Thank you, Microsoft ClipartFOOD FOR THOUGHT - A DEVOTIONALSHARING THE JOY
Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Look to the Lord and His strength;
seek His face always.
~~ 1 Chronicles 16:10-11 ~~God intends that His joy should become our joy. He intends that we, His children, should share His love, His joy, and His peace. Yet sometimes, amid the inevitable hustle and bustle of life here on earth, we don't feel much like sharing. So we forfeit, albeit temporarily, God's joy as we wrestle with the challenges of everyday life.
If your heart is heavy, open the door of your soul to your Heavenly Father. When you do, He will renew your spirit. And if you already have the joy of Christ in your heart, share it freely. When you discover ways to make your joy become their joy, you will have discovered a wonderful way to say, "I love you" to your family, to your friends, and most especially, to your God.
A joyful heart is like a sunshine
of God's love, the hope of eternal happiness,
a burning flame of God. And if we pray,
we will become that sunshine of God's love,
in our own home, the place where we live,
and in the world at large. ~~ Mother TeresaA Woman of Prayer - 365 Daily Devotions, Freeman-Smith LLC, PublisherTHE WEEK IN REVIEW
I love Fridays. Friday has become my favorite day of the week. It's the only day of the week that I have both my grandchildren here with me. Avery is in a loving daycare home during the week. Cameron started going to Nancy when he was barely two and Avery started six months ago, at about a year and a half.
I balked of course. I didn't want my grandchildren in daycare when I'm right here, three doors down, and available. But my daughter Krissy knew they needed to learn to interact with other children, to be ready for preschool. And she was right. Half the little children in Cameron's preschool class still cry every morning when mommy drops them off. He hugs them and comforts them, every morning. On the very first day of school, Cameron just marched right in and decided he loves school and my word, everyone in that whole school knows him and loves him. School is one of his favorite things in the whole world. He looks so stinkin' cute when he leaves with his Cars backpack every morning. :-)
So my daughter was right and I was wrong and I can assure you, you won't hear that coming out of my mouth very often!
But Fridays, they're all mine. I see Cam every morning. Papa takes him to school and picks him up three hours later and takes him to Nancy. But Friday is often the only day of the week I even see my little Avery.
So we've established quite a Friday routine. Both kids get excited about coming to my house for that day. Friday is "Happy Meal Day." When Rob picks Cameron up at noon, they go to McDonald's and bring home happy meals for lunch. It's the one day a week they're allowed to have fast food and it's a treat.
Avery has me and Papa all to herself Friday morning while Cam's at school, and just about the time he gets home and we all have lunch, she's ready for her nap. She still takes a two hour nap every day - Cameron sure as heck doesn't!
But...Avery's naptime is Cameron's computer time and oh my word, he starts bugging me before she's even finished her lunch, to put her down for her nap. lol He knows he and I can't sit at this computer when she's awake and loose in the house somewhere. She's such a busy little thing, I'd never ever let her out of my sight for two seconds.
I found a wonderful web site for kids Cameron's age. He's four. It's called
Starfall and it teaches kids his age phonics and beginning reading. I discovered the site in an article in Woman's Day Magazine last fall. The site was created by the people who founded BlueMountain.com, the on line greeting card company. Wonderful web site and fun, fun.
So we play that for half an hour and then he gets down to some serious farming and fishing. He LOVES to feed and sell fish in FishVille and he loves, loves, loves cranking up the red tractor in FarmVille and harvesting crops. He also loves to change my avatar's hair to bright blue, but that's another story. I just let him have at it. I always make sure I have both games set up so there are fish to feed and sell and crops to harvest. It's such a hoot to sit here with him in my lap and watch him have fun on the computer. For such a little guy, his computer skills are simply amazing.
Meantime, little Avery gave us a scare this past week. She's been battling what we thought, at first, was a diaper rash. It turns out it's some kind of topical bacterial infection. It took two trips to the doctor before he finally figured out what was going on. So she's been on new prescriptions, a steroid cream and an oral antibiotic.
Friday morning I was changing her diaper and realized that she was covered, head to toe, all over her little body, with red spots. I truly panicked, called Krissy at work, and said, "Avery has measles!" I swear, in spite of her vaccinations, I knew for sure she had measles. So Kris left work, rushed here, picked her up and took her to the doctor immediately. They got her in right away.
Not measles. Something called Id syndrome, which apparently can happen when such a tiny little person's body is overwhelmed with steroids and antibiotics. I'd never even heard of that. Good grief, it scared me! She's getting better every day. She's got super sensitive skin and we really have to stay on top of keeping her dry and clean.
So my Fridays can be a little crazy, but you know, I love them. A lot.
SOME GREAT READINGI love low country authors. Mary Alice Monroe is one of my new favorites. I love her books almost as much as I love my library card, which is one of my most treasured possessions. This past week, I read two of her books. Both of them were, on the surface, about subjects I wouldn't have thought I'd be interested in. Shrimping and the men who do that job, and of all things, women who fly fish.
Obviously, the books cover much deeper subjects. I thought I'd share them with you and I can assure you, both books are wonderful. I highly recommend them.
From
Mary Alice Monroe's web site:

On an otherwise ordinary day, in a small shrimping village off the coast of South Carolina, a boat goes missing. The entire town rallies as all are mobilized to find the lost vessel. Throughout the course of one day, flashbacks of Bud Morrison, the captain on board, and Carolina, his wife, reveal the happier days of a once-thriving shrimping industry juxtaposed with the memories of their long term marriage.

Mia Landan is recovering from breast cancer in a mountain cabin near Asheville, NC, when she discovers the journal of a sensational fly fisher of the 1920s, Kate Watkins. The inspiring words of a woman she never knew finally lure Mia from her shell to connect once more with the world around her. As she learns to fish, she uncovers secrets that span generations--secrets that have the power to change not only her life, but the lives of those in her new community.
A SPECIAL TREATI didn't have to cook tonight. Krissy surprised me last night by showing up with our Sunday dinner. For a girl who avoided the kitchen and everything to do with the kitchen, especially washing dishes (we didn't have a dishwasher), like the plague when she was a teen, she amazes me. She's constantly trying new recipes. Last night she made chicken enchiladas. OK, I know. Chicken enchiladas. Yawn. But hers have cream cheese in them! The recipe made a lot more than she and Andy and the kids could eat and the one thing I will say is still weird about my daughter and all things cooking related is that she absolutely under no circumstances does leftovers.
I LIVE on leftovers. But she cannot abide reheated food. So she just showed up out of the blue with a whole dish of the enchiladas they couldn't eat. And let me tell you, they are WONDERFUL. I called her a little while ago and said, "I need that recipe! Blog! You know?"
The moment she brings me a copy of the recipe, I'll be sharing it with you. Wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Truly delicious.
A LAST THOUGHT (or two)
Mandy calls me every Sunday. How I miss her. How I wish my other daughter lived here and not just far enough away that we only see each other maybe four times a year. I'll never get used to it. Never.
But speaking of food, she told me that her husband, Aaron, is reading a book about eating healthy and of course I can't remember the name of it right now and I'm not going to stop typing and call her, but...it's all about the way we eat in this country. I do remember that she said the author says half the food Americans eat isn't even really food. It's so "processed" that it's more like an edible science experiment. lol
So she and Aaron went on a "whole foods" grocery shopping trip today. They do their weekly grocery shopping together because they're both really into cooking.
OK. That's a lie. HE'S really into cooking! She's really into HIM cooking. lol
Anyway, their goal was to not buy a single thing that wasn't just pure food. Nothing processed.
She told me that it took them hours. She also told me that "rice" is only one of the FIVE ingredients listed on a bag of white rice. They bought brown rice. The only ingredient listed on a bag of brown rice is "brown rice." Interesting conversation. But she said they love the whole "whole foods" thing and will not buy anything processed, ever again. Hmmmmm.
It's still cold, gray and gloomy here. I tell you, I am highly sick of this winter. This had better be a fluke, this awful winter, or I tell you, Florida or Arizona is sounding better and better every day.
Another lie. I'd never in a million years move that far away from my kids and their kids. But I tell you, I want it to be spring!
Some of my blogging friends have had some pretty amazing and unusual winter weather this past week. All of y'all posting your snow cream recipes and photos just warms my heart. :-)
And that's good. Because the only part of me that's been remotely warm for the past two months is maybe my heart.
Sure as heck hasn't been my feet!
Happy new week everyone.