Rainy Days

Well, as I write this post, I look out the window at the rain and accept that we must settle in for a weekend full of rain, due to the long-lasting TS Faye! Oh well, at least this was not a bad storm for my family in the Tampa area and Mobile area, so we are thankful for that. I can tell that we have not had one of these rain-filled weekends in a long time because the girls are already stir-crazy and it's only 11:00am. Did I say the girls? I should say WE ALL ARE! But at least our yard is loving this very much needed rain!

I have to brag on myself this morning. All summer I have been gradually buying fresh veggies from our local produce stand and farmer's market and putting up veggies for the winter (for those of you not from the South, this means freezing them for later consumption). This morning I have already made a trip to the farmer's market (in the rain, I might add) and blanched and put up about 10 cups of peas and 6 cups of cut okra. I am so excited about doing this because I am always craving fresh veggies in the winter and unless you already have them put up or you have someone in your family (i.e. my grandmother - who is no longer able to do it) then there's no hope of fresh until next summer! So Yea Leigh! I am prepared this year!

On another note (totally unrelated to the above), there are some amazing things happening this past week that can only be credited to God's Grace and the persistence of His Prayer Warriors! A family in our neighborhood (whose kids I babysat when they were about the same age as my girls) has experienced first hand the power of prayer and God's Amazing Grace! Their middle child, Carter (age 20), was on a camping trip with some of his Sigma Chi pledge brothers from Bham Southern about 10 days ago and fell off a 50 ft cliff into a creek and was unconcious and underwater for about 4-8 minutes before his friends could get down to him. One of the boys is a pre-med major and started performing CPR while still in the water (which his docs say saved his life because his body would likely have gone into shock if pulled out first) and was able to get him breathing again and a pulse back before he was airlifted to the local hospital. Well, here we are more than a week later, and Carter has improved tremendously and his team of docs expect him to make a full recovery! From the time of hearing of the accident, e-mails went out immediately to who-knows how many people all over town and the Prayer Warriors went to work! Wow, you cannot believe the amount of out-pouring of prayers that have taken place in this past week for Carter, all in the name of God! AND, add to the fact of his miraculous recovery, an article was in our local paper this week about Carter, his accident, and how only by the Grace of God is he even alive, much less doing so well! In the article the author actually used religious terms in his writing!!!!! The article stirred up so much talk about Grace, Faith, etc. in our town and it is amazing! If you had told me 15 years ago that this cute little blond haired boy would be used by God in this way, I would have called you a liar!!! Anyway, he is doing amazingly well considering he shouldn't have even survived and if you want to check out his Caring Bridge site for more updates and to hear his parents (who are the sweetest people)profound thoughts, emotions, and feelings every day of his recovery go to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/cartercrutchfield. Praise GOD - that's all you can say about this!!!!