Friday 5.5

 1. We had a nice Labor Day. What we did in the morning is anyone's guess. It was only three days ago but I can't remember what we all did. I think that I slept in a bit which was wonderful, then maybe I ran? I don't know. I did make a dessert to take to a get together we were going to later. I made a no bake eclair cake. There's no "cake" whatsoever about the dessert though cake is in the name. It's just pudding mixed with whipped topping, layered among graham cracker and then topped with store bought chocolate frosting (the latter is how Donnie's family likes it!). The graham crackers get soggy; astonishingly, that's not considered a "bug" rather a feature. Soggy graham crackers are a hard pass for me and I don't care for store bought frosting. I like plenty of low brow desserts- I'm not completely a dessert snob- but this one doesn't do it for me.

My sister in law went to a nice bakery in the Cincinnati area called the Cheesecakery (a fabulous name for a bakery!!) and bought some incredible chocolate covered cheesecake squares and delicious chocolate chip cookies. She gave me two large cookies to take home and what do you know but that they both fell on the floor in our kitchen when I was taking them out of the bag. You'd better believe I considered the five second rule as a way to salvage them. However, as the head cleaner (/not cleaner!) here at Chez Rineer I'm quite aware that our kitchen floor, while swept, had way too many germs on it to seriously contemplate eating something that had spent any amount of time on the floor, a short duration of time notwithstanding.  She also gave us some chocolate covered cheesecake to take home that I managed to keep off of the floor. YUM!

Anyway, I veered to desserts but now I'll go back to the get together at Donnie's sister and brother in law's house. We had a really nice time there, catching up and eating good food. We celebrated Donnie's birthday as well as Donnie's sister's and husband's birthdays. Lots to celebrate!

Lots of guys! Including Jacob! It was great to see him. We hadn't seen him in several weeks. 

Donnie's sister and mom

Donnie and his dad

2. I had a really odd thing happen with blogger on Thursday and that was I couldn't load any pictures to the blog post that I was working on. I didn't get an error message- it looked like I was able to add photos but they never appeared on my draft post. I spent a large amount of time troubleshooting- nothing AI told me to do worked. Finally I found a work around, hence photos on the blog, but it cost me some money. I decided to try to add photos from my Google account photos app but I couldn't due to not having enough Google storage. So I bought some storage and was then able to post pictures from my phone to my post using photos stored on the Google photos app.

Ok, I just tried to add pictures the way I normally do it and it works fine. UGH! I'll probably keep paying for the storage, though. I do like how my photos are arranged in the app. Blogger problems are annoying! Last Friday I couldn't comment on any blogger blog posts. 

3. I met my brother for lunch one day after work. We had a nice time and good meal at Applebee's in Troy, Ohio. Well, I only snacked on our appetizer, fried mozzo sticks, as I'd eaten at school earlier in the day. 

4. The anniversary of 9/11 and 9/10- the one year mark since Charlie Kirk was murdered  were both this week. The events made for somber reading and reflection for me. I'd try to pen words to reflect my thoughts but I'm not super eloquent and in a post where I lament chocolate chip cookies falling on the floor, I don't feel like my own words would add much of anything significant to recollecting the events. 

I'm going to quote some passages from an article written by Greg Laurie. I'm going to quote it but my quotes will be selective to save space:

"Today marks one year since Charlie Kirk's murder....CK was a uniquely gifted communicator, using his platform to educate, challenge and even preach the gospel. He was bold and fearless. Tragically, he was murdered in front of millions in cold blood. There is not getting away from that heartbreaking truth.

When I think of Charlie, I'm reminded of another man who died so young. Stephen, the first martyr of the early church. Stephen died boldly proclaiming the gospel... they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, 'Lord Jesus receive my spirit.'

When Stephen died, he went straight to Heaven. Charlie did too. The moment we take our last breath on earthy, we take our first breath in Heaven.

After Stephen's death, something remarkable happened. Acts 8 tell us that 'a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem,' scattering believers throughout Judea and Samaria. That might sound like a bad thing, but God used it for good.

Charlie was bold about his faith to the very end, and so should we be. Our reaction to Charlie's reveals something. It will rally the reluctant and reveal the complacent. Some will rise. Some will shrink. The faithful will rise. The lukewarm will fade.

There is one more detail about Stephen's story that we shouldn't dismiss. On the day Stephen was murdered, one of the men standing there played a role in his death. His name was Saul- a young, rising Pharisee whose heart only grew harder as he hunted down followers of Jesus...on the road to Damascus, Jesus Himself spoke to his hardened heart, and Saul believed. The man who helped persecute Christians became the apostle Paul, one of the greatest evangelists the world has ever known."

The entirety of the article can be read here.  Also, last year, on September 11, I wrote a blog post about some of my thoughts regarding Charlie's murder. That post can be read here. 

5. I am currently reading a book by one of Charlie's mentors that is really good and I plan to read a book that Carla mentioned on a Hodgepodge post about a young man who saved many lives on 9/11. He died on 9/11 as a direct result of saving others' lives. We can and should learn from people who are courageous. I am interested in learning more about the young man who paid the highest price to lead others to safety on 9/11. 

5.5 This week I appreciated the beauty of nature...

...and the cleverness/play on words of a large music company called Sweetwater. Every time they send an order out to a customer, they include a little baggie of candy (presumably due to the "sweet" in their name?). Donnie hadn't ordered anything from them in a while (he buys musical instruments/parts/accouterments for his musical hobbies in waves) but he did this week. Receiving a little bag of candy was so sweet!