Blog Technical Question

I hope some of you techy people can answer this question. I noticed that sometimes I will get this weird( in my opinion) amount of views to a post. I also noticed in my stats there will be odd referring sites or odd referring URLs.
I'm not worried about it but was curious if this happens to other bloggers. I wonder if some of the pageviews could come from spammers but when they see my blog is moderated they leave. I have had a couple of people try to spammer me but I delete their comments.

That reminds me. I believe there is a scam going on that is targeting Christian bloggers. A person claiming to be a pastor from a foreign country will comment that he is excited to have found the particular blog he is commenting on. He will go on to say that he would love it if the person whose blog he would come get involved in his  "ministry"  and he leaves his email address. The person by his comments, I can tell, doesn't even read the post he's commenting on. I've seen this type of comment on a couple of blogs in the last year and I wonder if it's something new. Maybe something similar to the scam emails that are still going by people claiming they are stuck in a foreign country and they want to transfer this ridiculous amount of money in your bank account but they just want to steal your money.
Anyway, didn't mean to go off on a different subject.

It's Monday

I hope you had a pleasant weekend. We have been enjoying a break from thunderstorms for the past four days but of course that means I have to water the plants myself.  We are enjoying the green bean harvest. The tomatoes are still growing  and are not ready for harvesting. We can't wait for that to happen.
I sure appreciate your comments and your prayers. I believe that as Christians we are blessed to know we have network of prayer warriors.

Lately, I've been thinking about Christians who have stayed true to their faith and have not compromised their beliefs. I admire that they haven't conformed or developed an "everybody else is doing it" mentality. I think it's probably hard on those Christians because they are most likely ridiculed for their convictions and called legalistic. Yesterday at Sunday school the lesson was on knowing why we believe the scriptures, not ignoring or tossing out scripture.
Two questions that were in yesterday's lesson were:

How is it that people can read the Bible, but not apply its truth?
What are some teachings of the Bible that people choose to ignore?

I admit this was a very difficult lesson for me. There are too many to list why here. I can share that sometimes I struggle with wanting to just stay home therefore " foresaking the assembling"  of other believers.  I'm not sure even why.
I also tend to worry. I worry about our finances. I worry about my family and their health. I worry about my health. I worry about other believers that they are ignoring Biblical truths. I won't go into details. Paul reminds us in the first part of Philippians 4:6 " Be cafeful for nothing". In other words don't  be anxious or worried. Paul goes on to say " but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Ladies I know this. I believe this. I haven't ignored it or tossed this teaching. I suppose it's my human nature worry about things and forget to give my cares to the Lord.

It's taken me all day to get this post written. With my pain, I take frequent breaks to rest my hands.  Then we lost our power because a power pole was down. I want to get back into crocheting. I think I will just have to take lots of breaks. This will of course take me longer to finish a project but at least I will be doing what I love.

I have several book reviews to post. I hope to get those up soon. If you ever have questions about any of the books I have reviewed don't hesitate to ask.

Sometimes I Want to Cry

Sometimes I want to  cry. I cried  for Tia Coleman, who lost nine of her family members including her husband and all her children in the duck boat accident. I cried for the teenaged girl whose grandmother died while saving her .  I cried for a sweet young lady nicknamed Bunny who is struggling with depression and anxiety. I cry for lost souls and for people who criticize us Christian wives for wanting to be our husband's greatest encourager. They somehow think we approve of bad behavior from our husbands which is simply not true.  I cry because my pain medication doesn't seem to be working.

But I cry happy tears too. Like when the newest baby at our church was born a few days ago. Or when a friend has finished her last chemo treatment for breast cancer.

Prayer requests: Pray for Tia Coleman and all the other suvivors of the duck boat accident. Pray that they will seek the Lord through this terrible tragedy.

Pray for Bunny as she struggles with her faith and that she will be encouraged and strengthened.

Pray that I can get an earlier  doctor appointment. The earliest I can be seen by the rheumatologist is August 27th. I'm planning on asking my primary doctor for either a different pain medication or a stronger strength of the gabapentin. Some of the more bothersome side affects like crankiness have subsided.

I was looking at some of my old labs  results from CA online last week and was rather surprised to see that I have tbeen testing positive for lupus since 2008 ANA levels are what is used to check for lupus and each lab report was positive. This was after my recovery from TTP. For those of you who are wondering, TTP stands for Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura.( I  honestly think someone made up that name) This is a condition in which the platelets drop to a extremely dangerous level. When I was diagnosed my platelets were 10,000. Normal is 150,000 and above.

So now I'm wondering did I actually already have lupus long  before I was diagnosed with TTP or did the TTP cause it? I guess I will never know for sure.
I'm wondering why my doctors  mentioned it to me. Maybe because I wasn't having any symptoms?

This post is longer than I met it to be. Actually  I started it yesterday but my hands hurt and today, I took several breaks from typing due to pain.
Thank you for all your prayers,  ladies.  I'm so thankful for prayer warriors like you all!

Sunset After the Storm

I wanted to share this lovely sunset picture. The storm passed a couple of hours ago and the Lord treated us to this lovely gift.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today July 16th

Looking out my window.. the clouds are building up for another monsoon

I am thinking.. about phone calls to make and  paperwork from the rheumatologist to fill out.

I am thankful...  that the Lord brought this adorable cat Kirstie into our lives. She has brought us so much joy.

I am wearing... a light green floral dress and no shoes

I am hoping... that the thunderstorms predicted for today don't start until after my husband and daughter get home. 

In the kitchen...my youngest is making brownies

In my garden ... I have sweet mint growing in my teapot planter, there is also in my garden ,green beans and tomatoes.

Post script

I want to share one of my favorite place to get tea

The Republic of Tea

A moment from my day...rain from our thunderstorm that is going on now.

Closing thoughts ...

Well Tim and Shannon got caught in the thunderstorms but they are home now. I tell you, the monsoons here are very intense.

I don't like sharing about my physical pain. My hands are hurting and I noticed similar pain in my feet. But I know that my God is bigger than lupus.

I'm linking up with the July The Simple Woman Daybook

Good Morning!

Good morning girls! Thank you all for your comments in my last post regarding my lupus and Tim's  back. And I especially thank you for your prayers. They really mean alot.
So our insurance has approved for me to see a rheumatologist and I'm waiting for paperwork from them to arrive so I can fill out and return before I can get an appointment. I'm glad we don't have to go all the way Flagstaff or Phoenix. It's monsoon here and going out of town during a treacherous thunderstorm makes for a very nervous mama.

Tim will be making an appointment to get a MRI of his spine. He has sciatica and his xray showed he has bone spurs along his spine. Our doctor also recommended and referred him to a neurosurgeon. In. Flagstaff.
So we will probably end up having an appointment at the end of August because the doctors here refer their patients to Flagstaff due to the fact that he is apparently one of  top neurosurgeons around. As a result, there is a long wait for an appointment.  This actually will work because by then, the monsoons will have tapered off.

The last time, we went to Flagstaff during a monsoon was in 2016, when we first moved here and our friend who used to live in Santa Barbara wanted us to look at house that was for sale across the street from her. Being new to Arizona and not knowing that it can be 90° and sunny one moment and thunderstorms and 63° two hours later, we drove to Flagstaff.

 We got caught in  heavy thunderstorm on the way up. I must say, by the time we got to Flagstaff, we were hungry, tired and very. Very. Cranky.
It was good to see our friend and visit with the sweet lady whose house was for sale. Though the house was nice and it came with rental income due to mobile homes on the property we just weren't impressed with Flagstaff. It was just to high and though we love snow, I know we would get tired of it. We also didn't want to deal with the headache of being landlords and people with questionable morals.

I finally found out what the birds are that have a nest in our eaves. They are house finches. There is yet another set of babies coming. It seems as soon as the last babies left home, another mama showed up and has laid her eggs.
I hope to get a picture of these pretty birds but you can Google a picture to see what they look like.

Anyway, that's what's happening here. I have several books to read and review. Not quite sure how having only one or two review books to read turned into four. I also hope to post a Simple Woman's Daybook soon. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Fridays This and That

Happy Friday dear ones. I trust you all have had a good week. We have had a lot going on here.
Tim has had sciatica pain in his back but the pain medications he's taking is helping.
I'm dealing with hand pain which is another reason I've been mostly absent from blogging and replying to comments. I've had pain for a number of years but it seems to be getting worse so my doctor had me do some bloodwork to check for lupus and to find out if I'm still prediabetic or if I have full diabetes. Well I'm still prediabetic but my bloodwork came back postive for lupus. Because I had TTP( severely low platelets) back in 2007 I knew I was at risk for lupus. I've been referred to a rheumatologist so I hope to get a call in the next couple of weeks.
The pain makes it hard to type and do my normal everyday activities not to mention my crocheting is affected.
That being said I'm taking a two week break from blogging. I want to give my hands a break. I'm taking gabapentin at night for pain but it has unpleasant side affects such a loopiness and it seems to make me crankier than usual.

Before I go I want to post this picture of the planter I bought. When you see it, you will see why  I just love it!

I love teacups! I'm growing sweet mint and the mint will make the most delicious tea!

Have a great weekend friends. I'll be back around July 11th Lord willing. Have a great 4th of July to my USA readers and have a great Canada Day to my Canadian readers!