How was your weekend? I went to my women’s retreat and church on Sunday as usual. Our weather was beautiful and everyone in my neighborhood was out and about enjoying it along with all the festive giant skeletons and piles of pumpkin in front yards. One or two pumpkins on your porch is not enough anymore–I really don’t get it.
I wound up the weekend with daughter #1 and wine time on the patio at her club…
What could be more pleasant than that? I am content.
How was your weekend? Mine was a lovely quiet one.
I had my semi-annual cancer check-up on Friday and that appears to have gone well. Daughter #1 and I celebrated with a visit to a favorite antique store and wine time at Llewellyn’s Pub. We had sliders for dinner.
On Saturday we went to one estate sale where the prices were ridiculously high, but we still found a couple of things–Christmas shopping, you know. We also went to the huge South County antique mall, but we only made it through about 1/3 of it before I was worn out. (Call me Oldie Hawn.) It was fun though and a good mall. We’ll go back.
I watched The Producers(1967), Mel Brooks’ directorial debut, the one about a mild-mannered accountant and a con artist theater producer who scheme to get rich by fraudulently overselling shares in a stage musical designed to fail. To this end, they find a play celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and bring it to the stage. I enjoyed it a lot.
On Sunday I went to church where the assistant pastor gave a good sermon on I Corinthians 1:18-31. My adult ed class was terrific–I am learning so much! Effectual grace! It is very exciting. After church my “fold” had a luncheon at our elder’s house which was very pleasant–we got to eat outside! The sun had finally come out after a week of clouds.
And this made me laugh:
Enjoy your Monday! Watch an old movie, pet a nice (dirty) dog! Sing praises now and evermore!
We had another very hot weekend, but they say we’re in for cooler temps this week. Let’s hope so. Today is the first day of fall, after all!
The gutter guys (moonlighting firemen) came on Friday to wash my windows and I had an interesting conversation with the head dude prompted by the picture of John Wayne in my kitchen.
This happens not infrequently. Kindred souls, you know. It periodically restores my faith in humanity.
I went to Mudd’s Grove in the afternoon to do a little research and then I enjoyed wine time with daughter #1 at our favorite local watering hole. I also enjoyed therapy time with Mr. Smith who was newly shampooed.
On Saturday I decided not to attend the Greentree Festival parade in my flyover town, instead planning to go to the bud’s soccer game, but I was foiled in my efforts when there was absolutely no place to park in all of Shaw Park. (There was also some art fair going on and half of Clayton was blocked off.) So I headed over to daughter #1’s house and we went to two estate sales in her neighborhood. They were both in old houses where the people had obviously lived for many years. This is the kind of estate sale we like best. Fascinating. We found a few things and spent less than $20. Afterwards we went to the new hip restaurant in her neighborhood–Cibo–the one in a renovated gas station, for a yummy lunch. Then I went home to recover from walking around in the 95+ degree sunshine.
Later she came over to my house and we went to the Greentree Festival for wine time and live music. We parked in my friend Carla’s driveway and walked over–again very hot! It was fun to people watch, but we didn’t stay too long. We hoofed it back to Carla’s where she and her husband gave us glasses of ice water and a cool house to cool off in. I did not go to the Pig Pickin’ dinner at church that night, opting to stay home and watch A Mighty Wind (2003). Having just watched No Direction Home (22005) documentary, it was doubly hilarious.
On Sunday I met the boy and the twins at church. As usual, the music was wonderful and the entire congregation sang with gusto. The choir was in great form as was our resident violinist. We sang my favorite hymn (Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy) and Lottie’s favorite (Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me). The sermon on I Corinthians 1:10-17 about Christian unity was very good, as was our Sunday School class, continuing on the Union with Christ theme. We were all energized when we left church. Imagine that.
I went home and worked on my blogpost and did the homework for my Monday afternoon Bible Study. I went back to church Sunday night for a presentation about our mission work in Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, and around the world. Amazing work being done by God! When I got home, it started to rain and the temperature dropped.
Stay positive. Choose joy.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:31-32)
My weekends seem busy, I think, because my weekdays are so quiet. But the lazy days of summer are coming to an end. My calendar is filling up (relatively speaking).
I went to a double funeral on Friday at my old church–for a devoted married couple who had died within weeks of each other. I mostly knew Ron who was 93 years old, a retired army major who had served in Korea, Germany and two tours in Vietnam. He was awarded two Bronze Stars and many other commendations and badges. He was also a devoted churchman who served as our Senior Warden more than once. He gave the blessing at the boy’s Eagle Scout court of honor and also before dinner at his wedding reception. He was a fixture in our life for 25 years at Grace Church. I thought it was great that all three scripture readings contained a military reference: Exodus 17:8b-11; Ephesians 6:10-17; Matthew 8: 5-10, 13.
Later in the day I celebrated daughter #1’s birthday with the boy and his family at her house.
Mr. Smith kind of lost his mind over the excitement of having everyone in his house…
…but we all had fun and Dewey’s pizza!
Saturday morning I went to a DAR meeting–my first as the chapter chaplain! Daughter #1 and I went to our favorite winery in Hillsboro afterwards (as is our tradish) for a much-needed refreshment.
It was lovely to sit in the sunshine and listen to live music and drink the local wine.
On Sunday I got up and met the boy and the twins at church. We are back on the fall schedule. We had a baptism–the Assistant Pastor’s son, Asa Keller (named after guess who)–and that was fun. I love when the whole congregation sings “Jesus Loves Me” as the pastor carries the baby up and down the middle aisle. The Assistant Pastor got a little weepy quoting I Kings 15:9-24: “The heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days.”
We heard a good sermon by our Senior Pastor on I Corinthians1:1-9–wonderful exegesis on the “Who do you think you are?” theme. The congregation sang with verve and vigor and I felt joyful. Then we all went to Sunday School. I chose the “Union with Christ” class taught by a Covenant Seminary professor. It was so good! I love being in a class where the teacher assumes an intelligent audience who is there to learn. Woohoo! What a treat.
Have a great Monday!
Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hast provided; Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Well, our trip to the prairie was cut short when most of the prairie fam came down sick with some virus and we thought it best to hightail it home on Sunday. C’est dommage!
We did, however, manage to have some fun. We visited the nearby Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve and we went to the Museum of the Grand Prairie, which I thought was pretty great as museums go…
The next day when it had cooled off quite a bit, we managed to take a mile walk on the prairie trail with Mr. Smith…
We had one scary encounter with a pit bull who could barely be restrained by its owner, but disaster was averted and we continued on our hike. Mr. Smith comported himself admirably. In fact, he was a gentleman throughout our visit, showing canine patience with the girls and with the baby.
After returning home, neither daughter #1 nor I felt great on Monday, and the boy and his family were under the weather as well, so we played it cool on Labor Day. We had already watched my traditional Labor Day movie–The Pajama Game (1957)–while back on the prairie. It’s the musical about labor troubles and romance in a pajama factory with snazzy choreography by Bob Fosse. It’s a favorite of mine, but the girls didn’t really get into it.
Anyway, back home on Monday I watched Passport to Pimlico (1949), an Ealing Studio production. I enjoy those post-WWII English comedies, although I admit, I did fall asleep toward the end.
How was your weekend? Mine was very low-key but filled with the small joys that life is made of. It is a good practice to take note of them. Otherwise, we become forgetful of the fact that the present is a constant romance, as Buffalo Bill once said.
On Friday afternoon daughter #1 and I went to our favorite local watering hole where the waiters know what we’re going to order before we order. We sat in our favorite window seat and watched the middle schoolers walk by in groups of three or four after school. On Saturday I went to an estate sale in a nice old neighborhood where the home reflected the good life the people in it had lived. You can just tell from the books and DVDs and Christmas decorations. The sale was run by our favorite company so help abounded. One of the guys pointed me to a good parking place close to the house…but then I had to parallel park in front of people–always stressful! Lamar gave me his discount and asked if I was alone–he always wonders where daughter #1 is if she isn’t with me.
At both places I felt so ‘seen’. A rare thing these days.
It was nice to have the boy back in church on Sunday and the bud with him. We heard a good sermon on Acts 2:42-47 about the fellowship of believers and we sang good hymns. During the offertory two members of the congregation played a hymn medley as a duet (one piano, four hands) and they were really cookin’ with gas, eliciting impromptu applause. After church we had fold meetings in place of adult ed.
In the afternoon I went to daughter #1’s pool–the last weekend before Labor Day. It was lovely to float and get some sun.
This was a really nice tribute to Dolly Parton from Glenn Reynolds who teaches at the University of Tennessee Law School. “There was a sizable crowd gathered, but at a bit of a distance. People were taking photos, and people politely lined up and encouraged each group to take their time posing by the statue before the next people came in. The mood was reverent, but pleasant: These were people there to pay their respects, not simply to mourn, and one way to respect Dolly was to be nice to the other people who were there for the same purpose.”
How was your weekend? We had lovely sunny days in the high 70s–low eighties, so no complaints. I didn’t do much, but that’s okay too. Church on Sunday morning is always a pick-me-up for me. Good music, an excellent sermon (on Psalm 38) and another wonderful adult ed class on prayer. It was our last class and I will miss this topic–it has been great!
Wrapping up the course, we talked about practicing daily prayer. The teacher asked the class how we practiced this growing up. It occurred to me that I went to a private school where we had daily chapel, which we all just took for granted. But really, this was quite a privilege. We sang a hymn, we said prayers–it was all very Anglican, like our headmaster. Of course, this sort of practice at schools is mostly all a part of the distant past now. More’s the pity. Anyway, I am inspired to get serious about my daily prayer routine.
Today I must note that it is the birthday of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), who readers of this blog know, is one of my favorites. He really was brilliant.
In other news, sadly, Scottie Scheffler was under the weather at the BMW Championship here in town and had a bad day on Thursday. He battled back on Saturday after a rough start, but it wasn’t enough to catch up and win on Sunday. C’est la vie. I went to the pool with daughter #1 and they had set up a big screen TV poolside, so I got to watch the final round while floating! Anyway, I was reminded, while watching, of driving the boy to Bellerive Country Club at the crack of dawn when he used to caddy there twenty-something years ago. Sunrise, sunset.
How was your weekend? Mine was pretty quiet, mostly due to the weather, which was not particularly condusive to activity.
I did take the speedwagon in for an oil change and 6-month check-up on Friday morning. I was given a loaner, so I got to drive around a 2026 4-door Mini Cooper which was fun. I still love my Countryman though.
That evening daughter #1 and I braved the heat and went to see our friend Gary and his band, Colonel Ford, play, which was very enjoyable!
On Saturday, after my night out, I had to get up early and go to Trader Joe’s to buy some flowers and then go to church to arrange them for Sunday,
After that, I went home and took it easy. I watched The Searchers (1956) on TCM in the afternoon. It is a flawed but great film–John Wayne is awesome. It was amazing watching it again having been to Monument Valley recently.
Amazing.
I took those chairs over to daughter #1’s house after that and had a glass of wine
That night I watched 28 Days (2000)–the one where Sandra Bullock is in rehab with Viggo Mortensen. I had not seen it in a long time and enjoyed it a lot. (Not to be confused with 28 Days Later (2002) about the apocalypse.)
On Sunday I went to the 11:00 service, because the boy and the twins could come to that service. However, they had a car accident on the way there, so they didn’t make it. They are fine, but quelle pain in the neck. Anyway, I saw a lot of people at the later service that I hadn’t seen all summer because I went to the 8:30 and that was nice.
We sang a hymn which seemed appropriate to the circumstances…
When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast; When the tempter would prevail, He can hold me fast!
Refrain: He will hold me fast, He will hold me fast; For my Savior loves me so, He will hold me fast.
(Ada Ruth Habershon, 1861-1918)
Our pastor gave a good sermon on Psalm 37 (Trust in the Lord’s timing!) I went to the adult ed class on prayer–another great one led by another seminary student who was learned and funny. He got a couple of good laughs from this serious Presbyterian audience, which is saying something.
Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
–Psalm 37:2-4
We went to the boy’s house later where he grilled smashbergers–an excellent end to a lovely weekend. Life is good.
I had a very quiet weekend–which I needed after a very busy month of July and first week of August. I watched an online auction and went to one estate sale where the basement was like a time capsule–red linoleum floor, pine paneling and glass block bar–where, I have no doubt, many good times were had back in the day. I hope they don’t tear down the house, but that is the current modus operandi.
On Sunday I went to church, but I didn’t stay for adult ed because I was feeling like I was in a DayQuil funk. (Yes, I have been fighting off a summer cold.) I went home and took a nap.
I caught up with daughter #2 on the phone. I did a little stitching…
…I read a little…
I am ready to face the week ahead.
Our restless spirits yearn for Thee, where’er our changeful lot is cast; glad when Thy gracious smile we see, blest when our faith can hold Thee fast.
–Bernard of Clairvaux, c. 1150 (tr. Ray Palmer, 1858)
