Sunday Dinner, June 6, 2010

In honor of the first garden fresh tomatoes being tantalizingly close to fruition, I chose that red ripe tomato graphic for this week's Sunday Dinner button.

I have a tomato plant outside my door in a 5 gallon bucket that has a little green tomato on it about the size of a golf ball. That's just a hint of the garden bounty to come and I'm just the tiniest bit excited about it. Did I give it away? Could you tell?

Once again I have no idea what we're doing for Sunday Dinner this week. I grilled hot dogs and yellow squash for our Saturday supper and it was delicious! I have more hot dogs and squash, so that's a possibility for Sunday Dinner, and since it's so hot, we also may end up eating sandwiches. I have plenty of baloney, ham and cheese, and we could always stop by the grocery store and pick up more lunch meat and bread.

Yet another possibility is that we may end up eating out again, but all those options will be decided upon after church at noon.

What's your Sunday Dinner plans? Share your menu or your plans in the comments if you'd like.This has been a busy week for us. We did our monthly Wal*mart run for household items on Tuesday and that was draining. Our daily temps are holding pretty steady in the mid-90'sF and the humidity is holding in the miserable range as well.

There are only so many adjectives to describe how hot and humid Arkansas Summers can be, so enough about that. Most of you are probably just as hot and icky where you are as I am here.On Wednesday Jessica, Jason, Emmy and I went swimming at Crowley's Ridge State Park's lake. They have a swimming area with a sand beach that they had hauled in, and they also hauled in sand so the swimming area has a sand bottom.

It was hot but breezy and the water was refreshing. Emmy had a blast, but she's going to have to be coaxed into getting in the water more without her swim floatie. She let me take her into the water for a while without her floatie, but it wasn't long before she wanted back in her floatie.

Jessica started out the same way, but she learned to love the water and I'm sure with some coaching that Emmy will too. I hope we get to go swimming several more times over the Summer. It's great exercise and low impact to boot, and I slept great that night!

After a trip home to shower, we all went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for supper, and it was wonderful, as usual. I appreciated not having to cook after our day of swimming, because I was pleasantly exhausted.Thursday was a lazy day, but Friday I had Emmy all day, as usual. Lamar took her to our little local park, which is about a block from our apartment, for an hour or so that morning before it got too hot. Besides it getting too hot on the people, the playground equipment is out in the hot boiling sun, so it gets too hot for the kids to safely play on long before noon.

After Emmy's nap, Lamar took Emmy back to the park for another hour or so but it was around 5 pm by then, so the sun wasn't quite so intense. I made some of my TEXAS HASH for our supper Friday night and it really hit the spot.

Emmy and Jessica came by just as Lamar and I had finished eating our supper. Jessica brought me a big slab of homemade cheesecake made from MY MAMA'S RECIPE and it was great! Jessica is becoming quite the cook in her own right. :o)

Emmy saw that we were eating Texas Hash, one of her favorite dishes, and insisted that she was hungry, even though Jessica said that Emmy had already eaten a full meal at home. I sent Emmy off with a bowl of Texas Hash and a fork, and she was still eating as they went out the door.

Emmy has loved Texas Hash since she was a baby. As soon as she was able to eat table food she showed a love for almost anything tomato based, included ripe tomatoes. She also loves grilled squash and most vegetables, including broccoli and salads. I hope she keeps those healthy food preferences as she grows up.Saturday morning I did my monthly grocery run to Wal*mart. I'm glad I went early and got home before 11 am. The heat and humidity was bearable, and the crowds were surprisingly light.

I had a wonderful blessing that could have turned out so much worse than it did. Apparently my wallet fell out of the top of my purse onto the Wal*mart parking lot as I was getting out of my mother in law's car, and I never even noticed that it was gone!

I had to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy first thing before I did my grocery shopping, and I was in line there when I thought I heard my name called over the PA system, calling me to the service desk. I was next in line at the pharmacy, so I decided to finish my business there before I made my way to the service desk to see why I'd been paged.

While I was still standing in line at the pharmacy, my cell phone rang and it was Lamar. He said that someone had found my wallet and turned it in to the service desk and I needed to go pick it up.

Well, of course my heart just about stopped! I didn't have a lot of cash, only $10 or so, but my driver's license, debit card, checkbook full of checks and other cards were in there and my imagination was running away with me, considering all the scenarios that could happen if any of them had been taken, having to cancel cards and stop payment on checks, replace my driver's license and debit card......The bad things that could have happened seemed endless.

But.....I am truly blessed, thanks to the honesty of a stranger. The man who found my wallet turned it in to the service desk and when I arrived to pick it up, he was still there waiting to make sure that everything was still untouched in my wallet, which it was! I thanked him several times for his honesty, but he shrugged it off and left with a friendly wave.

I've thanked God multiple times for His watch keep over me today and that an honest man found my wallet. It could have turned out so differently, and I'm grateful for that God sent that man my way on this day.It's almost 10:30 pm and I still need to do some things before bed time, and a busy Sunday tomorrow.

Y'all have a beautiful Lord's Day. May God meet all your needs, and may you have enough to share, dear family and friends.