Botticelli Blue

The skies after two days and nights of storms. Lovely blue. "Simpsons" could be written in clouds! Like this:See how lovely the blue sky is in this Botticelli painting? Soft color in the sky and more vivid blue in their clothes. Rich. I'm thankful for color!

What's in a name?

"A rose by any other name is still a rose."

However, there is a NAME far above any other NAME. It would be a good word study, but this is just from today's reading.

Acts 4: 7, "And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, 'By what power or by what name did you do this?' "

10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead...
14 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved

Then the leaders thought that this was getting out of control so they said..
17 .....let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. (18) So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

And then in the Psalm I read today: Psalm 124:8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made the heaven and the earth.

One of the greatest verses on the name: Philippians 2:9,10 "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth"

Good thoughts to begin my day.

Life after 60, $60 that is

Hey, I just drive a regular mini-van, not some giant SUV or van! So why did it cost me over sixty bucks to fill my tank?? Granted, it got lower than usual. The "ticker" on the gas pump look like a conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius, $61 for 16 gallons! If I'd had my camera, I would've taken a picture. And if I still had kids at home or in college I could say like Dan in "Dan in Real Life", "There goes your college education....!" Something else will have to go, hmm, the new laptop, new car....not anything I want, of course!

And a weather post

One can't live in the Midwest and not talk about the weather. It's either subzero, Arctic freeze and blizzard in the winter or torrential rain monsoon in the spring or blazing hot desert in the summer. Autumn is about the most temperate season, although we can get one of the above then, too.


Rain and wind are the themes right now. Here's the "crick". The little one in the foreground is barely a trickle normally. Today is still
stormy, and more big ones are expected tonight. We were sitting
in the back of the house last night and didn't realize that the rain was pounding in the north windows. I say "pounding" because it was huge rain drops being blasted in the front windows. It was a lake on the floor by the dining room table, and the back bedroom.... Good thing Andrew isn't sleeping there anymore. Every thing cleaned up nicely, though, once we closed the windows!

History before our eyes

No matter what your political views are, we saw history being made on Tuesday evening as the first African American won the nomination for the Democratic party ticket. It would be great if Martin Luther King would have lived to see this day.





I started taking photos after dinner while the count rapidly declined. We were all watching the numbers come in. This one is around 7pm










This is the first photo after South Dakota counts started coming in. I had to get the "Breaking News" headline.



This last photo isn't very good, I don't know what caused the black line. I had it in several. Probably the angle of the screen to the camera. I had to get this headline.

I feel, in a way, this is like watching the first man walk on the moon. And because we didn't have TV growing up, I never saw that.


To go along with the story, Will went to the Sarpy County Democratic Convention last evening (while the tornado warning sirens blared). He really enjoyed it. Said there were about 77 people there, mostly older. One couple he talked to said they had been coming to these since the 60's!!! What changes they had seen. He said he told them, "Bet you saw a lot of empty rooms!" That got a good laugh. One guy was a 25 year old running for some county office. Will is going to be a delegate to the state convention in Fremont the end of June! Cool! The Democratic Party is so small in Nebraska, probably everyone knows everyone!!!

Say Goodbye to Rosemary

Looks like it's all over for this poor rosemary. I first bought her (and her sister) eight years ago. They have thrived over the years. I divided and repotted them after two or three years, then repotted a couple more times. I put them in these pots two years ago. They thrived into lovely Italian mountainside-like bushes. But, alas, during this winter they began the decline. I put them in front of different windows, and it could be that they didn't get enough sunlight there. Or they are just rootbound. The "deader" one has less soil in the pot. I didn't add new soil last year, and I probably should have. It's old anyway. I guess it was time.

The sister plant isn't doing too badly, though. Only one part of it has died and the new growth looks good. I probably should do something with the soil this year, but the plant is big and heavy and it will take a lot of work to pull it out, shake off old soil and add new stuff. We'll see. I switched to fiberglass pots. Terracotta was WAY too heavy!

So I've bought a "baby" rosemary. Actually this is two plants that I put together. It's a trailing one, however, so it won't look the same. But isn't it lovely, fresh and green. Yummy roast potatoes coming up!

Bella!

This was one of the best movies I have ever seen. The link is from a 700 Club interview in which he says almost the exact thing he says on a Today Show interview, so he's not just talking to a certain crowd. It begins with the trailer of the movie. Here's another interview on YouTube, in case you didn't click on all the YouTube videos of him once you saw that first one!!!!! Notice all the interviewers are women, and they can hardly control themselves for giggling at the beginning. Guess I'd do the same!

Two people within a week raved about this independent film. One was the girl who cuts my hair here in Omaha, and the other was our former chaplain from Italy who lives in Wisconsin, so they were in no way related. I figured I'd put it in our Netflix queue. And we're glad we did.

It's a very moving story. It makes you think, feel, and want to be a better person after watching it. Check out the links and you'll want to go out and rent it yourself. I think I'll go buy it!