blew off my yard on Friday and it looked like it was in need of another blowing this afternoon.  Instead I gathered up some pine cones and kindling to light up a fire in my fire pit.  A friend stopped by and he graciously offered to finish the process.  We soon had some flames licking up the needles and my flip-flop baring feet enjoyed the toasty heat from a few inches away from the fire pit.  Lovely. So I smell like smoke now, as I drink my Night ...

It's been a beautiful October Saturday.  I sure needed a Saturday.  A friend asked what my average week was like, and I had to admit an "average" week is non-existant at this point.  My new normal is still working itself out.  I am so grateful for work, and enjoy the variety of my days immensely, yet I would not mind a little more stability.  How thankful I am that God is unchanging!  He is my Rock, a sweet refuge to which I continually go.   Today I stayed home most all day and enjoyed a quiet Saturday.  This week I read an article that reminded me that the Scriptures tell us to live quiet lives, by  Donald Miller.   Do a word search on "quiet" and it may surprise you.  So today I embraced the quietness of having the day to myself.  After walking the dogs, and spending time in the Word, I started in on my Saturday housekeeping needs.  It was so nice outside, I opened every window I could: some of the windows in m...

Last week I took Sasha out for an afternoon stroll.  I saw some kids meandering up the street which I recognized as some neighbor kids and greeted them.  I noticed they had a very young puppy on a leash.   After commenting on the pup, one of the kids shyly said, "Uh, Miss Tammie, would you keep this puppy in your back yard?" To which I cautiously responded, "For how long?" No clear answer. Since I am a softie, or maybe a sucker, I said "okay." A week and a half later, look who is starting to feel like my backyard is his home: Let's just say upon further investigation, this little guy was "found" and the boys whom had it on the end of a leash were really not allowed to keep it at their house. Guess who hasn't shown back up to take care of little pup? Guess who has started to get attached to sweet, darling Rottweiller puppy? Guess who has bought puppy food, and a toy so it would not chew up other chewable items in bac...

Hello To those who read my blog!  It's been a few weeks since I returned from Costa Rica.  A new season has begun and I am getting my footing.  No longer a student, I am back to work (substituting) Monday through Friday, embracing what God has for me each day. My new normal is very nice so far.  I like the freedom, flexibility, and variety I have in my schedule.   I have a new appreciation for everything, odd, and random, such as: The order we have in our society.  If you have traveled overseas, you will understand this appreciation. Groupons!  I just returned from a two-hour kayak excursion from a groupon I purchased earlier in the summer.  It was great fun which I enjoyed with my friend, Shayna.  She works with the Navigators and I like her very much. This is her chowing down on her juicy peach for lunch on the water :-) We had a very deep conversation about our favorite fruits, and I most decidedly came to the conclusion that peac...

My adventures keep coming!  What a year this has been!  If you would have asked me 8 weeks ago what I would be doing the first of September, I would have said, "substituting, and counseling, and on the look out for a full time job."  Instead, I have been in San Jose, Costa Rice for over a week now... Why?  This should answer you question: This is my younger brother, with his New Little Lillian Faith.  Jimbo and Timbrel invited me to come down for a few weeks to help with the arrival of this Little One.  Now... How could I turn down that opportunity? This moment will live forever in my memory.  Lillian was literally only minutes out of the womb.  She had yet to even be washed off, her extremities were still blue, and it was beautiful to see the rudy-red spread over her little limbs in the next hour or so... She met all her sisters, and brother in a very short time of coming into this world.  She had a lot to take in.  She was ...

Today is my 39th Birthday.  Wow.  How did I get here so fast? To be very honest, I have been dreading this day all year.  I have been trying to find the break pedal since last birthday.  39 just seems so....,  close to 40! These last few weeks I have had weird emotions about it too.  So odd of me, but some birthdays do that to all of us.  Slap us around, tell us reality isn't what we had dreamed or something like that.  I was wrestling and pushing over the fact I am here and not there, so to speak.  Ya know?  Yet God, My precious gentle, wonderful, patient Lord and Love did something for me these last few days...  He breathed on me a truth... Love... Hope... Joy.  He changed my perspective. How?  Well, how do you explain how God changes that?  This past weekend, I had a lot of time alone.  I did not plan it that way, in fact it had been planned otherwise.  All my plans fell through.  God gave ...

I was recently blessed with a trip up to New England to celebrate completing my M.A.  My dear friends,  Tracy and Jamison , treated me to a trip so we could all be together again.  We had a wonderful time together and only wish we could have squeezed in a few more things.  We spent most of our time in Connecticut ("Connect - I - Cut" ~Thanks Tracy!), of which the capital is Hartford (a fact I will never forget thanks to my seventh grade social studies teacher).   Everytime we said "Hartford," I started quoting, "In Hartford hurricanes hardly ever happen..." in an ever-so-british accent.  (Name that movie!)   We also had a little surprise thrown in from sweet Tracy: one night in Newport, RI.  Everywhere we went I was in awe of the deep luscious foliage and the brilliant hues of the waters.  Add to that, sailing related paraphernalia was everywhere, my sailing soft spot was itching something fierce. Here are a few moments I captured...

I did it!! Woooo-Hooooo!! God is so good! I can't believe four years have come and gone.  I can't believe what I thought would take me TWO years stretched into Four!  I can remember a night early in the four year journey when I started freaking out when I realized it was going to take that much longer!!  A very wise mentor gently prodded me on by saying "where else will you be in four years?"  Hmmm, simple logic is a good thing.  It calms me down and I love sweet friends who gracious, non-judgementally point it out to me.   It kept me going for sure. I wrote about the beginning of this journey and the reason for it  way back in 2008, before even moving here.   God is so good.  MUCH ground has been covered in these four years.  I feel like a different person, and yet more of who God made me to be. This part of the journey is where it starts to feel like I am jumping off a cliff.  It is scary and exhilarating to finish something. ...