Saturday, April 30, 2011

I Love Purple!

Have I ever told you that I love purple?

Well, I do. Anything purple. Clothes, pens, papers, flowers, anything that is purple.

I especially love lilacs. We don't have lilacs down here in Texas. I miss their smell and their beauty. But we do have some beautiful purple flowers down here. This is one I found this morning when I went out to get some pictures of the cows. I'm not sure what plant it is from or what it will become after the bloom fades. But right now it's beautiful.

It amazes me that God provides us with this kind of beauty so that we can enjoy his creations and the nature around us. Take time today to look for the beauty around you.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Gardening





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Gardening

Every year my husband plants a garden. This isn't just your ordinary little plot in the back yard type garden. This is a 1/4 acre piece of land that he plows with his tractor and uses a planter to plant the seeds, if the seeds are big enough. If they are too big or too small then those have to be planted by hand.

Every year it's the same thing. We plant all these seeds and wait to see what will actually come up and what will produce some produce for us.

This year he planted okra, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, peas, string beans, onions, sweet corn, peppers, and fennel. Oh, and carrots.

We have a pretty good stand of everything except the corn. The chickens went in and ate the seeds that were planted so we only have a few stalks that have come up.

Of course the okra, which I hate to pick, came up in full force and is producing so much we have to pick it at least every other day. The yellow squash is also producing more than we can eat. I have made squash casserole, steamed squash, anything that a squash can be used in. And still we have more than we can use. We have taken bags of produce to church, to work, to neighbors, sharing our bounty.

Actually, it's kind of nice. It's nice to be able to go out into the garden and pick a few things and make a meal. God certainly has blessed us with our garden this year. If you need some squash or okra, come on over and see us!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Can You Put Your Mouth Around This?

One of the perks working in the business office of a deli franchise is that I get free lunch five days a week. Working here for over five years, I think I've tried just about everything on the menu. Some days it's hard, though, deciding what I want for lunch. If I am going to be eating at the restaurant most of the time I get a salad bar. But when I'm going to bring my lunch back to the office to eat at my desk I go for a sandwich or 1/2 a sandwich and a cup of soup.

Yesterday I decided to have a New York Yankee. I haven't had one in a while and I thought it would be a nice change from my usual. The sandwich is hot pastrami and corned beef, with mustard and swiss cheese on rye bread. The deli always puts enough meat on their sandwiches that you could make two other sandwiches with the extra and most of the time I take half of the meat off. But yesterday I decided to go ahead and eat the whole thing!

Boy, was it good!
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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Saying Goodbye












It's always hard to say goodbye.

On Wednesday, my step-father-in-law passed away. He would've been 89 next month. He was a sweet, gentle, caring man who loved his family and his country. He served in the US Navy during World War II and was part of the clean-up crew at Pearl Harbor after the bombing.

He was married to his first wife for 61 years and they had three daughters. She passed away in 2008 and his family wasn't sure he would be around for very long after she was gone.

In August 2009 he married my mother-in-law. He wanted to live again! He was proud to show my mother-in-law off as his "hot wife" to all of his friends and family. He began to lose ground a few weeks ago and finally passed away last Wednesday.

His funeral was yesterday and he was buried with military honors. I don't know how many times I heard from his family at the services that my mother-in-law gave them a few more years with him because of her love and care for him.

We will all miss Grandpa. And we are waiting for that day when we will be together again in the world to come when Christ comes in the clouds to take all of us home with him to live eternally.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Spring Has Arrived!

The sun and flowers have arrived in South Texas!

A few weeks ago I made a trip to Goliad to see if there were any bluebonnets out. Boy were there! All around the Fannin Monument there were bluebonnets with yellow daisy-looking flowers interspersed among them. Every once in a while there would be a purple wine cup mixed in. It was beautiful!


My son, Thomas, and I walked the nature trail at the Mission Espiritu. I caught a moment of thought as Thomas crossed a bridge and looked at the nature all around him.



We also went to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge. We didn't see a whole lot of wildlife but there were purple thistles out all along the sides of the road and the butterflies were just covering the thistles. I stopped and got a few pictures.


All of this points to the fact that spring is finally here!