Saturday's Scribbles

We are enjoying another Saturday in yet another great week of nice weather.  I think we have only used the air conditioner 4-5 times this whole summer.  Nice!  We could use some rain, and the forecast tells us we will have plenty of chances for that next week.  For now we are enjoying the dryer heat, temps in the high seventies, and evenings cool enough to require my Woolie )wool comforter) in the early morning hours when the cool winds come in our open windows.

We have seen our mama and her two fawns this past week while walking. The triplets are no longer visible, so we are thinking one did not make it or the triplets moved on and another family has taken their place.  Joel has also gotten in a couple of bike jaunts but now that he is working he is not out on his recumbent as much as he would like.  One of the days he went biking he found an old chair and brought it home for the back deck.  Looks great with a big pot of flowers sitting on it!

We have been spending our evenings watching two conferences on healing, one which we had planned to attend in person.  We have watched a few teachings from the Voice of the Apostles conference in Florida, but find that the Charis conference speaks to us more this year.  Being they are on Mt standard time, we have been staying up a bit later which is catching up with me!  The conference ended last night so expect we will go back to our regular routine now.  We had trouble hearing the speakers some nights, so Joel hooked up a couple of old computer speakers to my laptop.  It is a blessing to have a fix-it man for a hubby.

Speaking of laptops, Joel purchased a refurbished Lenovo this week and has spent a great deal of time learning to master it.  He is the first to admit he gets a bit obsessed and out of sorts until he feels he is managing it and it is not managing him!  He needs the laptop for his new Interim.

Speaking of that, it seems to be going well.  He has been helping the secretary to learn new, easier ways of doing her job with the bulletin, etc.  We both headed over there Thursday afternoon for a few hours.  Mostly he works from home, but he will have "office hours" one day after next week. 

I found a recipe for Banana ice cream on Facebook and this week we made that.  It was pretty good considering it is made with only frozen banana slices whipped until they become soft and creamy.  We made too much though, as after a couple of days it lost it's creamy texture for a grainy one.  Good to know.

Banana Ice Cream 

A couple of weeks ago one of our dining room chairs broke for the gazillonth time so we decided to start looking for a new dining room set.  The one we have we bought 16 years ago for $180.00!  New.  Needless to say we are not finding anything like that now.  We want a good solid wood....and most of what we found cost the price of our first car or more. Yikes!  At this time we are still pondering whether to purchase a large table and 6 chairs that we use mostly when we have company, or just shelf it for now.  I am finding it hard to purchase anything since I started reading the latest kindle book I downloaded.  More on that later!

Yesterday we went to the farmer's market and picked up more strawberries.  They are sooooo good.  We like to shop with our favorite vendor, a Vietnamese family of 10 who farm south of our fair city.  The older kids help out, and are so polite and nice.  And beautiful.  All so strikingly beautiful on the inside and out.  One of the girls was telling us they lost 9/10th of their first strawberry crop due to the heavy rains that came in early June I believe.  Her words spoke loudly when she said, "But God will provide.  He always does.  Amen.
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Speaking of God, I have been reading a new Kindle book, "Where The River Runs:  How A Forgotten People Renewed My Hope In The Gospel" by Kelly Minter.  It is a fascinating book about how the people she encountered along the Amazon River completely changed her life.  Three chapters in and I am having the same old feelings that come with every book I read on missionaries and mission work.  Called to be less and do more.  And oh my goodness, we are so very spoiled here in America. Here is one example:  The mission group she goes with stay on a boat that travels the Amazon.  The leader asked how many people can stay on the boat.  The answer says it all:  "Well, if they are Brazilian, 35.  If they are British, up to 24.  But if they are American? 12.  Yep.  Enough said.  Joel told me he is going to ban me from reading any more books about missionaries or the people they serve!   Ha!  It is an excellent book, laced with humor and spiritual insights.  It will challenge you and it will change you.  Great read!

So what have you been up to? 

Until next time..........