Fires in Sylmar!!

Scroll down for my Pink Saturday Post.

Earlier when I was checking out Pink Saturday posts, I happen to be on the blog of The Happy Wonderer and Ellen was talking about the Sylmar fires, when I noticed another email coming in from family about the fires. I was stunned to find out that my husband's brother and sister-in-law had to evacuate their house. The house across the street from them has burned to the ground. My sister-in-law tripped and fell over the hoses when evacuating and had to go to the hospital. I don't know the final word on that yet, but so far it looks as though a couple of toes are broken.

What is really strange is that we were just at their house on our recent trip 2 weeks ago. We stayed there the first 3 nights. So I am trying to get my mind around the fact that the house across the street burned down along with whatever else has been burned so far. At this point, theirs is still okay as far as I know. If you had seen my traveling Pink Saturday and Blue Monday last week, a few of the pictures I used were things at their house, like the pretty teapots and the blue and white birdhouses in the yard.

They are definitely in my prayers along with everyone else affected by the firestorms. This is so scary. This warm weather is so unusual at this time of the year in California. We had temps in the mid to high 80's yesterday and today in our area in Northern California. I hope it cools soon so that the fires can be brought under control.

Oh, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were able to go to their son's house. Keep all those affected by the firestorms in your prayers. Thank you. ---Linnea
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UPDATE: We heard that the fire blew by their house without damaging it. But they have no power so they are staying at their son's house. Also my sister-in-law does have a couple of broken bones in her foot.

Friday Ramblings

Yay! It is Friday. Sometimes, ok all the time, I am so happy when it is Friday. I can unwind, and most Fridays I look forward to not needing to hurry up and go somewhere the next morning. Tomorrow is not a hurry up and go somewhere day. But we will have things to do that need to or should be done tomorrow.

DEVOTIONS

But I wanted to share with you something I have started doing. I have made several attempts to have a regular devotional and prayer time for myself and God. And guess what? I started doing that on Monday morning and have continued all week. I do it first thing in the morning. Well, actually going to pee is the first thing I do. But after that, doing devotions is the next thing I do. At first I had to force myself to focus on it. Now that I have done it all week, today I noticed it was easier to focus on what I was reading and try to take the time to reflect on what I read. I hope it will get easier as time goes by. I know it will evolve as well. Reading some of what you blogger friends do as a prayer/devotional time inspired me to get with it again. Thank you blogger friends.

Another reason I wanted to start doing devotional time again is a new bible study we started at church. It is called, "Opening the Book of Faith". It is a book of Lutheran Insights for Bible Study. The first class was last night. It is a five year plan to help us open up the Bible and deepen and broaden our experience in Bible study. The first portion is 7 sessions long. I am excited about this and plan to participate as fully as I can.

COOKING ACTIVITY
The cooking activity for Stuffed Soup went well. And tasted good too. It was made with Chicken and Corn Chowder Soup, Chicken flavor stuffing mix and shredded cheddar cheese. I was going to buy preshredded cheese and I realized just in time to get the block cheese and take one of my cheese graters with me. I am glad I did. That gave me an extra task to have some one do. One of the patients has dementia and needed instruction for every step I wanted her to do. Another one kept saying "I can only see out of one eye." She needed reminding that she can still do these tasks. It worked out great. We had people, grating cheese, measuring out the stuffing mix, cutting fruit, squeezing oranges(which had to be cut first), stirring the stuffed soup mix, scooping it into my special cooking unit, scooping it back out when it was done and finally tasting everything. Successful but tiring. Don't know yet what we will do next Friday. Depends on who we have and what we can do with them. We may do a baking activity next time.

DRIVING VIEWS
There is a favorite view I drive by on my way home. I always tell myself I need to stop and get a picture of that view. Well, today I finally did that. The colors on the grapevines are starting to change. The color will increase as the season goes on. Also the lighting changes as the sun sets earlier. Then if it is a cloudy rainy day it is a different look altogether. I should try to get pictures as this scene changes. I just love this view. I have to look for it as I drive home otherwise I miss it if I blink as I drive by. This is looking south west which means the sun is coming from the left in the picture.

Ok, So I Got the Group Wrong

Michelle pointed out to me that her blog title is a Simon and Garfunkel song, not Peter, Paul and Mary. I guess I just had a senior moment there. I have those now and then. LOL. I remember now that it was their song. Just got my singing groups mixed up. Hope you all have a good Friday. Pray for those in Texas as Ike nears. My husband has a first cousin in Houston. We are praying for their safety as well as everyone else.