Like the smoke of incense

Bill and I try to walk about 3.2 miles three evenings a week. This evening I walked by myself since Bill had a late finance committee meeting at church. I walk with my i-phone/i-pod and listen to praise music when I do my walk solo. Tonight's walk was wonderful. There was an almost full moon as dusk was falling and the air was a little cool. My praise music was perfect in my ears and I was feeling extra thankful and appreciative for one more day to live and love. You see, this morning I had another early morning, before work, appointment at my dermatologist office. I went to get my second set of stitches removed and get the pathology report from the 2nd spot removed off my back left shoulder. Praise God, literally, praise Him! It was yes, another pre-cancerous mole, stage 2 but they got it all (they can tell that by the margins) and I don't need any further treatment. I go back in 3 months for follow up. I am now paying for those visits to tanning beds some years back. I am feeling very thankful for the good report and prognosis and I am thankful for better sunscreens now that my children and grandchildren can use now and in the future. I am going to make my husband go in for a full body screening since he is a golfer. That is why married men live longer! They have women who love them and make them go to the doctor even when they aren't sick! Anyway, I was out praise walking and doing my cardio this evening after watching the Ranger's lose. As I approached the front street of our neighborhood, the aroma of sweet smelling incense delighted my sense of smell as it always does if I am walking around dusk. You see on that street, I usually see an older Asian gentleman in his pajamas and his peasant hat kneeling in his front flower bed as he does his evening prayers an lights incense. I was particularly struck by the pleasure I felt as I first inhaled the sweet aroma of his evening offering. I was out savoring the end of the day, the sunset, the creation that I see as a gift from my God. I was praying to myself and thanking God for my good report as well as for my family, job, life, and purpose. I realized this man, my neighbor, was out making his prayers and offering to his deity. I don't know what his specific religion is but I do admire his reverence and his consistency. I wondered, does my life give off a pleasing aroma and consistent demonstration of reverence and consistency in my Christian walk?
Some evenings I see this darling little man wearing an Asian peasant hat with his pajamas as he goes about his sunset or dusk time prayers and incense offering time.


He sets the incense sticks upright in a container in his large and well cared for front flower bed.


He is always reverent and serious and completely undistracted if walkers or neighbors are out and about.

The Bible calls for the use of incense in conjunction with prayer. Psalm 141 say "May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice." Revelation 8:4 says "The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God's people, went up before God from the angel's hand."

Religious use of incense has its origins in antiquity. The burned incense may be intended as a sacrificial offering to various deity or to serve as an aid in prayer.

I am thankful that God, Jehovah, the one true God hears my every prayer. I am thankful that I don't have to light a candle or stick of incense for Him to hear me. I do like the symbolism of the smoke wafting heavenward like our prayers ascending to God. I hope and pray that my life and my Christian walk affects others I come in contact with in a pleasing and appealing way with a "sweet aroma" that would draw others to Christ and not as an unpleasant odor that would drive them away.

Lord, thank you for one more day. Thank you for my family. Thank you for a good report and the hope of living on for You and Your Glory. Use me to be a pleasing aroma to others and as a representative for you. Bless that precious little man who is so consistent in his evening prayers. If he does not know YOU, please let him come to know you and how to have the free gift of eternal life given to us by Christ who died for us and paid for ours sins on the cross.

Things I'm lovin Thursday....

Here's my list of a few things I was lovin this Thursday and I am posting on Friday!



South Grand Prairie High School Warrior Football! We still get season tickets each year and love going to the games and being part of this awesome community!
Go Warriors! (I also wish the San Angelo Bobcats a good game tonight as well, my high school alma mater!)

SGPHS where I work with the most awesome faculty and students ever!

Let's go Warriors!

I am lovin Chipotle Mexican Food with Integrity! That's their motto. Truly mouth watering food that is healthy, fresh, never frozen, and prepared under your direction! I always get a salad bowl with chicken and the mild salsa without the tortilla! If you like Hot stuff their Hot sauce will clear your sinuses and make you break out in a sweat! It is so good and it is HOT!

I am lovin my Juice Plus! I have been taking it since February and I haven't been sick once since then! Amazing stuff!

My new Fall apron from Jessica Steele.com! I love this new apron and it looks so cute in my kitchen with my Fall decorations as I cook Fall food! Bill loves it on me! I have a doubly cute one for the Christmas Holidays and promise to post it soon!

So these are a few things I am lovin! What are you lovin today?

Things I'm Lovin Thursday!

I have a new Cuisinart Kuerig and absolutely LOVE it! My old Kuerig wasn't making very full cups and it was time to replace it so this is what I chose! Bill and I are enjoyingt how well it works! Nice full cups and it is fast and quiet!

We go see Shrek tonight at Fair Park! I am so excited! This is the last of our DSM (Dallas Summer Musical) season tickets. We will do that again for sure next season!

I think I need some green ogre ears, don't you think?

La Hacienda, in Dallas is where we plan to eat! They have wonderful fajitas and more!

I love to have a Pumpkin Spice Latte, skinny please! It just goes with Fall! I'm lovin it!

Fletcher's famous corn dogs at the Texas State Fair in Dallas! Thank you Lord for things on earth we get to enjoy!

Lady Jane who put her handprint on my heart

Jane Smith is a wonderful mentor and a lady who made a handprint on my heart.

When we first moved to San Angelo, back in 1959, my parents built a house on the corner of A&M street and Yale Avenue. Just up the block, several houses from us, on Yale Ave. a family named Smith moved in. We became lifelong friends. My dad was a medical doctor and found common ground with Dr. Smith, a phychologist. Jane and my mom, Dixie, were instant friends and had much in common as doctor's wives and mothers of small children. Jane was a degreed teacher and my mom a licensed dietician. Both our families attended First Baptist Church of San Angelo at that time.

I have so many childhood, teenage, and then adult memories of Jane. My mother and she would babysit for each other and one weekend my parents and brothers went to Big Bend without me! I stayed with the Smiths and I remember Jane putting me to bed early, as I am sure my mother instructed her to, but when I snuck out and crept in to see what the others were still up doing, she caught me and returned me to bed with a swat to my behind! I never let her forget that she "spanked" me! We joke about that still.

Jane taught me how to pack and stop a bloody nose like a pro! The neighborhood was predominantly boys so there were frequent bloody noses and Ms. Jane always knew how to remedy them quickly and with no squeamishness at all. She knew just how to mix a poultice of baking soda and water to soothe ant stings on my little girl legs and how to adjust roller skates out on her front driveway. She taught me how to make yummy ooey, gooey, smores! Jane's house was the place to be for the kids on that block. Always a cardboard box house to play in or a welcoming back yard to imagine in and dream up plays to perform for her when we were ready for an audience! She would clap and cheer for our drama team and encourage us to do more!

My favorite memory of being a child on Jane Smith's block was that every year, near Christmas, she wuld rent a reel to reel movie called "The Littlest Angel" from the Tom Green County Library. She'd have a big movie screen and projector set up in her living room and invite all the neighborhood over. We'd sit and watch this sweet movie and then after the viewing Jane would bring out a birthday cake with candles on it and have us all sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus! She did this every year when we were kids. I still like to make a birthday cake for Jesus and put the little plastic baby Jesus in his manger bed, borrowed from our Nativity, on top of the cake and remember how Ms. Jane started this tradition!

As a teenager and then as an adult, my birthday was always remembered by Jane in a thoughtful way. She always made me a card and sometimes wrote me a special poem! As an adult I received things from her on my birthday like a personalized lovely picture frame with gold writing on it and a special photo inside.

Jane and my mom, Dixie, had a very special friendship that endured for over half a century! A few weeks before my mom lost her battle with Leukemia, she had me take her over to visit Jane. That October of 2008, we had such a nice time talking, looking at pictures, and laughing! We had to repeat some of our stories over again when Jane would ask an occasional question of us that she had already asked us a few minutes before. You see, Jane now has Alzheimer's disease but you wouldn't have known it, not right away, that day, if you didn't know she had received this life changing diagnosis.

Jane has helped so many children and students over the years with her passion and special training to work with Dyslexia and help students with reading difficulties. She has imprinted the hearts of numerous students in the Concho Valley with her positive spirit and her gentle and joyful teacher's heart. Jane has an infectious laugh and a truly delightful sense of humor.

Alzheimer's disease is slowly dimming this amazing lady's memories and fading them away but her impact and touch on the lives of others like myself and so many students will never fade.

Dr. Steven Smith, Margaret Jane Smith Wimpee, Dr. Paul Smith, and Mrs. Jane Smith.These photos are from 1975, according to my dad's handwriting in a photo album I found recently.

Steven was with me when I was 5 and we were climbing a tree on Yale Ave. I fell and broke my right arm! I wonder if I helped motivate him to become a doctor? He is a bit younger than me but as a toeheadded little guy on the block he did his best to keep up with all the big kids running around!

October 2008 when Mom and I went to visit with Jane. What a wonderful visit we had!

Two Sock Monkeys and Raggedy Ann

I was at Bed Bath & Beyond a few days ago and saw these two brown sock monkeys. My mind was flooded with sweet memories of my two older brothers who each had a doll size sock monkey when we were children. They took their well worn sock monkeys with us on car trips and outings. I carried along my soft huggable Raggedy Ann doll. We all three had our "cuddly" and in these chosen items we found comfort and security when we ventured out into the big and sometimes scary world.

This is my Raggedy Ann doll from my childhood! I am so glad I kept her!
When we were little kids we made a lot of fun memories together. Blake would build me the most amazing two story Barbie condos! Marc would agree to scare away the monsters for me when I was fearful at bedtime. Both my brothers have unique and very different personalities from one another. on family trips Blake would often keep us laughing with his funny comments and amazing noises he could make! Marc was the serious one who "just wanted some peace and quiet" and kept himself busy reading or drawing.

Marc is very intelligent, ananlytical, good at math, and very musically talented. He has always has a natural charm with people and has always wanted to help others. He is now a very good doctor and his patients love that he is a good listener. Marc also has a keen interest in the Stock Market.

Blake is also very smart and very good with his hands. He can envision amazing dwellings and all kinds of things and then create them and bring them to life with his building and construction talents! He is high energy, talks fast, and he has an amazing memory for details. he loves reading the Wallstreet Journal.

In November of 2008 we lost our mother to Leukemia. We all three, technically, became orphans. This past year and a half or more has been filled with processing grief, settling our parent's final estate, adjusting to our new reality, and allowing God to comfort us. His word has been much more than just a "cuddly" to comfort us in this big and sometimes scary world.

When we rode in Mom or Dad's Oldsmobile as a family, to head to church, out to eat, or on a trip, I almost always had to sit in between my two brothers in the back seat. (Once in a great while I got to sit up front in between Mom & Dad because I was the smallest! :)) On long trips I usually ended up with a bruise on each arm, one from each brother! We three monkeys, as Daddy called us, knew to keep it down to a certain level or Daddy's arm would come back toward us, gently but firmly, he'd touch us on the knee, reminding us to "keep it down!" Blake can still make me laugh as he describes Daddy's arm coming back over from the front seat to correct and quiet us!
Isn't that how our heavenly father teaches us, reminds us, corrects us, and quiets us when we get out of control, unruly, or just too loud? Gently but firmly, He reaches back to us with His loving arm and touches us. He reminds us that He is in charge and He is driving. he calms us and quiets us, corrects us when needed, but makes sure He gets us to the destination ahead.
How I miss my Daddy and my Mom. How thankful I am for my brothers and I am thankful that no matter what, we are family, and we always will be. We love each other fiercely and even if we squabble, fuss, or fight, we will also forgive, say "I'm sorry", and kiss and make up!
How comforting is God's word in Matthew 5:4 as it says, "Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted." and how encouraging is Philippians 4:13 when it says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." How hopeful are the words of Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

My Aunt Thelma's Paprika!

Last week I cleaned out my spice cabinet and when I reached way back in I found this vintage tin containing my precious Aunt Thelma's Hungarian Paprika! Memories flooded my mind of back in 2005, Aunt Thelma was living down the street in assisted living, my Mom, Dixie was here to visit and we brought Aunt Thelma to my house for the day. Our goal was to have her teach us to make her delicious Paprika Chicken! What an adventure that afternoon was.
My Aunt Thelma was known for her amazing cooking and her royal treatment of her many dogs over the years. She never had any children of her own so she also treated all her nieces and nephews like royalty too! I threw out all my very old spices but I think I will keep this one. That day, she had me retrieve HER Paprika from a box she had kept back her spices in when she moved to assisted living. This is HER Paprika. It must be decades old! I won't cook with it but, yes, I will treasure it, or at least the tin, and the memories it evokes.

I really can't imagine just how old this is! Very, very old, I am sure! We tease now, that everyone raved that she was such a good cook because by the time she got the meal done and served it was so late we were all starving!! She truly was an outstanding cook and entertainer!

Here is a recipe that is very close to the directions she gave my Mom and I that day.

I love this photo when she was young! This was taken at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas. Aunt Thelma of course is the lovely one in the hat! That is my dad to her right in the Navy uniform.

She was a very elegant, regal, and refined lady! She was like a mix of Elizabeth Taylor and Martha Stewart!

This is Aunt Thelma's famous recipe in her handwriting for hot chicken salad! We all loved eating this in her home. She also made a mean carrot cake!

I still have this beautiful cotton handkercheif she gave me at my wedding and I carried it with my boquet as my "something old". My delightful Aunt Thelma was the only girl with three brothers. We cousins tease and yet truthfully say that we don't know for sure how many times she was married. Six, maybe seven? Our favorite of her husbands, and the one she was happily married to until he passed has to be our Uncle Fritz, or Fred. He was a criminal lawyer in Dallas and always had season tickets to the Dallas Cowboys!

Aunt Thelma and her brothers. Left to right, Robert, James D., my dad, and W.J.


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My mom, Dixie, Aunt Thelma, and Aunt Audrey. sister-in-laws

Aunt Lillian, Uncle W.J., and his sister, my Aunt Thelma.

Siblings and spouses. All in heaven now except the youngest, Aunt Audrey is still doing well and has survived them all.

This was at Aunt Thelma's 90th Birthday! Bill and I at her birthday luncheon in Kemp, Texas. She was very lucid and lovely as always, even at 90! This was in the summer and she passed the following November.

My beautiful mother, Dixie with Aunt Thelma at the Birthday party.

My oldest brother, Marc, with Aunt Thelma.

She was quite a lady! Many summers I flew up to Dallas by myself and got to spend a week with her. If my mother only knew what all Aunt Thelma taught me and let me do, I bet Mom would not have let me go! She taught me how to play poker, she let me drive before I was 16 and I realize now that my Uncle was usually pretty well inebriated when he came to pick me up from an afternoon of swimming at their country club! He drove me back to their lovely home in the country with a glass of scotch in one hand and the other on the steering wheel! I had no idea that was not really ok. I didn't drink, still don't and my parents didn't so I didn't really know that was dangerous. I must have had really good guardian angels! Aunt Thelma would cook, decorate, feed her dogs on china plates, garden, and entertain lavishly yet simply and elegantly. She worked at the court house several years and then got a job with her Aunt Sibil at the trade mart selling fine linens and the likes. She later ran a catering business and she bought, redid, and resold many darling houses in the Kaufman Kemp area. She delighted her siblings and their kids often with lovely weekends, holidays, parties, and various celebrations. Aunt Thelma touched my life by teaching me to live beautifully and savor every day. She demonstrated how to live graciously and how to make wherever you find yourself living, the most beautiful place you can and to entertain and love your family there often! She loved life, food, men, dogs, beauty, martinis, and much more! She said that she was really a Methodist even though the rest of her family were and are all Baptist! Laughter, good food, beautiful surroundings, and fun are all things that came to my mind when I found that tin of my Aunt Thelma's Hungarian Paprika.

Thank you Lord for my Aunt Thelma and how I have part of her in me today. Thank you for family and food and good memories!

I hope you all have an "Aunt Thelma" in your life. I hope you can be an "Aunt Thelma" TO someone in your life!

Things that are priceless...

Watching the Astros sweep the Brewers and get their 3rd grand slam of the season,

Time with Jonathan, Melissa, and Jonathan's dad, Randy,

Time with my son and daughter,

Visiting my daughter and seeing her so happy and married to the love of her life,

Having fun with my husband and kids at Minute Maid Park,

Getting to congratulate Drayton McClain on the Astros sweeping the Brewers and on the Astros 3rd grand slam of the season while we were sitting in his seats! He had gone up to a suite where his class reunion was taking place when the grand slam occured and his executive assistant, Eileen had moved us into his seats! During Pence's homerun Jonathan's dad was sitting there next to Bill if you watch the replay on the MLB website!

Time with my son, daughter, son-in-law,and husband,

Time with my husband, daughter, son-in-law,

Time with my one and only daughter! Priceless!