Trekking with Me

I love Palm Sunday! I savor this day because of an experience I had when I was 14; I was a resident student at a place called "Edgewood Children's Ranch" - a wonderful place God tenderly deeply set my feet firmly in Him. On this day, my dorm mom, Terry Hotalen Newman, woke us up, wearing her usual African wrap, waving her hands in the air, telling us how in Africa, the villagers all gather palm branches, and come to church singing and waving them high, celebrating the events of our Savior!  Somehow, that vision planted in me such a vibrant excitement of this day!  Jesus came to town, on a donkey, and God revealed Himself and allowed Himself to be lifted up, in praise!  The whole earth recognized HIM that day... a week before His being lifted up on a cross and resurrecting... from the dead!! Ever since, I feel such a wonderful celebratory anticipation of Him on this day!  It's almost, almost, as exciting as Easter! Are we celebrating and welcoming HIM into ou...

When one works a long full week, Saturday is always a welcome gift.  I pretty much face-planted into the weekend.  It was a long, not-bad, hard week.  I celebrated by watching two episodes of Foyle's War and popping an herbal sleep supplement before finding slumber last night.   Not sure if it was the effect of the supplement or if I was just that tired, but I slept hard, even with Kitty's 2:30AM food demand.  I came to consciousness around 7:30, knowing I had to be on my way to an appointment by 8:30.  I stumbled out of the house by 8:27 still feeling in a fog and not fully conscious.  I brought Sasha along as I felt some guilt in neglecting her and wanted to go for a jaunt in a local trail on my way home from town.   All in all, my first two hours of Saturday were spent doing things I normally find delight and joy yet as I stomped through the local woods, I was anything but delighted or joyed.  An all too familiar rant of complain ...

Hey, did you know its International Happy day? I did not even know there was such a thing.  You either? Well, I am glad I am not the only one. It's been a while since I have written a noteworthy post; I know you all were enthralled with the snow day pictures and the New Year's update.  Yet I have not posted anything from the inner workings of Tammie in a while. Mostly, its because I have been run over by a full time job called teaching.  My days are very long, my work demanding in every way, and the end of most of my days look like me crashing on the couch five seconds after walking in my front door before going to bed a few hours later; very non-typical Tammie. Sailing is my favorite :-) So, I figure it was time for a heart-to-heart post: What is God doing post.  Simple, non-detailed answer: A LOT. So here's to keep'n it real: First, it's been a very hard year (school timeframe).  The "aha" moment for me in the Fall was, "it's a...

Summer is approaching.  I have two weeks of teaching left.  FYI - God blessed me with a long term assignment working in a middle school classroom.  He takes care of me like that! These past few weeks have been pretty good, then this most previous week HIT.  It was about the longest week of my life, or it seemed like it.  My students seemed to forget the normal procedures; chaos broke out in my classroom like a bad case of teenage acne.  By Wednesday I arrived home in quite a tizzy. As I tried to see through my flustered emotions, it was fuzzy as to the actual root of my frustration.  It was more than a crazy classroom of pre-adolescence!  Realistically I had been trying to hold a rising issue under water with one hand. Then I realized... It's MAY: May is NOT my favorite month as stated in previous  posts.    I am facing some major shifting in my relationships.   Friends and acquaintances that I had not the time...

The Lord has really encouraged me this week.  It's been a week in which offensive moves were being made, moving forward without much assurance that this is what I am suppose to do yet believing moving forward is the right move, as opposed to freezing in my steps.   A few darts came flying in my direction to cause me some unnecessary fear; that is where God strengthened me to hold up truth, stand as His Girl, and keep stepping. This came home today, even more so, in my "Time With Abba."  Tucked away in Judges, chapter 7 to be precise.  The story of Gideon; it's worth a look if you want to go re-read it for yourself. The part that particularly grabbed me is squeezed between God slimming down his army to 300, and the ludicrous trampling of the Midianites with horns, broken pots and shouting in the middle of the night.  Here see for yourself in verses 9-15: "Now the same night it came about that the  Lord  said to him, “Arise, go down against the cam...

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 ...

Dark, grey luminous clouds cover the evening sky as I sit here listening to some of my favorite soothing music.  A sweet peaceful worshipful atmosphere has settled in.  A whistle lets me know my water is ready for a hot cup of tea.  A July evening mysteriously, romantically invites me to sense His closeness to me, and His favor.  May I share it with you? Contentment and quiet joy fill my soul, a gift given from my Maker: Thank You Jesus. The last few mornings, Psalms 146, and 147 have started my Time with Abba with, "Praise the Lord!" I have many reasons to sing, worship and praise Him.  One main one, is He has healed my heart.  I have been nursing a broken heart of sorts in the last few months.  Well, more like a huge disappointment that knocked the breath out of me. God has shown me much grace throughout, in many ways, yet there was a lingering irritation that I just could not shake.  Like having a piece of splinter stuck way down bene...

I was pretty discouraged yesterday.  Maybe you caught that from my post.  I tried sounding upbeat but there was a low drum in the middle of my being.  I love that He sees us, and meets us in our low estate. In fact that is what He has done this very morning: I must share! My Time with Abba began in Psalm 136.  It's one that has the phrase "His Love Endures Forever" repeated in each verse.  The last four verses is what I read of Psalm 136.  Within these few lines we read, " He remembers our low estate... He frees us from our enemies.... He feeds every creature... Oh give Thanks to the God Of heaven... For HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER..." Then I hopped to 2 Kings 3-4.  I read a story I don't ever remember reading before.  First it describes King Joram son of Ahab (there are so many kings, and it's all divided up between Israel and Judah, these passages can get pretty confusing but hang in there and watch what God does).  It describes Joram as...

Several years back I discovered some wonderful children's praise & worship music which set words of Scripture to music.  They were called  Hide'm In Your Heart ; by now I am sure there are more.  One of the verses he put to music was Psalm 56:3, "When I am afraid, I will trust in You." It's a sweet little catchy tune, and I find I sing it to myself frequently. Today was one of those times.  It's the end of May, my work in the public schools is finished, I have lots to focus on in the next eight weeks, yet my financial flow will change, my next step is unknown and this can cause a level of insecurity and fear to rise.  Its pretty normal for all of us.  Yet today,  as I felt that vulnerable feeling pushing it's way into my soul, I sang this little verse, and turned it into a prayer. "Lord, I am afraid because of this shift; I will trust You to provide, guide, and sustain me in these next few weeks of the summer. Thank You that You are bigger...

My thoughts are not too organized right now but I have some wonderful nuggets the Lord has opened my eyes to; so as the rain sweetly drizzles down outside, may His Truth drizzle down into the soil of our hearts. The parable of the soil has come to life for me.  You know, the one about the four types of soil.  It can be found in Mark 4.  After scratching their heads, one of the disciples had the bravado to ask, "What does it mean, Jesus?"  Jesus then unfolds the parable in such a way so they can understand it.   The Seed is The Word, the living Gospel that brings life.  The soils are the different ways the Word is received, the condition of the hearts of people.  There are those who are hard and the seed simply bounces off and the "birds" come and eat it.  There are those who receive it but their hearts are rocky and the soil is shallow.  It seems to sprout up quickly but then it dies since it has no depth for the roots to go down deep...

"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised."  Hebrews 10:35-36 Bring it On Lord Jesus!!

Good Saturday Morning! "You have me in the house, what more do you want?" I love that one of my precious nieces thinks I have the idealistic life: I have a cat and a dog and get to play with them all the time.  What a wonderful life in her eyes.  :-) I am glad she thinks so.... I can remember thinking something like that when I was her age... no homework, do what I want to do when I want to do it... have as many animals as I want... climb trees until I am ninety and eat mac'n cheese every meal.  That is the life! Well, I don't eat mac'n cheese nearly as much as I did as when I was 10... though I do consume a box or two on rare occasions, I do enjoy my animals, I still like a good climbing tree, and adventure calls me to explore, travel, and be spontaneous as much as possible.  Ah... but I am not 10 anymore.... *sigh* My house is evidence of a full-time, not-10-any-more, working gal.  I am realizing, part of taking care of yourself means providing yourse...

I was up before dawn this morning to hit the gym.  I was a bit more motivated today since I have been noticing some shrink-age in my clothes lately.  Don't ya just hate that... I was ready to go, my running shoes on, dressed... then I realized my exercise partner did not reply to my typical morning text: a sign she was opting out today.  Then I realized my roommate parked her car behind mine.. then I noticed it was pretty dark out, darker than normal... so I decided I would wait until it was a bit lighter and go for a bike ride with Sasha... then I realized, it's raining! Seems that God wanted me to stay put this morning.  I settled down to embrace the morning hour with Him and a cup of PG. What a gift this rainy morning is... As I flipped through my Bible... my eyes caught this: "So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD          His going forth is as certain as the dawn;     ...

The theme of the retreat I went on a few weeks ago was on His Goodness. I was pretty happy as God has been magnifying his Goodness to me over and over and over again in the recent months.  It kind of ties into "His Favor"... the phrase I felt He gave me in January.   With this goodness theme, Psalm 23 has burst open for me.  This psalm has long been a favorite to me bringing me much comfort.  In the recent months He has brought my eyes to the last few verses.  (these are Tammie's paraphrased version) Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear, you are with me; your rod and staff, they comfort me... You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows... surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.. If you put these verses together - picture them as you read them.... where is this table He has prepared ?  In the valley!  In the pr...