Rain, Rain, Rain

I hate to complain about too much rain. Our water tables our still below 'normal' and I know too well how bad drought conditions can be. But still...I live in Florida for the sun...hence the nickname SUNSHINE state. We've had too many days of cloudy overcast weather with intermittent rain. It's raining right now...ugh. I haven't gotten my sun-time in because when I'm ready to go outside, it'll start raining and/or thunder and lightning. Being the lightning capital of the USA, we take lightning seriously and don't play outside when we even hear thunder. Too many people get hit by lightning. Gray weather makes gray moods too easy.

It's great to have the Singer and Imp back home. Hubby and I had a great time while they were gone. Thursday we went to see "WarGames" at the theater in honor of the 25th anniversary of it's original release. It was wonderful. The theater was full of people our age (give or take 5 years) and everyone laughed at the appropriate places. The movie even stopped in the middle...just like it use to in the 80s. Great nostalgia. Friday evening we went to the beach and the rain stayed away until after sunset...we missed sunset due to clouds, but at least it wasn't raining.
Saturday we worked all day on the yard and pool. It was nice to only have 2 people to schedule around. Unfortunately, Saturday night/Sunday morning had Hubby getting called from work for a production problem. He received 4 calls between 1 and 7 am, and then worked about 10 hours Sunday. By the time Monday morning came, he was ready for a weekend. He is definitely looking forward to this vacation.

Hubby and I hit the sales yesterday to get new swimsuits for our houseboat vacation. Hubby also got a new pair of jeans. Having a 33 inch waist makes pants shopping interesting. They had his size...we bought 'em. Fortunately, they were on sale, too. He got his swimsuit for $8.00 and I got mine for $25.00. Not too bad.

I'm praying that our travel goes well on Saturday...our original flight out of Tampa (that we booked back in March) was cancelled. So we're leaving 2 hours earlier (7 am...that means being at the airport at 5 am!!). We booked through travelocity and they added the new flight but never took out the old, so our itinerary was messed up. I've spent 2 hours the last few days making sure we know when we're suppose to be where for which flight. We now arrive in Phoenix 3 hours earlier. Poor Elaine...we're throwing a wrench in her well-oiled plans. Actually, we don't care if we have to sit at the Phoenix airport for those 3 hours...we just want to make sure we get there.

The Imp starts earning her service hours tomorrow, helping to assemble wheelchairs for 3 hours. An adult has to accompany minors, so I'm taking her and 2 friends. It should be interesting. The week we get back we're working with our church to staff a food kitchen one night. She'll have much of her service hours taken care of before school starts. As part of the IB program she has to have service, active and creative hours each year. Dance class will cover her active hours.

I'm trying to get our financial stuff all on Quicken. I'm hoping the time spent setting it all up will be worth the benefits from using the program. It's tedious to set it up, but the reports and graphs look extremely helpful in tracking our spending. It should be beneficial at tax time as well.

Rainbows

We had a downpour earlier. Severe weather warning beeping at us from the TV. I had to run out to the store and there was the most vivid and complete rainbow I'd seen in years. I could see the whole rainbow and it was so dark, it almost looked fake. It was just nice to take that moment alone and think of the wonderous works of God.

I'm preparing to send the Imp off to Columbus, OH tomorrow morning. Hubby and I will be alone since the Singer is singing in MN at church music camp already. We'll be alone until Sunday night. Unfortunately, Hubby's got lots of work...but I think we're heading to the beach Thursday night for the sunset.

The Singer and I saw Mama Mia at the theaters on Sunday. We both loved it. But there is a song about letting your daughter go...neither of us acknowledged it during the movie, but afterwards we both said we almost reached out to hold the other's hand but were afraid the sobbing that would result might disturb the other patrons. The music was sooo fun. I've always liked ABBA anyways and then a few years back, the Imp was into A-Teens who did remakes of ABBA's songs. I'm glad the Singer and I got to see the movie together.

College Preparations

Monday, the Singer and I went out to USF to see the exact style of her dorm room as she gets serious about buying her room decor including her sheet/comforter set. She is super excited about it all and I'm just glad I'm not going to college. I'm glad she's so positive about the whole thing.
Summer is quickly sliding away. Next week both girls will be gone: the Singer to Minnesota for her church music camp as a small group leader, and the Imp to Ohio to spend time with her godparents (Hubby's brother and wife). It would be really exciting if Hubby could manage time off and we could go to the beach or whatever, but that's not likely to happen. Between our NYC trip in June and our trip to Lake Powell in August he really can't afford to take any time. And he is planning on working more than usual to set himself up to go to Lake Powell. Maybe I'll go to the beach by myself. After they return from their week away, we've got less than a week to get ready for Lake Powell, and when we return from that trip it's a week until the Imp starts and a week and 2 days until the Singer heads off to enter the collegiate world.
I'm still enjoying the fruits of my labor. My cucumbers are delicious, but my plants are looking funky. We've been getting an incredible amount of rain and long periods of cloudiness, so I think they're staying damp too long. My family hasn't tired of the fresh green beans, either.
While slicing a cucumber yesterday, I discovered that talking while slicing a veggie with a very sharp knife is not a good idea. I managed to slice my finger pretty good. It could have been much worse. It really stung with that cucumber juice running into the cut.
I'm enjoying the emails from my family as we plan to meet in AZ to travel to Lake Powell for 4 nights. I really love my family and am very lucky to enjoy them as much as I do. They are all quite witty and I enjoy the banter and side comments in all the correspondence. I can't wait to get a dose of all that in person. After 5 days of it, I'll look forward to coming home, but I've missed them all. And already miss John and Chris not being there. Slicing my finger made me think of Chris and the time he cut his thumb terribly while a chef at Aberdeen Barn. That was over 25 years ago.

Enjoying My Gardens

This past week has been great. My little garden is producing real food. I'm a novice gardener. I planted 8 bean plants, 6 cucumber plants and 2 tomato plants. They all looked a little sad and pathetic when I first planted them in my new raised garden (gift to me from Hubby). My tomato plants are still kind of hanging out...no real produce and not much actual growth. I'm not sure what the problem is. But my beans and cucumbers look great. I've been picking beans for the last 2 weeks. At first there really weren't many beans but I was so excited I picked the 20 ripe ones anyway. Today I got enough to feed 3 of us a serving. The Imp doesn't eat cooked veggies. The Singer loves them and is so excited to have fresh green beans. The cucumbers are developing. I had to fight off the ants (I used corn powder, red pepper and boiling water), but they seem to be gone. I have one cucumber about 4 inches long...and several more a few days behind. I can't wait to eat them. Even the Imp eats cucumbers. I'm now researching what to plant come the fall. As we don't usually have but one or two nights below freezing our growing season is essentially year-round. I'm also looking into when to plant strawberries...the harvest is usually in late January thru February, so I've got to figure out when to start them so I can enjoy them next year. I'm pretty excited about all this.

In addition to enjoying watching my vegetables grow, I'm enjoying my rose bushes. My Mr. Lincoln (strong smelling very red roses) bush has given me 3 blooms a day for the last few days and still has 7-8 more buds. My Fragrant Cloud (a birthday present from my mom this year) has given me 2 blooms for the past 2 days and still has 5 buds on it. And the Fragrant Cloud lives up to its name. It is wonderful to have the blooms in my house and even more wonderful to sit on my porch and smell them from their bush. We've been fortunate with our rainfall, as I know just to our north, in Georgia, a serious drought exists. The afternoon thunderstorms have taken hold and I enjoy hearing the rain beating down on the roof. Our rivers and aquifers are still several feet below "normal" so we still have water restrictions. The paper said that we would need at least 17" more rain than normal for the summer (wet) months to get things close to 'normal.' And going into our wet season we were 5" below normal for rainfall for 2008.

Illogical choices of this Christian

I read Cindy's blog regularly. As the mother of older adoptive kids, much of her blog concerns dealing with the struggles of trying to raise children who have huge emotional issues caused by the painful emotional scars from their early childhood. As the parent of 2 biological girls, it would seem I have little in common with Cindy, yet I frequently see myself in her description of her kids. Hear me out. I was not abused as a child. I come from a very loving family and have had an 'easy' life. But when Cindy describes the frustration of trying to help/love her children and how so many of them throw her love right back at her, abuse her verbally and physically, refusing to accept the gift she is so willing and so determined to give, I see God dealing with me. I imagine God throwing up His hands, shaking His head, knowing that I am human and that I have an emptiness inside me that He is so willing and wanting to fill/fix. He can fill/fix me, but I must let Him. He won't force it. Yet, for some reason, I resist Him. To totally accept Him into my life, to allow a true conversion, I have to give up parts of myself that have helped me survive thus far. I KNOW turning my life over to Him completely is the best choice. I KNOW God loves me. I KNOW listening to Him in all things would make my life more fulfilling and content. But it's scary to give up the little control I do have in my life. So I see us all as damaged from Original Sin, and struggling to give up our illogical ways. If we know God is the answer, why would we continue to try to do things our own way? Yet I know I do. So thanks, Cindy. You've given me a great 'meditation' theme to chew on today. Why am I so illogical with God's gift?