Hot, steamy August

Hello Folks, sorry I've not been posting, the summer doldrums have been here for a couple of months now. It is hot and steamy and I just feel like hibernating in the a.c. Thank you to those who have reached out to see how I'm doing. I work outside early mornings when I feel like it, I do grocery shopping, go to church, and am always glad to get back home. I'm a homebody at heart. I have done some crocheting also, but am taking a break from that now as I completed a 31" square comfort blanket over a period of 6 days in between doing other things. My hands and wrist were aching when I finished. Crocheting for hours at a time will do that and I wanted to get this finished and delivered.

 I started this post a few days ago. I've had a hard time with being motivated about doing anything. This past year and a half has been 'off' for so many of us. What I've been going through is nothing compared to what others have had to endure and my heart and prayers go out for them. Now we have this whole  Afghanistan fiasco which is horrible & evil.

Yet through all of this I believe in Jesus, our sovereign God who is with all who believe in Him. I believe he is working through all of the bad to bring about ultimate good. I am looking forward to His coming again, and until then I want to live graciously, thankfully and to be able to help others as I can.

 I've had up and down days, more ups than downs and for that I am thankful for. Thankful to God and thankful to others who have lended a helping hand either physically, monetarily, prayerfully, or with encouragement.

I dream about my dear husband a LOT. Some are of us working together on projects, or just being together doing things, which is always a bummer to wake up from and he's not here. Sometimes I might get a message, which happened a couple of weeks ago. I didn't remember much of the dream, except he was bedridden and I could only remember a little of what he said to me. It was this, "all ye who hope in Christ." In the dream I hugged and kissed him and told him that his sharing things like that with me was just one of the reasons why I love him. I googled that portion of scripture to find out what the rest of it was and it was this. "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord."

I love the way Jesus encourages me throughout my widowhood journey. It happens through family and friends, the Bible, devotional readings, music, and his beautiful creation. He is there for any of us, he wants a relationship with us and all we have to do is open our hearts to him. 

For my pulled back muscle, I finally broke down and looked up and found a great little massage center. I went to 90 minutes as I really needed to be kneaded good and long. It's cheaper in the long run and 30 min just wouldn't have been enough, 60 min always leaves me wanting more.  As it was, this wonderful lady who worked on me would have liked to work on me more but she had other clients to see. It was a time of release, release from stress for the past year and a half, bottled up tears flowed and I felt so much better when I left there. A week or so later I received a check and note from a sweet friend who said she wanted to help with my getting a massage. That brought joy, thankfulness and more tears. Our God is awesome.

I still couldn't do much after that treatment, as I had to relax and heal. My friend Wendy came and weedwacked my grassy areas and what a blessing that was!! Afterwards I would walk around smiling, so wonderful to have that taken care of and I didn't have to do it. She did a fantastic job and just whipped around the property. She's done this kind of thing for years. She volunteered to help me and has in so many ways.

I have mowed, trimmed hedges, etc. our whole married life, and enjoy it, but last Dec I tripped and fell and badly sprained my right wrist, then pulling this back muscle put a crimp in my style. I have an electric mower, an electric weedwacker. The heavy 100' cord for using the mower has been harder to deal with but I just take my time. After Wendy had weedwacked she asked me if I ever would use a battery operated mower. I said yes and that I had thought about one but that they were more expensive than the electric. (Gas powered is too noisy, smelly, and harder for me to pull the crank rope to start.) She said she would look into it. Here's how the driveway area looked before.

Here she is hard at work.

After

Then on the 11th of this month she and her husband gifted me with a new battery powered mower. Oh my goodness, what a joy to use, easier on me, quicker too and it works great!!! I've used it twice now, and was going to do it again this morning but it rained.

This year has been filled with so much help, my neighbor having the tree cut down in my property that was near the fencing and dropping a gazillion seed pods on us both, his giving money to help with replacing privacy fencing between our two places. Juvenal coming and working at hauling scrap metal to the scrap yard (he got the proceeds), 18 pick up truck loads, and he did a lot of tree trimming as well. Then Sean and Stan did fencing work, Sean has done major tree trimming with more to do yet. For this I am so thankful, more than words can say.

The temps lately have been awful! In the 90's with it feeling like l04-106 and humidity really thick. It's like being in a sauna. I can't handle being out in that. Today I decided to take a break from working in my overgrown main garden area. The paths were nowhere to be seen, and I have made forward progress, it will get done all in good time.

Now, here are some flowers to enjoy. Crepuscule are the peachy blooms, sweet scent, and the pink one is Miss Atwood.

This is an orchid that just bloomed for the first time. I've had it several years, but recently moved it to a different location.

Fresh bay leaves picked from my bay tree. I bought it for $1 many, many years ago and it was about 6" tall, I had to trim it back as it was over 6 ft and leaning into the walkway. I dried them like this for a few days now they are in a zip lock bag.

 

 

I didn't feel like making pizza crust dough in my bread machine, and used flour tortillas instead. I just might do this all of the time. Fresh picked basil from my plant, cooked Italian sausage,  green olives stuffed with jalapeño peppers, mozzarella cheese, then parmesan sprinkled on top.

This is a night blooming cereus cactus. This is the first bloom since the dead pine that it was growing at the top of, came down in wind. It is supposed to be scented, but I've not  noticed a scent in all of the years that we had it. These pics were taken the morning after it had bloomed so it was on its way to closing up.

Here is a little you-tube slideshow of this orchid that bloomed on our front gate arch Sept. 29, 2012, the last project dear hubby and I worked on together. He went to be with our Great Creator of this bloom, on Dec. 9, 2012.

This is purple sage.

Beautiful sunrise clouds one morning.

 
Friends, Nanci and John gave me gift $ and this is what I bought from Harbor Freight. It came in a box, was pretty heavy and I had to put it together. I thought this would work better for me than a wheel barrow. The front wheels swivel. It took me about 30 minutes or so to put it together.

I will end this photo session with a pic of my Swootie Patootie, Miss Tork. She's snoozing where my feet usually rest. I had several crochet projects going on at once as you can see.

Ok, that's it for now. I pray that you all are doing well, and for those who are not, I pray that you will soon be better whatever you're circumstances are. Call out to God, he hears, and he works. Put your trust in Him, His name is Jesus.

Love, hugs and prayers,

FlowerLady