Hot

That's an appropriate title since it got around 100 degrees today.  Bone dry too.  Bill stayed home sick.  I think he has a stomach bug of some kind.  I did all the work by myself.  It wasn't hard because Fridays are a pretty easy day.  My feet are killing me though.  I bought new shoes the other day and they felt fine in the store but today they are murder.  I don't know what is wrong though because they are not too tight, my feet don't rub anywhere, they just hurt.  Maybe it's a new phase that my feet are going through.  I think Sassy probably caught the bug too because she had a little bought with diarrhea when we went out to walk.

I've worked quite a bit on my crochet sweater.  Nothing on the quilt and no drawing or painting.  Bill must be sick, he turned the TV off.  He almost never turns it off this time of day.  Gee, I could read something.  Maybe I will.  Need to go over the Sunday School lesson again first.

I managed to do it.  I was able to save the award that I got a while back and now I can post it here:

Now I'm supposed to tell 10 things about myself.  Let's see if I can come up with 10. 

1. I'm 56 years old.  When I was younger I never thought about making it to my 50's.  That seemed like a million years away.  It's not anymore.  It's here.
2. I consider myself an artist even though I've never sold anything and never given a show.  So what.  I do it just for my own edification anyway.
3. I've read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation in the King James Version, New King James, New International, New American Standard and the Living Bible.  I like the New American Standard the best.  I've heard people say there all kinds of contradictions in the Bible.  Well, I can honestly say that I haven't found any.
4. We have been married 21 years now, no children, just a series of dogs.  Sassy being the latest.  If I had it to do over I'd still marry the same guy.
5. I need to lose 20 pounds.  I've needed to lose 20 pounds for several years now.  Maybe someday I will actually do it.
6. I was born in Clovis, New Mexico and grew up in Mesa, Arizona.  
7. Graduated from Mesa High School in 1972.  I've never cared to go to any of the reunions.
8. My mother's family are from Oklahoma and my dad's family are Texans.
9. I accepted Christ as my Savior and Lord in 1982 or was it '83?  Sometime in the early 80's anyway.
10. Love books and movies.  Especially the classics.

Well that's 10 things.  That will do it I think.  I'm supposed to pass this on to 10 other bloggers but I don't know 10 that actually blog on a consistent basis and that don't already have the award.  So I won't.  Send it that is.

Photo of the day, flowers in my flowerbed.  I think they're called Brown-eyed Susan or something like that anyway.  The butterflies certainly love them.

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21

Happy Birthday to Me

Yep, today is my 56th birthday.  Whew, I never imagined that I would get this old.  I was so used to being the youngest and now a lot of times I'm the oldest.  I'm not to thrilled with the aging process, wrinkles, gray hair, age spots, and so on.  Not much choice though.  I'm definitely not interested in buying expensive products that are supposed to prevent or slow down the aging process.  After all, it's a fact of life.  I like the way that my husband looks at it.  We're getting closer to heaven. 

So what did I do on my birthday?  Got up and went to work.  No gifts because we don't have any money.  Although we will have a little extra money this week so I might have a mini spending spree later in the week.  We did go out to lunch Saturday, had a steak dinner, not bad.  My Sunday School class gave me a little party.  The lady that is coming into the class as a teacher brought cupcakes and gave me a small gift.  Very nice, very thoughtful of her.  I think we'll make a good team in Sunday School.  We had 5 kids, 4 girls and 1 boy.  The boy didn't seem to mind being surrounded by females.  Maybe he has a lot of sisters.

There's a few rain showers floating around but none floating our way.  The clouds did cool things down a bit. 

I started working on the crochet sweater.  It's working up really fast in spite of the fact that it's single crochet.  I think it's going to look really pretty.  Speaking of sweaters, today's photo of the day is the Aran knit sweater that I finished the other day. 

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in your will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:6

Once A Week

I was planning on posting more often but it seems once a week is all I've got in me.  Oh well, that's OK.  It's been hot and humid, but no rain.  My flowers need some rain.  That's the only way that they are going to get watered. 

Yesterday we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then went to a flea market in Anadarko.  We bought a couple of DVDs and several paperback books.  I have a lot of reading to do.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at home.  It's just too hot to do much running around.

I finished the Aran  sweater that I have been working on for several months.  It turned out really well.  I took a photo of it but I haven't loaded it onto my computer yet, so I'll show it off in a future post.  I'm in the process of replacing all my store bought sweaters with homemade sweaters.  Actually most of the sweaters I didn't buy, I got them at the church's free clothes closet.  Back at Christmastime I got cash as gifts so I bought enough yarn to make 3 sweaters.  One down, 2 to go.  The next one will be crocheted and multicolor.  Three shades of green and white.

I finished the colored pencil painting of an adult whooping crane.  It turned out good, not wonderful, just good.  I haven't started anything new yet but I have some ideas in mind.

I came dangerously close to cutting my hair the other day.  The usual reasons, I'm too old, my hair is too thin, husband prefers my hair short and so on.    I got over it though and my hair is once again safe.  Even though my husband prefers it short it's not like he's going to leave me if I grow it out, it's my hair after all.

I was given a beautiful blog award and as soon as I figure out how to post it here I will.  I'm supposed to tell 10 things about myself, I'll do that in a future post.  I'm also supposed to give it to 10 other bloggers.  I don't know 10 bloggers that I can give it too.  Some already have it and others aren't even blogging anymore.  I guess I should delete the non bloggers.

Photo of the day, my colored pencil painting of an adult whooping crane.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness,against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

Gardening

Sort of.  I love gardens but I'm not really into the physical labor that is involved.  Anyway, while DH was mowing the grass I pulled up some of the Iris and transplanted a few.  The rest I tossed out.  I still have a lot more Iris to take care of.  I'm going to let the grass grow back over the place where the flowers used to be.  It was hot and sweaty work and I had to take a shower afterward.  I had to haul water to water the flowers that I transplanted.  I would love to have a regular garden with veggies and everything but hauling water is more work than I'm willing to do.  Maybe someday we'll have an outside water faucet put in.  That's way down on the priority list. 

After working for a short time this morning we spent the rest of the day at home.  I did some laundry and ironed some things.  Had to sew 3 buttons back on one of DH's shirts.  I had a gluten free Mexican food TV dinner for lunch.  I love Mexican food as long as it's not real hot.  I don't do real hot.  DH loves the really hot stuff but I can't tolerate it. 

I think I'll wear a skirt to church tomorrow.  I have a pair of sandals that I can wear for short periods of time.  They don't hurt my feet too much.  I would really like to get a pair of dress shoes that don't hurt but I would have to order them online and I don't want to put anything on the credit cards right now.  We owe enough, need to pay them down. 

It's been 3 months since I last cut my hair.  Can I hold out?  Can I finally achieve long hair (at least what I consider long hair, anything past shoulder)?  I hope so.  DH likes it better short but I think that's just because it looks pretty rough during the growing out process.  If I can just get past the scruffy stages I think it'll look good.  Especially if I get regular trims.  We'll see.

Well I guess I really am lactose intolerant.  I had some ice cream earlier and didn't take any lactose pills.  I'm paying for that now.  I won't go into the details. 


Photo of the day, a nice Sassy picture.  She looks like she is posing here, or maybe waiting for a treat.  Most likely waiting for a treat.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Ephesians 4:31-32

Howdy

That's a good a title as any I guess.  I had planned on posting more often in this blog but there are days when I just don't feel like even getting online much less posting anything.  Of course then I get behind in the blogs that I read and it takes a while to catch up.  Anyway, I think I'll try to post more often.  I love having this blog.  I don't say everything that I want to say or express all my thoughts but it's still fun. 

It's still hot and very humid.  The storms stopped for a while but now we have a chance of some storms later this evening.  I used to want the hot weather to pass, to want Fall to get here quickly but this year I decided to enjoy each season as it comes.  Life passes quickly enough no need to rush it.  Besides the heat doesn't seem to bother me as much as it did when I was younger.  I wonder if I'll be one of those old ladies wearing a sweater when younger people are wearing shorts. 

I took Sassy in today to have her nails clipped.  I guess I should clip them myself.  I used to clip Scruffy's but I was always afraid of cutting into the quick.  If the groomer cuts the quick Sassy can hate her instead of me.  In fact she did cut the quick, I saw her putting some of that stuff on the nail that stops the bleeding.  Sassy didn't react when it happened.  She must have a pretty high threshold of pain. 

A few weeks ago I bought several books at Goodwill and I have been reading them.  A lot of movies are based on books or short stories and I've always been curious about the books and what changes were made in the movies.  I found the original books for Pollyanna, One Hundred and One Dalmatians and Up the Down Staircase.  They are all excellent books.  I haven't seen the movie Up the Down Staircase but I have seen the other two and they did make a lot of changes to the stories.  The movies are good but the books are infinitely better.  But then I'm a hopeless bookworm anyway. 

We went to the movies this afternoon.  It's been a long, long time since we've been to a theater because they are so expensive.  You could buy the DVD for the price of going to the theater.  But once in a while it's fun to be in the theater with the big screen and the surround sound.  We saw the Sorcerer's Apprentice.  It was great!  A lot of action and no foul language.  It's rare to find a movie with no bad language.  We're going to buy the DVD when it comes out for sale.

My DH is longer going to teach the 5th grade Sunday School with me.  He's gone back to an adult class.  So the Children's Division Director has to find someone to work with me.  I don't really need any help right now since we only have 4 or 5 kids coming but still it's better to have at least 2 adults in there.  So far only girls are coming.  Maybe boys will start coming when school starts.

I'm working on a colored pencil painting of an adult whooping crane.  It's not finished yet so no photo of it right now.

Photo of the day, this is the backside of a thunderstorm that I photographed a few days ago.  Looks pretty awesome.  I think it was a pretty heavy storm.

Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.

Ephesians 4:26-27

Saturday

Saturday has always been my favorite day of the week.  I guess that goes back to childhood when I could sleep in and then get up and watch cartoons as I ate breakfast.  We have to work for a short while on Saturdays but we usually have most of the day off.  It's a day to rest and relax or do some chores around the house.  It's also a good day to go on road trips.  We're not going anywhere today because money is short and gas is expensive.  I have a few chores that I could do but I don't know if I'll get around to them or not.  I may just sit here and do nothing.

DH has something like 10 or more Trojan viruses on his computer.  He's erased the hard drive and reformatting it.  We bought a different virus program to put on it when he's through.  The one he was using obviously wasn't very good, not if it let that many viruses through.  It was one of those that you can get free on the Internet.  I don't recommend them, not after this.  He just came in here and said that it won't recover.  It won't accept disk 2 so I guess we'll have to take it in and have it worked on.  It means he'll have to spend the week end without the Internet.  Tough luck.  Unless he wants to use mine but then he doesn't like to use mine.  So I guess he'll have to suffer withdrawal symptoms.  Computers and the Internet can be so expensive that sometimes I wonder if it's worth it.  But then I really like to surf the 'Net so I guess we'll keep them.

We have gone through a really stressful time the last two weeks.  You know it's easy to talk about peace in the midst of the storm when the weather is clear but when there's a storm going on it can be hard.  But we're starting to see our way clear.  It's something that we're just going to have to tough out.  Be patient and all that.  I know the Lord is in control.  The hard part is staying out of it and letting Him be in control.  Sometimes I just want to help Him along a little.  I have learned that isn't a wise thing to do.

Sassy is so funny she always takes one of her sock toys with her when she goes to her food dish.  Sometimes it ends up in her water bowl.  She always has to play with her food before she eats it.  I usually find dog food all over the room.

Photo of the day, this was taken back in February.  It's almost the middle of July now.  We've had a lot of rain and I really need to take some photos of all the green stuff out there.  But it's too hot and humid to go anywhere. 

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 4:29

Almost Over

Our time off that is.  We had yesterday evening and all day today off.  It was wonderful.  It rained off and on all day yesterday.  The clouds kept it pretty cool.  I think some people still managed to have their barbecues, I could smell them when I was walking Sassy.  The wind stopped altogether for several hours yesterday.  Last night it seemed that our whole neighborhood shot off their fireworks (that's illegal in town but people do it anyway).  When I took Sassy out for her last potty break of the evening it looked like the neighborhood was on fire, there was so much smoke everywhere.  It smelled bad too.  It started raining again and that washed all the smoke out of the air.  It was cloudy all day today and rained a couple of times but it looks like it is over for now.

We watched movies all evening yesterday.  We get them for a dollar a movie at Hastings.  Not bad.  It doesn't matter too much if there is a dud in the bunch when you only pay a dollar.  Today we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  Then we went out to the Refuge.  There was water everywhere.  All the lakes were full and all the streams were flowing.  I should have taken photos but I didn't.  Everything was green and beautiful.  We ran into a couple of showers too.  Now we're watching the last of the movies that we rented.

My hair is doing weird things today, sticking out in all directions.  The only way to control it is to either cut it super short or put a lot of stuff on it and grease it down.  I'm not willing to do either of those things so I'll just live with it.  I'm pretty much used to weird hair.

We had 4 girls in Sunday School yesterday.  That's more than I expected.  I really thought everyone would be out of town because of the holiday.  I guess the rain kept them in.

Photos of the day, the last two paintings that I did.  The first one is the horses done in soft pastel.  It didn't turn out as good as I wanted but it was good practice.  The second one was done in oil pastel.  I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.  It's based on a photo that I saw in a magazine of a lake in Scotland.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Ephesians 4:4-6

Hurricane

We're getting the aftereffects of the hurricane that hit the gulf coast.  I love rain so I have no problem with it.  Some people are complaining because it's the 4th of July weekend and they don't want rain right now.  But, rain can be very scarce around here and I think we need to be grateful for every drop that we can get. 

This oil problem in the gulf is so sickening.  It should never have happened.  The company should have had a plan for events like this.  People have lost their lives and a lot of people have had their worlds turned upside down.  We are way to dependent on oil.  I wish we would put more money and effort into developing alternatives.  Of course we are extremely wasteful too.  Where I live we take our garbage to a dumpster.  DH and I walk over there but I've seen people throw the bags on the trunk of their car and drive over there, just a few feet.  Talk about lazy.  We are very spoiled.  If we ever have a depression like they did in the 1930's I'm afraid we would be in a world of hurt.  But then, who knows, maybe I'm wrong and we would come through with flying colors.  I hope we never have to find out.

The other day I finished my oil pastel landscape.  Haven't taken a photo of it yet.  I'll post that later.  Now I'm trying to decide what I want to do next. 

One day last week during our vacation we went to all the thrift shops in town.  It was a lot of fun and I got some good things.  Some jewelry from one shop and several books from Goodwill.  Also, a pair of Capri pants from Salvation Army and one pair from the thrift shop on Fort Sill.   We're off on Monday because of the 4th being on a Sunday.  I'm not sure what we'll do.  It's supposed to be rainy which is fine with me.

Sassy didn't get a long walk today because it's pouring rain out there right now.  If it stops we may go out later.

Photo of the day, Sassy chewing on a toy.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9