Green Twig

 Well, it has been several years since I posted anything here.  I wasn't sure if I still could, or if blogs were a thing of the past.  I really did enjoy posting and most of my friends here have probably gone on to greener pastures.  

Sooo many things have happened in the past 8 years, it's gonna be hard to catch up, but I'll try to hit the highlights. 

In January of 2016 I began working for the Town of Groton as a Town Clerk/Tax Collector and ended my long commutes, praise God!  I was subsequently elected to that position in March of that year.  It's hard to believe that I have been at this for 10 years, but I have enjoyed this job and working in the Town.  We have some wonderful people working here and living here.  I have learned a ridiculous number of things and at times it's hard to remember everything, but some things just become routine.  

At a Town Clerk I have many hats.  I am a municipal agent for the DMV, so I do registrations and titles for vehicles.  I license dogs, keep records safe, and do deposits and such for the Town.  I help to organize our elections (that's a team effort, but I am responsible for Town election ballots and keep records for all of the elections that take place).  As a Tax Collector I work in conjunction with the Tax Assessing to get bills out on time and maintain tax accounts.  We send bills out twice a year which is a big job and then I collect money for taxes.  I don't have much to do with assessing thankfully and I am handed the warrant "on a silver platter", so I do very little on that end with the exception of fielding questions from residents on why the taxes are so high... etc.  I have a deputy who works with me.  Some days are very busy and others not so much.  On the "not so much" days I can get other things done besides working with customers.  There's always something that can be done.  

I can honestly say that this is one of the best of many jobs that I have had over the years.  My favorite by far was teaching, but I'm quite sure at 71 I would not have the stamina to take on a classroom of middle school students.  It was so fun when I was teaching and I am so thankful I had that opportunity.  Now my students from back then are parents and grandparents some of them.  So hard to believe.  I have a grandson now who has graduated from college and is teaching.  I guess I'll need to live vicariously through him.

pictures of the missing years:

Took a trip with Joanna and Norman to DC to visit Heather and Brandon:

Norman, Joanna, Heather, Brandon and me stuck in the middle :)

The whole family.  Taken at Hill Village Bible Church a few years ago:

Well maybe not the whole family... a couple were left at home

This is Skippy and Bandit - our other boys.

Joanna took Norman and I on a visit to "The Ark".  So fascinating and fun.

God has blessed us with many abundant harvests... 10 to be exact since my last post.

resulting in a VERY full freezer.

Doug and I a couple years ago now.  Nice fall Sunday in Vershire where we attend church.

Vershire Bible Church.

More recent Christmas photo.  Doug was not there, but nice pic of the rest of us.

Now for some of the not-so-nice yet noteworthy events:

In 2021 on Memorial Day, we were visiting in Maine when we got a call from Joanna saying that our house had perished in a fire.  All was lost but what we had with us on our trip.  God is so good and has helped us recover and we have wonderful neighbors and friends who came to our aid, and we thank God for every one of them!

a few months later we had a bit of an accident in the truck...

but God has provided us with a new truck with a longer bed which we needed.  We thank Him for that. No one was hurt in either one of these events except Norman's kitty, Jack Jack who we assumed perished in the fire.

 a couple of years ago Doug lost his precious father and my "father in love".  We miss him sorely.

Through all these things, God has been faithful.  We know we will see Dad again some day and received confirmation of this through a letter that was written some time before his death.  

The end of last year I got a pretty intense infection in my toe and in the process of getting that tended too I found out that I have diabetes.  This has been a bit of a life changer... drugs which don't agree with me and a much healthier diet which does agree with me.  I'm feeling good most of the time and the toe did heal...

On a much lighter note.  Our old Dodge Neon is still going strong.  Though we've tried to replace it a few times it doesn't want to give up and has left those others in the dust.  

It actually has 511,000 now since these pictures were taken.

Grandson, Brandon graduated from Middlebury College the day these were taken.... on our way to his graduation.  He had made us very proud!

I could go on, but I'll save some for another post later.

In God will I praise his Word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Psalm 56:4

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise ... be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.  Psalm 57: 7, 11