Saturday's Scribbles

Good Saturday morning all! I hope your weather is as nice as ours here in our corner of Iowa.  We are heading for 71 degrees with rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow.  But it is Easter and we can rely on his SONshine!

Speaking of rain, today is the Easter egg hunt at the church, so hope the weather cooperates for that.  It has been a busy week for Joel and the pastor he works with.  They will have officiated at 7 services by Easter noon.  Joel always finds Lent and Easter more taxing than Christmas.  Not less enjoyable, just packed full.

Speaking of Easter, I have been on a quest to find white sandals that are the right style, comfort and  fit.  Nothing.  This quest began last year!  I can get every color under the rainbow but I'm not finding white.  We went shopping last Monday and Joel came home with new pants, another vest for winter, and more.  Me?  Zip.  I even tried to "settle" but could not find anything that fit.

Did you see the eclipse?  We set the alarm to get up, and I watched for a few minutes but my bed was calling me......Joel stayed up for awhile.  I did not notice much red, BUT we needed a good telescope or camera to check it out I expect.  There were some beautiful pictures online, especially the ones taken in CO.

On Wednesday we headed to a town around 30 miles south of us to visit an elderly man in a nursing home.  I like visiting, but I do not like nursing homes.  They are depressing for me.  Necessary I know, but not my cup of tea.  Enough said.  Maundy Thursday I went to the 11am service ~~ Joel preached and then he had the 6:30 service but I stayed home. 

Friday morning we received a phone call from Joel's brother Doug telling us his daughter, our niece had started having seizures the night before and an MRI showed a brain tumor.  She was transferred to a bigger hospital and they put her on an anti-seizure medicine....now they wait for the brain swelling to leave and start making plans with how to deal with it.  She is only 43, but the doctors said it is in a "good area", it is small, and slow growing.  We don't know if it is cancerous or not, but Jody can use your prayers......thanks.

Friday night we went to the Good Friday services which are always dramatic and powerful when we think about all Jesus went through for us.  Joel and I decided it was one of the most powerful Good Friday services we have ever worshipped at. 

Today is the church's egg hunt for the kids,  and Sunday services start at 6:30am with the youth, then 8:30 and 10 am with a church breakfast thrown in there.  It reminds me a lot of when I was growing up.  Early rising, hidden baskets, lots of services, singing in choirs, and a big ham dinner with cherry sauce.  Family traditions in our home too.....along with the ham dinner with cherry sauce spiced up with cinnamon and cloves.  Yum.

The water pipe work is done so we are now waiting for the road to be taken care of.  We need to get all new filters for our reverse osmosis so are still buying our water. Hopefully that will do the trick. After Easter when there is time.....

Speaking of after Easter, my husband has been telling everyone the story involving our stove and microwave.  It is not too often he has heard his wife yelling, "JOEL, the carrots are on fire"!!  We had put carrots in the oven to roast and 15-17 minutes later three fire alarms went off on the main level.  I went into the kitchen and smoke was coming out of every opening and the heat was intense.  I looked inside and saw coal black carrots!  No fire, thankfully.  I tried to turn off the oven but it would not turn off!  That's when I yelled at Joel and he had just gotten out of the shower so needed to put something on before running upstairs to help.  We finally had to turn off the circuit to stop the broiler from heating into a frenzy.......So there we sat with no oven.  During Holy Week.  

So, okay, we thought, we can do this.  We have the microwave!   Joel went to use that a couple of hours later and the pad would not put in numbers when we pressed on them!  We finally could use the 5 and 3 sometimes......Now things were getting ridiculous!  Joel was so upset, but soon I heard him out in the kitchen talking to God and the microwave...........Talking about it being Holy Week, and needing to cook, and no time to shop for a stove, and asking for it to work like the day we bought it..........and the microwave has been working perfect ever since.  Thank you Lord for hearing all our prayers!  Like our friend Ann said to us recently..."You guys ARE crazy!"  Well, maybe we are, but don't wake us up cuz we are loving this life! 

Oh, and the stove?  My handyman hubby took the broiler element out and now we can use the oven and stove top until after Easter when we can look for a new stove.  We turn off the circuit at night just in case and don't leave the house when the oven is on to be on the safe side.  But we can make ham for Easter!

With all the services I have not done much reading this week, although I started yet another new book titled, "Doubtless:  Faith That Overcomes The World" by Jennifer LeClaire.  What has your week been like?  Any burnt carrots or funky stoves? 
Until next time.....

Wishing you a blessed Easter

as we celebrate our Risen Lord!!