Let me share the fun with you…

More photos here.

This is from “Spiritual Leadership – Principles of Excellence for Every Believer” by J. Oswald Sanders from the chapter entitled “The Leader and Reading”. Here goes:

Use the following proven strategies for making your reading worth-while and profitable:

• What you intend to quickly forget, spend little time reading. The habit of reading and forgetting only builds the habit of forgetting other important matters.
• Use the same discrimination in choosing books as in choosing friends.
• Read with pencil and notebook in hand. Unless your memory is unusually retentive, much gained from reading is lost in a day. Develop a system of note taking. It will greatly help the memory.
• Have a “commonplace book,” as they are called —a book oto record what is striking, interesting, and worthy of second thought. In that way, you will build a treasure trove of material for future use.
• Verify historical, scientific, and other data.
• Pass no word until its meaning is knows. Keep a dictionary at hand.
• Vary your reading to keep your mind out of a rut. Variety is as refreshing to the mind as it is to the body.
• Correlate your reading—history with poetry, biography with historical novel. For example, when reading the history of the American Civil War, take up also the biography of Lincoln or Grant and the poetry of Walt Whitman.

The inevitable:

Ah, but the hand on the shoulder makes it for me!

Wow!

(Sorry it’s blurry, it’s through a screen window)

We are so excited you have no idea.

At one point, I worried that I had scared her off with the camera. She had been flying off and returning with building materials every couple of minutes so when she was gone longer, it seemed as if she was spooked by the camera (and binoculars the boys had). That was one time I was happy to be wrong (certainly not the first time). She was never spooked by our staring at her or the boys’ noise coming from inside. That’s a good thing!

Come to find out that cardinals like to have flat areas to perch, eat spiders and nuts and weed seeds and like to nest in bushes.

It’s a treat and a blessing to be able to see this happen. Stay tuned…hoping to be able to report about more!

From a high school friend: “40 is the new 30 which was the new 25 which was the new 18 which was the new 12.”

Thinking about chicken and 40 cloves of garlic.

40 years of wandering in the dessert.

40 days of fasting for Jesus to prepare Himself for His public ministry.

You know what? I feel the same today as I did a few days ago when I was 39.

What I do find shocking now and then is that I have been married nearly 17 years and have two beautiful boys. Certainly gifts unearned!

I’ve had 40 years of adventures, mishaps, life-changing-moments, laughter, tears, fun and blessings. While I would love 40 more, I wouldn’t mind it at all if we all got to trade in our tents for our Permanent Homes soon, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

With the grace and strength of the Lord, am polishing off this crown:

Pro 16:31 The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, If it is found in the way of righteousness.

Dearest Lord, thank you for the grace You have given me and the forgiveness of my sins that lets me draw near to You. May I walk according to the path that You have prepared for me. Keep my feet from wandering, my mind from straying and my heart in Your hand. I know trials will come but remind me to go through them with rejoicing and to do all for Your glory alone.

And help me to mean it.

There are more photos here but here are some of the highlights:

Seen in the wee hours on our drive out on FM 1826:

Seen in Ft. Stockton, TX (I have a thing for dilapidated buildings):

First full day, spent morning in recovery then afternoon at the park bonding with cousins.

J and his cousin K spent the most time playing together.

Of course, would not be caught without his football. Err…soccer ball.

Another day shopping, this time at Irvine Spectrum, one of our old haunts but back then it didn’t have a giant soccer ball.

By now, our hands and lips have showed signs of chapping and we miss the humidity of Texas.

Another day, a big day, a big spending day (ugh!) at Disneyland. Main things we want to remember of that day: J’s response to the hour+ wait for Small World, first ride of the day: “That’s IT?!”

J does better on Space Mountain after I tell him to keep his eyes closed. His fear isn’t the fact that it’s a roller coaster so much as that it is very dark. He rode on two more coasters after that.

Dinner at Cafe Orleans, where they were very accommodating of our diet and the waiter went above and beyond to earn his tip. Getting to ride on the jungle cruise:

The Christmas decor, beautiful in daylight and even more so at night:

The 24th of December, spent at my sister’s so we could enjoy being with my family:

(One of these was a ZuZu pet for J…he was beside himself)

Yes, the fur babies came too:

That evening, we went to church with my in-laws and were reminded what It Is All About:

On Christmas day, we woke up bright and early (no surprise there), had blintzes for breakfast and then opened presents. I have no photos to share because I haven’t got permission to show those to you. But we had fun! We were concerned about the small space and number of people, but it worked out so well and the kids enjoyed spending time with each other.

The day after, my kids had a hard time with our rule of not opening some packages until we got home but we alleviated some of that with a little hike.

When you’re outdoors, don’t forget to look up:

Spied this lovely couple:

The following day, we took our time getting out of the house. As a result, we didn’t get to spend as much time at the Air & Space Museum at Balboa Park.

It’s loaded with all kinds of things related to air travel. From the Montgolfier brothers’ balloon…

to the Air Force’s modern reconnaissance drones:

Our last full day in California was spent with friends, having breakfast then going to Boomer’s to enjoy a game of mini golf.

Both boys enjoyed it! NM had scored a couple holes-in-one. J had so much fun and didn’t get bored until about the 12th hole (19 holes is a lot). And the last hole? Hole-in-one for me!

After our game, we made our requisite visit to Trader Joe’s to stock up on goodies and then pack for the drive home. We almost drove straight through to Ft. Stockton but we weren’t sure we could find a room there so we stayed in Las Cruces, NM. When we got up the next day, it was freezing!

We had breakfast at some place and I do wish now that I’d taken a photo because I can’t remember what it was called but the food was very good. So it worked out that we didn’t drive all the way to Ft. Stockton.

I would have missed the chance to take these:

People often ask how Sprocket does with traveling. She does very, very well. She has come to realize that there’s a space under the back seat that must have been made just for her because she will automatically head there every time we get in the car.

This is a something we make for breakfast each Christmas morning for the last few years. Because we love them so much, we make them other times of the year, too, particularly when strawberries are in season. They’re not the usual blintzes, though. I once mis-read the recipe and put in an entire brick of cream cheese. The dominant taste is supposed to be the cottage cheese, but the cream cheese was too good so we continue to make that “mistake” with this dish. Also, nobody seems to notice when I use fat-free cheese. They are still very rich!

16 oz. cottage cheese dry (I’ve used normal)
3 oz. cream cheese (I use a full brick, sometimes Neufchatel, sometimes fat-free cream cheese)
1 egg yolk (I omit bec. It’s raw and I see no difference)
2 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

For the crepes: any crepe recipe will do. This is the one on the card, but it takes longer than a normal crepe recipe:

2 eggs
2 tbs. salad oil
1 c. milk
3/4 sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. butter or margarine
1 c. sour cream
powdered sugar
1 pkg. (10oz) frozen strawberries, thawed or use fresh or use jam of any kind you like but omit powdered sugar

Make filling: put all ingredients in food processor and process until completely combined and smooth. Normal blintzes have texture though, so the way we make it is not traditional. Nor is it traditional to use so much cream cheese. Cover and refrigerate.

Make blintzes: beat eggs, oil and milk until blended. Add flour and salt; beat until smooth (there may be a few lumps). Refrigerate, covered for 30 min. and it should end up the consistency of heavy cream (it never is for me though).

Melt 1/4 tsp. butter in a skillet. Pout in 1 1/2 tbs. batter, make it cover bottom of the pan until roughly a round shape. Lightly brown and remove from pan, browned side up. Keep making until all done. For this step I use Pam and a non-stick pan.

Place about a tbs. of filling in one crepe, wrap like a burrito. Normally, you melt more butter and cook the filled crepes but we never have the patience to. Instead, we put some jam, some cheese filling, wrap and eat. Too much cheese and you have a mess but that’s ok because they end up messy anyway. You can top with sliced strawberries and some powdered sugar.

Post from old blog entry dated Feb. 25, 2007

…and we were in the car, waiting for Abba to get us some Clif bars and get cash. He did get the snacks but forgot the cash. Oops! No matter, we all managed to go to bed and fall asleep even though we were so excited.

By the way, nothing beats Texas twighlights except maybe Manila sunsets. The sky is amazingly beautiful here.

Do you see it? I mean, do you see them? You can barely make out a second rainbow to the right. Pretty neat! We were at just the right time and place to see it: what a neat gift from the Lord! Did I think to turn it into a teachable moment with spiritual insight? Forgive me, but I didn’t. I had to take pictures and get us all wet instead. Lost opportunity!

Dear Lord, help me to go back to the habit of looking for You in times like this. You had a purpose for those rainbows but I didn’t take the time to find out what that was. Help me to be more circumspect in my walk.