Misty Minnesota Morning

I was up at 5 this morning and decided to make a cup of coffee and go outside to admire the misty sunrise. Sort of like a Folgers commercial.

Yes, I can upload pictures now! I think I've saved myself a trip to the computer repair shop! What did I do to "fix" my computer? I emptied the recycle bin!! Twelve thousand plus items! That freed up 5 GB of disk space. Ha ha. I don't think I've ever emptied it. At least not in many years. Gee whiz. Anyway, Yay!

And here are a few photos I didn't get a chance to post before.

Granny Marigold asked what my wild bergamot looks like. Here it is! :)

And GM also wanted to see my bird nest in a jar.

Here are pictures of those books I got at the garage sale (in living color).

 And a few ATCs I just sent in for the Foreign Text swap. The cards just had to include a bit of foreign language text.

So, this is just a little catching up post to get some of these photos posted. I hope to stay current on deleting photos from My Pictures after putting them on the blog. I'm getting thousands of photos on there and many of them aren't photos I want to save forever. Like pics of my books. Some things like ATCs and family stuff I'll keep, but some things I just take  pictures of to put here and I don't necessarily want to save them. It's also time to transfer a lot of my photos to a separate hard drive for storage. (Sort of thinking out loud here.)

Happy Sunday, everyone!
Shalom!

Computer fix on Monday...

My computer guy said if I brought my laptop in early on Monday he could maybe have it done by the end of the day. So, that's the plan!

My MRI showed no problem with disks or pinched nerves in the neck area. On August 8th I'm going to a clinic in Bemidji for something called a nerve induction study. It involves attaching little electrodes on my arm and shoulder. They're trying to see if something is pinched in my shoulder or somewhere in my arm. Anyway, I'm glad there was no disk problem.

Josh ran a 5k this morning in our little town. It's part of our Muskie Days Festival. I accompanied him as his cheering section. It was a fun little morning jaunt and I got to visit with a few friends who were also cheering on family members. He ran it in a little over 22 minutes. There were several young folks, some I think were part of the cross-country team from the high school, who came in before him. But Josh did well competing against himself. This 5k is a fund-raiser for the cross-country team.

I donated a bunch of books to our free library box on the porch of the local ice cream shop. Then I drove to our neighboring town and saw a garage sale sign. Whoops! I brought home about the same number of books as I had gotten rid of! Since I can't post photos, here's a list. These ladies had an awesome collection!

*Book of Comforts-Elizabeth Goudge
*Chronicles of Fairacre-Miss Read
*Barbara Bush-Reflections
*The House on the Cliff-D.E. Stevenson
*Listening Valley-D.E. Stevenson
*Celia's House-D.E. Stevenson
*The Shepherd's Castle-George MacDonald
*The Highlander's Last Song-George MacDonald
*First Light-Thoene
*Second Touch-Thoene

I'm really glad to have some Miss Read books in my personal collection. I'm also looking forward to the Elizabeth Goudge book!

Well, enough text without photos for now! Hopefully, I can add  pictures with my next post. :)

Everyone have a great weekend!
Shalom!

Low disk space...

My computer is telling me I've used up almost all of my disk space on my hard drive (or whatever). I'm not surprised, since I've had this computer for 9 years. But I'm not taking chances on trying to do anything myself. I've clicked on the box that comes up where the computer offers to clear out some space for me, but it isn't enough to make much difference. So, I may need to take this to my computer geeks. Josh said he isn't confident about how to do it either. SO, that means I can't upload new photos right now. Shoot. I wanted to show you my little bird's nest in a jar! I found it in a little raspberry bush that had fallen over. The nest was empty and no sign of eggs. Very cute little nest.

Nathan's at the dentist having some teeth pulled. I'm praying a lot and so are his parents. There may be some laughing gas involved. Hopefully, all will go well.

Here's another picture from the grands visiting their other Grammy Lisa. This is Grampy Ken leading them on an expedition. (I thought I should at least put one photo in this post. This one was already uploaded, lol.)

I was really exhausted this morning, so I took a nap and feel better. I think I'll take the day off from walking in case I'm overdoing that. On my walk yesterday I felt very tired for about the last 3/4 of a mile. Kind of like I couldn't find the right place to focus in order to walk straight. I didn't have the energy I had when I started. I'm thinking it might be because I had a blended coffee (Micah treated me. What could I say?) on an empty stomach right before. Coffee does funny things to me. It doesn't energize me!

I went in for an MRI yesterday. Interesting experience. Checking out my neck/shoulder to see why my arm is still tingling. I should hear from the doctor eventually.

Still reading Trusting God in a Twisted World by Elisabeth Elliot. (It comes up under a slightly different title on Amazon. I think it's something like Reflections On Asking God Why, which is the subtitle on my copy.) I love her wisdom and dry humor.

I'm finding tons of wild bergamot on this little farm. I thought it was only the one little patch. Now I'm seeing lots out in the pasture. I think they're so pretty.

I didn't make this, but I thought it would add a splash of color. :)

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be visiting!
Shalom.

This is a test...

The grands were over at their "other grandparents" house this weekend and they made a little video. I'm going to post the URL here and see if you guys can see the video. Let me know. (You might have to be friends to see it. Not sure.) They're being silly while eating popcorn and sporting crocheted scarves. Other Grandma Lisa is a world-class crocheter. I'm glad someone is! (Yeah, it looks like I'm the only one who can watch the video. But I'll leave it here...just for me! :)

Grands

Micah and Adam went to a wedding. They took Thatcher with them, but these four played at the grandparents'.

 You can have a lot of fun with a hose and some frisbees!

Nathan is nine today! Josh, Jess and Nathan are headed to Bemidji so he can play at an arcade and pick out a new bike. I think they're going to pick up a cake and I have a few gifts for him when they get home. We keep birthdays pretty simple around here. But he's excited. :)

This is short and sweet. I think I need a nap already!

Stay cool!
Shalom!

Posting again so soon? Wow!

Another fine day in the upper half of Minnesota! A little rain earlier, and then this evening I did some lawn mowing, which I'm counting as my exercise for the day. :) Day before yesterday (Tues.) I walked 2 miles with a very steep hill part. I'm feeling it in my gluts the last two days. Somehow I missed walking yesterday. It seems like days just whiz by and I look at my calendar and see I haven't walked, and I thought I did! Anyway, I'm doing pretty well in that department.

I joined a PAT swap (Pick-a-Theme). As you all probably know, that means that there are several groups of 5 people. The group I joined has to hand-draw/hand-paint their cards. Each person requests a certain theme. So, we each end up making four cards. One for each member except ourselves. These are what I ended up making.

While walking next door to Micah's today I spied these flowers. Never knew they were there before!

I picked three and left one to hopefully drop some seeds.

 I've never seen Columbines in this stage of making seed pods. So cool!

Right next to these was a little raspberry bush full of berries. Forgot to take a picture, but I ate one of the berries. I was saving the rest to show Nathan. :)

Today is Audrey's birthday. She's eight! I gave her a pretty illustrated book of Enchanted Stories by Usborne. She's been reading chapter books like crazy, but said she missed having pictures to look at. The book I gave her has beautiful illustrations and lots of well known stories like The Secret Garden and many others. I also found an I Spy game that they really were having fun with. This evening they were going to the county fair and out to eat. She's quite a gal!

I just finished reading this book:

I made the mistake of taking it along to the physical therapist today to read while he had me hooked up to one of his gadgets. I was sitting next to a young man, and I was having a hard time not laughing out loud. I figured Tom Bodett must be so old he had probably gone on to glory by now. But it turns out he was only 30 years old when he wrote this book in 1986! He's my age! I'm glad to know such a nice man is probably still alive and kicking in Homer, Alaska. I marvel at how a 30 year old could have so much wisdom!

I'm also reading this book, and really loving it.

Just goes to show, you can find some good stuff at the library book sale!

In other news, Josh's car is dead as a door nail. So, now to figure out what to do. He'll have to pay it off and get another car somehow. Thankfully, he doesn't seem as stressed as he was, now that all is revealed. He's looking into options. Prayers appreciated.

I visited my doctor about the continuing tingling in my left arm, which remains even though my shoulder feels better. He's arranging for an MRI to see what's up. Did I tell you this already? I'm still awaiting a call from the hospital to set up an appointment. Meanwhile, I'll continue therapy.I'm not in great pain or anything. They just don't think I should go around with a tingling arm, I guess, lol.

Well, that's all I really had to say at the moment. And when you've said all you have to say you should probably stop talking, right?  Ha ha!

Thanks for stopping by, fine people.
Much shalom to you all!

A short one...I think.

I just wanted to post the ATC's I made out of the faux postage stamps I showed you a couple of days ago. And heeeere they are! I know. I know. They may not make total sense, but that seems to be the way of collage. Ha ha.

I mostly stayed home today. Josh and I are sharing my car, with his in the shop. He had an appointment for Nathan in town, so I stayed close to home, except for a trip into Nevis (3 miles; I drove) to pick up the mail and sit by the lake for a short while. It was hot and I guess I just wasn't feeling like it today, so I didn't stay long. It was pretty, though.

Just feeling sad, I guess about all the challenges in Josh's family. He's not sure what he'll do if they can't fix his car. But I know this isn't too big for God, and we're trying to keep that perspective. He will provide. Meantime, we do have a car to use, and I thank God for that. Aren't we spoiled in our country? We're so rich by the standards of most countries. Thank you Lord!

And Sully had a green smoothie! Ha ha. I had a little visit with Micah, Adam and family this afternoon. Ate a little pizza. I hadn't seen them for a day or two, except for the kids waving out their bedroom window. So, it was nice to hug everyone and watch their shenanigans. Kinda like a happy pill! :)

Well, that's all for now. I'm thinking about taking a walk. Hopefully it's cooled down out there!
Thanks for stopping by. Love y'all!
Shalom!

Tornado warnings and...

thunderstorm watches this evening. We kept an eye on things, prepared to invade Adam's dad's basement if necessary, but now it's a beautiful evening with blue skies and some pink bits of clouds.

I just remembered that I'd taken some pictures a couple of days ago. Do you see the little fellow in the upper right of this photo. He's our little hummingbird. That's his (or her) favorite perch. He/she seems dangerously exposed up there. There were a couple of hawks flying among my trees yesterday. Watch out, hummer!

And I caught a thief in the act. I think I'm going to stop putting the bird feed out. I'm mostly feeding the squirrel. I'll probably keep the suet out.

I bought a few things at the library book sale. I don't think I have pictures of everything, here. I've already incorporated them into my bookshelves, so I may show more later. Or not, lol.

I thought this was kind of sweet. This is from a book he wrote for his children, but never intended to have published. It was only published, with permission, after the death of his children. 

I got this little book, which is a history of some little town in Indiana. Why?

 Well, it contains some cool old pictures for my collage materials stash, but...

 ...mostly because it contained this old envelope which had some cool old stamps on it! More stuff for collage. There's even a letter inside! I know. I'm weird. I love old historical stuff like this.

This book is about decorative screens of all sorts. It looked interesting just to look through. These books were all from the 10 cent room, and everything was half-price on top of that!

This old cookbook has several full-color, 70's style pages like the cover. Those will make good artwork for ATCs.

You know how I love foreign language text. Well, this tattered old book is in Norwegian! The title translates as, "Do not hug a miserable in the gate", lol. I found this in a box of freebies. Had to give it a home.

 Some others that I found. Every so often I get rid of my copy of War and Peace. Then, later, I get another copy. Have any of you read it? Is it worth the time? I got the Kinfolk book to add to my Pearl Buck collection. I'm not sure I like her that much. I've only read one or two of her books in the past. I got the Father Brown book because I've watched the TV version and I know it's nothing like what Chesterton would come up with. So, I'm curious to see how this compares.

I actually follow Patsy Clairmont on Facebook! She's a grey-haired little old lady now, but she has lots of good spiritual insights. I like her. I thought I might like this book other than the icky artwork on the cover, ha ha. I hadn't read this Corrie ten Boom book, I don't think. And, MK, I found this little book of selections from Gift From the Sea. It seemed like a good way to see if I want to read more by Anne Lindbergh.

Then a couple of little, old books.

 My bookshelves are getting full. I try to cull books now and then, and I usually donate books back to the library after I read them. So, hopefully I can keep things under control.


My current read is this one. Yep. Back to the smarmy Christian/British/historical romances. Pure escapism of the most innocent kind. I need that these days. ;) I went through a Julie Klassen phase a while back where I read all of her novels. They are very similar to this one. They're published by the same company (Bethany House) and the cover art is the same style. This is the first book I've read by this author and I like her style. But she does copy some of Julie Klassen's little phrases, which bugs me. It's so flagrant. Everyone's always "biting back a smile" or some such thing. (That bugged me in Julie's books because she used it way too often. What a critic am I!) Otherwise, it's a nice bit of entertainment.

Josh just got his car back from the shop. It cost a pretty penny to "fix" it. Now something else is wrong, so he and Adam hauled it back into town tonight. Praying it's something simple. Life. It's always throwing you curve balls!

The newest fad in ATC-land is Faux Postage Stamps. I made these for a swap. I'll have to make decorated ATC cards to attach them to. These stamps are 1"x1" or 1"x1-1/2" approximately.

Here's a sample of what I mean by attaching them to an ATC. I didn't make this one.

Okay. Probably more than you wanted to know about faux stamps!

Hazel and Audrey (with cousin Cali in the middle) helped their "other Grandma Lisa" with some strawberry slicing. I call her "the fun Grandma". She always has something fun for them to do.

It's past my bedtime, so I'll say adieu for now. Thanks for listening!
Shalom!