After I did all that moaning about how incredibly hot it is here, my wonderful Lord sent an arctic front to the Mohave Valley   God is so good to me -- makes me feel just lousy about my grumbling! To think I could be (and AM!) so consumed with my flesh’s comfort! We have had three days in the 90’s, sooo pleasant!  Just about every time I get on this computer for the sake of blogging, I think A fool's voice is known by multitude of words, and, In the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin. I think you can find both of those verses in Ecclesiastes.  Anyway, I displayed my foolishness and my bad attitude by posting my complaints for the whole world to see!

For those of you who doubted my claim about the hot pillow, our bedroom is on the west side of the house, and our bed is against the outside wall.  These homes are barely insulated, and on a good July day we can get it up to 130 degrees on our veranda (well, yes, with the thermometer in the sun, but so is that wall!).  So yes, that makes my poor pillow very warm to the touch. That was not an exaggeration posted in the NOT-exaggeration category!

And, some of you will be happy to know that after I bragged about our scarcity of mosquitoes, I have not one, but TWO mosquito bites in my arch, and they are driving me crazy. (I won’t tell you all that the entire time we have lived here, we have never seen a rattlesnake or a black widow spider, because I am afraid what will happen!)

When I mention my warm state, I am really only speaking of my local area.  Arizona has a diverse climatology, and it isn’t all like this.  We used to be the hot spot in the nation regularly, until probably the tourism board of our town decided that distinction wasn’t drawing people to our area.  So they moved the official thermometer.  Now we are only second or third :o)

One last thing – no, I guess it really doesn’t get cold here as cold goes. We might be in the 50’s here on a “cold” winter day.  HOWEVER, those of us who are used to being slowly toasted like a marshmallow all summer long FEEL like it is freezing cold in the winter!!!  Our JCPenney store has all the same winter gear than yours does – coats, mittens, hats and scarves, even flannel sheets and electric blankets  And yes, we use them!  We can tell who our snow-birds are by the fact that in January they are dressed like it is June back home!

Okay.  I promise now, this is my last post about the weather.  I’m tired of hearing me talk about it too!  Ecclesiastes 5:3!

(Poster from www.allposters.com.)

No, the water is not quite that cold, and it does warm up a bit as the summer passes. The river, on the other hand, IS that cold since we are close to the dam, and it stays that way!

Here are some NOT exaggerations:

*Stepping outside the house really does feel like you are standing in front of your open oven door.

*You open your car door, buckle your seat belt, and steer the car with an oven mitt or other some such protection.

*There is no such thing as cold tap water. Praise the Lord for automatic ice-makers! All laundry is hot or warm water wash.

*A cold shower burns until the water that is in the pipes that are between the street and the house is used up. For some reason (?) they are buried about 2" from the surface here, and exposed during high winds when the dirt blows away.

*You take a water bottle EVERYWHERE, and so do your kids.

*You pray not to have your car break down or get a flat.

*The inside temperature of your car may be over 180 degrees in less than 20 minutes.

*You park where there is shade (IF there is shade), not in the spot closest to the door!

*The morning sun is hotter than the late afternoon/evening sun.  It is more direct.  By late afternoon the entire landscape has warmed up, so there is more of an enveloping feel to the heat. It is even pleasant!  That morning sun feels like a laser burning into you.

*If your pillow is leaning agains the wall, it will be too hot to put your face on at night.

Having said all that, I will say I am very thankful that I never even SEE a mosquito (probably they can't survive here!), and that I rarely break a sweat, and that when I get out of the shower, I don't feel like I need another one before I can even get my clothes on :o)  ...Not until the monsoon kicks in, anyway...

For those of you who are confused, "Mohave" is spelled with an "h" on the east side of the Colorado River, and with a "j" (Mojave) in California.

And I don't mean the kind you do in the oven. I posted pictures of us at the lake a few weeks ago, here. The last time we went was happy. Well, we went to the lake again today. But I was not excited about this excursion from the time my husband mentioned it last week. I did NOT want to go.  The idea of sitting in 110 degrees and no shade just really did not appeal to me, water or no.  Besides that, the area where we like to put our stuff down is a long hike from the car AND the bathroom. (I am shamed to admit it, but I told my three year old that if she had to go potty, to go in the lake!  ) My big old ugly SELF was really challenged today.  I went, but with the grumps, which means my meek and quiet spirit lost the battle. Again.  See, I told you I was selfish -- remember my post  about God giving me only girls? After writing that, I thought about the things that really make me mad (like my kids crossing me) and realized that the only reason I ever really get angry about anything is because I don't get my own way. How pathetic!  Well, now that I understand that, I am really working on it.  Until this afternoon I thought I was doing really well. I HAD to go along, because if I didn't, Emily would be heartbroken.  If I don't go, she doesn't get to go, either.  Daddy can't swim with the bigger girls in the deep water AND play with her in the shallow water at the same time. So if Emily goes, I go, and if I don't go, Emily doesn't go either. Not too fair to her if I stayed home.  So I grudgingly went along, refusing to smile or be happy even if something funny happened (one reason why I could identify with Ida B!)

Well, my sweet husband who loves me no matter what kind of snit I am in,  pulled me out of my frump. He was just kind to me, which made me feel terribly repentant. And when I got into the water with little Emily, her arms tight aroung my neck while I took her into "deep" water, I got a warm feeling all over .  I almost decided right there and then not to give up any opportunity to do that with her, because she is growing up so fast!  My baby!

So anyway, the point of this whole post was to help you to experience Lake Mohave in June. Here is what you do:

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

2. Put a bucket of ice water on the floor in front of your oven door.

3. Take off your shoes and stand in the bucket of ice water.

4. Now, bend over from the waist a bit, like you are going to check on your cookies, and open your oven door for about 15 seconds.

Feel that hot wind in your face?  Are your feet numb yet?  Next month you can do this again, only set your oven for 500.  It will be hotter then.

Ready to go in!

Brave Alie

This is one of the 101 Things Every Kid Should Do.

Yes, it's cold! (Yea, too cold for snakes in the water!)

Wild burros wait for us to go home, so they can get a drink.

Happy Family

I want you to know that I am not the only person who thinks this stretch of desert is rather desolate.  My brother-in-law visited for the first time last year and exclaimed, “It looks like Mars!” Another time, we had a missionary visiting our church on “deputation”. He was making small talk before he introduced to our church the work he was going to be doing, and he said, “Boy, those mountains are ugly…” and then when he realized his support might be on the line, he finished with, “…uh…in a majestic sort of way!” Hee hee!

But a wonderful thing happened in the desert yesterday.  It rained! God is good to send rain on the just and the unjust.  If I recall correctly, this is the first real rain we have had this year, in fact, in over a year!  It is soooo refreshing!  I love the smell of the wet streets.  It is kind of like liquid dirt.  It kind of stops in your nostrils and makes you breathe out of your mouth instead.  It almost stinks, but it means clean air when the streets dry :o)  It also means packed-down mountain bike trails for my husband, and that makes for a happy man in my house! I love to see the clouds in the sky and their shadows on the mountains.  On a clear sunny day the mountains all blend together and it is hard to distinguish one range from another. But it is amazing how you can see the different ranges when the clouds are shading some of them! The mountain shadows move with the clouds in the sky and change the landscape continually.  It’s like God is painting the scenery, and we get to watch. Sigh…. It really is beautiful. And our ocotillo is in bloom :o)  My girls will probably post photos tomorrow at Alizona and BookLover.

     My husband commented on my new desert scene (now below a couple of posts).  He said something to the effect of "That's a beautiful photo you put on your blog!"  See, I told you so. He thinks dirt is beautiful.  Actually it is not nearly as green here as it is in that picture, so yes, that is a nice photo.  We have more dirt, and a thick scattering of plastic WalMart bags snagged on the brush.  And a much nicer view of the mountains, yay!

     I have to admit, it's not all bad living in the desert. The dry air is very nice.  We were outside a couple of nights ago and it felt on the verge of chilly.  The thermometer said it was only 93 out -- no wonder! The evaporative effect is amazing. And the sunsets are fabulous! And we NEVER have to mow grass or shovel snow or do yard work, except pull a weed out of our rock driveway once in a while. Well, I do miss the yard work a little bit.

     And besides that, we love our church family.  I thank the Lord for putting us right here in the center of his will.  Yep, heat and pressure.  Keep it coming.  Makes for good diamonds!

(Photo added here after I changed my template again.)

Well, it’s not much to look at, is it? My new (and maybe temporary) blog template photo is a far cry from the peaceful, refreshing canoe/lake scene that was there this morning.  That lake scene is what my heart longs for. When we first moved here I felt like everything about the desert was hostile.  It was all prickly, hard, rough, dry, cracked, poisonous, hot, scratchy, brown, windy, or ugly.  In retrospect, though, I think it was me that was hostile. I had spines sticking out all over.  I was also three weeks post-partum, which is just not good for me or my family or anyone who is around me.  And that condition lasted about three years this time around. I think I am getting better. Little by little the Lord is showing me (or maybe I have just been slow to see) some of the treasures of the desert. Beautiful cactus flowers, captivating little birds, water in unexpected places, a patch of lush green, a gorgeous sunset.  My husband tells me that the mountains are hiding the real scenery in places that are unreachable by two-wheel drive.  He would know, because he has been all over this place on his mountain bike. I don’t know whether to believe him or not, because he is prone to exclaiming something like, “Sal!  Isn’t it beautiful!!??” when he is looking at a view like the one above.  (This is where I respond, "What? The dirt??") Personally I don’t see anything beautiful about it, except for the fact that there is nothing man-made in it. He says there are deep, rock-faced hidden canyons with cool streams running through them in the mountains around us…it does sound pretty and peaceful. And inviting! Guess I will never know… I don’t think I could hike that far!