Category Archives: Monday

I Did It Monday! ~ Sylvia et. al.

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Sylvia was with her family on Friday and Saturday. It was a very full two days. I asked her to share her story with us, and she graciously consented. Thanks Sylvia.

Joyce, Gaylynn, Dad, Sylvia and Karen

I did it! Well, not alone. My father has had some health issues lately and I guess at almost 92 years young that is to be expected. My sister and I who live closest have done some house cleaning for him occasionally and another sister has come down from near Cadillac to help, but this week my youngest sister from Florida and her daughter from Chicago decided they were coming, too.

We started Friday morning about 9 AM and spring cleaned all three bedrooms and little “library room” and upstairs hall by the time we stopped to eat lunch at 1:30. That means washing the curtains, woodwork, windows, Swiffering down the walls and dusting and vacuuming.

After lunch (during which my niece drove in from Chicago to the surprise of her grandpa), we tackled the computer room, living room and dining room. We had the old washer and dryer going continuously all day, since we found piles of clothes here and there that also needed washing! We finished those rooms by 4:30 PM and declared it enough for one day.

After supper (we had all planned the meals for two days and brought it in already prepared, so it didn’t take much time or effort) we sat around and visited and even invited our cousin over–she stayed until past 11. We all stayed the night except my oldest sister who lives only 6 miles from the old farm house. Dad and I retired about 11:20 and the others kept yacking for another hour or so.

The next day we tackled the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room. My brother came up from Wyandotte to mow the lawn for Dad, but it had been done earlier when they thought it would be raining on Saturday. He barely had time to sit down for a minute when Dad said “Don’t worry, I’ve got things for us to do.” So he weed-whacked tall grass by the ditch (where dad throws his table scraps for the animals), fixed the lawn mower, and dug up the garden areas where Dad wants to plant flowers next Tuesday. We had a “Supervisor’s Chair” out there for Dad.

We stopped for lunch about 1 and then went back to work until 4:30 when we finished the final vacuuming out thru the back porch. Everything looks and smells so clean. We had never done so much so fast. Then we took pictures of Dad and us five “kids”, since we don’t all get together very often. I woke up with a few sore muscles this morning, but it was worth it. — Sylvia

[Thanks Sylvia. I forgot to send you off with your camera so you don’t have photos of the work. At least we had the shot of you, Dad and your sister.]

I Did It! ~ Interviews in Spanish

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Visit My Meme Mania the home of I Did It – Monday.


This happened Saturday in Holland, Michigan. Sylvia, Rey (an Hispanic pastor in West Michigan) and I conducted annual interviews of Spanish-speaking ministerial students. We had three other members on the interview team that spoke only English (Dennis, the team leader; Adam, an Anglo pastor and Clint, an intern). Our leader spent some time with the interviewers going over the process and what he wanted us to cover in the interviews. After that, we met with the students in a large group.

Then we held the interviews (Sylvia, Rey and I led sessions). Clint, the intern, sat in with me. I have known two of the three students that I interviewed for about a year and a half. The interviews went well and took a bit more than an hour to complete all three.

Then we all went for lunch at a Chinese buffet. If that sounds strange, I estimated that between 60 and 75% of the folks there appeared to be Hispanics. The food was great! I found some salmon that was particularly good. We sat at the tables for a while after we finished eating just enjoying being together and talking about things of common interest.

It was a great day.

I Did It Monday ~ Memorial Day

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My sister, Clara, has started a neat blog, which she calls, My Meme Mania. It is the home of “I did It – Monday.” I am participating in that, and you might want to check it out on her blog.

Today is Memorial Day. Our pastor left for vacation last week, and I was asked to preach yesterday. I did it.

The message was taken from Ecclesiastes Chapter Three. For one of the points, I told the story of two of my 5th great grandfathers.

On my father’s side, 5th g-gpa John was a farmer that had moved to Vermont from Connecticut. When the call came, he left his family and joined the continental army. He followed General Washington to a place in Pennsylvania called Valley Forge. And there he died.

On my mother’s side, 5th g-gpa Christian was a Mennonite bishop. Mennonites are pacifists, which means they will not take up arms and join in conflict. The church held that members should submit to human government, and for them that meant the British king. The call came to their community for men to join the continental army. Rev. Christian suggested that the revolutionary government in Philadelphia was attempting to form the third republic in human history. For that reason, he openly expressed the opinion that church members should pay the tax that was levied on men who refused conscription.

Church leaders were impressed with the bishop’s audacious suggestion. They ordered him to immediately cease preaching in his church. On further consideration, he was excommunicated. After his death, he was refused burial in the church grave yard. He was interred in the family burial plot of a friend, who was my 4th g-gpa.

Of course. there was much more. This is enough for now.

I hope you have had a good Memorial Day weekend, and that you took time to remember those who have served our country.