So far in January

Since we moved to Georgia, I've had my diffuser on my bedside table.  As a result my essential oils have found their way to my bedside table too.  I love the purple glow!  It is pleasant and gives a bit of a nightlight when we need to get up throughout the night to use the bathroom or when my husband goes to work before sunrise.  

My husband bought me these wonderful knitting needles and wool for Christmas. 🙌😍 

Getting them trained to go to their own bowls at their own designated spot.

If you had asked me 4 years ago if we could see ourselves with more animals, I would have said we were happy with our 2.  Well, now, we've not only added 2 more dogs, but a cat named Pickles, too!  LOL

Ginger is 7 months old!  She loves to play, snuggle, and chase the cat.  We plan to breed her with another golden retriever in the next year and selling the puppies.  We're getting more experience (for the kids) with being entrepreneurs, and this is a good way to not only love on our dogs, but learn about having puppies to love on and care for, as well as the book work and financial aspect of business.

The progress on my new Bible bag.  It is made from 100% wool that will be felted soon.  I'm getting to a point where I'll be adding details.  I just have to decide how to do the handle and flap.  😉

Playtime!  

We are enjoying the temperatures here in Georgia this winter.  We jokingly say, "Well, we had our 3 days of winter, now it's time to have Spring."  Today it is 69⁰.

[This part of my post was written on January 21st.] We're expecting some storms today and there is a tornado watch for our area.  The last time we had tornadoes go through was on January 2nd when we had 9 documented tornadic events that left EF1 & EF2 damage behind in a variety of places through 4+ counties.  Your prayers for recovery would be greatly appreciated.  There has already been over 10,000 hours of volunteer time documented which probably only touched 10% of the damage.  Samaritans Purse has headed up the recovery effort as well as Franklin Graham.  Georgia Emergency Management Agency has been involved and the spokesmen from Albany, GA city petitioning FEMA without any response.

Today, January 25th, there were deadly tornadoes that hit Southwest Georgia with many counties, including our county, included in Governor Nathan Deal's state of emergency.  While we have not been hit with any of the tornadoes, I feel so trite saying "My heart goes out to all those who have lost everything in these storms."  But, it goes much beyond that.  I put myself in their shoes and my heart gets ripped out with every picture I see.  There is a plantation north of us by about 4-5 miles that was obliterated by the storm.  I see pictures and there is a sick feeling in my stomach that my spirit cries out and weeps for these people.  They've lost everything.  I'm trying to be proactive and help as best I can by sending my kids to help, donating water and food, praying, and helping to set up a facebook group to pull all the local information together for everyone to see that is all in one place.  It's the least I can do to help keep information in one place.  I've found that with Turner County being so rural, there needed to be more communication.

Please pray for Southwest Georgia.  There are many needs.  Many people are hurting.  Many people have lost loved ones, some are still missing.  Albany has been inundated with volunteers and many have been turned away because they're not plugged in with the right places.  If you come to Albany to volunteer, please go to the Coke Plant at 925 Pine Avenue.  Samaritain's Purse is here.  They do a training for people at 7:30AM and 12:30PM.  They go out, help people get trees off their roof, tarp roofs, remove trees from the property, praying with the owners, giving them Bibles signed by each working on site that visited them, and leaving a cross carved with a chainsaw in one of the mangled trees when they cut it down.

God is good!  So many stories of how many have been spared, many with some unbelievable ways the trees fell in a circle around their house, but the house wasn't harmed.  Then there are so many who lost their homes and are living with loved ones or in shelters.  There are many Sunday School classes who are adopting families to bless them with the things they need to start all over again because they've lost everything.  Our Sunday School class has a family we're helping in this way, but also another gentleman needed his yard cleared so the utility companies could get in to fix his heater/AC as well as his water and electric.  While my hubby and I couldn't be there, our class did this!  I'm so proud to be a part of such a loving and wonderful community of believers who are saints, each one!  They're such a blessing!

"After" clean-up.

"Before"

Although it is February 6th, January's memory will linger for a long time for many folks around here.  We had some unreal winds, a 71 mile long path of destruction from a tornado and the folks here are banding together.  Many folks are giving donations through Samaritains Purse, Red Cross, and etc, many folks have physically brought their donations to sites to give physical needs.  

What a blessing!  We still have a long way to go.  The devistation is gut wrenching.  Many people just up the road from us a couple miles have lost so much.  There were houses that were rolled over on to their roofs in the tornado.  I've never seen that before.  It was a gut wrenching time of emotional turmoil for those folks.  I've sent my kids many times to help in many venues, donated stuff, and set up a facebook page for folks to share information for our county.  My heart just weeps for folks.

Never under estimate the power of God!  He is above all, in all, through all and in every way you could possibly imagine.  Yes, He allowed this to happen, but He is raising up His people to come help and the blessings from being able to help in every possible way, coming together, and loving on our neighbors is also part of His will.  

Please continue to pray for Southern Georgia as everyone recovers and finds a new "normal" in their lives.

Have a Blessed Day! 💗

Learning, Planning, and Growing

"Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established." 

(Pro 16:3)

My clematis on the trellis in Pennsylvania with vinca vines trailing on the ground behind.

I love my flowers, but living in Georgia and observing how my potted plants have done this past year (including forgetting to water) has given me cause to rethink and plan how I'll be able to have my lovely flowers year around and enjoy them.

As I think and plan, I pray about how to do things.  I have subscribed to a F*cebook page called Georgia Gardener and I've been pouring over ideas and gleaning wisdom to implement with my raised beds for our vegetables as well as for my flowers that I love.  I knew to a certain extent that things would be different here in Georgia than in Pennsylvania.  While the growing season is much longer, there is the heat in the summer to think about and try to overcome.  I've seen some people shading their plants in a variety of ways from burlap sacks propped up over the top of 5 gallon buckets, to simply having raised beds in a more shaded area of the yard.  As I plan and think on these things, I'm considering a pergola of sorts over the raised beds to create some shade, then adding some sort of vine on it for added shade.  I'm thinking of just simple posts in the ground with cross beams, and lattice across the top to make it more decorative because it will be in the front yard.  I'm thinking and praying over this idea more and more because it seems like a good alternative.

The shade provided by this trellis is exactly what I was thinking about.

The placement of these raised beds is almost exactly what I was thinking with a couple exceptions.  The star in the middle wouldn't be there and the beds along the side would connect making one long "edge" of raised bed.  Of course there would be more room due to the dimensions of our raised bed area being 24' x 24'.

I'd like to add the split rail fence and wire fence around the exterior due to wild animals and stray dogs in our area.  The placement and "ground" in this picture is very close to how I'd like to put my raised beds.  I have everything sketched out on a grid for future reference.

The pergola idea with flowers.  I was thinking of something like this or a non flowering vining plant due to bees being over head.

Of course watering everything has been largely on my mind as well, so I thought of soaker hoses in this fashion.

The thought behind this would be to simply turn the hose on and leave it on for an hour in the evening and an hour in the morning to completely soak the roots without putting water on the leaves of the plants.  I don't want to burn the leaves of the plants with the Georgia sun shining on water droplets.

 What is the purpose of all this praying, planning, thinking, researching, and observing?  Of course this is a wonderful question!  We have always grown something, whether flowers, gardens, or both.  In the height of our gardening years, we canned over 100 quarts of tomato products with 55 quarts being just sauce, 20+ quarts of salsa, stewed tomatoes, chili sauce and anything else we could find to make with tomatoes.  We canned pickles, jams and jellies, all sorts of combinations of veggies, as well as blanching and freezing 12 dozen ears of corn, pumpkin, zucchini, and everything else we could.  We pressure canned green beans, chili, chicken soup, sausage, venison, potatoes, and whatever else we could.  We dehydrated hot peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, basil, oregano, chives, and anything else we could think of to preserve.

There is so much satisfaction knowing where your food comes from.  The health benefits knowing that there is sea salt instead of iodized salt in your green beans for help with high blood pressure gives so much more peace of mind when preparing these foods for yourself and your family.

This is why we do the work to tend to our family.  It isn't just that it saves us money because the initial investment in the preparation of the raised beds, hoses and so forth is the biggest monetary investment.  But the pay-off is well worth it in the long run.  

This is the area where we will put the raised beds and pergola--4'+ away from the windows.

We certainly have our work "cut out" for us.  This work will begin in January, shortly after Christmas ends and everything is put away.  I will certainly share the progress with everyone, along with pictures.  The beginning of the process will likely be the pergola, then the plastic and then raised beds.  I'm hoping to have lettuces and so forth planted by the end of January since they are cool weather plants.  We will likely have tomatoes and peppers in by the end of February.  We have a 24' x 24' space where we'll plant everything.  Considering the longer growing season, we'll likely be canning and preserving things close to year around, with the exception of canning in the summer months.  I'll freeze everything in the summer to be canned when the outside temperatures are cooler.  

How are you planning?

Have a Blessed Day! 

Considering the Future

My husband and I are beginning to consider what our lives will be like once our young folks sprout wings and leave our nest.  We are looking at downsizing our home, even though we just moved here last year.  We are looking at possibly having more property, even though it means more work to do the things we'd like to do.

We're realizing that we are limited with how much activity we can participate in at church living almost an hour away.  The special things that happen on days other than Sundays and Wednesdays simply cannot be attended because it isn't just a short jaunt over to the church or to a Couple's Night with our dear folks in our Sunday School class whom we've grown to love.  So we pray.  We'll find out soon enough what the Lord's will is for this as we lay this at His feet.  There is a lot to consider and even still, we consider the necessity of selling our current house when the time comes too.  Lots to consider.

We're realizing that we will be physically limited with how much we can accomplish on a daily basis due to the fact that our young folks will be out of the nest.  I mentioned to my husband that we could get him a good tractor (not to be confused with "new") with accessories that would help him do the work that is needful without needing one or more of the kids around to do it.  But, the other things, like putting up fences or things like that, if course we'd ask the kids to come help.

We're realizing that we'll need a house with 2 master bedroom/bathrooms just in case there is a need for one of our parents to move in with us.  Additionally, we're looking at building an apartment over a garage just in case our oldest son needs a place.  That will give him his own space and as much autonomy as possible.

We've talked about "puttering" with our days on the property.  We've talked about having a garden and having fruit trees and selling the produce.  We've talked about going to different festivals with things that we make to sell.

It's a sweet thought for us to have things like this in mind for our future.  I don't want anything ornate, but simple and all one level, but nothing too big.  I want to be able to have family and friends over to love on them.  I want to bless others and serve the Lord with my husband.

"Ponder the path of your feet, and all your ways will be established." 

(Pro 4:26)

In Christ,

Unexpected Blessings and a Course

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another. By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love toward one another." 

(John 13:34-35)

Many times we've come across people who have asked us, "What brought you to southern Georgia?"  Our response has usually been that the Lord has brought us here.  We share our story with many many folks, but honestly, we didn't know what God had in store for us here where He has placed us.  The reason for putting us right here has been fuzzy for a few months.  We only know a couple of our neighbors, we attend church and other activities in Albany, so the question still was a bit perplexing, "Why did you bring us to this house, here in this little town so far from where we have appointments and activities?"  So we prayed.

"If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall 

give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth, 

whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. 

But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you. I will not leave 

you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world does not see 

Me any more. But you see Me. Because I live, you shall live also. At that day

 you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who 

has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves 

Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him." 

(John 14:15-21)

We decided to just live our lives, just open to God's guidance and direction.  We were not sure what work God still had for us, so we just waited.

The past couple of weeks at Sherwood Baptist Church, the topic has been "Next Level Praying" where the pastors preached about the importance of not only praying and how to pray, but why.  I have always prayed for a variety of people, prayer lists, family members, leaders, and whoever else would come to my mind, but this was different.  This was not only encompassing those people and things I'd already prayed for, but taking them to a whole new level of prayer.

Through all of the teaching on prayer, one of the things that has weighed heavier and heavier on my own heart and mind is not only the need for prayer, and not just surface prayer--but broken hearted prayer knealing at the throne of grace with a love unmatched by anything we've ever experienced type of prayer.  I've experienced this type of prayer many times for the loved ones I hold dear, but the Lord has been teaching me that I need to be broken hearted and pray like this for my neighbors too.

"Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 

and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great 

commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." 

(Matthew 22:37-40)

While many folks here where we live, I'm sure, are praying for our little town, I'm sure this little town could handle just one (if not 4 more--to include our family) people praying with a broken heart for the people here in our town.  

That sounds so very simple, doesn't it?  God brought us here to pray for this little town.  Not just any prayer, but a special type of praying that will I'm sure, add ministry of some sort to it eventually.  

How am I going about this?  I'm glad you asked!  

On Valentine's Day Sherwood launched a prayer initiative for it's members and all those who wish to participate.  As I sat there listening, that still small voice told me that this is one small reason we were here.  We need to pray for our neighbors by name, by address for their families, for their troubles, challenges and ailments, and for their salvation.  The website pray4everyhome.com is where I can keep track of who I pray for and where they live.  Yes, it is a bit stalker-ish, but the information is available from the last census, so it is public record and not illegal.  Besides, I have a hard time remembering names 5 minutes after being introduced to someone, so this is perfect!  God knows their names.  I don't need to remember them.  I just need to pray for them!  

"You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your 

enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do 

good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and

 persecute you, so that you may become sons of your Father in Heaven. 

For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the

 just and on the unjust." 

(Matthew 5:43-45)

There are unexpected blessing through all of this experience.  I have personally experienced a greater burden for my neighbors and their eternal home.  I cannot explain it better than that.  I've also experienced greater peace, greater purpose, greater vision for my days.  I have less to do with schooling now that I have one graduated and one more graduating this May.  She is more independent and I have only to check her work every so often and be available if she has a question.  My youngest I finish up with him in about 15-20 minutes, discuss things with him, correct his papers, and move on.  With all this free time on my hands, instead of going back to school, I've been praying about which direction to go with my time.  I get a gentle push for other areas where I can volunteer too, so I'm praying about that.  I'm praying and using Proverbs 31 and Titus 2 as my guide.  I'm just trying to push myself aside to be open to the guiding of the Holy Spirit.

How are you loving your neighbors?

God Bless,

Culture Shock or Culture Love?

Moving on from Pennsylvania has been interesting.  Our main reasons for moving south were to be closer to my husband's family, to get better health care for our son, to get out of debt faster, and to allow my husband to get out of the career mindset he was in while working in the PA state corrections system.  These reasons have not only brought thankfulness, but also challenges of their own.

Currently, we live a few hours from my husband's parents and brother.  We haven't had a chance to go see them yet with 4 animals needing to stay here with a house sitter.  We haven't found a house sitter yet.  We're hoping to find one soon so that we can go down to see them soon.  It has been too long!

Health care for our son has been met with the challenge of a Dr. who is only in our area 3 times per month.  If we needed anything, like a signature for a pre-authorization for medication, we'd have to wait until he came back in to town, otherwise he's unreachable.  Ugh!  So, we're switching Dr's to one that is more reachable.  The advent of more technologically advanced practices down here has been an eye opener.  Some of the Dr's in this practice do a type of Tele-conferencing where you just show up to the office for your appointment and sit in front of a computer screen with the Dr in their office--where ever that may be, and have your appointment with them.  Definitely an interesting change from Pennsylvania!   Fortunately, he is getting the care he needs and we're able to move on and get him in to a program for vocational training.

Originally, our prayer was to be able to buy a house outright, without debt.  But, after looking at countless houses, including foreclosures and HUD homes, we decided that a small mortgage with a 10 year loan from a local bank was the best way to go.  We tried larger banks, but for the small amount we needed, they would not lend to us.  They would not be making much money off our loan, so they would not lend to us.  Go figure!  So, here we are with a modest loan from a local bank, getting ready to pay extra on the principle balance to pay it off early--5 years instead of 10.  Will broach the "why" at a later time.

Our current house has been dropped in our laps, filling our needs quite nicely and many of our wants, in a very quiet little town with a quaint blow of a train whistle about 1/2 mile away a few times a day and once at night (confirmed by my daughter since she hears it at night from her bedroom).  LOL  The challenge, as I'm sure you may have read or heard from me has been that this house, while fitting our needs, has needed quite a bit of work.  The cockroach infestation has been mostly controlled, but we had to wait for a bit to put the kitchen items away for a good 2 weeks, sometimes longer in some cases, due to the infestation.  There is a cupboard that I won't use to this day because when I open it and clean the dead roaches, there inevitably is more once I open it again.  They are getting in from somewhere, but due to the spray my husband put down, they die within a foot or so of being inside the cupboard.  So, I clean them up every so often.  They don't get any further than that, fortunately.

Another issue has been ants!  Not carpenter ants, but the little bitty brown ants.  They've come up through the smallest of holes and gone after the dog food.  One morning Gus was barking at his dish and upon further investigation, the dish had ants marching in it and continuing to it from a tiny crack where the floor met the wall!!!  We had a good laugh, pitched the food, cleaned the dish and within minutes, he had more food and it was relocated.  Another incident with ants inside the house was on the "clean" dishes on the counter.  We followed the trail and found that they had gotten in where the addition meets the main house.  It only takes a small pinhole for these things to get in and they came up through the grout in the kitchen and made a trail to a wooden spoon that was just barely wet from being washed the night before.  Once again, my husband sprayed and they're all contained.  More ants though!  In the vehicles has been the roughest area.  They get in to the engine after the sweet smelling antifreeze, then make their way in to the main part of the vehicle.  If you don't stay on top of things, getting all the trash and wrappers out from a Mega shopping trip, then the next day you have a stream of ants forming a line to some small crumb laying on the floor.  Whew!

Lastly, my husband has been retired from corrections for 6 months now, thankfully.  His spirit is more at ease now.  He is much more relaxed and content.  He now has a new name that the locals gave him, "Mr. C____ from Pennsylvania."  He beamed when he told me.  He is no longer identifying himself in the former job he had, which I will not repeat the name he dubbed of himself which is very demeaning to himself.  He is such a visionary man.  He is a leader when leadership is called for, otherwise he is a Mr. Steady, going with the flow.  These have always been a part of his nature outside of corrections, he just didn't see it.  He was saved on December 30th, 2012 and now he's able to relax, away from the corrections environment, and allow the Holy Spirit to grow him.

As we have met people and talked with them about our lives, they've asked us, "What brings you to Southwestern Georgia?  Work?"  We say, "No, God  brought us here!"  That small statement has opened up so many wonderful conversations about God's work in our lives and His goodness toward us.  What a balm to our soul to find that just about every person we come across has enjoyed hearing about God's work in bringing us here.

We will become members of Sherwood Baptist Church on December 6th.  We have found our church home and look forward to being stretched and challenged by THE Word of God in a hope to continue becoming more like Jesus.  The pruning of our hearts and minds are about to begin.  Yes, pruning hurts, but we truly believe the Lord has brought us here to this point in our lives.  Because of that, our willingness to lay down our "self" and willingly submit to His loving pruning should be cause for celebration.  Thank God for His loving kindness!

In Christ,

Finding Peace and Joy in the Finality of God's "No"

For 15 years I begged God for more children.  I asked Him to perform miracles of the most personal kind so that I would be able to bear more children.  I pleaded with my husband to get a reversal.  We'd lay in bed at night with his shoulder soaked with my tears when he'd hold me after telling me "No."  I walked by mirror after mirror each day during my daily work and silently pray for the Lord to fill my tummy with a dear sweet babe.

Years and years would go by and my prayers continued, but eventually there was a point when they changed to something like, "Oh Lord, how I would love for You to fill my tummy with the movings of a babe."  "Oh Lord, fill my tummy with a babe, please."

...please...

Then my prayers themselves changed.

October 8, 2012

Although I am grading papers here, I remember this time vividly because it was the time when I changed my prayers to pleading for the eternal life of my husband.  I had been praying for my husband all along, but things with him got so very difficult. It was a terrible time.

Once he left for work, I sat in my chair and cried and prayed every day.  Some days I went upstairs to our bedroom and lay prostrate on the floor and weep, sobbing and praying for the eternal life of my husband.  I was a single parent.  I was alone.  We not only were unequally yolked, I was carrying the yolk of the burden of the entire house alone.  I not only wanted his companionship, but a willing partnership, but at that time in our lives, he was not able to give that.  He succumbed to the increased stress and pressure at work.  Instead of finding the peace and respite at home, he looked at his responsibilities at home as added stress and buried himself in the numerous video games to lose himself.

It was during this time that my prayers for more babies changed.  I told God that He could use me, take my own life if need be to get through to my husband.  My appeals for help and time were not getting through to him.  Only God could deal with him.

I gave up the desire for more children for the eternal life of my husband.

Once I did, God worked wonderfully in the life of my husband.  Through a series of events, my husband gave his life to Christ on December 30, 2012.

January 9, 2013

While things haven't been "peaches and cream" since then, like cheese and wine, 

things get better with age. 

I began noticing problems with my menstruation not long after this.  After about a year, I noticed things lengthening each month and things changed in appearance.  I felt myself identifying with the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment.  I went to get blood tests done every 6 months to keep track of my A1C and fasting blood sugars, cholesterol, triglycerides and iron.  While everything seemed fine, the Dr noticed my iron levels were lower than normal.  She suggested an iron supplement, but I requested being able to increase the iron through my diet instead.  I have other problems with regard to iron supplements, so she reluctantly agreed.  After 6 months of increasing the iron rich foods, my iron levels were even lower. Something else was wrong.

During this time I felt God working on my heart to let go.  I felt myself drawn to foster kids, orphans and family groups of children who have been left mother and fatherless.  Their beautiful faces spoke to my heart and continue to do so.  Every picture I prayed over, every child so very precious needing a home and I wish it were mine.  I spoke to God about how I knew His word talked of taking care of widows and orphans and that He would place the orphan in a family.   I asked God to give my husband a love and a heart for orphans--family groups especially--so that we could partner with God and care for His children, the orphans.  My heart already is one that would welcome a family group of any size to our home.  

I have eagerly soaked up every adoption story with such interest and much like a sponge to glean information about anything we may eventually encounter.  It doesn't matter if it were an international or local adoption I was reading about.  I have been enraptured by their story.

So with all of this heart preparation on my behalf, with diminished energy, tiredness, and simply unable to function after a very busy day--to be the pendulum that while it didn't make me depressed, but just desiring to care of my family.

October 18, 2014

It was approximately this time that I realized after 6 months of keeping my family Dr "in the loop," I decided to talk with her about the bleeding more at length.  She made the suggestion that I make an appointment with an OB/Gyn.  While telling my husband about my appointment, I mentioned that I thought a hysterectomy was probably in my future.  He agreed and said I was probably right.

To my dismay, after an ultrasound and finding out the results, the surgery was scheduled almost a month and a half away.  I just wanted to get it over with.  The week after Christmas would have been wonderful timing for me, but it wasn't in God's plan.  I decided to get to work on the house at that time, but that wasn't in God's plan either.  I don't know if you can see in the picture above, but I'm very tired.  Being tired, maintaining the very basics of every day life, doing just what needed to be done was all I could do.  Plus shortly after Christmas another thing slowed us down--everyone came down with fevers, coughs, runny noses, losing our voices and just sleeping.  When my daughter got well enough, I started training her on extra stuff--specifically mine--to prepare for when I was out of commission.  

Monday came and I was so very ready to not be tired any more.  I was ready for surgery.  God prepared me for this, to say good bye to my baby carrying years, but to say hello to what comes next.

When I came out of recovery, I was famished!  I had not eaten since the day before at breakfast.  They brought me ice chips straight from heaven.  The breathing tube they put down my throat made my throat so sore!  I came home by 5PM!  My hubby went back to town to get some things from the store for me and my daughter had already prepared meatballs for us.  I was still so hungry, so I asked my hubby to bring me a big cheeseburger.   I was famished!  I felt energized though!  I felt the difference in my body.  I felt sore, yes, but I felt good!  

February 7, 2015

So this week, after my surgery, my husband has truly been my hero, ironing out so many issues I've had with our imperfect cherubs, while I happily sit this out, resting.  I'm praising God for answering my prayer to reclaim the years the locusts have taken.  There is more time, but it's coming along.  God is good.  I'm feeling better each day.  I am looking forward to our move with greater peace.  Getting taxes done is the next on the "to do" list.  We have some wonderful money saving plans for our move that my husband has shared with me that are absolutely genius!  I am so thankful and that brings me peace and joy.  God has answered my prayers in such a different way than I ever thought, just by saying, "No."  

Love & God Bless,

When in the Course of Human Events

There comes a time when one needs to make some changes to make the young folks uncomfortable, to accommodate aging parents, and create greater peace in one's life; it is time to make that happen.

Our oldest is 18 and he is graduating this year.  We've gradually made him do things that have been uncomfortable for him--like filling out his own forms at the Dr's office(s), making his own appointments and writing them on the calendar, giving him very defined guidelines for assignments and following through when he doesn't live up to those expectations.  He is to get a job here in the next couple of months and start working, but he has to get some things completed for school to be finished for him.  He has to take care of his own application for college and paying for it himself.

It's time for change.  It's time for him to grow up and accept these responsibilities.  Most of the time I am met with resistance.  Perhaps a year of being accountable to others would help.  Change is coming for this young man and he may not like it, but this is the way of life.

It's time for a change for our home.  We've extended the invitation to my Mother to come live with us so she has someone to care for her when she needs care.  She's been in the hospital twice from November to mid-December for pneumonia related issues, but no one to help care for her once she returned home.  She lives with my sister currently, but my sister has 2 restaurants she'd been managing and cannot take the time to care for Mother when she needs it.

It's time for a change.  We're continually praying about this concern because we know that we can help my Mother.  She just needs to be ready for the change too.  Right now, we don't think she's ready.  So, we figure out a variety of ways to prepare ourselves for the inevitability of her coming to live with us eventually--if not this year, then next year perhaps.

Changes are happening everywhere, inside us, all around us and we're helpless to stop it--just to enjoy the "status quo" just for a little while longer.  I look around at my kids and the condition of my house, the size of my house and think, "If we had a smaller house there wouldn't be so much to keep clean, to keep track of, to organize, dust...(and my mind wanders to that possibility)."

We're still living in limbo with my husband's retirement.  We're not sure if he'll retire next year or 6 years from now.  We're keeping our options open, he's keeping his eyes open for possible job openings down south, and keeping all of this stuff in prayer.  Our greatest desire is to honor and glorify God & to go where He is leading us as a family.  We want to greater serve Him.  Sometimes that means leaving the familiar, uprooting everyone and moving south.  Sometimes it means to stay where one is and continuing to serve there.

Changes are coming, we must be ready.  God is a God of order, so while we wait patiently (at times, not so much), we're deliberately organizing, painting, cleaning, praying and getting ready for the next chapter God has written for our lives.

God Bless,

Peace and Quiet

After a long, busy, rainy, frustrating day, I'm in my bed next to my sleepy hubby.  I have the radio playing our favorite station   (click the link and listen) and all is quiet.  

The dishes have been done, for the most part--except the hot casserole dish still on the stove.  It can wait until tomorrow.  The stove, counters and table have been wiped and the clean dishes put away.  These are the children's chores each meal time.  It continues in a seemingly never ending round.  One would figure that since it is predictable, there wouldn't be much fuss.  It's expected, so what's the big deal?  Well, amazingly it is a big deal.  I hear things like, "Why am I always the first one everyone looks at when it's time to get the kitchen chores done?"  To which I usually reply, "Because everything hinges on whether or not the clean dishes are put away."  They are finding that their jobs are integral to the greater running of the household.  Everyone is important.  

Most of the time there is peace, some teasing, laughter and play.  Other times there are melt downs where Mom or Dad have to step in and nip attitudes in the bud.  I'm sure, dear readers, things are much the same in your homes.  

More recently, however, our home has taken on a challenging time where one of our children is showing increasingly more depression, anxiety, rigidity, judgement on everyone around them and the world, stoicism, loosing track of time, staring off in to space for a time instead of doing school work, disappearing to the basement to just sit and mull over the ills of the world and the list continues.  

These idiosyncrasies have only surfaced more since my husband was saved in December.  We are dumbfounded and lost at times.  This truly has thrown us and our other two children in to a tailspin wondering where the other child gets these "off the wall" hurtful thoughts in response to the harmless banter between them, or something this child has mulled over from 2+ years ago.  Forgiveness is a foreign concept, mercy and grace as well.

This young person has been counseling with our pastor, but we've become keenly aware that we need to take said child's treatment to another level.  (No judgement please)  We need a diagnosis so we know how to better help this young person.  

If we come to your mind, would you please shoot a couple prayers up on our behalf?  We've had an impression that something like this was there all along, but the incidents now are too frequent to shake them off as coincidence any longer.  

Needless to say, sitting here in my bed listening to praise music is just the kind of peace that this tired Momma needs for the sake of quieting my soul.  Today has been busy and stressful.  Tomorrow looks to be the same, but in a different way.  

With all of this we continually praise the Lord!

He gives us more than "WE" can handle 

just so we can lean in to Him MORE!  

Warmer Weather

I'm loving the warmer weather as of late.  The flowers are starting to come up and my hostas are beginning to make their appearance.  I have plans to thin them out, putting half of them on the opposite side of the back porch.  We took out barn stones and these evergreen bushes a couple years ago and after amending the soil and trying to decide what to do with the area, decided to put the hostas there.

The picture above shows the area, sort of, behind the two chairs to the left.  My bee balm is already there, but it's time to add more plants.  :)

In the front yard, plans are continuing for our new sidewalk.  We need to get a load of gravel to line the bottom, then fill in the sides with the forms, then start mixing concrete.  After the sidewalk is in, we'll add more top soil, then start planting some other perennials.  I'd love to line the sidewalk with Spring flowers and lavender.  I'm quite fond of lots of perennial flowers.

My daughter has asked to plant some flowers this year as well.  She is doing marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, and daisies.   I'm not sure where we'll put those this year, but we'll find a place. :0)

At some point this summer, we plan to replace the fascia and repaint the trim on our house.  It's a slow process, but it will be done nonetheless.

It has also come to my attention that we need to rethink watering the garden and how we do it.  When our well went dry, we needed to feed a hose through the laundry room window to attach it to the spigot for the washing machine.  This year, I'm not sure what my husband will decide to do, but installing a spigot on the outside of the house under the laundry room window would be a very welcome idea.  

I'd love to have all of this stuff done by the end of July.  That way when canning season comes around, we can concentrate our efforts on that instead of home improvement projects.  

This morning, though--I think I'm going to get my work clothes on and go do some raking after I have my yogurt.  The temperature is at 50 Degrees right now and the sun is shining.  What a perfect time to get some raking done!  :0)  I'd venture to say some prayer time while outside is a given.

The Blessing of a New-to-Us Filing Cabinet

Yes, I know!  You're so excited too!  Filing cabinets are just so awesome, right?  Well, God works in the littlest most seemingly insignificant ways in our lives that I am so in awe.

I've had filing cabinets over the years that have been repurposed because, well, they've fallen apart and I honestly need something that will stand the test of...usage.  In the mean time, I've used plastic file bins and put them in my closet.  When those were filled to capacity, I refused to buy another one because they broke and I just couldn't bring myself to spend any more money on things that were going to break so easily.  I simply prayed.  This was about 4 years ago.

A friend of my husband's brought us a 4 drawer wooden filing cabinet, not a pressed kind, but completely wooden!  I asked God for a nice wooden filing cabinet and that's exactly what He gave me!

I am so undeserving, but a wonderful awesome God in His loving mercy has seen fit to bless me with an insignificant filing cabinet.

Isn't that just so like God!?!   He's God of the big things as well as the little, minor and insignificant things.  He cares about our needs.

I am so blessed!

Early Mornings and Cold Feet

I am so very thankful the Lord wakes me at such early morning hours.  This morning it happened to be 4:37AM.  I was able to be up to say "Good-bye!" to my hunting men, read my scriptures (Proverbs 1 & a couple chapters of Psalms) and do one day in my Bible study.  I've been snuggled up in my hubby's robe because it reaches past my fingers and I get cold easily sometimes.  My feet still have to warm up.  I'm so very thankful for this fuzzy blanket with an adorable puppy on it that my precious children gave me for my birthday.  They know how cold I get at times and their thoughtfulness is such a gift.

I guess I should get more work done on my socks so I can have warm feet! LOL

Praising God for time to worship Him.  Yes, I worship every chance I get, which equates to deliberately taking a few moments to stop and listen to the praise music that just came on the radio.  Small moments of worship throughout the day are a wonderful uplifting balm to the soul.

Time alone with the Lord, it doesn't have to be just in the early morning hours.  Make time for Him, even just moments throughout the day, and your day will be richly blessed and your soul fed.

Last night, I had intentions of doing my daily exercises while listening to this DVD.  

 I finished my exercises as best I could, but found myself sobbing, in tears not only for family members, but with gratefulness for His mercy upon me in my life.  I couldn't help but worship and praise God.  I couldn't sing along, but whispered the words through my tears.

During my time, my husband came upstairs to check on me because I'd been warm downstairs with the fireplace going.  The room temperature was 75 Degrees F and I was getting hot, but needed to do my exercises.  What he found was not his wife doing exercises, but sitting on the floor next to our bed, with bloodshot, swollen eyes, head bowed and tears still flowing.  He asked me what was wrong and I couldn't answer.  Once I was able to answer because of being so overcome.  Eventually I told him why the tears and asked him to pray.  He did, then he kissed me and went downstairs.

There are thoughts that come to me in my deepest heart during these times of worship.  Yes, I do test them to be sure they're from God and if they are truly good, I know their source.  I am sure the thoughts He gave me were as a direct result of my husband's prayer.  Praise God!

Right now I'm listening to "Gentle Praise" on the local Christian Radio's online website.  I know they have other genre's to listen to, but I like this one currently.  

John 15:4  

"Abide in me, and I will abide in you. 

Just as the branch cannot produce fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, 

neither can you unless you abide in me."

Can one praise and worship God while doing things of daily life, like dishes, laundry, mopping, vacuuming and perhaps hand crafts?  Absolutely!  While I listen to Gentle Praise, I'm going to knit some on my sock. :)

Have a Blessed Day!

Down to the River to Pray

I love this song by Alison Krauss.  I go down to the river to pray, but not in it.  I walk and pray.  Why?  I've been blessed to have been baptized already, just like it was shown in the video.  Please page down to the bottom of the page and turn off the Christmas music before playing this video. 

This song plays through my mind as I'm walking and praying.  I use this precious time to talk with my Lord about things that are especially difficult at the time.  I listen and just take in the sights, sounds and smells.  The scent of the river and the woods is as close to heavenly as I have ever experienced, so it blesses my soul to have this wonderful place to walk and bear my deepest soul's longings to my heavenly father.  Can I do it elsewhere?  Of course!  But I feel so very much closer to my heavenly home when I'm walking along the river talking with God.  It makes the concerns of my life here on earth so much easier to bear.  So if you see me walking and talking to myself, just smile and wave.   I'm just talking to my Lord. 

Brotherly Love

1John 4:20-21"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen. (21) And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also."

Sibling relationships are interesting to behold. As a mother, I watch my children interact with one another and at times it gets a little hairy, but at other times they knock my socks off by their kindness toward one another. My husband and I are working very diligently to encourage the children to have good and edifying relationships with one another because according to the above scripture, they need to have love for one another. There are some days we go to bed wondering if we had accomplished that or if we could have done or said something else to bring them closer.

One thing I always try to do is to have them pray for one another. When they pray for each other, for good, lovely and pure things, the bad feelings, hurt feelings, possibly ill will, pretty much dissipate.

I know that for myself, when I pray for my own siblings, I pray for good, lovely and pure things on their behalf. That doesn't mean that relationships get healed or anything like that. It just means that it helps me in my own spirit to pray for all things lovely, pure and good on their behalf. When you, yourself, pray for someone where the relationship is strained and all you're wanting for them is for God's goodness to be upon them, there is a healing and a peace that engulfs your whole spirit. It is such a peaceful, wonderful time to spend with God, in spite of a strained relationship, to look upon your siblings with love through prayerful petition.