Best Time Ever

I was up late last night, spending every last moment I could with my sisters. They are now on a plane, going back in time, towards home. We discovered that this was the very first time in our lives that we ever had a sisters weekend. Words can't even describe what an absolutely wonderful vacation it was, but I will attempt to post our adventures over the next couple days. It's amazing how much fun you can squeeze out of three days. Such a good time.

For today though, I'm kind of exhausted. All the little things that have piled up while I've been gone need to be dealt with, including the fact that my new Kansas license plates arrived but not the new title. So at some point before my temp plates expire I will need to go back to the DMV and find out what the status is. Tomorrow maybe.

All the high end munchies from the weekend are in my fridge all willy-nilly, so that will need to be organized. My sisters had bought pints of Ben and Jerry's after they had dropped me off one of the nights.

“Ben and Jerry's is NOT bioengineered,” my little sister tells me. “Yeah,” I said, “but they have said some pretty douchy stuff in the past that warrants a boycott.”

Not that I'm not going to eat it. Ha Ha. Those pints are chilling in my freezer right now. Can't let good ice cream go to waste.

I really needed this sister weekend and my sisters tell me that they did too. I feel refreshed and inspired and have lots of new things to write about. I will post again soon.

Take care out there.

The Golden Gecko Award

My sisters and I went out to breakfast at Joe Snuffy's place on Sunday morning. I had a half order of biscuits and gravy with a side of sausage. It was so good. Then we drove around to see some of the local towns. We explored Abilene, Chapman and Enterprise, then went to Junction City so that my little sister could go to Aldi's.

We stopped by the grocery store and stocked up on high end munchies like french bread, goat cheese and organic olives and went back to the little house on the lake. We spent the afternoon playing Hand and Foot. It's a card game that we played all the time when we were teenagers. My sister had to look up how to play on her phone, since we all needed a refresher course.

Later, my middle sister toasted some of the french bread with olive oil. She made two different kinds of crostinis. One had goat cheese, sliced strawberries and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar glaze. The other had Laughing Cow cheese, chopped tomatoes and fresh basil. Both were yummy, but the strawberry kind was my favorite.

I went down the hall to use the bathroom. Standing between me and the toilet was a golden shimmering gecko. He was big, almost seven inches long. Neither one of us expected to see the other. We stood there looking at each other for a few moments before the little guy started freaking out. He ran around the bathroom bumping up against the wall and then flipped over on his back. Dead. Or, so he would have me believe.

It was an award winning performance, including his little arm sticking up in the air, with a couple of twitches for dramatic effect. I called my sisters in to see it. One took some pictures and even made a couple videos.

He died a couple more times for entertainment purposes, each time better than the last. Later, he did an encore when my sister found that he could crawl under the bathroom door and ended up in the closet. She decided to name him Paully, after some gangster from a movie or tv show. He's still crawling around there somewhere.

Take care out there.

The Secret Lake

My sisters arrived, safe and sound, early Saturday night. They were surprised that it was so hot and my little sister was glad I told her not to pack any warm clothes. The rental car has excellent air conditioning.

I welcomed them into our humble home and hugs were had by all. My sister brought us gifts of clothes and candy and then, a priceless treasure. My mothers recipe book – just like I remembered it. The Lord so blesses me, because when I heard that it was recently found again, I secretly wanted it. I'm looking forward to spending some time exploring it's pages and making some of the dishes I remember from my childhood. My sister told me that some of the recipes in it were in my hand writing. If I recall, my mother made an excellent meat loaf. I miss her.

We said goodbye to my husband and my sisters whisked me away to where they will be staying. When they told me they were staying at a lake in Abilene I was surprised. I didn't know there was a lake in Abilene! With one sister reading off the directions from the back seat, and the other sister driving, we made our way to our destination.

A couple miles out of town, on what I think was originally a gravel road but now is essentially a dirt road, we arrived at Red Bud Lake. It's a private lake (man made) that is surrounded by houses. A tiny oasis in a sea of corn fields.

The little house is charming, with a perfect view of the lake and comfy chairs on the deck to enjoy it. It was a too hot to sit out there for long but the beautiful little place has central air and was cool and inviting.

We visited for a while and then went into town where we shared a big plate of nachos and some cheesy fries. I took some of the fries back to my husband. Poor guy. He is stuck at home, missing out on the fun and just getting table scraps. Ha ha, don't worry, I packed him a lunch for his dinner.

More on our adventures soon. Hope you all are well. I am having a wonderful time myself. Take care out there.

Sisters

My two little sisters (I'm the oldest) are coming out to visit me. They will be here on Saturday and will stay through most of next week. I can't wait! It will be so nice to get out and do something fun for a change. I'm going to be away from the computer for the most part and will post again sometime late next week.

Hope you all are well, take care out there.  

 

Special Agent

I guess they are hiring for US Secret Service. I was going to rush out and apply, but darn it, you can't be older than 37 and I'm just a tad over that. Ha Ha. Oh well, I'll see what else is out there.

Winter Preps

My winter water project is complete. I took all the old water bottles out of the front seat area, emptied them and threw the bottles away. I reorganized new fresh water bottles into boxes so that I have twice the storage. I have both a zero water pitcher and some water filter thermos that I can filter the water if we actually need to drink some, but my stash is mostly for washing dishes and flushing the toilet if the pipes freeze. Since they have frozen every winter that we have been here, I'm prepared for it.

I made a really good lunch yesterday from just my prepper pantry. Spam fried in toasted sesame oil and a box of organic mac and cheese using evaporated milk. It was amazingly yummy. I understand why Hawaiian's love their Spam. It's actually quite tasty.

I have no freeze dried foods in my prepper pantry. First of all, with the several extra layers of fat I currently have stored on my person, my chances of starving to death are slim (ha ha) to none. Also, freeze dried foods...um, gross. Why would I want to eat some shriveled up, chemically laden concoction that has been sitting on the shelf for 25 years? I actually have a feeling that the whole freeze dried foods is a psyop in itself and except for hikers I see no use for it. That is just my personal opinion. But yeah, yuck.

I have a strong feeling that winter will hit early and be especially harsh this year. The Lord is keeping our poor air conditioner limping along until summer is officially over. Which will give us some time before we need to get it fixed.

That's all for now. Take care out there.

Praying For the Will of the Father

I talk to my little sister almost every night. She calls me from her car on her way back from work. We talk about everything going on in the world, the various dramas of the day to day grind, but mostly we talk about how the Lord is working in our lives and how he takes care of all our needs.

I mentioned that I've found a new lady on youtube that I have been listening to, who is very sweet and kindof reminds me of mom. You can see her house is spotless in the background which is amazing since she has two little sheddy dogs.

My sister said she listened to a woman (she didn't say who) that said she was going to pray for God's will in her life for 7 days. My sister said, “I kind of feel like I need to do that.” I thought so too, so we agreed that we were going to spend the next seven days praying only to know the Father's will for our lives.

Today was the first day and what an amazing day it has been. The Lord directed me to an area of the house that gets neglected because I never really see it. So I scrubbed under the hood of the stove. It was pretty grimy and needed to be done. Now I can't stop looking at it. How funny.

Next, about 10 minutes before my timer was supposed to go off my husband asked me to get him a soda. I was going to wait for the timer but I felt the Lord nudge me to attend my husbands needs. It also reminded me that the Lord's will right now, is for me to take the best care of my husband that I can while he is still with us. So I got up and handed him a pop and spent a few minutes with him and clipped his fingernails. I would have been willing to give his hair a trim and shave his face, but he wasn't in the mood for that right now.

Later I got a phone call from my niece that I haven't seen for probably five years or so. She told me that she had bought a van and was thinking about driving down the coast and living in it like I had done. I got a chance to really share the Lord with her. I told her the story about when I first went out on the road for the Lord, I stayed with her and her dad for a couple days. She was about four or five at the time. (“I remember that!” she said.)

Her dad had taken me to a spot which most tourists never see where the fishing boats come in at the end of the day. I was standing at the railing looking out over the water and said in my heart, Lord is it really Your will that I am taking this journey in my van? Just then a boat sailed past. The name on the boat was God's Will. I think my chin may have hit the pier I was so surprised to see it. When I turned around there was another boat. The name of that boat was Sojourn. Quite a confirmation.

My niece loved that story and told me that she was so glad that she had called me and that God had put it on her heart. I told her she can call me anytime. After we hung up, I just sat there amazed, thankful for the opportunity to be able to talk about the Lord with my niece and encourage her to put her trust in Him.

Lastly, I felt the Lord directed me to write it all down and post it on my blog – which brings us to here. Ha ha.

Hope you all are doing well. Keep prepping and praying!

Take care out there.