Dear Mom

It's Vacation Bible School week here in my world. I never quite realized before what a trigger that simple, summer activity is for me......

Dear Mom,

I can just see you, back in the day, urging daddy to go with you to invite children to Bible School. You loved Bible School. You loved picking up the children and making connections with their parents. Longer ago, when you were young and in your prime, you enjoyed getting creative with making song posters and teaching class. Your famous "Noah Noah" and "Jonah" song sheets live on through second and third generation students!

Bible School in your day was no small deal. Sometimes you hosted out of state teachers, taught a class, picked up students and took them home, helped with snack and maybe even led the singing all while juggling laundry, canning green beans and hosting teachers for a lunch or two. This went on for two weeks straight.

I know you got stressed and worn out and things didn't always go perfectly but you wouldn't have missed it for anything.

Bible School in the hills of Arkansas was something my pioneer parents and their cohorts took seriously. Because our community was spread out so widely, we hosted a morning Bible School at our church and an evening Bible School at a local church at the other end of our community. Teachers would come in from out of state to help and many of them would teach at both places i.e. third grade lesson to one group of students in the morning, the same lesson to a different group in the evening.

The schedule sounds crazy to anyone who was never a part of it. Bible School morning and evening for two weeks?? How?

Some of my best memories are my youth years when I would teach morning and evening and join the whole gang of teachers for lunch at someone's house every day. We went shopping together, went on picnics, played games, prayed and fasted on Wednesdays, helped each other prepare our lessons... Some of the friendships made with youth who came to help us teach are still alive today.

I know time has a way of changing things and often our own era seems to have the best memories. Oh the stories I could tell of hot, cramped little classrooms at the old, Wolf Bayou church where the old, folding seats creaked and the curtains strung up everywhere still didn't provide enough "rooms" for all the classes. The noise and temperature levels in that old building were high but the singing rang and the silence was breathless when the storyteller got up to tell us the next installment of his story.

Yes, memories are golden. It's no wonder the very mention of Summer Bible School brings waves of nostalgia and memories galore. In the middle of all those memories, somehow you seem to be at the center, Mom. When I pull out your old flannelgraph and tell the old, old story to an eager group of 20 some 9-11 year olds, there's an inevitable ache in my throat and tears in my eyes.

Times have changed in Arkansas. There are nicer accommodations now, more people to reach around, busier schedules and less need of doing nothing but Bible School morning and evening for two weeks straight. But the children are still coming and the legacy is still going on. On the last day, when the parents and grandparents show up for the program, they can join in singing "Noah Noah" just as lustily as their children and grandchildren!

Sometimes I wish I could roll back the years and relive those memories of bygone days. I wish I could be your little girl again, Mom, helping to fill the big, metal igloo with water for drinks and riding along to take the rowdy bunch of children home. I'd join the out of state teacher's children in "the little chicken house" to hold up imaginary song sheets and play our own rousing version of Bible School. Sadly, I can't do that.

So, I'll wipe the tears, swallow the lump in the throat and live the now. Hopefully someday my children's memories will be warm and nostalgic too. But I promise, Mom, they won't be half as grand as mine.

What Is Summer: The Glow And The Reality

What is summer?

Summer is green, luscious green everywhere. Little garden, growing wildly. First the blooms, then tiny, promising fruit. What a thrill to watch it grow, then pick and enjoy the product of our labors.

(Also: Living in the middle of the woods it means weeds grown up, up and out of control. Until I feel like I'm living in a jungle and no one cares but me.)

Summer is popcicles on a hot, sunny day; homemade ones. Made with the relic Tupperware molds of our past. 

(To be honest: we've made them once this year and they disappeared in about 2 days.)

Summer is fourth of July picnics at the lake. 

(Confession: picnics anywhere, much less all together at the lake, are not really 

what-you-might-say

a regularity with the Eicher family. 

This was special.)

Summer is storing up the bounty for winter. It's watching the full jars line up slowly and feeling the adrenaline rush of the lids sealing with a satisfying 'ping'.

It's a friend sharing her bounteous dill and your mother-in-law digging out more jars from her basement. It's pulling out old recipes, long unused. It's the smell of vinegar and spices. It's tomato sandwiches and cucumbers on butter bread and weary bones at the end of the day. 

(Full Disclosure: It's a sweet, caring husband who takes an afternoon off to go to a produce auction to buy his wife veggies for canning -- a husband who likes to buy things at autions; lots of things. It's a wife who discovers she really may not have learned so very much in 17 years. [That's putting it all very mildly])

Summer is long, lazy days and evenings. It's a game of Clue, first thing in the morning. It's a trip to the Library and gazing in awe at the American Girl Doll collection on display. It's an afternoon spent on the recliner with stacks of books. It's crafting a swing set for your poor Fisherprice children who desperately need one. 

(Reality: It's settling fusses over one person having both Fisherprice toilets while their sibling has none. It's a perpetually toy-strewn living room, non-stop Adventures In Odyssey and people who constantly think they need to be fed. It's hoping for some quiet time in the morning before everyone wakes up for the day.....)

Summer is busy and lazy and fun and taxing, all rolled into one. It is also short and fleeting and deserves to be 

enjoyed to the full. 

How's your summer?

Geocaching: One Giant Treasure Hunt

Used to be, when my family gathered, it was tradition for my mom to have a treasure hunt for the grandchildren. The hunts were never big and elaborate, nor were the treasures. But the special feelings and memories were huge and all the grandchildren looked forward to the little tradition with anticipation. Maybe that's why some of us get such a kick out of the giant treasure hunt called Geocaching?

It's been quite a while ago that I heard about this quirky pastime. Several of my siblings have spent time hunting down various caches but somehow I've never gotten in on the action.

According to wikipedia, "geocaching
is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a global positioning system (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", at specific locations marked by coordinates all over the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and sometimes a pen or pencil. The geocacher signs the log with their established code and dates it, in order to prove that they found the cache. After signing the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, such as toys or trinkets, usually of more sentimental worth than financial."

If you are interested in the origin and history of geocaching, you can find the full story here. This fun hobby even has it's own personal lingo which you might find intriguing and helpful in deciphering information about geocache sites.

Last week I decided to look up some info and try out this crazy, giant treasure hunting. There are several caches hidden less than 5 miles from us, so Sunday evening the girls and I went on a little excursion.

Our first destination was a graveyard next to a park we sometimes visit. The hint they gave us was "Under stone, ask Elizabeth". Being able to put two and two together, we went searching for a gravestone with the name Elizabeth.

Lo and behold, there she was!

And there was our box....

With all the little treasures and logbook inside......

We checked it all out and added our name and the date to the log. Then, we tucked everything back where it was and exclaimed,  "That was fun! Let's look for another one!"

Since there was another one located in an older part of the cemetery, we went ahead and searched for it too. This time our hint was "Don't get your arms scratched up like I did placing it". 

Didn't take us too long to say I Spy!

I'm not really sure why it's so much fun but there's a whole list of them around here I would love to search for! We haven't managed to convince the men of the house that it's exciting. Maybe one of these days when it's not so hot we'll get them talked into going with us. One good search and they'll surely be hooked, right? I'm already dreaming of finding one in every state we travel through. Shhhh. Don't tell. 

And now I'm curious -- have you heard of geocaching? Have you tried it? Are you a fan?

17 Things From 17 Years: Post 17

I realize that June is actually past but here's #17 anyway...

#17: There is always something more to learn in marriage.

I don't think I even need to elaborate on this one. The minute we think we have arrived in our marriage is usually just shortly before we have some sort of relationship issues. It's when I do things like blog about 17 things from 17 years that we for sure knock heads and have multiple misunderstandings and extra amounts of hurt feelings. Really.

But it's ok to always be learning something more; that means God is at work. Let's not despair and give up, we have an enemy that would like nothing better!

This ends my list of 17 things. I hope I have stirred your thinking, maybe inspired you to sit down and think about what marriage has taught you? I hope I have challenged you, maybe in areas you hadn't thought of? Or encouraged you in places where you would like to grow. Mostly, I hope you know that I have not learned all of these things perfectly; that my marriage is a work in progress just like yours. I fail. I fail often. But -----

"...I am certain that God, who began the good work within [us], will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." Phil 1:6 

Courage to you and yours. And much joy and happiness in your marriages.