Stories and other stuff

A couple of weeks ago, I asked for some advice from my female Facebook friends about a set of Christmas dishes that was given to our church for their rummage sale.  I'd asked for an opinion from someone else and she said they were cute but she wouldn't use them.  I told her I'd return them to the church to which she replied "they really are cut but I would never use them".  I bought them anyway because we used to have Christmas china around here, and quite an extensive collection of Pfaltzgraff that we used for holidays, company, and special occasions. MY plan was to purchase some other pieces to go with the set from e-bay and put together something I used to have.  I also looked on KSL.com and that's when I saw the Pfaltzgraff Winterberry Christmas dish collection listed for $35.  The lady lived in West Jordan, closer to my mom than me.  The lady also had a really nice set of Pfaltzgraff Naturewood for sale for $95.  Several days went by and the wo...

I saw a question on Facebook the other day asking folks to post what their favorite book of the Bible is.  For me, that's a tough question because I have more than one. Hosea is one of the people who I will be looking forward to meet in Heaven.  I learned a lot about what God asks of people sometimes and if you want the explanation of why I stayed married to Wendi as long as I did, this would be a good place to start finding it. I also am looking forward to meeting Naomi and Ruth. Eternity is a very long time and I hope to talk with each of these ladies.  If you want to understand my relationship with Miss June, read the book of Ruth. I think every human being in the world can relate on some level to King David.  There's a fascinating man, but his life serves as an example that there are consequences to sin that sometimes go further than finding redemption and forgiveness.  I learned a lot about God, and about sin from reading about David.  I also lea...

What comes to mind when you think of the word "church"? Today, my mind was focused on the noun.  The physical building that's easily identifiable as a church.  It's red brick with white trim, has a steeple, and there's a cross on top of it, to signify it's a church where Christ is worshipped by His followers. The physical church needed some love.  Part of how I give back to God is to give him a couple of hours of my time during the week and mow the lawn.  It needed it and apparently I needed it too. Sometimes I get beat a little bit down by life. I admit that.  I struggle with alone.  I miss that intimacy you have with your special someone.  Sometimes life is hard.  Sometimes I just don't get it.  But today, I needed to mow the lawn and I made myself do it.  Today it was gonna be a chore. I stopped at the sev to get gas.  I put in $30 and got two tens back in change from the only bill I had in my wallet.  Two tens I tho...

Oh the things I find myself getting into sometimes. I talked a lot (ok, ad nauseam) about canning stuff.  But doing that is important.  The ant, Scripture (via Facebook today) reminds me that the ant gathers in summer and harvests in fall for the winter.  We try not to waste much.  Apple butters and jams may not seem like a lot, nor canning peaches and tomatoes, but when you're on a limited budget, stretching the ol' food dollar helps. The initial investment for canning can get spendy.  Most of what I have was purchased second hand.  Rummage sales and thrift stores seem to be good places to find canning supplies.  Jars used to be inexpensive.  Not so much anymore. I made raspberry syrup, as I mentioned the other day.  I had a batch of raspberries I needed to augment to make syrup (have enough jam, I think).  Sometimes it's cheaper to buy than can.  It takes all the fun out of it.  My raspberry syrup story is a case in poi...

One of the hardest concepts about God's involvement in my life is understanding why it takes so long for something to happen.  Lately, I've been kind of taking stock of where I'm at on my journey and not so much questioning the "why" of things as much as questioning whether or not I'm headed in the right direction. Through a set of God's providences over the weekend, I am as sure as I can be. Over the last month or so, I've been presented with a set of circumstances and choices that almost mirror the same set of circumstances and choices that got me where I am today.  At every opportunity, I've made the opposite choice of last time, expecting a different outcome.  And in that, I kind of almost made the same mistake I did two years ago that got me in the mess in the first place. The details I won't share, but in general terms I was faced with something that upset me enough that I would have done an about-face.  This time though, I held my ...

One of the nice things about living in Utah is the quality produce we have access to this time of year.  Fresh corn, fresh just about everything, and a lot of it is locally grown.  Farmer's markets are opening up and in a couple of weeks, they'll be chock full of the season's first tomatoes and cucumbers. County fairs start next week, and with that, it means soon peaches will be ripe and so will pears.  It's the time of year that all the hard work and TLC that's gone into the garden will pay off. One of the things I've learned to do is to "can" the things that we grow.  We were very blessed with raspberries this year; enough so that there were enough to make two batches of jam and some left over. With the leftovers, I made a batch of raspberry syrup, with the help of my roomie, Miss June (who apparently I have full custody of again) for the first time ever. I needed to add some raspberries and rather than purchase store bought ones, I drove up to...