Today: Monday, April 18, 2021
Looking out my window... everything is looking very green, with only a little coating of yellow pine pollen. Some recent rain has helped, so we are much better than a week ago when when we were enveloped in a giant yellow cloud!
Okay, so a question for any gardeners out there! We have lived in this house for 28 years and every spring the azalea bushes out front have bloomed in a riot of red and pink. Some years they have lasted longer than others, but they have never not bloomed – until this year! There are two kinds – one has small leaves and flowers and the other bushes are bigger with larger leaves and blooms. The smaller ones always bloom a week or two before the larger one. This year, the smaller ones have no blossoms, or very few. The larger azalea bushes have bloomed and look very pretty, but maybe aren’t quite as full as usual. Any ideas?
I am thinking... about the upcoming homeschool prom, which I founded 11 years ago when my younger daughter was in high school and have helped run ever since. It is always held the 1st week of May, and last year of course was cancelled, like every other fun or important event in our lives! For the last several years we have sold out, with 400 homeschool teens and guests attending. This year, instead of one large prom, we decided to plan three smaller proms held on consecutive nights, in order to comply with our state’s covid guidelines. I’m not sure I’ll be attending all 3 nights, since I have no cartilage left on the insides of both knees and even one night of Prom chaperoning usually has me on the coach for at least a day afterwards. I did have a cortisone injection in my left knee last week, and if it seems to be working I’ll do the other knee. So we’ll see. There have been a lot of challenges with planning Prom this year, as you can imagine, and we are still figuring things out, but we are coming into the homestretch and have only a little over TWO WEEKS left until the big events! Several of those who have registered have let us know how much they appreciate the work we’ve put into making this happen, so these kids can have a bit of normal back and hopefully have some wonderful memories from a year where not many good memories have been made.
I am feeling…like the house is pretty empty now that my mom has gone back home to CT after being here all winter and my daughter came down this weekend to retrieve her kitties and bring them back to VA, after they spent a month here while she packed up and moved to a new apartment and then took a short vacation.
I am learning… or rather RE-learning the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan. I started THM about 5 years ago and after the initial adjustment to new foods and a new way of eating, I felt great and lost about 10 lbs. But after about 8 months, the holidays hit and I fell back into my old eating patterns – still fairly healthy, but no longer losing any weight. As pain in my arthritic knees increased, I exercised less and less, which caused me to regain the 10 pounds I had lost and then another covid 10. Now I am considering knee replacement surgery, but need to lose weight and strengthen my leg muscles before that can happen. So it is time to get serious about my eating plan. The learning curve is not nearly as steep this time, I have a lot of the unique ingredients that I have become accustomed to using over the past few years, and I have lost about 6 lbs in the past 2 weeks. Yay! Here’s to restarting – God’s mercies are new every morning!
I am watching… The Chosen, Season 2. If you are a Christian or are wondering what the big deal is about Jesus, I highly recommend this series, showing on The Chosen app or VidAngel. Here is a link that gives the viewing information. This is an independent production and is hands-down the best, most enjoyable and realistic depiction of Jesus and his followers that I have ever seen. It has made me laugh and gasp and cry and sigh! The fact that the production is crowd-sourced is pretty amazing too! They are not working through a studio or streaming service in order to keep full creative control of the project. So God’s people are participating in spreading the Gospel in a very unique way. I do believe it is a God-thing – inspired for such a time as this. You should watch it.
I am thankful… for the opportunities that God is bringing for me to use the passions and talents he has given me. I have a couple of ladies from church coming over tonight to learn about Bible Journaling, and I’m supposed to teach another Introduction to Bible Journaling class at the local community college next week, if there are enough registrations. I am baking cupcakes for four weddings this spring. I have recently joined the Leadership Team as Communications Coordinator for the the age 50 and older women’s fellowship group at our church, and I love encouraging other women, helping people connect, and using the tools I have to facilitate communication!
Some random moments:
Quote to share:
“The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian. But the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman. ” ~ Elisabeth Elliot
To read more Simple Woman’s Daybooks, go here.
Wishing you all a beautiful week! Love sincerely. Hate evil. Hold onto what is good!
~ Beth
I enjoyed your Daybook entry. The cupcakes look delicious.