Guard Your Mind Hodgepodge

If it’s Wednesday it’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thanks to Joyce From This Side of the Pond for the questions.

1. What’s something bizarre you’ve seen or heard recently? 

Oh boy! I’m going to hubby for this question. He says, “that people can convince themselves to believe what is not true, and claim it and argue it and become immovable when confronted with the actual truth.”

My thoughts and a Bible verse;

Satan is the father of lies and is an influencer in our world.

John 8:44  “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

2. July 18th is National Sour Candy Day. Who knew? Do you like sour candies or other foods with ‘sour’ flavors?

I can enjoy some of these sour treats occasionally.

Kimchi, rhubarb, gooseberries, tamarind, dill pickles, sour cherries, sauerkraut, cranberries, and  grapefruit…of the sour foods listed which is your favorite? 

Kosher dill pickles!

3. Share a favorite memory of an aunt or uncle. 

This is a tough one for me. I really didn’t have endearing relationships with any of my aunts or uncles on either side of the family growing up. I never had a meaningful conversation with any of my aunts and uncles. There was a language barrier that didn’t help the situation. One nice memory I have is of my Uncle Alex making pancakes when I stayed overnight with my cousins and I enjoyed them. I grew up in a culture and generation where we were ‘seen and not heard’. The kids (cousins) played outside while the adults had conversation inside.

4. How would you describe your ability to manage stress? 

I don’t have the ability on my own to manage stress. I have to go to the Bible and remember that Almighty God is in control and I can trust Him with my life and the lives of my loved ones. Prayer, music, and encouraging conversation and remembering the promises of God help me. Not listening to a lot of news helps, too.

Things in this world are stressful. Studying the Truth is a lifeline for me.

I’m studying Ephesians, a book of the Bible during the summer months. One of the resources I’m using is a commentary of Ephesians by John MacArthur. This is a quote from the commentary I made note of;

“Macbeth pessimistically declared that history is “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 3.3.19)

“Apart from the wisdom and insight God provides His children, such a hopeless conclusion is inescapable. But history belongs to God, not to the puny plans of man or the perverse power of Satan. History is written and directed by the Creator, who will see it through to the fulfillment of His own ultimate purpose—the summing up of all things in Christ. He designed His great plan in the ages past; He now sovereignly works it out according to His divine will; and in the fulness of the times He will complete and perfect it in His Son, in whom it will forever operate in righteous harmony and glorious newness along with all things in the heavens and things upon the earth.”

5. What do you think about when you let your mind wander? 

Usually my mind goes to the next thing coming up because I spend so much time in planning that when my mind wanders it goes over some of the things and tweaks some of those plans…weird. If I have my good music and hymns on during the day in the background while I’m doing other things, my mind will wander to some of the great lyrics I’ve heard.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

We are continuing to walk a few days of the week and on Sunday we finally tried walking out from our own front door down the road and back again. We generally avoid walking on our road because it is a very busy road with several large trucks hauling logs, etc., most days. On Sundays the larger trucks aren’t on the road so we felt safe enough to try it. We made it safely thirty minutes out and thirty minutes back very early in the morning before we got ready for our church services.

Cupping and Clapping…

…the unique movement of a butterfly.

 

 

 

This Tiger Swallowtail entertained me with movements around the garden.

We had a business meeting right after church on Sunday July 16th for our membership to vote on whether to call the Pastor Candidate who we were introduced to a few weeks ago. Our church constitution calls for a vote of the membership to determine to proceed in this step. The vote was counted and we overwhelmingly voted yes to proceed with the call. It was a relief to us that the vote went this way. Finding a new Pastor/Shepherd can take months or over a year. To find a candidate so quickly was a gift from God and we thank God for His care for us in this way.

Pastor Kraig between his son and daughter on the right and his wife on the left between two sons. Their adult children will not be re-locating with them as they all are busy with careers, schooling and service in other parts of the country.

We’ll be welcoming Pastor and Laura at the end of the Summer months.

The Fawn

Gimpy mama and the fawn appeared a couple weeks ago and since then they both have spent time in our back acres. The doe has a broken leg and limps so she gets more grace from us on what we let her nibble on our property. We put water out on these hot days.  Healthier deer get run off when they come after our flowers.

Fawns are so much fun to watch when they are on the go.

Our quail population has increased with baby quail looking like teenagers and a whole new batch of baby quail, too.

We are looking forward to the week ahead. What is new in your neck of the woods?

Lord, It Belongs Not to My Care ~ Hymn

Lord, It Belongs Not to My Care

Lord, it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.

If life be long, I will be glad,
That I may long obey;
If short, yet why should I be sad
To welcome endless day?

Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than He went through before;
He that into God’s kingdom comes
Must enter by this door.

Come, Lord, when grace hath made me meet
Thy blessèd face to see;
For if Thy work on earth be sweet,
What will Thy glory be!

Then shall I end my sad complaints
And weary, sinful days
And join with the triumphant saints
That sing my Savior’s praise.

My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But ‘tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him.

Words: Richard Baxter

Skillet Pierogi Reuben

We enjoy watching a Saturday morning show on the Food Network called The Kitchen and this idea was shared on the show by Jeff Mauro. We tried it on a Sunday afternoon and enjoyed it. It’s easy to make with a frozen version of Polish Pierogies or you could make it with your own homemade Savory Wareneki/Vareniki. You can use corned beef or pastrami for this recipe. We used pastrami.
Ingredients:
  • 12 frozen Polish cheese or potato Pierogies or homemade savory Wareniki/Vareniki
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup thinly sliced onions
  • 2 cups sauerkraut, drained
  • 2 or more cups grated Swiss cheese
  • 1/2 pound pastrami or corned beef cut in a 1/4 inch slice and then cut in bitesize cubes
  • Thousand Island Dressing to drizzle
  • 1/4 cup minced chives
Method:
  1. Par boil and simmer pierogi in a cast iron pan or oven safe pan until they are al dente in salted water, drain and shake off all excess water, wipe off pan and return to stove top.
  2. Turn on the oven broiler with the the rack set on the lowest level.
  3. In same pan melt butter and add the drained pierogi back to the pan.
  4. Brown on both sides, turn off heat.
  5. Add the onion evenly over the pierogi.
  6. Add the sauerkraut evenly over the onion and pierogi.
  7. Add the grated cheese evenly over the sauerkraut, onion and pierogi.
  8. Add the cubed pastrami or corned beef on top.
  9. Place the pan under the broiler on the lowest rack and watch carefully until the cheese melts and bubbles.
  10. Remove the pan and sprinkle the chives evenly on top.
  11. Serve with Thousand Island Dressing drizzled on top.
  12. Serves 4.
You can serve this with a salad or fresh veggies to round off your meal.

Truth for Today #63

Thursday July 13th

On Thursdays my posts will include verses that stood out in my readings from the Bible during the week. One, two, three or maybe more. If you have a verse/verses that you read during the week and would like to share, leave it/them in the comments and I will add it/them to the post. Let’s dig deep in God’s Truth again this year! 

Ephesians 2:1-7

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience–among whom we all once lived in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

From Vera:

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭43‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.”

From Karen:

Isaiah 5:21

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Simple Pleasures Hodgepodge

Jo is back this week with some new questions for us to ponder for Hodgepodge Wednesday.

1. Is your life simple? Elaborate. 

For the most part my life is simple since I am retired and do not have every day responsibilities. The only set in stone activities in a given week are prayer meeting on Wednesday mornings and church services on Sunday. The rest of our schedule is free for us to fill in the blanks with weekly keep up of our home and property and any church activities that involve the church kitchen. We typically have our Colville kids over for an evening with dinner once a week. We will throw in a card night with two other couples maybe once a month. We always welcome overnight company that happen to travel our way. We just started up walking on the Rotary trail again with a 3x a week goal. We want to add in 3 days of strength training for our arms/shoulders.

2. What simple pleasure are you are currently enjoying?  

I enjoy summer fruit, especially nectarines.

3. Travel by…

Plane or go on a cruise? Plane

Walk or ride a bike? Walk

Swim or ski? Swim, although I’m not a fan of putting on a bathing suit these days.

Ocean or mountains? This is a tough one. I like to walk along the ocean and drive through the mountains.

4. What’s the last thing you bought online that you really loved? 

The latest is this ‘Sing’ Cd by Keith and Kristyn Getty which I’m enjoying but recently we ordered our new internet service totally online and installed everything to get it up and running. We are so happy with the purchase of Starlink and the improved quality of everything to do with the internet.

5. What’s your ‘back in my day we__________’ story? 

Back in my day girls had to wear a dress or skirt and blouse to school. Those dresses or skirts could not be shorter than knee length. If our girls vice principal thought a skirt or dress might be too short, she’d have us kneel and if the skirt or dress did not hit the floor we’d be in trouble! Photo is of some of my high school friends. I’m taking the photo.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

These two have super powers! Love the slippers they find when they come over for dinner with their parents! Super Heroes love slippers! It makes me smile and thank our Lord when I find those slippers under the dinner table.

Walking Again

Last Friday we got up with the birds and tackled the Rotary Trail. Started our walk at 5:30 A.M.

This was something new on the trail path. Different languages on each side of the post saying May Peace Prevail on Earth. Nice sentiment but, with all the ungodliness, unrighteousness, lying and suppressing of the truth going on these days, I can’t see that happening anytime soon.

We have finally scheduled walking again in anticipation of another trip across the pond. We will be flying in and out of Dublin this time with a hopper flight to England, too. We are going with our oldest and youngest and their spouses. While in England we will stay to the North visiting York and the more of Yorkshire. From Yorkshire we will head to Liverpool for the Liverpool v. West Ham game before hopping back to Dublin. Our youngest and hubby are staying in Ireland for the full time we are on the trip. They have a 6 day tour and then will be on their own until we all fly home from Dublin. This trip will be in September.

Any suggestions for which villages/towns to visit in Yorkshire?

Speak, I Pray Thee, Gentle Jesus! ~ Hymn

Speak, I Pray Thee, Gentle Jesus

Speak, I pray Thee, gentle Jesus!
O, how passing sweet Thy words,
Breathing o’er my troubled spirit
Peace which never earth affords.
All the world’s distracting voices,
All th’enticing tones of ill,
At Thy accents mild, melodious,
Are subdued, and all is still.

Tell me Thou art mine, O Savior,
Grant me an assurance clear;
Banish all my dark misgivings,
Still my doubting, calm my fear.
O, my soul within me yearneth
Now to hear Thy voice divine;
So shall grief be gone for ever,
And despair no more be mine.

Words: William Williams, 1717-1791)

Translated from Welsh to English