Our April showers arrived late Sunday afternoon and continued into Sunday evening and also into Monday. The showers were very heavy. The forecast is for more showers over the next few days. The rain gauges that I heard about told us we received about two inches of rain. I know it was a heavy rain as I was driving home from Luverne. There are various ways of looking at rain. We can belabor the point that the storm was a real inconvenience for us and the damages that it might do. Or we can be glad of the benefits to the growing things of the earth, and we can enjoy the cool touch on our faces, its gentle soothing music in our ears. There are various ways of looking at the rainstorms of adversity. We can lament our misfortunes until our hearts forget the sunshine, or we can meet the challenge believing that out of the rainy day will come new growth and beauty to our lives. We need to think positive!Mildred Keunen and Jo Aykens, Steen, and Joyce Aykens, Worthington, were Sunday dinner guests in the Paul Aykens home at Orange City, Iowa, in honor of Susan Veldkamp’s birthday. Other guests included Vern and Laurie Kurtz and daughter McKenzie, also from Orange City. Bonnie Skalicky, Scottsdale, Ariz., returned to her home on Saturday afternoon after spending nine days in the home of her parents, Orrin and Bernice Aukes. Dinner guests at the home of Rich and Greta VanDer Brink in Luverne Sunday noon were Arvin and Cena Mae Tilstra, John and Carol Van Maanen, and Noralph and Bernice Barstad, all from Luverne, and Dennis and Diane Goor, Sioux Falls, S.D.Preston Huenink’s brother-in-law, Richard Bonnema, Sioux Center, Iowa, passed away this past weekend. Funeral services were Wednesday morning at Christian Reformed Church in Sioux Center. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his family.A volunteer luncheon honoring the volunteers for the Mary Jane Brown Good Samaritan Center was Thursday afternoon in Luverne at the home. Those attending from Steen were Mildred Keunen, Jo Aykens and Milton Bonnema. Mildred Paulsen joined the Freedom Club at Rock Rapids, Iowa, late Saturday afternoon to attend the Gospel Music Concert at B.J. Haan Auditorium on the Dordt College campus in Sioux Center. A delicious meal was available prior to the concert.Former Steen resident Darlene (Mrs. Cornie) Bosch had knee replacement surgery last Monday at Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls. She was able to return to her home on Thursday. Laura May Bosch, former Steen resident and wife of Dries Bosch, had same day surgery last Monday and was able to return to her home immediately following surgery. Hills Christian School will serve a volunteer appreciation luncheon for volunteers at noon, Thursday, April 21, in Hills Christian School.Wednesday evening the junior class of Steen Reformed Church in Steen will have their annual pizza party in the Fellowship Hall. Today Is Your Great Day"The happiest man I know acts on the seeming belief that each day is the most important day in his life, that there never was and never will be another day quite so rich in possibilities for enjoyment. "For example, luncheon for him, no matter how busy the day is an event, not a hasty gulping of food between worried snatches of conversation about some crisis at the office. The fact that there may be a thousand tomorrows when luncheons can be enjoyed under more auspicious circumstances has no part in my friend’s philosophy. Today is today — this day, this hour. Luncheon now is luncheon now, hence an occasion out of which it behooves him to squeeze the last drop of relaxation and enjoyment. "So my friend makes a ceremony of it. He discuses the menu in detail with the waiter, he orders carefully, he smiles in pleasurable anticipation as he awaits his food, and then he proceeds to enjoy it slowly and with relish. The food may be simple and inexpensive — a cheese sandwich and a salad, perhaps — but this man contrives, somehow, to make it all appear an occasion of special importance. And thus it is with everything he does; he takes each hour as it comes and enjoys it. "How often have I, for one, found myself letting the ‘transient hour’ slip by, my mind foolishly anticipating another hour, much bigger and better, in some misty day ahead. How often have you, too, found yourself forgetting that today is your great day?"James D. Woolf.In the hustle and bustle of our world today, I think we would all enjoy our lives more if we took a little more time to think about what we are doing with the time.
