What delightful weather! Wow! I have enjoyed the last two days immensely. The Fourth of July was wonderful! We got to sit at the lake with friends and eat grilled chicken and other yummy stuff! Later in the day we came home and got a short nap before company came over to sit on our porch and watch fireworks. Our little town hosts a Fourth of July parade and midway, then at dusk there is a very nice fireworks show launched from the lakeside. We have a perfect view from our front yard. Clint popped some corn and we had a few chips to eat while watching the show in the sky! Even after the town fireworks were finished, several other lakeside residents set off more and the display went on for a while longer. Emma was so cute. She amazed us that at 16 months old she sat pretty still on the grass with a paper plate full of popcorn and just ate and watched fireworks. Some members of Kori's family were here along with a few other friends and we had a great time. Before dark several members of the family had a little archery target shoot going on in the back yard and Clint and Jt took the little kids for four-wheeler rides.
Today we spent a very quiet Sunday. It was probably the quietest Sunday in a long while. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We came home after church and headed out for lunch. The restaurant we had our hearts set on--clear across the county--was not open when we got there! So we circled back around and ended up in Centreville for a quick lunch and then on home. More napping and then guess what we did? Nothing!! How often do you just do nothing? We don't get to just sit and relax for long periods of time very often. This was really nice. We sat on the front porch. I knitted on the lace shell and it is rapidly nearing completion, hooray! We also played corn toss awhile. Clint is the champion around here. While we were out there we got a nice little show from the birds. Several different kinds of birds frequent our tall grass, windbreak area down in the front of our yard. Long ago Clint set up two old sumac trees and put bird houses on them. They have "crooks" in the branches and the birds light on them while traveling from the big trees to the fencerows. Two rows of shrubbery form a windbreak down there which also gives the birds a great habitat. That area stays marshy, especially in a year like this one. It is a low area where our yard slopes down to the road and it often holds some water. This year it's a bit more like a wetland. You can't see the water, but when Clint mows, the grass is always saturated down there. The birds love the environment. We saw bluebirds, swallows, sparrows, and others we didn't identify. In addition to that the hummingbirds frequented the feeder in front of the porch as well as the flowers in the landscaping. Very nice to watch.
Last night before fireworks I finished hemming a dress that I had made over a year ago. I purchased a piece of inexpensive but quality fabric that had a loud orange and brown print. I needed a jacket to go with it and so never finished the dress because I couldn't find a sweater or jacket in the color I needed. Finally this year there are numerous orange items on the market, but insteading of investing in something that wouldn't match anything else I have, I realized I had a brown cotton blouse with a button down front that could be worn as a jacket over this dress. So this morning I got to wear a new dress to church. Felt good to have a new summer dress and also to have one more project finished around here!
What's new in the garden? I have a cactus blooming--yes, a cactus. A friend gave me this cactus a few years ago, back when I didn't even realize that we could grow cactus in Michigan. Well, this little cactus has gone through a number of phases and never really looked all that good. It finally bloomed these beautiful yellow flowers this year and I am hoping it will spread and be a real curiodity out in the rock garden area of the English Garden. You really have to be careful when weeding around it. The spines are like fine hairs and stick in your skin if you even brush against it, however, it does look interesting growing out there! I was also thrilled to have a flower begin to bud that remains a mystery. I had a large stand of marguerite daisies--little all-yellow daisies--that somehow got grubbed out or frozen out last year. I was disappointed when they didn't seem to be coming up and asked for more from the friend I had gotten them from. She found enough left in her garden to give me a start. I planted it about 6 weeks ago. While walking around the garden this evening, I noticed a marguerite blooming where they used to be! I had put the news ones in a totally different place! I took a good look at the new start she gave me and I think it is yarrow! I have been wanting a start of yellow yarrow and nearly purchased one last week. I am suspecting that what my friend thought was a marguerite daisy is really going to turn out to be yellow yarrow! I am so hoping that it is--for then I will have both of the plants that I wanted. Will let you know what it turns out to be!
As for devotional thoughts today, I am remembering that Psalm 46:10 says, in part, "Be still and know that I am God," We as Americans are not often still in this day and age. We're not like our ancestors who spent one day out of seven doing nothing but necessary chores and resting. I felt like today I had a day close to that and it really seemed good. It was very quiet, not even many cars were going up and down the road. How wonderful to be still for a long time and enjoy God's creation. I am thinking that we'd be doing ourselves a favor to try to make each Sunday like this as much as possible. I have to make an effort to slow down; do you? To really take a day off and rest is nearly impossible for me because I have conditioned myself to be busy. I am not a legalist about keeping a certain day, but Jesus said the sabbath was made for man, not the other way around and so that must mean a rest is good for us. When we rest, we tend to give God more space in our thoughts. This is a simple principle that I have to remind myself of in order to practice it. It does not come naturally.
I hope you had a lovely holiday weekend and are all rested up! Blessings, LORI
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