Wordless Wednesday

A while ago…

Today we celebrate the life of our dear son and brother, Caleb.  Are you really 19?

C – Caring. Cool. Creative. Compassionate. Christ-like.

A – Alert. Artsy. Active. Always smiling.

L – Listener. Learner. Laborer. Lovable.

E – Effective. Evangelistic. Energetic. Enthusiastic.

B – Brilliant. Bold. Boyish. Balm.

 

When I think of Caleb, I think of his great love for God and devotion to His Word, Holy Scripture.  How he listens to the Holy Spirit, at work in his heart and life.  His diligent work-ethic.  The standards and principles which guide his life.  His smile and cheerful attitude.  The way he plays the piano, violin, and guitar.  His deep bass singing voice.  The wonderful sense of humor he expresses through jokes and funny comments, and yet his overall seriousness and thoughtfulness. His faithfulness as a son.  His dependability.  His strength of character and courage to stand for Truth in the face of opposition and adversity.  His brilliant mind displayed through his artwork, musical abilities, gardening, mechanics, writing, and indepth discussions.

Caleb personifies many verses from the Bible, but I especially think of the following when I consider Caleb’s life:

¹² Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty,
And before honor is humility.

Proverbs 18:12

And also

³³ The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom,
And before honor is humility.

Proverbs 15:33

 

I am so glad that the Lord is using Caleb in mighty ways to minister to others, and to be a strong witness for Christ!  At his place of work (a health food store) he rubs shoulders with co-workers who are atheist, agnostic and hedonists, and yet they respect and like him because they know that Caleb stands up for what he believes and defends the Truth.  In his lawn care business he is respected and loved, for his high standard of work, and his faithfulness and care of detail.  When he “went into retirement” a year and a half ago, his old customers were begging him to begin working for them again “because they couldn’t find anyone who did the excellent kind of work he did.”

I pray that your birthday is very blessed, and that you have many more happy and fruitful years ahead of you!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Caleb, Happy Birthday to you!!!

How did you spend the 4th?

July 4th is a special day for average Americans.  The celebration of our nation’s birth.  My family and I are not your “average Americans” – but we do take pride in the fact that this is our land, a beautiful land, a privileged land, a land which our forefathers sought to give as a gift and work of their labors to future generations.

Old cars

Early on the 4th, my sisters and I left to play a game of volleyball with a friend.  It was already hot when we got to the park (8:30 am) but we endured for quite a while and had fun despite the heat and sun.  Then we proceeded to downtown, where we planned to pick up some burgers and buns from The Local Yocal, a meat market which supports and sells locally grown produce, meats, soaps, dairy products and pastries.  There was a few minutes wait before our meat would be ready, and in the meantime, the annual Independence Day parade began.  We watched, took pictures and cheered as the different participants slowly passed us by.

Maddie

The parade consisted of many vehicles, a few floats, some marching groups, military and local law enforcement and fire department.

Here comes the fire engine!

A little bit closer

There he goes…

A roar of motorcycles

Honking and revving their engines…

It was a deafening noise…

There were all sorts of cars and trucks, old and new.

classic truck…

roadsters

Classic Chevy

my kind of VW Bug

nice car…

There were horses…

lots of them

Tae-Kwan-Do group

An old-fashioned fire engine

Brothers~

We ran into several friends of ours on the Square.  A few were in the parade itself, and some where there as spectators.  The picture above is of our friends the M.’s little boys.  Aren’t they precious?

After the parade was through and we got our burgers, we four girls headed back to Maddie’s house to drop her off.  Two hours later, we finally left after an enjoyable visit with her and her family.

On to home we drove, arriving in the early afternoon. It was hot.  By that time, the thermometer read well over 100 degrees, with a heat index eventually reading at 109.  We grabbed some water, and then spent a few hours relaxing with our family.

In the evening, we packed our cooler, and loaded into our suburban to begin the drive to Grandma’s house.  We got there in the early evening, and begin dinner preparations, while we waited for the rest of the party to arrive from their various abodes and work places.

We enjoyed a wide array of yummy dishes prepared by the moms and daughters.  Since I had badly jammed my right thumb (and I am right handed), I was of no assistance creating the delectable meal.

Our burgers came from The Local Yocal (as I mentioned above) and are 100% pure organic, grass fed beef.  They are soooo tasty, and filling.  Not at all like conventional, store bought meat that is loaded with chemicals, GMOs, pesticides and who knows what else.

Slightly seasoned

we smoked them on a charcoal grill

fruit pizza

This is what we had for dessert ~ super delicious, and fruity!

It was an amazing holiday spent with family and friends, and lots of fun.  What did you do for the fourth?  Do you have a tradition of going to the lake?  Baseball game?  Or perhaps you prefer enjoying a quiet day pool side while your hubby grills burgers and dogs, and your kids splash you with H2O. Whatever it is you do, I hope that you had a beautiful holiday!

Happy Birthday America, land that I love.

Gardening’s A dream come true…

These are just a few recent pictures from our garden.  We are very pleased with its progress – the Lord has blessed our garden, and we are excitedly looking forward to reaping the fruits of our labor.  Just walking amongst the plants and taking time to weed, or water them is refreshing to the soul.

You can read more about how our garden is doing at Suburban Homestead blog.

Polka-dots

Three spotted sisters

Oldest to youngest

~Friends~

Sweet polka dots

Life Lately~

I celebrated another birthday this week… you’ll have to guess my age. *smile*

~Me~

My dear sis Phoebe and I made cheesecake.  Super yum! We had a nice dinner with one of our cousins, and for dessert we ate the cheesecake, strawberries and two kinds of ice cream.

Dinner table

Just Jaden

Dad being goofy

Blowing out the ONE candle replacement

Visiting

Thank you to all who wished me a Happy Birthday!  It made my day even more meaningful.

Frozen

On the first day of February, a frigid ice-storm from Canada directed its nastiness towards the residents of mid-western and southern states, dumping several inches of snow and ice in its wake.  Here in north Texas, ice layers the ground, and freezes the air.

The frozen gardens

Currently, it feels like 6 F. and that’s windchill only.  In real degrees it’s about 16 F.

Frozen ground

Some people are using the phrase “super storm 2011″ as if this is going to be the last bad / cold weather we’re going to receive this winter!   I kinda doubt if this is the last of the harsh winter weather.  We usually have at least a couple of bad spells in February, and then at least one in March, which is usually a very windy month.

Icy all around

And what’s with all of the hype surrounding 2010 being the “hottest year on record, since 1998″?   I think this has been one of the coldest, meanest winters I can remember, and last winter it snowed 5 times.  I mean snowed.

~Me~

Here are some pictures of what it looks like.  I just hope that wherever you are, that you are blessed with warmth and a roof over your heads!  God help and protect those who are homeless and without shelter at this frigid time of year.

Wordless Wednesday

Bronze horses sculpture

Colorado Adventures IX

Sunday September 19, 2010 ~ Sunny and warm, Uncle Jay’s birthday

 

Red flowers

 

I slept deeply and refeshingly Saturday night.  We awoke at seven and got dressed, began repacking the few things we’d gotten out for the night.  We had the breakfast buffet which has way too many options to choose from, everything from a large omelet to fruit, to bagels and bacon ‘n eggs.  After the meal, we loaded up the van and left for home.

The Big Texan

We stopped a couple of times to rest our legs, use the restroom and grab some snacks.  Our last stop was Decatur.  We ate at Subway, and Aunt Mary brought Poppy and Grams’ van from Fort Worth.  It was nice to see her again, even though it was brief.  We transferred luggage from one van to the other and took off.

 

Some one's great catch

Reading passes the travel time

The passing of time and miles

 

We got to McKinney around three in the afternoon, a little early.  We enjoyed a nice visit with Poppy, Grams and our Aunt Jill who came down for the afternoon.  And then in the evening two of her sons came over after their dad dropped them off.  A nice conclusion to a wonderful trip.

Home at last!

Colorado Adventures VIII

Saturday September 18, 2010 ~ Cold and sunny

Crooked tree

I got up and dressed at 6:30, then we began packing the van.  We had a delicious breakfast of fruit, eggs, biscuits and gravy, beagles, milk.  We sat with the McKinneys, and had an enjoyable meal.  It was hard to leave!  I really wanted to stay and be part of the staff.

 

Saturday breakfast

 

Our travel time was punctuated by several stops and, meals.  We had some very deep, stimulating and good conversations with Grams.  Pheebs and I annoyed one another, joked with Poppy and Jay, and just generally had a fun time traveling.

 

Continental Divide

 

Headwaters of the Rio Grande

Creede, CO.

Colorful COLORado

Grazing Antelope

Sad to leave such a beautiful place

Depression sets in

Discussion

We arrived at the Big Texan (Amarillo, TX) around seven o’clock in the evening.  It was humid and the air hung heavy.  Much different from how our day started out, cold and beautiful.  We checked into our rooms which are located on the bottom floor.  They are nice and clean, I think possibly renovated recently.  Phoebe and I watched the Rangers game.  They had already started after we came back from our delicious dinner.  Grams had a Caesar salad, Poppy, Jay and Phoebe had frito pie, I had spare ribs, and we all shared a large basket of deep fried/breaded mushrooms and ranch dressing.  Yum!

 

The Big Texan

 

 

The guys room

The girls room

Our rooms as seen from the parking lot

Minstrels

Ribs

Frito pie

Trying to eat the 72 oz. steak and meal

He didn't make it

Giants chair

 

The Rangers played killer baseball.  Cliff Lee pitched a spectacular game.  They won, but the mariners beat them 2 out of the 3 games in the series.  The magic number for the Rangers now is 6 games.