I caught my second wind this week after having a couple of lay low days. Thursday and Friday were hit-the-ground-running kinds of days. When we were coming home from town Thursday, we came through flash flooding the likes of which no one around here can remember. There is a small creek that runs through some properties along the road our house is on. This little creek is never more than a yard wide during a downpour. There were places Thursday where that creek was forty feet wide! There were about twenty places where the rain came over the road and we had to drive really slow. It wasn’t deep water…just an inch or so running across the pavement but we were very careful.

Mr. FixIt kept moaning about the drain at the bottom of the steps and that there was bound to be water backed up. I kept telling him we didn’t know that and let’s just pray God protects us. By the time we got within a mile of the house, we could tell it hadn’t rained nearly that hard at the Ponderosa and we just thanked God we didn’t have a mess on our hands. We certainly cleared that drain out at the right time!

I got up yesterday and took a pint of blueberries out of the dehydrator and put in a load of sliced bananas. Then I mixed up two batches of pizza crust dough to rise while I went out and mowed the two big fields. I got done just in time to clean up and start assembling the pizzas when the kids came for a visit. I baked the pizzas on the outdoor grill on the deck while everyone played corn hole. We visited for a good long while. Then Mr. FixIt took the kids down to the creek to check on the drain pipe. While they were down there, they caught minnows and looked for arrowheads. My stepson cut a dead tree branch out of the maple tree before they left.

When they were gone, I brought everything back into the kitchen and told Mr. FixIt I would clean up in the morning. I kissed him on the forehead and as I was heading out the door to go to the camper to write, he said, “You did a really good job today. Man, you’re a really hard worker.” I turned and smiled. THAT’S all I’ve ever needed from anyone…a thank you and a kind word. That’s all we ever really need, isn’t it? To be loved and appreciated? I will tell you what…I love to work. I love the feeling of accomplishment a good hard day of work gives you. I can feel that sense of accomplishment on my own…but it feels so good when it’s offered from someone you love.

❤️

“But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you. If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

John 13:34-35 CEV