Sunday evening musings

It's pretty quiet around here this evening, so I thought I'd sit down and write. I got up this morning and the field and sunlight were so beautiful, I had to take a picture. The air was so clear, and the cornfield so smooth. I found out today how to estimate the bushels of corn per acre. Pretty interesting. Did you know that it takes 80,000 kernels to make a bushel? That's an awful lot of kernels to count--"Hey, Will, hand me another ear!" Really you don't have to do it that way. Write me later, and I'll tell you. One can learn lots of things in dinner conversations over Sunday lunch.

It's been a busy weekend. Friday evening we went up to the home of some old friends who had an open house for their son and his new wife. We saw lots of friends from other churches we've been to. That's always a good time to catch up. These little church functions. Many of us have children the same age, so we're getting into the wedding stage in our lives! This was the second one in their family. Now I have new readers of this blog. And we can hopefully stay caught up. Whenever we see these people, we always say we MUST stay in touch. After all, we live in the same area, generally. But our lives get busy, and we procrastinate. Den had such a blast, gets a little crazy. It was fun to see him with his guy friends again.

Saturday I went to a wedding and Den ran 15 miles!! He's hoping to run in the Omaha marathon on his 55th birthday, September 23rd. He is REALLY PUMPED about it. Just ask him about it. He bought a little GPS thingy that tells him all kinds of things besides where he's running. Like what his pace is, how many calories he's burned.. um, like I said, ask him.

This afternoon I reread, Death in the City by Francis Schaeffer. I read it 30 years ago for a class in college. He compares our culture and situation to that of the period of Jeremiah where God's people knew the truth, but didn't want to believe it or act on what they knew. Because the "church" didn't continue in truth, the whole culture did not know truth. Sounds like our era. And he wrote it 40 years ago. We've changed somewhat, and are farther down the post-Christian road. He emphasized truth, as he always did, and how having absolutes really does give man significance. In conversations this summer, I found that some have difficulty communicating God's absolutes to, as Schaeffer puts it, "the man without the Bible". This is the way I think we've changed since Schaeffer's time. Now not only will people say, "I don't believe in an absolute or absolutes." but rather, "It's OK for you to have absolutes, but they're not for me." or "That's the way you believe, but my truth is just as valid as your truth." Schaeffer puts it, "If you want a significant man, with absolutes, morality, and meaning, then you must have what the Bible insists upon--that God will judge men justly." We don't like to talk about God judging much. So in talking about the gay lifestyle, even children raised in Christian homes have difficulty saying that it is morally wrong. In their minds some have a relativistic thinking that says, "It's morally wrong for me, but it's OK for them because they love each other. " But because God is holy, has absolutes, and will judge justly, the person has significance. It raises the importance of the individual, restores him/her to wholeness. Of course, Schaeffer also emphasizes speaking this truth with love and compassion, just as Jeremiah preached with tears. The other part of the book, besides the Jeremiah part, was from Romans 1:16-2:1. That's the "man without the Bible" section. And that's our culture, basically. He closes the book with a chapter on living like we really believe that he is a God who is there. Christians MUST pray, or they are sitting in the materialist's chair and are living in what he terms "unfaith". Reminded me that I need to always be praying and believing that God does reach into time and space and make a difference. I need to live like I believe it. Not very good at summarizing what I read, but this gives some thoughts.

My new flower love

We grew up with a mom who loved plants, who had green fingers as well as thumbs, who made us weed and water and who could landscape her yard beautifully. To this day, and she's in her 70's, she still has fantastic flowers. Having said all that, I thought I knew pretty much about flowers...it's hereditary, isn't it?? But I started working in Lowe's garden center and, much to my delight, I made lots of new flower friends. Among them is this Mexican heather. Oh my, I love it! It even resembles Scottish heather. I first noticed it in the hanging baskets outside the store. By the first of July the rest of the hanging baskets looked pathetic. They were over-exposed, over-watered and root bound. I wanted to throw them all away. One benefit for me, however, was that they discounted all the hanging baskets. Like down to 2.50! So I bought two of them. When I got home, I found out that there were FIVE plants in that one little basket. I transplanted them into these pots on the pool deck. They love lots of sun and to be semi-moist. Not too hard. They are THRIVING on the pool deck. Too bad they are annuals. I may be tempted to try to bring the pots in and see if I can keep them alive all winter. But my living room is getting rather full of over-wintering plants!!

Dog days of summer

I have to write something on here to get that personality thing to go away. Why did I leave that up there for a week??? Anyway, Linnea is way prettier! Finally got her out there yesterday. It's hot, hot, hot. But when one is floating around out there, it's lovely! Clear skies, gold finches chirping and flitting from tree to tree, and peace and quiet. Why do I complain??? She's leaving today to get back to her real life. Sad for us. Happy for her. It would be nice to have her closer, like an hour away or something instead of halfway across the country!!! That's what I did when I grew up, I guess.
Will and I also got in the pool. Looks like I have no hair. Ah, but I felt nice and cool!

This may explain things.....

Word Usage

Linnea and I have a good time with words. I guess we have ever since she learned to talk. She was and early talker, I think. And since for eighteen months of her first three years, Den was out to sea (except for 11 weeks) Linnea and I spent a lot of time talking.

Today I was interested in the usage of the prepositions "by" and "from" when used with the word "given". In my first post today (it's a rainy, good computer day), I used both of those prepositions with the word "given". Afterwards, I wondered which was the best usage. Blogging makes one think about WORDS more specifically. Anyway, we went online and they are used pretty much equally. I used both without even thinking until I went back to reread what I wrote. Dinner conversations can be interesting....

Help on posting profile pictures

Anyone know how to upload a picture to the profile or to the title bar? I followed all the directions in the Help section but the program insists that I haven't designated a photo. I've uploaded a picture to the blog, copied the HTML and pasted it. That didn't work. Then I went to Flickr, copied that http. and pasted that in the URL and that didn't work. Same message.I've been working on this for over an hour. Guess I have time on my hands....I just want to learn how to do it. Of course I can upload pictures to this. You've seen plenty, but I can't get them to go anywhere else!! EXCEPT I can just click from my computer, but they are way to big and take up the whole screen. AND THAT WON'T WORK EITHER!

Thoughts on a Tuesday morning

I was on my blog this morning trying to upload a photo, obviously without luck, and editing my profile. I figured I might (or is it may?) as well write something. As far as the profile goes, I cannot think how to describe myself. Do I see myself in light of what I DO? or to whom I'm related? or by past experience? or by my convictions? So I just deleted most of it. While I think... Maybe I do a little too much introspecting?

My aunt gave me a few little trinkets of my grandmother's after she died (gramma, not the aunt!). Linnea had never seen them, so I got them out the other night. My grandmother had written notes with each item describing them and who had them. One is a teeny pair of scissors from 1887. They were given to the woman who raised her from the English ship captain on the boat from Sweden. Another is a very unusual watch fob. It was given to my grandmother's dad from his sister (I'm assuming it's his sister.) It's made from her hair and looks like macrame. The hair is auburn and the fob is about a quarter of an inch in diameter and about six inches long. On the fob is a gold locket with the initials PAL engraved on the back. However, the locket is empty. Too bad. I'm glad she saved these little things AND wrote these notes for us!

We have been getting marvelous rain! During June and July we had less than an inch total. So we were praying for rain. Yesterday was the first big daytime thunderstorm all summer, and that's amazing here in eastern NE! Everything is so green! And I'm sure the farmers are all happy. I am awed by the goodness of God in sending rain when we need it. I remember the place of prayer as a child growing up in an agricultural community. One of the church elders once said, "God sends drought, so we pray for rain. God sends rain, so we pray for it to stop." Meaning that God always draws us to be dependent on him. God is good, all the time. John Piper's blog today (or from yesterday) is very good along those lines. For those of you who don't know, his church is within sight of the 35W bridge. His comments are wise.

Be blessed and be a blessing!