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Surprised by Mushrooms...

I'm reading Karen Mains' book called "With My Whole Heart". In it, she has a chapter where she describes taking a class on identifying mushrooms. She took the class hoping to learn how to identify edible mushrooms in the woods, but was told right off the bat that wasn't the goal of the class. She discovered she had a child-like fascination with these fungi. After reading a bit of the chapter and her references to the many interesting names of the mushrooms I just had to go online and look for some pictures. I couldn't believe what a huge variety of mushrooms exist in the world! I came across a website of Taylor Lockwood's Mushroom Fungi Photos and was mesmerized.

She describes how mushrooms are like the flowers on a bush. The main vegetative part of the plant is subterranean, made of a mat of threadlike growths out of which the tiny "buttons" grow and emerge through the soil to become mushrooms. They have a fascinating life! =0)

God's creation is indeed incredible and, it seems, there is no end to the surprises you find when you open your eyes!

Shalom...

Dads changing diapers...hee, hee!

Some words from "The Pastor's Wife" by Sabina Wurmbrand...

Sabina Wurmbrand is the wife of Richard Wurmbrand who wrote and lived "Tortured for Christ". They both spent years in Rumanian prisons because they were Jews and because they were Christians. She wrote about how the other female prisoners would come to the religious prisoners and ask to hear what they knew from the Bible. She wrote-

"We had no Bible. We ourselves hungered for it more than bread. How I wished I'd learnt more of it by heart! But we repeated daily those passages we knew. And at night also, when we held vigils for prayer. Other Christians, like me, had deliberately committed long passages to memory, knowing that soon their turn would come for arrest. They brought riches to prison. While others quarrelled and fought, we lay on our mattresses and used the Bible for prayer and meditation, and repeated its verses to ourselves through the long nights. We learnt what newcomers brought and taught them what we knew. So an unwritten Bible circulated through all Rumania's prisons."

Amazing!

I have a stew simmering in the crockpot and I made a delicious German chocolate cake so there will be something good for supper when Bob and Jordan get back from the taekwondo tournament in Grand Rapids.





I stayed home from the tournament because at my age I know longer enjoy watching people kick my first-born in the head. That actually seldom happens and he is usually the one kicking some other mother's son in the head, but I just don't have the stomach for it these days. He is awesome at taekwondo and usually wins the forms competition, unless he's competing against his brother, Josh, in which case they take turns winning. =0) He is also great at sparring and brings home a lot of wins in that as well. SO, I wait at home and fix supper!

I think I'll turn the crockpot down to "warm", then dish up some stew for myself, because I have no idea when the guys will be here. Of course, I'll have some cake, too! My easy chair awaits, along with some favorite books, and I'd better not forget to throw another log on the fire. It's chilly and drizzly here tonight.

Micah and Adam are coming to visit tonight and staying til tomorrow, so it'll be good to see them!

Shalom!

I LOVE days off!

My TO DO list for the day:
Make chili and spaghetti.
Bake bread and chocolate chip cookies.
Laundry
Firewood

I started right after breakfast (homemade honey whole wheat toast with homemade tomato preserves and peanut butter with a cup of tea) making the spaghetti. Bob likes spaghetti and I like chili, so I make a small batch of each. After the spaghetti, I made the chili and started mixing the bread dough at the same time. The bread dough is about ready to split into loaves for the second rising and the chili is finished. I also just put in a load of laundry. (There usually are only two loads with just Bob and myself here.)

While waiting for the bread dough to rise and while the chili simmered I had an early lunch (burrito hotdish and iced tea) while putting my feet up and watching the news with Bob. I also went up to the loft and looked through some of my piles of photo album paraphernalia looking for the Richards genealogy that Bob's mom (Alma) gave us years ago. I didn't find it yet, but Bob went up while I was back in the kitchen and had a great time going through some old family pictures.

I also got in some reading time. I read a chapter out of "The Pastor's Wife" which is about Richard Wurmbrand's wife, Sabina. (He wrote "Tortured for Christ"). I realized that I have no decent bookmarks. I have about 5 books which I'm reading a bit at a time and using index cards as bookmarks is just tacky, right? So I went to Jan Brett's website to copy some of her bookmarks. She's one of my favorite children's book illustrators!



I also wrote some notes for a novel I'm cogitating about writing for the 10-12 year old female set. Every so often this young heroine of mine knocks on my inner-door and I have to jot down some thoughts, character traits, plot, etc. Someday I'll do something with it, when I'm not talking myself out of it by wondering what the world needs with one more book! =0)

I've been reading "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith. It's a fun, light book set in about the 1950's. The time isn't specified, so I'm guessing. (Ah, she reveals on p. 141 that it's the '30's!) It's about a young girl who is 17 and lives with her slightly quirky family in an old castle in England. The father is a has-been author and the step-mom an ex-painting model, and the book is written like a journal. Cassandra (the narrator) is an interesting person and their lives are fun to read about. It's good reading for the breakroom where more serious material doesn't work well, with all the interruptions.

Later today Bob and I will gather some firewood that he's cut up in the woods and then my "TO DO" list will be complete. I'd better go and take care of the bread. I look forward to more reading and organizing of the family photos and maybe a little guitar practice if all works out.

Have a great day!

P.S. Didn't get to the firewood or the photo albums, but I'm going to read some more and then get to bed. Work early in the morning!

Blue jays in the snow...

Bob and I get an inordinate amount of pleasure watching the blue jays outside of our log cabin in the woods.

At one corner of the house grows an oak tree and an evergreen. I can see the oak tree from my computer out of a south window and Bob can see the evergreen when he sits in my favorite chair by the west window. SO this morning we watched the blue jays eating acorns. There are several of them and they perch in one of the trees, cocking their heads from side to side looking for acorns on the ground. They seem to prefer picking them up from the ground. I guess those are the ripe ones? After swooping down and picking one up they somehow perch on a branch and, holding it between their feet, they hammer away at it with their sharp beak. Are they just removing the cap or are they actually breaking it into pieces? It looks like they swallow it whole. They must have quite a gizzard to grind up those babies!

Anyway, this is entertainment in the backwoods of Minnesota. This is one more scrap of my crazy quilt! =0)

Hallelujah! Fun to watch!