For These Times

Somewhere I read this little-but-mighty saying and I knew I needed it. I chalked it on the little board in my kitchen months ago and I can't tell you the number of times the reminder has encouraged me and buoyed me up in a tough situation or upon the arrival of bad news. Like today, when I read that Nabeel Qureshi has advanced stomach cancer. Ken & I have never talked to Nabeel, but we have heard him speak in person and we've been profoundly impacted by his books (Seeking Allah; Finding Jesus and Answering Jihad) and his messages. I'm sad at the news of his illness but I am comforted to know he has Jesus for this - and Jesus has him.

Robust Romas

The Roma crop in our garden is phenomenal this year - the biggest and nicest tomatoes I've ever raised, I believe. Must be they liked this sauna summer!

In the Dugout

There was lots of sun and both of my sons among the impressive things at a baseball tournament on Saturday. There were some other relatives on the team and in the fan clan as well. My hubby and niece spent a moment on the dugout bench connecting over lunch time while the players geared up to get back on the field.

Snail's Pace

I loved my Sunday morning walk. The little snails I found on the roadside flowers mesmerized me. I learned from them - how to take things slow and steady. For more pics and lessons from the small things, go here.

Copymeal

When one of the married sons asks for the microwave baked oatmeal recipe to make at his house, that gives me a good idea for a Saturday morning breakfast at our house.

Rural Scene

If I were touring another country, no doubt I would be intrigued by the beauty of its ordinary, and I'd likely snap shots of its everyday scenes. This morning I was in this country, in this county, and I grabbed an image of its common splendor. Because I could.

Pole Dubbing

If I were to start naming the hydro poles along our road, I know what I'd call this one: Eileen.

Through the Window Glass

This brilliant geranium pops into my sight when I look out the computer room window in our basement. Oh my, I'll take that view!

Canner's Accomplishment

These rows spell satisfaction to a homemaker. All the way from the peachy aroma of fruit laid out to ripen on newspapers in the basement to that special ping of a jar lid sealing to the fresh taste of peach slices with cereal on a winter morning. Yes!

Scary Entrance

I never saw the creator of this abode, but judging by the size of the front door, that was some serious spider!!

That's An Earful!

Our church's annual Corn Roast Social is enjoyed by all, from big to small.

Sunny Send-off

This morning Kayleen left for Faith Builders to begin her two-year Teacher Apprentice Program. In spite of her worries about how large the take-along mound was, everything fit in the car. I'm so grateful Kayl has her good friend Meg with whom to enter this FB experience. I wish both of them all the best!

Apple Appreciation

My bro Troy & his wife Sharon and their family spent some time with us yesterday and today. It was wonderful! We took them on two apple tours this morning. I love this pic of them with their personal apple chip snacks. And that front-row little charmer in the orange shirt? He's three and his name is Julian. He cracked me up when he saw me this morning (just after he had gotten dressed) and announced that today he's Orange Julius!

Corny Thoughts

1. This is another shot from yesterday's Corn Day. 2. This was high-yield corn, as indicated by the tight kernels going right to the tip of the cob. 3. A number of years back, I changed my method of freezing corn. Now I cut the kernels off before cooking and cooling the corn, and I like that way so much better. 4. I would really hate to do corn without a Cutco knife; I am just that spoiled. 5. At first glance, one might say think this is Peaches-n-cream corn. It probably isn't. It is no doubt a bi-color kind, but it likely has another name. The Knowledgeable Farmer in this family says that people have made the Peaches-n-cream name the standard term for the best corn just like they've come to call their favorite cherries, Bing cherries, whether they really are or not. 6. I read (on the Internet, so take this cob with a grain of salt) that the term "corny" comes from bad jokes and riddles that were put into mail order seed catalogues in the early 1900's to help increase interest and sales for the seed companies. These poor quality jokes were first called corny catalogue jokes and later were shortened to corny jokes and finally, anything that is a fail at trying to be funny can be called corny. 7. With these thoughts in mind, I will end this corny post.

Getting the Right Angle

The amateur photographer got a shot of the expert photographer doing her work. The more experienced artist came to my house on Corn Day to get some photos to add to Martin's Apples Instagram collection. For me, this was a fun diversion from the corn husking, cutting and bagging.  

Settling In

I always like to see newly-married love, and it's extra special when the couple is our own son and daughter-in-law. Last night we helped this Mr. & Mrs. move into the house they're renting. We went on a house tour, hauled in furniture and boxes, washed new dishes (and oohed/aahed over them), ate pizza and listened to the brother trying out the free piano. What a fun evening!

Business is Blooming

The people who live at the other end of this lane take their roadside business seriously. Well, at least they take their cart design seriously, if not the pricing of their wares. (The sign on the inside back wall says, "Pay what you wish!") I was quite intrigued with the custom-made portable flower wagon.

Spontaneous Singing

I expected that the people who stayed at church to eat lunch with us today would join in the singing at the nursing home afterward, because that is what they were invited to do. What I did not expect (and totally loved!) was the gathering to sing during the in-between time. We did a version of the last Mass Choir program song from Music Camp and then we moved on to trying out some choral arrangements from the back of the Hymns of the Church songbook. Fun!

Just Peachy

Fresh fish fillets from the grocery - two kinds, actually - rainbow trout and salmon, a tweaked marinade recipe (using butter, apricot jam, minced garlic, mustard, lime juice and fresh peaches), about 15 minutes on the grill at medium-low heat, and we had ourselves a fantastic summer meal. Ken declared it was the best fish he ever tasted!

Sweet Sibs

This bro-sis pair got to attend the Farewell Tea for their older cousin Holly yesterday. When they lined up for a photo of Holly with the littles, younger bro put his arm around big sis's shoulder without anyone telling him to. Maybe he was trying to get a bit of shade so he wouldn't have to squint so much in the bright sunshine, but the result is priceless. I'm pretty sure I have the most adorable nieces and nephews!

Farewell to Holly

I was privileged to be at a lovely Martin Ladies' Tea this morning, put on by my sis-in-law Sharon for my niece Holly who is heading off to Cape Town, Africa soon. Holly plans to work with children there on a 3-month mission endeavor. Here she is with me beside my farewell verse for her.   

                                                                                         (Photo cred: Kayleen Martin)

Flourishing

The flower bed in front of our church is so pretty this year, thanks to caretaker Diane. Even though we are having a dry summer, the plants here at Grace are doing very well. I think it is rather symbolic of our lives, too. At prayer meeting tonight, we read in Colossians about being complete in Christ. Because of His abundant grace, we can flourish in spirit even though our circumstances are "dry".

Worn-out Welcome

At the annual school cleaning, Ken and I were assigned washing the basement hallway walls. This included taking down last year's welcome display above the cubbies. Tonight may very well have been the last time for us to be on the school cleaning schedule since the coming year is our youngest child's final one as a student at CCS. Ken asked me if I'm sad that it's our last cleaning; I can't say that I am!

Zintage Row

This spring I planted two different types of zinnias in my garden. I rather like this old-timey-looking kind, with its fragile, seemingly aged petals and its color leaning toward vintage pink.

Couples' Day

Ken & I hosted the 1988 Couples' Gathering this year. These folks, Andy & Colleen, Will & Charlene, Keith & Delphine and Brian & Joyce, have been part of our lives ever since our marriage. Among the things we have in common are that we all got married in 1988 and at least one of the spouses from each couple was from Countryside Church at that time. Yesterday our gathering included spending several hours biking on the Cambridge rail trail and sharing a lovely summer supper together at our house afterward. It was such a satisfying day for memories!

Holecorn

We had unwelcome visitors to our campsite during the night. We figure a rac (aka coon) got into the sack of cornhole bags and helped himself. In the morning, two bags were missing; we found this one in the bushes and the other one was never recovered. Moral of the story: Never play cornhole with racs. They don't know that the aim of the game is to get the corn bag in the hole rather than the hole in the corn bag.

Handy Package

Ricky & Jasmine's tent "package" came with two sleeping bags and two camping chairs. When they were setting up the tent at family camping this week, Ricky used one of the chairs as much as he could in the process. He went into one of his many voices and informed us that with the awesome accompanying chair, the tent practically sets up itself!

Crafty Cousins

These two spent some quality cousin time together this week and turned out some really neat wall décor.

Joyful Evening

It's good that my newest daughter-in-law doesn't mind celebrating her birthday after the actual day, and eating dessert that isn't birthday cake, because that is what she did on Monday of this week along with the rest of our family. It was all quite splendid, indeed.

Boo!

This is the final picture I will post from Music Camp last week. Daily I was greeted by this creature left over from last year's kindergarten room décor. The perky little bear seemed to pop out and wave to me from behind the bulletin board as I entered the multi-purpose room at CCS for choir rehearsal. Even though she was clearly meant for people younger than me, she never failed to cheer me up. Perhaps I should put up a surprise character like this somewhere in our house!

Creative Rhythm

One of the activities in Sight Singing class at Music Camp last week was a creative rhythm exercise. Each of the three musicians in a set had a different line to beat while staying in rhythm with the whole group. We could choose our own objects with which to make the noise. This group used a tambourine, a drum, and a wooden frog instrument. My group used a drum, a rice-and-beans-in-Tupperware shaker, and words. I did my line with words, saying the names of African animals. "Aardvark" was the most fun one.