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Showing posts from August, 2016

Let's Live Together

I took a Ziploc bag of frozen pork chops out of the freezer and set them in the refrigerator to thaw.  I decided to make one of my favorite crock pot recipes with them.  I threatened the husband with a black eye if he ate the last of the sour cream because I needed it for that simple recipe. The next day, I carried my crock pot to my island in the kitchen and mixed the sour cream with an envelope of onion soup mix and decided to rinse the defrosted meat at the sink before adding to my recipe.  Then I noticed something. They weren’t pork chops.  To my surprise, I witnessed defrosted chicken thighs.  Very big chicken thighs; it must have been a hippy chicken.  The freezer bag’s label read Dec. ’15 in the husband’s writing.  I assumed it contained pork chops.  I was wrong. Write it like a man. Thinking like a man would think, he probably guessed that any fool could see these are chicken thighs when he placed them in a clear gallon freezer bag and put them in the fre

Days of Vines and Prayers

I moved to the Verde Valley in Arizona over twenty years ago and I got it in my head right away that I wanted a prayer garden. We chose the spot, planted bushes, filled containers with flowers, laid the patio stones and even found a comfortable outdoor chair.  It took me several tries to communicate to the husband the picture in my mind of how it should look right behind my chair.  We agreed that the trellis arch in my vision would be a lattice effect supporting a grape vine.  It turned out better than my imagination!  My prayer garden thrives not only because I meet my creator there, but I have harvested white and purple grapes every August for over 15 years! A local TV channel featured Arizona vineyards recently.  The documentary points out that the Verde Valley in Arizona has the widest temperature range between early morning lows and late day high temperatures of almost a 41 to 44 degree difference which allow the grapes to thrive. I like to str

Who Says?

Simon says “wiggle your toes!”  Simon says “raise your left hand!”  Put your hands on your head!  A-ha!  Simon didn’t say to put your hands on your head.  You lose. We played Simon Says with the little ones on our weekend family reunion at the Hampton.  It cracked me up to watch little two-year old Amy follow every command whether Simon said it or not.  Her big sister would point and yell Amy, don’t do it unless Simon says!   And lil Amy would clap her hands and giggle in glee showing us all her teeth.  You know why?  Amy didn’t realize she was the loser in the game; she saw herself as the winner. A devotional arrived in my email today.  “Look around you and you will learn an important life lesson from a child,” the writer declared. This doesn’t pertain to me since I’m not in the company of little kids, I thought.  But the Holy Spirit reminded me about playing with Amy and observing a winner reaction to a loser label someone puts on you. I can react like a winn

Feeling the Love

It’s our wedding anniversary today.  We’ve been celebrating all weekend!  Yesterday we woke up early, got dressed and headed to the Sedona Red Rocks.  I climbed up those red rock hills determined, even in my dress, to breathe in the fresh morning air.   The sturdy jagged mountains, copper colored, spotlighted from the warm morning sun surrounded us; I experienced a rush of gratitude.  God blessed us generously over the last forty-five years! Our trek in the steep red elevation exhilarated us.  We drove through town and found a cute  cafe  for breakfast.  A burly, outgoing man, the owner, welcomed us while the woman drinking coffee at his table complimented my dress.  “We’re celebrating today.  It’s our 45 th wedding anniversary,” I replied. The little  cafe  filled up quickly and we were surprised when the owner stopped by our table and loudly exclaimed that he had an idea to make “our” day special!  He burst into song: “Happy Anniversary to you…” Everyone chim