Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Summer Breeze: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Join the fun! 
Come on over to 
for the Hodgepodge link-up!

When does time pass slowly for you? When does time past quickly for you? 

No matter what I'm doing, it seems that time passes much more slowly during the winter months and speeds by like Dale Jr. at Talladega the rest of the year.  I'm still coping with the fact that it's almost August already.  

Do you have a favorite beach? What's your favorite 'beach' activity? Tell us what we'd find in your beach bag.

I've only been to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, Panama City Beach, Florida, and Laguna Beach, California.  All of these were work or service-oriented trips (band, ministry, conferences, etc.), so getting to lounge on the beach wasn't really on the agenda.  I think I would enjoy going back to the beach.  It would be so much fun to hang out with my friends or family at the beach, wade in the ocean (or gulf as the case is with Florida), build sand castles, eat ice cream, and soak up the sun and salty breezes while reading a favorite book (preferable something not too serious).  Maybe I can add a trip to Orange Beach, AL to my list of places I want to go if I ever get to visit home again.  Hey, from Jacksonville it's only a 6-7 hour drive straight down AL-21; so no interstates!

So, what would be in my beach bag?  First, I'd have to get or make a beach bag.  Then, I would add the necessities (sun protection in all forms, a water bottle, snacks, etc).  To that I'd add some fun things (books and/or magazines, a water gun, a Bluetooth speaker, an extra bag or two for shopping, a sketchbook and pencils). Wow, looking at this, if I ever get to go, I'll need TWO beach bags.  

Your favorite book or movie with a beach setting? 

My favorite book set on the beaches of Hawaii was Bamboo and Lace by Lori Wick.  I write here about why it isn't among my favorites anymore.  I don't really have a favorite beach-themed movie, so I'll mention my favorite TV show set at or near the beach:  The Monkees.  

What's a food you love, but find it's a pain to eat? Is it worth it? 

Mangoes.  In all fairness, it's not the eating of it that's a pain, it's cutting it.  Mango seeds are so big that it seems like a waste to get so little fruit to eat and toss such a big seed.  Maybe I'm doing it wrong??

Do you like roller coasters? What's the best (or worst) roller coaster you've been on? 

It's been so long since I've ridden a roller coaster that I'm not sure if I like them or not.  The worst roller coaster I've ever experienced was the old Z-Force ride at Six Flags over Georgia. I don't know what masochist created this piece of junk, but it was a nightmare.  It didn't have fun loops like the Mind Bender (now the Riddler Mindbender), or fun climbs and descents like the Great American Scream Machine.  This monstrosity combined hairpin turns with corkscrew turns, which banged my head back and forth against a sorry excuse for safety padding.  That ride gave me a headache (and possible concussion) that lasted the rest of the day.  After several moves and rebrands, someone wisely dismantled the coaster in the early 2000s.  Good riddance! 

Insert your own random thought here. 
 
I've been taking a short hiatus from arts and crafts.  Miss Joyce's questions put me in the mood to create some beach-themed art.  Let's see what I come up with. 
 
In case you missed it:  
  • My previous Hodgepodge post "Food and Whine" is here.
  • My latest Weekly Digest "Reset the Play Clock" is here.
  • My latest First Line Friday post: #38:  The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here
  • My "25 for 2025" challenge is here.  (Updated regularly)
  • My "2025 I Can Only Blame MyShelf Reading Challenge" is here. (Updated regularly)

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Reset the Play Clock: The Weekly Digest

 Looking out the window....

I caught this robin at Green Mountain Community Center just before he/she flew away.


Though echinacea does grow in Alabama, I've seen more of it in Colorado.
These were in pots for sale at the King Soopers.

 

I know that some people don't like them, but Ive been enjoying
the magpies around the apartment complex.
 
Saturday I visited with a friend from the quilt group and had the pleasure of enjoying all the gorgeousness in her front flower beds.

The bees are enjoying the Ice Plants
 
The caterpillar is having a happy chat with the Shasta Daisy.

I do believe that this Day Lily may be the subject of my next painting.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

While a head full of information divorced from a heart filled with passion is a great danger, the truth is, Jesus himself exalted the role of the intellect when he urged us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). -  Gary Thomas, Sacred Pathways, p. 208.
 
If we develop these habits [of virtue], we will have the interior spiritual and moral resources with which to respond righteously when we are faced with temptations of any and every sort, as Jesus was in the wilderness. - Richard J. Foster, Streams of Living Water, p. 8.
 
[Spiritual formation is defined as] the process that takes place in us, as he life of the Spirit of God transforms out life through deepening love and intimacy with Father Son, and Holy Spirit, remaking us in the likeness of Jesus Christ, in His love for the Father and the world. - R. Thomas Ashbrook, Mansions of the Heart, p. 32.
 
The sin God rebukes is not trying and failing, but failing to try. Trying, failing, and trying again is called learning. Failing to try will have no good result; evil will triumph. God expresses his opinion toward passivity in Hebrews 10:38–39: “‘But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.’ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.” - Cloud & Townsend, Boundaries, p. 102. 
 
If money is to enhance your happiness, it must be used to support aspects of life that themselves bring happiness to you. Money. It’s a good servant but a bad master. - Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project, p. 190.
 
I'm thinking about...
 
My crafting mojo: I know that I haven't posted on my craft blog for over a year.  However, I have been posting photos of my current projects on my Pinterest page, so I haven't been idle.  Keeping my hands busy has kept me sane and away from the kitchen (for the most part).  However, I'm a little burned out at the moment, especially on quilting.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Calm down.  Let me explain.  
 
Since I started with the Loving Stitches group more than two years ago, I've been creating with fabrics mostly within the same color families unless I buy something myself and go off the rails.  I kid you not, I've made at least four quilts and/or quilt tops containing the same fabrics.  Yes, I have a method for processing scraps that "gets all the goody" out of a piece of fabric, but I'm ready for something new.  I'm ready for some brighter, happier colors and I'm willing to go buy them myself.  
 
Throughout the next week, I'm giving myself a reset.  I'm going to put everything away, not craft for several days, then start again.  
 
I need it. 
.   
What I've read since the last digest...
  • Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas ✮ (Category - Glorious Reread)  
  • The Dieter's Prayer Book by Heather Harpham Kopp ✮1/2 (Category - Glorious Reread):  Please see my review here
I'm currently reading...
  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  • Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook 
  • Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster 
  • Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend 
  • On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
  • Faith's Checkbook by Charles Spurgeon
  • The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
  • Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster
  • The New American Standard Bible

Recent blog posts...

  • My previous digest, "Tis or Taint'" is here.
  • First Line Friday #38: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here
  • Food and Whine:  The Weekly Hodgepodge is here
  • My "25 for 2025" challenge is here. (Updated regularly)
  • My "I Can Only Blame MyShelf" reading challenge is here.  (Updated regularly). 

From the Workshop... 

Reset!

I am thankful for...

  • A good report at my last eye doctor's appointment.
  • New athletic shoes.  My old ones were worn slap out.
  • More days lately where I feel good rather than not.
  • Online tutorials for regular stuff I don't know how to do.
  • A great therapist.
  • Inexpensive journals.
  • Flowers
  • Birds
  • I'm thankful that our apartment's leasing office warned us about the water being turned off for maintenance.  They didn't tell us anything last time and it wasn't pretty. 

 

 




Friday, July 11, 2025

First Line Friday #38: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

Thanks to Carrie at
Reading is My Superpower
for the Link-up
  


TitleThe Divine Conspiracy
Author:  Dallas Willard
Genre:  Christian Spirituality
 

    〰First Line

─────────────────────────────────────────────────

Recently a pilot was practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter.  She turned the controls for what she thought thought was a steep ascent--and flew straight into the ground.  She was unaware that she had been flying upside down.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────

Synopsis:  (From Amazon) 

The Divine Conspiracy has revolutionized how we think about the true meaning of discipleship. In this classic, one of the most brilliant Christian thinkers of our times and author of the acclaimed The Spirit of Disciplines, Dallas Willard, skillfully weaves together biblical teaching, popular culture, science, scholarship, and spiritual practice, revealing what it means to "apprentice" ourselves to Jesus. Using Jesus’s Sermon of the Mount as his foundation, Willard masterfully explores life-changing ways to experience and be guided by God on a daily basis, resulting in a more authentic and dynamic faith.

 〰First Thoughts

Like C. S. Lewis and Richard J. Foster, Dallas Willard is one of those writers whose total body of works I hope to finish.  I thoroughly enjoy his unique way of presenting theological concepts.  From the description of this book it seems as though Willard is teaching the believer how to initiate the discipleship phase of belief, rather than depending on someone else to initiate.  I don't believe he's advocating a do-it-yourself Christianity,  but more of an exercise in maturity.  This one will prove to be an interesting read.

 So, what's the first line of the book you're currently reading?