It’s summertime and that means the delightfully cool nights we’ve been having are going to change. Remember that heat wave out West? It’ll be here before we know it. That means it’s time for a summer delight: ice cream. It comes in all kinds of flavors. You can get it lactose free or vegan (not really ice cream but almost tastes the same) and also sugar free.
Ice cream, a marvelous invention of the 16th century when it was discovered that mixing ice with saltpeter (potassium nitrate) could lower the freezing temperature of water from its usual 32 degrees to near zero. A slurry mix of water and fruit was churned for several hours in a bucket set in another bucket of the frozen water, and thus we got sorbetti in Italy, shortened to sorbet.
Because it was so difficult to make and keep, ice cream was originally something only the wealthy could afford. But now it’s marvelous cooling effects are available to all of us. Although our supermarkets are stocked with all kinds of pre-packaged ice cream, the best is still found in small ice cream shops that make their own. Ice cream. We’ll really need it next week.
Prayer for the Day
You have given us a gift of life, Loving Creator, full of joy and riches,
But your gifts are for all in this world, not for just us alone.
In response to your gift, let us share our lives with others
With both our bread and your promise of justice and peace.
Let us listen with ears open to truth made real by wisdom,
And eyes open to beauty by discernment and delight in your call
As did the One we follow,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
John Lubbock, British philanthropist and polymath (1834-1913)
Come with me,' Mom says. To the library.
Books and summertime go together.
Lisa Schroeder, American writer from I heart you
Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time on and forevermore,
From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.
The Lord is high above all nations, and God’s glory above the heavens.
Psalm 113: 2-4