Joyful Journey

o Hi! My name is Sydney and my owners continue to scatter all over the world and no one is living anywhere that can take a sweet dog like me. What about you? Here are the important facts about me. I'll be 9 in September (Translation, no longer a hyper puppy) I like long walks on the beach (or any place as long as I have a loving friend) I love to swim and catch sticks, retrieve tennis balls or play hoops (I'm a great rebounder, but my shot percentage is low) Have sheep you need rounding up? I'm your man. (Well, I have never herded, but that's what I bred to do, so I think I would learn quickly) I can roll over, sit like a kangaroo, give you high five, sit, stay (well, we keep practicing that one. I just like to be with you!), open mailbox doors, and bring in the paper. I've been told that my owner's housing situation will change again in September, so I could be open to a foster home for July and August. Oh yes, and I'm Australian, Mate. (Cattle Dog, th...

Directly across from our apartment (about the 10 meters away) is a home that appears to have been here in town for quite a while. There is a small barn attached to the house, with a breezeway between, that is directly across from our kitchen balcony. The family owns four ducks, two dogs, two dwarf goats and a slew of chickens, most of them with these strange-looking (well, at least to me) feathered feet, including now, not just one, but two roosters. The chickens are a different variety than this family previously owned. I'm assuming the other chickens went in a pot somewhere, although we can't verify that fact. All we know is that when we returned from the states in March, our neighbors had new chickens, and then a few weeks ago added at least a dozen chicks. (So wish I could get a clear picture of them. They are still kept inside, so I've tried to photograph them, but it's through chicken wire and another smaller screen. Just too unclear to post.) The roosters of...

Photo courtesy of Ace Clip Art Memorial Day "This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." ~Elmer Davis "Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty." ~Louis D. Brandeis "Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." ~John Quincy Adam "The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war." ~Douglas MacArthur On this Memorial Day, it is with gratitude that we say thanks to the many who have, through the years, given their lives that we may be free. And a special thanks to those who are currently on active duty, including extended family: Major Robert Sexton Lance Cpl. Owen Sexton

I have been thinking about our years of homeschooling quite a bit this past week, for many reasons. This weekend was the NCHE (North Carolina Home Educators) Conference, which I worked at a number of years. Always scheduled over the weekend of Memorial Day, it was a full but exhausting time as a vendor. This year Dawn and Steven were going to both be working and so I had been praying for them as I knew how tiring it can be. But the other reason, was that I had learned of Jessica Hulcy's accident . Prior to hearing of it , the Lord had brought their family to mind and I was checking out the KONOS website to see what was new and wondering if they had a high school tour to Europe planned for anytime soon. Knowing this is the busy speaking and traveling time for them, I began to pray, not knowing yet of the accident. For those of you not familiar with the name, Jessica and Carol Thaxton wrote the KONOS curriculum which I used during our time home schooling. KONOS to me was mor...

Since February of 2008, I have been able to attend a wonderful local Precept Bible study group. We are women from many different cultures. Some permanently in Switzerland, some like me, who are here for a short time. The common denominator is that we all speak English, although English is not the first language for many. We recently were able to honor a very special woman who is a part of the group. This gracious woman opened her home for 5 years for Bible study until the group finally completely outgrew her large dining room table. At her home it was not just, "Come on in," but "Come on in. Enjoy some fresh bread. Would you like some coffee or tea? Are you comfortable?" Her hospitality was like Lydia mentioned in scripture. It was a hospitality that prevailed upon you. The first time I met this woman, she learned I would be attending not just the Wednesday study, but the Friday study as well. And that particular day they were having a luncheon after the Wedn...

I just couldn't resist posting this adorable photo of a very adorable little girl, my honorary Swiss granddaughter Alea. Her Dad and her honorary Swiss Grandpa were each off to the states on business, so her Mom and I decided that we needed to have a Girls Only Sleepover. I needed to take a few bags of books to church that morning, and so I picked up Alea and Kasey and we drove to church. Alea did wonderfully during church, but was tired by the time church was over. It's only a 5 minute or so drive to Kasey's from church, but as this photo shows, Alea didn't manage to stay awake. But somehow on the drive home, she did manage to wiggle her hairband down off her hair and almost cover her eyes. Just too cute.

Ask the experienced, rather than the learned - Arab Proverb Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand - Native American Proverb You should learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself. - Source Unknown We do well to learn from the mistakes of others, don't we? Today I am giving you the chance to heed good advice. To learn from one who is experienced. To learn from the mistake of another. To save yourself time and energy. To show yourself to be wise. Do you know what happens if you carefully place nail polish inside a plastic bag when putting it in the suitcase, but neglect to carefully close the nail polish itself? You end up with a suitcase full of nail polish smelling clothing. And a LOT of wash to do.

Scientists have said that our sense of smell is very closely tied to our memories. Well, recently it has been smelling like home. No, not the wonderful smells of manure, cows, and barns. Those smells remind me of Uncle Andy's or Grandpa Stoltzfus farms. It's the lilacs that are in bloom everywhere that smells like home. I grew up outside of Rochester, NY, which is known for its annual lilac festival, every year around Mother's Day. In the late 1800, nurserymen endowed the community with 20 acres of rolling hills known as Highland Park and the park's final development was done by the same man who designed, New York City's Central Park. There are now over 500 varieties of lilacs and when the weather cooperates (remember, this is western NY!), the lilacs are spectacular. And, oh so fragrant. After getting married and moving to California, I missed that wonderful smell of spring as lilacs are not grown there. Nor do lilacs grow in North Carolina. But Switzerla...

Happy Mother's Day to moms everywhere. Here are the two wonderful young men who are why I celebrate Mother's Day. These were taken just a few years ago! What a blessing it is to be a mom.

On my walk yesterday I was struck by the color combinations that are so very prevalent right now. The fields of canola are at their peak, with their yellow flower radiant on the hillsides, interspersed with other fields of deep green. And then along the edges of the field are buttercups. Then I noticed the John Deere tractor driving toward me on the farm road I was walking. And that's when it thought of it. Oh. So that's why John Deere picked their bright yellow and dark green color combo. All they had to do was look around them at the peak of spring and those colors were everywhere. I guess you could say they chose one of God's color combinations. I'm sure my Dad would agree.

Okay....this is going back a long time, but I can't omit a post about this very Swiss event we attended when MarDell and Justin were here last fall. Enjoy! Whenever we have guests coming, I begin looking to see what special Swiss events might be happening while they are here. Depending on the time of year, they may be many or very few. When MarDell and Justin were coming I noticed that there was an Alpabfahrt scheduled for one Saturday while they were here in the village of Engelberg, a beautiful Alpine village south of Luzern, only a bit over an hour drive from here. Since MarDell grew up on a farm, I thought she would find it fun. We all did. The alpabfahrt is the return of the cows from the high pastures at the end of summer back down to the lower elevations where they remain until late spring or early summer when they make the trek back up to the high pasture. And it is a major event. The cows are festooned with flags, and flowers and the lead cow getting a special ce...

Some of my fondest memories as a child going to visit my Stoltzfus grandparents were that there were always sure to be fun times to play in the barn, opportunities to wander down to the creek if the weather was good, someone to play Dutch Blitz with, and a guarantee of at least one 5 gallon drum of ice cream in the large chest freezer in the "middle room." When you are a dairy farmer, milk is a staple of life. And so ice cream is just a natural second. And any time you get a group of Stoltzfi together, you can rest assured that plenty of ice cream will be served and consumed. As one of my aunts put together a photobook of her life, she began to dig more deeply into our family history. With all Stoltzfi in the US being descendants of Nicholas Stoltzfus, a German native, we have always thought ourselves to be mainly of German descent. However, if you look carefully at our ancestory, the vast majority of our ancestors (Beiler, Blank, Glick, Hertzler, Holly, Koenig, Mast, ...