The second non foggy day in a row. I learned last year you count the fog mornings in August and that is how many snowfalls the area experiences in winter. Until yesterday the fog was consistent the first seven days of August. A late rainfall came through just about bedtime last night and sometimes that makes for a foggy morning, but it is clear, sunny and beautiful. This seems to be the summer of butterflies in our backyard. Oh my goodness, the trees shimmy with lots of butterflies large and small. A cardinal sat in one of the butterfly bushes yesterday afternoon looking to catch one of the butterflies for a tasty treat, but in the moments I watched him, he was not successful. For the most part the butterflies are left alone to do what butterflies and bees do, pollinate.
Today is National Book Lover Day. Who knew? Well somebody did but it came as a mild surprise when I read about it on Twitter this morning. Hmm....maybe that is why the Barnes and Noble gift card that I got for my birthday is burning a hole in my pocket today.
This year's birthday has been way more fun than last years. Lisa P was here to help celebrate and we celebrated well. Dena sent a special greeting via the Inn on the Biltmore Estate and it was such a lovely surprise. Vivian and Brenda took me out to lunch after church on Sunday to The Fireplace. Fun friends and yummy food. Brenda made a homemade white cake with white icing and added a creative touch of decorative sheep she crafted out of pecan sandies, almonds, chocolate covered raisins and the like. Peggy sent a great t-shirt and family sent lovelies from the Metal Museum in Memphis. It is not the gifts but the people who have made this year so special. Last August I experienced somewhat of an emotional meltdown. There were several separate factors that contributed to it, but when they all seemed to be meshed together, it was a little more than I could take. Roy was so gracious to help me through that time, like he has done so many times before. I think "nature" was the straw that broke the camel's back...with angry raccoons, a sighting of two snakes and backyard light that didn't work like it was supposed to. Thus, in the darkness raccoons wrecked havoc on the yard and decorations. Last August was a difficult month but I am thankful that this August has started out on different footing.
Yesterday, was one of those wait at home days for service calls and inspections. The A/C guy was here a little after 9:00 and both our units checked out good. Won't need to do a winter service call since we are getting so close to fall and cooler temps. We replaced the upstairs HVAC last November and several attempts for the county inspector to come out and review the work didn't happen. They couldn't find our home several times and then the holidays happened, and I think it all took a back door approach until Vicki called to try and schedule an inspection again. We waited till after our friends had left. I was kind of thinking the inspector wouldn't make it when I heard the faint knocking at our front door. It was the inspector. He asked where things were and I got him a ladder, many attics don't have stairs here, and he made short work of a long time coming. All is well, work passed with flying colors.
We've been studying the life of Solomon in Sunday School and this past Sunday we looked at how his heart turned away from God by marrying and concubining with so many foreign women. While we watched he and his wisdom go down the drain, one verse stood out to me...when he was old, his wives influenced him to worship their gods. It wasn't enough that he built them places for them to offer sacrifices and worship, they wanted him to worship. It dawned on me, as long as we are alive, even if we are old or older or starting to consider ourselves old...the enemy will always be after us to worship everything else but the one true God. It will never be enough. I think back to my tennis days and how the thought of climbing the tennis ladder with the goal of playing at the highest level for amateurs consumed me and then even when I reached that high level, my life continued to revolve around tennis, to stay at that level by workouts, private lessons, team lessons and reading all I could get my brain around to keep getting better. If you asked me if I worshipped tennis, I would have told you no way! But, the truth was, I did even though you would find me at church on Sundays, attending Beth Moore Bible study on Tuesday nights and having a quiet time...a very brief quiet time that I could always turn into a tennis related thought.
Okay, I don't know how to read the latest weather...it started out clear but fog has rolled in a bit... I need to check with my friends to get a reading and meaning on this.
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