A Poem

Mountians stretch away so far,
Away into the distance,
Reaching up to touch the stars,
Like a giant, for instance.

God's love is bigger than the mountian,
Larger than the sea,
Stronger than the strongest wind,
Yet, He cares for a speck like me.

Who can say the stars,
Were made just for them?
Oh, but if you only knew,
God made them all for you!

His love is everlasting,
He will never forget to hear,
His grace is sufficent,
For us all, my dear.

Twenty minutes

Twenty minutes is a long time if you are waiting for something. I know, for I have waited for lots of things. Yet, twenty minutes is not long at all if that’s all you have to save someone’s life. Twenty dollars is a lot for a drink but twenty dollars isn’t even a start if that’s all you have to live on.

Twenty buttons on a shirt,
Too much, too much.
Twenty buttons for all your clothes,
Better have a magic touch.

Twenty trees is a massive amount if you cut them down illegally but twenty trees is so little if a forest.

Doesn’t the number twenty seem so long? Sometimes it does. But, what if all you had was twenty minutes to find the truth? To make a decision, trust God or risk judgment? To risk being separated from God forever, for eternity? We would say it was a easy decision but what if until that moment you’d never even heard of him? What about if all you’d ever heard was God made the earth swallow up his enemies? What if, until you were told you had twenty minutes, you’d never heard Jesus died for you? And you have twenty minutes to find out and decide?

How long is twenty minutes then? Don’t wait to find out until all you have is twenty minutes.

Mandy

Popsicles

Popsicles are a necessity. They are lifesavers. No, not the candy, there is no such thing as a lifesaver flavored popsicle. What I mean is, they save our lives. We mow lawns, do gardening and play and we just plain need them. Okay, want them. We eat probably five a day, or more, depending on how many lawns we mow, how much gardening we do, and how many we decide to take to the creek when we go for our once a day swim.

Yet, we have still to learn the fine art of throwing away the plastic tubes they come in. Hopefully, this year we can get that drilled into our heads. Not that it will matter because we’ll still find some from three years ago.

Along with popsicles, iced tea takes a major roll in our summer life. We take our bottles of the stuff everywhere. We make five gallon, ten gallon containers of it and drink it all in two days between the seven of us. If you ever wonder what is in the back of the trailer attacked to our lawn mower that we go everywhere with you can bet there is popsicles and iced tea (and most likely our push mower, weed whacker and other lawn mowing instruments.)

I have often wondered what people think of me when I go by driving a lawnmower pulled trailer, wearing sunglasses, a pink shirt, a big hat, such as I often wear, and salute them as they pass. How should I know but I really don’t care. I like being different and eating popsicles!

Gardening

Time to start planting - according to our mother. What does it matter that it snowed yesterday? We can plant our plants anyway! Sure, it’s rarely above fifty but who are we to argue with Mom? The moon is right, so it’s time to plant!

Today we are going to plant spinach, peas and lettuce. You know all those things that can survive a three foot snow - we hope.

When I was younger I somehow got the job of carrots. How this happened I don’t remember but it did. Rose got peas and Missy - I don’t remember what Missy had but she had something. We’d go out every year into our several sixty by four foot bed garden and Rose would help Mom plant a bunch of peas in nice straight lines and Peter would help dig perfect little holes for tomatoes and Missy would neatly do what ever it was she did. And then there was me. I took the package as Mom told me, carefully ripped it open, or as carefully as ripping gets, and threw the seeds all over the bed! That may have been why I liked carrots. No careful measuring, no digging holes, just scrap the dirt to the edges, throw the seeds around and push the dirt back!

Did I say that was all I did? Well it wasn’t. I was always done before everyone else so I “got” to help plant peas and do tomatoes and we all did potatoes. Dig a trench, put the seed potato in with the eye up and when you’ve finished with both sixty foot beds, push dirt over top. But we didn’t do that until we named a thousand worms and lady bugs and practically every stick that looked like a worm. And then we’d go get a popsicle, one of those tube kinds, and watch Mom limp to the house after stepping on a bee. (She tends to do this a lot).

Anyway, despite the fact we say we hate it, our fondest memories are of gardening. We tend to do one more thing, besides step on bees. We laugh. We laugh practically the whole time, even though we are complaining. We come up with sayings and scenes and characters for my book out in our garden and I know we still will.

Sigh. We do like gardening but it wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t complain for often that is the best part. Along with chucking half the seeds into the row behind you as you say, “If in doubt, throw it out!” so many times it drives Mom crazy.

South Dakotans

I already did a story on Homeschoolers so it’s only fair I do a story on South Dakotans. We are, to put it quite simply, masters at under-stating the obvious. Then again in different circumstances we are masters of over-stating things. I’m not sure why we can’t just say things like they are but I think it started back at the Black Hills gold rush. The first people out here said, “The winters are a bit difficult.” Yeah, right, about half of you died. And they also said, “There is a ton of gold!” No. There wasn’t a lot of gold. So, I figure it’s just in our nature.

We like the word “breezy”. If you ever hear a South Dakotan say that word assume they are lying because it’s not breezy. “Oh, look the wind just blew that car over!” “Yeah, it’s a bit breezy.” That’s us!

Last winter, we went to the grocery store. Most people would take the hint that it’s too cold to drive sixteen miles into town when it’s thirty degrees below zero but our family is home schooled. Stubbornness issues again. Sigh. We drove into town anyway. We got our stuff and went to the check out isle and the lady says, “A bit nippy today.”

“Sure is,” Mom replies.

Down playing and over-stating are just always going to be part of South Dakota, I’m afraid. But then again, if we were normal there wouldn’t be anything special about us. We are, after all, the selected guardians of our national monument, Mount Rushmore. I mean, just think about it, George Washington’s head is 60 feet tall!

There is just one more thing I wish to say about South Dakotans. We are also stubborn and I hope we always stay that way. One example of this is when a man rode on bike all the way from South Dakota to Washington D.C. to be at a rally for black’s civil rights back on April 28, 1963. Stubborness issues? You betcha!

A List

There are several classically rude things one can do. I’m not saying I don’t do these things, of course I do. Classically rude is not so rude that it makes you angry in the least. They are simply things we do, note the we, all the time to each other and usually laugh about. (I have never done any of these involving the pineapple.)

1. Steal someone’s place in the line for the microwave.
2. Take the cat. (Maybe not as many smiles, maybe.)
3. Not let someone know there is pineapple until five pieces are gone.
4. Put fresh pineapple on a pizza (waste of pineapple.) Canned is fine.
5. Ignore someone well they’re attempting to read you a funny part in their book, even if most likely it will leave you confused.
6. Say you don’t like anything involving pineapple. (Quite rude, you know.)
7. Forget a wonderful saying you made up for my book before I’ve written it down.
8. Leave me a message on how great my book is but put it in cryptic writing that you can’t just change the writing with the handy dandy computer so I have to undo it by hand.

Of course, there are several others but I won’t go on or it’ll take all day and I’d rather not think that hard. But, I thought everyone should know about pineapple and cats and,…and…pineapple!

God's Gifts

Some people say dreams are just hopes. I say they’re wrong. Your dreams are who you are. My dream is to be a writer. God gave me this talent to use but without him it would not be worth using. I write to show people there is light beyond their darkness. I write to make hope. I write to inspire. I write because in doing so I feel close to my Savior.

Many people may say I’m too young but God gave me this talent now and who are we to say otherwise? Some might wonder if I have what it takes to get through the whole process, writing it, correcting it and probably getting refused by a few publishers. Here’s the truth, I don’t. But God does.

He gave me many things, many talents and many Bible verses to use but there is one gift I would take nothing to give back. He gave me Jesus who cared so much that He died. And that’s not all. He loved me enough to give me friends. Friends that care about me no matter how I act or what I do. He gave me a home to go to when my life is over. I don’t need a mansion but that‘s what He is preparing anyway.

And one day, I hope He’ll give me the one thing I want when I get to Heaven. A hug. I want to know I’m safe at last. That’s the one gift that I still want. Who wants a crown? Not me. Who wants acres of land? Not me. Who cares about being rich? No, not me. I just want a hug from Jesus.

If God has plans for me, then show me where to start. I don’t need the courage it’ll take because He has all I need. I don’t need tons of money, He’ll provide.

I’m not perfect. I know I’ll be scared but I also know He cares enough that He’ll give me comfort. If I’m in need, I’ll ask Him because he says, “Therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek: ) for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” - Matthew 6:31-32.

Have faith.

Mandy.