Summer has certainly flown by! Here we are in August already. It's been a hot, dry summer here in the Midwest. My garden has struggled, but, as you can see from the picture, my cherry tree has thrived! I bought the tree five years ago at an Amish greenhouse. I planted the tree, watered it, pruned it and watched anxiously to see if it would grow. The trunk remained spindly, the branches thin as well. As each year passed there would be flowers, but no fruit. It's self-pollinating, so I knew a companion tree wasn't the answer. I remembered the parable in Luke 13 about the fig tree "A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not then cut it down."So, I had patience and waited to see what would happen. This year it burst into fruition! Loads of tart cherries filled the tree, much to my (and my neighbor's) delight! The robins took great delight in the tree as well! I guess it's the same with us. The Lord Jesus has patience with us, giving us time and grace to produce fruit. It's good to be feritilized by reading God's Word and spending time in prayer. Fellowship with other believers also feeds and waters us. In due time, we produce fruit as well, to the Lord's glory. Enjoy the rest of your summer and the wonder of the fall season!
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The other day I was wrestling with my hand-held can opener for the umpteenth time. I buy a new opener every other month and none work well. Someone casually suggested to me, "Why don't you get an electric can opener? I have one and I love it." An electric can opener? I have heard of those, of course, but never thought to pick one up before. So, I went on Amazon, found the most inexpensive electric can opener I could find and ordered it. The next day (thank you Amazon Prime) the opener arrived. I plugged in the apparatus, clamped a can of peas on and presto! A quiet whir and a couple seconds later the can was open. No sore wrist. No struggling getting the can in the opener. No exertion at all! My first thought was "Where have you been all my life?". I've spent years struggling with something that had a simple fix all along. I wonder what else in my life has a simple fix I never thought of. Sometimes we make life more difficult than it has to be. Maybe that's why Jesus says "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me...for my yoke is easy and my burden is light". Granted, there's not a simple fix for everything, but maybe if we keep learning from Jesus and from each other, simple fixes will come and lighten our burden just a bit. Enjoy spring! Hope you have many fun, twinkle-cone kind of days! I went to a small zoo about an hour away over the weekend. It was a way to beat the winter blues, a bit of a road trip and something different to look at. The zoo is nestled on a wooded lot, a natural environment for a lot of the animals there. I saw bison, geese, bald eagles, owls and a glimpse of a bear. But the animal that drew my attention was the cougar. He was enjoying himself immensely. Play-stalked myself and other onlookers, then trounced over to his log and sharpened his claws. At last he stretched out on his ledge and began to clean himself. He was loving life. Watching that cougar got me thinking about love and how it manifests in so many different ways. From loving different foods (Greek yogurt-yummm) to the powerful love between a husband and wife or parent and child. But the biggest love of all, of course, is the agape love God has toward us. This love surpasses all and carries us through life and beyond. His love is sustaining us every minute of every day. Last week, my pastor said "God likes you and takes great delight that you are alive". The God Who created the universe takes special delight in each and every one of us. Makes my heart sing. Enjoy the rest of Feb! Spring is right around the corner. Hard to believe it's 2023 already. Last year flew by for certain. This year I am going to try keeping this blog and my fb page updated more frequently. Sometimes life gets in the way. Last year I began exploring new ventures. I was busy creating felt projects, doing wreaths around Christmastime. A picture of one of my creations is below. I made a half-hearted attempt at my garden. Needless to say, it didn't go well. Just like everything in life worth doing, you need to do it well. This year I will put the work in and amend the soil so I can have a good crop. I have recently started a new novella, set in Wisconsin. It has romance, a bit of intrigue and goats! What more could you want. Speaking of goats, I went to a goat snuggling session at a goat farm close to where I live. The picture you see is the baby goats I could pick from and snuggle. It was a great experience! Thanks for reading, I hope to have new and exciting content on a regular basis. My goodness, time certainly does fly! It's been quite a while since I've posted a new blog, so here it is! I've been on a little hiatus from writing, although I am doing edits for Crescent Bay Cottages which I hope to self publish by fall. I will post an update when it's finished. I've also created a Twitter page for my kitty Jingles (pic on the left). She's a bit of a diva and I thought she'd be delighted to have attention from Twitter followers. She is @Jingley5 in case you want to check her out. I heard a sermon yesterday that really spoke to me. Pastor Brian talked about how we are better off with suffering. Said to bring your scars and wounds to Jesus and let Him be the leader of how you steward them, and you will see your best days are in front of you, not behind you. He will use it. I loved that. Now I am making a point of bringing my wounds and scars to the Lord each day. He is a God who was wounded, so He knows about sufferings. It's helping me change the way I view my wounds. Well, springtime is here and I am attempting to grow my own petunias this year. So far I have little, tiny baby seedlings. Hope they turn into glorious flowers, I will post pics of how they turn out. Bought all my seeds for veggies too, zukes, butternut squash, carrots and a tomato plant this year. Already planted garlic last fall and that is starting to pop up. Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and have a happy spring! Have you seen the holiday commercial where the dog keeps sleeping on the man's plaid shirt? The man has to sneak it away from the dog to wear it. Then at Christmas he gives the dog the shirt so he can sleep on it all he wants and gets himself another one. Well, that has happened in my house, only with the cat. I bought a Comfy, a wearable blanket, for a friend of mine. I broke down and tried it on and fell in love with it. Warm, but not too warm. Perfect for winter days in the Midwest. So I took that one and bought a different one for my friend. We had a snowstorm three weeks ago, and I wore the Comfy while operating the snowblower. Got back in the house and noticed the Comfy had a gas smell to it from snowblowing. I laid it out on the foot of the bed to air out. You guessed it, my kitty Jingles made a beeline to it and has slept on it ever since. She will sleep on it during the day and at night. I can hear her in the middle of the night playing with the zipper. Of course I can't take her new favorite thing away, so I went online today and bought yet another Comfy for myself, which is now $10 higher than the original one I bought. Merry Christmas to Jingles. But isn't that what the holiday season is all about? Giving. Sacrificial giving. God giving us His Son in the form of a tiny baby that we might have eternal life with Him forever. The astounding miracle of the virgin birth revealing God's infinite wisdom and power. God is the source of all gifts. Ephesians 4:8 "When He ascended on high He gave gifts unto men.." Jesus invested in each one of us gifts and talents from the Holy Spirit. I admit I don't always know how to use the gifts He's given me, but I strive to be a faithful steward. Wishing you all Christmas blessings and the wonder of the gift of God. Wow, the summer sure flew by fast! Hard to believe we're in September already. Here in the Midwest there is already a chill in the air each morning and evening. The sun is rising later and setting earlier. I'm finding myself craving pumpkin spice and comfort foods. My garden was an exercise in patience this year. It was a cold May, so the veggies didn't get planted until June and took a long time to get started. I'm just now getting zucchini. Better late than never! Thought I would share an incredibly delicious zucchini cake recipe. I halved the recipe and baked it in an 8x8 pan and it worked great, so if you don't want a whole 9x12 you can always do that too. Enjoy the cool comforts of fall! Zucchini Cake 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour 2 C sugar 1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 C vegetable oil 4 eggs 2 C shredded zucchini 1/2 C chopped walnuts, optional FROSTING: 1 package (3 oz) cream cheese, softened 1/4 C butter 1 T milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 C confectioners' sugar Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Combine oil and eggs; add to dry ingredients and mix well. Add zucchini; stir until thoroughly combined. Fold in walnuts, if desired. Pour into greased 13x9x2 in baking pan. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes ou clean. Cool. For frosting, beat cream cheese butter, milk and vanilla until smooth. Add confectioners sugar and mix well. Frost cake. Sprinkle with nuts if desired. Store in refrigerator. Yield: 20-24 servings Looking at the calendar the other day, I found it hard to believe we are already going to be entering into July. What happened to June? All my good intentions of mulching the garden, taking a trip to the lake and decluttering the garage have fallen by the wayside. With only two glorious summer months remaining I feel the urgency rise inside me to kick up my plans and grasp every ounce out of the warmer weather I can. But amidst the frenzy of trying to plan, I was reading in "Abiding in Christ" by Tozer. He emphasizes the stillness of the soul. "One would think that no message could be more beautiful or welcome than this; that we may rest and be quiet, and that our God will work for us and in us. And yet how far this is from being the case! How slow many are to learn that quietness is the source of highest activity-the secret of all true abiding in Christ!" Hmm. I realize he is right but maybe I can practice quietness in the long winter months? I do see the wisdom in being quiet in the soul. Rushing around and never allowing myself to be still ends up hurting me in the long run. It deprives me of sweet fellowship with the Savior and the guidance from Him I so desperately need. So, I will set aside my planning for now and just be still in the presence of the Lord. Sitting on the porch, listening to the birds and feeling the warm kiss of the summer breeze brings my soul back to a place of peace. I hope you also find peace amongst the busyness of summer! I have changed my diet relatively recently. I am trying to eat cleaner and healthier. One of the swap outs I'm attempting is finding alternatives for sugar. Most cookbooks and online sites suggest maple syrup as a better option. So, I find myself pouring maple syrup over my plain yogurt, over my salmon, drizzling on my veggies before I roast them and using the sticky sweet stuff in my carrot cake in place of sugar. I am beginning to feel like Buddy the Elf from the movie 'ELF' when he carried a bottle of maple syrup in his sleeve to pour over his dinner. Maple syrup over spaghetti is actually sounding good to me right now! I can learn a lot from Buddy. For one, he always looks on the bright side of things. "I just like to smile. Smiling's my favorite". It takes effort for me to see the glass half full instead of empty, but what a difference it makes! Serving the Lord all things in life work for our good and God's glory, that's enough reason to smile. Enjoying the little things is another lesson from Buddy. "So good news...I saw a dog today." As I get older I find more pleasure in the little things. Like today, watching a squirrel taking forever to bring his corn cob across the street. Or admiring the tulips popping up in the yard. Life is made up of small moments. The last lesson is a bit odd, but it struck a chord with me. Singing. "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear." I took an online aromatherapy class and they mentioned singing is a way to calm your vagus nerve and relax your entire body. I like to sing praise songs around the house, not so much in public. Hope you enjoyed the blog today. I'm off to prepare some maple syrup chicken :) I participated in a Zoom call the other day. It was an informal group meeting, but went on for an hour and a half. That turned out to be way too long for my kitty Jingles. First, she walked up to me and meowed. I waved her away. Then her little toy balls started shooting across the room. Ignored that as well. Her next tactic was to flop at my feet and poke me with her paws. I rubbed her belly, debated jumping off the Zoom call, but tried to stick it out. Her last and successful move was to start jumping around the living room. Now, she's a large cat, and she landed with big thumps each time. I caved, got off the Zoom call to play with her, and she promptly retreated to her cat tower and went to sleep. Patience is hard. The Scriptures tell us "Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." James 1:4. I struggle with patience when the world around me is constantly trying to draw my attention away. We live in a world of instant gratification with fast food, digital banking and the Internet where you can buy almost anything online and have it delivered within a day. I find it's harder to focus on quiet time without sneaking a peek at my tablet and wondering if I have an email or wanting to look at a cute kitty video. But real things in life take time. Building a relationship with God takes time and patience. Even though our flesh wants to get distracted, the Holy Spirit gives us the grace to overcome the temptation. I find getting outdoors and taking a long walk helps me refocus and quiet myself. Gardening does too (my updated indoor garden pic shows the progress, way to go basil and thyme!) I still have yet to overcome furry distractions, however :) |
Blessings,
I enjoy writing and I hope to encourage everyone to always see the blessings in life. Archives
December 2020
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