Mary Lou's cactus bloomed!

 

Latest Read

Just finished reading, "The Calligrapher's Daughter" by Eugenia Kim. Very interesting book and well written. I started it last night, read all but a few last chapters while waiting at Big O Tire for them to put on two new tires and do the realignment (about 3 1/2 hours) and then I came home, ate a late lunch and finished it. It is about Korea during the Japenese take over until it was finally liberated because of the bombing of Japan by the USA. I've read several book in the past year on Japanese, Chinese and now Korean nations and how they lived,ate,dressed and thought. This bigoted (not proud) American (me) thought they were all quite similar but most definitely they were very different in many ways, rice being the main constant in food and scarcity in meat similar. But how they seasoned their food made it very different. Anyway, if you can find it at your library, read it. It's hard to put down.

Next Sabbath Psalm 43-56

Sabbath school class nest week read Psalm 43-56. Make note of the verses that mean a lot to you in each Psalm and try to memorize a verse or part of a verse if you can. Then share why that verse is so important to you.

Pictures of Hen and baby chicks and nanking cherry tree before being picked

 

 

 

 

 

So Sad

We ended up with 7 baby chicks. From yellow to brown to black. Adorable little balls of fluff. I went out to check on them I got home and I kept counting only 6 chicks. Looked everywhere and then I found the little chick with brown on head floating in the big water tub, I would have sworn it was too high for a baby to get into! It made me so sad. Emptied tub so no more lose their lives but there are plenty of dangers on a farm for little ones to get into trouble. Boo hoo.

Baby Chicks

Pat went went out to do the morning chores and came right back, saying he saw a baby chick. I couldn't find my shoes fast enough! So I race out there and you could see one popping it's head out of the left side of her feathers and I reached in and being very gentle pulled some of her feathers aside saw at least 3 baby chicks. The whole time I did this she pecked at my hand but the pecks weren't as vicious as when she just had eggs. It is so exciting. Can't wait until they are all hatched. Which they should be by the end of today.

Naps

I just woke up from my nap. It seems I need one almost every day now. My mind feels sharper after a nap and I feel like I can go on until evening now. I got to talk to my best friend in the whole world today, Sharon M, and it always makes me sad that we are so far away from each other. But thank God for cell phones, and e-mail. All you pray-ers out there please join me in praying for my friend, God knows what about.

I wrote last week about memorizing, and this week I realized I should do it like anatomy in college. Index cards and carry it with me and drill myself when driving or a few minutes to spare, plus I wrote keywords to remind myself of the correct order. I thought I already knew the 23rd Psalm but apparently I didn't remember the exact order! So that has been my passage this week to memorize. I trust with more effort the memorization will get easier. Anyway, I went and got the index cards and the cute little boxes to hold them in for all the people in my Sabbath school class. Walmart has these cute little snap box holders in the back to school section this year. Just don't throw away the cardboard insert or you'll never snap your box again until full of cards. I cut the insert into a front, back and bottom joined piece (got rid of the top section) so I can put the unused cards into the cardboard sleeve and keep the card or cards that I am memorizing in front of the insert. Did this make sense?

We ate our first two tiny ripe tomatoes from the garden last night for supper. You forget after awhile just how much store bought tomatoes lack, even the ones still on the bit of dried up vine, until you have that first one out of your garden. Oh, the juicy sweetness that bursts into your mouth as your brain does a giant sigh of bliss! Fresh tomatoes! Summer is here at last.

We finally got the parsnips, carrots, beets and radishes re-planted with the sawdust on top to help with moisture and we have radishes coming up thick as thieves and teeny tiny little beet sprouts are visible. The wind and heat here have been extra wild this year. Makes you feel like a brand new gardener wringing your hands!

I have been following several different blogs this week and one of them is a woman gardener in France, they have bind weed there, too! Some people write, some people take pictures and some do both. It's very interesting! I need to get my childlike spirit rekindled and take more pictures. It is important to see other's worlds through their eyes.
If you are reading any other blogs, tell me about them and why you llike them and I'll share mine with you, too.

Have a wonderful Sabbath and rest in Jesus.

4th of July

Well, we decided there were too many wild cherries yet. So we picked the rest and today I enjoyed the holiday by making 4 batches of wild cherry pancake syrup and 4 batches of wild cherry jelly. Dad Coady is coming for supper of dogs and buns, chips and potato salad Dad Troyer style and baked beans.

The wind is blowing like mad and the trees are bowing halfway to the ground with it! The dog always freaks out with the wind howling like this.

In case you ever have wild cherries to pick the recipe is 3 1/2 cups juice to 5 cups sugar and 1 pkg of pectin. To make the syrup just omit the pectin.

Now I'm out of jars, so guess I will be buying many more for the bumper crop of grapes and plums to come.

Hope your 4th is fun and you get fireworks to watch. None for us, too much fire danger.

Lesson for next Sabbath

Please read Psalm 15-28 for next Sabbath and memorize one verse. Plus pray for all the members of class so they will find memorization easier than we did this week. I, personally found it extrremely difficult. It was a great big fuzzball in my brain week. Satan doesn't want us to memorize God's word. But I realize that much of it is my sinfulness and finding other things more important than God's word and I am ashamed that I can remember which row of re-inkers has the brightest blue or the new book I want to find at the Library and who wrote it, but couldn't memorize Psalm 5:1,2 adequately to recite word for word. I find it easily to remember concepts and what it means but verbatim!!! Sad, isn't it. How do we get ourselves to find God's word valuable enough to store it in the quick retrieve part of our brain? Any suggestions?

Anyone who has good ideas that work for them please share with me so I can share them with the class. And if you are a pray-er, pray for Julie, Bill, Peter, Pam, Debbie and myself. Thanks, in advance.