Easter is Coming

Hi everyone,

I started typing this, and had four or five paragraphs done when I remembered I had not yet downloaded some pictures from my phone.  I sent them from the phone to my email OK.  Then I opened my email to retrieve them...............without saving what I had written.  Will I ever learn?????  Anyway, so far only one picture has come through, but maybe while I write......and save.......more of the pictures will come through.

People say time flies when you are having fun.  Guess what?  It also flies when you are doing anything else too.  Some days I just don't know where the hours went, and before I know it, it's time to make dinner and feed the dogs. 

Anyway, on March 17th we invited Ric and Mary over for a traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage with all the "fixins" and Irish soda bread.  Since he had a wedding to do that night, we had our dinner around noon.  I also baked a nice lemon cake, which I tinted green.  Dinner went very nicely and we gave them a round loaf of Irish soda bread to take home with them...........and Mary told Jim she loves him. 

 I guess the wedding went well, but we heard Ric got himself into trouble when he tried to auction off the bride and groom!  Only Ric could get away with a stunt like that.

The next day Janice had a St. Patrick's day pot luck dinner for the folks here in the park.  Lots of good food and good fellowship.  As a fun game, Janice filled bird feeders.  A couple had jelly beans inside, one had assorted candy, one had Tootsie Rolls inside and one had pinto beans in it.  The object was to guess how many each feeder contained.  The person who was closest won the bird feeder and its contents.  Hidden inside the candy or beans, some had money and one had a necklace.  I won the hummingbird feeder with pinto beans and a one dollar bill.  It was a very nice day and I think everyone had a good time.  Janice is a great person, and she goes out of her way to make us all feel like part of the family here.

Last Monday we drove all the way to Anthony, Texas to go to the Camping  World store there.......a round trip of 167 miles.  Lots of people around here drive even farther, to El Paso as if it's no big deal.  Anyway we bought what they called an "omni-directional antenna".  It was supposed to pick up all kinds of stations, and take the place of Cable TV or satellites.  We spent all afternoon trying to get even ONE station to show up on the bedroom TV...........to no avail.  We thought that if it did work well, we'd get another one for the living room TV and then we could drop DirecTV and save a bunch of money each month.  Instead, on Thursday, we made the drive again to Camping World to return the antenna and get our money back.  Alas, I guess there just in NO TV signals to be picked up by antenna around here.

Last Saturday Mary and I went to the swapmeet (or flea market, if that's what you prefer to call it) in TorC.  I am going to try to include a picture of a car we saw there.  We thought this was a hoot!  You just wouldn't believe some of the home made or personally decorated vehicles we see around here.  There are quite a few tiny vintage trailers, probably from the 1940s to 1970s that we see here in this area.  Anyway, this amused us.  Mary bought me another owl to put outside.  It's meant to stick into the ground and stand up, but we put the mental spike through a small hole in the picnic table so it stays upright and next to Freaky Frieda.  Now they can keep each other company!  Our owl outside that is motion activated to light up the eyes and hoot has attracted a live owl to the area at night now.  We were so surprised when we hear ours hoot, and another owl answer it!  OMG.

 On Sunday we were surprised when we got to church because everyone was looking out the back door at something.  When we got there we saw what they were all watching.  A couple from Canada were outside playing music on a pair of Alpine horns.  It was amazing to see and hear.  Later they did bring the horns inside and play for all of us.  I video recorded it, but was not able to download the video for this blog.  The man on the far left in the picture is Pastor Dudley Bristow.  He is from Texas and we get a kick out of his heavy accent, but he is a really good pastor.


We spent Sunday afternoon with Mary as she was set to leave for her trip back to California on Monday, then after some appointments she will be heading north to see her dad in Idaho, and work some pow wows and then go to Canada with a friend of hers.  We played Mexican Train, and drank wine and then we got all kinds of emotional.  It was hard to say good bye the next day.  Sadly she has had some serious mechanical troubles with her van and has been stuck in Lordsburg while the Ford service garage is searching for the parts they need to fix her vehicle.  It's going to cost her a fortune and set her back several days to get it fixed, but she has no other choice.  


I'm sure you have all heard the phrase "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade."  Mary always manages to do that.  She will make use of the down time to make more jewelry to sell at the pow wows, and rest up for her travels.  She is a very upbeat person, and many of us could learn from her on that point.  Some people would wail and moan and say "why do these things happen to me?"  In all the years I've known her, I've never heard her complain or feel sorry for herself.  Many years ago she was a homeless mother with children living out of her car, but she always made the best of whatever she had.  Her family camped in a tent when the weather was warm enough, and slept in the car when it was too cold outside.  She always worked hard to provide for her family, and never complained about how hard her life was.  She learned to live on less and save as much money as she could for what is really important for her family.  To this day Mary is frugal and saves as much money as she can for emergencies and to help her adult children if they need it.  


Many people I know waste precious time and energy on feelings of envy of what other people might have that they don't.  As I have said before, our Heavenly Father KNOWS what we actually need, and if you just ask it, He will provide for you.  Most of what we may wish we had, we just don't need.  All that STUFF just clutters up our lives and keeps us from appreciating what is important.  Tomorrow marks the day Jesus died for our sins.  He could have done otherwise, but He loved us so much He was willing to die to save all of us that will accept Him and His sacrifice on our behalf.  Friday is the day He rolled the stone away from the door and walked out of the tomb.  Easter Sunday, after many people witnessed His victory over death, He ascended into Heaven to make a place for us in the house of His Father, God Almighty.  I can't imagine a better reason for all of us to rejoice in this promise.  But as Pastor Dudley said last Sunday, this is also a time for tears, for all the people who will miss the opportunity to accept this incredible, amazing, awesome gift that is our only chance of Salvation.  I will pray that all who have turned away from God or don't know Him will be lead back to the only one who knows all about us, and loves us anyway.  I pray for our country which has gone terribly wrong in so many ways.  I pray that our leaders will  ask Jesus to show them the way to truly "Make America Great again" as only Jesus can.  Happy Easter, and may God bless you all.