Happy Fourth of July Weekend!

Only by walking with God can we hope to find the path that leads to life. That is what it means to be a disciple. After all—aren't we 'followers of Christ'? Then be all means, let's actually follow him. Not ideas about him. Not just his principles. Him." ~ John Eldredge, Waking the Dead

Would you believe that we're actually having a cool spell on the Fourth of July weekend? We're only reaching the upper eighties today and tomorrow. When I took a walk this morning, I was happily surprised by how cool and pleasant it was.

Last weekend, we had family over, and I tried two whole wheat, oatmeal, and raising recipes by Sue Gregg -- or rather I combined two oatmeal recipes into one. One was a nonfat recipe, and the other contained oil. I made the nonfat recipe but added half of the oil in the second recipe to it. I was pleased with how they turned out. Everyone kept nibbling on them, including my husband --who is always somewhat suspcious that whole grain and low fat desserts will turn out tasting like sawdust. I'll post my combined recipe later.

One of my goals for the year is to try 20 new recipes. I will count this one, but, in general, if I alter the recipe in any way, I'm not counting it. I do frequently alter recipes. How about you? Do you follow recipes exactly, or do you use them as a general guide, while working with what you have on hand?

Enjoy!
Elizabeth

Lavender explosion...

"We, little fishes, after the image of our Ichthys, Jesus Christ, are born in the water." Tertullian.

My lavender has spread out everywhere! I suppose, like most herbs, it is a vigorous grower. It always has been in my garden, at any rate.

In the past, I've dried it just by tying it upside down and letting it hang. Do any of you lavender growers know if there's a better way to dry it? My goal is to make sachets out of it, both for use in my closets and to give as gifts. Is there something special I should do to use it in a sachet.

The texture of my dried lavender doesn't seem to be quite as uniform as dried lavender I've bought.

This is a photo taken some time back. The onions/leeks in the foreground have now opened into huge, round, beautiful purple flowers. I was hoping that they would attract bees and butterflies to my garden, but, so far,the flowers are drawing some kind of wasp.

Enjoy!

Well, I've taken an unplanned break from blogging, but am back on the keyboard now. I've also let our little garden get away from me. We've had thunderstorms most days of the last week or two, as well as temps up into the mid-90's. We have been enjoying lettuce from the garden, though, and I do need to harvest some beans. And, our tomatoes should be ripe, soon.

After looking lush and showy this spring, all three of my rose bushes -- two established and one new -- are looking less than spry. I've got some major rose surgery and nursing to do.

We are visiting our son and his wife this weekend. They have become quite the good cooks and work well together. Our son barbecued some chicken he had marinated in lime juice, olive oil, and garlic, while our daughter in law prepared the rest of the feast.

I'm reading a book called, "The $64.00 Tomato". It's about a couple's adventures in putting in a large vegetable garden on the slope of the large, old house they had bought and refurbished. I haven't gotten very far into it, but it seems like it' s going to be a fun gardening journal.

Enjoy!
Elizabeth

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Martin Luther King

Can it be Friday already?!

I had a delightful time last night when our beloved daughter in law was in town for a work visit. My own dear husband was out of town for the evening, so she and I made plans to meet for a quick salad before she headed off to another appointment. Unfortunately, she got lost on her way to the restaurant, as I had given her only a vague address and her GPS system sent her down the wrong Interstate. Fortunately, she was able to get in touch with her husband -- my son -- who stayed on the line with her and directed her safely to our predetermined dining spot.

Have you ever wondered about some of the descriptions in Song of Solomon? We understand perfectly when the bride is described as a rose of Sharon or her eyes are compared to dove's eyes, because we find those to be lovely images. How about when the groom says: your hair is like a flock of goats; your belly is like a mound of wheat; your nose is like the tower of Lebanon?
A bride of today might tear up if her groom said those things to her. Are you saying I'm fat? Do you think I have a big nose?

According to a book I'm reading, the Bible often uses word pictures to describe the essence of a person or a thing, rather than providing an exact description of what that person or thing looked like. This is not always true; for example, we have very exact descriptions of how the tabernacle was to be built and what it looked like. However, in other cases, our attention is directed more to a person's life and character and to an object's use and meaning than to exact visual details. Sarah, we know, was a beautiful woman. Yet, how tall was she? What color were her eyes and hair? We know the exact dimensions of the ark and the wood that was used to build it, but what did the bow look like?

So, in Song of Songs, which is one of the poetic books, the groom describes his bride in terms of the response she evokes in him. He sees dignity and strength in her profile; hence, her nose is like the tower of Lebanon. He sees in her a readiness to bear children; hence, her abdomen is fertile like a mound of wheat; he sees abundance in her healthy, long hair.

This reminds me a bit of how Jesus looked at people and saw their potential. He looked at Simon and named him "the rock". He saw Nathanael and called him a true Israelite, in whom there was no guile.

How about us? Do we verbalize to our spouses and to our children the wonderful inner things we see in them? What about all of the people we encounter during our lifetimes? Do we take the time to look beneath the surface and see the inner qualities and potential in every soul? Do we know people on a deeper level or on a superficial level? I know I need to take more time to recognize and verbalize the wonderful qualities in the people around me.

enjoy!
Elizabeth

onion bulbs and lavender

http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com
For Today...

Outside my window...90 degrees! Vivid summer colors -- blue skies, white puffy clouds, everything green and flowery...soon, we'll move into the softer, hazy skies and colors of a southern summer, but, today, all is bright.

I am thinking... how nice it is to have a fan blowing on me and a glass of water by my side.

I am thankful for... a new Bible on order

From the kitchen... still pondering what I shall create

I am reading... still in the gospels.

I am hoping... to get some important things done.

I am creating... pillowcases, crocheted dish strainer --

Around the house... time to do a little tidying and freshening

One of my favorite things... swinging with dearest in the swing that hangs off of our back deck.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...See the onions above. These are the first onions I've ever let go to seed. They were planted last year, and I failed to pull them up before winter came. Now, they're growing and going to flower and seed. Don't laugh; these are actually the remains of a bunch of green onions I bought in the grocery store produce department last year. I stuck the ones I didn't need in the ground. I found that if you have green onions left over and you stick them in the ground, they will take root and keep growing. You can pull them up when you need them. As you can see, I didn't use them all, so they're still growing away. I am fascinated by the dome shapes they form right before flowering, so I'm just letting them go. I planted leeks alongside them last year, so some of what I'm seeing may actually be the leeks. At any rate, I think they look neat -- Don't you? I assume that once they've gone to seed like this, they might be bitter to the taste and no longer usable for cooking. Does anyone know?

Enjoy!
Elizabeth

The wandering path of worry versus the straight path of trust...

I found this interesting thought in a longer quote on the lovely blog, very CALM: "Yet more than this, anxious care often leads to acts of sin. He who cannot calmly leave his affairs in God's hand, but will carry his own burden, is very likely to be tempted to use wrong means to help himself."

I don't know that I've ever formed this idea in such succinct words, but it truly hits home with me. I can look back over my life and see times when I took things into my own hands, rather than trustfully depending on the Lord to meet a need. This was especially true in my pre-Christian days, when I looked for happiness down some winding, dead-end roads. In my case, I did try some fruitless and faulty means to assuage worries and insecurities. God used some hard lessons learned to turn my feet toward Him.

One of my youthful follies was to worry about what people thought of me, which often led me to follow the crowd rather than to follow righteousness. Though it takes a much different and more subtle form now, I still find that I must guard my heart against such worry. It's interesting to me that Jesus says in John 5:44, "How can you believe if you accept praise from one another yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?" Chasing the approval of people over the approval of the Lord leads to unbelief.

I see this truth that worry leads to other sins played out in God's word. One example that springs to mind is Sarah, who worried that the Lord would never send her the child he promised. She pushed Abraham into fathering a child by her maidservant, Hagar, a move which didn't turn out well. (A lack of trust never turns out well!) Likewise, Abraham worried that a king might try to kill him in order to take Sarah, and he persuaded her to tell half-truths in order to save his skin. Yet, the Lord was watching out for them all along, and had they rested in this truth, they could have avoided painful sin. Happily, these were but episodes in otherwise faithful lives, and they are known as the father and the mother of the faithful.

Worrying can take you down some twisty, winding dead end paths. Someone once advised me, "Never make a decision based on fear." It is hard to make righteous or even rational choices when your mind is divided by worry. It is easy for the anxious mind to grasp at any means of comfort or security, even if those means provide only a temporary and deceptive relief.

Trust, on the other hand, shines a light on the straight and narrow path that leads to life. One of my favorite verses says,

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will make your paths straight."
Proverbs 3:5-6

Enjoy!
Elizabeth