#189 Nomad Diary. 1-7 June 2024. Madison, Alabama Airbnb Week 6 of 6.

Kildeer Birds on Ground Nest at Playground Woodchips

Saturday. 1. Raining all morning! Some very heavy rains! I’m making Cuban Black Beans today and coordinated with Eric and Erin to take it to their house for dinner and they are making rice. 

Recipe: Cuban Black Beans

Using our Instapot to cook the dry beans on a 2 hour pressure setting along with chicken bouillon and bay leaf. After the beans have cooked and the pressure is released, I’ll add in sauteed in olive oil: chopped green pepper, minced garlic, carrots, seasoned with oregano and cumin. I will add chopped pickled onions that we have left in a large jar and they need to be used. Usually I would saute’ chopped onion and add a bit of vinegar at the end of the soup making. Trying pickled onions is a full out experiment! We think it will work. I also added carrots and went heavy on the veggie add-ins.

1 cup dry black beans

4 cups water

4 dissolved chicken bouillon cubes

A bay leaf

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups chopped green pepper

2 cups sliced carrot

4 cloves minced garlic

1 teaspoon dry oregano

1 teaspoon dry cumin

1 ½ cups chopped pickled onions (I recommend using raw onions! lol)

After making this, the pickled onions were a bit strong. Then they mellowed and were ok after sitting warm all afternoon up until dinner time. 

Sunday. 2. Going to Beulah church of Christ for morning through lunch get-together. Taking cheese, crackers, strawberries and blueberries for potluck. Visiting with friends Alton and Diana Bailey who are in our online Bible class with our Kent, England church friends.

We got to the luncheon after having 2 excellent sermons at Beulah with Jeff Henderson. At the luncheon also was a long time friend of ours Joey McGee. Both us and Joey were invited by Alton. Joey and Alton were preaching this morning at other congregations. We all arrived for lunch at this rural community center and enjoyed our time together visiting.

Night time: Our son Eric is preaching at Gooch Lane church of Christ. I’m very thankful for Eric stepping up to preach and teach Bible in his congregation! He presents lessons that touch my heart and encourage my walk with Christ. I often tear up with deep gratitude to God for him mixed with my love and admiration for the man he is today. And, yes! His sermon got to my heart! Oh how I love this younger man of faith who I call my son!

Delicious Tilapia Dinner at Mi Casa Mexican Restaurant in Athens, Alabama

Sunrise in Madison, Alabama. Our Airbnb Deck for Morning Exercises

Beautiful Morning Sky in Madison, Alabama

Monday. 3. Through Thursday. 6. Some morning walks at Indian Creek Greenway near Madison, Alabama where we lived and worked for 14 years. Some hours of indoor and outdoor play with our two grandchildren at Eric and Erin’s house near Athens, Alabama and about a 10 minute drive from our airbnb house in Madison. Evenings attending VBS Vacation Bible School at Capshaw church of Christ in Harvest. Just saying WOW! The effort and work that went into their VBS is quite remarkable! More than 20 people worked on decorating the classrooms to present children’s Bible lessons with extra support and attention to details. Many people helped with the nightly children attending the classes. We were in the adult classes with the same themed lessons. We enjoyed our evenings with all the children and singing children’s songs as a congregation. It brought smiles to our faces and we enjoyed meeting more people. I’m constantly writing down people’s names and practicing the name so that I can remember people I meet and some of the details about them that I learn. I’ve noticed that I am remembering some of the new people I’ve been meeting at this church. We’ve been attending most of the services for more than a month now. I do have to ask people a second time about their names, but some I remember the first time. Making an effort to write down the name and have a conversation helps me to remember and know more about each person. This effort that I put in is enjoyable for me and connects me more quickly than if I didn’t do this. I will thank my sister Annette who challenged me years ago to introduce myself to people on cruises and make connections while I was on vacation. I’ve practiced this through the years and it’s really ramped up with our Nomad way of living. I booked and got a 90 minute full body massage on Thursday. It was wonderful and long overdue for me. I made another appointment for July with Jennifer at Why Knot? Massage on East Limestone Road! Already looking forward to it! I did massage therapy as a profession for 16 years. I lay on the massage table and I’m mostly melted and relaxed from my training! lol! 

Friday. 7. Going to visit Owen and Esther after dinner. Went for a morning walk. Darrell made pancakes for breakfast after dealing with an ant infestation in our pantry! Thankfully we are only here a few more days. I let the host know and she’s grateful for my communication. We are eating down our last meals that we have in our refrigerator. We also have some restaurant meetups for the next couple of days also.

Kids Swimming at Indian Creek Greenway. Between Huntsville and Madison, Alabama

Nomad Notes. I’ve thought about being more rested and in a mindset for our long travel day to Brazil on Tuesday. Also thought a lot about tacos and Mexican food around us in this neighborhood. There seem to be a number of Mexican restaurants that are new around here. Many new are working out of food trucks and the food we have eating has been very good.

I’ve been trying out a snoreMD mouth device for stopping snoring. I’ve been using a tongue trap to mitigate my snoring for the past year. I have some pros and cons for each one and I’m still trying to work through my issues with the snoreMD device. There is a contrast between these two methods as to where the tongue position is either pulled forward with the tongue trap or pushed back with the snoreMD method. I’m still working out my personal use issues. Both have merits and fitting issues for me. They are each working to help minimize and often alleviate my snoring although it’s not 100% of the time and they each have user issues for me to work with.

Darrell keeps earplugs nearby to get a more silent night’s sleep.

I haven’t taken as many pictures while in Alabama.