Friday’s Fave Five

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Friday's Fave Five

We’re officially halfway through 2024. Can you believe it? On Fridays I take a few moments to join with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to slow down and be thankful for the good things of the past week.

1. Guys’ camping trip. Jim, Jason, and Timothy went camping for a few days about an hour from here. I drove up on Friday for a few hours and ate dinner with them. Jim made what his mom used to call hobo packets: a burger patty (we used turkey burgers) with potatoes and vegetables seasoned and wrapped with foil, that could be given out, and these men would cook them over their campfires. Jim put frozen French fries in his, which I thought might get soggy. But they didn’t, probably because the turkey burgers were less greasy than ground beef. It was a good meal and a nice time to visit outdoors. Then I got to come home to my own bed and AC. 🙂 (Mittu didn’t come because she wasn’t feeling well.)

I passed a Dunkin Donuts on the way there and decided to stop and get a box of Munchkins on the way back. I don’t actually like their donuts much, but I like the Munchkins. Plus their box triggers special memories for me: when my mother’s father used to come visit us, he always brought a box of Dunkin Donuts. I can hardly see their logo without thinking of him.

2. Easy meals. Monday, Jim said he had a couple of his uncooked “hobo packets” still in the RV refrigerator and asked if I wanted to use them for dinner. Sure! Then Tuesday night, I came into the kitchen to start dinner and saw that he already had. Wednesday night, I used a package of frozen shredded chicken to make chicken tacos.

3. Lunch with a friend. Melanie and I used some accumulated gift cards for lunch at Red Lobster. Thankfully, most restaurants that we go to don’t mind if we hang around and talk for an hour or more after we finish eating (and the places aren’t crowded at lunch time, so we’re not keeping anyone else from being seated). We even thought to take a picture this time.

Lunch with Melanie

4. A love note with a newly-bloomed wildflower. We planted wildflowers from seeds this year, though we probably started them a little late. This one was one of the first flowers to show up.

Love note with wildflower

5. Independence Day. Our country is not perfect and has its share of problems, but I am immensely glad that I was born here. We enjoyed burgers and sides with the family and played games. They brought over sparklers and “Pop-its.” We saw a few bigger fireworks displays, but most were obscured by trees.

Bonus: Catching up on housework. With the last several weeks being extra busy, I had gotten behind on things that didn’t absolutely have to be done. Housework is not my favorite thing to do, but I do like the results. And dusting gave me a chance to listen to my Dickens audiobook.

Another bonus. A literal empty nest. I’ve shown pictures over the last few weeks of a bird’s nest, then eggs, then baby birds in our front flower arrangement. I think they were house finches. They are gone already! That was quick. They left quite a mess. I thought I could salvage some of the flowers, but I ended up throwing them all away. Even though we enjoyed having them, it will be nice to use our front door normally without fear of startling the mama bird.

That’s our first week of July. How was yours?

Happy Independence Day!

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Happy Fourth of July

Our country has its share of problems, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else!

Happy birthday, America!

Have a safe Fourth.

Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King.

~ Samuel Francis Smith

Are You Thirsty?

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Are you thirsty?

Even before summer officially began, we experienced record heat waves.The Farmer’s Almanac predicts hotter than normal temperatures for much of the country this summer.

I admit, I prefer sunshine to rain, particularly thunderstorms. But even I can appreciate the need for rain to cool the air, replenish the water supply, and help crops grow.

I don’t know that I have ever been in a true drought. We’ve had dry conditions where fires were banned in the county, water for lawns was restricted, and people were concerned about the water table.

I’ve been thirsty. I’ve had that cotton-mouthed feeling at times, but I don’t know that I have ever been parched.

That imagery came to mind this week as I read Jeremiah 17 this week:

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land (verses 5-6).

Jeremiah had to preach God’s judgment on His stubborn people who looked to other gods and nations for help instead of Him. When hearts turn away from the Lord, they dry up. They can’t grow and prosper. They’ve cut themselves off from their source of life and nourishment.

By contrast, Jeremiah says:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit (7-8).

The tree by the water is continually nourished and fruitful. It “is not anxious in the year of drought.”

So is the soul who trusts in and depends on the Lord. Have you ever watched someone go through a great trial or heartache and wondered how they seemed to be at peace? They had unseen resources feeding their soul, because their trust was in God.

We see this imagery in other places in the Bible as well:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away (Psalm 1:1-4).

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your  bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail (Isaiah 58:9-11).

Here we see the importance of not just hearing, but delighting in and obeying the Word of God.

Though I don’t recall feeling parched physically, I have been spiritually. I’ve had times I would not have made it without God’s help, grace, and word. I’ve cried out with the psalmist, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land” (Psalm 143:5-6).

And I have found God faithful to strengthen and uphold me. God can turn “a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water” (Psalm 107:33-38).

Do you feel dry spiritually? Is your soul parched? Do you fear you might not have the resources for a coming trial?

Jesus says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).

Come and drink, as often as needed. His well will never run dry.

You shall be like a watered garden. Isaiah 58:11b

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

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Laudable Linkage

Here’s my last list of links for this month:

How Can the Command to “Honor Your Father” Apply to Good and Bad Fathers Alike? HT to Challies. “Think about it, the biblical command to honour your dad cannot be a licence for dads to be horrible knowing that their christian children have to suck it up and honour them. You are called to honour your dad. But the type of dad your dad is shapes the ways and the extent that you honour him.”

Till He Was Strong, HT to Challies. “Did you know that it is not only the weak who are in danger of a spiritual fall? There are those who think, ‘if only I were stronger, then I wouldn’t be so (fill in the blank).’ But this isn’t true. Over and over again in God’s word, it is the strong who find themselves in the worst predicaments. Uzziah is one example. He was famous. He was helped by God. ‘Till he was strong.’ Do you feel the warning?”

The Golden Rule for Hard Conversations, HT to Challies. “The question of when or how to have hard conversations is one that requires wisdom. As believers in Christ, we are commanded to get involved when we see a brother or sister wondering from the truth (Galatians 6:1-2; Matthew 18:15; Ephesians 4:25). The Proverbs remind us that ‘a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver’ (25:11). ‘Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy’ (Proverbs 27:5-6). We recognize even in those instructions that we are responsible for making sure our rebuke is ‘a word fitly spoken,’ meaning appropriate. I’m sure we’ve all seen the harm in overzealousness in this area.”

A Thousand Wheels of Providence, HT to Challies. “In a situation like this, Jeremiah Burroughs points out that when we consider God’s work in Providence, we can only see things in pieces. We cannot see or understand many things that God does. Burroughs then compares it to the wheels in a watch.”

One of the Best Ways We Can Love Our Loved Ones. “In waiting rooms and living rooms, bedrooms and examination rooms. In the garden, the shower, the pickup line, the checkout line. Love prays.“

Writing (and Reading!) as Hospitality, HT to the Story Warren. “As a long-time member of The Habit, a community of writers, I’ve heard many bits of advice from authors of all stripes, but one idea that has profoundly impacted me over the years is Jonathan Rogers’ assertion that writing is a form of hospitality.”

The essence of idolatry

The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. A. W. Tozer

Friday’s Fave Five

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Friday's Fave Five

Here we are at the end of June already. Pausing to reflect on the blessings of the week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story helps slow time just a bit–or at least it helps us enjoy the good things a bit longer.

1. A fairly quiet week after two busy ones.

2. A routine dentist’s visit. Though the dentist’s office is not my favorite place to be, even just for a cleaning, this appointment was about as non-problematic as it could be.

3. Rain has been much needed around here, and we got a bit this week, with more forecast for the weekend.

4. Visiting with CA relatives. All of my husband’s extended family lives on the west side of the country. We learned that the husband and son of his niece in CA were going to be about two hours away from us here in TN last week. Both our nephew-in-law and great nephew have been involved with the high school robotics team for several years and were going to be in TN for a MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) ROV competition. The teams built their own robots and had them perform underwater tasks based on real-life scenarios.

I had thought we’d only have a brief time with our family members, since they’d be busy with the competition. But as it turned out, only six members of the team could be on the floor during the competition, minus their coach. So not only were we able to visit, but Mike, our nephew-in-law and also the coach, was able to give us a play-by-play commentary during the team’s turn–which was very helpful, as I did not know what was going on. 🙂

MATE ROV competition

None of these is my great nephew’s team, but it gives you an idea of the setting. The robot had to go in and out of the water from the white square.

Robotics competition

Split screens in the bleachers showed the activity from a live feed from underwater cameras. Again, these were not for the team we were rooting for, but it showed two teams at a time, side by side.

My great-nephew’s team was one of only a couple of high school teams: the rest were college teams from all over the world. And his team had one the last three years! They came in second this year, but that’s still a record to be proud of.

Jason, Mittu, and Timothy came as well. I think Timothy had a different kind of robot in mind before we went. He asked if they were going to do battle bots. 🙂 But I think he enjoyed the experience, especially some little dolphins our great nephew made for his team’s display table.

5. Baby birds in my front flower arrangement.

Happy Friday!

June Reflections

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June reflections

We’re still a few days from the end of June, but since I have other posts scheduled the next few days, this seems the best time to reflect on the month.

It’s been a busy one. Three doctors appointments (thankfully just the check in, touch base, see how things are going kind). Father’s Day. My turn to present for our writing critique group. A radio interview. A day’s outing to see family members from CA who were in Kingston, TN (more on that tomorrow). Facebook impersonation issues. Computer and Cricut (the machine I use to make cards) glitches to fix. And then the regular tasks of meal preparation, dishwashing, laundry, and such.

I was wishing before the radio interview that there was a way to turn off the nervousness leading up to it. But that’s probably what keeps me dependent on the Lord for help, so I guess it’s a good thing in the long run.

Watching

I usually share any particularly good programs or movies we’ve watched, but I didn’t make note of any this month. So I’ll ask you: do you have any good, *clean* movies or series to recommend? Jim like WWII movies, space movies, and some suspense. I like classics, historical, or “based on a true story” films. We’re not usually into romances, but occasionally will watch one.

Creating

I made three Father’s Day cards this month. One was for my step-father.

Father's Day card

Both the wording and the cut-out of “DAD” was done with the Cricut, then glued to a dark blue background which was then glued to the front of a card.

This was Jason’s:

Father's Day card

This one was a little tricky because the design was contributed by a user and didn’t quite include all the steps needed. Then my Cricut gave out and I had to do a few of the layers with an X-acto knife. But I like how it turned out.

This was Jim’s:

Father's Day camping card

I had a couple of ideas on the Cricut to use for his, but when the machine stopped working, I didn’t have time to figure all that out before Father’s Day. I was glad I had gotten these stickers beforehand.

Reading

Since last time I have finished (titles link to my reviews):

I’m currently reading:

  • Be Decisive (Jeremiah): Taking a Stand for the Truth by Warren W. Wiersbe
  • Read This First: A Simple Guide to Getting the Most from the Bible by Gary Millar
  • Write a Must-Read: Craft a Book That Changes Lives—Including Your Own by A. J. Harper
  • The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp
  • When We Were Young and Brave by Hazel Gaynor
  • Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens (audiobook)

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

Interestingly, I think Old Age Syndromes to Avoid, which I posted near the end of May, received the highest number of views in one day of anything I’ve posted. It looks like many of us are concerned about how to age well.

Writing

I was able to get a lot done on the chapter I submitted for our writer’s critique group. There’s no motivation like a deadline. 🙂 I’m hoping to dig into it more in the days ahead.

In July we’re looking forward to Independence Day and Jason’s birthday. Otherwise, the calendar looks blessedly empty! I hope to catch up on some writing as well as some things around the house.

How was your June? What are you looking forward to in July?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Review: Mildred Budge in Cloverdale

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Mildred Budge in Cloverdale

Mildred Budge in Cloverdale by Daphne Simpkins is the first of several books about retired schoolteacher Mildred Budge. Mildred retired a little on the early side, but we’re not told why until a few chapters in.

Mildred is finding retired life anything but peaceful. Her best friend, Fran, has set them up in booth for the Emporium to sell off some of their used furniture. A young couple across the street wants her help with their son, who doesn’t talk. And Sam at church wants her to host a young couple coming for the missionary conference.

Mildred is somewhat set in her ways, but is pressured to take the young couple in. She finds herself actually enjoying them and joins in with some of their activities.

But trouble comes when suspicious “serial widow” Liz makes moves towards Fran’s boyfriend and when Mildred is betrayed by someone she tried to help.

I liked that Mildred loosened up a bit over the course of the book and had a heart to help people.

But I’m sorry to say I did not care for this book very much. The author’s writing and style of humor didn’t gel with me. Plus there were many statements about what “church ladies” do and think (as if they all think and do the same) that rubbed me the wrong way–although those statements may have been meant as humorous. Also, a lot of lines of dialogue sounded stilted because of several paragraphs of extraneous information between each speaker’s lines.

Some of the spiritual content was a little wonky, like this: “Salvation is an old-timey word that simply means you don’t have to live out this life alone. You are not created to live like that” (p. 55, Kindle version). This was from a preacher at a funeral service. Salvation isn’t that old-timey a word, and it’s much more than not living alone. Later, when a young woman says she might be interested in having Jesus in her life, Mildred “felt an urgency” to ask her just to say His name. But the conversation (and any explanation) never went further. In the excerpt from the next book at the end, one man says a pastoral candidate at the church “preached grace, which means he wasn’t willing to preach Jesus front and center”—which doesn’t make sense.

I found very few negative reviews on Amazon or Goodreads for this book, so lots of other people liked it. I got it when Paula mentioned enjoying it. At that time, it was free for both the Kindle and Audible versions, so I got both. However, the Audible version was narrated by a “Virtual Voice,” which was not very good. It sounded human rather than robotic and had a bit of conversational flow to it, but it did not do inflections well and stumbled over words like “Tsk.”

Have you read Mildred Budge books? Have you ever disliked a book other people loved?

What If You Have Good Reason to Fear?

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What if you have good reason to fear?

I was sure a headhunter watched me while I slept.

As a child, I woke up one night to see a rounded shape beside my pillow on the top bunk. I was convinced a headhunter was standing by my bed, looking at me. I’m not sure why—headhunters weren’t known to roam southern Texas in the mid-1960s. Perhaps I had recently read a book or watched a program that included headhunters.

I decided to handle the situation by shutting my eyes tight. Perhaps if he thought I was asleep, he would go away. But if I tried to get past him, I was sure to be no match for him.

Somehow I did go to sleep. When I woke up the next morning in the full light of day, I saw the rounded shape by my head was my teddy bear.

I felt foolish, but relieved.

Since then, I’ve wrestled with many unreasonable fears.

What if:

  • No one chooses me for their team?
  • I get lost?
  • I stand up in front of my speech class and my mind goes blank?
  • My husband is late from work and might have had an accident?
  • Something might be wrong with my unborn child?
  • My husband loses his job?
  • One of us gets cancer?
  • He dies before I do?

. . . and more. I have an uncanny knack to imagine all the ways in which something could go wrong.

There’s some chance that any of these things could happen. But there’s no sense worrying about what might happen. If what we’re worried about doesn’t occur, we’ve wasted all that time and energy and angst. And if it does come to pass, we’ve doubled our pain by adding worry to it beforehand.

But what if what we fear is a very real possibility?

Almost thirty years ago, I woke up one morning with my left hand feeling funny. Thinking I had just slept on it wrong, I went about my morning routine. But that numbish feeling grew in area and intensity. Within three hours, my whole left arm, both legs, and my lower torso were numb. I couldn’t walk on my own.

The eventual diagnosis was transverse myelitis, an autoimmune response to a virus that attacks the spine. The body attacks the myelin sheath around the nerves of the spine as well as the virus.

I’ve told that story in more detail elsewhere. Thank God, I was able to walk again after a lot of physical therapy and prayer. Most of the feeling came back to my limbs, but my left hand still feels like I have a glove on, and my lower legs don’t have full feeling. My biggest after-effect has been trouble with balance.

Like many illnesses, healing from TM is not a straight, steady upward path. Sometimes the numbness and tingling were worse than others. In addition, sometimes I felt odd sensations in other parts of my body–a buzzing feeling, or involuntary movement, or a feeling like something was touching me when nothing was.

When symptoms escalated, especially that “slept on it wrong” feeling anywhere, I’d panic that I was having another TM attack. TM doesn’t often occur twice, but it can. If it does, the doctors begin to suspect multiple sclerosis rather than TM. The “multiple” in MS means these kinds of attacks could occur throughout life.

I wondered how people who had heart disease lived, knowing they could have another heart attack at any time. Or how people who had recovered from cancer coped, knowing their cancer could return. These issues felt like living with a medical sword of Damocles hanging over people’s heads.

I had to remind myself that, if God allowed another episode of TM, or if I was diagnosed with MS, He would be with me and help me through it just as He did the first time.

A passage I pondered with amazement in my early Christian life was Psalm 46:2-3: “Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”

I’ve been in a couple of very minor earthquakes, and even those mild tremors were quite disconcerting. I can hardly fathom something of this magnitude. Mountains falling into the sea? That sounds like good reason to be scared.

But this passage says, even in that scenario, “Therefore we will not fear. . . ” What’s the “therefore” that causes the writer not to fear?

Verse 1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

You know what comes later in this psalm?

Verses 10-11: “‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth! The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

Whatever our fears, real or imagined, unlikely or plausible, God is with us. He is our refuge, strength, and help. In Isaiah 41:10, He promises: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

In Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest, Edward T. Welch says:

The sheer number of times He speaks to your fears says that He cares much more than you know…The way He repeats Himself suggests that He understands how intractable fears and anxieties can be. He knows that a simple word will not banish our fears.

Search Scripture and find that our fears are not trivial to God. ‘Do not be afraid’ are not the words of a flesh-and-blood friend, a mere human like yourself. They are not the words of a fellow passenger on a sinking ship, who had no experience in shipwrecks, can’t swim, and has no plan. These words are more like those of a captain who says, ‘Don’t be afraid. I know what to do.’ When the right person speaks these words you might be comforted.

Another verse that comforted me during my TM recovery was Lamentations 3:32-33: “Though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.” He’s not capricious. Whatever He allows is for a purpose.

Trusting God’s presence and purpose in whatever He allows, trusting His ability to sustain and assist us through any situation, trusting His character and love for us, will all help us deal with any fear, real or imagined.

Psalm 46:1-2

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

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Laudable Linkage

I’m still behind on my blog reading, but found some great posts in what I did read:

8 Ways We Normalize the Abnormal by Paul Tripp, HT to Proclaim and Defend. “God has made it clear that the norm for his children should be love. It is the thing that the listening and watching world should know us for. We should be recognized not only for the purity of our theology but also for the consistency of our love. This love is the new commandment that Jesus left with his disciples in his final days with them: ‘that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another’ (John 13:34).” Because love should be our normal response, Tripp lists eight responses that should not be normal for us: those that are driven by emotional, anger, disrespect, and more.

Do You Really Know How to Live by the Golden Rule? “The Golden Rule as Jesus has phrased it is one more example of Jesus’s rejection of bare-minimum obedience. Jesus has called us to a deeper obedience whose focus is character and motive—not simply actions.”

Does Bach’s Music Prove the Existence of God? HT to Challies. “Music isn’t just something physical and material. There’s something beyond the notes on the page. In great works of art, we touch the edges of the transcendent because the best of our human creations are consciously or unconsciously reaching for the true, good, and beautiful.” Interesting to think about! I have been moved to thank and worship God by the beauty and artistry of secular music, whether the artist believes in Him or not.

The Awesome Privilege of Praying to God as a Father. “In Matthew 5–7 the Lord Jesus introduced the ‘platform’ of His kingdom. He didn’t speak of defense, or taxation, or healthcare. He spoke against hypocrisy (‘be not as the hypocrites’) and in favor of private piety (‘go into your closet’). He spoke against religious formalism (‘you have heard’) and in favor of heart righteousness (‘but I say unto you’). He spoke against materialism (‘you cannot serve God and money’) and in favor of spiritual investment (‘seek first the kingdom of God’). All the while, again and again and again (sixteen times in the three chapters), He pointed His hearers to God as their heavenly Father, especially in His instructions about prayer.”

Let’s Stop Hyper-Spiritualising Christian Counseling, HT to Challies. “When Christians really struggle—and all of us will, at different times—it seems that it’s automatically assumed the fundamental problem is a spiritual one. We conclude that something must be wrong in our relationship with God. Our Christian counselling tends to be over-spiritualised. Thus our solutions are merely spiritual, believing the struggles to be spiritual. But that’s hopelessly reductionistic. It’s also dangerously simplistic.”

Why Hardship May Show God’s Love. “I’ve noticed that God didn’t shelter His young heroes from hardship. Neither did He wrap His own Son in bubble wrap.” We try to make things easy on our kids, but God trains us through hardship.

How to Become a Better Reader, HT to Steve Laube. “Anyone can be a good reader, even in the Internet Age. Reading better means reading more slowly. The Net tells us to consume words in small, easy bites, as we dart from one webpage to another. But slow reading demands time and practice.”

I mentioned this yesterday, but for those who didn’t see it, I had a radio interview earlier this week with Kurt and Kate Mornings on Moody Radio Florida to discuss my blog post Life Doesn’t Always Turn Out Like We Thought It Would. My son recorded that interview for me and made it linkable. You can listen to it here if you’re interested.

Spurgeon: My faith rests on Christ

My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me.
From the September 25 reading from Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Friday’s Fave Five

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Friday's fave five

This has been one hectic week. The last two, in fact, have been busier than usual. It’s good to stop and take a breath and remember God’s blessings scattered through the days. I’m sharing with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Getting through. I’m thankful for God’s faithfulness in getting me through the last couple of weeks and various answers to prayer along the way. I have a couple of things on the agenda next week, but then July looks like a more normal schedule.

2. Father’s Day. We enjoyed celebrating Jim and Jason with stroganoff, and a Chantilly cake Mittu made with berries on top and between layers.

Chantilly cake

We got a few photos–unfortunately, Jesse had already left by the time we took them, and of course Jeremy was in RI.

Three generations
Us

3. A gastroenterology visit went well. The things they gave me to try last time seem to be helping.

4. Ruby Tuesday BOGO. When we get take-out, it’s usually fast food. Last weekend, we wanted something a little more upscale. I checked my “Sales” email folder and found a buy one entree/get one free offer from Ruby Tuesdays–and it was only good for last weekend. Good timing! We has Crispy Shrimp and Ribs along with a baked potato. Jim grabbed a bagged salad from the grocery store on his way to pick up the take-out.

5. Radio Interview. I had an interview Wednesday with Kurt and Kate Mornings on Moody Radio Florida. They wanted to discuss my post Life Doesn’t Always Turn Out Like We Thought It Would. We had a technical glitch at the beginning, with a delay in my responses getting to them. So they switched to using my phone. The sound is a little fuzzy, but at least it worked. My oldest son recorded it for me and made a link for the interview. You can listen to it here if you like. There are some commercials and a weather report in the middle. I cringed a little as I listened to it yesterday, noticing the “ums” and “you knows” and the dead air space as I pondered the answer to some of their questions. I don’t usually think “on my feet” very well—I guess that’s one reason I like to write: I can take time to process. But I prayed for the words God wanted me to say before and during the interview, so I trust it was helpful to listeners.

The eggs in our flower arrangement have hatched!

Hatched eggs

Have a great weekend!