Monday and Blueberry Crumble Bars

I can't believe that summer is flying by so quickly. Some schools have started already (August 6th here). Not me! My homeschool is starting the day after Labor Day. Who wants to start the fall semester in summer?
At Bible study last week we talked about making visitors at our church feel welcome. One thing that our family pastor said that really struck a cord with me is to avoid being a Pharisee and not act "holier than thou ". And not not look down our noses at people who are different.

I don't usually have that problem but I'm going to confess something that frankly I'm rather ashamed to admit.
Just before Aretha Franklin passed away, (I miss that magnificent voice already!) the media was reporting how various celebs were visting her and some were tweeting they were praying for her.
Well, after reading all that I was like " Do these ungodly people think God is going to listen to them?" Then there was  " When was the last time you even stepped into a church?"  attitude.

Ouch! I honestly felt like the two men who went to pray, where one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.( Luke 18:10-13)
You know the story. The Pharisee thought he " was all that and a bag of chips" because he did things he thought pleased God and he was glad he wasn't like "like other people" including the tax collector.   The tax collector was humble and didn't even feel worthy enough to come before God. He asked God for mercy for he was a sinner. Scripture doesn't say what the tax collector did that that made him feel so unworthy he wouldn't even look up to heaven.

I told Tim about my not so Christlike thoughts about some of the celebrities that claimed they were praying for Aretha. He explained that God does hear their prayers and it's possible that perhaps this is a step towards getting right with Him. I knew I needed to ask the Lord for forgiveness and I admit, it's hard to not judge some of these celebrities because of their immoral bevaviors. Oh but I'm trying.

Anyway, I mentioned blueberry crumble bars. I made this today and it was so delicious!

You can find the recipe here Blueberry Crumble Bars

Toddler Book Review: All the Colors That I See

This cute little board book is written by Pamela Kennedy and illustrated by Holli Conger

This board book teaches children their colors and there is a chameleon that is hidden on each page. The book  short and the illustrations are very eye catching.  At the end, it reminds the child that God made all the colors we see. Since it's a board book it is very sturdy and will stand up to lots of love.
I think it's perfect to read to babies too.

I received this book free from B&H/Lifeway in exchange for my  honest review

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