Something Summery (giveaway!)

I know what you're thinking.... "Lois has finally lost it... she thinks it's summer." Wrong! I lost it years ago. ;) So why "something summer"? Sheila at Book Journey is calling an emergency Summer-Cation, asking people to write a post about a great summer experience. I am honestly thrilled about this because as you all know, I hate the cold and I am much looking forward to warmer weather. I am also doing a giveaway to go along with this. I will be crocheting and giving away a mesh beach bag! Now I have your attention! ;) You can enter by commenting with what you are most looking forward to this summer! Like the blog on Facebook and you get another entry (link in sidebar). Follow my blog and you get another entry yet! Follow me on Bloglovin and you'll get ANOTHER entry (link at bottom of post or in sidebar) and finally, become my friend on Goodreads and you'll get another entry. Just comment and let me know which ones you did. This is open until Monday at midnight. I'll announce the winner next Tuesday (and contact you) and as soon as I get the bag made (hopefully sooner not later as you guys know my crazy school schedule) then I'll get it sent to you.

So back a few years ago, my family had a Japanese exchange student staying at our house for the summer. To give him the true Kansas experience, we took him for a tour of the flint hills. Not the nice highway 177 scenic route that's clearly marked. No... we took the real scenic route.... gravel roads, no signs, truly out in the boonies. It is gorgeous out there. Pictures just don't capture it. There is nothing for miles but the rolling grassy hills, oil pumps, and cattle. We spent quite some time driving along out there, stopping every once and awhile to snap a picture. It was quite awhile before we realized that we had not clue where we were. Did I mention we were in the middle of nowhere? No houses, I'm not sure about cellphone coverage (I don't think anyone tried that option at least), no GPS, nada. My Dad, who knows the area more as his grandparents had lived in the area, took the wheel and started driving. He was trying to make light of the situation as he didn't want us to get worried, especially not our exchange student. We drove for quite awhile longer before he finally said, "I recognize this place!" Oh my were we excited! It still took us a length of time to get into an area where we really knew we where and then finally we made it home.

The moral of this story is not don't go visit the Flint Hills and it isn't even don't take the real scenic route. No, the moral of the story is take some sort of GPS system so if you get lost you can find your way out of there. However, if I was going to get lost anywhere, I'd want it to be out in the Flint Hills.

Note: None of these pictures are mine... I found them off the internet but I felt they captured as well as it could possibly be captured, the beauty of the Flint Hills.

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Finally... Another Blog Post!- Summer Happenings

I know it has been quite a while since I last wrote on my blog.  Life has been quite busy though so this post will just bring you up to date with all that has been going in my life recently.

Taiki and I

At the end of July my family was busy getting our 4-H projects ready for the county fair and about that time also our summer Japanese exchange student arrived.  Load on my job as well as getting prepared for classes and then this last week actually starting classes and you have a very busy Lois.   Most of it was fun though and though my summer was hectic, it was enjoyable as well.
My favorite part was definitely having Taiki, our exchange student stay.  The little 14 year old boy fit in perfectly with my family.  By the time he left he had learned and even mastered many of my family's favorite games.
My second favorite part of the summer was probably the county fair.  I was smart enough to not do too much but I still entered a few items.  I found time to bake a couple pies to take (peach and pecan), which turned out pretty tasty.  However, Taiki was quite dissapointed they were going to the fair and not to his stomach so I ended up making a peach pie (his favorite) for him again before he left.
Of course I spent lots of time with my family this summer, which was good.  We managed to watch all but one of the Star Wars movies and played multiple games together.
Recently I became addicted to online Dominion (see earlier post about Dominion), which was probably not good.  However, when you are feeling a need for Dominion and your family isn't available to play what other options are there?
All in all, a good summer and hopefully this fall semester will be bearable too.  God bless. :)

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Tea in Summer

      The other day I was feeling the need for a cup of tea so I boiled the water and seeped my tea as  I always do.  However, as I went to drink it, I realized how hot it was and thought perhaps I needed a change of plans for the summer.  Iced tea was the obvious solution so I dumped my tea over ice and put it in the refrigerator for awhile and viola! Iced tea.  So for you all that think that summer is a "No Tea Zone" y'all are wrong.  I know iced tea isn't as amazing as a nice cup of hot tea but it is rather refreshing with the current hot temperatures. I have been enjoying iced chai black tea with honey as a flavoring, which is pretty excellent in my opinion.  I also tried some honey vanilla chamomile that wasn't too bad either.  I hope all of my blog followers are enjoying the summer and hopefully I'll be posting some more on my blog in the near future.

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Evolution, it makes me laugh...

You can tell it is summer because instead of being outside in the heat I am inside with the air conditioner.   A record high was set the other day in Kansas, which didn't manage to thrill me to much.  Why not a record low?  However, throughout the sweltering temperatures and dry grass, I can still see God shining through nature.  Summers like these remind us whose in control; we don't have authority over the weather, only God does.  This weekend I had the amazing privilege to attend the Heartland Creation Conference where Dr. Jonathan Safarti spoke on how it is utter foolishness to believe in the myth of evolution for "the heavens declare the glory of God."  One thing he said over and over again that really was at the core of the issue was "you can't prove the bible with science; you have to prove science with the bible."  His point was, if you put science as a higher authority over the bible you are saying that what God said isn't as important as the deductions of fallible scientists.  Man is evil, born in sin, and will make any excuse it can conceive to get out of obeying the one true God, even something as utterly ridiculous as evolution.  Today evolution is taught in the schools as truth.  That's putting it as an equal to the bible right there.  In "Expelled", when Richard Dawkins (notorious Evolutionists and author of "The Greatest Show on Earth" which by the way was refuted in Dr. Jonathan Safarti's book "The Greatest Hoax on Earth") is pushed back and pushed back as to where the first life came from he finally has to resort to (get this, it is too funny) aliens!  Aliens?  That's how silly the whole evolution movement is.  They have no evidence so they have to say aliens.  Intelligent men saying aliens?  You can laugh with me if you want.  Now, I am not a scientist, or anywhere close, but I do know one thing, you can't get something from nothing and the evolution movement, well it makes me laugh...

By the way, where did the aliens come from? :)

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.