Mushroom Evening

One evening last week, our family went for a walk up in the bluffs where the children had told us 

there were countless mushrooms poking through after all the rains we've had.

Jonathan said he was needing a way to recharge, and he's been loving learning about mushrooms.

This is one of them.

I took the first picture with the camera on the ground,

and this next one from the top.

Here's another.

There were all kinds of them poking up through the pine needles.

The little children were as excited and fascinated as Jonathan.

Of course they know never to taste or eat any except what Mom and Dad are sure are edible--

and right now the only ones we are sure of are the bolettes, so the rest we just gathered to mostly work at identifying.

I saw these pine needles mounding up and figured there were mushrooms underneath.

Sure enough, some of the cutest, sunny yellow and white mushrooms you ever saw.

Unfortunately, from our research, we think these are highly poisonous ones.

Jonathan got a mushroom book the next day to help us with identifying.

I picked a couple of these that look like wide, flat dinner rolls.

We think they are edible, from what the book says, but we may take some to a mycology society evening next week.

Here are some more of that kind on the side of the hill.

Carrie gathered a whole lot of mushrooms...

including this highly toxic red and white one. There were several of these red and white ones up there.

Absolutely NEVER eat these red and white ones!

The one with the purple top, from our research, doesn't seem to be the best to eat, either.

Some people may be able to eat it, but it may cause stomach upset to others.

At least it doesn't sound like it is deathly. 

It was fun wandering about the forested bluff and meadow, hunting for these amazing creations of God.

 Giving our frayed nerves a break.

At home, while the children got ready for bed, Jonathan asked me to find him white and black paper so that we could get spore prints of many of these mushrooms,

which helps to identify them.

So I helped him cut holes into white and black paper and set mushrooms around on the table over plastic cups.

Each mushroom would leave a spore print like this one by morning.

It is best if you use both white and black paper, because as you can see, sometimes the spore print is dark, which won't show up on black paper, and sometimes it is light colored, which won't show up well on white paper. 

The spore print (left from spores falling out during the night) on the left mushroom was brown, 

and on the right was creamy yellow.

This spore print was swirled, which was unique. Not sure how that happened.

These spore prints help you identify the mushroom, because many look somewhat alike, and you have to know the differences.

These mushrooms are bolettes (they look like bed foam underneath) and as far as we know are all edible.

Here is one we fried up and ate. Mmmm.

Two Gifts--a Thorn and Grace

My loving Lord said unto me,

"I have two gifts, two gifts for thee."

"For me?" thought I. "Two gifts for me?

What could they be? What could they be?

"Perhaps could it be a mine of gold?

Fulfillment of a dream untold?

Or a faithful friend to have and hold?

Or a child's life to teach and mold?"

God spoke. I listened all forlorn.

He spoke: "I give to thee a thorn."

"A thorn, my Lord? You said a thorn?"

"Tis true," He said. My heart was torn.

"Oh, Father, what a gift for me!

A thorn and an infirmity!"

He said, "It is My gift to thee

Lest thou too exalted be."

My heart felt crushed and full of fear.

"This gift, a thorn to prick and sear.

What is the other? Let me hear!"

My loving Lord drew very near

So near that I could see His face.

He drew me close, His arms my place,

And said with love in every trace,

"My second gift to you is grace!"

And never shall I give to thee

A thorn without My grace to be

Sufficient for its agony,

To crown it with My victory."

"My Lord," I said, "I trust Thy love!

It all my heart and soul doth move

To thank Thee for the thorn to prove,

And grace to lead me home above."

In a blog post I read today, a guest post by Scott Sauls said,
"Kierkegaard said that the thorn in his foot enabled him to spring higher than anyone with sound feet.
The Apostle Paul said something similar about the thorn in his flesh. The thorn kept him from becoming prideful. It kept him humble. It kept him fit for God and fit for the people whom God had called him to love and serve. There is glory in weakness. There is a power that is made perfect in that place. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)"

Even Thistles Can Bloom Where They Are Planted!

On our way back from going mushroom hunting up in the bluffs last evening, 

I spied this tall thistle in the cattail reeds by a swampy area.

And today I was thinking that 

even a thistle can bloom where it is planted.

Maybe you feel a little bit like a thistle, too, sometimes.

Some people are nice and sweet and soft and beautiful and personable and

cultivated and elegant and elite and classy and in charge and in control

and charming and

just seem to have everything going for them. 

And then there are the--

well, the others.

The thistles, the thorns, the weeds, the wild flowers. The grass, the wild morning glories that just show up everywhere at the wrong time and place, perpetually doing all the wrong things.

Maybe sometimes you feel like that sort of person based on a few uncanny things that have 

happened in your life.

And you end up like this funny blackbird we watched in town one day as we waited by a stop light.

It was standing there trying to figure out what to do with this little white plastic bag

that was trashed there on the sidewalk.

We all have plastic trash bags lying around in our lives that we have to choose what to do with.

There it is, right in our way. 

There it is, messing up the sidewalk, messing up our lives.

What do you with that crazy issue that plopped down into your life?

Sometimes we have to take a closer look, and deal with it. 

It's not really wise to believe that if you ignore a problem long enough, it will go away.

It might.

But it might not. It might get worse. 

And you really don't want to be dragging that stupid problem around for the rest of your life

like this crazy blackbird was dragging this trash bag around on the sidewalk with its beak!

God has better plans for thistles than to just sit there being prickly.

He wants every thistle that He made

to bloom.

Jonathan brought me this bouquet today that Danny had picked outdoors somewhere.

You really couldn't beat it for something beautiful, now could you?

God made thistles to bloom,

and birds to fly, not to drag a bunch of garbage around. 

 

Timmy was flying this kite he'd bought recently,

hanging onto it from the trampoline.

And so there it was--where kites and birds and hearts should be--
flying free with the sunshine and blue sky,
not being dragged through the dirt.
Jonathan told me Sunday as we looked at the concrete he'd poured on Saturday,
that the pastor could expect the concrete to crack and whiten,
because that's what concrete does, like this concrete I saw later at another place.

And that is why, he said, in a day or two, he needs to get in there and use a diamond blade
to saw nice, smooth, planned cracks (seams) ahead of time--to prevent worse and uglier cracks down the road.

 And so we have to understand, that God, the Master of our lives,
sometimes uses the diamond blade of difficulties to saw cracks (seams) into our lives that leave
us looking a bit broken,
 a bit seamed,
a bit scarred,
 a bit cracked.
But in His divine wisdom, He knows that it is to prevent
worse cracking down the road!

He saws our heart's concrete into pieces

so that we can stay in one piece down the road. 

He plants the thistles just like He plants the roses,

and they can both bloom free!

He allows us to go through hard places

so we can come out singing His praises

and free as a bird on the wing...

like these swallows that were fluttering and flittering about near the window

this morning--freely perching on branches in the sky and sunshine,

and not dragging about some trash bag on dirty city sidewalks.

Swallows only bother with dirt long enough to make just a little mud

to build their nests with.

,

And then they soar!

Lift our wings, Lord, from dragging in the mud.

Teach us to soar on swallows' wings, 

to flutter in the breeze on the tip top branches

of Your marvelous grace!

Teach us to bloom, like the thistle or the rose, both part of Your perfect creation,

to bloom right where we are planted!

More Flooding and Work with Jonathan

Thursday evening last week there was a flash flood in our area caused by heavy rain and hail. 

Here part of the old railroad bed that is now a walkway was washed away by the bridge along Rt. 24.

 Here's what it looked like across the road--where it has often been stone dry during most of the years we've lived here.

 And here a road was closed because of flood damage.

 Friday evening Jonathan had to drive up to an emergency roof job way up north to check it over and drop the trailer. He invited me to go with him, and we drove a back way instead of the interstate.

When we got there, I got a photo of his silouette as he checked out the roof.

 Here he is coming back down the ladder.

 That was a busy weekend. While he was managing by phone the work crew that was going up north on Saturday, he was also working hard and managing the crew pouring the concrete deck and sidewalk at our church parsonage. 

All on the same day, the tent was being put up in the parking lot for tent meeting. 

I got a picture of these beautiful Shasta daisies in front of our church.

 The concrete job was supposed to have been done earlier in the week, but the weather didn't suit and when it did, no concrete trucks were available.

So the big job landed on the same day the tent was to go up. This driver was such a pleasant man compared to some concrete truck drivers Jonathan has experienced.

 First Jonathan had to hurry and do some prep work that was supposed to have been done already by one of his work guys.

 The boys and I taped up protective plastic to keep concrete from splatting on the stucco.

 And then Sam and two work guys Jonathan had hired operated the wheelbarrows...

 While Jonathan and Steve leveled and troweled (is that the right word?)

 I was so proud of Sam doing the work of a grown man.

 We could have hired a concrete pump or a concrete guy who would have had it done in less time but cost a lot of money.

 Hannah watching the proceedings.

 Rose and Danny watching from the back porch.

 I loved this planter our pastor's wife had on the table, with the little ceramic frogs.

The guys who were helping with the tent came to see what was going on, and had to wait patiently for the concrete job to get done before they could use Jonathan's  work guys and Sam to help set up the tent.

Sam hosing down the wheelbarrow after toting wet concrete in it.

By lunch time, Jonathan was really heating up with all the hard work he and Steve were doing in the hot sun, and we were afraid he was heading for a heat stroke or some such emergency! But no one else knew how to do concrete finishing except Steve and he, so they had to keep working regardless!

Sooo--Jonathan's wife came to the rescue with drinks of water and electrolytes and a few bites of pizza---

and--stupid or not--stood there holding an umbrella over him to keep the sun from beating down!

So here we are under this umbrella!

Jon McVey, bad knees and all, pitched in to help Jonathan in the emergency as the concrete was setting up too soon in the sun, and we so appreciated that.

Jonathan appreciated his wife's coming to the rescue with a big black umbrella!!

And Danny, who took the picture, cackled with glee over his daddy's turkey feather hair!

Meanwhile, deer grazed peacefully behind the church.

And we finished the afternoon with Jonathan hanging out on the porch a while with a cold, wet washcloth over his aching head, and then finishing the job while I got the children to help me clean up the concrete framework pieces that the guys tore off from the edges as the concrete dried.

It was so fun working together even if it was hazardous for our health!! :)