Week 46

This little one-evening painting "Maple Leaves" is seasonally appropriate. There are very few colorful trees left. Our woods is looking bare.

A forgotten note from last week: Elijah, in our last Spanish tutoring Zoom session, mentioned that he was going to a banquet for the soccer team. I saw later that he was praised and awarded the Most Improved player. Can you find him in this team photo?

We keep plodding on with our regular routines, pursuits and passions. Every day has its share of ups and downs, encouraging moments and disconcerting times as well. The words of a song are ringing in my head, "Through it all. . . I've learned to trust in God. . . Then there are cheery surprises, like the delightful folk singer who entertained us at the Senior Center this week, Mrs. Kate Carpenter. She is extraordinarily talented, and spunky!

I still enjoy the surprises that come in the Misfits box, and trying out new varieties of produce. Last week I made candied ginger, which Stephan and I really like. Others not so much; it has quite a bite!

Robotics is slowly moving forward. Michael spends more time at the shop, cleaning, organizing, fixing, improving. I delivered flyers announcing the Open House coming up. 

After I picked up Rebecca for the weekly Basics Jr. Bible story and activities, we could hear the mower. We went out to find abuelo but could not distract him from his task of mowing the leaves. Can you find him and see where he's been?

The Basics lesson was about faithfulness. (She kept saying thankfulness, also a wonderful attitude.) The story was of Daniel's faithful practice of praying three times a day; how that got him in trouble; how God kept him safe surrounded by hungry lions and then punished his accusers with the end they had intended for him! The governors had tricked the king into passing an edict that would trap the one he planned to place over the entire kingdom. In Rebecca's Play-Doh version, there is the head of the king who loved Daniel. Distraught that unable to sleep, he rushed to the den in the morning to see if the living God had rescued Daniel. 

What an amazing story with so many applications for us today! As I reread Daniel 6, in addition to being struck by Daniel's discipline of prayer, I noticed a phrase for the first time, in verse 10, "Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God," The content of his prayers was thanksgiving!  

I hadn't seen my friend Patryce in a very long time. This week she invited me for one of her delightful teas. The fellowship was as delicious as the sweet potato cream cheese desert!

Another pleasurable experience that day was the Taylor University Theatre creative performance of The Little Prince. We are so blessed to live so close and able to enjoy our season tickets even this year.

Michael was very fortunate to get a deer only 15 minutes into gun season. After taking care of all the necessary after-tasks (dragging, dressing, etc.) he was in time to go join his Saturday cycling group!

My creative accomplishments for the week were to edit an article in progress, work on the translation of a German poem for a friend, and enjoy another watercolor tutorial. Oh, I gave Michael a hair cut too. ;-)

What are your creative outlets? Any surprises that sparked delight in your week?