If you are eating, you might want to stop before you look at the picture in this post.

First I want to share a poem that was read to me when I was a little girl.  "The vulture eats between his meals, and that's the reason why he never ever really feels as good as you or I.  His head is bald, his eyes are dim, his neck is getting thinner.  Oh, what a lesson for us all..........to only eat at dinner."   I'm sure that's not true.  Seems to me his neck would be getting fatter if he snacked all the time.  Oh well, whatever.

I was going somewhere yesterday, I forget where. I hadn't gone very far down our road when I saw this threesome having their dinner. They didn't seem inclined to fly off, so I got my camera from my purse and slowly drove a bit closer. Finally the 2 on the left flew away. The one on the right waited a couple of minutes, and then it flew away too. I have no doubt that as soon as the coast was clear, they returned to their meal. That's all right. They do a good job of keeping our roads clean. Vultures are so ugly up close, but when you see them soaring in the sky they look graceful and beautiful. I suppose if I were a small bird or animal I would think they looked super scary. Like many things.............it all depends on your perspective.
All right now, after these profound words of wisdom, you can go back to whatever you were snacking on.

America, The Beautiful Lyrics
by Katharine Lee Bates - 1913

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine!

O Beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

My one rose bush is doing very well this year.

The roses look so beautiful the morning after a rainy night.

I brought a few inside so I could enjoy them while I worked.

And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good." Genesis 1:17

I'm pretending that I'm in 3rd grade and have to write a paper about what I did during vacation, only this is just about one day.  I'll skip the ordinary stuff I do every morning.  At 9:30 I met my husband at the Rehab place.  It was his 2nd time to talk with the nutritionist, and since I do the grocery shopping and cooking, I thought I'd better hear what she had to say.

After that he went in to do his rehab, and I headed home because the lady who cleans for me was coming at 10:30.  While she cleaned I went outside to pick strawberries.  Got about 3/4 of a bucketful.  These are little plastic buckets that the kids use at Easter time.  Then I took part of the strawberries to some retired missionary friends.  He has been sick, and isn't able to get out any more.  Stopped by the grocery store, came home, put away groceries and took a nap.  Oh I forgot that about noon I got some chicken breasts ready and put them in the crockpot.

Tonight our grandson came for supper.  He's 20 and just recently moved from home to an apartment with a buddy.  He really enjoyed the meal.  He said he needs to learn to cook.  He works at Papa John's Pizza, so he's not starving, but I think he's getting tired of eating pizza.  We had the chicken breasts, a large sweet potato cooked in the microwave.  fried zucchini and yellow squash.  For dessert we had strawberry shortcake........yumm.

So that was my day.  It was a good day, not exciting, but good.  And now I'm going to bed.

Hi,

Mr. McBird, aka Mac, sang his first song in his new home today. I think he liked the sound of me washing dishes. I have a few pictures of some of the things we saw on the trip to pick him up. The lady who raises them lives almost an hour drive south of us. Her house was amazing! She has 30 or 40 baby canaries that she has raised. She also has several adult canaries. There were some cockatiel babies that she was hand feeding. Also a small parrot-like bird. Did I tell you this already?  I didn't get to see the St. Bernard puppies because they were only 2 days old, and their mom was very protective of them. Anway, here are some pictures that I took along the way.

I like old courthouses. I don't remember seeing any when I grew up in Calif. Of course, Long Beach was a big city even then, and probably had a newer (boring) building.

The sun was shining so brightly on these silos that they looked like they were made of silver.

It's fun seeing trains. This one was only about 17 cars long. A lot of the trains around here are over 100. When we stopped for it, we could feel the ground shake. Such power!

We know we're close to home when we pass this church.

It's an Old Order German Baptist Brethren Church.  I don't know why I know that, because it doesn't have a sign identifying it.   I just know it.  Back in the 1800's we were all one church, The Grace Brethren, Church of the Brethren, Ashland Brethren, Conservative Grace Brethren, and maybe some others I've forgotten.  We (Grace Brethren)were considered the Progressives when the first split occurred.   There may have been splits before that that I don't know about.   I'm glad that when we get to Heaven there will not be different corners for different denominations.  We will all be one because we love Jesus.

Here is proof positive that the canary we had was a girl and not a boy.

So we made a trip south to exchange her for a him.

Voila..........Mr. McBird, also known as Mac. I heard him sing at the lady's house. Of course, there were lots and lots of birds there. She said she had 30 or 40 baby birds, plus the adult birds. Not to mention some baby cockatiels that she is hand-feeding. And a small parrot-like bird who loves her husband. It can talk too. On top of all that, they have a mama St. Bernard who just had puppies. I wanted to see them, but they said they were too young, and the mama dog is very protective. My hubby was glad I didn't get to see them. I think he was afraid I would want to take one home. Smile. So we came home and that evening we found this visitor by our front door. (Please ignore the dirt.)

Mac is not singing here yet. I think he's still adjusting to a new life. He's eating well, flying around, and chirping. No real song yet though.

We managed to surprise her with a family/close-friends shower.

My grand-daughter with her baby.  The picture below was taken before she fell asleep.  She'd had a long day.

Her "big" sister.

This was the only boy allowed at the shower. His grandma is holding him. His dad caught a fish in our pond.  Most of the other men went out to eat.

The older girls helped do the table decorations.  I forgot to take a picture of the food.  We had sandwiches, veggies with dip, tropical fruit, baklava, and iced mint tea.

Yesterday went very well. Father's Day dinner was good. Other kids and their kids visited later. We both got naps in between. We managed to surprise Emily with the shower. I took a few pictures which I will post later after I get them off my camera.
Sometimes when I reply to your comments, I forget to check the little box. I'm thinking that you probably only see my replies when I remember to check it.
Another thing I still don't know is how to link my posts to FB. I don't want to do that all the time, just once in awhile. Any suggestion would be appreciated.
I'm going to go finish reading my book now. It's a library book called "A Lineage of Grace" by Francine Rivers. It says it is 5 stories of unlikely women who changed eternity. It is the story of Tamar... a woman of hope, Rahab...a woman of faith, Ruth...a woman of love, Bathsheba...a woman who received grace, and Mary...a woman of obedience. I am not quite to the point where Jesus dies. You would think that as well as I know this story, I would not be so compelled to read it. But I want to finish it tonight! I only have 17 pages left. See you all tomorrow.

Adn Happy Sunday to all of you.  We have a busy day planned.  First church and Sunday School (now called ABF for adult Bible Fellowship.)  Then home for Father's Day lunch.  There will only be 14 of us here for lunch.  We were going to have East African curry rice, but last night I discovered I'm almost out of curry.  So I will use what little I have, and add some other spices.  The kids don't much like curry anyway.  I cheated and will use canned chicken.  Hope it will taste OK.  On top of the rice, chicken and gravy we'll put green onions, apples, chopped peanuts (chopped last night in my handy little Ninja belnder-chopper).  OK, back to the ingredients..........apples, raisins, and anything else I might think of.  For dessert we have vanilla ice cream with raspberry-strawberry sauce.  I plan to cook some brown rice for hubby, better for the diabetes.  White for the rest of us.  Using paper plates, and plastic cups.  Later I hope to get a nap.

At 6 in the evening we're having a surprise shower for our future daughter-in-law.  She's here visiting for the weekend to finalize wedding plans.  I made baklava yesterday for that.  My daughters are bringing other food.

I'll leave you with a picture.  First I have to explain.  I recently cleaned out book-cases and found a bunch I didn't need.  I forced myself to get rid of some of them.  Some friends have a small used bookstore, so we took the books there.  I saw this sign painted on a wall over one of the bookshelves and took a picture of it.

Of course we came home from the store with a few new to us books. Happy smile.

Two of our little grand-daughters had 5 additions to their family.  Mama cat provided them with 5 cute little black and white kitties.  Their Mama has promised them they can keep one.  Another has already been promised to someone.  She needs to find homes for the other 3.  She plans to keep Mama cat too.  It's fun to watch kittens play.  I'm just glad they're not mine.

They were not interested in posing for pictures Ha-haa.

The children were not interested either. They were too busy playing with their friends on the swing set.

Ella wanted me to take a picture of her jumping off the swing. This is the best I could get. If I had hit the ground that hard I think I would have had to spend the night there.....or be carried inside. She just laughed and got up. Kids!