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April 28th Day After the Storm

May 4, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

Woke at day light happy to see it again. No storms in the forecast. Our first priority was to get to the store and hopefully find some propane and groceries. Thursday is our regular grocery day so we were low. Josh was kind and drove me and helped me out a lot carrying stuff and thinking through what we should buy.

We stopped by Lowes first. We were there at 6:30 and they were open. They had generators running their cash register and lights. Everyone was buying water.. I asked if the water was safe and they said yes but didn’t know how long it would be until they ran dry. We bought water and propane. D and C batteries were gone and by the time we checked out we heard that the propane was gone too. We actually bought too much. I didn’t know how long one of those little tanks lasted.. just knew the one we had was empty. Need some propane?

Next we went to Star a grocery store next door to Lowe’s. They had generators running the cash registers and a few lights. A bunch of perishables had already been thrown out. They were taking cash and checks only and I didn’t have my check book with us. We had gotten cash back at Lowe’s (didn’t realize we weren’t supposed to) so I had $60. We tried to be wise with our money and got the bare necessities. Our bill came out to $59.49.

Next we went to check out Publix (another grocery store down the street). They had generators for the lights in the front of the store and cash registers.. they were taking ATM cards. There were no lights in the back of the store.. everyone was shopping by flash light. All the baskets were taken so Josh and I took what we could carry and when we got in line a nice lady rearranged her basket so we could share with her. Lines were long.. but we got through pretty quickly 20-30 min.

We got home, unloaded our groceries and took a nap. All the excitement wears you out. That after noon we spent a couple of hours helping our elderly neighbors clean up the muck the flooded lake had left in their yard. Josh and Joel pulled a trash can out of the lake. I am not sure who got the builder’s port-a-potty out.

They were thankful for our help and offered to recharge our cell phone with their generator and share their freezer. We were thankful for their generator and for the cool weather. Josh and Joel got a little sunburned. Josh and I got to take showers in tepid water.. but by the time Joel got one the water was ice cold.

That night Mike flew home from DC. The air port was also with out power and they had to wheel over some stairs for them to climb down from the plane. In side the air port was dark and of course there was no air.. felt eery. We were glad Mike got home safe and showed him around.

Once he sat down we had a family discussion on if or not we should go camping. We had planed to go camping at Tim Ford’s lake from Friday through Sunday for Joel’s birthday, but were unable to get them on the phone and didn’t know what kind of damage they might have. I was a little uneasy about leaving the house in the dark and without a working alarm but the dawn to dusk curfew helped. We went to bed that night thinking we’d just stay home.

To be continued…

Storm Pictures Around our Neighborhood

May 4, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

Trash cans scattered across the vacant lot across the street. Unfortunately our trash man didn’t show until the next day and trash bags were scattered all over the neighborhood and filled our lake.

Our trash can? Broken fence.

Our house is the one in the middle across the street.

Play house.

Found our chairs.

This one is a little extra bent.

So glad the kids were there to help.

We think this is the tornado that devastated Harvest.. just a ways north of us.

House under construction on the other side of the lake. Notice the stop and street signs?

More street signs.

Neighborhood sign.

Power lines between us and the grocery store.

TREE!

Our lake from our back porch. We had a little ran. Flooded up to the neighborhood gazebo.

The tornado that came by our house started in the far corner of the lake between the gap in the trees.

The big tree to the right of the gap has quite a bit of damage.

Our propane tanks need a redesign. I think they should be underground.

We didn’t notice them until the next morning.

Zoë likes the new hole in our screen door.

After some hammering we were able to get it to close again.

Neighbor’s roof was pretty torn up.. I am guessing by our patio furniture.

The glass from our table was scattered all the way to the sidewalk.

I should get out there with the shop vac now that we have power.

The house across the street took some abuse, and that white frame used to hold a fence.

After the Storm No Power

May 4, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

I actually enjoy not having power for the most part. The kids come out of their rooms and are so entertaining. Much like camping, it’s the only time I get to see all of them at the same time. We have lots of experience with power failures: 4 hurricanes in FL and our house in Montgomery lost power in every storm.

When the rain let up, we hunted down our patio furniture, picked up the bigger pieces of our glass table out of our neighbor’s yard, talked to several neighbors in the street and called to check on friends that live near by. James called to say he was coming home early. It was quite a challenge to find a road without a downed tree or power line to our house.

We moved Josh’s car into the garage, found all the candles and flash lights. Luckily we had D batteries for my Granddad’s old radio and were able to listen to the news, hang out, and watch the skies for more tornadoes.

As the day went on and we heard more news about all of Huntsville being without power, we got a little concerned about how we were going to eat.. we only had enough propane to cook 4 hamburgers that night. Joel and Judi hadn’t done as much of the work preparing for dinner as the rest of us, so we made them share the 4th burger. Ha. We had hot dogs and other things, so they didn’t go hungry.

Between storms Josh, Joel and Judi went out to look for internet. They didn’t believe that all the businesses could really be with out power and Josh had a final exam that he needed to download by e-mail. I told them to be home before dark. I wished later I had told them to buy some propane while they were out.

They came home, we lit candles and were relieved to hear that the warnings would expire at 9:30 PM. As the sun was sitting we saw a couple of tornadoes on the horizon and one just north of us that turned the sky dark and green. We decided after a while to watch a DVD on Mike’s lap top before going to bed. We ALL agreed not to watch “Twister.” We had seen enough for one day.

Pictures coming up.

The Storm

May 4, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

Mike called from DC the morning of the storm to tell us that there were tornado warnings in our area. I replied, “I know the sirens have been going off all morning.”

Trash was out, happy for the rain considering the drought and fires where my parents live, tornado sirens aren’t that out of the ordinary (and I still prefer them to the long drawn out hurricane warnings we had in Florida).

I thought about having James go in late for work.. but Mike talked me into letting him go at his normal time. Josh was studying for final exams and Joel was on the computer. Judi was dreaming about tornadoes (no kidding). Joel and Josh came out and looked around after hearing so many sirens then went back to their room.

I was working in the kitchen a little while later when I saw a wind shear blowing across the lake and called the boys to “Come quick and see.” Joel noticed a rotation in the clouds just above our yard. I yelled, “No!” Then on the far side of the lake we saw what I guess was the beginning of a water spout; water splashing and beginning to spin 20 to 30 feet up into the air.

Josh yelled, “Run!” Joel said, “Where’s the camera? Let’s take a video.” Josh and I yelled in unison, “No! Run!” We yelled to sleeping beauty, “Get in the bathroom there’s a tornado!” The dogs followed and we brought them in with us. Judi asked, “What about George?” Joel said, “Forget about her. Cats are survivors.” The lights flickered. We lost power. A few minutes later it had past.

It just missed our house. Threw our patio furniture on and broke a neighbor’s fence a little over a block away. Broke our table into a million pieces and scattered them across the length of our neighbor’s yard. It abused our screen door. It’s hard to latch and often gets blown open. This time it bent out of shape and the screen tore up (most likely by an airborne patio chair). Knocked the propane tanks to our fireplace off their foundation and bent the pipe to the gauge (I always thought they should be under ground). We have a little damage to the roof.. mostly from the large hail we got later in the day from the storm that did the worst damage in our area (destroying whole neighborhoods up the road).

The tree near the “water spout” lost a bunch of branches. And many trees behind it and the frame of a newly constructed house are all down. Many of our neighbors (including one next door – her flag pole was bent over too) have blue tarps on their roofs now, a few lost their fences, a trampoline dropped on a neighbor’s BMW and a few other small things things were lost, but for the most part we are all happy to be alive and that things were not much worse.

Minutes after our small tornado a friend called from Montgomery to see if we were OK and to tell us that they had spent the morning praying for us. Wow! So nice to know. So blessed.

Jenny

We Have Lights

May 4, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

It’s after 8 and not too late; we have lights.

Flip a switch, and Wa-La, we have lights.

Kitchen lights, front porch lights, bathroom lights; we have lights.

Night lights and clock lights are so bright.

Screen lights light up the night with images not so bright.

Our neighbors just up the road have no lights;

Have no kitchen, no front porch, no bathroom to light;

No bed, no roof, no screen, no… -nothing left.

Some have lost more than things.

More than can be expressed.

So happy to be alive.

So happy to have my family and friends.

So fortunate to have lights,

And things to light.

May God restore to my neighbors near and far..

Much, much more.

Love,

Favorite Verses Turned into Praise

April 18, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

I’ve been collecting favorite Bible verses ever since I was a teen. I’ve written them in notebooks and on note cards, I’ve made my kids copy them and memorize them with me, and I now have files and files of them in my computer.

When I need them, Holy Spirit is faithful to pop them in my head, I search them out and cling to them and try to keep them before me (that’s why I have so many on my walls). It’s the only way I am able to run the race.. “keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus, who initiates and perfects our faith.”

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 We do this by fixing our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects of our faith. Because of the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again. Think of all the hostility he endured form sinful people; so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

I’ve always wanted to compile a list personal confessions (You know, like the ones that say, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”), so in October I started working compiling a collection and finding a way to keep it before me.

I cut an old cork board into the shape of a cross and tried pining them to it and confessing them, but it looked tacky and I couldn’t get comfortable confessing them. It felt too much like striving to me (see my previous post). He does everything by His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6). My only job is to rest, trust, and believe.

Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:29

The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. I Thessalonians 5:24

One day, I had the idea that I could rewrite my favorite verses as confessions/praises of who God is and what He has done in and for me; making it more like a prayer of thanksgiving than a demanding of myself. So I took “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” and turned it into “You strengthen and enable me to do all things.”

It’s taken me weeks and weeks and Holy Spirit keeps popping more in my head, but I think I might be close to finishing. I wrote them all using periods for punctuation, but when I confess them it’s more like:

Jesus!!!! You are soooooo AWESOME!! YOU give me STRENGTH!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!! THANK YOU JESUS!!!! THANK YOU for enabling me to do ALL THINGS!!!!!! All this while I am jumping up and down.

Do you know how many favorite verses you have? I was thinking 30 or 40, but so far I have 281 written into praises. I didn’t include the ones like “Wives submit yourselves to your husband.” Although, I could have; it could say, “You enable me to submit myself to my husband,” because He does. I know it’s not my strength, because I often have to dig deep to draw it up from Him.

I have two favorite sources for Bible study:
I’ve been using Bible Gateway for a long time. I love plugging in my 5 favorite versions (NIV, NASB, MSG, AMP, NLT) in and reading them side by side. You can read whole chapters at a time this way on Bible Gateway.

I just recently found the Online Parallel Bible. I like it because it has cross references and commentaries on the same page as the verse; helping me to really study out my favorite verses.

I hope I am not making similar mistakes to when I was collecting my favorite Psalms and leaving out the parts about wanting God to defeat my enemies.. I am sure it won’t be long before Holy Spirit straightens me out where I need it.

Despising Striving

April 10, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

Homeschooling is a lot like being self employed. You have to keep yourself motivated,

set your own schedule, decide what tools are the best for your situation, manage a budget,

manage and motivate your “employees,” evaluate your results, and make changes accordingly.

The thing is, I am not self employed. I have an invisible Head Master, Who is intently

interested in what my kids are learning and doing and is sometimes,

for me, hard to hear through the noise of life.

Having a type “A” personality I often don’t want to wait on Him, but want to

get things done now. Many years, I impatiently struck out on my own with my own plan

and fell flat on my face. The kids wouldn’t cooperate. The curriculum I bought stunk.

We were all miserable.

So after many years of this, about 9 years ago, I learned to put a lot of prayer

into the following year. Usually starting about this time of year, I start praying

while spring cleaning, washing dishes, folding clothes, gardening…

Then I pray some more, and some more; sometimes I get answers

and sometimes, I loose patience and try on my own again and fall flat on my face AGAIN.

So, through all this, I’ve learned to DESPISE striving.

When I start, I get this uncomfortable feeling. I want to stop.

Sometimes, I do stop and pray. Sometimes, I still don’t know what to do.

These verses about going on in our faith apply to everything we do from intersession,
to homeschooling, to parenting, to being a wife, or a just a good friend; to EVERYTHING.

Philippians 2:13 [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is

all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire],

both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you

will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3
Trust in Christ, Not the Law
1 You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses?
Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have

the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives.

His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.
2-4 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin?

Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding

to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness?

For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts

what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it,

how do you suppose you could perfect it?

Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing?

It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

I love this last one in the Message.

We have to keep Jesus in clear focus in our lives..

focusing on our own efforts is craziness!

Did I go through this whole painful learning process for nothing?

Lord, deliver me from craziness,

Jenny

Preparing so I can Forget

April 8, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

I’ve been privileged to speak at and/or lead a few different lady’s groups.

To this day, I fear it more than death, but I love pressing in close to God

so that I can hear what He would have me to say,

and I am trying to learn to focus on the message

and not worry so much about actually being the messenger.

Usually I can put off the fear until some hours before…

then when I have to open my mouth, my voice quivers

and when I am really nervous, I stutter.

I am in that phase now with my surgery where on the outside

I am calm and happy.. especially that it’s not anytime soon, but

I know from past experience that I need to look ahead and prepare.

When we had our first child, I read everything in the book about giving birth,

breathing, etc. but was totally unprepared for the recovery..

Four children later, I made the same mistake when I had my tubes tied.

I never looked up the side effects or what to expect when recovering.

Fast forward to now.. the internet is such a wonderful invention

filled with recovery stories, blogs, forums, advice from medical personnel..

This week I found out more than I wanted to know.

I just keep telling myself, “A couple of months after, it will be all behind me.”

The sooner I get prepared the sooner I can forget about it

and enjoy my trip to Alaska with Mike.

Yesterday, along with our regular grocery shopping

Judi and I starting gathering some recovery supplies.

I was so glad to have Judi with me..

because it was hard and a little embarrassing.

She loved teasing me about buying “granny panties” and the “old lady walker.”

She even called a friend to tell her about it.

The “Peace Man” pillow is to protect me in the car from my seat belt.

I am hoping the neck pillow will help me to sleep in the recliner.

Everyone says that was the only place they could sleep..

I have a hard time sleeping in mine as it is.. my head doesn’t know where to go.

I found the panties in the maternity section on clearance..

I need the big ones to keep the elastic from touching my scar.

Slippers are to keep me from slipping.

Walker is for the first couple of weeks.. then back to the thrift store.

I found the lap tray for a dollar. Isn’t the painting cute?

I didn’t notice until I got home that the name tag says, “Grace.”

I am so thankful that His grace is always there when we need it most.

Hebrews 4:16

Jenny

Deodorizing

April 7, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

I did a little dance in Walmart the other day when I found this deodorant.

I think it’s “corn free” and it seems to be working!

The last several years I’ve been using an aluminum free

“salt crystal” that didn’t leave me smelling oh, so pleasant.

So looking forward to not smelling this summer.

I also bought some Borax (also corn free)

and looked up some of it’s uses

http://www.20muleteamlaundry.com/

I found even more uses in other places and turned them in to a page for my

laundry room door.. Can’t wait to try it in my toilet bowl and dishwasher.

I made you a PDF of it to print

http://tinyurl.com/3c7376s

Last year this sun screen worked for me..

I bought it after having a bad reaction to my favorite sun block.

This year I turned pale and had a headache with in minutes of putting it on.

So glad I found a bathroom. Time to find or make a new one.

Generous Wife (and Husband) Tips

April 7, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

I love receiving e-mails from The Generous Wife

at http://www.the-generous-wife.com.

I try to read them everyday.
Her husband writes tips for the guys as well.

Today’s was about serving our husbands as

Jesus did when He washed His disciples’ feet.

She ended with a quote from Helen Keller.

I’d really like a collection of Helen Keller quotes.

She was such a great thinker.

“I long to accomplish a great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty

to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.

The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes,

but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

Helen Keller

Love,

Jenny