Just Julie’s Blog

 A Monday It’s hard to believe we have already reached the end of the month.  And it’s Monday… a busy day for me.  I spent the morning working on chores… sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, cleaning restrooms, cat boxes, laundry, trash out.  And I did the majority of July’s grocery shopping. I treated myself to several miniature roses at the grocery.  They were on clearance for $4.20 a plant.  I bought all three of them and already have them planted in the flower beds.  I trimmed off some suckers at the bottom of my tomato plants today also and have six pots of starts to try to grow more plants.  Hopefully I will have a really good tomato harvest this year to can up with. I was completely out of bird seed so had to make a stop for more.  For July, I have purchased 105 pounds of seed.. it’s my busy season with my main feeder needing a refill pretty much daily.  Even the rabbits are eating it.  Speaking of rabbits, several were in my yard f...

 A Tuesday I think there is something sacred on mornings after a storm.   A breath, a touch of air, an intuition that surrounds you and pulls you in to the sacred.   Knowing that a storm is gone and you are here. Relief from the oppression of what was and what you went through. Quiet, where before intensity had given none. It’s another moment of the sacred,  A time in the present, with God.

““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.5.3.NIV Poor in spirit.  What do you think God means here?  I admit I am not the cleverest or the brightest so, I looked it up.  AI can cover a great lack of intelligence along with knowledge, we hope, right?  It refers to spiritual humility, depending on God for it all.  Knowing and acknowledging you are inadequate without Him.  And I am, I know I am.   I am of the knowledge and opinion that everyone is but, I respect a person’s right to choose, to live their life as they understand and interpret it.  To me it is one of the concepts God tries to get across to us through the Bible, choosing Him.  Not demanding or forcing us to choose Him but, creating relationship with us and loving us, letting us freely come to Him.  Freely love Him.  It’s an amazing and beautiful thing.  God is an amazing God in al...

 A Monday  It’s a beautiful morning here.  It’s nice to have a bit of cool after all the hot and humid of the past few days.  Typical summer weather here.  I have to dig out my shorts to wear.  I think the cats are enjoying having the windows open.  I had the air conditioner on but, there are days of summer that it just doesn’t seem effective.. so, off it went and fans and windows on and open.  Today has another list of “to do” items on it.  There are parts of me that find it tedious and a bother but, not everything in life is fun.  You just have to plug on moving forward with your tasks and chores.  I have a big one on the list to tackle for fall too.  Not looking forward to my garage repair project but, it’s necessary.  I have to move everything out before it happens.  It’s an opportunity to clean, organize, and maybe get rid of a few unnecessary or unused items…. But, it’s the whole garage.  Not fun lol. ...

 Happy Saturday! I harvested the garden this morning and was able to put another load of greens into the dehydrator.  It was a mix of Mustard Greens and Swiss Chard.  Picked a few onions, three little beets, three hot peppers, and a few radishes.  Unfortunately, I had to pull out the lettuce.  It’s hot and humid now and it’s turned bitter.  No more garden lettuce until fall.  I picked a small harvest of white mulberries too.  I used them to make muffins.  The black currants and black mulberries aren’t quite ready. It was to hot and humid after lawn mowing to work on pulling weeds so, tonight I spent about an hour watering and was able to weed the herb bed.  The air conditioning is on.  I’m fairly frugal but, that baby is on.  Hard to believe I went this far into June without it.  Staying cool is a good thing.

 Happy Friday! Busy day here.  Lately, it seems like there isn’t enough time in each day.  Humidity has arrived also.  I did a short camp out last night.  Aired out the tent and went through my gear to see what all I have or need.  It was nice to get out.

 June  16, 2025 I’m of the opinion that it behooves us all to be prepared. It’s of good value to get educated, follow the mandatory essential education through high school that our society requires.  And don’t consider yourself done there,  or even if you didn’t make it that far, don’t stop yourselves from walking a learning path.  Education is a lifelong process of exercising the mind, learning new skills, improving.  I’m not suggesting that it can only be found in formalized higher education either… trade schools, apprenticeships, joining groups learning new skills, opening a book, and a variety of other ways can take you on your journey. Life is not always a pleasant road.  The more knowledge, the more skills you have, the better you are able to survive and thrive.  Life has choices, the better prepared you are, the better choices you will hopefully be making. There is quite an important seriousness in being prepared with spiritual matters also...

 June 15, 2025 Happy Father’s Day to all dads. I’ve been enjoying a productive weekend here.  I spent several hours working in my garden yesterday and this morning am planning to harvest some greens (chard and mustard greens) to dehydrate and add to my dehydrated stores. I really enjoyed adding these dehydrated greens to soups in winter. Oh, my cat, Wity!  He has a sense of when I am on the internet and shows up demanding his 15 minutes of love.  I think he could go for hours of petting pleasure.  I’m happy to give him attention for a time but…. How far is enough?  There is a new sheriff in town though, as me alone, the cat knows how to work.   I just need to show him the bottle of cat waterless shampoo now and he vacates the area 😄.   Happy Sunday