Thursday, August 19, 2010

Short and Simple

Since my last post was such a long rambling of chatter…
I’m going to keep this one short and simple.


Early Morning Ready!

Fishing Dock Venice

Louisiana Weekend


What I’m likin’ today~

Packing

The thunderstorms this morning

6 hours of reading while hubby is driving

Hugging Holly

Hugging Richard

Hugging the kitties

Sleeping in Louisiana tonight

My pink rod and reel

Excitement
~~~




Later alligator!

Photos are from our last fishing trip in Louisiana...

Monday, August 16, 2010

Chatter Prattle

BlueBerry Muffins


My sweet inspirational friend Christina caught my appetite with her mouth watering blueberry muffin photos in one of her posts so…..I had to make some of my own. I used fresh blueberries from this summer which I had frozen whole…they worked really well.





*******

I went to an estate sale one Saturday, held by the family of a very sweet woman who went to our church...Mrs. Frost; her husband’s name was Jack…really! She had an enormous collection of books and magazines….old Life magazines…they were so cool. I picked up these two wonderful vintage children’s books, both for 75 cents:



Filled with stories and poems by Robert Browning, John Keats, and Rudyard Kipling.
 The Grimms' Fairy Tales. Andersen's Fairy Tales. 
Jonathan Swift and Charles Dickens.
W.B. Yeats and Hans Anderson


Don’t you just love the old vintage graphics.
~Click on pix to enlarge~


Upon opening one of them, I found these pressed rose petals between the pages
…if only they could tell me the stories of her life.


Love this embossed rabbit on the red cover of The Children's Wonder Book

******
Sunday morning began with my husband going to WalMart in an attempt to retrieve his Mama’s walking stick which she had left in the buggy (yes I call it a buggy) the afternoon before….He was gone for a good while so I give him a quick call--he found the stick and has taken it to his Mama. When he returns home I’m sitting there eating a bowl of cereal…I wondered why he didn’t want anything for breakfast only to find out later that he had picked up biscuits and gravy for him and his mama after he found the walking stick and filled up on them during his visit with her.
Somehow that cereal just was not doing the trick for me then… *sulking*

A word for you today~Sharing a Sermon
Breaking down John 3:16-17
The Five Facts

As you probably already know, the verse John 3:16 is the most well known verse in the Bible. If not familiar with it, here are Christ’s words:

16~ For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 17~ For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.

1. The Fact=God Loved (the whole world)

2. The Evidence= God Gave (his son)

3. The Purpose= To Save All of Us (with the condition of belief)

4. The Proof= God Sent His Son (to earth in human form)

5. The Means= All Through Him (and only through Him)

A simple and easy way of understanding these verses even more. God is so Good!

I'm not preaching...so stay with me now...for a little humor...
Yesterday at church was our time for observing the last supper. We symbolize the Last Supper…the breaking of the bread and drinking of the wine. For the bread (Christ’s body) we use a very small flat cracker and for the wine (blood of Christ) we use grape juice. Now I know this is a very serious and respectful time and I am so there until the cracker which I had been twisting between my finger and thumb, starts to crumble…I gather the crumbs into the palm of my hand (smiling to myself) so that I will have something to eat at the proper time. I glance over to the man sitting right down from me and he has dropped his on the floor…reaching over to retrieve it, (5 second rule  applies in church too) slightly bumping his head on the pew in front of him, we make eye contact….and I get tickled. He sees me laughing and begins to laugh too (it is so hard to laugh silently while your body is jiggling). I don’t dare look at him again. Come to find out he had been twisting his between his fingers too! Thank goodness I did not spill the grape juice on me!! I would have had to leave the room after I picked myself up off the floor from laughing. Right prior to this I feel a hunger pain beginning to form and I pray my stomach does not growl so loudly that the people sitting near me will hear it. Just think….if I had had one of those biscuits with that wonderful white peppered sausage gravy on it…I would not have had this problem. But nooooooooooo….I had cereal!  The small cracker and grape juice just made it worse. God has a sense of humor too and I love that!

A friend asked me if I was OK today…well maybe today but yesterday I’m not really sure about …I not only forgot to take my Bible to church (which I never forget) I forgot to put on my deodorant…OMGosh…I checked myself and it was OK…whew…good soap is always a plus!! Man what a day!

******
We are planning a trip which involves a boat, some rods and reels and I’m in hopes of that BIG fish which is on my bucket list. This trip also will be special because it will be to Louisiana where our daughter is!! Yep, we are going to see Holly and Richard and we will all be going out to the mouth of the Mississippi where it meets the ocean for some red fishing. I can’t wait and I pray it does not rain us out. For those of you wondering about the oil spill...they have lifted the fishing restrictions. I’m also ready for some more Cajun seafood…the kind you eat with your fingers and get messy!

All kidding aside, I am really glad my husband had breakfast with his Mama
…he should do it more often.

What I’m likin’ today~
A cloudy not-so-hot day

The hum of the ceiling fan overhead

Talking to Holly

Burritos for supper tonight and you know they are homemade

Friends that share

Learned lessons

Working out the plans

Deodorant

My rat tattered Bible

And You



Source of the Five Facts: Brother Bill Hart’s sermon

Thursday, August 12, 2010

What's in Your Bucket?

Simply Forlorn

Inspiration. Where does it come from? A thought, a bright idea, a brain bleep, seeing something through different eyes, pairing creative combinations, flashes…

How do we get motivated to go with that inspiration? Whether it is writing, creating art, sewing, painting, taking a chance, crafting, exploring, cooking…what gets those juices flowing in your veins? At times it seems we run into brick walls or dead end streets and things just stop. When do we get off the well traveled track and strike out on our own. Go. Chase a rainbow. Take that chance. Run with scissors… Or do we just stay in that comfortable zone of safety that keeps us in the norm of things. Norm. Normal. What the heck is normal? There are things that I want to do. Roads I want to travel that are not familiar to me. I want to jump out the box like Jack. Dance like Cinderella.  Take chances. Dare. Accomplish a bucket list.

Porch Rocker

My Bucket List

Build one more house and live in it

Travel to places far far away, but always come back home

Paint like Picasso

Sing like Eva Cassidy

Play with my grandchildren everyday because they live nearby

Photograph like no other

Lose some pounds, lots of them, forever

Chase that skittle rainbow to see what is really at the end

Catch a BIG fish, a really BIG fish

Sail on some calm open waters

Hop some tropical islands

Witness the miracle of peace in this world

Be debt free (almost there!)

Live the month of October on the North Carolina shore

Go river rafting on a not so raging river

Dig for clams




What I’m likin’ today~
Sappy movies

Porches

Clean

A planned trip

Swings

Pretty papers

Glue sticks

Messages

A new day

My incomplete b-list
~~~~~~

What's in your bucket?


One thing I will never understand: Why do they like to use that awful sounding F word in movies? Don’t they know it would still be a great movie without it?

Monday, August 9, 2010

Balancing Act

We need the balancing act of both blessings and difficulties.

Plum Scrumptious


We can easily forget what blessings we actually have… we take them for granted.  If all of our possessions were taken away, we would certainly look at life with a new perspective, realizing how much we really had…now that it’s gone. The good goes with the bad. Just when we are doing good and blessed with abundance, something difficult is thrown in our path. Why?  Why did this happen to me?... we ask.  It is all part of the evenness that God has chosen for our lives. A balance of stability least we forget Who has given us what we have and Who is carrying us through each rainstorm in life. Make sure you find shelter in the One who calms the storm. ...

When terrible things happen to us it is so easy to get angry at God and say "How could you let this happen to me!?"  Terrible things happen to people all the time. If we look at life through eyes that are not our own and learn to give up the rights we think we deserve, then our response can be pure and blameless. The only thing we’re guaranteed in life is that God will always be here for us. We all remember the old saying "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away…"  Let us all pray this prayer:

"Dear Lord, next time you take something away from me, instead of me being bitter help me to praise you and be grateful for the time you allowed me to have it. We don't realize how much we have until we don't have it anymore. Thank you for all the many blessings you have showered us with and the many storms you have carried us through…Amen."
Our Finest Moments

God knows the importance of balance; that is, the importance of having both blessings and difficulties. We cannot have one without the other. We should not become too comfortable with what we have, because when we forget that the things we have are a blessing from God and when we start to assume that they are guaranteed possessions, it is quite possible that God will take them away from us in order to teach us that we need both blessings and difficulties, because one without the other is neither.


What I’m likin’ today~

The 3-4 inches of rain we got

Brining

Pink painted toes

Photography as art

A date with the hubby

Sharing with the families in the NICU

Lobster and Crab stuffed mushrooms ~swoon

Balance

Have a wonderful week...


Do not neglect to do good and to share with others,
 for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Hebrews 13:16

Sources:  Christnotes and Teens4God

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Playing With Light

Bottles and Jars

got milk?









   Light of the world, come and shine,
 fill this dark world with your light.
 ~Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

~~~

What I’m likin’ today~

A wren’s chirping melody

Old milk bottles and jars

A fresh juicy nectarine

The smell of Gain

Playing with light

Vintage buttons

Fried chicken

Stars on jars

Books


When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
-Jimi Hendrix

Monday, August 2, 2010

A Yearning

Yearning For Fall
I have a present yearning for fall…some cooler weather. That cozy warm season that presents itself with an ending…an ending of one season but a beginning of a new. The changing of colors, the shifting of time. New. We are having temperatures with 3 digits so I won’t even talk about the index, which doesn’t make much sense to me…if it feels like 110 then it must be 110! We have not had any rain for weeks now. It is beginning to show~ the grass is no longer green, leaves are starting to curl, our veggie garden is slowing…almost to a stop. An uncertain time…

In all of us there is a yearning for something. Something that our heart's desire, wants, craves for; for the right reasons; with all good intentions. Do not let your yearning be confused with envy. Envy can be consuming and wicked.

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
Proverbs 14:30 NIV

Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
Job 5:2

Let our yearnings and desires include Jesus.
My soul yearns, yes, even pines and is homesick for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out and sing for joy to the living God.
Psalm 84:2 AMP

Seek the Lord and His strength; yearn for and seek
His face and to be in His presence continually!
1 Chronicles 16:11 AMP

Oh how I yearn for a better relationship with Him…one of complete trust and strong faith. A trust that walks with me daily, a faith that carries me through. To trust that He will bring us rain at just the right moment… To have a faith that He will bring us relief from our worries and challenges. This is my prayer. I will "Trust in the LORD with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding" Proverbs 3:5. Especially during these uncertain times.
On The Vine

So… with that, I welcome August, although it will still be pretty hot…its one month closer to fall…Ahhhh… My favorite scent of the year. Fall smells like cinnamon, spices, apples baking, cool crispness, cookies, and nuts! Now have I put a yearning in your pocket?

What I’m likin’ today~

The tease of rain in the cloudy skies

Plans and promises

Pink ink

Kenny G

Swedish Apple Pie~ homemade of course

A quiet country life

Paint on my brush

Living more with less.

Losing count, while trying to count all my many blessings…

******


Here's hoping you have a blessed day!