The last couple of weeks or so
So KJ's mom spent a week and a half with us. She went back home Thursday last week. We all had a good time. We took her out to a nice Chinese restaurant for belated Mother's Day, and she helped us hang the wallpaper in our bathroom.
The veggies and herbs KJ has planted are growing nicely. The rain helps, I'm sure. We've already had a little of the lettuce. I finally got the zinnias planted out front, too. Dunno if they'll bother coming up, it's shady there and they apparently like the sun. There really aren't any sunny places for me to plant things in the ground though.
It's been very nice here lately. We've had the period of temps in the 70s that we missed out on when it went straight from 50s-60s to 80s in May. Plenty of rain, no need for AC or central heating, been able to leave the windows open most of the time.
Not sure if I've mentioned, but nearly all our pastors are moving on. My home pastor actually already headed into southern St. Louis County this month, after having gotten the rebuilding process well underway. KJ's pastor is stepping down after, like, forever. KJ was bummed when she wasn't at church when we visited before KJ's mom's visit.
Saturday we went to an art fair at the park. A lot of shiny stuff there! Paintings and pottery and blown glass and other stuff. I totally would have splurged on one of the mandalas, but even the smallest was >$100. I got a butterfly magnet. It's on the hood above the stove because our fridge is already covered in stuff. KJ picked out a pendant as an early birthday present.
Anyway, this Sunday KJ was on call, so I went to the UM church we attend rather than the UCC one we've been attending lately because it has the later traditional service. This UM church's pastor is also moving on, also having gotten a rebuilding process well started, except here it's a restructuring of the church building rather than the congregation. The tiles are nice, but I think there ought to be at least two doorways at the back of the congregation if they're going to enclose it. Anyway, this week we had a guitarist who played and talked instead of a sermon proper. He was pretty good. Played a Spanish guitar and had a fairly broad repertoire. In Sunday School, we did the chapter on Elisha and the axhead. Someone had a commentary (McGee?) that made a pretty big deal out of that miracle. To me, the important takeaways are 1. God has total power over Creation, 2. God and his servants care about even the small mishaps in our lives, 3. We're expected to take some part in miracles done on our behalf (once floated, Elisha tells the prophet to pick the axhead up himself).
I bought a Western music CD from the guitarist as support and to give to Dad for Father's Day. Gave it to him when he and Mom dropped by Tuesday on the way back from Grandma. She's a little under the weather.
Pooky had a bit of a tiff with one of the stray cats last night. Apparently they were going at it under the grill. KJ brought her in and she went to the window all puffy-tailed and basically spent the next ten minutes looking for a fight to pick. Tink might've been in danger if she hadn't calmed down.
Going camping this weekend. Tink's never been. Assuming she doesn't slip out of our grasp and run off into the woods never to be seen again, I fully expect her to keep us awake by howling at every little noise outside our tent at night. KJ's hoping to get off work early so we can do a two-nighter, because camping's a little too much effort for just one night. This might be the last nice camping weekend until, like, mid-September, so we're taking the chance where we can.
We'll probably be going to Kansas City for our anniversary. There's an Irish festival thingy about that time and Carbon Leaf will be performing.
The veggies and herbs KJ has planted are growing nicely. The rain helps, I'm sure. We've already had a little of the lettuce. I finally got the zinnias planted out front, too. Dunno if they'll bother coming up, it's shady there and they apparently like the sun. There really aren't any sunny places for me to plant things in the ground though.
It's been very nice here lately. We've had the period of temps in the 70s that we missed out on when it went straight from 50s-60s to 80s in May. Plenty of rain, no need for AC or central heating, been able to leave the windows open most of the time.
Not sure if I've mentioned, but nearly all our pastors are moving on. My home pastor actually already headed into southern St. Louis County this month, after having gotten the rebuilding process well underway. KJ's pastor is stepping down after, like, forever. KJ was bummed when she wasn't at church when we visited before KJ's mom's visit.
Saturday we went to an art fair at the park. A lot of shiny stuff there! Paintings and pottery and blown glass and other stuff. I totally would have splurged on one of the mandalas, but even the smallest was >$100. I got a butterfly magnet. It's on the hood above the stove because our fridge is already covered in stuff. KJ picked out a pendant as an early birthday present.
Anyway, this Sunday KJ was on call, so I went to the UM church we attend rather than the UCC one we've been attending lately because it has the later traditional service. This UM church's pastor is also moving on, also having gotten a rebuilding process well started, except here it's a restructuring of the church building rather than the congregation. The tiles are nice, but I think there ought to be at least two doorways at the back of the congregation if they're going to enclose it. Anyway, this week we had a guitarist who played and talked instead of a sermon proper. He was pretty good. Played a Spanish guitar and had a fairly broad repertoire. In Sunday School, we did the chapter on Elisha and the axhead. Someone had a commentary (McGee?) that made a pretty big deal out of that miracle. To me, the important takeaways are 1. God has total power over Creation, 2. God and his servants care about even the small mishaps in our lives, 3. We're expected to take some part in miracles done on our behalf (once floated, Elisha tells the prophet to pick the axhead up himself).
I bought a Western music CD from the guitarist as support and to give to Dad for Father's Day. Gave it to him when he and Mom dropped by Tuesday on the way back from Grandma. She's a little under the weather.
Pooky had a bit of a tiff with one of the stray cats last night. Apparently they were going at it under the grill. KJ brought her in and she went to the window all puffy-tailed and basically spent the next ten minutes looking for a fight to pick. Tink might've been in danger if she hadn't calmed down.
Going camping this weekend. Tink's never been. Assuming she doesn't slip out of our grasp and run off into the woods never to be seen again, I fully expect her to keep us awake by howling at every little noise outside our tent at night. KJ's hoping to get off work early so we can do a two-nighter, because camping's a little too much effort for just one night. This might be the last nice camping weekend until, like, mid-September, so we're taking the chance where we can.
We'll probably be going to Kansas City for our anniversary. There's an Irish festival thingy about that time and Carbon Leaf will be performing.