Winding Down to Fully Experience Fall

 Since I rejoined the online shopping of Nordstrom my boot collection has grown by a few pairs. The salutation from The Nord when communicating with me is, welcome back. I have ordered over the past ten years a few times but not very much. Nothing like those days in Houston.  A few occasions and my lack of accessories drew me back. I needed to see the offerings. The Nord has changed a lot in the past ten years, maybe even fifteen years. I aged out of the customer focus. The friendly confines of their stores went to a minimalist structure, even more so. I loved not having crowded aisles and loved the selection that didn't look like other places. I missed the piano. The love of boots is reignited in me and this season has not put out the fire and the love of unique boots. Or maybe that should be the love of boots that fit. Also, after a spring and summer of wearing tennis shoes, albeit fashion tennis shoes, I am ready for that boot fun. 

In life if you want, you can hear all kinds of preachers. Over the long haul of Sunday mornings, evenings and Wednesday nights a boatload of preachers have shared their hearts, thoughts, ideas and fear in all kinds of styles. Over the years I have heard a whole lot of Baptist preaching but alas, there in the midst of searching for the deeper Christian life I have listened to liturgical sermons, faith full Gospel sermons and downright Pentecostal. My least favorite to experience is Pentecostal and here in the mountains I would say that mountain style preaching parallels the Pentecostal style. But maybe not any speaking in tongues. As side note, I heard someone say yesterday in response to the idea that all those signs and wonders died out with the last apostle is, God is still Jehovah Rahpa and He didn't die out with the last apostle. He still heals. Like how that was put.  Don't get me wrong I enjoy exuberant worship but sometimes it becomes rote and relying on it being emotionally based styles. The emotions go deeper but not in a good way. Emotionally based music and sermons are never enough. People shedding tears at the altar becomes a standard. I know we are to pray about everything and I try to but every time I'm praying doesn't have to be so demonstrative, at home or at church. Most of the full gospel preachers in Houston and this is my opinion, used a lot of time to see which way the wind was blowing beginning their sermon. You see people getting all worked up, all danced out and the gasps in between each word preached. A friend and I went to a New Year's Eve service many moons ago at Evangelistic Temple. We kind of felt out of our element, but on our row was an frail looking older black woman. As the preaching started and all through the sermon she would yell and bend over from the waist sitting down, "I feel it, I feel it! Somebody help me!" We were a little dumbfounded because at the invitation that this woman went forward to be saved. I thought she was affirming the preacher's words.  

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No fog, but a bright sunrise. Delicious coffee, a new flavor to us from Dunkin Donuts Coffee...caramel. Yesterday, our pastor returned from his sabbatical month. He was happy to be back in the pulpit and we were happy he was. His love of learning is such a blessing. Joy filled stories of  spending time with family as well as being away from his phone. He loves to share the love of Jesus in conversations along the way and his story of the man next to him on the plane arriving to his seat with headphones on and never took them off. With Debbie on vacation our flutist played the organ. She is gifted on both instruments. We met some lovely people visiting from TN and Missouri. 

I just used my first application on my hip of Mountain Ice, like Biofreeze only made with natural ingredients. I was hoping for the non menthol fragrance but it has that but the way it took the pain away, my new fragrance might just be this. Now here is something disturbing, White Linen is now considered old lady perfume. What???!!!!  White Linen was my signature fragrance until I found Opium, then Angel Innocent and now Origins Ginger. No, it can't be! Old lady perfume was Youth Dew. I am sure someone has thought of this before but I think we should mix together that lovely menthol with Vicks Vapo Rub. Menthol and camphor, in a distribution that says my muscles and joints are feeling pretty good. During my ten minutes of research the experts advise women over 50 to stay away from heavy floral perfumes especially those with lilac or violets and jasmine. Lilac makes sense cause that shrub was put around outhouses back in the day. Nothing was said about staying away from Vicks and Mountain Ice pain relief. 

We are getting the tomato plants and all the weeds in the flowerbeds pulled out. Had a good tomato season but not as productive as last years. Over the weekend the bean and pea vines were pulled out but the bell peppers are still producing. 

One last thing for today; Chubola is still going to the bonus room with The Boys at night. She goes willingly except for the other night she was kind of slow about joining. Her brothers, Baxter and Buster are just a little too wild for her anymore. She likes hanging out with Mr Mo and GMoey or a quiet corner away from all the chaos of cat life. 

The Cusp of Autumn

 Here we are on the last day of September and the promise of cooler temps on Thursday makes me giddy. I am in the process of changing out seasonal clothes. As one always looking for the deeply discounted end of season offerings last year, I put stuff away unopened. Now, it feels like summer, no it feels like Christmas opening up these delights after a long spring and summer respite. And joy of joy, I finally found the red sweater jacket I held out for, cheapest price offering. I had left a closet door open and while searching to see if one of the cats had entered and decided on napping, I found the sweater in a bag. Yay! 

Also, Amazon should be delivering a book I have been waiting for since preordering it in the summer, Untamed Prayers 365 devotions in the Psalms written by Chad Bird. I have loved all the books of his I have read. I used his book on Jacob when we studied Genesis and my goodness, his insights helped me so much. 

I hadn't seen anything about Second Baptist in Houston for a while and wondered if everything had been settled or were they looking at a court date. Looked it up and the past few days held some articles or notation of what would be happening. The court date is set for February. Second wanted it to be in business court, so that will be interesting. So many volunteers removed from their positions, some in those positions for years because they questioned what had happened. Many have let their feet and offerings do the talking. I've heard that our former church, First Baptist, has picked up quite a new few members. Some disgruntled ones have stayed at Second but they are not giving to the church. It seems to me that a strategy I had never thought of when I was younger would be to do nothing and hope for the best. Answer no one, have a script that is stuck too so that even with enough time you begin to believe the script. For most in the congregation, they are fine until it becomes personal to them that the decision to take away church voting rights and choices for budget, ministries and the like hit them hard. The six people making decisions for the main church and all the campuses are related to or have financial dealings with the Youngs.  Technically, they could sell the church properties and pocket the proceeds now that is the law of the church. Seems strange that a church with so many wealthy business people or those who inherited their wealth and their name carries a lot of clout could have been taken by surprise. I don't have a dog in the show but it is always an interesting study of people and interactions. 

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For some unknown reason I woke up really, really early and couldn't go back to sleep. Have a morning like this about once a week. Last night I was reading The View From Lake Como and made myself stop so that I don't rush through because it is so good. It was tempting to get up and start back in but I know me and I won't get stuff done today. 

It is usually me that acts up at Publix, somewhat. Today, it was Roy's turn. We were checking out and one of the assistant managers or customer service was bagging the groceries. Roy asked him not to put the salad in with the boxed bacon. The guy said, do you want to bag these cause I have other lanes I can help. Roy said no but I said to the young man, we have an ice chest in the truck and things have to be arranged for everything to fit. The guy brushed me off. I said, he isn't trying to be rude and Roy chimed in affirming that...the young man said, yeah, yeah yeah you don't have to say anything else. Oh my, you would think on Wednesdays the guy would remember, yep, there are old people afoot but even more Roy could have been recovering from a stroke or have some ailment where those who have it get so focused on something. Even maybe dementia. We were loading groceries and Roy said I made him mad and that wasn't my intent but the more I thought about it, the guy was just a tad short with us. Oh to be young, in your twenties and think you know everything about everything. His attitude seems contrary to all the Publix culture. Maybe he was just having a bad day. 

We are so addicted to 6 Pigs BBQ and it was looking like we were heading into week 2 without the tasty brisket and pulled chicken. We came home after shopping and had a pitiful lunch. I checked FB and there was the announcement that they were on the River Road selling BBQ. We headed out in a flash to pick up our tasty supper and leftovers for lunch today and maybe even tomorrow. Oh my, it is good to lead such a simple life. 

The house we would love to look at is on the market again. It is too tempting to go look because it seems that we would be totally swayed. It is not the time in life but just knowing it is there and we are resisting is good. The offer deal fell through but now we are happier in our circumstances and Burnsville seems to be too far away, now. 

Today, Thursday, we made our trek to Canton. Lou Lou didn't disappoint with her canned greasy beans, veggie soup and tomato sauce ready to roll for taco soup this fall and winter. We picked up a few different type of apples. Roy really wanted to get out to Barber's Orchard so we went there and got some candy crisp apples. So good. Came back through Canton and went to the Country Vintage Market that opened a little over a month ago. Lots of cute stuff but that visit was cut short due to the traffic back up on I 40 which meant the back roads were backed up as well. Lots of tractor trailer trucks and there were several warning signs about not being able to make a turn in downtown. We were welcomed home by our indoor crew and they were hungry. We missed serving lunch by two hours. Oh my...

The low in the morning will be in the 40s. Our days are warm up morning and evening cool. In fact we had to put the top up on the car cause we were getting too cold. Weather wimps, that's us.