SUNDAY PRAISE

 Hello, friends!  I hope you had a great Sunday.  Our pastor was away today so Joe filled in for him at Bible Study time this morning.  There were only a few of us there, but we had a great study.  We are studying the book of Acts and Joe gave us maps of Paul's four missionary journeys which helped a lot in showing us where he was and how he traveled from one place to another.

For our morning worship service, we had a guest speaker, Dr. Allen.  He was so good and a lot of what he said I am going to keep with me.  He spoke on "Remember Lot's wife."  I record the messages each week and as soon as I put it up online, I will give you a link to it.  It's about 35 minutes long and well worth listening to.  I hope to have it up this week.

After church a group of us (including the speaker and his wife went to lunch at The Country Club (Dr. Allen's favorite place in Philly to eat).  We had such a good time talking with each other.  I haven't seen his wife, Donna, in quite a while.  We are great friends and so we sat next to each other and caught up.  I had a huge burger that was so good.  Joe had whitefish, Carole cinnamon raisin French toast (I have to try that next time, it looked good!), Dr. Allen spare ribs and Donna flounder.  There is certainly a lot to choose from.

And then when we got home, I took a nap for several hours.  I didn't think I was tired, but I guess I needed it!

* * * * * * *

Today's lesson is about Seven People Chosen to Serve.

The church continued to grow quickly in Jerusalem.  They took care of each other by sharing all that they had.  But some of the Greek speaking people felt that their widows were not treated fairly.  They didn't receive the same amount of food as the Hebrew speakers.

The apostles knew this was wrong.  They wanted to do something.  But they knew that they shouldn't stop teaching and praying to hand out the food.  They called a meeting and told the people to choose seven godly men to run the food program.  The men were well respected, full of the spirit and wisdom.

The believers chose seven men.  The apostles prayed for them and laid their hands on them.  One of these men was Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit).  Another was called Phillip.  The apostles were happy that God had provided the right men.

Everyone served in the ministry God gave them.  Some taught, some prayed, some gave, and others served.  God's message continued to spread.  The number of believers greatly increased.

Stephen did great signs and wonders, but the Sanhedrin hated him.  They arrested him and asked people to lie about Stephen so that he could be punished.  And as the Sanhedrin looked at Stephen, his face was like that of an angel.  Stephen began to preach to them.  He told them all about the Old Testament and Jesus.  But this made the religious leaders even more angry.

The Sanhedrin were so angry that they grabbed Stephen and dragged him outside to stone him.  But Stephen looked up and said, "I see the heavens opened and Jesus standing by the right hand of God."  A man named Saul watched the coats of those who murdered Stephen.  But Stephen prayed, "Lord, receive my spirit, and do not hold this sin against them."  And then he died.

From that day on, people began trying to hurt the church in Jerusalem.  Saul, who had watched the coats, went from house to house.  He dragged out men and women and put them in jail.  All the believers, except the apostles, went to different places in Judea and Samaria to be safe.  Everywhere they went, they told people the good news about Jesus.

* * * * * * *

Think about a gift you have given and one you have received.  If someone gives you a gift and sees that you love it and are using it, it makes them happy.  But how would you feel if you were given a gift that you could never use?  How do you think it would make the person that gave you the gift feel?

God gives us gifts.  Some people have a beautiful singing voice.  Some have a compassionate and listening ear.  Some people are tall.  Some are short.  Some people can preach or teach.  Some people can cook or clean.  We all have some gift that we can share with others. One of the best gifts we have that we can use to help others is prayer.

Stephen served people and preached.  Some people listened to him and accepted the good news about Jesus.  But others wanted him to stop.

Stephen chose to testify about Jesus to the Sanhedrin even though they did not like it.  Even if others are angry at us for talking about Jesus, we should do it anyway.  It might not always be easy, but God will give us strength.

The Sanhedrin killed Stephen.  Yet as he was dying Stephen prayed and asked God to not hold his death against them.  Could I do this?  I'm not sure.  Jesus commands us to forgive others as we have been forgiven.  If Jesus forgave us of our sins, we must forgive others.  (So hard to do sometimes.)  We should follow Stephen's example by sharing Jesus and forgiving others.

Notice who was in the crowd.  Saul was watching the coats of the people who stoned Stephen.  Saul later became the Apostle Paul who wrote much of the New Testament.  Saul witnesses Stephen's forgiveness and trust in God at a time of suffering.  Even when things are difficult, we can be a witness to others.

That's the lesson for this week.  I know it was kind of long, but I hope you were able to get something out of it.  I know I did.

See you later this week.

Kathy

WELCOME FALL

 Hello, friends!  Hope you are all having a great day.  It is the second day of fall and it certainly feels like it.  As fall came in yesterday, the temperatures dropped dramatically.  It is hard to remember now all the 90*+ days we had for weeks on end.

I like the fall because of all the colors.  My favorite colors.  Orange.  Yellow.  Brown.  Red. 

And the food.  My favorite foods are fall foods.  Squash.  Pork.  Pumpkin (technically a squash).  Apples.  Peaches.  Cranberries.  Brussel sprouts.  Of course, in today's world we can get these foods year round.  But there is something special about having them in September, October and November.

The good thing about the weather in fall is the crisp mornings.  The sunny days without the over the top heat.  There is still warmth and yesterday I did go out without a jacket or sweater.  The bad thing about the weather in fall is the shorter days.  The cold coming on which makes life for me very uncomfortable and painful.  I'm already starting to suffer with my arthritis and cold induced asthma.

Still, I carry on and enjoy myself as much as I can.  This morning I am feeling peaceful and happy for the first time in many weeks.  I hope this feeling lasts.

Our pastor has to be away tomorrow, so Joe is teaching Sunday Bible Study and we have a good friend of ours as the guest speaker.  It will be good to see him and his wife again.  Then we are planning another lunch out after church with our friend Carole.  I am enjoying these lunches out.  Sometimes it is just the two of us and other times we take someone with us.  We got lunchmeat yesterday so that will be dinner tomorrow.  It's nice to have a "no cook" day once a week.

Speaking of cooking, I am planning on making a pumpkin dump cake today to take to church tomorrow for fellowship time.  Everyone likes my pumpkin dump cake (including me!).  It's a nice way to welcome fall.

And with that I am going to get off of here and get started with things.  First my medicine, then feed Jack.  He insists on being first.

Then I can get my breakfast, hop in the shower, figure out what to wear today, and get started on the cake.  I hope I can get out into the yard today and work some.  It all depends on how much pain I am in.  The bulletin for tomorrow is all typed.  I just have to print it out.

And before I forget, look who lost her first tooth.  And at school no less.  Hadley, you are growing up too fast!

I hope you are all having a great beginning to fall too.  I will see you again real soon.

Until later...

Kathy

GOING OUT TO EAT AGAIN

 

Hello, friends!  I hope you had a great day today.

Joe and I have started a habit of going out for lunch after church on Sundays.  Today we went to Yamato's.  In fact, when I got there we actually found a parking spot right outside of the restaurant.  That was nice but very unusual.

I liked the fact that there were two families in there with little children.  And they were digging into all the Japanese food.  I think it's a good thing to introduce different cuisines to children.  It makes them open to trying new things and being less of a picky eater.

We were both hungry.  But I have been having lots of trouble with my stomach so I didn't want to have too much to eat.  I got two appetizers.  The first one was pork gyoza.  That is my favorite dish of all time.  They are dumplings with spiced pork and a dipping sauce.  Yum!  I could eat a dozen of them.

I also had Sunshine Sushi.  It is a vegetarian sushi with crispy fried sweet potato, avocado and mango.  The slices of mango on top gives it its name.

I ate everything but I really pushed it.

Joe got a teryaki beef dinner.  They started him off with miso soup and a salad.  Then they gave him a huge plate of beef with teryaki sauce and a bowl of rice.  He said it was like eating two steaks.

And yes, we both use chopsticks.  I learned as a child and Joe learned when he was stationed in Japan.

Obviously, we were not hungry for dinner.  We just had tomato sandwiches and finished up the little bit of apple pie that was left.

I wonder where we are going to go next week.

Until later,

Kathy

IT'S OUR 16TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Hello, friends.  Welcome back.  Yesterday was a special day.  Joe and I have been married for 16 years.  It seems impossible that all that time has passed.

Because I haven't been feeling all that great, we decided not to go away this year.  But we wanted to do something so Joe made reservations at King George II Inn for an early dinner.

Let me tell you a bit about the history of this inn.  It started in 1681 when Samuel Clift established a ferry service between Bristol, PA and Burlington, NJ.  Ferries were the only form of transportation between the two towns until the Burlington-Bristol Bridge opened in 1929, about 250 years later.

The same year that his boat began carrying passengers, Mr. Clift opened the Ferry House at the end of Mill Street close by the boat landing.  This was probably not much of a hotel, but in those days cold rooms and bed bugs were a matter of course.

From 1730 to 1765 Patrick O'Hanlon owned the Ferry House.  It was during this time that George Washington stayed there.  He wasn't a general or a president at that time, but a 25 year old on his way from Virginia to see the governor of Connecticut about a commission in the militia.

Next, the Ferry House was owned by Charles Bessonett who rebuilt the hotel and made it larger, much as it is today.  He renamed it the King George II Inn.  The Burgess and Council met here frequently.  In fact, on September 17, 1786, their expenses for eight meetings at the Inn were 3.19s and 3 1/2d for punch, grog, wine and porter.

Problems came when a company of Yankee troops arrived in town during the Revolutionary War.  They took offense at the fine pub sign painted with King George's head and shot it down with musket fire.  After the war, Bessonett put up a new sign and wisely changed the name to The Fountain House.

By 1892, the inn was called The Delaware House and belonged to Mrs. J.E. Lincoln who built the porches on the riverside.  The Bucks County Gazette that year reported, "A fine view of the Delaware River and of the city of Burlington on the opposite shore can be obtained from any of the rooms fronting the river."  It's still true today.

We had a fantastic dinner.  We were debating, but decided to start with a warm crab dip with soft pretzels for our appetizer.  It was so delicious!

Joe had Chicken Parmesan with penne pasta for his main dish.

I had fish and chips.  The fish was wonderful with a crisp batter on it.  The fries were perfect.  There was fresh coleslaw and the tartar sauce was certainly not out of a jar!

I was too full for dessert, but Joe got a five layer chocolate cake.  He said it tasted like an iced brownie.  It came with vanilla ice cream, Chantilly cream and strawberries.  He was very pleased with it.

We were going to look around a bit, but my leg was bothering me so we just went home.  On the way we needed to stop at Shoprite.  When he came out, Joe was carrying a large bouquet of a dozen roses for me.  All different colors.  So beautiful.

Earlier in the day Joe had given me a beautiful necklace.  It's a heart with a blue butterfly in the middle.  The blue stone is my birthstone.  The butterfly is important to me.  When my dad passed away, the inside of his coffin was embroidered with butterflies.  And then in the next few weeks I saw butterflies wherever I went.  The side of the heart is engraved with the words, "I love you for always and forever".  I love it.

We were going to go to a movie, but there wasn't anything we both wanted to see.  Instead we went home and turned on Netflix.  We ended up watching Miss Congeniality.  I had seen it several times before, but it was new to Joe and I knew he would like it.  And he did.

By this time we were very tired and ended up going to bed.  It was a great anniversary.  I'm so glad we were able to get to Bristol.

And now on to year 17!

Until later,

Kathy

DOCTORS, DOCTORS AND MORE DOCTORS

 Hello, friends.  This has been quite the week for doctors.  Last Wednesday I had an appointment with my primary doctor.  I told you about that one.  Thursday, I went with Joe to his primary doctor.  Friday, I saw my gastroenterologist.

But yesterday was the big one.  I saw my oncologist.  I see her every six months.  But now she has made it once a year since I have been cancer free since 2007.  I do have one problem though.  The medication I was given has leached a lot of calcium from my bones.  And even though I take medicine to replace it, it now seems as if I need a once-a-year infusion to help things along.  Yesterday was the day.  Joe came along to be with me during this.  He was there with me the entire year I had the cancer infusions, and he was still there with me.

First, I had a blood draw to get all my numbers.  Then I saw the doctor and had my vitals taken.  Lastly, I was taken to the room for the infusion.

This is a new building and not the dark room I had my treatment in.  I was sat next to a window that looked out over a beautiful garden.  We could see birds soaring in the sky.  And butterflies and dragonflies flying around all the bushes.  It was very relaxing and I suppose that was the point of it.

The nurse could not get a vein on me.  The best place is where the lab had drawn my blood.  She tried two different places on my hand and then gave up.  She could see how much she was hurting me.  So, she got another nurse who also had a hard time finding a vein.  But she did get one on my forearm.  Very painfully.

The infusion was only 30 minutes.  To take my mind off of it, Joe and I planned what we will do for our anniversary this Friday.

Today my arm is swollen, bruised and sore.  So is my hand.  I guess it will take a while for things to get back to normal.

Joe had a meeting at church this morning.  I went to pick him up when it was finished, and we went to Shoprite to pick up a few things.  My legs hurt so badly that I stayed in the car while he went in.  While I was waiting, I took a few pictures of the trees and bushes in the parking lot.  Our Shoprite is fairly new.  I watched it being built about four or five years ago.  When it opened, the trees they had planted were about three feet tall (approximately 1 meter).  Look at them now.  The first picture is of a bush that was about eight inches (20.3 cm) high when it was first put in.  I love the red color on it.  These pictures definitely do not do these plants justice.

As they get bigger, I can only imagine them getting prettier.

I made a great fall dinner tonight.  The weather is finally getting cooler, and I thought it would be fun to do this.  I had boneless pork chops which I put into the oven.  They turned out like roast pork and were so tender and juicy.  I also made mashed sweet potatoes and green beans.  For dessert I made an apple pie.  It was so good.  It has been so hot this summer that I haven't done much cooking at all.  So I really enjoyed making dinner tonight.

And now it's very late and I must get myself together and get to bed.  There is so much to do tomorrow.  I am behind on everything and want to catch up as much as I can.

Hope you all have a wonderful night and a great day tomorrow.

Kathy

SEPTEMBER 11TH

 

Hello, friends!  Yesterday was Patriot Day.  A very under recognized day in my opinion.  Yet that may be good.  We don't want a Patriot Day Sale in every store.  This is a somber day.  A day that we remember all those thousands who died because of a senseless act of some crazy men.

I think we all remember where we were that day.  And what we were doing.  And how we felt.  Did we actually believe it at first?  I know for me it just didn't seem real.  Watching it on TV I was trying to figure out what was happening.  I didn't realize a plane had also hit the Pentagon and was trying to make that building fit into New York City.  Unsuccessfully of course.

Those of us who lived through it remember the great coming together of everyone in the country.  Our country had been attacked.  Something that we never thought would happen.  But now it had.  And I think we all felt somewhat vulnerable.

This year felt different to me.  It seemed to have taken a back seat to all the other things going on in the world.  It wasn't the first story on the local news.  Gun violence in the city was.  An important topic, but the 9-11 remembrance was about the fourth or fifth story.  So much time has passed that it seems people are forgetting.  Or are far removed from it since they were born long after this happened,

But we who lived through it remember.  And we must never forget.

Kathy

GOOD NIGHT, MA'AM

 

Hello, friends.  I'm sure you all know by now about the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

She was one of a kind.  What a remarkable woman.  And her death has left a hole in the entire world.  It seems as if she touched almost everyone in one way or another.

Intelligent, kind, a ruler, a wife, a mother.  She was the epitome of what a woman can be.  And a role model for me for sure.

I thought she was a beautiful woman.  From the time she was young up to the day she died.

And her sense of humor was second to none.  Her family was always talking about how she could make them laugh.  We, the public, saw that humor in her scene at the Olympics with "James Bond" and her recent scene at the Platinum Jubilee with Paddington Bear.

The way I remember her best is from the 60s and 70s when I was growing up.  Yes, like most of the world I don't remember another monarch besides her.  She took the throne a year before I was born.

I'm glad she died peacefully in her sleep with Charles and Anne with her.  I'm glad she didn't suffer.

And now there is another monarch, Charles III.  I used to have the biggest crush on him when I was a teenager.  Not so much at the top of my list in recent years.  But this all seems to have changed him if his speech is any indication.  I hope so.  I hope he has changed for the better.  The UK deserves a good king.

So I say good night to the Queen.  I'm glad you are reunited with Prince Philip.  He truly was the love of your life.  I know that someday I will see you in heaven and be able to tell you what a difference you made in my life.

Good night, ma'am.

Kathy

 

SEPTEMBER FIRST AND LABOR DAY

 

Hello, friends!  Each day I mean to write here, and every day passes without it happening.  Let me at least try to get something down.

Years ago I used to show the turning of my calendar page each month.  For some reason it fell by the wayside.  But I am going to try to revive it.  Here is the calendar page for September.

Apples.  The beginning of fall.  Although I don't know what kind of bird that is.

September first was full of running errands.  In fact, I ended up driving for almost 3 hours.  From one side of the city to the other and back again.  

I began by driving south to pick up my grocery order from Shoprite.  Because my legs and feet are so swollen, I was not able to walk around the store. I put in an order online and went to pick it up rather than have it delivered.  I took Joe with me, and he was a gem doing all the legwork for me all morning. I then drove north to home and put the food away.

Next, we drove east to the Amazon pickup locker to get a package that I had delivered there.  Joe also went into the store and bought me a donut because I hadn't eaten anything yet.

The next stop was to drive north to church to pick up something from Pastor and then south to pick up my friend Debbie.  She had asked if I would drive her to the bank and of course I said yes.  From her house we drove even further south to get to the bank.  It was a good thing I had Joe with me because I had no clue how to get back to Debbie's house and he did.  Then we drove north again to take Debbie home.

After that we drove south again to drop something off at my friend Donna's house.  From there we drove far north to go to the bank.  I thought that was our last stop and we were going to go home.  But wait... there's more....

As we drove south to go home, we realized there were things we needed at Rite Aid.  So when we got back into our neighborhood, we drove east to go to Rite Aid.  Then south to get lunch at Wawa.  And finally north again to go home.

I thought I had it all figured out so we wouldn't have to backtrack so much but it didn't work out that way.  As you can see we drove all over the place and actually used up a quarter tank of gas!

After we ate lunch I took a nice long nap.  When I woke up I went to make dinner and found out that it took a LOT longer to cook than I had anticipated.  I always make spare ribs for dinner on September 1.  But...  I couldn't get the pre-packaged spare ribs and had to buy fresh ones.  I had never cooked fresh spare ribs before and when I looked up cooking directions on Google found out that it took 3 to 3 1/2 hours to cook!  It was already going for 7 p.m. so there was no way I was going to do it that night.  Joe took pity on me and called out to the local pizza place and got dinner delivered.  I had fried flounder with fries and coleslaw.  He had a California chicken wrap which is very good.  I was hungrier than he was.

So let's jump over to yesterday -- Labor Day.  I really didn't do much laboring.  About the most we did was go through some of Joe's clothes and we have a large pile of them to give to Salvation Army.  We just have to downsize here.  There is so much "stuff" in the house.  We will finish his clothes tomorrow and then move on to mine.  I'm sure I have a lot to get rid of too.

I made the spare ribs for dinner last night.  And they turned out wonderful!  I'm so glad to know how to do it now and will do it again.  I let them cook for 90 minutes covered with foil.  Then I added barbecue sauce, recovered them, and cooked them another 90 minutes.  They were so good and so tender.  I had them with fresh corn on the cob and asparagus.

Joe said they were very good.

I have to teach Bible Study this morning.  We are on the second part of James 2.  Then I will be doing more cleaning and discarding of things this afternoon.  I am determined to downsize.  Things have become ridiculous.

So I am going to get off of here and get busy.  I hope you all have a great day.  See you later.

Kathy