Life is in the Blood

I had a blood test recently and received a list of fascinating results. It got me thinking about how much information we can now obtain from a small sample of our blood. Blood can tell us about specific medical conditions such as heart disease (even a recent heart attack), thyroid disease, cancer, diabetes, sexually transmitted …

Read more

New Christmas Traditions

Man plans, but God prevails. A few months ago, we thought the Lord was pointing us east to a new location, new home, new adventure. Our daughter and son-in-law wanted us to move in with them so they could be on hand to help us as we needed. We are getting older. Rick has advancing …

Read more

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is a time to gather as a family and count our blessings. The one unchangeable truth about life is it can and often does change in a minute. We made plans, and God prevailed. After offering on three homes in small towns near Knoxville, TN, and having each fall through, we got the message. …

Read more

White Elephants

The elders of our church used to have a Christmas party each year, and one of the customs was to pass along the prize “white elephant”. It was singing bass you hung on the wall. Any time someone passed by, that fish would sing – loudly. It was good for a laugh at the party. …

Read more

Ranger’s Encounter with a Skunk

We’ve always been aware of skunks in the green space behind our fence. We can smell them as they pass by in the evening or early morning before the sun comes up. Ranger went after one on the trail behind us, but I was able to drag him away from the fence before he got …

Read more

Faith and Politics

It has been a long time since I have sat in an American history class. Decades in fact. We tend to forget, and in some cases, were never taught the providential history of our nation. People often see and judge the past by current culture. We need to push through the curtain of spin to …

Read more

Sharing the Vineyard Harvest

Last year, we didn’t harvest our merlot grapes because the degrees BRIX (sugar content) never reached the number we needed. We left the fruit on the vine, much to the delight of our growing rafter of turkeys. I counted twenty-six at one point. This year, we are hoping our “dry grow” grapes will be succulent …

Read more

People Who Stood Alone

In this declining world of people who strive to be politically correct, it’s good to look back and see examples of ordinary folk who, even when afraid, did not follow the crowd but stood alone and impacted nations. Think of Noah being called by God to build an ark. Can you imagine Noah’s confusion? No …

Read more

Summertime Reading

There is nothing quite so fun as entering an adventure through reading. One of the most exciting series I’ve read in a long time is Nova McBee’s Calculated, Simulated and Activated. All three books are fast-paced, with appealing characters and a plot that kept me turning the pages. Jo River is a heroine you will …

Read more

Following the Crowd

It seems there are many people following the crowd these days. I think it’s called “group think” now, but it’s really the same thing: mob mentality. We see and hear of it on social media. We see it in the news with people rioting and destroying property, and in some cases, we see and hear …

Read more