A Week of Times

 It was the best of days. It was the worst of days...talking about Saturday. First the best, we found some brisket in Erwin, TN on a Saturday morning in front of the Food City. Let's just say it was as good but really better than some brisket we've had in Texas. Tender, lean and full of flavor. The best of days because we have Goode Company BBQ sauce in the house. The best of Saturday also included a LSU victory over Arkansas, well barely a victory. Hey a win is a win. Mathematically, a word rarely used by me, LSU is the SEC West winner but here is where the worst came in...Alabama needed to beat Ole Miss for LSU to clinch. It goes against everything in our being to pull for Alabama, even if it means for the good of all the team. Then to make football matters worse, we had to root for University of Texas against TCU cause, you know, it would help LSU move up. Baylor, well, they got beat every which way and night games aren't good for a Baptist University. Afternoon games gives one the time to drive back home to Houston or Dallas or Austin or to every small town in between. Night games, well those are great for LSU but not so much for Baptists who plan to attend church on Sunday morning. After all the angst, Alabama won and sent the opportunity for LSU to meet Georgia. Not holding onto too much hope for a win in Atlanta but one can always hope.

Please, don't ever make us root for Alabama and University of Texas in football...really in any sport ever again. Amen.

We awoke to snow on Sunday morning. Just a light dusting but it is always such a joy to see the first dusting of the year. Then...it becomes the first big snow. The temps are a little cooler than a normal November, that is until it warms up again and according to those learned meteorologists, will happen once again in the next few weeks. 

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On our journey through the mountains yesterday we saw wonderful views of rime ice in the upper elevations. We could never find a good place to pull over and take pics. Told Roy we will just have to commit the views to memory. We will look at the mountains of the Lord in this week's lesson. Yep, he is talking about Jerusalem et all but these mountains here are mountains of the Lord to me. Their beauty enhanced by their danger. Never being a why did you climb that mountain, because it was there type person I am content to gaze and take it all in. 

Looking back at this week from the past few years, significant events have held sway. Bilateral knee replacement in 2016, the 15th to be exact. Recently, this time last year Roy decided it was time to retire and after the previous months he had, selling the house and all, the last month and a half last year had details and things to tie up before making the move here. He received some news last week that even cemented the fact, if there were any doubts and the doubts were few, that he made the right decision. 

It has been fun sharing autumn this year with Roy. His schedule never allowed an October vacation or trip this way. Think God's creation showed out this year for him, just like in 2015, my first year here. He captured beautiful pictures as we day tripped around the countryside. 

Well, it is a balmy 28 degrees. 22 went I woke up. Have a couple of things to do today and those things that are out and about, Roy wants to wait till it gets above freezing.

Mostly Rain With A Little Wind

 A beautiful sunny morning has greeted us. Cooler than yesterday but it seems the bottom will drop out on Saturday night. Cold temps and a hard freeze. This is the first ease into the morning day in a while. With appointments and such, guys coming over to give estimates on some work, I welcome the relaxed entrance into this day. 

We voted for the first time as NC residents. Our voting place just down the road and we arrived when there was a bit of a lull. Pretty exciting, really. As we make our way through those firsts of feeling like with Roy here, finally at home. Poll workers were very nice and the whole process took about ten minutes leaving us time to trade out for the truck and go to Lowe's. Picked up a ladder and new numbers for our new trash can. Living the wildly exciting life! No, really. 

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Preparing for a hurricane is different here than on the coast of Texas. Mostly rain and wind but the difference is the elevation that makes for landslides. A different perspective for sure than just flat land. Mike the Mower Man was here earlier this week mulching our leaves for us and getting some yard debris taken care of. We need to semi clean out the gutter on one side of the back porch so we will semi try to get some of that taken care of. We will do this before the rain hits this afternoon. We punted apple orchard trip and will push that to next week. 

Last week I was talking to a friend here and she said who knew that ten years ago that you'd be here and living a totally different way of living than what you had been used to. She was correct. In fact Roy and I had talked about this very subject all through last week. Think it is due to the fact we are coming up to the one year anniversary of deciding to retire by the end of the year. Great decision in hindsight. Roy is much more relaxed, still focused, but not stressed. He would have been miserable in Houston and would have probably looked for contract work cause he wouldn't have enough around the house to keep him busy. Here, there is always a project or something that needs attention. 

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The rain continues from the outer rain bands of Nichole. Think the heaviest rain is yet to come. A year ago today I was at Asheville Cardiology getting an echo and stress test. Glad a year later to be home to enjoy a rainy day. Today, I will begin writing out the lesson for Sunday. We are in Micah. In several weeks we begin the book of John. I've enjoyed teaching from the OT but ready for a change, although we are six months in John. 

We successfully cleared out the gutter on the back porch. No one was hurt not even off balance one time. We made some crude clearing of the leaves out of the gutter by using a kid rake sideways. 

At Tammy's getting my haircut, we got to talking about how easily it is to get inundated with volunteer jobs at small churches. I realized that part of a standard of M&G, talking about getting volunteered at church was coming true for Roy, better known as Ed in Mildred and Gertrude. I got so tickled thinking about that as well as telling stories of how we took real events that had happened in our lives and twisting them just enough for no one to really recognize who it might be. Last week in our lesson in Haggai, we looked at how we can spiritualize our reasons for not doing something...we sound good or so we think, but God knows. This week in Micah we are looking at the coming judgement for Israel and Judah and the bad leadership going on. Crooked politicians and priests that fleeced the poor people of the land and money. The theme of justice runs throughout Micah as well as the other minor prophets. A couple of years ago the theme to teach was idolatry. Guess this week's lesson is more like, don't let this happen to you kind of thing. As the priests took bribes and such, I can't help but think back to Kyle Lake's book on prayer and using the Lord's name in vain. We usually trend toward someone cussing but he wrote that we are the worst at using the Lord's name in vain with unneeded repetition in prayer as well as over using prayer to quiet a room, fill in time, cause we have always done it this way and my very favorite announcement prayer. One thing I remember Roy studying in 1999 as we drove to Nashville. He was joining the Stephen Ministry. The thought that prayer should be used to open and close a meeting or session was challenged and suggested other ways because you never want people to think that opening and closing a meeting as a sign that it's time to leave. Instead we need to know and experience that this is a sacred moment not the sign of a meeting being over. 

I think the rain has finally let up a bit. We sure needed it and in our area we didn't get the big heavy rains that causes waterfalls in our back yard. 

Also, I lost the Merry Christmas Darling contest this year with CourtneyS being the winner. 

Saturday Morning Catch Up

 November 1st will feel like April 1st temp wise today. Roy is resting from a vigorous and focused job of entrance, exit and keeping Fall Festival participants safe from other drivers last night. Sounds like the Fall Festival was a hit and heard that maybe a thousand or so participants. That is a large number when it comes to this rural area.  

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Once again a weak beginning on Monday and hopefully a wrap up on a Friday, so it truly doesn't become a week. Intentions are there but then life needs to be lived and glory be, that means something to write about. This afternoon as well as tomorrow afternoon we have tree trimmer guys coming out to give us an estimate to thin out some firs as well as trim up some of the bigger trees. Andy was here last week trimming the shrubs and such in the back as well as putting out pine straw. Fertilizer is an expensive deal this year, so we are going with some natural solutions. Our neighbor offered some of their compost for our flower beds. We love their horses and what they contribute to the beauty as well as the flowerbeds. The leaves have been doing a rapid drop and we use those as well. Our neighbors aren't interested in the leaves and let us rake and take all we want. Wait a minute....no really, most of their leaves come onto the driveway so it's more a sweep than a rake. 

We took a little trip to the Costco on Wednesday. Filled up with $2.97 gas before going into the store. We had a lovely time picking up a few more holiday items and then the very necessary items. We bought a ham and it is the best price we have seen. So Thanksgiving meal will be ham centered. Batteries and flashlights on sale but the best thing or one of the best things we bought was pumpkin strudel muffins. Never tried them but I have started looking at Costco influencers and their reviews on products in November. These are a hit and don't know if we or rather if I can wait a couple of weeks when we go back when a new sale starts. I 26 was rather beautiful going and coming. Lower elevation so much brighter color than what has come and gone in the mountains. A bonus always is this, we had a relatively easy traffic trip, one overturned tractor trailer but nothing toxic or liquid or messy. 

Yesterday, I made the trek, a fun and beautiful trek, over to Burnsville. Lamp Post Vintage Market is getting ready for the big Christmas reveal and that means I was able to get in before the official kick off tonight. Pretty much had in mind what I was looking for and I came away with everything I went to get, mostly Christmas gifts and such. Since we still have two rambunctious young cats, no Christmas tree this year but we have a small table top one we can use. My mom would already have her tree up by now because she loved Christmas and spent many an hour sitting still and watching the lights on the tree. Stopped in Mars Hill on the way home at the Ingles for a couple of things. 

I realized while writing about Christmas and how much my mom loved it, she will have been gone from earth eleven years on Tuesday. I miss her everyday and so wish that she could see and visit or live here but I think she knows her kiddos are doing okay. I'd like for her to see the spring flowers, tulips and such, then the zinnias, roses and dahlias we have planted. It has just been recently, she has shown up in my dreams and that right there makes me so happy. 

We will wrap up Haggai on Sunday. Such an interesting minor prophet. Not much is known about him but he got the people off their butts and out of remodeling their homes and the temple construction started again.  

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The morning holds a little bit of rain and it is welcomed in these parts. We thought we were going to do some chair painting yesterday but the wind was too much. Instead we put out tulip and daffodil bulbs. Another highlight of the day, we officially took down the playpens were the boys slept at night. They have transferred to the bonus room for their nighttime slumber. It is so nice to have the entrance area back or semi back to normal. We will probably bring a cat tree in from the back porch but then again, we might not. 

Two tree guys are supposed to come today and give us estimates on thinning out some firs and trimming a few other trees. We shall see if they really get here so until then....