Costume Ball

If we had known that staying at RV resorts could be so much fun . . .

. . . We might have pushed a little harder to get on the road sooner!

Cherry Valley Lakes RV Resort is one of the best resorts we have found to date. Though we hear there are even better ones out there, I cannot see how!

Every weekend, Cherry Valley serves awesome meals, at prices seniors can afford, though not all who live this lifestyle are seniors, I’m finding. I am talking steak dinners for seven bucks or BBQ chicken for six! And that’s complete with salad, sides, and dessert. Breakfast is comparably satisfying and economical.

Plus, several weekends a month, Cherry Valley hires a band, and the party really gets going. It is an awesome social atmosphere, without all the creepy strangers, drunken brawls, and smoke-filled rooms. We know most everyone whom we are partying with, and it is like a big, happy family fun night. It’s great!

This past Saturday night was the Halloween costume party, and Suzy and the Cruisers was the band. Lots of great oldies songs.

Ken dressed up as a headhunter. I simply went all in orange, “The Great Pumpkin,” I proclaimed myself.  My daughter and her beau joined us for the evening, too. It was great fun.

A typical family photo, I caught my daughter, Nina, with her mouth full! Patrick doesn’t look pleased I’m snapping pics while he’s trying to eat, either. Oh, but that’s what moms do best. Smile, baby, love you bunches.

 

These “shrunken heads” are actually dried apples.

Blessings to you and yours,

Jenni and Ken

Blessings Abound

Have you ever stopped to consider how often the blessings of God grace your life? How everything, even the simplest of things, has been touched by His hand?

Have you stopped to study the intricacy of a single bloom?

Or stood silently in awe as a great egret took flight?

Or marveled at the glow of the approaching sunset? God can even take LA’s pollution and make it beautiful.

These are but a few outward examples of His love for us. For He also gave us friendship and love, laughter and tears, compassion and forgiveness.

The blessings in my own life are too numerous to count. All day long, I praise His Holy Name for giving me glimpses of heaven.

All of this, I witness and find joy in, not in spite of my pain and illness, but because of it. For through my struggles, He has taught me much, and I am ever grateful.

Where can you find blessings today?

Love,

Jenni and Ken

Just Ducky

At Fisherman’s Retreat near Beaumont, California, we learned the story behind these rather stupid white ducks. It seems they were pets, kept locked up at a local elementary school, for the edification and pleasure of the young students.

When they arrived at Fisherman’s Retreat, there were five in total. Within the first several nights, two disappeared, most likely to the coyotes, as we heard their joyous calls, barks, and yaps, signaling a recent kill.

When they first arrived, they did not even enter the water, preferring to stay under a tree instead, and they had no fear of humans. I guess they were kept in a cage with no large enough water source for swimming.

When they first arrived, they did not know how to eat what ducks normally eat in the wild, and would not eat anything but bread.

And this really saddens me.

I understand the need to educate our children about nature and give them a hands-on experience with animals, but if a school must keep animals in such an unnatural setting as these obviously had been kept, then they need to take responsibility for the animals for the rest of their natural lives.

These zebras are privately owned, as far as we can find out, in Redlands. We were told that they also have giraffes and big cats on the property, but our information is only from word of mouth. They appear to be well cared for.

The Lord charged us with caring for the fishes and fowl and beasts of the land. Not with destroying them.

I will get off my soapbox now. At least the three surviving ducks are learning what to eat and how to survive in the wild, or semi-wild of Fisherman’s Retreat.

Blessings to you and your feathered or furry friends,

Jenni and Ken

Absenteeism

When life gets rough

And I sit on my duff

I’m tempted to cry

And wail and moan.

I feel so alone

When I ache to the bone.

But nothing

Offers comfort to me.

As I survive

And once again come alive

I know it wasn’t me

Who brought me through.

For The Lord is my shepherd,

And His dove, His holy bird,

Leads me out of my torment

Once again.

Thank You, Lord. I praise Your holy name for bringing me through the past several months, when my health was sliding rapidly downhill. Though I am still not as well as I would like, You give me the hope to believe that I am on the mend and will soon be able to participate in life more often.

Thank you, also, to all my readers who have stood by and waited patiently to hear why I have not been writing. The regimen I was on most recently for my Lyme disease took its toll worse than usual. That, coupled with the extra stress of traveling, was just too much for my body to handle. My pain and fatigue were unrelenting, and I could not do much more than survive. I depended wholly on The Lord, Ken, and Tinker Belle to get me through.

I do not regret making this journey, not in the least. Though we are in a rather barren area, with brown being the predominant color, I absolutely love it. The lack of rain and subsequent humidity has been a Godsend for my arthritis (bone pain is a whole other matter), and even though it is nearing the end of October, we are still enjoying temperatures in the 80’s.

Besides, I’m near my daughter, and our relationship is flourishing as I get to know her as an adult, rather than as a child. We are blessed to have this opportunity.

I cannot make any promises as to how frequently I will be writing in the future, but I hope it will be more often. Please forgive my absenteeism and know it was for a health reason.

Love,

Jenni and Ken

Please Forgive

I’ve had a bit of a health set back. Not too big, but enough of one. It is taking me longer to recover from my normal rounds of treatment. Four or five days has stretched to six or seven days at a time when I am incapable of doing much at all. This past week I spent four days in bed because of my pain, and then I forced myself to be a little active and ended up back in bed again.

Having a chronic illness, complete with pain 24/7, is a full-time job. After I complete the must-do chores, such as tending to the bills and reordering our prescriptions, I plumb run out of steam.

So, please forgive the lapses in my writing. If my better days outnumbered the bad ones, I would be writing more often. You are all so wonderful for hanging in there with me. Thank you.

Love,

Jenni and Ken