I liked these Hodgepodge questions so am playing along.....I actually am writing this on Tuesday as I will be out of town on Wednesday all day. To join in on the Wednesday HodgePodge, head to this blog. 

 1. April 22nd is Earth Day...what's the most 'out of this world' place on earth you've ever visited? Tell us something about it. 

We've been to some interesting spots both as a couple and with our two daughters when they were young. The one thing that comes to my mind immediately though are the Catacombs in Rome, Italy where my husband and I and our 2nd daughter went while doing Rome and Florence.  We did the tour at  the San Callisto Catacombs which is considered one of  the largest and most important Christian burial sites located on the Appian Way! The photo below is my youngest girl, Claire, age 18 and I on the Appian Way. 

Rome, Italy
July 2017

 

On the way to the Catacombs 

Dave, Claire, and I spent a week in Rome and a day in Florence to celebrate her graduation from high school. Walking on part of the Appian Way was truly "out of this world" for us....I mean this is where Paul and Peter walked!! The Catacombs tour was just phenomenal. (Our oldest daughter, after just graduated from college 2 years before, had to work so missed the trip). These  catacombs was the official cemetery in the 3rd Century! Many people think the Apostle Paul is buried in the catacombs. He is not. He is buried inside a white marble sarcophagus under the papal alter of Basilica of St Paul.  We visited this site as well and it also was "out of this world".  Archeologists, due to carbon dating, have confirmed that the remains do indeed date back to the 1st or 2nd century!  If you ever have the chance to go to Rome, Italy, I  highly recommend the Catacombs as one of our guided tours. 

2. A favorite quote, verse, or song lyric with the word earth in it? 

a fave quote for earth day: 

quote is by the poet  George Santayana 
although social media gets it wrong and says Shakespeare said it.
NOT TRUE...this is not a Shakespearean quote. 

A favorite Scripture: 

A fave song: 

3. What's the most trivial thing about which you have a strong opinion? 

The way the toilet paper hangs. 

4. What's your most commonly used kitchen utensil or tool? What's the last thing you made using that tool? 

my kitchen shears.  Last thing I made was dinner last night: tofu scramble and I used them to snip the scallions. I use them for SO much. They're by Cutco.  I can trim my rose bush with them, cut open cardboard, cut those plastic tie thingys, and snip scallions or broccoli. and yes they can go in the dishwasher on the top silverware rack. 

5. Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me a great book of 3000 questions, and I'm going to try to use one in our Hodgepodge every week. Here is today's - 

What is your greatest extravagance? 

Overall so far in our life it's a toss up between our week in Paris with our 2 daughters (ages 16 and 11 at the time) or Dave and my trip to Albequerque last May for a week. Well...and the fact we had a side hall colonial built for us in 1994 when our oldest was 1 and we finally paid off the mortgage in 2021! 

Smaller extravagances on a personal level: 

It depends on the season!  

Winter: a grande sized cinnamon dolce latte from *$ with almond milk and 2 pumps of the cinnamon syrup plus a warmed up chocolate croissant

Spring:  chicken quesadillas and a cocktail at one of my fave ADK pubs followed by something chocolate

Summer: an ADK trip to a brewery or pub with excellent food and with excellent cocktails plus soft serve ice Mounds ice cream cone (Chocolate coconut only found in one spot in the ADK) and a week in a mountain cabin on a lake;  OR a vacation somewhere with my hubby out of state but in the Northeast (last summer it was Maine and yes we spent some money!) 

Autumn: Same as above

On a more practical note: the most extravagant thing (as in the most expensive) we have spent money on for our home, besides a new roof in 2021, was getting every single window replaced in 2023 with Renewal by Anderson Windows. SO glad we spent the big bucks to do this. (the final cost was literally more than half of my annual salary as a special education preK teacher...we paid for it with some of my money from my dad's estate he left me with). 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It looks like Spring as I type this (Tuesday late morning) but it feels like Winter. It is only 30 degrees F right now but it's sunny! 

soon to open cherry blossoms

tulips in the front flower garden
chives in bottom left
What will be irises behind the tulips....
more tulips to the right of the flag along with
my rose bush and 2 peony bushes 
to the left of the chives is a smaller rose bush
and the back corner is currently empty
but I'm thinking of putting some short sunflowers there

Happy Wednesday! 

 I'm hiking today (Wed)  in the lower high peaks/cental Adirondack mountains where I'm hoping there will be snow. 

R is for REDEEMER

 

In trying to keep up with the daily A-Z April Writing Challenge, today's letter is R.

I'm doing the Attributes of God for this challenge but when I think of Jesus, God's Son, I immediately think of "Redeemer", so today, R is for Redeemer. Since God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all one anyways (the trinity) this works. 

I have SO many Scriptures and songs that remind me of my Redeemer.  Jesus paid the price for our sins so we don't have to.  We can accept Him as the Son of God, believe that He died, rose again to live eternally, and is coming again one day to take back the earth and establish a New Kingdom. All we have to do is just confess our sins and metaphorically speaking, lay them at the foot of that old rugged Cross.  You don't have to do anything performative, you don't have to say any special prayers or even go to a priest, pastor, rabbi, or pope.  You can just ask Jesus to forgive you, cleanse you (again, a metaphor) and press forward to represent Him well.  This includes loving our neighbors as we want to be loved, and loving God with all our heart, soul, and minds. There is no checklist to get into heaven. 

To redeem something is to pay for it.....we owed a debt we couldn't pay and He paid a debt He didn't owe.

I praise Him for that!

Even Job......thousands of years before Jesus was born, knew that His Redeemer lives. 

This is probably my fave song about the Redeemer. Written and sung by Keith Green who  came out of the Jesus Revolution when I was a young teen.  I bought all his record albums.  Sadly, he and 2 of his young children died in a plane crash when I was a senior in college. It was tragic. The Christian music scene lost a very talented composer and singer. 

Q is for QUALIFIED

 

It's time to write for the A-Z April Challenge and today's letter is Q.

Because I chose the theme "Attributes of God" I chose the word Qualified.  Mainly because I couldn't think of anything else and I have a ton of housework and groceries to buy today so I can't spend long on my laptop!

When I googled Scriptures that fit God being qualified Psalm 18: 30 came up. 

God is definitely more than qualified to be our rock and shield.

But He also equips us to be qualified to do the work He has called us to do. 

No matter what your calling in life is, whether it's to teach little children, or teens...or to be a lawyer, or a doctor, or a social worker or to be in full time ministry or even to just volunteer somewhere....God will give you the strength and endurance to do it....He will equip you with what you need to get the job done. 

God is more than qualified to handle us (He created us!!)  and gives us the gifts and talents we need to do what He's called us to do.

Every good and perfect gift comes from God. 

What has God qualified you to do?? 

2026 Book Review #15:Job, A Story of Unlikely Joy

 

I signed up for a womens class at my church for Monday mornings and we began this book at the end of January.  There are just 7 chapters but 14 weeks of class.  We have 4 more classes as today's had to be cancelled.  I am through with the book though and although some of the questions were deep, probing and needed commentaries to answer, I learned alot about Job and what God was actually doing in his life and how to comfort people who are suffering.  The what to say and not to say points were awesome. Some of it I already knew, as I had training to be a small group leader in 2009 at my church and we learned about "not singing songs to a wounded heart"....i.e. no cliches like "God has a purpose" or "you can always adopt" or "time heals all wounds", etc etc. 

BOOK SUMMARY

This is an indepth look at pain.  Pain in our lives is inevitable. God never promises that we will not suffer any trials when we become Christ followers. We might have emotional, mental, physical, relational, financial, or spiritual pain.  There is all kinds of pain.  

But regardless of your pain, there is a way to respond to it and there is a way to respond to others and their pain. 

Job was a godly man  who had some serious losses. It didn't seem fair at all. 

But..his closest friends...his comforters became critics. 

And Job's questions weren't answered. 

But in the middle of all that darkness, he clung to hope and the light of Life peeked through...and eventually...joy came out of the darkness and pain. 

Each chapter includes readings from Job in the Old Testament as well as various Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments in the reading portions as well as the homework portions. 

The book includes an Introduction. 

The chapter titles are as follows:

1. Subtracting Insults from Injuries
2. The Lonely Aisles of Ache
3. The Expulsive Power of the Cross with Regard to Pretense
4. The Serenity of Surrender
5. A Better Kind of Wound Care (I loved this chapter!!)
6. Seeing You Settles Me (another great chapter that really spoke to my heart)
7. Your Journal of Unlikely Joy

The book includes some  tips for leaders so this is a good book for small group leaders to use as well as people who teach the bigger classes.  In our class we had 45 women signed up but on most Mondays, we had about 35 women separated into groups of 6 or 7 at tables. 

Each session involves either watching the author, Lisa Harper, on dvd or discussing the homework/discussion questions.  The class instructor chose which questions we would discuss. Many times we only had time to do 4-5 out of about 10. Some were deeper than others. All of them tied in with Scriptures or were self reflective. 

There are also EndNotes in the back of the back and a short bio on the author at the beginning of the book. 

MY THOUGHTS

This made for a good class discussion.  The reading was easy, although there was a lot of it each week.  The questions were thought provoking and some were based on Scripture and  most were self-reflective.  

There were blank pages with lines for note taking while watching her videos. 

There are also large blank spaces to write in your answers which I found useful as no notebook was needed. 

In my opinion, this study is appropriate for  ages 17 and older and for Christ followers.  New Christians or non Believers might find it rather difficult. 

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.