Changes....

I pulled up my carpet last weekend to uncover beautiful hardword flooring.  The floor is almost flawless...with no scratches!  SCORE!!  My carpet was needing to be replaced but it really does not fit in my budget right now.  I could not remember what the hardwood floor looked like under the carpet from when we had replaced it several years back....and generally, I thought I preferred carpet over hardwood floors.  I have lived with the hardwood floors for a week now....AND I think I really, really like it!  Never had hardwood floors before in my life and thought I would always be a lover of carpet because I love the feel of it on my feet. 

I still need to do a really deep-cleaning....which I will do in a couple of weeks when my daughter lugs over her big hard wood floor deep-cleaning machine!  When this pic was taken with my daughter's i-phone last week, you can tell we had just pulled the carpet up as there is still a roll of carpet leaning in the corner.

***sigh***  Very happy with the floor....

Psalm 28:7

BEAUTIFUL Give-Away!!

Another amazing give-away!! Don't want to miss out on this one! It is unbelievably BEAUTIFUL!! :)

Rebecca at A Gathering Place is one of the most talented ladies I know in sewing abilities!  My mother was an awesome seamstress too and was very careful with the details of her work.  Rebecca reminds me so much of my mother with her focus to details!  Makes such a difference when the gathers in a ruffle are perfectly spaced, when the seams lie down perfectly flat....oh, so many things in this form of art that can either make it very special or just ordinary by either taking the extra time or ...not.  And Rebecca takes the extra time...   :D

LOL!!  Hurry now....go visit this little lady with the magic needles!  :) 
P.S. Hurry!!  Time is running out!!!!!

Psalm 28:7

Susan Branch...

Did you hear???  Do you just love Susan Branch??  Then you will want to know the latest gossip about this wonderful lady!  :D

courteousy of FOSB - FB

She now has a blog!!  And it is so delightful!!  I have been a fan of Susan Branch for probably about 12 years....when I discovered her!  I had not been divorced for very long at all and knew I needed to give my little girls a fun, new hobby and interest!  Sooooo...we started scrapbooking!  They LOVED it and spent countless hours with their pictures and being creative.  We would spend a few hours every week after school stopping into the Scrapbooking Store in the area to check out new embellishments!  It was one of the best investments I ever made!  It was quite an amazing distraction for the girls after getting the shock of their lives when their daddy left us.

As a result of spending quality time together in the little shop, we discovered Susan Branch's adorable art!  She had the cutest stickers of allllll the stickers in the store!  Her art depicted so much of things we loved and knew as a little family...ants scurrying acoss picnic tablecloths, beach fun, hot summer days with a tall glass of iced tea, beautiful summer flowers and watering cans...


Check it out....
Susan Branch's blog

I hope you have a wonderful evening.....as for myself, I have to get back to studying.  Still have to take my L&H insurance license state test!  Took the class last week....test is planned for this week!

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Matthew 6:32-34

Psalm 28:7

Spring Freshness...

Just had a big morning downpour....just like in the picture.

It has stopped now...

everything smells so fresh and clean.

The world is lush and green...

The sparrows are singing...

The sun is peeking...

Raindrops on leaves, glistening...

Ahhhh...Spring!

"I'm afraid to speak or move for fear that all this wonderful beauty will just vanish... like a broken silence."

— L.M. Montgomery  ~ Anne of Green Gables 

 

Psalm 28:7

Saturday!!

Happy Saturday Afternoon!

For today.....Saturday, May 21, 2011

Outside my window.....is a nice spring day....a tad bitty cloudy with the sun peeking on & off....as my granddaughters would say the sun is playing peek-a-boo.

I am thinking.....boy howdie, my neck is killing me!!!  I am not sure exactly what I did....but it hurts something terrible!!  My granddaughter spent the night with me on Wednesday night and I shared my bed with...she even wanted to share my pillow!  :)  Okay, I didn't see that would be a problem....HOWEVER, when I woke up Thursday morning to get ready for work....OOOOuUUuuCCCCccccCHHH!!!!  I guess I slept real stiff as to not disturb her sleeping...I am not sure but today it hurts worse than Thursday morning!  I am wondering if I am going to have to go to a chiropractor!  I cannot move my head to the left or the right (very dangerous when driving)... cannot look up either!  I can look down without too much pain and look straight ahead.  I had so much planned for this weekend...  :(

I am hearing.... I am listening to one of my favorite blogs music... Rebecca over at the Gathering Place has the best music evah!!  Ha!Ha!  She always uses that word "evah"!  :)  "In the Palm of Your Hand" by Alison Krauss to be more specific.

I am wearing.....ha!ha!  You don't want to know what I am wearing...in spite of my bad neck, I refuse to throw in the towel and not get anything done.  I was working out in the flower beds just a few minutes ago...and I still have on my brown sweats and white t-shirt....splotched with a little dirt and sweat!  :)

I am going.....to put my foxglove in the flower bed.  I bought a new plant this afternoon and I need to get it in the ground.  I love love love foxgloves.  They are the prettiest flowers in the world in my opinion!!  I bought a little platter on ebay yesterday with a foxglove painted on it....so pretty.  When it arrives, I will have to take a picture and post it!  When my daughters were little, I had a big flower bed FULL of foxgloves with a white bird house on a post in the bed...so pretty. 

I am reading.....I am not reading anything right now....but I felt a little melancholy earlier today and was thinking I would like to read the Little House on the Prairie books again...return to the basic old-fashioned goodness of life...before all the world's craziness that we are in now (thinking of Arnold S).  It has been years since I read those old books but I remember the last time I read them when my daughters were in grade school how much they made me feel good, wholesome, and warm...  :)

On my mind.....how much pain I am in.  I am constantly trying to relax my shoulders and neck....I mentally force my shoulders to fall back down where they are supposed to be and before I know it, they have tensed back up again.  Maybe I should go take some Tylenol and take a nap....save the Foxglove planting for later.

From the kitchen.....well, I am on a new diet....called the Dukan diet.  It is really working for me.  I will be having tilapia with onions with a little bit of seasoning and fresh green beans tonight.  So yummy!

Around the house.....my daughter and granddaughters went back home Friday morning after a couple days visit but I still see evidence that the little girls have been here.  A couple of toys still out ...sometimes it is nice to have them out...makes me feel like those beautiful, happy girls are still here just around the corner and will jump out any second to give me a hug!  :D  The windows are wide open, letting in fresh breezes after so many days of rain and cold.  The little red teapot is on the burner, ready to whistle any minute...to make a cup of afternoon tea.  I just receive and am enjoying my "Willard" mail from Susan Branch....I just enjoy her sweet art and her pretty home on Martha's Vineyard with her updates. 

One of my favorite things....is peace and quiet!  I love my granddaughters but this weekend has been guarded to belong to only me!  :D  Haven't had any alone time for months with all the activities in my life and learning a new job....so I actually worked hard on keeping it a secret that I took Monday and Tuesday off and none of my friends or family know!!  LOL!!!  SSSHhhHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!  I am hiding....only my boss knows I am off!!  And she promises to keep my little secret too!!  :)  Do you enjoy your "me" time?  Do you have to have it periodically too?  :)

A few plans for the next few days....church tomorrow and more gardening for the next few days!  :)  Praying God will heal my neck so I can be a little productive with my time.....maybe He wants me just to relax...  at any rate, I just would like the pain to go away.

Blessings to you and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Psalm 28:7

Memories are made of this....

I promise, I wasn't trying to tease about being back... :)

Life has a way of getting in the way! I think I am just going to post when I can and not worry about being consistent....or even if anyone looks at my posts! :)

Life is too short to worry!

I appreciate all the sweet notes of welcoming me back on the last post after being gone for so long. I marvel at all of you who are able to keep up with your blogs....I imagine that your life must be slow and full of bon-bons!! :D But I know that isn't true....so many of you are so busy, busy too and work as well. So maybe it's me!! I just don't have the stamina to keep up!

But that's okay for if that is the case. I am not going to beat myself up! :)

Last weekend I went to a wedding out of town...in St Louis. My dear, dear friend's daughter just got married....such a beautiful bride. My darling little granddaughters were the flower girls....they did such a nice job. They were rewarded with their little dolls!

I love weddings.....so beautiful! At the reception, I sipped on a little wine and danced and danced and danced! :) So many sweet memories made.....dancing with my daughters and little granddaughters! :)






Be sure and pause the music at the bottom of the blog so you can listen to good ol' Dean!

Blessings to you as you make sweet memories too!

Psalm 28:7

I'm back....

It has been so long, I don't know if I remember how to do this....

Well, I seem to remember how to add a picture!  LOL!  My new job is really coming along.  I get paid pretty well.....but by golly, I have earned every dime of it!!  There has been so much to learn and so many details.....it is like I have to learn EVERYTHING that the district manager does because I can be called on any day to cover for her if she would have any emergencies, etc....and at the same time being so new to this company and their different computer platforms, etc.  I know I sound like I am complaining, but I am not.  Just had been so overwhelmed and snowed under that ....well, it feels good to see a ray of light at the end of the tunnel and I am starting to catch on!!  :)

I am going to have to dig my camera out again if "I'm back"....hmmmm...let's see where is it??  Well, it might take a while to find it.... 

Psalm 28:7

New Year's Resolutions!

Do you make them?  ...but then only to break them?  :)  I have never been one to make many resolutions only because I know if I am only making a resolution to do something just because it is a new year, it is going to get broken and go by the way side!  So why bother?  I just know myself all too well!

But this year, I am starting the new year with something I want to do through the whole year on a consistent, regular basis!  And I have a resolve to really want to make this a priority!

My dear little friend, Patty, over at Sewing Seeds mentioned in her blog yesterday that she is joining a group with Beth Moore to commit to memory two verses a month for one year.  If you have never met Patty, you must go pay her a visit as she has a beautiful blog and she is one of the very very first ladies to introduce herself to me and become my "friend" when I first started blogging.  She is one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met!! 

Getting back to my New Year's Resolution ....Patty intrigued me with a desire to join this little group of women to committing verses to memory on a regular basis!  I then googled Beth Moore's little group and I found her blog:  Beth Moore  If you would like to join Patty and me in this great idea for a New Year's Resolution, go to Beth Moore's blog to sign up!

How To Participate:


On the 1st and 15th of every month of 2011, you will find a post on Beth's blog where she will ask for your memory verse and give you hers. This will begin New Years Day. You are committing to 24 Scriptures in 12 months. Beth says NOT ONCE has she ever known anyone to get to the end of a Scripture memory commitment and say that it didn't make any real difference.

You are to enter the verse you've chosen to memorize for that two week period within 24 hours of the post going up. Write your verse in a spiral index card book to keep them all together through the year.


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Now don't think just because we are already on January 9th, that it is too late!!  You just pick an easy verse for the remainder of now to January 15th!  You can do it!!  Trust me, if I can do it you can!

I would like to tell you one reason why I believe it is so important to memorize scripture.  It saved my life!!  Seriously!

I went through my divorce 13 yrs ago (well, almost 13 yrs) and realized I needed His words and truth embedded in mind to get me through the most wretched time of suffering! I spent many nights not being able to sleep, trembling in fear and it was only His Word and quoting over and over again His precious truth that got me through those long dark, sleepless nights!!  To know more about that wretched time of my life, check out the labels "New Gal on the Block."

Scripture memorization truly has new meaning to me now because when you go through a really deep valley and every single second of the day (as you are working or driving, or in the middle of a dark night), you can draw strength in His Word without opening your Bible....His Word is locked in your mind at any given second!  Which is crucial when you are teetering on hope versus hopelessness!

...And now I am happy to say, I LOVE memorizing His Word and it comes much easier knowing if I ever go through a horrible trial again where I need His Word again non-stop, I have a bigger reserve to draw from!! :D


I personally don't think it is critical to memorize the reference...I try...but yet it is not critical to me.  Because when you are in despair and not needing to search it in the Bible, you pull up the words to your mind that is hidden in your heart and are able to meditate and draw strength on His Word right then and there regardless of where you are.

My first verse for the year that I have chosen is:

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”

II Corinthians 4:18 NIV

It would be wonderful if you join me in one of the most rewarding New Year's Resolutions possible!

Please also visit the other folks at Spiritual Sundays for a wonderful blessing:

Happy New Year to YOU!

Psalm 28:7