Ridgewater off Morley by the 84 & 90 intersection. I hope they’ll have it going a few more days if anyone can go see it!!
Another Post-Pandemic year to contemplate, the Lord has brought us all here through again! Prayers to those of you ill, suffering, or just tired of dealing with all the insanity, and praying for a blessing to touch you now and in the new year.
Isaiah 43:18–19
18 “Forget the former things;do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
No matter how it seems, we have to trust God is doing a new thing!!!
To minimize load time I put all the pictures on a separate page. Please take a look, I wanted to make a snapshot of our whole year! I will put just a few here — then click the “Read More” if it shows up. Blessings!!
I put them all over living room and kitchen!
Caught this beauty with my OLD phone!!!
Papa and everyone enjoyed the Lake!
Best friends enjoying time together – Ash and Gabe live in Texas….
that expert cake decorator!
Loved this picture of us four! Just missing the daughter…
Enjoying All Hearts Christmas party
EJ birthday party
Seneca Lake
Ryan asking this character’s name, I said, Bob. He said, Bob the moon 🙂
And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.” (KJV)
Last year’s picture blog — https://www.criscollrj.com/2020-monthly-picture-blog/ 2020 picture blog! (2021 note, I may do this at some point for 21 and more likely for 22. I am vaguely disappointed in ways with both that method and this one used here in 21…. would like to find the PERFECT picture display method…. ha ha.)
A text only version of this newsletter — this one is picture heavy. (WILL BE UNDER CONSTRUCTION, IF NEEDED–let me know)
PRAYERS TO ALL this second very strange year! After God brought us through COVID last December, we are thankful for no lasting problems except some extra fatigue for about 6+ weeks.
So grateful also for our sons’ recovery and my mother’s. Strangely no one else in our families got it! We had two humongous snowstorms in December of 2020 that made life interesting trying to get out of the house for COVID tests and needed grocery pickups. Broke limbs on several of our trees! The snow stayed around until at least February, and as we gained strength we started walking at the parks and seeing the frozen lake.
WINTER 2021,
JANUARY started off the year baking cookies that we gave to family and friends!1-4-21 Roger went back to college, and has several classes finished now towards his Psychology/Human Services Degree from Southern New Hampshire University! Later in January I began substitute teaching again. I also FINALLY got back to some transcription for Free State, and did until April when I once again needed a break due to overscheduling! Looking forward to doing some more this winter to “keep my fingers in the pot.” I also often do some data entry at home, both for courthouses and for a friend’s printing company.
I wrote the following and printed as my first printed newsletter in 6 years! So much information, yet so much unsaid. I feel like the biggest lesson in this past year is to just grasp each moment and try and live to the fullest, and express gratitude for any good thing that happens. There is so much negativity right now, it is good to be positive as much as possible. And pray for your loved ones, and talk to them as much as you can even if you can’t see them.
Prayers to you all at the closure of this crazy strange year! Do not believe I’ve sent paper Christmas newsletter since 2014. I did do electronic newsletter in 2019 (published 12-31), and RIGHT after that my criscollrj.com site failed. So whether many of you had an opportunity to read it I’m not sure! I mentioned some dark scary times. Faith in God is so important, and prayer of family and friends is paramount. This post says a lot. Please read if you can. https://www.criscollrj.com/2011/04/11/the-powers-and-exponents-of-faith/, emphasizing Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” I read through entire blog this year and reviewed it and edited it in preparation of moving back into my soon to be revamped original blog site. I’m glad I wrote so many of these entries years ago – I’d forgotten many of them.
Well, all we continue to say after last year is that we are so glad Roger is with us this year!! As I wrote last year, he was in the rehab center all last Christmas and it continued into February. He was finally able to come out then and recuperated at his parents’ until sometime in March. We were so happy to finally see some strength return by about April and May, and I continued to do a lot of work with him on data entry. We truly are a team!
We still go to our Youngstown courthouse every few weeks and enjoy getting a lunch together at a local Chinese restaurant. We also were blessed to enjoy a family vacation (https://criscollrj.com/2015/10/22/october-2015-maryland-vacation/) for the first time in 9 years. Even though it was a bit colder than expected (with a little snow even!), we all really really enjoyed it and hope to return again soon.
We did completely have our basement renovated last year–as I wrote in the last newsletter that said renovation had begun–and then had our bathroom repaired in May. With school again from July until just a few days ago, I am yet again ready to start cleaning out corners and cobwebs and ready to finally get Ryan in his own room as we had planned last summer, that didn’t happen. I am on another term break now until March 1, when I will start yet another semester. Three more semesters until student teaching! A bit scary, actually…
We returned to Kraynak’s again a few weeks ago with our friends the Jevnikars, and reunited with my high school friends Annette and her family, and also our mutual friend Becky. It was very enjoyable, and we especially found delicious the food at a new place, Hickory Grill. We had unseasonable warmth through much of December except for a few brief snows. It has been in the 60s this Christmas week. Strange to see daffodils coming up in places — will they come back in the spring?
We were thrilled for Chris to be enrolled in a new workshop in October where the focus is on autism intervention/training for workshop. He is doing so much better and also has seen a new medical expert that has tried some new medicines for him. He is sleeping better and is usually in a great temperament!
Colleen found a fantastic job this year and has been working since April at a pet store. She is a lizard/fish expert and that of course is right up her alley. She works a lot of hours and is very content with that.
Ryan moved on to the high school this year, in the 8th grade. He continues to excel in his academics and made honor roll this semester! He is now taller than all of us except Roger.
With all of the things that have occurred in this past year and before, we continue to trust that God has us all in His Hand and is watching over us. We have had many challenges and trials, but am so grateful that many things are resolved now, with just a bit more to get through yet. Some time ago this popped into my head, particularly the part that begins at 2:14
I didn’t realize I posted this on Facebook on December 10, 2014. Guess I should have posted it on last year’s newsletter, but here it comes now for some reason…
From Facebook 12/10/14: “This is a song I used to sing all the time in high school, and I’d forgotten about it. Starting about 1:03, listen to this song (though the first song is good too!). The part that says “I want to thank you for the gift of your son,” just randomly came in my head when I got home from the hospital today, at 2:13 on the track. Word for word it came out of my mouth, and I hadn’t heard the song in about 33 years. I felt like thanking God for seeing Roger today and that things hopefully are going to look up soon, and I thanked God, and then just started singing this song. Didn’t even know who it was by until I found on YouTube! Just knew I was in high school probably when it came out. I needed to hear the words today… been such a struggle.”
“I want to thank You for the gift of Your Son,
And for the mystery of prayer,
And for the faith to doubt and yet believe
That You’re really there.
The mysteries of Your Word are the questions of my days.
I search them now to understand the wisdom of Your ways.
Jesus walks before me and clearly walks the path
To guide me to the Father and to peace at last”
Chris visiting Daddy in the hospital, Jan ’14
Rog programming his new IPhone 5c
The place where Rog should be sitting in Youngstown court next to me…
4. I am at Youngstown Courthouse
5. February 2015 – and the snow just keeps coming.
6. And the cold!
A particular memory is how the heat quit working in my car when I was driving to Youngstown, and the real temperature outside was -17. Talk about cold toes!! Later found out it was my radiator, which I had replaced in May of 15. You’ll see below what happened in June…
7. February – the amazing photobombing bird!
8. A start to one of Colleen’s amazing paintings.
9. Ryan writes so much like I did..
10. The cold just keeps up.
11. March – painting almost done!
12. Rog is back at his mom’s, and we finally had Ryan’s and my birthday parties!!
13. Boys at mama’s and papa’s house.
14. Ryan’s SpecialSports Basketball 🙂
15. March also finally got Rog back in that special chair at Youngstown Courthouse!
16. That was an amazing temp after all that cold!
17. April brought new glasses, after years, that turned to sunglasses!
18. Colleen’s beautiful sculpture.
19. Another one of her gorgeous art show entries.
20. Rog and I got to Meadville to work May 1 and ate at 5 guys!
21. Ryan at the football camp in May for Specialsports!
21. It was Flag football…
22. Got our bathroom redone in May!
23. Colleen turned 21!
24. June – Ryan’s really enjoying summer!
25. End of June said goodbye to Old Bess after she caught on fire. 13 years — 195,000 mi. Yep, a month after replacing radiator. I was pouring radiator fluid and power steering fluid in it for months…
26. A few weeks later this 2014 T & C joined our family. 30,000 miles, and now it’s already up to almost 44,000.
27. Sophie and I enjoying our basement, much nicer after the Christmas ’14 repair!
28. July, a little trip we took Chris on where Colleen was doing some fishing.
29. Mom and her friend Allen Helm helped us plant a lot of beautiful plants and shrubs my uncle Don gave.
30. I saw Rainbows on Chris’s wall on 3-4 separate occasions this year, amidst worry and struggle.
31. Sometime the summer/fall Peach went to live with my mom. She is flourishing! She lost her “sister” Pumpkin a few months before that.
32. July – my mom and Chris and I enjoyed attending the Montville bicentennial.
33. Ryan always enjoys getting his Dairyman’s Chocolate milk, a daily trip he calls “getting Biggerline Dairymen’s chocolate milk here.”…. and boy what a fit if one of the stores has run out of stock on it…
34. September – we did get 15-20 tomatoes!
35. Mantua potato festival 🙂
36. Getting rid of old couch and fridge. Lots of newer furniture and a fridge, and lots of boxes and other things, came in when Mama/Papa moved! I’ll be sorting and arranging all these on the current break I just started.
37. Took Chris to the shore one night, Lake Erie.
38. Our trip in October to Maryland. More pics on my blog! Runaway ramps in WVa.
39. One of the parks in WVa or Maryland.
40 Fire in our cabin 🙂
41. First views of the hills.
42. I want this mailbox!
43. Our cabin.
44. November after Gayle/Chuck moved, Chris visited before they gave away the keys — Emotional!!
45. Breathtaking view of the lake in Auburn on the way to Youngstown.
46. Happy birthday Chris, mom, Papa, Nancy!
47. 48. 49. 50. Kraynak’s trip with Jevnikars, Kromer’s, and Becky Freeman 🙂 Boys are at the chocolate store, and Colleen took this lovely selfie in the car (didn’t take a selfie in the Santa chair that I asked her to 😉 )
51. Our one snow event a few weeks ago. Before and after, unseasonably warm!
Since I dropped two of my courses (was too overwhelmed, they weren’t needed right now, and I’m already taking the two required right now) I have been trying to walk each morning again for 20 minutes. Today the snow was falling very lightly, not accumulating at all on the ground that currently has no snow, and was just barely coming down on my coat. It reminded me of many walks I took in high school where I bundled up every day and walked my dog Cocoa in the back woods at our farm.
When I walk it is one time I can really try and pray without much distraction. It’s a bit different than when I drive to Kent – that is also an important time as I try and listen to 103.3 Moody Radio and really focus on the sermons and conversation. I don’t always listen to radio – I tend to switch from that to the Fish to just classic rock or mix stations, whatever I am in the mood for. But listening to the shows on the drive to Kent had become a habit and one I do want to continue even now at home. But the walking and praying was different, and I had missed it. I have not consistently done it in a while, just because it had been so hectic to always get out the door to get to school, or get Colleen to school (last year), or whatever I was doing. I am grateful the time is back.
I am also walking consistently as I am still doing the My Fitness Pal – two weeks tomorrow. All the exercise gets deducted from the day, giving more calories available, and revving the metabolism! One pound gone…
This song came into my mind today and I looked it up on YouTube.
Stryper – Calling on You
Inside of me there is a lonely place
Sometimes I just don’t know it’s there
But when I’m all alone
That’s when I have to face…
[Bridge]
The part of me that needs someone
To be by my side that’s when I call on…
[Chorus]
You, You make my life complete
You give me all I need
You help me through and through
I’m calling on you
I can’t explain just what You do to me
My love grows stronger everyday
You give me love, You give me company
And when I have to face the rain
You bring sunshine into my life
[Repeat Chorus]
[Solo]
[Repeat Chorus]
More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/stryper/
Have had occasion to hear this song twice in the last 24 hours <3 And feel convicted to share it. I also feel convicted that I need to show Him I love Him. I am definitely experienced in depending on God for His patience, wisdom, deliverance, comfort, peace, and a shoulder to cry on. But how many times do I spend time reading His word, worshipping His being and not asking for anything or worrying about my problems, or just being With Him?
How He Loves Us — lyrics
He is jealous for me,
He loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are,
and how great Your affections are for me.
And oh, how He loves us
oh oh how He loves us
how He loves us so.
He is jealous for me,
loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are,
and how great Your affections are for me.
[ From: http://www.elyrics.net ]
He loves
oh how He loves us
oh how He loves us
oh how He loves
we are His portion and He is our prize
drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
and if grace is an ocean,then
we’re all sinking’
and heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss
while my heart beats violently inside my chest
and I don’t have time to maintain these regrets
when I think about the way
He loves us oh
how He loves us
how He loves us
how He loves
yeah He loves us
oh how He loves us
oh how He loves
yeah He loves us
yeah He loves us
how He loves us
oh how He loves all
The urgencies of life all keep going on these months, almost 3 months since I posted last, my Christmas newsletter. School is in full swing for me and the kids, and we are doing fine. The usual chaos of trying to get the house cleaned (or not) and cooking, studying, playing, having outings, and planning the quarterly work trip with Rog keeps us all busy. Progressing one step at a time.
When a young boy decided to take a gun to school in nearby Chardon, Ohio, it was a moment of reflection, horror, questioning, sadness, shock, and many other emotions. Three boys died, the last of which was buried 10 minutes away in northern Chardon yesterday. The barrage of beautiful black and red ribbons has been everywhere, and I’ve even worn a red headband for a week now myself. What a tragedy, and I pray and have prayed for the victims families, friends, and the boy who shot them, and his family.
Of course something like this makes you hug your own children and say, thank God it wasn’t us, it wasn’t our children. You hug them many more times a day than usual, and yell at them less than usual. And you wonder what the purpose was. We have seen a tremendous outpouring of love, support, and offers of prayers to our immediate neighbors to the south of us, and perhaps it was that love after tragedy that was supposed to be a kind of lesson. I’m not sure. As we all continue to heal, spring is at our doorstep, with tulips and daffodils beginning to poke their heads out here and in other places. Everything becomes normal again, though of course it really doesn’t for the families touched.
In the education and democracy class I’m taking, we have had some discussion about how these events could somehow be addressed at school. I don’t know, really, what else they can do. Bullying prevention starts in elementary school. But yet it continues. And then we don’t even know for sure, was this boy bullied? That has never been confirmed.
As I listened to Dr. David Jeremiah today, http://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/radio_archives.aspx, as he was preaching about stress and our lives, I was drawn to this parallel. He was describing how when we are so stressed out in life that we have a rest in our Savior and God and that not only is it a slight offer to come to Jesus, but is a command, the way the Greek “I” is written in the text. “28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30.
So as we go about our daily duties, which He does entreat us to do: “From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man’s hand comes back to him.” (Proverbs 12:14), we still need to go to Him for rest and rejuvenation, and for me, be more like Mary and less like Martha from the New Testament stories.
Building a case for us to know that we do need to work, and not be lazy or slothful, are these verses contained in this blog post that I found. http://strengthenedbygrace.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/proverbs-on-work/ So by no means is God telling us to be lazy and sit around in Matthew 11:28-30. Perhaps it is a message to rest in Him as we work, to pray through the day, and to meditate on Him always. It is a lesson to me to try and take more time to read the Word and try to hide it in my heart to think more on as I go through my day. And just listening more to teaching radio, such as this show by Dr. David Jeremiah, has been a good practice as I drive hours a week now with work and school, to establish better habits to grow in my Christian walk.
And in the words of Keith Green —
Jesus commands us to go,
But we go the other way.
So he carries the burden alone,
While his children are busy at play,
Feeling so called to stay.
Oh, how God grieves and believes that the world can’t be saved,
Unless the ones he’s appointed obeys,
His command and his stand for the world,
That he loved more than life.
Oh he died, and he cries out tonight.
Jesus commands us to go,
It should be the exception if we stay.
It’s no wonder we’re moving so slow,
When his church refuses to obey,
Feeling so called to stay.
Oh how God comes, as he starts the great judgment of fire,
So he can gain, his greatest desire.
Cause he knows that the souls of the lost,
They can only be reached, through us,
We’re his hands and his feet.
Jesus commands us to go,
It should be the exception if we stay.
It’s no wonder we’re moving so slow,
When god’s children refuse to obey,
Feeling so called to stay.
Perhaps directly meant as a call to the mission field, but I think it could also be a call to work with all our might what is at our hand, depending on Jesus, in His name, each day.
Woke up early this morning and was reading an older journal – and found these older posts from November 1994 and January 1995.
November 19, 1994
Tomorrow is Christopher’s birthday. 4 years old! He’s got a double ear infection but is now getting better. He’s been sleeping in the daytime and stays up until 12 or 1 a.m. or gets up at 6:30! I have laryngitis and can’t speak at all! Hopefully we’ll feel better by Thanksgiving – in five days. That’s when we’re celebrating Chris’s birthday.
Dr. X wants to have Chris evaluated for autism. Hopefully it will be ruled out. He’s really a sweet little boy. We’re praying for him daily. I know God can perform a miracle.
November 20, 1994
It really hurts sometimes when we worry that something if really wrong, that our son can’t speak. Also that he’s often seeming not to understand us, although when it’s something he really wants to do he understands perfectly (bath). I’m worried we’re focusing on things that may just be nervous habits – grimacing, playing with his fingers (itzy bitsy spider?), looking at bowls and pop bottles.
He snuggles, smiles, figures things out (like loading dishwasher), being affectionate to baby Colleen. We do have the promise that God will not give us more than we can bear.1 It seems we’ve had enough trials this past 18 months to last a lifetime. But there have been blessings among the trials.
February 6, 1995
I’m so happy being home with my children. These years will go too fast. Chris is 4 1/4, almost. He’s stretched out so tall and now seems to be getting a little chubby to make up for it. his sandy brown hair forms bangs to his light eyebrows, and in straight thickness just reaches his collar. his chocolate brown eyes are framed with long eyelashes. He snuggles with us a lot. Especially while I’m nursing Colleen, Chris climbs up on my lap, on the other side of Colleen, and cuddles up to my shoulder. At these times I thank the Lord for this time.
Ridgewater off Morley by the 84 & 90 intersection. I hope they’ll have it going a few more days if anyone can go see it!!
