The 2x4 Sunday Stealin' Meme

TWO foods you can't stand

1. beef

2. brussel sprouts

FOUR foods you love

1. blueberries

2. Mounds ice cream 

3. any kind of tomato  wrap (tofu, turkey, veggie) 

4. sweet potato fries 

TWO places you never want to see again 

1. Dannemora, NY 

2. the horrible Best Western in Saranac Lake village that my  daughter and I just stayed in. NEVER AGAIN. will i ever stay in best western. 

FOUR places you'd like to revisit

1. France

2. Montreal 

3. Aruba where we had our honeymoon 

4. Italy

TWO musical artists who make you want to change the station 

1. Eminem the hip hop guy  

2. Willie Nelson

FOUR musical artists you love to listen to

1. Rend Collective 

2. Lindsey Stirling 

3. Taylor Swift 

4.The Beatles

TWO moments you'd like to erase

1. the "yes" to an old boyfriend's request to live together. I'd say NO WAY 

2. When I was bullied for being "too skinny" (junior high school)  If I knew comebacks then like I know now.......

FOUR moments you'd like to relive

1. My wedding day

2. My last time with my paternal grandmother in her ADK home 

3. When I first held my newborn baby girls.  I'd relive both daughters' first moments if I could. But not the labor part. 😁 

4. When my youngest daughter performed her senior dance show at age 18. I would hire a professional videographer to record it better than what we have on our iphones. 

Happy Sunday!!

Mid-August Faves

 

I honestly can't believe we are into mid-August already!  Summer is still going strong yet Autumn is in just 5 more weeks! 

I'm pausing today to share FIVE of my FAVE blessings God brought into my life this past week.  Some are huge, some are little but all deserve thanks to the One who provides. 

Link up with us at Susanne's blog to join in and share your  weekly blessings. 

left side: Paul and Kim
right side: Dave and I 

• RWC REUNION!  The college I attended (now a University!) was a medium sized private Christian one. I had a lot of good friends in every class and when I was a senior, I became especially close to certain juniors, one of which was my friend Paul and his friend Floyd. Paul ended up marrying a girl I knew from dorm life, a nursing major named Kim. Dave was the only one of us who didn't attend RWU.   I met him just after I was done with grad school here in Albany. Well, Paul, Kim, and I reconnected via FB a number of years ago and we kept saying "We have to get together before we're old". HA! So this summer we made it happen!  We set aside last Saturday to travel from our respective homes (they live about 4 hours west of us in Rochester NY) so we met at this beautiful rooftop restaurant in Utica NY.  I'm originally from central NY anyways so am somewhat familiar with Utica.  We had such a great time with good food and wine catching up on the last 42 years!  I'm so thankful we made this little friendship reunion work. 

our  church logo
courtesy of website

• CHURCH CONVERSATIONS:  I really  enjoyed chatting after church (We went to the 9AM) with one of Courtney's oldest friends from school/youth group.  They still get together but I hadn't seen S in so long!!  She was there with her mom, whom I last saw to speak with, last Spring.  So we had a good conversation getting caught up on our lives.  Then I was able to talk to two other women I hadn't seen much this summer.  I also am thankful for our senior pastor who  gave us an excellent sermon about Romans 8:28 and what it exactly means for Christ followers and what it does not mean!  I really needed to hear this sermon. I'm so very thankful for our church,   the leadership and the friends we have there. 

ice cold sparkling lemon-lime water

youngest daughter Claire
at Cherry Plain State Park beach

• LAKE DAY:  My youngest daughter wanted to spend time with me at her fave state park beach.  It's only about a 35 minute drive across the Hudson River to the east of us. We arrived around noon and stayed until 3 pm. It was very hot on Sunday afternoon so we brought ice cold waters and some lunch food and did a lot of swimming in Black Pond.  The water was very refreshing.  I'm thankful I had a few hours with my youngest girl.  She's not had a lot of vacation time this year and is working hard at her optician apprenticeship. I'm thankful she's doing well and carved out some time on her day off to be with me. 

from a roastery in the northern Adirondacks!

• FRESH LOCAL COFFEE:  This coffee roastery is found in the county in the North Country where my oldest and I were last week on vacation. It's fair trade and organic and locally owned by a family.  You can click the link below the photo to get yourself a free half pound!  I bought a pound of the Guatemalan because it's Dave's fave roast. He loves the Guatemalan coffee bean.  We have a coffee grinder with various settings so I did the pound for our automatic drip brewer.  We will be enjoying this for the next week or so.  I'm thankful we discovered this coffee roastery because I had only known of the one in Schroon Lake (9 Mile Coffee).  The scent of it at 6 AM each morning this week has been heavenly. It's just a simple blessing but I truly am thankful for the scent of fresh brewed coffee. 

small orange rose bush is finally starting to do well
in the front flower garden

Flowers for deck bought on Mother's Day
and still doing well.. I think it's the heat and high humidity
cause it sure isn't the rain! We've had no significant rain this summer

• SUMMER BLOOMS:  I'm thankful for the flowers that are doing well this summer and the fact our small rose bush is finally getting some more blooms.  There's nothing like sitting out in the evening, on the deck, with such beauty. I'm also thankful for the wildflowers I see on walks and in the mountains by the lakes we frequent. 

Flowers in Parishville NY
Northern ADK on the St Regis River

That wraps up my fave blessings from this past week.

What are your blessings? Please share!

Grounded

 

morning sunlight about 7:15 AM 

This morning dawned partly sunny/partly cloudy. We need rain...a good soaking rain. Everything is dry and there are water bans (no watering lawns) in parts of our county and the one to the north of us. The humidity levels are oppressive. 

I still prefer this over the bitter cold and ice of January and February though.

I was out of the house by 7:15 for my morning walk. I couldn't get up to a cardio level due to the oppressive humidity and high temps. It's just not good to power walk or really do anything in this heat and humidity. So I turned on the New Heights podcast to begin to listen to Taylor's 2 hour message while I walked. I was able to hear the first 40 min of it and it's awesome. (if you're a Swifty fan like my family).  It led me to pray for her to continue to be a good role model for the younger generations. Her music was allowed to be listened to in our home, much to my 2 daughters' happiness because of how clean most of her lyrics are and how authentic and beautiful her music is.  Plus, she shines her light and sometimes speaks about God in her life. I don't know where she stands in regards to a personal relationship with Jesus, but that's not for me to judge or figure out. I just love her music and her style and  how real she is. After a time, I silenced the podcast to listen to later when I doing chores around the house. 

I turned into the next part of our neighborhood heading north: 

our neighborhood street heading north
into the next neighborhood

That then led me to note all the American flags in our neighborhood. We live in a northern suburb of Albany, NY (the Capital). There's a lot of wealthy families in our public school district along wiht a lot of diversity. My neighborhood consists of black people (from the Caribbean as well as roots in Africa), Asian countries are represented (Specifically India, China, Korea, Pakistan and those are just the neighbors I actually know); Caucasian people (A lot of Irish, Dutch, British, French, and German roots here).  I know of at least 2 other evangelical Christian families that live in my neighborhood as well as Muslim, Hindu, and atheist families. I also know several Catholic families. I love the diversity of our neighborhood. One family, whose son was one of my preK special students, became citizens of America recently.  They are very happy.  

historic cemetery in our neighborhood

several homes have small flags displayed on their mailboxes
or in their gardens or hanging from their porch. I hang ours out from our front porch
 on national holidays like Flag Day/Presidents Day/Memorial Day/Veterans Day
and for the entire month of July 

What I don't like is the rise of Christian Nationalism I'm seeing displayed and hearing about from church friends, neighbors, relatives and the general media. It makes me sad that some of my Christ -following friends appear to support our current President and basically worship Him vs worshipping God/our Savior. It's ok to support your political party...but  when it takes the place of your focus being on God......well.....what I've been seeing makes me sad. I pray for our nation. 

And then I thank my God that my true citizenship is in heaven. I know where I'm going when I die. 

And I thank Him for the firm foundation I had growing up. I'm thankful for our church where all of us have grown spiritually and relationally and where we worship alongside all different kinds of people from all different backgrounds. Yet we are one in Christ. 

I'm thankful that when I came across this little plant, it reminded me that my foundation has to be grounded in the Word of God. That I cannot stand without the support of God and His guidance/instruction/promises/comfort. 

Little tree being supported in order to grow well. 

My center is in Christ and supporting me are God the Father and the Holy Spirit who brings guidance to my life. Just like this little tree has a center that is firmly planted but needs the support of the stakes to stand upright.

Who are you grounded in?  Are you putting your trust and hope in a human who is  pretending to be leading this nation or are you putting your hope and trust in God, the One who made us all? 

Random HodgePodge

 

I'm home today due to needing to cancel a scheduled hike.  The area of the ADK we were going to hike in has 60% chance of thunderstorms today so I'm home with housework caught up and not that much to do!  So I thought I'd play along with the Hodgepodge questions. Head here to link up! 

August is National Golf month...do you play? Do you enjoy following golf? Have you ever been to a professional tournament? 

I love mini golf and we used to play it once a week or so when we were newlyweds in the months of June-September. Once the girls were about ages 8 and 3, we would bring them too.  Our oldest girl always liked it, youngest girl couldn't stand it yet she's the one who always got a hole in one. Go figure. I'm fairly good at it and get at least one hole in one per game. I've played it all my life as my parents used to view it as a special treat every year when we would be up at our camp.  Nowadays, Dave and I play maybe twice a summer.  As for hitting a bucket of balls...I've only done that twice in my whole life. Both times were with Dave several years ago.

No I can't stand watching golf; I don't follow it although yes I know who Tiger Woods is, and you wouldn't catch me at a pro game because....BORING!! 

2. Astronaut Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 fame passed away this past Thursday. Are you interested in outer space and what's happening today in terms of space exploration? If space travel became common in your lifetime would you go? How do you personally relate to the idea of exploring something vast and mysterious...does the idea excite you, intimidate you, or something else? 

I like star gazing and we've been to a couple of really good planetariums. I honestly think our nation spends way too much money on outer space projects and should be attending to this planet much better than we do. 

Yes, I would probably want to go to the moon but highly doubt that will ever happen. 

I love the idea of exploring mysterious things.  It does excite me...but how about the mysterious things here on planet Earth instead?? 

3. Describe your communication style in three words. 

 Assertive; direct; honest

4. Do you have a favorite cookbook? A favorite celebrity chef? Do you watch any cooking shows on TV? 

Currently, my fave cookbook is a plant based dessert one. 

I also love the Yummly app as there are virtually thousands of recipes at your fingertips. But honestly, I mainly use the recipes found on my blog!  Check out my side bar and look for labels "Faithfixes" 

No I don't have a fave celebrity chef and I don't watch  television shows unless it's Law and Order SVU from Sept - May. 

5. As a child did you have any back to school traditions? If so, did you carry on those same traditions with your own children? Do you have any back to school traditions you've started on your own? 

The only "back to school" traditions I can remember is that Mom would take us the first week of August (school here in NYS begins after Labor Day as it should!!) to get our school supplies if we knew what those were going to be. It wasn't as difficult as when my daughters were in public school. Our district here has every thing color coded with specific lists. Back in the 60s and 70s I don't remember that being a thing. 

Mom also let us buy 3-4 new clothing sets for back to school and always a new pair of jeans and sneakers. 

Traditions I did with my daughters who were in school from 1998-2011 (the oldest, K-12) and 2005-2017 (youngest):  new clothes for the first day at their fave stores; new shoes if needed; new riding boots for the equestrian girl and new pointe shoes for the ballerina; lunch out on the first day of kindergarten.  

As a special education preK teacher who always had to teach summer school, my tradition after my last 2 weeks of August (vacation) would be to either go camping or to the ocean with the family (For Labor Day weekend)  and then out to breakfast the day before the first day of school. I also bought a brand new planner every single year for Sept through June. I also had a weird goal for my self every year: never teach in the exact same outfit for the whole school year. I succeeded because I have a lot of clothes and as a special ed prek teacher we were allowed to wear jeans if they were dressy ones and not just skirts/dresses. I mixed and matched many outfits!! but I also bought myself either brand new flats or sneakers each Sept. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm absolutely thrilled that this plant, which I bought at a local farm across the Hudson River from our home on Mother's Day is still doing so well.  It's my fave summer plant this year. 

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!