What I've Been Grateful For
My husband had his knee surgery in June, which was a revision of the complete knee replacement he had three years ago. Other than a scare from an infection a few weeks after this surgery, he has been recovering well and making good progress in physical therapy, which is such an answer to prayer.
What I've Been Cherishing
My sister from Georgia visited me for a week in July. She spent the weekdays while I was working with a mutual friend, and the evenings and weekend with me. We had a wonderful time catching up, eating at a couple great restaurants, doing a little shopping, and just being together.
I have been cherishing getting texts, notes, and pictures from our grandchildren. My oldest granddaughter has begun texting me on a regular basis and I LOVE it. It's such a special way to feel connected. I have gotten notes and letters and pictures from some of the others and they are so sweet and special to me I just want to save every one!
What I Have Been Eating
It's blueberry and peach season! I had been buying blueberries whenever they were on sale in the grocery store, and a couple weeks ago we were able to spend the weekend at our oldest son's in Pennsylvania and we went blueberry picking! It was so much fun and I came home with 2 baskets of berries. We also went to the peach orchard and have been enjoying delicious peaches.I also came across this wonderful recipe for Grilled Chicken Pasta Caesar Salad, which I made for supper this week and then took it for lunch for the next 2 days. It's that yummy, very easy, and a wonderful light meal on hot summer days.
Grilled Chicken Pasta Caesar Salad
6 ounces penne pasta
2 good-sized boneless, skinless chicken breasts, seasoned and grilled
2 heads Romaine lettuce, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, shredded
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup fresh shredded parmesan cheese
Caesar salad dressing
Cook pasta according to package directions, drain, and cool. (I did this ahead of time)
Grill chicken breasts and chop into chunks.
In a large bowl toss together the pasta, chicken chunks, chopped lettuce, carrot, tomato halves, and parmesan cheese.
Drizzle with Caesar dressing and toss to coat - I like to coat each serving separately because the leftover salad keeps better without dressing on it. This made enough for supper for 2 of us plus 2-3 lunches for me!
What I've Been Loving
I received 2 books for gifts that I've been so excited about, because they have really refreshed my devotional life:
Gracelaced by Ruth Chou Simons is fantastic - filled with her gorgeous, original artwork it is a treasury of scripture, meditations, and challenging quotes and questions. I have been going through it slowly and using it in addition to my normal Bible reading, and journaling in this:
The Give Me Jesus Journal by The Well Watered Woman is something I have really been enjoying. Even though I have been journaling for years, this new format is a wonderful, welcome change that really helps me read with new purpose and thoughtfully apply what I am reading.
What I have Been Meditating On
No blog post would be complete without sharing from my heart what the Lord has been teaching me. The last couple days I have been meditating on the phrase "God is in your midst." There are at least 3 verses where I have found this:
Deut. 7:21: "You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God." Psalm 46:5: "God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved..." and Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you by His love, He will exult over you with loud singing."
Thinking that God is in my midst has brought me great comfort and encouragement to think that God is with me right where I am. Not just in my past, although he was with me then too, and not only in the future which seems so unclear right now, but right.here.with.me in my present. I have been struck with how personal a God we have - how so many times, He does things just to show us that He is aware of every little thing in our life and that He cares about us! I want to close with a little story that illustrates this so beautifully:
Before we went to Pennsylvania to visit our son and his family, I was shopping for birthday gifts to take to two of the grandchildren whose birthdays we were going to be celebrating. When I asked for ideas, my daughter-in-law let me know my 2 year old granddaughter needed a new Sunday dress. After quite a bit of looking I found an adorable dress but it was sleeveless, meaning that after this month she probably would not be able to wear it very much. I asked if she had a little white sweater and she didn't, so I put the dress on hold and set out to look for a sweater to go with it.
Do you know how hard it is to find a little white dressy sweater for a toddler? I certainly didn't! I won't list all of the stores I went to, but I exhausted every store in the area that carried children's clothes, plus looked online. I finally gave up and decided to just get the dress anyway.
When I went back to get the dress, I noticed there was a new clearance rack near the dress. I took a minute to look through it, and you guessed it... There was a sweater and it was the ONLY ONE in the store - it was white and the perfect style and it was the perfect size. AND it was marked down to $5!
I stood there for a minute in awe. It might seem like a silly little thing to you, but to me it was a tangible proof that God knew all about this little desire of my heart and He cared enough to provide this for me. And then I asked myself, if He knows about a little thing like shopping for a sweater for a granddaughter, he knows about the bigger, harder things in my life. And He cares about them and is in control of each one.Yes, God is in my midst - and He is in yours. He is a personal God who knows all about us. And He does care.
I've been writing this blog for 4 years now, and while I only write monthly now that I am working full-time I have noticed that lately there don't seem to be many followers. If you enjoy or are blessed by my blog would you please drop me a comment, Facebook or Instagram message, or personal message so that I might know if I should continue? I love to write, but maybe this isn't something I should be doing, so thanks in advance!
Til next time,
Kathi
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