I hope everyone had an amazing week!
My girls and I have been on the farm in Virginia this week. We usually spend a lot of time in the evenings sitting on the porch, chatting and enjoying the evening, watching the sun set and seeing the stars pop out and the heat of Virginia summer dissipate into a cool Virginia night.
For some reason the girls enjoy listening to me read to them, so we’ve had a evening meeting time of 7:30 on the front porch – the cows are watered, the chickens closed up for the night, the horses and pig taken care of and the dogs and cats done for the evening.
Sometimes the girls bring out something to eat, but I don’t usually eat in the evening, and it’s a good thing, since I’ve been reading The Hiding Place aloud.
This must be the fifth or sixth time I’ve read it to my family. Julia says the sound of my voice is soothing to her. I tell her I can’t stand to hear myself talk. But, I do it for them, because that’s how memories are made, right? : )
What book have you all read aloud to your children (or did your parents read to you)?
I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that Pie and I had gone to the apple orchard to get some Ginger Gold apples. These are our very favorite kind of apples. They don’t keep well, and bruise easily. I’ve never seen them sold in the store. (Have any of you?) And they’re only available for a short time during apple season.
When Pie and I went before, they weren’t quite ready.
I had to make a trip to the Post Office first. It took a really long time, because I had a bunch of stuff to mail, but I always step aside when someone else comes in so they don’t have to wait on me, which, of course, makes it take a lot longer. The girls all came with me, and I don’t think they really minded. The Post Master is super nice and he was regaling us with tales of his travels and of all the places that have crazy names. (According to him Alaska is the state with the most unusual town names.) and we drove on out the road to the orchard to see if they had any Ginger Gold.
Their parking lot is not paved, just gravel, and their retail space is just a corner of their big garage/shed. The minute we walked in the big garage door, we saw the Ginger Gold sign and ONE bag of apples in the bin behind it.
It’s possible that I might have run to the bin to grab the last bag of apples, even though there weren’t any other custormers in the shed other than three older ladies. (Hey, I was kind of busy last year this time and I didn’t get any Ginger Gold, so it’s been TWO years since I’ve had my favorite kind of apple!)
Anyway, I picked up a new kind of apple that I’d never tried before – Sansa – and two jars of honey and went to check out.
There was an older lady at the counter, so we stood for a while as she bought a small bag of peaches, one of apples and a jar of fruit salsa.
She was moving slowly, like older ladies often do. I don’t usually do this, but I said to Julia and my middle daughter (Pie and I were holding all my loot – I was holding the Ginger Gold apples and I wasn’t letting go of them!), “You two should help her carry those things out to her car.”
The girls are used to me butting into stranger’s business, and usually it works out okay. They could see I couldn’t do it, so Julia walked up to the lady and said, “We’ll help you carry that stuff out if you’d like us to.”
“Are you serious?” the lady said, sounding very surprised. I promise Julia looks like a mostly respectable person.
“Absolutely. We’ll do it if you want us to.”
“Oh, my…”
The lady seemed to hesitate, so I said, “I can vouch for them, that they won’t run off with your stuff, but I can’t guarentee they won’t eat it on the way out.”
The clerk said, “That’s so sweet of those girls.”
So Julia and my middle daughter picked her things up and followed her out to the car.
Pie and I met them coming back in on our way out. (It took me a little longer because we had to talk about Ginger Gold apples – the lady assured me they had more. : )
Julia turned and fell into step beside me and whispered in my ear, “That lady just had a proceedure done today and she wasn’t allowed to carry anything. She said she would have had to make three trips out to her car if we wouldn’t have helped her.”
You know, I love God’s timing. He kept us at the Post Office the perfect amount of time so we could be there to help that lady out – and that was why she was so surprised to have someone offer to help – because she needed it. Funny when we’re surprised that God answers our prayers, isn’t it?
Thanks so much for spending time with me this week!
Hugs and love,
~Jessie 