Posts by KARL HOSTETLER

I been thinking about plans. I am amazed how much planning happens. We plan our days, we plan for our future, we plan who we want to be married to. And then, we plan a wedding, we plan a honeymoon, we plan a life. We live in houses that are planned. Built according to a piece of paper called a, what's the word, oh yeah, a plan. …

Words matter. Even the little ones, like Dolch words. I saw a word the other day that got me thinking.  It was a Dolch word, the type of word that used to fly by when I read, back in the day when I used to be able to do that.  Now nothing flies by when I'm reading. I read one word at a time, which is an…

Here is a peek inside my mind. I am learning my Dolch words.  Well, I am trying to do that anyway. I didn't even know what they were before.  They are sight words. Named after Dr. Edward William Dolch who developed the list by studying the most frequently occurring words in children’s books. They consist of 80% of the words in children's books, and 50% of the…

I have a new bible. I have it because of my stroke. Apparently I now need larger letters. And it has something else too, it has two of the bookmark thingamajigs.   When I was able to read again, I started reading one chapter a day in my Bible.  After doing that for a while, picking and choosing what I wanted to read, I decided to be…

I had an experience that surprised me as I was thinking about the anniversary for my stroke.  I was reminiscing over the last year by reading all the posts that my wife had posted on Facebook.  It was interesting to remember where I was in my recovery, post at a time. My friends often comment on how good I seem to be. Day by day, I don't…

Projects I have been working on.   I built a new gate for my side yard. Actually it was a door.  The gate which was there was pretty ragged. It sagged and was warped, and it swelled up in the rain. It was old, and it was built like a gate.  So I made the gate more like a door. I built it with a hardwood frame, glued…

“Come,” has become a profound word to me.  That word was the beginning of the journey I am going on.  It was the word that I heard that morning as I sat on my porch.  If you haven’t read that story in my previous post, you might want to read it first.  The gospels record words of Jesus, as well as recording what he was doing.  Many…

In a few days, it will be the anniversary of my stroke, February 7th.  Okay, I wonder if it is weird to celebrate a stroke?  It kinda seems so to me. But I am doing it.  My kids are coming over. I am going to have a BBQ and a fire in my fire pit, and we will make Smores.  Whoo hoo. So here's what I'm thinking.…

This is my story; I was told to say that.  I had been asked by my church to share what was going on in my life, and I agreed.  I was at church to be videoed, trying to do this live in front of people is not something I thought I could do.  But I thought I could probably do it on tape.  I had written what…

I have a stained glass window in my entry.  It was something that came out of a job that I had done, and I used it when I remodeled my house.   I never really liked it.  I'm not sure why that was.  But it sat in the entry for ten years. My chair looks down the hall of the entry, and I looked at it every…