Embracing the Rain

I don't understand everyone's complaining about the rain. Seriously, we DO live in Oregon! Maybe I'm the last true Oregonian; I fully embrace the rain. Yes, I'll admit to voicing frustrations towards some of the hardships and inconveniences that constant rainfall can instigate but I feel that this is all a small sacrifice that I make in exchange for getting to live in the one of the greenest states in the union.

Warm rainy days like today are awesome. It is warm enough to be outside working yet the rain keeps everything fresh, clean and cool. On the other hand, it also offers me with an excellent excuse to just stay in the house to bake cookies or clean, or I could spend the entire day out in my arena messing with all of the horses while listening to the gentle fall of rain on the rooftop.

I especially enjoy it when God just completely cuts loose and sends down a short torrential rainfall. The sound of those storms on my barn roof are awe inspiring to say the least. I'll just stop whatever I'm doing and let the sound of the heavy rain drum through my body like the base at a concert, my heart beats faster and I feel a sense of exhilaration course through my veins. After the storm passes, the clouds inadvertently part, the sun appears along with a rainbow and all is well. It's fun to walk outside and see all of the little temporary runoff creeks that formed and quickly dissipate.


My absolute favorite is the first rain of summer. After a couple months of warm and sometimes hot, sunny days the grasses have all turned a monotonous brown and yellow and everything is covered in a layer of dust. The first rain washes all of the that away, replenishes the earth and makes everything smell so wonderful. Every year when the first rain arrives I always run outside and stand in it, I love to let the cool raindrops cover my body. It is as if I can feel all of my troubles, aches and pains being washed away by God. I'll stay out in the rain until my clothes are completely soaked through and I'm shivering with a shallow chill that is quickly warmed when I towel off. My husband always looks at me like I'm a crazy lady, (he never joins me in my rain ritual) and maybe I am but I don't care, I feel better and it smells great outside.

So, the next time you feel the need to complain about the rain, try to find a reason to enjoy and embrace it. It makes life so much more delightful. Remember, a positive attitude heals the soul and beats out evil and depression any day.

Encourage one another!

Summer Grilling

Ahh spring.  It’s finally here and with it come the birds, flowers, planting the garden and of course GRILLING WEATHER!  Actually, I grill year round but the nice weather certainly makes grilling a lot more fun and provides more pleasant temperatures for getting creative on the bar-b-q.

I’ve been sick for the past several days so my cooking has been limited to thawing out the reserves I had stashed in the basement freezers or cold sandwiches but today I finally mustered up enough energy to cook on my new bar-b-q.

For starters, I make the hamburgers.  Have you ever wondered how the restaurants get those perfect diamond shaped grill marks on your steaks and burgers?  You try flipping them this way and that way and it never seems to work out just right.  Well, let me share a little secret with you.  Just before it’s time to flip your meat over, use your flipping tool to simply turn the meat 90 degrees, let it cook for a bit more and THEN flip it over.  WALLA!  You will have the perfect grill marks that I am 100% sure make your meat taste SO much better.

I like to have bacon with my hamburgers so I decided to break out this really cool veggie rack that I found at Wall Mart.  It was working so perfectly for the bacon that I decided to be brave and throw on some asparagus that had been soaking in butter and garlic all night.  YUM!

Of course you can’t have a great hamburger lunch without a fresh salad so I dug around in my fridge in search of something crunchy and fresh to serve as a side.  The pickings were pretty slim so I had to get creative which seems to be something that comes naturally to me lately.  I sliced up what was left of a cucumber, added a can of mandarin oranges, a sprinkle of coconut and topped it with a mixture of sour cream, milk and dill weed.  It was WONDERFUL!

Encourage one another!

My Husband and I

John and I have struggled through "for richer or poorer", we have lived through "in sickness and in health", we continue to embrace "in good times and in bad" We choose to live our lives to the fullest, make our mark on the world and leave behind a destiny our children and grandchildren will be proud of until "death ...do us part".