Good Saturday to you all from our small corner of the world here in north central Iowa. We are feeling, smelling, and seeing the haze from the forest fires as much of the country and Canada is. It has been a challenging summer with violent storms, massive fires, flooding, and tornados across our country. We have had some rain, but much of the Midwest and the West are in a severe drought. Just like the turmoil in the world, in our country, so is the weather it seems. BUT this too shall pass.
Speaking of passing, our week with doggy guests is coming to an end today as their master, our son is driving up to pick them up and take them home. We will miss their company, but I am thinking my hubby won't miss the individual walks he takes them on so they will do their business. They don't like using our yard.....and they also are used to an early, I mean 4-5 am early wake up call. So did that happen hear? Nada. We got them going at 6am and 9:30 pm their last walk........except.......Yesterday I started telling them they were going home tomorrow and I think they took that to heart! They had Joel up at 4:30 am today. Needless to say he went back to sleep but he has a bit of a drag in his step! Haha. We have enjoyed our grand dogs very much but I know they are going to be ready to go back home to their people, and we will enjoy getting up at 7 am. again! Joel has gotten his exercise walking them each separately 4x a day! I did my part ~ kept the home fires burning so to speak.....??!? hehehe
This has been a week of Olympic TV. I have enjoyed my favorite women's beach volleyball, a little women's softball, men and women's diving, and women's gymnastics. A bit of the equestrian competition too and I took in one women's rugby game! Wow, so aggressive and none stop running! You may have noticed, I prefer women's events. Of course we cannot bring up gymnastics without thinking of Simon Biles. I have been impressed with how well her stepping out has been handled by announcers, and how well she is expressing her challenges right now. It must be difficult for her. I have not read the negative comments or commentaries out there. You can always find someone who is judging, criticizing, or condemning. Sadly we all think our opinions matter about everything whether we know what we are talking about or not!
Speaking of gymnastics, yay for Sunisa Lee competing so well and winning a gold! And her family in St. Paul, MN ~ so excited and proud. In 1979 we lived in St. Paul not far from the Hmong communities. A few times we picked up one family from their place and drove them to church where we attended. It made for a very crowded car, but we were glad to help out "refugees" so new to our country. Our neighbor was from the Philippines and we used to smell their cooking which would remind us so much of when we lived in the Philippine Islands. Their cooking oils and mix of foods and spices have a distinct smell and taste. It reminded us of the P.I. for sure! We always thought we might go back there or to Africa as missionaries, but life intervened and God had other plans in store for us. When we met we both had goals of mission work, and we talked about it for 20 years but it just did not work out. The biggest deterrent for us was putting our kids in boarding schools 9 months of the year. Just was not okay. So we figured we would be going once the kids were gone....and life and illness changed that too. So, Joel's ministry took place in Montana, Minnesota, and Iowa and we met and were blessed by many people in the six church parishes ad communities he served.
So, today I am grateful for Charlie and Scout's week with us, for the prayers our families rely on with each other, walking, poop bags ( grin), the Olympics, the DNRS program, having more energy, getting through the antibiotics well, watermelon and blueberries, phone calls with a friend and sister, texting that keeps us all connected in our family, memories of St. Paul and the Philippines, and just plain waking up each morning to a new day!
Enjoy your weekend................
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