Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• I suspect there were clear skies and bright stars somewhere as I headed to work this morning but the dense fog kept me from seeing any of it.
• God’s faithfulness remains whether circumstances cause it to be very visible or hidden from my current view.
• As I went about my morning prayer, cleaning, and building prep tasks I found myself whistling again.  I suspect it’s a good thing my morning work is usually done in an empty building. 🙂
• The foggy morning brought about a delay to the start of the school day so I used the extra quiet time to continue work at tracking down the current network setup in order to help facilitate better networking communication.
• It has been quite a while since I’ve seen any deer at work and while I didn’t see any today, it was good to see their tracks lead from the woods up to my office window and then back into the woods.  I guess they miss me too. 🙂
• I kept an eye on the network all morning as the school was doing online testing.  All reports indicated it went smoothly as the earlier glitches in the network became non-issues as I tweaked the network settings.
• With the delayed start to the school day, I was well into the afternoon before I realized it.  
• With the early disciples of Jesus anticipating His return at any moment, I wonder if my arrival late in the time-line of history will make that return seem even more sudden.
• I headed out to have lunch with a friend who needed time with someone even more than he needed lunch.
• While food is important, Jesus understood that the time He spent with His Father was even more valuable.
• As I prepare to have a prayer ministry display at a camp conference in Ohio later this month, I spent some time working on some photo prints for my contribution to their vendor fair drawing.
• Today’s photo is one I had a print made of for the conference.  Being the conference is focused on Ohio camps, the photos I chose are ones I shot in Ohio.  This one is of Brandywine Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• Another morning with a clear night sky filled with the beautiful lights of the stars and planets.
• My morning routine was accomplished with a song in my heart as the words filled my mind — “Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing!”
• The song makes me think of Jesus telling the religious leaders that if the crowds would be silent, then the rocks themselves would cry out.
• My photography hobby allows me to capture and share images of creation shouting praise to the Lord.
• My day consisted of a lot of tedious research as I continue to track down some networking issues and make corrections one step at a time.
• Sometimes we come face to face with things we know aren’t right but our lack of patience causes us to swing the pendulum of change so hard that we over correct and end up with no improvement.
• Life is a series of steps.  Some steps may be larger than others, but the important thing is to keep the progress of the steps heading in the proper direction.
• The workday ended up being long, and it’s still unclear how much progress I made, but my steps were all headed in the direction of improvement.
• After I made it home, we headed down to Potato Creek to see what we could find to photograph.  I eventually found a beaver swimming away from me at the headwaters of the lake.
• It started to get quite foggy as we left the park but we headed out to eat dinner with my parents instead of going home right away.
• Today’s photo is a collection of birds that I photographed mid-afternoon as the sun came out for a time.  These were a part of nature that I believe heeded the call of the song to “Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing!”

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• I was awake shortly before the alarm was to go off and as I tried to decide if I would wait for it or just get out of bed I could hear the sounds of Susan having a seizure.
• While I’m used to it and it no longer freaks me out, I still feel bad for her.
• We should never get so used to people suffering that we no longer feel any sort of compassion for them.
• It was supposed to warm up so I began the day with a couple less layers.  It was a very cold start to the day and on the drive to work I wished I had put those layers on.
• It can be easy to look ahead to such an extent that we suffer because we weren’t paying attention to what was happening at the moment.
• As I went about my morning prayer, cleaning, and building prep routines, my mind seemed to travel among a number of songs which focus around the word hallelujah — not a bad focus for any activity.
• When I took the trash out it looked like God had pulled out a brand new set of pastel chalk to work on a sunrise scene, so I went back inside to grab a camera.
• I spent a good part of the morning with some information technology, particularly networking, research to make sure the corrections I needed to make to the system wasn’t going to cause other problems.
• Correcting things that are causing problems is a good thing to do as long as our corrections aren’t simply passing the problem along to someone else.
• Susan spent most of the morning resting in my office as she watched episodes of her favorite series, “Touched By an Angel”.  I always figure it is a fitting series for her as the title also does a good job of describing her.
• I wonder how different our workplaces, communities, and homes would be if we lived in such a way that people automatically thought “touched by an angel” described us.
• I needed to pick up some supplies for work, so by early afternoon I wrapped up my tasks in the building and headed to Sam’s Club for lunch and the needed supplies.
• When I finally made it home, the remainder of the day has been spent relaxing and doing some camera lens research.
• It is fun to have a hobby that we can not only enjoy as a family, but that we can use to share the beauty of creation with others.
• Today’s photo is one of the ones I took this morning as the sun prepared to rise over the eastern horizon.

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• When it snows over a weekend it can feel like there wasn’t a weekend, but these written pages help remind me of how God has blessed me with a good way to help support my family and the ministry He has given me to do.
• Whatever we’re in the midst of is rarely viewed objectively while we’re in it.
• It was a bitterly cold start to the day which made the stars seem even brighter in the clear night sky.
• When I’m able to remove distractions and “chill out”, God always appears closer and brighter to me.
• With the cold temps I was thankful there wasn’t a lot that needed done outside to start the day . . . cleaned up a few icy spots on the sidewalks and that was it.
• My morning cleaning and building prep was also the beginning of my prayer time regarding the writing of next week’s prayer guide.
• When the building was ready for the day, I settled in with God and a few topics I thought were good things to pray about.  There were many others, but these were the ones that my earlier prayer time had narrowed the list down to in my mind.
• As I prayerfully considered each topic and some scripture references for them, I eventually settled on the topic of “Answer”.
• Many people familiar with the Bible have heard its instruction to “always be ready to give an answer”.  What is often missed is that the context has to do with giving an answer for the hope we have in the midst of difficult times and what feels like unjust treatment.
• As with most things, God’s concern about our answers begins at the heart of the matter and not just on the technical wording of a response.
• I think of the rich young ruler who could give a “good answer”, but went away sorrowful because his heart was not ready to live that answer.
• My morning was filled with the writing, formatting, and scheduling for publication of the prayer guide.  As I worked and the sun began to moderate the outside temperature a little bit, some of the birds ventured out to spend some time outside my office window.
• By afternoon I had some technical work to do with tracking down some components in our building network.  I enjoy the IT work but it can be a challenge to my mind as I don’t work in it on a regular basis.
• Even the enjoyment we find in our time with God can seem challenging if we aren’t spending that time with Him on a regular basis.
• After a mid-afternoon lunch I made it home and relaxed for a short time before deciding to head out for an evening family adventure.
• We drove past a couple areas where we have seen snowy owls but we weren’t able to find them on this trip.
• With plenty of sunshine and blue sky, we headed to the beach to get some photographs and do some walking.  With the snow still rather deep, the walking was more of a workout than usual.
• We spent some time at our first beach-front stop but needed to spend time in the truck warming up before the sun actually set, so we drove down the shoreline to photograph the sunset at another location.
• The sunset was incredible and by the time we made it home I found I had shot over 200 photos during our evening excursion. 🙂
• When we really take in the beauty of God that He surrounds us with, it is almost impossible not to want more of it.
• It was late enough when we got home that I spent some time going through the photos from the day and left the actual writing of this page until the next morning.
• Today’s photo is actually today’s photos as I couldn’t decide. 🙂  In the first one I thought I was taking a photo of a blue jay and then found that there was a second one peering in from the side having a conversation.  The other photo is one of the sunset photos from Weko Beach in Bridgman, Michigan.

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• I was awake early to see if it had snowed overnight and it had.  
• Forecasts and predictions are great, and even useful at times, but they’re not sure things.
• The side windows of my truck were iced over fairly significantly but the snow covering the windshield kept me from having to scrape it as well.
• As I headed into work to clear the new layer of snow from the sidewalks, I arrived just after the plow company began clearing the parking lot.
• Clearing snow with a layer of ice on top is much easier than dealing with ice that is frozen onto bare concrete and pavement.
• When we allow things to adhere to our lives, it becomes much more difficult to remove them than if we were to deal with them before they “take root”.
• I found myself whistling a tune again as I ran the snowblower.  I used to whistle a lot more than I have recently but never really thought about it until now.  And no, I don’t remember what tune I was whistling this morning.
• To me, whistling is a happy sound.  Perhaps I’m happier than I realize when I’m running the snowblower.  🙂
• Once the walks were clear I went inside to warm up with a mug of coffee.  As I drank my coffee a pair of cardinals showed up outside my office window long enough for me to get a couple photos and then they flew off.
• We had a guest preacher during our church gathering as the missionary to the Philippines that we help support was in town.
• The weather seemed to have kept quite a few people away this morning, but it was a great time of worship and Bible teaching.
• Brett’s message was focused on being sent. 
  • It’s not just missionaries and preachers who are sent to share the good news of Jesus — God wants each of us to share the message of Jesus everywhere we go.
  • For a person to believe in Jesus they have to hear about Him.  Who are you telling?  And perhaps more importantly, what are you telling them with your life and your words?
  • “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  But not just for “us”, for “them” too while they are still sinners.
  • God’s love isn’t dependent on our goodness.  We can never make ourselves good enough, but He can transform us into what we ought to be.
  • What we say we believe about the Bible doesn’t matter as much as what our actions say we believe about it.
• After the church service it was lunch with my family and then a restful afternoon.
• Even when the weather isn’t ideal, getting out and working/playing in the elements usually helps me sleep better at night.
• As I prepare to close out the day, the forecast is calling for a very cold but dry night.  But as I did to start today’s page, I will still be up early in the morning prepared to clear walks again if I need to but satisfied if I don’t.
• Today’s photo is of the male cardinal that stopped by outside my office for a brief visit this morning.

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• I guess with the snow day yesterday making it feel like a Saturday, it was only fair that today didn’t feel very much like Saturday. 🙂
• After I was up and had my coffee, I headed outside to clear the snow out of my driveway again.  There wasn’t a lot of fresh snow overnight, but with more in the forecast it seemed wise to take care of what was there.
• “Stuff” has a way of accumulating in our life if we don’t deal with it as it comes.  Sometimes it is tempting to think things aren’t big enough to take care of now and then we eventually find ourselves buried under the circumstances of life with no idea how things got so deep.
• Once my drive was cleared at home, it was time to head to work to take care of the snow and things that didn’t get done yesterday.
• My workday was shortened up by the help of my wife who did most of the inside cleaning while I worked on clearing the snow from the sidewalks.
• It has been a while since a song has taken over my mind as completely as it did today while I was running the snowblower.
• Instead of just singing the song in my mind, I found myself whistling the tune as I worked — “A child of the King, child of the King!  With Jesus my Savior, I’m a child of the King!”
• At first I thought it was an odd song to come to mind as I worked, but then I thought about what it means to be a child of God and realized a big part of that includes doing the work He created for me to do.
• With the extra help, the building cleaning and prep was done by early afternoon, so we headed out for an afternoon family adventure.
• Our first stop was lunch but then we went to Potato Creek State Park where we drove around looking for photo opportunities before finally stopping for a family walk through the snow.
• Walking through snow that is nearly a foot deep is a lot of work. 🙂
• Just because something takes extra effort doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing.  In fact most things that are worth doing will require extra effort at some point in the process.
• After a couple short walks in the park, we drove into Michigan to see if we could find a snowy owl to photograph.
• The snowy owl we saw a couple days ago was waiting for us, so we stopped and took some photos while the she posed for us.
• Today’s photo is of one of the picnic sites at Potato Creek.  The snow was stacked up high and I didn’t see anyone using any of the grills or picnic tables today. 🙂  

Okay, for those that were expecting an owl photo or two, here are my favorites from the day. 🙂

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• By the time I went to bed last night, nearly all the area schools had made the call to cancel today so I went to sleep without setting the alarm.
• I still woke up at my usual early weekday time but was tired enough that I went back to sleep.
• It didn’t seem that bad outside when I got up, but the snow kept coming all day and would have made transportation to and from school treacherous at either end of the day.
• Being responsible often means you have to make the difficult decisions that will likely be unpopular with some people regardless of what you decide.
• They say hindsight is 20/20, but leaders can’t base decisions on hindsight . . . they must consider as much information as possible to make an informed decision to the best of their ability.
• With the snow day it kind of felt like a Saturday but that will eventually catch up with me once I start dealing with the snow at work.
• I started the morning by writing yesterday’s page and then did some research on some vacation options for later in the year.
• My neighbors thought I wasn’t home and stopped by to clear my driveway.  It is good to have neighbors who look out for each other.
• By late afternoon, the snow had filled back in so I fired up my snowblower for round two on my driveway.  
• Working in the beauty of the great outdoors made me hungry so I started up the pellet grill to cook some steaks for dinner.  It can always be grilling season. 🙂
• It sounds like there will probably be a pause in the snow sometime tomorrow so I’ll try to get some rest before then so I can clear the walks at work in preparation for Sunday.
• Today’s photo is one I took yesterday before this current round of snow began.  The day of rest was nice today, but that meant I didn’t get out to take new photos. 🙂

Some thoughts, reflections, and/or lessons from the day:

• Page 39 was kind of the calm between the storms.  There was just a dusting of fresh snow overnight, so I didn’t have to spend much time outside to start the day.
• My morning cleaning routine included a few minor maintenance issues to have the building ready for the day.  It is much easier to take care of the issues when I catch them, or are made aware of them, while they are minor.
• Once the building was ready and the students arrived for the day, I put on my accounting hat and spent the morning working on the financial accounting and reporting that I’m responsible for.
• With the sun out most of the morning, I was somewhat surprised that the birds were not filling the trees outside my office window . . . but there was one rabbit hopping around in the snow.
• By early afternoon, the Friday forecast was not looking good so plans were discussed for the potential of cancelling school and church activities for the day.
• It was still mostly sunny by mid-afternoon, so we headed out on a family adventure to see what we could find to photograph.  Sometimes it is so easy to just get home and sit after a full day that the hardest part of finding photo opportunities is simply getting up and going.
• It was cloudy to the south, so we headed north with our first destination a search for a snowy owl.  We didn’t see one after a bit of driving in the area where it’s been known to hang out but had to call a time-out in the search to find a nearby town with a bathroom for Susan. 🙂
• It was starting to cloud up around us so instead of going further north we headed back to look for the owl.  I finally saw her sitting in a vineyard a long distance from the road.  The first picture in today’s page was the best I could do even with long-range zoom and cropping of the photo.  It was still fun to see and good to know she was still around.
• Sometimes we find what we’re looking for but it isn’t where we would like it so we have to simply choose to enjoy it where it is.
• The cloud cover seemed to have some cracks in it, so we headed west and south to Michigan City where we were able to photograph the lighthouse and beach front scenes with an early sunset look to them.
• On our drive, we were able to catch sight of a beautiful sundog shining brightly along one of the larger openings in the cloud cover.  This mini rainbow would grow and shrink depending on the amount of light that passed through the upper level moisture.
• God can turn even our cloudy rain/snow filled lives into something of beauty when we allow His light to shine through the moisture of our tears.
• After a walk along the beach and on the pier out to the lighthouse, we decided to take a longer route home in order to stop for dinner at a restaurant a friend co-owns.  They have great food and it is good to be able to help support this venture.
• As we were driving, I commented that there had been some snowy owls sightings reported about a mile north of the main road we were on.  It wasn’t long after saying this that I noticed one sitting on top of a telephone pole right along the road!
• After turning the truck around, we parked beside the pole and used the truck for a “hunting blind” as we got some good shots of this beautiful snowy owl.
• The second photo on today’s page is a collage of three photos taken of this owl in the twilight of the evening.  These owls are fun to watch and I think they may enjoy watching us. 🙂