The Jury

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

I sighed heavy and groaned as I slid the folded paper from the envelope and read the opening lines:

“Michelle DeRusha, you are hereby summoned and notified that you have been selected to serve as a juror during the two-week jury term beginning May 10. You are required to appear in Lancaster County District Court as instructed below.”

Jury duty.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always viewed jury duty as a giant pain in the neck. One simple letter and my well-oiled life turns upside-down. Now suddenly there were arrangements to make with my employer, childcare to schedule, transportation to and from school to arrange – to say nothing of the hours and hours of sitting in a stale, airless courthouse waiting room.

Click to read more ...

Life Is Funny: Boys Are Gross

By MAD21

About a month ago, we went over to the "new" house of some family friends to help them paint and get ready to move in. The husband half of the couple, Mr. D, had the job of keeping all the kids entertained, their three and our two. He did a great job. They had a lot of fun going down to the river behind the house and hiking along the wooded areas. They collected tadpoles, jumped over logs and ran from a snake. All-in-all a terrific day.

My girls were finishing up dinner one night last week. They were sitting at the table and I was doing the dishes. They were chatting about how much they enjoy playing outside and going on hikes. They said they'd really like to go back over to our friend's house to "play in the forest" again, and started recounting all the fun they had had on their last adventure. After a short pause... was this the conversation:

Click to read more ...

Fingerprint Friday: Courage and Loose Teeth

By MAD21

My oldest has had a loose tooth for what seems like forever. It's been a month or two. This is her first loose tooth. Well, technically it's her second, but the first one isn't even close to coming out yet.

She's been working for weeks wiggling and wiggling trying to get this tooth to come out. So excited, though I'm not sure exactly what she was excited for. Some of it, I think, is that all of her classmates have lost at least one tooth, some are on their third or fourth.

Click to read more ...

Tasty Bites: Mighty Marinara

By Candy, RN (Steele the Day)

When my kids were growing up, “homemade spaghetti sauce” was a jar of purchased spaghetti sauce, a can of mushrooms (yes, the rubber ones), and a pound of browned ground beef. Wow, has my cooking changed! For a dozen years I’ve made marinara sauce from scratch, and it’s not difficult at all. It does take time, but if you cook ahead, you can have some on hand in the freezer for a quick meal.

Tomatoes are the star ingredient. If you have an abundance of fresh ones, they make the sauce even better. It’s a great way to use up the harvest that brings you three dozen tomatoes on the same day. Typically I’ll buy several cans at a time when they’re on sale, or buy a big quantity when I go to the bulk stores. It takes about the same amount of time to make four servings as it does forty, and it freezes well.

Click to read more ...

Looking For God...Again!

By Pat

Okay, I admit it. I'm struggling again. Struggling with finances which is forcing me to struggle with decisions, among a few other issues, and therefore struggling with my faith. I know I'm not alone; we all have our moments, our days, even weeks and months, don't we? After all, God never promised a trouble-free life for any of us.

Looking back through the Bible, we recall David, Paul, Peter, just to name a few. Even Jesus! They all had their problems. In fact, thinking about the problems they faced make mine seem kind of, well, petty I suppose. And yet, I still struggle. Am I a fair-weather Christian, relying on everything to go my way in order for my faith to be strong? Why can't I hear God? What am I doing wrong? Where is that window God's supposed to open for me when it appears there is a door fixing to slam shut?

Click to read more ...