Too Much Aggravation

My life has had too much aggravation lately. Is it just me or is everyone going through this? If discouragement is the #1 tool of the enemy of our souls, then I need prayer IN A BIG WAY.

Just too many things pushing me to the brink of my patience. I am getting tired of holding my temper.

I thought it was supposed to get easier to let things go as we age. Hah! Another myth busted.

I asked someone to do something and they readily agreed. Several days later they came to me asking me for the names of the persons they recruited. ?How should I know?

I made a return doctor appointment just like my doctor asked me to do. I set the alarm, left the house in a timely manner, showed up for my appointment and the office staff dismissed me. They had cancelled my appointment and not told me - for the second time this year!!

The new refrigerator stopped making ice cubes. Had to set up the second repair appointment this year. They could not come out for over a week. It is NEW! I'm buying ice at the market down the street.

We have had several hard freezes and I am still killing bugs in the house and around the windows and crunching across the front porch.

I will stop now before I post things I might regret.
 

Quotes That Stuck Me

 

 

"Submission to the Divine will is the softest pillow on which to recline."

 

Olive Tree

Psa. 38:9: Lord, all my desire is before Thee.

Amy Carmichael "Only a simple word. This afternoon, words would not come when I tried to pray, and this troubled me; and then it was as if He, who is never far away, said, "What does it matter about words, when all thy desire is before Me?" Perhaps you, too, find that words will not come when you wish they would. So I pass on my comfort."

In St. Augustine's words:"To Him who is everywhere, men come, not by traveling, but by loving."

 

How about when words won't stop?

Help us then, Lord, to rest in Your loving embrace

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Like the stink bugs weren't bad enough

 

I came home the other day; it was sunny and warm. The garage door was COVERED with ladybugs. The front porch floor and ceiling were both covered, as well as the front door. Ladybugs all over the sliding glass door, in the window frames of every room. I have been sweeping up lady bugs upstairs and down. The only photo I could offer now is DEAD ladybugs. Too bummed to even take a photo. The neighborhood will rejoice when the freezes come and the ladybugs are dead!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

October 14th - Autumn Amazes - and I'm a little behind!

Sadly, the INVASIVE honeysuckle is ready to feed birds and squirrels in abundance again this year.

Most experts advise keeping children away from the berries. Seems a few varieties are okay, but some are poisonous. So we explain to Rowan that we are not allowed to eat those. Only birds like them.

Love this shot. Nothing like a walk with the young'n to get you seeing things straight!!

 

Now if you Shuffle your feet you can make those leaves CRUNCH! Explain shuffle to a two year old!

 

REALLY, Pop?

Rowan is good at mimicing bird calls.

And if you find a REALLY good stick,

you can drag it ALL the way to the car! (Gigi loves those curls!)

 

Rowan's thinking, "Are you SURE about that?"

 

Pop shows him how the corn grows.

And they take just one ear home for his birds and wild life.

Maybe out of focus, but this Rowan in ACTION!

 

Hey! Look!!

 

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Leaves Turning Colors

 

Popular Science printed this recently under FYI

Why Do Leaves Turn Different Colors? Short Answer: Different trees make different pigments.

 

Long Answer: Leaves are loaded with chlorophyll, which makes them green. But all green plants also carry a set of chemicals called carotenoids. On their own, these look yellow or orange - carotenoids give color to corn and carrots, for example - but they're invisible beneath the chlorophyllic green of a leaf for most of the year. In the fall, when the leaves are nearing the end of their life cycle, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow-orange is revealed. "The color of a leaf is subtractive, like crayons on a piece of paper," says David Lee, formerly of Florida International Univeristy, who has studied leaf color since 1973.

 

In one corner of our yard: Ornamental grass, pyracantha shrubs, gingko tree and yellow poplar "Tulip tree."

 

Most trees have evoloved to produce a different set of chemicals, called anthocyanins, when it's bright and cold in autumn. These have a reddish tint and are responsible for the color of a blueberry. They're also sometimes made in newly sprouting leaves, which explains their sometimes reddish tint. Where chlorophyll and the anthocyanins coexist, the color of a leaf may run to bronze, as in ash trees. At high enough concentrations, anthocyanins will make a leaf look almost purple, as in Japanese maples.

 

More drab autumn colors form as leaves really die and complete the breakdown of the chloroplasts. When they're all dried out, the pigments link up together into what Lee calls a "brownish gunk."

 

 

The bright red leaves here are the forsythia which will give us our first harbinger of spring with those golden flowers! What a blessing :-)

 

Ornamental grasses in the side yard.

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

One of the highlights of our trip happened the first day. We flew from CIncinnati to Salt Lake City, then drove into Idaho and stopped at the Lava Hot Springs. Great way to relax after the flight and travel through unknown areas.

 

 

From the website at http://www.lavahotsprings.com/hotpools.html

"Bubbling out of natural underground springs, the hot water is laden with minerals, but has no sulfur and therefore no bad odor.

"Over 2.5 million gallons a day course through the hot springs and are diverted into the Portneuf River keeping the springs ever changing and clean. The spring's temperatures range from approximately 102˚ to 112˚ degrees.

• Open 363 Days A Year! Hours and Rates
• Pure all natural Mineral Water
• No chemicals, no sulfur, no odor
• Natural water temperature 102F -110F
• Four outdoor gravel bottom pools

Fine print says "Except where they found hot springs, pre-historic Indians had a hard time getting hot water. They wove water-tight baskets into which they put heated rocks. Here they had plenty of hot water for baths and for processing hides without going to all the work of heating baskets. This was one oftheir major campgrounds, especially in winter. After 1868, when they began to stay mostly on the Fort Hill Indian Reservation , this location lost its importance as a winter camp."

This is how it looked when we were there, except there were PEOPLE! Not many, but a few. One woman was recovering from cancer treatments. She was there with her husband, two children and her mother.

It would have been neat to see it in the snow!

 

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Faeries In the Yard?

Our Trick of Treat night was postponed until November 1st due to storm predictions and high winds. The morning after the storm, when Bob took his walk with the dog, he came home and called me outside to see this.

Now from time to time we get a few mushrooms in the yard,

 

but if you look closely you can see a ring of these huge mushrooms!

What? Maybe there were faeries dancing in the yard last night?

The dictionary defines them as

1. A tiny, mischievous, imaginary being; a fairy.

2. The land or realm of the fairies.

 

Mushrooms nestled next the rock wall, (guess these were for the wall flowers?)

 

Giants littered over the yard, but in a sort of pattern!

 

Obviously, we were delighted and amazed. They disappeared almost overnight.

 

Largest 'shrooms we have ever seen in our yard!

Will wonders never cease!? Hope not.

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.