Mid-May Weekend Wrap-Up

 

This is currently my view, here in the Capital Region of New York State on a Sunday afternoon at 5:15 pm.  We have had a day of very warm temps (84 F!) which is most unusual for eastern NYS in mid-May.  But  the windows are open, there's a beautiful brisk breeze and I'm enjoying iced water with lemon slices on the deck to write up a weekend wrap-up. 

Our weekend began with a Missions event at our church on Friday evening.  Dave and I signed up because  he goes on the Guatemala missions trip every winter and has been on the DR trip in the past.

 The event was titled Coffee, Curry, and Christ and the Indian food was from this local restaurant. The event was free and there were about 55 people sitting around round tables set up in our cafe area of our lobby.  Dave and I sat with our young friend Shawna, and our friends P and Anita who are originally from India.  Also at our table was a couple named A and C who are from South America.  They are also in my hiking group along with Anita and Shawna!  The mission event featured 2 special speakers:  an Indian man (Prakash)  who talked to us about his mission work with Rise India  and a woman (an American geologist)  who works for another missions organization delivering wells/drilling for clean water called The Living Water Project.   All of their money comes from churches who invest in those mission organizations. These 2 organizations meet the practical needs of people whom the world calls "unlovable" to show they are indeed loved.  We were very impressed with the delicious food, and the presentations. Here is a brochure they were giving out: 

Saturday morning brought a beatiful Spring day!  The temps were in the 50s and rose to about 75 by afternoon. I had a SoulSteps hike scheduled locally (about 50 minutes east of here) and Dave had to log in to work to work on something that he couldn't get done on Friday.  After he spent a couple of hours online, he did some yardwork and then had some other things to work on around the house/in his office. My hike involved 5 of us (originally there were 8 signed up) hiking about a mile into the highest waterfalls of Columbia County.  Here are pics of the waterfalls (there are 2 and the smaller one was seen when we took the lower trail along the stream back to the cars.  The other pic is our group pic for the day.  We were home by 1 pm! The hike began at 11 AM. 

High Falls 
town of Philmont NY

the 2nd smaller  falls was also impressive

SoulSteps members
Adam/Kathryn, Celine, Dave D in back and me

When I got home, I had to shower and check for ticks and then spent the afternoon doing some light housework and reading on the deck. I had a nice phone call from another SoulSteps member whom I haven't seen since March so that was fun to catch up with her. She signed up for one of the June hikes. Dave and I had to run two errands (put gas in Dave's car and pick up his large sander from a young friend who borrowed it all week)  in the later part of the afternoon so while we were out, we popped over to Popeye's Chicken to grab classic chicken sandwiches and iced tea and then after dinner, we watched an old Nicole Kidman movie we had never seen. It was ok, not great. Her acting was phenomenal but the plot was a tad bit odd and disturbing when it came to the subject matter. Definitely wouldn't have paid to see it. It's currently on Netflix. 

Sunday morning we had coffee together in the family room that was gloriously sunny and cool temps and then Dave had to leave around 7:15 as he was volunteering on the Production team at church for both services. I prepared potato salad for Sunday dinner, and did my Scripture readings. I went to the 11 AM service and was able to sit with Dave as he had to be in the front row to help lift the arm chair for our pastor who is still recovering from some surgery and can't stand for long periods of time yet. The worship and sermon were amazing.  The sermon was wrapping up our Marriage, Sexuality and Singleness series and today's topic was Gender Identity issues and how we as Christ followers should be responding to people who are embracing a different lifestyle and why we should not be judgemental yet not compromise Truth. He backed everything up with Scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments. It truly was pretty blunt and important for our  congregation to hear. It will be available on you tube starting tomorrow I believe. It  truly was outstanding. 

a beautiful Sunday afternoon 
and perfect to get some reading done
the whole neighborhood was so quiet!

After church, I changed into shorts and a tee because the air was now up to 84 F!  I grilled vegan burgers and we had the potato salad with all the burger fixings.  Dave needed to  figure out some stuff regarding his July vacation so I took my book outdoors after cleanign up the kitchen and starting the dishwasher and spent a lovely afternoon on our backyard swing, then my ADK chair and then in the shade of the deck.  We had fruit and cheese for a late day snack and will spend the evening on the deck talking and planning our June and July vacations. 

What did you do this weekend? 

Whatever it was, I hope you took some time to relax and recharge!