When Egg Prices Soar--God Gives Enough to Share

 As egg prices have soared, God has given us enough to share.

For some reason, the photo I took (above) at Wigwam grocery store will only come up sideways, so oh, well, as Hannah would say, who cares? You can still see the handsome price of $9.95 for just one dozen. 

That's when a person is grateful if he has a few chickens.

We have enough eggs and to spare. I just boiled ten today for an upcoming trip when we leave before breakfast and take along boiled eggs and a salt shaker for breakfast. We also make French toast at times, or omelets, or scrambled eggs, or deviled eggs, or egg salad, or potato salad with lots of boiled eggs chopped into it.

And we give away dozen after dozen to very happy people. 

With prices double what they were not that long ago, we make most of our food from scratch, including taco seasoning.

 

A stirfry we made.

I cook several pounds of beans at a time, going through them first to check for stones, then soaking overnight, cooking, and then freezing in jars or bags to be ready for taco salad, baked beans, or enchiladas or burritos.

Every once in a while Crystal makes her special Indian dishes with chicken, coconut milk, and special seasonings. 

We really enjoy those over rice. 

Of course, I make lunches for my two men plus an extra every day for a worker who doesn't have a vehicle. We ran out of homemade buns one day but I had bought some decent bread at Aldis in Sioux Falls that week (even a decent price). We have to constantly think ahead about lunches--unless we want our guys to have to take time off work to go buy a meal at $10 each. 

So no. We make the lunches.

 A couple months ago, Crystal brought us 50 pounds of spelt from Missouri, leftover from when my mom moved and no longer needed the grain. So we are blessed to have a grain that is like wheat but with lower gluten content and that I am not allergic to as I am to whole wheat.

This is not our blueberry cobbler, but it's made by our pastor's wife for last Sunday's carry-in dinner. Home-baked berry cobbler really hit the spot. 

I even allowed myself a very small piece. It was so full of wholesome blueberries. 

It was wonderful to enjoy such a treat! 

When Old Moms Swing into Blue Sky

Yesterday Jonathan and I ended up for a few minutes at Sherman Park in the middle of Sioux Falls where we had traveled for several reasons, mainly my final of three infusions at my clinic there. 

We had left home a few hours earlier than originally planned, however, so that Jonathan could arrive at a courthouse in Sioux Falls in time to accompany a man from the reservation in for his case.

 Interestingly, the name of the place was Minnehaha County Courthouse. Minnehaha is the name of a native American Indian tribe, and also the name of a street near Colorado Springs where we had purchased a fixer-upper many years ago, maybe sixteen, hoping to remodel and make some money.

This name may or may not bring back very good memories.  

However, yesterday was a lovely day, and while Jonathan was at the courthouse, I ran a couple errands and ended up with two red and white striped paper bags of free, fresh popcorn from 

Ace Hardware! 

Since our daughter had made us three bags of popcorn for our 2-day trip, we shared those Ace popcorn bags with our friend's family, and were they ever tickled for the diversion and treat as they had been sitting in their vehicle just waiting.

Then we stopped for a few minutes to walk in the sunshine at a park we passed where we noticed lots of robins on the ground. I saw one pulling a worm that stretched as long as the robin itself! 

It was just a city park, but we never know what we'll discover if we just pull over and get out and walk. Not only did we discover all the hungrily feasting robins, but we discovered a spot where one hundred years ago a businessman and real estate man named Mr. Sherman built a 500-foot-long wooden slide for adventuresome young people. (Or old people, if he included people like Jonathan and me.)

Jonathan and I had fun meandering around on that hillside, voting on where we each thought the slide may have started. The sign said the slide went up and down and around, a bit like a roller coaster, or maybe a bit more like my cancer journey right now!

Which is why we take time to just stop and take a walk in the middle of it all--to allow our minds to reset and relax and rest. 

I love reading about history, including the history behind this now non-existent slide and behind these Indian Burial Mounds that were in another corner of the park.

I would have thought they were just hills, of course, but turns out these hills are burial mounds that contain skulls, bones, pots and pans, and even horse bones!

I prefer the green grass on top. 

Also the swing that takes me into the sky while stimulating my lymphatic system,

and spring blossoms like these ones my sister Dorcas sent me a photo of in Virginia. 

So when I am waiting on results of treatments and infusions, praying about desperate problems in Haiti, Ukraine, our own country, and so many other places in the world, and am in between a court and Aldis and Menards, it's time to take a few moments and swing right up into the blue sky--

like a happy little girl who knows that in the middle of it all, 

we can trust Jesus and enjoy one more moment of life and love!

 

Sunny Crocus, Humble Violet

When we arrived at Lakota Chapel this morning, bits of April sunshine were as busy beaming up at us from the ground as down at us from the sky!

The golden crocuses were blooming despite the frost! 

We stood in the warm sunshine and cool air waiting for someone to arrive with a church key, because the pastor had arrived before anyone else, but he had forgotten the key! 

It was no problem to wait, however, because we were enjoying the robins at the house next door and the crocuses. 

I never can quite understand how robins, after migrating hundreds or thousands of miles, can still be so fat!

"There's how!" we discovered, as the robin pulled a fat worm from the ground. 

"Maybe I need to start eating worms to fatten up!" I mused. 

What a good job God does of providing for His creatures we actually heard during the message Jonathan shared this morning titled, "Consider the Birds." 

 It's intriguing to think that Jesus, in His most famous Sermon on the Mount, told us to consider the birds and learn lessons from them--of trust and contentment and not worrying about tomorrow--which is hard to do when one has bills piling up, or vehicles needing repair, or animals to take to the vet, or a disease like cancer.

 

Panic hit me shortly after church service this afternoon. "What if...?" And I had to remind myself not to fear, but to trust God. 

He takes care of sparrows, robins, and even wild turkeys such as the ones Jonathan and I saw this afternoon as we took a walk down through our property to wee the new calf and its mother at the neighbor's field. 

"Don't add tomorrow's anxiety to your troubles today," Jesus said.

That creates an oversize load.

 Each day has its own measure of sorrow without adding tomorrow's besides. 

Jesus didn't deny or discount that each day would have troubles. 

It was heartbreaking to walk down by the river today and see once again the charred mess that the prairie fire last August left of this once green and overgrown area by the river. It burned and twisted tree bark to a charred crisp, and left ash everywhere--except the huge patch of awful sand burs on the sand bank of the river. 

That, of course, was left unscathed--so like bigger questions in life that leave you wondering why?

Still, Jonathan and I took off our shoes and socks and padded through the sand bar looking for a dry spot to sit by the river for a while in the sunshine. Jonathan went first, and I followed, carefully placing each footstep in his, because I figured if he had stepped there without feeling a prickly burr, then it would be safe for my feet, too. And that's how we walked by the river till Jonathan found a spot to recline in the sand and let me sit on his lap, watching the foam build up at a fallen tree in the river and listening to the splashing and gurgling of the water. 

We don't have dogwood blossoms to brag about like pictures a brother sent from Missouri,

nor lilacs already blooming, 

nor apple blossoms. 

But we don't have tornadoes, floods, and buckets of non-stop rain, either.

We sat near the sand burrs by a muddy river in South Dakota in the middle of a burn scar and were grateful for the sunshine, the sound of running water, and each other. 

 

No matter what circumstance we find ourselves in, there is Love to be thankful for--first of all, God's, and then the love of family and friends. For those who don't have that, there is the family of God, who, as I do often, pray simple prayers for a big God to remember and help and give grace to every child of His, especially those who are suffering the most or who most need encouragement. We are small and frail, like the humble violets, compared to the bigness of all that is wrong and evil, but we have a God Who is more than big. He is mighty and awesome and powerful and He cares about each of us today. 

Here is a poem my mom sent last week. 

 

  THE VIOLET

 

Down in a green and shady bed

A modest violet grew,

Its stalk was bent, it hung its head,

As if to hide from view.

 

And yet it was a lovely flower,

Its colours bright and fair;

It might have graced a rosy bower,

Instead of hiding there.

 

  Yet there it was content to bloom,

In modest tints arrayed;

And there diffused its sweet perfume,

Within the silent shade.

 

Then let me to the valley go,

This pretty flower to see;

That I may also learn to grow

In sweet humility.

 

     by Jane Taylor

And a couple links to articles I enjoyed by a favorite blogger. 

https://christyfitzwater.com/when-the-perfectionist-tries-to-know-god/

 

https://christyfitzwater.com/encouragement-falling-apart-bodies/

Meadowlarks and New Calves

The last two Sundays were as different as night and day. Last Sunday there was so much snow and mud that both churches we attend cancelled services. 

Jonathan and the children had managed to get home from Pierre on Saturday,  despite terrible roads, bringing me a pot of tiny narcissi to place in the window! They parked our van at our neighbor's place, since it was so weighed down with building material that, in Danny's words, it would have shot "like a rocket" down our steep and slippery hill of a drive. 

  On Sunday about noon, coming home from the church up the road where we attend when Lakota Chapel cancels, we arrived at the gate to discover a whole flock of meadowlarks all over our snowy, muddy driveway!  

Perhaps a couple dozen at least. We listened to them serenade us, watched them flutter here and there with their bright yellow Sunday ties! 

 It was just so amazing. 

That was in the middle of weeks of Danny spending each morning helping a rancher friend find and tag new calves just like this one which we saw from our kitchen window this Sunday over in our neighboring rancher's field.  

Danny and Jonathan are also doing some remodel work for the same rancher, traveling back and forth on about ten miles of muddy road! This is what their vehicles look like when they are done!

The weather seems to waver here between winter and spring, but ticks are already showing up,

a pair of swans had returned and were swimming on a little lake on our way to Sioux Falls the week before, 

 and Jonathan's seasonal allergies are driving him crazy all over again.

 

A day or two before the snow storm, there was a very bad grass fire across the border in Nebraska at the Nebraska National Wildlife Refuge. Danny was gone for hours helping to fight that.  Runs in my mind about 10,000 acres burned.

Joy for a Difficult Morning

This was one of those mornings when--let's just say I wasn't exactly experiencing joy when I came out to the kitchen wrapped in my robe. I had wakened at 2:00 in the morning and hadn't been able to sleep since. I'd gotten some praying in, between bouts of unsuccessfully trying to sleep, so it hadn't been totally wasted time. But now my eyes felt droopy and I felt draggy. 

I just wasn't having a particularly good morning as I started to make a drink and clear the dish drainer and pack lunch for Danny who had to leave earlier than usual. He's working for a rancher for a few weeks during calving season. Even the house was disconsolately dripping after a big snow and then rain last night.

But what was that Bible reader saying who just read from Philippians chapter 3? 

"In all these things, brothers, may God give you joy."

Jonathan had just turned on the audio Bible chapter for the day, and I was as startled as he was when he went out to his truck one morning and discovered a happy hen perched in the side compartment of his truck topper. 

Just like a happy hen clucking at me, the verse about God's heart desiring joy for me spoke to me clearly. In the middle of baldness, insomnia, chilliness as Jonathan was having a hard time getting the fire going, and nothing sunny today--the Scripture prayer was that God would give me joy!

The words felt like warm sunshine on the shawl on the back of my rocking chair when I go sit down after my work guys leave, when I pick up that shawl and wrap its warmth around my shoulders and thank God. 

It felt like the message I read on a license plate a few days ago as I was stopped at a light in town. 

"God be with you."

There it was, just another token of God's mercies shining through--at an unlikely spot, an ordinary stop light.

This morning as I checked my phone, I saw that an email had come in from Students for Life Action. 

"I know it's late but I just can't seem to fall asleep. There's been so much happening...the fight to DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD is raging in Congress right now, our SCOTUS squad will be on the front steps of the Supreme Court in TWO days, and we have state battles heating up...

"So here I am, writing...at almost 2:00 a.m., Anna."

My eyes opened wide. 

2:00 a.m. 

That is when I woke up last night. 

I couldn't sleep either. 

So I had prayed, over and over.

Prayed for many people, many issues, and for the pro--lifers gathering today and tomorrow at the Supreme Court, risking their safety because I read that Planned Parenthood is bussing to D.C. witches, warlocks, and satan ists to use their black methods to pervert justice and have their way in our courts and country as Liberty Counsel provides briefs to the Supreme Court tomorrow, Wednesday, in the case of Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.

Did God wake me so I could pray?

I hadn't felt like much of a prayer warrior, huddled under the covers trying to sleep but not able. 

So as not to disturb Jonathan, my hands prayed instead of my lips. 

And sometimes, prayers were without words, just hands beseeching the God of heaven to show Who was more powerful, to protect and watch over His people. 

I've seldom had a morning of sleeplessness and prayer like that.

But I was not alone.

Had God wakened a poor weak person like me to help hold needs before His throne, to stand in the gap even in just such a small way?

And then--as I headed to the kitchen first thing in the morning, what did God give me but His Word in a different version. It didn't say "Rejoice in the Lord alway," as the KJV says, and which hits me like something I must do, or conjure up, or strive for, or struggle for. Not that this is how I should feel about that version of the verse, for surely God gives power to do what He commands, but just between you and me, the version that I heard this morning felt like just for me. 
"In all these things, may God give you joy!" 

The comfort that came to my heart was indescribable. I felt God's heart in those words. I didn't have to work up joy. I just felt God's heart and knew His joy was there for me--in the middle of sleepless hours, dreary news, and a drippy morning. 

Just like that flock of meadowlarks surprised us Sunday afternoon coming home from church, flocking all over our driveway, that verse surprised and blessed me. 

In the middle of the dreariness of a chilly and cloudy morning, with deep, dark clouds gathered over our nation and its capital, I forgot about the hours of not being able to sleep and reveled in God's Word--and His joy!