Simple joys... we all have them.... they are just little things... like the shadow of the harp on the wall that my youngest pointed out to me... just a simple shadow of my harp, but it brought a little smile to my face. :)
I might have just walked on by without really looking at it if she hadn't pointed it out, making me stop to enjoy it with her. Yes, that was also a large part of the enjoyment... sharing it with her. :)
Then there were the beautiful Hibiscus blossoms from the plants a couple of my sons gave to me for Mother's Day... the flowers are colorful and cheerful. :)
The tiger lilies are open in the garden... and the color is pretty... especially against the white picket fence.
Other flowers in the garden... with their cheerful yellows. :)
My lisianthus are blooming! They are such beautiful flowers... I love the double ones that are purple... they almost look like purple roses.
The pattern of a lace curtain against the sky... just a little thing, but it was fun to notice and enjoy.
Swings at the park... we had a church picnic yesterday...
and those swings had a lot of use. At the beginning, several of the
adults (yes, I was one of them! :) were swinging... what fun.
As one of the adults said.... "You never get too old to swing." I think she's right. :)
The kids loved the slide too........ if it had been just my family, I may have gone down the slide also... but I didn't. It was nice to see all of the families together, having fun... taking care of the little ones... and enjoying good fellowship. Precious.
The cattails were from the park also.. just a simple thing....
When we look for them... there are simple things to enjoy... all around us. We get so busy, we don't look for them... or even notice them... and that is sad. God has blessed us with much to rejoice over... there is much heaviness in our lives... and in our world... and we can't ignore those things, but we can notice the simple joys... and thank God for them.
I hope you have a wonderful week and that you notice some simple joys that can brighten your day. :) Thank you for visiting.
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There was a day when a cake exploded in our kitchen and it was very scary.... in fact, I never even knew such a thing COULD happen, so I am sharing this to warn others of the possibility.
Supper was about all ready... and the table was set. We were having baked potatoes with butter and cheese sauce, cottage cheese and corn. Yes, there should have been a salad in there too, but things were hectic and I don't think one had been made.
A cake had even been baked and had just been taken out of the oven and set on an unheated burner on the stove to cool (We do this often.. with baked goods fresh from the oven). Meanwhile, someone put the corn in a pan on the stove and turned the burner on quite high to get it done quickly... we were rushing to get supper on. The problem was that the wrong burner had been turned on. :(
All of a sudden, there was a loud bang and glass flew everywhere.
We all rushed to the kitchen to find the girls crying and scared, but thankfully, unhurt. They said there was a fire... there was a tiny flame in the cake - you can see the charred remains here. I have no pictures of all of that... things were too busy as we dealt with the emergency.
The large glass cake pan was on the burner, but all of the sides were gone and this little flame was starting. The burner had already been turned off, but how to remove this mess all over the burner? The whole pan was in pieces... even the bottom. I quickly grabbed a wooden spoon and 2 big cookie sheets with sides, while a son dumped baking soda on the small flame. I used the wooden spoon to scrape cake and glass off the hot burner onto the pan.. then also on to the next pan.
What a mess! Now that the fire was out, and the mess was off of the burner, we took stock of what else was going on.
Like I said, the girls were unhurt... they were both across the room when it blew... I shudder to think of what could have happened to them if they had still been in front of the stove. I am so thankful for God's care of them. One of them was barefoot and was helped from the kitchen to avoid the glass on the floor.
My son had scrubbed a LOT of potatoes to bake (he likes to eat a lot and leftover baked potatoes make a nice small potato salad). The plates were already dished up on the table and many extra potatoes were on the stove on a cookie sheet. This is one of the potatoes on the stove... see the glass embedded into it?
Here you can see the glass IN the potato and more beside it.
There was glass ON the table, all over the floor, on counters, a little in the two adjoining rooms... it was a very sobering mess.
We threw out all of the potatoes (about a 10 pound bag's worth), the cottage cheese, the nacho cheese, the corn, the cake, all 6 sticks of butter sitting on the counter softening for baking, and more. No, there was no glass on the butter that we could see, BUT this was not a time to take any chances at all... and there WAS glass on the counter, so we threw it all out. My husband swept glass, a son hunted for a box for all of the glass... and we all worked to clean up, all the while giving many thanks to God for protecting the girls. What a blessing that no one was hurt!!!! NO ONE WAS HURT! Wow! We are still giving thanks for that.
I use many glass pan... Pyrex and other brands and I love them. I have glass bread pans, casserole dishes and more. They take more room to store, but I like them and they work well for us.
I had no idea such a thing like this could happen... and by the way, it is rare that a wrong burner gets turned on, and this should NOT have happened. We had a new stove and the controls are a bit different from the old one. Plus all of the rushing around... plus, my adrenal fatigue and extra tiredness the last week have combined to leave me not making many of the meals at all... and the girls are very capable... this was just one of those accidents. Very frightening... and a wake up call to be much more careful, but everyone is fine... it is all taken care of... and I am so thankful.
Will I still use Pyrex and such glass pans? Yes, absolutely... I love using them and will continue. We have been careful with them in the past, but will be even more careful of them now. The kids told some friends what had happened... and at some point, they had the same thing happen to them! I had never heard that story, so it seemed like a good idea to do this post as a testimony to God's protection of us in this emergency... and also as a warning to be aware that such a thing CAN happen, though it must be rather rare.
Why did it blow? I don't know... we figure the concentrated heat on the bottom of the already hot pan must have done something... these are not meant to use on a burner. So, this is just a warning from our mistake... and I hope you never experience a similar one.... this is a "heads up" to be extra careful.
By the way, my husband went to buy take-out pizza that night and we enjoyed it... and we were extra thankful for God's blessings. My sons mourned the loss of the apricot cake also, but there will be other cakes. For now, I am so utterly thankful for God's mercies in this situation. Have you ever had this happen? Have you heard of it happening? I would love to hear about it in the comments.
Thank you for visiting my blog today... I hope you have a good week.
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The garden has many different looks... and this is one of my favorites. It is the look of the garden with sparkling jewel-like water droplets. It is a little thing... yet, it is a completely different look.
The colors seem fresher... and more intense....
I love how these droplets sit on the leaf and hold their shape...
Simple water droplets... but the reflections visible in them adds interest... and dimension.
Depending on the light, there can be a sparkly look to the drops.
A row of drops.... and then other jewels also.
This is from spring... they are crocus...... all of the other pictures are from this week.
Such a variety of colors and textures... and even the drops look a bit different... as some of them are very rounded and others are flatter.
This is from the hood of our Suburban. Actually, it was on the driveway... not IN the garden. Still, it looked interesting. :)
It is a good thing to find beauty in water droplets.... especially since we have had so much rain... and we are getting more right now. We have been in a drought for the last few years... and yet, we have gotten so much rain this spring. Surprisingly, the ground dries out pretty fast, which makes me wonder if maybe we are still feeling effects from the drought even with all of the rain.
I hear people saying they wish the rain would STOP and they are praying it will... and I caution that we should pray that it slows down, but not stop..... we have experience with when the rain "stops" and it is not the good thing people seem to think it will be. If the rain stops, I will look for things to be thankful for then also...... For now, I will enjoy the lush green growth from all of the rain, the seldom-seen sunshine... and those pretty water droplets. :)
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Weekend Reflections
The story of Peter Rabbit is a cute children's story... and reading it helps us to have great sympathy for poor Peter Rabbit as he runs for his life from Mr. McGregor... and we are so glad he escapes from the "mean" Farmer McGregor.
Well.... now that I have my own garden... those cute little rabbits can sure be pesky.... and I confess that I am feeling more and more sympathy for Farmer McGregor!
Yes, this little guy is cute... such a round little guy... and he is curious as he sniffs here and there...
So much to explore... so many good things to check out... or eat.
By the way, to give you an idea of how little this bunny is.... I
just went out and measured that stepping stone... it is 12" in diameter,
so that little bunny really is little. :)
Yes, the little one really is cute....
He paused and hid in the shade of a planting pot....
.
..then he went back to snacking....
Here's another one of this cute little bunny's relatives... you can tell this big rabbit has his eye on SOMETHING... and that something is IN my garden.... *sigh*
Yes, I can certainly sympathize with Mr. McGregor as he protects his garden.
I hope you have a great week. :)
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This is a short post today..... I keep a stack of 3"x 5" cards at my desk-they are handy to write quotes and verses on and then I post them on the wall above my desk... or in the kitchen, bathroom, stairways, etc. Periodically, I take them down and put others up.
I was sitting at my desk and was startled to see a spider quickly scurry up the wall in front of me... and without any pause, he went right over the top of one of the cards and then under it. I do NOT like spiders. I grabbed a tissue to get him as I didn't want to know he was there and then lose him. He was very fast and I was concerned about getting him when he came out from under the card.... then I had another thought... I used the tissue to press the card to the wall in order to kill the spider behind it. Yuck, but it needed to be done. I was glad to have temporarily taken care of the problem... although I did push the card, WITH the tissue another time, just to be sure. Whew. I decided to leave the card alone until my family got home and one of the guys could deal with it. :)
Now that the "emergency" was dealt with, I noticed what card the spider had gone under and realized how funny it was..... No, it wasn't a big trial, but it WAS a little one. There are times when I am sure God has a sense of humor in a situation like this. :)
My family came home, the card was dealt with... I wanted it thrown away-I can write another card and I didn't want that one anymore and it was curling on the edges anyway. My husband has decided to keep that one... he isn't bothered by what was pressed on the back of the card like I was(he cleaned it) and he plans to put it above his desk at work.
We will have trials... little ones or big ones... and they have a purpose. Sometimes we need that reminder. I hope you have a great week. :)
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