Saturday's Scribbles

Good morning!  After a week of intense tropical heat and humidity, we are on our way to a cool down later today.  Yay!!  It has been brutal!  I noticed that Des Moines broke records yesterday with a high of 103.  Wonder what the heat index was!  The kids here went back to school this week....I cannot imagine they absorbed much unless their school was one of the few with air conditioning.  Speaking of that, I have been very grateful for the A/C during this tropical heat wave.  I don't like having the windows and doors shut for so many days, but cannot complain at the comfort I feel when the heat index is in triple digits. 

Speaking of tropical weather, the high humidity has had me looking back at our years in the Philippines and putting pen to paper so to speak as I have shared some of those memories with my cyber friends.  You can read about them here.  Such adventures we had!

We did manage a few walks, going earlier in the morning and sometimes for shorter distances.  One day we walked a bit in the mall, but store fronts make a bad substitute for nature.  Speaking of nature, we have a mama wild turkey who has been visiting our neighborhood along with her 9 babies.  They are not shy at all.  This morning we saw a bald eagle while putting our feet to the pavement.  We walked 1.5 miles!  Yes!  I don't get winded at all, it is my joints that send me home.

Since I sorted through all the toys we had here for the grandkids, Joel has been in a purging mood.  I was doing a happy dance as I watch him clean out the garage, until he asked me to sort through some boxes that were put in there after our move from he_ _ that occurred several years ago. (Some day I will write about that)   In those boxes were years, I mean at least 30 years of my hobbies.....watercolor painting, rosemalling, cross-stitching, etc.  At first I felt guilty for not keeping up all those crafts I enjoyed and spent so much money on, until I remembered I was forced to stop several of them because of Lyme.  Then I became quite angry that I was forced to let go of the life I knew because of a terrible disease that nearly destroyed me/us.  After years of being in the garage most everything was unusable, but we salvaged a few things to give away.  We are taking everything to a local place run by the mentally disabled.   There is something freeing about letting go of things we don't use or need anymore, and giving it all to a worthy organization to sell makes it even better.

Speaking of Lyme, yesterday the neighbor came over to talk to us about a bite he had on his leg that had a strange circular rash around it.  He seemed a bit worried and I don't blame him.  We recommended he get in to the doctor right away just in case it was Lyme.  We hear from people here where we live more often than I thought we would with questions they have or their own stories on Lyme.  We were part of an interview our friend Lori did for the local newspaper on her battle with Lyme.  It is not how we want to be known, but if we can help people in anyway we do.

Yesterday we headed to the Farmer's Market and picked up more veggies from a chemical free vendor.  We then stopped at Cabin Coffee on our way home for fruit smoothies.  Cabin Coffee seems to be only a Midwest company even though it has a western theme.  It also has Bible verses and positive quotes on the walls and Bibles available for reading. They have big comfortable loveseats as one option for seating.  Joel had a mango/squash  all fruit smoothie and mine was peach /pear/apricot.  Delish!  I think we are going to try replicating these at home.

We watched a few Biblical teachings this week and a few TV shows, but once again did little reading.  Joel has been spending quite a few hours writing his story and I have been catching up on blog posts...to read and to write.  What has been going on in your corner of the world?

Until next time.............