Sunday Sketching in my Nature Notebook

Sunday afternoons can be a good time for me to enjoy God's creation in my nature notebook.

This process helps me notice more intricate details than when out on a walk snapping a photo like this milkweed on the prairie. 

Watercolor has gone by the wayside the past couple years, but I am choosing to enjoy the process again, despite the outcome! 

And it is fun to include details of what I noticed when outside... even when not particularly enjoyable, such as all the bugs biting me last week. Flipping through months or years later, I am brought back to good memories. 

Do you have a nature notebook or journal to help you enjoy God's creativity and learn more about His creation?! Even if not, let's keep our eyes open in wonder and awe!

Keep looking up!

~ Hannah

Seeing Beauty in Hard Places, part 3

Long hours on the road this summer were brightened by a vase of flowers from our garden!

By the way, Elsa and I trained our way into more driving over the past two months than we had been able to do in the previous decade combined! This is another part of our major "rehab" from years of chronic illness. 

Garden flowers also brightened up our hotel room for part of Dad's month at Mayo.

And the first tomatoes from our garden came along to ripen in the window.

Sunsets and a couple of ponds were another bit of beauty we looked for each day.

Did you notice my “garden” in the photo behind the orange juice*? Probably not. It’s all in one’s perspective!

That little patch of wildflowers between a highway and a hotel parking lot was a bright spot in an otherwise ugly setting. Especially when compared to our lush flowerbeds back home with rarely the sound of a vehicle on our gravel roads and fresh air blowing across the prairies… that month in an airless hotel room on the edge of a city was not a restful or healing place.

And yet God turned it into a time of healing the nervous system at deeper levels, just because it was so far from peaceful or natural. What mattered was that He had called me to these new challenges, and He was there to meet my needs. By wiring in the truth through brain rewiring (neuroplasticity) methods, my nervous system learned that even there, I was safe with Him!

*The orange juice itself was a brain rewiring win after more than a decade without! I enjoyed it most days at the hotel as well as training with some more "firsts" of a bagel, corn flakes, conventional ice-cream, and a waffle cone! Plus walking up to 3 miles at a time on the paths and sidewalks of our community.

Seeing Beauty in Hard Places, part 2

When able, we got Dad out of the city altogether during his month of treatments at Mayo. On what turned out to be his best day in several months, we explored a state park that was new to us. Moss, bogs and wildflowers lined a pleasant path to the main feature of the park...

...a waterfall! So refreshing!

Mom even managed the hike between her two knee replacements!

And Elsa and I had to check out the fun playground made of logs and lumber! Reviving a childlike curiosity and spontaneity adds joy to life (as well as making fun pictures to send to nephews and neice)!

A Year of Rehab

My sister Elsa and I have realized that we are in a major "rehab regimen" in many areas of life after chronic illness. The most recognizable of those areas would be rebuilding strength and balance in our muscles and joints.

After years of chronic fatigue and debilitating pain, my body needs careful training out of harmful, weak postures into healthy and strong positions.

Just as the daily practice of brain rewiring to heal the nervous system is a slow but steady process of forming new, healthy pathways which we want to become automatic, so regular exercise with WholyFit trains the body out of unhealthy patterns and into those that benefit all of life!

Why I Choose WholyFit

I love how WholyFit is a Christ-centered stretching based system built on scientific principles that equips us with holistic practices for wholeness and healing. It even strengthens 5 times faster than other exercise modalities! 

Plus it is a safe way to get back into movement and fitness after years of inactivity and weakness, as proved by the fact that my sister got certified to teach WholyFit last year and has since been helping women through online classes.

NOTE: WholyFit has nothing to do with Yoga beliefs or practices. God created movement and the ways our bodies can strengthen and stretch. WholyFit methods and routines are carefully developed based on safety and effectiveness (unlike some traditional Yoga poses). They are also built to help us memorize and meditate on the word of God as we do our best to take care of this "temple" of our bodies He has given us.

For more info, hear from WholyFit founder Laura Monica: “Why I Quit Yoga and Started WholyFit” 

Does a moderately paced workout for all fitness levels - done on your own schedule from the comfort of your own home - sound interesting to you? If so, read on!

Current Class Details

• On-demand workout video access: September 1 - December 31, 2025

• Includes 16 workouts safe for pregnancy and diastasis recti (20-30 minutes each)

PLUS 6 workouts safe for the general population (1 hour each)

• $60 USD for 4 months total (Sept. - Dec.)

Have more questions? Want to sign up? Or can't make this class work, but want to know of future class offerings? 

Learn more and sign up for email updates on Elsa's webpage HERE.

Or email Elsa at elsa.wholyfit@gmail.com

Seeing Beauty in Hard Places, Part 1

As mentioned in my last post, we spent a month of this summer at Mayo clinic. Since Dad had less than an hour of treatments per day, we looked for ways to get out of the city/clinic atmosphere as much as possible. At least as much as Dad was able to handle.

Even in the middle of the downtown roar of traffic and construction/demolition, we enjoyed a stroll to this park with a fountain one afternoon.

Then God had a beautiful surprise planned for us on the day we drove up to enjoy the Mississippi River. We always like to stop at the matina in Lake City where the river widens out to Lake Pepin, up to 3 miles across. This particular Saturday we were surprised by unusual activity around the marina... until we found out that local sailors were giving rides for a donation to a fundraiser.

And that is how we got out sailing in a year where our own Weta stayed parked in the shed! This Catalina 310 was the biggest sailboat we've gotten to try yet, and our captain and first mate were a good fit for us.

It is just so good to get out in God's creation!

• Viewing the Mississippi from Frontenac State Park (and trying to stay cool in intensely humid heat!)

Making Beauty in Hard Places... Stitch by Stitch

Mom just got her biggest crochet project ironed up and on the table last night! I always love the morning light in this space, and now it is more amazing than ever!

This tablecloth project has traveled many miles, and since it was not a straight-through effort but picked up for occasional seasons, it has been growing for several years. Much of the work was done in family evenings to the accompaniment of audiobooks.

Some of it grew through the painful recovery from knee replacement. And the final stitches were put in while walking through a month of treatments with Dad at Mayo clinic. 

Faithfulness in the hard places. One stitch at a time. It all adds up to something beautiful!

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven...
 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 
He has made everything beautiful in its time. "
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 10

Sawing and Shedding Old Shells

Photos 1&2: After a chainsaw workout.

3: Before. A painful place to mow.

Yes, muscles that have hardly been used in over a decade put up a fuss for a while. But I still count it a "win" to be able to do something like this! (And thanks to Dad for picking up most of the branches as I had to run to town after sawing and mowing.)

Meanwhile, I got to see a cicada crawl out of its old shell and change those little green ripples into wings! So amazing! A first for me.

A strange shape and slight movement caught my eye at the base of a tree. The legs moved so slowly and looked so weak for the immense job at hand. But I was watching when the old, worthless exoskeleton dropped away and the tender body began to expand and harden! Then I checked back in an hour or so and found delicate wings!

Sometimes healing the limbic system / nervous system and connected physical issues can feel like that painfully slow and weak crawl out of an old, dead shell of a life. And then you break free in one area only to be held back in another. 

But God is at work, bringing new life. Eventually the wings unfurl and harden, and it will be time to fly and sing for joy again! (Yes, I like to think of the shrill sound of a cicada as its God-given song which glorifies Him.)

So, keep persevering on your way out of whatever exuviae God wants to set you free from! It's time to molt and grow!

~ Hannah