GOODBYE AUGUST

 

Hello, friends!  This is not the post I had intended to write tonight.  But here it is.

Before dinner tonight I was editing a post for my YouTube channel and getting ready to make dinner.  Suddenly I had a huge pounding in my chest and went into a major a-fib attack.  You could actually see my chest going in and out.  I waited about a half hour to see if it would subside.  It did somewhat but was still bad.  So, I called the emergency on-call doctor at my cardiologist's office.  It was a Dr. Roberts, someone I had never met.  I told him what was going on and asked if I should take my medicine two hours early.  He said it sounded as if I needed to and I should do it.  I asked about going to the hospital and he said only if I felt like it, but there really wasn't a lot they could do except observe me.  (A-fib is not life threatening.)  I ended up going to bed and sleeping for several hours.  Here it is six hours later and I'm still in a-fib.  I think it may have gotten to the point where it doesn't go away.  I will be calling my regular doctor tomorrow and see what he tells me to do.

So, another day with no dinner and no cleaning done.  I need to get this cleaning started at least.  There is so much junk in the house that I need to get rid of.  Can anyone relate with that?

I have so much to do tomorrow.  Lots of running around.  My legs are too bad to walk the aisles at Shoprite this week, so I did a "shop from home" order.  I have to go pick it up tomorrow morning.  Then I told my friend Debbie that I would drive her to the bank.  When we get back, I need to run to my friend Donna's house to drop something off.  I also have to take Joe to the bank.  Hopefully after that I can just go home and go to bed for a while.

But tomorrow is September 1 which is always a big deal to me.  It is the beginning of a new month.  It's the beginning of fall this month (although we have been told that our temperatures will continue to feel like the middle of summer).  And it's our wedding anniversary month.  16 years this year.   That's so hard to believe.  Maybe September will be a good month for me.  I hope.

I have several ideas for posts, but I never seem to have the time to get them up.  Hopefully soon.  I don't want this blog to go by the wayside.  There is so much happening right now, and I can't say anything until after the fact.

But now I am going to get off of here, get something to eat so I don't go to bed on an empty stomach, watch a little bit of TV and go to bed to get some sleep before I start my busy day.  Hope you all have a great night and even better tomorrow.

Until later...

Kathy

SUNDAY PRAISE

Hello, friends!  It is hard for me to believe that an entire week has gone by since I last posted.  My only excuse is that every day is jam packed with things to do.  I seem to never stop from the time I wake up until I go to bed.

But I wanted to get today's Sunday Praise up and I will do my best to get some others up this week before the month turns.  And who can believe it's that time already?

Today's lesson is HOUSE OF PRAYER (JESUS CLEARS THE TEMPLE)

At the time of Passover, Jesus and his disciples traveled to Jerusalem to worship God and pray at the temple. The temple was a special place where people worshipped God and offered sacrifices. Jesus always looked forward to visiting the temple and praying with God's people.

But when Jesus arrived at the temple, He couldn't believe what He saw. Instead of people praying and worshipping, it looked like a marketplace.  There were cows, sheep and birds. People were selling all sorts of things and exchanging money. People were not thinking about God.

Jesus was very sad. He was angry at the way people were treating God. Jesus loved His Father and His house! Jesus turned over the tables and set the birds and animals free. He told the people to get all of those things out of His Father's house!

Jesus reminded the people, "It is written in the scriptures, 'My Temple will be a house where people will pray.'"

Some of the people became angry with Jesus. They wanted to keep cheating people. But others joined Jesus to pray and worship God in the temple.

= = = = =

Think about going to a flea market or craft show in your area.  Now think about trying to read, study or pray in a noisy area like this with things going on all around you.  It wouldn't be easy to concentrate with everything happening.

It's wonderful that we have churches where we can go to worship God and learn about Him.  Where we can sing praises to Him and where we can pray.  Where we can be with others who love God.

When Jesus entered the temple in this passage (Matthew 21:12-16, Mark 11:15-18, Luke 19:45-48, and John 2:12-24), He saw lots of things that He didn't like.  Men were selling animals and changing money right inside the temple.  Imagine if you went to worship God at your church and it was chaos inside. People were trying to make money from people who had come to worship God.

This passage shows a side of Jesus that we don't often see. Jesus is angry when He sees people selling and making money in the temple and clears them out quickly.  Jesus had a righteous anger.  He was not angry at how He was being treated, but by their attitude toward God and cheating other people. These moneychangers and sellers were distracting people from worshipping God.

What things distract us from worshipping God?  The Bible tells us that our bodies are the temple of God.  So, we should not have anything in them that distracts us from the worship of God.  Let's remove the things in our lives that distract us from living for God.

This is another story that we often take as a simple story but has so much in it to ponder.

I hope you all have a great night.  If you can, please pray for me.  I have a very uncomfortable medical test tomorrow afternoon that I am not looking forward to.  In fact, I'm a bit nervous about it.  And my knees are still in a lot of pain.  Thank you so much for caring and praying.

I will see you soon.

Kathy

 

SUNDAY PRAISE

 Hello, friends.  Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday.  We had a guest speaker at church today who was so interesting that I didn't even care that he spoke 15 minutes over the time he should have.  When it ended, I turned to Joe and said, "That was for me."  

For today's praise lesson I am going to tell you about The Pool of Bethesda.

THE POOL OF BETHESDA

In Jerusalem there was a very special pool.  Many sick people would wait at the pool.  Some were blind, some were crippled, and some were paralyzed.  Sometimes an angel came and stirred up the water.  The first person to go into the pool was healed.

There was a man lying at the pool who had been sick for 38 years.  When Jesus saw the man, He knew he had been sick for a very long time.  

Jesus asked him, "Do you want to be well?"  

The sick man answered, "Yes, but there is no one to help me get into the pool.  I try to be the first one into the water.  But when I try, someone always gets into the water before me."

Jesus cared for the man.  Jesus told him, "Stand up.  Pick up your mat and walk."  

Immediately the man was well.  He picked up his mat and began to walk.  Jesus had healed the man who had been sick for 38 years.  He didn't even have to get into the pool.  The day all of this happened was a Sabbath day.

When some of the religious Jews saw the man, they were angry.  They were angry that Jesus was healing people on the Sabbath.  Jesus said, "My father never stops working. And so, I work too."  

This made the Jews want to kill Jesus.  They said, "First, Jesus breaks the law about the Sabbath day.  Then He says that God is His own father!  He is making Himself equal with God."

The Pool of Bethesda was a special pool that was said to have healing powers.  People would come from all over to try and be healed.  In John 5:1-15, Jesus healed a man who had been sick for a long time.  The man had been lying by the pool for years.  When Jesus saw the man, He had compassion on him and healed him.  This passage teaches us that Jesus is compassionate and powerful.

From this passage we learn that we should obey Jesus, that Jesus is powerful, and that it is more important to obey God than man.

Jesus commanded the man to pick up his bed and walk.  The man did so.  What commands has Jesus given us to follow?  Are we as quick to do what Jesus asks of us as this man was?  Some commands that Jesus gives us are easier to follow than others.  But they are all for our good.

Jesus is powerful.  He was able to tell the man to walk and he was able to walk.  God is all powerful.

It is more important to obey God than man.  It is sometimes hard to obey God when we want to do what everyone else is doing.  But we must always choose God over man.  Jesus commanded us to love others, but the religious leaders of his time were more worried about rules than loving other people.  It's easy to get caught up in the rules, isn't it?

Rules are important and it's important to keep the rules and respect those in authority over us.  The Sabbath (Sunday for us today) is a special day.  God set aside one day a week for us to rest and recharge.  That is why I try to keep Sunday a day when I don't do any housework, etc.  But the religious leaders added extra (and sometimes ridiculous) rules and made people obey them.  We must always remember it is more important to obey God than man.

That's the lesson for today.  So much to take in and digest.  Hope your Sunday is a great one.

See you soon.

Kathy

TRYING TO GET THINGS UNDER CONTROL

 

Actually, I love most nights.  As the busyness of the day calms down and the sky darkens one can see the lights in the houses across the street begin to go on.  You can feel the coolness, the coziness, the closeness of those around you.  Everyone is home and safe.  You can feel the love in your home as you sit around the table eating the evening meal.  Days have their pleasures too.  Getting things that you need to do actually finished.  Checking things off your "to do" list.  But to me the evening has its own beauty.  It's relaxing.

We were going to go out today, but Joe has not been feeling well.  When he voluntarily spends the day in bed and doesn't want to eat, I know he is not himself.  So instead, I tried to get things done.  But...  I fell asleep also and didn't do as much as I wanted to.  But something is better than nothing.

I have been watching the YouTube channel "Diane in Denmark."  Do any of you watch her?  She is a Flylady expert and has convinced me to do the system.  I am in no way there yet, but I am trying.  And that is more than I did before.

In case you don't know, Flylady is a cleaning system that is easy to do and if done every day will get your house clean and straightened up.  It also teaches you to be good to yourself and not beat yourself up for not doing everything on the list.  I did my best and I got some things crossed off the list.  Tomorrow I will do better.  I have been going through a bad time emotionally and doing this system is actually helping me to feel better.

This week I posted part two of my trip to Lancaster with my sister.  In case you missed it, the link is here:

Oh, how I wish I lived out there.  Joe and I have looked at houses there in the past, but they are very expensive.  Maybe someday.

I'm burning a candle right now called "Mango Blossoms."  I got it at RiteAid on sale for only 99 cents.  There were a lot of them on sale.  I guess they were scents that didn't sell.  But I like it.  I think it smells so good.  I had another one called "Spring Showers" that smelled just like a rain storm.  That one is burned to the end though.  Now I am trying to figure out how to recycle the glass jar it came in.  The last thing I need around here is another small glass jar.  Especially one with no lid.

OK, I've rambled enough.  I just wanted to get a post up to let you know that I am thinking of all of you.  It's so nice to know that people like you and are interested in what you have to say.

So have a great night, and I will see you soon.

Kathy

SATURDAY GOALS

 

And time just continues to fly on by.  The sun is setting earlier and earlier and the calendar pages keep flipping.  How can it be just 40 days till fall?

I have so much to do today but wanted to touch base with you all.  My goal today is to clean my entire living room.  And if you saw it, you would know it's a monumental task.  I may not get everything done, but I want to make a good stab at it.

So, what am I doing?  Watching YouTube and writing my blog.  And reading Facebook.  And sitting here instead of getting dressed, feeding my boy Jack the cat, and doing dishes and laundry.  I have no ambition except in my list of things to do.

Do any of you get like this?  You know you have tons to do.  You know you can do SOMETHING on the list.  And instead, you sit and do nothing.  I must be getting old.

But I have given myself a deadline to get this house under control and I have to get on with it if I am going to make the deadline.  So, this is a short visit today.  I am getting off of here and doing something.  Anything.

By the way, if you haven't seen my YouTube video of my first day of Sisters Getaway, it went up yesterday.  Here is the link.

Hope you all have a good day.  And a productive one.  See you all soon.

Kathy

HAVING LUNCH AT YAMATO'S

 Hello, friends!  Hope you have had a great day.  It was a busy one for me.

It began with me going to my cardiologist appointment.  I took Joe with me because I wanted him to meet my doctor.  I like him a lot and so did Joe.  He is very thorough and caring.  He talked to me about putting a strainer in my heart to prevent blood clots from forming and giving me a stroke.  I have to think about it.  That's a big thing to do.

When we were finished, I drove Joe to the VA Hospital.  He wanted to get his Covid-19 booster shot.  I waited for him in the car.  He was gone only 1/2 hour.  While he was in there, I was talking to my step-son's former wife.  We are still great friends.  She sent me a picture of my great-granddaughter Hadley on her first day of Kindergarten.  How did she grow up so fast?

When Joe was done, we were hungry so we took a ride out to the other end of the city to go to one of our favorite restaurants, Yamato.  It is the best Japanese food.

I love the fish wall.  It's always so much fun to look at.

I ordered an entree and it came with soup and salad.  I'm not fond of miso soup, so I gave it to Joe.

Here's my salad.  It was really good.

Joe's food came first.  He got beef yaki soba.  And he ate every bite.

I had to wait awhile so they gave me a bowl of rice.  I put soy sauce on it and started eating.  It was so good.  I like rice.  Always have, even as a child.

Finally my lunch came.  I had vegetable tempura.  It's been a long time since I had it and it was delicious.  It had onions, broccoli, squash, sweet potatoes and eggplant.

It was all so good.  My favorite is always the broccoli.

I couldn't eat all of mine and took half of it home.  Well, I did have the salad and rice before I got to my tempura.

After we finished, Joe and I walked down a couple of doors and went to Supercuts for Joe to get a hair cut.  It looks very nice and is so much cooler for him in this super hot weather.

We finally got home around 3:30.  Joe has a Veterans Meeting tonight.  He usually eats dinner over there so I am having the rest of my tempura and rice tonight.  There is still so much cleaning up to do around here so I hope I can get something done while he is gone.  And I hope tomorrow is calmer!  Although it was fun to go out to eat.  We haven't done that in a long time.

Talk to you all later!

Kathy

HOW CAN I DO MY MORNING ROUTINE WITHOUT WATER?

 Hello, friends!  Going through old pictures I found this one of a rose that I colored sometime last year.  I saved it because it is so pretty!  Just lovely.

A few days ago, our hot water heater broke.  I went down the basement to do the wash and I heard "drip, drip."  I looked over and saw a puddle.  Wasn't sure what was going on, but Joe looked at it and sure enough there was a hole in the bottom of it.  Fortunately, it was just a crack and didn't flood the entire place.  I called the plumber, and they couldn't get here to replace it until today.  So, it has been cold showers and not doing dishes.  What a time!

There is always a good side though.  We had to move a lot of things out of the way for the plumber to bring in a new heater.  Does anyone know how heavy a small bookcase filled with books is?  I do now.  As I was moving things, I found so much trash!  Buried behind and under things.  I thought I had just a pile of notebooks.  Surprise!  Pens, pencils, hair bands, and even my hard drive backup.  So now I am on a mission to clear out the house.  Everything!  It will take a while, but I am determined to do it.  Things that were important to me a few years ago seem worthless now.  I find that as I get older (shh.  I'm not supposed to let people know that is happening to me) I want less and actually need less.  My sister said to me a few weeks ago that when we are in our 20s and 30s we acquire things.  When we are in our 60s and 70s we get rid of them.  I think she is right!

In the meantime, I think I will go downstairs and admire my new hot water heater.  The one that took almost all my money to replace.  And I will definitely be running a warm shower.  It's too hot to take a hot one.

See you all later.

Kathy

WELCOME TO AUGUST

 

Hello friends!  Welcome to August.  And just how did it get to be August so quickly?  I always think July is such a long month with Independence Day, two brothers' birthdays, my sister's birthday, and then our Sisters Getaway.  But each year it just seems to fly by.  This year was no different.

It seems strange to not be looking forward to my vacation, but now looking back at it and sharing my photos and videos.  

But here we are in August, month number 8.  With September and the fall season.  I love fall.  I love decorating for the fall.  But I refuse to do it before the first of September.  So here I am soaking up the last of a lovely summer.

I do love the summer.  But this year it is just too HOT!  The 80* days are lovely.  Being able to sit outside with a cup of iced tea reading a book is wonderful.  But sitting outside in 100* weather is just too much.  I am constantly sweating.  Yes, even a lady sweats when the temperatures and humidity are that high.

Philadelphia is great weatherwise.  Usually.  We are between two rivers (the Delaware and the Schuylkill) which keeps us quite comfortable most of the year.  Not this year.

I am not complaining though.  I'd much rather have this kind of weather than the snow and ice.  Snow and ice are hard to drive in.  Or walk.  And you have to shovel.  And you're cold.  And if you have arthritis (as I do) it hurts.  Badly.  And if you have cold induced asthma (as I also do) you have difficulty breathing.  I know the cold weather is coming.  But for right now I am going to enjoy having heat.  Even if it is over 100* most days.

Hope all of your days are enjoyable.  Have a good night and a better tomorrow.  I will be back soon.

Until later...

Kathy

SISTERS GETAWAY DAY 2

 Hello, friends.  Welcome back to the second (and last) day of our Sisters Getaway.  

I had a really great sleep.  Elaine, not so much.  But we got up and had the free breakfast in the hotel.  Usually it has a wide variety of food to choose from. This time it was very pared down.  But I had a large fruit cup, two hard-boiled eggs and two mini lemon poppyseed muffins.  Elaine had the fruit, an egg and a bagel.  When we were finished, we went back to the room, got ourselves together, packed up and checked out.

We went first to Rockvale Mall but went to only one store -- Christmas Tree Hill.  It's an annual thing for us.  They have wonderful things there and I always want to buy the entire store.  I didn't, of course.  But I did get a couple of cute things.

I got this cute little concrete bird.  Hard to see but it has wire feet.  Adorable.  It was marked down twice so I got it for only $4.

I also got this fall gnome sitting on a snail.  So cute.  Elaine liked it too so I got one for her.  This cost about $9.

My legs were killing me, so I checked out and went to sit on the bench outside.  When Elaine came out she had bought me this pretty Kurt Adler jingle bell ornament that says "Joy".

We wanted to get to the Strasburg Railroad to ride the 11:00 train.  Well, we got there, but missed the train.  The next one wasn't until 12:30 and we didn't want to wait that long.  It would have made us really late going home.  So we drove over to the Railroad Museum, parked, and got some beautiful pictures of the scenery.

I like this picture of Elaine taking pictures but I'm not sure if she will.

We headed to the Farmers Market after this.  It was so nice walking through it and we got a lot of good things.

First I stopped at a stand which sold all kinds of jams, jellies and relishes.  I got Vidalia Onion Relish, Apple Cinnamon Jelly, Mango Salsa, and Pepper Jam.  I like to put Pepper Jam on the skin of my chicken and then cook it.  So good.

I bought some sugar-free fudge for Joe which he said was wonderful.  

I also got some lebanon bologna which I can't get in Philly anymore.  It is a wonderful lunchmeat which I ate all the time when I was a kid.  I also got some honey ham which is also wonderful.  

Then I went to the produce section and got two ears of corn which had been picked that morning.  We have already eaten this and it was so good!  I got a head of broccoli (also wonderful), asparagus, and a cantaloupe.

When we were finished there we headed next door to Bird-in-Hand restaurant.  We both had the smorgasbord.  I found out that my eyes are definitely bigger than my stomach.  There are things I don't get very often and I enjoyed it, but boy did my stomach hurt afterwards.  I especially liked the zucchini casserole.  I have to look up the recipe to make it myself.

Then, sadly, it was time to head home.  We left a little early to try to miss rush hour.  And we did miss most of it.  One of the routes we usually use to get home was closed, so I took Elaine the other way and found it was very easy.  And quicker.

So another year of the Sisters Getaway is in the books.  Hopefully when Elaine retires in a couple of years we will be able to do a longer one again.  In the meantime, it was so good to be together and to spend time in Lancaster.

Have a wonderful day, everyone, and I will see you next time.

Kathy

SISTERS GETAWAY DAY ONE

 

Hello, friends!  It's that time of year again.  Time for my annual vacation with my sister.  We always have so much fun.  And we always go to Lancaster County.

Elaine was good enough to drive since I've been having trouble with my leg.  Lots of trouble.  I think I will have to give in one of these days and have the knee replaced.  *sigh*

We left late morning and made our way out there.  At that time of day we missed all the rush hour traffic which was good.  I took some pictures of Center City as we drove through it.

I think Philly is such a pretty city.  It's so full of energy too.  I used to love working down there.

The scenery sure changed in about an hour when we made it to the country.

Even the air smells different out there.  And you just start to relax.  

It was around 1:30 p.m. when we got to Ronks and decided to stop at Dienner's for a late lunch/early dinner.  We both had the ham loaf.  This is my favorite meal there.  It is so good!  Elaine had curly fries and coleslaw with her meal.  I had sweet potato fries and applesauce.

While we were parking, we saw a new thrift store had opened next door to the restaurant.  We both like thrift stores and decided to check it out after we ate.  It is called Freedom Thrift and is an awesome place.  Any of my Lancaster County friends that read this just have to check it out.  It is a Christian store that gives its profits to feed the homeless and help them with clothing and housing.  Such a good thing to support.  I bought two little ceramic bunnies.  They were only $2 each.  I couldn't leave them there, they were so cute.

It was still too early to check into the hotel, so we headed to Village Antiques, Elaine's favorite antique store.  She always finds treasures there.  I was in pain, so I just waited for her in the car and filmed the introduction for my YouTube channel.  A lot of Amish horse and buggies passed.  Route 896 must be a major throughfare for them.  I think there are quite a few farms down the road towards Strasburg.

By the time Elaine was done it was almost time to go to the hotel.  We actually checked in about 10 minutes early, but it didn't make any difference.  Our room was really nice.  The only problem I have is that the beds are so high!  It comes almost to my waist, and I have a very hard time getting into the bed.  Once I'm lying in it, though, it's very comfortable.

It was still early so we didn't want to just stay in the room for the rest of the day, so we headed to Hershey Farm to look into the shops.  Neither of us got a lot.  I bought a bag of party mix, a bag of horse and buggy pretzels, some Turkey Hill lemonade and a bottle of water.  I also got some pull-aparts to take home for Joe and me and a pumpkin whoopie pie for my friend Donna.  I always bring one home for her.

A pull apart is five sticky buns baked on their side in a loaf pan.  It looks like a little loaf of sliced bread, but you pull it apart and eat it like a sticky bun.

And here is a picture of what the horse and buggy pretzels look like.

By this time it was heading for 6:00 p.m.  We were not hungry for dinner, so went back to the hotel room and watched some TV.  About 8:00 p.m. I ate some pretzels and drank my lemonade so that I could take my evening medicine.  I have to take it with food.

That was it for the first day.  Stay tuned for Day 2!

Until later...

Kathy