Suprise Blessings

This past Saturday, we had the pleasure of visiting my father and step-mother in their new home.  Some may remember that they moved back to IN this past spring after being gone for 7 long years.  *smile*

Well, now they've moved into their permanent location, a lovely 2 acre homestead 2 hours SW of us.  What fun it was to walk about the place listening to my father's plans for bees, apple trees and garden boxes.  Truly, it is a lovely place.  I wish I had my camera back!  *sigh* 

Here comes the blessing part of this post.  While we were there, my father GAVE Ryan his old laptop!  Ryan promptly installed Ubuntu and it is working quite well as a netbook!  Yippee!  Thank you, dear Dad!  We are so excited to have another computer.  I did not know that our other computers were so outdated. This new one is more powerful than our best desktop and that's saying a lot because this laptop is no spring chicken!

From my cell phone camera. 

More Than Just a Grill

Coleman Sierra cleaned & ready to go. 

An exciting thing happened this weekend.  We were gifted a used gas grill, one that we'd never be able to afford new.  One I turned down last year!  All it needed was a little elbow grease and a tank of propane.  Simple.  Easy.  Right?

Wait just a moment!  We put in over 2 hours of sweat equity into that grill.  Made a huge mess.  Made three trips to the hardware store.  Consulted an elder because it was not working right.  Experienced defeat, joy and befuddlement all in two days. 

Consultation in progress. 

But you know what?  Now, we have a grill!  What makes me laugh a little is that this grill reminded me of a longing I had more than a few years back.  You know, during "the basement longing days."  I also had a longing for a "real" grill.  I even told others about this. It was an unfulfilled longing and then I just gave up.  For the last several years I did not even think about it.  And now, I have a real grill!  I actually have 2.  One for home and one for camping. 

Another side note.  This is more than just a grill.  It's a gateway to fellowship.  One that had been closed to me.  I did not fret about this.  We just made do.  And then last week we offered to have our flock group fellowship here at our house, but were turned down because we did not have a grill.  We ended up going to a great water park and the kids probably had a much better time than if they had been here.  And now I have a grill! 

Time for a fellowship!