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! 💗

We're Moved....Mostly

We're officially Georgia residents now!  We bought a house in Southern Georgia and we're mostly moved in.  We've had some hiccups along the way, but nothing that isn't being handled.

Kitchen progress!  We've had an infestation which "put off" putting things away, organizing and such, so we had to wait.  Now it is driving me nuts not having things completely put away!  LOL

As you can see in the picture above, the doorway to the far right shows what most of our floors look like.  We had a crew come in and remove all the icky carpeting.  My husband is gradually getting the new flooring put in, but he needed to stop when he needed his table saw...and it was in Pennsylvania.  So, we clean concrete floors, tile floors, and laminate floors. 

I think it's worth waiting for, don't you?!  

Once I find my sewing machine I'll need to get to work on lots of curtains!

 We're getting settled, laying new flooring, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, organizing, scouring craigslist, thrift stores, & facebook for sale/flea market groups for things we need.

The Dining Room is HUGE!  Our table that seats 12 when completely pulled out now has room to fit in a space without feeling cramped!  More updates to come, I promise!

The red is going "bye-bye" in favor of a "Bermuda Blue."

Our daughter started priming her bedroom because it is so very red.  She needed to go over the primed wall twice to cover enough of the red to start painting the blue/green aqua that she wanted her walls.

This picture was taken a few years ago, but this is the color of her old room in Pennsylvania.  She wanted the same color here.

She and I went shopping on Friday to get some things for ourselves at one of the outlet stores for our birthdays, found a chair that would go well in her room once it is painted, and bought the paint.  I figured it would be good timing since her 18th birthday is tomorrow.  I'd already ordered her some boots and flats as a surprise, so her birthday celebration is in full swing!  The only thing I need now is to get her a cake and figure out where to take her for her birthday dinner.

My birthday is coming up this Friday as well.  I've already purchased a dress, scarf, and earrings for myself.  I didn't buy any shoes because I knew my hubby was getting all my dress clothes from PA brought down here this past weekend.  I just need to go unearth it all.  LOL

Of course there has been quite a bit of pool time.  We're trying to get the dogs acclimated to the pool.

She had Rustie in the pool and Gus went nuts.  He didn't want Rustie in there and wanted him out!  This is the first time Gus went down on the first step without anyone trying to coerce him.  LOL

We have visited 2 churches here.  While the doctrine and messages are both very powerful and on point, the worship styles are very different.  There is a lot to consider and pray about.  The question of "where can we serve and where will our service be needed more?" is one we're praying about.  A consideration brought out by our daughter is that if we're not being fed, how can we serve with our whole heart?  So there is a lot to think about and pray about.

Please pray that our house in PA sells soon.  There are tons of reasons we need for it to sell and the Lord knows all of them, even the ones we don't know about.  Please just cover it in prayer.

I hope to get in to a groove of blogging more often, at least once a week.

Until then...

God Bless,

Not so "Perfect Peace"

The name of this blog and the picture at the top are reflective of things that give me such wonderful peace.  The scent of lilacs in the spring is one of many reminders of how much God loves me, because He knows I love lilacs.  I spend as much time as I can by windows or outside when the lilacs are in bloom because of their wonderful scent.

There are times, however, that the "perfect peace" that I so long for and desire are so very far away from me, like now.  No, I've not posted this to complain, to place blame on anyone, to judge, whine or post any type of temper tantrum.  No, nothing like that.  Very far from it in fact.

My heart and my soul has been crying out to God for the sake of my extended family for a variety of reasons.  I know they may, by some small chance read here, so out of respect for them I'll be vague.

Firstly, my nephew Billy was born on September 24th at 35.5 weeks gestation.  He has been so very sick and needing care and attention from his mother who doesn't have the ability to be at the hospital for more than a few hours a day.  This makes my own momma's heart hurt. 

What a beautiful baby he is!

I wish so much that I could be there to take every other responsibility off her shoulders just so she could go spend entire days with baby Billy.  No, I wouldn't take her place at the hospital.  If I could, I would fly out, stay in a motel, rent a vehicle and take care of all the other stuff that is keeping her from her little baby.  I've tried putting the word out to other family members and friends.  Many are just as strapped as my brother and SIL. 

My mother is at the hospital when my SIL cannot be, but just for a little while.  The trailer where she was living with her 2 little dogs had been put up for sale and she had to move back in with my sister...to an already strained relationship where there is bunches of anger, hurt and most likely bitterness and resentment.  How I wish I could help more than I am, but I'm 2,000 miles away.  We've had some rather large bills to pay the past 2 months (increased from last year--isn't that how it goes?), and have nothing extra where I could go out to help her move.  I am feeling pretty helpless right now.

While I think and consider all the struggles (and there are much more that isn't written) that my extended family are going through and praying for all of them, this stress that I feel is added to by the things that are going on here under my own roof.  Then I step back and pray and try to gain some perspective.  The issues of my husband stopping breathing in his sleep are on the way to being discovered and dealt with.  My daughter's nose bleeds are being dealt with.  My oldest son's stomach issues are on their way to being no longer existent.  His allergy issues are just another part of life.  My own back issues are being taken care of.  Schooling continues, lesson planning for home school group continues, piano lessons continue, chemistry and math, Victry Drill and Sequential Speller continue to make progress. 

I was asked at the beginning of September how everything is going with us.  I started sharing how things are coming along and this person's husband said, "And I thought my problems were bad!"  I started thinking about that simple comment and thought to myself, "This isn't really anything major.  It is just a part of life.  This is what we just deal with as it comes."  There are lots of people who have things worse than we do, so I don't think about it.  We just deal with it, take it in stride, accept it, and move on.  Humor and laughter helps when you're sitting in a doctor's office waiting for a doctor to come in with their virdict on what is going on with your son's stomach.  (btw...he didn't know, but called it "irritable bowel") 

Then there are the spiritual struggles that try to rip us apart from within, inside our home.  Hence, the ripping we know who the author is, so we just pray against it.  The spiritual battle is always raging, always there, so we have to claim that territory as victorious for the sake of Christ. 

Please keep us in prayer for these spiritual battles are raging and we want Christ's victory over them.  For our physical health, for answers.  For our extended family for someone to come and give physical help to them in the form of hands to help.