My grandfather was born in 1917 and had 17 siblings! Yes, they were farm people and he joked “the children were ideal FREE labor”  :>). 

 With 20 souls in one family, they learned to be grateful and not waste ANY part of the cow and pigs placed before them---as he would say “we ate from the rooter to the tooter”. Yet, ice cream was a rare TREAT for the size of their household.

Years later, my grandparents kept multiple containers of Breyers ice cream in the fridge for our visits. Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, Pistachio, Vanilla Cherry--- with STRAWBERRY as my favorite!

Inevitably a younger cousin would eye another’s bowl, compare it to their portion and begin to cry or have a tantrum. The older ones would rush to share their portion with the crying one.

Yet, to the younger ones, I can still hear my grandpa say---

“Hush, why are you crying? Don’t worry---there is MORE than enough!”

And it seemed my grandmom...

RELAX, THIS IS ONLY A TEST!

It was the summer of my upcoming 40^th birthday. I remember bringing in a stack of mail and slowly opening each envelope after an exhausting workday. At the bottom of the stack was an announcement from our local Recreation Center highlighting the start of Summer Fun Swim classes!  

It grabbed my attention. I enjoy pools, beaches, and lakes…I’m an excellent FLOATER yet the card beckoned me to REALLY learn to swim. A week later I enrolled in Level 1 Adult Swim---learning how to navigate in 3 feet of water with little our nose plugs and floaties---a sight to behold. Like Coach Knute Rockne says---“This is a football”…We heard …This is a pool!

By the end of my first month, I was hooked and couldn’t wait till the next Level of training was available.

Little did I know, God simultaneously used it as a tool to TEST my trust level in Him! In 60 days we progressed from floaties to the breaststroke, the...