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Archive for the ‘Montana’ Category

Christmas Spectacular

Yesterday Bob & I were treated to a wonderful opportunity.
Our friends, Ann & John, drove us in to Bozeman
to enjoy the phenomenal “Christmas Spectacular” by the Bozeman Symphony.

The players were joined by the Symphony choir
and an amazing tenor soloist, Tamar Green.
I broke the rules, held my phone down where no one could see it,
and recorded a bit of Tamar’s extraordinary voice. You just have to hear him!!

I held the phone down in front of the chair… Oh, please listen.
His voice is amazing!!

His personality is as enchanting as his singing voice.
When he is not here, he is in New York, on Broadway,
playing the part of George Washington in the musical, Hamilton!!

I had to peek between two tall heads to see him –
and lean over between two other heads
to see the amazing conductor, Norman Huynh,
but I managed…
and was mesmerized by the lighting,
the staging,
and the quality of the musicians.

We are so blessed to have this delightful, talented conductor here with us in Bozeman, MT. He is such a gift to our music community! Thank you, Norman!!

The light show on the walls left, right, above,
and on the stage
was such an enhancement
to the show!

As you can tell by the menorah,
the music was varied
and celebrated many of this season’s traditions.

The concert ended with a rousing singalong.
I wish you coulda been there with us!

Did you sing along? Could you hear it?

Try not to let my scratchy alto voice distract you
from the fun of an auditorium of music lovers singing with gusto!

Silent Night is my favorite carols.
What is yours?

I hope you have a chance to attend a spectacular Christmas concert in your area, this season.

God bless you, dear friends!
Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas!

Love,
JanBeek

Category:

Christmas, holidays, Love, Montana, music

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Montana Snow

The Christmas cards are done
They’re ready to be mailed
But we can’t leave our home
We’d surely be derailed

The winds were 40 mph gusts, and
The drifts have blown like crazy
I’ll have to ZOOM church tomorrow
And it’s not cuz I am lazy

I’d attend if I could get out
And after church I’d go
To the post office to mail the cards
But I can’t get through the snow

So we are at the mercy
Of a kind and helpful neighbor
When he comes with his bobcat blower
We’ll watch him work and thank him later

He’ll blow out the driveway
And clear a path for us
So we can get to church
Without shoveling and lots of fuss

But if you don’t see us
And if our card to you doesn’t come,
You might send out a sled team
To rescue us… we’re frozen and numb!

That’s our driveway that’s the culprit
The wind swirls the snow in piles
Inside between the rabbit brush
It blows in from many miles

That photo was a light snow
This time it’s at least two feet tall
After our neighbor plowed us out
The piles were a five foot wall!

We haven’t seen a winter like this
This storm has been a doozy
It started way too early this year –
The freezing wind makes me woozy

The Christmas cards are done
They’re ready to be mailed
But like I said, I’m stuck in here
Our Christmas travel might be curtailed

Try coming in through the drifts
I’ve some hot chocolate to share
But if you don’t make it here
Mr Snowman will be content floating there

Hope you’re having a happy December so far.
God bless you! Stay in touch.

Love ya,
JanBeek

Take a look at this photo I found!
That’s me – pregnant with our 1st child, Ty.
And that’s my sis and her hubby with my niece, Denise
and my mom and dad…
1964 Christmas …
Sweet memories!

Category:

Christmas, Family, holidays, Life's Challenges, Montana, nature, Poetry

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Rainbow Bridge

Our hearts are hurting today.
Yesterday we had to help our 12 year old Boston Terrier, TazE,
over the Rainbow Bridge.

She was struggling to breathe, rasping…
not eating or drinking for the last four days…
and lost the use of her back legs twice during that time.
Her organs were shutting down.

We were snowed in and unable to get out.
It was terrible to see her suffer.

She had lost all kinds of weight
since this picture was taken
because even when she still was eating,
it was very little.

We knew we were losing her,
but we just didn’t want to let go.
Who will be my walking partner?

Our wonderful neighbor, Rex,
spent over an hour with the snow plow on his ATV
here in our driveway yesterday
plowing us out so we could take TazE to the vet.
The ladies at Mountain View Vet Hospital
in Sheridan/Twin Bridges were wonderfully
compassionate, empathetic, and professional.
TazE went peacefully in my arms.

My heart is breaking,
but I know we did the right thing…
and I believe when I get to heaven
she’ll greet me at the pearly gates!
It wouldn’t be heaven if
our beloved furry family members
aren’t there, too!
Would it?

Bob won’t miss having the toenails to clip.
That was a stressful job!!
But he sure will miss his buddy
when we’re out on our “Lucille”
(she’s our ATV… a red head who is a Ball).

There is a part of Bob’s personality
that only surfaces
when he is with his Boston Buddy!
I will miss that part of Bob!

Happy TazE

In Heaven our TazE will be forever young!
Good-bye for now, sweet pup!
See ya over the bridge… keep the light on!

(St. Peter, give her a bone, wouldja?)

Love,
JanBeek

Category:

Animals, Faith, Family, Heartache, Life and Death, Life's Challenges, Love, Montana, pets

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Happy Day After

Happy Day after Thanksgiving! It’s a heat wave – we’re finally above freezing! The icicles are melting.

Time to “cool it” and let the turkey and stuffing settle while making turkey soup with the leftovers.

Our dear friends, the Humphreys, invited us to share the Thanksgiving feast with them. Such a lot of food! God bless them; they sent half the leftovers home with us. We are enjoying them a lot!!

Bob and I tried not to overstuff ourselves. Not easy!!

Kathy set a really pretty table.

Meantime, in Maryland, our friend Laina is recuperating from surgery, so her daughter, Katy, came over and created a phenomenal meal. Take a look at that turkey. Isn’t it beautiful? Katy’s sister and her fiance’ joined them. Thank God for our technology, we are able to share photos and greetings with one another.

In California, our son, Ty, and his wife, Monika celebrated Thanksgiving with his in-laws, two of his kids and two grandkids at a time-share in Napa. Here is a wreath they made with expressions of their gratitude. Don’t you love it?

On Thanksgiving Day, Ty and his son (our grandson,Jordan) plus his daughter (our granddaughter, Faith) and her husband participated in a “Turkey Trot.” Good for them, huh?

I have a wonderful picture of the whole family, but with my two great-granddaughters in the photo, I can’t post it. You’ll just have to imagine it!

I hope your Thanksgiving weekend
is filled with more family and friends
gathering to celebrate your blessings with you.

Do keep in touch, OK?

Love,
JanBeek

Category:

Family, food, friendship, holidays, Living in Harmony, Love, Montana, relationships, Sharing

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Happy Day Before

Happy Day Before…. the rest of your life … a day of gratitude in the USA,… I pray you are well, anticipating a happy tomorrow, and living the good life.

Thank you for checking out JanBeek today. What are your tomorrow plans? We are planning to go to dinner with dear friends who live just a mile away … that is, if we can get out of our driveway! Look at what’s happening outside:

It’s pretty from the inside looking out! I’m not complaining. We have had several relatively dry years – so we can use the moisture! I just pray the roads are clear enough that we can get out tomorrow!

Yup, like that turkey who avoided the chopping block, I am grateful for life! Grateful for love and health, and all God’s blessings. What are you grateful for today? I pray that you’re feeling blessed, too.

Cheers!
Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow…
Happy Day Before…

Love to you and your family,
JanBeek

Category:

blessings, Family, friendship, God, Gratitude, holidays, Life's Challenges, Love, Montana, prayer, relationships

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Reblog #8 – Be at Peace

Seek the stillness
Seek the tranquility
See the peace within
The calm in you and me

Photo by Lisa Glines

Imagine a peaceful lake
Breathe contentment into your life
Relax and be a gentle presence
Turn away all stress and strife

Don’t try to hear me –
The wind drowns out my voice.
Just enjoy the scenery!

That is a video
Taking you down the driveway
to our home behind the trees

Photo by Nick Kwan on Pexels.com

Do not let the wind
Disturb your tranquility
The wind moves the clouds

The clouds paint pictures
The clouds bring much needed rain
Wind whips them away

Let the wind help you
Blow away any distress
And just be at peace

Smile, my friends!



When this post was first written,
Bob & I were headed out in the boat
to float the Madison River.
Since then, we have sold the boat.
A lot has changed in our lives.

I took this photo on my walk earlier the day this post was first written.

I took TazE for a walk by the river.
She loved it.
Today it is snowy and blowy here…
No river walks.
But I will post a few pictures to show you
what peaceful scenes our Madison River provides!

Many thanks to Ed Coyle for his talented photography

.

Come and visit us here someday!

Be at peace, my friends.

I gotcha covered in prayer.
Have a peace-filled day.

Love,
JanBeek

Category:

Bible Lessons, blessings, Family, Fishing, God, Gratitude, Haiku, Living in Harmony, Love, Montana, mountains, peace, photography, Poetry, relationships, Travel

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Reblog #4 – Nostalgia

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

NanoPoblano2022 has invited us to reblog an old post each day during this month of November. I’m having fun going back through some of my first posts… Here is one from our vacation in southern California in 2014. The roadrunner picture in the original post was not available so I borrowed one from Pexels. Thanks!

January 27 2014

There was a Time Magazine article by Lily Rothman in which the author quoted artist, Brendan O’Connell, “Nostalgia makes memory warm.” O’Connell stopped to say parenthetically, “That’s actually a significant thought,” and I paused. Hmm – memories, nostalgia, warmth. Yes, it’s true. Not all memories are warm, but all nostalgic memories are warm. Do you agree? When you think of warm memories, what comes to mind? Here’s mine:

Childhood

Climbing
Hillsides
Into
Lands
Dense with
Hidden
Occupants
Ordering Hot
Dogs.

Hah! That’s my whimsical acrostic for today – looking back on yesterdays.

But, how about Making Memories Today?

Image

There’s no better place to make memories than where you are right now today! For me, whether it is in the warm desert on vacation in the southern California sun with roadrunners scampering by and sun casting spakles on cactus, or back home in the cold snows of Montana, each day is a memory in the making. The climate doesn’t determine the warmth of the memories. The people I am with, the events we choose, the lessons I learn, the visions I absorb: those are the nostalgia of tomorrow. I am making warm memories today – wherever I am!

Nov. 5, 2022 – our snow is almost all melted now. With today’s winds, the rest of it will blow off the roof of our house (peeking through the trees there).

That acrostic up there was mine back in 2014… but I have no idea how that could have been true. We lived in the flat central valley of California. No hillsides to climb! If I were looking back at my childhood and creating an acrostic today, it would say:

CHILDHOOD

C hasing
H ounds
I nto
L ittle
D ugouts
H aving
O odles
O f
D ead animals

Oh my! That one is reality! My dad owned a Tallow Works and one of his jobs was picking up dead animals from ranchers and farmers and bringing those animals back to the “plant” where we lived. We always had at least one dog as a pet… and they were always “hounds.” No money for pedigrees!! In our bare fields behind our house, my neighbors (cousins) and I would dig holes and create pretend worlds. That 2014 acrostic must have come out of that pretending. Sometimes our best memories are the imaginary ones, don’t you think?

If you were to write a childhood acrostic today, would yours be real? Or would you pretend?


I hope your real world is full of happy memories – warm nostalgia.
Have a great day today, my friends.

.

I had a warm, huggy, loving daddy. My memories of him are certainly warm nostalgia!!

Thanks for visiting
JanBeek
See ya tomorrow

Category:

Animals, blogging, children, Family, Love, Memories, Montana, Poetry, Sharing, writing

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In the Winter Now

Jem Croucher, Poet’s Corner introduced to me today a new poetry form. Her blog beautifully described “In the Autumn Now” in an aaab rhyme scheme.

For those of you unfamiliar with those poetic descriptors, the aaab scheme means the first three lines all rhyme, but not the 4th one.

The fun thing about her last line is that it was the poem’s title and it was repeated in each of the four stanzas. Brilliantly done! (There are probably other rules to this rhyme form, like 7 or 8 syllables to create rhythm on each line… but I’m not sure I can do that! So will just go with the rhyme scheme and number of lines for now.)

I’m going to try my hand at this poetry form, but as you know if you saw my post yesterday, we – here in Ennis, MT – are “In the Winter Now.” Alas, our fall colors are buried under several inches of snow. Beautiful, but – oh my – too early for me!

From my kitchen window

October snow fell softly

The view from our dining room
Through the screen of my bathroom window –
Look up – can you see the icicles?

October snow – unseasonable
Way too early – unreasonable
Return of colors – unfeasible
In the Winter now

Lack of wind – delightful
Snow in clusters – rightful
Blue sky returning – eyeful
In the Winter now

Howling winds return – disappointing
Wind chimes play – enjoying
Returning storm looms – annoying
In the Winter now

Tasting falling snowflakes – purely
Venturing out in the snow – securely
Getting skis ready – prematurely
In the Winter now

Wanna try your hand at this poetic form?
Go ahead … give it your best shot.
It’s fun!

For a really good example of the form,
check out Jem’s
In the autumn now
It’s delightful!

Send your poem to Jem Croucher
She’d be delighted to hear from you.

Speaking of fun –
Look at that photo of us –
100 years ago –
Ready for winter!

Hah!
See ya later.
Stay warm.
Love, JanBeek

Category:

learning, Love, Montana, nature, photography, Poetry, trees

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S/He’ll Be Back!

It’s been a wonderful early winter Sunday.
It snowed all night last night!
Yes, I know… too soon!
It’s only mid-October.

See those footprints under the tree?
When I looked out the window this morning,
there was a deer,
nibbling on the berries in that tree.
By the time I dashed to get my camera/phone,
she was long gone!
I think she is the same doe
who visited us last week,
and chewed off/ spit out
the geranium blossoms that were in that planter.

Yes, she’s been here before.
I captured her on camera last spring.
She’ll be back!
She’s pretty… but she is a nuisance.
She thinks our plants were put there
to supply her salad bar!

Today’s sermon by Rev. Mary Grace Reynolds
dealt with this same theme: “He’ll be back!”

John 16:16
Your Sorrow Will Turn into Joy

16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”

In my sermon notes today, I captured these main ideas,

Life doesn’t always turn out as we imagine.
Disappointments run the gamut.
The disciples were puzzled, not understanding
where Jesus was going and why He had to leave.
Jesus knew His disciples would grieve
and they would be mocked for believing in Him
as their Savior, so He wanted to encourage them.

20 “Truly, truly, I say to you,
you will weep and lament,
but the world will rejoice.
You will be sorrowful,
but your sorrow will turn into joy.”

He would not leave them for good…
He promised He’d send them
A Comforter (The Holy Spirit),
and then He would return to them.

Jesus told the disciples,
“The Holy Spirit is a gift
that will come in my absence.”

The Holy Spirit is with us today.
The Spirit is a nudge in the night,
the inexplicable comfort in times of distress,
a direct line to God (God on speed dial!)
Sometimes referred to as the Holy Ghost,
He will come to remind you of everything
Jesus taught during His ministry on earth.

Tragedy is tragedy-
However, there is a wisdom obtained
when we experience the goodness
and the tragedy together.

Life can take us on turns we don’t expect.
We’d like to trade pain and tragedy for comfort.
However,
disappointment and pain help us be
more fully connected to others
with empathy and compassion.
That ain’t always easy – that’s for sure!

Mary Grace concluded her sermon with this thought to ponder:
“We become stronger than what hurts us.
There is much hope in that.”

Are you like me?
Wouldn’t you rather just avoid that which hurts you?
Don’t hurts just feel like a trap?

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

God is asking us to look at life’s challenges through Jesus glasses.
Don’t deny yourself the lessons learned.
When things aren’t working out, take another look!

Like that deer on my front lawn,
troubles and disappointments return.
But so do joys and blessings.

My cough has been quiet while I typed this.
It may return when I try to sleep tonight,
but it won’t last forever. JOY comes in the morning!
Hang in there, my friends.
I’ll be back!

Have a blessed week.
Today was my grandson, Chrissy’s 27th birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Toki!!
(He’s in Switzerland…)


Thanks for visiting and leaving your comment below.
I love having positive exchanges with you.

Grace to you,
JanBeek

Category:

Animals, Bible Lessons, blessings, Faith, Family, God, Jesus, Life's Challenges, Living in Harmony, Love, mental health, Montana, peace, prayer, relationships

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How Big is God?

When I think of BIG, I think of Giant Sequoias.
But, I was reminded this morning during my devotionals
that “BIG” is definitely a relative term.

Ephesians 3:20

“Now to Him who is able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all
that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us…”

“If for some reason it was your job
to design the universe,
how big would you make it?”

That was a question
David Jeremiah asked
in his commentary this month
in Ever Faithful –
a 365 day devotional.

He went on to describe
the universe God created.
The dimensions astounded me!

“The distance from planet Earth
to the observable ‘edge’ of the universe
is 46 billion light-years,
and one light-year
is about 6 trillion miles.”

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Six trillion times 46 billion?
That’s mind-boggling!!
God doesn’t think small!
If His creation is BIG,
that means our Creator is BIGGER.

Photo by Alex Andrews on Pexels.com

If you have a need today
that seems bigger than
anyone’s ability to handle,
remember what God did
when creating the universe.

God is bigger than all our needs –
Bigger than anything we could ask or think.

I have been away from writing blogs
for over a week now…
Unusual for me.
But I have been constructively busy.
I agreed to accept a nomination
to be an elder on our church’s Session.
So, my problem has been 4 study books
and a workbook that needed my attention.

Then I managed to get a nasty cold,
and the aches and runny nose
and coughing kept me awake at night.
Hard to get motivated to write
an inspirational blog
about love, joy, peace, faith & unity
when you’re facing all that.

Good news is that I am better –
and I am ready to face
my “Bigger God” –
and ask Him for help.
Of course, He delivered!

I have enjoyed catching up
on some of the blogs
you have been posting in my absence.
Thank you for your inspiration!

Here’s another version of that delightful song:

Enjoy these delightful kids!


Pray for health and healing, will you?
My God is big enough … bigger than you can imagine!
See ya tomorrow (I hope)…

Love,
JanBeek

Category:

Bible Lessons, blessings, Faith, God, health, Life's Challenges, mental health, mountains, music, prayer

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