New Church

  This is where our church congregation will move in August.  Today members were invited to come and write Scripture verses on the concrete foundation before the floor covering is put down.

 This is the left side of the building where the children can be dropped off directly at their department.

Look at the design of the bricks.  It's very attractive. The following pictures show the view from the children's entrance.

 

I love it!  We have a modern building by shopping centers and next door to a field of cattle grazing.  It's very peaceful.

For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills.  Psalm 50:10

Saturday

It has been a beautiful day with weather that looks like this picture.  It is a Bradford Pear with blossoms that are quickly being replaced by leaves.  The flower petals have covered the ground in "snow".

We were up earlier than usual for a Saturday morning for a couple of reasons.  This was the first day recycling pickup was scheduled for us.  I read on the blog of one of my daughter's friends about Green Guys Recycling.  Yes, you have to pay but it is going to be so worth it.  Number 1 - - I don't have to take time to fit one more thing into my schedule by going to a drop-off on my day off on Friday.  Number 2 - - they take EVERYTHING!  I don't have to carry the plastics to Chattanooga.  I met the gentleman this morning who decided to do this business with his neighbors.  He is very nice and we are very happy to have this convenience because we do not like to fill the landfill with items that can be reused.  Plus, does plastic ever biodegrade?

The second "out-of-the-ordinary thing on our agenda was waiting for the arrival of my husband's boss & friend.  He was selling his treadmill because he exercises at a local gym.    Bill's treadmill finally cried, "Uncle" after 10 years. I was happy for him to get another treadmill because it has helped him lose weight and keep it off. Bill is very disciplined with his walking, covering at least 50 miles a month.

He paid for over 70% of this by cashing in his change that he has been collecting for 15 months.

This is my coin jar but his is just like it. - - except his has NO money in it now! It has a digital display that shows your new total each time you add change.  It also helped Bill know that our bank's coin counter was accurate!

In addition to moving heavy equipment into the basement, he decided it was time to tackle this other job.  When he replaced the railing last fall, he was told that the treated wood needed to cure outside at least six months before it was painted.  The time was up; the weather was right; and the job has been completed.

Now he is watching the Masters.  I am taking a break from switching some winter/spring clothes into the proper closets.  We have accomplished a good bit today but it has also been a very relaxing day.

(And maybe I can figure out how to get some of the extra space gone from between pictures and texts before I post next time.)

And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men.  Acts 24:16

Rotel Recipe

I have no idea where I copied this recipe from.  I thought I got it from this blog but I don't see it in the index.  However, I want to give it to you because it is DELICIOUS!  The Rotel you pick will determine the heat of your finished product.  You could sense enough taste of heat after you began to swallow this - - which brought us to the discussion about where the taste buds are in your mouth that sense spicy foods.  This is a slow-cooker recipe but I used my waterless cookware on the stove since it cooks a bit faster and works like an oven at the same time.  Also, we used Eye of Round Steaks rather than flank - - - and we discussed trying this with meatballs sometime.  Mini-sized would be great appetizers!

Slow-Cooked Italian Beef

2 pounds Beef (roast or steaks)

2 (14 oz) cans Rotel

1 1/2 TABLESPOONS Italian Seasoning (dry seasoning in spice jar) (seems like a lot but it's not)

1/2 tsp garlic salt (or powder)

1 medium onion, sliced

Beat meat to tenderize it.  (We didn't and it was fine.)

Mix Rotel, Italian seasoning, and garlic in the slow cooker.

Submerge the meat.

Place onion on top of meat.

Cook on low 6 to 7 hours or on high for 3 hours.

Serve with "gravy" on side.

It's an excellent recipe that has been added to our recipe box.

And I feel a bit guilty about not posting any Easter pictures.   I left my camera home.   but that didn't stop us from having a GREAT day celebrating our resurrected Savior - - - church and then lunch with our married daughter's extended family.  The weather was gorgeous.  The food was great and the company was the best.    However with Jesus in our hearts, that makes every day a celebration, doesn't it?!!!

I am with you always, even to the end of the age.  Matthew 28:20b

Still Christmas

If it is the week before Easter, why am I saying it is still Christmas?  Notice the flowers in bloom.  Previous owners of our home planted these along the property line.  That's pretty clever.

  This view is looking down into the back woods.   

These are along the driveway.

And the picture below is why I said it is still Christmas.  This magazine subscription was a present  (at my request) from our older daughter.  Every two months for the next three years, I will have this Christmas present in my mailbox!!!  I love it.

 

Consider how the lilies grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  Luke 12:27

Normal Friday

When you work full-time and have gone out of town 2 weekends in one month, it takes a while to catch back up and get back to "normal". Obviously I did not post last week but I have been reading all your blogs and did find a few minutes to comment on a few of them.

Here are a couple more clarifications to my last post. The McDonald's was located in downtown Asheville, NC - - across the street to the entrance to Biltmore Estates. Its decor was to reflect and honor that of the Biltmore Museum. It was one of the restaurants featured a year or two ago on the Travel Channel entitled something like Ten of the Most Unique McDonald's Restaurants. I can't remember them all but one was in Rome, Italy. Another was in a northern city where people went to the drive-through window on snowmobiles. What we liked the most about the Asheville McDonald's is it was the perfect meeting place for us and my sister since we were traveling to NC from TN and GA. Plus it was a good excuse for a hot fudge sundae!

Reflecting back on our tour of the Biltmore, I am so glad we had the opportunity to visit. It is truly worth your time and money if you are in the area. If you want to learn some more about it, you can visit this link on Wikipedia.

So today was not what one would consider exciting - - - - running errands which including "hitting some sales" at grocery stores. I needed some ingredients for a recipe I found on a crockpot website new to me. One thing I really like about this site is she has indexed her recipes alphabetically so you don't have to read every single entry to find a few you might like.

But back to the shopping - - - - I needed to find diced tomatoes with green chiles - - - so I'm looking and see Diced Tomatoes, Petite Diced Tomatoes, Diced Tomatoes with Italian Seasonings, etc. etc. but do not see diced tomatoes with green chiles. But I do see something that is on sale that I have on my shopping list. It is Rotel - - - - and duh to me - - guess what Rotel is? Or are you way ahead of me here? It is diced tomatoes with green chiles! I am going to use it in a recipe tomorrow and hope to update you on that before the weekend ends.

Right now though, I believe it might be the end of the day for me being awake! . . . . . talk to you tomorrow - -

When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Proverbs 3:24

McDonald's

We had a great weekend - - - - met my sister here about lunchtime and had ice cream sundaes. Do you know which city we were in? The ceiling inside the restaurant looked like this.

There was a grand piano - - inside the McDonald's!

Notice that the keys are depressed with no one's fingers touching them. It is a computerized player piano.

Does this picture of the outside of the McDonald's help you know its location?

The restaurant is across the entrance from the place we went to visit.

This statue was outside the house we visited - - - the Biltmore in Asheville, NC! We had an excellent day of touring this magnificent home. The extravagant furnishings were beautiful to view but even more amazing was looking at the construction of this building during the last decade of the 1800's. The kitchen and laundry areas were fascinating, too. This place had the newest state of the art technology for that time including early refrigeration and even a laundry dryer. Our plans are to go back in the spring or summer so we can view the gardens. They alone are supposed to be worth the trip according to those who have visited before us. Our trip was a gift from season ticket holders.

Our overnight stay was at the Holiday Inn Asheville-Biltmore East. It was extremely reasonable for price and very comfortable with new pillow top mattresses. The decor had mountain-style furnishing - - rustic.

Supper was wonderful Outback. Their food is always an extraordinary treat! If possible, this meal was even better than others we have eaten because it was FREE! My sister had gift cards given to her when she listened to a presentation at Wyndham Resorts.

Our trip there was uneventful. I had used Mapquest - - but failed to print reverse directions - - - and the problem with that is there are two rockslides between here and there. Coming back, we missed the detour off of I-40 - - - but decided that we could take the scenic detours. The first was through beautiful Maggie Valley, NC. We were driving along through beautiful spring weather - - looking at a rainbow while admiring the snow on the mountain tops above us. In just a matter of a very, very few minutes, we were on top of the mountain, completely surrounded by a white environment. The roads were clear due to road treatment but the ground had snow coverings and all the trees were white with frozen fog/snow. It was not as much snow on the trees as frozen mist. We seemed to be inside a cloud. As my husband said, "It was surreal."

A few curvy roads later and we were back inside the sunshine viewing the beautiful forests. After being surrounded by gorgeous nature, it was a bit of a shock to view the gambling hotels in Cherokee, NC. Something just doesn't seem right about that in the middle of a beautiful forest but I guess the location is part of the appeal. The next leg of the journey was supposed to be on Newfound Gap through the Smokies with the end destination of Gatlinburg, TN so we could stop at some outlet shopping in Sevierville on the way home - - - - but the road was closed due to snowy roads on top of the mountains.

We ended up detouring yet again to Murphy, NC to Copperhill, TN - - - another detour due to the second rockslide - - south to Georgia and finally home to Cleveland. A trip without rock slides is only 3 hours - - - with the proper interstate detours, it is 4.25 hours. Our return trip was 6.5 hours!!! But we got home safely without going over the side of a snowy mountain! Quite an interesting adventure!

You will worship God on this mountain! Exodus 3:12b

Dramatic Weather

This is what it looked like at work on Tuesday morning.

All of it was melted by late afternoon.

And here's what it looked like in our yard early this afternoon!

And HE changeth the times and the seasons. Daniel 2:21a