And, with summer quickly approaching, I am in the process of putting together my spring studio recital. Currently the recital is tentatively planned for April 30th and will consist mostly of duets, trios, and hopefully quartets. All of my students are doing very well and working hard. They are a joy to work with. God has blessed me with some neat kids and I’m very thankful for each of them.

And now, before I run out of time for updating my blog, let me show you what Jonathan and I have been up to lately.

A few weeks ago, Jonathan came to visit me and we got to go canoeing on the Lewis River. We dug the life jackets out of the barn, found some old paddles, and loaded Dad’s canoe onto Jonathan’s little car.

We dropped the canoe off and I stayed with it while Dad and Jonathan drove down river to leave Jonathan’s car so we could float down the river, load up and go home. It worked really well and was a lot of fun. Dad helped saw us off and took this picture for us before he left. 

The river was pretty calm so we were able to just let the river push us along and Jonathan did all the steering. I had a paddle but when I wasn’t really using it, I set it down and just enjoyed the ride.

The next time I went to visit Jonathan in Salem he had these beautiful flowers waiting specially for me. I brought them home wondering how I was going to keep them safe from predators such as vicious goats and a hyper dog named Mocha. Then I remembered I had a perfectly safe place for them on the roof right outside my bedroom window. So now I get to look at them right out my bedroom window every day. I’ve also been able to dry some of the pansies so I’ll always be able to have them.

We went to visit some more waterfalls, this time out near the coast. We also went to the beach but only for a few minutes because we ran out of time. Also, it was super cold, windy, and rainy on the beach that day.

And that is all I have time for right now folks! I hope you enjoyed the pictures and a small update on what I’ve been doing. I’m beginning to think blogs are best for pictures…writing blog posts takes a lot of time. BUT, I do like to write…and I do have things to write about. So, one of these days, I will write a blog post again.

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

Psalm 94:18-19 “When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.  In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.”

]]> http://instrumentsofrighteousness.com/2010/03/spring-is-here-take-time-to-smell-the-flowers/feed/ 1 http://instrumentsofrighteousness.com/2010/03/silver-falls/ http://instrumentsofrighteousness.com/2010/03/silver-falls/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:10:20 +0000 Suzanne http://instrumentsofrighteousness.com/?p=322 Last weekend I went to Salem to visit Jonathan and his family. While I was there, we went to Silver Falls and walked around for a couple hours. It was very nice and we got some cool pictures…well, that is, we did our best at taking self-portraits. So, I’ll go ahead and post a couple of those pictures for you to enjoy. Eventually I’ll get a blog post on here with more words than pictures, but for now you’ll just have to be satisfied with pictures. I am trying to spend a significant amount of time studying as I am hoping to take another CLEP test soon so I would greatly appreciate your prayers for me to be diligent and focused as I study.

Thanksgiving Dinner at David's

My family enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving this year at my brother David’s house in Brooklyn, WA. There were 22 people all together, if I am remembering right. Dinner was pretty good too. BTW, have you ever thought about the strange foods that are traditionally part of Thanksgiving? You know, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing…I don’t like any of that stuff. I filled my plate with mashed potatoes, turkey, and rolls. And then to top it off, I had a nice big slice of pumpkin pie. Then I went out hunting with Dad and David. When I got back from hunting, I had another nice piece of pumpkin pie. And even though I made my own pumpkin pie about a week before thanksgiving (and ate most of it by myself) I still haven’t had enough pumpkin pie for the year. I need to go buy myself a can of Libby’s pumpkin and make myself at least one more pie.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows. I got to try out my new skis and was sadly disappointed. I was expecting great things from those skis…and they let me down. I didn’t really notice a significant improvement over my ancient skis. Perhaps it is just because I need someone to teach me how to use them properly. From my understanding, you’re supposed to ski a little differently with shaped skis. So I’ll give them a couple more tries, and hopefully have someone teach me how to carve, and then I’ll make a final decision as to whether or not the skis were worth my money. On the other hand, I think I enjoyed skiing more before I had money invested in it. Too bad I didn’t figure that out before I purchased the new skis. I suppose I could probably sell them if I wanted to, but like I said, I should probably wait until someone teaches me how to carve before I make a decision.

Matthew recently got a new top rack. Yay, now we don’t have to ride home with wet skis dripping melted snow on us while we’re trying to warm up from a day of skiing.

Suzanne

The sunset was pretty neat from the top of the mountain. If my camera had been easier to get to I would have taken a lot more pictures.

Matthew and Mariya

Matthew taught Mariya how to snowboard for the first half of the night while my nephew Jeremiah and I skiied. They joined us at the top of the mountain later on so Mariya could try out her new skis. I challenged Matthew (on his snowboard) to a race and he accepted. That was a lot of fun! We really flew down the mountain! But we ended up tieing.

Pastor Shanks and Marshall Hatfield

And then it was hunting season again. Dad and I went out to our church’s hunting camp on Friday, right after Thanksgiving. We hunted from about 1pm to closing. We didn’t see anything. We spent the night in the camp and hunted again the next morning. Our set up for the night wasn’t so great though. We slept right on the ground, I didn’t even take my mattress pad (I never like taking more gear than I have to, it just gets in the way). BTW, if you own a mattress pad and you’re going camping, take it with you! You may be tough enough to sleep on the hard ground…but when you think about the insulation factor, well, it’s totally worth it. Especially if it’s late November! I actually ended up shivering like a dog ALL night long! Just when I started to get warm, Dad shook my bag and informed me that it had started raining. No wonder I got warm! So then we climbed into the car and slept in the car the rest of the night…which never works well. By morning I’m pretty sure I had only slept one little tiny hour. We headed out hunting at 5am because we wanted to be at our clear cut by daylight. And it was a really good hunting clear cut! We scared 6 deer out of there. :-/ I didn’t get a shot at any of them. But at least we found some! That was an encouraging step in the right direction. After a few more hours of hunting we headed back to the car so I could meet Matthew to go skiing (that’s the day we went skiing….after I’d only slept one miserable hour the night before).

Pastor with his grouse

The next Monday I left our house at 3:30am so I could be at the camp by 4:30am. All I saw that day was a BEAUTIFUL sunrise and a grouse at the end of the day. The grouse was an unfortunate creature because Pastor Shanks is a really good shot and took the head right off that bird. I also had to test my sense of direction as I walked through some THICK trees with tons of elk trails going every which direction. The fact that I am updating my blog proves that I passed the test. But it sure is easy to start getting yourself freaked out when you’re in the woods all alone. But if you freak out, then you are no good to yourself anyways.

It's not mine - I just spotted it

He gets the meat

Pastor knows how to pose with a deer, notice how much better his picture is than ours.

As we were discussing our plans to split up for a few hours of hunting, we heard a gunshot just over the rise from us in the clear cut. We took off down the road and I spotted this deer running across the side of the hill in front of us. All three of us went after it…and if I had been in the right place, I probably could have shot it, but I didn’t…

The next day (last Friday) I went out yet again. We split up to walk through some big timber in search for elk. And I FOUND ONE! But I’m such an immature hunter that I got all excited and ended up scaring this big beautiful bull. I looked at him through the sights on my gun but I didn’t pull the trigger because I was pretty sure I would only injure him if I shot at him as a running target. SO CLOSE! But he was a sight to see and I’m thankful I at least got to see one.

We pushed the deer out on a bike. What a blessing! 2 miles would have been a long haul otherwise.

Hanging at hunting camp

And so here I sit, a rather frustrated hunter. On Sunday night I heard Pastor tell Dad, “Suzanne almost got an elk! And she almost got a deer too!” Well, almost isn’t good enough. I have a little less than a week left to get out there, find, and this time KILL an animal. But I also have a life to live; there’s school to be done, chores to be kept up with, and my violin studio recital is this Friday night. I have to keep my priorities straight even if I do end up eating “tag soup”.

The mountains have snow again, the ski resorts are opening for the season. A couple weeks ago I went to the ski show in Portland to try to find a new pair of skis for myself. When I first started skiing I would rent my equipment but that gets expensive real fast. So then I started using really old equipment that I found at Goodwill stores. That’s what I’ve been using for the past several years. It works okay but if I’m going to be skiing regularly I thought it would be worth it to invest in a nice pair of skis. And so I did.

They’re Salomon Origins, $1000 new! Of course I didn’t pay anywhere near that much, I got a really good deal because these were used as demo skis. They’re shaped skis (which I’ve only tried a couple times, hope I don’t have too much trouble learning how to carve my way down the mountain.), they’ve got a wood core, and, yes, they’re purple. So they’ll go great with my purple coat. haha. I also got a pair of Salomon ski boots which I’m hoping will work well. I’m sure I’ll be thrilled with my new equipment considering my old skis were from the 70’s or something and my old boots had two broken clasps and only one working clasp. I used to worry that the lift attendant might tell me I wasn’t allowed on the lift with my ancient equipment. But it worked and I had fun so I was happy.

Anyhow, now I’m very excited to get up on the mountain and try out my new gear! I’m planning a trip to Mt. Hood SOON! Probably night skiing Saturday Nov 28th. If you want to go, let me know. Fellowship with friends is one of the best parts of skiing. It’s never fun to go alone.

Well, I’m starting to get used to my new schedule. It is the strangest thing to be in control of so much of my time. I want to use all my time for God and the things he wants me to do. Therefore it’s a huge responsibility to “be in control” of what I do with my time. I will be held accountable to God for everything I do with my time. Rom 14:12  “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Really, I don’t want to “be in control”. I want to hand that control to God and let him steer me in what to do with my time. Rom 6:13  “Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God.” In order to yield myself like that, I must die to myself (my will, my goals) daily as Paul did (1 Cor 15:31). And I must keep my focus on Christ, not on my list of things that need to be accomplished. If I focus on a list of things that need to be done each day, I will feel like I failed if I didn’t accomplish it all at the end of the day. That can get depressing real quick. Yes, goals are good, and striving to be productive is good, but if that is the focus, I am looking to myself and will quickly become discouraged and/or depressed. My purpose IS to please the Lord. Rev 4:11  “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” My purpose is NOT to check off the items I decided to write down on my “To Do” list for the day. Now perhaps, as I continue to seek the Lord and his will with my whole heart (Jere 29:13, Ps 119:2), one day my “To Do” list will align with his will for me and therefore bring him pleasure if I do accomplish those things. If I let my pre-planned schedule run my life, I wouldn’t be available to serve others in the moment that they needed me to take some time for them. I also wouldn’t have time to stop and spend a few minutes in prayer for someone or something that the Lord brought to my attention. (1Th 5:17  “Pray without ceasing.”) Nor would I have time to take a moment to look up that verse I was thinking about but couldn’t remember exactly what it said. (Psa 1:2  “But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”)

My conclusion or point is that I am not to be selfish, self-centered, or self-focused. But rather, I am to be Christ-like, Christ-centered, and Christ-focused because that is what brings him pleasure and therefore fulfills my purpose in life.

John 13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Rom 12:10  [Be] kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

Matt 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Gal 5:13  For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only [use] not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.