Hey, I thought by now someone would have leaped in with a Christmas greeting for everyone, so I guess I'll take the lead (LOL). Merry Christmas everyone!!! Over the past year again we've all read about each others joys and problems and all prayed for each other. Some of us were able to meet at resorts, while others of us just communicated over the web. We are looking forward to a prosperous year, but as many of us know...the closer you get to success, the heavier the spiritual attacks are. I just hope we can all overcome and overpower them. My wife and I are striving to be independent business people while not forgetting the wonderful renwal going to our resort gives us. Going there and to the little outdoor, rustic chapel has given us a deeper faith than any established religious organization or church. My wife would sit in a lounge chair and conduct business over her cell phone completely naked and unashamed. We seem to grow more in love each year.
As we move into yet another new year I need to remember the words I just wrote and actually put them into use (LOL). I'm great at giving advice, but not so hot at listening to it. We have our writer's conference in February and every night we annoint the front and back doors and pray over our home. We pray for not only protection, but for what it will take to succeed and to bring us the women we need to fill the room. We are trying to start a secular business, but for us its also a calling and a ministry. The more we succeed, the more people we can help. I've been given visions of things that I can't imagine happening in my lifetime, but who knows?
I hope someday some of us can also meet in person around the country. We have a great group here.
Hi all,
Merry Christmas. The love of God is amazing. I which I knew how many times I've thanked God for people and for the love or Christ bein with me. I just pray I can share that love with those around me. Sometimes I guess I don't do as good as I should. But then I don't really know how to express more love till God works it into me.
I pray God bless each one thru the new year.
dayhiker
I was trying to get in all week, finally got in today. Some reason, any forum I tried to get into in the Network54 system was bogged down, and did not have this problem with other forums on other servers.
You keep up the faith. Gwin and I are working on our business too, (not the sign business) and hope to be in a position to soon be able to go anywhere we need to and still have the time and money to serve and be available.
Have a great, safe and wonderful Christmas and holiday. Wish I can say a nude Christmas, but I see many of us not able to do that yet.
May each of you have a very Merry Christmas and may the Newd Year be the greatest one ever. Jesus is the only one who can lead us into the right path, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Love in Him, WAB
We’re a bit late this year because the usual November trip to Ralph’s parents in Oklahoma had to be scheduled after CJ finished with her computer classes (on Win XP & Office XP). Ralph is cramming this note and addressing of the Christmas letters between being back from that trip and his monthly editing duties for the master gardener newsletter.
The trip to Oklahoma almost needed to be rescheduled sooner. My Dad suddenly got industrious after sort of hibernating in the house after the death of his last sibling in the summer (and he’s the oldest at 86). He chain-sawed a tree down, just to get his sugar level down, and cut it up. Then, he decided to remove some shelving from their cellar, since he’s given up gardening and doesn’t need to store processed garden stuff. He was down to the last piece when he fell and cracked his left hip (the one that hadn’t been replaced). The surgery was successful, but he refused any therapy or rehab to get him going again, mainly because he twisted his knee on that leg, and it hurt. Also, he just plain doesn’t like people telling him what to do. He is currently in a nursing home. We are hoping that he will do therapy there and be able to return home.
CJ needed more computer skills for her new volunteer job at Habitat. The office people there quickly learned about her background in property law and asked her to work on the closings. For that, she needed to learn more about MS Office and Windows XP. She’s a computer whiz of sorts now, and Ralph even learned a few tips from stuff she learned.
She continues to knit for the preemies at UVA hospital and to do various things for the Focus flea market sales proceeds of which support programs for women in crises.
Around here, Ralph is geared up for winter. The first snowfall that hit just before we left for OK wasn’t enough to use his new back blade, in addition to the front bucket used last year, and we missed the next snowfall while we were gone. It was melted from the driveway when we returned. It’s snowing again now.
The Gravely is gone now. It just wasn’t used much, as the John Deere does things so much quicker and easier. A friend gave him an old soil ripper off his old JD M that he used to till his garden and then used it with new disc hillers attached to make raised rows in the big garden in the meadow about 100’ below the house.
A new MacKissic shredder/chipper that runs off the JD’s PTO was used before the trip to shred up some tree cuttings and about 100 bags of leaves that the silly town people just leave at the curb in the fall. So, the old Troy Bilt Tomahawk shredder/chipper is being rebuilt to sell. The parts arrived while on the OK trip.
We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary by taking a trip to Bath County, in the mountains just west and a little south of here. We stayed at the Warm Springs Inn just across the road from the Jefferson Baths that have been around since 1761. The Homestead resort in the next town south has been around since 1766. Jefferson reputedly stayed there and rode his horse the 5 miles to the baths 3 times/day. Ralph went soaking with the men in the men’s bath. CJ declined going to the women’s, because she was afraid the sulfur might affect her allergies. We hiked around the area and managed to get the Cabrio soaked with its top down while on a hike through the woods. It took 2 or 3 days to dry it out after we got back.
Ralph took in another Master Gardener College in June at Blacksburg. He’s figured out that Warm Springs CAN be on the way to/from Blacksburg and that a soak in the pool would be kind of nice. He found a route to Blacksburg that kept him off the truck-infested I-81 except for 4 or 5 miles this time, but this new way would avoid it and even the busy Route 29 entirely.
Thanks for starting us off Terry! I hope and pray you all have very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I look forward to seeing where the Lord takes us, individually and as a group, in 2006. Who knows? I may actually get to meet a few of you...even nude. May the Lord's will be doneon Earth as it is in Heaven. AMEN!
...and thanks for each of you being around here. I look forward to the day when we can all meet. I will be able to meet "Hopeful" and his wife on Monday as they are at a resort not too far from me. While I won't have a "Nude Christmas" I'll have a "Nude Boxing Day." I'm looking forward to spending my day with them.
May each of you and your families find the time to sit, be still, and relect on the quiet mystery of Christ's birth and the many blessings we have because of His birth and subsequent death and ressurection. It is in that Silent and Holy Night that we find our peace.
