Saturday, May 31, 2014

Saturday's Scribbles

Good Saturday to all of you.....What can I say~~it has been a wonderful week weather wise with abundant sunshine, temperatures in the low to mid 80's and much to see as we take our walks along the river or in the association where we live.  Nature at it's best up here in Iowa!

Speaking of nature, we have been consistently walking outside 1.5 miles until today when we left the house by 7:30am and walked 2 miles!!  The wind came up and the sky gave us a gentle shower , but the goal was set and accomplished!  Yippee.....happy dance......thank you Jesus!!  And the great part....I was not tired at all when we got home.  I was energized!

Last Monday (Memorial Day) Joel took me on a surprise excursion....he found a great new nursery and we went there first .  He told me to "go wild" buying what I wanted, but the frugal part of me kept the wild under raps.  Ha....We found such beautiful plants I just had to share......


Love the ivy but do not remember
the name

For the front garden
 
Isn't this hanging basket beautiful!

After  heading to the nursery Joel had one more surprise, so he drove to a nearby town and we stopped at their Cabin Coffee for fruit/veggie smoothies.  Delish!  We looked around in an antique store and did some window shopping before heading for home.  Joel went for a long bike ride in the afternoon while I did some baking at home.   He is getting a few rides in again, which is great for him.  We ended the night by watching the movie, "Saving Mr. Banks", which we both enjoyed!

Back to the yard....Joel has used some natural deer repellent that has helped keep them out of the yard.  We were both surprised it worked!  Up front we saw one deer on the sidewalk/driveway looking for a meal, but Joel had put everything up on the porch at night.  We now are using the repellent up front and also Irish Spring shavings.  We  heard from several people that this helps as the deer do not like the smell. We are overrun with deer in this part of town.  Joel counted 24 the other night as he drove home.  Seriously.  They are out of control.  The mosquitoes are out already!  And there have been warnings on TV and in the paper about the number of ticks this year....another out of control situation.  ugh.  Joel did get the flower garden planted this morning.  We need just a few marigolds to add to the mix.  It looks great!

We have been using our new electric grill.  It seems the food takes longer to cook and then all of a sudden it is not done but overdone! Hmmm  Still tastes good, but the verdict is out on whether it will be our grill of choice after this year.

I realized this past week that I have been writing about everything we do every week.....for most people it is too much information, but for me it is still so amazing, going from being housebound to out in the world that I have to share it.  It will be just a normal day soon, I expect. 

Speaking of normal I heard a great quote this week by Maya Angelou:  "If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you really are!"  I love it!!!  This world will miss Maya Angelou.  She was someone special!

So our week was less busy, but it still seems like I am on the go.  We have watched less TV at night (mostly zip during the day) but have taken in several teachings online connected to Bethel Church in CA and enjoyed some porch sitting.   I am reading and meditating on Bonnie Gray's book, "Finding Spiritual Whitespace".  What have you been reading?  What have you been up to?

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

4 comments:

Kim said...

Renee, I love these posts and hearing about all the details of your week. You and Joel are so active!

That's good information on the natural deer repellant and soap shavings. What is the repellant you use? I may share it with family in the midwest or my sister and her husband in VA.

Spiritual Whitespace is on my short-short-short list, but I have a handful of books at home I'm trying to talk myself into working through before buying more. So hard! It sounds like an incredible read!

I just heard about Bethel Church last week and am loving their new album, Tides Music, on Spotify.

Congrats on a 2 mile walk! I hope the mosquitos stay away and the weather stays nice! Hugs from NY!

Renee said...

Hi Kim....So good to hear from you, friend. Finding Spiritual Whitespace is a powerful read, cathartic in many ways for me besides enlightening. Bethel is an amazing church. We enjoy listening to Kris Vollotin and Havliah Cunnington a lot. Good music too! Will get back to you on the deer repellent. Hugs!

Anita Johnson said...

So glad to read you were able to walk 2 MILES! Way to go! (o: I believe that is a black eyed Suzan vine. I have one in yellow!

Sharon said...

I love what you write - and I love hearing about your life. It inspires me. I praise the Lord for your ability to leave and go outside! What an answer to prayer that has been!

We have deer up here - but not nearly in the numbers that you have. 24??? In one sighting??? Wow...

Last week we had my mom up here with us in the mountains, and had a really nice time. Ended the week going to the wedding of my youngest son's best friend from high school. That was a special time, too.

GOD BLESS!