More pics

Today was the church picnic. I debated going as i had a bit of a migraine, but then decided to go anyway. I mostly took my own food 'cause many of the things there i can't eat. I made a Three Bean Salad & took some freshly baked cho. chip cookies. I also took a salad for myself.

When i got there, as expected, there was not much for me to eat. Lots of pasta salads & stuff. But i was happy with my salad. A few other folks brought salad as well & so i augmented with that. Also a lovely fruit salad with kiwi & blackberries among other fruits. (My 3-bean was too sweet. The recipe i used called for 3/4 C sugar, but i only used about 1/4 & it was still far too much.)

The migraine kept getting worse & worse. (It is really raging now.) As we were packing up i told the lady with the fruit salad how lovely it was.

"Thank you," she replied. "It is sugar-free!"

!!!! (My thought was, of course it is, who puts sugar on a fresh fruit salad?)

"I used Splenda," she informed me. She must have seen the look on my face because she said, "I have to. My husband is a diabetic & i can't use sugar."

We talked a little bit about Stevia as an alternative. But the mystery is solved. The migraine previously was about a 3 or 4 - just barely there & probably would have resolved. It is now raging at an 8 to 9 & probably won't resolve until the stuff has cleared my system.

Ok, i don't eat meat including poultry. (I've learned that some folks consider eating poultry "vegetarian.") I don't eat anything with flour, barley, rye including breads, pastas, things that might be thickened with flour, & of course no pies, cakes or cookies. Now i have to include fruit salad & anything else sweet because folks think it is ok to use artificial sweeteners.
__________________________

Duane is happily on his way home. He'll probably get here in about an hour. I'm sure he is relieved. He was so stressed about this weekend & wanting to be sure everything went well. (It was a karate tournament his Dojo hosts annually & he had new computer programs/screens to help run it. He's been worried it wouldn't work.)
___________________________

I've mentioned before the blog Stuff Christians Like. There is a new post on things you wouldn't feel comfortable confessing at church. I guess someone is writing a book on it or something, so commenters have to know that their words might be used. And, over all, these many comments are a sad inditement of some of the churches. It has long been said that the church is the only army that shoots its own wounded. In places this is very clear.

I know that at times i've been quite critical of our church, but mostly our pastor in this blog. However, there is so much about our church & our pastor that i appreciate. And, after reading all those comments, i'm so much more thankful than ever.

While i'm sure everyone has things they wouldn't like to confess in front of their church, i don't get the feeling of being criticized a lot from our church. I don't feel that folks are looking down at me. And, while there are occasional disagreements between folks & some discontent with how certain things are run, it does not degrade into petty, bickering, back-biting arguments or gossip.

And, largely i do give credit for that to our pastor. I do believe he has been a good shepherd & tries to lead this church in a positive direction. And, for that i am very thankful.

I know i had other things to say, but my brain isn't functioning very well. I'm fairly sure the headache will be gone by tomorrow.

In the mean time, these pics are of Bozeman, Montana (except the teepees, which are in Eastern Montana) & surrounding areas, especially Bridger Canyon. The building is the B&B where we stayed. We did stay in the tower room on the top floor, tho that meant we had to go downstairs to a bathroom. It was lovely. (The pic of the mountain & the rail fence was part of the view from my bedroom window when i was growing up.)



196