Life Lately - Basically . . .Weekend in Review

The painting below is 3 feet X 4 feet - It is propped in front of wallpaper - so disregard the border. This is the lake at the farm and Mark's sister, Susie, painted it for Mark to hang at the farm. Isn't it beautiful?

Right now, our church has the main campus plus one other campus. In August, we will be adding another campus. Jack will be the new campus pastor. The moving van arrived at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday and I stopped by with some goodies. Jack's sweet wife, Cheryl, took the photo. Jack served at Trinity back in 2016 when we opened our other campus. His children were tiny - 10 years ago! They are such amazing kids now!

Below is the basket I made (from our staff) - paper towels and toilet paper plus some gift cards and candy . . . a new set of dish towels, peanut butter crackers, etc.

After I dropped off the basket, I headed to our North Alabama Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. I attended two Learn and Lead sessions -- one on story telling . . .

and one on mental health in the church. Monica is in the photo below - she is a UMC pastor plus a counselor. She is the person I met with for the entire first year after our house burned. I love her. Y'all -- the suicide statistics are staggering. Our mental health in this country is not so great - anxiety is rampant. We talked about healthy boundaries plus how to help each other and the folks in our congregations.

There were multiple classes you could attend on the first day.

I scooted out of the last session (one for laity) and headed home because we had tickets to the Homewood Theater to see "Working - the Musical." It was an excellent performance.

The cast was top notch.

This guy below - was an amazing actor. In one scene, he was an old man . . .and he truly became an old man. The theater is a small black box theater so you can see their expressions really well. I didn't take these photos, but borrowed them from the theater's facebook page. 

The premise of the show was to tell about all of the behind the scenes jobs -- from the brick masons building buildings to long haul truck drivers to receptionists and everything in between. 

I just can't say enough -- excellent!!

Annual Conference continued on Friday and Saturday.

My co-worker and friend holds a position on the conference finance team and she did a great job presenting her information.

On Friday afternoon, Mark was at the farm. It was about six o'clock when I got home . . .and it was raining, but I had a date with our front porch! I washed down all of our outdoor porch furniture.

We have a teak table on one side and I scrubbed it and the chairs!

I scrubbed the cute little glider.

I hosed down the wicker chairs and the cushions. A neighbor's cat sleeps on my porch chairs and so I was trying to wash the cat fur off. Also, when I moved the cushions . . .a chipmunk or squirrel had hidden NUTS/acorns under the cushions!!

Mark has the green thumb in our house - our plants are lovely.

Just FYI - I didn't paint the inside of the pantry during my break from school, but I did clean and reorganize everything in it. I threw away all of the expired stuff.

It is looking pretty good!

We went to our long-time supper club on Saturday night. I was providing the appetizer so I made homemade pimento cheese - half Pepper Jack and half Extra Sharp Cheddar. I also served hummus, carrots, crackers, and pita chips.

On Sunday morning, I hosted Fifth Sunday Fellowship. I ordered 22 dozen doughnuts from Shipley's. We've been hosting these events for over a year now and this was the most successful one so far.

I worked until about 11:15 on Sunday (back and forth between the Welcome Desk and the Fellowship Hall) and then I hurried home. We ate food for sustenance, not enjoyment - that means I ate a turkey sandwich and Mark ate a pimento cheese sandwich! I took a 20 minute power nap and rode the stationary bike for a few minutes. I then put my dress back on and headed back to the church. Birmingham Southern College was the United Methodist college located nearby. They had to close in May of 2024 due to finances. The United States Coast Guard has recently purchased the campus to be used as a training center so our church hosted a worship service yesterday afternoon. The service included a Livery of Seisin - which is a literal transfer of dirt. I am copying and pasting this from the Cornell Law School website: "Livery of seisin is the symbolic transfer of property during an ancient ceremony developed by medieval England. Seisin was specific to real property at the time of its use. In a traditional livery of seisin, the grantor would hand the grantee an item like a twig or dirt from the land, which would symbolize the grantee taking possession of the land. This process is equivalent to transferring a property’s fee simple between old and new owners or signing over the deed to a piece of land." Is Livery of Seisin new to you or have you heard of it before?

I also learned about this giant "sceptor" which is really called a Mace. An academic mace is a heavily ornamented, ceremonial staff carried at the front of formal academic processions, such as graduations, convocations, and inaugurations. It is a traditional symbol of the university's governing authority, academic dignity, and institutional independence.

The tradition dates back to medieval Europe. Early maces were functional weapons used by knights and bodyguards to protect dignitaries during processions.

I'm sure a lot of colleges/universities have a mace - but it is new to me. I think it is interesting that the service included two traditions from medieval times.

The two Coast Guard officers (in blue suits) were included in the service. The bulletin shared that the female (on the left) was a chaplain and also an elder in the United Methodist Church.

In the photo above, the gentleman in the robe on the far right is our Bishop. 

I had gathered a great team of greeters for this event. Two of them were Birmingham Southern grads and so once the service started, they hung around in case anyone had any questions. I scooted out and headed home!

We crammed a lot into Thursday through Sunday. My Family Law class begins today so our social life may slow down considerably. Cramming a whole semester into 5 weeks equals a lot of work!

What did you do this weekend? Did you learn anything new in the last few days?

 

Fill-In-the-Blank Sunday Stealing

 

First of all -- how in the world is today the last day of May??????

I'm joining up with the other Sunday Stealing thieves. We answer the questions/fill in the blanks and link up!

Once upon a time there was a blogger named Janet who posted a fill-in-the-blank meme every Friday. Let's give it a try.

Stealing The Friday Fill-in

1. _____ is not the end of the world.

Tripping and falling IN FRONT OF OTHER PEOPLE is not the end of the world! Yes, it is mortifying. I've done it twice - once back in 2018 and once a couple of months ago.

This is at the beginning - maybe day 2 after the fall -- look at all the bruises - I fell
flat on my face and didn't catch myself at all.

This was a few days later - y'all . . . I can't
believe I wasn't more seriously
injured - my face hit a solid metal
pier.

The bruising on my cheek had faded, but look
at that goose egg. This was about 10
days or two weeks after the fall!

I fell at a neighbor's house about a month or six

weeks ago and my hand, elbows, and knees

took the brunt of the fall. You can't tell in this

photo, but I had a HUGE goose egg on

my hand - I didn't even know you could get

a goose egg on your hand!

2. _____ tastes so good! 

Ice cold watermelon that is good and ripe tastes soooo good!

3. Sometimes, putting others first is _____. 

Sometimes, putting others first is very hard.

4. _____ is breathtaking, really. 

Sunrises and sunsets are both breathtaking, really!

5. Well, maybe there is _____. 

Well, maybe there is a bigfoot! Our oldest granddaughter, our son, and Mark all want there to be a real bigfoot.

This is Harry from Harry and the Hendersons. If there
is a bigfoot, I want him (or her) to be nice!

6.  This week, my plans include _____ . 

This week, my plans include Family Law homework, regular work, hosting the Young Adults, lunch with friends . . .and surely something else fun! I just don't know what yet!!

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

What's Your Name Hodgepodge

 

1. Do you like your name? Are you named after someone (grandparent, etc)? If you have children how did you choose their names? 

My name, Lisa, is fine. It is a part of me at this stage of life. Supposedly my mom named me after Mona Lisa. We don't have any other Lisa's in our family. Our son is named after my dad (first name) and Mark's dad. Our daughter's middle name is my middle sister's name. Her first name was found on a quilt at Mark's mother's house. I think her first name appears on both sides of our family - way back!

2.  A piece of red velvet cake, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a slice of blueberry pie? You can only have one...which will you choose? If you could pick any red, white, or blue dessert other than those listed here, what would you choose? 

Does the red velvet cake have cream cheese icing? If so, I would choose the cake. If not, I would choose blueberry pie. Since I don't eat sweets, it is a moot point. If I could choose any other red, white, or blue dessert . . .I would choose Strawberry Pretzel Salad. Yeah . . . it has salad in its name, but it isn't really!

3.  What's a job you'd like to try for just one day? 

I would love to be an archeologist for just one day!

4. Any patriotic decor in your home currently or coming up this summer? 

We fly an American flag on our front porch all of the time, along with many of our neighbors. Other than the flag, no patriotic decor.

5. It's the end of May, so let's exercise our brains. Sum up your month with an acrostic using the word MAY. We can do it!!  

M — Mentally checked out of classes (small break between semesters)
A — Attempted one lake day with friends (did it! enjoyed it!)
Y — Yep, it rained again (is it ever going to stop raining??)

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Classes begin again on Monday. For the June minimester, I will be taking Family Law. I have emailed with my professor and she sounds great!

For those of you who have granddaughters between the ages of 7-10, what are some fun craft things you have done together. One is 7 and one is 10 so it would be nice to have some things that both can do. I saw one thing on Leslie's blog (https://onceuponatimehappilyeverafteragain.blogspot.com) that I made a copy of and I plan to scour the house for those supplies. What else??

A Grateful Sunday Stealing

 

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here they steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Since it's the Memorial Day weekend, we're going to keep this simple. On us all! The first question came courtesy of AI.

Memorial Day Questions

1) What freedom are you most grateful for? 

Since this question was generated by AI, I decided to see how AI would answer this question. I definitely agree with AI on being grateful for freedom of speech. I am personally thankful for freedom of religion, but I sometimes wonder how people of other faiths feel. I am thankful that I have the freedom to vote! When I was taking one of my Sociology classes, I found out that women finally had freedom to have a credit card in the 1970's. Y'all . . .oh my goodness, that is so shocking to me. I was coming of age in the late 1970's and I remember having a couple of cards. I didn't realize that was a new freedom!

2) What book are you currently reading? 

I am reading "The Lies We Trade" by Kristine Delano. It is ok. I read "Dinner with Edward" a few days ago.

3) What have you been listening to?

As I am typing this, I am listening to Mark tell me about the flooring he's been putting in at the farmhouse and I can hear the washing machine tumbling around with his farm clothes inside.

4) What shows or movies have you been watching?

We are watching Landman and Night Agent and Will Trent (it is over for now!). I have been watching Young Sheldon when I am here by myself (if I watch anything at all).

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Slow Saturday

 Today is a slow Saturday . . we had tons of rain yesterday and we've had some rain this afternoon. I was looking at the photos on my phone and thought I would document them! Warning: Boring Post haha!

Our oldest granddaughter sent the Rubik's cube home with Mark to "solve." One of our young adults, a chemical engineer, solved it this week during Bible study. . . and even as she worked, she was still able to participate in the discussion.

On Wednesday, our office staff and the staff from two other churches rented out a room at a local Brewery (no alcohol was served). It is a fun location and the food was good. Our staff played a board game that I have never seen before called Cues and Hues. I didn't quite understand the premise, but I am sure I could grasp it if I tried!

I tried a new recipe for Banana Bread. It is pretty good - no sugar.

I saved this recipe and I plan to try it this week. I am going to substitute 99% fat free ground turkey for the ground beef. I will let y'all know how it turns out.

I ordered two new chairs for this room. I've ordered swivel rockers in a luxurious fabric - the fabric feels so good. The chairs will be in around the end of June/first of July. The chairs will take the place of the two fabric chairs and Mark will take the current chairs to the farm.

While Mark was at the farm, a chipmunk found his (or her) way into the screen porch. I hope I got rid of him. I called Mark and he said to get the leaf blower, raise both garage doors, and blow across the garage. I haven't seen Mr. Chipmunk again so I'm assuming he is back with his family.

Do you have any random photos on your phone? Do you ever save recipes as screen shot photos?

Happy Hodgepodge!

 

Thanks to Joyce for writing the questions each week! I love joining up with the other folks to read their answers.

1. What do you make more complicated than it needs to be? 

I probably make everything more complicated than it needs to be. What can I say?

2. What impresses you? 

Acts of kindness and acts of generosity impress me. Also, a young person who is polite and well-spoken impresses me!

3. On a scale of 1-10 how picky of an eater are you?  (1=extremely and 10=not at all) If you had to eat a meal made entirely of one color what color would you choose? 

I guess I am an 8. I'm not that picky but I don't like salmon or rutabagas or sardines . . . or liver (I could eat live with gravy IF I HAD to do so and if someone else cooked it! I don't like beets in any form or fashion. I don't like oysters (I have eaten one raw oyster many years ago!). I don't like black licorice or black jelly beans! I can only take Blue Cheese in small amounts. I feel like I eat most regular meats and vegetables and most other cuisines such as Mexican, Italian, etc.. If I were at your house and you served any of those things to me, I would try my hardest to eat whatever you served. I do NOT eat cashews because they make me sick! I still don't think I'm that picky, am I? Or am I fooling myself?

4. What does balance in life mean to you? Does your life currently feel 'balanced'? 

In one of my classes in Spring Semester A, we talked a lot about living a balanced life - spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically. A balanced life means I'm spending time with God, with myself (exercise, reading for pleasure), time with family, and time with friends, along with time spent at work and time sleeping. Am I living a balanced life? I don't think so. Am I working on it? Always.

5. If you could travel the world for a year what would be your first destination? 

Do I also have an unlimited budget? If so, I want to start with Australia and New Zealand. I want to make sure I go to Japan and Thailand and Vietnam. I want to go to Iceland and I would love to go on a safari in Africa. I want to go to Morocco, and Peru and Portugal! I want to see it all! I know you just wanted first destination but it was exciting to think about all of that travel!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Mark is into cooking using his new Sous Vide immersion circulator (or whatever you call it)! He has cooked Salmon, Halibut, wild hog sausage, and by the time you read this . . . he will have cooked 7 pork tenderloins. He cooks it in the vacuum sealed bags submerged in the water until it is heated to the perfect temp and then he throws it on the grill to sear and brown the outside. Anyone at your house cook using one of these gadgets?

Happy Anniversary to Us!

 Today is our 42nd wedding anniversary! Wow! Has our marriage always been easy? Nope. Are there days we simply “put up with each other”? Yes. I’m pretty sure there have even been days when we didn’t particularly like each other — but we still loved each other.

One time I was so mad at him that I started packing a bag to leave. He said, “You can’t leave. We said until death do us part!” So I put the suitcase back in the attic, and in a few days things were probably back to normal.

People ask us how we’ve stayed married this long. One answer is our faith in Christ. We’ve always been involved in church activities, and many of our closest friends came from church. We’ve always made it a priority to be in church on Sunday mornings.

Our other rule is that we never discuss anything important after 7:00 p.m. We learned that lesson the hard way many years ago.

We are very different people. Mark loves everything outdoors — hunting, fishing, yard work — while I prefer indoor hobbies (remember, I have horrible allergies). Strangely enough, I think our marriage has actually been better in the last 15 years than it was before.

Here I am before the wedding (sorry for the photo quality — it’s a photo of a photo):

Here we are in the middle of the wedding:

My matron of honor was Karen, and the bridesmaids were my two roommates, Kaye and Faye — identical twins — along with Mark’s sister, Susie.

Mark had two best men: his daddy, Harry, and his identical twin brother, George. Did you catch that? We had TWO sets of identical twins in our wedding!

His other groomsmen were his cousin Bubba; his brother Bill (Bill is the brother who died in 2025); and Mark’s good friend, Mark L.

We were married in the same church we still attend today. Mark has been a member there his whole life.

And here we are leaving the church — we did it!

We had a reception at the church with two cakes, cheese straws, mints, nuts, and non-alcoholic punch. Back then, most people in our circle had church receptions. I’m trying to remember the first time I attended a country club or hotel reception. I know all of our friends had receptions at church.

I was almost 26, and Mark was almost 31. Wow. We were babies. And by our second anniversary, we were pregnant with twins!

So now I’ll ask all of you: what are your secrets to a long and happy marriage? (Or for some of you, maybe it was a short and happy marriage.) What advice would you give a young couple just starting out?