Livin' the lake life soon

I'm super excited because we're under contract for this second home up at Lake LBJ, set to close the first week in June, so we can spend the summer enjoying it. I can hardly wait to get it all set up to host family and friends. Onward and upwards to pontoon boat shopping, a must-have accessory for lake front living!

Family birthday weekend

Over the weekend, we trekked up to Lake LBJ for a little birthday celebration for the husband and older daughter. I found a VRBO centrally located on the lake with amazing views and we had a relaxing stay with some great weather.

The girls gave the stand up paddle board (SUP) a try. The husband fished. My mother joined us and whipped up some great meals, including a lemon pound cake for the husband and tunnel of fudge cake for the daughter. I drove the boat and wrangled the dogs. Pepper is our three-year-old girl and highly suspicious one. I attribute it to her terrier breed. She had a barking good time at the geese who dared to paddle up to the dock looking for a handout. The guys in the bass boat fishing in between our dock and the neighbor's dock. The waves splashing against the bulkhead from all the boat traffic on Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, our eight-year-old Ollie is more chill. 

We enjoyed a bit of boating both days, too. We spent time on the lake proper, as well as cruised up the Llano and Colorado rivers for a look-see from the water. We were also up there to tour some homes since we've decided to invest in a lake property to enjoy with family and friends. We wrote an offer today on one that would work for us. I'll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, I'll be spending the rest of my pandemic stay-at-home time adding pins to my LAKE HOUSE board!

So over the 'rona

We all like the occasional slug day. No shower, old sweats and a t-shirt that's washed thin in some spots. Not a thing on the calendar to do but hang out, read a book, watch some mindless TV or take a nap. 

I'm about caught up with slug days for the next decade, thanks to COVID 19. I'm beyond ready to get back to doing what I want, wherever and whenever I want. I'm tired of being at home. And yet I'm blessed that I have a home to shelter in during this scary time. Food in the fridge. My girls home from college and mother in the guest house. 

So I'll stay hunkered down and hang in there since there's no other choice right now. I'll pray for God to use this pandemic for His glory, that this will lead to a great revival and rekindling of the gospel. I hope that believers will be renewed and non-believers will come to Christ at the cross.

In the meantime, I'll just put some of the funny pandemic memes below that I've seen on social media as a reminder that there's still humor and joy in spite of the threat of illness. 

This last one, above, reminds me of our weekly BSF Zoom meetings to discuss the weekly lesson. What a blessing to have this technology at our disposal to continue to discuss God's word!

My old Malta pics & Acts 28

In all of my travels, the ones that have made the biggest impression on me are always the ancient places I've toured. It's especially exciting to me when I find archaeological proof that backs up history in the Bible. Forget the modern stuff. I'm much more enthusiastic about ruins. 

This week we're at the end of Acts in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), where the Apostle Paul is en route to Rome in chains. This recounting of their trip by Luke is an historical nail biter with the terrible storm, their shipwreck on Malta and the viper bite. My middle-aged brain remembered that we visited Malta as a port of call with the girls way back in 2011 when they were on fall break and I booked us on a Mediterranean cruise out of Venice.

Intrigued by what I might recall, I snooped back through my pics from the cruise and found several taken in Malta. So then I read back over Acts 28 to see what I could match up with the pics I had from Malta. This is Acts 28:7-8... There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days. His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him, and after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.

Located inside the old walled capital city of Mdina (pic above) is St Paul's Cathedral (pic below). The red dome you see in the top two pics is the cathedral. 

According to archaeological excavations, there were several earlier churches built on this site before the current cathedral in the early 1700s. The location is significant to Paul's shipwreck visit in Acts 28 because it's believed that this is the site of the house of Publius, the Roman's chief official on the island. It is Maltese tradition that Publius was converted to Christianity by Paul in 60 AD and became the first bishop of Malta. Roman Catholic church history recounts that Publius became the first saint of Malta and suffered martyrdom during persecution of the church under Emperor Hadrian. 

Below is a pic of the church's interior I snapped.

Though Acts doesn't mention that Publius was converted to Christianity, it's easy to grasp how that would have happened, given the miracle of his father's healing coupled with Paul's simple and loving message about God the Father and Jesus the Son. Paul was a devout believer who persevered through all suffering in order to spread the good news of Jesus' death on the cross and subsequent resurrection so that all believers can have life everlasting. Paul strived to imitate the life of Jesus Christ, and discipled these earliest believers to imitate him. Over the remainder of his life after his conversion on the road to Damascus, thought to be approximately 32 years, Paul accomplished God's eternal purpose to bring others to this same faith. And as an ambassador in chains (Ephesians 6:20), under threat of death by Jewish religious leaders, Paul refused to be silenced in his ongoing appeals to both Jews and Gentiles alike. Praise God for these earliest missionaries!

Easter 2020

This will go down as one of the more interesting Easter Sundays in our lives, no doubt, thanks to COVID 19. I'm just glad we don't have little ones - kids or grandkids - because I'd be even more sad about missing celebrating with extended family.

I made a grocery store run on Friday, my first one in almost three weeks since the girls have been doing it for me, in order to buy all the fixin's to grill today. We put on the feedbag with steak, shrimp, baked taters, corn on the cob and asparagus wrapped in bacon. Mimi (my mother) whipped up a homemade German chocolate cake for dessert and it was dee-licious! Probably the most important reason for me shopping at HEB was that I needed to get the items to make the 19 and 24 year old daughters an Easter basket. I knew they probably wouldn't mind if I skipped it this year, but they seemed both surprised and happy to find their little basket of edible goodies on the dining room table this morning.

Earlier this week, I was snooping through old travel pics and ran across this one I took inside St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City in 2011. As you can imagine, it's incredibly old (construction began in 1506) and grand. I especially loved how the light was streaming through one of the windows in the apse.

I also decided to pull several pics of tombs I saw while we were in Jordan, empty tombs because this is Easter week and it was incredibly appropriate. 

Mark 15:46... So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

Mark 16:2-6... Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?" But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. HE HAS RISEN! He is not here."

Luke 24:5&7... "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; HE HAS RISEN!... The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again."

Praise God that He sent Jesus to die on the cross, taking on the sins of the world, so that through his resurrection we would be saved by His grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. 

One of my favorite hymns growing up in my tiny Texas town that I can still sing by heart today is "The Old Rugged Cross". Alabama was my first concert way back in the day. Enjoy their rendition of this Baptist classic. Happy Easter, y'all!

February trip odds and ends

This is my final post about our trip to Egypt and Jordan. What a blessing that we were able to travel before COVID 19 really took off and countries were locked down. I'll kick off this last post with something you don't see every day - a camel crossing sign. Excuse the glare. I was seeing them when we were in the car en route to our next stop and didn't have the chance to take a better pic with the window rolled down.

I've posted pics like this from our travels when we were living in England, soda cans from different countries. I included a Starbucks this time, too, purchased in the Amman airport. I have no idea if that's really a name in Arabic. It could say western woman in sweats. Chubby gal with no makeup. Who knows!

This pic below was taken from a pull-out on the road in Jordan en route to the Dead Sea. That tiny white speck on the top of a hill way off in the distance is Lot's Cave. Archaeological investigations have proven it's the site of an old spring and Byzantine era monastery. This is reputed to be the place where Lot and his daughters sought refuge after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. See Genesis 18-19 to read this riveting Bible narrative about how much God hates sin!

I ran across these two pics below in my camera role and for the life of me couldn't remember its significance. So I had some time on my hands - thanks, coronavirus - and searched photos on Jordan tourist websites until I found it.

In the top pic, you can see some leftover snow from earlier in the week. I had no idea it would ever get cold enough in Jordan to snow, yet there was tangible proof. What you're seeing in these pics is Montreal Castle in Shobak. Commissioned by Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1115, not much remains today of this Crusader era castle. Its early purpose was to tax traders and pilgrims traveling through this area. It changed hands several times as this region was passed back and forth amongst the various people fighting for control of it.

Wadi Rum & the Dead Sea

Thanks to some naproxen, I wasn't crippled the next day from hiking a couple extra HOURS while we were lost in Petra. Which was a good thing since we hit the road the next morning to tour Wadi Rum. Wadi is a valley or channel that is dry except in the rainy season and may form an oasis. A local Zalabia Bedouin took us on a driving tour of Wadi Rum, aka the Valley of the Moon, another UNESCO World Heritage site.

In the picture above, you can see the imposing and distinct seven pillar formation behind the reception amenities at the entrance to Wadi Rum. British officer T.E. Lawrence passed through Wadi Rum several times while serving during the Arab Revolt of 1917-18. In 1922, Lawrence published his autobiographical account The Seven Pillars of Wisdom about his time spent serving in the British army as a liaison officer. In the 1980s this large rock formation originally known as Jabal al-Mazmar (Mountain of the Plague) was renamed the Seven Pillars. 

Our Toyota Land Cruiser, seen above, was definitely vintage. From the back seat, it seemed the only thing still working was the engine. The windows were the old school manual roll downs. But it served to get us around to see the highlights.

Above is the Lawrence of Arabia spring... about halfway to the top, hidden in the rocks. If you click on the pic for a closer look, you can just make out the folks climbing up this rock field to get to the spring. After scrambling all over Petra the day before, I decided to just take a picture and listen to what the guide shared with us. Wadi Rum has been used as a filming location for decades, starting in the early 1960s with the movie Lawrence of Arabia. This epic historical drama was based on the autobiography T.E. Lawrence wrote that I mentioned above. More recent films that have used Wadi Rum as their backdrop include Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, as well as several of the recent Star Wars installments.

Above and below are pictures I took when we stopped to see a water source hidden back in the sandstone rocks, used for century upon century by the local Bedouins. This is Khazali Canyon, where we were also able to climb a bit back into the rocks to see some of the ancient rock paintings and graffiti carved over millennia. It includes Thamudic, Nabatean and Islamic inscriptions as well as petroglyphs. These petroglyphs include feet - see the pic. At the end of this canyon are several man-made rock cut basins for the collection of water. 

Our last full day in Jordan was spent at a resort along the Dead Sea. But first we took a quick car tour through the seaside city of Aqaba for a look-see into a mosque. Aqaba is located on the Gulf of Aqaba, off of the Red Sea, and it was really pretty and modern.

We stopped at the entrance to the mosque grounds to borrow appropriate head coverings to be allowed a look inside. This isn't an historic mosque, but it was beautiful and we were happy to have the chance to tour a mosque in Jordan with our Muslim guide Nidal.

Not wanting to fall behind with my Bible study class lessons while on this amazing trip, I brought my Warren Wiersbe commentary on 1&2 Thessalonians and read it in a cabana out by one of the three pools on the property with a lovely view of the Dead Sea. We had the added bonus of Israeli fighter jets zipping by over the water... very low, loud and visible.