Saturday's Scribbles

Ahhh, another beautiful day in the heartland of the USA. The sun is shining, the humdity has dropped to a tolerable level, and July in the midwest has all the flowers showing off. The corn is high in the fields, and the farmers markets are blessing us "city folk" with an abundance of early lettuce, a few green beans and other veggies, and homemade goodies. Joel stopped yesterday and picked up some fresh cucumbers, lettuce, and green beans. Yum!

I would love to have a garden and grow squash, green beans, tomatos, and herbs. Where we live it would be "frowned upon". We live in an "association" and even though it is called Asbury Farm they don't REALLY want you to have a farmyard. So many rules, so silly.

Joel just went out on what we call "poop patrol" ~ picking up dog do-do in the yard before the boy we hired to mow comes by. He had quite a few sticks to pick up after Friday's early morning storms. It saddens me to see him so wobbly and weak in the knees as he slowly walks around the yard. I keep telling him, he will get better. His strength will come back..I think I say it for myself as much as for him but I do believe it. God keeps assuring us of that with Isa. 40:28-31 coming up over and over again.

The havoc the H Pylori treatment raised is passing except for an unhappy liver. The yeast die off ceased to be challenging after three days...just as the NAET practitioner said.

Today is our grandson, N.'s, birthday party. He is 7 now and his dad is having a party for him at their church. Just saying that sentence gives me such joy. Our second son went through drug addiction, and then alcoholism for several years. We often worried for his well being. And then 18 mo. ago he went into a Christian treatment program. He is clean and sober, AND his faith has deepened and strengthened in such a way that Joel and I are often lifting up prayers of awesome thanksgiving. He is healthy ~ having a party for his son...in HIS church. This is big. Sadly, neither Joel or I can travel to be there to see this milestone and celebrate with little N. Sometimes life is not fair.

My husband has made a promise to me. No more roof walking. On his 63rd birthday I went into the bedroom next to mine and the screen was off the window. As I walked up to the window I saw Joel walking on the roof, bending down and cleaning junk out of the eves. Okay, this is NOT cool. I quietly asked him to please come inside...he did and then I reminded him that he has balance problems! He told me he forgot....so I made him promise right then and there to stay off of the roofs. I will work on the high ladders part later. AND this week we had the "gutter man" come and put gutter guards on the whole house so there will not be a need to clean out the gutters at 10 at night on a high ladder with a flashlight (I am not kidding!) nor to do any roof climbing.

Speaking of age, in my 20's I felt like I had so much to learn....by my late 30's and 40's I thought I knew it all.....in my 50's I felt pretty content with what I knew! Now as I begin my 60's I am grateful to still be here, eager to soak up all the learning the world has to offer, and looking foward to Joel's retirement. Back to feeling like I have so much to learn and so little time.

Thinking about the "so much and so little idea"...that is how I have felt about books my whole life. So many books to read...so little time to read them all! I am so thankful I enjoy reading. As a child I like Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew mysteries....and of course the Betsy-Tacy books.As an adult I still enjoy mysteries and can get hooked on self help books. Now I am very choosy about the non fiction I read. I like missionary stories, books about helping others, and those that help me learn to accept life and be content. I used to keep all my books in pristine condition until I realized what I really wanted to do was underline and circle, and fold down pages of what I felt was important to remember. Joel uses markers to color code what he wants to remember in his books. A good old fashioned pencil is my favorite tool. It does help when you want to go back and find something. I am usually reading 2-3 at a time. A fiction book, and one or two nonfiction. Books are my "vice" ~ not a bad one to have. "Some of my best friends are books".

Off to eat lunch. A fresh salad with olive oil dressing and rice pasta with a bit of ground turkey and broccli in it. Good nourishment for my body to go along with a good book that nourishes my soul.

I am going to post a photo of our little porch Joel built, that gives us such pleasure. It is nice enough to have windows open and I can hear the chimes when the wind moves them. Joel spent alot of time out their this morning. It is a good place to be.