Good Saturday to you on this first day of April, 2023. The last day of March brought with it rain, a bit of hail, and then an overnight dusting of snow. Nothing like north of us where once again some of our Minnesota family were dealing with blizzard warnings! Good grief. Friday it was 68 degrees here and today? A high of 39 is forecast. Mother Nature had one thing to say to the Midwest today...."April Fool's_!! The roller coaster continues with weather, that's for sure. But how can we complain when tornadoes have ripped through the south killing many and destroying so many homes. Or how about northern CA where I read they have had over 800 inches of snow in the high mountain towns this year. Not 80....800. Yikes. Unfathomable.
Speaking of unfathomable, yet another senseless school shooting has taken the lives of sweet innocent children and those who cared for them. You can argue both sides of this debate regarding weapons, and many do vehemently, but the bottom line is, NOTHING HAS CHANGED. Our country has an embarrassing over the top number of deaths from violence...and violence is the #1 cause of death in America's children. Seriously, something has to change. Someone....EVERYONE has to compromise....our children need to be loved first and foremost above every other love......every other belief........every other consideration. We need to make our children our priority.
We lived in the Philippines when there was a lot of unrest with Marcos. Our maid was even afraid to mention his name. We listened to gunfire many nights in the distance and guerilla warfare was all around in the jungles. Our planes were shot at often when they took off or landed. Our kids rode a small jeepney bus with wires and bars on the windows to keep them from being snatched on their way to preschool. When we were able to move onto the base we had guards in guardhouses surrounding the base to protect the 40,000 who lived there. We seldom went down into the barrios alone and never left our home after dark when living off base as there was Marshall Law that prevented us from doing so without a Filipino guard escort after 10:30 pm. We survived...we thrived.....but when we came home we felt safer. Can we say the same thing now in America? Are our children safer?
As you can tell, my heart has been heavy with this. If you made it this far with me today, bless you. Soooo lets move on...............
I love to watch Steve Hartman on CBS when he has a short segment on Fridays that leave us with good news for a change. This week it was about some young teenage boys who decided, after they talked about how their grandparents knew nothing about today's technology, to go to a local assisted living or nursing home near their school, and help seniors learn how to manage their phones and laptops. They taught them how to send pics on their phones, get rid of emails, send emails, etc. etc. The seniors LOVE having them come and of course the teen boys visit with them too which is an added benefit. What a wonderful connection for all of them. Just love those stories that focus on kindness in America. A good thing.\
Today we made pizza....with cauliflower crust. It was good! Homemade bread is rising on the countertop, and Joel's cookie containers are full once again. Smells good in here.
I keep walking 21 minutes a day and we stay focused on our Bible in a Year readings. Still not liking the Old Testament God very much. Sure glad Jesus came! I have been listening to an audio book and sticking to our normal routine. Joel will be biking again soon. He is preaching at two churches on Easter Sunday. His once a month commitment. Tonight Lutheran Church of Hope has a worship night that we will watch and of course tomorrow is Palm Sunday. Lent and Easter used to be our resident pastor's busiest time of the year which made it so for the whole family.
Time to close out this week's Scribbles. After living in a third world country I need to say I am still grateful for America, flaws and all. Grateful for our freedoms. Grateful for only getting a little snow this time around. Grateful for all the good smells that fill the house. Grateful for cauliflower crusts, homemade bread and Joel's cookies. Grateful for phone calls, texts, emails, and little nudges from God to let me know He is on all the details of my upcoming surgery. Grateful for the love and prayers of family and friends. And so much more............
Enjoy your weekend!
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