Happy Father's Day 2007

Pretty calm day today. The washer is may be unfixable. Dh didn't have his voltage meters with him but it might be the timer. I'm very disappointed. This is a Maytag washer but apparently the only "quality" Maytag washers to be had costs hundreds of dollars. This apparently is a cheap version made of plastic. So I guess a "new" washing machine is in order. Although I refuse to buy a brand new one. I would rather get a twenty year old washer than to get one made of plastic that will fall apart in a year.

Ds2 and I went to church. Ds2 enjoyed the service and meeting fellow believers. Next Sunday hopefully we will all attend, including ds1. On the way to church, ds2 and I noticed a man walking along the side of the road. He wasn't hitchhiking and he was clearly leaving a car behind. So we decided to stop and give him a ride. The nearest phone was about 8 miles away. He was very greatfulgrateful. We mentioned we were on our way to church, so we started talking a bit about religion. We decided to give him one of our Questions and Answers from the Bible by Les Feldick books.

I don't often pick up strangers and don't often feel that I should. But sometimes I feel I'm supposed to, and so I do. If memory serves, I've given six rides in the past six years. One was a young couple carrying a newborn baby in one of those baby carriers. The baby was sleeping but in full sun as they walked in the heat of the summer morning. One was a young woman with a bunch of groceries. Two were pregnant women, with broken down vehicles in the middle of the summer, in the heat of the afternoon. Both were crying and red faced from the heat (separate incidents). The other was a young man needing to get about twenty miles east of where he was. It was late at night, it was on my way and I took a chance on that one. It was okay though. I actually asked him if I could pat him down and made sure he wasn't carrying a knife or gun. As it turned out, he was a Christian, carrying a book he'd been reading. A Christian book for men. He and his wife were estranged and he'd spent the night at her home to visit their children. I told him we'd pray for his family and told him the story of our family's reconciliation. Then the man today. I know it's unsafe to give people rides, but sometimes I feel that I'm supposed to. I feel a strong feeling, which I believe is God urging me to help this person for whatever reason. Otherwise, I see people walking or broke down on a regular basis and never have a thought to help them.

I managed to get some work done in the house. I worked on the kitchen again this morning after milking and then it was time to get ready for church. Sunday service starts at 10:45 but they don't get started until 11; service lasts until noon. It's an hour drive there. Once we got home from church I had two loads of laundry left to do. But I was tired, so I laid down to take a short nap at 1:30. I woke up near 5pm. I can't believe I slept so long. Guess I needed the rest.

My comforter needed to be rewashed since it sat in dirty water, then on the porch in a basket and was smelling sour and mildewy all at the same time. So I decided to "borrow" the neighbor's washer (the people we housesit for). They have never had a problem with us using their place, for example when our water pump went out, they said we could take showers there or wash clothes, whatever, until we got the water pump fixed. Thanks, guys!

Am I the only one that still has trouble with Internet Explorer opening Blogger blogs? It takes a long time, used to be I couldn't log in using IE. Haven't tried in a while.

Their washing machine is a pain. It's a GE and one of those that you can't just set it to spin if you want. No way to tell where that setting is. So I chose the wrong setting, the one that rinsed my blanket twice or was it three times? I guess it's good and clean. I was so pertubed because it took about 45 minutes to get that far and I still had one load to go. I put that load in and drove back home because I needed to milk. But when I got here and started to get the milking pail, dh told me he'd milked. Whew. I did water the trees at the neighbor's house while there and I also got in a few rows on the hood for the baby sweater. I can't wait to see the buttons. I hope the color will match. I would have preferred to have white, but they only had pink, blue, green and yellow.

I stuck around at home waiting for the clothes to finish, washed a load of dishes, wiped off counters again, swept and mopped the floor and folded and put away two loads of laundry (done yesterday). Ds2 tidied up the living room and vacuumed. And I got into ds1's bedroom today to clean. I missed two Sundays. It wasn't too bad, but it did need my attention or of course it would have been that much worse.

I'm so glad that I decided to buy everyone a second set of sheets for their beds since the washing machine was broken.

I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday at 7:30am and dh has an appointment that day also, so it's looking like we're going to take the day off. We'll trade that day for Saturday. So next week will be extra busy. I'm still trying to find the time to visit with one of my dear friends. I know she thinks I've forgotten about her, but I haven't. I just don't know when or how I'm going to make the time. If I had any comp time at work I'd just take a Thursday off, but the problem with that is I am about 8 hours in the hole for comp time. Meaning I owe my company an entire day! Since I still work part time, I don't get sick leave, holiday pay, personal days or anything like that.

Dh seems to like his new table saw. He has been experiencing a lack of energy which is so unusual for him. I told him "Welcome to my world". I'm always pushing myself, even though I'm tired and don't feel like doing anything. I almost gave up last week on trying to keep up with the house but I felt like God said to me that He'd given me the strength and don't let Him down now just because no one else seems to care or appreciate. Then when ds2 cleaned up on Thursday that was such a big help. If dh hadn't had his class on Saturday I like to think I would have been able to get a bit of progress on my bedroom or bathroom.

I'm preparing in my mind the story of My Faith and the journey I've gone through over my life, and how God brought me back to Him. I plan to write it in several parts as I have time.

I guess that's it for now and I'm tired again.

Until next time.