Update

I miss Gary.  He's been in Illinois 11 days of the last month.  His dad fell a week ago and had repair-surgery last weekend.  Today he moved into the nursing home for therapy.  Gary was there to help with the transition and to get more detail-stuff wrapped up. 

Snow, snow, snow.  As tired as we've been recently, I am SO thankful for the snow-blower.

I whipped up two Real Meals [whole foods; made from scratch] this week, things that were quick and easy, and earned two nights full of compliments from the satisfied diners.  Oh no, I'm building up their expectations again ....

I love sitting down and reading Anne with Maggie.  It's so pleasant and I wish there weren't so many responsibilities that get in the way.  Maggie has been doing much more, though, to help with chores and projects recently.

When you're regularly in a public place (uh, that would be at work) you get spoiled by the warmth.  Then 67 feels mighty cold at home. 

I'm ready for July.

Rotten Potatoes

That distinctive odor.  I can smell it in the pantry as soon as it starts.  So you grab the bag of potatoes, dump them all out, and find the one that's starting to decay. 

So does anybody know how to avoid getting a bag with a rotten potato?  I look the bags over before I choose one to put in my grocery cart.  My nose theoretically could sniff it out, but when I'm in the produce section by the potatoes, I always smell rotten ones.  How do you know which bags are clean and which have an on-their-way-to-putrid specimen?

Glorifying God

Glory.  

Big shiny powerfulness?  
Mighty awesomeness?

Pastor's always saying that God's glory is in His love, in His self-sacrifice, in His condescension for the sake of saving us.  Jesus is always talking about "His hour" to be glorified, and it turns out to be His suffering, death, and resurrection.

And there's the wrestling within me: Is His glory really about His suffering and death?  Isn't it about whoopin' the devil and triumphing in the resurrection and ascension?  Isn't His death just something to "get past" on the way to real glory? 

But look at what happens a few weeks later.  The disciples are out fishing and they see Jesus on the shore.  They bring the boats back to land and eat breakfast with Jesus.  Then Peter and Jesus go for that little walk and have that little chat: "Simon, do you love Me?" And the story ends with Jesus description of what would happen to Peter near the end of his life.  And then,
 

"This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God" (John 21:19).

Excuse me?
Peter's death would do what?

Glorify God?

Hmmm.  Puts a new spin on what "glory" is, huh?
 

Knots in the Neck

Those pains in the neck?  I'm too tall; our back massager cannot reach them.   As I sat reading to Maggie, I tried contorting into weird positions, slumping down, anything so that the massager could hit parts of my neck.  I kept wishing there was a way to make it work.

And the next night, I walk into Aldi for produce and, lo and behold, they had a neck massager.  Not only Aldi-priced, but clearance priced.  Less than the co-pay for one doctor/chiropractor visit.  I nabbed it.  It was a hasty decision.  I detest hasty decisions!  But boy oh boy, that little contraption sure does help.