A Fresh Cup of Coffee

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Scripture and a Snapshot - I Will Pour Out My Spirit

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"And afterward,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your old men will dream dreams,

your young men will see visions.

Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

I will show wonders in the heavens

and on the earth,

blood and fire and billows of smoke.

The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

And everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord will be saved;

for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem

there will be deliverance,

as the LORD has said,

even among the survivors

whom the LORD calls."

~Joel 2:28-32~

The festival of Shavu'ot arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. they were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh* and began to talk in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

~Acts 2:1-4 (CJB)~

*the Holy Spirit

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Saturday, May 27, 2023

Share Four Somethings - May 2023

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I had some plans for getting stuff done today, but instead I've been quite lethargic! We went to get our drivers licenses this morning, which took two hours (and I suppose it could have been worse, so I shouldn't complain) and I haven't had any energy to do much else. How embarrassing. But I did put together Something I Loved, Something I Read, Something I Learned and Something I Ate to share, so here we go!

Something Loved

I loved that my daughter's graduation weekend was also the Mother's Day weekend. So it worked out that we could go celebrate her achievement and also be with the Maryland family for Mother's Day. It would have been perfect if our Ohio family could have gone with us for the weekend so we could have everyone together, but I was well satisfied with it anyway.

We attended the Baccalaureate Mass on Friday afternoon, went out for the family Mother's Day dinner on Friday evening, attended the Commencement on Saturday and had a small grad party on Saturday evening. We went to church service on Sunday morning, had lunch with the kids and then headed back home. A whirlwind weekend in a way, but so worth it to see Kennady graduate and celebrate her, and to spend time with the kids.

Something Read

Here are the books I'm currently reading:

Beneath A Peaceful Moon by Debby Lee

American Cozy: Hygge-Inspired Ways to Create Comfort & Happiness by Stephanie Pedersen

A Perilous Perspective by Anna Lee Huber

I just finished Fair As A Star by Mimi Matthews and The Keys to Gramercy Park by Candice Sue Patterson so I'll be writing up those reviews shortly. I have kept putting my Anna Lee Huber and Deanna Raybourn books on temporary leave while I focused on review books but my goal is to finish off at least one of those quickly before my next review book arrives! The rest of my reading news is at Just A Second if you want to see what I've recently reviewed and what I have coming up.

Something Learned

As I was reading The Keys to Gramercy Park, I learned that the Secret Service was originally established as a branch of the Department of the Treasury to deal with counterfeit currency. I feel like I probably had read that before, but it didn't really register. So it was established in 1865, at the end of the War Between the States. I did not know this―that after the war, around half the money in circulation in the U.S. was counterfeit! No wonder they needed a whole specialized branch of investigators and agents to track down counterfeiters! Then thanks to another author's newsletter (sorry I don't remember which author!), I also stumbled across a link to this article at Open Culture that explains a little about the international ink library established by the Secret Service. Isn't that cool? So if you read the article or even watch the following video from it, you'll probably have learned something too.

I've also been busy learning music and―*gasp*―choreography now that I'm an official member of the Scioto Valley Chorus. There's new stuff that I'm learning along with everyone else, as well as older repertoire that I need to get up to speed on. Get up to speed for real, because I have to remember what to do while singing the right words (or dah-vah-dahs) and notes from memory, and to do it at tempo.

Something On My Plate

Once again, I forgot to take pictures of my plate more often than I remembered. But I tried a few new things this month that turned out well.

Chicken Pesto Alfredo Pasta

Crock Pot Pizza Casserole

I did get a photo of this one I made a couple nights ago - Chicken Florentine. It was pretty quick and very good!

Creamy Chicken Florentine

I also remembered to take a photo of this one, even though I've made it before. Creamy Cubano Soup (recipe from The Happy Wonderer) made its second appearance on our dinner table this month. So good!

Now I feel like I could use a nap - what is wrong with me? I also should plan what we're going to do this weekend!

Share something in the comments, or share four somethings with the rest of us in the link party!

This post will be linked at Overflowing With Thankfulness in the Share Four Somethings link party.

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Friday, May 26, 2023

Five Minute Friday - Owe

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One word. Five minutes to write about it. This is the idea behind Five Minute Friday and this is today's free-writing post.

IOU

owe taxes

owe allegiance

owe an apology

********************

A good word for us to think about as we head towards Memorial Day, because to a huge extent we owe our freedom and prosperity to those we are honoring on that day. Because of their sacrifice, we can enjoy our freedom to have pool parties and cookouts, and to make our own choices about who we hang out with and how we'll live out our religious beliefs.

But I think too many of us are more concerned with what the world owes to us. Maybe we live in the most entitled society ever. People think they deserve to make at least as much money as the next guy, but also can't be bothered to put in any effort at work. People who believe they should be able to get their college degree without paying for it, or even attending the classes! People who demand that everyone agree with them and respect them even though they disdain and disrespect everyone else.

It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others. ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Maybe instead of focusing on what we think the world owes us, we should consider the great debts that we owe to others. I think we'd be more likely to be gracious, generous, grateful, and geuinely tolerant if we realized that we owe more to others than everyone owes us. I think it's safe to say that everyone who is successful owes some part of their success to someone else.

Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. ~William Cowper

You owe it to all of us all to get on with what you're good at. ~W.H. Auden

My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim. ~Queen Elizabeth II

In general, yes, we do owe others respect and truth and kindness. We owe love and gratitude to those close to us - our family and friends, those who gave us a helping hand or a second chance or forgiveness. We may owe apologies to some of those people. And we may owe it to them and to ourselves to do our best, to help others, to offer forgiveness, and to live generously. It can be said that we owe it to the next generations to be wise in our generation.

And forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves also forgive everyone

in debt to us . . .

~Luke 11:4~

Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority. Owe nothing to anyone―except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law.

~Romans 13:7-8~

After all, we all owe every breath and every beat of our heart to God. And we owe everything to Jesus who gave his life for us.

All that I am I owe to Jesus Christ, revealed to me in His divine Book. ~David Livingstone

********************

I hope it's okay if I end a very serious Five Minute Friday with a couple of very light-hearted quotes, as is my custom!

We owe a lot to Thomas Edison - if it wasn't for him, we'd be watching television by candelight. ~Milton Berle

Everything you see I owe to spaghetti. ~Sophia Loren

Oh preach, Sophia! And with that, I need to go figure out dinner. Although it won't be spaghetti tonight.

********************

This post is linked at Five Minute Friday for the word prompt "Owe".

This post will also be linked at Inspire Me Monday hosted by Anita Ojeda

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Thursday, May 25, 2023

Monthly Musings - Celebrating Memorial Day Weekend

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Time for another round of Monthly Musings questions! Holly at Pink Lady and Patty at Good Better Best co-host this monthly sharing of tips, tricks, and conversation starters. This month we're discussing thoughts on the upcoming long weekend.

The weekend begins tomorrow but I don't actually have much of a plan! We hadn't expected to be able to go away for the weekend, and don't know a lot about special events happening locally, so we are playing it by year. Maybe answering some of the Monthly Musings questions will help me come up with some ideas.

How are you spending Memorial Day weekend? Well, as I said, I don't really know! Our community pool opens for the season on Friday so that's a possibility. My husband and I have super exciting plans to get our Ohio drivers licenses (finally!!) on Saturday. Fun date, right? We'll go to church on Sunday morning, of course, but he doesn't have hockey in the afternoon so I expect we'll come up with something fun to do then, and I'm sure we'll spend time with our son and his family.

Favorite ice cream? I love almost all ice cream flavors, but I think my favorite is Cookies & Cream.

Memorial Day travel or hang at home? We have usually stayed home. A relaxed weekend that would allow us to go to the Memorial Day parade on Monday morning, then host a cookout later in the day.

Burger, hot dog, both? Both!

Favorite cookout sides? Baked beans and devilled eggs are the two I always go for if they're available.

White before or after Memorial Day? After, in general, though I rarely wear white anyway so I suppose I wear it whenever I feel like it regardless of the time of year!

Memorial Day traditions? The Memorial Day parade and some kind of family cookout. Our son was in Civil Air Patrol for several years, so the Westminster parade became the standard way to spend the morning. We would drop Landon off at the beginning of the parade route, then go find a good spot to set up our chairs. By the library was a good place, but more crowded since it was right at the square. A favorite spot was right in front of the coffee shop where I worked. I could even help out pulling lattes if needed!

Share a summer recipe. I'm a little stumped for an actual recipe, since my favorite summer meals involve throwing something on the grill or smoker. Corn on the cob is a favorite too, boiled or done in the oven or on the grill. I like to mix up an herbed butter (softened butter with celery seed, oregano, basil) to spread on the corn, then wrap the cobs in foil and bake or grill. Much less messy to eat! I remember something we tried years ago and went over really well - corn on the cob with fried cheese. We found this idea when studying cultural geography, and apparently it's popular in Bolivia. Basically just add a slab of freshly fried queso de freir on top of the corn and try to eat it without the queso sliding off!

Kebabs are a favorite on the grill too, and the version I like best is lamb kebabs in a pomegranate molasses marinade.

Source: tamingofthespoon.com

¹⁄₄ cup pomegranate molasses (not juice)
¹⁄₂ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¹⁄₂ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¹⁄₂ teaspoon ground black pepper

Just whisk those together and pour into a ziploc bag, add a pound or so of lamb chunks (or beef) and marinate in the fridge for a few hours. Then thread the meat onto skewers with whatever veggies you like and grill about 5 minutes.

Parades, fireworks or cookouts? All of them, if possible! Fireworks and cookouts every chance I get, but with parades I much prefer the small town ones.

Show us your red, white and blue!

I don't often wear red, white, and blue together, but I've got this simple summer dress that's my go-to for a patriotic look:

I wear my Toronto Blue Jays earrings much more often though!

The Blue Jays and Montreal Canadiens logos are the most obvious red,white, and blue at our place.

I haven't decorated much yet, since we didn't bring our flags or bunting or anything like that with us. I found these pennants that I wound up putting on the mantel and I have a red, white, and blue bow on my front door wreath.

What are your plans for the long weekend? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm linking up with Monthly Musings hosted by Holly at Pink Lady and Patty at Good Better Best.

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