Sunday Afternoon

Pretty roadside bushes.  : )

A warm and humid day.  But cloudy and little rains off and on (which we need!).  I hope this finds you relaxing on a Sabbath Day.  I'm hoping you got up and went to church.  I'm hoping you have spent time in God's Word.  I'm hoping you have prayed.  Dr. Robert Jeffress had a good series on "Grace Living" last week where he's noticing that people, once saved, feel like they don't have to go to church anymore, don't have to read the Bible anymore, and don't have to pray anymore because they are living "under grace" and they can pretty much do what they want to now because Jesus will pardon them.  Um.  No.  Sorry.  The question would then be, are you sure you're saved if you don't have any desire to do what God would obviously want you to do?  

We attended a funeral service yesterday and it was the wish of the one who died to make sure that the service was all about Jesus and his love for him from the time he was a young man.  And it was.  So moving and the Gospel message was conveyed.  I thought about the service all day yesterday and I was praying that for those who were yet unsaved thought about it too.  I'm still praying that they will come to Jesus and be saved and live what life they have left in obedience to Him.

Which leads me to my post.  Legacy living.

Whenever I attend a funeral service (especially of someone you know is saved and know that they are in Heaven and meeting Jesus face-to-face) I tend to wonder what words will be spoken of me when my time comes.  What do we leave here on earth that will pass from generation to generation?  Are we teaching our children and grandchildren about Jesus or do we want to be the fun and popular mom who gives material things instead?  Does the church see us active and involved and loving and helpful, or do we just show up whenever we feel like it and then leave?  When we're out and about, do we exhibit love and care for others or do we lose our temper and behave inappropriately showing our not-so-good self when things go wrong?  Legacy living is more than about money or what we are going to physically pass on when we pass on.  That's very nice and generous if we can do that, but more so it's about who we've been while here on earth is what matters.  How we've helped, how we've acted, how we've behaved - the things that are caught more than taught.  

When I hear about someone like we did yesterday and all that they did throughout their life and how they lived an obedient life - a life well lived - it motivates me to want to do more.  Ideas start to flood in and I write them down and at least try to make some kind of plan.  And it isn't because it's all of a sudden about me, but it's the Holy Spirit helping to sort things through and motivating me to take those ideas and actually trying to carry them through to help others and make a difference.  When we do this, especially if you still have children at home or grandchildren around, they pick up on what you are doing.  They see.  You can take them with you while dropping food off at the food shelf.  They can shop with you, come home, and put hygiene kits together for the homeless shelter.  They can help cook a meal and come with you while dropping it off for someone in need.  They can see you pray with someone who is going through a difficult time.  SO many ways of being the hands and feet of Christ and passing that along to the next generation.  To me......that is legacy living.  And I think we underestimate it.  It's not only our family that is watching to see if we are living out the Christian life service, but everyone around is too.  Yesterday was a testimony about someone who chose to not let a moment go by without proclaiming the love of Jesus whether that was in word or deed.

So, with the upcoming week - how can we get out of ourselves and give of ourselves?  How can we be Jesus to someone?  How can we convey the message of the cross in our words and actions?  There are people who are thirsting and starving for something more and faith in Jesus Christ is it!  Maybe begin by brainstorming - write as many ideas down as you can think of.  Talk to people in your church and begin a group and get together to carry these out (sometimes I think we hesitate in doing anything because we think we have to go it alone).   Of course the motive has to be right - we are not to do anything if we're trying to put the focus on us.  So maybe the first thing to do is pray what God would have you to do - ask Him to help you in figuring out what needs to be done for others.  Then carry it through!  : )

Have a good upcoming week.  God bless.

August To-Do's and Tea Party Themes

Wide open spaces - I love the prairies of the Midwest.  : )

Well, I thought I would give you the August to-do's today since next week is..........August!!!!!!  Can you believe it?  Fall is right around the corner and then we'll be talking holidays - it makes my head spin.  It goes so fast.   There aren't many things in August, but here they are:

*Check your water heater - clean around it, make sure it's in good working condition, call for an inspection if needed.

*Clean your grill - we've only used ours a couple of times but it does get dirty!!

*Clean your outdoor garbage cans - we had to do this yesterday!  With the icky garbage in them along with the hot weather - well, you can about imagine!  : (

*Clean out the garage - keep going through stuff and give things away - the garage shouldn't have more things in it than you house does!!!  My husband bought a large container to put at the end of our driveway and he will be going through all the lumber he accumulates along with other items that aren't good anymore.  Then there is a service that will come and pick it up.  It's a good thing.  : )

*Shop for any school supplies/clothing.  I'm an advocate for homeschooling so maybe this is the year?  : )

*Maintain your car(s).  Keep them clean inside and out.  Get them checked regularly.

*And, yes, start shopping for Christmas.  Keep a gift pantry and whenever you see good deals on items, buy them, and store them on a special shelf or closet area.  You will be able to pull a gift basket together for someone in no time!

That's it for August!!!  Not bad.  And not everything will apply to all of you.  Just do what you can and what your pocketbook will allow.  But we find that maintenance is the most important thing in anything.  When you maintain things they last longer and you will save money in the long run.

AUGUST TEA PARTY THEMES

*Decorate the outdoors with quilts spread out under the trees.

*Put sunflowers into pretty bottles or vases.

*Hang up pretty windsocks.

*Serve iced tea with poppy seed bread, gingerbread cookies, and peanut butter cookies.

*Play Handels water music.

Sounds lovely.  : )  If any of you are having any of these monthly tea parties, I would love to hear about it!!!!!!  

It has been a good week.  I prayed for strength, energy, and motivation to get things done around here, and those prayers were answered!  : )  I'm trying to get back into going through things and getting rid of stuff so I worked in our laundry area where there are a lot of shelves.  On those shelves we tend to put things there just because of lack of space somewhere else, or we put things there that we just don't want to deal with just now and it grows and grows.  And all it becomes is a huge dust-collector!  So, working from the top shelves down to the floor, I went through boxes.  What a chore but I got rid of a lot and re-organized the items that we wanted to keep.  I dusted and vacuumed.  It looks much better.  : )

Since it IS almost back-to-school time, remember to give your child(ren) memories that will last them a lifetime.

*go camping and explore -make it fun but a learning experience too.

*visit historical sites around your area/state.

*go on a picnic to the different parks in your area.

*go on nature walks - take notebooks/sketchbooks along to write notes on what you see and draw - it doesn't matter if you can't draw, just do it

*take the time and money to have a family vacation - with careful planning you can do this on very little.  Go somewhere new this year.  

Children grow up fast and when they reach the teen years it gets almost impossible to carve out this time together, so don't wait and hesitate on this.  

Lastly, I have another recipe that I wanted to share with you as well.  When I cook with frozen vegetables, I usually open a bag and use only a portion of it.  I close it back up and put it back in the freezer.  After a while I have all these bags of opened frozen vegetable bags that only have about a cup or two in them.  So I found a really good vegetable soup recipe that used up all the frozen vegetables I had - yippee!  : )  This recipe is very easy to put together and it's made from everything you have (or should have) in your pantry (that includes the pantry shelf and the fridge).  Here is goes:

EVERYDAY VEGETABLE SOUP

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 cups chopped onions

1 cup thinly sliced celery

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

Coarse salt and ground pepper

3, 14 oz. cans vegetable or chicken broth (I used chicken)

1, 28 oz. can diced tomatoes, with juice

1 Tbsp. tomato paste

8 cups mixed frozen vegetables such as carrots, peas, corn, green beans, etc.  

Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium heat.  Add onions, celery, and Italian seasoning along with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently till onions are translucent - 5 to 8 minutes.

Add the broth, tomatoes with the juice, tomato paste, and 3 cups of water to pot; bring mixture to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Add the frozen vegetables to pot and return to a simmer.  Cook, uncovered, until vegetables are tender - another 20 to 25 minutes.  Taste and season with more salt and pepper as needed.  Enjoy!!!!

*Let this cool before storing.  This makes a lot so I just divided it up into canning jars and put it in the fridge.  We've been enjoying it all week!  For longer storage, make sure the jars are freezer friendly and freeze it for another time.

A few pretty little cherry tomatoes off the vine.  I only did one tomato plant this year, but we've had quite a few so far.  So sweet - nothing like it.  : )

I think that's all I can come up with for today.  I hope you will all be able to enjoy the homes God gave you.  Remember to keep up the good work in doing it as if you are doing it for the Lord!!!  He owns everything we have so we need to be good stewards of it all.  : )  Be thankful, be busy, rest a little, read a little, get outdoors for a while.  Just use the day to the fullest.  Thank you for dropping by and visiting - I really appreciate all of you!!!!  God bless.

Encouragement for the Week Ahead

Cute little couple in the garden.   : )

This homemaker had thoughts this week about how the Lord is with us in everything, everyday.  How comforting it is to know that.   We are all such imperfect people yet Jesus loves us and cares for us in our love and care for others (especially with those under our roof).  Every morning during prayer time I find myself just yearning for every woman in every house around the world to be at the feet of Jesus in prayer.  For every woman in every house to open her Bible and glean the awesome words for her life - to really study it, to pour over it, to let it sink in.  Even imperfect as we all are, the work our Lord does within us on a daily basis can make all the difference in our lives and in the lives of our families which then extends to others.  

The reason I emphasize prayer and Bible study so much is because I've seen results - in my life and in the life of other women.  There is something about putting God first that He blesses.  And it's this that I encourage you in.  If we're not careful, left to our own, we can become a me-centered person rather quickly.  And that just doesn't work.  The Bible teaches us that we need to be God-centered and learn from Him lest we become "wise in our own eyes."  

May you take this upcoming week and give it the Lord.  Give Him the first fruits of your time.  He cares about absolutely every aspect of what you have going on this week.   Remember to thank Him - always.  If you don't know the Lord or have never asked Him into your life, let this moment - right now- be it for you.  Let your family see you give your life to Christ.  Let them see you read the Bible.  Let them hear you pray.  Every house needs a woman who loves the Lord in it.  No matter what the circumstances - you be the one to make the change that our homes in this world needs.  

Again, let's encourage one another in this.  It's not only important for this life, but in the life eternal.  God bless you and then be a blessing too.  : )

Just a Few Recipes

Black-eyed Susan in my "prairie" garden.  : )

Well, yesterday I said that I would post a few recipes from my cooking/baking spree I've been on lately, so here it is!  : )  Again, I'm sorry for the lack of photos.  I guess when I'm hostess, the last thing on my mind is taking pictures of my food!!!!! LOL

MARY'S LASAGNE  (I'm making this my personal recipe)

First, make the sauce:

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 lb. hamburger (please try to get grass-fed organic)

Salt and pepper

Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering.  Add the onions, 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper.  Cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add hamburger and cook, breaking the meat up and cook until no longer pink.  Drain.

Add:

2, 14 oz. cans of stewed tomatoes

1, 6 oz. can tomato paste

1/2 cup water

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. dried parsley

1 Tbsp. dried basil

Stir well and simmer while you make the cheese mixture.  After simmering and ready to use, taste it - I found that I needed to add a bit more salt and a bit more sugar to balance the tomato flavor.  ALWAYS taste your food!!!!  : )

At this point you will also need to have:

12, no-boil lasagne noodles

4 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cheese mixture:

24 oz. carton of small-curd cottage cheese

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 Tbsp. dried basil

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp. salt

and a little more pepper

In a 9 x 13 baking pan (I used the foil pans so that I could make these ahead and freeze them) that has been sprayed with oil, layer:

*Spread 1 cup sauce on the bottom of the pan

*Lay 3, NO-COOK lasagne noodles on top of the sauce (I love these no-cook noodles)

*Spread 1/3 cup cottage cheese mixture on top of each noodle

*Top everything with 1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

*One more cup of sauce

You will need to repeat this layering two more times.

Top it with the last 3 noodles, remaining sauce, remaining 1 cup Mozzarella cheese and then lastly the 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese.

To cook right away:

Cover the pan tightly with greased aluminum foil and place on a foil-lined baking sheet (for any spill-overs) and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  Uncover and bake for another 25 - 35 minutes until spotty brown and bubbly around the edges.  Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

To freeze first and then bake:

Do not bake after assembling, but cover the top of the pan with plastic wrap and then tightly with aluminum foil.  Freeze.

Before baking, take the lasagne out of the freezer a day before cooking, take the plastic wrap off but put the foil back on.  Put on foil-lined baking sheet and bake in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour or till heated through and then for 15 minutes more uncovered. *  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

*When it came to putting this into the oven, I found that even though I took the pans out of the freezer a whole day in advance, they were STILL frozen!!!!  With the advice of my sisters, I put the pans in the oven anyway (still frozen) and baked them.  I found that I needed a bit more time than the 1 hour and 15 minutes.  So.......you may want to check your pans and see if they are indeed thawed first.  But like everyone said - if you buy frozen lasagne from the store, the directions say you can bake from frozen, so it was all fine.  Just a panic moment for a while!!!  : )

We all agreed that lasagne is not something that any of us do on a regular basis because it is a dish that requires a good deal of time and prep, but I think that it's totally worth it for those times when you want to serve something a bit special.  I can't remember if I told you yesterday that I took 3 days (mornings) to make 3 lasagnes.  When I broke it up like that it was very do-able.  I hope you can try this and let me know what you think.  : )

The other recipe I wanted to share was:

LEFTOVER CINNAMON ROLL FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE

8 large frosted cinnamon rolls cut into 1-inch pieces

8 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups of milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup white sugar

Grease a 9 x 13 pan and set aside.

Place the cut cinnamon rolls into a large bowl.

Whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla, spice, and sugar and pour over the rolls and stir until rolls are coated completely.

Pour all of this into your 9 x 13 pan, spreading it evenly and pushing it down slightly to compress.  Cover with foil and place in the fridge overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the pan in the oven and bake, covered, for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil and continue baking for another 25 minutes or till center of casserole is cooked (mine took a bit longer).

Remove, cool slightly, slice and serve!!!!

This really did taste so good.  I'm going to try to remember this one for Easter or Christmas morning brunch.  Just serve with a good breakfast meat, fresh fruit, juice, and coffee and you've got yourself a hit!!!!  : )

And, still another recipe:

FRESH ORANGE SMOOTHIES

*4 fresh oranges, peeled and divided into segments (no seeds!)

*2 cups of ice

*1/3 cup milk (I used regular but the recipe said any kind would do - soy, coconut, etc.)

*1 - 2 Tbsp. honey (I used 2)

*1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine all of the above in a blender, and blend till smooth.  Taste to see if you need any more sweetener or vanilla.  Very refreshing!

Lastly:

STRAWBERRY JAM (lots of fresh organic strawberries at the store now)

2 cups fresh strawberries (cleaned, hulled, and chopped)

1 cup sugar (or less if you want - experiment with it to find out)

Place strawberries and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.

Stir until sugar is melted and berry juices start to release.

Continue to stir intermittently to avoid scorching.

Bring to a boil

Continue to cook for 5 minutes at a boil, stirring often so that it doesn't boil over - you DON't want this to boil over!  What a mess!!!*

Remove from heat and pour into heat proof jars.  Let cool and enjoy!!!!

*One way of knowing if your jam is ready to take from the heat is to, ahead of time, put a small plate into the freezer.  When cooking time is up, just put a spoon-full of jam on the cold plate and run your finger through it.  If the the line you make fills back in, it needs more cooking.  If the line you make remains a line, it's done!!!  If you put your jam in freezer containers, this is excellent to keep around until you want/need some homemade jam for your toast, muffins, etc.  Hope you can try it!!!  Nothing easier to do.  : )

There.  I think those are the 4 recipes that I wanted to share with you from yesterday's post.  Thanks again for dropping in for a while.  Again, I would love to hear from you on any favorite recipes you might want to share with me as well.  Have a wonderful upcoming day (right now while typing it is VERY dark outside when it should be light - thunder in the background - so it looks like a storm!).  God bless you and your homemaking for this day.  

LOTS To Catch Up On!

The plantings are loving this HOT and HUMID weather that we've been having now for over a week - we're hoping it will break this weekend so that WE can love the outdoors again.  : )

It's been a long time since my last post.  Last week at this time we were waiting for the first group of family members for our get-together.  The second group pulled in around the supper hour.  : )  Everything went very well and we had a lot of fun together.  Lots of conversation, lots of laughing, and a few tears.   Good food, some games, and an outing for a few helped to pass the time.

Last week while getting the house and food ready, I realized how much I enjoy "playing" bed and breakfast.  There was something comforting about setting aside certain days of the week to tend to each room in the house.  Putting fresh bedding on and bringing out the "good" towels for each room (two siblings stayed with us, the others stayed in a hotel) to making sure their accommodations would be as comfortable as possible.  This, along with cooking and shopping for the food we were going to enjoy, rounded it all out.  

With all that said, I have been using this week to rest up from it all!!!!!!  : )  At the beginning of this week it was just a matter of laundering all the bedding and putting that back on, and light cleaning of each room again.  I was VERY surprised at how much food everyone DIDN'T eat!!!!  I am known to overdo on the food because I'm SO afraid of running out, but we really did (do) have a lot leftover.  But I will go through and tell you what I've been doing with it all.  With some of these things, I have photos, with others I don't - I always feel one should ALWAYS have photos to back things up with, but I've been keeping busy with it all (and other things) so I didn't always take the time.  Here we go:

*I made three pans of homemade Lasagne (one more than I should have, but two just didn't seem like enough for 11 people).  I am definitely a person who follows recipes and don't add or subtract from it, but I DID this time!!!  If you're like me, you have probably heard that we should NOT try anything new when it comes to entertaining - go with what is tried and true so that you KNOW it will work out.  So this was a daring move for me.  The other daring thing was combining the best of two recipes and creating my own from the two.  For someone who never does this, I was out of my comfort zone yet it all felt right and I'm glad I did it, because everyone really enjoyed it and it will be a recipe that I will call my own and use over and over again.  I did, however, have a pan leftover so I cut it up and froze individual portions that we will be able to enjoy throughout the rest of the summer!  : )  I will share this recipe with you tomorrow (this is one of those without photos to go with - sorry!).

*A fun thing that I did for Friday evening was to set out four S'Mores baskets - each one filled with all we needed, but there were only two that was hit hard and I totally agreed that these were favorites and something I will do again in the Fall when an outdoor fire actually feels good.  : o  The two favorites were:

-Graham cracker with a roasted marshmallow and a peanut butter cup that gets all melty.  Oh my goodness, it was SO good.

-And then I baked homemade chocolate chip cookies and used those instead of graham crackers.  So you put a roasted marshmallow and a chocolate bar in between the chewy chocolate chip cookies - THIS one was a favorite.  Yum doesn't even come close to what this tasted like.  LOL

The other two baskets I made weren't even touched because of the above two!!!!  I have a lot left over for this Fall (I need to have another gathering of some sort).  : )

*The chocolate chip cookies that didn't get all eaten up needed to have something done to them because I find they go stale quickly, so I put them all in the food processor to grind them up fine, added a little butter to them as a binder, a little sugar for added sweetness and put the mix in a pie plate (like a graham cracker crust) and filled it with frozen vanilla yogurt.  At first I was going to put my homemade fudge sauce on top, but I think it would be better to serve the fudge sauce WITH it so it runs down all pretty like.  : )

Now we have a fun, easy, summertime dessert in the freezer.  : )

*The other thing I did for the family staying with us is to buy things that a hotel would offer for a continental breakfast - small boxes of cereals, rolls, donuts, muffins, oranges, bananas, juice, milk, coffee.  I surely thought these things would be eaten up but we had SO much leftover.  Every morning this week, my husband and I have been eating some of these things up, but I had a whole platter of frosted cinnamon rolls that no one touched!  So I made a French Toast Casserole out them - so good and so easy to make and a wonderful way to use them up.  Again, I will post the recipe tomorrow.  : )

*I also had a lot of oranges leftover and towards the end of the week, I could see that I needed to use them up, so this morning (and tomorrow morning) I'm making Orange Julius for our breakfast smoothie.  Remember those?  They were all the rave (was it in the 80's or 90's?) and it still tasted good.  Bye, bye oranges!   Again, recipe tomorrow.  : )

*For our main meal on Saturday, I made up a fruit plate with watermelon, grapes, and strawberries and, again, I went a little overboard on buying and I had quite a few strawberries left so I made small batch strawberry jam.

I love the smell of jam cooking on the stove.  This tastes very good and fresh - maybe a bit sweeter than I like, but I'm not complaining.  Really good on bagels or English muffins with all those little holes in them to soak it up!  Yummmm...................

And, yes, you're right......recipe tomorrow.   : )

*So, the menu for our main meal was the Lasagne, fruit platter, Caesar salad, and breadsticks.  Again, I over estimated the amount of breadsticks so here is what I did with the leftovers for a meal one evening:

You cut each breadstick in half, put homemade pizza sauce on each half, cut up pepperoni into tiny pieces (or whatever you have on hand) and sprinkle that on top, then grate some Mozarella (or whatever cheese you have on hand) and put that on top.  Bake in a 400-degree oven for about 15 - 20 minutes or until hot and cheese is bubbly.

I seriously can't say enough about these.  They turned out SO good.  When I served them at the party (as normal breadsticks), I had brushed them with melted butter and then sprinkled them with a little garlic powder before baking so when I made these little pizzas, they already had that seasoning on them and it just made them better!!!!!  I hope you can try these.  This is something I would definitely make for a game night or any other casual get-together because they are something you can actually pick up and hold them.

So, as you can see, I had so much fun planning and getting ready for our get-together, enjoyed everyone while they were visiting, but even had fun after it was all over this week in trying new things.  : )

Here are some extra photos from the last week (not in any order -just random):

On the actual day of my birthday (the 3rd), my daughter-in-law surprised me with this lovely bouquet of flowers in the morning before she left for work.  I was telling her and my son that I was feeling a bit down this year, and this certainly helped me to feel loved and cared about.  : )

This is what I love when having people over - it makes my heart feel so good to know that someone is comfortable at my home - enough to just relax and fall asleep.  This is one of my brothers.  : )

And what's a family gathering without games?!!!!  It just makes it so much more fun - some weren't game players and that's okay but I have a special place in my heart for those who are!!!!!  : )  This is one of my sisters tossing the bean bag (I was her partner and we lost).  : (  LOL  In the background, a serious game of darts was going on.  : )

Fortunately the weather was very nice while everyone was here, but as soon as they left, we got a few storms!  It's REALLY hot today and we're expecting storms this evening.

Most of our plants are loving this heat - especially the herbs so I thought I'd better get some of them into the dehydrator yesterday.  I had a tray of rosemary, a tray of basil, a tray of lavender, and a tray of mint.  Oh.......it smelled good.  : )  I hung the rosemary and lavender up to use in potpourri, I used the mortar and pestle to grind the mint for tea, and I'm still waiting for the basil (I found it doesn't dry as quickly as the others).  It felt so good to just go out and pick these things.  Very homey.  : )  I'll need to keep up with this as I don't want any of these things to go to waste.

And this is something I've been wanting to do for years!!!  Make my own paper with dried flowers in it.  I finally couldn't stand it any longer and tried it yesterday.  So easy, but it takes a while to dry, so this is a fast and easy project that I could do every day if I wanted to (and I do want to).  I really liked the results.

Makes a nice, little notecard.  : )

Because I do not do well in heat and humidity, all of these indoor activities have been very pleasant to work on.  In my "down time" I've been doing some embroidery, quilting, and crocheting - those activities where you can sit and have a program (cooking shows in my case) going on in the background and just do it.  It's been rather nice.  : )

I do think that is all I wanted to share with you today.  I've missed chatting with you and I do hope you are all well and enjoying your homes this summer and doing some things that are enjoyable as well.  Thank you for dropping by for a visit - like I try to tell you - I enjoy it when you do!!!!!  God bless.

Good Sunday Morning To You!

One of my favorites photos.   I love the clouds and rays of sun and the beautiful blue sky above it.

I thought I would pop in to see how all of you are doing and to say "hi".  : )  

Well, we have our major Summer holiday behind us - seriously can't believe THAT!  I had a very nice birthday on the 3rd this year with several e-mail greetings, flowers delivered, cards in the mail, a couple of phone calls with the birthday song sung to me, and our son and daughter-in-law with us in the evening.  In our area, the community right across the freeway has their fireworks display on the 3rd instead of the 4th so we found a new spot this year and we had it all to ourselves in which to view them.  It was kind of fun to "oooh" and "aaah" all by ourselves.  : )  We have it planned (Lord willing) to go there again next year (hoping no one else will think about this spot) but now we will bring chairs and snacks and be there a little earlier just to enjoy the evening.

I will still be on a blog break this week.  It will be a week of getting ready for a family birthday party with my side of the family coming over this way from out of state to celebrate.  We have three "big" birthdays - an 80th, a 30th, and 60th.  So I am very much looking forward to having everyone here.  

Yesterday I divided a piece of paper into days of the week and every single day has something to do in order to get ready (I'm just that kind of person).  : )  Everything from what food needs to be bought yet, to plugging certain things in to be ready, to what rooms need to be cleaned for those who will be staying with us, to what I need to cook and bake, to when to set things up, etc.............   For some this kind of thing is stressful, but for me I really do try to put myself in everyone's shoes and think about what would make their day.  What would please them.  How can I make them comfortable.  What would they enjoy eating.  What games can everyone play.  Hopefully I will remember to take a lot of photos so that I can share them with you next week.  : )  I love taking care of people and I love hospitality.

All of these things will have to be covered in prayer - from all plans to go well, to the safety of those who are arriving, even down to the weather and thinking of not-so-good weather plans!  I believe our Lord wants us to enjoy these times and I believe He's interested in the outcomes.  : )

So, until we meet again........I hope you can enjoy this upcoming week and that you, too, remember to daily lift your burdens, concerns, hopes, and plans up to the Lord as He directs your steps in it all.

God bless.

Blog Break

Beautiful!!!!!!!  The North Shore of Minnesota in the wee hours of the morning.

As my post title says, I'm going on a little break through this week and weekend.  Turning 60 tomorrow and then 4th of July and then projects to work on which I will hopefully post next week.  

I hope and pray that all of you have a wonderful week ahead.  Please be safe and enjoy our celebrating of the beginnings of our country.  Keep the U.S. in prayer!!!!!!  Enjoy your families and friends.

I appreciate all of you who drop in now and then to read what I enjoy writing about.  Thank you and I'll "see" you next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!  : )  God bless.