My First Sneakers Badge
I discovered if I keep my running trampoline by the TV, I can run during exciting football games. I bet I can run during exciting programs, too 🙂
Where is Lafia, Nigeria?
Today the church prays for Lafia, Nigeria, which is near Abuja, in the part of Nigeria where Boko Haram runs rampant, and where over 250 girls were kidnapped from their school in 2014. Some few escaped, most were married off to poor young Boko Haram soldiers into hardship and near-slavery. Boko Haram does not believe in educating women. The Nigerian government at one point announced that Boko Haram had agreed to return the girls, but nothing happened. The Nigerian military and police do nothing to get them back.
Happy New Year: Welcome 2015
It’s been a scramble. I say I am not compulsive, I say I am not superstitious, but when it comes to entering the New Year . . . . I am. Clean house. Christmas put away. Bills paid. Money in your pocket. Doing what you love on the first day of the year 🙂
Last night, AdventureMan knocked my socks off. He found a recipe for an Oyster casserole, mille feuille top, and he hit it out of the ballpark. AdventureMan, you ROCK. Happy New Year to all, to all our friends in so many different countries, we wish you all the very best of all this new year has to offer.
The Cottage Cafe Across from Pensacola Library
“How about lunch?” our friend asked as we left the book club meeting at the library. This was not a meeting we usually attend, but they were discussion Donna Tartt’s book, The Goldfinch, which our group had also recently read and discussed, and we were eager to continue the discussion. She suggested the Cottage Cafe, just across the street, and it looked really cute.
We weren’t the first customers, although we were the only customers in the small dining room. A steady stream of phone calls were coming in, and a steady stream of orders were going out. When I ordered the Oriental Chicken Salad, they were already out of it! I sadly watched an order of about ten boxes leave on a bicycle delivery vehicle, knowing “my” salad was in that delivery.
Ah well. There were plenty of other selections on the menu. AdventureMan started with chili and cornbread, and raved about how good it was.
Our friend ordered the Cottage Cafe Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato, and it looked scrumptious:
I ordered the BLAST, which was bacon, lettuce, avocado, sprouts and tomato, and it was tasty, and I could kid myself it was all veggy and healthy fats, etc, so good for me, right?
AdventureMan’s main meal was barbecued pork. He groaned as he finished it, telling us not to let him order a chili starter AND a BBQ Pork, but as he groaned, he was eating every bite and licking his fingers.
The downside was that it was all so delicious, we really did eat up our meals and did not have space for dessert, and their dessert options sounded fabulous. We’ll have to go back soon and start with dessert 🙂 They are only open until 3, as they also run the Pensacola Victorian Bed and Breakfast next door, the huge Victorian:
A Prayer for the Innocents
Today the church remembers King Herod’s slaughter of all infant boys in his territory to put to rest these rumors of a newborn king of the Jews. The prayer for today is for all innocents killed by those who seek their ends through violence and oppression.
We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
My Christmas Day 2014
It’s been a great day.
Like every great day, there have been a glitch or two.
I did something very funny, I gave AdventureMan a FitBit for Christmas. He is setting it up now. He loves medals and badges, and I know he will love looking at what the FitBit tells him about how many steps he is taking and how he is sleeping at night. I know he is going to have fun with this, and it makes me smile. Oddly, the FitBit site was down most of the day for scheduled maintenance. Wouldn’t you think that a lot of people would be getting FitBits for Christmas and would want to get started? They are back up now, though.
One of the glitches for me today was that I was scrambling a little this morning to get Christmas dinner prepared in advance so I could just have it all in the oven ready for when we were going to eat. I had five minutes while the dinner rolls cooked, so I ran upstairs to dress and comb my hair, ran down the stairs again and only hours later – like five hours – discovered I had forgotten to move the FitBit so I DIDN’T GET CREDIT FOR ALL THOSE STEPS! Oh aaarrgh.
Small potatoes in the larger scheme of things.
We had a wonderful day, all in all, a day of peace and joy and delight in family. All our years of living overseas have made us grateful for the comfort of time spent together.
I see on WeatherUnderground that Kuwait and Qatar are having wonderful weather; I always loved the winters there:
Tomorrow I have a job, a painting job, painting my adorable little granddaughters bedroom a color called Bubble. Just the thought makes me smile.
My Favorite Christmas Photo 2014
Great-Grandmother sent this lamb. As soon as she walked in, Baby N went straight for it, calling “Baaaaaaaa!” She hugged the lamb, climbed on and gave the lamb hugs throughout the morning. Great gift, Great Grandmother GiGi!
Another Reason to Love Weather Underground
Weather Underground is one of my daily stops; as I check today’s weather, I can, at a glance, see what the weather is doing in Kuwait, in Qatar, in Damascus, in Juneau, Alaska, in Seattle, in Denver – at a glance!
Last night we had a huge booming storm, all night. This morning, I clicked on the Weather Underground map with radar; you can see it at the local level, the regional level and the continental level. I wanted to see how much more booming we can expect before the clearing. Tomorrow is supposed to be cool – and sunny.
What a relief! The worst has passed, and there is nothing more headed our way! Clear as a bell!
Isaiah: the desert shall rejoice and blossom
The Lectionary reading in the Old Testament today is from Isaiah, one of my favorite books in the bible, and when I read it, I think of all my time in the Arabian peninsula, in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait. I think of this land, on the route from the rift valley in Kenya where man is supposed to have originated, how earliest humans would have crossed through these countries as they moved slowly away from their origins.
My Qatari and Kuwaiti friends tell me that legends say that these countries were once lush, green and beautiful. They are still beautiful, but the lushness and the greeness is only in small pockets when and where the arid land has water. I think nothing is impossible for God, and how wonderful it would be to see these countries lush and green and fertile once more.
The King is coming, coming as a tiny baby in human form to live with us and turn us away from our wickedness. He sees things differently. He tells us to love one another, to love our enemies, to take care of one another. He makes the blind to see, the lame to leap, and the deaf to hear. Come! Come, Emanuel!
Isaiah 35:1-10
35 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus 2it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
‘Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you.’
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,*
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
8 A highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,*
but it shall be for God’s people;*
no traveller, not even fools, shall go astray.
9 No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
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