Spectacular Sunday

Joyful Thoughts
1. A year ago Beale AFB chapel was new  - this week I'm the pied piper. We just added a few chairs to our row to accommodate.

2. Great sermon by my favorite Chaplain.

3. Relaxing afternoon with family - always a treat.

 

Not a gripe - just a thought - THIS is not what fall looks like to me...but I'm going to OR on Friday and it will be cooler there! Right? 

Stacia chose the Asian Buffet....and I had a good laugh about the frog legs..... The van began making odd sounds on Saturday. Michael knew it was the brake pads and so we went out to find an auto parts store after lunch.

Right next to the auto parts store was a thrift store. I think this would be perfect for Arielle - a Winco outfit...better than the Burqa I'm threatening her with. We were surprised how many really pretty Indian clothes were at the thrift store.  You can't really see - but there are pantaloons included and a long scarf.

Since we were "in the area" - I asked Michael about stopping at Cash and Carry. I wanted to buy some little "stoppers" or "pour-ers?" for my oil and vinegar....we found them. I got duck colors. ::snort:: Michael thinks this may be big enough to take care of my messy yakisoba cooking.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a few things we DO eat in there....a produce section where you can buy things in bulk - I'll explore it more next month-  and lots of Asian products. I bought 2 1/2 lbs of panko crumbs - they had 25lb bags. No more puny bottles for me. Michael bought a BIG can of hard shell - I envision frozen bananas - I think others envision a tiny bit of ice cream swimming in hard shell. There were big bottles of yakisoba sauce and tonakatsu sauce....and I wondered if this "rice spirits" would be the same as Sake or Mirin in Gyudon?

 

Stacia pointed out that our garden was PRODUCING....a carrot...which Yuuki wanted  - badly.

 

Look what Zander found....

 

Zander helped me nail all the string in the boxes so he has part ownership in this greenery.

 

Yuukis wants zucchini too

 

Officially a bit over 12 inches....

 

LOOK at these. Just look at them. They are even more special as our NEIGHBORS brought them over to us. Imagine such wealth growing in your yard.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Markets and Movies

Phil and Beverly told us about the Saturday Farmer's Market in Yuba City.  They made it sound so inviting that Stacia and I got up and left home at 0730 on a Saturday morning. I knew there were other plans for the day as well.

We had a blast! We discovered we both really LIKE early morning outings and miss going to breakfast with friends etc..... I thought it would take 30 minutes to get to the market but it only took 14 minutes. I wish we'd discovered it much earlier.....wonderful produce!


My adventure buddy

 We used all our money a bit of credit and THEN found we could buy market coins....so we did.

 

Our haul....sweet peaches, plums, pluots, strawberries....the melons that Phil recommended, 5 lbs of almonds, kale, eggplants, olive oil, infused vinegars and three take and bake pies....oh and soap, a bracelet and a glass of fresh lemonade.

 

 

Our next stop was Roseville to watch Left Behind. Nolan loves those books.  There have sure been a lot of "faith based" movies recently. We enjoyed this one, though Michael thinks with an Airplane movie they should have hired a commercial pilot to consult. ::grin::  Michael and I watched The Song on a date night last week.

 

 Michael spent the rest of the afternoon at the chapel. The rest of us watched the final two movies from the earlier Left Behind movies on Netflix. 

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Pizza and Games

It's FRIIIIIIday!

By the time Friday arrives we are bushed. We have full weeks, coupled with full weeks of homeschooling, and there are always little ways for us to serve at chapel..... our family tradition has been to eat pizza and watch a movie....veg out.....on Friday nights.

 

The thing is - with week nights so full -  we were finding we didn't have time/nor ENERGY to invite others over. God began to gently impress and challenge us  again about the importance of Biblical Hospitality - regardless of our lagging energy or chronic pain....but it didn't seem right to invite folks over to stare at a screen. We want to connect, get to know them....then God dealt with my tendency to want to entertain rather than extend hospitality. It's quite simple...my focus is to be on people and not the cleanliness of my home or the fanciness of the meal.

 

I swallowed a big lump of pride and suggested we  start inviting others into our home for pizza and games....and it's been wonderful.  I think we average company about 3/4's of the time. There are many times I want to cook something a bit more impressive....but God hasn't released the time to do so at this point.....Papa Murphy's is what we can handle on Friday nights. LOL

 

 Our young men are always happy to help in the kitchen on Fridays. ::wink::



Maya and Stacia have waited weeks for us to coordinate our schedules for a play date.....and when we finally set a date - I forgot I had a site visit.  Knowing it was a possibility I wouldn't be home after school, we invited Maya and her grandparents, Papa Phil and Nan Beverly, for pizza and games.

Our Princess'

 Guesstures was the game of choice for the kids....

We adults sat at the table for a long time...through the meal, clean up and games. It was a joy to be able to hear more about Phil and Beverly's life - their family, their ministry.  They are retired pastors who now live with their daughter to help out. It's not often we get to sit and visit with retired pastors who GET IT. We talked.  It's always a treat to be in relationship with someone in a different phase of life - be that younger or older. It enriches us. This evening enriched us.  We took it outside.....

 

...around the fire pit....I had just enough graham crackers for the kids to have a taste of s'mores. I must stock up on graham crackers now that the nights are getting a bit cooler.  

A sweet ending a full week.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Mountain Adventure

Cynthia and I headed up into the mountains to find a Christian Retreat Center which is a possibility for the PWOC Spring Retreat.  We had an address. We had Tom Tom. We were leaving extra time and planned to arrive at 1000. We'd spend an hour exploring and asking questions. We'd grab lunch and come home. It was a good plan.

We were confident. Things were proceeding according to plan. We followed Tom's advice and turned off the highway. We took the first turn and noticed the road got narrow and windy quickly. We commented on how the roads reminded us Japan and Germany....and then the switchbacks got a bit more intense. They became very intense. I decided Michael may have to drive the van loads of women u and Cynthia noted she would DRIVE HERSELF as she doesn't like to trust herself to others in these situations. We laughed. We kept driving. We crossed a little bridge....

The road became gravel. At this point we began to wonder HOW folks got the RV's up here as the center has RV sites too. 

We drove a long time. We saw great spots to explore. State parks, hikes... 

 

We neared some buildings. Oops - false call - certainly this wasn't a retreat center

 

Eventually we hit an old township. It was darling and deserves exploring. It looked like a ghost town - but we noted mail boxes. Population 8 - 12.  We found a bit of fall colors!

 

The museum is closed this time of year. I tried to find someone to ask where the retreat center was. We were certain we hadn't passed it - but we were in bigger numbers than we needed. We headed back.

 

Must go back and hike this one

We stopped and asked a lady who told us she was not local for directions. We spotted a...um...interesting gentleman. He certainly looked local and confirmed he was. He told us we needed to go way down a "long dirt road." We wondered at these directions as the street signs assured us we were on the right road. We kept heading back down the mountain and we found it!

They were incredibly gracious.  Her comment was, "You must have followed a gps? Did you take Coyote?" Turns out there is a road a block before the road we wanted...Tom sent us off that way. We DID intercept the right road but we were way beyond the retreat center when we did. We'll do step by step directions for drivers if we use this site. LOL

On the way home we stopped in Nevada City at Big A's or Big Al's drive in.....yummy veggie burger - and pesto fries and THIS is a medium frosted root beer - real root beer. Yes, I did.  All adventures need a  bit of culinary adventure thrown in the mix.

Note - I deliberately left out photos of the retreat center. Those will be Cynthia's to use as she sees fit. LOL I won't spoil any surprises.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Bread and Chapel Teams

This was seen in our home today - for the first time since leaving Japan.

 

I got the idea that the bread would rise fast outside - it did.

 

Topped them with a bit of olive oil, garlic and nutritional yeast.... They were flatter than I wanted - BUT the kids loved them.  Six were gone before we got to our dinner. I had thought the kids all decided they didn't like homemade bread - but evidently that's only the elder Gherkins. These kids loved them and asked me to do it more often....which I'm happy to do.

The highlight of today was joining together as a staff at Father Lowe's.  Turnout was a bit low as we had some last minute changes - but it was a great time to connect and welcome the T family.

Michael, Tim T, Father L and Brenner C

 9RW Chaplains

This is what happened when I suggested they do something "holy"...or weird. 

Tonight was a fun night. We're blessed to finish our career with a great team. There WERE women around but I was trying to get a  photo for the library at Far West Campus. LOL

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Harvest!

Our poor, pitiful garden! I did everything I was told to do.....but alas....

Harvest at our home......

 

 

A zucchini - but you can see we'll get another

Suitably impressed

 Our famous Zucchini

 

It's easy to be a star when the other players are....

 

 

I ate the whole thing myself....appears no one else is overly fond of zucchini....

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Sewing Lessons

Joyful Thoughts

1. It wasn't pretty - but we SURVIVED this Monday.

2. Michael was able to teach an elusive math concept for me this evening.

3. Nolan requested PANCAKES for dinner. How great is THAT for Monday night?

This is one of those days that simply leaves a homeschooling Mom  crawling to bed at 1800. 

When a challenge is given to a child to "face the hard things head on," one must be prepared for some long days.

I was going to crawl up the stairs without blogging....and then I heard this exchange at the sewing machine and had to check....

Arielle - "Can you find a slightly larger Barbie?"

Stacia - "Arielle, I don't HAVE any American Barbies." ::snort:: :: gasp::

I guess large means American to Stacia.

Arielle is teaching Stacia how to make Barbie clothes.....um....YAY. Maybe I won't have to learn to sew?

Just heard Stacia ask, "Can I make a Kimono, please?"

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...