Sunday Funday

 

I decided while I'm waiting for husband to be ready to leave for church, and since my meditation and Scriptures are done for the day, I'd play along with the Sunday Stealin' gang because it's short and easy. Head over to this site where you can play along. 

3x 5

Three things I love (Remember, these are things, not people):

1. coffee

2. mountains

3. books

Three things on my desk:

1. daytimer

2. pencil sharpener

3. photos of each daughter when they were 2

Three things I can't do:

1. whistle ( i can "sorta" but it isn't great)

2. sing bass

3. figure skate

Three things I'm good at:

1. hiking to a summit

2. cooking chicken curry

3. sight reading an alto part

Three things I want to accomplish:

1. hiking up one more high peak before next year

2. a trip to Alaska

3. to hike in Ireland and Scotland

 

Thank you for playing! 

ps Hubby still isn't ready 😀

With Confidence

 

Have you ever wondered if what you are reading is accurate information? I'm thinking of the various online "news" sources, social media posts, commentaries on Scripture. 

I have.  I know the sites that I trust but I've often wondered if they're solid. (Biblically speaking).  I am talking about the ones explaining Scripture or  giving me cultural/historical context of the Bible passage. 

I think about these things because I am a small group Bible Study leader with my church.  I've been volunteering in this since 2011. I do enjoy it and I did take a Sabbatical one year to attend an evening class at the church so I could get "fed" my self.  It was back when I was teaching full time (special ed prek) and I honestly craved that evening time with other people learning the Word of God. 

Now, in this upcoming Winter semester, I have 7 ladies in the group and we are doing a study about how to study Scripture and find the main idea in the passage/verse. The book is on my side bar (Sweeter than Honey). Any book that a leader wants to use must be approved by our pastoral staff. It was approved and out of those 7 ladies, I have 3 who are rather new to reading the Word of God and new to Christianity. 

I don't always have the confidence that the online sources I point them to are legit or worthwhile. 

So this week, I emailed all 3 of our pastoral team: our senior pastor, the site pastor, and our Spiritual Formations Director who is the head of all the small groups, classes and ministries that people lead. He is currently working on his masters of theology from a seminary. He's quite smart as are the two pastors. I listed for them the various resources I have pointed people to:  Bible Gateway, BibleRef, Desiring God (A calvinist theology where I am more Arminian but John Piper is an awesome author and teacher so I like his website), Bible Hub, Christianity Today, Bible.org, StudyLight.org.  I asked them if these were all legit and for any recommendations they might have. 

And guess what??

They all got back to me and all of them said they are excellent resources and we can trust the commentary  from them. These pastors even use those resources themselves! One of them also recommended gotquestions.com and it's awesome. It literally has thousands of questions answered about the Bible or specific Scriptures. 

My confidence rose up and getting that confirmation from my 3 leaders really made my day. I'm thankful God put Dave and I in this  church with leaders who actually get to know us and care about how we run our small groups, etc. 

I'm learning to trust what God puts on my heart. I'm learning to listen to that still, small Voice. I don't want to put my confidence in mankind because we make mistakes. Now,  are all of these sources perfect? No.  They are sources written by men and women and none of us are perfect. Some might have different convictions about theology than I do.  But when my pastors say they trust them, they mean they are all Bible based. Some might have differing views politically and socially and that's ok.

  As long as they are Bible-based, I can point my study members to them with the understanding that some convictions and preferences might be different from ours.  The main thing is the essentials: the  core Biblical truths. 

God is teaching me to have confidence in leading.  I find it harder to lead/teach adults than little ones with special needs. But He has me doing this for a reason and I'm excited to have  some confidence in beginning this new study and learning more about how to study His Word, right along with the ladies. 

He will give me the emotional strength I need. And I thank Him for my leaders confirming my sources. 😊

Mid-January Faves

 

It's been a rather dreary, grey week with temps in the 30s and 40s so not horribly cold, but all of our snow is melted and personally, if it's going to be Winter, I want some snow. I'd like to go snow-shoeing and explore some wooded trails on them. But for now, I'll be thankful the temps haven't been in the single digits or even below 20 degrees F.  (Until today)I'm also thankful for some other blessings that came into the week.  

Join in with us if you want to be intentional about giving thanks.  You can head over to this site to learn more and link up your FAVE FIVE.

Patti, my african violet

• BLOOMS!  My African Violet is doing so well this winter!  Last January there were hardly any blooms but this year, it's doing so well and has gotten so big. I need to learn how to either divide it or put in a bigger pot. I just don't want to kill her. I'm so thankful for the purple color in our  family room to brighten it up on these grey, winter days. 

the living room from the kitchen doorway
on a bright Monday morning

our fave reading chairs

living room from the front  door entranceway

the view from standing in front of the piano
and yes our staircase still has gold garland on it
which will stay up until after Valentine's Day

• THOROUGH CLEANING!  Our living room, which really only gets used by me, although sometimes my husband joins me in that room in the winter evenings to read....it's the warmest room on the main floor....needed a thorough cleaning. Courtney and  Tyler came over after  church for lunch (they brought Popeye's chicken sandwiches!) and Tyler and Dave moved the piano for me to go back into its original place in the corner. It will take a  couple weeks to get acclimated and then I need to get it tuned. Since  they moved it, I then gave the living room a good dusting and rearranged the furniture.  I spent some of Sunday afternoon on this (Saturday was my Sabbath) and I finished the job Monday morning before dashing out the door for a meeting with an organization I volunteer with.  I'm so thankful I got this chore done!

Small group Scripture study I will be leading
for women every Tuesday evening in my home for the next 8 weeks

the "logo" I use for the  co-ed hiking group I lead 

• CONNECT!  Sunday was Connect Weekend at our church where all small groups, classes, and activity groups/ministry leaders have tables in the lobby and congregants can wander from table to table to sign up for the Winter/Spring semester classes, groups, or studies after each service.  Sign ups are done with a QR code and all went smoothly!  I had 8 spots to fill for my hiking group and I  was able to do that!  I have 8 new members, with 6 names on a waiting list! (I keep the group to 50 members including spouses and children). For my ladies Scripture Study, I have 9 of us so that group is officially closed as of Thursday morning.  I love the convenience of the online app we have to manage groups. I'm thankful the whole process was smooth and I'm very thankful to be in a church with so many options for groups, classes, ministries. My husband  signed up for a mens group that will be studying Titus and I signed up for a Monday morning class that will be studying the book of Job (workbook style, similar to the one I'm leading). I'm looking forward to leading my groups as well as being in a class again. 

• TO-DO LISTS DONE!  I had a long "to do" list for Monday-Thursday. We are switching banks where we have a combined  checking account and we divided up the tasks for that. I had ordered new  checks for myself and they came with the wrong info so I had to call the company and re-order them and because it was a mistake on their end, they are giving me the rush delivery for free. I also had 2 bags of donated clothes to bring to the local Episcopal church here in town so got that done; I had to deal with the car insurance company to get our auto pay switched (that was a ridiculous amount of time and took forever to get a human on the phone); I was also in charge of calling our Waste removal company and getting them to switch our autopay and bring us a new, smaller trash bin. We recycle more items than we put in a landfill so we are keeping our 65 gallon recycling bin. Because we are going down to a 35 gallon trash bin, our bill will decrease by about 15$.  That was also a much easier phone call than the car insurance. I also had to schedule my annual eye exam, dental exam and physical/blood work. I also had "clean out my desk", "clean out the file cabinet", "organize the kitchen cupboards", "shred old documents" "pay off new car". Everything is done! I'm so thankful I did everything on that list and I'm most thankful that we paid off my new Kia Soul which I bought at the end of October. We decided we did NOT want a 3 year loan and although it cut into my savings, I'm thankful we  could do it and now the car is mine! 

• LUNCH OUT:  After a very long meeting on Monday mid-day, my younger friend Shawna wanted to eat at Appleby's for lunch and I decided to join her. I had the asian salad and it was delicious. We had a great  conversation and I'm thankful this young Christian woman is a part of my hiking group and that she signed up for my small group. Although most of my close friends are nearer to my age (66) and I'm literally 20 years older than Shawna, I love that I can be friends with some younger people and hopefully share some words of wisdom. She's dealing with a lot and is new to the faith, so we invited her over for Sunday dinner this weekend as she likes to get some of her spiritual questions answered by Dave and I.  I'm thankful for friends of all ages and that we can minister to this younger woman. 

BONUS FAVE:

because of the milder weather this week, until yesterday afternoon, I was able to get outdoors and do some really good power walks for 35 minutes a day.  It felt very good.  And one of those days, I did my walk at our park in the south part of town as I had an errand to run down that way.  I'm thankful for good walks in the fresh, winter air. 

walking The Ramble at Crossings

as you can see, the Capital Region of NYS 
has no snow! 

I hope you take a moment this weekend to pause and reflect on all the blessings that can be found in the Winter months. 

2026 Book Review #2:Unnatural Death

 

This author is one of my very faves and I have read every single one of her Kay Scarpetta Mystery novels, in order, except for the latest 2.  This one I'm reviewing today is her 27th Kay Scarpetta book. The 28th is on my nightstand and the library said I can have it for  3 weeks. But before I get to #28, a book I requested back around Xmas time is finally able  so I'll read that one next. Winter is a good time to do a lot of reading.

STORY SUMMARY

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner in Alexandria, Virginia, is in the northern part of the state's wilderness region to examine the remains of two bodies found in a lake and in a mineshaft.  The two bodies were campers who were wanted by federal law enforcement!  The victims have been beaten beyond recognition.  Other evidence is pointing to something terrifying and very puzzling and this includes a larger-than-life footprint.  It is truly one of the scariest body retrievals Kay has ever experienced in her very long career.  Now she has to discover who would commit such heinous murders....and why. 

And to top it all off.....someone from her past....and the past of her beloved niece Lucy, comes back to haunt them. Lucy is a computer genius, an expert in all things firearms, and works for the federal government often consulting for the ATF and the Secret Service. She works with her uncle Wesley Benton (Kay's husband) who is also brilliant and currently working for the Secret Service. He is also a past FBI Profiler and is excellent at that. Pete Marino, private investigator who has always worked closely with Kay and Lucy,  is also involved in this current case and has made a cast of the very large footprint which he thinks might be Bigfoot.  Benton and Lucy know about the evil person from the past.......but Kay and Pete have just found this information out and are shocked, angry and determined to find out the truth of these murders and the connection between some other apparent homicides.  Are they all connected to this person from the past? 

What is going on?? 

MY THOUGHTS

This was one of the better Kay Scarpetta books that I've read.

The characters are endearing, complicated in some ways, and almost like friends in other ways. The author does such a good job in keeping them going and interesting through this entire series.  We see Lucy grow up in the pages of a Scarpetta novel. We see Kay and Benton's relationship grow and change and endure. We see that Marino is still....Marino. And Dorothy is still....Dorothy.  If you have read any of the Kay Scarpetta books, you know what I mean. I do highly recommend this series. I like it because there's not a lot of explicit s*x scenes and she keeps the swearing down. 

The setting was diverse in this book and I liked that. There were woods, a farm, the city, the morgue, a mineshaft....and somehow they all connect...I won't reveal how as it would ruin the story for you. 

Once again, we see an evil character rise up whom we thought was dead from about 7 years ago.  It was so well crafted! 

The ending leaves us wondering about that evil woman and I'm looking forward to books 28 and 29 to see if she reappears in them. 

This particular story had some AI technology but it was well explained and easy to comprehend. Probably because this author herself is exploring AI technology and combine that with her talent for writing and you have a fantastic story. 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to some mature content).

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.