Warning updated

The tropical storm watch was upgraded to a tropical storm warning. Our place is still on the northeastern edge of the possible track. Winds are 45 mph with higher gusts and it has speeded up on it's way to landfall. The direction is still northwest in a straight line.

Storm Warning

As most of you know, we have a house on the Texas gulf coast. It is located on a salt water creek that feeds into the gulf a mile or so downstream from us. This morning the hurricane center has issued a tropical storm watch for the area where our house is. That isn't really a warning yet but it does say; "Be alert for further notices as the storm moves forward". It actually looks like the storm will be making landfall to the south of us but that places us in the northeast quadrant which is the most dangerous side to be on. The storm will probably not get to hurricane force before it makes landfall but it could. We will just need to wait and see what it does. Our prayer is that wherever it goes, our state will receive some badly needed rainfall. North through central Texas would be nice.

Puzzlin'

For the last week we have been working on this 3D puzzle. This is the largest of these that we have done with 1000 pieces. They are quite challenging and if you enjoy puzzles I highly recommend it. Martha found this one in a yard sale for 50 cents. That is a bargain in today's economy. There are 2 challenges involved, first finding the correct pieces and assembling the panels that make up the walls and base. Then comes the challenge of putting it all together, connecting the wall panels and roof panels to make a finished puzzle. As it turns out, there were 2 missing pieces but they were of no consequence in the finished puzzle. The finished product is worth the effort.

Here is another view from the front.

Hope you all had an enjoyable holiday weekend.

Home Again

Well, we are back. We traveled 3066 miles through 6 states, had no car trouble, and enjoyed our time with family and friends. We were there for a birthday party as Martha's Mom celebrated 90 years. We also attended a couple of unexpected funerals and were able to see others that we didn't expect to see. We were also witness to God's movement in the life of a man that most people had probably written off as hopeless. Once again we are reminded that God's grace and His calling on men is amazing. God is still moving in this world and if we take the time and look for it, we can get in on what He is doing. We arrived home just in time to attend the wedding of a former co-worker in Cross Plains. So it was a great trip.

Our granddaughter became a child of the King during our absence so next weekend we will travel again to visit them and attend her baptism. That will be a special time for her and her parents and we want to be there.

We still have no rain although there is rain forecast for today and tomorrow. Everything is dry and we hear that the city may institute mandatory water rationing soon. The lake is now about 12 feet low and that is a significant problem.

Headed Home

We have been in Michigan for a week and a half and are headed home tomorrow. Martha's mom celebrated her 90th birthday and we were here for it. I will post more when we get home.

Prayer is listening too

I was reminded this morning of something that I know all too well, but too often fail to practice. That thing is the simple act of listening to God when praying. I read two blogs almost every day and today they both hit the same topic, that of listening to God. You can read them here and here. It seems that most of the time when I come to prayer, I spend all of the time talking and very little listening. I want to make sure that God knows what "I need or want" and when done with my list, the session ends, often abruptly. Am I the only one, or do you have this problem as well?

So for me, going forward, I intend to cultivate the skill of listening in my quiet time. I will do my best to remove all the extraneous thoughts and worries. I will spend time quietly listening for His voice. That indeed will be a blessing in my life.

Weekend trip

We made the big loop this past weekend and were able to visit with all of our children and grandchildren. Our second oldest grandchild was graduating from high school and we were able to attend. It was great to be able to go and offer congratulations in person. We don't get to see her very often so it was special.

We travelled 1300 miles in all and saw flooding on the Mississippi to extremely dry conditions in south Texas. On Friday we stopped for gas at Krotz Springs LA and folks were under evacuation orders as the Corps of Engineers was preparing to open the Morganza spillway and flood their homes. On Saturday as we crossed the Atchafalaya floodway we saw many pickups and trailers loaded with furniture and belongings being moved to higher ground. The water wasn't there yet but they knew it was coming, and when it did, all that was in the way would be lost. That was a sad part of the trip.

We did see some lower gas prices though and that was encouraging. All in all it was a good trip, we were safe, the car performed admirably and we are back home.