Rachel's Place

We're exiting the highway. Matt & Rachel's apartment is just a couple of blocks away from here.

This is the little lawn for the three buildings surrounding the space. Rachel and Matt's basement windows are alongside this green-space.

That's Maggie peaking out of the window.

Looking down the street.

This was taken near their front door, looking at the stairs into the lawn and the downstairs entryway into the apartment.

The living room on moving day. It's in the basement.

The spiral staircase, much loved by Rachel and the kitties, and gingerly navigated by her mother and mother-in-law.

Rachel's kitchen after having had a couple of months to settle in.

Today's Laugh

A woman finds herself in dire financial trouble. Desperate, she goes to church and begins to pray. "God, please help me. I've lost my business and I'm going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lottery."

Lottery night comes, and she is devastated when someone else wins.

She prays again. "God, please let me win the lottery. I've lost my business, my house, and I'm going to lose my car as well."

Lottery night comes, and once again she has no luck.

Once again, she prays. "God, I've lost my business, my house, and my car. Please just let me win the lottery this one time so I can get my life back in order."

Suddenly, the heavens open. There is a blinding flash of light and a voice echoes through the church. "Work with me here, my child. Buy a ticket."

Rachel and Matt's Move

So, I'm none-too-fast about posting pictures.

Plenty of friends, Matt's family, and Rachel's family came to assist.


Easier to send a lot of the smaller items out the window rather than around corners, through a door, down the hallway, through a door, through a short hallway, through a door, through the entryway, through a door, and across the lawn.




I loved seeing the two pictures standing up against the grate to the left of the open window: a Transformers poster and a complete copy of Macbeth. It's a happy couple like unto the owners of the artwork.


The U-Haul people don't think that's a zebra. They think it's some prehistoric mammal. Ha ha ha ha ha!


Mary, Matt's mom, brought the picnic food and LOTS of drinks for after we'd loaded the truck and before we headed out to drive to Chicago and then unload. She is a wonderful woman! I was so thankful.

This Week

Monday: The Wisconsin contingent moved furniture, cleaned house, and tried to make space. The Texas contingent (mostly Nathan, with his mom's help) loaded a moving van on a very hot day.

Tuesday: The Wisconsin contingent ran lots of overdue errands and caught up on laundry. The Texas contingent drove from 7 a.m. till after 11 p.m.

Wednesday: The Wisconsin contingent continued moving furniture, clearing shelves and cupboard space, etc. The Texas contingent drove from southern Illinois to Wisconsin, arriving about 4:30 p.m. Gary came home from work and then turned around to leave for church as he was preaching. The rest of us unloaded the moving van. Nathan and Katie began unpacking.

Thursday: More unpacking. Nathan went to a job fair. Nathan, Katie, and 4 teenage guys from church unloaded a bunch of stuff into storage into the garage of some friends from church. Andrew stayed at their house for some game-playing, while Nathan, Katie, and Maggie returned home.

Friday: Katie drove to Chicago to adopt-out their kitty to Rachel & Matt. Nathan continued to unpack and to fix a computer that did not fare well through the move. Maggie and Susan mowed the lawn, washed laundry, and harvested berries and tomatoes. Gary was interviewed for a promotion at work. Maggie left for a slumber party. Andrew did not come home from his slumber party; the weather was nasty for driving.

Saturday: Both kids will arrive home. Gary is going to Greenfield to substitute preach. While there, he and Nathan will put another load of stuff into storage at another friend's house.

My house is not child-proofed.

I should can more salsa. I will want it in the cold winter months. Right now, I don't want the boiling water in the kitchen. Decisions, decisions. :-)

We have a bug jar and a cage for toads and lots of books about trucks. And Brio! Alia is okay with that!

Today's Laugh

A man always carried an umbrella. One by one, as the months passed, he broke each one until six useless ones were in his umbrella stand.

One morning, he took the umbrellas into the city and left them at a repair shop. He rode the bus home. As he was about to disembark, out of pure habit, he picked up the umbrella next to him; it belonged to the woman sitting on the same bus-seat.

She yelled, "Stop, thief." Completely embarrassed, he gave her back the umbrella.

The next week, he picked up his six umbrellas at the repair shop. When he got on the bus with them, he happened to sit next to the same woman. He didn't recognize her, but she sure recognized him.

Giving him an icy stare, she said, "I see you've had a good day, huh?"

Wheel-Girl's Arrival

"I finally have my bike back!"

She rode in a TRUCK!


A book about trains!


A tractor to play with. (But Woody is posted especially for Karin and Anna.)


And the firetruck. (Mom, do you remember this set of magnets?)

Homeschooling PI-1206 for Wisconsin

Homeschoolers in Wisconsin: The DPI is switching this year from paper forms to online electronic forms. If you filed the 1206 last year, you should be receiving notification of the switch in how forms are submitted. As in previous years, you must not submit the form until after the third Friday in September (the 17th, this year) and must submit it prior to October 15.

Today's Laugh

A photon and an ion went to the airport. When they got there, the other passengers were surprised to see the ion handed his ticket without paying, and the photon get waved through security.

"What gives?" an irate passenger asked. "Why does the photon get to go through security?"

"Oh," said the man behind the desk. "We know he's traveling light."

"And the ion?"

"He was charged earlier."

Today's Laugh

A guy buys a brand-new Lamborghini and is so excited he calls his friend the priest and asks him to bless it. The priest says, "I'd be happy to bless it, but tell me first, what's a Lamborghini?"

The guys gets upset and decides if his friend doesn't know what a Lamborghini is, he'd rather call his friend the rabbi. The rabbi says he'd be more than willing to give the blessing, but also asks, "What a Lamborghini?" to which the guy says, "Never mind." and hangs up.

Finally he calls another friend, the minister at the Unitarian church. When he asks the minister to bless his Lamborghini, the minister says, "Wow! A Lamborghini? That's amazing. What color is it? How much horsepower? Will you let me drive it?" To which the guy answers the questions and then adds, "You know, you still haven't said whether you'll bless it."

The minister replies, "Sure, I'll be happy to bless it. That's a very worthy cause, but I just have one question ... Ahhh, what's a blessing?"

To Be a Clueless Idiot

We were sorting through cupboards, cleaning off shelves, re-arranging closets all day -- and in the midst of the day's work I found one of these scrub puffs. It is now hanging in the shower to use with shower gel I received as a gift. I betcha I can figure out how to do it. I hope.

You see, technology and I are not exactly compatible. I've mastered the cruise control on the car. I can make a DVD play, but if I want to pause or rewind, it takes some pondering and trial-and-error. Not a clue how to work the little iPod knock-off Julie gave me; Andrew will help me with it later. But c'mon, doncha think I should be able to advance beyond washcloths all the way up to scrub puffs???

Now I look back at the Christmas present I bought for my sister-in-law one year and am mortified. Because of our financial situation, Christmas gifts are few and small. That year we were trying to keep expenses to $10-20 or less for other families on our list. I'd thought of making my own gift baskets of soaps and lotions and all that jazz. #1 clue it was doomed to failure -- I just don't do pretty. I can try, but it flops. Making a gift basket really is about "pretty." But then there was #2 reason. Because we'd chosen some other gifts for my brother's family, I started to cut back on the idea of the gift basket, y'know, needing to cut out a couple of items.

I knew those scrubbie-guys were in all the soap/lotion gift baskets at the store. They seemed pretty exotic to me, a person who uses boring old washcloths for bathing, for house-cleaning, for wiping babies' bottoms, etc etc. So I ended up buying just a scrubbie-puff for my sister-in-law's present. Poor Tina! She was so kind. Her eyes showed a bit of confusion. But dumb me -- I didn't understand. Now that my girls have grown up and learned a few things (from other people! not me!) about the ways of the feminine world, I see that Tina must have been thinking the scrub puff was a joke present, or maybe that there was something I'd forgotten to include in the package. But she was kind and gracious and said thank you, for what was essentially just a "washcloth."

I wonder if there will ever come a day when seeing those scrub-puffs hanging in a shower doesn't remind me of what a clueless idiot I was in that situation, and how gently Tina put up with it.

Today's Laugh

A computer crashes in a lawyer's office, so she calls a programmer.

The programmer arrives, unpacks his case, does mysterious things for a while, and hands her a bill for $600.

"This is ridiculous. I don't even make that much as a lawyer."

"Neither did I when I was a lawyer," says the programmer.

Cyclical

It's very hard to obtain a job in an area where you don't live. But nobody will rent to you or give you a mortgage unless you have a job to pay the bills.

So let's say you solve that dilemma by moving in with family temporarily. How do you prove residency? Because of 911, when you open a bank account, they want to see your drivers license. You can't get a drivers license or license plates until you can prove residency with a paycheck stub or a utility/housing bill or a bank account statement more than a month old. But if you're living with somebody else, you don't have a mortgage or a gas bill. And you don't have the job yet. And what if you want to vote in next month's election? Good luck with that!

It looks like it may be more complicated than I'd thought for Katie and Nathan to become official Wisconsin residents. And the next question is whether one of them getting hired and receiving a paycheck will prove residency for both of them.

Planning or Worrying

When Gabriel came to Mary to tell her she'd have a baby, she responded in faith, "Let it be to me according to your word." When Jesus suffered and died for our sins, He patiently endured whatever the Sanhedrin and the Romans threw at Him. "Into Your hands I commit My Spirit."

But what about planning? Noah certainly followed plans and worked that they come about. When Paul got himself into trouble (repeatedly) for preaching Jesus, his Christian brothers came up with plots either to sneak Paul to safety or to go to the authorities and rat out the assassins. When Paul knew he was going up to Jerusalem (possibly to his death) he met with the Ephesian pastors and gave them farewell instructions about tending the flock. None of these plans were worrying.

But SO many of my plans are indeed worrying. Why? What's good planning and what's worrisome planning?

And here's what I think. It's all about faith and contentment. We plan what we plan not for our own protection, not for our own comfort, but for the sake of the neighbor. We plan so that we might do good to those around us. Faithful planning also believes (I mean, really believes, not just a verbal assent to a theological concept) that God may have different plans, and that "what God ordains is always good" -- even when my plans are frustrated. If I plan to save money and it all disappears in bad economic times, what God ordains is always good. If I plan to take care of my health and it fails, what God ordains is always good. If I plan to tend a garden and God sees fit to allow fungus on my tomatoes, somehow He is working good for my soul and my trust in Him.

Our plans turn to worry when we think we have some control. Our plans turn to worry when we are more concerned with temporal blessings than with eternal realities. Our plans turn to worry when our priority is my comfort instead of my brother's needs.

So, "Stop Worrying!" right? Nope. Trying to stop worrying never stopped anybody from worrying. Worry fades away when our eyes are fixed on Jesus and His mercy, knowing that He will care for my soul and that nothing can harm me and draw me from His love, and also that He uses my planning to care for my neighbor's soul/life, in His own way, in His own time.

Today's Laugh

Many years ago, my father visited America, from Europe, for the very first time. He wanted to go with me to the supermarket, so off we went.

Going up and down the aisles with me, he asked questions about things he saw. "Vas diss?? Powdered orange juice??" he asked.

I said, "Yes, Dad, you just add a little water, and you have orange juice."

A few minutes later, in a different aisle, he blurted out, "Und vas dis?? Powdered milk?"

I said, "Yes, Dad, you just add a little water, and you have fresh milk!"

A few minutes later, in a different aisle, he yelled out, "Und give a look here!! Baby powder!! Vat a country, vat a country!"

General Update

Maggie, Andrew, and I traveled to Fort Wayne this past week for a retreat. Lots of friends. Lord's Supper every day, daily prayer offices. A dance. Lots of friends. Great catechesis and workshops and discussions. Lots of friends.

Gary and Andrew shuffled the basement all around so that we can have both a dining room and a bedroom space down there. There's still more to do to empty Andrew's upstairs bedroom and some shelf/cupboard space so that Katie's gang will have places to put their stuff when they arrive midweek.

Yesterday was Zoo Day for Gary's company. It's very different to wander the zoo when you don't have a little person with you. It's still enjoyable, but in a different way: not so educational, but more like a relaxed walk with different scenery than what you find in your neighborhood.

Is there a hole in a window screen here? The flies have been terrible the last two days! But hey, they're a whole lot easier to swat and eliminate than the mosquitoes outside!

Cheri asked this morning about my green drink. My cough is still going after nearly six weeks; not sure if it's allergies or viral. Interestingly, though, the cough started only a few weeks after I began to be forgetful about my daily green drink. I am going to remember my green drink! Yes, I am! I am going to! (I hope....)

Andrew applied for a job at the Noodles where Paul used to work. But it took forever to get an interview. The boss said he'd call and let Andrew know, and he didn't. When Andrew inquired, the person on the phone said the boss hadn't been in for the previous two days. We don't know what's going on there. But Andrew saw a sign at Tony Maronni's (the most awesome pizza joint in the area!!!!) a week and a half ago, applied, went in for an interview, and was hired today. Yee haw! He starts on the 17th. It's local, between church and library. They're only open until 8:00 on weekdays. Andrew forgot to ask how many hours to expect each week. This is exciting!

Today's Laugh

A very successful lawyer parked his brand-new Lexus in front of his office, ready to show it off to his colleagues. As he got out, a truck passed too close and completely tore off the door on the driver side. The lawyer immediately grabbed his cell phone, dialed 911, and within minutes a policeman pulled up.

Before the officer had a chance to ask any questions, the lawyer started screaming hysterically. His Lexus, which he had just picked up the day before, was now completely ruined and would never be the same, no matter what the body shop did to it.

When the lawyer finally wound down from his ranting and raving, the officer shook his head in disgust and disbelief. "I can't believe how materialistic you lawyers are," he said. "You are so focused on your possessions that you don't notice anything else."

"How can you say such a thing?" asked the lawyer.

The cop replied, "Don't you know that your left arm is missing from the elbow down? It must have been torn off when the truck hit you."

"Oh, no!" screamed the lawyer. "Where's my Rolex?"

Running a Business

Did you hear about the county health inspectors who shut down a 7-yr-old's lemonade stand because she hadn't paid for her $120 temporary restaurant license? Later, the county chairman apologized and instructed health dept officials to "use professional discretion" in enforcing the rules. A city commissioner, however, defended the enforcement of the regulations.

My friend Glenda was notified not to bring homemade treats to an upcoming pastors' wives' retreat. Too dangerous, y'know, for those pastors' wives to bring cookies that haven't been inspected by the government. About 15 years ago, my nephew's school (in the same state) required that all cupcakes for classroom parties be purchased at a bakery and arrive at school in a sealed container. That was to Protect The Children. But see how it's expanded! The government will guard everything that goes into your mouth. Homemade oatmeal-raisin cookies -- too dangerous. McDonalds fries and Pepsi -- perfectly okay.

The nanny state has run amok. And we have a President and lawmakers who claim they support small business. Sure they do -- so long as the person providing the service jumps through every hoop and pays for every permit before starting a mini-business.

Paul's Viper

In Acts 28 we read what happened to Paul after they were shipwrecked on their way to Rome. The kind natives built a fire to warm the weary, wet crew and passengers. When the poisonous snake attached itself to Paul's hand, the natives said that he must be a murderer and, although Paul had lived through the storm and shipwreck, obviously justice was being meted out through the snakebite.

"No doubt this man is a murderer..."
A murderer? They didn't suspect him of theft or political rebellion. They said "murderer." Paul indeed had been a murderer many years earlier.

Then Paul shook the snake off his hand. He suffered no ill effects from the snakebite. And the natives concluded he must be a god. In a way, they weren't entirely wrong.

Luke writes that "no harm came to him." No harm [that is, permanent harm] will ever come to those who are in Christ.

Today's Laugh

Do Not Worry About Your Life

Pastor's on vacation. Gary is preaching on Sunday. He says the last time he preached this text was nearly three years ago. It is the invitation from Jesus to rely on Him for all our needs (Matthew 6 or Luke 12).

Thirty-five months ago we had no septic. We weren't supposed to be using the water in the house. If we did, we had to dispose of it by carrying it outside and dumping it. After a few weeks of this, some wonderful and generous homeschooling friends got together and provided a night for us in a hotel. Do you know what hotels have? Showers. Toilets. Sinks with running water. And DRAINS on all of those items! Such a helpful gift! Such love shown in the giving of the gift!

When we came home that evening in late September, the evening was cooling off and it promised to be a chilly night. We discovered that we were almost out of fuel. No propane for the furnace or for the water heater or for the stove. For the next two weeks I had to cook next door at church and wash dishes at church. And we had to boil water on the church stove for washing ourselves up.

And that was the weekend Gary last preached on this particular pericope.

A lot of memories.

But as Staupitz said in the Luther movie, "We preach best what we need to hear most." God grant that it be so.

Garden Report

Fungus continues to attack the tomatoes, but most of the fruit (so far) continues to grow and ripen. A few tomatoes succumb to blossom-end rot. I should be making salsa, but can't seem to get to canning with the deck a driveway repairs, the conference we attended this week, and some house re-arrangements in anticipation of next week.

It is not good to flood a garden. Your green bean vines may decide to grow mold. But hey, they were getting near done bearing anyway. The beans in the raised bed should be ready for harvest in another week or so. I wonder if it's okay to throw moldy vines into the compost heap? I have to keep telling myself that, as long as we have a stocked grocery store, it's far better to have had the garden flood than to have suffered the basement floods that so many people had.

I hope it won't do the potatoes any harm to stay in the ground for a week or so after the vines shrivel and die. I'm not going to get around to digging them until next week or the following week. There are a LOT more potatoes in each hill, and they're much bigger than last year. Chalk up one for old wive's tales.

The variety of blackberry I planted is weird. The canes want so badly to grow horizontally, right smack along the ground. That makes for very dirty berries when ripe. But the size! Oh my goodness! Some of those blackberries are nearly as big as my thumb! And oh-so-sweet! It seems that the vines are more willing to be vertical (or at least off the ground) as they've been in the ground longer.

The hubbard squashes are growing and looking good! There's fungus on the sole zucchini plant, too, but it's managing to limp along. (And with zucchini, you don't want it going like gang-busters! "Limping along" is just fine.) There's a volunteer vine coming up where the spinach was. For curiosity's sake, I didn't weed it. It now has fruit and appears to be a Delicata Squash vine (a small heirloom winter squash I planted last year). On the topics of volunteer plants and fungus, it's interesting that the volunteer tomatoes coming up in the compost heap are not speckled with evidence of the fungus.

The basil is growing like crazy, thick and tall and bountiful, but I still can't grow any cilantro this summer.

The carrots are finally showing evidence that they exist. I've been planting and replanting since late March. Hooray! We may eat some after all!

Today's Laugh

Two Arabs boarded a shuttle out of Washington for New York. One sat in the window seat, the other in the middle seat. Just before takeoff a fat little Israeli guy got on and took the aisle seat next to the Arabs. He kicked off his shoes, wiggled his toes, and was settling in when the Arab in the window seat said, "I think I'll go up and get a coke."

"“No problem," said the Israeli. "I'll get it for you." While he was gone, the Arab picked up the Israeli's shoe and spit in it. When the Israeli returned with the coke, the other Arab said, "That looks good. I think I'll have one too."

Again, the Israeli obligingly went to fetch it, and while he is gone the Arab other picked up the other shoe and spit in it. The Israeli returned with the coke, and they all sat back and enjoyed the short flight to New York.

As the plane was landing, the Israeli slipped his feet into his shoes and knew immediately what had happened.

"How long must this go on?" he moaned. "This enmity between our peoples ... this hatred ... this animosity ... this spitting in shoes and peeing in cokes?"

Zucchini Boats

We all know that you can blink in summer, and your tender 6" zucchini will suddenly gain enough length and weight to intimidate a football. After the near-constant rain and flooding recently, I squished my way through the wetness to the garden, and found zucchini-on-steroids. Well, really, now, what did I expect after three days of ignoring the garden?



Zucchini boats are good for cleaning out the fridge of leftovers and using up fresh produce from the garden. The guts of the boats are similar to what might go into stuffed green peppers: tomatoes, hamburger, rice or bread crumbs, some of the vegetable shell.

This time I happened to have one thawed chicken breast in the refrigerator, so I used chicken instead of beef. I had a cup of leftover mashed potatoes, two cups of leftover rice, and some home-made bread that turned out not-so-hot [oh, I'm SO embarrassed!!] which lent itself to being hidden in the boats. I also had about 12 ounces of leftover marinara sauce.



You scoop out the pulpy middle of the overgrown zucchini. Depending on how big the zuke is (thus, how edible the middle is) you could chop up the middles, or you could have a nice little zucchini or two to chop up for the boat-guts.

It's best to par-boil the empty boats for 3-5 minutes. If you do, the stuffed boats will cook in about 20 minutes. If you don't par-boil, you'll have to put foil over the boats as they're cooking, and bake them for 40-70 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of the zucchini shells.


Saute the onions, peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, meat, etc, until nearly cooked. Add your cooked rice or your croutons. You may wish to add shredded cheese to the mix, or lay cheese slices on top of the boats in the last 5 minutes of baking. Spice appropriately; we like Italian seasonings: salt, pepper, basil, oregano, garlic.




Fill the boats with the veggie-guts. Bake in medium oven until hot and zucchini is tender. Add cheese at end if desired.

Today's Laugh

A property manager dies and soon finds himself standing in front of Saint Peter. Peter tells him, "You have a choice of going to heaven or to hell, and I suggest you check them both out before deciding." So he chooses to check out hell first.

He goes down to hell and finds himself in the middle of the biggest party he has ever seen. People are dancing and drinking and doing the limbo (and nobody's doing the Macarena!). Everyone is laughing and having a great time.

Next Saint Peter takes him up to heaven to look around. Everything is white and pristine. People are speaking softly about philosophy and mathematical formulas. Others are simply contemplative and serene. He's bored in about five minutes. Saint Peter then says to the property manager, "I want you to sleep on it and meet me back here in the morning to let me know your decision."

The next morning he comes back and says to Saint Peter, "Heaven is very nice and all, but hell looks great, so I've decided that I want to go to hell." So Saint Peter puts him on the escalator down to hell.

When he gets there he sees Satan whipping people and there's fire everywhere and everyone is screaming in pain. So he goes over to Satan and says, "Hey, what gives here? Yesterday I came here to check the place out and everyone had me partying, and it looked like a great time. What happened?"

Satan looks at him and says, "You used to be a property manager so you ought to know the answer to your own question. Yesterday you were a prospect. Today you're just another resident."

Soap Mold

Soap molds tend to cost a fortune. But it's a major disincentive to me to mold soap in the ends of frozen-juice containers, or to prep (and later, clean) the plastic box I've been heretofore using as a soap mold. I lucked into finding ONE soap mold (instead of a whole kit) and it was just the right size for the batches I make (3# of Crisco, 6 oz lye, 12 oz water).



It's so easy to grease the mold with Vaseline. So easy to cut the bars: just slice into slightly stiffened soap with a 3" putty knife. So easy to remove the soap when it's fully set: loosen the wing nuts and let the sides of the box fall right off. So easy to wash the flat pieces in the sink. So easy to reassemble the mold for the next batch.

With the hand blender and the new mold, making soap is no longer a dreaded chore, but quick and simple.

Today's Laugh

Manufacturer's instructions on products

On the Clorox disinfecting wipes container: Not to be used as a baby wipe or for personal cleansing.

On a baby stroller: Remove child before folding stroller.

On a bar of soap: Use like regular soap.

On a frozen dinner: Serving suggestion – defrost.

On a hotel-provided shower cap: Fits one head.

On a package of bread pudding: Product will be hot after heating.

On children's cough medicine: Do not drive car or operate machinery.

On a sleeping aid: Warning – may cause drowsiness.

On a kitchen knife: Warning – keep out of children.

On a string of Christmas lights: For indoor or outdoor use only.

On an airline packet of nuts: Open packet, eat nuts.

Faith Quote

Faith is always believing WORDS that experience tells us are not true.

-- from Pastor in Bible class last week

Joy Quote

If we seek joy for its own sake, we will not find it.
If we seek Jesus, we shall be engulfed and inundated by joy, and quite by surprise.

from "A Little Book on Joy" by Matt Harrison (page 9)

Today's Laugh

The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with a blonde co-worker of mine when she asked if I knew what the buzzer was for. I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red. Appalled, she responded, "What on earth are blind people doing driving?"

Prayer Against Our Enemies

I have long been confused about how "praying against our enemies" fits with loving our enemies and forgiving those who spitefully use us. The psalms are full of prayers against our enemies, calling down God's wrath. While David, king-to-be, is hiding in the desert from King Saul, David prays that God would destroy his enemies. And yet, David has compassion on Saul, and refuses to lift his hand against God's anointed king even when he twice has the opportunity to reach out and easily kill Saul.

Finally, Pastor gave me the missing piece of the puzzle: "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness in this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6). Oh, so it's the demons and the anti-God forces we pray against. Oh. Of course. It is okay to love those who are filled with hatred and destruction; it is okay to pray for them; they are souls for whom Jesus died. (This may sound like a no-brainer to you, and I suppose it was for me too. But when people tell you to hate God's enemies and pray against them, and use Bible passages as back-up, I was unable to respond coherently. It was nice for Pastor to clarify how it all fits together.)

Ah, Fudge

The leftover evaporated milk from last week's fudge-attempt sat in the refrigerator, begging, "Use me! Use me! Use me to prove to yourself that you can make fudge!"

So, before it spoiled, I indulged the little jar. (Me? NO! Don't you say, "Silly girl, you indulged yourself!" That would just make this whole venture, like, selfish, instead of, y'know, helping the little jar of evaporated milk to take pleasure in serving its neighbor. Yes, indeedy.)

I carefully tested the boiling candy in icy water without trusting my lyin' candy thermometer. Turned out that the candy reached softball stage at a whoppin' 225 (as opposed to the 236 that the thermometer should register for softball stage). No wonder the last batch was so terribly overcooked!

We let the fudge cool. Then I beat it. And I beat it. And I beat it some more. Hey! This should take a few minutes. But 30 minutes is NOT "a few minutes." And still the fudge refused to stiffen. Suddenly, we realized that a thermometer that's reading low would have lied to me about when the fudge had cooled enough to be beaten. Uh oh. When I had blisters on both hands from stirring and stirring with the wooden spoon, I quit.

How do you fix fudge???

I found loads of very unhelpful answers on the internet. But I did learn that it's not good to make fudge on a humid or rainy day.

Oops.

Given that my fudge had made a feeble little attempt at stiffening, and given that I knew the weather was a contributing factor in my failure this time, I decided to try something, anything. I buttered the sides of a fresh saucepan. I transferred the candy to the pot. I added 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar. I heated the candy and let it boil for another couple of minutes. I let it cool again. And when I beat it, this time the gloss dulled and the candy stiffened.

IT WORKED! I poured the fudge into the dish, and it set up nicely. It's smooth and creamy and ... well ... fudgy. Excellent!

Today's Laugh

There's this guy on at bar, just looking at his drink. He stays like that for half an hour. Seeing him so morose, this big trouble-making truck driver steps up next to him, takes the drink from the guy, and gulps it down.

The poor man starts crying.

The truck driver begins to have a little a pity and says, "Come on, man, I was just joking. Here, I'll buy you another drink. I just can't stand to see a man cry."

"No, it's not that. This day is the worst of my life. First, I fall asleep, and arrived late to my office. My boss, outraged, fires me. When I leave the building to go to my car, I found out it was stolen. The police say they can do nothing. I get a cab to return home. Just after I get out of the cab, I remember I left my wallet and credit cards on the back seat. But the cab driver just drives away. I go home, and when I get there, I find my wife in bed with the gardener. I leave home, and come to this bar. And when I was thinking about putting an end to my life, you show up and drink my poison!"

For Rulers Hold No Terror ...

From the Table of Duties, "Of Civil Government"
For rulers hold no terror for those who do right,
but for those who do wrong.
Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority?
Then do what is right, and he will commend you.

(Romans 13)

But what Joe the Plumber? The folks in power sure dragged him through the mud. What about the Resistance in Europe during WWII? They had to hide their activities because the rulers were terrifying. Same for Christians in Soviet Russia. And then there's Jesus Himself. The rulers took an innocent man and put Him to death, even though the evidence was clear that He had done nothing wrong.

Our ever-burgeoning mass of bureaucratic codes and laws means that everybody is guilty of breaking some laws, even if we don't realize we're doing it. So we have reason to fear the authorities: Who knows what we may have transgressed?? And then you hear about some of those lawsuits that the judges allow. Kinda scary.

But ...
In Matthew 10, Jesus says not to "fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who can harm both soul and body in hell." And Psalm 91 tells us that we will not be terrified if we have made the Lord our refuge.

Ah ha! Romans 13 isn't a promise that law-abiding citizens will never face trouble from their own rulers. It is instead a general principle that you won't get into trouble if you're being a good guy. And more importantly, there is the sure-fire guarantee that the Lord will work for good even when temporal matters don't work out right and even when things are supremely unfair.

Today's Laugh

My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for "minimal lettuce."

He said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg.

Power Washer

Early Tuesday morning I was going to spend 15 or 20 minutes washing part of the deck so that I could spend the latter part of the morning painting on the sealer. To do the stoop and 7 boards took two hours [by the way, two hours is not 15 minutes] of scrubbing vigorously, and it resulted in aching knees, sore shoulder muscles, and a weak grip in my hands.

Ah, but look at how beautifully it cleaned up!


Wednesday morning's goal was moving the game shelves to the unfinished portion of the basement, and rearranging other bookshelves down there. But I found water! Everybody else in the metro area is cleaning up from last week's flooding, but my basement stayed dry through the torrential rains. Finding Wednesday's puddles, I gave up on the basement cleaning/sorting/rearranging, and let the fans and the dehumidifiers do their thing. (Later we discovered that the water was due to a broken hose in the water softener. Not too hard to repair. And --woohoo!-- not a serious problem with leaks in the foundation.)

So instead, on Wednesday I went out to the deck to tackle more scrubbing. But I wilted. Too exhausted from the previous day's efforts, I couldn't seem to hold the brush tight enough nor scrub with enough pressure to effectively clean the planks. I gave up. I rented the power washer recommended for decks.

Botched that too. Trying to make the boards look as bright and clean as what I'd accomplished on hands-and-knees, I power-washed too close, too hard. Andrew noticed I was creating sawdust. Oh NO! So I changed my methods, but that didn't seem to actually get the boards clean.

Well, they're as clean as they're going to get before I paint the sealer on. My only hope is that a couple of years of sun and rain will weather the boards into looking like maybe they might kinda sorta match, maybe a little bit. Next time I have to seal, there will be no power-washer on the deck!!!

And then I couldn't find the celery for supper. Whine whine whine. One of these days I'm going to be digging in the freezer for frozen vegetables, and find a frozen stalk of celery in the bottom of a grocery bag.

How many things can a person ruin in one day?? At least the day ended on an improved note: being treated to preaching and the Lord's Supper in the early evening, and being treated to beer, laughs, and stories at a little bier garten in Germantown after church.

Today's Laugh

An 80-yr-old woman, in despair, decided to kill herself. She located a gun to commit the deed. She called her doctor to find out exactly where her heart was. He said, "Just under your left breast."

Three minutes later, 911 received a call: the elderly woman had shot herself in the left knee.

Freedom to Sing

Munchkin has learned his phonics. B is for bear; buh, buh, buh. F is for fox; fph, fph, fph. He looks at the sentence: The dog ran after the cat. He painstakingly sounds out the d and the o and the g. He slowly and carefully smooshes the letters together into something that an adult recognizes as the word "dog." But the kid is focused on the sounds of the letters and struggles to find a recognizable word in the connection of the letter-sounds. Then he figures it out: he said "dog"! Woof woof, four legs and a tail, slobbery kisses, fur -- a DOG. Then he reads "ran" the same, slow way. Then "after." Then "cat."

And now we want him to remember that d-o-g is "dog," after all that mental exercise? We expect him to put the whole sentence together? That's some hard work!


In May, our hymn of the week for Rogate was "A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing." I blundered through the LSB wording. If I sang at the kitchen sink or in the car, the TLH words kept coming out of my mouth. That is hard for the kids; I mess up what they're learning by heart. I try to keep my old-fashioned words under wraps, hidden, kept just for me, not confusing the kids' minds. But that means I can't sing the hymns as I used to.

However, that week there was one stanza that I could sing. "Oh, grant us thitherward to tend and with unwearied hearts ascend unto Thy kingdom's throne where Thou, as is our faith, art seated now. Alleluia!" And because it's a metrical form of the Ascension collect, I was relishing the words all week.

But Andrew caught me: "Mommmmmmm! Don't sing the old words! Keep working on learning the new words!" I told him that, on this one, I was allowed -- because this stanza isn't in LSB and there are no new words to learn. So there! Ha! I am free to sing this the way I know it.


And I thought about that. Free to sing. Free to pray the words of the hymn.

I am still the 5-yr-old, struggling through the phonics of LSB. I have to pay so much attention to getting each word out of my mouth that I can't grasp what the sentences in the hymn are saying. I know the situation will improve with time and practice, as does the reading ability of the 5-yr-old who is fluent by the time he's 10. But right now, I'm running really short of hymns. The songs are still there, but I'm at an in-between place where I am no longer free to pray the ones where the text has been altered. And I really really miss them.

My New Living Room

My old living room: hand-me-down furniture from our doctor's waiting room combined with a lovely, rich, red wall paint. As beautiful as the red walls were, they were dark. Not good in winter. And seriously not good with the comfy couch I snagged from Salvation Army.


And the new couch with the old walls:


Some friends came yesterday and painted the living room. They advised me earlier in the week as to how to rearrange the furniture in the living room. (We replaced two loveseats with one full-sized couch.) The paint color is "Northern Lights" and is an off-white in the pink family. It's sort of a non-descript color: in the one photo the paint looks pinker than it is, in another photo bluer. And here is the beautiful result of their work:



Andrew was looking through different artwork and icons we have, trying to decide which ones should go on the walls and where we need to put up nails. We can wait a few days on that.

It feels like there's so much more space in the living room! And aesthetically it's so much more comfortable! I'm so thankful!

Today's Laugh

Two Irishmen walk into a pet shop. Right away they go over to the bird section. Gerry says to Paddy, "Dat's dem." The assistant comes over and asks if he can help them.

"Yeah, we'll take four of dem dere birds in dat cage op dere," says Gerry. "Put dem in a "peeper bag." The assistant does and the two guys pay for the birds and leave the shop.

They get into Gerry's van and drive until they are high up in the hills. They stop at the top of a cliff with a 500-foot drop. "Dis looks loike a grand place. Eh?" says Gerry.

He then takes his pair of birds out of the bag, places them on his shoulders, hands the other pair to Gerry, and jumps off the cliff. Paddy holds the 'peeper bag' as he watches as his mate drop off the edge, fall for a few seconds, then 'SPLAT.' As Paddy looks over the edge of the cliff he shakes his head and says, "Dis budgie jumpin' is too dangerous for me."

A minute later, Seamus arrives. He too has been to the pet shop. He too walks up carrying the familiar 'peeper bag.' He pulls a parrot out of the bag. Paddy notices that, in his other hand, Seamus is carrying a gun.

"Hi, Paddy, watch dis," Seamus says. He launches himself over the edge of the cliff. Paddy watches the rapid descent. Halfway down, Seamus takes out the gun, blows the parrot's head off, and continues to plummet until there is a 'SPLAT,' as he joins Gerry's remains at the bottom. Paddy shakes his head and says, "An' oim never troyin' dat parrotshooting nider."

A few minutes after Seamus splats himself, Sean strolls up. He too has been to the pet shop and he walks up carrying the familiar 'peeper bag.' Instead of a parrot he pulls a chicken out of the bag. With a good grip on the chicken's feet, Sean launches himself off the cliff ... with the usual result. Once more Paddy shakes his head. "Oh, Sean, first der was Gerry wit his budgie jumping, den Seamus parrotshooting, and now you with your hengliding".

Invading Turkey

The lone turkey came a-wandering into our backyard. Athena was enthralled. She sat and watched. And waited. The bird came closer and closer, apparently oblivious to the cat's presence. And then we tried to get a picture. Gary quietly went out the FRONT door, but that was enough to distract Athena, and her movement sent the turkey sauntering in the opposite direction.

I wonder what would have happened if we'd just been perfectly quiet and perfectly still and waited to see what the animals would have done.

Today's Laugh

I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.

That Necessary Mirror

So, depending on our age, we've probably brushed our teeth 10,000 to 75,000 times. Really now, WHY do we need the mirror?

Today's Laugh

Once I came upon this pretty new temp standing in front of the paper shredder with a confused look on her face. I asked if she needed any help. She said, "Yeah, how does this thing work?" I took the papers from her hand and demonstrated how to work the shredder. She stood there a moment with yet another confused expression. When I asked if she had any more questions, she said, "Exactly where do the copies come out?"

Expansion Pack

Our family is expanding. Nope, no one is engaged and no one is pregnant. In a couple of weeks, my daughter and her family will be moving in with us for a while. So we are in the midst of trying to clear out as much unnecessary stuff as possible, rearranging some rooms/spaces to allow for three more people in the house, and wondering how much baby-proofing we need to bother with (or will Alia just circumvent our attempts?).

Laundry's Finished

The problem with winning the laundry game is that there aren't enough hangers when everything is clean!

Today's Laugh

The shopkeeper was dismayed when a brand new business much like his own opened up next door and erected a huge sign which read BEST DEALS.

He was horrified when another competitor opened up on his right, and announced its arrival with an even larger sign, reading LOWEST PRICES.

The shopkeeper was panicked, until he got an idea. He put the biggest sign of all over his own shop. It read ... MAIN ENTRANCE.

Today

Today we
- picked, washed, and snapped beans
- picked tomatoes
- made awesome salsa
- dug one hill of potatoes
- did the banking
- managed to submit health insurance receipts online
- bought milk
- made oxtail broth
- washed sheets
- washed towels
- did all the rest of the laundry
- deadheaded daisies
- sent Andrew to the orthodontist
- made granola
- bottled kombucha
- read a chapter of Betsy together
- listened to great ideas from friends who "consulted" about rearranging the house
- rearranged the living room splendidly

What we also needed to do, but didn't get to:
- giving Maggie another buttonhole on her blouse
- mending two tanktops
- prepping for a workshop next week
- another attempt at that fudge we messed up last week
- raking the hay from Saturday's post-storm mowing
- staining/sealing the deck
- continuing work on patching the driveway and sealing it
- cleaning out Andrew's closets and spare dressers
- sorting books to take with me to Ft Wayne next week, in hopes of selling them
- housecleaning
- moving bookshelves
- taking Maggie for an adjustment on her glasses
- making bread
- flushing the water heater
- making soap

Well, I certainly won't be bored tomorrow when the kids are off swimming with friends!

Today's Laugh

It was the day of the big sale. Rumors of the sale (and some advertising in the local paper) were the main reason for the long line that had formed by 8:30, the store's opening time, in front of the store.

At 8:29 a small man pushed his way to the front of the line, only to be pushed back, amid loud and colorful curses. On the man's second attempt, he was punched square in the jaw, and knocked around a bit, and then thrown to the end of the line again. As he got up the second time, he said to the person at the end of the line ...

"That does it! If they hit me one more time, I won't open the store!"

Today's Laugh

Walking through Chinatown, a tourist is fascinated with all the Chinese restaurants, shops, signs, and banners. He turns a corner and sees a building with the sign, "Hans Olaffsen's Laundry."

"Hans Olaffsen?" he muses. "How does that fit in here?" So he walks into the shop and sees an old Chinese gentleman behind the counter.

The tourist asks, "How did this place get a name like 'Hans Olaffsen's Laundry'?"

The old man answers, "Is name of owner."

The tourist asks, "Well, who and where is the owner?"

"Me ... is right here," replies the old man.

"You? How did you ever get a name like Hans Olaffsen?"

"Is simple," says the old man. "Many, many year ago when come to this country, was stand in line at Documentation Center. Man in front was big blonde Swede. Lady look at him and ask, 'What your name?' He say, 'Hans Olaffsen.' Then she look at me and say, 'What your name?'"

"I say Sem Ting."

Today's Laugh

Do jellyfish get gas from eating jellybeans?

Today's Laugh

While sports fishing off the Florida coast, a tourist capsized his boat. He could swim, but his fear of alligators kept him clinging to the overturned craft. Spotting an old beachcomber standing on the shore, the tourist shouted, "Are there any gators around here?!"

"Naw," the man hollered back, "they ain't been around for years!"

Feeling safe, the tourist started swimming leisurely toward the shore.

About halfway there he asked the guy, "How'd you get rid of the gators?"

"We didn't do nothin," the beachcomber said. "The sharks got 'em."

Oh, Fudge!

The whole time we were reading Betsy in Spite of Herself, Maggie and I craved fudge. The teenagers in that story made fudge every time they got together at somebody's house, sometimes twice a day. We kept meaning to treat ourselves to a fudge-session, but either the days were too busy or we had quite enough fat&sugar already to be making fudge. (Uh, that second excuse was definitely mine, and not Maggie's.)

So today, being Maggie's name day,* we made the fudge.

Once upon a time I entered a bunch of cooking/baking items in the county fair. While listening to the judging (which is, incidentally, a great way to learn more about baking!) the other contestants were discussing how hard it is to make fudge in summer. They said fudge was a winter thing. Hmm. I hadn't had any problem with fudge in the summer. Turned out the same for me regardless of the season.

Not today.

Never had a problem with fudge until about five years ago, and I don't think I've gotten a batch right since. Now, this is darn tasty fudge. But it has the consistency, stretchiness, and stickiness of a caramel.

Maybe I should buy a new candy thermometer. Or maybe I should use the candy thermometer only for a guide and be sure always --every time-- to test the candy to make sure I'm not overcooking or undercooking according to the naughty thermometer. Fudge cooked to the firm ball stage is a lot stickier than caramel cooked to the same temp!


* July 22 is the Feast of St Mary Magdalene.

Chocolate Chip Shortage

My children used to think that pancakes were made of wheat flour, eggs, and milk. Then Pastor introduced my children to the concept of chocolate-chip pancakes. Now, I go to the store, buy a bag of chocolate chips and [BOOM] they vanish as a purported "breakfast ingredient." That man is a trouble-maker.

Stuff that probably only Mom will be interested in

We ran the AC earlier this week for two days. Apparently the hose was plugged. Yesterday morning I found water on the basement floor, wetting a small portion of the carpet, puddling under the laundry baskets, and being soaked up by the cardboard box that holds the Schranzes' old pin-bowling game. Shoot. We moved a lot of stuff around, got things off the floor, kept the dehumidifier going, and the problem looks to be resolved.

Yesterday were the American Idol try-outs in Milwaukee. This is Rachel's last year eligible to be a contestant. Gary had asked for the day off, thinking that Rachel and Maggie would go as contestants, and he would accompany Maggie to sign the permission slips. But he hurt his knee on Saturday. After many mega-doses of Motrin and lots of icing it, he's functioning without too many grimaces. But it would have been foolish to spend a long day at auditions. So they canceled their plans, and he had the day off yesterday for no good reason. That's a nice, comfortable, refreshing thing!

I'm making good headway on filling in around the edges of my driving patching. As I've worked with the different materials, I have been discovering that the instructions on the label are not necessarily accurate. I'm muddling through a way to patch depressions in the asphalt -- something that you're not really supposed to be able to do. Another week or so before my patches will be cured enough to begin covering them and blending them into the rest of the driveway. I'm sure this is boring-as-all-get-out to everybody else, but I'm tickled about it!

The drain-plugs in the bathrooms have been driving me bonkers since we moved in. I was ready to rip them out and go buy old-fashioned little cuppy-strainer thingies and rubber plugs. Gary said it would be too easy to lose items down the drain that way; he said we should fix the mechanics of the sliding plug. So Andrew (with a bit of help from Gary) repaired/replaced the first one. Then he did the second drain on his own. I'm so proud of him!

It's middle of summer. Why are we still needing to mow every 4 or 5 days? Wait -- that means the rain is good for the garden, right? Okay, I guess we'll try to keep a cheerful attitude about all that mowing and hay-raking.

Some friends and I were talking at a baby shower this weekend about painting. I would like to lighten up the living room and get rid of my red walls, especially now that I got this couch that will **CLASH** when I get it shampooed and brought indoors. (Shampooing it was yesterday's main goal. Didn't get done. Kinda rainy and wet outside, so may not tackle it today either.) When Julie dropped by this week, she saw the couch. She confirmed my suspicions: it is UGLY ugly UGLY beyond any hope -- like, burn-your-retinas ugly. But it's comfortable!

Today's Laugh

Three guys were fishing in a lake one day, when an angel appeared in the boat.

When the three astonished men had settled down enough to speak, the first guy asked the angel humbly, "I've suffered from back pain ever since I took shrapnel in the Vietnam War ... Could you help me?"

"Of course," the angel said, and when he touched the man's back, the man felt relief for the first time in years.

The second guy wore very thick glasses and had a hard time reading and driving. He asked if the angel could do anything about his poor eyesight. The angel smiled, removed the man's glasses and tossed them into the lake. When they hit the water, the man's eyes cleared and he could see everything distinctly.

When the angel turned to the third guy, the guy put his hands out defensively -- "Don't touch me!" he cried, "I'm on a disability pension."

Behind the Scenes at APT

It's a 10-minute piece. Not short. Discussion with Ally Carey about being at APT and "All's Well" which is playing this summer. But for those of you who've wanted to get a glimpse of the set-building studio or the dressing rooms, here's a cyber-peek.

Mark Neumann

Great quote* from Charlie this morning --

Mark Neumann can achieve a victory for Tom Barrett, but he cannot at this point achieve victory for Mark Neumann.


For non-Wisconsinites, in the primary for governor, a fiscally-sound and wildly popular Republican is running against a former Congressman. I used to respect Mark Neumann, who was once my Congressman. But in the race for governor, I have been shocked at the public sins I have seen in this Lutheran man. Every day Neumann continues in the race, every commercial that is aired, is helping the big-govt-Democrat's campaign and hurting our chances of putting Scott Walker in charge of the state's budget. Look what he's managed for Milwaukee County's budget!! I want Scott Walker taking the helm of Wisconsin.


* At least, I think this was the line. I heard it in the car while running errands. If this wasn't the exact wording, it's fairly close.

But Isn't It So Obvious It Doesn't Need to Be Said?

Proofreading yesterday, I came across the first line of a couple of prayers drawn from the Table of Duties. One began, "Heavenly Father, comfort all widows who have lost their husbands and are left all alone." The other began, "Heavenly Father, comfort all widowers who have lost their wives and are left without a spouse to love."

With my red pen in hand, I wondered if we were distinguishing between "widows who have lost their husbands" and "widows who haven't"? What kind of goofiness would that be?? Isn't "widows who have lost their husbands" a redundancy that needs to be struck, a la Strunk & White's rules for using the least amount of words possible?

I thought about that.

And I decided that proofreading theology is worlds apart from proofreading other English.

So often, in our prayers, we are redundant. We say back to God things He has said to us. We repeat ourselves. We speak words that are obvious, like "O Lord, the source of all that is good."

But why?

Because faith lives from the word. We say what is true. We agree with God. Our faith in His provision, for example, is strengthened when we hear (from pastor's mouth in catechesis, from our own mouths in prayer, or from a friend's mouth in the 'mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren') that the Lord IS "the source of all that is good."

In the prayers I was proofreading yesterday, we begin with "widows who have lost their husbands" because that loss is pertinent to what's coming up in the prayer about Jesus being our Bridegroom and providing all satisfaction and joy and comfort to those who have lost a husband. When it comes to theology and liturgy, being concise isn't always the best choice.

Today's Laugh

The Most Beautiful Window Sill

Tis the season.

Hoping for another 8-10 weeks of a window sill that remains decorated with at least this many lovelies at all times.

Lunch today was a cheese-&-tomato sandwich. (Eat your heart out, Rachel!) Home-made bread. Home-made mayonnaise. Home-grown tomatoes. Home-grown basil. I did buy the cheese.

Heavenly.

Garden Report

Raspberries in the garden are slowing down. And that's where all the mosquitoes live. The goofy raspberries growing under the lilac bush, under the eaves of the house, those are still still producing well. The mosquito situation there has been downgraded from "atrocious and unbearable" to just "bad."

I see no fruit on the Hubbard squash vines yet, but the vines are huge and healthy and flowering.

Cucumber vines are the same, but they now have itty-bitty cukes that will need 3-6 days yet before we can start harvesting little ones.

A few tomatoes have come indoors. The plants are huge. I was worried I pruned them too much. Uh, no. They're fine. Almost too lush, still.

Kohlrabi and spinach are done. Second planting of lettuce is beginning to peek through. Carrots just do NOT want to grow. Ate half of the second planting of beets in last weekend's stew.

Cilantro doesn't want to grow either. Either it pokes along doing nothing. Or it grows big fast and then --BOOM-- goes to seed and the leaves get all thin and spindly. Don't know what to do about that.

Basil is plenteous. Haven't gotten around to making pesto yet. Just slapping leaves onto sandwiches or into salads.

My one lonely zucchini plant is producing just about the right amount of zucchini for our family ... so long as I keep nabbing those boogers off the vine when they're 7" long instead of 27".

Yesterday the green beans were tiny little threads. Today they're nearly big enough to pick. Tomorrow I douse myself in DEET and then harvest a small batch of beans. Lots of beans didn't germinate. And the growin-like-crazy cukes and winter squash took over the place where I was going to put my third planting of beans. So they'll be sparse this summer.

Blackberries are looking great! Grapes are looking pitiful. There were only a few small clusters, but most of them withered up on the vine. Hmmm. I hope that's not a long-term problem.

None of the gladiolas came up. Oh well. I like food better than flowers anyway.

Gotta figure out how to help the apple trees. They were great last year, even though that was their first year in the ground. I wonder what did I did wrong.

Asparagus continuing to establish itself nicely for future years.

My perennial onions (also known as "walking onions") have established themselves beautifully. Backwoods Home once mentioned that these can give you onions nearly year-round, and they also make a good deer deterrent for the garden. Win-win situation, it sounds like to me!

We did MUCH work on the strawberry patch in late June and early July. Ripped out half the patch (in stripes), and dug up the dirt aisles so that runners could set down roots and start developing next year's plants. Looking at how few and tiny they are right now, I can't imagine they could possibly give us berries next year. I will have to remember this year's over-crowded patch, and be heartless next spring in digging out the aisles of plants that remain at the moment, allowing the current dirt-aisles to become the lush plants which will bear.

Love

When the kids were little, we memorized 1 John 4:7-8 through one of those camp songs or a "Wee Sing Bible" tape or something. Running across that verse today, I realized that the song takes the verse out of context. The ditty allows for many a varied understanding of love, what God's love is, what our love is.

But if you go past verse 8, you see that love is the incarnation of the Son of God, and His suffering and death to propitiate our sins. That is how we have life.

And that is what love is.

A Cup of Tea, Perhaps?

We drink water.

There's milk in the house: for cooking, to pour on your granola, about a cup a day for the kids to drink, and for those rare treats when there are cookies. But we see it as a liquid food, not a beverage. Same for fruit juice when we have it.

Maybe once a week we'll break out a beer. Maybe every 4-6 weeks we'll put on a pot of coffee. (Philip makes coffee here more than we do, and he doesn't even live here. LOL.) All my rabid tea-drinking children have grown up, so we're no longer burning through that. (Rachel could go through a 20-bag box in a week by herself.) Kombucha is here, but I see that more as medicinal than as a beverage: probiotics, enzymes, helping the digestion and the immune system, etc.

No kool-aid, no pop, no gatorade. Seldom lemonade. We have made a pitcher of iced tea probably four times in the last month. On the hot days, when we have to be working outside in the sun, the iced tea is refreshing and cooling and spirit-energizing in a way that water is not. ("Oooooh, looky, I get to reward myself for mowing!")



Yesterday my friend Julie stopped by to drop off an item. Her daughter and Maggie headed off to chat a bit, so I offered Julie a glass of water and we sat down to chat so the girls could have some time. Had a great time visiting!

A few hours later I realized that it's probably not very hospitable to offer a glass of water. Better to offer guests a pop or a lemonade or a tall glass of mint tea. But it never crossed my mind. We don't have those things at hand, and we seldom drink them, so I offered what we had. And you know what's so cool? I didn't feel awkward (at least, not at the time) and I'm pretty sure Julie didn't think anything of it. It's so good to have friends who are that comfortable and loving!

Today's Laugh

It was the final examination for an introductory biology course at the local university. Like many such freshman courses, it was designed to weed out new students, having over 500 students in the class.

The examination was two hours long, and exam booklets were provided. The professor was very strict and told the class that any exam that was not on his desk in exactly two hours would not be accepted and the student would fail. Half an hour into the exam, a student came rushing in and asked the professor for an exam booklet.

"You're not going to have time to finish this," the professor stated sarcastically as he handed the student a booklet.

"Yes I will," replied the student. He then took a seat and began writing. After two hours, the professor called for the exams, and the students filed up and handed them in -- all except the late student, who continued writing. An hour later, the last student came up to the professor who was sitting at his desk preparing for his next class. He attempted to put his exam on the stack of exam booklets already there.

"No, you don't. I'm not going to accept that. It's late."

The student looked incredulous and angry.

"Do you know who I am?"

"No, as a matter of fact, I don't," replied the professor with irritation in his voice.

"Do you know who I am?" the student asked again in a louder voice.

"No, and I don't care," replied the professor with an air of superiority.

"Good," replied the student. He quickly lifted the stack of completed exams, stuffed his in the middle, and walked out of the room.

Praying with a Crucifix

What God ordains is always good:
this truth remains unshaken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
I shall not be forsaken.
I fear no harm,
for with His arm
He shall embrace and shield me;
So to my God I yield me. (TLH 521 or LSB 760)


I wrote the other day about the importance of having a crucifix in the chancel so that the people might be rightly focused on the cross of Jesus and so that its message might be superimposed (like a transparency) upon all that we think and pray and sing and hear in the Service.

We sang "What God Ordains Is Always Good" yesterday. With the crucifix before you, the story of Good Friday is brought to mind. Jesus remained unshaken in His trust of the Father. Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me" in His sorrow and death. That substitutionary atonement means that we will NOT be forsaken in our sorrow, need, and death.

Look at the lines near the end that final stanza: "For with His arm He shall embrace and shield me." The crucifix shows us Jesus' arms extended upon the cross. Those were the arms that bore God's wrath over sin and took the punishment on our behalf. Those were the arms that were slashed and bruised and yanked out of joint. Those are the arms that embrace and shield us from all harm.

Today's Laugh

Scant Supplies at the Store

Note to self: Do not buy raw garlic at Walmart.

A store may carry a particular item. But if there's almost no shelf space dedicated to that item, and if that item is very hard to find, tucked as it is in a weirdo spot, and if there is only a handful of it available, that's probably a good indication that the item is not exactly fresh.

I was noticing the same thing at Woodman's and Piggly-Wiggly with regard to frozen veggies. As more and more people buy Steam-in-the-Bag vegetables, there's less call for plain old boring frozen vegetables. As fewer people want to buy the boring frozen veggies, less of that is produced, and it becomes an "odder" item, and the price goes up. That'll be dandy for those who like insta-foods and want to spend little time in the kitchen.

But for those of us who prefer buying whole foods, unprocessed foods, it's getting harder. It would be really sad --and expensive-- to see simple foods and basic ingredients (that used to be considered staples in everyone's kitchen) become specialty niche items.

Back When I Was Young

Stories no longer talk about children going to out play in the rain, wearing their slickers and rubbers and rain hoods.

Every time I talk about hoeing, or needing to find another hoe, Andrew giggles.

"Gay" means something altogether different from what it used to mean.

Does anybody still play "Where is thumbkin?" with little kids? I suspect with people flipping the bird to others at the slightest provocation, some folks do not want to teach preschoolers the finger-play that has a verse "Where is middle-finger? Where is middle-finger? Here I am! Here I am! How are you today, sir? Very well, I thank you. Run and hide; run and hide."

I learned a counting song when I was little and decades later taught it to some of my kids. "One little, two little, three little Indians..." I betcha that's considered politically incorrect too.

Today's Laugh