The Blessing of Rain

I've been thinking about the wild fires that have been a major problem of late in North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama.  Drought conditions have not helped.  There has been much prayer for rain.  Finally, there has been some rain in some areas, but more is needed.  Isn't it strange that we pray for rain at times and at other times we pray for it to stop!  "Rain, rain, go away!  Come again some other day!"  Today was not one of those days!  It was good to see rain today!

Today we finally got some rain!  Thank You, Lord!

 The storms of life are many.  Surviving the storms makes us appreciate the sunshine that much more.  But, sometimes we cause our spirit to become parched when we allow the "things" of life to slowly creep in and take over.  If we are not careful, those "things" will become like a wild fire out of control, consuming everything in its path, leaving behind misery and destruction and sometimes death.  That happens a LOT when we forget our priorities.....Jesus, Others, You.....JOY.  We have no joy when Jesus is not first!  Ah!  But, isn't it sweet when we confess our sinfulness to the Lord and He rains His sweet forgiveness into our souls to wash away the muck and the mire, just like that sweet rain we had today!  Thank You, Lord!  Thank You for blessing me when I don't deserve it!  Thank You for hearing my cries for mercy and washing me clean with Your forgiveness!  Yes, it is a blessed rain!

This morning Tim wanted to take a package to the mail box for his mother.  He had taken church bulletins to give to her when we gathered for Thanksgiving last week and then forgot to give them to her!  So, I drove him since he is restricted from driving, at least until Thursday when he has another follow-up appointment with the skin graft doctor.  I will be glad when I can hang up my keys and he can take over the driving again!  I enjoy being the passenger!  :D  I also enjoy him opening my passenger door for me.  But, he doesn't do that when I'm in the driver's seat!

While we were out, we stopped at our two local Goodwills.  We haven't been to them in two weeks because of revival and Thanksgiving travels.  I found a few crafting items, hair rollers, some aluminum (disposable) loaf pans and a book by Beverly Lewis that was not on my list.  That's because the copyright date is 2016.  The price tag was still on the back.....$15.99.  I paid $1.25 for it!  I love a great book bargain!  :D

Tim had an appointment with the audiologist today to get his hearing aid for his right ear that the church is buying for him.  When we got there, she apologized that we were going to have to wait because the computers were down.  So, we just took out our phones and took care of business!  What in the world did we ever do without these portable phones?!

A selfie while waiting.

It was almost 3 when we got home, so I started working on dinner.  The doctor ordered chili (Dr. Day, that is!) and what the doctor orders, the doctor gets!  :D  When I make chili, I use a vegetarian chili recipe, but I add meat.  The more meat, the better the doctor likes it!  So, for my large pan (6 or 8 quarts maybe?) I use a pound of ground turkey and a pound of sausage.  I fry them together with the onion, green pepper, celery and garlic.  Then I add the tomatoes, beans and spices.

Tim also likes macaroni in the chili.  I had some left over from some mac and cheese that our neighbor fixed and gave to us, so I threw that in.  It really wasn't enough, however.  YUM!  It was delicious!  We had chili at Jessica's house the day I ended up getting sick (Thursday).  But, I think I just ate too much!  We all had a BIG bowl full AND several pieces of garlic toast!  Garlic toast is a definite weakness of mine!  Actually, any warm, buttery bread is a weakness of mine!  Anyway, tonight I ate a small portion (about 1/2 bowl) and only one piece of garlic bread.  No nausea.....so far!  :D

Nice and chunky!

Here's the ingredients for the recipe.  I think maybe I have shared it before, but here it is again, just in case:

1 small onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
3/4 cup celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cans diced tomatoes, with liquid
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro (I use dried)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 cans kidney or pintos, rinsed and drained (I use 1 can chili beans and 1 can black beans.  I rinse the black beans but not the chili beans.)
1 1/2 cups water (more if you desire a thinner soup)
Jalapeno pepper to taste (optional)
sour cream (optional)

When we get tired of eating it after a couple of days, I freeze the leftovers.

Here's a picture I got when the sun was almost set.  The rain clouds were beginning to clear out.  The temperature was 67 at one point today while we were out and about.  Today was 70% chance of rain and tomorrow is 80% I believe!  I'm praying for more rain!

The sky began to clear up at sunset.

Well, we never did make a vacation trip this year with me being sick a lot of the year.  Tonight we set dates to go.  The great thing is that we will only be paying for one night because we will be using reward points we have saved from our credit card!

Marco Island, Florida is the destination.  Below Naples on the Gulf side.  We will do day trips and activities from there.

Sunset Cove Resort where we will be staying.

We had almost 110,000 points to "spend."  Each night at this resort was going to "cost" us 35,000 points.  So we were only going to get 3 nights for free and would have to pay more than $300 cash for the 4th night.  But there was also an option to "spend" 25,000 points + $59.50 cash per night.  So we opted to do that because that means we only spend $238 cash for the 4th night.

We have been saving as much "extra" money as possible!  Monetary gifts given to us on birthdays, mother's/father's day, Christmas, love gifts from the church and different people, etc.  So, we plan to rent a car to save wear and tear on our old vehicles.

We will stop at my sister's house on the way back and go to church with her before heading back home.  We are praying for warmer weather than we had when we were down there in 2015!  And I'm especially praying I don't get sick while down there!  That would be a bummer for sure!

Well, that's all for today!  Be blessed!