Posts by KARL HOSTETLER

I grew up on a mountain. Okay, more like a hill. Actually, we lived in the foothills beneath the San Gabriel mountains. Whatever you want to call it, it was a wonderful place to grow up. Exploring the nature that surrounded us, hiking the foothills, going up the creek at Cucamonga canyon, and of course, dirt bike riding.  It was a good mountain to live on, okay,…

I have been working on a post for a couple weeks, but it has not come together.  Lots of ideas, but nothing concrete. I like to work through my thoughts by writing about them. But that didn't happen this time. So, I am turning the page on a couple of weeks writing, I am starting over with a blank page. There is something about turning a new…

Some of the things that I have been writing about are things I felt I had to say.  That has made it easier to write about.  This is not like that; this is more of an exercise in writing. I am going to write about a step of faith. We'll see how it goes. We had a wonderful church service this Palm Sunday, and at least five…

People always ask how I am doing.  Not because it’s expected, like, “ I'm fine, thanks for asking”,  but because they really care how I'm doing. So I thought I would answer the question. If you don’t know,  I am doing this as a way to relearn how to write. So be forewarned, there will be some writing happening before the answer.   I am in a support…

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…