Sunny Sunday

The high temperature today was: 88 degrees

The humidity today was:  59%

Sunny--hot

Tomorrow--hotter, in the 90's.

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This is what I saw first thing this morning.  Yes--it is a squirrel, right outside my window, upside down in the Mulberry tree, having his breakfast.

Church today was great.  Our minister was on a weekend retreat and the women of the church took over.  There was a flute solo and then a flute duet, then two ladies stepped up to the pulpit and told of their favorite hymn and why the words meant so much to them.  How it had encouraged them, or enriched their lives, or brought them back.  The one lady, who had been raised in a Christian home, had strayed away from the church when she was a young married.  She wasn't living a sinful life, but she wasn't going to church anymore, or even thinking about it.  Then she attended her grandfather's funeral and one of the hymns they sang, made her realize that she needed to get back her prayer life, her involvement in the church, her closer walk with God.  

I told her after church that I appreciated her testimony so much.  That I was also like that.  Raised in a Christian home from my birth and I too, has taken it all for granted and stopped going to church.  Then I said, "A lot of us raised that way seem to stray--more so then someone who comes to Christ later in life.  BUT when we come back--it is always better and stronger then the first time."

The other lady spoke of her favorite hymn "It Is Well With My Soul", which is one of my favorites.  I have sung it as a solo in choir and as a duet.  It was one of Fred's favorites also and he and I sang it as a duet once AND it was sung at his funeral.  I did fine while we sang it--I was having a great time.  Then the song ended, we sat down, and all of a sudden, there was a great amount of water running down my cheeks.  GEEZ!! I so hate to cry in church.  I had to turn to reach in my purse for a tissue and the couple who sit behind me each week, saw the tears and he reached up and patted me on the shoulder, which ONLY MADE IT WORSE!!!

This was the new church I started attending after Fred died.  On the advice of the funeral director, given to my question, "How can I get a Methodist minister to do the service?"  I really liked him.  I hadn't been going to church for a few six  years, as I didn't like the bigger, snooty church in Brighton.  This is a small church in the town west of me, Howell.  It seemed every Sunday, most hymns would make me cry.  Then I found out the minister's wife had died.  He was driving and lost control on an icy road, their car hit a tree, she was killed instantly.  At the time, they were in their forties, with four children--two still at home.  The whole congregation cried that Sunday, when he told us.  I wish I had a picture of him--you would guess his age to be mid-sixties.  He in fact, is nine months younger then my son, 54. The tragedy had aged him beyond belief.

For the first six months, I cried every Sunday and I was so embarrassed.  I told him one Sunday after church that I was going to have to quit coming--unless he promised not to make me cry.  He said, "But crying is good for us.  It cleanses us.  It's okay."

I think I have written before about how I never cry at funerals. I didn't cry at Fred's.  I don't ever cry in sorrow.  I cry at weddings, graduation, seeing the grand children performances, but never at anything sad.  Not the case so much now..at my best friend's funeral, when I walked by the casket on the way out and something hit me and her death and the repression of sorrow I had from Fred's all came together, and I collapsed.  Talk about being embarrassed!!!

For the last year, I haven't teared up too much in church--usually I am a grinning fool while we sing because the hymns, that I have known ALL my life--make me so happy.  Until today.  So--if crying is good for us and cleanses us--then I am good and I am clean.
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So, yesterday I saw something on Face Book and I wanted to make it.  So I stopped at the Wal-Mart on the way home and bought some plastic beads to make this:

~So simple! Layer cheap plastic beads in cake pans (no lining required), melt at 400 for 20 minutes,let cool, & then just flip them out. Drill a hole in it to make it a suncatcher! Great "craft" for kids (choose the colors, arrange them in the pans) to make as gifts for grandparents or teachers.

The trick will be to get down low enough so I can look in my cupboards and try and find my cake pans.  I haven't made a cake in a few many years.  I hope my oven doesn't catch on fire.  I haven't used my oven in a few many months.  I will post a picture when I get it made.  I hope it turns out.  I am going for the blue/green/purple.  Of course there wasn't just a box of beads those colors--so I had to buy extra and will pick out the ones I want.  Maybe I will make a multi-color one for Pearl.

Then I got home and came in to change before I got the other few things I had purchased out of the car.  On the way out, I noticed that my Rose of Sharon bush had one bloom on it.  I have four bushes, pink, red and bluish purple.

They look like Holly Hock blossoms don't they?

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Then I noticed a bunch of birds in the Maple Tree, so I had to run over and scare them away, they were looking at my Hummingbird's nest.

So--I no more got in the house after carrying in my packages and Dar appeared.  She goes to church at 8:00 in the morning, so she is ready for her Sunday visit over here around noon.  Well--I go to church at 10:30, so I am just getting home at noon and ready to eat and...in she walks.  Sits down and starts in with her review of her day yesterday.  I don't remember all of it because I was trying to eat my antipasto salad.  

After about an hour, she said that she had seen the picture of the hummingbird and the nest, that I posted on Face Book and she wanted me to show it to her.  So I jumped up and outside we went.  Then I had a major dizzy spell because I had moved way too fast, and I couldn't look up, because I couldn't keep my balance.  I walked around a little bit, with my head lowered and finally was okay to look up and point it out.  She was impressed--gasp.  

As we were watching, the bird came out and Dar said, "Oh my gosh--that's the same one that comes to my feeder!!"

"Wow--that's cool," says I.  But of course, I could not keep my big mouth shut, so I said, "How do you know it's the same one?  Does it have distinctive markings?"

"It's the same one, I know it is.  It's a Hummingbird...right?"

"Yes."

"Well I have a Hummingbird at my feeder all the time!"

"Do you think there might be more then one Hummingbird in the neighborhood?"

"Probably, but....I know...that's the same one."

Okay!!

Then Tami, from next door, must have seen us because she came stomping over and said, "Where is the nest?"

I showed her and the bird was just coming back to the nest.  "Oh," she said.  "That's the one that eats at my feeder all the time!  She will bring her babies to my feeder when they hatch."

"How do you know that's the one that eats at your feeder?" asked Dar.  "I see her at mine!"

"She just flew in from that direction," says Tami pointing at her house.  "So I know---it's the same one!"

Okay!!

Apparently it is a matter of pride who's feeder this bird eats at?  So I just had to throw it out there with, "Well, she may eat at YOUR feeders, BUT--she lives in MY tree!"

Hee hee hee!

They both laughed and I was super dizzy again so I went and sat on the porch.  Just then, the bird exited her nest and headed a bit south, across the street and I heard Dar say, "Look--she going to my house and MY feeder!"

I sure would miss all of this if I moved out into the Little House On The Corner!!!  NOT really!

So--an hour later, Pearl walked down to see the bird.  Now Pearl also had trouble with balance looking up.  Well, I'm glad no one had a camera to take a video of both of us, hanging on to each other, swaying back and forth like two drunk old ladies and practically falling over.  Finally I said to Pearl, "Can you see the nest?"

"Yes...oh the bird is in there."

"Well, I will hold you while you look and I will look down at the ground to keep us both steady."  and I did and it worked!!!

I got back in the house and noticed my phone blinking, so I pushed the re-dial.  It was my neighbor, from the years I lived in Saginaw, who has been calling me EVERY DAY for the last TEN days to tell me all her problems with contractors putting in a new kitchen.

"You gotta turn on the TV.  They are rioting in California.  George Zimmerman is going to give a statement.  The President is going to say something--you gotta---you....."

"Oh Phyl, I don't want to watch any of it.  Okay?  I'm going to watch the Tiger ballgame.  I am so sick of all the media coverage of this trial and the verdict."

"Oh...okay...I just thought you'd be interested."

"I was.  I watched parts of the trial almost every day.  The Prosecution did a piss poor job.  The verdict is the only one the jury could come up with because of the piss poor job--it is tragic and the trial is over and I just don't want to see anymore about it.  I am so done with it."

"Okay.  There were five white kids killed in our town last night, by a group of ten black kids and NO media coverage on that."

"Yeah.  I know."

"Okay.  Bye."

Maybe if I moved to the country, I would get a new phone and NOT give my number to anyone?  Out there, I wouldn't hear anything on the news about the mess in Detroit.  I wouldn't hear anything about the mess in Flint or Saginaw.  I would listen to the Lansing news and that town apparently, is still civilized--to a point.  OR--maybe I will go back to where I was a few months ago when I LISTENED TO NO NEWS PROGRAMS!!!  Yeah--that sounds best.

Tomorrow I will get up and do whatever and at 3:30 I will head up to The Farm for supper with my sister, brother-in-law and his sister who is visiting from New York.  AND I will stop and tour the Little House On The Corner and take pictures and walk away and be just fine with it all.  Honest.

Did you see the movie or read the book, "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"?  There is a line in there that has become a favorite of mine.  "Everything will be all right in the end.  If everything isn't all right, then it isn't the end."

Thank you for listening.