I'm baacckk...

My body is weary. My dorm room is a complete and utter disaster. I have no idea what my final class schedule will look like this semester. I already have a million crazy thoughts about people and relationships and serving and growing flooding my brain.

But I have my fish. :)

Meet Chauncey.



All will straighten out. I'm looking forward to where the Lord leads me this semester. It will be a good journey.

PS I will post pictures of my room eventually, but NOT now. :D

PSS "Yakov, what does 'PS' mean?" "Why, it means, 'Please, Sweetheart.'" (Inspector General)

Three more nights

"Goodnight! Love you!"
"Goodnight! See you in the morning, Lord willing."

Those words are the equivalent of "Goodnight, John-boy" in our house.
And I only have three more nights of hearing them before I'll be back on Asbury Road, in Dubuque, Iowa, sleeping in my dorm room. Whoosh! What a summer! Where has it gone? I'm looking forward to being back in school, but I am already missing everyone here. It was sad to say goodbye to my little cousins on Sunday...





And little Deborah keeps coming into my room to hang around and tell me that she doesn't want me to leave. Boxes are starting to pile up in my room, and it is looking emptier. I have so much stuff. Why on earth? And every time I move, I give some more of it away. Soon I won't have anything. That is, after I move about 150 more times. :) For instance, I gave away two shirts today - one was one of my Hawaiian shirts. I have three and I only wear one of them. I offered one to Abby, and she took the one I always wear. That's a good thing, because then I'll actually wear the other two. :P It really is all just stuff. Most of it I could live without if I had to. But since I don't have to live without it and it makes life more pleasant, for the time being anyway, I keep it (except for what I give away). :)

I'll be heading up to Iowa on Friday morning, Lord willing. My next post will probably be from the land of never-ending cornfields. :D

Farewell, Kansas...I'll miss thee. :)

Not at all like August...

I'm sitting on the couch listening to my sister play the piano and a light cool, fall-smelling breeze wafts through the door. Sunday night it rained and yesterday it was cool all day even though we were canning applesauce - as a matter of fact, last night when I lay out in the Woodland Garden talking on the phone, I was actually cold! So yeah...this is a little unlike August...

Well, I'm home from camp, and it was a lovely two weeks, that's for sure.



First, the Lord gave me a wonderful week where I was able to teach 13 little girls about how faithful and trustworthy the Lord is. To be sure, it was more like the Lord teaching me, the other staff workers, and the 13 girls to boot, just using my mouth. :) Wow, I love teaching. And I love those girls. And I love Jesus. So...combine those three, and give me a week revolving around them all and it's just about perfect. :) Some evenings after I finished, I was on such a high I could hardly settle down. Two girls got saved! Praise the Lord! All of the girls were a huge encouragement to us on staff. It is such a blessing to see young women with a heart for the Lord. It was also a huge encouragement to see the Lord using the teenagers who were counseling. Two of the counselors, the director and I were in our twenties, but three of the counselors were only 15, and it was exciting to see their excited hearts for the Lord and see how He used them. We had a princess theme and it was so much fun to pretend we were a bunch of Cinderellas for the week.



Or, at least Prince Charmings...though I'm not sure where that one came from... :D

Then came family camp. Anyone remember Charlotte's Web when Wilbur is getting into the crate and the sheep says "That crate should say, 'Zukermann's Famous Pig...and two stowaways'"? Well, our white van should have had a sign that said "Tammy Skiles' family...and four stowaways." :) Brad, Karin, Grandma, and my friend Caiti came with us. Aunt Jen's family were there, too, so in all, our "group" totaled 19 people. It was a riot. :) Actually, we really had a lovely time. I just love my siblings and cousins and it was a huge blessing to be able to spend a week with them. We did lots together, tubing, swimming, paddleboating, singing...even managed a trip to the caves. So fun!



My three objectives were:
1. Time to rest
2. Time with my family
3. Time with the Lord

All three were accomplished very well. :) So refreshing. I had a nap every single day! That should be mandatory for every human being. Every morning I was able to read my Bible and pray down by the lake for an hour or more. Talk about refreshing! So lovely! What a good week.



Now I only have 10 days until I'll be back at school. Wowsers! Where did the summer go? Although while I say that, I look back and think, man, it's been a long one. :) Time is a funny thing.

Thanks all, for praying!