Vacation Recovery

Yesterday was filled with recovering from vacation. I was surprised at how busy I was with getting everything back in order.

The phrase that kept running through my mind yesterday was put away.

Unpack suitcases. Put away suitcases and shoes and unworn clothes.

Put away the things we bought while on vacation.

Pick up the mail from the post office. Put away the junk mail. (maybe throw away fit better here...)

Unpack toiletries, refill containers of shampoo, etc. and put away.

Go to the grocery store because there is no food in the house. Put away all the groceries once you haul it all into the house.

Wash the sheets (because you can't remember the last time they were washed) put away the clean sheets on the bed. (Okay, maybe that was stretching it a bit...)

Oh, and I can't forget the laundry! Wash several loads of laundry, put away the clean clothes.

It all took a lot of time and conscious effort to work through all those areas to get things back in order for living life here.

As I was thinking through all that, these verses came to mind:

Ephesians 4:31&32

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (ESV)

 I think (at least for me) it takes a lot of conscious effort to put away all bitterness, wrath, clamor and slander and let God replace it with kindness, being tenderhearted and forgiving. A few verses before this read: 

...to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (verses 22-24)

Thank you God, for creating me in Your likeness. For giving me a new self to put on.

(Just what was running through my head yesterday.)

The Great Midwest Vacation

I certainly did not intend to not write a blog post for a whole week. Hubby and I have been on a wonderful vacation for the past week.  We were got away from the routine and celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary. I had intentions of posting a couple of times while we were gone, but a MASSIVE rainstorm that knocked out our internet access changed those plans. More on that later.

Our vacation started before we hit the road with a drive-in movie.

I got my very own tub of popcorn. :) Hubby and I realized we had never been to a drive-in movie together. Isn't that crazy? We hope to make it to another one before the summer is over.

Last Sunday we headed over to to the great state of Wisconsin and stayed 

at a hotel with a Rubber Ducky.

Then on Monday we drove along the Mighty Mississippi (remember when you learned to spell Mississippi and were so proud of yourself?),

 

saw some pretty wildflowers,

and a real live A&W.

Our destination was NW Illinois. What's there? A little town called Galena.  It is a town full of history that began in the early 1800s as a lead mining town. It's a beautiful, hilly town with a lot of quite old buildings. We took a trolley ride around the more historical part and learned quite a bit. 

Eight Civil War generals came from there. Ulysses Grant had a home there. His parents moved there (operated a tannery) and he did too for a while. After the Civil War some business men went together and gave General Grant a home. It was basically a vacation home. He was there when he learned he won the presidency.

Grant's home.

The parlor where people came to congratulate Grant on winning the election.

President Lincoln and three Civil War Generals

This makes me very thankful for indoor plumbing. :)

Some other sights around town:

This is the Bed & Breakfast we stayed at 2 months before Megan was born. Kind of our last getaway.

We learned that it was the first house built in Galena with steam heat. (Such trivia I know!)

Galena has a very picturesque downtown street with a lot of shops. Did I take a picture of it? Of course not! It was so incredibly hot I was concentrating on getting to the next spot of shade and did not think of taking pictures. :)

It started raining Wednesday evening about 6 o'clock. And didn't stop. And didn't stop. We had a nice dinner out and were at a one man show about Mark Twain and I heard tornado sirens go off. I felt uncomfortable being on the 3rd floor, so we left. Dear Hubby ran the 2 1/2 blocks to get our car to come pick me up. The poor guy was soaked. We headed out to the golf resort (6 miles out of town) we were staying at. It was very dark out for being only 8:30 in the evening. It was raining so hard the wipers on the highest speed hardly made a difference. I noticed the ditches were almost full of water and felt sorry for the cows and horses I saw standing in the pouring rain. There was water rushing across the highway in a few places and once we got on the resort property we had to cross a low spot where water was rushing off the golf course into a lake on the other side of the road. We got to the villa we were staying at to find that the roof was leaking in a couple of places. We called the office and they told us they would let us move to another villa and someone would bring us a key. About 20 minutes later, the office called and said they weren't letting anyone leave the main lodge because two cars had been swept off the road. It happened at the same low spot we had crossed just 20-ish minutes before! God is our Protector for sure! The drip-drip-dripping slowed down and we were able to sleep that night and got moved into a dryer villa the next morning. 

Whew! That was a tense time!

(That storm knocked out the internet access for a couple of days. Thus no blog posts.)

We stayed put at the resort the next day because the flood gates to downtown Galena had been closed and the shops and restaurants were all closed. We enjoyed a lovely anniversary dinner at a resort restaurant.

I had grilled pheasant (yum!)

 And carrot cake! (Yum, yum!)

This restaurant we ate at the first night we were there was my absolute favorite:

Starting at the top left: Fried Green Tomatoes (of course!), Salad tossed with a Raspberry Vinaigrette, Amazing Bread, Lobster Ravioli (YUM!), Lasagna (Hubby's), and French Silk Ice Cream (shared).

It was a wonderful week. Not fun to come back to this small, rural town that smells like poo (see: rural).
And no nice restaurants to choose from. :(
No one brings me clean towels everyday. :(
And Hubby goes to work and leaves me all alone. :(
(Pity party has begun)

1981 Summer Memories

The summer of 1981 was an important summer for me. I was 20 years old. I wasn't dating anyone. (But I did know the guy I'd marry, although if you would have told me that summer I'd marry him in three years, I would have told you you were nuts. I knew him, but at that point we were barely more than acquaintances.) 

I spent the whole summer of 1981 in Colorado. (Hmmm.... there seems to be a theme here and where I went in the summer time...)

I  spent the first month of the Summer of 1981 at Bear Trap Ranch. It's a camp that InterVarsity Christian Fellowship owns and runs about 8 miles up in the mountains from Colorado Springs. And by up in the mountains, I mean 9,100 feet up. (This is the same place we went as a family to Family Camp.)

I learned a lot in those four weeks at Bear Trap. One thing that really sticks out in my mind is a visual about how God and our relationship with Him needs to be at the center of our lives where all the other area of our lives are affected by it. We should not just have Him be a part all by itself. That was a new way of thinking for me at the time.

There were lots of other things learned and friendships made, overnight hiking trips that led to some of the nastiest blisters I've ever had on my feet, square dancing, Bible reading (1st and 2nd Samuel), hot tea drinking (to warm up my cold hands on those chilly Colorado mornings), letter reading and writing to friends from college, and then there was the really unfortunate choice I made of having my bangs cut. Yuck. I think they look hideous when I look at pictures of me from back then. Sigh. I was young, what can I say?

Here's proof that I did go repelling. It's not quite as high as my loved ones did twenty years later, but I still did it! (Ick.. you can see those nasty bangs poking out from under the helmet...)

The next two months were spent in Breckenridge, Colorado. Sigh. Beauty, pure beauty.

The time in Breckenridge was also with InterVarsity. There was a group of us (15-20 college students along with several staff people and their families) there on an Evangelism Project. We took jobs in the community and worked on living out our faith. I worked in this building at an ice cream parlor. When I washed dishes I looked out the back window at the ski mountain. So pretty! I also did some sewing and babysitting.

Sometimes I wish I could go back and learn some of the important spiritual things all over again. At least be able to look at them through more mature eyes. I'm sure I missed so much because I was only 20 years old.

Here's some of us at a cook-out. I'm the classy one in the white jacket and the ugly, unfortunate bangs. :)

I, sadly, have few pictures of my own from this summer. I remember somehow messing up the roll of film I took and ended up exposing much of the film. Some of my friends sent me copies of their pictures.

I did end up dating one of the guys in our group in Breckenridge. I learned a lot about relationships through him. About being open and honest in everything. I remember one conversation we had about how God sees us without blemish, holy and blameless. Still a hard concept for me to grasp since I see the ugliness in my heart.

Although at the time I thought that guy was "the one", looking back I see God's hand in guiding me to The One He had made for me. Because of my long distance relationship (after the summer was over) I was able to become friends with some guys back at college. My mom said told me then they were likely willing to be friends with me because I was "safe". They didn't have to worry about me wanting to date them and could just be my friend because I was dating someone else (who lived in another state). By the next summer my long-distance relationship had ended and one of those guys from college? He was my best friend. And today? He is still my Best Friend. He's my hubby! He's the guys I married three years later. See how God works?

That Hubby of mine is such a wonderful earthly example of God's love for me. He sees me without blemish even though he knows some pretty yucky things about me.

Case in point:

A few nights ago when Hubby got home from work, I was frustrated and angry about some things and basically yelled at him for a while. What did he do? He hugged me, talked to me a little and loved me and took me out to dinner. I sure don't deserve the kind of love he has for me. Reminds me of God's love. Majorly, totally unconditional. Full of mercy. Hubby sure didn't respond in a way I deserved, but responded in grace and mercy. How lucky am I to have this earthly example of God's love right here in front of my face?

Anyway... I may have seemed to get a little off track here from my summer of 1981, but like I said at the beginning, it was an important summer for me.

(And by the way, this coming Thursday, Mr. The One, my hubby and I will celebrate 27 years of marriage!!!)

1986 Summer Memories

Just a couple more posts in my Summer Memories Series. (Don't act so relieved...)

The summer of 1986 found us living in Wichita, Kansas and celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary. I sometimes wish I could go back and view some of those early days. It gets a little harder to remember things like how it felt to be so young and how my hair was that color all by itself with no extra help. ;) I made Hubby (who's always a good sport and is thankful for whatever gift I give him) a cute, but cheesy cross-stitch that says "Happiness is Being Married to Your Best Friend." After close to 27 years, I still agree with that.

I didn't see a lot of pictures from this summer in our photo albums. I do remember it was an exciting summer because that was when we found out we were going to have our first baby!

Hubby made a business trip to Chicago that summer of 1986 and brought me back a teddy bear we named Bradford. Bradford was a source of comfort to our kids in the years to come when they were sick or sad or trying to recover from a broken heart.

A lack of funds and not very much vacation time meant the vacation time Hubby did have was spent visiting the family. This is my in-laws and me out for a walk. Pretty sure my mother-in-law was looking for some birds with those binoculars.

1991 Summer Memories

I still have a few more posts to go in my Summer Memories Series. I have had so much fun looking through the photo albums.

(I should add in here how proud I am of myself. I figured out a very simple way to get the scanned photos to my laptop. My laptop is not connected to the printer. I can print things wirelessly, but the scanned photos go to the computer it's hooked up to. So as I was starting to scan, I noticed some, what do you call them? Holes? Slots? Anyway, I noticed some places you could put a jump drive or a memory card. So I got a memory card and stuck it in there, scanned away, and transferred them to my computer! Simple!)

The summer of 1991 was busy with two little ones. Caleb was 4 1/2 and Megan was 18 months. We celebrated the 4th of July with Hubby's aunt and uncle and family in Kansas. (Who knew Caleb would get married in that town on July 4th 18 years later?!) Caleb wanted to know what the 4th of July was and when I told him it is our country's birthday he wanted a birthday cake. Hubby's aunt stuck a couple of birthday candles in the watermelon. How cute is that?

Speaking of cute! I just cannot get over how adorable this little sweetie was in her red, white and blue!
(Just look at that little belly sticking out!) I just want to squeeze that little one again!

We spent the rest of the summer doing fun things like feeding, (or was it chase?), some ducks.

Caleb gave Megan some rides around the basement in his trusty red laundry basket. Weee!

There was also some serious sunbathing that took place. Playing in a 8" deep plastic pool in the back yard is tiring business! Love, love, love Megan's bathing suit and her little bum sticking up in the air. :)

Me and my girl all ready for church. I'm loving my BIG read earrings here. I was the queen of matching earrings. The flowers in the background? Pretty sure Hubby gave them to me for our 7th anniversary. I carried yellow roses in our wedding.

 

It was a busy summer. Sleeping with her favorite baby named Amy was a necessity. She always tucked it under her arm like that.

Sometimes I wish I had jammies that snapped the top and bottom together. :) 

Fun, fun sweet memories.

Weekend Recap

It's Tuesday, but I can still do a Weekend Recap can't I? Of course I can! It's my blog and I can do what I want!

Believe it or not, we had company last weekend! Real company. And the best part? It was our daughter and son-in-law (and their puppy)!

We watched Charley play in the lake. He just loves to swim! (and he did leave the family of ducks alone.)

We watched Megan and Zach and Charley play.

(This looks like Zach is holding Megan up with just his arms,
but he really is supporting her with his legs, too.
He's not quite that super-human!)

Megan cut these flowers in our yard! I didn't even realize we had so many varieties. They are so pretty.

I think the funnest and sweetest part of the weekend was when Megan and Zach fixed dinner for us all on Saturday night! Yes, they came to visit us and fixed us dinner in our house! How sweet are they? It was such a blessing to us. They made a totally Thai meal. I sat at the kitchen island and watched and directed Megan around the kitchen since we've moved and she doesn't know her way around this kitchen at all. This was the appetizer and my favorite part of the meal, even though everything they made was scrumptious! In the picture: Julienned Mango, Cucumber and Carrots, Frizzled Shallots, and Shrimp marinated in lime zest, rice vinegar and I don't remember what else. It was sooo tasty!

We went to church together on Sunday and I was able to introduce my daughter to a woman I have met through a Tuesday morning Bible study I've been going to! I miss worshiping on Sundays with my girl. She's the best. And she married a pretty terrific guy, too!

Having their dog in our house was a new experience for us  non-pet people. It was fun since he is a good puppy (except when he decided to not go outside and use the yard and used our living room carpet instead...) and Megan and Zach do a great job of taking care of him. I thought it was pretty funny watching Charley slide around on the wood floors and how worried he was when everyone else was outside. He kept pacing back and forth looking out various windows trying to find his buddy, Zach. Now we have nose prints on the windows. :)

A side note here. We don't like to do garage sales, but had some pretty big things we wanted to get rid of. So we (and when I say "we" I mean hubby, of course) put a coffee table, end table, giant speakers, lawn chairs, and an area rug on the front lawn with signs on them. We sold every single one! Now we are $74 richer! Woohoo! Now that's my kind of garage sale. :)

Maple Pecan Scones (Pioneer Woman)

**Another great addition from Megan for our Cooking Through PW Cooks Adventure.**

Let's start out this post by explaining a little bit of my pickiness about scones. I think it comes from working at a coffee shop in high school that had the best scones. I have no idea what it is that makes them so perfect. I can't stand an overly crumbly scone. Or one that tastes just like a cookie. Or one that has virtually no taste at all. Needless to say, when I embarked on the adventure of making these scones I was excited but ready to be disappointed.

Here's the ingredients:
I used 1% milk instead of whole milk for our health's sake.

Dry ingredients:
Cut in the butter. I always get excited when I get to cut the butter into something because that usually means the final product will be full of buttery goodness. Yum!
Cream and Egg
Everything mixed together ready for formation into scones. Ree said not to worry if your mixture is very crumbly. But I felt like mine was a little too crumbly because I ran into some issues later on.
Form the pile of crumbs into a dough with your hands and then roll it out.

The process of taking the cut scones off of the cutting board and transferring them to the baking sheet was ridiculous to say the least. Most of them crumbled all over the place. I was worried at this point. But I took some time and reformed the scones with my hands after they were on the baking sheet. That worked really well. Next time, though, I need to figure out a way to make them less crumbly at this point because I wasted way too much dough. Probably 1.5 scones worth.

Here's the aftermath:
Now the best part. The icing. This icing is especially delicious because it has maple flavoring and a splash of coffee in it.

Wonderfully golden (but not overdone) scones!
The finished product:

I decided to do a little experiment. I love warm scones so I assumed these would be best straight out of the oven. The one I ate straight out of the oven was too crumbly for my taste. It needed to have more integrity in the dough. The recipe technically says to wait until they're completely cool, put icing on, and then eat. Surprisingly, the cooled scone was much better. I think the ingredients were able to bond together more and form a less crumbly scone. Perfect amount of sweetness in the scone and the icing.

Seriously delicious. I will make these again for sure.