Sunday Meanderings.....

FOOD FOR THOUGHT - A DEVOTIONAL

TRUSTING HIS ANSWERS

Trust in the Lord with all your hearts;
do not depend on your own understanding.

~~ Proverbs 3:5 ~~

God answers our prayers. What God does not do is this: He does not always answer our prayers as soon as we might like, and He does not always answer our prayers by saying, "Yes." God isn't an order-taker, and He's not some sort of cosmic vending machine. Sometimes -- even when we want something very badly -- our loving Heavenly Father responds to our requests by saying, "No," and we must accept His answer, even if we don't understand it.

God answers prayers not only according to our wishes but also according to His master plan. We cannot know that plan, but we can know the Planner...and we must trust His wisdom, His righteousness and His love, always.

Often I have made a request of God with earnest pleadings
even backed up with Scripture, only to have Him say "No"
because He had something better in store. ~~ Ruth Bell Graham

A Woman of Prayer - 365 Daily Devotions, Freeman-Smith LLC, Publisher

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

So last week was a big deal - my birthday. Normally my birthday really isn't a big deal. It's funny, but when you're the mom, your birthday stops being a big deal when your firstborn has her first one. Don't you think?

But this birthday was a big deal. I turned sixty.

I truly have no idea how that happened, how it happened so quickly. You hear people say things all the time, like "time flies" and "the older you get, the faster time goes by." Guess what. It's true.

I vividly remember my mother-in-law telling me, in the sixth year of her battle against two kinds of deadly cancer, and she was in her late seventies, "Barb, I swear, every time I look in a mirror I'm shocked at that old woman. I don't recognize her." :-) (How I miss her.)

I think I'm thankful my family didn't do a big blowout for this one. I think I'm thankful that this birthday just sort of passed quietly by and no one made a big deal out of my turning sixty because this one bothered me. I didn't mind turning 30. What the heck did I know when I was only thirty! And I didn't mind turning 40 because I was so busy with two teen aged girls and their crazy busy lives I'm not sure I even remember turning forty. Fifty didn't upset me much for some reason. I'm not sure why, but it didn't.

But turning sixty? That's a show stopper. You suddenly qualify for senior discounts. And young men open doors for you and call you ma'am. Oh dear.

I'll get over it. Soon. I'm sure. LOL

So last week Krissy and I finally went to the big Farmer's Market that Grand Junction (Colorado) does every Thursday evening, all summer long. I've lived here for six years and I'm embarrassed to say, I'd never been. They shut down six blocks of the streets in downtown Grand Junction from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m., every Thursday, all summer long, and it's just a fresh produce-craft booth-wonderful food booth-singers on every corner- celebration.

What fun we had! It was hotter than blue blazes of course, but you keep moving and try to convince yourself the sun isn't constantly shining right on your back, that you're outrunning it, and you survive. LOL

I was excited about the fresh Olathe sweet corn (it's like Rocky Ford melons - the best in the world) and the fresh tomatoes (I can't tell you how much I hate grocery store tomatoes and how little I think they actually taste like tomatoes). Krissy was excited about the fresh bread booths. The very first thing she bought was bread. Lots and lots of fresh specialty breads. I think the bag weighed fifty pounds and I had to smile, watching her struggle to carry that bag as we moved along. Krissy is so petite, and I thought that bag of breads would bring her to her knees.

We had such fun, right up until we got in the unbelievably long line for the Amish people's green chili burritos, which we'd been told were just to die for. There were lots of food booths, but the line for this one was nuts. About ten minutes into our wait, Kris looked into her purse and realized her wallet was missing.

Let the fun begin. I swear, we both just panicked. So we jumped out of the line (made the people behind us happy) and literally ran to retrace our path. Thank you, thank you Lord, one of the booths we'd visited (the pepper jelly lady, a friend of Krissy's) had found her wallet and was holding it for her.

So we were good. And relieved. So back to the Amish green chili booth, to the back of the line. And then Kris realized she was missing a book of checks. So out of the line and off we went. Again.

Let me tell you, Krissy is 31. I'm not. As you know, I'M SIXTY. I was huffing and puffing like crazy.

So of course she found that checkbook in the bottom of her purse. So for the third time off to the Amish people's green chili burrito booth we went and for the third time, we got into the very back of the unbelievably long line. And here's the corker.

Their burritos suck! They were awful. Next year Krissy and I will go to the hotdog stand.

I think keeping up with my daughter could kill me if I let it. LOL

Still, we had a blast and I came home with two new kinds of pepper jelly (it's the stuff you pour over a block of cream cheese and serve with Wheat Thins and I'm saving mine for the holidays), and a big bag of fresh corn and fresh tomatoes. I spent a total of $18 and that included the awful green chili burrito dinner.

COMING SOON...

Cameron starts kindergarten this week, on Thursday. I have no idea how my favorite little boy in the whole world can possibly be starting kindergarten. Wasn't it just last week I held my first grandchild in my arms for the first time? But yes, kindergarten. His first day is Thursday. So life changes again.

We're so thankful he got into the morning class. Rob's schedule changed this week too and and he goes back to his evening shift, so it's perfect. Krissy will drop Cam off here every morning before school, Rob will take him to school and then pick him up at noon and take him to Nancy and then go to work at 2:30 We couldn't ask for a better schedule. If Cameron had ended up in the afternoon kindergarten class, it would have been really difficult for all of us.

All it means for me is that I have to set my clock to be up every morning (like I'm not already up anyway). And I get an hour and a half every morning with my sweet, sweet grandson who is still young enough to think Nana hung the moon. :)

ONE LAST THOUGHT

You know, I live in western Colorado, about as close to Utah as you can get without actually being there. West, west. And it's desert country, hot, dry, and did I say hot? But we've had an unbelievably mild summer out here. Normally, it's so hot, you can't breathe when you go outside. There's no humidity. It's just stinkin' hot. But this has been a very mild summer. We hardly ever get rain out here. Everyone landscapes with things that don't need much water.

For the past three weeks, we've had rain almost every day and it's been wonderful, overcast, cloudy, NOT HOT.

I think God decided to do something special for me after the horrible, miserable, never ending, depressing, awful winter I survived last year. And because...

I'M SIXTY! I do think God decided to give me a nice summer so that sixty wouldn't seem so terrible. LOL

AND ON A REALLY SHALLOW NOTE...

First, I will confess almost everyone who sent me a birthday gift sent me FarmVille game cards. Except my father, who sent me his hearing aids because he got new ones. I think he feels bad because he knows hearing loss is hereditary. LOL (I'm sending them back to him - they don't remotely fit into my ears, which is a shame because heaven knows, I could sure use them if they fit!). I should also mention, my Daddy sent me a nice check too. Amazing. He turned 85 years old in July and still thinks of me as his "baby" and when he called me he told me, "I can't believe my baby is sixty. I must be getting old."

I love his attitude!

And Krissy took me to see Eclipse for my birthday. I am totally, unashamedly entranced with the whole Twilight thing. Read all the books. And I froth at the mouth, waiting for the next movie. It was wonderful. We could have gone to see Eat Pray Love, and I totally love Julia Roberts, but I read so many bad reviews about that movie and the whole "can't get my life together" theme, it didn't sound good to me, so when Kris asked me which I'd like to see, you can bet I jumped on Eclipse.

I LOVED it. Love, love the whole ridiculous vampire thing.

Maybe that means that although I really AM sixty, I don't act it yet, right? I mean, vampires?

LOL

Do you know, AUTUMN is just around the corner? My favorite time of the year. I can't wait.

Happy "the kids are back in school" to all of you.

xoxoxo