I took a couple of nights off - just needed to do other things - but I really missed sharing with you! I don't think I've ever been any more touched by someone as I was this morning. A dear sweet, smart friend told me that she had never looked up my blog until the other night and she stayed up until 2 am reading it -- and then she said "I was blessed!" What a blessing that was to me!! Thank you Sharon!!
One of the best gifts I have ever received was a new dictionary and Thesaurus that one of the ladies at work gave me for my birthday! It seems I question my ability to spell certain words quite often and my new dictionary stays close by! I wonder how I got along without it! I'll tell you - I would go to Word, open up an article, type the word and let spell check tell me if it was correct or not! Most of the time I had the word correctly but sometimes not the case! I think that is the next thing Blogger should do - add spell check! Thanks again Kathy for a wonderful gift!
I have the bug again this year -- no not a flu bug -- but I can't wait any longer to start replacing dead plants with beautiful live ones! This tough winter took out about everything I had -- we did manage to keep the three wonderful fruit trees (lime, grapefruit, & mandrian orange)alive. It just took one trip to Flower Market at the Goodman Museum this weekend to come down with a serious case of floweritus! (New word - not even in my new dictionary!!) I love all of the beautiful colors, the variety of plants -- almost too many to choose from! I came home from the flower market with two gorgeous red geraniums and one trailing bougainvillea. Oh and 4 more daylilly cuttings! Then today - even though I have small tomatoes planted in a teeny tiny garden, I bought three more -- this time one is about 2-1/2 feet tall with lots of blooms, and one is already covered with Roma tomatoes! Now that is how I really like to buy them!
Guess what we all discovered tonight! Our preacher is human - just like the rest of us! We had a church full of guests from other congregations for a City wide church service and he announced that in June the Abilene Police Department was going to use our building to do a couple of safety seminars. I wondered why Abliene was coming when we have a top notch police department -- but finally thought - oh well, this must be some kind of specialized program they provide. Just before services were dismissed - our song leader said he just wanted to let us all know that Mark was mistaken - Abilene was not coming -- it is the Tyler Police Department that would be holding the seminar!!! Oh well - Mark - we all make mistakes!!
Our guest speaker today was Damon Parker and his lessons were very powerful - but even better than his lessons was his wife's lesson to the women's class. I have thought about what she said several times today! She was truly one of, if not the best speakers I have ever heard. Not just talk - but practical advise that was easy to understand and use! What a blessing she must be to all that know her! I am sure John and Janet are proud of them both! She talked about how our minds can get twisted and we start to dwell on something - either real or imagined - and let it fester until our pitcher runs over! She showed us a technique to lesson our tension - and suggested we practice replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. As an example she said that one might go to church and 100 people might smile and speak - but one person just looked the other way or through you and you forget about the 100 and dwell on the why that one didn't speak! She said in that case we should replace the "she didn't speak" with thinking maybe she had too much on her plate that day, or wonder if she is not feeling well. Then you take the thought off "poor pitiful you" and replace it with concern for the other person! This really struck a cord with me because I had told Travis about one lady that never speaks (How did Melody know???) and so tonight I got a chance to smile at her -- and she smiled back! See - just great practical practices to make us become more like God talks about us being in Philipians 4:8 - "Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things!" She is so wise to be so young!" Janet, Melody's mother-in-law, in introducing her said "she has a true heart for God" and it did shine through today! And how could anyone be so slim and trim and have five children??
Who loves a good banana bread but doesn't always want to take the time to measure out the sugar, flour, baking powder, etc? Well here is a recipe that cuts down on the measuring - and I've never made it - but I get compliments on it -- and it disappears quite fast - especially at the office:
BANANA BREAD (THE EASY WAY!)
1 Box yellow or white cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 Cup water
3 Bananas - peeled and mashed
1 Tsp. vanilla
2 Tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
Mix well - all ingredients except nuts. Stir in pecans or walnuts - if desired. Pour into prepared pans (2 large loaf pans or 5 small ones)- Prepared pans are greased (I spray with Pam) and dust with flour. I also change this up and dust with sugar. You get a wonderful crunch to the bread! Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min to 1 hour - or until a tester comes out clean when inserted into the bread. Let cook about 5 minutes and remove from pans to rack to finish cooling! ENJOY!!!!
Tomorrow night I will give you the longer version - measure, etc. - but also delicious bread!!!!
Well - I hope your day was as blessed as mine today -this afternoon the chorus groups that will compete at LTC sang for the congregations and they were all very good - but the very best was Shiloh's high school group. They sounds more like a polished choir - Chuck has done a great job with a great group of singers! Have a blessed night's rest - and God's will - come back tomorrow -- You never know what's in store -- and sometimes I don't either!
No comments:
Post a Comment