Did everyone see the super moon last night? I had forgotten all about it until I saw it on my brother's blog (Exploration Photography). OK so I'm a little forgetful sometimes. Most times.
So I ran outside and there it was. It was cloudy and it was interesting watching the clouds roll across the face of the huge moon. I thought I would show you some of the photos I got.
I have never been able to see the "man in the moon" and even though many people have pointed it out to me, I still can't. But I think being able to see a body that is out in space is so glorious.
The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1
Kathy
I've been feeding three stray cats for quite some time now. A momma and twin babies. One baby is very skittish so I call him Shy. The other one is a bold little thing and I call him Baby. I don't know what happened to her, but for the past week Momma is nowhere to be found. I hope she was not hit by a car or anything. She was a very good momma cat.
I am still feeding the babies. They are becoming more friendly and more trusting of me as time goes by. They still run away from me, but don't disappear. They just keep their distance although that distance gets shorter all the time. I think they know I am not going to hurt them since I bring them food every day. I am hoping by the time the cold weather comes I will be able to take them inside and hopefully find them a home together. I think Shy needs to be with Baby since he is so scared all the time. I just cannot afford to have two more cats.
They are such cute little things. I was able to get pictures of them when I was in the yard the other day.
Aren't they adorable? I am nowhere near as close as it seems. I was using a zoom lens and was about 20 feet away.
Anyone want two kittens?
Kathy
I love Sundays. I love being with my church family. I love the worship time. It is so special to be in church worshiping my God and Savior. God has been so close to me lately and I am so grateful to Him for everything.
I was going to do so much today but instead decided to take it easy, do a little each day after work instead, and rest. After church Joe and I went to Wendy's for lunch and then we both took a nice long nap.
I took pictures of the yard earlier and thought I would do a Sunday garden post. I haven't done one in a long time. I started this post earlier and had difficulty posting the pictures so let's hope it works this time.
On Friday after I came home from work I went out to the yard to sit in the sun and read my book. Instead I got a burst of energy and decided to do some weeding. I began with the little strip I have next to the side fence and the patio. It was bad.
It took a while, but I got it all cleaned up. Rather than plant things at this point in time I just put my little garden figures along there.
Of course most of them are from my favorite store, Rite Aid. I got the two mushrooms at different times, but they just look great together.
And my frog reminds me to Fully Rely On God.
The little cat was bought when my first cat, Fluffy, died. I keep it as a tribute to her.
I still have my summer garden flag up. I won't change it until the first day of autumn. It's rather faded and I might have to get a new one for next year.
Then I cleaned up my earth box which holds my herbs and my fairy garden. It was a mess and everything had died except for the chives. I'm going to redo it next year. The fairies are sort of dirty except for the one I just bought. But a good rain storm will take care of that.
Finally I cleaned out the flower pot which had my little tree in. I'm sad it didn't make it.
There is so much more to do, but I am determined to do just a little each day and in a couple of weeks it will be all finished. I do, however, have a few roses.
There's also lots of morning glories. But my pictures didn't turn out all that good.
I'll be showing you more as I go along. Hope you enjoyed the tour. Now it's time to start dinner. Baked flounder, green beans from the farm, garlic bread and watermelon. Yum!
Have a good evening everyone!
Kathy
I'm so glad it's the weekend. Especially after the day I had at work yesterday. It was Liz's and Tracy's birthdays. I was going to go out at lunch time to get a cake when in walks Doug with a cake (not knowing it's their birthdays). So we used that. Before we opened to the public we all went into the workroom, sang "Happy Birthday" to them, and had cake. That was good because I forgot to eat breakfast. Yes, I actually remembered that I hadn't eaten when I was almost at work. How did I do that?
At lunch time Liz wanted to go for a walk. I told her to take off and enjoy her birthday and I would be acting librarian and hold down the fort. Everything was fine. It was nice and quiet. Bob was on the front desk and I was sitting at the librarian's desk. A girl about 18 years old comes in and stands at the front desk. She's talking to Bob then says she biked over and she's so tired and puts her head down on the desk. Bob and I think that's kind of strange but whatever. Then she says she thinks she's going to be sick and starts gagging. Deb, the guard, says she will get her some water. She turns around to go to the water fountain, gets two steps away and the young lady falls unconscious to the ground. Bob says, "And she's down!" So I called 911 and the rescue squad came, took her vitals, and took her away in an ambulance. Wow!
The operator at 911 was asking me all kinds of questions on the phone like did I know her medical history. No, I didn't. I had never seen her before and she was unconscious so I couldn't ask her anything. Was her skin changing color? I don't know. She was behind the desk and I couldn't see her. Besides she was African-American and I'm not real good at saying if she was pale.
When Liz got back we told her what had happened and she had to write up an incident report. She said every time she leaves the building when Boss isn't there, something happens. Happy birthday, Liz!
It's been a beautiful day today. I woke up and went outside to take pictures of the garden to share with you tomorrow. Then I sat at the kitchen table and took this video.
After breakfast I did a load of dishes and a load of wash and then Joe and I headed out to the farm. I try to go every other week. Here's what I got today.
A beautiful watermelon, green beans, corn, red and white onions, a tomato and a flat of red sails lettuce and a flat of marigolds. Because I'm afraid of animals eating my lettuce, I am going to plant it in my hanging baskets. I think it will work.
I was going to cut the grass and clean the living room today, but instead took a nap. Oh well. As Scarlet O'Hara said in Gone With the Wind, "Tomorrow is another day."
I made baked eggplant for dinner. It turned out good. We were going to have watermelon too, but were both too full.
I lit my summer candle tonight. Not many more days I can use it. Fall is coming.
And here it is showing both sides.
Joe is already in bed.
I'll be heading there real soon. Just have a few things to do before I can get there. Have a nice night everyone.
Kathy
A pastor friend of mine sent this to me. It is funny, but very long so I am going to share just the beginning tonight (since it is after midnight) and the rest over the next few weeks. I hope none of you do this to your pastor or other church leaders. The article is by Thom S. Rainer.
Few people are truly aware of the constant requests, complaints, and
criticisms pastors and other church leaders receive. I must admit,
however, I was surprised when I asked church leaders on Twitter to share
some of the more unusual comments they have received. I was first
surprised at how many responded. But I was most surprised at the really
strange things people tell pastors and other church leaders.
Many of the comments related to using the Bible too much or to being
too evangelistic. I should make those a blog post by themselves.
I narrowed my selection to twenty-five, but it could have been much
higher. I left off many great comments to keep this post manageable.
I’ve only made minor wording changes to some of these. For the most
part, I received these quotes just as you are seeing them. The
parenthetical words after each comment represent my off-the-cuff
commentary.
- “We need a small group for cat lovers.” (I guess they could serve Meow Mix as a snack.)
- “You need to change your voice.” (Yes ma’am. I’ll try to have that done by next week.)
- “Our expensive coffee is attracting too many hipsters.” (Yep. You don’t want too many of those hipsters in your church.)
- “Preachers who don’t wear suits and ties aren’t saved. It’s in the Bible. (I should have known that’s what Jesus and Paul wore.)
- “Your socks are distracting.” (I understand. I’ll stop wearing socks.)
- “You shouldn’t make people leave the youth group after they graduate.” (It’s going to get really weird by the time they turn 70 years old.)
- “I don’t like the color of the towels in the women’s restroom.” (I don’t understand. They match the towels in the men’s restroom.)
- “We need to start attracting more normal people at church.” (So, you will be leaving the church, I presume.)
- “I developed cancer because you don’t preach from the KJV.” (Major medical announcement! New carcinogen discovered!)
- “Your wife never compliments me about my hair or dress.” (There could be a reason for that.)
- “Not enough people signed up for the church golf tournament. You have poor leadership skills.” (I’m so sorry. I expected more since most of the deacons play golf on Sunday morning)
- “I think you are trying to preach caffeineism.” (Probably Reformed theology with an extra kick.)
- “If Jesus sang from the red hymnals, why can’t we?” (I think you are mistaken. He sang from blue hymnals.)
- (To a pastor who married interracially). “You are living in sin. You shouldn’t be married to each other.” (That one is not worthy of commentary.)
- “I don’t like the brand of donuts in the foyer.” (It’s better than Meow Mix.)
- “You didn’t wrap the hot dogs in bacon for the church picnic.” (I understand that one. Bacon rules.)
- “You shouldn’t drink water when you preach.” (At least not simultaneously.)
- “The toilet paper is on the wrong way in the ladies restroom. It’s rolled under.” (My guess is that it is still functional.)
- “Why don’t you ever preach on Tim Tebow?” (Be patient. I will be preaching a six-week expository series on him in the fall.)
- “You don’t have ashtrays in the fellowship hall.” (Yes we do. They are right next to the spittoons for your chewing tobacco.)
- “Did you see me waving in the back of the worship center? You preached too long. It was time to eat!” (Who needs a clock when I have you?)
- “The eggs were not scrambled enough at the senior adult breakfast.” (We thought you could jump up and down after you ate them to finish the job.)
- “You don’t look at our side of the worship center enough when you preach.” (That’s because you are on that side.)
- “We are leaving the church because you have a red cross on the building. That’s the color of the devil.” (I understand. It’s in the same verse that describes his pitchfork and horns.)
- “Your sermon needed more calories.” (Okay. I’ll feed it one of those donuts in the foyer.)
Pastors and other church leaders must have great patience and
strength. They are faced with these and many other comments and demands
every day. I love these church leaders, and I thank God for them.
Kathy
It really does. I'm enjoying summer and the warm beautiful weather. I even liked the pouring rain this afternoon. (I was at work and just watched it through the window.)
First of all, thank you for all your kind words about my thyroid problems. I had no idea so many people could identify with me. As I said, my symptoms are just annoying and so many people have things a lot worse than I do. I'm really grateful.
I had trouble sleeping last night and so overslept this morning. As you can guess I was late getting to work. *sigh* I didn't have time for breakfast and so was very hungry by lunch. I had to go to Shop Rite again so I got a green salad, tortellini salad and potato salad from the salad bar. Then I picked up a few things I needed. When I got back to work I found I had only five minutes to eat lunch. Oh no! I had to go on the front desk so I ended up eating half the salad, going on the desk, and eating the rest of it the next hour after I got off. It was still good.
We are so busy these days with all the Fishtown people coming in to get their books. We are getting their deliveries from the Central Branch and all their mail too. I feel badly for the employees because I know from experience that it's no fun being in another branch and not having your own things around you. We are making them welcome and it's better than some other places they could have been assigned to, but it's still not home. They don't even have their own coffee cup or file drawers.
When I got home from work Joe told me that he had a bad headache and wanted to sleep before dinner. I said that was OK I would lay down for a little bit too. Three hours later I wake up with Joe telling me it was after 10 p.m. and we hadn't eaten dinner. We both felt better, but it was too late to eat. We just had some snacks so that we could take our medication.
Now I'm starting to get a migraine. It never ends. But this is going to end because I am getting off of here and get some more sleep. I have a dentist appointment in the morning before work so I need to get up on time.
More news tomorrow. Good night.
Kathy
That's what I've been doing lately. Lots of sleep. I was going to write this post earlier but I fell asleep on the sofa sitting up and slept for about 4 hours! Darn this thyroid problem. I know it's not regulated yet but I don't know if I have too much or too little of the hormone. I get my blood tested again the end of September and I sure am looking forward to getting the results of that test. Sleeping so much, hair falling out, the joint pain, and feeling as if something is crawling on my arms and legs a lot of the time is the worst of it. Yuck. But every time I think of complaining I think of my friend Marianne who has Graves' disease along with several other physical problems and whose thyroid is totally out of control. For 18 months she has been going through torture as her doctor tries to get her to that magic point where everything is balanced. I have NOTHING to complain about.
Bible study on Tuesday was just super. Even though I study my lesson I never really know how it will turn out because I ask a lot of questions and there is a lot of interaction going on. Everyone comes with their own perspective and experiences. We talked about Paul's conversion and looked at Galatians 1:11-24. We looked at how Paul did a complete turn around when he accepted Christ and how God changes us completely sometimes in the most unexpected ways. I know if my friend Debbie comments on this blog she will back me up at how interesting it was this week. I like having Debbie in the class. She always adds so much to the discussion.
Genny and I have been discussing ways we can build up the morale in our church. Everyone has been so sad since Pastor Justin left. We loved him and miss him so much. He really brought so much life to our congregation. We have been discussing having our annual T-shirt Sunday this year. So this afternoon I wrote to the Elder Board and asked if we could have T-shirt Sunday since it wouldn't cost any money to wear the T-shirts we already have. (We were going to get new ones with the new church name and logo on them, but that sort of fell through.) I was very happy when the Elder Board emailed me back and thought it was an excellent idea. So expect pictures of that in a few weeks. Genny and I have other ideas too so I hope we can pull them off.
Work was OK too. It was busy, but that way the day goes by fast. I am liking our new guard Deb more and more. She is a no nonsense lady who likes all of us and wants to do a good job. I asked her today if she attends a church and she said yes, she is a born again Christian and I said so was I. We were just smiling and talking with each other all day. I have been praying for years for another evangelical Christian to work with and God has rewarded my patience.
I went to Shop Rite at dinner tonight. I got the best fried chicken. Two nice sized pieces for $2.50. Not bad. I am definitely going to do that again. Along with a bottle of iced tea it was under $5. Nice.
I didn't eat too much because I knew Joe was cooking dinner for me when I got home a few hours later. He made hot dogs and tater tots. It was so super sweet of him. He knows how tired I get.
So all in all I have had a great Tuesday. I'm just so happy and feel like smiling. Now I'm going back to bed and get some sleep before I face another day. Lots to do before I leave for work. And it's the middle of the week. (I HATE the term "hump day".) So see you all later. And even if I don't comment on your blogs, I do read them all.
Kathy
Things are constantly changing in our lives. So much is going on and especially at work.
Boss is back today after being on vacation for two weeks. He is rested and happy. That's a good thing. Vacations are good for everyone.
Today is Angela's last day. Seasonals (which she is) stay for only nine months and then they have to be off for three months before they can be rehired. Angela, however, got another job so she won't be returning. I'll really miss her. After a rough start, she has become a good friend.
I got up early this morning and baked her cookies. Bob brought in iced tea and juice and Diane and Doug got a card and flowers. We had to do something nice for her.
Also last Friday was our guard's last day with us. He told us at the end of the day that he was being transferred to Rodriguez and the guard at Rodriguez was coming to our branch. In fact, I was acting librarian at lunchtime when Deb, the new guard, came in. I introduced myself and she seemed really nice. Well let me tell you! We finally have a super guard! She is so good. Knows her job, does it well, and is so sweet too. We hit it off immediately. I know she is going to fit in.
Boss left Diane, Deb and I to close up the branch. Everything went OK though.
Yesterday the Director of the Bible Fellowship Church was visiting in our service. He was talking to the Elders afterwards. Of course I don't know what was being said, but I have a feeling he came to scope out things and to find us a new pastor. It would be great to have a pastor so quickly. We thought we would have to wait several years. Elder Rich has been doing a good job holding things together, but we really need a pastor. Having one before the holidays would be so great.
So on that note I am going to go start dinner. Flounder, corn on the cob and zucchini. At least that's what I'm thinking. Last week I had an all vegetable dinner. Corn, tomatoes, mixed veggies and homemade biscuits. It was so good. I think I'm going to do something similar later this week.
But I digress. Really have to get going. Talk to you all later.
Kathy
On Tuesday when I came out of work I looked up at the sky, as I usually do, and saw the most beautiful clouds. I pulled out my trusty camera to try to capture them. Of course the pictures do not do them justice. It was gorgeous with golds and pinks against the blue sky.
But by the time I took Diane home, it had started to cloud up.
On the way home it got even darker and the rain drops came down here and there. Isn't it amazing that you can actually see the edge of the cloud?
I raced out of the car when I got home to get the wash off of the line before it got drenched. But Joe had beat me to it. Look at the sky out of the back windows. I have never seen anything like this before.
Yes, we got some rain. But just a little bit. Nothing like what we need.
I love clouds.
Kathy
