In This Post I Very Randomly Start Talking About Israel And Then Can't Seem To Stop...

Welcome to Red Thing March! If you're new to this wonderful event, read this first!

So today it's back to basics folks. It really is time to just accessorize with abandon. I know that The Red Thing can be a sleeping bag. I know that it can even be a burqa. But you've gotta join with me in admitting that these are pretty innovative uses for such a scarf. Today, we're going to take a step back and examine how The Red Thing can function as a very basic clothing companion. Take a look at just how much it snazzifies a simple gray shirt and pair of jeans as The Belt:

Oh yes, sister, you know you'd be styling. You know you'd turn some heads.

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And, while I'm sure that this will be yet another word that falls out of Garrett's head (he said dog at nine months old, stopped saying it at ten months and has really never gone back) today marks the day that he emphatically says, "no!" every time I ask him a question. Unless that question happens to be, "Would you like a cookie?" Then, of course, he squeals with glee. He's caught yet another cold and this time he's running a low grade temperature so I doped him up on Tylenol and sent him off to bed. But not before I confiscated his sunglasses. Yesterday he developed the wild notion that he needed to be wearing them at all times. It's continued into today but luckily I was able to convince him that we don't actually need them for sleeping.

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I wish I had enough money to buy my body weight in fresh fruits and vegetables. I read in this week's Parade that eating a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet can help you live to be 100. Now, it's not that I actually feel the need to live for an entire century but I did lose like five pounds while I was in Israel eating a Mediterranean diet and walking like 200 miles a day (okay, probably not quite that many) and I just felt healthy. And most of the time the food was yummy. Subtract the lamb and the constant use of the chick pea and add in some sugar and the occasional french fry and I'd be one happy camper. I remember especially loving breakfast while we were in Israel. Typically we would have a spread which included tons of fresh fruit, salad (which I know sounds weird for breakfast but it's just as good at eight in the morning, trust me), assorted breads, cheeses, cucumbers, olives, tomatoes and occasionally yogurt.

And while we are talking about the promised land, if you ever have an opportunity to go, I would recommend it in half a heartbeat. I really didn't want to go at all and I thought that maybe I would get shot or something but I totally did not. It is such a different and amazing culture and you gain an incredible amount of perspective where your daily time with the Lord is concerned. If you are reading this and you aren't a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, well, obviously I would encourage you to strike up such a relationship because your life will never be the same. However, if you are shaking your head in horror and vowing never to read this Christian blog again and you get an opportunity to go to Israel, still go. It's beautiful. I'm serious. I know you're thinking, "It's in the middle of the freakin' desert." But if you think this is a picture of Hawaii, you'd be wrong.

This is actually a picture of Gan Hashlosha National Park near Beit Shean.

And that is a picture of Ein Gedi located west of the Dead Sea and close to where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. It is mentioned several times in the scriptures. Song of Solomon 1:14 "My lover is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of Ein Gedi."

Which, consequently is how I think spouses should greet one another, "Good morning my cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of Ein Gedi..."