Weekending

 Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

I´ll back up to Thursday- we had an evening out... It wasn´t a late night or anything. It was sort of a work thing? One of Donnie´s clients invited a few people over to his back yard for smoked meat/pizza in the backyard oven(s) (he has two pizza ovens in his backyard!). He´s the CEO of a local company that provides high end outdoor kitchen and outdoor entertaining spaces and his backyard was like a working showplace. The food was incredible as were the views- multiple water features as well as fire features were part of the stunning back yard.  We talked to many local businessmen whom Donnie knows who were there as well. It ended out being more of a guys thing- there was lots of bourbon, all the smoked meats, and there was an absence of sweets and women (there were a couple of us wives!). Anyway, when we arrived home, we decided to walk into town for ice cream for dessert. Donnie put a lot of money in the tip jar which may explain my over filled Arctic Swirl. Speaking of Donnie and money, I will never complain about the amount of money that he spent on our backyard patio. Now that I´ve seen with my two eyes how a backyard could be done extravagantly, I won´t complain about the cost of ours :).

Friday- I woke up at 2:45 am and was completely wide awake. I got up and read and then went out for a run around 5:00 or so. Almost as soon as I started running, I noticed something shocking. I felt like I was flying. I mean, I wasn´t running at my normal snail´s pace. You know how I complained that my new watch verbally tells me my mile pace and how I found that annoying? One of the main reasons is that I did not like hearing my slow pace out loud... I mean, I´m thankful that I can run. I know that many can´t and I don´t want to take movement for granted. But my ¨running¨ was about the slowest propulsion forward that was not anything besides walking or skipping. My movements were running but barely. 

So this run felt incredible and I couldn´t wait to hear my one mile time from my amazing watch (yes, my attitude about hearing my time changed!!). Sure enough the voice proclaimed a mile pace that was around one minute faster than the runs I´d been doing for months. WHAT? And the second mile was the same. Almost just as fast. Not fast per se but, again, faster than I´d been going. The third and fourth miles felt good, too. It was the first good run I´d had since well before my surgery.

Anyway, it was just such a good run and I felt like I had the proverbial runners high all day. I read the news with interest, as usual. Losing a job due to lying and poor job performance is not tantamount to the loss of freedom of speech. And the former did not happen because the latter has been taken away! Lies led to outrage led to complaints combined with poor ratings = a job loss. It was not the working of a tyrannical government, Jimmy & Co.

I met my brother for lunch in Troy. We had a good lunch together at Outback.

I thought this was odd- the fried shrimp option had more calories than the grilled shrimp option. I opted for the fewer calorie shrimp entree...

Due to my saved calories, we split this dessert. 

I stopped at Kroger on my way home and spotted this sale. Oh man- the savings! And I just happen to love gummy candy.

So I bought a few bags 😀😁😃

Donnie came home from work a little early and we both took cat naps. Then we picked up food to go and ate outside on the patio and relaxed the rest of the evening. 

Saturday, I woke up early and had another really good run so that was great. I didn´t have plans until the evening and only had one errand to run so I was home quite a bit. 

I´ve been inspired to read better and to be more committed to truth- from Biblical truths to cultural ones. Charlie Kirk died for stating truths that a violent person who had listened to and believed lies could not handle. The Bible and John MacArthur are good starting points for better reading.  I´d started this book a couple of months ago but put it down. I picked it back up on Saturday.  

I wanted to make marina sauce to take with me the next day to give to my sister (I was heading out of town) but I didn´t have quite enough ripe tomatoes for a large batch. So I added peppers to make the marina more of a veggie marinara.

It turned out good!

I also cut up peppers from the garden to make hot pepper jelly.

I had to run out to Wal-mart and I found these little jars to use for the jelly. These jars could not be any cuter and are perfect for giving away jelly to several people. (I´d made one batch earlier in the season that I gave away but I divided it into thirds based on the size of jars that I had.)

Saturday evening, I went to a fundraiser for our high school cheerleaders. It was a bingo bag event. Lots of great bags were available to lucky bingo game winners. We didn´t win any of the bags (there were hundreds of people at the event- winning was a huge longshot!) but my friend did win one of the raffle baskets. It was fun even though tense

Sunday morning, I got up and headed north to Indiana to see some of my family. My sister was in town :). I brought these t shirts for us to wear. They are girls sized XXL. I had purchased them last year for a photo shoot with my girls who were both home on the same weekend for fall break. 

I couldn´t find the exact same one for MG but was still able to get her a jack o lantern one. Her interest in a photo shoot with her aunts ranged from not interested...

...to not at all interested

We still had fun playing with MG...

We walked around the pretty college campus where my brother works. 

Other than that, we just hung out together. I spent Sunday night in Indiana and then left for home on Monday morning.

On the drive home, I listened to Erika Kirk´s eulogy at Charlie´s memorial service. She did an amazing job and I hope to convince my kids to listen to it or watch it. 

I also listened to our church´s service that was streamed on Sunday when I couldn´t attend church. Donnie´s uncle texted me that I would not want to miss hearing and it and he was correct. One of the things that I like about our pastor is that he is willing to speak the truth of the gospel. He won´t avoid saying the truth about sin in general or even certain kinds of sin because in today´s post Christian world it may offend someone. Sin is offensive, it separates us from God, and it needs to be addressed. Efforts of Satan to thwart the truth are on the rise now more than ever, it seems, in the West since so many have turned away from God. 

I want to highlight a few points the pastor made in his sermon. We´re in a sermon series on the book of Judges. This week´s Bible text dealt with Abimelech rise to power in Israel (chapter nine in the book of Judges). Most of the message dealt with the spiritual lessons that we can learn from everything that led to Abimelech´s accession to power in Israel. The pastor included some thoughts based on recent events since the lessons from the events in Judges 9 have been relevant since they occurred. The Bible is timely for all the ages- the value of its lessons does not diminish with age.

    He pointed out that the celebrations of Charlie´s death reveal a stark spiritual sickness.

    He mentioned a recent Rutgers poll that revealed 56% of left of center voters said that the murder of President Trump would be somewhat justified.

    He posits that those who are complicit in the radical indoctrination of our youth- everyone from those in education to politicians to actors- are complicit in the crimes that radicals carry out to due to their indoctrination. I agree with him on this. In light of indoctrination attempts, he advocates for keeping a close watch on what media your children consume, what´s being taught at school, etc. 

    He said this- I think I´m quoting it correctly, ¨When institutions prioritize ideology over truth, danger is the result.¨

I agree with him completely and am grateful to have found a church where the pastor speaks truth. The sermon that I´m referring to can be listened to here. If you´re local and looking for a church, the name is Community Harvest and it´s located in Germantown. 

I had a nice time away but was happy to return home :). It was raining which we needed so badly. I´m happy for the plants, especially the vegetable plants as they are in the twilight of their life in the garden this year.