Friday Shutdown

How does one spend their Friday shutdown on a sunny perfect Michigan summer day?

1. I woke up hungry for waffles so I went out to Renae's and made waffles and scrambled eggs for everyone.
2. Went to Gemmen's and Keegstra's for the sidewalk sales.
3. Got a haircut.
4. Swam laps and then laid on a float in the pool after vacuuming it.
5. Watered the chickens.
6. Picked the harvest from the garden: almost 4 gallons of beans, 1 huge zucchini, and several tomatoes.

How will I spend the rest of the day?
Maybe go pick blueberries, definitely read a couple of chapters in the textbook for my class on Wednesday, and freeze beans. Anyone want to help with the blueberries or beans?

One of the nice things about the Friday shutdown is going to bed tonight and knowing that I have another day to get stuff done before Sunday and church!

Beans and Zucchini

My friend and I have a good sized garden as we like to make salsa and enjoy growing most of the ingredients--tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, and this year for the first time onions. We also have other standard garden fare: potatoes, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, kale, and several squash plants both summer and winter. While everything is looking good this year, there are two items that grow the best and most plentiful, but they are two of my least favorites: beans and zucchini. I know anybody can grow zucchini, but one plant can produce so many that are so big!!! I know beans are good for me, and the beans we grow are good for green beans, but they still aren't my favorite and they are a pain to pick. This week we have picked at least 10 gallons of beans!!! Tonight I'll be in the kitchen freezing beans, but I'd love to share them if anyone wants to come get some. In fact, if you want you can have whatever you pick!!!

Bucket List

I had hoped that I could cross off an item on my bucket list before I went to bed tonight, but I guess it's not to be. Tonight was supposed to be our second attempt to go perch fishing (also called fish perching) on Lake Michigan. However, the wind has picked up and there is a 20-30% chance of rain and since several people got sick on the charter this morning and Captain Gregg said the fishing wouldn't be good, we are postponing again.

I think we'll take in a little minor league baseball action instead.

Lunch Service

For lunch today I went out with Renae and Nancy to a new place for us. It has somewhat recently located from another location. The décor is nicely painted to appear as if you are eating in the middle of Main Street with stores on both sides. It’s a family diner that I think has a pretty big following from having been at its previous location for many years. I’m not sure I’ll go back there. The food was ok, but the service had me walk out the door just shaking my head.

Nancy ordered a burger that came with chips and a pickle. She ordered no pickle, but when the plate came the pickle was on the side. She was obviously not happy and said that she thought she ordered no pickle. The server kind of laughed and said she thought Nancy meant just not on the burger. Nancy said she didn’t want the pickle and set it on the table off her plate. The server then picked up the pickle and started waving it right in Nancy’s face and said, “Are you afraid of it? It won’t hurt you.”

It was just bizarre and not the way to increase your tip from anyone at the table.

Six Weeks Old

Tomorrow the chicks will be six weeks old. If man is allotted three score and ten years then we figure the chicks are the equivalent of 35 years old. A co-worker let me borrow a scale as we had no idea how much they weighed. We weighed three of them tonight, and they ranged from 3 to 3.75 pounds. The runt wouldn't let me catch her. The plan is to grow them to 12 weeks.

I think our chickens are very pretty because of the mostly brown feathers with some darker charcoal interspersed on some of them.

Hush, puppy

My work team leader had never heard of much less eaten hush puppies. I thought it was very unusual. Would you expect people in the midwest to at least have heard about hush puppies?

Saturday

No wonder I'm tired today:

Yesterday went like this:
breakfast with Renae
Pick up around my house
Read/study for class
Pick blueberries
pick beans in our garden (5 gallons!!!)
water the chickens
Get cleaned up
Birthday party for friend at church
Read more for class

Proverb

Chinese proverb: He who chases two rabbits catches neither.

Golf Etiquette and Intelligence

If you don't want yourself or your golf cart hit by my ball, then don't park it between me and the hole.

The Family

Read this three-part interview (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), and found it to be quite interesting. Is this familiar to anyone? I'd like to get the book and read it, but let me know if you have.

July

No birthdays in July. . .a good month for the budget.

Birthdays:
January--2
February--4
March--1
April--1
May--3
June--1
August--2
September--1
October--1
November--2
December--4 and Christmas!!!

Funny Tweet

I've been following a blogger who now Twitters for several months. She is excited that her daughter has asked Jesus into her heart and last weekend was baptized. The blogger's husband is a pastor and baptized the daughter. The father-in-law said to his son, "She is half Stacy so you probably need to keep her under a little bit longer."

Detroit Politics

Heard this story on the way to class tonight. I think the beginning comment was "Only 5 miles and Detroit could've been Canada's problem." Funny.

Not in Alabama this week

This week four of my nieces and nephews are at my parents' home. Often when they visit I am there as well and through the years I have many wonderful memories of playing with the kids in Alabama. In fact, I think they are pretty old before they realize that Aunt Rhoda doesn't live with Grandma and K-Daddy/Papa.

So while I'm sure it's good for the grandparents to enjoy the grandchildren alone, I really miss being there this week.

More books

Several weeks ago I posted a list of books that impacted my life. I had lost my original list and left four books off the list. I found the list while cleaning for company—I should do that more often!

Here are the last four in no particular order:

To the Golden Shore. This is the biography of Adoniram Judson. My ninth grade Bible teacher was reading it, and since I liked biography I thought I’d read it too. Adoniram worked in Burma for seven plus years before seeing anyone convert to Christianity. The adversity he and his family faced was incredible.

Hollywood v. America by Michael Medved. It’s out of date now with the shows it discusses but the book helped me watch television more discriminately. For one, notice how often the child leads the parent (especially the father) to see what is right or best.

Hope Again by Chuck Swindoll. This is a study of I Peter that was a gift to me when I left Peoria. It was very meaningful to me that fall in grad school.

You’re Reactions Are Showing by J. Allan Peterson. This is a small booklet maybe printed by . One’s real character is revealed when they are under adversity. A child on the floor with his toys may appear to be a very happy child, but we can see if he really is happy when another child is put on the floor with him and they have to share toys.

Walter

I was sad to hear that Walter Cronkite died. I'm glad I know and remember good television reporting. We watched the CBS news every night at dinner talking during the commercials and parts of the news. I thought this was a good synopsis of why Cronkite was good.

Somehow when you heard "And that's the way it is" you knew that all was good.

Weekend

My weekend so far in bullet points:
--Thursday night late, late, late Joey and Mary arrived.
--Friday breakfast with Mary
--Lunch at Rose's in East Grand Rapids with Joey, Mary, and their friends. Loved the restaurant and ready to go back.
--Nap and schoolwork in the afternoon.
--Fishing was cancelled. Good customer service is not to tell us to call on Friday and then not answer the phone. We literally were walking out the door when the captain (!) returned our calls to tell us the lake was too rough.
--Bowled with Renae. She won the first game by one pin and I won the second by one pin. I told her that we could never ever bowl together again.
--More schoolwork later in the evening.
--Saturday morning officially 18 miles but actually just over 20 with Shelly on the Holland Hundred
--Nap
--Move the chicken tractor
--Make another batch of raspberry cherry jam
--Short pool time as the wind was blowing and it was just too chilly.
--More reading.
--And the evening appears to be more schoolwork. How exciting.

Classroom Crisis

Last night was my first class in a new course. I made my PowerPoint on Renae's computer at her house and it's a newer version than what is on my computer or on CU's computers. Thankfully I got to class about 45-50 minutes early and found out that there was a computer issue in that room. While a tech person was coming over to check it out, I opened my PP only to have it not open. I did a stupid thing (changed the extension manually) and that apparently corrupted the file so I had to teach without the PP presentation. It went ok, I think.

Lesson learned: make my PP on my computer and always, always, always have a backup.

Just call me Bev

Friday night is a perch fishing expedition for me. So far this week I've said, "I'll be perching for fish" and "I'll be ferching for pich."

Oh well, I just want to catch a lot!

Cherries

Knowing that I'm not allowed to visit family without cherry jam and/or salsa, I took a half day's vacation to go pick tart cherries. Renae and I then made four batches of jam (one of raspberry cherry) and froze cherries for pies and a new adventure this year: cherry barbecue sauce.

Words of Wisdom

This is the piece of advice I was given today by a co-worker:

It's best to take the high road, (easier to throw stuff at the losers on the low road.)

Chicken Update

Here are the chickens on Saturday at 3 weeks and 3 days old. Saturday was moving day from the safety of a box in the chicken tractor in the barn to out in the "back forty" in the chicken tractor. They seem to like their new location and didn't mind the grass. The flapping tarp scared them, but they seem to be getting used to that. The solar lights are supposed to help keep them calm and to help ward of predators although I'm not sure they give off that much light. In the last day or two they've lost even more of the soft down on their heads and are getting more feathers. The move was pretty exciting for them. I'm sure it would make a pretty funny to see Renae and me carrying the chicken tractor out to the back of the four acre yard, loading up the chickens into a wagon attached to the lawn tractor. Sitting on the back of the tractor I was holding down the chicken wire over the wagon while she drove out back. Then we had to load up the waterer and feeder with the boards to hold down the chicken tractor, etc.

The good news is we moved 18 out on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday there were still 18. Rhoda and Renae 18, predators 0.

Pool Days, Pool Days . . .it sounds like a song

Today was a perfect pool day in west Michigan so I went into work early and took a couple of hours of vacation to go enjoy Renae's pool. As nice as it was, it's not as much fun to be out in the pool alone because your friend got a call from the dealership she works for.

However, the pool time was interrupted by the sirens for this; the intersection is less than a mile southeast of Renae's house. We knew something big had happened because of all the sirens, and we rarely ever hear a siren out in the country. I just now looked up on-line to find out what happened. I'm actually sitting out on the back deck and through the trees can for the most part see the intersection where this accident occurred.

Golf

Mosquitoes can really mess up a round of golf. A couple of friends and I played at Ironwood last night--a first for me. It's a really pretty course, but when you get used to Summergreen and green grass looks great!

Let's just say I got more swings for my money that one person in my group last night but not as many as another.

I like my "new" $1 garage sale driver.

A Sampling of My Great Books

Several weeks ago my sister posted on her blog 15 books that have impacted her life. Below is my list of 10 that I’ve re-read or are books that I have made me think at different stages in my life.

One Saint and Seven Sinners I first read this one summer at my Aunt Louis and Aunt Hulda's home when I was in jr. high. I laughed and laughed our loud and remember them laughing at my laughing. I read it every time I visited them for several year, and when I wanted to take the book home my Aunt Louise said I had to leave it so I had something to look forward to when I visited.

God is no Stranger, a book of prayers by Haitian Christians. I think Ann Wagler gave this to me in the mid 80s. Very simple but profound thoughts of God's daily care.

Decision Making and the Will of God recommended by missionary friends in the Dominican Republic

My Grandfather’s Son by Clarence Thomas

The Friendship of Women by Dee Brestin, read numerous times, used the chapter on Ruth for a women’s Bible study, and gave as a gift to my mom, sisters and sister-in-law on Christmas

Anne of Green Gables series

Little House on the Prairie series, checked out over and over from the old Wheeler Basin library that was an old WWII quonset hut. One day the librarian wouldn’t let me check one of the books out because I wasn’t old enough for that section; she thought I needed to be in the picture book section apparently, but Mary stood up for me and told her that I was a good reader and I’d read others in the series so the librarian let me check it out.

The Grace Awakening by Chuck Swindoll

David by Chuck Swindoll—love the pages about David and Mephibosheth and the picture of grace describing what Mephibosheth's life in the palace with the king would be like:
Picture what life would be like in the years to come at the supper table with David. The meal is fixed and the dinner bell rings and along come the members of the family and their guests. Amnon, clever and witty, comes to the table first. Then there's Joab, one of the guests--muscular, masculine, attractive, his skin bronzed from the sun, walking tall and erect like an experienced soldier. Next comes Absalom. Talk about handsome! From the crown of his head to the soles of his feet there is not a blemish on him. Then there is Tamar--beautiful, tenderdaughter of David. And, later on, one could add Solomon as well. He's been in the study all day, but he finally slips away from his work and makes his way to the table. But then they hear this clump, clump, clump, clump, and here comes Mephibosheth, hobbling along. He smiles and humbly joins the others as he takes his place at the table as one of the king's sons. And the tablecloth of grace covers his feet. Oh, what a scene!

Margin by Richard Swenson—required supplemental text for a class I teach. It’s helped me learn to say No and keep a margin around my plate of life so if I add an activity I need to drop another one. What is most important in my life to do?

I realize I'm not a big reader of the classics and tell myself I want to, but I find it hard to get through them. It took me a long time to get through Pride and Prejudice and a re-reading of Little Women. I did find East of Eden somewhat interesting last summer. I also haven't read C.S. Lewis which is probably considered atrocious for a Christian, but he is on my list to read. I also read all of John Grisham, but the only one I would say was really impacting was his only non-fiction book The Innocent Man because it makes you step back and think "Wow, this really happened."

So what is a book I really, really need to read?

Soon and Very Soon

The song Soon and Very Soon has been one I liked from various points in my life--singing it as a faculty at PCS, it's one of my favorite sending songs at church now, a Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir CD, etc. I've always thought I'd have it as one of my funeral songs.

So today I was watching the Michael Jackson memorial service that began with a gospel choir ooohing and then singing "Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king, Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king. . ." And from off the side here comes the casket with "the King of Pop".

Yeah, I think I'm going to have change my service plans now.

And no, I don't have my funeral planned on paper.

If you talk about it, it will happen???

At work there has been a discussion of how things occur in threes. Example, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson all died in the same week.

Apparently, late last week a couple of people were discussing broken bones, and then one of them broke both bones in her lower leg over the weekend.

Tuesday a couple of others were discussing hitting a deer while driving. One of them hit a deer on the way to work yesterday morning.

As we talked about how people talk about something random and then it seems to happen the next day, a co-worker looked at me and said, "Have you ever won $1 million???"

I'm waiting for her to call today to see if she won a large sum of money!

Steps to Stupid

This is what I've been thinking about the last week:

Recently I read a post about steps to stupid. What are the things we justify in our lives that begin to lead us to a path that is exactly opposite of what we want to do? His was listening to music from his college years, others commented about tv shows, and some commented on the things they thought about.

I've been thinking about that--what is the thing that we begin with that leads us off the God path? What do we justify that we shouldn't?

I've been reading about the kings of Israel and Judah. So often Scriptures says that they loved God but they didn't tear down the high places of altars to other gods. Inevitably a few verses later they and the country were deep in idol worship.

The first step to stupid is different for everyone because stupid is different for everyone--maybe it's not a blatant everyone can see sin, but maybe it's pride that we're not committing that sin that someone else is.

Think about what's influencing your step to stupid?

Civic Literacy

Took this quiz during lunch. I missed 3. Anyone willing to take it and let us know what you scored?

Good Chicken Advice

Last week a co-worker emphatically told me not to name the chickens or I'd never want to eat them. Last night Kevin's friend said to just name them what they're for: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and 4th of July.

In addition to holidays I thought I could add Supper, Dinner, and salad.

However, there are 18 and two are named Sam and Li'l Bish.

I need 9 more practical names that won't make us attached to the chicks. How are your creative juices?

A new Home

The chicks have a new home. On Saturday we went scavenging for a refrigerator box, laid it on its side and then cut off the top half. It is much larger than the tote they were in and they love the room. It’s funny to see them run and flutter back and forth.

They don’t like being picked up so it was funny that they went to the furthest corner of the tote when I was putting them in the biggest box. I thought how silly they were: I was picking them up and doing something they don’t like to give them something much bigger and better. I suppose it’s like being a parent or even how God is with us some times. We so like what we know that we don’t like it when we have to go through something no matter how small because we don’t know about the bigger and better.

It’s funny to us that when they go under the light, they will flop down on their side with a wing spread. It’s quite comical and we don’t know why. Do you?